You may have noticed that I didn’t have a post up last Tuesday and I am sorry to report that I didn’t make the Florida Pie this week either. However, not without good reason! We just got back from our first vacation since our honeymoon two years ago, and we banished all laptops from the vacation. It felt great to unplug for almost two weeks and we had an amazing time.

We spent 5 full days in Destin, FL at a condo on the beach:

Then we drove to Orlando and spent 3 full days there, hitting up some theme parks:

We got back home on Sunday night and are getting back into the swing of reality, as much as we’d rather start our days with relaxing walks on the beach! I’ll be back in the swing of TWD next week when we make Madeleines, which I have had on my “to make” list for quite some time. In the meantime, check out the Tuesdays With Dorie blog and see everyone else’s pies!

Happy Birthday to my sister, Lauren!!

After I started taking my cake decorating classes, my sister asked if I would make (and decorate, of course) a cake for her birthday. Of course I said yes! Then she saw the drunk clown cake and demanded that a drunk clown grace the top of her cake. Haha, okay, of course that can be done! Err, so I thought. I was pretty pressed for time yesterday as I was trying to run errands and get packed for vacation (incidentally, this post is brought to you courtesy of Charlotte Douglas Airport :)). I didn’t want to chance a clown catastrophe, so instead I gave her a cake of crooked writing and a martini glass. That’s drunk, right?

Oh, and I added polka dots to the sides:

When I asked what flavors she wanted she said a yellow cake, chocolate frosting, and some type of hazelnut-flavored filling. The cake is a classic yellow cake, made using the Fluffy Yellow Cake recipe from Cook’s Illustrated (recipes for the cake, filling, and frosting follow below). I decided to torte the layers for a more “sophisticated” cake, and between them is a very thin layer of chocolate frosting topped with a hazelnut ganache.

I was really happy with this cake except that I would have poured the ganache into the cake and let it set there instead of at room temperature, as it got a little too hard and was nearly impossible to work with between the cake layers. Everyone thought that the flavors of the cake were great, and said it was really rich, so if you want to make something a little less rich, I would suggest not torting the layers and instead going with a traditional 2-layer cake.

Fluffy Yellow Layer Cake
(Source: Cook’s Illustrated, March 2008 issue)

Nonstick cooking spray can be used for greasing the pans (proceed with flouring as directed). Bring all ingredients to room temperature before beginning.

Makes two 9-inch cake layers

2 1/2 cups cake flour , plus extra for dusting pans
1 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon table salt
1 3/4 cups sugar (12 1/4 ounces)
10 tablespoons (1 1/4 sticks) unsalted butter , melted and cooled slightly
1 cup buttermilk , room temperature
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
6 large egg yolks , room temperature
3 large egg whites , room temperature

1. Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 350 degrees. Grease two 9-inch-wide by 2-inch-high round cake pans and line bottoms with parchment paper. Grease paper rounds, dust pans with flour, and knock out excess. Whisk flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and 1 1/2 cups sugar together in large bowl. In 4-cup liquid measuring cup or medium bowl, whisk together melted butter, buttermilk, oil, vanilla, and yolks.

2. In clean bowl of stand mixer fitted with whisk attachment, beat egg whites at medium-high speed until foamy, about 30 seconds. With machine running, gradually add remaining 1/4 cup sugar; continue to beat until stiff peaks just form, 30 to 60 seconds (whites should hold peak but mixture should appear moist). Transfer to bowl and set aside.

3. Add flour mixture to now-empty mixing bowl fitted with whisk attachment. With mixer running at low speed, gradually pour in butter mixture and mix until almost incorporated (a few streaks of dry flour will remain), about 15 seconds. Stop mixer and scrape whisk and sides of bowl. Return mixer to medium-low speed and beat until smooth and fully incorporated, 10 to 15 seconds.

4. Using rubber spatula, stir 1/3 of whites into batter to lighten, then add remaining whites and gently fold into batter until no white streaks remain. Divide batter evenly between prepared cake pans. Lightly tap pans against counter 2 or 3 times to dislodge any large air bubbles.

5. Bake until cake layers begin to pull away from sides of pans and toothpick inserted into center comes out clean, 20 to 22 minutes. Cool cakes in pans on wire rack for 10 minutes. Loosen cakes from sides of pans with small knife, then invert onto greased wire rack and peel off parchment. Invert cakes again and cool completely on rack, about 1 1/2 hours.

Hazelnut Ganache

8 ounces semi-sweet chocolate
1 cup heavy cream
2 tablespoons hazelnut liquor (I used Frangelico)

Microwave chocolate until almost completely melted; remove from the microwave and let stand 1 minute. Whisk until smooth and completely melted. Whisk in the heavy cream, and then the liquor. Cool (but do not let set) before using as a filling.

Hershey’s Perfectly Chocolate Chocolate Frosting
(Source: Hershey’s)

1 stick (1/2 cup) butter or margarine
2/3 cup HERSHEY’S Cocoa
3 cups powdered sugar
1/3 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Melt butter. Stir in cocoa. Alternately add powdered sugar and milk, beating to spreading consistency. Add small amount additional milk, if needed. Stir in vanilla. About 2 cups frosting.
(I doubled the recipe for this cake)

This week’s recipe selection comes to us from Caitlin over at Engineer Baker. I have to be completely honest - at first glance, this recipe didn’t seem all that appealing to me, but my mom and grandma thought it sounded fantastic, so I decided to make it and give it to them to enjoy. As I was putting the cake together, it smelled absolutely fabulous! Definitely a distinct Mediterranean aroma, and as it baked the smell only got better.

More about the cake and the recipe after the break…

I only had a 9.5″ tart pan (the recipe called for a 10.5″ pan) so I did not use all of the batter, but it still puffed a bit above the rim, but I didn’t have any overflow. The only problem I seemed to have was the little pats of butter. I know other people experienced the same issue, but my thoroughly chilled little pieces of butter only caused little white indentions, not golden brown circles, as Dorie said they would.

I wasn’t planning on cutting into this cake since I had planned on giving the whole thing to my mom and grandma, but after Nick came home and saw it on the cooling rack he asked what it was. When I said, “Polenta Ricotta Cake” he had the same reaction I did - didn’t sound that great. It smelled fabulous though, and about 15 minutes later he asked if he could try it. He loved it, and had a couple more pieces, and I tried a small bit and absolutely loved it. It tastes like a sweet corn bread, and the figs give a nice contrast to the texture of the cake.

While you may be put off by the name of this cake (or the individual ingredients), give it a shot - it really is a fabulously simple and elegant cake!

Fluted Polenta and Ricotta Cake
(Source: Dorie Greenspan “Baking: From My Home to Yours” pages 200-2001)

About 16 moist, plump dried Mission or Kadota figs, stemmed
1 c. medium-grain polenta or yellow cornmeal
½ c. all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 c. ricotta
1/3 c. tepid water
¾ c. sugar
¾ c. honey (if you’re a real honey lover, use a full-flavored honey such as chestnut, pine, or buckwheat)
Grated zest of 1 lemon
2 large eggs

Getting Ready: Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Butter a 10 ½-inch fluted tart pan with a removable bottom and put it on a baking sheet lined with parchment or a silicone mat.

Check that the figs are, indeed, moist and plump. If they are the least bit hard, toss them into a small pan of boiling water and steep for a minute, then drain and pat dry. If the figs are large (bigger than a bite), snip them in half.

Whisk the polenta, flour, baking powder, and salt together.

Working with a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment or with a hand mixer in a large bowl, beat the ricotta and water together on low speed until very smooth. With the mixer at medium speed, add the sugar, honey, and lemon zest and beat until light. Beat in the melted butter, then add the eggs one at a time, beating until the mixture is smooth. Reduce the mixer speed to low and add the dry ingredients, mixing only until they are fully incorporated. You’ll have a sleek, smooth, pourable batter.

Pour about one third of the batter into the pan and scatter over the figs. Pour in the rest of the batter, smooth the top with a rubber spatula, if necessary, and dot the batter evenly with the chilled bits of butter.
Bake for 35 to 40 minutes, or until a thin knife inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. The cake should be honey brown and pulling away just a little from the sides of the panm, and the butter will have left light-colored circles in the top. Transfer the cake to a rack and remove the sides of the pan after about 5 minutes. Cool to warm, or cool completely.

Or, in my case, Cheesecake Truffles.

And squares.

I love cheesecake. It’s my favorite dessert, and I will eat it in just about any form. Rolled in a ball and dipped in chocolate? Bring ‘em on!

More about the challenge, and the recipe, after the break…

This was a fairly easy challenge, albeit a little messy. The cheesecake took quite a bit longer to bake than the recipe indicated, but the result was absolutely worth it - rich, creamy, and the perfect flavor. The recipe calls for a 10″ cake pan but since I don’t have one I split the batter between a muffin-style square tin (given to me by my friend Amber), and four mini springform pans. I went without the water bath.

After thoroughly chilling the cheesecake I set forth to scoop them into balls. This was definitely the messy part, as my hands and just about everything else ended up covered in a layer of cheesecake!

I had my lollipop sticks ready to go and then encountered a problem - I didn’t have enough clearance in my freezer to stick the lollipop sticks in. When I make buckeyes I usually use toothpicks, which I never have a problem with, but obviously the lollipop sticks are longer. I had already crammed all of the rolled balls onto a baking sheet and didn’t have space to insert the sticks sideways, so I just did without them. Hence, my pops became truffles.

I chose to roll all of the cheesecake balls in bittersweet (60%) chocolate and then drizzled with a combination of white and milk chocolates. I dipped a corner of each square cheesecake into the dark chocolate as well.

Although these took a little bit of work and were a bit messy, they are fabulous little treats. I plan on saving the recipe and will make them again sometime in the future. For now, I have a gallon freezer bag full of my cheesecake truffles that will serve me well when I want a late-night dessert snack. AFTER my beach vacation, of course

EDIT: After having a few of hours upon returning from vacation, I think that the next time I make them (and there WILL be a next time!) I will coat them in semisweet chocolate instead of dark chocolate. I think the dark is just a bit too much of a bitter taste for the creamy cheesecake.

Thank you to Elle of Feeding My Enthusiasms and Deborah of Taste and Tell for hosting this month and selecting such a scrumptious challenge!

Cheesecake Pops
(Source: “Sticky, Chewy, Messy, Gooey” by Jill O’Connor)

Makes 30 - 40 Pops

For the cheesecake:
5 8-oz. packages cream cheese at room temperature
2 cups sugar
¼ cup all-purpose flour
¼ teaspoon salt
5 large eggs
2 egg yolks
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
¼ cup heavy cream
Boiling water as needed

For the pops:
Thirty to forty 8-inch lollipop sticks

1 pound chocolate, finely chopped - you can use all one kind or half and half of dark, milk, or white (Alternately, you can use 1 pound of flavored coatings, also known as summer coating, confectionary coating or wafer chocolate - candy supply stores carry colors, as well as the three kinds of chocolate.)

2 tablespoons vegetable shortening
(Note: White chocolate is harder to use this way, but not impossible)

Assorted decorations such as chopped nuts, colored jimmies, crushed peppermints, mini chocolate chips, sanding sugars, dragees) - Optional

Directions:
Position oven rack in the middle of the oven and preheat to 325 degrees F. Set some water to boil.
In a large bowl, beat together the cream cheese, sugar, flour, and salt until smooth. If using a mixer, mix on low speed. Add the whole eggs and the egg yolks, one at a time, beating well (but still at low speed) after each addition. Beat in the vanilla and cream.

Grease a 10-inch cake pan (not a springform pan), and pour the batter into the cake pan. Place the pan in a larger roasting pan. Fill the roasting pan with the boiling water until it reaches halfway up the sides of the cake pan. Bake until the cheesecake is firm and slightly golden on top, 35 to 45 minutes.

Remove the cheesecake from the water bath and cool to room temperature. Cover the cheesecake with plastic wrap and refrigerate until very cold, at least 3 hours or up to overnight.

When the cheesecake is cold and very firm, scoop the cheesecake into 2-ounce balls and place on a parchment paper-lined baking sheet. Carefully insert a lollipop stick into each cheesecake ball. Freeze the cheesecake pops, uncovered, until very hard, at least 1 - 2 hours.

When the cheesecake pops are frozen and ready for dipping, prepare the chocolate. In the top of a double boiler, set over simmering water, or in a heatproof bowl set over a pot of simmering water, heat half the chocolate and half the shortening, stirring often, until chocolate is melted and chocolate and shortening are combined. Stir until completely smooth. Do not heat the chocolate too much or your chocolate will lose it’s shine after it has dried. Save the rest of the chocolate and shortening for later dipping, or use another type of chocolate for variety.

Alternately, you can microwave the same amount of chocolate coating pieces on high at 30 second intervals, stirring until smooth.

Quickly dip a frozen cheesecake pop in the melted chocolate, swirling quickly to coat it completely. Shake off any excess into the melted chocolate. If you like, you can now roll the pops quickly in optional decorations. You can also drizzle them with a contrasting color of melted chocolate (dark chocolate drizzled over milk chocolate or white chocolate over dark chocolate, etc.) Place the pop on a clean parchment paper-lined baking sheet to set. Repeat with remaining pops, melting more chocolate and shortening (or confectionary chocolate pieces) as needed.

Refrigerate the pops for up to 24 hours, until ready to serve.

I “graduated” last night from Wilton Course 1: Discover Cake Decorating. I had so much fun with this class, and was very pleased with my final cake:

When we learned “THE ROSE” last week in class, I was awful. I couldn’t remember which way to hold the tip or spin the flower nail and as a result, well, they weren’t the prettiest So I made a batch of icing for the sole purpose of practicing the rose. I probably made upwards of 40 roses just to practice, and it really did help, as I think I definitely improved! A closer look at the rose spray on my cake:

Last night, in addition to putting together our final cake, we also learned how to make sweet peas and leaves. I loved them both! The sweet peas are so cute and the leaves were a lot of fun to make. A close up of one of my sweet peas:

I have already signed up for Course 2 and will be starting when we get back from vacation in a few weeks (the instructor was nice enough to push back the start date of the next class so that I only missed the first overview class!). I can’t wait to learn all of the different flowers!

If you came in search of carrot cake, you’ll have to keep cruising the TWD blogroll because you won’t find any around these parts today. Today is our 2-year wedding anniversary. These last two years have absolutely flown by, and yet at the same time I can’t believe we’ve only been married for 2 years. It’s hard to remember not living in this house together (which is a good thing!). I honestly couldn’t imagine a sweeter life.

My original plan for today was to use Dorie’s Perfect Party Cake (which we made for the March Daring Baker challenge), but to alter it to mimic our wedding cake, which had a mango filling. I made the mango jam, but then Nick suggested having dinner at my very favorite Italian restaurant. This is where my plan hits a snag. I cannot go there and NOT order tiramisu for dessert. It would just be, well, wrong. The planets may fall out of orbit. And so it goes… I might still make our pseudo wedding cake when we get back from vacation, but tonight it’s going to be all about the Italian and the tiramisu.

Not to leave you totally disappointed, here’s a picture of our wedding cake (white cake, mango filling, vanilla buttercream icing), which I loved to look at, loved to eat, and for which we received many compliments. Happy Tuesday everyone!

When I saw that winoesandfoodies.com was hosting the LiveSTRONG blogging event, I knew immediately that I wanted to participate. The only problem was trying to figure out what I wanted to make that was yellow! This blogging event is something a little extra special in the blogging community and was created to remember how cancer affects each and every one of us, to remember those loved ones that are no longer with us, support those still fighting, and celebrate with those who have won the fight.

The A Taste of Yellow blogging event invites food bloggers to make yellow food (and blog about it) to show our support for LiveSTRONG Day 2008, which is on May 13, 2008. My entry is submitted in memory of my dad, David, who lost his battle with cancer of the blood on April 4, 1999.

His story and Cheddar Corn Chowder after the break…

It goes without saying that cancer has had some type of impact on almost everyone in this world. The impact that it had on my life started in the fall of 1997 when I was a senior in high school (my sister a sophomore) and my dad sat us down one night and said he had to talk to us. In typical teenage fashion, the first words out of our mouths were, “Are we in trouble?” That would have been a much better alternative. He went on to tell us that during a routine blood workup for his cholesterol the doctor discovered some abnormalities in his white cell counts. After some more testing and meeting with a couple of specialists, he was diagnosed with Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia (CLL). He assured us that everything was fine, he didn’t even feel sick, and the doctor said his was a very early case and that typically the disease progressed slowly and he wouldn’t need treatment for a number of years. Okay, that’s not so bad, we could handle this.

Fast forward about six months… routine bloodwork was showing that my dad’s disease was progressing far quicker than normal and he was placed on a bone marrow transplant list. Neither of his two brothers were matches, and within a few months my dad decided to do an autologous (donate his own marrow and have it cleansed) transplant. This ended up not working out because after undergoing chemo and radiation the disease still had a hold of 2/3 of his once-healthy cells. By January 1999 an unrelated donor had been found and my dad was off to Boston (Brigham & Women’s Hospital) to undergo the transplant. My mom and grandparents went with him; I was in college and my sister was in high school and we stayed back at our respective schools. The transplant actually went perfectly - everything was going as well as doctors could have hoped and within 8 weeks he was discharged. Getting ready to return home and out of the hospital, my dad woke up with a high fever. Back to the hospital he went, and he would never get back out.

A result of the bone marrow transplant, my dad contracted graft vs. host disease, which was basically his body rejecting the new marrow. Once that was thought to be taken care of, his weakened immune system couldn’t fight a lung infection, which is eventually how he passed.

My dad touched more people than any of us probably can comprehend. I watched his friends cry like babies at the funeral home, and stood and received people for hours while a line snaked outside. We received letters from people we had never heard of, telling us how wonderful of a man my dad was and how he touched their lives. A day doesn’t go by that I don’t think about my dad in some way. I miss him and hope that he is proud of me and the life I have built.

And now the food! This recipe comes from Annie of Annie’s Eats, who is a great friend of mine and also has a heart-wrenching story of how cancer has affected her and her family, three times over. She makes some incredible dishes, so if you haven’t checked out her blog before head on over there and check it out! Her chowder definitely looks better than mine (I haven’t really gotten good at photographing soup yet!), but this tasted fabulous. It was my first time making corn chowder, and you really can’t go wrong with an Ina Garten recipe! It was wonderful.

Cheddar Corn Chowder
(Source: The Barefoot Contessa Cookbook by Ina Garten and Martha Stewart, Clarkson Potter, 1999)

Serves 10-12

Ingredients:
8 oz. bacon, chopped
¼ cup olive oil
6 cups chopped yellow onions (4 large onions)
4 tbsp. unsalted butter
½ cup flour
2 tsp. kosher salt
1 tsp. black pepper
½ tsp. ground turmeric
12 cups chicken stock
6 cups medium-diced white boiling potatoes, unpeeled (2 lbs.)
10 cups corn kernels, fresh (10 ears) or frozen (3 lbs.)
2 cups half-and-half
8 oz. sharp white cheddar cheese, grated

Directions:
In a large stockpot over medium-high heat, cook the bacon and olive oil until the bacon is crisp, about 5 minutes. Remove the bacon with a slotted spoon and reserve. Reduce the heat to medium, add the onions and butter to the fat, and cook for 10 minutes, until the onions are translucent.

Stir in the flour, salt, pepper and turmeric and cook for 3 minutes. Add the chicken stock and potatoes, bring to a boil, and simmer uncovered for 15 minutes, until the potatoes are tender. If using fresh corn, cut the kernels off the cob and blanch them for 3 minutes in boiling salted water. Drain. (If using frozen corn you can skip this step.) Add the corn to the soup, then add the half-and-half and cheddar. Cook for 5 more minutes, until the cheese is melted. Season, to taste, with salt and pepper. Serve hot with a garnish of bacon.

Ahh, the clown cake. I realize that I have great difficulty keep my tip straight up and down and as a result, my clown looks a little drunk. HA. My cake is kind of a mish mash of all the different techniques we learned last night - of course the clown, two different types of drop flowers, dots, and the shell border (oh and writing, since we learned that last week but I didn’t use it on last week’s cake). I wish I had more of a creative mind - the cakes that a couple of women made were just beautiful! I’ll have to work on that. Or just buy a book of ideas

Some more pictures:

(closer shot of my shell border)

(close ups of two drop flowers that I made)

This week’s Tuesdays With Dorie recipe was chosen by Judy over at Judy’s Gross Eats. She chose homemade marshmallows, which were surprisingly quick and easy to make! I had just caught a segment on the Martha Stewart Show not too long ago on which they were making homemade marshmallows. It didn’t seem all that hard, but I probably would have never taken the initiative to try them myself if this Dorie recipe hadn’t been chosen, so thank you Judy!

These marshmallows turned out lighter and fluffier than any store-bought marshmallow that I have had in the past, and were completed with minimal effort. It took me less than 30 minutes from the time I started prepping the pan until the marshmallow mixture was poured in to set. That’s not too bad! I’m thinking that this year in place of my customary Christmas tins for friends and family, I might do some homemade cocoa mix with homemade marshmallows.

Be sure to check out the blogroll on the Tuesdays With Dorie blog to see all of the other marshmallow creations!

Last week: Fresh Orange Cream Tart
Next week: I am taking a pass on TWD and will be *attempting* a cake for our anniversary (that happens to fall on Tuesday) that mimics our wedding cake (at least in flavor!).

Marshmallow-making tips and the recipe after the break…

I used a lot of the tips shared by Melissa at Lalala… and I didn’t have a single problem with getting my marshmallows out of the pan (they slid right out) or getting them cut. Here are the tips that I took from her, and where I deviated from Dorie’s recipe:

• I used a 9×13 pan instead of a pan with a 1″ lip so that the marshmallows set up higher

• I sprayed the pan with Pam and then dusted it with a mixture of powdered sugar and corn starch; once the marshmallow mixture was in the pan I dusted the top with the same mixture.
• To cut the marshmallows I sprayed a large pizza cutter with Pam and then cut the marshmallows into squares. I only needed to rinse, dry, and re-spray the cutter once.

**Please note that in the actual recipe there is an additional Tablespoon of sugar in the ingredients list that is never accounted for in the recipe. Although I never even caught this because I was busy boiling, microwaving, and whipping, a number of TWD members did and realized that it most likely was to be added to the egg whites during whipping for added stabilization.

Marshmallows
(Source: Dorie Greenspan “Baking: From My Home to Yours” pages 404-405)

Makes about 1 pound marshmallows

About 1 cup potato starch or cornstarch
2 tablespoons light corn syrup
2 1/4-ounce packets unflavored gelatin
3 large egg whites, at room temperature
3/4 cup cold water
1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
1 1/4 cups plus 1 tablespoon sugar

GETTING READY: Line a rimmed baking sheet — choose one with a rim that is 1 inch high — with parchment paper and dust the paper generously with potato starch or cornstarch. Have a candy thermometer at hand.

Put 1/3 cup of the water, 1 1/4 cups of the sugar and the corn syrup in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Bring the mixture to a boil, stirring until the sugar dissolves. Once the sugar is dissolved, continue to cook the syrup — without stirring — until it reaches 265 degrees F on the candy thermometer, about 10 minutes.

While the syrup is cooking, work on the gelatin and egg whites. In a microwave-safe bowl, sprinkle the gelatin over the remaining cold water (a scant 7 tablespoons) and let it sit for about 5 minutes, until it is spongy, then heat the gelatin in a microwave oven for 20 to 30 seconds to liquefy it. (Alternatively, you can dissolve the gelatin in a saucepan over low heat.)

Working in the clean, dry bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment or in another large bowl with a hand mixer, beat the egg whites on medium-high speed until firm but still glossy — don’t overbeat them and have them go dull.

As soon as the syrup reaches 265 degrees F, remove the pan from the heat and, with the mixer on medium speed, add the syrup, pouring it between the spinning beater(s) and the sides of the bowl. Add the gelatin and continue to beat for another 3 minutes, so that the syrup and the gelatin are fully incorporated. Beat in the vanilla.

Using a large rubber spatula, scrape the meringue mixture onto the baking sheet, laying it down close to a short end of the sheet. Then spread it into the corners and continue to spread it out, taking care to keep the height of the batter at 1 inch; you won’t fill the pan. Lift the excess parchment paper up to meet the edge of the batter, then rest something against the paper so that it stays in place (I use custard cups).

Dust the top of the marshmallows with potato starch or cornstarch and let the marshmallows set in a cool, dry place. They’ll need about 3 hours, but they can rest for 12 hours or more.

Once they are cool and set, cut the marshmallows with a pair of scissors or a long thin knife. Whatever you use, you’ll have to rinse and dry it frequently. Have a big bowl with the remaining potato starch or cornstarch at hand and cut the marshmallows as you’d like — into squares, rectangles or even strips (as they’re cut in France). As each piece is cut, drop it into the bowl. When you’ve got 4 or 5 marshmallows in the bowl, reach in with your fingers and turn the marshmallows to coat them with starch, then, one by one, toss the marshmallows from one hand to the other to shake off the excess starch; transfer them to a serving bowl. Cut and coat the rest of the batch.

SERVING: Put the marshmallows out and let everyone nibble as they wish. Sometimes I fill a tall glass vase with the marshmallows and put it in the center of the table — it never fails to make friends smile. You can also top hot chocolate or cold sundaes with the marshmallows.

STORING: Keep the marshmallows in a cool, dry place; don’t cover them closely. Stored in this way, they will keep for about 1 week — they might develop a little crust on the outside or they might get a little firmer on the inside, but they’ll still be very good.

Playing Around

RASPBERRY MARSHMALLOWS: Fruit purees are excellent for flavoring these candies.

For raspberry marshmallows, you’ll need a generous 1/3 cup of puree; reduce the vanilla extract to 1/4 teaspoon. After the batter is mixed, gently fold in the puree with a rubber spatula. You can use the same measurements and technique for other purees, such as strawberry, mango and passion fruit.

CAPPUCCINO MARSHMALLOWS: Sift 1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder, 2 tablespoons instant espresso powder and 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon together into a small bowl. Stir in 1/3 cup boiling water and mix until smooth. Reduce the vanilla extract to 1/2 teaspoon, and add it to the espresso mix. After you add the sugar syrup and gelatin to the meringue, beat in the espresso mixture and continue.

LIGHT CHOCOLATE MARSHMALLOWS: Melt 3 ounces bittersweet or semisweet chocolate and stir in 2 1/2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder. Reduce the vanilla extract to 1/4 teaspoon, and after the marshmallow batter is mixed, fold in the chocolate mixture with a large rubber spatula.

PUMPKIN SPICE MARSHMALLOWS: Whisk together 1/2 cup canned unsweetened pumpkin puree, 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon, 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger, a pinch of freshly grated nutmeg and a pinch of ground allspice. After the marshmallow batter is mixed, fold in the spiced pumpkin with a large rubber spatula.

For our second class we were to bring in a baked cake (either one high layer or two separate layers), a filling, a ton of icing, and all of our tools. We started out by learning and practicing stars, curved lines, tight zigzags, and writing in print and cursive.

After we got warmed up we leveled the top of the cake and then torted it (I made an 8×3 cake so that I could practice both the leveling and torting). I think my favorite part of this class, even more than the decoration, was creating a cake that was so level and straight with layers so even. Who knew a $3 cake leveler could do so much?! Once the cakes were torted, we piped a “dam” barrier around the outside of the bottom layer and then filled it (I used raspberry jam). We put the top layer on and iced the entire cake. Wow, a turntable can make a world of difference! Hello smooth sides!

We did not have to make the “Rainbow Cake” as we were able to bring in cookie cutters to imprint a design of our choice onto the cake and fill it in. I chose a spring-like flower, and then practiced my tight zigzag around the top border and a crinkled star around the bottom border.

(I had some bad lighting when I came home last night and the cake didn’t last until today without a sliver being taken out of it, but you can envision an entire cake ;-))

Next week we make the “Clown Cake” and learn and practice the… duh duh duh… ROSE!

I’m loving this class and can’t wait until next week! I’m actually toying with the idea of making a cake JUST to decorate between now and then