Pumpkins, Shmumpkins and Voting!

Tiny with his baby pumpkin.

On Saturday we went to the pumpkin patch nearby our house. Though it is cooler than full-blast summer weather here in Houston, it's still hot when you are standing in the sun and your forehead feels like a hot plate. The Hubs claimed he could fry an egg on his "balding" spot. It's nowhere near the fall I remember growing up in Kansas City. But I remained optimistic about capturing precious moments of Tiny's first pumpkin picking and Bubba and Boo's enthusiastic chirping over which pumpkins to get.

Well...let's just say, it was nowhere near the romantic picture I had painted in my mind.

Weighed down like a pack-horse of all things baby/toddler and memory capturing devices, I waddled up to the front of the church with my brood and Hubs, where the pumpkin patch was set up. As we get closer, we see a young girl on her knees retching into the soft, well-maintained grass below her. Her mother, in her smart, designer clothes, looked concerned and confused as just what to do. The Hubs and I looked at one another, not as in "aww, poor kid" but more as in "great, now our kids are going to get a virus." Horrible isn't it? When you become a parent, this is what you think. So my visions of frolicking through rows of pumpkins was now slimed with the vomit of a sick child.

I was murmuring something about how we were going to wash there hands with rubbing alcohol before we leave and then we see the pumpkins. Even now, at thirty-three years of age, I still get excited by large quantities of pumpkins. Pallets and pallets of large, happy orange orbs. I immediately get out the camera and start clicking away.

Surrounding the patch, faux-patch really, were tents of different attractions- more like distractions. I wanted my kids to focus on the pumpkins so I could capture all I wanted to capture, because it was, afterall, all about me.

One of the many distractions, foiling my plans for portait quality pictures.

To the left, a sweet grey-haired woman was trying to lure my children into her tent with Bible stories. To the right was a sno-cone stand and a huge swingset diverting their attention. Then there was an even bigger tent with music and then...the bounce house. Oh God. I hate bounce houses. Why? Because my two oldest will beg and beg to go in. You take off their sock and shoes (any parent of a toddler knows how ANNOYING putting socks an shoes on is), they get in there for two seconds, get bumped into by a child who has no business being in there with their 5 foot-tall body and come back out bawling. We steered clear of the bounce house and distracted them with baby pumpkins and face painting.

Yup, that's about as good as it gets.

No one wanted their picture taken. The distractions were far to...distracting. Everyone refused to look directly at the camera, or if they did, their face was facing me but their eyes were on the sno-cone machine. I got a couple of Tiny with his pumpkin, but it was short-lived as the pumpkin pallets, made great bumper pads for 15 month-old children who were still wobbly in their walking abilities.

The best part, and I think the kids would agree, was the face-painting. Amazing how having a cool, wet paintbrush dance across your cheek can calm hyper 3 year-old children. They sat like zombies as the super sweet teenage girls completed their requests for a football for Bubba and a butterfly for Boo.

So my lovely friends, it's time to cast your vote! If you enjoyed my Reuben Saga-ish entry, please click on the link below. You have sent me half-way through this competition, why not send me through to the next round? I keep telling you how much I enjoy this, because it's true. I am learning so much, stepping outside my comfort zone and creating things I've never dreamed. My writing is getting better as are my photos, because of this contest. So THANK YOU!

CLICK HERE TO VOTE!!!

Love ya, Foodies!

PFB Challenge #5: She Put A Reuben On It

All she could hear was the rubbery “squeak” of her knife sawing its way down the face of the cabbage. The house was perfectly quiet, as each of her three children were napping, and she was seizing this time to bring to life her newest inspired idea. Her thoughts ranged from I should write my next post in third person, to I'm nervous about this hair-brained idea. It was a momentary worry; her thoughts soon drifted back to the sheer delight of a quiet house and her knife back to the cabbage, shaving angel-hair thin strips.

Mid-way through slicing, her hand started to cramp. She laid down her less-than-sharp knife and firmly rubbed the inside of her thumb. She stretched out her long fingers, trying to find some relief. For a moment, she realized how much her hands had aged and then shrugged it off. She quickly moved on to photographing the cabbage on the cutting board. She left it just as it was. No fussing, she whispered and pulled her hands back from the haystack of feathery cabbage. It didn’t need a bit of direction.

Stray shreds of the freshly-cut cabbage were haphazardly strewn across the kitchen floor. She never claimed to be tidy cook, as she felt cleaning-up as she went, broke the creative flow of her culinary process- she simply had no time for it. As she carried handfuls of ingredients back and forth between the counters, the orphaned cabbage threads stuck to the heels of her feet, causing her to stop and shake her foot. It irritated her immensely but not enough to cause her to stop what she was doing.

She measured out the vinegar, sugar, salt and pepper for the cabbage brine. She poured the ingredients into the glass Pyrex measurer and heated it for almost three minutes. She lunged at the microwave just before it started beeping and opened the door quickly. She wanted the house to stay quiet. She did not want to disturb the sleeping babes.

Immediately the vapors of the hot vinegar hit her nostrils and she started to cough and swat at the air. When would she ever learn? She stirred the steamy liquid –face turned away- until all the sugar was dissolved.

She scooped up all the cabbage threads and plunged them down into the slightly-cooled brine. She was quickly reminded that she had a paper cut on her right ring finger. She squealed and yanked her hand out quickly. She continued working the cabbage down into the brine with her left hand, while sucking the vinegary mixture off of her injured ring finger. The brine was perfectly tangy, sweet and salty.

She referred to her idea journal momentarily to reconnect with her inspiration. It was a simple, not overly-complicated idea. She wanted to keep the flavors clean and familiar while transporting it to the mouth via the mandated vehicle of the challenge- pizza. Her idea to forgo the classic sauerkraut that she loved and adored and replace it with a brighter, what she felt, more updated version was making her nervous. But what continually brought her back to trust in her inspiration was the contrast of the cold pickled cabbage atop the hot, salty, cheesy toppings of the Reuben pizza. She was deeply hoping it would work.

She liked to sketch out her ideas in scrawly drawings and scribbled words. She cherished each and every idea, regardless of whether it ever came into being. Cooking, to her, was just as artful as her paintings or collages. Its conception on paper was chiefly important, for she knew, if she did not write or draw her idea down, it would be lost forever in the scattered, cranial filing cabinets of her mommy-brain. The drawings helped her to remember the inspiration clearly and not miss a detail- for she loved details.

She stepped outside to retrieve the bowl containing the pizza dough she crafted earlier. It was a perfect 80 degrees outside and a gentle breeze played with the stray hairs around her face. She brushed them away with the back of her forearm and picked up the bowl from its warm place on the porch. She cradled it in her arms as she walked back inside. As she lifted the towel to behold the magic of yeast, flour, salt and water; she once again found herself amazed. She never tired of being surprised by what laid under that towel. There before her was the once tiny dough ball, peppered with anise seeds, now doubled in-size and pungently fragrant. She sighed with content and then happily punched down the dough. This was her favorite part of bread making. The dough collapsed all around her fist. It was, as they say, as soft as a baby’s bottom, which she- as an experienced mom- knew the feeling of, all too well.

She let the dough rest. Meanwhile she photographed ingredients, over and over in different light and different configurations. She was enjoying the moody lighting of the afternoon sun lazily drifting through the dining room windows. It was doing the job of conveying the autumnal feelings that she had as she made the pizza- the knowing that darker evenings and cooler weather was soon to be upon her.

She came back and lightly floured the countertop and spread it around leaving swirling marks with her fingertips. She cut the dough in four equal pieces and took one portion. She laid it down on the cold granite and started rolling it out. It occurred to her that keeping it a long oblong shape would be appealing and different. Why must a pizza be round? She thought.

Her oven was blasted hot and prepared with two inexpensive terra cotta tiles on the bottom rack of her oven. She was very proud of her $1.98 purchase from the local home improvement store. They worked like a dream making every pizza she made crispy and evenly baked.

On her pizza peel she scattered a bit more flour to ease the un-baked pizza into the oven. She started the process of building the pizza. On top of the thinly-rolled pizza dough went her homemade Thousand Island dressing. She liberally smeared it on with the back of a spoon and retrieving spillage with her forefinger. She tasted it. It was creamy, sweet and tangy. A piece of pickle relish crunched between her back molars.

Next she layered on the Baby Swiss cheese. It was already getting oily and wilted from the heat radiating from the oven. It draped itself onto the bed of dressing like a satin sheet. Atop the cheese she artfully arranged, pieces of corned beef, which were cut into ½” strips. They reminded her of ribbons at Christmastime.

She popped it into the oven, more with awkward movements and biting of her lip than quick finesse. She didn’t really care how it got in there, just as long as it did and without major damage. She shut the door and breathed relief.

She turned the oven light on because, like a kid, she would press her face up to the glass and watch the cheese bubble and spit as it got closer and closer to being done. The edges on the corned beef started to crisp and curl. This excited her greatly.

Ten minutes went by and she announced it was officially done- to nobody. The crispy bottom of the crust slid onto the peel with the help of a fork. She quickly ran it over to the dining room table for its photography session. It was beautiful. She grabbed some of the pickled cabbage, remembering to use her left hand, and squeezed it well. Switching hands, she sprinkled with her right hand and pressed the button on her camera with the left. She loved capturing the action of a meal being composed.

As she photographed the slices on a plate, she grabbed a beer. A few sips of beer with un-dainty bites of the freshly-baked pizza was her version of afternoon delight. She continually had to remind herself that this was time to get great shots, not a grazing session. She did both.

The pizza far exceeded her expectations. It was as she hoped it would be, but so much more satisfying. The crispness of the crust supported the soft cheese and dressing as it enveloped the saltiness of the corned beef. The crescendo at the end of every bite was the pickled cabbage that crunched and popped with vinegar-y vigor. She was pleased that her vision of two childhood favorites merging to create a new adulthood favorite had come into fruition...that and she got to drink a beer at three o'clock in the afternoon, for photography purposes only. ("she" winks)

Reuben Pizza

makes 4 personal size pizzas

3/4 lb. corned beef, sliced very thinly and then into 1/2" strips
1/2 lb. baby Swiss cheese, sliced very thinly
2 tbsp. chopped fresh parsley (for garnish)
1 recipe homemade Thousand Island dressing (see below)
1 recipe pizza dough (see below)
1 recipe quick pickled cabbage (see below)

Place unglazed terra cotta tiles (or pizza stone) in a cold oven. Preheat to 500 degrees. Cut dough into fourths and roll out one at a time. Sprinkle pizza peel with flour and place thinly rolled dough on top. Layer dressing, cheese then corned beef. Bake for 10 minutes until edges are brown and cheese is bubbly and hot. Remove and have a handful of squeezed pickled cabbage ready to top the pizza. Cut and enjoy! Preferably with an ice cold beer.

Homemade Thousand Island Dressing

1 cup mayo
1 cup pickle relish
1/2 cup ketchup

Mix and set aside.

Pizza Dough
(Click HERE for my how-to video)
Prep time: 10 minutes plus 45 minutes to rise, plus 15 minutes to rest

2 c. flour
2 tsp. sugar
1 tsp. salt
3 tbs. olive oil
2 tsp. instant yeast
1/2 c. warm water (110 degrees)
(only for the Reuben Pizza: add 1 1/2 tsp. anise, fennel or caraway seeds that have been dry-roasted in a pan until fragrant)

Dump all ingredients into your stand mixer with dough hook attachment, turn to medium speed. If the dough looks a little dry, add a tsp. water. If it looks wet, add a bit of flour.

When it pulls together in a ball, that is when you start the timer for the 5 minutes of kneading. Just let the mixer do the job for you. You can also do this by hand.

After the five minutes, you should have a soft, elastic dough and in most cases the bowl will be "clean" as in all the dough pulled away from the sides.

Pour in a tsp. of olive oil into your bowl. Coat the dough ball in the oil, this prevents it from drying out.

Cover the bowl with a dish towel and set in a warm place to rise until doubled in size, about 45 minutes.

Quick Pickled Cabbage

2 cups white vinegar
1 cup sugar
2 tbsp. salt
2 tsp. fresh cracked pepper
2 cups cool water
1 cup ice cubes
1 small head of cabbage, very thinly sliced

Heat vinegar, sugar, salt and pepper in a glass bowl, in the microwave for 3 minutes. Stir to dissolve all the sugar. Add the shredded cabbage and water. Massage the cabbage into the brine. Add ice cubes and let stand for at least an hour.

This was my version of a twist on the recipe for pizza, which all the contestants for Project Food Blog were required to do for this Challenge #5. Pizza is one of my top favorite foods, and it's made weekly in our house. The Reuben is a sandwich that I loved as a child, which my mom would make on Sunday afternoons after church, usually in the fall. It's the marriage of two classic comfort foods into one thoughtfully planned and crafted new creation. I mean it when I say, I wish you could taste the photos.

I seriously hope you can feel how grateful I am to have made it to this round! I would be lying if I didn't say I was shaking in my boots on Friday to find out if I made it. It's been sheer delight, with a few minor moments of pure frustration, and tons of learning! So thank you again and again and again!

Voting begins 6AM Pacific Time October 18th and goes through 6PM Pacific Time October 21st. Don't worry, you know I will remind you.

Love ya, Foodies!

A Bunch of Tidbits

Most adorable sous chef, ever.

You know I am loving this Project Food Blog thing. It has been very challenging and inspiring. It's been time-consuming and at times, ridiculous. But I really, really love it. We will see if I  move on to the next round this afternoon.

I guess, I just wanted to take a moment and express my gratitude to everyone that has stopped by Foodie House recently. The PFB has generated much more exposure for little 'ol me in the past few weeks. I've gained more readers and found some new favorite blogs in the process. I wanted to share some of those new favorites with you and basically give you a big, fat, juicy kiss via this post, for all your support and love. So MWUUUUAHHHHH! There, you've been "kissed".

Some of my new favs are: (these are not all, just a taste.)

Jenn at Much to My Delight- freakin' hilarious is mostly what I have to say. Crafting, cooking and just all-round artsy-cool. That and I think she's my sister from another mister.

Susi at Susi's Kochen Und Backen Adventures- Susi just rocks. This woman can cook and bake like nobody's business. Her photos are incredible and everything she does just reeks excellence.

Michelle at Jelly Shot Test Kitchen- Oh my gosh! If you want to see some beautiful, incredibly creative drinks, scoot on over to see Michelle at JSTK. The photos are amazing and her drink combinations are so cool and classy. Not to mention, that they are all jello-shots. Bottoms up!

Let's see, other news and reports...I've got a guest post on Sticks Forks Fingers today!! Pam is off in New Zealand with her Hubby for their honeymoon and asked me and Jason from Ancient Fire Wine Blog to do some guest posts. I was so excited! It's my very first one, and if you would like to get some history on the Hubs and I, well, do come over to Pam's for a wine review and an engagement story, complete with pictures of Yours Truly, eleven years ago. I also do my best to do a "wine review" with the Hubs. It was challenging.

What else? Oh! I keep meaning to mention that I am on Twitter. I continually try and get that little "Follow Me" Twitter birdy on my blog, but Blogger refuses to let me have it. SO, I am just telling you. My username is "foodiehouse". So add me to your following and I will do the favor in return! I am still trying to figure Twitter out. I see many of my friends on there doing all this fancy RT and # stuff and I am overwhelmed. I've been visiting the "Help Center" trying to help myself. If you have any tips, I would be very grateful to hear what you have to say.

Washing machine update: Okay, so yesterday morning the delivery guy shows up on time and with my new washer. (if you didn't read my last post, my washer was on the total fritz and flooded my laundry room!) Anyways, he sets it up and checks it. Seems to be fine. I go to do my first load of a now GINORMOUS pile of laundry and half-way through I start smelling a burnt rubber smell. (The delivery guy is, of course, now long gone.)

You know when you get a new blender or some sort of appliance and it gives off that burnt plastic smell? Like that but 100 times worse. I threw the windows open and turned on the fan. I was bracing myself for the smoke alarm to go off. I couldn't see smoke, but the smell was so strong. A headache and an irritated call to customer service later, I 've got a new washer coming to me on Saturday. Thank God I bought the kids some new underwear at Target yesterday. You know your laundry is backed up when your Hubs has nothing to wear to work but a mock turtleneck and a jock strap and your doing dishes in a formal gown and a nursing bra.

Okay, Foodies. I think that catches us up. Whether I do or don't move on to the next round of PFB, I will show you my twist on pizza. It turned out pretty yummy. I'm excited to share it with you.

Love ya!

Voting and A Load of...Laundry.

See Alice there? Yep, that's pretty much what my laundry room looked like, minus the mouse.

I've been wrestling with my crazy washer this morning. I've got a laundry pile the size of Mount Doom, looming in my closet. Adding to that, my washer gets off kilter and about every 5 minutes; it sounds like there's a giant playing dodgeball in my laundry room. I rush in there and try to quiet him with cookies...or petit fours.

Okay, in the middle of writing this post, I go in to once again, hush the "giant" and there before me, is what looks like what a giant's pee would look like if he peed in my laundry room. The laundry room is flooded!!! There is 1/2" of water all over. Now doubly irritated that I have to clean-up this mess AND petit fours will not help me now (told you they were hellish), I grab some towels and get to work. I open the garage door, that is connected to the laundry room and there is a river of water running out and under unused strollers and old high-chairs. My collection of hats continues to grow. Mommy, blogger, maid, counselor, nurse, cook and now janitor.

The only good thing about this event is that I'm going to get a new washer. And maybe some votes?

Today is the start of voting for Project Food Blog!!  Aren't you pumped? I'm excited. It's down to 100 contestants now.

So if you haven't checked out my entry for Picture Perfect challenge #4, you can click here and vote. If you are not signed-up with Foodbuzz.com, it's super easy and a great community to be apart of. If you are, well, whatcha' waitin' for?

CLICK HERE TO VOTE!

Thank you so much for helping me get this far! I'm having so much fun!!!
Love ya, Foodies!

PFB Challenge #4: Tiny Hell-Cakes

 

This is a story of how one mother’s stubborn nature can be (if humility be added) reversed, momentarily, in order to bake a cake.

I like trying new things. (Cooking things, not roller blading or jogging.) What I like is the process of inspiration guiding me on a journey to the final and hopefully successful execution of whatever my little heart desires, but that isn’t always the case, now is it?

I could have easily hidden from you that I royally screwed up these delicate tiny cakes. I could have edited my photographs to make the process look seamless. But, I would rather share with you my victory in overcoming my frustrations and learning a lesson. Not to mention, presenting some pretty darn cute mini cakes that Marie Antoinette may have been referring to.

I had seen an episode of French Food at Home on The Cooking Channel, where Laura Calder is the chef and she is exceptional at making intimidating food look insanely easy. So much so, that for weeks I couldn’t stop thinking about these tiny cakes. “You must make these!” I would mentally exclaim, like a battle cry to weary pastry soldiers, but in my case, to a tired, not-so-pastry mommy. What do I need tiny cakes for? No reason. Except for Project Food Blog's Challenge #4: Picture Perfect, where we were asked to give you a step-by-step pictorial tutorial of making whatever we wanted to make. And I picked these. What is wrong with me?

I started early in the morning baking the cake, photographing ingredients and playing short order cook to my three tots. Order up! Two bowls of toasted O’s, one bowl of oatmeal, two pieces of toast – buttered with cinnamon sugar- two sippy cups (one soy, one 2%), one baby bottle of whole milk with a shot ‘o liquid vitamins and two chewable vitamins for the older siblings. Phew.

With breakfast dished out I quickly got to work, setting up my tripod, adjusting the blinds, doing far too many test shots and wishing I wasn't running on just coffee. As soon as I get the eggs and sugar in the mixer, voices start chiming for seconds on the above said orders. Not wanting to leave my Kitchen Aid mixer's side, I hollered over Elmo singing his extremely annoying song and the 747 whir of the mixer, for the kids to ‘hang in there’ and I would get them seconds, just as soon as the eggs and sugar were ribbony and tripled in size.

That’s how it pretty much went the whole morning. Adding to that, there was stopping and starting a thousand times, breaking up sibling fights and playing nursemaid to bumps (or “dumps” as my daughter likes to call them) on the head and wondering if the cake would ever make it to the oven.

And it did. Thank God.

You may be asking, “What is with this woman? Isn’t there a better time to make petits fours?” My answer would be, “Good question, and yes, there probably is a better time, except, I’m crazy like that.” I simply adore chaotic culinary situations. (awkward cough)

Oh these little cakes! They come across as so simple, so delicate, but I should have known they had hearts of evil. They drew me in with their perfectly square edges, simple aesthetic and glossy, pourable fondant.

Let me just say, the cake is angelic on all accounts. It's easy to make, bake, cut and eat. But the fondant…oh wretched, thy name is fondant!

Actually, to be extremely honest with you, I cannot blame the fondant or the recipe, or Laura Calder, for that matter. I would like to, but the truth is, I committed a pastry sin. I did not measure EXACTLY when I was making the fondant. No, my savory side kicked in with its pompous attitude, flair for egotistical non-measuring and foiled the fondant. Yes, I simply “eyeballed” the tablespoons of water and corn syrup, all the while, the pastry gods were whispering in my ear “You know you shouldn’t do that. You will fail.” But being the stubborn mommy that I am, I shooed those cautionary thoughts away like an irritating gnat.

And I failed, miserably. I owe my fondant catastrophe to my rebellion and kid-distraction. It was somewhere between making peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and looking for a lost sock, that my fondant cooked and seized. To accentuate the stupidity, I added more than enough pink food coloring to put the nauseating Pepto pink to shame. Overall, it was complete disaster. I continued on with my stubborn ‘know-how’ and attempted to dress my little cakes in the molten, grainy, hot pink sugar robe. I had a bad feeling as the fondant started to harden, midair before it even reached the naked little cakes.

What do I do? Do I fake it and pretend that I wanted my cakes to actually look this way? Who am I fooling? I wanted to throw-up just looking at them. Instead of making the fondant again (properly), I chose to try and whip out some rolled fondant that I had left over from my son’s birthday party and cover them with that. Well, all I know about covering cakes with fondant is what I have seen (and never actually done) on Food Network Cake Challenges or from Chef Duff. Disaster number two…check!

Now, nearly to tears and naptime running out, I had a choice to make. Do I chuck the whole petits fours idea and make meatloaf instead? Or do I press through and make the fondant one more time, preferably with correct measurements? I pulled up my proverbial boot straps and did it. And guess what? It turned out perfectly. What a novel idea- measuring.

So here we go. You will now learn how to and how not to make Petits Fours, which mean, “little ovens” in French. (I would have guessed they meant “little, square hell-cakes”.) But in all sincerity, they truly are delicious and if I had followed directions the first time, they would have been a breeze. Enjoy!

Assembly of ingredients.

4 cracked eggs.

In for a spin.

Add the sweet stuff...

and whip into oblivion (approx. 3-5 minutes).

Add the vanilla and mix a bit more.

The mixture should be thick and ribbony, like this.

Prepare your pan with parchment paper.

Sift the flour and salt.

Add flour in spoonfuls.

Gently fold in flour, cutting down the center of the mixture and coming back up again. Turn the bowl and continue until the flour is just mixed in. Be careful to not over-mix.

Pour batter into prepared pan and bake.

Time for the not-so-fun stuff...clean-up.

Jelly, marzipan and journal filled with grandiose ideas. I found out how much I love marzipan- nearly ate the whole tube while waiting for the cake to bake.

Let the cake cool for 10 minutes in the pan.

Invert onto a cooling rack and peel away parchment. Cool completely.

Get to rollin' the marzipan, very thinly.

Generously paint on the warm jelly.

Lay the thin sheet of marzipan over the jelly and trim the edges.

Ready for some plastic wrap...

and a nice cold stay in the fridge for 30 minutes, to firm up the cake.

After it has chilled, trim the edges of the cake to make it square.

Divide the square into 4 equal widths.

And  again.

Voila!

And so the pastry sin began. First with the corn syrup...

and again with the water...

and for whatever reason, I did measure and sift the powdered sugar.

Looks okay, right?

But then the food coloring thing happened...

And bad went to worse.

The angelic little cakes sat patiently awaiting...

a crusty, hot pink, catastrophic enrobing. Oh, God.

Poor little things.

They were so distraught that they did a pyramid formation.

And then I picked off every last bit.

And started over.

This time, using the proper measurement, the fondant worked like a dream.

Perfectly drippy and pink.

Shiny.

I couldn't resist the glitter in my pantry, just begging to be used.

For half of the cakes I cut out tiny rolled fondant (you could use left-over marzipan for this too) hearts with a cookie cutter and brewed myself a cup of tea.

A setting fit for a queen.

Oh, don't mind if I do.

The towering tiny treats...

took a tumbling roll. Reminiscent of one famous Marie's head? Ironic? I think not.

Petits Fours

Adapted from Laura Calder's French Food at Home cooking show

Prep time: 30 minutes

Inactive time: 2 hours

Cook time: 25 minutes

• For the genoise (that's French talk for "sponge cake")

• 4 eggs

• 1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar

• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

• 1 cup all-purpose flour, sifted with a pinch kosher salt

• For the topping

• 3 tablespoons apricot or red-currant jelly (I used a mixed berry jelly)

• 4 ounces marzipan

• 1 tablespoon light corn syrup

• 2 cups icing sugar (confectioners')

• Food coloring, optional (I used Wilton's pink gel food coloring. A tiny, tiny bit for light pink color.)

• Silver balls (dragees) or icing flowers, for decoration (I used edible pink glitter that you can get at speciality cake supply stores)

DIRECTIONS

To prepare the genoise:

Grease and line a 9-inch cake tin with parchment paper. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Whisk the eggs and sugar, preferably with an electric mixer, until tripled in volume, and thick and ribbony, like whipped cream. Add the vanilla. Scatter over the flour and salt, a spoonful at a time, and gently fold it in, without over-mixing. Pour the batter into the pan, and bake until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, about 25 minutes. Let cool in the pan for 10 minutes, before removing to a rack, and cool completely.

To prepare the topping:

Melt the jelly with a the water in a saucepan, and strain. Lay the cake on a rack, bottom up, and brush the jelly mixture over the surface. Roll out the marzipan exactly to the size of the cake, and lay it on top. Trim the edges of the cake, wrap, and chill for half an hour so it will cut neatly.

While the cake chills, make the icing: Put the corn syrup with 2 tablespoons warm water in a saucepan, and heat to dissolve. Beat in the sugar, adding about 2 more tablespoons of warm water (or part liqueur, if you like) to make a smooth icing which, when poured, will drape over the cakes like a satin sheet. Tint the icing with a few drops of food coloring, if using.

Remove the cake from the refrigerator and cut into perfect 1-inch squares with a sharp knife. Place them on a wire rack set on a baking sheet. Spoon the icing over each 'cakelet' to coat completely. Let the icing set, and repeat. Decorate the cakes, and store in an air-tight container until serving.

To the judges and voters, I want to say thank you so much for allowing me to continue on in Project Food Blog! This contest has lit a creative fuse inside of me and has pushed me to step out of my comfort zone and think bigger. I want to go all the way with this. That would be a dream come true. But for now, I take one challenge at a time, savoring it and enjoying the journey.



Voting starts 6AM Pacific Time October 11th and goes through 6PM Pacific Time October 14th.

Love ya, Foodies!