Time always escapes me in the weirdest ways. Just last week it was October, I swear. I'm trying to clean house a bit, and came across these pictures of a few things I've done over these last several weeks. It's nothing particularly exciting, although I do have to say my favorites are the robot cake and those chocolates.
I was at a Farmer's Market last Fall and found these amazing Plums. Elephant Heart, is what they're called, if my memory serves me. I hadn't seen these since my days living in St. Helena, CA, when we went on a small field trip to the local Farmer's Market there. I picked them up by chance back then, and realized I had found the most delicious plum I'd ever eaten. So when I found these I grabbed them. Aren't they pretty? I decided to make jam so I could preserve them, and potentially have them longer than just a few days.
When I was asked to do these Red Velvet cupcakes, they wanted something simple but fit for a, ahem, more middle-aged woman who was having a birthday. I wanted something sort of classy, but fun, but not too young... So I thought the red sparkles and silver sugar dragees would fit. I got black and white hounds-tooth cupcake wrappers to put them in. I guess you could say I thought of my own mom when I did these. This is something she would like.
Robot! I had so much fun doing this. Some good friends of ours have a little boy who turned 1 last fall, and they wanted a fun birthday party. They asked if I could just make it colorful. They built the base for me (how nice!) so I wouldn't have to worry about it. The cake is vanilla with vanilla buttercream, and the cupcakes are vanilla with lemon curd filling, and chocolate with caramel filling. Each have vanilla buttercream on top.
These are graham crackers. I'm sure you guessed that, but these were for handmade s'mores. Some good friend of mine own Big Cartel, and they had a party so celebrate their 250k store. They asked if I would make s'mores that they could torch on site as guests wanted them. I made the marshmallows, chocolate, and these grahams. For some reason I don't have any pictures of anything else (boo), but at least I got these. I couldn't go that night, but I hear they were a success.
These macarons were for Elase Spa. They were having an open house and wanted some macarons to give to guests as they left. This blue is their color, and I made them raspberry buttercream.
On a whim, I decided to make our families some handmade gifts this year for Christmas. I found myself annoyed with the constant struggle of what to get, so we tried something different. I thought food gifts would be something everyone could enjoy. I got some fresh rosemary and olive oil and infused them together. It makes for a really pretty piece to put on the kitchen counter, or on the table when eating. I also got some fresh vanilla beans and plopped them into some sugar. I found these jars and World Market and West Elm. I thought it would be perfect to keep it fresh, but also show off the bean. Vanilla sugar can be used in so many things!
Christmas time was busy for me. I was fortunate enough to get some projects in that gave me a little extra money for the holidays, but one in particular was especially nice. And friend of mine owns a business and wanted to give her employees and nice gift for the holidays. She asked for 6 half pound boxes of assorted chocolates, and 3 dozen dark chocolate hand rolled truffles with almonds. Whew! That's a lot to do when you have so much going on, but I was so happy to do it. And it was such fun! I made a dark chocolate cherry cordial, milk chocolate covered caramel, and a milk chocolate vanilla buttercream.
*If you'd like any recipes, email me. With the time that's passed I'd have to do a little digging... :)
