Fling into Spring Watercolor Cake

Christos Anesti! Today was Greek Easter (I like to call it Greekster), and oh my god was it good to stuff my face and then sit in the sun! Everyone was just basking in it.... We literally haven't seen it in six months.. so glorious!!

I love Greek Easter because I love food.  Our table consisted of juicy lamb with garlic cloves, grilled chicken, spinach rice, corn, pastitiso (cheesy Greek lasagna), lemon oregano potatoes, Greek-style green beans, Greek sweet bread, salad with kalamata olives and feta, and wine of course!

We cracked eggs and laughed, as usual.. I love seeing my cousins who are like my siblings and reminiscing of our childhoods.. so much fun!

Then, we ate cake! 

Recently I found a blog post that showed how to watercolor fondant to use for cake stripes!  I thought it was really neat looking and so spring-like so I wanted to give it a try! I used gel-based food colors mixed with vodka as paints and just haphazardly painted all over rolled out fondant!  Then it took some measuring and cutting to make the strips which I then attached to the cake with a bit more vodka as glue.  You don't taste the vodka.. it dries odorless and tasteless!

I also created some of my own fondant flowers to add something special to the finished product! A ribbon around the bottom edges tied in all the colors.   This was a strawberry vanilla swirl cake with bourbon vanilla butter cream.

I really love the delicacy of this cake. The watercolor look is so different, and looks complicated even though this cake wasn't too hard to complete.  It definitely took some time though!

Cutting it is always the hardest part!!!! So happy everyone enjoyed it though!

I hope everyone enjoyed this beautiful weekend!! Tomorrow is going to be 70 degrees -- time for skirts and dresses at work! So excited! 

-Elena

Basket of Flowers Cake

The sun was finally out this weekend! It's a pretty big deal... It was also around 45 degrees.. Also a pretty big deal these days..

I had Friday off so it was a nice, relaxing three-day-weekend spent with the windows open, airing out the apartment from it's winter slumber.  It's amazing how having the heat on makes so much more dust accumulate... Spring cleaning felt good! 

Lou and I also took a drive to the NY border on Friday and enjoyed a delicious meal at The White Horse Tavern in New Preston.  I love the New England charm that Western CT has.. Even in the rain, the day was beautiful and the tavern was nice and cozy with a fire roaring and a mix of Jeff Buckley and the Beatles softly playing in the background. I ordered a Shepherds Pie... Yes it was Good Friday... Yes I ate a meat dish.... Yes the waitress gave me a slight look when I ordered it... It was so delicious I am not the least bit concerned ;)

Easter Sunday was an enjoyable day spent with family.  Louis and I always split Easter up, early afternoon with my family and late afternoon with his family.  Which means I ate double dessert.. obviously.. which means I'll be kicking my own butt in the gym today.. OH well, it was worth it!  I ate snickerdoodle cookies, a mini strawberry shortcake tart, heath bar truffle, couple bits of apple pie, a scoop of butter pecan ice cream, and a piece of my "Basket of Flowers" cake. 

No this wasn't the most original cake design, I've seen it done many times.. But I wanted to take my own stab at it! Plus I haven't piped a basket weave in a while so I figured this would be a good time to brush up on that skill! 

This was a gluten free, chocolate and vanilla marble cake, since my Grandmother's friend was joining us for Easter and often can't indulge in any of the sweets due to her gluten sensitivity, but no one could even tell the difference.  I topped the cake with a bourbon vanilla buttercream.. It was quite decadent! 

I did a variety of piped flowers, including romantic roses, standard roses, hydrangeas and leaves.  I just haphazardly placed them all over.. no rhyme or reason.. was just sort of jamming out to HAIM in the kitchen and doing my thing! 

I'm happy with the results! And the cake was devoured :)

This week I am working on a 21st birthday cake which is very exciting! I'll also be doing another cake for Orthodox Easter which is next Sunday with my Greek side of the fam... So basically my week will be work, gym, cakes every single day, but I'm not complaining :)

-Elena

The Hydrangea Cake

My mom said cake.. the lemon rosemary cake I made her for her birthday with the almond buttercream... that is what she wanted me to make for Easter Sunday. No question!

This cake is work.. you have to be so careful with the mixing of the egg whites and the meringue and making sure not a spot of oil is ANYWHERE in the kitchen so the meringue rises and then folding it into the batter. It's carefully executed, like a science experiment. 

She wanted me to make the rose bud cake again and I really wanted to, so gorgeous and lovely, but I wanted something brighter. Bolder. Whimsical.

I had seen a post about a hydrangea cake on one of my favorite blogs, I am Baker, and fell in love instantly.  I needed to try it! I obsessed over it actually, sneaking looks of it every day, creating the process in my head of how I was going to execute this thing! Finally I just went for it.

I added more rosemary this time around to my cake batter and the kitchen smelled like herbacious, lemony heaven as they baked. I held back a bit on the almond extract for my buttercream, so it was a bit more muted but still delicious. It crusted like a dream, which is super important when piping things like flowers.

To create the hydrangea petals, I used a 2M tip normally used for drop flowers.

When I piped, I added a lot of pressure, twisted, and released.  When you cram each one in, it starts to look like hydrangeas! This is one way of doing it.. Another would be to use a 104 tip and pipe each individual petal, which would take forever and is a bit methodical. I wanted this to be crazy, and fun, sort of all over the place.

The key to the multi-tone petals was to first, add a thin layer of white to my piping bag with a knife and spread it all around the outside, then add my colored buttercream on the inside.

I love how some of the flowers folded over, to give an authentic look. 

I was nervous about this one, but once I started going, it was super easy.. Icing on the cake! 

A little piece of confection perfection!

My little cousin Katie was enjoying the cake pops from yesterday's post! Little cutie!

I hope everyone enjoyed their Easter, a sunny day spent with family is always good!

-Elena

Easter Sweetness

I always loved Easter as a kid.. Growing up in two religions meant two Easters most years! So my brother and I always got two Easter baskets.. double the chocolate, double the fun! It also meant two masses (candlelit Midnight mass at the Greek church was always my favorite) and two Easter dinners!

Ham and chicken with cookies and cakes for Catholic Easter, and lamb with roasted potatos and sweet bread for Greek Easter! I was lucky growing up with such strong influences from my two heritages-- French food and Greek food.. just can't go wrong! 

Anyways, both Easters fall on the same day this year so it means lots of food and of course, dessert. I made a giant hydrangea cake (I will be featuring it on the blog tomorrow!) but I also made some adorable pastel cake pops!

I used these mini cookie cutters to shape my cake pops.

Oh how charming!

I hope everyone enjoys their day tomorrow with family and friends! I know I am looking forward to it! 

-Elena