Happy Halloween from Jerry

Happy Halloween from Jerry
Originally uploaded by ozdema2.

All about Pink! Lemon Layer Cakes

It was Carrie's birthday like two weeks ago and I was such a "busy" friend, running around partying with the "Turks", I forgot her birthday:( Bad! and Even worse because I always and always want to bake cakes and look for opportunities, and here I am missing Carrie's birthday! Good news is I got a chance to bake an apology cake this weekend when we decided to get together and catch up after my Chicago trip. I got inspired from an episode of Firefly, a sci-fi/western TV show, where one of the main characters, Kaylee, wears a pink dress all in ruffles and her friends call the dress a "layer cake":)

Lemon cake is Carrie's favorite and it worked perfect for the blog after getting quite a few complaints about my comments on friendship and chocolate last week! So, here is a correction, I have many non-chocoholic friends and a slice of lemon goodness is as good as a fudgy, soft and chewy cookie! (not better though:))) I made four small ruffled dresses and everyone seemed to enjoy it. I usually don't buy all that jazz about how great my cakes taste, but today I got double approval. Carrie's husband who only eats fruit as dessert said it was good and Aidan got his hands into the whole cake and finished his second big piece in less than 5 minutes! I am happy and pink!



P.S. Don't you think Carrie is a trooper with that husband of hers? I wouldn't be able to survive more than a couple dates leave alone marriage with a guy who doesn't eat desserts. Happy Birthday again!!!

Recipes:

If you like baking, check out the Whimsical Bakehouse Cookbook Mine has many pages with food stains, a good sign for a crazy cookbook owner like me, (good ROI, for those investors among you). Anyway, I highly recommend it.

For the lemon cake, I used their basic yellow cake recipe with a citrus twist, added 2 tablespoons of lemon rind and 2 tablespoons of fresh lemon juice. Their buttercream is absolutely fantastic; if you need the recipe, email me. That's all...More tips on the second episode of my Odeo show, check it out here:

Chocolate Clouds-Sapirt!

Victory! After months of resistence to my insane baking habits, some friends at work finally gave in and asked me to bake again! Atkin's bankruptcy also helped:) How could I say no (!) As these guys are true dark chocolate and coffee lovers, I tried these chocoholic friendly cookies. If you are not one, are you sure we are friends?

Also, I am creating a new show and calling it "Flourless Chocolate Cake", compliments of this new tool from ODEO. You can now listen to a quick summary of tips and tricks for this recipe on Episode 1. Here we go!
I know I sound like a fairy:)

Chocolate Clouds with Turkish Coffee

3 ounces unsweetened chocolate, chop as small as the chocolate chips so they can melt at the same time, I use Ghirardelli.
2 cups (12 ounces) semisweet chocolate chips, I use Ghirardelli.
1 stick (1/2 cup) unsalted butter, diced into 8 pieces
3 large eggs
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar
3 teaspoons finely ground dark-roast coffee beans, such as Italian-roast (I used Turkish Coffee)
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/3 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup walnuts

(optional: 1/3 cup Cocoa Bits from Scharffenberger)


1) Preheat oven to 350F and line with parchment paper.

2) Melt unsweetened chocolate, 1 cup chocolate chips (recipe calls for 2 cups, one cup will be melted, one cup will be added in the last step), and butter using a microwave or a double boiler, stirring until smooth, and let it cool while mixing the other ingredients. If using microwave, make sure to check the power and do not use anything more than 50%.

3) In a bowl with an electric mixer beat eggs, sugar, and ground coffee on high speed (10 with Kitchenaid) until very thick and pale and mixture forms a ribbon when beaters are lifted, about 5-7 minutes, (longer if using hand mixer) and beat in the melted chocolate mixture. Make sure to stop every 3 minutes and scrape the mixer.

4) Sift in flour, baking powder, and salt and stir until just combined with a whisk. Sift in the mixture and fold gently, it is better if you do it in two steps.

5) Stir in remaining chocolate chips and walnuts (and cocoa nibs if using).

This is the easy part. The hardest part is the baking. Make sure your oven is preheated to 350 already. Do not place your baking sheet into the oven beforehand or your cookies will be flat as wheat thins:)

Drop batter by heaping tablespoons about 6 on one sheet and bake in middle of oven 8 to 10 minutes, or until puffed and cracked on top. Cool cookies on the baking sheet for 1 minute and transfer to a cookie rack to cool completely.

As usual, this is not an original recipe, I just got inspired from an old Gourmet magazine and made some changes.

Enjoy!

Here is Purple Green!

Purple Green
Originally uploaded by ozdema2.

I just uploaded a bunch of pictures from the class. Check them out at Flickr! Colette called the cake "Wacky! and Fun", Colette's mom called it "Whimsical"...I call it "Purple Green" I am just in heaven."

Day 5: i did this!

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Day 3: A day in Kindergarden

Today was all about color, we started playing with the airbrush tool, oh my god, it was such a blast. It is the same thing as spray paint, but its hard to believe you can eat a cake decorated with it. You can cover a cake in seconds with this tool. I have spent hours coloring fondant in the past and it never looked this perfect.

Next was coloring the decorations we made since Day 1 using several different techniques. I had to skip lunch to finish my lilies, sweetpeas, orchids and grapes and at the end of the day they looked horrific!!! It is hard, really. The picture above is supposed to be an Orchid, well not quite botanically correct:) I need to read on flowers...I didn't even know what a lily looked like and painted 6 stems in 3 different colors thinking they would be paired. Too bad my lily is not coming to SF with me:) After the class, I went down to the local Michael's to get colored pencils and now I am working on some designs for that three tiered cake. Still no clue what I am going to do...Where is my baking fairy???

Day 2: Making Roses and Cala Lilies

Day 1: Making Sugar Flowers

Playing with sugar...

I am in Darien, IL attending a 5 day Advanced Cake Decorating Class with Colette Peters. She is so amazing....We start at 8:30 in the morning and work all day...there is even a final project, a three tiered cake. So far, this is just a dream come true, playing with sugar dough and making flowers, leaves, reading cake decorating books and eating ice-cream for dinner. I even wake up before the alarm goes off-that hasn't happened for a loooong time. Wow! Life is pink and happy, even without cell phone coverage or fast speed Internet.

First delivery!

First delivery!
Originally uploaded by elcaseo.

We just got the first box from Farm Fresh and more apples!!!! Another apple cake is on the way, stay tuned!

Vegan Cake Trial

Vegan Cake Trial
Originally uploaded by ozdema2.

It is apple season and everyone (Heidi, Fortune and Tara) is writing about apple these days...So, I gave this vegan recipe a try....to my surprise the cake did have some texture and taste...
I used the pistachios that I brought back from Turkey, but the taste wasn't distinct at all, next time I will try walnuts...

A Surprise Visitor

He came from somewhere I've never been and told me that he is looking for nothing and I really liked him! It is a happy day!!! I just have to find him a name. I am thinking Osman:)))

Housecafe Istanbul

DSCN1729
Originally uploaded by Hande_Lenis.

Great hangout place in Istanbul...

I am home!

I am home!
Originally uploaded by ozdema2.

Enjoying my vacation at home...This photo is from Guliz, she was just in Cesme...The weather is warm, friends are all here and we are partying non-stop with my family!

Going home @ JFK

Carmen and I were on the same flight! She is now wondering around Istanbul and I am getting ready for our boat trip tomorrow...

Sorry! I have a girlfriend!

PICT4222.JPG
Originally uploaded by Mochi83.

(thank god!)

This was the funniest thing that happened to us this weekend...My sister and I were just strolling on Haight and this random guy approaches us with a smile, gets close and then suddenly his face changes and says "sorry, I have a girlfriend!" We kept wondering what he would have done if he were single! Darling, don't look back!! he he he!

Shastacilar at Lake Berryessa

On the way...
Originally uploaded by ozdema2.

We went camping this weekend to Lake Berryesa compliments of Shastacilar. This group is just plain crazy, very funny and seriously challenged with organization skills. Plans change every 5 minutes and you just have to hang loose and just laugh. Otherwise it could get a little too chaotic.

Saturday was fun with a lazy day on the lake followed by low action volleyball game and BBQ. Food was amazing, only if we had more lemons and eggplant in the eggplant salad (!), less salt on Kisir, a little more chicken for Can and a couple volunteers to make Smore's. Here is the Turkish version of smore's making: Everyone sits around the table, one person stands next to the fire and serves! Ughghgh! I am way too much "Americanized", this really got to me!

Yuko disappointed us by not singing one single Japanese song (since when Japanese are shy in singing) and Can really hurt her feelings by not dancing Salsa complaining that he did not have his salsa shoes...Meeeeeeeeen!

However, the song of the night was "You come from Kyoto and wear your Kimono".
We also had two secret romantics in the group, one brought a sheet cover, 500 Egyptian cotton (he forgot his tent but sleeping under the stars was even more romantic), the other brought incense, no one will ever figure this one out...(hint: "not big" in French)

We also learned that cups are important to stock up as we ran out real fast:)

Finally, if you ever step on to a boat, just make sure there are no ropes hanging around your leg. The stupid rope tangled around my leg and now I have a permanent reminder of this trip with me for a while.

Check out the pictures on Flickr!

Visiting Pixar

I had Friday off to spend time with my sister and we invited ourselves to lunch at Pixar. It was a blast! More pictures will follow but if you happen to know Erdem, just bug him a million times and mention my name and he will get you in:))

Here are the pictures from our visit...

excellent up!

excellent up!
Originally uploaded by ozdema2.

playing v-ball in Santa Cruz!