Cinnamon Rolls

Posted on November 5, 2010 by chefgullywhumper

I think in my entire life I’ve made cinnamon rolls from scratch maybe once or twice before tonight.  It’s been about 15yrs since the last attempt, so I was certainly due for another shot.  In culinary school we just used danish dough to make them, and regular cinnamon roll dough is different.

So slap me silly when they turned out FANFLIPPINTASTIC!  You’ll see in the picture that it has a bite taken out of it…..I couldn’t help myself.  Even though the rest of the batch is for Saturday morning I took the odd-shaped end and let it rise to bake it off for a taste test.  I can’t wait for Saturday morning when I slather them in cream cheese frosting!!!

There are few things in this world that I like hearing more than a room full of smiling faces say, “This is the BEST CINNAMON ROLL EVER!”

Cinnamon roll with cream cheese frosting

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A silly mistake

Posted on November 2, 2010 by chefgullywhumper

It happens to the best of us, and though I like to think I don’t make mistakes that often, at least I know when to own up to one.  I, Jennifer Marti, being of half-witted mind and a little sleepy, did unknowingly forget to add the baking soda to my friends’ carrot cake.  Which therefore resulted in said cake not being able to rise to its’ full potential, and I’m sure the Bride and Groom to question my abilities to do my job.

At least I know what I did, and how to fix it right?  That, and I have yet to ever subsitute salt for sugar.  So while the cake I made a week and a half ago was very dense, it was still edible.  And thank goodness for that.

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A Glorious Evening

Posted on October 31, 2010 by chefgullywhumper

Have you ever had one of “those days” where you didn’t want to be around anyone, or do anything and then randomly you found yourself out with friends having a fabulous time?  That was tonight.  One of those completely spontaneous times, when on a lark you replied “yes” to the text of a friend asking to meet you someplace.

It so happened that this place is probably my most favorite restaurant in Denver, Potager.  It makes it very difficult to turn down, even when you had already, technically had dinner a few hours before.  There are few things on this earth greater than good friends enjoying good food and drink.  Everything, as usual, was delicious.  We passed entrees around the table so that everyone could grab a taste.  It also doesn’t hurt when your server and bartender are great acquaintances, and you feel a sense of “family” when dining.

The food was divine, and the company was delightful, and on my walk home in the late October night I found myself-slightly still intoxicated-and listening to the random sounds of the night.  All of the sudden, it was as if someone was pouring corn flakes into a bowl for morning cereal, and I realized that it was the sound of a late fall rain hitting lawn-fulls of dried, fallen leaves, and then the smell of wet pavement hit my nose.  All in all, it was a great end to a spontaneously, perfect evening.

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When I was a little girl….

Posted on October 27, 2010 by chefgullywhumper

… My mother would make these cookies for every holiday.  We (my brother and sister) would constantly ask for them, and usually we’d have to wait a whole summer before a holiday came around to where she would make them again.  It was a process, watching her roll out the dough and cut shapes, and wait for them to bake and cool before we could get our hands on the them to frost them.

For Halloween, besides getting to dress up in crazy costumes and going trick-or-treating, we had two things to look forward to.  Beef and Vegetable soup before we set out for the night, and Frosted Rolled Butter Cookies cut into pumpkin shapes.

I don’t have any children of my own yet, so I have passed down this tradition of frosted cookies at the holiday’s to my friends’ kids-I am their Fairy Godmother.  At their request, I will embark on making a batch of these soft, melt in your mouth butter cookies and frosting them in various fall colors.  So that on Friday, when the kids (13 total) and I and a few other adults get crazy and carve pumpkins, they too can enjoy them like I did as a child.

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The Practice Wedding Cake

Posted on October 24, 2010 by chefgullywhumper

 

Hello World!

This is my first blog. In it I hope to take you on a journey of my world of food.  One day, when the magical, mystery man grants my Mother with winning the Lottery Ticket, I will open my very own pastry shop.  Until that day comes, I will regale you all with items I make (no drooling on the keyboard please), eat or just thoughts on food in general.

Today I am putting together a practice wedding cake for some of my friends.  Luckily their wedding isn’t until next July and I have plenty of time to figure out amounts and procedures to make it look and taste fabulous.  I only make wedding cakes for good friends, it’s such a pain and takes so long to do.  As of right now the Bride wants 4 separate cakes, all about 7″ cubes (yay for no tiers!!!).  So far it isn’t quite the right size (I’m mid frost).  The cake didn’t rise as much as I would have liked, so the layers aren’t as thick as I’d like, I had to add an extra layer from scraps.  And it’s not quite 7″, it will end up being around 6″.  When it’s finished, each panel on the square will have different designs, so she can see what she likes and choose the final design.

 The good news is, IT TASTES AWESOME!!!  Normally I hate carrot cake, but this recipe is killer, and who doesn’t like cream cheese frosting?! 

Ok, it looks a little slapdash, as the British say, but it’s a practice cake for a reason, right?  I need to fiddle with the amounts of batter, and the sizing, but over all it turned out really well.  The “cotton towel trick” to smooth out the buttercream was a dream!  So that will be something I use from now on.   Why mess with fondant when you can get the same effect on tasty frosting?

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