Cake Talk

Chilton County Peaches

It's peach season again.  Peaches from Chilton County started showing up at the local farmer's market about two weeks ago.  So when my brother (who is visiting from California) and I were looking for something to do on Sunday, we decided to drive down and "get us some."

I realize we could have just bought a few baskets at the farmer's market next Thursday but we needed an outing and the Giant Peach is an Alabama Curiosity, as my brother reminded me.  He knows this because it says so in a book of the same title that I gave him several years ago when I first moved to Alabama.  The Giant Peach is actually a 120-foot tall water tower on I-65 at exit 212 in Chilton County.

There is a smaller Giant Peach at a roadside stand a few miles south of the big one, which is where we were headed when I spotted a sign that said "OPEN, U-Pick Peaches, 3 Miles."

It would much more memorable if we actually picked our own.  And it seemed a little silly to drive 60 miles to go to a roadside stand when the Tuscaloosa farmer's market is right here in town.  At least that is the argument I used to persuade my brother to get out of the car in 90-degree heat and tromp down an unpaved orchard road with four baskets in hand looking for ripe peaches.

The lady at the farm asked what I was going to do with them.  "Gelato, fresh peach gelato."  I'm not sure she had any idea what gelato is.  My brother caught the blank look on her face and piped in "it's like ice cream."

"Oh," she said, smiling, "I love home-made peach ice cream."

$28 later we were back in the comfort of the air conditioning of my PT Cruiser, heading back up Highway 82 to Tuscaloosa.  Should you find yourself with some ripe peaches this season, here is the recipe from our cookbook.

Fresh Peach Gelato

• 6 medium peaches
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 tsp. lemon juice
• 1 package (3.4 oz) instant vanilla pudding mix
• 3 cups milk

Prepare the peaches.  Blanche the peaches in boiling water and immediately plunge them into a sink full of ice water.  Peel the skin off.  Pit and rough chop the peeled peaches.  Place the peach pieces, sugar and lemon juice in a heavy saucepan.  Bring to a rolling boil and cook for about 2-3 minutes.  Cool completely.

Make the gelato base.  Whisk the instant pudding mix and milk together in a bowl until the mixture thickens enough to coat the back of a spoon. (We also have a recipe for a cooked gelato base which calls for egg yolks, milk, cream and sugar, but this one is so much easier...)

Combine the peach mixture with the gelato base.  Mix well, pour into an ice-cream maker and freeze according to the manufacturer's instructions.

Makes 1 quart.

Or, come on down to Mary's and try ours.  We'll have it beginning Tuesday.

2009 Sunrise Community Hot Air Balloon Race

5:30 a.m. in Tuscaloosa.  At the airport.  Parked on the runway.  Coffee in hand.

Even early enough for the pilot briefing.  Wind direction (southerly) and speed (3 mph),  "you can land anywhere you want, but at least 200 feet away from the target," the location of the refueling station, etc...etc...

A lead balloon took off first, then it was a free-for-all amongst the 28 racing balloons to inflate and take off.  Each balloon had a bean bag (that they were reminded to write their names on).  The race consisted of following the lead balloon and dropping their bean bag on the to-be-designated drop site.  I'm thinking "closest to the pin" and "first" will define who wins the race.

The race benefited the Sunrise Community, a non-profit organization that provides people with disabilities the assistance and support necessary to enable them to live valued lives in the community. So of course there were corporate sponsors and VIP's that got to be passengers in the baloons along with the aeronauts.  For the last 25 years, the race has been held in Florida, but urban sprawl prompted the organizers to look for a less congested location, which is how the race came to be held in Tuscaloosa.

We bought t-shirts and had fun watching the balloons.  Maybe it is the Wizard of Oz Effect, but there is something truly magical about hot air balloons and the way they rise gracefully into a cloudless blue sky.

I rode in a hot air balloon once, about ten years ago, during a business trip to Australia (back when I had a REAL job).  I still have the certificate somewhere.  We floated over the Royal Canberra Golf Club and one of the photos I took from the air ended up on their brochure.  (The company I was visiting was into forest management and golf course architecture, go figure...).

I have no idea where those photos are, but here are the rest of my pictures from this morning.

It wasn't clear whether the Energizer Bunny balloon was racing or following.  The last to be inflated, it was trailing significantly behind the others.

And for the first time in history, everyone was in the bakery, ready to work at 7:30 a.m

.

Here we go again...

Another event at the Tuscaloosa Regional Airport.  This time it's the Sunrise Community Hot Air Balloon Race.  The event opens at 5:30 am, balloons launch (weather permitting) at 6:15, and the event closes at 9:30.  That means several thousand folks will be leaving the airport at 9:30 IN THE MORNING, with nothing to do.  Just about the time Downtown Northport kicks into high gear on Saturday morning.

Who knows, if the transportation and event coordinating gods get it right, we might be busy at the bakery.

That's assuming they all learned something from the Blue Angels show a couple of months ago.

And you know what happens when you assume.

In any event, we'll probably get some great photo opportunities right outside the shop.  The weather is forecast to be bright and sunny.

Waiting for glue to dry

People sometimes ask me what I would do if I won the lottery.  That's easy.  Buy a walk-in freezer.  In a bakery, the freezer is your friend.  And since I DIDN'T win the lottery, I recently bought a new single door freezer to store cookie doughs and brownies and pastries and such.

As the freezer is new (well, new to us), it's empty.  So what a great opportunity to pack everything from the old freezer into the new one, and defrost the old bugger.  Technically, the old freezer defrosts itself, but the drain is plugged, and when the defrost cycle clicks in, the melted ice drips into the freezer instead of the drain.  So the plan is to defrost the freezer, unplug the drain, and be be back in business by Tuesday.  And that's why I am waiting for glue to dry.

In order to unplug the freezer, you have to move it away from the wall.  It is wedged in between a refrigerator and the ice machine.  It's on wheels, but they have settled somewhat into the floor and are a little tricky to move out of their ruts.  Which I suppose is why nobody but me ever moves the freezer to sweep or mop under it.  Besides dirt, dust and dampness, I found a couple of piping tips, some plastic lids that must have fallen off a shelf, and a pile of coffee beans that escaped while being emptied into the grinder.

If I had to guess, I'd suspect three years of dampness (either from melted ice or from the plugged defrost drain) caused the tiles on the floor to come loose.  So I figured I'd replace them before moving the freezer back.  They got pulled up Saturday after we closed, and the wood floor underneath had a whole day-and-a-half to dry. Thankfully, the defrosting freezer didn't slow the progress.

I should have known that Liquid Nails (which we use for the occasional tile replacement) wouldn't work.  The tube I had barely covered two tiles, and there are about 15 more.  And since it's Memorial Day, the handy neighborhood hardware store across the street is closed and I have to trek down to Lowe's.  I got a bucket of commercial adhesive.  Spread it on the floor.  Put new tiles down. And now I am waiting for glue to dry before I wheel the freezer back into place.  Oh yeah, and I unplugged the defrost drain pipe.

And if I ever do win the lottery, I am still going to buy a walk-in freezer.  Right after I get back from Tahiti.

The customer is always right

I'm huge on customer service.  We have an open kitchen, so everyone who works in the bakery is trained to look up and greet customers as they walk through the door.  Smile and find a way to work with them, no matter what the request. We give free cookies to children and almost always have a sample tray or something to offer.

All our cakes are custom baked and decorated.  We try to make each customer who comes into Mary's feel like they are special.  Because they are.  I have learned, through trial and error, to write down all the specifics and details about each cake on the order ticket.  Exact colors and filling flavors.  Drawings of designs and piping for complicated cakes.  Big BLOCK letters spelling out any variations from the way we might normally do something.

We do makes mistakes on occasion, and every so often we are tested to our limit.  This week was one of those occasions.

We make a Bryant-Denny Stadium Cake because there are many, many University of Alabama football fans in this town.  We had one last week.  The bride and her mother had come in about eight months ago with an old photo from the local newspaper showing one of our cakes.  The stadium cake in the photo was large, serving about 300-350 people (see the photo at the top of this post).  This bride needed a cake to serve about 40 guests.

I don't remember the conversation exactly (it was several months ago), but I've had many like it.  I would have explained that the cake in the photo was a very large cake, which we cannot make any smaller.  I would have directed them to a photo of a smaller version of the cake.  There was a drawing of the smaller cake on the back of her contract along with a sketch of the bride's cake.  The contract she signed.

Tuesday after the wedding, the mother of the bride came in to return the cake stands.  She was so mad she was shaking.  Her daughter's wedding was ruined because the cake did not look like the one in the photo.  She even brought the old newspaper clipping (of the larger cake) in, as if to prove it.

I tried explaining (again) that the cake in her photo served about 300, while she ordered a cake to serve 40. "I don't care if the cake serves 300 or 10,000.  THIS is the cake I ordered (waving the photo)."

Then, pulling out a small Tupperware container holding one of the (uneaten) towers, she said "the "A" is RED!!  LOOK, IT SHOULD BE WHITE.  And what's this @#%&? (pointing to the green grass border) I ordered a white border! (again waiving the photo).

I must admit, it never occurred to me that the color of the "A" would make a difference.  After all, the team is the Crimson Tide.   We had also never had a complaint about the grass border, which just about every stadium cake we have ever made (except the one in her photo) had.  The cake contract said simply "small 12-inch stadium cake, chocolate, Alabama 36, Auburn 0" (the score for the scoreboard).

"AND, my son-in law is allergic to nuts." (We cover the outside of the cake in pecans because it gives a nice texture to the outside walls of the stadium -- but always after asking about nut allergies).  "My daughter was in tears, and most of our guests just threw their cake in the trash."  Hmmm, no mention of nut allergies on the contract.

I apologized and offered to refund her money.  "Well I hope so, that's the least you can do."  So I calmly wrote her a check for $109 -- the cost of the cake plus tax -- and gave her a $40 gift card, which I hoped would help ease her pain.

It didn't.

There were several customers in the shop witnessing this drama.  Without exception they all shook their heads after the woman left saying "you just can't make some people happy."  I guess they hoped to make me feel better.

They didn't.

What did we learn from this episode?

• Add a food allergy checkbox as a requirement on all contracts and be sure the customer initials it.
• Have customers sign the front AND BACK of the contract (since we usually sketch the cakes on the back of the contract).
• Mental note on stadium cakes:  specify the color of the piping and borders, as well as the texture on the outside of the cake.

9,270 calories

Plus 441 grams of fat.  And that's just the garnish.

Entire packages.  Hostess Cupcakes.  Little Debbie Swiss Rolls, Nutty Bars, and Devil Squares.   Mrs. Freshley's Fudge Brownies.  Kit Kat Crisp Wafers.  Reese's Peanut Butter Cups.  We had a half of a peanut butter cup, one cupcake, and two Nutty Bars left over.

On top of chocolate cake and chocolate buttercream.  I offer you the empty boxes as evidence just in case you don't believe me.  Technically, the cake serves 50 guests, which amounts to only 185 extra calories of garnish per serving.

A groom's cake for a true lover of Little Debbie products.

Wow.

Latest cake creations

Another fun week at the bakery.  Here are just a few of this past Saturday's cakes...

First there was the baby carriage cake.  I've seen this concept done a lot in the past, but none nearly as cute as this one which matched the invitations.

And the F-18 Blue Angels cake (see the post Working late at the bakery) that came with three dozen blue airplane shortbread cookies.

And this skateboard for a 12-year-old.

And a three tier bowling-themed birthday cake with bowling ball and bowling pin cookies. There is a similar two-tier bowling cake on our website.

And a big orange and blue "AU" carved from a half-sheet cake for an Auburn fan. (I told you there were lots of Auburn graduates in Tuscaloosa.)

And a graduation cake for one of the six high schools in the area that are finishing up this week and next.

And six dozen petit fours that had "Hotty Toddy" piped on them for a high school graduation party for a young lady who was accepted at Ole Miss.

And four weddings.  These are the two I liked best, but the others were also nice.  The cake on the left was for an outdoor wedding at the historic Maxwell-Peters House just down the street from the bakery.  Good thing they had a tent because  it was pouring rain when we arrived.

The black and white cake was for a wedding at Christ Episcopal Church, which has the nicest fellowship hall in a church I have ever seen.  They also have a very pretty courtyard garden.

Next week won't quite so busy but we will be carving a Humvee out of cake, and we have oodles of cookie orders for graduation parties.

And three weddings.

Ougon Nishiki

It started off as a trip to the Plant Lady to get a few colorful plants for my garden at home.  We planted the window boxes at the shop last week and I was inspired by the bright purple petunias and yellow marigolds that now live at the bakery.

My garden at home, which is where I spend ALL my time when I am not at the shop is mostly perennials.  That's because when I opened the bakery I had absolutely no time to deal with annuals or plants that needed a lot of care.  My favorite plant book is still "Tough Plants for Southern Gardens" by Felder Rushing, a book that includes the Southern Bottle Tree (I have the multi-colored variety), among other easy and no-care plants.

So my garden is mostly green, with an occasional show of color when the plants are in bloom. White violets, yellow daffodils and purple wisteria first, then blue and purple iris, purple Spanish lavender and hot pink lora pendulum, then purple cone flowers, then yellow day lilies, then orange canas.  In the fall I enjoy white evergreen clematis followed by yellow swamp daisies.

I was thinking yellow and orange marigolds and more bright petunias like the ones we got for the bakery.  Then this cool looking vine caught my eye.  Variegated lime green, yellow, dark green and white with reddish-orange new growth.  I had to have it.  It's called Ougon Nishiki, or golden Asiatic jasmine.  It looked kinda like another creeping jasmine I bought a few years ago at Lowe's for $5.95, only that one was a softer green and ivory with pale pink new growth.

"It's $51.95," the Plant Lady said.

Ouch.   But I still had to have it.  Only problem now is that I also had to buy a nice ceramic pot to put it in.  I couldn't possibly spend that much money on a plant and put it in the ground.

It's gorgeous, and purely by chance, the $60 ceramic planter I bought happens to match -- almost exactly -- the red chrysanthemums that survived the winter and are now blooming.  I put it next to the fountain and ceramic fish in the center of my garden.

And that is how a ten-dollar trip to the nursery turned into a $150 adventure.

Working late at the bakery

Just about everybody put in a 12-hour day today.  And we're still not done.

Just as my staff was inching towards the door, and I was making THE LIST for tomorrow:

1. Breakfast
2. Finish wedding cakes
3. Finish skateboard cake
4. Finish wrestling cake
5. Deco cupcakes for orders and case
6. Paint gumpaste stencils black
7. ...

And I went looking around to be sure we had all the day's orders finished.

Oh sh#%!

A Blue Angel F18 cake to be carved from a half sheet cake (to go with the blue angel shortbread cookies that were sitting in a box on the counter) is neither carved nor iced.  The ticket suggests that the customer will be looking for it at 8:00 am.

And the whiskers have not been put on the hello kitty cookie to go on top of the stacked pink and black cake.  The royal icing needs to be dry by 8:30 am.

And the stripes need to be iced on the extra bowling pin cookies that go with the bowling cake (which already has several bowling pin and bowling ball cookies on it as decorations).  They also need to be dry enough to put in a box tomorrow by 9:00 am.

And the hat bands need to be put on the Saban Hat cookies that go with one of the wedding orders. More royal icing, but not due until 2:00 pm.

Had to send the staff home or I'd never hope to see them perky in the morning.  Hope the dogs don't miss me too much at home.

I've always wanted to work in a bakery...

It must be the season.  Or maybe a full moon.

At least four people have come in this week asking about jobs at the bakery.  The conversations are all eerily similar.

THEM: "Are you hiring?"
ME:  "Have you ever worked in a bakery before?"
THEM:  "No."
ME:  Have you ever worked in a restaurant before?
THEM:  "No, but I love to cook and I've always wanted to work in a bakery."

OK, I didn't say this out loud, but I was thinking of several possible responses.

1. I love money and I've always wanted to work in a bank.  I can also balance my own checkbook.  Are you hiring?
2. I love kids and I've always wanted to be a teacher.  I am also pretty good at Sudoku.  Do you have any openings for math teachers?  No, I have never been to college and I don't have a teaching credential.
3. I love Star Trek and I have always wanted to be an astronaut.  Are you hiring at NASA?
4. I played football in high school, any jobs at the NFL?
5. I like to talk and I was pretty good at debate, will you hire me as your defense attorney?

For all would-be cooks and bakers:  It may look easy and fun, but it is not the same as baking at home.  I'll repeat one of the responses to FAQ at Charm City Cakes, famous for the "Ace of Cakes" show.

"We are not currently hiring any staff, interns, externs, unpaid grunts, or volunteers."

We're not that extreme, but if you want to work here, you'd better have some experience and be a good (and fast) decorator.  No supermarket cakes are made at Mary's.  You also have to be willing to do your share of washing dishes, mopping the floor, sifting sugar, scooping cookies, and tons of other grunt work.  And we don't pay much. And we work until the last cake is decorated, however long that takes, so no crying about how you have plans the evening before a wedding (which means pretty much every Friday night).

Here is the bottom line.  We are a small working bakery.  Our customers expect our cakes to look "professionally decorated."  That is why they engage our services.  We're also in business for profit.  That means we have to be able to sell our cakes for at least as much as it costs us to make and decorate them.  Every cake we make is hand crafted to order and we try not to overcharge our customers, so we don't have time to direct, lecture or otherwise train inexperienced bakers and decorators.  We do offer cake decorating classes for children and adults where we are happy to teach you how to decorate or carve and stack a cake.

One more thing.  We don't use the "Wilton Method" of decorating and don't care how many Wilton classes you have taken at the local hobby store.  I'm sorry to sound so stern, but please don't try to impress us with your Wilton expertise.

All that being said, if you are an experienced cake decorator and live in the Tuscaloosa area, please do send us your resume.  We'll be happy to consider you.