A Very Pink Princess-Castle Cake

A good friend asked me if I would consider making the cake for her daughter's 4th birthday party, and specifically requested a yellow cake with pink buttercream - with the theme of "princess castle."

This was my first time attempting a cake of this complexity and multi-layered-ness (yes, that's a word).  After quite a lot of research online looking at different castle cakes and their construction, as well as scouring both Migros and Coop for pink sprinkles/sugar/candies, I made a game plan and got started. The Swiss really aren't very into cake decorating as a hobby and so we don't have wonderful cake-supply stores like New York Cake or CakeArt available to us.  No matter - I used what I had and in the end I was very, very pleased with how it turned out.



The towers are ice cream cones dipped in white chocolate, then covered in two coats of pink meringue buttercream and rolled in white sprinkles.  The door and windows are sugar cookies decorated with royal icing (yup, extra Daring Bakers cookie dough!), and then glued onto the cake at the last minute with more pink buttercream (the cookies could not be refrigerated overnight with the cake since royal icing does not hold up well in the fridge). The piped white butteream dots serve not only to make the edges look more "finished" but also anchor the ice cream cones a bit more firmly on to the cake for transport.  I made the little flags out of paper and toothpicks which read "Happy 4th Birthday Princess Iona."

The downside of making cakes for other people is that you don't get a chance to see how they look when they're cut, or try a piece to make sure that the final product tastes as good it looks!  However, my friend assured me that her daughter was thrilled and that the cake itself was delicious.  Despite the time investment (about 15 hours total), I had a lot of fun making it!

Daring Bakers in September: Decorated Sugar Cookies

The September 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Mandy of What the Fruitcake?! Mandy challenged everyone to make Decorated Sugar Cookies based on recipes from Peggy Porschen and The Joy of Baking.

"Sugar cookies?!" I can hear you saying. "What's so challenging about sugar cookies?"  Ah, but these are not the haphazardly-smeared-on icing kind.  These are the fancy, delicate, painstakingly piped kind, and as such were definitely a worthy challenge for ever-intrepid Daring Bakers!

I happen to own two of Peggy Porschen's books, Cake Chic and Pretty Party Cakes.  Each of these books is an absolute feast for the eyes, showcasing not only her stunning cakes but also wonderfully detailed sugar cookies in all shapes and styles, decorated with royal icing.  The Daring Bakers were given the theme of "September" for our cookies - whatever that might happen to mean for us.  I was excited to read about this month's challenge, not only because I've spent plenty of time ogling the chapters in Peggy's books, but also because a very special event happened this month, one particularly well suited to cookie-adaptation. 





Some of the prettiest and most elegant cookies I've seen in this genre are dress cookies - like the ones above, or these, these, and these.  The pure whiteness of royal icing and the delicate lines and piping are the perfect medium for recreating the elegance of wedding dresses in miniature. No, no, not my dress.  Our wedding was in July, and two years ago to boot. The absolute highlight of this September was flying to the States two weeks ago to be one of the maids of honor in my best friend Julia's wedding.



Julia's favorite color is purple and for years I've looked forward to the day I would wear a purple dress in her wedding. Each of the five bridesmaids were given our choice of neckline, and as you can see we all chose quite differently. With all these pretty dresses fresh in my mind, both cookie and real, the choice for my Daring Bakers theme was a no-brainer!

I began by drawing and cutting out templates to use as cookie-cutters for the dresses.




I traced around the templates with a clean X-acto knife on the rolled-out cookie dough and once baked, followed the simple recipe for royal icing - just powdered sugar, egg whites, and lemon juice.  The coloring was a bit more difficult since I didn't want to use an entire bottle of purple food coloring to get the color as dark as the actual dresses... at least the white turned out right! First, I piped the outlines of the dresses using a thicker consistency of icing and a very small tip, then used a technique called "flooding" to fill them in.  The same color icing in a thinner consistency is piped inside the outlines, which act as a barrier to stop the liquid from dripping off the edge of the cookie. With a little help from a toothpick and some taps on the counter to settle it into place, the thinner icing forms a smooth layer.  After it dries, the outlines are re-piped with the thicker icing to provide definition and detail.



Though you can't see it in the photo, Courtney and I both had ivory-colored sashes and double hems to mark our maid-of-honor statuses, while the other bridesmaids had dark-blue double hems.



I really enjoyed this challenge and was particularly pleased by how well Julia's dress-cookie turned out. The method is incredibly time- and material-heavy (cookie cutters/templates, piping bags, tips, food colorings), though, especially if you choose a design with lots of different colors - you could truly spend all afternoon just decorating and adding details to one batch of cookies.   If you'd like to try your hand at it, you can find the complete recipe in printable version here.

Even more wonderful than cookies, of course, was the chance to be part of Julia's special day.  After many years and many, many conversations between us about boys and our futures, my dear dear friend is finally married to the man of her dreams and I wish them many sweet and happy years together!



Congratulations, Julia & Ben!

A Helvetic Hike, With Dessert

Today was a quintessentially gorgeous Sunday in Switzerland: the sun shining, families pushing baby carriages and riding bikes along the river, church bells calling the faithful to worship.  And yet, the first hints of fall are unmistakable.  The morning air has a distinct chill to it and the tips of tree branches are starting to take on a faintly yellow tinge.  My magazines are arriving with brown-and-orange covers, full of nut-and-spice recipes. Pumpkin and apple displays at the grocery store are getting more and more elaborate by the week, and restaurants are slipping their fall menus into place: venison, boar, chestnuts, lingonberry jelly, and rich mushroom sauces abound. 

And yet, I just couldn't let summer go without one last hike!  A few weeks ago, on a day just as beautiful as this one, Matt and I drove to the Vierwaldstättersee (aka, Lake Lucerne) in central Switzerland and caught the ship in Brunnen. Our destination was the Rütli, a meadow on the other side of the lake accessible only by water.



The Rütli meadow is perhaps the most historic and symbolic place in all of Switzerland, considered by many to be the heart of the country. It's where the three founding cantons of Uri, Schwyz, and Nidwalden swore an oath of mutual defense on August 1, 1291.  Over the next centuries, the nearby independent cantons and tribes joined the pact, eventually resulting in today's Switzerland.  In 1991, for the 700th anniversary of the founding of the Swiss Confederation and with the Rütli as the starting point, a 35-kilometer long path around a U-shaped section of Lake Lucerne was designated The Swiss Path, or Weg der Schweiz. 35 kilometers is quite an intimidating distance for the casual hiker, but fortunately the path is divided up into 8 very manageable chunks that can be accomplished at different times and on different days.  The ships provide an excellent means of transport between towns should you decide not to make like Maria von Trapp and start at the very beginning.

Blackberry-Lime Sorbet

This summer, I've told you about strawberry-sour cream, fresh mint, and peach ice creams, each of them a creamy, luscious expression of long sunny days and my love for my ice cream maker. Though part of me rebels at the very thought (August just ended!) the first display of pumpkins at the grocery store means that our grasp on those summer days is tenuous. 



Tenuous, but not quite gone.  This blackberry-lime sorbet is my last ode to those endless containers of fat berries I ogle at Vevey market.  It's best eaten a little soft, at that glorious slushy moment when it's not melted but not cold enough to make the spoon stick to your tongue. The hazard of making your own really, really good ice cream: in your eagerness to take a bite, freeze-burning your tongue on a sub-zero spoon one too many times.



David's recipe as written was just a bit too citrus-tart for my taste, overpowering the blackberry flavor, so I decreased the lime juice and increased the sugar by a bit.  This recipe can't get any simpler, so whip it up quickly and then get outside and enjoy those last balmy days...


Blackberry-Lime Sorbet
Adapted from The Perfect Scoop

1 cup (200 grams) sugar
1 cup (180 ml) water
4 cups (450 grams) fresh or frozen blackberries
1/2 cup (125 ml) freshly squeezed lime juice

In a small saucepan, bring the sugar and water to a boil, stirring, until the sugar is dissolved. Remove from heat and set aside to cool.

Puree the blackberries in a blender or food processor with the sugar syrup. Press the mixture through a strainer to remove the seeds, then stir the lime juice into the sweetened puree.

Chill the mixture thoroughly, then freeze it in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturer's instructions.