Valentine's Day Cake

Today I'm here to talk about a cake.

Not just any cake, a cake that is intended for Valentine's Day. A flourless Belgian white chocolate cake, swathed in white chocolate and rosewater buttercream, and topped with pistachios and house-made sugared roses.

In case you are interested, the roses are fully organic; grown, tended and picked from a friend's garden. With love.


What better way to name a cake? White chocolate, Roses, and Love. I could see it even before I made it. And it was all I imagined it to be.

I'm still on a break from the market, so if you are interested in one, please send me an email. The size is 8-cm round (as pictured) ---perfect for a couple to share, or, if you are like me, just enough to eat on my own. I'm still looking into mail order service, so for the moment I can only take Melbourne orders for pick-up from the CBD. Please allow 48 hours minimum for all orders, and last orders must be received by 12 noon on Friday 12 Feb.

The Tale of Avocado---or a Nanaimo Bar with a Twist

Avocado.

Grumpy and (sometimes) wrinkled on the outside, the green of spring within. There are several types available during the warmer months in Melbourne, but my favourite is the round, smooth-skinned Reed. Eating a Reed avocado is as close as you can get to total indulgence. Firmer in texture than the ubiquitous Hass, yet smooth and buttery at the same time, it is a luxury when you can find it.

Most people are surprised when they find out that I eat my avocados sweet. I think it's a South East Asian thing---avocado smoothie was one of the treats I had growing up. I would always order it whenever we sit down to lunch during our weekend expedition to the mall. My mom still makes it for me whenever they are in season when she comes over. 'Australian avocados are so much nicer to eat than the stringy ones we get back home', she said. I have to agree.

Avocado smoothie is essentially composed of condensed milk, avocado, and a drizzle of chocolate sauce. Before you judge me, let me say that I still find the idea of eating avocado in a savoury dish very strange, the exception being a particular recipe for chicken, celery, avocado and mayo sandwich that I love. Even J, who was skeptical at first when I ordered an avocado smoothie at a local Thai restaurant, fell in love with it at the first sip.

But have you eaten an avocado on its own, without any distracting adornment? Tell me what it tastes like. For me, theres that distinctive nutty taste, followed by the smooth, buttery and creamy texture. But is it salty, or sweet, or sour, or bitter? Maybe I don't have a very refined palate, but it doesn't taste like any of those to me. But therein lies the true value of the avocado. It adds a very desirable texture and a subtle nutty taste without compromising on the harmony of flavours. It is an enhancer; you know that the avocado won't upstage the real star of the show, whatever he/she may be.

Besides, in a world where beets, pumpkin, zuchinni and carrots are made into cakes, and where mangoes, apples and even plums are incorporated into salads and sauces, who's there to judge how I use my avocados?

This preamble was meant as an introduction to my January DB Challenge. This month's challenge was a Canadian treat called the Nanaimo Bar, which is quite similar to the Australian confection called Caramel Slice. I decided to combine the two---creating the traditional Nanaimo Bar base using GF graham crackers (yum!), cocoa powder, and dessicated coconut. I had ran out of Golden Syrup so opted instead for honey. I also reduced the amount of brown sugar used in the recipe by a quarter, having been tipped off by Y about the sweetness of the biscuit.

The middle layer is a result of my love for avocados. I used a traditional caramel slice recipe, where you cook condensed milk to a golden brown, but with my own twist with the addition of avocado puree. I first made this filling about 4 months ago when avocados started coming into season, and even contemplated its inclusion into my summer range. It was good, and I knew that the flavours would work even before I made it because caramel slice contains the exact ingredients it took to make an avocado smoothie: condensed milk and chocolate. The verdict from my co-workers: Yum! Most of them didn't even know there was avocado in it. The green made them think 'pistachio', they said.

But in the end I decided against it because 1. it will most likely be a hard-sell, as people are used to eating avocados in a savoury dish; and 2. I'm very new to the baking business scene, and therefore want to avoid being remembered as 'the strange one who puts avocado in her caramel slice'.

But I think I'll hang on to the recipe, because it is too good to give up on it just yet. And one summer day, it may even make it to my product range.

The January 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Lauren of Celiac Teen. Lauren chose Gluten-Free Graham Wafers and Nanaimo Bars as the challenge for the month. The sources she based her recipe on are 101 Cookbooks and www.nanaimo.ca.

My Summer Range is here...

This post is about shameless self-promotion. As much as this was meant as a personal food blog, my website's still being built, so I don't exactly have a destination for these just yet.

January's been quite busy for me---if you're new to the blog, I decided back in 2009 that I was tired of sitting around waiting for opportunities to come, and went on to start my own baking business, albeit on a part-time basis. One of my new year's resolutions was to take this venture as far as I could, and to seize every opportunity that presents itself to me. That would explain how I chose to begin this post.

I'm turning these Crumble Bars into Crumble Pies range --so you can eat
them straight out of your hand.

Sampler Box I created for the cafe people

Part of building the website required me to write a section that describes who we are, and what we stand for. I've written a number of press releases, essays, and papers in the past, but this has to be the most difficult piece I've had to write. First of all it made me look into the set of values that I personally want for the business, plucking them up from the chaotic abyss of my thoughts and then stringing them into pretty little sentences to make my ideas comprehensible. Second of all, it's a deeply personal thing, putting my heart and soul out for judgment. I mean, should I even be writing this way for this business-related post? Am I digging a deeper hole when I mix business with personal, emotions with ambition? My position as the owner of a tiny business trying to make a dent in the big world makes me vulnerable enough to scrutiny. Do I really need this?

But then I think back to all the blogs that I love, and I thought about why I, and thousands others, keep going back to those same ones. And I realise that it is because the writers of those blogs don't just post about things----they post about emotions. The ups, the downs, the good, the not-so-good, and sometimes the truly awful. They give their readers a chance to know who they are. So to hell with it.

On another note, I'd like to make mention of the process I undergo to create each product that you see in the photos. I know that I'm not the only person who's jumped on the 'fresh, seasonal and local produce' bandwagon, but there's a difference between working with seasonal produce for the sake of working with it, to actually taking the time to study and develop suitable ways to best showcase their extraordinary quality.

I never simply place a piece of poached fruit on top of a pound cake and call it a new product. If I ever do that, you can be rest assured that it is the best way to enjoy that cake, and because we would have explored and tested other ways, only to find that to be the most ideal. Even though I am young and still have so many things to learn---about produce as well as the pastry arts---I take the word 'artisan' in Treehouse Artisan Sweets very seriously. I can only hope others will too.

Gingerbread House and Christmas Memories

I remember my first memorable Christmas. Although I can't recall how old I was then, I remember exactly how it happened. There were presents, but only because my birthday falls on Christmas Day. Despite the fact that my parents are Catholic, Christmas to us was less about giving and receiving presents and more about church and getting together as a family. We would always go out to eat on Christmas Day, year after year, until it became a less than memorable routine.

But there was one particular Christmas from my childhood, the one I spent at my aunt's house, that I remember the most. My sister and I spent Christmas Eve night on the sofa-bed in the guest/recreational room, and when Christmas morning came my aunt brought us chocolate cookies and milk to have as breakfast. The TV was on, and I remembered being engrossed in watching this movie with my sister as we ate our chocolatey breakfast. I don't remember what happened afterward, and many of you may think that I am strange for remembering so vividly an occasion that was less than ordinary, but for a few hours that Christmas morning, I truly felt the spirit of Christmas.

The worst thing about that day was that for many years after, Christmas mornings never felt the same way anymore. But quite recently, I was lucky enough to experience the same feeling. It was early December this year, on a Saturday morning. My parents had flown in from Jakarta a few days before, and we were just about to sit down to have breakfast, when I switched on the TV and found a musical show on. It was a remake of Annie, an American classic that I've heard about but have never watched. And we sat down and watched it, as a family, even after breakfast has been cleared away. And it was the perfect Christmas for me, even at a few weeks before the 25th.

Now, to the gingerbread 'structure'. I initially meant to build an American Wild West General Store, complete with two stories, a porch and a signboard. However, things did not turn out as expected. Firstly, I did not have enough dough to make 2 levels, so I had to be content with one. And then, some of the pieces from the main building shrunk quite a bit after being rolled out, creating a structure that is too short for the porch I had cut out. So I decided to turn it into a fenced barn/shed, and hoped for the best. I didn't think it turned out too bad, although J thought it looked more like a Early Settlers-era jail.

Now, I promise to upload more photos of the gingerbread barn/shed over the next couple of days---it's been impossibly cloudy and slightly foggy today, and I just could not get the light I wanted for the photos.

Until next time, dear readers. But I will use this chance to express my gratitude and appreciation for your readership this past year. I know that I don't say it enough, but thank you all, sincerely, especially for being patient when my posts became more than a little bit scarce in the past months. I can't promise you that I will be able blog more next year, especially since I intend to expand my business and hopefully secure some wholesale accounts. But I can promise you that I will be here, no matter how sporadic, how brief, or how late I am with my posts. And I'm hoping that you'll stick around.

Have a Merry Christmas and a fabulous New Year!


Yours sincerely,

Christy.


P.S: The December 2009 Daring Bakers’ challenge was brought to you by Anna of Very Small Anna and Y of Lemonpi. They chose to challenge Daring Bakers’ everywhere to bake and assemble a gingerbread house from scratch. They chose recipes from Good Housekeeping and from The Great Scandinavian Baking Book as the challenge recipes. Thanks Y and Anna, for picking a fabulous challenge! I've always wanted to make another gingerbread house after my first not-so-good attempt.

Cherries at the Farmers' Market

I went to the Farmer's Market today, and look what I found. When the farmer's markets are full of cherries and apricots and peaches and nectarines, I know that summer is truly here. I think I'll go once more before Christmas, to the Slow Food Twilight Farmer's Market, held at this beautiful former convent.

Perhaps I'll see you there?


On a side note, this was what I had planned as the Treehouse Christmas Gift Box. I initially planned it to be a special-order thing which I will then mail out closer to Christmas. Unfortunately, I didn't get it out to the market in time to get orders. Ah, well, at least the idea will last me until next Christmas. And do you like the postcard? I LOVE it! Big thanks to my friend and graphic designer Tiffany who created and printed the design in a matter of 2 days---that on top of her already large workload of being a full-time graphic designer. Isn't she awesome?


And the cherries? Plump, juicy, and so fresh that their firm skins yield just slightly when you bite into them, before exploding into a sweet-tart medley of flavours in your mouth. My parents, whenever they come to Australia in the summer, would always bring a box back home to give to the relatives. Since these ones are the best I've had so far, my only wish was that they had stayed long enough to bring a box home, straight from the farmers who've grown them. They would've liked these ones.

November's Daring Bakers Challenge---Cannoli

So....if you happen to be a Daring Baker who happens to peruse the DB forum quite a bit, you would know that I completed my challenge early this month. Whaa..? Hang on, am I not the incorrigible procrastinator that you knew me to be? I am, actually. But not on Cannoli month.

I actually made, assmbled, and photographed my cannoli a few days before the deadline, and if you have access to the DB forum and take a look at the 'Share Completed Challenges' section for November, you can see my version of Cannoli right there, along with an explanation which states that I will be switching internet providers around the time of the posting date, and will therefore be posting late due to the interruption of internet connectivity.

The above is partly true. I was telling the truth when I said that I was switching providers, but no when I said that there was interruption. Because believe it or not, the transition was smoother than I expected, in spite of a few glitches along the way. Now that my internet speed is brought up to this century, I can hopefully take the time I used to spend twiddling my fingers in front of the computer waiting for the pages to load up, and turn it productive blogging hours. I don't even need to take a magazine with me anymore to the computer---this is great!!
I decided to bake my cannoli this month because baked cannoli = less time cleaning up. And I HATE oil stains. I mean, I can't suffer as little as a drop on anything in the kitchen. I'm sure deep frying them is the way to go, and as much as I love anything battered and deep-fried, I am not yet willing to subject my entire kitchen surface to a thin coating of cooking oil.

But moving on to the business at hand...the cannoli...I wanted something light and easy to eat to combat the November heatwave in Melbourne. As I did not have time to plan this dessert very well, I took a look inside my fridge and found, among other things, a half-tub of sheep's milk yogurt and some tinned peaches. Wait now, what? Ah, the shame. Yes, ladies and gentlemen readers of my blog, I eat tinned peaches. But please do not judge me. What are you to do when you are faced with an incessant and insistent craving for peaches, went to the market and bough a couple, only to find, hopes dashed and love lost, that the peaches are sour and tasteless. Blame it on the early season, or blame it on commercial growers who sacrificed taste for mass production, or even blame my local farmers' markets for not having it in stock yet.

But it was good. A hint of tangy sweetness from the yogurt mousse, the delectable taste of sweet peaches, and the crunch of the thin sheets of cannoli, layered into something resembling, but not quite, a millefeuille.

I enjoyed every last bit of it.

The November 2009 Daring Bakers Challenge was chosen and hosted by Lisa Michele of Parsley, Sage, Desserts and Line Drives. She chose the Italian Pastry, Cannolo (Cannoli is plural), using the cookbooks Lidia’s Italian-American Kitchen by Lidia Matticchio Bastianich and The Sopranos Family Cookbook by Allen Rucker; recipes by Michelle Scicolone, as ingredient/direction guides. She added her own modifications/changes, so the recipe is not 100% verbatim from either book.

Prahran Market, and My (Current) Product List

Gingersnaps

I have news.

This Sunday, if you happen to be in Melbourne, come see us between 10am-3pm at the Prahran market. In truth, this is our second week. We started last Sunday, and why did I not announce it on the blog? For the simple reason that I was not willing to let people who know me from my blog see me cower under the table while James does all the selling/interaction with customers. No, really. I was really going to do it.

Pistachio, almond and rosemary biscotti

Banana and peanut butter cookies

I think I have been pretty realistic with my expectations on this little venture; I expected it to be labour intensive and stressful. I know not to expect to make a tidy profit for at least the first few months. But what I didn't expect was how vulnerable I felt, having my ideas, my hard work, my creations displayed and scrutinised by possibly everyone who walks past my stall. It has made me feel a bit guilty for charging above-market prices for a packet of cookies, but I am fortunate to have James----someone who is not too personally involved in the products to help sell them---- and for me to be able to gather together just enough faith in the quality of my products, and the amount of work that I put into recipe development, packaging, labeling etc. to be able to justify the prices. After all, what I charge isn't a secret---the price list is out and open on the blackboard on the stall table, so if people have a problem with it, they can just choose to walk away.

Seville Marmalade Thumbprints

Classic chocolate chip

I love what I do now---but the question is whether or not I will be able to keep that feeling up in the long run---when demands (hopefully) grow, and the repetitive nature of this business finally caught on to me. But I guess this is where I am in the position, as owner of the business, to make things interesting and challenging for myself. I haven't talked much about my ideas for the business in this space, but one of my main focus is to use seasonal ingredients to develop and create artisan-quality products. This would mean that I would not have a set product catalogue for a period of more than six months at the most, which also would mean that I have to perpetually find new ways to successfully incorporate seasonal produce into my recipes. Sounds far-fetched? Maybe, maybe not. I don't know if this would work, but seeing that I have nothing to lose at this point, I'm ready to give it my all.

I promise that I'll tell you more about the business in the coming weeks, or whenever I can scrape around enough time to blog. In the meantime, I've been working pretty much non-stop since 9am this morning (it's 1215 am now), so I can't wait until my head hits the pillow as soon as I finish this.

I'll see you there?