Our young celebrity chefs are back!

We had another session of cake hour - youth edition - today and saw the return of our young celebrity chefs with another of their creative and winning cake concoctions.  This is the third guest appearance and as usual no one was disappointed in the product.   These kids are no slouches - BTW.  When they bake something everything is from scratch - no prepared cake mixes. They even used eggs from their own chickens.  If you told us they ground their own flour we'd probably believe it but that would be a little much.

Checking for flaws!

The two chefs with their masterpiece!

A tower of lemon cure, yellow cake, whipped cream and bananas!

Best viewed from above - what symmetry!

Mini-cake on top with a garden raspberry!

Not shy with adding some schlag with each slice!

Today they presented with another novel contribution. They opted for a layered yellow cake topped with a mini-cake crown. (The crown was intended for yours truly and I was happy to comply with having that be my "piece." )In between the layers and inside the the crown they included their special homemade lemon curd with whipped cream.  There was also abundant whipped cream frosting the outer part of the cake. The whole thing was then embellished with banana slices.  They did a great job on the decorating end and it looked a little kaleidoscopic when viewed from above.

The main cake was two layers!

Trying out their own recipe

As each sliced was served, an added ample portion of whipped cream was included. Our two are by now well aware of how popular whipped cream is with our cake hour regulars and clearly are just as fond of the stuff judging by some of the amounts they consumed with their own treats. They are also quite adept at dispensing it out of the pressurized cans.

This is good stuff!

More thumbs up!

The cake is disappearing but I'm ready for my whipped cream now!

Better than Starbuck's!

Can never get enough whipped cream!

Thumbs up across the board!

Their yellow lemon banana cream cake was a big hit judging by the responses. We look forward to the next masterpiece from our young celebrity chefs!  In the meantime keep that lemon curd coming!

Fans wanted their picture taken with the stars of the day!

An unexpected Tiramisu Challenge

If you do something nice for someone, it is always a pleasure when the kindness is repaid in some fashion.  Today a local restaurateur that we had done a favor made us a "cake", as it was described, in gratitude for what we had done   The cake turned out to look an awful lot like a tiramisu which is something we have had plenty of.  Indeed we even had a tiramisu contest which was won by the graduate student from Italy who had long spoiled us with her special recipe that she prepared for us on many occasions.  Once we saw the "cake" for today we realized we had an unexpected challenge on our hands. Since it came from a restaurant presumably it could be of a good enough quality as to supplant the reigning tiramisu favorite.  We had to take this seriously!

Is this a tiramisu?

The powdered cocoa is somewhat of a giveaway!

Layers of lady fingers too!

Well proportioned!

Ready for the taste test!

Lots of lady fingers were laid into this one!

It certainly looked good. It was brought over in a large buffet pan and was well formed into a rectangle with a perfect coating of powdered chocolate as one should expect.  The powdered topping was the clue that this was a tiramisu.  We started cutting and confirmed it had the requisite lady fingers and mascarpone cheese filling/frosting.  The challenge was on.  Next came the taste test.  For those of us who had partaken of the Italian version we knew what to expect.  This definitely had all the correct ingredients including a small amount of Amaretto or so we like to think. Once it was cut it was impressive to see how well laid the lady fingers were.  The cross section of the cake showed them to be abundantly placed in perfect rows for a total of three layers.

Admiring the assembly work!

It's good but.....

You can really see how much of the cake pieces went into this!

This abundance of lady fingers turned out to be the decisive factor in this not overtaking the Italian recipe, however.  Although it tasted very good and we very much enjoyed it we realized we had come to prefer a recipe that does not have so much of the cake/lady fingers ingredient.  This would have been a real contender had the top layer of cake fingers been replaced by a thicker layer of the frosting.  This is what we had come to appreciate, expect and ultimately prefer.  This preference does not indicate the cake today was bad - it was delicious - it simply means we have an acquired taste when it comes to tiramisu and frankly we've been spoiled.  Our Italian student - now PhD - remains the champ!

Still number one in our preferences!

The reigning and continuing champ!

Eating our fruit tart pondering how to prove someone is in Maine

This was a day when we could have used some good technology like you see in the CSI programs.  You know the one's where the person calls on the cell phone and the pursuers instantly know where the person is.  None of this has anything to do with today's cake however.  It was a fruit tart made at the Whole Foods Bakery and is a good standard cake hour selection.

Another Whole Foods Treat

Good Pile of Fruit - makes us feel healthy!

Check out that slice of pineapple!

The fruit arrangement must be creative!

It's is a classic floury crust on the bottom, layered with vanilla pastry cream, with ample fruit on top. The fruit is bound together with a glaze usually containing a little gelatin to keep the fruit from falling all over the place. Part of the enjoyment when having one of these is finding out what fruit is on the top.  This had a nice selection of berries - including some monster blackberries - and some big chunks of pineapple which is not always seen. How the fruit is laid and displayed on the top is always interesting and part of the creative process of making this thing.   The other added benefit to this is you feel like you are eating something just a titch healthier than a cheesecake.  A fruit tart also will frequently attract a few more takers of people who are otherwise watching their waistlines.  That was the case today. It was a good, popular, tasty treat that everyone enjoyed.

Looking good!

Pasty cream below the abundance of fruit!

The missing Portland, Maine colleague had a presentation and poster at the annual research celebration. Our colleague was even in the running for a young investigator award for work on obesity and intellectual development in children - paraphrased perhaps inappropriately as "fat kids are dumber".  This isn't entirely new!

http://www.steadyhealth.com/Obesity_lowers_intelligence_t85271.html

She didn't win the award but a certificate of participation was presented.  All of a sudden she turned up in Maine calling one of our willingly helpful people asking if they could take down the poster and get the certificate as being in Maine prevented being able to do it in person. Our colleague was happy to help, took down the poster and got the certificate showing it to us at cake hour.

Hey everybody, look where I am! It's a poster - get it!

It was then that someone impishly suggested that the researcher had actually not left for Maine yet but was still in RI but not willing to do the things herself. That kind of got people wondering.  Our helpful friend then called the researcher to let it be known that the stuff had been collected and confirmed that she was indeed in Maine. This is where we could have used some kind of CSI tracker. All different ideas were floated...call again and ask how the weather is and then check it on weather.com for instance.  That was kind of a silly one. But if we could have told where the cell phone pinged like they do on the TV shows we could have confirmed the whereabouts if for nothing else than to satisfy our own curiosity and to help our helpful friend not feel like she might have been had.  Was she or wasn't she at long last in Maine?

City Girl Returns

We thought we would be going without our sugar fix today when we realized that there is a cupcake company that delivers.  Since we hadn't had any of their stuff for awhile we arranged for a delivery specifying as broad a selection as possible. Right on time they delivered a dozen including several different varieties.  Since we didn't bother to ask what each of them was it was kind of fun to try to figure it all out.  Their stuff arrives in a nice pink box perhaps due to their name. We don't know if there is a city girl but is so she clearly likes pink.  We also noticed the disclaimer very quickly which proudly specified that these products are not.  They are not all those things that seem to be de riguer these days....not nut free, not vegan and probably loaded up with gluten!  We liked this notification...instead of saying what things are it is clearly specifying what things aren't!

Local Cupcake Business!

Pink is the color of choice!

Not your usual disclaimer!

Today's selection!

A lot of chocolate for sure!

Cocoanut and caramel also featured!

The selection included several that looked interesting.  The toasted coconut was pretty obvious as did the plain and the chocolate ones.  There were a few surprises mostly relating to the fact that several of them were filled with additional frosting or something else.  Based upon the flavors and the filing we were able to identify one as Boston Creme cupcake.  Another had a center of "molten" chocolate that was quite clever and good.  Since we doubt a lot of them are baked this way it is clear that a lot of talent and effort goes into producing these. 

Looks like an autumn theme!

A center filled with frosting!

This is chocolate for sure!

With a molten chocolate center...well done!

Boston Creme Cupcake - it was also filled but that got eaten pretty quickly!

Festive toasted coconut on top!

Sealed with a kiss!

Also with a filled center - you gotta love frosting with these!

The overall impression was once again very positive and we were happy with the broader selection this time.  From the visual perspective we understand why the top is loaded with frosting but you got to be a frosting glutton to be able to put it all away. Although it is not very heavy it is undoubtedly loaded with fat.  We wonder if the same aesthetic could be achieved with perhaps a smaller dollop of the frosting.  Food for thought but if you are stuck needing quick access to sweets City Girl is a good choice for sure.

That's some serious frosting on that Red Velvet Cake

There was a training session today to learn how to use one of the new lab machines representing the latest technology known as multiplexing.  This is actually somewhat interesting in that it allows a single sample to be used to test for a number of different things.  Before it would have been one test for each protein or cytokine for instance.  With multiplexing they couple the various targets to slightly different colored beads.  The machine then reads the quantity of each individually colored bead and then can calculate how much of each item is in the sample. You could use one small amount of blood sample to test for up to 41 different items.  It is hot technology and everyone wants to sell you the machine at steep discounts so they can then sell you the reagents at a premium. It's a little like printers and toner cartridges.  Did this pique your interest?  Here's more info!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=buTtV5Rxgu8

 
The sales rep offered to bring lunch and suggested the would also stop by around 4pm. It was of course suggested that he bring a cake and he readily complied. What came was a serious red velvet cake from Lasalle's bakery in Providence. 

Another Lasalle's creation!

Those white balls are frosting!

Plenty of shaved chocolate on the sides!

Well actually it was a red velvet cake with some serious frosting on the top.  The rose florets were complemented with green dollops representing rather large and succulent leaves and on all sides of the cake were these large balls of frosting about two inches wide and at least an inch tall.  Put that on top of the layer of frosting covering the cake and if you are a frosting lover you are in heaven!  The cake was very fresh as they usually are from Lasalles's and there are no complaints about their red velvet cake that they somewhat specialize in.  Even the frosting addicts had a little difficult finishing of what came with the slice of cake. The cream cheese frosting was certainly good but enough is enough.

Just can't finish that last ball o' frosting!

Great looking roses which shall remain uneaten!

He also brought a cookie advocating the re-election of President Obama to someone who is not a fan as a fun intended provocation.  Said cookie was then defaced to read something contrary to said re-election.  We salvaged the part of the cookie with the message and gave the cake and added. 

Giving it some added meaning!

Salvaging an important message!

Having a piece of red velvet cake is a great way to treat a cold and our afflicted student did feel better afterwards.

Red Velvet cake as cold remedy!

Turkish cookies made in Romania

At the local gourmet store a new product turned up.  This is the place where we usually pick up Tate's cookies when there is nothing else to be expected.  They do have some other interesting products including Bahlsen, Walker's Shortbread, Quadratinis and so on.  This time around something else appeared namely cookies from a company called Ülker.  Our linguistic knowledge immediately tells us that with an Ü in the name it must be either German or Turkish.  If you guessed Turkish you guessed right!

Something new via Turkey and Romania

 As it turns out, according to their website, Ülker is...

....a sweet history of succes. Ülker is the biggest consumer goods company in Turkey, set up in 1944. Well known for its sweets, an area where the long-term tradition has ensured a solid trust in its high quality products, Ulker Group has boldly extended its portfolio with other categories: dairy products, margarine, coffee, soft drinks, ice cream and many others.

Hazelnut Shortbread

Can you imagine that in spite of the fact for years we have had Turkish colleagues and grad students we had to discover Ülker ourselves at a Providence grocery store?  Apparently there is more to Turkish sweets than Turkish delights and baklava.  The only catch is though the company is based in Turkey these days all their cookie like products are made in Romania. So we got Turkish cookies made in Romania.  Again according to their website:

The duo refers to the interwoven vanilla and chocolate

In Romania, Ulker has been enchanting the consumers of all ages for more than 15 years. At the beginning, they were only enjoying imported Ulker products, but as of 2005 they were able to enjoy biscuits or snacks made in Romania. This is mainly due to the fact that, in 2004, Ulker Group has selected Romania in order to expand its production facilities. With an area of 20,000 square meters, located on a land of approximately 10 hectares, the Ulker factory is part of an investment project of more than USD 23 million

A little blurry but it confirms they were made in Romania

And this is what they looked like!

Clearly they are happy with their Romanian Investment!  The cookies that we had were indeed manufactured at the Romanian plant.  We had two kinds - their hazelnut cookies and what the brand called Biskrem Duo which were round shortbread type cookies with vanilla and chocolate flavors.  The cookies taste fine and seemed to be suitable, like most shortbread type cookies are, to afternoon coffee or tea or cake hour, of course.  We enjoyed the cookies but truth be told they are not quite the same level as other "gourmet" types. They are probably about the same level as Keebler.  Since Keebler is more abundant and tends to be cheaper I'm not sure we'll rush to get more of the Ülker products but we were happy, as we always are, to broaden our horizons even more!