I feel like I've been on my feet all day, and I suppose I have, more or less. I wouldn't mind crawling into bed right now, but since tomorrow is my birthday (!!), I probably won't find the time to update.
I had to do a lot of baking and candy making + wrapping today, which explains the on-feetedness. When I was over at my parents' house yesterday (for the Vikings game), my mom and I made nougat, using this recipe. The only change was substituting dried cranberries for the figs. It's quite a threatening substance, like sticky, sugary, quick-dry cement. And it's wickedly sweet. I wasn't sure it was even going to be appealing to eat until this morning, when I cut it up and tried it with the fruit and nuts mixed in for the first time. It managed to transform into something amazing overnight, and the salty pistachios and tart cranberries couldn't be any more perfect.
I also baked the layers for my birthday cake -- I'll do the icing and assemble it tomorrow morning. I had a hard time deciding what I wanted to make this year. I liked the idea of a German chocolate cake, mainly because I love the coconut-pecan filling, but I'm a little bored with chocolate cake at the moment. So I went with a buttery coconut cake for the layers. I'll post the links to the recipes I used when I do a proper cake post with photos.
As I was doing research for my cake (as you do), I looked at image search results for German chocolate cakes, trying to get inspiration, and I came across one bakery image that had a chocolate medallion at the center of the cake. It looked basically like a wax seal on a letter, only made of chocolate. And on a cake.
So, since I only had about a million things to do today, I thought I might as well try carving a stamp (using a rubber Mastercarve block) and see if I could do something similar. I cooled the chocolate in the freezer after pressing on the (buttered) stamp, but it was both too thin and too cold when I carefully removed the stamp, and it broke into several pieces. Oh well. It looks good, though, right? I mean -- my letter 'A'. Pretty good for free-handed letter drawing. I might make my own chocolate font.
Good Morning and HAPPY BIRTHDAY ANNA!!!! 28 years ago, right about now, I was holding you in my arms for the very first time. Such a small, precious, beautiful bundle you were. A mass of black hair surrounding that pretty little face. You looked exactly the way I had pictured you. Perfect. Love you always, Momma
Happy early birthday, hope it's wonderful!
(and hope birthday wishes from a stranger aren't creepy!)
It s gorgeous! Did you eat it as it was broken ? or did you show restraint?? Love the sound of the nougat too - think some sweet making might be in my list of things to do next year! Have a wonderful Birthday :)
Happy birthday! I so enjoy reading your blog.
Happy early birthday! Love the chocolate font idea :)
Hey Happy Birthday Anna. Hope you have a nice day :)
Happiest of birthdays, Anna. Nougat and chocolate for birthday breakfast sounds yum! Can't wait for the pictures.
Happy Birthday, Have you considered modeling chocolate instead. It is chocolate and corn syrup and works up to the consistency of clay and sets hard. It tastes a little more like tootsie rolls but would take a good impression.
maybe try making a mold of what you are trying to get out of chocolate.
it has to shrink when cooling so a stamp or wax seal won't work as well.
you can easily make a mold with plaster and line it with plastic wrap!