Time Flies

It's already mid past July and the realization that my business partner and more importantly my daughter is leaving in a few weeks. As I have stated in the past this is one of hardest transition we both have to make. I feel like my heart is leaving for college. It is during this time I pounder if the wonderful and amazing bond we have will cause this new and exciting time for her to be harder than it needs to be.

Who else would put chocolate and lemon together and
end up with one of most popular macaron flavors?

Lemon Souffle

I am also feeling that I am being a little selfish, baking/cooking is not the same without her. We have so much fun most of the time we forget we are working. I love baking and of course will continue after Sydney leaves for college; she is lucky she is in a dorm with a student kitchen. She will surely make friends fast!

Meanwhile I don't want "to close my eyes" or waste one single minute, so we will bake, cook, run, swim and continue playing with my new digital camera.

Both of us were thinking about mangos and looking at a very ripe one wondering what we should do with it. The mango we were staring at we ended up eating, but as the juice was dripping down from our chins both of us in unison said "mango macarons" why not?

So after we devoured our delicious, perfectly peached colored flesh of the mango, we were ready to bake Mango Macarons.

Piped and waiting an hour to develop skins

Nice Feet

Cooling Down

Created a few Macaron au Framboise

Finally finished and filled with a little Lime Ganache

Still have the second half of the day, though each minute passes by way too fast. I sense myself drifting to a younger time, Sydney is almost three and the day is also a hot, however on this day we are at the swimming pool with friends. 

It was my turn to bring the treats: Juice boxes, mini cupcakes so chocolate and gooey, Sydney had licked the bowl and beaters clean the night before, she was chocolate from head to toe so tubby time came before bed time.

  

Now as I watch my beautiful young adult daughter whisk the sugar for a Swiss Meringue that will turn into buttercream, I am yanked and not so gingerly to current time. College is just weeks away, and I am thrusted into the future that will be here soon enough.

I wonder what passions she will share with her child in ten years, I can almost see a vision of myself ( a grandmother ) baking with little prancing feet in the kitchen and Sydney showing them how a hard block of chocolate melts gently in a Bain Marie or how warm egg whites and sugar can be turned into a cloud of fluffy shiny meringue with endless possibilities. The irony of my future vision, I realize,  Sydney is about to embark on a future of endless possibilities, what will she choose?

Butter cubes and Sydney's voice remind me I need to start adding the butter to the meringue or there will not be any frosting for our first set of cupcakes.

As we begin to add the butter, watching a cloud of wonderful meringue turn to a curdled cottage cheese like texture and then reverse back to a delicious smooth fluffy Swiss Vanilla Buttercream, I cannot help but compare this frosting to life and all the stages we will or have already gone through. 

It is now early evening and another day will have past, but I know I have done my best to utilize every second sharing a passion that Sydney and I love, talking, eating, and just having fun.

Vanilla Bean Cupcakes piped with Italian Meringue Buttercream

White Chocolate Cupcakes with piped Swiss Meringue Buttercream

There still is time to bake up a recipe Sydney and I have jointly designed, but have yet to test. 

 Gooey Double Chocolate Mini Cupcakes

Amazingly they worked and taste delicious. They seem to be a cross between molten cake and the moistest cupcake I have every eaten. Hurray! The recipe worked with only a little tweaking.

As I finish this blog on "Time Flies" I realize I chose two photos the first of 3 mini cupcakes, we have three people in our little "Noto Unit," and the second is 1 beautiful mini cupcake by itself, as my Sydney will be with out us when she leaves next month on the next journey of her life.

As much as I want to scream stop go back 18 years, I know for her to succeeded and be a productive, caring adult she must go on this journey, without me, and have many more though out the rest of her life.
So I will say goodbye to my heart, allow her to find her own way; knowing that I am on the sidelines cheering her to achieve her own hopes, accomplishments, and dreams. I never will be more than a phone call away!

 I will conclude with a picture of Brioche Cinnamon Rolls; Sydney's favorite breakfast, and one of the first recipes we collaborated on together!