Mother's Day Weekend

How wonderfully lucky am I? I have my birthday ( no telling how old I am) and Mother's Day all in the same weekend.

How to spend it? Baking and Cooking with my best friend, daughter, and business partner: Sydney.

We have quite a few orders to fill by Sunday:

Very Vanilla Cupcakes with a beautiful butterfly on top for a bridal shower. A Mother's Day Brunch, and 72 assorted macarons. A Pavlova roll filled with strawberries and topped with Strawberry Rose Coulis!

Butterfly Cupcakes

I heard from the host of the bridal shower that the Butterfly Vanilla Cupcakes were a hit!

A small sample of our macarons

The inside of a Raspberry Macaron

I just realized this will be the last Mother's Day (for at least 4 years) with My Sydney.

As sad as that realization makes me, I feel grateful to have had 17 or 18 years if you count pregnancy to celebrate with the most caring daughter. She is more than I could have dreamed for and I love her. She is my heart, so as my daughter goes to college so will my heart!

The Macaron

 

I guess about 14 days ago I blogged that my daughter and I were in barking on baking some macarons. I had learned what I thought I needed to create these beautiful delicate french pastry; needless to say I was wrong.

I forgot we live in Colorado which imposes an altitude issue, plus these cuties need aged egg whites out of shell and left on counter for at least 48 hours. In addition to the fact colorado was experiencing an unusual wet April, now humidity becomes an issue.

Sydney and I refused to give up so 3 dozen eggs later and belly full of delicious, however unattractive macarons we finally conquered our goal. With some help from my husband's science and mathematical skills we finally have a recipe that taste, looks good, and works in "The Rocky Mountains!"

Final prepared

This is the day I finally try to bake French macarons with just Sydney. I feel ready, but I guess the proof is in the "macaron".

Blood orange angel food cake and ginger cake cookies are also part of the weekend.

Every since our French adventure I seem to have a French Pastry bug, meaning all I want to bake our the wonderful pastries I experienced in France.

Back from Paris

What a wonderful trip Sydney and I learned invaluable information and techniques. Both Sydney and I had the opportunity and pleasure to meet and learn from Chef Jeremy Touzelet of Marriott Hotel Champs-Elysees. He was such a warm wonderful person, and a superb chef.

Since we arrived home Easter Baskets have been on the list of important orders. I had agreed to prepare 100 baskets so since Wednesday Sydney and I have baking beautiful goodies for Easter. We just made our last delivery an hour ago, and starting to prepare the family Easter Feast.

Crazy Baking and Cooking Weekend

This weekend is going to be nuts ( I love busy nuts, so I can't complain.) Sydney and I have so much to do, orders must be filled and delivered, before we can pack and prepare for Paris France.

Sydney is taking Patricia Wells At Home In Paris class and I will be doing Pastry Training at The Ecole Ritz Escoffier. Exciting Exciting! A little scary too.

Back to the day at hand Brioche of course is on the list, An Apricot Cake, Ginger Pound Cake, Scones, Good Luck Oatmeal Cookies, Scones, 2 Chocolate Bags, and a few other goodies. After that my husband needs 10 days worth of dinners: lasagna, meatballs, curry chicken, and anything else I think of that freezes well and he can not mess up reheating it. If anyone has ideas I am open to them!

The Perfect Day!

What an amazing, wonderful, perfect day: cooking non stop with my best buddy and daughter, Sydney.

We started with our normal brioche dough, moved to Easter Biscotti's, Blood Orange Marshmallows, Ginger Pound Cake, and Chocolate Sandwich with a mint filling just in St. Patrick's Day.

Now it is off to cook our favorite Shrimp Fajitas with Avocado Salad and Spanish rice; and enjoy a Noto Trifecta Dinner.

Pictures to be loaded soon.

Snow or storm day

This has to be one of the strangest winter's Colorado has had in a while; I think it has been snowing since Thursday 18 of February. Normally I love snow days, because Sydney and I can just go nuts with testing recipes and having fun, but the weather is starting to affect our mood. WE NEED SUNSHINE!

Now that I have vented baking/cooking shall go on, though with a little attitude. One of the best things about having a business with my daughter is one or both of us can be in a mood, but by the days' end we have forgotten our problems and generally the day turns from bad to good.