Showing posts with label bakery. Show all posts
Showing posts with label bakery. Show all posts
Saturday, May 27, 2017
princess bakery funfetti cake
princess bakery funfetti cake
Hey guys! It's my 29th birthday today!
It's scary to me that, although I'm turning 29, I still feel as nomadic and unsettled as I did when I was 21. After all, my move to New York will be my 9th move (and 4th state, and 10th apartment/house) within the last 5 years. I'd like to think that I've made some sort of progress in these last few years, but sometimes, I'm not quite sure if I actually have. This past year wasn't easy and taught me that I've still got a lot to learn — especially when it comes to my priorities and figuring out what's important.
But as a June baby, I'm lucky that I get to have a birthday in the middle of the year. Especially since I treat my birthdays the way most people treat New Year's Day — a chance to look at what went wrong over the last year, make resolutions, and reset. This year, that means basically starting over from the quiet, career-focused life I regressed to since moving to San Francisco. I don't have anything too specific in mind, but I do know that a) I want to leave this city ASAP (and that's happening so soon, so yay!) and b) I want this year to be less stressful and funner than the last.
And what better way to kick off that goal than with a lighthearted and whimsical cake?
For this cake, I channeled my inner Coco Cake Land and whipped up this funfetti cake with strawberry cream cheese frosting. The funfetti cake recipe is actually one of Molly's and has been on my blog before — I made it almost two years ago for my third blogiversary and it was just SO DAMN GOOD that I've just been waiting for an opportunity to make it again.
And this time around, I swapped the vanilla flavor used in the original recipe for "Princess Bakery" extract. Princess Bakery is a legit flavor that comes in a bottle and tastes of vanilla, citrus, and almond. It's lovely and the flavor that all your homemade bakery style baked goods have been missing. I used Tessa's ombre frosting technique to create a "dip-dye" effect on my cake, with half the cream cheese frosting flavored with a fresh strawberry puree. I then topped it all off with cotton candy because it's my party and I can do what I want.
So 29 — here I come!
also featured:
cake stand || kaffe tumbler || picardie tumbler || porcelain spoon || ivory linen napkin || maelle cake server || bread and butter plates
Some baker's notes:
- This recipe uses a couple of weird ingredients: Princess Bakery emulsion and ground vanilla bean powder. Both are available on Amazon and are worth sourcing — it's what makes this cake special! However, if you just want to make a cake with ingredients you'll likely already have on hand, feel free to use Molly's original recipe with either 2 tablespoons clear vanilla extract or my version with 1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract.
- To get the dip-dyed look, I took my batch of cream cheese frosting and stirred in a few teaspoons of strawberry puree to flavor half the batch and dye it pink. I then used Tessa's ombre frosting technique to create the "dip-dye" effect with the regular cream cheese frosting and strawberry tinted batch. I really recommend using her tutorial (and checking out her cookbook!) as it's got some of the best step-by-step photos I've ever seen!
- If topping the cake with cotton candy, be sure to serve the cake immediately — cotton candy hardens and shrinks almost immediately when it touches something moist (like frosting). I got my cotton candy from World Market, but you can also buy cotton candy from Or, if you want to splurge and get the stuff fresh, you can use a countertop cotton candy maker (which, not gonna lie, this is currently on my Amazon wishlist)!
Available link for download
Friday, March 17, 2017
Original Ferrara Bakery
Original Ferrara Bakery
Location: 2210 W Taylor
Cost: About $10 per person
During med school, I had a bunch of rotations over in the West side medical district at either the VA or Cook County. Interestingly enough, as a resident, Im pretty much isolated to home base. Youve all heard my complaints over the years of the Streeterville food selection, although NMH is making some strides with its pseudo food court on the second floor. Either way, I was on a transplant surgery rotation, and when the opportunity arose to take a "field trip" to those aforementioned hospitals, I was more than eager. Id been to Conte di Savoia enough times, so this time, a bunch of us tried the other sandwich shop down the road, Ferrara Bakery.
Logistics
Theres not much setup to worry about at Ferraras. Theyve got a long, winding bakery counter and a bunch of tables strewn throughout a medium sized room. On a busy weekday, you might run into a lunch wait, but we were in and out without any such problems. Theyve got the order at the counter and put a number on your table thing going on. The cost is very reasonable with some large sandwiches running around $6 a piece.
The Food
There were a good amount of sandwich, salad, and pastry options, but the vast majority of my colleagues and I went with the meatball sub. As you can tell by my picture, it was messy, saucy, and delicious. The meatballs themselves were not dry in the least, and the bread was nice and soft. It was easily worth the day and a half of heartburn that followed. The only other item to note was the cannoli that Jorge ordered.
Overall
Ferrara Bakery has a long history in Chicago. The sandwiches are well prepared, and it is logistically very simple. Having only tried one sandwich of the rather extensive menu, I feel somewhat limited in my abilities to judge. That being said, Im giving them 4 out of 5 Pearls and would say that Ferrara is relatively equivalent to Conte down the block.
Cost: About $10 per person
During med school, I had a bunch of rotations over in the West side medical district at either the VA or Cook County. Interestingly enough, as a resident, Im pretty much isolated to home base. Youve all heard my complaints over the years of the Streeterville food selection, although NMH is making some strides with its pseudo food court on the second floor. Either way, I was on a transplant surgery rotation, and when the opportunity arose to take a "field trip" to those aforementioned hospitals, I was more than eager. Id been to Conte di Savoia enough times, so this time, a bunch of us tried the other sandwich shop down the road, Ferrara Bakery.
Logistics
Theres not much setup to worry about at Ferraras. Theyve got a long, winding bakery counter and a bunch of tables strewn throughout a medium sized room. On a busy weekday, you might run into a lunch wait, but we were in and out without any such problems. Theyve got the order at the counter and put a number on your table thing going on. The cost is very reasonable with some large sandwiches running around $6 a piece.
The Food
There were a good amount of sandwich, salad, and pastry options, but the vast majority of my colleagues and I went with the meatball sub. As you can tell by my picture, it was messy, saucy, and delicious. The meatballs themselves were not dry in the least, and the bread was nice and soft. It was easily worth the day and a half of heartburn that followed. The only other item to note was the cannoli that Jorge ordered.
The Cannoli
The Meatball Sub
Overall
Ferrara Bakery has a long history in Chicago. The sandwiches are well prepared, and it is logistically very simple. Having only tried one sandwich of the rather extensive menu, I feel somewhat limited in my abilities to judge. That being said, Im giving them 4 out of 5 Pearls and would say that Ferrara is relatively equivalent to Conte down the block.
Available link for download
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