Food Adventure II: The Chocolate Cottage

While we were upstate M and I had a little girl time and went to The Chocolate Cottage in Watertown, NY. (They apparently don't have a website but see this article about them.) I had the Banana Carmel Cream Tart and M had the Dark Chocolate Cup (which is filled with a wonderful chocolate mousse).

From the outside this place looks like a regular house. Entering through the back sliding glass doors was a little weird because you feel like you are going into a stranger's house. However, when you enter the actual dining area you feel like you are in the cutest little European tea house. We had a pot of tea with our yummy sweets and they brought it in the prettiest teapot I think I have ever seen (which I did not take a picture of! doh!). Our tea cups did not match the tea pot, but I did not mind one bit, it was so charming. We had a lovely little table near the window and our waitress was so friendly and sweet.

They were having a little girl's birthday party (I think anyway) in the separate front room. The menu mentions that you can request a traditional tea for parties or meetings. The girls all seemed to be having a lot of fun with it.

On our way out we got a few goodies to take home to the boys (including a box for the rest of M's chocolate cup, which was too big for us to finish!). M got a huge chocolate chip cookie and some truffles for A and I got a box of different chocolates for Chris and I to share. The chocolates (assorted truffles and caramels) were very decadent and delicious. Next to The Candyman** in Greenport, NY, they were the best chocolates I've had in a long time.

I hope that next time we get to visit A&M we also get to visit The Chocolate Cottage.

**The Candyman apparently does not have a website either. What's with these chocolate shops? Anyway, if you are on the North Fork of Long Island at anytime in your life, stop at the Candyman, you will not regret it.

Food Adventure: Beardslee Castle

Chris and I took a trip upstate to visit some friends Memorial Day weekend. *Special thanks to A&M (hey A&M!) for putting us up for 4 nights! You guys rock!* I found out that Beardslee Castle was on the way and since I've wanted to go there every since I found out about it a few months ago, I begged and pleaded (for all of 2 minutes) until Chris agreed that we could make the stop. We were both SO glad we did.

It is about an hour or so outside of Albany, NY. You have to take this weird detour because the way they tell you to go on the website tells you to go over a bridge that kind of doesn't exist anymore. It's more like half a bridge. It reminded me a lot of 'The Truman Show' when Jim Carey and the other guy are sitting at the end of the road with their legs swinging off. So you take this windy, twisty road through some of your typical upstate towns (nice towns I might add) until you reach Beardslee Castle.

I wish we had gotten there a little earlier while there was more light to take pictures outside but unfortunately we hit a little traffic and were 15 minutes late for our reservations as it was. The outside is just amazing with these huge vines climbing all over and the fountain out front. The inside was just amazing. Huge fireplaces everywhere, quirky little statues and lamps, tons of interesting things to look at (including a huge snail garden sculpture that was sitting on one of the radiators). It was so beautiful and clean. I would never have guessed that it had a fire (let alone two!). The owners really did put everything they had into the restoration and it definitely shows. (If you have no idea what I'm talking about follow this link.)

So the title of this blog is Food Adventure, so now I'll tell you about the food. This was the single best meal I have ever had in my entire life. To start the bread basket had some herb biscuits (like a corn bread texture) and some salted (I think) bread. Instead of the usual butter they had a little bowl of spiced hummus and a little bowl of chunky olive spread. I am not a hummus person but I could not get enough of their's. Chris and I shared Alligator Cakes for first course (think southwestern crab cakes but with alligator instead of crab). Then we both ordered bacon wrapped fillet mignon with mashed potatoes topped with mashed turnips, crostini topped with sautéed mushrooms and roasted shallots. Everything was delicious and perfectly cooked. I did not have one single complaint about anything. The steak melted like butter in my mouth. The potatoes and turnips were creamy and smooth, flavorful and artfully displayed (imagine a mashed potato mountain with a mashed turnip snow cap). The crostini was probably my favorite part of the meal, perfectly seasoned, buttery and sang in my mouth. The shallots were roasted perfectly, not at all singed and very sweet. I'm normally a one section of the plate at a time eater but with this meal I wanted to eat everything at once. Every bite was better than the previous one. My only regret is that I didn't save room for one of their many yummy sounding desserts. We took pictures of our plates but only after we remembered when we were half way done with our meals... they don't look very appitizing so I will save you all from the view.

All in all if I were the kind of person to rate things on a 1-5 star scale I would say, 5 is not enough stars. If you have the opportunity to go to Beardslee Castle, don't pass it up. You will not regret it.

Orange Chiffon Cupcakes with Vanilla Cream Icing

This weekend we were invited to our friends' house for a cookout in honor of her Mom visiting. I decided to make something new that I had never made before. I have been playing around with what flavors I wanted to try out and how I would decorate them. The inspiration for these came from the classic orange/vanilla creamsicle. Another big part of the deciding factors for these cuppies were the fact that I have not gotten to play with my new flower cutter or veiner at all since they arrived about three weeks ago in the mail from A & H Cake Design (and a special thanks to Louise from CakeJournal for telling us which cutters/veiners she uses!).


Anyway they turned out fabulous! The cake was light and fluffy with just enough orange flavor. I just used a regular lemon chiffon recipe and substituted orange for anything lemon and low acid orange juice for the water. The icing (adapted from this recipe on epicurious.com) was delicious and not too sweet (I used less butter and less sugar and more vanilla than recommended).

They were perfect for our first cookout of the season and I cannot wait to try some more of my ideas for flavors!

Happy Birthday Coconut Velvet Cake

Last weekend was Chris' sister's 20th birthday. I made her a 'red' velvet cake that was turquoise instead of red with coconut custard filling.

I used rolled fondant for the top of the cake and then adhered the coconut with icing to the sides. I was going for an ice melting - spring is here kind of thing. It kind of looked like the head of the abominable snowman from Monsters,Inc. I also got to practice my not-so-great writing on the cake skills and just for some fun added a few flowers to the mix.
Chris' Mom can't really have too much sugar and did not really want to have coconut so I made her a few cupcakes of her own so that she wouldn't feel left out. She ended up eating the cake anyway but the cupcakes still turned out cute. I was going for a purple color for the velvet cupcakes but they kind of turned out mauve.
They were still good though.

Happy Birthday/Easter!

This weekend was not only Easter but also Chris' Mom's 50th birthday. On Friday Chris' sister and her boyfriend came over to color Easter eggs with us and to decide what kind of cake to make for Mom's birthday. Here are the rules: NO buttercream, fruit filling, pudding filling, or too much chocolate. I was left to make the final decisions with Chris' help. We decided on a black and white layer cake with a cookie filling. I made the same Chocolate Guinness cake that I have made previously and a white cake. Then I layered a chocolate layer in between two white layers. I ended up crushing Oreo cookies in my blender and using them for the filling. Then I topped it all with a chocolate ganache, fondant flowers and of course 'Happy 50th Birthday Mom".

She absolutely love it. I was worried that with no wet filling it might be too dry but the cakes were perfectly moist and the chocolate ganache on top was just perfect. I had meant to buy dark chocolate for the ganache but instead accidently bought bittersweet chocolate, so I had to add the sugar separately to the ganache and I was SO worried that it would not come out well. But it really was just the right sweetness for the cake.

Unfortunately, we were so pressed for time to get to the party that I didn't have time to take pictures AND I left my camera at home. So once we get the pictures from Chris' sister, I will post them.

Because I only used one chocolate layer and two white layers, I had TONS of batter left over. Hmmm, what to do with it? Make cupcakes of course!
The purple was my favorite:
The pics came out a little fuzzy because the flash kept reflecting off the pan they were on, so I had to turn it off.

This was my first time working with fondant of any kind. It is surprisingly easy. I ordered a few cutters and a veiner today that I hope to get before next weekend. Chris' sister's birthday is next weekend and she requested a red velvet cake. If I get my order in time for that shipment it would be perfect.

Happy caking!

Chocolate Guinness Cake

On Friday, we had two of our friends over for dinner since they helped us move into our new apartment in February. Chris was doing all the cooking (yes, I am a lucky girl, aren't I?) so I decided to make Chocolate Guinness Cake.

I first heard of this from Cupcakes Take The Cake. Immediately I knew that Chris and our friends would love it so I went in search of a recipe. I used the one I found on epicurious.com. The only changes I made were that we only had Guinness Draught in the house and not stout so I used that instead and my local grocery store did not have dutch-process cocoa so I used the old standyby Hershey's Cocoa Powder since I was on a schedule and didn't have time to travel to a different store.

Just out of the pan:

The cake came out fantastic. Moist and rich with a good balance of chocolate and a certain 'breadiness' as Chris put it, which I take to mean that even though the cake was quite dense the texture and taste is that of a much lighter cake. It was creamy on the tongue but not in such a way that it stuck to your mouth in an uncomfortable manner. It sliced beautifully and each slice held together very nicely, which I was a little surprised at considering the texture of the filing.

I did attempt the chocolate 'icing' that the recipe called for, but it did not turn out very well. This may have been because of my brain lapsing during my shopping trip and only buying 12oz of chocolate instead of 16oz, but I also think that the cream to chocolate ratio (2 cups cream to 16oz chocolate) would have been off anyway. The 'icing' did not harden in the refrigerator even though I had it in there for about 4 hours. It ended up being a lumpy mess. So I filled the cake with the chocolate mixture and dusted the outside with powdered sugar instead (I also did not level the top layer because it looked too delicious the way it was perfectly rounded).

I am so glad I decided to do this. The chocolate mixture was definitely too sweet to have iced the whole cake with. It was good for the filling in a very thin layer (because of the runnyness of it) but would have overpowered the cake if it had been all over.


The first slice:

Our friends each requested to take an extra slice home with them.

Next time I think I will try it again with this recipe I found on The Cupcakery for Bailey's Buttercream. I still don't think I will ice the whole cake, I will probably just serve each slice with a nice pipped dollop of the buttercream next to it on the plate.

Overall: a delicious cake that I will definitely be making again in the future.