Week 10 food blog final assessment

Why did you choose to prepare this dish?

I chose to make this dish for my best friend’s birthday. Since it was my first time making this type of cake.

Is there a story about the dish or recipe?

The story behind this recipe is that I wanted to create something special for my best friend on her birthday. Since we were not allowed to visit anyone in big groups during the first couple of weeks in quarantine, she was not able to have a party. So, then I decided to plan a surprise tail gate party in a parking lot and surprise her with her favorite sweet flavor in cake. She means the world to me and I put 100% of my efforts to making this cake everything that she dreamed of. When I asked her for her favorite sweet flavor, she said maple, so I decided to make her a maple cake with maple frosting. When I surprised her with it she cried and my heart melted. I would love to make more desserts and deliver it to friends and family it just warms my heart at their reactions.

Did you have to make changes to the recipe?

I did not have to make change to the ingredients in this recipe because when baking you must be precise, and I do not think I am experienced enough to experiment and change the recipe around. The only change that I made was with utensils the cake was supposed to be tall and smaller size but I do not own a ton of baking utensils and only had two nine inch pans so I made it bigger and not so tall.

How did everything turn out?

Like Ms. Deck when I make something new, I always ask “Is this a make-again recipe?”  Sometimes the answer is yes, sometimes no! This was a for sure big yes! The cake did not look anything like the image and recipe that I was trying to follow. Although, the way it turned out was very impressive and I am very proud of myself. My family loved this cake because it was simple yet sweet so you could eat a big slice of it without being sick to the stomach. My best friend and her family loved it as well they said it was so good and that they could live off it. I loved this cake a lot, I do not eat cake because I do not really like it but this one was so good, I am totally making this again. The only change I would make it just some added visuals because it looks kind of plain. I could have added some piping work and maybe some added sprinkles to make it a bit more visually appealing.

What did you learn?

One of the skills that I learned from making this maple cake with a maple frosting is how to do a crème coat. The frosting was a maple standard frosting, so it was regular. With the crème coat it must be thin and smooth so you can finish it out with a smooth outer layer. Another skill that I learned is how to cut a cake with string. When layering a cake, you need it to smooth, flush and even so we need to cut it to be precise. When you use a knife it does make more of a jagged edges and when I used the string it made a clean and perfect cut.

Maple Layer Cake
makes one 9-inch round cake

https://e2bakesbrooklyn.com/2018/10/05/maple-layer-cake/

Cake:
3 cups all-purpose flour
1/3 cup cornstarch
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon Kosher or sea salt
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, melted
2 cups granulated sugar
4 large eggs, room temperature
1/2 cup pure maple syrup
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
2 cups buttermilk,* room temperature

Frosting:
1 1/2 cups (3 sticks) unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
4 cups confectioners sugar
1/2 teaspoon Kosher or sea salt
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/2 cup pure maple syrup
3 tablespoons heavy cream

For Assembly:
1/3 cup pure maple syrup
sparkling sugar (optional)

Preheat oven to 350F. Grease two 9-inch round cake pans. Line with parchment and grease again. Set aside.

In a medium mixing bowl, whisk together flour, cornstarch, cinnamon, nutmeg, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.

In a large mixing bowl, whisk together melted butter and granulated sugar. Whisk in eggs one at a time, followed by maple syrup and vanilla. Whisk in half the dry ingredients, followed by half the buttermilk. Add the remaining dry ingredients, followed by remaining buttermilk.

Divide batter evenly between prepared pans. Tap each pan on the counter 5 times to release any large air bubbles. Bake 32-35 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the centers comes out clean. Let cakes cool in their pans for 15 minutes. Run a small, think knife around the edges, invert onto racks, and remove parchment. Allow cakes to cool completely.

Make the frosting. In a large mixing bowl, beat butter until light and fluffy, about two minutes. Beat in confectioner’s sugar in two installments, scraping down the bowl as necessary. Beat in salt, followed by vanilla. Beat in maple syrup, followed by heavy cream.

Assemble the cake. Use a serrated knife to slice cake layers equatorially so that you are left with 4 very thin layers. Place one layer, cut-side-up on a serving plate or cake stand. Brush layer with maple syrup. Top with a thin layer of frosting. Top with another thin layer of cake and repeat the brushing and frosting. Repeat layering process one more time. Top with the last remaining thin layer of cake, cut-side-down. Frost cake as desired. Top with sparkling sugar, if using.

Slice and serve. Leftover layer cake will keep covered at room temperature for up to three days, or in the refrigerator for up to a week.

Week 7 food blog

I chose to prepare this dish because it was my mother’s birthday and since she could not celebrate it with friends. I used a lot of butter because there was a caramel buttercream icing and there was butter also in the cake. This was just after we came out of quarantine, so we did not have a lot of ingredients in the house, so my dad went to purchase everything. There is no story behind this dish, I just wanted to do something special for my mothers special day. I did not have to make changes to this recipe because when baking you must be precise and I do not think I am experienced enough to experiment and change the recipe around.

The cake did not look anything like the image and recipe that I was trying to follow. I was a very rich cake; you could only have a very small sliver of it because it was intense. The buttercream on the outside of the cake was evenly distributed, smooth, and overall looked pretty good. The caramel that I made from scratch was maybe one minute overdone because the taste was raw but that is because it is supposed to be added to the butter cream then it tasted good. The chocolate ganache was a bonus but, in the future, I would have made maybe a vanilla ganache because the cake was already chocolate and the taste was intense. My familly could barely finish a quater of the cake so we decided to give it away to other familly’s. The piping was also the first time I used this certain nozel and it was very tricky but soon after doing a couple of florets I became better and better at it. So the next time I make a cake I will for sure use this type of piping.

This was a new recipe and some aspects I never heard of before nor or even tried the skill before. The first skill that I learned from making these 4 layered turtle cakes is how to create a perfectly flat cake in the oven the first two came out a little bit uneven. Then I switched things up a little bit by placing the tins in the middle of the oven this time. When they came out, they were perfectly even and flat.  The most challenging part of this cake was the decorating part of it because the first part of was the buttercream. It was a caramel buttercream icing and I needed to cover a four-tiered cake. It needed to be in 30-minute increments in the fridge and out of it, as needed to be smooth, straight, even and looking good. Then on the sides of it with some caramel sauce and the chocolate ganache I attempted to create a dripping effect which did not turn out the way I wanted or looking like the picture at all.

https://livforcake.com/turtles-layer-cake/

TURTLES LAYER CAKE

Transform your favorite candy into this Turtles Layer Cake! Layers of rich chocolate cake, caramel buttercream, caramel sauce, and chopped pecans.

Course Dessert
Cuisine Cake
Prep Time 3 hours
Cook Time 30 minutes
Total Time 3 hours 30 minutes
Servings 
Calories 909kcal

INGREDIENTS

Cake:

Caramel:

  • 1 cup granulated sugar 200g
  • 1/4 cup water
  • 150 ml heavy whipping cream room temperature
  • 1/2 cup unsalted butter 100g, room temperature

Milk Chocolate Ganache:

  • 4.5 oz milk chocolate good quality, finely chopped
  • 3 oz heavy whipping cream

Caramel Buttercream:

  • 5 large egg whites
  • 1 1/4 cup granulated sugar
  • 2 cups unsalted butter cubed, room temperature
  • 1/2 cup caramel cooled

Assembly:

  • 1 cup pecans chopped
  • 6 Turtles Minis

INSTRUCTIONS

Cake:

  • Preheat oven to 350F, grease three 6″ round baking pans and dust with cocoa powder. Line bottoms with parchment.
  • Place all dry ingredients into the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment. Stir to combine.
  • In a medium bowl whisk all wet ingredients (pour hot water in slowly as not to cook the eggs if very hot).
  • Add wet ingredients to dry and mix on medium for 2-3 mins. Batter will be very thin.
  • Pour evenly into prepared pans. I used a kitchen scale to ensure the batter is evenly distributed.
  • Bake until a cake tester comes out mostly clean. A total of 30-35mins.

Caramel:

  • Place sugar and water into a medium pot, stir to combine, but to not stir from this point forward. Cook over high heat, washing down the sides of the pot with a pastry brush dipped in water as needed to prevent crystals.
  • Cook until desired color of caramel is reached and immediately remove from heat. Very slowly, whisk in heavy cream. The mixture will bubble up (a lot) and boil. Add butter, return to heat, and bring back to a boil. Cook for 2 minutes whisking constantly.
  • Remove from heat and let cool to room temperature. Transfer to a container and place in fridge to thicken.*

Milk Chocolate Ganache:

  • Place chopped chocolate and cream into a microwave safe bowl. Stir to combine. Microwave for 20 seconds, stir. Microwave in 10 second intervals, stirring in between, until smooth and silky. Set aside to cool completely before using.*

Caramel Buttercream:

  • Place egg whites and sugar into the bowl of a stand mixer, whisk until combined.**
  • Place bowl over a hot water bath on the stove and whisk constantly until the mixture is no longer grainy to the touch (approx. 3mins).
  • Place bowl on your stand mixer and whisk on med-high until the meringue is stiff and cooled (the bowl is no longer warm to the touch (approx. 5-10mins)).
  • Switch to paddle attachment. Slowly add cubed butter and mix until smooth.
  • Add cooled caramel and whip until smooth.***

Assembly:

  • Place one layer of cake on a cake stand or serving dish. Top with about 2/3 cup buttercream, drizzle with caramel and ganache and sprinkle with chopped pecans. Repeat with remaining layers. Crumb coat the outside and chill cake for 15mins. Frost and smooth the outside, chill for 30mins.
  • Using a teaspoon, drip ganache along the edges then fill in the top. Chill for 15mins.
  • Repeat with caramel and chill for 30mins.
  • If desired, top with rosettes and mini Turtles.****

My food blog for Foods 9 (The food)

The thoughts you’ve put into composing your shot (colour, contrast, texture, angle, light, etc.)  ?

The first thing that I put thought into when composing the pictures of the food was the colour. These are portuguese cod cakes we call them Pastéis de Bacalhau. They had this nice crispy brown texture when just coming out of the hot oil and when I added the parlsey to give it this added pop of colour you can simply see how they both compliment each other. The texture is the part that I took the most time on when photographing these images.  As I mentioned before the cod cakes had just came out of the hot oil so I tried to get as close as I could to show the viewer the flackyness, the beautiful brown outside of it and the overall shape to really show them off. In each of the photos down below they are all taken at different angles to hightlinght different sides and perspectives of this food. The light in these shots was key, it was bright so it highlighted everything very well and it did not cast any shadows on anything.

What you’re trying to capture—Does your picture tell a story?

I was trying to capture the portuguese cod cakes or Pastéis de Bacalhau as they are just coming out of the hot oil. In other words I wanted to show how fresh they were and display all of their many features. My pictures don’t tell a story but there is history behind the food. This recipe has been past on by generation on my mom side of the familly. She used to make it with her mom and now I make it with mine.

What you like about the photo ?

I like all of these photos a lot. Each of them highlight beautifully the texture of the food as if you were viewing it on your plate right now. I like how I added the parsley to just make the images pop and just ovderall more intresting. I also like how I chose to not hightlight or show any backround keeping this simple and not distracting the viewers eyes. Using the plate with just a white paper towel to again add an element of simplicity, elegance and with no added distractions.

 

 

My food blog for Foods 9 (The utensils and ingredients)

The thoughts you’ve put into composing your shot (colour, contrast, texture, angle, light, etc.)? 

When I was taking these two pictures I first thinking about the lighting to make sure nothing was dark and everything was attracting the eye of the viewer. Next I tried to capture multiple angles of the parsley with the knife in action. The texture was antoher element that I really tried to demonstrate in these photos. You can see in these two pictures of utencsils with ingrediants the stems of the parsley with all there detail, the knife positioned in action to cutting the parsley and the parsley zoomed up close to the camera lense to capture all of it’s colour and detail.

What you’re trying to capture—Does your picture tell a story?

I was trying to capture in both of these shots the utensil in action with the ingredient around it to create this simple picture. That’s why the backround is blurred so the main phocus point is what I am trying to display. There is no story I was trying to captured I just wanted a really real picture with no distractions to it. It clearly shows what was going on and focuses on it.

What you like about the photo?
I really liked how you can really see the detail of everything and how simple the picture really is. I also liked the added touch of the twist tie because it adds this extra element. When the viewer see’s all this they can really picture what the action is and what steps they took with all of these added layers to the picture.

Microbit progress 2

After my last post me and my partner reviewed our microbit design progress again.  We have started use the strategy of trial and error to see if we could make our ideas work. We first tried to work on the coding aspect of the microbit design. The making of the actual design was easy after being inspired by the examples they showed us an playing around with the programming before. Subsequently, it was not a difficult task to get our design to light up and flash our messages across the screen. There is still a lot of work to be done and add in all of our ideas that we want to incorporate. On the other hand,  it is easier to come up with ideas than to actually program them into the microbit! 

Microbit progress

We decided to find a way to bring someone’s mood up by sending them a heart in the morning with a positive message. My partner and I have been thinking more about how we are going to make our design project more interesting and unique. Moreover, we need to add more color and something flashy to attract attention to the people interested in using it. Another addition we could add is a couple more messages after our initial idea to show off our project for longer. To make this project more unique and to stand out from all the others, we thought of adding pop up sounds when the person touches certain buttons or have our design play a song. When we review our design again, we will probably start to put together some of these ideas and get closer to finishing our project.