Bond. James Bond. The making and demise of a glorious Aston Martin DB5 cake.

We had a James Bond party. Movie marathon, themed arts and crafts, guests in cocktail attire, spooky villain's lair decorations, the whole thing. Of course, I made cake. And chocolate tuxedo strawberries. Also some cake pops and chocolate gems. But let's start with the cake, shall we?

(Photo by Duncan Ballentine)

I studied so many pictures of car to make sure this was absolutely perfect. This was also my first carved cake - very exciting.

The insides are chocolate/strawberry marble with swiss meringue buttercream inside. I baked two 9x13 and one 9x9 cake, then plopped them on top of each other. 

I attacked it (carefully) with a big serrated knife. I spent a couple hours staring at the form and tweaking it. At this point, I was jumping up and down because I couldn't believe it actually looked like a car.

I called a few of my friends to explain:
"I'm making a car cake and it's really hard and guess what it looks like? ... It looks like a CAR!"

Then it was time to cover it in buttercream. I made sure to use the frosting to help emphasize my carving and build up on areas where I was a bit overzealous with the knife. Yes, big mess. What else is new?

I then covered it in one huge piece fondant and started pressing in details with the back of a paintbrush. I didn't have any idea what I was doing because I don't ever work with fondant, but it seemed like a good idea, so that's what I did.

It was spray painted with edible silver paint (gorgeous stuff), I added details, and it magically became a car.

JB007. Get it?

I painted the windows on with a paintbrush and a bottle of black food coloring. 

Even the little mirrors are in the right place and the trimmings were painted silver with a little vodka  and silver luster dust mixture.

I tried to add in tons of details and make it as lifelike as possible. This cake took me 3 days, I fell in love with it, and you know what?

They made me cut it!

 (photo by Duncan Ballentine)

 It took about 10 minutes to bring myself to slice it and I'm still crying on the inside about my poor dead car. 

This is me killing my cake. But it really was delicious.

Now, what to do with all the scraps leftover from carving?

Cake pops! These are bowler hats. I was very sick of cake by the time I made these, but they were still fun and they came out alright.

And here are some white chocolate gems because a James Bond party requires treasure and jewels. They're shiny.

Since we asked the guests to dress up in the spirit of the event, I thought it would be appropriate to make sure the strawberries were similarly attired.

These aren't nearly as hard as they look and there's a great guide here.

I'm so happy with how everything came out, but you won't see me working with fondant anytime soon. I've never had so much trouble destroying a cake and cutting this one just made me feel too destructive. Maybe it gets easier, but I'll take my difficulty slicing it as a sign that it's my best cake so far. And I'm definitely okay with that.

Grandpa's Birthday Cookies, or "I Hate the Post Office"

My grandpa is one tough guy. Back in September, he turned 90 and the family threw him a big party. Because I was as school I couldn't make it, but I sent along these cookies instead.

They were eat to make but incredibly impressive and so personal. I ordered edible icing paper with some very special pictures and they were so much fun to use. I made these in my dorm, so supplies. were tricky and they were a huge endeavor, especially because I made 100, but they came out beautifully.



Outline:

 Flood.

Plop the pre-cut frosting transfer on top of the wet icing

Add a border and some pretty dragees. Admire and cross your fingers hoping they'll dry in time. 

Wrap them up very, VERY carefully. 

Pay $60 for overnight shipping so they they'll get there in time for the next day's party. 

And cry when the post office loses them.

True story. 

But at least we got some great pictures. Besides, Grandpa doesn't like sweets anyways.

Oreo Cheesecake

Vanilla cheesecake covered in oreos and chocolate ganache with a cinnamon graham cracker crust.

You really don't want to know how many days in a row I ate this for breakfast.

It baked a bit funny in the middle, so I dumped oreos on it and everyone was happy. 

Let's all just pretend that I didn't eat this for breakfast for an entire week, okay?

I know the cinnamon crust sounds kinda weird, but it gave it a great bite and was really tasty.

Am I the only one who thinks this slice looks like a little mouse?

Yum!

Doughnuts!

If you tell me there's anything better than warm, homemade donuts, you're lying. These little guys were a great way to start a lazy Sunday morning and not nearly as hard to make as they look. I used this recipe from the Los Angeles Times and they came out beautifully.

Pipe them out

  

Cut the (well-oiled) parchment paper into squares to make them easier to deal with

 And slid them into the hot oil.

Let them cook for a while, flip them over and they magically become donuts!

Ta da!

Now it's time for the fun part: dipping! We made a vanilla-bean glaze, a lemon glaze, and a chocolate glaze. 

There were tons of sprinkles and dozens of sticky, messy fingers. 

I made everyone wait and drool while I insisted on taking pictures for you.

And let me tell you, 

They were incredible!

Almost more fun to make than they were to eat.

We made a bit of a mess, but about 15 minutes after this picture was taken almost every donut was gone.

Everyone went home very, very happy.

Happy Chanukkah!

Happy Chanukkah!

These cookies were made for a big family party, so we made about 100 of them so there would be plenty to go around, especially because they're pretty tiny. 



I love the sparkle from the edible glitter, even though it makes a big mess and sticks to you like glue. I'll probably be finding it all over my face for the next week!

They were a big hit, but I made a few too many and have a ton of leftovers.

These pretty silver dragees (the little silver sugar balls) can't be found in California, so I bring them with me from Boston.

They were a bit rushed so some aren't as perfect as I would have liked, but I'm still really happy with how these came out and no one but me cares about the tiny details anyways. 

Most importantly, they were delicious!