Learning Hebrew

This week, in between Christmas parties, wrist exercises, and skating with Vancouver 2010 Olympic mascots, I managed to complete a colourful baby block themed cake for Bailey Rose, the newest addition to my friends Erik and Paige's family. You may recall that big sister Maya just recently celebrated a birthday too.


The cake was for the traditional Jewish naming ceremony which meant that in addition to her secular name Bailey, her Hebrew name was to be included on the baby blocks. Luckily, I was given a brief gentile Kindergarten level introduction to the Hebrew alphabet, learning that words in Hebrew are written from right to left. Because Bailey's Hebrew name actually only has five letters instead of six, a yellow heart was inserted and is not a Hebrew letter!


Each block was a 4 inch cube composed of chocolate cake and either vanilla mousseline or mocha mousseline. I was debating whether to cover each cube with rolled fondant or to make pastillage tiles and decided on the latter because I wanted to achieve a more solid appearance and the drying time needed for pastillage before assembly was actually advantageous for my work flow. Each tile was caulked together using royal icing and was so effective that during the cake cutting, most blocks remained intact after being lifted off the cake cube.


It was a big bustling party, centered around a beautiful Jewish tradition where the newborn is passed from the oldest generations through to the parents and the derivation of Bailey Rose's name was explained. For me, it was an opportunity to test my self-confidence amid a houseful of friendly strangers who perhaps knew of my previous life in ophthalmology. Confirmation of my unusual career switch was akin to revealing an urban legend to be actually true, "that doctor who became a pastry chef".


The cake was very well received (especially my excellent Hebrew letters) and one nice man even joked that he liked my cake so much he wanted to convert me to Judaism! Unfortunately, eight years of Sunday School and an unshakable love of Chinese BBQ pork would prevent this from happening. Although, I was most impressed by the massive 3 feet long challah which was so soft and delicious and perfectly braided. Mazel tov מזל טוב‎ !!

On pause

Please forgive my absence lately as I am currently on pause for several reasons. Primarily, my poor left wrist is recovering from a workplace injury. It seems 10.5 kilograms (23 pounds) of mousse/cake do not belong all on one hand. Ironically, my left wrist was always my good wrist after years of chronic tendonitis predominantly in my right wrist from manic note-taking using a pen death grip unlike no other and knitting (nerd alert!). With the obligatory rest, ice, and ibuprofen, all should recover shortly.


This incident has given me more awareness of the occupational hazards and ergonomic conundrums which inhabit the professional pastry kitchen. Upon entering the industry, I was somewhat naive to the physical realities of working in pastry production, being more enthralled with the creative and technical challenges which I hoped to conquer. Depending on the size of the kitchen and volume of production, the ratio between your physical strength and potential weight of stuff you carry becomes a very important issue. Nowadays, I am equally concerned with protecting my musculoskeletal well-being and luckily, previous knowledge of human anatomy is a great advantage.


As a result, I have not been very active in my home kitchen, taking every possible opportunity to rest my wrist. Without this creative stimulus, there is little to blog about and nothing pretty to photograph. My blog has always served as a medium to document what inspires me in the kitchen rather than a reason to go and create in the kitchen. This is a fine distinction which explains why I can never post more than once a week. It reflects the sweet things I create in my regular daily life, either for personal consumption or for others, because I can never make something just to blog about it.

So meanwhile, you will find me relaxing with my flabby tabby, waiting for wrist recovery and for the creative juices to flow. With Christmas creeping up on me, edible gift production will soon start admist the busy working season. The tree will be up this weekend I hope and with luck, the cat will not eat the poinsettia. Have a wonderful week.

ROYGBIV

Between the ages of 8 and 13, I was obsessed with rainbows. Almost all my worldly possessions were in full rainbow colours, including pillow case, leg warmers, and hair accessories. My favourite sweater was a black cardigan with different rainbow coloured buttons. For Grade 4 art class, I made a mobile festooned with rainbows which hung in our family room for probably 6 years. I could go on listing my rainbow-mania childhood memories but I shan't.


Today, while my love of bright, some may say garish, colour is still alive but less visible in my everyday life, I have the opportunity to relive this rainbow fixation through my niece Caitlin who celebrated her 4th birthday on Sunday.


The rainbow cake was constructed from a 10" diameter round cake, which was divided into two halves, one for the rainbow arc, and the other further divided to make two clouds. Three layers of vanilla cake were filled with a vanilla-lemongrass mousseline and fresh strawberries, with Italian meringue creating the puffy cloud decor. (And yes, I purposely left out indigo.)


Having leftover rolled fondant, an impromptu turtle, reminiscent of last year's birthday cake, was added. I figured that it would be a nice keepsake for Caitlin to enjoy since she still loves turtles and rolled fondant seems to last forever. I was incorrect and thank God I was not at the party to witness such savage yet innocent consumption of my well-dressed turtle (party photos by Auntie Jennifer). Happy Birthday Caitlin!

True colours

This has been an introspective week for me. I have a tendency to live in the present which may be healthy for some; however, for me, it often means I am avoiding issues of the past and future. Being honest about situations which are deeply rooted in anger and resentment can be cathartic and healing.


Maybe it is the changing season which has prompted this awareness. More likely, the truth is simply overdue. This truth can be bitter or sour and hard to swallow. With time, attention, and hope, something beautiful may emerge.


I received a generous gift of local quinces from my friend Anya yesterday. Although I have never worked with quince before, I have always been curious about this aromatic golden fruit, hearing stories about its mellow transformation from acidic and astringent to pink and delicious when cooked. Following this recipe, five pounds of quince became a sweet fragrant purée, half of which will be saved for a rainy day and the other half cooked down to make quince paste (a.k.a. membrillo).

Diversion: wings

After not eating a single morsel of turkey for Thanksgiving, I think that avian karma subconsciously led me to several bird habitats this week. The annual snow geese migration attracted Eric and I to the Reifel Bird Sanctuary in Ladner and we were audience to numerous Sandhill cranes, American coots, Northern pintails and an army of Mallard ducks.


Then, my friend Fionna and I headed out on a chilly Sunday morning in search of fall colours to photograph but I found birds instead.


Speaking of birds, my sister is nesting once again after a stork delivered my newest niece into the world on my birthday last Wednesday! Happy Birthday Hayley (aka Bean)!

Seeing red

Happy Thanksgiving to my fellow Canadians! Autumn has definitely arrived in Vancouver with the return of rain and chilly mornings at the bus stop. We turned on the heater this weekend and dug out the wooly throw blanket that goes on the couch. The garden needs to be cleaned out and spring bulbs need planting but I am waiting for less soggy weather before venturing out.


Here on the west coast, there are no truly spectacular fall colours to brag about; we are lucky to enjoy the green coastal coniferous rainforest all year round. The one current exception is my fiery lipstick red Japanese maple which graces my patio. Its lacey crimson foliage is something I look forward to every year.


The local British Columbia apple harvest is also in high gear. Although my preferred method of apple consumption is raw, cold, and crisp, the baked, warm, and tender apple in tart or pie form is always a treat. This small and simple French apple tart helped use up the last Royal Gala in the fridge and will go nicely with my roast chicken at tonight's Thanksgiving dinner for two.


Stay tuned for more apple related activities as I will be heading to the UBC Apple Festival next weekend! See you at the tasting tent?

Hello Bunny

Having accumulated an abundance of egg whites during the big wedding cake production, I was happy to receive a request for a small ballerina-themed birthday cake for a lucky little girl named Maya. Using up egg whites is always a goal in any pastry kitchen and for me, I can only eat so much Chinese egg-drop corn soup. So, this cake was a perfect opportunity to make passionfruit Italian buttercream, combined with some local raspberries I had frozen from the summer, and served between three layers of chocolatey Devil's Food cake.


Having a bunny be the ballerina was my idea, based on a favourite toy from my childhood. Plus, putting animals in clothes onto cakes seems to exponentially increase the cuteness factor every time. The bunny was shaped from white chocolate modelling paste and her pink outfit was tailored from pink rolled fondant. Eric noticed that the bunny ballerina's face does have an odd resemblance to Hello Kitty, which was quite unintentional.


My favourite details on this cake were the ballet pointe shoes and the back of the bunny's dress. In fact, even though I had made a perfectly round bunny's tail, I became so caught up in making the sash and bow that I forgot about it and ended up tucking her tail under the skirt instead. Happy Birthday Maya!