Sugar Skulls at Short Street Cakes, and more Dias De Los Muertos Celebrations!

From now through Wednesday, November 2nd, Short Street Cakes will host our 3rd Annual Dias De Los Muertos altar to celebrate Day of the Dead. We have blank sugar skulls for sale ($5, with a portion of proceeds to benefit COLA- Coalicion de Organizaciones Latino-Americanas), a table with icing, glitter, and sequins to decorate the skulls, and an altar where participants can leave offerings to the souls of the departed. Please feel free to join us, and bring your family to participate in the sacred act of honoring the dead.

From Wikipedia: "Day of the Dead (Spanish: Día de los Muertos) is a Mexican holiday. The holiday focuses on gatherings of family and friends to pray for and remember friends and family members who have died. It is particularly celebrated in Mexico, where it attains the quality of a National Holiday. The celebration takes place on November 1st and 2nd, in connection with the Catholic holidays of All Saints' Day (November 1) and All Souls' Day (November 2). Traditions connected with the holiday include building private altars honoring the deceased using sugar skulls, marigolds, and the favorite foods and beverages of the departed and visiting graves with these as gifts. Scholars trace the origins of the modern Mexican holiday to indigenous observances dating back hundreds of years and to an Aztec festival dedicated to a goddess called Mictecacihuatl. In Brazil, Dia de Finados is a public holiday that many Brazilians celebrate by visiting cemeteries and churches. In Spain, there are festivals and parades, and, at the end of the day, people gather at cemeteries and pray for their dead loved ones. Similar observances occur elsewhere in Europe, and similarly themed celebrations appear in many Asian and African cultures."

I first learned to make sugar skulls two years ago from Suzie Millions, and I blogged about it, along with the recipe and more history of the holiday, here.

The lovely and wonderful Miss Glo will be hosting her altar again this year in the back courtyard at Mayfels on Tuesday, November 1st, starting at 5pm, and we will be bringing the altar at the Cake Shop there to join in the festivities. You can see photos of last year's celebration here, and read the write-up of the festivities from this week's Mountain Xpress, here.

Also on November 1st, Nuestro Centro, Asheville's Latino Community Center, located at 441 North Louisiana Avenue, in West Asheville, will be hosting a Noche de Alteres/Dias de los Muertos Celebration. I feel grateful and excited to be part of celebrating the season of honoring the loved ones who have passed on. I feel we need their guidance now more than ever. It also feels really wonderful to continue to root the Cake Shop in a community where we are building traditions and have moments throughout the year to come together and remember the cycles of the seasons and our souls. Each year that we celebrate Dias de Los Muertos, I feel more grounded in our families, our community, and our rich and beautiful history. Much love and many blessings, Jodi

How To Make Blueberry Fig Tarts in 16 Easy Steps.

(Or: On Baking with Two Five-Year-Olds and a Puppy)
Step 1: Steal figs from your neighbor's yard:


Step 2: Go try to buy a lemon from Tod's Tasties, because you can't bear to get in the car on your day off:

(Tip: if you are accompanied by two adorable children and a puppy, they might just give you the lemon)

Steps 3-6:
Make the dough. I used a recipe from a cookbook my bank teller gave me, Heirloom Baking with the Brass Sisters:
Whisk together:
1 egg
1 Tablespoon Apple Cider Vinegar

Combine in Food Processor:
1/3 cup sugar
3 cups flour
1 cup cold butter

process until mealy; add liquid and process just until mixture comes together. Knead, wrap and refrigerate for at least one hour.


Step 7:
Take an arty picture of your ingredients:


Steps 8-10:
Make the filling:

I used my tried-and-true filling method:
4 cups fresh fruit (in this case it was contraband figs and some blueberries that had been in my fridge for a little too long)
1/2 cup sugar
zest of one lemon

juice of one lemon
generous pinch of salt
Stir together and let sit.

Step 11:
Now back to your dough.
Cut your dough into 6 even sections, and roll each one out, on a floured surface, into a square shape of even thickness.


Step 12:
Place a good sized dollop of filling in the center of your rolled out dough.


Step 13:
Fold and press the edges of your dough to seal in the filling.


Step 14:
Egg Wash.
Gently beat one egg in a bowl and coat the dough with a pastry brush dipped in the beaten egg. Now, say, for example, that you own a Cake Shop and all your home baking utensils have absconded to said Cake Shop, and so you can't find a pastry brush? Well, fear not, dear reader, you can just as easily use one of your 5-year-old son's watercolor paintbrushes. Its totally clean, I promise.


Step 15:
Bake tarts at 400 degrees for 20-30 minutes. Ignore that black stuff on the bottom of the pan- its not burnt, its "caramelized."


Step 16:
Eat the tarts, and enjoy one of the last true days of summer.



Love.
ps. It's hot.

Beignet Day!

I've been promising my little one that I would teach him to make beignets for quite a while now. But now that he is currently obsessed with "The Princess and the Frog," a Disney movie set in New Orleans with a Mardi Gras plot theme and beignets figuring centrally in the story, he's become more persistent. Today being Tuesday AND Mardi Gras (my day off coinciding with a holiday for once!) we decided it was the perfect day for Beignet making. It's Beignet Day, if you will.

My mom taught me how to make beignets- most every Saturday morning growing up we would make them for the family. It always delighted me how the little fritters would flip themselves over when they were done on one side (if the fat was deep enough in the skillet), and making, and eating beignets was such a special treat that signified long, lazy pajama mornings. Making them today, and sharing it with my son, was a special treat, too. Here's my mom's recipe, and its wonderful. (we're from Georgia, so we make no claims to be making authentic, NOLA-style beignets- my understanding is that traditionally, beignets are yeasted, whereas Sally's is leavened with baking powder. Well, my mom's recipe is awesome so I don't want to hear about it.)

Sally Rhoden's Beignets (or French Doughnuts, as her recipe is titled)

2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 cup sugar
pinch salt
1 tablespoon melted butter
1 beaten egg
1 cup warm milk

Fill a deep skillet with vegetable oil and set on medium high heat. (you'll know the oil is hot enough to fry when a drop of water dropped into the skillet pops)

Sift together the dry ingredients.
Add all other ingredients, beat with a wooden spoon until combined but still a little lumpy, and drop by spoonfuls into the hot oil. Fry until golden brown on both sides. Remove from skillet, drain, and sprinkle (actually, douse) with powdered sugar. If you are out of powdered sugar like I am today, cinnamon sugar works just fine.

My first batch, the oil wasn't hot enough, so the dough sort of broke up in the skillet and didn't fluff up (but was still delicious in that funnel-cake kind of way). The second batch was PERFECT, making fluffy little pillows of soft, moist, light crumb. Observe:



The perfect specimen, along with one that was shaped like a duck:


The next generation of Beignet makers, eaters, and appreciators:


Joyeux Mardi Gras!

Happy Solstice! Here's How to Make a Buche De Noel.

This holiday season in the Cake Shop has been busy, bustling, warm, and cozy! I keep feeling this rush of joy when making new recipes that I haven't perfected before: the Gingerbread People that Lucy figured out, the Sweet Potato Spice Cake making the perfect base for Bread Pudding. But the one thing that has brought me the deepest sense of elation, dare I say, triumph, is our mastering of the Buche De Noel, or Yule Log Cake.
Here follows an illustrated recipe, taken from the beloved Southern Heritage Cakes Cookbook (Oxmoor House, 1983).

Grease and line with parchment paper a quarter sheet pan. (roughly 15 x 10)

To make the cake:
Combine in a mixer and beat until light:

4 eggs
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt

Slowly add:

3/4 cup sugar

beat again until light.

Fold in by hand:

3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup cocoa

and then pour into the lined pan. Bake at 400 degrees for 10-15 minutes, until the cake springs back when touched with your fingertip or until a knife inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean.

When its done, it should look like this:

(except smaller, because the Buche De Noel that we make in the shop is double this recipe)

Immediately flip the cake onto a tea towel, a-like-so:

Then peel the paper off like this:

And roll it up like this:





Then set it aside for a few hours to cool completely.

Make a batch of whipped cream:
1 cup heavy cream
1/4 cup sugar
beat with the whisk attachment of your mixer until it can hold a soft peak.

Carefully and gently unroll your cake, and spread the whipped cream all on the inside.

Re-roll the cake, securing the bottom edge, and refrigerate.

Make the icing:

Melt 3 1-oz squares of unsweetened baking chocolate.

Whisk together with 1/3 cup of coffee and 1/4 cup of butter until smooth.

Set the mixture aside to cool. When completely cool, beat (in the mixer) 2-3 cups of powdered sugar until spreadable consistency.

Spread the icing on the roll:



And then cut the edges off with a serrated knife, and attach to the sides by globbing the icing around the joint.



Decorate with fresh holly, from your neighbor Peter's yard, for example, and, voila: (or viola, as we sait it back in Georgia):

A Buche De Noel.


The Yule Log is a symbol of the warmth and light of the hearth in the dark of winter. On this Solstice, as we honor the darkness and welcome the light in our lives, I wish to extend to you love, warmth, and ample fuel for your fire.
xo
jodi
PS. If you wish to eat a fresh Buche De Noel, and do not desire to make one on your own, a 20-serving Yule Log is available for $50 by advance order at Short Street Cakes by calling 505-4822. Tomorrow (Wednesday, December 22) is the last day to order a Buche De Noel for pickup on Christmas Eve.

Twelve Days of Christmas at the Cake Shop!

Today was a snow day. I woke up late to the soft, quiet white of snow everywhere. I came into work to fill the orders for today, Hannah and I were in the Cake Shop, and, though Winter Hours dictate that we are open by appointment only on Sunday, I thought it would be fun to go ahead and open the shop, make some cider, and sell some cake and cookies. I sent out an email to the Hall Fletcher Neighborhood email list, telling the folks that we were having a Snow Day Party. We had an awesome response. Families, friends and neighbors came in, one by one, shaking the snow off of their boots, catching up, making things, and drinking cider. It made me really happy. Simultaneously, I've been having a hard time figuring out what to do and say about Christmas at the Cake Shop. As usual, the holidays have crept up with a quickness; I feel a little rushed, I haven't put up decorations, I wasn't sure what specials to run or how to talk about it. But after today, I realized: what we need is a twelve day party at the Cake Shop. We need friends, neighbors, and loved ones to come by, eat cake, and take cake to their friends. I realized that every day until Christmas should be a Snow Day Party at the Cake Shop!
Traditionally, the Twelve Days of Christmas refers to the days between Christmas and Epiphany. Instead, at the Cake Shop, the Twelve Days of Christmas refer to Monday, December 13th through Christmas Eve, when we will be hosting a Christmas Party every day!

Here's what you have to look forward to:

Decorate-Your-Own Gingerbread People!
We are making fresh Gingerbread Cookies every day ($1 per for mini people; $2 per for GingerGentlemen and GingerLadies) and will have a decoration station where you and your family can sit, sip cider, and decorate your people with naturally-colored icings.

And, speaking of cider, we will have fresh, hot, mulled apple cider a la Sally Rhoden on the stove every day (BYO Amaretto). ($1.75 per 12 oz cup).

Christmas Cookies!
Every day, we will be making an assortment of fresh Christmas cookies. Varieties include: Waffle Cookies, Gingerbread, Shortbread, Oatmeal Raisin, and these totally insane little Caramel Pecan Chocolate balls we started making the other day. And probably lots of other stuff we're just going to make up as we go along. Its a party. (please place an advance order for a dozen or more)

No-Advance-Order Cakes!
We had such an overwhelming response to our Cakesgiving Cake Sale. I get it now, people, you want your cake, and you don't want to place an order two days ahead of time. Duly noted. During the Twelve Days of Christmas, we are going to stock the case with as many Medium Sized Italian Cream Cakes, Mexican Chocolate Cakes, and Sweet Potato Spice cakes as we can make. They are yours for the purchasing, while supplies last, for $28, $25, and $28 each, respectively.


Fresh Lemon Curd!
Jars of our Fresh Lemon Curd (made famous as the filling on our lovely Daffodil Cake) will be for sale for $5 each. Lemon Curd makes a gracious and sustainable stocking stuffer or hostess gift. Just sayin.

Bread Pudding!
We are making and selling, by the slice ($3) or by the pan ($25), our ridiculously good Sweet Potato Spice Bread Pudding. Makes a great gift, or a great dessert. (Please place an order for 6 or more slices.) Bourbon Sauce Sold Separately. xo

Special-Order-Only Christmas Menu Items:


Peppermint Candy Cane Chocolate Cake
Our Classic Deep Dark Chocolate Cake, with a Peppermint 7-minute Icing and Crushed Candy Cane topping. Available in all sizes and priced as a deluxe cake on the menu.

Black Forest Cake
Chocolate Cake, Whipped Cream, and Cherries, people. Available in all sizes and priced as a deluxe cake on the menu.

Buche De Noel
The Classic French Yule Log. Nothing says "Solstice" like a cake replica of a piece of wood.

Please know that when you come in the Cake Shop, or you place your special order, you are not only going to have the yummiest treat ever, you are allowing me and the seven other awesome people who work at the Cake Shop to continue doing something that we have, at times, thought was not possible: to go to a job every day where we love each other, love our work, love our customers, and we get the opportunity every day to shine; creatively, personally, and as a community. I'm not exaggerating. We're having that much fun.
Thank you for your love and support.

Other pertinent information:
We will be closed from Christmas Day (Saturday, December 25) through Thursday, December 29th, for Christmas Break.
We will be OPEN Thursday, December 30, and Friday, December 31st, for New Years Eve orders and retail cupcakes.
We will be Closed on New Years Day.
After that, we commence our regular Winter Schedule: Open noon to six Wednesday through Saturday, we are open by appointment/special order only on Sundays and Mondays, and we are closed on Tuesdays.
Seriously, I love y'all.
Love,
Jodi

CLOSED FOR THANKSGIVING BREAK TIL DECEMBER 1ST!

Hi Friends!
Cakesgiving was overwhelmingly exhilarating, super fun, and totally exhausting. Thank you so much for all the Cake Shop Love! We had a record day on Wednesday. Here's what our production list looked like:

That's right, we baked over 17 flavors. We kicked ass.
I enjoyed harassing my co-workin' friends at the cake shop, like Nathanael and Anna:


and to top it all off, they put my picture on the cover of the Mountain Xpress!

So I'm feeling a little bit famous, even though the article was about Thanksgiving Turkey, not Cakesgiving or Cake (though there was a mention of Cakesgiving in Small Bites- Thanks, Mackensy and Mountain Xpress!).

We've had a great few weeks since Halloween and Day of the Dead- including two great events at Malaprops Bookstore-
The Local Foods Cook-off Rocked, and, as a judge, I got to eat the winning entry for dinner: a super-yummy all-local veggie quiche!

Then, I was lucky enough to meet (and introduce) Nancie McDermott when she came to town to promote her new book, Southern Pies (which came on the heels of her 2004 release, Southern Cakes- an awesome compendium of traditional cake recipes).

Nancie was delightful and baked a ton of pies for us to taste. So, lots of eating in the bookstore this week. Thanks, Nancie, and Malaprops!

I'm also looking forward to a break:

The Cake Shop will be Closed for Thanksgiving Break until Wednesday, December 1st!

Feel free to call the cake shop at 828.505.4822 and place an order for Wednesday or later on the voice mail; someone will call you back to confirm your order on Tuesday. Okay? Okay.

And once we get all rested up, we'll be ready to tell you all about our Holiday Specials.

So, I'm signing off for a week or so, but before I do, let me just say that this Thanksgiving, I am so grateful for my family, my Cake Shop family, and this beloved community that I feel blessed to be a part of.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Cakesgiving!

Beginning on Sunday at Noon through Thanksgiving Day, Short Street Cakes will be offering four of our best-loved flavors of cake for pick up without an advance order! Seemingly Millions of Medium-Sized (2-layer 8") Mexican Chocolate, Italian Cream Cake, Georgia Hummingbird, and Classic Coconut Cakes will be on hand every day during Thanksgiving Week, and they'll be ON SALE! Our regular menu will be available, at regular prices, with the regular minimum two days notice!

Cakesgiving Hours:
Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, November 21st through 24th, open Noon until 6.
Thanksgiving Day open 10 til 2, while supplies last!

Now, you can have your cake AND forget to order it, too!

Sugar Skulls!

Hello Friends!
The preparations for Dia de los Muertos are almost complete!
We've made dozens of sugar skulls:

And whipped up some royal icing, dyed with natural pigments like turmeric and beet powder:



And we've prepared a station for decorating skulls with icing, sequins, and glitter. This is a skull I decorated for my sister, who passed eight years ago. She had a beautiful singing voice, and a great sense of humor, and and I put the skull on the altar in her honor.

The altar is set, and ready for offerings... in Mexican tradition the souls of the dead have to travel a long way to get back to this world, so they are weary, thirsty and hungry. Please bring offerings of food, drink, and treats that your loved ones who've passed enjoyed in this life (I need to go get some candy corn, because that was my friend Charlotte's favorite Halloween treat, cigars for my Papa, Pabst Blue Ribbon for my Granddaddy, and some chocolate for my Mopsey) and pictures, flowers, and other things to beautify the space and honor our ancestors.


Blank sugar skulls are $5 each, and a portion of proceeds will benefit Defensa Comunitaria, a local grassroots immigrants rights organization. We will decorate the altar and sell skulls from noon to six on Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday. On Monday night, we are going to bring the contents of the altar to add to the one at Mayfels, where we will feast and dance with the dead, in costumes!
I feel so happy to be sharing this celebration with the community at the Cake Shop for the second year in a row, and, already feel how important repeating rituals and celebrations is for rooting ourselves in time and place.
Much love!
xo
jodi