Disclaimer: Before I write this post, let me reiterate the name of this site. It’s called The Boastful Baker. Please keep the word “boastful” in mind as you read this particular post. If you don’t want to listen to me brag, stop reading now.

As you might be able to tell from these photos, I made another wedding cake. My second one. The cake for my sister’s wedding in July was for about 75 people. This one was for about 170 people! 170 people! That’s almost 100 more people than the first cake! That’s a lot more cake.

Shortly after I agreed to bake my sister’s wedding cake, I was asked to bake this one. The now married couple worked with me at my old job. The bride read about my plans to bake my sister’s cake on Facebook and decided to offer me the opportunity to make her cake. She knew a little bit about my baking skills and aspirations and figured that it was a good way to get a slightly cheaper cake. She also thought it would be nice to give me, the fledgling cake baker, a chance to show off.

I hesitantly agreed. It may have taken a little arm twisting on the boyfriend’s part to get me to agree to it. It was one thing to agree to make my sister’s wedding cake. She’s my sister. If I screwed her cake up, she’s still my sister and life would go on. Making someone else’s wedding cake was a little more daunting.

Planning this cake was a breeze. The bride (and groom) were very flexible about the cake. We met just once to go over ideas and costs and agreed upon most things immediately. Everything else was easily taken care of with a handful of emails. I am sure that most wedding cake planning experiences are not this fantastic. I got lucky.

On to the cake…

I know this cake looks good. Getting it to look this good was not easy. It took many nights and a couple of days of work. It was stressful knowing that if something didn’t turn out right, I could ruin someone’s wedding. There may have been some yelling. Some cursing. Some name calling. Even some tears.

Baking the actual cakes was fairly simple. I baked over the course of 2 1/2 evenings and everything turned out well. I was a little scared about the largest cake layers not baking evenly…but they turned out just fine in the end.

Making the first few batches of frosting was also pretty easy.

Then the going got tough on the fourth night. I got cocky and thought I had plenty of time to finish the cake. The wedding was still almost 2 days away. All 5 of the cakes were baked. Two of them were already layered and crumb coated with icing. A lot of the frosting was made. So I took a nap. I’d been working hard and I deserved it.

I woke up about 2 hours later and got back to work. Very shortly after that, I sliced my thumb wide open. I may have been slicing the caps off of one of the cake layers in an irresponsible manner with my very sharp serrated bread knife. I’ll take full responsibility for my stupidity and the fact that my stupidity cost me a lot of valuable cake preparation time. I spent the rest of the night fretting about my finger and whether or not it would ever stop bleeding and whether or not I needed to go to the emergency room for stitches and whether or not I would be able to finish the cake in time!

In the end, my thumb ended up okay. It stopped bleeding, I got no stitches and the show went on. Slowly. With barely a day until the wedding, you would think I would be trying to get everything done as quickly as possible. No, I took it slow and lazy. I finished layering and crumb coating the other cakes. And then I took another long nap. And then I went shopping. It was now fairly late at night and the wedding was the following afternoon.

That’s when we realized that there was still a mess of work to be done. Five cake layers needed to be covered in fondant. But first the fondant needed to be colored. I also needed to cover 5 cake boards with satin and ribbon. The first fondant layer got screwed up. Screwed up enough that it was removed and thrown away. Which also meant I needed more frosting. Tensions were high and we were tired. We went to sleep knowing that we had to get up early the next day (the day of the wedding) and that there was a LOT of work left.

We did wake up early. And we raced the clock all day. More frosting was made, lots of fondant was rolled and carefully put on the cakes, cakes were chilled, a million little royal icing beads were dotted on the cake, last minute just-in-case flowers for decoration were procured, more little dots were applied, cake boxes were assembled, pearl colored dust was brushed on the dots, more anxiety set in, supplies for finishing the cakes on site were packed, hasty showers were taken and finally…the cakes were loaded into the car. With literally no time to spare. So little time to spare that I left both the iron and the hot glue gun plugged in.

We got to the reception site with all the cakes intact and started the sprint to the finish. If we wanted to catch the wedding ceremony, we only had about 45 minutes to assemble the cake. We missed the ceremony but at least the cake looked great and I could finally breath. Then I started repeating “I made that?” over and over again to both myself and the boyfriend. Even now, I can’t believe I made it. When the cake was in progress and I was stressed out, I thought there was no way in the world that it could possibly come together. But it did and it was phenomenal.

I then got to take compliments about the cake for the rest of the night. Amazingly, I don’t like being complimented in person. Lots of people came up to me to say “Wow!” and to tell me how good a particular flavor was. The best compliment of all was when the bride saw us for the first time that night and turned to give us a huge, approving grin and a thumbs up.

Another post will follow soon with cake details as I think some of you might be interested in knowing what actually went into baking this thing. You might even want to know what kind of cakes I baked.

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It’s official. I like rhubarb. Or at the very least I like raspberries enough that they cover up the taste of rhubarb.

I guess I should make a couple of other things with rhubarb before I profess my undying love for it. Someone on Flickr just commented that it’s good in an apple pie. I think I’m willing to try that. But I won’t be baking a strawberry rhubarb pie for myself anytime soon. I think I’m opposed to mushy strawberries.

At any rate, this is the second raspberry and rhubarb tart I’ve made and they’ve both been pretty delicious. I’ll even go so far as to say I think they’re more delicious than plain raspberry tarts and pies.

You probably want a recipe for this tart. But I can’t really give you one as I didn’t really use one. Make this like you would any other pie. Or follow the very, very loose directions below.

Start with a double batch of pie dough. Preferably homemade. But you can use premade dough if that’s what you do. Roll the dough to the appropriate size for your pie or tart pan. Line the pie or tart pan with one of the pieces of dough.

Toss the rhubarb (3 peeled stalks of it, chopped into 1/2″ pieces) and raspberries* with lots of sugar, a bit of arrowroot powder, a hint of cinnamon, an even smaller hint of nutmeg and a dash of lemon juice. Pour these into the dough lined pie or tart pan, dot the filling with a touch of butter and top with the second piece of rolled pie dough (or in my case, arrange the star shaped pieces of pie dough over the filling). If you use a solid piece of dough, cut a few slits in the top so that steam can escape while baking. If you don’t do this, you might have a soggy top crust.

Bake at 350 degrees until golden brown.

*Sorry, but I really don’t know how many raspberries I used. Maybe 2 cups?

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For more Wordless Wednesday posts and info, go here.

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I woke up yesterday morning wanting to bake a coconut key lime tart. Where the idea came from is beyond me. But it sounded like a good idea and it was Saturday so I had plenty of time for baking.

My craving told me I wanted a normal key lime filling with a coconut graham cracker crust. In addition, I wanted whipped cream and toasted coconut on top. With specific details like this, you’d think I’d made this particular tart before. But I hadn’t.

I have made key lime tarts before. I think the last one I made was a little off but I can’t quite recall what was wrong with it. Rather than risk even the slightest failure, I went to the internet. After looking around the web a little, I found Peabody’s Camping Key Lime Pie with Coconut-Pecan Graham Cracker Crust. Her recipe looked perfect but I didn’t feel like running to the store for pecans or mascarpone cheese…so I left them out and altered the recipe.

Coconut Key Lime Tart

Both recipes printed here are very slightly adapted from the Key Lime Pie recipe found at the Culinary Concoctions by Peabody website.

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup key lime juice, fresh if possible
• 1/2 cup heavy whipping cream
• 1 can (14 ounces) sweetened condensed milk
• 5 egg yolks
• whipped cream (for garnish)
• 1/2 – 3/4 cup toasted coconut (for garnish)
• 1 coconut graham cracker pie crust (see recipe below)

Directions

1. Whisk sweetened condensed milk with the egg yolks.
2. Stir in whipping cream and key lime juice.
3. Pour into prepared coconut graham cracker crust and bake at 325° for 15 minutes.
4. Cool to room temperature and refrigerate for at least an hour before slicing.

Coconut Graham Cracker Crust

Ingredients

• 1 1/4 cups crushed graham cracker crumbs (approximately 12 graham crackers)
• 1/2 cup toasted sweetened coconut flakes, crushed into tiny pieces
• 1/3 cup granulated sugar
• 1 teaspoon coconut extract
• 6-7 tablespoons melted unsalted butter

Directions

1. In a food processor, blend together graham cracker crumbs, coconut, and sugar.
2. Add about 6 tablespoons melted butter. Pulse a few times. If it seems like it needs more butter add the remaining tablespoon.
3. Pour contents into an 11″ tart pan and press to form a shell.
4. Bake crust for 10 minutes at 400 degrees.

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My boyfriend is of the opinion that cranberries taste very similar to what he would expect potpourri to taste like. Not that he (or I) have ever eaten potpourri.

So he doesn’t care for cranberries and I kind of like them. This causes just a hint of strife when I mention baking something with cranberries. I’ve made at least a couple of things with cranberries in them this year in an attempt to get him to like them. I haven’t really had much success.

I found the recipe for this cranberry tart at The Kitchn and decided to make it today. I quickly warned the boyfriend that I was baking a tart today that he might not like. He may have groaned in response but knew that I was going to bake it whether he’d like it or not.

After dinner tonight, we tried the tart. While he may not have been crazy about it, he did say that he would eat it. He also said that someone who actually really likes cranberries would probably love it. That’s probably the best response I’m going to get out of a cranberry hater.

The recipe can be found here at The Kitchn.

I made very few alterations to their recipe. Instead of orange zest, I used the zest and juice of one Meyer lemon. Instead of mixing the walnuts into the filling, I used about a cup of them and put them on top so that they would remain crunchy. Other than that, I followed the recipe.

Oh, I used the pie crust recipe found here. Truthfully it’s the only pie crust I use these days.

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This is a crumb topped tart containing a mixture of blueberries, blackberries, raspberries & cranberries.

Despite the fact that I’m a little burnt out on this dessert, I am posting the recipe for it as it has been requested several times.

I made this mixed berry tart four times in the month of November. The first time was entirely by choice for a small party at home. The second time was not by choice and had to be prepped in a hurry very late at night and baked very early the next morning. The third time was for my family’s Thanksgiving dinner. And the fourth time should have overlapped the third time for the boyfriend’s family’s Thanksgiving dinner…but it didn’t. I baked the same tart twice in two days due to a slight communication error. So…I won’t be making this tart again for at least a few months. But I’ll share the recipe now so that someone else can enjoy it.

The bottom crust of the tart is the Flaky Pie Crust recipe from the book Sweety Pies. I previously blogged about this crust in October and you can find the recipe for the crust here.

The pictures here are of small individual tarts that I made…the recipes below are for making one large tart in an 11″ fluted tart pan. Or if you don’t have one of those, the recipes should work pretty well for a standard size pie plate.

Mixed Berry Tart

First, you will need to make a half recipe of the Flaky Pie Crust found here.

Next, you will need to make the crumb topping as listed below.

Crumb Topping

Recipe from Sweety Pies

Ingredients (for an 11″ tart)

• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) chilled unsalted butter, cut into small pieces

Directions

1. In a medium bowl, stir together the flour, brown sugar, and cinnamon until well mixed.

2. Work the butter in with a pastry blender (or your fingers) until the mixture resembles crumbs the size of tiny peas. Set aside.

Mixed Berry Filling

Ingredients (for an 11″ tart)

• 4 1/2 cups mixed berries (use any combination you want here – I used blueberries, blackberries, raspberries and cranberries in my tarts – but if you use just a couple of types of berries, it will still taste great!)
• 2/3 cup granulated sugar
• 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon finely grated lemon rind (I use freeze-dried lemon peel from Penzey’s)
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Prepare the crust in the tart pan and set aside.

2. Make the filling. Stir together the sugar and flour until well mixed. Gently stir in the berries, lemon rind and juice. Pour the mixture over prepared tart crust.

3. Sprinkle the crumb topping evenly over the the top of the pie.

4. Place tart in the oven on a cookie sheet or pizza pan large enough to catch any juices that might bubble over. You’ll regret it if you don’t put something under it and it does bubble over. Bake until crumb topping is golden brown, about 40-45 minutes.

4. As with any berry pies or tarts, cool to room temperature before slicing and eating.

5. Serve at room temperature, cold, or warm. It’s fantastic all three ways. It’s good plain and even better with a dollop of whipped cream or vanilla ice cream.

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The recipe for this S’mores Tart is here.

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Quote from American writer and poet James Whitcomb Riley.

I had lots of grand plans for peaches over the summer. I was going to pick peaches from one of the local pick-your-own farms. From there, I planned to make lots of peach preserves and freeze a ton of sliced peaches to use all winter…not to mention the things I wanted to bake with some fresh ones. Sadly I did not get a chance to pick any peaches. Life (including moving) got in the way of my peach plans.

I did, however, find some fairly local Virginia peaches on sale last month at the Whole Foods that recently opened in Richmond. They were only 99 cents per pound…so I bought enough to bake a peach pie. I should have bought a ton more of them but I wasn’t thinking ahead while shopping at Whole Foods. I was too busy trying to get my stuff and get out as the place was more than kind of a zoo.

The peach pie here was baked with some of Penzeys Apple Pie Spice and a bit of their Baking Spice. Other than that, I followed a recipe for blueberry crumb pie found in Sweety Pies.

The bottom crust is phenomenal….it’s so flaky. The crumb topping is pretty good as well.

I’m not going to type all of the directions for making and forming this crust as they’re pretty verbose. But I will give you the ingredients list and basic instructions for the flaky bottom crust.

Flaky Pie Crust

Recipe from Sweety Pies

Ingredients (for 9-inch double crust)

• 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup chilled vegetable shortening
• 5 to 6 tablespoons very cold heavy cream

Directions

1. Sift together the flour, sugar and salt.

2. Using a pastry blender, cut the shortening into the flour mixture until it resembles small peas.

3. Sprinkle in cream one tablespoon at a time and toss with a fork. It’s better to add too little cream than too much. Continue to add cream and toss with fork until the dough holds together when pressed lightly.

4. Loosely gather dough into a flat ball and wrap in plastic wrap. Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes before rolling dough.

This is where I won’t instruct you on how to make pie crust anymore. The directions for this particular crust go on for another page. That’s just too much information for a blog post. If you want to make a crumb pie like I did, simply halve the recipe above.

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Quote from Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory.

We might become blueberries around here if I keep picking them. Thirteen pounds last week. Ten pounds this week. Maybe I’ll pick more next week?

After my single strawberry picking trip in May, I was determined not to miss blueberry season this summer. Clearly I haven’t if I’ve picked twenty-three pounds of blueberries in the last ten days.

The drive out to the local farm to pick the blueberries is a little long but it’s totally worth it in the end. They only charge $1.95 per pound for pick-your-own blueberries…think about how cheap this is compared to grocery store prices for a pint or quart of them.

I rather enjoyed the actual blueberry picking. I went by myself both times, armed with my iPod full of favorite songs. It was relaxing and a little therapeutic to be outside alone for an afternoon filling up my bucket with berries. On the first trip last week, I came to the (very wonderful) realization that I like the person I am now way, way, way more than the person I was five years ago. The me of five years ago sucked. I’m glad I’ve made all the changes I have and am happy with who I’ve become. Need some thinking time? Go pick some blueberries.

If you do go out for blueberries, make sure to slather on the sunscreen. And the insect repellent…I forgot the bug spray the first time and ended up with chiggers up and down my legs.

A lot of the berries were eaten by the handful out of the fridge. Some were given to a coworker so that she could bake a cake for her family. Five and a half quarts were put in the freezer for future baking purposes. Some of them were made into blueberry preserves.

I’m already dreaming up a cake with the preserves as a filling layer. I’m thinking about a lemon cake but I haven’t come up with a frosting flavor yet. Give me some time.

I also baked a pie. I lifted the star motif straight from Martha Stewart’s Baking Handbook.

Today I made a bunch of blueberry peach crisps. If the boyfriend hasn’t eaten all of the fresh blueberries by Sunday, I’ll probably make muffins or something of that sort. And maybe I’ll go back out for more of them next week…it’s hard to resist at $1.95 a pound…the work to pick them is irrelevant.

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peach, nectarine & mixed berry cobbler, originally uploaded by the boastful baker.

That’s what the boyfriend thought of these cobblers…despite his potpourri claims, I thought they were delicious.

Individual fruit cobblers with an oatmeal walnut crumb topping have become my “Ooh, we need a dessert…what’s easy?” thing. I always seem to have fruit (whether it’s fresh or frozen) on hand and they end up a little different each time.

The oatmeal walnut topping recipe is adapted from a Sara Moulton recipe…but I don’t ever use the recipe these days…I just throw a bunch of stuff together and it works. That might be because I’ve literally made this crumb topping 10 or 12 times in the last year.

Yes, we love the cobblers around here.

This particular version is made with peaches, nectarines, raspberries, blackberries & thimbleberries. I had a little bit of a lot of different fruit so this was a good way to use them all before they started to go bad.

I also don’t like ripe peaches and nectarines and the ones I had were definitely leaning towards very ripe. I like my stone fruit unripe and hard. Weird, eh?

In case anyone’s wondering, most of the pottery used in my pictures was made by my sister, Tasha McKelvey. She makes handmade pottery and ceramic jewelry and is uber-talented. You can buy some of her pieces here.

The bulk of the pottery pieces I have are a pattern she made mostly just for me. She even named the pattern “Melissa” after making me a zillion pieces in it. The bowl pictured in this post is from a custom set she made for me for creme brulees.

While I’m giving credit where it’s due, the batik napkins and table coverings seen in a lot of my pictures are made by Margot Bianca. She does beautiful work (obviously) and is wonderful about custom orders. Her etsy shop is quite popular and I shall be ordering more things from her soon.

I guess that’s it for today. I should be doing work for my job. Or packing boxes for next month’s move. I need to pack a lot of my apartment in the next week and a half because I’ll be sharing my apartment with the boyfriend for at least a couple of weeks before the house is complete. We plan to put a lot of stuff in storage as there’s no way both of our possessions can fit into just my tiny apartment. I really should go through the clothes in my closet to make space for his clothes…for now I’ll pretend I’m Scarlett O’Hara and I’ll think about them tomorrow.

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