I feel to the need to be liked!

The Facebook Fan page for my cakes is finally up. Please come check it out and "like" me!

Happy Holidays and Best Wishes for the New Year!

Sit down and grab a cookie or two. This is my cookie tray for the season. There are lots of choices, hopefully you can find at least one you like :)

Chewy chocolate gingerbread cookies

Cut out citrus sugar cookies

7 layer cookies

Blueberry macarons

Raspberry Pomegranate macarons

Chocolate stars

Peppernuts

Guinness reduction salted caramels

Chocolate caramels

Chocolate peppermint marshmallows

Have a happy and safe holiday season everyone!

Halloween Sugar Cookies

Lets go back to October for a bit.

This year I decided to focus on sugar cookie cutouts as I had several orders at the time and didn't want to spread myself to thin. This year I used my go to cutout recipe and a non dairy chocolate version.

Here is my favorite color theme. Since I am a creature of habit, I come back to them year after year.

Bats
Witch Hats

Ghosts

Tombstones

Skulls

Spooky Kitty Cats

BOO!

Ready to deliver!

Happy Belated Halloween!

Macarons!

This weekend I participated in RBCA's annual fundraising event. We were all challenged to make desserts with Alaskan ingredients. In the name of growing local, I bring you beet, rutabaga, and blueberry macarons.

Did you know that macarons grow on trees?

I knew there would be berry desserts there so I wanted something a little funky and different. You all know how different I like to be! In addition to the powdered veggie roots, I also added some fruit teas from Alaska Wild Teas to sweeten the shells.

The beet macarons were filled with dark chocolate ganache. The rutabaga and blue berry macarons were respectively filled with citrus and blueberry French buttercream.

Since the idea was for everyone to taste all three flavors I served them in paper cones.

Here they are all laid out and ready to place in the cones. The beet macarons were on sticks so that they stood up higher near the "peak" of the cones.

Ta-da!

Looking down at the display.

From the front.

Yum!

I had a lot of fun participating in this event and look forward to next year. The macarons went fast and I ended up serving my ornaments as well.

I also have to smile when I think of how many people ate veggies and didn't know it :)

Jungle Themed Baby Cake

New pictures. Yay, about time I know!

In between keeping busy with cakes, buying a new house, and building a commercial kitchen on the premises I have neglected my blog. We are all dried in for the winter and will be focusing on the inside of the kitchen soon. Can we have a big WAHOO :)

Enough of the updates. Time for what you came here for... pictures!

What happens when you combine this monkey

with this lion

with a zebra

and finally this little giraffe?

A jungle baby cake of course :)

Free Enterprise Video Contest

Hello folks!

I am competing in a Free Enterprise Video contest put on by the US Chamber of Commerce. This is for some mega prize money to help me take my cake making to the next step.

I need people to view my youtube video in order to be in the pot as a semi finalist. Only the most viewed videos continue on. Please help me by viewing everyday or several times per day if you can as there is no limit on how many times a person can view per day.

Feel free to copy the purple text of this post (below) and the video link in order to pass it on. If any of you want me to send an email out with the wording I would be happy to. Just drop me a line and then you can easily forward to friends and family.

Here is my blurb :)

I am competing in the the US Chamber's Free Enterprise Video Contest. The prize money for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd is $20,000,$30,000 and $50,000 towards the winning businesses or ideas. The top 25 viewed videos go on to the next level. A panel of judges will decide the 5 finalists from the top 25. The finalists then go on to compete for votes to determine their prize standing. The more views I get the more people I can reach out to for a final vote when the time comes. Also, I can't help but think the more views and activity the better I will look in front of the judges; as they will see that I am working hard for the money! Here is the video. Please bookmark it and visit it every day through April 16th if you can. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wyqa4xSwxoQ Spread the word! Monica Cooper Alaskan Dermish http://alaskandermishinthekitch.blogspot.com/ View my youtube contest entry - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wyqa4xSwxoQ

Thanks for helping me get closer to my dream!

Cake Catch-up

This cake was made to celebrate Pat Williams 100th birthday. It was a replica of the Ray Building.

Here is the real building.

Next is a Little House on the Prairie cake for a girls birthday party. The cake was a lemonade cake with brown lemon flavored butter cream.

There were lots of shingles!

I really enjoyed this one as I used to watch the show as a little girl too.

The last picture in this post is a sea star cake for a bride to be.

Tsunami!

This project was for the Alaska region of the NOSB event.

Vanilla cupcakes

Chocolate

It looked neat all together.

Happy New Year - Two Ways

Here are two totally different New Year traditions. I take that back. They share a round shape but that is where I draw the line!

The first one is the New Year Day cookie (Portzelky). It is a drop donut of sorts with raisins that I had growing up.

1 envelope yeast

1/4 cup warm water

5 1/2 cup AP flour

1 1/2 t sugar

1 1/2 t salt

pinch nutmeg

1 1/2 cup warm milk

3 eggs

1 1/2 cup raisin, currants, etc (plump the raisins in water first - blot dry well to reduce oil splattering)

Dissolve yeast in the water, let proof.

Mix flour, sugar, salt, and nutmeg together in large bowl.

Lightly beat eggs with the milk.

Add the yeast mixture to the egg/milk mixture and then pour that into the flour mixture.

Mix well

Stir in raisins.

Let sit until raised like a poolish (good and bubbly). Right before you begin to fry, tap the bowl on the counter or push down the dough a bit.

Drop by cookie scoop into hot oil.

Remove from oil and drain on paper towels. Once drained roll in sugar and place on a wire rack to dry so they do not become soggy.

Some people cover them with glaze, others with sugar (powdered or fine). I usually go with organic sugar because I like look of the grains and they don't "melt" and make the fritters soggy.

I make mine throughout the year play around with what ever flavors and additives I have around. Craisins and orange zest was a favorite. Sometimes I add cinnamon or nutmeg to the sugar before I roll them in it.

Now for the unfamiliar tradition. Mochi!

From what I understand, these are a Japanese New Year custom. Since I don't have a steam kneader I opted to try the microwave rice flour version.

Microwave Chocolate Mochi (courtesy of Eleanor Urakawa and various tips I found on the web)

1-1/2 cups mochiko (rice flour)

1-1/2 cups water

1/2 cup sugar

Pinch salt

1/2 cup chocolate chips

Katakuriko (potato starch) or kinako (roasted soybean flour), for dusting

Filling

Mix mochiko, water, sugar, chocolate, and salt in a bowl. Lightly coat a microwavable bowl with cooking spray. Pour mixture into the bowl and cover with plastic wrap or a microwave cover. Microwave 3 minutes on low, then 3 minutes on medium and 3 minutes on high, for a total of 9 minutes. This varies depending on your microwave. Cook until it is almost translucent, stirring occasionally.

I choose two different fillings; nutella and a raspberry marzipan mixture.

Look at the beautiful new jar of nutella! It is about to be marred for life LOL!

Let the mixture cool a bit so that you don't burn yourself. Many sites said to roll it in a tube or flat rectangle and then cut. I found it best to just use a wet cookie scoop.

If you have silpat, I would strongly recommend it.

Dust the mat with corn starch or potato starch and plop down a scoop of the mixture.

Dip your fingers in the starch. Quickly but gently work the blob into a disk. Be careful not to drag your hands but to pat the dough instead. Don't let them rest on the dough or they will stick. If your hands feel sticky, wash and then re-coat with starch or the sticky on your fingers will stick to the disk and you will literally have a mess on your hands.

I read of sticky horror stories on the web but honestly did not have any trouble with these. But then again, dough and I usually get along :)

Once you have a disk, place in your filling, and then seal like a beggars purse.

Dust off the excess and gently turn the mochi so that the seam is on the bottom. You can choose to put them on a starched plate or in cupcake liners.

Let firm. They can be served room temp, chilled, or even frozen.

The Mochi was a fun little project. I am overall happy with they way my first try turned out. Next time I will choose a firmer filling that I can roll in a ball so they aren't so flat and there is also more filling. I also want to try the ice cream version.