Cocoa Coffee Bread with Raspberries

A sweet rich bread that could practically be considered a cake, but lets just call it bread, so we can eat it for breakfast.

*color balance is a bit off in these photos, I know, I was having trouble going from scanner to photoshop. 

So finally a recipe post! I feel like I have not posted a proper recipe in a long time. But I have gotten back into the swing of things and am baking like crazy again. Going to the farmers market in San Francisco has made me want to bake up a storm. Everything looks so amazing and fresh there that I get so many ideas of what to bake. On Sunday I baked three different things, and photographed them of course. All from goodies from the farmers market, so more frequent recipe posts to come!

This bread comes out super soft and luscious, and the whole raspberries in it make a nice little surprise. Swap out the raspberries for any other berry you fancy, blueberries would be a great idea and make it a nice dark colored loaf. 

Another delivery in the city today for the bakery. This one was pretty close to the crowds of downtown but I at least found a spot to stop for a minute to let my co-worker run out of the car to deliver the cupcakes. And then getting back to the shop was a bit of an adventure. Knowing that we need to head to the right of where we were and not understanding why the GPS said to left, we decided to go our own way. Which did not work out the best. After a few confusing turns, we ended up on the Bay Bridge which was the exact opposite of where the shop is. We needed to go further into San Francisco not leave it entirely. Luckily we were able to turn around at Treasure Island so we didn't have to pay the bridge toll, which is outrageous.  

The photo above is my favorite, love how crackly the tops of the loaf came out. 

I'm going to see the Claire Ptak baking demo/lecture presentation thing tomorrow night! I can't wait!! 

A variation of a recipe from here

Champagne Grape Tarts

I went to the little farmers market at Pier 39 when a friend came to visit me in San Francisco. I didn't even know they had a market there. There was not many stalls, really only one person but with a bunch of tables. The fruit they had their was really amazing actually! The cherries were some of the biggest I had ever seen, the strawberries had the steams still on them which I had never seen before in real life. Only in photos did I come across that fresh picked strawberry look. And then I saw Champagne Grapes! I fell completely in love with Champagne Grapes when I was working at a local grocery store years ago and they randomly got them in. I only saw them once their and have never seen them again. They are so small and flavorful, you just grab a whole handful and I didn't even mind that I might have ate a bit of steam. Its worth it. 

So when I saw them at the market, I knew I had to make something out of them. What better than just a simple little tart with a bunch of fresh fruit on it. The hazelnut pastry cream went well with the grapes, a nice nutty flavor with the sweet fruit. I found the hazelnut extract at a restaurant supply store but I bet you can find it online or at any local specialty shop. 

Oh dear, so today was my first day where I had to do all the deliveries at the bakery. The boss is on vacation so it was all on me. Driving in San Francisco has always been okay for me, never a real issue but just bothersome. But today driving was pure madness! Two of the deliveries were either on Market or right off of it, which is one of the worst places to drive. There are so many one way streets, pedestrians everywhere and you can only drive on Market for about a block before it makes you turn off it. Apparently only the bus can go straight down Market so what should have been a 7 minute drive from the shop took an hour! And then when I finally found what I thought was a metered parking spot, I parked, fed the meter then ran into the building to deliver the cupcakes. Only to come out after a few minutes to find a 75 dollar ticket! It was a yellow painted parking spot, so I didn't know what that meant but I thought since it had a meter it must be ok to park. Also having like four different signs explaining the no parking restrictions, that were all contradicting each other didn't help either. So not the most successful day but hopefully this next week of deliveries will go better. 

Pastry Cream recipe a variation from here

New Print added to The Figgy.

New print added to The figgy, the egg photos from the previous post:

Come check it out HERE

Change up in the photos at the shop to happen soon.... watch out

Eggs

Do you love this photo? I love how it came out so much! I just go the film back and this is my favorite photo from the whole roll. At work we use those organic free range eggs so they always look different. They sometimes have spots, different hues and sometimes even have feathers still attached! So I got my lovely co-worker to hold them even though it throughly freaked her out, it kinda did for me too. It just makes the whole 'this was supposed to be a chicken' thing a bit too real. 

Might just have to update the shop soon...

UPDATE:

now available at The Figgy

Almond, Cherry & White Chocolate Cake

My first time with gumpaste! I convinced my lovely co-worker to walk me through my first time. Well, I didn't really have to convince her, she is always willing to teach me anything I don't know how to do. So I needed decided on what to make, something simple & classic without looking cheesy. I remembered the movie 'Run Fat Boy Run' and the wedding cake they had at the beginning with the little daisies scattered on it. It was probably only in the movie for a few seconds, if that. But it made an impression. I normally don't like many wedding cakes because they just go so over the top and look tacky. These little flowers on a minimal white cake was amazing to me. 

So with the opportunity to work with gumpaste, I just had to try to make these little flowers. And I'm in love with them! They were so simple to make, it reminded me of being in art class when I was little. Once the gumpaste is all made, you just have to roll it out, cut out the shape, form the shape then just let them dry. Just get one of those gumpaste mix cans and watch some YouTube videos, the best way to learn for free. It is a lot easier to see someone do it on the screen rather than just reading the instructions on the can and trying to understand exactly what the manufacturers mean.

This cake is the white version of the Chocolate Blackberry Cake I made a while back. So I just changed up the flavorings and fruits and viola! a new cake. 

Almond and cherry, one of the ultimate combinations for me. It just goes perfect together and I don't know why, it's the tastes that blend together so well but also the smells. When I was young I remember using a cherry-almond lotion and thinking it smelled like heaven. I would find any excuse to use it, I just wanted that scent around me at all times. 

Hand-dipped all natural beeswax birthday candles. I wish I could say I made them myself, one day when I have the time, but no I got them shipped to me in a little brown box from some website.
They make me never want to go back to the white striped candles that come in that little yellow box from the grocery store.

A variation of a recipe from Country Living

Sage & Parm Crisps

On my past two trips to Monterey, at this restaurant on the end of the pier we had hear amazing french fries. They were the really thin crispy ones, fried with sage and topped with a bunch of shaved Parmesan. I never would have thought that fried sage would taste good but it was amazing. I ended up picking around all the fries and just eating all the sage. I knew from the moment I had them I immediately had to make something with sage. Never having deep fried anything in my life, I'm going to leave that venture to when I make a proper doughnut or just have a massive let's fry every vegetable possible day. So I found a recipe for cheese crisps that just called for only two ingredients, Parmesan and rosemary. Sage could totally be my take on this recipe I thought. All you have to do is bake them and the cheese and sage blend together to make this magical crispy cracker that is completely perfect on it's own or good to top a salad if you feel to inclined to have real food. 

These don't spread out too much, but I would still give them a bit of room on the baking sheet. Otherwise you might just end up with one giant crisp! Which doesn't sound like such a bad thing...

I just found out about a lecture, speaking, baking event thingy. I don't know what to properly call it, its called 'Tasting Salon: Pastries with Claire Ptak' and I just bought my ticket! Its about an hour and a half away from me so I'll have to rush a bit after work the day its on, but I don't care. I am so excited to go to it! I have yet to go to her shop in London, because it is so far away, but it all looks so magical and amazing. Reading her book, seeing all the different flavors that the bakery does, the decor and styling of the shop. It is all perfect. I just want to move to London now. Hopefully at the event I don't go all 'Oh my gosh she is so amazing and just blankly stare at her with wide eyes' which tends to happen to me. Hopefully they will let in cameras!

Two Film Photos:

Chocolate Molasses Cake with Salted Caramel Buttercream

So Martha calls this cake 'chocolate spice' cake but I think it should be called 'chocolate molasses' cake. There is a whole 2/3 of a cup of molasses! It tastes amazing, I love it, but it's not a spice cake. Its a molasses cake.

No process shots this time, I would say sorry, but I was just so tired, you are lucky I even made the cake! I now kinda wish I would have taken process shots once I typed that statement, but 'its ok' I have to tell myself, I make cakes ALL the time.

I have found that ramekins are the perfect size for an individual mini cake. Just bigger than a normal cupcake but that finished look of a proper cake. Do you love my new little orange Le Creuset ramekins? Upon first seeing them I thought, 'Orange??' normally not a color I would go for. But after further examination I kinda was in love with them for some reason. The orange began to remind me of an old country kitchen. Now I am completely obsessed. I wish I could go off to some rural old town and find all my old baking and kitchen utilities. I never end up liking the stuff I buy that is new, as compared to the used items. All the new things just look too perfect, but it keeps being hard to find old country kitchen items in the Bay Area.

Ok, so you all saw Hannah's Honey & Jam Terrain photo post, right? I want to go to Terrain so much more now, and I was already looking at their website daily just for inspiration, but Hannah captured it so perfectly. Her photos are like my bible. They all have this soft coffee-colored hue to them and look so lush, I want to be able to handle post-processing like she does. Bah!, give me lessons!

Recipes from Martha Stewart's Cupcakes book and Chow.com