Sweet River Studios

The last 5 or 6 weeks of my cooking class focused on desserts. From classic french pastries such as eclairs and profiteroles to homemade ice cream, cakes, crepes, mousses and souffles. Unfortunately, we didn't get to make macaroons since our instructor is allergic to nuts and therefore almond flour was out but that's okay. We learned to make pate a choux dough, which is used to make eclairs and profiteroles and of course you can make them savory instead of sweet, which we did by adding cheese. We then used the dough to make a little sandwich with bacon, onion and arugula. We also made swans out of the choux dough and filled them with pastry cream and dusted them with powdered sugar.    And finally, we made churros from the choux dough as well. We fried them and then tossed them with sugar and cinnamon. We also made lunch on dessert day since it's hard to eat 8 different kinds of dessert for lunch without throwing up so we made a paella with sausages, ch...

I was doing a lot of planning for a 50th wedding anniversary party that was held on September 12. I started planning this in June since my in-law's 50WA is September 11, which as you all know is now a perfectly depressing day here the U.S. Location? Done. Caterer? Done. Save the Date postcards? Done and done.  I don't work so I've got a lot of time on my hands to kill, so I decided I would do some things myself. Honestly, after the caterer/location rental the budget has dwindled anyway so it's a good thing I'm crafty. I decided to stay away from the large bakeries for the cake so, I went to Giant Eagle Market District in Upper Arlington, since the caterer recommended them for the cake. I spoke to one of the cake decorators and found out a small 3-tiered wedding cake that will feed roughly 60 people will cost just over $300. Normally, I would say "great!" but after thinking about it, I can't image paying $300 for cake and buttercream is simple. I...

Since I've apparently lost my mind, I decided to make a 4 tiered 50th anniversary cake for my in-laws. Seriously, I don't think anyone sane (who doesn't already make cakes for a living) would try this. Why 4 tiers, you ask? Well, because 1) I couldn't decided on what flavors to make so I'm making them all and 2) because the design I have in mind needed to be even. See perfectly good reasons, right? I ordered some cake mixes from Global Sugar Art and they were really good. One cake mix only called for oil and water since the eggs were already in the mix but the second one called for eggs. Apparently, they are changing their formula so you may or may not need to add eggs. Just follow the instructions on their packaging. You can check out all their products here . While, looking for websites, videos and whatnot as to how to do this, I came across something call Cake Lace. This stuff is really cool. You basically smear this paste like substance into a mold, let dry ...