Hot Buns Bakery

slacking

2009-05-28T17:50:00.000-07:00

Hey friends.
I haven't been feeling much like blogging recently. I lost my job a couple of months ago and was feeling pretty down about it (though I'm doing better now), and my camera broke and I can't afford a new one, so it kind of sucks posting iPhone pictures here. Luckily, my very generous friend let me borrow his really nice camera for a few weeks so I got some nice shots.

Cranberry-Orange biscotti. My friend Danielle, who I was in jazz choir with in high school (and actually deserved to be there because she is an amazingly talented singer), saw my stuff on facebook and asked me to make a mother's day gift for her mom, who happens to live right down the street from me. Done and done.

Irish Cream cake. My friend Jeni had a big birthday bash at her house, and her husband said she had fallen in love with an irish cream cake in Iowa, so I made one up. It was pretty tasty. This picture will not turn 90 degrees. Sorry about that.

Vanilla Buttermilk cake with lime curd. Another one of my friends had a birthday party; when I asked a mutual friend what flavor to make she said, "Well, she likes tequila... what goes with tequila?" "Lime!" said I and here we are. Do you like my lime fabric backdrop? Yeah, that was on purpose.

Chocolate Guinness Cake. Again. Sorry about that, guys, but it really is so good, and I get so many requests. Plus, I got some nice snaps of this.

This is as good a time as any to remind you that I've got all kinds of time now to bake you cakes, should you need any. :)

chocolate guinness in london!

2009-03-13T10:44:00.001-07:00

I went to London for a couple of weeks (yeah I snuck that in there) to visit two of my favorite people. While I was there I decided to bake a cake but their oven was really weird so it came out all torte-y, but I'll be danged if it wasn't still pretty delicious.

Valentine's love

2009-02-11T10:30:00.000-08:00

For Valentine's day, I decided to make some limited edition chocolate truffles and pawn them off on my friends, family and coworkers. I will let the pictures tell the story.

last weekend's escapades

2009-02-08T12:44:00.000-08:00

So here it is, Sunday, and I still haven't gotten around to posting anything from LAST weekend's bakefest! My sincere apologies.

Cake the First:

Made for a friend of a friend. Kind of last minute - I stayed up late to do it. I hope it was alright.

Cake the Second was a mud pie for Andrew's birthday, it was pretty ugly and I didn't get any pictures, but it was tasty and disappeared quickly :)

Moving on, cake the third:

This was a cake referral from the wedding cake I made in October; one of the guests liked it and wanted a cake for her mother's 90th birthday party. I think it turned out pretty with the fresh flowers! this was another chocolate guinness.

Cake the Fourth:

This was for Erin Texas' birthday - same day as the 90th birthday one and they were both chocolate guinness! The first one had a whipped ganache frosting which I think is fine for cupcakes but it's a pain when you're trying to get it all smooth and pretty. I think I'd do a chocolate buttercream or just straight ganache next time instead. Erin's was a cream cheese frosting, tinted pink from the first cake's decorations, but I think it turned out really pretty! I wish I had made the frosting stiffer on hers so the cake didn't show through as much, but it was still very nice, and most importantly, tasty.

apple pie with bacon-cheddar crust

2009-01-25T21:44:00.001-08:00

I don't even know if I have to explain this very much, except that unlike most of the other bacon applie pies on the internet, this one has cheddar in the crust, and the bacon is very minimal: just pressed into the top crust. It stays crispy and there's no bacon grease in the pie itself, which is what grossed me out about those apple pies with the bacon lattice top. shudder.

If you are wondering how awesome it is, I will just say: I went to a bacon party and while the mac and cheese won, this was the only other dish that got mentioned, and there were literally dozens of dishes involving bacon. I think that's pretty dang good.

January cooking escapades!

2009-01-25T21:15:00.000-08:00

In reverse order of time: Krista's birthday cake. She requested something fruity, so I improvised on a vanilla buttermilk cake, having no buttermilk, and substituting sour cream. It totally worked. I added vanilla beans and meyer lemon zest + juice, making it truly posh. I added a lemon glaze (which I may skip next time, I thought it was too sugary tasting) and topped it with blueberries that I cooked slightly in a sugar/water/flour/lemon zest sauce. Divine.

This was about to be the most delicious soup ever. Also pretty dang basic. I had an inauguration party and ended up making 4 soups, and while they were all delicious this one was by far my fave. I started with a whole chicken ($3.50!) and added celery, onions, carrots, bay leaves, and water, simmered for a couple of hours, strained out everything but the chicken and carrots, picked the meat off the chicken, and added it back to the broth with the carrots and some basil and oregano and salt, and threw some pasta in at the end. That's it. It was so flavorful and healthy and I want to make it every week just so I can eat it all the time. mmm.

Here is some rosemary flatbread (recipe from Gourmet mag via smitten kitchen) and fig jam. We ate it with some St. Andre I got in the market and it was divine.

Bacon-blue cheese gougeres. I left the salt out of these, since last time I made them they were pretty salty, what with the salt in the bacon and the cheese - and they were a little boring. I will have to tweak further next time.

All in all, I have been cooking much more so far this year, and feeling like I'm eating much more deliciously and cheaply, if not more healthily :)

Cheers,

Abby

catching up

2009-01-08T10:31:00.000-08:00

I realized there are quite a few things I have forgotten to tell you about. My apologies. Please find them listed below:

1) Dutch Babies in the oven for a friend breakfast chez my parents. It's basically eggs, flour, and milk cooked in a cast iron skillet (you could use a pie plate too) in butter. We top them with powdered sugar and lemon juice and it's divine. It's also called German Pancake sometimes. This is the sweet version of a savory Yorkshire Pudding, which is the same egg/flour/milk deal cooked in beef drippings, YUM.

2) Hand rolled espresso and orange chocolate truffles. I started making these many years ago at Christmas and have also made them for Valentine's day. They're so easy to make and it's easy to experiment with flavors. I keep getting better at making them. I want some right now.

3) the "after" [smash] picture of the boot cake. It really doesn't look that bad at all and you can't tell how devastated I was when I first saw it. I should have taken a picture of the "during smash" part, but honestly I was hysterical this entire time. Not ha-ha hysterical, but the-world-may-end hysterical. So here is my folly, on the internet for all to see.

4) A lovely German Chocolate cake for Jenn's mom in December. I did post this, but on my other blog, because I was not paying attention. It is lovely, isn't it?

5) Orange-almond biscotti, in my nice little holiday packaging. I had forgotten my actual camera so this is an iphone shot, and iphones do not really jive with the whole "macro" thing. The label says 'Handmade Goodies and Holiday Cheer - with love from Abby'. I made several dozen of these, chocolate chip cookies, oatmeal cranberry pecan cookies, and brownies, packaged them in half-dozens, and sold them for $5 a bag in a wee bake sale at my desk right before Christmas, at which I both sold out and cleaned up. I bought new spatulas and ski pants :)

6) the digital flyer for the aforementioned bake sale. I should mention that I use Photoshop extensively to lure my coworkers into stopping by my desk and eating things. I should probably post an album of my teasers.

I hope you have a fabulous day, and Happy New Year to all of you!

xo. abbs

Happy New Year!

2009-01-01T10:20:00.000-08:00

My friends over at Roses and Rosemary threw a fundraiser for New Year's Eve and asked me to do the food. Ever happy to oblige, I threw together a vast spread of cheeses, baked goods, and other nibbles for 150 people - and came in under budget (which wasn't so high to start with!). I wish I had more close-ups because some of this stuff was great, but here's the array.

Some of the highlights included the gingerbread squares - dense and moist and flavorful but not too sweet; gougeres (cheese puffs) - basically a savory choux pastry to which I added blue cheese and chunks of crispy bacon; and some spiced nuts I made myself.

At the end of the night there was food left over so I got to smuggle some cheese to Canada to eat over the weekend :)

Rachael's 30th

2008-12-24T13:37:00.000-08:00

I made a delicious cake (two actually) and Ray, Rachael's fiance, took an absolutely amazing photo of it. I share this with you here, so you can enjoy all the glory.

Mo's wedding cake!

2008-10-17T18:51:00.001-07:00

Here are some slightly blurry pictures of Mo's wedding cake that I just dropped off - she wanted something sparkly so I threw sanding sugar on the sides and it worked beautifully. Plus the lady at the cake store said that's exactly what all the brides are doing now, so Mo is totally de rigeur. The top and bottom layers are chocolate and the middle is banana, and it's iced in a cream cheese frosting. YUM. I took the day off work today to bake it and it was exactly the right timeline (even with two excursions - one to Fred Meyer for cream cheese and sugar, and one to the cake store for boxes & sanding sugar, then Safeway for more butter because somehow I ran out. Bizarre. I am breathing much easier now that there are four pounds of butter in my freezer again.

I think I will be still a little nervous about this one until I hear that there was enough - all the cake diagrams disagree on how many servings each tier serves but the average seemed to be about 100 so I hope I made a safe bet with this size! The 12" bottom layer is just about as big as I'd want to handle solo.

By the way, I should mention that my very dear mother helps me with most of my cakes, because she is pretty much the best mom ever - but I had to fly solo on this one and I'm pretty proud of myself. I wish I had better pictures but hopefully someone will forward one of the professional shots to me :)

Congratulations to Mo and Mike!

Love,

Abby

german chocolate cake from scratch

2008-10-08T18:27:00.000-07:00

Two of the structural engineers for my biggest project at work (who I LOVE, they are super awesome in addition to being intelligent and responsive - no small feat on this project!) had birthdays the same day, one week after mine. They agreed german chocolate cake would be the best. I made this sucker from scratch and hand delivered it to Bellevue, and holy dang it was good. I think the most fun part was that Jeff had forgotten he had told me when his birthday was and I got a blank stare and jaw-drop when I walked into his office with a pink box. I love surprises!

Emerald City Swank

2008-10-04T18:23:00.000-07:00

I donated a key lime cheesecake with mango ribbons (seriously I think this is the most gorgeous cake I have ever made)

and yet another chocolate peanut butter cake

to Seattle Works' Emerald City Swank fundraiser. I think the chocolate peanut butter cake slid in the box en route to the venue but I didn't open it because my mom said not to - and one of the SW volunteers wrote me a nice little note saying she got to eat some of it and it was delicious, and that's all I ask. :)

seriously deep dish apple pie

2008-09-24T10:26:00.000-07:00

the apples were pink inside - so was the pie!

volunteered

2008-09-23T17:28:00.001-07:00

so I get a call from my boss today, and she says "you know, there is a giant box of apples on my desk... and your name keeps coming up. Can you do something with them?" I say, "are you fishing for a pie?"
yes.
so I have a giant bag and we'll see what happens tonight :)

mocha caramel cake

2008-09-18T12:00:00.000-07:00

yes. it was that good.

going pro

2008-09-08T13:14:00.000-07:00

So this weekend I had two cake commissions: one, a red velvet cowboy boot for 50; the other, a vanilla buttermilk + lemon curd for 6-8. Both were through people I had met exactly once, randomly, at a bar. Thanks, bars (fado + little red hen), for not only providing delicious adult beverages, but also for furthering my baking career.

I enlisted the beautiful and talented Mrs. Taylor's assistance for the cowboy boot and it turned out AMAZING. For five blocks. En route to the party, a truck pulled out in front of me and I had to slam on the brakes - it was me or the cake, and the cake lost. I pulled over and cried, a lot, and called Stacy who had ordered it, and she was so nonchalant. "Just bring it over and we'll put it back together, it's totally not a big deal!" And I got there, and we pushed everything generally back in place, and everyone was totally cool about it. Stacy and Christine, you guys are the bomb.

The other was 100% less disastrous and one of my favorites to make. I don't have a picture because my camera somehow fell between the passenger seat and passenger door in my car, leading me to believe that it was somehow lost or stolen at the bar, but no, it's my own dumb fault. I found it the next day, but didn't get pictures of Cake Two. Kate did though, so when she downloads pics from the weekend I'll post it here. It was very pretty, and according to one of the partygoers, "f***ing money". I think he meant to say that it tasted pretty good too.

So, successful cake-ing weekend. I brought the cuts from the boot to work today and they are slowly being demolished by my ravenous coworkers. Also, my kitchen is a mess. Anyone know where I can buy a kitchen gnome? I need one.

p.s. I do have a picture of the wrecked boot - and you bet your butt i'm sending it to cakewrecks.

chocolate peanut butter cake

2008-08-28T16:54:00.000-07:00

Naturally, this one is from Smitten Kitchen. When I saw it on her blog I sent it to my best friend and she said "I WANT THAT IMMEDIATELY!" How can you miss with chocolate and peanut butter? the answer: you can't. This cake is all kinds of glorious. It's a chocolate cake, with peanut butter cream cheese frosting, and chocolate peanut butter ganache on top.

sooo moooooist and deliiciousss mmmmmmm....

vegan zucchini spice cake

2008-08-11T16:48:00.000-07:00

yet another work birthday cake. my mom gave me a truly ginormous zucchini and the birthday girl requested a spice cake, so i made this deliciousness here. I found the recipe on the internet somewhere, i'll have to dig it up and link to it because really, it was amazingly delicious. eggs were replaced by ground flaxseed (thanks coffee grinder!). mmmm.

wedding cake!

2008-08-05T14:50:00.000-07:00

So Renee requested a whipped cream frosting, which is what I put on the other one, but I was worried about it melting in case the cake had to sit outside. Turns out it would have been fine but I played it safe and made a Swiss meringue buttercream instead. I made it the day before and put it in the fridge. The next day I had to whip it back to the proper consistency.... and in my hurry to make it to the wedding on time, under-whipped by a few minutes. It was fine but just a little too translucent - the extra air would have helped make it opaque. As such, the cake showed through a bit, and I was putting the cake together from the back at the hall so I didn't realize the front needed to be smoothed. BUT now I have learned from my mistakes. Anyway, Renee liked it and it was tasty, so that is what counts, right? I ended up with three layers (6", 8" and 10") and it was the perfect size.

Whew.

Cakefest Part Five

2008-07-31T10:16:00.000-07:00

12) magic half-and-half cake for Thomas' going away. We were out for farewell drinks the night before (this seems to be a running problem) so, lacking in both time and sobriety I pulled two random single layers out of my freezer.
"who has cakes in their freezer, just ready to go?"
the answer: this girl does.
Left, you see the vanilla-buttermilk cake with lemon curd that I brought to Keith and Leanne's anniversary party. Right, a banana cake that may have been in the freezer too long but nobody complained. Both of these recipes had made three layers and generally only two fit into my cake boxes, so for the extra I just have to save it :) I cut each layer in half and stacked them, and just stuck them up against each other, and frosted the whole thing with cream cheese frosting (because that's what I had. Deal.)

13) Et puis, a carrot cake for Dave Laielli's birthday. Now, this probably was not the best decision - I woke up early realizing that I hadn't baked it the night before, and realized I was out of baking soda - no joke - so I had to wait until Fred Meyer opened at 7 am, and, inefficiently using my time, arrived at work at 10 am with a warm cake and half my team not around to eat it. However, we found some volunteers for other teams to decimate it. Such is one of the benefits of having 600 people in the Seattle office.

Also, that was my last cake board - of my second batch of ten fancy ones. I didn't think I got them that long ago! but, as noted, I have been baking up a storm. Time for a trip to the store...

Now just one more, a reprise of the vanilla-buttermilk/lemon curd cake for Renee's wedding this weekend! I'm really excited. Her wedding will be low key, and they have ordered some sheet cakes already, so I'm just supplying a smallish cake for them to ceremoniously cut, but I'm still all nervous about it. It is supposed to be nice this weekend, which is awesome, but i'm using a whipped cream frosting and I don't want it to melt or anything. I think it will be ok - I'll keep you posted.

Obscene Birthday Week(s) Part 4

2008-07-23T14:04:00.000-07:00

In Which we describe cakes 362-915. Or maybe it just feels that way. There were actually 10 birthdays in 2 weeks, plus one wedding anniversary and one (future) goodbye cake. And there is one straggler birthday next week. Holy crap.

Ok, but really, I am numbering these: 7. Two rhubarb pies for Monica

And I forgot to take a picture of them. Here is a picture of her and ani looking gorgeous and me looking kicked on the side there. wtf.

8. Chocolate Guinness Cake for Sean

Three cake boxes fit into the DCI reuseable grocery bag. Barely. Good to know. Also, it is very heavy.

Chocolate guinness cake, again, blah, blah. Actually, even though I've made this three times recently, I am not tired of it yet. It is so amazing. Chocolatey but not sweet, rich but not overwhelming, airy and moist, dense without being torte-y. It is everything and more.

9. and 10. Brownie cheesecake for Tracy and David.

I had to combine Tracy and David's birthdays because I clearly have gone off the deep end already but they sit next to each other and are good at sharing. Tracy likes anything with chocolate, David likes cheesecake, so here we go.

I found this recipe on the oft-mentioned smittenkitchen.com (Deb, I'm sure I'm not your only creepy stalker) and it was amazing. For reference, folks: cheesecake with chunks of brownie in it is a GOOD idea.

looks tasty on the outside

looks glorious on the inside.

And this gem was the vanilla buttermilk cake that Deb made for her friend's wedding. It was moist and tangy and fantastic, with homemade lemon curd in between and just plain ole whipped cream frosting it. Yummy Town, population: this cake. I think maybe someday for presentation purposes I might cut off the browned edges, but in reality that is entirely too labor intensive for this girl. I will, however, invest in straight-sided pans, because even though the $5 nonstick pans from Freddy's work amazingly, they do not a pretty presentation make. Sigh. Someday.

For reference, that was Celebration #11 this fortnight, for Keith and Leanne's 1 year wedding anniversary, since they happen to be in town from Scotland!

Insane Birthday Week Part 3

2008-07-17T12:40:00.001-07:00

Nos. 5 and 6 (I am retroactively numbering this fortnight's celebrations just to put a value on my insanity.)
In the interest of time I had to combine Matt and Joe's birthdays this week. But I did make a double batch of oatmeal raisin pecan cookies, which entirely filled up my standard 10x10x4" box. They were still warm when I got here and I tell you, people went apeshit. Not for no good reason, though. Check out this tasty goodness:

it's official: I am insane.

2008-07-15T09:00:00.001-07:00

There are nine birthdays this week. Nine. Two of them are Patty and Monica, but the other seven are work peeps. So today I present you with three birthday treats:

ha cha cha!

a tiramisu (#2) for Asuka, since it is her favorite! The plastic wrap stuck to the cocoa over on the left there so there's a little bald spot, but Asuka is allergic to chocolate so hopefully she ate that piece.

a cherry pie (#3) for Gary! Mom actually made this one, I was going to go down to her house for the dessert-fest, and by the time I got there she was already putting the lattice on. "I just thought I'd get this one started for you." she says. My mom is the best.

a chocolate stout cake (#4) for Joe. If anyone would appreciate a cake with beer in it, it would be Joe. He brews his own and is pretty good at drinking it too, I hear.

Each one of these cakes has an oops in it - the tiramisu/cocoa snafu, a giant chunk out of the back of the chocolate cake from when I tried to move it (it's super moist and crumbly) as well as where the ganache stuck to the box, and one of the lattice pieces on the pie was completely missed and is just sort of sitting on top instead of being woven in (but you wouldn't have ever noticed that, would you? of course not.) - but they're all going to be deeeelicious. Yes sir.

lemon cheesecake with raspberries

2008-07-11T09:38:00.000-07:00

My best friend Monica's mom Patty had a birthday last weekend, and the whole family got to go out to the ocean for the weekend. Since Monica's boyfriend couldn't make it, I got to be the stand-in, and got the honors of a birthday cake! Patty's favorite flavors are lemon and raspberry, so I made a lemon cheesecake and just crowned it with fresh raspberries. It was really fantastic.

Yum.

(I am retroactively numbering this fortnight's celebrations just to put a value on my insanity. This is number one.)

patriotic pies

2008-07-05T08:58:00.000-07:00

We came through with another dozen pies this year for the 4th. Good times.

brownie-nosing - birthday treats for the boss

2008-06-16T11:21:00.000-07:00

Last year for Michael's birthday I made him chocolate chip cookies, so I thought I'd mix it up and make brownies this year since I haven't come across another stellar-looking chocolate cake, and this brownie recipe is a guaranteed winner every time. (it's from the Klutz kids cooking book. No joke.) I swirled a bit of caramel on the top for some crunchy goodness. I've also made this with raspberry jam swirled into it, pecans, chocolate chips, dried cherries... you can mix anything into it, or leave it as such. They're fudgy and rich and chocolatey but not too much of anything.

Yum.

very lemony lemon-yogurt cake for Jim S.' birthday

2008-06-12T11:39:00.001-07:00

So I saw the recipe for lemon-yogurt cake on smitten kitchen and since everything she makes is delicious, I thought I'd give it a whirl. It came out pretty dense but the lemon flavor was simply amazing. Tart and bright but not puckery. Look how excited Jim is!

and look how delicious the cake is! mmm. It came out denser than sk's looked, but there was definitely a lot of batter in each pan (I made a double batch for 2 layers) and so the baking time may have needed to be adjusted. It tasted pretty eggy but I'm a fan of the German Pancake (google it) which our family always called Dutch Baby, and this tastes pretty much exactly like that, since we always covered the pancake with powdered sugar and lemon juice.

A vanilla-enriched whipped cream made a nice little hat for this cake, and cut the tart just enough.

oh, and I put a smidgen of lemon curd in between the layers, because I had some, so there.

banana cake for Ms. Schalk's retirement party

2008-06-09T11:34:00.000-07:00

So I found out via facebook that my third grade teacher was retiring, and they had a party for her at the community center. Last names S-Z were supposed to bring desserts, but I guess there are a heck of a lot of S-Zs because the dessert table was so crammed I couldn't even find a place to put this. I stuck it under the table and brought it home, whole, for my dad to take to work. I forgot to ask him to take pictures of it cut, but he said it was gone "in about ten minutes" so I guess it looked pretty tasty inside, right?

cream cheese frosting. Mmm.

oatmeal - cherry scones

2008-05-30T10:21:00.000-07:00

ze box:

ze goods:

Red Velvet and Chocolate Guinness cupcakes

2008-05-20T10:16:00.000-07:00

Here are the real cupcakes that were donated to the Roses and Rosemary event. Piped roses by Mrs. Taylor, photo by Tatiana Skye. Thanks Tati!

mmmmm

2008-05-13T17:35:00.000-07:00

red velvet cupcakes with cream cheese frosting, test batch for the roses and rosemary event Saturday.

rum pecan cake for Thomas' birthday

2008-05-01T13:05:00.000-07:00

the internet calls this "Marry Me" cake, sometimes, when it's not all hung up on the cup and a half of rum involved.

Chuck Pautz says this is the best cake he's ever eaten in his life. Must be good, right?

apparently it was.

pineapple upside down cake for Mike Winnick's birthday

2008-04-30T13:02:00.000-07:00

ask and ye shall recieve.
I meant to add delicious things like nutmeg and cardamom to the batter but let's face it, it was 7 am and i was hung over from the night before.
it was delicious anyway.

key lime cheesecake with mango topping for Karol's birthday

2008-04-25T10:45:00.000-07:00

karol requested a key lime cheesecake for his birthday.
smitten kitchen had a key lime cheesecake with mango. yes please.
it tasted every bit as glorious as it looks, and then some. and i don't even like mango.

carrot cake for Tony's birthday

2008-04-01T10:39:00.000-07:00

I slaved all night for this one...

and Tony took the day off. We ate it without him. mmm.

I used the pre-shredded carrots for this one in the interest of time (and not running my food processor at 11 pm for the sake of my neighbors and their new baby) and they are a little coarser than I would have done, but it turned out just fine. It was pretty chunky? for a cake but tasty nonetheless. I put bits of lemon and orange zest in the cream cheese frosting.

guinness cake for st. patty's day

2008-03-17T10:36:00.000-07:00

I got the recipe for this gem from my best friend, because she is awesome. It is moist and dense but not heavy... pretty much everything I want in a cake. I drenched it in an irish-cream laced ganache. Good choice.

there definitely aren't enough blogs on the internet

2008-03-07T10:50:00.000-08:00

...but here's one more. I need to support my other obsession, baking. yummm...

p.s. this isn't really baking... but it's French toast with orange zest, Grand Marnier, and orange juice in the batter, along with a healthy splash of cream. Topped with whipped cinnamon honey and whipped cream. A vacation Sunday breakfast fit for a king.