Holla for Challah!

I've been waiting to use that title line since I decided to bake these Challah rolls.  Last weekend, I had a significant bread victory when I prepared some brioche sticky buns using a recipe from a fantastic bed and breakfast in Cambria, CA, called Olallieberry Inn.  When Marjorie, one of the innkeepers, prepared these sticky buns for breakfast one day, I thought I was going to die.  So I bought her cookbook and tried them at home.  I had some yeast leftover and a little more bread-making confidence after making the sticky buns, so I decided to try Challah bread.  

I've had this book on my shelf for a while that I found somewhat intimidating.  It's called Baking Artisan Bread by Ciril Hitz and is a very thorough and detailed description of the bread baking process and several different bread formulas (French, Brioche, Croissant, Challah, Bagel, Pizza, etc.).  After reading through all the formulas, I noticed that the Challah bread looked like a good place to start.  I could do it all in one day (not over two days), I had all my ingredients, and it seemed very straightforward.

I began with a sponge starter: a mixture of some of the flour, all the yeast, and most of the warm water.  Once that was ready (after about 30 minutes), I prepared the dough using more flour and water, plus oil, honey, eggs, salt, and sugar.  All the mixing and kneading could be done with my KitchenAid mixer equipped with the dough hook.  I can't tell you my delight when I was able to form a true gluten pane with my dough!  Just like the pictures in the book!  After a rise, division of dough into six 100g parts, a quick 20 minute resting period, and shaping my rolls, I had an assortment of Challah knots.

Following a 1 hour secondary rise, egg wash, and sprinkling of poppy seeds, they were ready to go into the oven.  After 25 minutes, I ate one almost immediately after I pulled the tray from the oven.  We had the rest for dinner with our beef stew.  I'm seriously contemplating making these for Thanksgiving...

Rockin' Drum Set Cake

Not everyone can actually say with seriousness that they have a cool boss. We can. Just last week, our boss turned 40 and we seized the opportunity to celebrate the occasion/embarrass him. I took on the responsibility of baking a cake suitable for the event. Our boss loves chemistry like nothing else, but this seemed too easy and obvious a choice for the cake. Instead I focused on one of his hobbies: drumming.

With the help of Chris, we designed and built a platform (using a sheet of plywood, 1/2" dowels, 1/4" dowels, and small wood discs) to hole several cake drums and fondant cymbals in a configuration including 5 drums (two toms, big tom, snare, and bass) and a "cushioned" stool. For the most part, the small drums for the various platforms were pretty straightforward; what was challenging was the bass drum. Cake typically hates to be turned on its side. It settles, crumbles, falls over, and never looks the way you want it in the end. I took a page from the Hometown Homage cake and constructed the bass drum of rice krispie treats. When covered in buttercream and fondant, it looks just like a cake but has better structural integrity. The other challenge for this cake were the cymbals. For these, I used fondant treated with a little gumtex (to firm it up more and help it dry out) and templated them with teacup saucers. I punched little holes in their centers and suspended them on top of the 1/4" dowels.

Overall, I was very very pleased with the outcome and I think the boss was pretty excited about it too. The only drawback to this design is that there isn't really enough cake to serve a large group. To make up for that, I prepared about 70 cupcakes in three different varieties.