The Coy Pond

I got paid to bake! This could be the beginning of a new career. Someday. Maybe.

I can dream, can’t I? People like baked goods a lot more than they like websites!

42 cupcakes
21 chocolate chocolate chip, 21 vanilla chocolate chip
swiss meringue buttercream (heavenly)

These were made for a little girl’s second birthday party. The theme was bubbles. I don’t know if ‘bubbles’ is the first thing you think when you see these cupcakes, but trust me, they looked great at the party! They really fit in well.

Choosing an icing for these cupcakes was definitely an experience. I like making Italian Meringue Buttercream and that is what I intended to make for these, but I could not find pasteurized eggs anywhere! Food Network always says “you can find pasteurized eggs in your local supermarket” and ya know what? They’re wrong! I cannot find them! What we found plenty of is pasteurized egg whites in a carton — Bruce found them and brought them home last week. (What a sweetheart.) So yesterday I tried making an Italian Meringue with the carton whites. Everything was going just fine until I poured the hot sugar syrup into the whipped whites, at which time they decided to become not meringue, but soup. And even with much more whipping, they never stopped being soup.

I can’t decorate with soup!

I almost decided to just say forget it and use shortening-based buttercream (shudder). I mean, I would just use the Italian Meringue if the party-goers were all healthy non-pregnant adults. I am pretty confident that the hot sugar syrup (boiled to 240F) wipes out any potential bacteria in the eggs. Since I don’t know for an absolute fact that the egg whites get to a safe temperature, I could not possibly serve that buttercream to small children. That would be irresponsible. So I went with another option: Swiss Meringue.

Swiss Meringue is made by whisking the egg whites with sugar in a double-boiler before whipping into meringue. By continuously whisking it is possible to get the whites to the safe zone without curdling them. As it turns out, Swiss Meringue tastes remarkably like Italian Meringue (read: dangerously delicious — I can eat a bowlful with a spoon). From what I’ve read, it’s a bit less heat-stable. It could potentially melt off a cake if left out in warm, humid conditions. Intricate decorations might not hold up very well. For my purposes? It was perfect!

I hope they liked them! :)

And, since he JUST thought of this “special message” business and missed his other Grandma’s birthday by a couple weeks:

Happy Birthday to both of you! :)

I bring you… chocolate ice cream!

It’s not the creamiest ice cream ever, and I’m not sure why. See in the picture, it sort of crumbled more than it scooped, even after sitting out for almost 15 minutes. Too much chocolate? A mistake somewhere in the cooking process? I don’t know. It doesn’t really matter, it tastes delicious!

I love chocolate, I love ice cream, but I am rarely thrilled by plain chocolate ice cream. Of course, I’ve never had homemade chocolate ice cream!

The ingredients are simple: bittersweet chocolate, dutch-processed dark cocoa, whole milk, heavy cream, sugar, eggs and vanilla (not pictured: salt).

The finished custard: This picture does not do it justice. It’s deep, dark, intensely smooth and creamy. In person, it resembles a glossy, smooth ganache. It’s not nearly as sweet as any other chocolate ice cream I’ve ever tasted. It is so delicious!

Once the base is chilled, I’ll run it through the ice cream freezer. I’ll report on the finished product when we have our official tasting tomorrow.

“Look mom, I’ve totally mastered rice cereal. I think I’m ready for chocolate ice cream!!”

It takes a lot of practice to get good at portraits.

A portrait can have all the features nailed and be absolutely perfect, and still the overall picture might look nothing like the subject. It’s a strange phenomenon and I’m not sure what causes it, but practice does help! If I remember correctly, back in college I decided that it takes 12 portraits to get over the hump. After 12 portraits, it is possible to make one that actually resembles the subject.

(Not 12 of the same portrait; 12 portraits in general. Practice.)

(Don’t ask me where I came up with the number 12 or if that works for everyone. I’m an artist, not a scientist!)

So anyway, I’m not sure what made me decide to tackle a portrait in my Second Official Pastel Sketch. I’m really not sure what made me decide to paint my son, because as it turns out it’s harder to paint my offspring than it is to paint myself! I know really well what he looks like, and I know really well exactly what about this portrait does not look like him!

Still, I think it came out pretty cool. I am using some fairly cheap pastel paper (Canson Mi-Tientes) and kind of regretting it. I’m not big on the texture the paper is providing here. I’m also not big on the color of the paper… I think it’s too cool for Jarrod’s skin tone, so I had to kind of fight it rather than let it work for me. Oh well!

I’ll probably stop buying the cheap stuff once I run out and/or become satisfied that my pastel pieces are actual full-fledged paintings instead of being merely sketches.

If I get the energy to put more pastel to this piece, I might try to fill in his outfit so it looks less like a floating head and more like a complete little boy. :)

Earlier today, my very sweet husband was doing the grocery shopping. While he was gone, I thought about how nice it would be to bake something yummy tonight, because of course in my quest to lose baby weight, the first thing I should be thinking about is dessert. So anyway, I thought I could do something really simple — chocolate chip cookies — because they’re Bruce’s favorite dessert. He’s been so patient with my cupcakes and ice cream and whatever else I decide to bake, today he needed chocolate chip cookies.

I knew we only had one more egg in the fridge, so I called to see if he was still at the store. He was actually right outside our front door. Oh well! So when he came in, I said I’d called because I was thinking we could have chocolate chip cookies tonight, if only we had more eggs.

He said, “I can walk to Vons and get some eggs if you want them!”

I said, “Well OK honey, if you really want chocolate chip cookies tonight, I suppose I can make them if you go and get some eggs!”

See? His idea! :)

(As it turned out, the recipe we like most for chocolate chip cookies only calls for one egg. So he didn’t actually need to go to the store. But hey, now I can make egg salad for lunch tomorrow. Or rather I could, if I had any mayonnaise. Hey, honey? Are you busy?)

(I’m kidding!)

(Also, he made the cookies while I fed Jarrod. What a nice husband I have.)

(I have nothing more to say here, I just wanted to add one more set of parentheses.)

***

I have decided that I am a total blog geek at this point. Why? Because I took a picture of our dinner tonight, just to post it here. I’m not even totally convinced it looks that appetizing, but trust me, it was delicious. The menu? Tilapia meuniere, roasted potatoes, roasted green beans. Behold:

Meuniere is one of my favorite things to make, because it takes less than 10 minutes from start to finish. It uses about $5 of ingredients and that’s if I’m making enough for two. If this was ordered at a restaurant, it would be at least $18 if not over $20 per plate. Ridiculous!! If anyone wants the recipe, let me know. It’s stunningly easy and quite tasty.

Capers! Yummy! I am pretty sure the Coy Household goes through more capers than any other home within a 10-mile radius.

***

On to a final topic, not related to food (amazing, I know). Lately, I have been itching… rather, aching to draw, paint, or otherwise create art. I’ve been fiddling around for a few weeks with watercolor but I’m being drawn big time into the soft pastel world. I have a Rembrandt 45-stick portrait set, a small Sennelier half-stick assortment, and a large box of NuPastels. I love the Rembrandts and am looking forward to my birthday when I get my already-picked-out gift of 90 landscape colors.

Anyway, yesterday Bruce took Jarrod out for a couple hours and left me to my pastels, and in that time I managed to produce this:
Not the best photo, but it gets the point across. Anyway, clearly I am a long way from being the next Degas, but I am pretty positive about my start and can’t wait to get my hands back into those pastels. I do feel this is the medium I need to be using right now. I missed this art zone feeling so much! It’s been years since I’ve had it, and I’m so glad it’s back.

One note: that pastel painting is of a photo I found on Google Images. It might be copyrighted so just in case anyone happens to see it and get worked up about that, I’m not selling this piece or anything. No, I don’t think everyone on the internet is reading our brand-new blog, but I have to CMA just in case!