Cake Decorating Class

Several years ago, my siblings and I were throwing a 50th anniversary party for my parents.  I wanted to make a fancy two-tier cake, so I signed up for a Wilton cake decorating class at Micheal's.  When I look back at photos of that cake, it strikes me as "rustic." :)  Not to worry, adding fresh flowers to a cake will distract from what's lacking in the buttercream. 

Piping takes a lot of practice, and I've gotten better over the years.  The ministry coffee shop where I've been volunteering is beginning to host birthday parties complete with cakes, so I had the pleasure of sharing what I've learned with the kitchen staff.  We condensed the 4 lessons into one; which was fine because they picked it up so quickly.

If there isn't a Wilton school near you, I found these resources online:  a lesson plan, and practice sheets.  We put the practice sheets into a plastic bag and piped onto the outside of the bag, scraped it off to practice again, and refilled the bags as needed.  I learned why the Wilton frosting recipe for practice is made with shortening (something not available in Poland).  A frosting with real butter gets too soft from the heat from your hands if you keep using it over and over.  Looking back, I should have made a double batch and we could have been rotating frosting in and out of the fridge.

In spite of the buttercream dilemma, we all had a blast and hope to get together for a second class.  Maybe we'll take on fondant for lesson number 2. 

Bar Raval, Berlin, Germany

You only have one chance to make a first impression.  If you blow it, you'll have to go to great lengths to win me back.

We've eaten at many restaurants that I intended to blog about and didn't because I couldn't find anything nice to say about them.  Generally speaking, I'll skip a review rather than write a negative one.  I'd hate to bash a place because a dish or service was lacking; we can all have an off night.  It's even happened in our kitchen!

I'm making an exception about Bar Raval - mainly because of the fantastic press that lead to our visit - in the interest of full disclosure, you might say.  Some time ago, my husband read about Raval in an airline magazine.  The article talked about the owner, an actor who has visited every tapas bar in Barcelona and the fact that every FC Barcelona match is shown here.  If you're a tapas and/or Barcelona football fan in Berlin, this was billed as the place to be.  We are both, and we were in Berlin.

There is one small room with a television set (the only one in the bar) that was showing the Champions League match up between Barcelona and Real Madrid.  The room was packed, not a square inch of space.  (The concepts of a fire marshal and occupancy limits don't seem to exist in Europe and my claustrophobia and I miss them.)  There were also about 20 people outside gathered around the picture window watching the match being televised inside.

We weren't going to see the match, so that left tapas.  The restaurant was about half full with every empty table sporting a reserved sign.  We finally found a table for two that was open and seated ourselves (a common practice in Europe) as there seemed to be no host or hostess.  A waitress had said hello to us as we entered the room, but then seemed to be ignoring us.  We sat for probably ten minutes - long enough that I was starting to check the time and wonder just how long this would go on. 

I had my back to the room, but my husband could see the waitress and the manager looking at us and talking.  Finally the manager came over and said, "this table is reserved.  There's no sign on it, but it's reserved."  We started to gather our things and Ed asked if there was another table we could move to.  The manager said we could stay, but we should know that they needed the table in TWO hours (for real customers, I guess).  We didn't anticipate staying that long. 

We were given German/Spanish menus, not a problem, after four years in Spain we can navigate a Spanish menu.  My problem is that after being ignored for so long, and taking my first look ever at their menu, they were back to take our order within two minutes.  Did I feel rushed? Yes!  Did I feel welcome? No! There was a lack of hospitality, and it didn't seem to be an oversight; they were proactive about it.

The food we ordered was fine, although, not complicated (chorizo both hot and cold, and garlic chicken).  On the way back to our hotel, we reminisced about the Spanish restaurant we visited on a previous trip to Berlin.  I can't say the food was better, but the atmosphere was definitely more gracious.

Bubble Tea, Quickly Restaurant, Alameda, California

Our youngest daughter is living in Alameda, California, a quaint, small island community in the San Francisco Bay Area, connected to Oakland by bridges and tunnels. We were out for a walk on the last night of my visit when Rachel asked if I'd ever had bubble tea. When it became obvious that I had no idea what she was talking about, she took me to Quickly, an Asian Fusion Cafe with franchises in Northern California and Nevada.

I was so enthralled with the rose bubble tea she bought me that I went back the next day for another tea, a bit of lunch, and asked if I could video the tea making for this post. The staff were a little surprised by my request, but they graciously complied. The packaging process was as fascinating to me as the black tapioca pearls (bubbles) in my tea. We made the tea video just as their lunch rush began. The restaurant filled up with high school students on their lunch break. I can understand why the kids go there. The food and drink are delicious, perfectly and "quickly" prepared and very affordable.

From what I've learned in my research, bubble tea began as a drink for youngsters in Taiwan. It's popularity has spread globally in Asian communities and now comes in all kinds of flavors, some of which include no actual tea - more like a non-carbonated Italian soda.

The bubbles are large tapioca pearls, kept in a syrup after cooking. In the video, I ask my server about the liquid in which the tapioca is stored. You may not be able to hear her answer; she says that's honey flavored. The end result is a gummy bear texture and taste.

So here's a peek at the actual process. We start of with a serving of the bubbles (also known as bobas, remember my fascination with the filled, popping bobas at the yogurt shop?), rose syrup, ice, cold water, and then the top of the cup is sealed. You drink bubble tea with a special straw. It has a pointed end to pop through the sealed lid and is big enough to allow the blueberry sized tapioca to travel up the straw. So tasty and so much fun!

My food was great too:

I couldn't pass up the shrimp, something we don't find in Poland

I believe the sesame balls are a white sweet potato dough with a dab of black bean in the center. At the WOOK restaurants in Poland, these are served with a drizzle of caramel sauce for dessert

Blueberry Cornmeal Muffins

I'm #5 below
Check out all of the muffin entries and cast your vote by clicking on the photos

My third Crazy Cooking Challenge

As I was scouring the internet for blueberry muffin recipes, I found these muffins on Slow Family Online. I remember my mother making something similar, so I knew Suz had a winner in this post. The addition of cornmeal adds such an interesting texture and substance that I find it difficult to stop eating them. So after a reasonable sampling, I packed up the remaining muffins with some honey butter and took this blueberry goodie bag with me for an appointment at our veterinarian's office. This busy young women in the office were very surprised and very pleased.



Ingredients

1 cup flour
1 cup cornmeal
1/3 cup sugar
2 1/2 tablespoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup buttermilk
1 egg, beaten
1/3 cup canola oil
1 2/3 cups blueberries

Directions

• Preheat oven to 400 F (200 C)
• Place muffin liners in pan or grease the pan
• Whisk together flour, cornmeal, sugar, baking powder, and salt to combine
• In another bowl, combine the buttermilk, egg, and oil
• Add the liquid ingredients to the dry and mix until just combined. (Over mixing hurts the texture)
• Add the blueberries (I was using frozen, so I rinsed them to get rid of the juice and avoid having blue muffins), stirring until just combined
• Fill the muffin pans (3/4 full)
• Bake for 15 to 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean

Makes 21 muffins