Asiago Bagels!

It had been 9 months since I had a bite of my favourite Asiago bagel... I had been craving for it... While in SF, picking up a Asiago bagel at the corner of my office was a daily morning ritual.... In State college, a bagel shop is too much to ask I guess, we have to be content with just the waffle shop and Dunkins...
So, during my blog browsing routine, I found a great blog with very nice recipe with pictures which makes trying new "so-assumed tough" recipes less intimidating.....  Bagel has been on my "To Try" list for a really long time since I do not enjoy plain bagels as much as I enjoy Asiago bagels.... If I was going to go through all the long process of making the bagel, it better be my favourite bagel....
Recently, I found out that Gaints store sells the Asiago cheese that I desperately need , no sorry want! Well, got a small block of it and got going with making the bagels.... the whole process takes a long time since the yeast needs to works its 'magic' but other wise the steps are very simple....
I amde 8 off them, 4 of them were a little tough since I let them sit a little longer since I wanted them to have more color... but did right with the next 4 of them....
Ate one right from the oven, it tasted good but I think they tasted great the next day.... Gave some to my friend Gaby and she loved them!!! Good feedback means its a recipe for keeps.... :)

Wilton Course 3 Final Cake!

Wilton course 2 & 3 were mainly learning to make flowers and techniques so we baked only one cake per course for the final class... Course 3 was all  about making flowers from gum paste and fondant.... I was excited that we would be leaning how to cover a cake with fondant and get the cake a very "pro' look....
For my cake I chose a chocolate cake with vanilla frosting.... As, I have mention in the previous many posts I totally HATE butter cream frosting... I have never been a "sugar" person and butter cream was just giving my teeth shocks... For this cake which I was also taking it to the International dinner at Viky's college, I decided to put some effort and make a frosting that was on my "To-Try" list for a looong time....  The blog writer who is also a butter cream hater had gotten her hands on a "Magical frosting" and yes it was truly magical.... It was light, creamy and just a little sweet... That's all I wanted! oh, yea it's definitely going to be my go to frosting every time I need frosting on my cakes... It takes a longer time and needs patience than the other recipes, but its worth it....
A box of fondant costs 7$ after coupon and I really was trying to find a way around spending so much for fondant.... Had seen many videos on you tube to make marshmallow fondant and it was also on my "To Try" list for a while now... So, this was one more thing I decided to make for this cake... Home-made marshmallow fondant... And I am happy to tell it was as easy to make as it said in all the videos... And It costed me less than 2$ to make it! :)
So, I stacked and crumb coated the cake and off I went to the class with the gum paste Daisies I had made for the cake....I had researched a bit for the type of cake I wanted to and I chose to make a Daisy cake...
Had a great time decorating the cake and everyone was showering me with compliments at the International dinner.... They didn't even want me to cut the cake... Hehehe...
Here are the pictures:

Cupcake story!

OMG! It's been more than a month since my last post... not good... Well I have been plain lazy and one more reason is that Wilton course 3 and 4 are mostly learning to make great flowers... Well, I did bake a lot last week, so back to blogging....
Two weeks back, I went to help out a friend of mine from the Wilton class who had got a big order of making 130 cupcakes... Caitlyn has a sweet little cat called piggydeli... How I miss Ceasar n Devu... :(  It's great to have pets... Well back to the cakes, she had already baked most of the cupcakes, I went there and helped her decorated the cakes... we made sweet swirls on few and used a hand made stencil on a few... Overall it was a great experience...
Here are a few pictures: