Chocolat

(I will post photos later.)

Blog post: Week of December 10th 

Photo # 9

I have quite a lot of homework this weekend, so naturally, I'm very stressed out. As when I am normally stressed out, I kind of separated myself from the stress and decided to bake instead! 

I have been baking for years, beginning serious baking probably when I was about seven years old. My mother has Celiac-disease which is an allergy to gluten (most commonly found in breads, cakes, pastas etc). If my mother were to eat any source of gluten, her small intestine lining/villi would deteriorate and end in a lot of pain- so gluten (wheat, barley, etc.) was out.

Eating in our family became pretty hard for a while. We had always eaten waffles or pancakes for breakfast on Sundays, pasta on Mondays, and who doesn't love a sandwich for lunch everyday? My mother, a born sweet-tooth, missed baked goods more than anything. We were able to find various mixes for waffles, brownies, we replaced whole grain pastas with corn and egg pastas- but it wasn't enough.

My mom complained daily about her mother's classic Christmas cookies, her mother's moist chocolate cakes, her mother's pies, her mother's this and that. My dad can't bake, my sister didn't want to, so the job was left to me. I took quickly to baking and I continue to bake to this day, mainly gluten-free items, of course!

Last weekend, I made an orange-coconut cake with coconut pudding filling and citrus-vanilla Swiss-meringue frosting (toasted coconut on the top, of course!). This weekend I decided to make cake truffles! My mom is out tonight, so she hasn't had them yet, but I think they're delicious! 

They are dark chocolate cake, mixed with chocolate-orange buttercream. They are topped with chocolate ganache and toasted almonds. This recipe literally made about 50 cake truffles!

Now, your normal all-purpose flour is simply a super cheap little bag of unbleached wheat flour; however, this flour does everything in baking! Gluten is a protein (most abundant in wheat flours) which binds doughs and creates stick and sponginess. In other words, one couldn't just replace all-purpose flour with brown rice flour because it doesn't have enough protein to bind anything together. If you simply replaced flour that way, the result would be a crumbly, dry mess.  

My basic gluten-free flour is the following (made just enough for this cake recipe!):

1 cup brown rice flour (one could use sorghum flour, garfava/chickpea flour, corn flour or white rice flour, but I prefer brown rice and sorghum)

1/2 cup tapioca flour/starch

1/2 potato starch

I adapted and made all of the following recipes my own from what I have learned over the years.

TO MAKE THE CAKE:

Ingredients:

2 cups GF flour

1 tsp. xanthan gum (one could use guar gum, I use Bob's Red Mill xanthan gum most often)

2 cups sugar (this seems like a lot, but usually cakes often have around the same amount of sugar as flour...plus, it's cake, what's wrong with sugar?)
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons dark unsweetened cocoa powder (I used a mix of Droste's and Valhrona cocoa powder- they're super high quality and, I think, they make a big difference in the depth of flavor- not to sound pretentious. If you only have Hershey's, that would be fine too!)
2¼ tsp. baking soda
1½ tsp. baking powder
1½ tsp. salt

1 tsp. Egg Replacer (Ener-G brand. I know, I know. Why add Egg Replacer if there are 3 eggs in it already? Well, it helps bind and leaven the cake. With gluten-free baked goods, one has to make up for A LOT.)
6 tbsp. vegetable oil (one could use butter, but I find oil really moistens a cake up and makes it feel a bit lighter)
1 cup plus 2 tbsp. buttermilk (if you don't have buttermilk, just add a T of cider vinegar or 2 T of lemon juice to a cup of whole milk)
1 cup plus 2 tbsp. brewed coffee (this is optional; however, it really helps deepen the chocolate flavor)

3 large eggs, at room temperature
1 tbsp. vanilla extract (I use Madagascar Bourbon Vanilla. Again, it's not necessary, but it definitely makes a difference! I really really recommend this vanilla, it's perfection in a bottle. I usually find it at Williams-Sonoma.)

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350˚ F.  

Grease and flour the edges of 3 8-inch baking pans.  (Optional: add a round of parchment paper. I don't do this for cake truffles because it doesn't really matter if the cake sticks at all. If you're making just this cake and you're trying to impress, parchment paper is the way to go.)

In a medium bowl, combine the flour, xanthan gum, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, salt and Egg Replacer.  

Add the vegetable oil and sugar into a bowl and mix together until combined. (If used using butter, cream together the sugar and butter until white). Add coffee, and vanilla to the bowl and mix on low speed until well blended and completely incorporated. 

Add the flour mixture and buttermilk alternately, beginning and ending with the flour (you would think that ending with flour wouldn't make a difference, but it does, trust me).

Divide the batter evenly between the prepared pans. Bake 20-25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Let the cakes cool in the pans about 15 minutes, then put them into a large bowl and beginning mashing! Use a fork or potato masher to mash the cake into crumbs. 

Add the buttercream to the cake crumbs and mix together until homogeneous. Roll this mixture into small balls and refrigerate on a wire rack while you make the ganache.

Dip the cake balls into the ganache and place onto a baking sheet lined with parchment or wax paper. Refrigerate.

TO MAKE THE FROSTING:

I use this simple vanilla buttecream cream for almost EVERY cake or cupcake I ever make. It's super fast, super fluffy and my mom just loves it (as do I). There are a lot of different variations for this recipe, so I will list the one I used for this recipe.

Ingredients:

1 stick of butter (A stick of butter, y'all! -Paula Deen)

1½ cups confectioner's sugar

½ cup whipping cream (most recipes use milk, but whipping cream makes the frosting super light! It makes such a difference.)

½ tsp. vanilla 

Beat the butter until white and fluffy (using the whisk attachment, not the paddle). Add the confectioner's sugar in ½ cup increments. Beat until smooth and fluffy.

Slowly add the whipping cream until the buttercream doubles in volume. Finally, add the vanilla. Easy as pie!

For this recipe, I used this variation:

Omit the vanilla. Add two ounces of unsweetened chocolate, melted (Usually, I use Ghirardelli chocolate, but I had none left. Baker's chocolate worked just fine.) Also, add 2 T. grated orange zest (making sure not to grate the white part of the peel.

TO MAKE THE GANACHE:

Ingredients:

6 ounces of bittersweet chocolate, chopped

½ cup heavy cream
½ cup milk (Whole milk is my personal favorite, of course.)

1 T. butter

Heat the heavy cream and milk over medium high heat until boiling. Immediately take the pan off of the heat once boiled and pour it over the chopped chocolate. Mix together until smooth and mix in the butter.

Another Saturday night and I ain't got nobody...

Blog Post: Week of December 3rd
Photo # 8

I don't even know what that photo is ugh. She's a pretty dolly, though.

This week, I went to the Kensington Antique Open House! My mom bought me antique Kintama! They're gorgeous. Other than that, I didn't get much. I, of course, found a lot of vintage clothing that I wish I could have; but alas, no money in the bank for such things.

I took a few photos while there (as the one above); however, my camera's white balance has been screwing up. For some reason, the auto white balance makes every shot too cool toned, and attempting to manually set the white balance is way too time consuming to change every time the lighting changes (especially as I entered at least 8 different shoppes last night). As a result, all of my photos look a bit off, though I did try to edit them a bit.

An update from last week's post: I ended up getting the 50mm! I'm quite excited- it is, after all, my sister's favorite lens.

I am sorry this post is so short. I have done truly nothing this week. Nothing of importance. And no event has attracted my attention. I've been admiring Cecil Beaton, of late. That is all.

I identify myself as a foodie.

Blog Post: Suggestion for Documentary
Photo # 7

One of my passions is baking and it is important to be passionate about the topic of our documentaries. One of my ideas for the documentary is to follow an executive chef or baker and their daily life at their business. It could be a profile documentary or one similar to Life in a Day (2011). My mother teaches a student whose family owns a great bakery in Bethesda; my mother also teaches a girl whose father owns the Burger Joint, which I love. I would love to follow them and interview their employees. Through the documentary, I would like to show how food brings community and family together.

I just really love food and I think I would really enjoy making a documentary centered around something to do with food. It may not be the most moving documentary, but who doesn't love food?

Have you ever seen the indecision of a man while he's standing by the fire...

  

Blog Post: Week of  November 26th

Photo # 6

Photo from literally 6 months ago. I haven't taken photos in so long, my goodness! This is with my first 18-55mm lens. Now, I am getting a new one!

My dilemma is what lens to choose for Christmas seeing as, no matter the cost, I will have to go months without any allowance. So, in the end, the price shouldn't matter too much, right? 

I am choosing between FOUR LENSES, and I have to decide by the end of this weekend. Quite the mission. Currently I only have the 35mm and the 18-55. The 35mm is essentially the most basic lens and quite honestly, it bores me and is somewhat difficult to work with in a variety of different situations. My sister owns the 30mm, 50mm, and the 70-200mm (which she rarely lets me use). The lenses I am choosing from are the 40mm, 50mm, 55-300mm, and the 70-300mm.

The 40mm is a Macro Nikon lens, so it's made to shoot up-close, with a small depth of field, and in stunning quality. The 40 has great reviews and it is a lens that neither me nor my sister owns. I imagine that I would ideally take this on nature walks, hikes, and antiquing (my favorite activity other than eating)! But the lens seems useful in a variety of situations, so I would love love love to have it! Definitely one of my favorites out of the four.

The 50mm (which my sister owns, but I love it, so I want my own) is ideal for portraits, from my experience. Seeing as my favorite subjects are people. People tell stories, and in turn, the photos tell stories- and that’s what photography is about to me. I personally love the 50mm already, so it is definitely a contender.

The 55-300mm is a beautiful zoom lens and I want it badly! A friend recommended it to me, and all of the reviews are good too. So far, I have barely any zoom capabilities at all and I need a zoom lens if I want to pursue anything other than portraits. Zoom lenses are great for animal life shots and candids. I NEED A ZOOM LENS, CASE AND POINT.

The final lens is the 70-300mm. It is by far the cheapest option. There are flaws in it that I do not feel like going into, and the reviews are not ALL positive; however the price is almost irresistible!

Right now, I am leaning mostly toward the 40mm and the 55-300mm. I cannot decided if I need a Macro lens or a zoom lens. If someone would like to help me choose, I am welcoming ANY SORT OF AID to choose. I am literally the most indecisive person I know.

Sing to me...

Blog Post: Week of November 12th
Video # 2

My Capture the Fall video!

I filmed the most part of it at the farm that I went to for my friend Sophie's birthday (discussed earlier).

My action adventure dream...

Blog Post: Week of November 5th
Video # 1

We all know the assignment- Dystopian Trailers. I made mine with Amy, Andrea and Molly and I'm relatively proud of it. I personally chose the music and edited most of it with Andrea. For our level of experience, I think it looks very professional.

I think that the trailer could have used a few more shots and maybe more consistency between each different voice-over, but I think that the music is great, the editing is pretty professional and the plot-line is well thought out. I regret not having made a clear criticism of anything in today's society. We tried to criticize the level of pollution (which forced humans to recede to the Underground), as well as the instability and power-seeking tendencies of American government; however, after watching the trailer, I am unsure of how clear our message came across.

To make the trailer, my whole group first journeyed all the way to Olney to film. Molly was the main protagonist, while Amy was the catalyst for Chrinn's (Molly's character) rebellion. We all shared filming depending on who was in each different scene. We even filmed in tunnels/sewers near Amy's house! Our group spent each day in CAP film production to edit the trailer. Andrea and I came in every lunch time to continue editing it.

Altogether, I like it a lot and despite my regrets for what could have been done, I am glad that we finished it and it looks the way it does.

The arc light on the hillside and the market in the hay...

Blog Post: Week of October 29th
Photo # 3

I took that photo during my friend Sophie's birthday party. It was in a corn maze...obviously.

The party began at Bethesda Chevy Chase High School, which is a lot cleaner and prettier than Montgomery Blair. We all boarded the Party Bus and drove for about an hour to get the farm. There, we got into groups of six and started our journey in a corn maze. We were supposed to find eight mailboxes and get stamps at each one to complete a map that would lead us out of the maze, but my group and I ended up finding the exit before finding even two mailboxes. No other group had found the exit yet, so my group and I relaxed atop a tall hay stack formation.

Photo # 4

Once everyone had found their way out of the maze, whole party group congregated and explored the farm. Some stayed on the haystacks, some went straight to the slide as we waited for our hayride vehicle to come. When it did, we call got on and got pumpkins!

Photo # 5

Finally, we all sat down and ate pizza, salad, and cake as we sipped Hershey hot chocolate (the type that comes in the little bags). I must say, it was an altogether relaxing and satisfying day for me.

Another plus, while at my friend's party, I not only took a ton of photos, I also took a lot of footage for my Capture the Fall video!