Friday 7 January 2011

Getting Ready For The Markets

Today is Friday and I should be just about finishing up for this weekend's farmer's markets, but for some reason I am far behind!  I am having to motivate myself to keep on baking as the snow has begun to come down hard over the last few hours and I hope the markets this weekend are not cancelled.  As far as I am aware, the markets are still a go!

Things weren't going as planned yesterday.  Since my local market isn't as busy as it used to be, I don't make big layer cakes for that particular market anymore.  I have turned my "Supersize Chocolate Cake" into a "Honey I Shrunk the Cake" loaf size cake.  In fact, I have turned all of my layer cakes into loaf cakes for this particular market.  It actually has proven to be a very good concept.  People like the idea of buying a whole, albeit small cake, plus they are easy to store and to transport to the Burley market on Sunday.  Anyway, for some reason, my mini chocolate cakes didn't like the idea of leaving their cozy home in the pans and 6 of them decided to stick and fall apart.  I was not a happy camper.  I had to make another recipe of chocolate cake and start again at 9pm last night.  Thankfully, this batch turned out ok.  I don't know what happened and I don't care to have a repeat performance!


The layers for all of my large cakes are now made for the Burley market on Sunday, now all I have to do is assemble them.  I am contemplating doing one more which I think sounds pretty interesting, but am still debating the idea with myself. 

Let me explain some of my cakes.  One day I will share some of my recipes, but if this cookbook happens, there wouldn't be a need to buy it if everything were on my blog! 

I have several staples that I sell at each market.  The must haves are the "Supersize Chocolate Cake" which is 4 layers and everyone thinks it grows every month.  It is deep, dark, intense chocolate with a wonderfully dark chocolate frosting!  The British people adore it and can't get enough.  It sells out every time.  My Carrot Cake is also a must.  I'm not a lover of carrot cake, but everyone who is thinks this one is one of the best.  It's always moist and the cream cheese frosting is generously piled high on all sides.  For me, the frosting is too sweet, but for most, it is not.  Again, always a sell out!  There has to be a New York Cheesecake, nothing fancy, just a plain, basic cheesecake.  This is a labour of love as it takes hours and hours and hours to make, but is certainly worth the time and effort.  It is a true New York baked cheesecake and everyone who tastes it swoons with ecstasy!  Only once did a customer say that it was too cheesy!  Not sure what that means, but after all, it is a cheesecake.  It made me laugh.  Everyone has their own opinions!

I've recently added to my staples a cake/cheesecake combination.  A customer had been on a trip to the states and visited a Cheesecake Factory Restaurant.  They adored everything about that chain of restaurants as I do as well.  Their food is equally delicious as their cheesecakes.  They have so many different kinds of cheesecakes and I like to try different ones every time I go, although I do have my favourites.  Anyway, they introduced a Red Velvet Cake with New York Cheesecake in the middle.  This customer asked me if I could replicate that cake for a party she was having.  I had been wanting to try the cake/cheesecake combo, but wasn't sure if I could pull it off.  I told her I would experiment and if it failed, we would go to plan B.  Thankfully, it didn't fail, it worked beautifully and my version of The Cheesecake Factory's  "Ultimate Red Velvet Cake Cheesecake" is sublime!  It is now without a doubt my best seller!  Cheesecake Factory, eat your heart out!  The Yummy Yank has made her own version and it is indeed Yummy! I, of course do not use the same name as the Cheesecake Factory nor do I know or use their recipe.  This is my own creation and I am very proud of it.  For the market, I do two layers of Red Velvet Cake and one layer of Cheesecake.  I frost it with a white chocolate cream cheese frosting and it just works beautifully together.  If someone orders this cake, they get two layers of each cake, so it is a massive 4 layers high.




I then always have a guest cake each month.  This is why I am having a debate with myself as stated above.  I am thinking about a "Bountiful Harvest Cake."  Three layers of 3 different cakes with a taste from the garden, one being carrot cake, but a different recipe to my normal cake, one layer being a zucchini cake and in the middle a pumpkin cheesecake layer!  I am thinking that sounds pretty delicious and most likely will give it a go!

There is also a guest mini cake for this month.  I had an abundance of bananas and not liking things to go to waste, I decided to make a good old fashioned southern American recipe-a "Hummingbird Cake".  When I have done this cake before as a layer cake, it was a massive hit!  So fingers crossed, it will be again.

Now, as I am writing this blog, two recipes of bars are baking.  One is my "Butterscotch Caramel Dream Bars" and the other is another southern favourite, "Pecan Pie Bars."  You can never go wrong with either one of these.  The "Pecan Pie Bars" are loaded with a locally supplied Yorkshire Honey which one of the other market stallholders supplied for me.  He harvests all his own honey and it is simply wonderful.  This delicious honey helps to create a perfect pecan pie bar!  If you have a chance look up R Hirst in Bishopthorpe, York, Yorkshire, as he produces the finest honey for miles around!

I will also make some sort of brownie this month, probably "Peanut Butter Brownies" and most likely "Rocky Road" bars.  If I have the time, I will make "Ginger Blondies" as they are a wonderful bar which just feels right in winter.

So I haven't stopped this week!  Aside from yesterday's hiccup, all is going to plan today.  I am looking forward to getting some fresh air perhaps this evening and giving my oven a much needed break.  I can hear it yelling out from here that it needs a rest.  And frankly my dears, so do I!

Keep reading and if you are in Yorkshire, check out the Burley Market on Sunday.  It is fabulous!

Thanks everyone and Y'all have a nice day!!

Lisa AKA The Yummy Yank

1 comment:

  1. Wot? No new blog? We all need to hear how your weekend went!!

    ReplyDelete