Passing the Torch

The Recipe Club (a Random House/Clarkson Potter web-based community for cookbooks)posted a piece on us in their author spotlight: http://www.therecipeclub.net/2011/07/12/the-whimsical-bakehouse-a-sweet-experience/

Read the piece below, or visit the site and find out more about the Recipe Club.

For the last 17 years my mom, Kaye Hansen, has owned and operated The Riviera Bakehouse, a Westchester, NY staple for over 50 years. During this time the bakery grew from a small bakery to a sizable business with 60 employees and thousands of customers.
Running a small business successfully requires the owner’s utmost dedication. This is especially true in the baking business where the hours are long, the work is labor-intensive, and around the holidays – when most people look forward to time off – we go into overdrive. But while I’m not unfamiliar with the challenges of running a bakery, I recently started contemplating it with new eyes – the eyes of an owner. That is because my mom is passing the torch to me.
This is an exciting time in our lives – and we look forward to working together, this time with our roles reversed. There’s much for me to learn from my mom still, and I plan to spend the balance of the year “seeing through her eyes,” learning from her valuable experiences, fostering relationships with our employees and customers, and planning for the future. In addition to cake decorating, I will need to master other facets of the business: inventory management, production of cakes, cookies, breakfast items, sandwiches, and so much more. And while my mom had a great business partner, her husband Peter, who ran the back end of the bakery, I feel equally blessed to have my husband, Luiz, who comes out of years in the corporate world, to be my partner.
I am happy my mom decided to stay on part-time for a while, and I value her support. But most importantly, I look forward to our continued creative collaboration for years to come.

My Paintings

My dream, ever since middle school, was to be an artist. By college age, I knew that the likelihood of making a career out of painting was slim, but that did not stop me from getting a BFA. If someone asked me what my plans were after graduation, I would tell them, "All I know is what I don't want to do - I don't want to work in a kitchen." I knew full well how labor intensive cooking and baking were because I had always been my mom's assistant in her culinary endeavors.

Well, Ha! I've been working at the Riviera Bakehouse for 17 years. It has turned out to be a great creative outlet and I do feel at home in the bakery. But I have never stopped painting. Often my pieces don't leave my studio, but I feel a need to keep producing. It is a mode of expression I can't achieve in chocolate and buttercream.

I created a website, a work in progress, to share my paintings.

http://www.livhansen.com

Extravagant Gingerbread

Some of our creations have been included in online photo galleries of extravagant gingerbread creations.

Here is a link to Good Morning America's online article: http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/slideshow/photo-extravagagant-gingerbread-houses-12448282

And here is the link to Food and Wine's online article: http://www.foodandwine.com/slideshows/over-the-top-gingerbread-houses

NYBG Gingerbread Adventure 2010

The theme for this years annual Gingerbread Adventures exhibit at the Bronx Botanical Gardens was vacation. After eliminating idea after idea - tropical beach scene (where is the gingerbread, a palm tree?), the almost expected Swiss chalet, a roman holiday (Colosseum), a Parisian getaway (Arc de Triomphe or Eiffel Tower) - I finally settled on the vacation of the future. I made a rocket ship on "Mars" with a family of astronauts and planets from our solar system floating in the space beyond. If you get to see it in person you will also notice a small green marzipan alien and spaceship made by 6-year old son. It is hiding behind the astronauts.

Halloween Video

A few years ago Doug Yuon produced a gingerbread house video with me and "Famous Fat Dave" for The History Channel website (check out my decorate page to view video). He returned to the bakery last week to shoot a Halloween inspired video for his food blog called Hungry Travels. It was a low key shoot, just him and his SLR camera. I don't like to watch myself on screen, but this video was great. I LOVE his work: interesting camera angles, wonderful depth of field, not to mention his editing.

To see his video:

http://hungrytravels.com/2010/10/21/video-halloween-cakes-at-riviera-bakehouse/

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New FALL Class Schedule

The Whimsical Bakehouse offers a variety of cake and cookie decorating classes. Although our classes are geared toward the decorating enthusiast, pastry professionals are welcome. The level of each class (noted below the class heading) ranges from beginner to advanced and some classes invite the family to join in the fun. Please email Liv Hansen at liv@whimsicalbakehouse.com or whimsicalbakehouse@gmail.com if you are interested in signing up for a class or have any questions.

*A non-refundable deposit is required to secure your spot in any of the classes.

Sunday, September 19th

9:30 am to 2:30 pm
Decorating Cookies
All levels welcome
This class teaches you how to decorate cookies with royal icing, sanding sugar, melted chocolate, and sprinkles. An assortment of shaped cookies will be provided for each student, including a 3-d barn and a tiered mega-cookie.
$115 per student, $25 deposit*

Sunday, October 10th and Monday, October 11th

9:30 am to 3:00 pm
Cake Decorating Intensive
All levels welcome
This comprehensive class covers the fundamentals of cake assemblage, icing, and decorating. Piping with buttercream is introduced through practicing borders, surface embellishment, and flowers. This workshop also introduces the “Chocolate Method”. Each student will complete one small tiered cake to take home.
$300 per student, $75 deposit*

Sunday, October 24th

9:30 am to 12:30 pm
Halloween Adventures
Parent and child (6 years or older)
Have fun and learn how to ice and decorate a variety of kooky and spooky Halloween cupcakes and cookies -which you can take home at the end of the class.
$75 per parent/child, $25 deposit*

Sunday, November 7th

9:30 am to 1:00 pm

The Chocolate Method
All levels welcome
This class takes an in depth look at “The Chocolate Method”. Learn how to make appliquéd and free-standing chocolate decorations including butterflies, a 3-d treasure chest, lollipops, and a portrait.
$65 per student, $20 deposit*

Sunday, December 5th

9:30 am to 12:30 pm OR 1:30 pm to 4:30 pm

Gingerbread Adventures
Parent and child (6 years or older)
Let you and your children delight in the assembling and decorating of a gingerbread house which you can take home at the end of the class.
$95 per parent/child, $25 deposit

The Latest Betty Videos

The new Betty Crocker Videos are now posted on BettyCrocker.com

Here are the direct links:

Strawberry Cream Cupcakes
http://www.bettycrocker.com/videos/videolibrary/desserts/strawberry-cream-cupcakes
Let’s Party Cake
http://www.bettycrocker.com/videos/videolibrary/celebration-cakes/lets-party-cake
Flower Cupcakes
http://www.bettycrocker.com/videos/videolibrary/celebration-cakes/flower-cupcakes
Jack-o-Lantern Cake
http://www.bettycrocker.com/videos/videolibrary/celebration-cakes/jack-o-lantern-cake
Ganache Minicakes
http://www.bettycrocker.com/videos/videolibrary/desserts/chocolate-ganache-minicakes
Praline Pumpkin Dessert
http://www.bettycrocker.com/videos/videolibrary/desserts/praline-pumpkin-dessert
Warm Caramel Apple Cake
http://www.bettycrocker.com/videos/videolibrary/desserts/warm-caramel-apple-cake
Turkey Cupcakes
Coming soon…

New Whimsical Bakehouse Books

Kids' Cakes from the Whimsical Bakehouse and Other Treats for Colorful Celebrations will be available June 1, 2010.

And our first book, The Whimsical Bakehouse - Fun to Make Cakes that Taste as Good as They Look has been released in paperback.

Karin Slaughter's Cupcake Contest

A few weeks ago my mom and I had the pleasure of meeting Karin Slaughter, crime writer and author of the recently released book Undone, at the Random House Book Fair. We got to spend some time with her, hear her amusing stories, and laugh often. After trading books with us she came up with the idea of having a cupcake contest for her fans. I loved the idea, so, hoping to inspire others, I came up with 5 new cupcake designs. The directions for each design will be posted in Step-By-Step on the whimsical bakehouse decorate page by the end of the week.

For more information on Karin’s contest visit: http://www.karinslaughter.com/cupcakes.shtml

Betty Crocker, Take 3

I just got back from Minneapolis, home to General Mills and Betty Crocker, where we filmed the latest installments of Betty's How-To videos - 8 videos in all, including some cute and simple cupcakes like the one above. They should be posted in about a month. I'll let you know...

Upcoming Events

My mom and I are scheduled to "appear" on Everyday Food with Betsy Karetnick (Martha Stewart Radio on Sirius) on Tuesday, February 9th at 12:15. The theme of the day is chocolate; we'll bring in some of my mom's yummy chocolate recipes and some of my chocolate method designs to talk about.

On March 6th we will be attending The Random House Book Fair in Westminster, MD. We'll be signing books, judging a decorating contest, and I'll be giving a decorating demonstration.

Cook for Love Videos

I just shot a series of three decorating videos for Cook for Love, a culinary non-for-profit dedicated to the PKU community. Brenda, the co-founder, has taken numerous of my decorating classes and always went above and beyond, often bringing in her own cakes and cookies, just so she could learn how to decorate them.
This series highlights cookie decorating, cupcake decorating, and cake decorating for the holidays. Whether you are on a low protein diet, or not, these videos take you step-by-step through some of my basic decorating techniques, including the chocolate method. There are plenty of ideas to work with.
The site http://www.cookforlove.org requires registration, but is worth visiting. You can see that Brenda put her heart into it.
The videos are linked to the pages below or can be accessed through What's New on her homepage:
http://www.cookforlove.org/recipe/royal-icing
http://www.cookforlove.org/recipe/buttercream-frosting

NYBG Gingerbread Adventures Exhibit

For this year's NYBG Gingerbread Adventure exhibit I made a street scene from the story The Pied Piper of Hamelin. To learn more about how I created see, http://www.whimsicalbakehouse.com/img/The%20Pied%20Piper%20of%20Hamelin.pdf.

It is on view until January 2010.

Baby Feet Cookies?

A customer placed an order for 40 baby feet cookies for a baby shower, but then cancelled the order last minute. What were we going to do with all of those feet? My mom asked me to think of something, and here is what I came up with...

Samson the Cat

I made this cake (way back in August) for a friend of my son. The cat and mice are based on one of her favorite books, Samson and the Church Mice. I still smile when I look at the photo, so I thought I'd post it.
The mice, cat ears, and cat tail are made of marzipan. The cat was sculpted from cake and is iced with tinted buttercream that I texturized using a skewer.

October Inspirations

Check out our two new Step-by Step directions: Autumn Bounty and Eyeballs.

Trick or Treat Cupcakes

Here are some new cupcakes I designed for Halloween.

Piping Tips (aka Decorating Tubes)

Each type of tip (round, star, petal, etc.) has a number range. For example round tips start in the 0’s and go up to 12 and larger. Find one that suits your piping application.
With the exception of the Rose all of the following tips are meant to be fit with a coupler, ring, and pastry bag. Different brands of tips, like Ateco and Wilton, use the same numbering system for their tips and are interchangeable.
See the following links for a full selection of tips: (WILTON brand) http://search.wilton.com/?q=tips and (ATECO brand) http://www.cakedeco.com/cgi-bin/webc.cgi/st_main.html?p_catid=242&page=1

BASIC PIPING APPLICATIONS
Lines and Inscriptions
Round tip (# 0-12) or pastry cone
Rosettes
Star tip (# 16-18, 27…)
Shell Border
Start tip (# 16-18, 27…)
Dots
Round tip (# 1-12)
Bead Border
Round tip (# 1-12)

MISCELLANEOUS PIPING APPLICATIONS
Crazy Curls or Cornelli Lace
Round tip (# 1-5) or pastry cone
Rickrack Border
Petal tip (# 102-104) or Flat tip (# 44 or 45)
Crazy Border
Any Petal, Round, or Star tip
Cloud Border
Round tip (# 6-12)
Ruffled Ribbon Border and Ruffled Swags
Petal tip (# 102-104)
Flat Ribbon
Petal tip (# 102-104) or Flat tip (#44 or 45)
Thread Swags
Round tip (# 1-5)
Fabric Swags
Chrysanthemum tip (#79 or 81)
Spiral Swags
Star tip (# 16-18, 27…)
Lattice
Flat tip (# 45)
Plaid
Assortment of Flat and Round tips (# 42 or 89 multi-openings, 44 or 45 flat, 1-8 round)
Bows
Petal tip (# 102-104)
Basket weave
Basket weave tip (#46-48 range)

FLOWERS and LEAVES
Some of the following flowers, in addition to the piping tips, may need a pastry cone or small round tip filled with tinted buttercream or chocolate to pipe details like flower centers, dots, seeds, etc.
Roses
Large Petal tip (# 125)
Miniature or Tea Roses
Petal tip (#103-104)
Buds
Petal tip (#103 or 104)
Poppies
Petal tip (#103-104)
Blossoms, Daffodils, Violets, and Pansies
Petal tip (#104)
Daisies, Coneflowers, and Black Eyed Susan’s (Full and Perspective)
Petal tip (#103-104) or Round Tip (#5-8)
Chrysanthemums
Mum tip (#79 or #81)
Lilies
Leaf tip (#352)
Sunflower
Leaf tip (# 352) or can substitute Leaf tip (# 67)
Hydrangea
Petal tip (# 102 or # 103)
Grapes
Round Tip (#5-12)
Grass
Multi opening tip (#233) or Round tip (#3-8)
Leaves
Leaf tip (# 352 or # 65-68)

Whimsical Bakehouse Decorating Classes

Click on the following link to take a peek at the upcoming Whimsical Bakehouse Fall Class Schedule.
http://whimsicalbakehouse.com/img/fall2009schedule.pdf

Betty Crocker Videos - Part II

The new Betty Crocker videos I appear in are now posted on howdini.com, bettycrocker.com, and you can find links to them on the Decorate page of my website.
They include: Crumb Coating a Cake, Safari Cupcakes, Barnyard Cake and Cupcakes, Fire Truck Cake, Panda Cake, Mermaid Cake, Guitar Cake, Turtle Cupcakes, Football Cupcakes, Robot Cake, Pony Cake, and more...