the philosophy of butter

let them eat cake and do their multiplication tables

2009-03-30T21:18:00.011+02:00

so here i am once again, slacking! but seeing how i'm back on a regular schedule, teaching lovely little 5th graders it's been quite hard to divvy out the attention equally amongst the natives let alone my little publication.

i do have good news about the blossoming business. i'm on my way to getting my hygiene classes so i'm 100% legit. i've also received quite a bit of positive feed back from the customers of my friends kim and marc's catering business. i supply his customers once a week with cakes and cookies and from what i've been told they get accosted by ten women asking about cake. they've even gone as far to say that friday is the highlight of there week. i have to say it was a nice ego boost when every once and again i wonder if this will ever really come to light. i've just written a little thing for their website and i'll leave you with that.......oh that and the cup cakes i made for them on friday. irish carbomb cupcakes. chocolate guinness cupcakes with chocolate whiskey ganache filling and baileys buttercream frosting. yes, just as good as it sounds.

Just how did an American bakery end up in Copenhagen, Denmark? I ended up in Denmark visiting a friend on a whim and that small excursion lead me to meet my Danish husband who had lived down the street from me in the states 10 years prior. I never really noticed there wasn’t much American style baked goods in Copenhagen until I became pregnant with our son. It was then I wanted nothing more than cookies, cakes and delicious treats from my childhood. I would search for them all around the city to no avail. That’s when I began baking for myself. Soon after I was baking for my family, friends and even friends of friends. Once the word got out I was being asked for baked goods and recipes from all around. That’s when we started discussing that opening an American bakery would be such a rewarding step in our lives. We’ve named it Bluegrass Bakery being that I’m from Louisville, KY and Kentucky is known as The Bluegrass State.

As we are only just starting up we are happy to be exclusively supplying Cate’away with an assortment of delicious cakes and cookies. We believe in baking from scratch, in small batches and using only quality ingredients. The inspiration for all our desserts comes from traditional American recipes. Not only do we create classic American baked goods but also we occasionally put a modern twist on old favorite. We wish you cake, cookies and the pursuit of happiness!

cat scratch cornea fever

2009-03-16T12:48:00.006+01:00

wouldn't you know it, today was supposed to be my first day back to work full time and i managed to bumble it all up. let's start from last night...i had all of my ducks in a row to start back to teaching the 5th grade. Classroom rules, expectations, procedures and reward system. i went to wash my face before i went to bed and i managed to poke myself in the eye with a cotton pad. not too crazy, in fact pretty much on par for me. i thought yeah that hurt, oh well. but then i realized there was something in my eye. so i looked around, tried to rinse it out but to no avail. it didn't hurt too bad so i just went to bed. around 3:00 i couldn't sleep. i had woken up feeling like there was sand in my eye. i laid around for about thirty minutes and then decided to take things in my own hands. i looked, poked, pried, i even tried to cry, but there was nothing, NOTHING! so my last ditch effort was to go to the kitchen and get an onion. you can see where this is going. yes, i cut up an entire onion and leaned down and tried to get my eye to tear up. but there was nothing, not one tear. at this point it was really hard to even have the eye opened. by this time it was 4:30 and i knew i had to call in. on my first day. how ridiculous! well it's a good thing. it turns out i had scratched my cornea pretty bad and had to get anti-infection and pain killer drops. the doctor also tried to get me wear an eye patch but that lasted about two minutes. oh well, the good news is it should be okay in 24 hours, i have drops to dull the pain and i made these cookies instead of work.

these lovelies are mocha chocolate chip cookie adapted from http://www.culinaryconcoctionsbypeabody.com/ . i'll post the recipe i used but i fiddled with it a bit and plan on fiddling with it more next time. for now hugs, jackson

Mini Mocha Chocolate Chip Cookies

8 ounces unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup granulated sugar
½ cup powdered sugar (next time it's gonna be brown sugar)
2 eggs
1 tsp coffee extract (used instant coffee and doubled the amount and i'm gonna quadruple it next time for and even more coffee taste)
½ tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
2 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
12 ounce mini chocolate chips (used dark and chopped)
granulated sugar for rolling cookies
Preheat oven to 375F. Grease cookie sheets with either butter or baking spray.
In a standard mixer(using paddle attachment) or with a hand-held beater, cream together sugars and butter until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes.
Add eggs, one at a time, scraping down the bowl after each addition.
Add coffee and vanilla extract and beat for 30 seconds.
Sift together salt, baking soda, and flour.
With the mixer on slow, add the flour. Mix until thoroughly combined.
Fold in chocolate chips and place in refrigerator for 20 minutes.
If making larger cookies use a small cookie (or ice cream) scoop. If making mini ones like mine, use a small melon baller as your size guide. Roll into balls.
Roll cookie dough ball into sugar to make sure the whole ball is covered in sugar.
Place on cookie sheet and bake 10 minutes. If making mini ones bake for 6 minutes.
Leave on cookie sheet for 3 minutes then remove and let cool on wire rack.

2009-03-13T19:48:00.017+01:00

so what i predicted (in my own mind) happened. it's been well over a week since i posted last. i want very much to be an everyday blogger but life just tends to get in the way. i am one of the people that gets so disappointed if one of the blogs i read hasn't been updated in two or three days let alone nine days. to me that's almost grounds for deletion from my bookmarks! so for that i apologize. being that there's so much to catch up on i will leave you with just a few of the images from this past week. the first image is of the "cone" method in which you are able to add fillings and whatnot. the second image is of the amazing ganache that tops them and last but not least the the mandatory dissection picture of the center. they are boston cream pie cupcakes and they were mighty delicious! hugs jackson

monsters and fire trucks

2009-03-04T21:18:00.003+01:00

so last night my husband woke me up because i was shouting about monsters and fire trucks in my sleep. i'm pretty sure that i was dreaming about playing with our son, but one can never be certain of that period between sleep and wakefulness. everything gets real questionable in those few moments. the same can be said when trying to bake first thing in the morning.

i had been awaken from a peaceful sleep at 6:50 to be summoned into work. the first thing that crossed my mind after i accepted was i have to bake 3 dozen chocolate chip cookies before 17:00. between school, picking up oscar and making dinner i was at a lost of what to do. now i have attempted to do this whole wake up and bake immediately. i even prepared and measured everything the night before and failed miserably. i did this by adding 4, yes count them 4 cups of powdered sugar instead flour to the mix. that will teach me to not label things. it was a good thing my brain had woken up before my body fully had. i didn't have to drop off this morning and i had exactly twenty to whip together the dough and stick it in the fridge for later. i managed to get everything in order and still make it to the train with 4 to spare. but wouldn't you know it, i was off at 13:00 instead of 15:00. figures...

the one thing i manged to forget in the process was to document the actual cookies. so i leave you with an older picture of the same cookies and of the oreos i made last week and holy crap they are amazing and even better frozen. hugs, jackson

on repeat

2009-03-03T12:55:00.007+01:00

that's the little button we all used to have on our cd players back in the day. i was definitely that kid who wore out the button. and before that i was wearing out cassette tapes to the point when the music started to sound as if it was on a psychedelic trip. i would like to say that i wore out my records as well but i wasn't aloud to touch the record player, for good reason. my brother and i always broke the needles. wearing out records came later in life around the point of the early twenties. any who, the soundtrack to my life, or at least the last two months has been belle and sebastian. i feel so chipper when i hear their sweet little scottish voices singing to me. it always puts me in the mood to bake. so that's just what i did this morning after realizing it was 7:15 and school was not calling me in. i carted little man oscar to vuggestue (pre-school) and made a trip to the danish versions of sam's club to pick up some odds and ends.

so while listening to "dear catastrophe waitress" for the umpteenth million time i made sweet potato zucchini muffins. i've been wanting to make this for the past few days but family gatherings, birthday parties and work got in the way. this was adapted from joy the baker...

Zucchini Sweet Potato Bread

350F / 176C

1hour and 20 mins

2 cups all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg

1/4 teaspoon cloves

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

2 cups sugar

3/4 cup vegetable oil

3 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 1/2 cup grated zucchini

1 1/2 cup peeled and grated sweet potato

1 cup chopped walnuts

needless to say they were quite lovely and a refreshing break from all the chocolate stuff i've been making. this week i'll try to post about some of the stuff i've been working on in the past.

hugs, jackson

where to start...

2009-03-02T21:41:00.008+01:00

i guess here is a good of place as any. i have been officially convinced to start a blog. after mulling it over for only a few days i decided to jump right in.

i'm am a self-proclaimed food blog junkie and have spent my days in between substitute jobs at an international school learning the ropes of baking and motherhood. about two years ago i started to bake more and more, a. because i was pregnant and b. there was a lack of all the delicious treats from my childhood that i craved so much here in denmark. soon after i started to dream of opening and american style bakery in this quaint european city, but the only training i had was what little baking i did at home. determined to become more skilled i have spent the past year working on some of the classic american recipes. all the while i had also been trying to figure out this motherhood thing and still attempt to find my way in copenhagen. i feel as if i'm a much stronger baker, mother and connoisseur of danish culture from where i began, but still have so much to learn. come along for the ride, i'm sure it's going to be a bumpy one. xoxo, jackson