My Dad’s Birthday

First I want to wish my dad, Cosmo, a very happy birthday today!

That being said, let me just tell you that today is already becoming a challenge and I am not even through my first cup of coffee! Besides the fact that it is another rainy day, the girls went to bed late and got up at the crack of dawn! Needless to say they are touchy. Actually, the word touchy doesn’t even accurately describe what nightmares they are this morning. Fighting, crying, whining…I feel like leaving through the back door if I hear one more MUUUUUUMMMMMY!”

Deep breath…sip of coffee…aaaahhhhh (if only it were still hot)

So, back to my dad’s birthday. My dad HATES celebrating his birthday. He is a quiet, simple, meat and potatoes, Miller Light, gun totin’ (yes I said gun) guy who loves Petite Fours. Hehehehehe…Did you catch that? PETITE FOURS! Beautiful little cakes frosted in pastel colored fondant icing and decorated with little flowers. We all get such a kick out of watching my dad sitting at the table in his Ruger T-shirt eating these delicate little cakes. They are his favorite and I make them for him every year on his birthday.

Petite Fours are a labor of love. First you have to make it through baking the three layers of light, almond paste laden cake. Each layer has to be spread with jam (apricot or raspberry) and squished together in the refrigerator overnight. The cake gets cut into little shapes and frosted in fondant icing. The frosting is the difficult part and takes lots of practice to frost them (unless you are Martha Stewart, who was probably born frosting Petite Fours). You have to pour the fondant over each individual cake making sure that it gets totally covered with a thin, shiny layer of frosting. The icing has to sit over a water bath and be kept at steady 105 degrees or else it will loose its shine.

The yummy almond paste and sugar waiting to be creamed together

Have I lost you yet?

I have been buying my fondant at Verna’s cake decorating shop for years and years and years! It comes in a powdered form and I add liquid until it is the correct pouring consistency. Well…Verna’s went and closed on me!!!! Verna’s was the only cake supply shop in a 50 mile radius of Cambridge. I have too many things going on to actually plan ahead and order the fondant over the Internet soooooooo I decided to make my own fondant. I actually planned this yesterday which is a good thing because it needs to “cure” in the fridge for a minimum of 24 hours.

I boiled the sugar and water to 238 degrees and then poured it into the food processor. I cooled it down to 140 degrees. I spun it in the processor for 5 minutes until it turned white. I carefully poured it into a zip lock bag, released all of the air and set it in the fridge. I was so proud of myself this morning when I opened the fridge and stared at my beautiful fondant (patting myself on the back!) I opened the recipe up to read the next step and that’s when my world came crashing in. My heart stopped and I felt like throwing up! I noticed that I had LEFT OUT THE FR#*%@!KING CORN SYRUP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

To be continued….