Chiffon Cake

I think I'm a struggling food blogger because I am not good at taking pictures while I'm mid-process and then I just dig in before I think to take a picture. But, I was good when I made chiffon cakes last week for an order, and she helped me out by snapping a shot of the cake just before it was "devoured," as she said.

I'd never made a chiffon cake before, but the order was to be used at a '50s-themed baby shower, so I did some research and angel food cake and chiffon cakes were popular during that time. The cake gets most of it's lift from whipping egg whites to stiff peaks, and then carefully folding the rest of the batter in. It's actually a pretty easy cake to make, and the folding takes the most time.

You also need a special pan, and I got one with feet. The cake needs to cool upside down to keep from collapsing itself. This part seems weird to me, but it works!

I also made a strawberry sauce to go over the cake because, like its cousin angel food cake, chiffon cake is not an overly strong flavor. I just boiled down fresh strawberries, sugar, and water. I then strained the pulp out to make a smooth sauce.

And it was a hit! And now that I have the special pan, I'm pretty sure I'll be making more angel food cakes and chiffon cakes come fresh strawberry season!

I do love the way a golden brown cake looks!

Recipe for both chiffon cake and strawberry sauce come from the America's Test Kitchen Family Baking Book. The only alteration I made was using more strawberries an less sugar in the sauce.

Coming later this week: Red Velvet Cake and French Silk pie.

Glowing Evenings Bake Shop - Now Open

After successfully baking a small batch of pies for Thanksgiving, I'm opening the metaphorical doors to Glowing Evenings Bake Shop. Get your pie, cake, and cookie needs taken care of here!


Currently, pies seem to be the most popular order, as nothing says "the holidays" like a warm, flaky piece of pie. Pie prices are based on type of pie and seasonal fruit availability:

Pumpkin, pecan, and other custard-based pies: $28
French Silk (aka, the world's most amazing chocolate pie), lemon meringue, key lime: $28
Apple: $30


NY Style Cheesecake: $45
Chocolate Chunk Cheesecake: $50

Decorated Festive Sugar Cookies: $25/bakers dozen
Undecorated Sugar Cookies: $15/bakers dozen

Special requests are accepted.

This double-cust apple pie has a ridiculous number of apples in it. 

Happy Holidays and enjoy some baked goods!

To order: email me at gloevedun (at) gmail (dot) com or Facebook me, or Twitter (@gloriaevonne) me.

Baking business underway (sort of)

Wedding cake number two is well underway done! After one weekend spent baking my little heart out and another spent making copious amounts of buttercream (each batch is tested for safety and taste), I am 2/3 of the way into done with my second (or third if you count the practice cake) wedding cake. I'm very grateful to friends Jake and Alicia for this opportunity!

As they are having a wedding about twice the size of mine, I've gotten creative with how to make sure there is enough cake to feed that many people. The solution, one large traditional cake, and two smaller nine inch cakes to echo the main cake and still look lovely. Creative thinking, for the win. My freezer is full of cake, and if this gets any more serious, I'm going to invest in a small chest freezer, as we don't have the space for this kind of excessive baking.

Because I am apparently a glutton for punishment, on top of cakes, I've been working on breads. This weekend, I made baguettes, which I am incredibly proud of. They're lovely to look at, quite tender, and while the crust isn't as dark as I'd like it to be, it has the right amount of chewiness. I'm very proud of these loaves.

I keep getting asked, when I mention that I'm making a wedding cake, if it is a side business. I answer, "sort of." It could be, and I definitely would love to have opportunities continue to develop. So, friends, if you, or someone you know, lives in the DC area and needs a wedding or special occasion cake, send them my way!

Update: The cake was very popular and well-recieved. Someone even asked me my secret and a I laughed as I told her that it was all the America's Test Kitchen Baking Book. I'm also looking at a few websites (Smitten Kitchen mainly) for inspiration for other types of cakes. I'm willing to branch into chocolate, and I'd love to see how cupcakes work out as a wedding cake.

And I apologize that I don't have any pictures. I can't bake, assemble, and frost while thinking about taking photos. But, if you've seen my wedding cake. you get the idea.

Grandparents Day

Sadly, none of my grandparents are no longer on this earth, but I still think about each of them for various reasons. Lately, I've been thinking about my Grandma Dunlap a lot though. She left her KitchenAid mixer to me when she died, and I am forever grateful. I don't know that she knew I'd be making wedding cakes with it, but every time I've mixed up a batch of buttercream in the last few months, I've thought of her. I've thought about how I was kind of surprised that she left it to me, since I didn't bake much at her house, but she knew that I would put it to good use. I've thought about how I hope she's looking down, happy that it's life has been extended, and it's still going strong. I think about how even I didn't expect that I'd be doing these things, but am so glad that I have this mixer, because some of the stuff I make wouldn't be possible without it.

I remember when I was starting life on my own, and my grandmother had just passed away. I was fortunate that I got many things from her home, from her silverware to her car. Those things weren't quite as special as the KitchenAid. When my friends were making their wedding registries, I felt a bit smug at knowing that I already had an off-white mixer sitting on my counter. Now, I just feel a bundle of emotions ranging from happiness to sadness to contentment when I use my mixer. Thanks, Grandma, I think of you every time I use it.

PS - Am currently working on another wedding cake, to be in a wedding this weekend. I'm working on a blog post about that.

Goodbye to a Hero

Last night I was making dinner when I saw an email from my dad. He wrote to tell me he saw that Sally Ride had passed away and wanted me to know because I'd wanted to be an astronaut when I was a girl. I stood in my kitchen, tearing up at how sad I was at the loss of a hero and how touched I was by my dad caring and knowing me well enough to know I'd want to know that.

I admired Sally Ride as a girl because I wanted nothing more than to be an astronaut. I had a poster of all the Apollo mission astronauts on my wall where I'm sure other girls my age had New Kids on the Block. Even though every person on that poster was a man, because of Sally Ride, I knew that it wasn't impossible for me to become like one of those men. She made it okay for me to follow those boot prints.

As I got older and moved my childhood aspirations to other things, I continued to admire Ms. Ride because of her passion for math and science. Yes, she wanted to help young women move up in those field, but she also wanted to help young men. She was passionate and shared that passion every day in how she chose to live out her life's work. I moved away from the math and science fields, but I continued to pay attention to her work because she cared in a way that made me care.

Now, as a art historian, I'm in a very female-dominated field. However, 100 years ago, it would have looked like science and math fields do today. My hope is that Sally Ride's legacy will continue, that others will step up to fill her shoes, and one day math and science fields will look more similar to my field. More importantly, may we all follow her footsteps in living out our passion. When we live our passion, we help the world in so many ways by bringing our best selves to the forefront.

Thank you, Sally Ride, for being who you were. For sharing your self, for sharing your passion, and for inspiring so many. May your legacy burn bright.




*only a few tears were shed in the writing of this post

Wedding Cake Update

I bet you're wondering how the wedding cake turned out. In a word: AWESOME.

Maybe people were lying to me, and maybe I was in a haze of joy with it being my wedding day and all, but that cake was amazing. Here's how it all came together...

2 weeks before the wedding: I took a Saturday and spent the entire day baking the cakes. It took 3 rounds, and approximately 10 hours. Add in a cranky oven that doesn't heat evenly or properly, and I had to babysit those cakes while they baked. But it all turned out okay. I put each layer on a cardboard cake round, wrapped it in lots and lots of Saran wrap, and carefully put it all in the freezer. Amount of butter used: 2.25 lbs.

1 week before the wedding: I made the fillings. We decided on one filling of chocolate and one filling of mocha. Seeing as I had bad results with the filling in my practice run when I used the microwave, I rigged up a double boiler and felt very satisfied with the results, even as I was pouring the filling mixture into containers for storage. This was the fastest stage of cake-making. Amount of butter used: none. However, 4 1/2 cups of heavy cream were used, as well as 24 oz. of chocolate.

4 days before the wedding: I made the buttercream. This didn't take as long as baking the cakes, but the whipping portion of the recipe takes a very long time. You want nicely whipped, fluffy, smooth buttercream, which takes about 20 minutes for each batch. I probably spent close to an hour just staring at my KitchenAid. Also, I spent a lot of time thinking about my late grandmother, who gave me the mixer. I think she would be pleased with how it was being used. Amount of butter used: 3 lbs.

2 days before the wedding: This is where things got fun! I woke up that morning with a headache and feeling queasy. But my amazing friend, Heather, came to my rescue and spent most of the day with me, chatting, helping with other things, and calming me down. By that afternoon, my friend Elizabeth (who is an organizational wizard and is responsible for much of the smooth flow of our reception), had shown up and they watched as I assembled. In the morning, I took the cakes out of the freezer to defrost, letting them come to room temperature. 

To assemble the cakes, I did it by layer size. I had three 12 in. layers, three 9 in. layers, and three 6 in. layers. I unwrapped, and with the help of my trusty assistants, determined the best order for them to go in to create the tiers. I then whipped the chocolate filling and proceeded to create the first two layers of each tier, with the chocolate. Then I repeated, but with the mocha filling, adding the top layer of cake to each tier.

Then came the buttercream. Oh. my. goodness. Reheating and then re-whipping that frosting was like alchemy. It was beautiful. I frosted each tier, and then left them on cardboard cake rounds and stuck them in the fridge to "rest" overnight.

1 day before the wedding: That morning, each tier was lovingly nestled in a box cut to size with no-slip shelf liner on the bottom. The cake was then transported by car to the church, with one of the tiers riding on Greg's lap. (I insisted on driving, since I might have been a little overprotective.) Upon arrival at the church, I began to put the tiers together, following the instructions of America's Test Kitchen, and using the aid of my dear friend, Lenora. I had one final batch of buttercream to whip, but I couldn't seem to find a mixer in my church's kitchen, so Greg and I took turns hand whipping. It came out okay. The frosting was much easier to smooth once it was chilled. I was able to fix a few spots that were bare or uneven quite easily. I would dip my frosting spatula in hot water and run it over the surface to smooth. I was quite proud. I then loaded up my pastry bag and began to pipe our pearl border on. I wanted it to be simple for a few reasons, the main one being that I didn't want to overly stress about elaborate frosting decoration. After an hour or so, we tested it with the cake topper, declared it perfect looking, and carefully slid it into a fridge.

Wedding day! I got my hair done. I went to the church. I did a few things. I asked (the aforementioned) Heather and a bridesmaid, Julia, to assist me with the cake. I set up the cake stand I'd made (from plywood, spray paint, ribbon, and knob pulls) on the table, we carefully pulled the cake from the fridge, and wheeled it to the table. Where we discovered that in my worry about the door hitting the cake, I'd pushed it all the way back into the light for the fridge. Hahahaha! So, we turned that part to the back, put the cake topper on, and off I went to get married.

We cut the "light bulb" piece out first to feed each other, and Greg's first words after eating it were, "It's amazing!" Our friend, Dan, gave a toast to how good it was.

I'm incredibly proud of that cake. I would be happy to do it for other people, seeing as I definitely have a feel for the whole process, even more than when I did the practice cake. It was tons of fun for me, and I loved knowing that I did something that cool and memorable.

Work Discovery

The cool thing about my job is that I see hundreds of original artworks in a week. Sometimes I don't really pay attention to things because, well, I see hundreds of original artworks in a week (or day, depending on how the schedule goes). Then there are the times where I find myself slowing down and really focusing because I'm looking at a work by one of my favorite artists, and I'm blown away by the fact that I'm standing there, face to face with the same piece of work that the artist made. I usually feel like I'm having some sort of spiritual experience. (Not kidding, art viewing can be very church-like for me.)


And then there are the times when I discover something that I've never seen before by an artist I've never heard of. The most recent discovery is Rachael Robinson Elmer. She did a series of postcard prints that are amazing in their early nod to Modernism. She's so unknown, that a Wikipedia page doesn't even exist for her! She completed two full sets of postcards, after studying at the Art Students League under several well-known American artists, such as John Henry Twachtman. I don't know how many editions of these prints exist, but I am excited to have discovered some of them. She died at the age of 41, while serving with the Red Cross during World War I. However short her life may have been, I'm glad that she produced these works during that time.

Image from http://lockkeeper.com/features/rachael/woodblock.htm