Friday, May 21, 2010
Prepping for Bachelorette Party #1
My MOH arranged a bachelorette party here in Boston, and A&E Wedding Consultants, Inc. are prepping for the occasion. How would we manage without them! Check out this link to see!
Thursday, May 20, 2010
Elie Wiesel wishes us congratulations!
Many of you know that I took a class with Elie Wiesel last fall. Eric came to the class with me once, and we both think that he is an amazing and inspirational man. We both feel so blessed to have met and learned from him.
As part of the class, we were each able to schedule a meeting with Professor Wiesel and ask him whatever we wanted. During my conversation with him, he said to keep in touch and to write once the class was over. So I did. Since he's a pretty busy man--I guess that talking with world leaders and writing a gazillion books has to take some time--his assistant wrote back. But still, we're both pretty proud of our letter, so I thought I'd share it all with you:
Dear Danielle,
Your letter of February 4 addressed to Professor Wiesel has come to my attention. Professor Wiesel is away from the University, constantly travelling, but I was able to relay to him the content of your letter. He asked me to give you his warmest congratulations on your engagement.
Seriously, how many people can say that Elie Wiesel congratulated them on their engagement? I think this + Cake Boss + all our friends and family and the fun we've had thus far = awesomest engagement ever!
As part of the class, we were each able to schedule a meeting with Professor Wiesel and ask him whatever we wanted. During my conversation with him, he said to keep in touch and to write once the class was over. So I did. Since he's a pretty busy man--I guess that talking with world leaders and writing a gazillion books has to take some time--his assistant wrote back. But still, we're both pretty proud of our letter, so I thought I'd share it all with you:
Dear Danielle,
Your letter of February 4 addressed to Professor Wiesel has come to my attention. Professor Wiesel is away from the University, constantly travelling, but I was able to relay to him the content of your letter. He asked me to give you his warmest congratulations on your engagement.
Seriously, how many people can say that Elie Wiesel congratulated them on their engagement? I think this + Cake Boss + all our friends and family and the fun we've had thus far = awesomest engagement ever!
Wednesday, May 19, 2010
He Shouldn't Have Said Yes to This Dress!
So in case you wanted to know what to do when you're done with a wedding dress, here are some options. I learned about this site from my friends Matt, Kat, and Erica, of the annual theme park adventure. At first, I said, "Hey, don't you all think this guy needs to get over his wife?" Matt responded, "Um, I don't think so. It sounds like his ex just said, 'Take the dress and do what you want with it,' and he thought, 'Okay, I'll go get famous on the internet.'"
Our First Wedding Cake!
As many of you know, Elle and Aidan have been huge contributors to our wedding! They've been companions as we've picked out a location and photographer and they've given a second set of eyes to bridesmaid and wedding dresses. They've helped us choose invitations and tested out bridal shoes. So now it's time to give something back to them!
In honor and A&E's one year birthday (and inspired by Sylvia Weinstock), I decided to take on the mission of making the best birthday cakes ever!
Mission, I should say, is probably an understatement. Challenge. Uphill battle. Mount Everest-level adventure might be better terms. Because as my mother (and Eric) can attest: I am the world's worst baker! In my time, I have been known not to cream butter and sugar at the start of the recipe, with the result that the batter turns into a clumpy mess. I have left flour out of recipes. I have burned cookies made from Pillsbury roll out cookie dough, and put layered cakes into one pan instead of two. I have put olive oil in brownie mix (yuck) and flattened crumb cakes by adding too much crumb (seemed like a good idea at the time!). And, of course, I have forgotten to butter pans. Many, many pans.
In short, baking is not my thing.
But nonetheless, I was going to make A&E's one year birthday cakes! And given my track record, I knew I needed practice!
So yesterday, I began. The task: to solve the mystery of how fondant lies flat on a cake.
Eric went out and bought five pounds of white rolled fondant. I baked a Classic White Cake recipe courtesy of the Food Network (thanks Nick Malgieri). And you know what, I almost didn't make any mistakes! I took out two pans and immediately buttered them. I preheated the oven to the right temperature. I didn't start until the butter and eggs were at room temperature. I separated the eggs in a separate bowl. I went to add the milk and vanilla extract....
And then I accidentally added them to the butter and sugar instead of the milk.
Oops.
So of course then I manically tried to extricate the milk and extract from the sugar and butter. I can't say that it worked perfectly, but it didn't seem to damage the consistency fluffy butter-sugar combo. In a separate bowl, I dutifully added the flour, salt, and baking powder. And then I alternated mixing in the liquids with the flour (does anyone know why you have to do that?) I scooped everything into the two pans, baked, and after twenty five minutes, I had two absolutely beautiful cakes. I could have looked at them all night they were so perfectly colored (Oh, did I mention that they came right out when I turned them over?).
I waited for Eric to get home until we added the fondant on. As some of you may know, fondant has to have something to stick to. Oftentimes, it's buttercream but you can also make a glaze with jam if your cake doesn't have too many layers. Not wanting to take on too many challenges at once, we opted for the glaze, which involved boiling raspberry jam and spreading it onto the cake's surfaces.
Then we had to roll out the fondant, which came in a huge five pound package! We didn't use everything for this recipe (this was just test cake #1 after all), but we did use over a pound of it. First we kneaded it and then we rolled it out, careful, as the direction said, to turn it over frequently. As it got thinner, we had to wrap it around the rolling pin and flip it that way.
Of course, no one bothered to tell us that we needed powdered sugar to keep the fondant from sticking to the countertop/rolling pin, so we wound up using flour, which luckily didn't affect the taste or texture at all (it wouldn't be Danielle cooking without some adventure, right?)
When the fondant was rolled out enough, we wrapped it around the rolling pin (for easy transport and to avoid imprinting our fingers into it) and laid it onto the cake. Then we smoothed the sides down and luckily had only one little point where it crinkled up, which we were able to smooth over with our fingers (I'm not sure if that's the best way to do this, but it worked).
Then we took a pizza cutter, rolled it around the edges of the cake to cut off the excess fondant, and voila! A beautifully smooth fondanted cake!
Eric and I got creative with our extra fondant, crafting flowers (me), ribbon (Eric) and our initials (also Eric). When we were done, we knew that while we may have been practicing for A&E's first birthday cake, what we'd really made was our first wedding cake!
We had some for dessert while watching LOST last night, and even though it may not be of Sylvia Weinstock quality (I'm sure Sylvia would be appalled that I used fondant instead of buttercream), it was still a pretty sweet end to the day!
Me rolling fondant! See all the cards behind us? Those are all the awesome cards that you've sent to celebrate our engagement!
Eric rolling fondant! It turned out to be really stiff to roll, and so he took over and got it into shape!
The finished product!
In honor and A&E's one year birthday (and inspired by Sylvia Weinstock), I decided to take on the mission of making the best birthday cakes ever!
Mission, I should say, is probably an understatement. Challenge. Uphill battle. Mount Everest-level adventure might be better terms. Because as my mother (and Eric) can attest: I am the world's worst baker! In my time, I have been known not to cream butter and sugar at the start of the recipe, with the result that the batter turns into a clumpy mess. I have left flour out of recipes. I have burned cookies made from Pillsbury roll out cookie dough, and put layered cakes into one pan instead of two. I have put olive oil in brownie mix (yuck) and flattened crumb cakes by adding too much crumb (seemed like a good idea at the time!). And, of course, I have forgotten to butter pans. Many, many pans.
In short, baking is not my thing.
But nonetheless, I was going to make A&E's one year birthday cakes! And given my track record, I knew I needed practice!
So yesterday, I began. The task: to solve the mystery of how fondant lies flat on a cake.
Eric went out and bought five pounds of white rolled fondant. I baked a Classic White Cake recipe courtesy of the Food Network (thanks Nick Malgieri). And you know what, I almost didn't make any mistakes! I took out two pans and immediately buttered them. I preheated the oven to the right temperature. I didn't start until the butter and eggs were at room temperature. I separated the eggs in a separate bowl. I went to add the milk and vanilla extract....
And then I accidentally added them to the butter and sugar instead of the milk.
Oops.
So of course then I manically tried to extricate the milk and extract from the sugar and butter. I can't say that it worked perfectly, but it didn't seem to damage the consistency fluffy butter-sugar combo. In a separate bowl, I dutifully added the flour, salt, and baking powder. And then I alternated mixing in the liquids with the flour (does anyone know why you have to do that?) I scooped everything into the two pans, baked, and after twenty five minutes, I had two absolutely beautiful cakes. I could have looked at them all night they were so perfectly colored (Oh, did I mention that they came right out when I turned them over?).
I waited for Eric to get home until we added the fondant on. As some of you may know, fondant has to have something to stick to. Oftentimes, it's buttercream but you can also make a glaze with jam if your cake doesn't have too many layers. Not wanting to take on too many challenges at once, we opted for the glaze, which involved boiling raspberry jam and spreading it onto the cake's surfaces.
Then we had to roll out the fondant, which came in a huge five pound package! We didn't use everything for this recipe (this was just test cake #1 after all), but we did use over a pound of it. First we kneaded it and then we rolled it out, careful, as the direction said, to turn it over frequently. As it got thinner, we had to wrap it around the rolling pin and flip it that way.
Of course, no one bothered to tell us that we needed powdered sugar to keep the fondant from sticking to the countertop/rolling pin, so we wound up using flour, which luckily didn't affect the taste or texture at all (it wouldn't be Danielle cooking without some adventure, right?)
When the fondant was rolled out enough, we wrapped it around the rolling pin (for easy transport and to avoid imprinting our fingers into it) and laid it onto the cake. Then we smoothed the sides down and luckily had only one little point where it crinkled up, which we were able to smooth over with our fingers (I'm not sure if that's the best way to do this, but it worked).
Then we took a pizza cutter, rolled it around the edges of the cake to cut off the excess fondant, and voila! A beautifully smooth fondanted cake!
Eric and I got creative with our extra fondant, crafting flowers (me), ribbon (Eric) and our initials (also Eric). When we were done, we knew that while we may have been practicing for A&E's first birthday cake, what we'd really made was our first wedding cake!
We had some for dessert while watching LOST last night, and even though it may not be of Sylvia Weinstock quality (I'm sure Sylvia would be appalled that I used fondant instead of buttercream), it was still a pretty sweet end to the day!
Me rolling fondant! See all the cards behind us? Those are all the awesome cards that you've sent to celebrate our engagement!
Eric rolling fondant! It turned out to be really stiff to roll, and so he took over and got it into shape!
The finished product!
Tuesday, May 11, 2010
A&E Wedding Consultants, Inc.
No wedding is complete without a wedding planner, and we have two! As many of you know, Elle and Aidan have been an integral part of our wedding planning, helping us with everything from getting a discounted rate for guests staying at the Yale Club to visiting with the photographer. So I just wanted to take a moment to highlight the skills of their the corporation known as A&E Wedding Consultants, Inc. I can't praise their work enough, and since they're in pretty high demand, I don't think that they're able to take on any new clients at this time, but I'm happy to refer any of you that might be in need of some high quality wedding planning support!
P.S. Unfortunately, this group of pics is only of Elle, but many more pictures are available if you skim the blog!
Elle, joint CEO of A&E Wedding Consultants, Inc., hard at work, reading up on the latest wedding trends so she'll be prepared to advise me and Eric!
"Don't forget that the invitation needs to match your color scheme," Elle reminds me. Personalized service is the hallmark of A&E Wedding Consultants, Inc., and every wedding the company consults on receives personal attention from those in its highest ranks. That's part of what I love about them: they never make me feel like I'm just a number!
At A&E Wedding Consultants, Inc., no product is approved without personal quality testing first.
Elle checking out the soles of my wedding shoes! She gave them a thumbs up for craftsmanship and comfort!
Determined to make sure that I had a beautiful necklace for the wedding, Elle went comparison shopping at Tiffany's. Check out how she color-coordinated her outfit!
P.S. Unfortunately, this group of pics is only of Elle, but many more pictures are available if you skim the blog!
Elle, joint CEO of A&E Wedding Consultants, Inc., hard at work, reading up on the latest wedding trends so she'll be prepared to advise me and Eric!
"Don't forget that the invitation needs to match your color scheme," Elle reminds me. Personalized service is the hallmark of A&E Wedding Consultants, Inc., and every wedding the company consults on receives personal attention from those in its highest ranks. That's part of what I love about them: they never make me feel like I'm just a number!
At A&E Wedding Consultants, Inc., no product is approved without personal quality testing first.
Elle checking out the soles of my wedding shoes! She gave them a thumbs up for craftsmanship and comfort!
Determined to make sure that I had a beautiful necklace for the wedding, Elle went comparison shopping at Tiffany's. Check out how she color-coordinated her outfit!
Sunday, May 2, 2010
Cake Boss
Way back in January, one of the first post-engagement things I did was to make an appointment at Carlos's Bakery in Hoboken, the home of the reality TV show Cake Boss. My MOH, Meri, loves the show, and she was the impetus for making the appointment, but ironically, the only day they could reserve for me was May 1 at 9am, not only 4 months away, but a day that Meri couldn't make. The other irony is that most bakeries in NY require you to book your cake over six months in advance, which meant that we had already committed to a Sylvia Weinstock cake (see earlier post). But, not wanting to miss out on anything wedding-related, we kept the appointment and decided to get the groom's cake from there.
Because we had to leave the night before to make our 9am appointment and because we couldn't exodus ourselves from Boston until Eric was done with work, we wound up picking my mom up in CT at around 9:30pm and taking a late night drive to NJ. We drove into the Courtyard by Marriott lot in Newport around midnight and bright and early the next day, we were up for our appointment!
Now, we had some very special guests for cake tasting at Carlo's--our friends Helen, Jim, and Kiki. All three of them agreed to come and also had the date on their calendar for months, and since they were driving down from Rhode Island for Helen's birthday celebration in NYC, it turned out to be an easy subway and PATH train ride over to the other side of the world!
Which reminds me, before I even get to the cake tasting: let me tell you a bit about New Jersey. Friends, it was like another country over there! And for someone who grew up with the healthy dose of anti-NJ sentiment that any New Yorker should have, I loved it! Hoboken is adorable, and the surrounding neighborhoods were clearly developing to be great places to live as well. There were pretty parks and safe streets and all the brownstones looked like 1950s Brooklyn and there were real butchers and a whole shop that sold rice pudding and fabulous views of Manhattan from across the river and...well, it was pretty terrific! But every time I took out my wallet I honestly thought I should be taking out Canadian currency or something because it just felt so far from New York, even though it was probably a 10 minute boat ride away.
So pumped about my newfound love for NJ and the rice pudding restaurant (Miami Rice) that sold over 35 kinds of rice pudding (Canoli was best), we headed over to Carlo's. And even though we'd never been to Hoboken before, there was no missing it: there was a huge line out the door! Luckily, we had an appointment, so Helen, Jim, and Kiki (who'd gotten there before us and procured black and white cookies in the meantime) and Eric, my mom, and I all got to walk right past the crowds and head to the far less frenetic upstairs. There we sat in a small room with a large, very Italian man with a giant gold crucifix around his neck who wowed us with cake. We tried carrot cake, red velvet, white with chocolate filling and chocolate cake and fondant (everyone's fave), yellow with buttercream and fresh raspberries and several others. I don't want to give away the secret design we came up with for the groom's cake (which will be served at the rehearsal dinner--some couples have been doing this now, having one cake for the rehearsal and one at the wedding instead of two at the actual reception), but suffice it to say that both Eric and I went, "WOW!" when we saw the design.
Before we left, we mentioned to the guy who was working with us that, like the employees at Carlo's, Helen had been on a reality show (Survivor season 5). It was so hysterical to see the guy's reaction--it was like he was so excited to meet a real TV star (which was mostly funny because he's surrounded by them) and he immediately called up this other guy who works at the bakery and loves Survivor to come in and meet Helen. He came rushing in and was saying that he'd love to be on Survivor but can't because he's on Cake Boss. Then ensued a whole conversation about what it's like to be on a reality TV show, etc., that really made the day unique. I mean, really, how many people can say they went cake tasting at a reality TV show bakery with a reality TV show star who wasn't on that bakery's reality TV show? Isn't that awesome?
Of course, mostly what was awesome was the fact that we had a great time with our friends and left with an amazing groom's cake idea. The fact that we saw a couple of famous people, well, that was fun too, but totally paled in comparison to laughing and spending time and tasting cake together!
We bought a couple of canolis when we left the bakery and also a special surprise for Meri (fyi: the cannolis were pretty solid--not too sweet but a little too cheesy, like they put in cream cheese in addition to the ricotta or something). Then we went back to the hotel to drive to Long Island for Melissa and Wayne's wedding, which was a really special occasion as well. I've known Wayne and his family my whole life, and it was incredible to see him all grown up and tying the knot. It was also wonderful to see Melissa, who has been really helpful as I've been planning our wedding, and who I know put a ton of work into her own. All the decorations and artwork she did for the wedding were incredible, and she really made the space look terrific. She also looked really beautiful, and they both looked wonderfully happy.
Of course, I've now decided every engaged couple should go to at least one wedding before they get married--it's so good for research! This way you can look and say, "Ooh, their table numbers looked awesome--I want to do that too" or "Ooh, that runner looks so elegant, and I thought I'd love it at my wedding, and it's great that everyone in this bridal party can walk down the aisle and not trip over it, but now that I see that it's not bolted to the floor and that I'm a total clutz--better skip that!" So it was pretty fun to participate in their special day and also to do some undercover research for our own.
Oh, and lest I forget the most important part, their cake--and giant Viennese table with real Italian zeppolis and a chocolate fountain--was pretty awesome as well! :)
Kiki, Eric, me, Jim, Helen, and my mom outside of Carlo's. Check out the line behind us!
Because we had to leave the night before to make our 9am appointment and because we couldn't exodus ourselves from Boston until Eric was done with work, we wound up picking my mom up in CT at around 9:30pm and taking a late night drive to NJ. We drove into the Courtyard by Marriott lot in Newport around midnight and bright and early the next day, we were up for our appointment!
Now, we had some very special guests for cake tasting at Carlo's--our friends Helen, Jim, and Kiki. All three of them agreed to come and also had the date on their calendar for months, and since they were driving down from Rhode Island for Helen's birthday celebration in NYC, it turned out to be an easy subway and PATH train ride over to the other side of the world!
Which reminds me, before I even get to the cake tasting: let me tell you a bit about New Jersey. Friends, it was like another country over there! And for someone who grew up with the healthy dose of anti-NJ sentiment that any New Yorker should have, I loved it! Hoboken is adorable, and the surrounding neighborhoods were clearly developing to be great places to live as well. There were pretty parks and safe streets and all the brownstones looked like 1950s Brooklyn and there were real butchers and a whole shop that sold rice pudding and fabulous views of Manhattan from across the river and...well, it was pretty terrific! But every time I took out my wallet I honestly thought I should be taking out Canadian currency or something because it just felt so far from New York, even though it was probably a 10 minute boat ride away.
So pumped about my newfound love for NJ and the rice pudding restaurant (Miami Rice) that sold over 35 kinds of rice pudding (Canoli was best), we headed over to Carlo's. And even though we'd never been to Hoboken before, there was no missing it: there was a huge line out the door! Luckily, we had an appointment, so Helen, Jim, and Kiki (who'd gotten there before us and procured black and white cookies in the meantime) and Eric, my mom, and I all got to walk right past the crowds and head to the far less frenetic upstairs. There we sat in a small room with a large, very Italian man with a giant gold crucifix around his neck who wowed us with cake. We tried carrot cake, red velvet, white with chocolate filling and chocolate cake and fondant (everyone's fave), yellow with buttercream and fresh raspberries and several others. I don't want to give away the secret design we came up with for the groom's cake (which will be served at the rehearsal dinner--some couples have been doing this now, having one cake for the rehearsal and one at the wedding instead of two at the actual reception), but suffice it to say that both Eric and I went, "WOW!" when we saw the design.
Before we left, we mentioned to the guy who was working with us that, like the employees at Carlo's, Helen had been on a reality show (Survivor season 5). It was so hysterical to see the guy's reaction--it was like he was so excited to meet a real TV star (which was mostly funny because he's surrounded by them) and he immediately called up this other guy who works at the bakery and loves Survivor to come in and meet Helen. He came rushing in and was saying that he'd love to be on Survivor but can't because he's on Cake Boss. Then ensued a whole conversation about what it's like to be on a reality TV show, etc., that really made the day unique. I mean, really, how many people can say they went cake tasting at a reality TV show bakery with a reality TV show star who wasn't on that bakery's reality TV show? Isn't that awesome?
Of course, mostly what was awesome was the fact that we had a great time with our friends and left with an amazing groom's cake idea. The fact that we saw a couple of famous people, well, that was fun too, but totally paled in comparison to laughing and spending time and tasting cake together!
We bought a couple of canolis when we left the bakery and also a special surprise for Meri (fyi: the cannolis were pretty solid--not too sweet but a little too cheesy, like they put in cream cheese in addition to the ricotta or something). Then we went back to the hotel to drive to Long Island for Melissa and Wayne's wedding, which was a really special occasion as well. I've known Wayne and his family my whole life, and it was incredible to see him all grown up and tying the knot. It was also wonderful to see Melissa, who has been really helpful as I've been planning our wedding, and who I know put a ton of work into her own. All the decorations and artwork she did for the wedding were incredible, and she really made the space look terrific. She also looked really beautiful, and they both looked wonderfully happy.
Of course, I've now decided every engaged couple should go to at least one wedding before they get married--it's so good for research! This way you can look and say, "Ooh, their table numbers looked awesome--I want to do that too" or "Ooh, that runner looks so elegant, and I thought I'd love it at my wedding, and it's great that everyone in this bridal party can walk down the aisle and not trip over it, but now that I see that it's not bolted to the floor and that I'm a total clutz--better skip that!" So it was pretty fun to participate in their special day and also to do some undercover research for our own.
Oh, and lest I forget the most important part, their cake--and giant Viennese table with real Italian zeppolis and a chocolate fountain--was pretty awesome as well! :)
Kiki, Eric, me, Jim, Helen, and my mom outside of Carlo's. Check out the line behind us!
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