The Bug "Bites" again...

...Fast forward to 1985. The 1st true love of my life was born, Christopher Scott Chandler. I took one look into his beautiful face and knew that I wanted to do my best for my son. This included making sure he ate healthy, chemical free foods wherever possible. I made my own baby food and later on when teeth arrived I moved on to breads, cookies, etc.
When he was a little boy, I baked my 1st cake from scratch, courtesy of a recipe from The Fannie Farmer Cooking School cookbook. This book also contained recipes for some of the best breads I ever made! I digressed here, but wanted to say it was during his childhood that I went from baking and creating the basic round, frosted cake with candles to creating "shaped" cakes. The only other shape I came up with was that of a bunny rabbit. This was basically two round, 2-layer cakes. One of the rounds was left whole for the head while the other was cut to create two ears and a bowtie! I would post a pic but right now the house is a shambles and the scanner is disconnected due to paint work going on here.
Anyway, I continued to bake birthday cakes not only for Chris, but also for the 2nd true love of my life, Victor H. Chandler, AKA VJ who arrived on May 10, 1992. For VJ, however there has been a shift from the regulatory birthday cake to in his words, the more amazing giant birthday cookie. Funny, that through these years I only took one picture of a birthday cake. I guess the reason is because I really never thought they were all that spectacular...

"FUDGE" my life!!

Ok, so here I am in the kitchen again with all of my ingredients. My pot is ready to melt some chocolate, add the ingredients and add it to my square foil pan to "set". I am already wildly imagining the finshed product! So after carefully melting the chocolate and adding my moist, chewy raisins and crunchy peanuts I poured the mixture into my 8 X 8 pan. What the...?! What did I miss? Instead of the pan filling with a river of chocolatey, nutty goodness my "puddle" barely even touched the sides...clearly I did not melt enough chocolate! Oh no, to make matters worse, I forgot to add the required sugar! And now, it is too late to do anything about it! I am devastated. My beautiful fudge is nothing more than an amoeba-shaped candy bar. Without the sugar, no chewy silkiness for Mrs. Sholinsky to sink her teeth into. Without enough chocolate, no cutting to do as my "bar" is the size of a cereal bowl. Sucking up my failure "like a man", I wrap this mess of a candy in wax paper, then some pretty wrapping paper. I brought it to school and presented it to my teacher. She was so appreciated and better yet, took a bite and MMMMM! She loved it! Well, maybe she was just trying to not hurt my feelings. In any case, on that day I made the decision to keep my butt OUT of the kitchen. Period.

The Baking "Bug"...Part II

Sigh...once my revulsion passed I had to figure out what do do about my cake dilemma. After all, I know I had spilled to a few classmates that I was bringing in this cake. I didn't want to lose face or look like a liar, but I was totally out of time.
Somehow, I came up with the idea to make something quick and easy: FUDGE!I remembered watching someone on PBS make it and the cook made it appear so effortless, I knew I could do it. With the cake now dumped in the garbage, I "brushed the dirt off my knees" and headed off to King Charles to buy chocolate chips, cream cheese, peanuts and raisins. I loved Nestle` brand Chunky candy bars and wanted my fudge to have the same goodies in it, hence the raisin and peanut purchase. I ran home to prepare my confectionary creation, broke but excited once again...

...how the bug bit me...

My love affair with the kitchen began forever ago, while I was just a kid attending P.S. 84 in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn. I enjoyed watching my mother cook and enjoyed the smells and tastes even more...and who wouldn't?! My Mom is a Jew who happened to have a true knack for Puerto Rican cooking (only in Brooklyn, right?). But I was a kid and, like most other normal kids I had an extreme sweet tooth. So, it made perfect sense that when it was my 4th grade teachers' (Mrs. Sholinsky) birthday I wanted to come through with a homemade birthday cake for her.
So, with some saved earnings in hand off to King Charles' Supermarket for some decorative candies, lovely boxed chocolate cake mix and a can of matching frosting (Duncan Hines, I think). I rushed home and read and re-read the instructions to make sure I could get it right. I preheated my oven, buttered my pans and mixed my cake mix the best way my scrawny arms could with a hand-held beater you crank, or turn (reminiscent of a toy jack-in-the-box)and turn, and turn...WHEW....got tired just thinking about it!
ANYWAY, I sat in the kitchen watching the clock, all the while sucking in the aroma of that chocolatey goodness. When the moment of truth arrived I jumped up, grabbed my potholders that I am sure I made in Summer Day Camp and carefully removed my cakes from the oven and placed them on our kitchen table to cool. I carefully scrutinized and tested these two nine-inch miracles to ensure the perfection matched that of a wonderfully deserving and perfect teacher:
1. Toothpick test: passed and perfect.
2. Lightly pressed the cakes for that bounce-back: passed and perfect
3. Evenness: again, PERFECT!!
My happiness turned to giddyness. I could not wait for these guys to cool so I could lovingly blanket them with the rich, chocolate frosting they needed partnered with those awesome candies playing their part as "icing on the cake". Haha! Wait...the giddyness turned into a moment of confusion and ugh, a flow of feelings from shock, disgust, dread and finally unbelieveable sadness. A closer look at one of the cakes revealed an object on the surface, just slightly off the center...oh, nooo....a cockroach had been in the oven and had apparently plunged into the batter to his tomb and final resting place. I stared and stared at this insect, now a "fossil" on my teachers' birthday cake that was supposed to make its' triumphant appearance at school the next morning.
I remember thinking and even uttered to myself, "what in the world am I going to do NOW!?!?!"

The beginning...

Hi fans, family and friends!

This is my 1st time blogging and it reminds me so much of when I kept a diary as a kid. As alot of you know,
I have a slowly (VERY slowly) blossoming baking business, now called Taste Your Dreams.
I was previously doing business as Amy's Delectables (thank God my goods were not as dry as this name was!) and have my little brother Mikey to thank for my new, if not somewhat risque' and ambiguous name.
I am hoping this blog will chronicle my journey into entreprenurialship (is that a word) and include the ups and downs of baking.
If things go well and folks actually read this,I may be nice and include recipes as well as tips for making some of your own confections. Stay tuned, people and enjoy the ride!!

Blessings, peace and love.

P.S. ~ Thanks, Eva for the blog idea! XOXO