This weekend I set out to bake and ice a Santa cake. The cake was a rich, moist vanilla pound cake baked in a Vintage Santa mold from Nordicware. The frosting was the white chocolate italian meringue buttercream from Dede Wilson’s book. You could find it in any of her books.

As I found out, it was easier than dressing my 2 year old but not as quite easy as icing a round or square cake. The result is for you to see.

As next steps, the coat will be red. Also, he will probably get an additional coat (I know I would like one in this New York winter) of marzipan or molded chocolate or fondant. And there will be snow…..hurrah for confectioner’s sugar. 

At this point, we plan to give this away in a raffle at the fair at Our Lady Queen of Martyrs. Please come visit.

We are soon to be at a new location – the Our Lady Queen of Martyrs Christmas Fair in Forest Hills, Queens, New York. While we will continue to stock our super popular items – Vanilla Fleur-de-Sel Caramels, Vanilla and Chocolate Marshmallows and Dark Chocolate Fantasy Brownies; we are also experimenting with new seasonal favorites like petite fours, flavored butter cookies, new flavors for marshmallows, caramels and brownies. 

We would love to hear what other people think about seasonal flavors. Do people want to enjoy the flavors of pumpkin, apple, cinnamon, pomeogranate, cranberry while they are in season? Or would they rather be reminded of spring with a honey-lavender splash or a raspberry tingle? Or be taken even further into summer with the smells and tastes of mango, watermelon, passion fruit? Someone please speak up, even it is Father Christmas!

Another question for fair veterans or just any one who wants to share some insight into consumer behaviour – Would you, in the holiday season, rather buy a single helping of brownies or do you think you would prefer to have a brownie sampler to share with friends and family or better still, gift to your loved ones? 

Just some musings while cooking up a new set of treats. Watch this space to see what we will finally have on our platters. I can assure you though they will be the best you will try this season. Happy Holidays!

We are two stay at home moms turned entrepreneurs who set up the Culture Slice homemade gourmet treats stall at Street Fairs. We have many angels in our lives who help make our dreams come true by running errands, taking care of our kids, packaging and labelling our products, carrying our stuff to the car, ferrying us to and back and most importantly funding our endeavours. These angels are also known as our husbands, children and other friends and family. 

This is a toast to Shashank and Peter (our husbands), Ayaan, Ezra, Akemi and Sophie (our kids) and all other significant persons in our lives, whose palettes and patience are both tested in all of our experiments.

Thank you to all of you who came to visit us at our Union Square stall. We hope you enjoyed the samples that you would have tasted and those that you purchased. 

While we have overcome the challenge of converting our love for cooking and sharing the joys of good food into a profession, our creativity continues to be challenged in deciding what new offerings to bring to the fairs. You could check out our previous products in our blog posts and please leave any feedback that you may have about our products. Also, let us know what else you would be interested in eating and we will get it out there!

Looking forward to hearing from you folks and also, to seeing you in the future.

• 

  Rich, fudgy, moist, soft......

  Dark Chocolate Fantasy Brownies

Belgian bittersweet chocolate, coffee, butter, eggs, flour, white sugar, brown sugar, sea salt, vanilla, belgian dark chocolate chunks & walnuts.

          Full of dark chocolate, rich in anti oxidants rich in taste!        $4 each, $7 for 2

• Tiger Swirl Fudge

          Belgian dark chocolate swirled into a fusion of white chocolate & peanut butter. You can have a mouthful of all your favorite favors.  

 

 

$4 for 1 pack, $7 for 2           

3oz in each pack

• Apple Struesel Muffins

Red delicious apples, flour, vegetable oil, eggs, sugar, apple cider, vanilla, nutmeg, cinnamon, brown sugar, butter, sea salt

Cruchy apples hidden in a crisp streusel covered muffin

          Crunchy streusel topping hides juicy apples in a moist muffin.          

       $2 each, $3 for 2

• Crunchy Chocolate Granola

Rolled oats, baked rice cereal, premium bittersweet chocolate, pecans, dried cranberries, honey.

          Eat healthy, vote better!  

 

 

$3 for each packet, $5 for 2           

Each packet contains 4oz or 4 servings

• Vanilla Marshmallows

Powdered Sugar, corn syrup, sea salt, vanilla.

Soft, chewy, hmmmmmm…..the best! EVER!

$3 each, $5 for 2

• Valrhona Chocolate Marshmallows
  

  Valrohna Chocolate Marshmallows

   

      Valrhona chocolate, powdered sugar, corn syrup, sea salt.

      Soft, chewy, rich, luscious, decadent…..More.     

    $4 each. $7 for 2. 

• Vanilla Fleur-de-Sel Caramels
  

  Vanilla Fleur de Sel Caramels

   

Vanilla Fleur-de-Sel, cream, butter, sugar, sea salt

Chewy, lightly salted, … sure to bring back memories of warm and happy holiday times. 

$5 each. $9 for 2. 

• Pumpkin Whoopie Pies
  

  Pumpkin Whoopie Pie

   

Pumpkin, cinnamon, ginger, cloves, butter, vegetable oil, eggs, vanilla, flour, cream cheese, brown sugar, sea salt, powdered sugar.

One bite will tell you how the ‘Whoopie’ got into this pie!

$2 each.

Hi,

We had a wonderfully successful debut at the West 4th Street Fair yesterday. Thank you folks for purchasing our goodies! We hope you are enjoying savoring them as much as we enjoyed creating them. Also, thanks to those who just stopped by to encourage us as you walked along the fair. 

We had great success with the caramels, marshmallows, muffins, gluten and fat free jelly slabs and cookies. We are assuming that they tasted great and will stay well for a long time (though, we probably will never find that out because you cannot put down the pack until it is finished!). But do give us feed back about what you thought of the products, packaging and your experience with the stall. Also, share with us what you thought of our spiced almonds and marzipan covered hot chocolate truffles. 

We will be at another street fair soon and will put up a post about it!

Watch out for us at fairs and keep reading our posts for steady updates and recipes!

Once again, thanks for stopping by!

We are going to be at the W4 street fair (Saturday October 11, 2008) and we are bringing along some good and delicious stuff. Here is a sample of what you will find at our stall:

• Melt-In-Your-Mouth Cookie Stacks

Take home our aromatic and flavorful cookie stacks. Enjoy them with a cup of milk, cup of coffee, cuppa’ tea, sandwich them with some fruit preserves or chocolate spread; dip them in chocolate or maple syrup or just eat them the way we do-right out of the bag.

Who needs accompaniments to crisp shortbread cookies in flavors of orange, almond, vanilla, mint and coffee. These are vegetarian. They are made from pure butter, four and sugar but no eggs.

$5 per pack

• Nutcases

What do you get when you put fine roasted almonds (rich in vitamins and antioxidants) in aromatic spices like cumin, turmeric, chillies and black salt and then caramelise them with brown sugar and add a dash of lime and finally wrap them in festive baskets?

You get nurcases

$5 for each basket

• Sinless Treats

Yes, they exist. Gluten-free and fat-free and very tasty jelly slabs.

A light, fluffy biscuit made from rice flour and eggs sandwiches sweet, tart and spicy jellies.

One very X-citing treat. A “must sample” one. Price meant to encourage sampling — $1/piece

• First Kiss

Rich, indulgent dark chocolate made hot with harissa paste; wrapped around a sweet, soft, moist marzipan center.

One oooo-delicious mouthful!

Guaranteed to remind you of your first kiss!

$1.50 for a twin pack

• Vanilla Fleur de Sel Caramels

 

Now a caramel in your mouth would resurrect many nice, happy memories. Vanilla caramel would take it a step further and bring to your mind a picture of bliss. But a Vanilla – Fleur de Sel Caramel…aha! This one takes it a notch higher  - from nice to Naughty. This chewy, soft and ever so lightly salted caramel, will melt in your mouth, make you close your eyes and take you to that place in your heart that was last touched at prom night or the super fun frat/sosrity party or that date that you cannot get over ….. all at once!

 

Come and get one or … regret it!

• Pear and Ginger Muffins

We have made a firm commitment to delight you with every mouthful. That is promise is kept once again in our muffins where we have paired or should we say pear-ed sweet, succlent Bartlett pears with spicy ginger and tossed them gently with spices like Jamaican allspice, Nutmeg and Cloves. We have further mixed this with sour cream and sea salt to bring you the most delicate muffins you would have had!

• Vanilla/Cardamom Marshmallows

The festive season cannot begin, or end, without marshmallows. And what better time to have one than when the economy is down, elections are approaching and the year is soon going to end leaving us all older and perhaps, wiser????? Get your spirits up with our Vanilla or Cardamom marshmallows that are bursting with the goodness of Tahitian vanilla and Cardamom. We recommend that you stock up on these, they are sure to lighten your day when the sun is taking a break. 

See you there!

When I was less than happy with my trendy, expensive Mother’s Day present, my husband (who was understandably most upset) said, “I should have gone to the wholesalers’ and bought that bottle of sauce. She would have definitely liked that!” Ismiled instantly, not because it was funny (which given the circumstances, it was) but because it was true! Very true!

I have recently discovered the part of me which delights in cooking. It has brought into my life a wonderful sense of joy that erupts each time family and friends say, “Yummm” and lick their fingers while eating anything I have conjured. I have made a slow and difficult transition from being a career woman to stay at home mom and the joy of watching my family enjoying home cooked treats helps in a big way.

Today I would like to pay a tribute to those stay at home moms everywhere – especially those who chose to care for their kids without being caught up with the seemingly attractive challenges, excitement and most importantly, the money of a career. It is cool to balance work and home successfully, it is more cool, to me, if you can make a clear choice and not linger over what could have been!

Here is a recipe for a healthy carob-flaxseed muffin dedicated to mothers who enjoy cooking to keep their families healthy and happy -

Carob – Flaxseed Muffins

Dry Ingredients
1 cup all purpose flour
1/2 cup flaxseed meal
3 tablespoons carob powder
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup sugar

Wet Ingredients
3 tablespoons yogurt
1/4 cup water
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 large eggs
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup oil (canola/corn/vegetable)
1/2 cup leftover cooked oatmeal/ pureed vegetables*

*vegetables should contain no spice or very mild spice but NO TOMATO. If using vegetables, please puree in a food processor before measuring out.

Steps

Grease 12 muffin cups and pre-heat oven to 350F.

Sift together dry ingredients in a large bowl.

In another bowl, whisk together wet ingredients. Pour wet ingredients into dry ingredients and use a fork to mix until the dry ingredients have been moistened.

Pour into muffin cups filling each halfway. Bake at 350F for 18-20 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Enjoy!