Tuesday, November 17, 2009

Cake Tuesday: organicorganicorganic.

Last night our local Slow Food chapter met to start talking about the next generation of Slow Food Santa Cruz, which was interesting, with a wide variety of people in attendance. The last local farmer + chef food organization that I was involved in blew up after a long demise full of bitter arguments and familial power struggles (disclaimer: I was not involved in the intrigue, just a sad spectator, having worked really hard with some very talented chefs and farmers to make it something positive and meaningful in the community). Luckily the friendships that formed survived the group's dissolution, but I'm a little nervous about that sort of thing happening again. (Optimism vs. gullibility - a fine line...) We will see.

So Cake Tuesday! Sorry about last week. Industry events, museum outings, fall dinners with incredible people, discovering Au Midi - much too much fun to be had. But I'm trying to be disciplined today.

I don't usually copy cake designs, but sometimes an existing design is EXACTLY what a client wants, and you can't really argue with that. A darling bride recently brought me a magazine photo of a Sarah Magid cake from New York, which mentioned that her cakes were organic in the description. So of course I had to look Sarah up. And I love her.

First, she's lived in San Francisco, and reminisces about the ocean and the local farms here. She's got a great blog with beautiful pictures and recipes (mmm caramel apples! And not the gross hard kind that you can't even eat - the really GREAT kind with perfect melt-in-your-mouth gooey-ness!). She's deeply committed to organic ingredients, the slow food movement and farmer's markets. And her cakes are exactly my favorite style - simple, elegant, lovely. This is my version of one of her designs - and it fit the rustic elegance of Holman Ranch perfectly.

More about the museums and restaurants and events soon.