A day with Jacob in the kitchen

We all love to watch Food Network, right?  Meet Jacob, he loves it too. He also is a big fan of mine, I love it that he is inspired by my cakes.  So, Jacob’s mom purchased an afternoon of baking for him as a gift.  By the time we finally had our date in the kitchen, it was just about Christmas so we made some yummy mini cream puffs and a Christmas Stocking cake.  I took a few photos for Jacob and thought I’d share them with you.  There was a lot of activity in the kitchen that day, I think Jacob enjoyed it, I know I did!

the puffs are already in the oven when we started photos.

With all the activity, we realized we hadn’t been taking photos from the start! Here, the puffs are already in the oven while we turned our attention to the pastry cream.

yolks and sugar with starch ready to be tempered in.

Jacob stirring the half and half with sugar, don't get distracted Jake!

that's better Jake, constant stir now.

Jacob stirs the tempered yolks into the half and half, paying close attention now, till thick and with bubbles just starting to come up from bottom of pan…almost done.  Then we strained out any little clumps that were missed and added chilled butter and vanilla.  We took a break from the puffs while the cream set and worked on his cake.  Jacob loves my fondant!  He did a great job with rolling it out and with some help laying it on the cake, it came out terrifically!  Check out his candy canes!

so proud!

When the cream was chilled and the puffs were dry, we moved back into the kitchen to fill the puffs!  Always fun, and sometimes messy, it’s the perfect time to sample his work.

do they pass inspection Jacob?

The first one is always the best, but who can stop?

Oh, just one more? Riiiight.

I think we were able to save at least a few for the rest of the family! Hopefully Jacob will make these for their next party, I know everyone will be impressed!  Thank you Jacob for inviting me to your kitchen, bake it a great day!