Pastry counter

I swear I gained about 6 pounds just on making this little counter. But it was absolutely worth it! It would have been the best to use real wood sheets for the counter, but unfortanely I haven't got any of them. For one it's very expensive and I can order it only from abroad (ridiculously high shipping cost!) and for two so far I couldn't find a carpenter in Hungary who would take on to make me some thin sheets. So I used plywood, and since the sight of the glued layers at the cross-sections was unacceptable for me with this piece I covered the edges with veneer strips. After precise sanding the trick is almost undetectable, I think.

I printed the paper bags onto sketch paper. Sketch paper and my printer don't see eye to eye with each other, so I have to glued the sketch paper onto normal paper on the margins before printing.

Now, would you like a piece of them?

Cherry cake preparation board

You, who know me, already noticed I love to make little scenes. And after I ready with all the little pieces, it's such a premium work arranging the scene. I always putter a lot to find the perfect harmony of the shapes, sizes and colors. Or at least I try... This time the main character is the cherry and its red color dominating the whole board.

New year, new ideas

Happy New Year!

My first days of this year were terrible, I was down with some stomach bug. I had energy only to lay and look at the ceiling. I had company, too, my littlest soonly join me into my misery. Of course, she was in far better condition than me and watched cartoons. Her favorite is My Little Pony, and she had my blessing, since I thought the ponies were really cute. But after  a very long pony marathon I hated these pastel colored horses. By my entreaty my daughter chose another DVD. Now I hate Winnie-the-Pooh, too.
Love of my life rooted for my fast recovering, since our family were falling apart into tiny pieces without me. (His words, not mine.) Really, he still can't tell apart the kids' clothes, and doesn't know the buttons of the washing machine, and after his cooking the kitchen resembles a war zone.
My dear, on the off chance you would read this post, you know I love you, right?

But now I'm the old me, let's cut to the chase, new miniatures. I always admired the beautifully designed plated desserts. This is the year when I make my own miniature versions of these sweets. My first creation is a pear mousse cake with braised pear. I hope you like it!

These fruit baskets are not new ideas, but they are so good-looking side by side, I think it's a great picture in a new year post.

I made a promise to post more often this year, maybe I will make good on this promise. Maybe...

Pies

Making miniature pie is an idea I always delayed, I don't know why. Last week I made some and now I'm an addict. I found some amazing crust pattern and edge style on the internet I definitely try in the future. I baked an apple and a cherry pie at first.

And the big mistake of the month (I hope it's not the first part of a terrible series),

I wanted to make a country breakfast board with handpainted jug. I planned a white one with blue pattern. After one hour painting I was going to finish the jug with acrylic gloss varnish. I have a lot of acrylic spray in various colors and I never put the cap back onto the bottle, because it's a pain to remove the safety cap (I'm an impatient and lazy person). So the only way to tell apart the colors is checking the lettering on the bottom of the bottle, and I always check it. Well, always, except yesterday. One simple blow and I managed to cover the delicate blue pattern with shiny dark brown paint. After a shriek and some words I won't cite I decided to make a wonderful brown jug with white pattern. Here it is.

Lesson 1, always check the color of the spray bottle before use!

Crepes

My daughters are big fans of crepes, and I'm the same. Now I made my miniature versions of crepes in various flavours. My favoutite is the apricot jam filled roll. Of course the jam have to be homemade!

New book

This time I don't post about my works but a very useful and creative book written by a wonderfully talented hungarian diorama builder, László Adóba.  The book covers making of stone objects like flower pots, tombstones, fountains and more. The steps for each build are accompanied by 290 color photos over 64 pages.

I know he works in a different scale than we usually do, but the methods and tricks he shows in his book are just perfect for us, too. And I like how he uses absolutely simple materials and tools you can find even at home.

The book should be available from László Adóba’s website . 

I already mentioned this book in one of my previous post some months ago, but that was only in  hungarian. Now you can buy the english version.

Here are some sample page from the book,

Cheese cake again

I had made many cheese cakes with various flavour before, now it was the time to rethink it with hazelnut. Lucky I am I have a real hazelnut bush in my garden, so I had not to surf the net after photos. Well, I searched the bush and the ground beneath it, but I found only a few lame bunches of hazelnut. Our dog is a nut addict and devoured all the fallen hazelnuts. So much for the hot caramelized nuts at cold winter evenings...