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The 1st Annual Dessert and Wine Tasting Gala
Friday, December 7, 2012
Flagstaff, AZ

Join us for an exclusive night of gourmet desserts, wine tasting and live music at the Forest Highlands Golf Club, 2425 William Palmer, Flagstaff! The ultimate upscale sugar rush begins at 7:00 p.m. and will wrap up at 9:00 p.m., culminating with several raffle drawings for wine and gourmet pastry baskets. Bring your special someone to the wonderfully decorated and exclusive holiday event at Forest Highlands.

The cost is $40 per person; $30 discount tickets are available for Military, College Faculty or Students with valid ID’s. Raffle tickets for beautiful wine and pastry baskets valued at over $100 are available for $5 each. If you bring a new, unwrapped toy valued at $10 to donate to Toys for Tots Flagstaff, you will receive 1 free raffle ticket for each toy donated.

The evening will feature tastings of palate complimenting wines paired with each dessert station. Heavy hors d’oeuvres will also be served. Edible pastry centerpieces and show pieces will be on display, including a masterpiece gingerbread house that is modeled after the members-only club. A select menu of confections will also be available for purchase at the event, including small cakes, pies, holiday cookie bags and platters, gourmet jellies and curds, as well as the Clubs’ own peanut brittle, caramel popcorn and hand-dipped truffles. You may also purchase larger 'to-go' versions of most of the pastries featured at the gala at our 'pop-up' Bake Shop, as well as place orders for holiday pastries for local delivery or pick-up and/or shipments of select pastries for holiday gift delivery. Live holiday entertainment will be provided by local Flagstaff guitarist Brian David.

Tickets to the exclusive night's food and entertainment are available here on our blog via PayPal (upper right-hand side "Buy Now" button) or at the Forest Highlands Golf Club. Please e-mail Chef Biemann at kbiemann@fhgc.com with any questions. Tickets will be available at the door for purchase. This event is open to both club members and non-members. 

We'll see you there! -K&K

Cascading Rose Wedding Cake

We were asked to make a vanilla cake, soaked with Orange patron liquor, and filled with vanilla buttercream.
We decorated the cake with small detailed buttercream piping, and 100 pink roses, in and around the base of the cake.
The couple was extremely happy with the cake. We could not have asked for more. Here are some pictures:

Our Event! December 7th

We're so happy to have an event filled with tastings of dessert and wine in northern Arizona at the Forest Highlands golf club on December 7th. 7-9pm. It will be an intimate evening, brought to you by Verbena Pastries, with beautiful Christmas decorations and an acoustic guitarist. Come buy tickets! Also bring a new, wrapped toy, worth $10 in value and be entered in our wine and chocolate gift basket give away raffle.

Click on the photo below to enlarge.

Halloween Fun

We had some halloween fun this year.. as we always do, freaking people out with red food coloring. We made gingerbread cake cupcakes with cream cheese icing and sugar daggers, and shortbread witch fingers with almond/cashew nails. Very fun.

Gingerbread Cake:

4 ounces of fresh peeled and grated ginger

1 cup molasses

1 cup sugar

1 cup oil

1 cup water

2 eggs

Mix all of the above together, till smooth, then add:

2 1/2 cups all purpose flour

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ground cloves

1/2 teaspoon black pepper

2 teaspoons baking soda

Mix again till smooth, and divide in to cupcake liners in cupcake pans. This recipe will make about 40. Bake at 350F. The recipe will come out lovely and fluffy.

Mountain Wedding

The couple chose a devil's food cake, filled with chocolate mousse, coated with vanilla buttercream and ivory fondant.   The wedding took place in the mountains with pine trees, which is represented in the decor.

The Stephens Wedding

A simple but beautiful 3-tier cake that hides a decadent secret under its smooth buttercream exterior - a choco-holic's dream! Layers of moist chocolate cake is sandwiched between dark chocolate ganache and chocolate buttercream. Delish!

The Kleinberg Wedding!

Fresh flowers and bejeweled fabric ribbon adorn this beautiful summer wedding cake for a beautiful couple. This 3-tier cake is made of moist white cake layers and is filled with whipped vanilla frosting and fresh strawberries and covered in smooth white vanilla buttercream.

Our congratulations to Mitra and Kevin! xoxo

Pistachio Meringues

These meringues are light and delicious for summer, but also perfect for transitioning into your favorite nutty autumn flavors. Bake and enjoy!

(Makes about 2 dozen cookies)

Ingredients:

1 1/4 cups shelled natural pistachios

1/2 cup powdered sugar

3 egg whites

1/4 tsp. cream of tartar

2/3 cup sugar

Method:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Toast pistachios for 8-10 minutes. Let cool.

Lower oven temperature to 225 degrees. Line baking sheets with foil and lightly spray foil with pan spray.

In a food processor, pulse toasted and cooled pistachios 5-6 times until coarsely chopped. Add in the powdered sugar and pulse 5-6 more times until blended together.

In a stand mixer using the whisk attachment, beat the egg whites and cream of tartar until foamy. Gradually add the sugar and whisk until the whites are stiff but not dry.

Using an ice cream scoop, drop scoops of meringue onto the prepared cookie sheets, spacing them 2 inches apart.

Bake meringues until dry and almost crisp but not yet colored, about 45 minutes. Let cool before removing them carefully from the baking sheet. Store airtight.

Homemade Oreo-Raspberry Cheesecake

Our guests love cheesecake. More importantly they love OUR cheesecake. The secret is steaming the cake for the perfect amount of time, so that it stays silky and smooth. We used our homemade oreo crust, then laid oreo cookies inside, lightly poured raspberry sauce over the cookies, filled creamy cheesecake batter over that, then drizzled the top  with more raspberry sauce and steamed the cake. The outcome is truly delicious. Patience is necessary for cheesecake, as after steaming the cake has to be chilled overnight, but it will not disappoint.

Makes 2, 9" oreo cheesecakes

The Cookie (make the double amount for the crust)

1c unsalted butter, melted
3/4c sugar
1t vanilla extract
1c bittersweet chocolate, melted
1 egg
1 1/2c all purpose flour
3/4c dark cocoa powder
1t salt
1/2t baking soda

In a bowl, whisk butter and sugar well. Add vanilla, melted chocolate and egg. Mix well.
In another bowl sift all the dry ingredients together, including the cocoa powder.
Add the dry slowly to the wet in thirds.
Roll batter into parchment paper, shape into a log. Chill at least one hour, reshaping into a log every 20 mins.
Cut 1/4inch slices and bake at 325F, about 15mins. they will spread a bit, so put 2 rows on your baking sheet.

The Filling

1/2c unsalted butter
1 2/3c powdered sugar
1t vanilla extract
1T milk
pinch of salt

Whisk everything together until smooth and light in color. Put into a piping bag with any tip you like. Use immediately, if it sits it will appear less smooth, so just re-whip. Fill cold cookies, press together gently.

Cheesecake crust

Add about 4 cups finely food processed oreo cookie crumbs, add 1/4C sugar, melt 2 sticks butter and add it gradually mixing with your hands. Don't add all the butter at once, you may not need it all. Squeeze the mixture in your hands, if it holds it's shape without crumbling then you don't need more butter.
Grease the springform, and line it with parchment paper. Put half of the oreo mixture in the pan, press it down, we typically use a metal cup measurer, the crust should only be 1/4 inch thick. Go a little up the sides of the cake. Place it in the oven at 350F for about 12 minutes. Cool.

When the crust has cooled, lay in the cookies, with the filling (see photo above).

Pour a little raspberry sauce over the cookies (optional), or you could put in some raspberry preserves, or fresh raspberries.

Raspberry sauce

1 pint of fresh, washed raspberries put in a blender, add 1/4C simple syrup (equal parts water and sugar brought to a boil and then cooled), blend till smooth. Then strain out the seeds. The sauce is what's left!

Now pour in the cheesecake filling.

Cheesecake filling (for 2 cheesecakes)

6, 8oz room temperature cream cheese blocks.
2C sugar
2T vanilla extract
8 eggs
1 1/2C sour cream

Put the cream cheese and the sugar in a mixing bowl with a paddle attachment, paddle till smooth, scrape down the sides a few times. Add the vanilla, and 2 eggs at a time till smooth, Finish with the sour cream.

Divide the batter between the 2 pans. Pour more raspberry sauce on top, and with a toothpick swirl through the sauce, creating a pattern in the batter. Cover the outside bottom of the pans with aluminum foil, then place the pans in a large casserole dish and fill it with 1 inch of water. This will create steam in your oven, making the cheesecakes smooth in texture.

Have the oven at 300F starting a 45 minutes, check them. The center of the cake should move slightly, if it doesn't move it has been overbaked, if it wobbles too much it needs more time and will not set up when you cut it.

Take it out of the oven, let it cool. Then wrap the cake in the pan with plastic wrap, and chill it overnight. Take it out of the pan the next day.

Serve it with whipped cream, raspberry sauce and oreo cookie crumbles. Enjoy.

Our Latest Event...

It was a beautiful outdoor event, and we were asked to cater some desserts....

Caramel peanut popcorn, almond truffles, along with...

Coconut sake cream cake with fresh pineapple.

Raspberry-chocolate mousse cups.

Irish cream truffles and semi-sweet truffles.

Our Latest Wedding Cakes...

Chocolate-rum mousse cake with chocolate ganache and chocolate ruffle

Vanilla-orange sponge cake, filled and iced with vanilla buttercream.

Vanilla sponge, filled with raspberry mouse and iced with vanilla buttercream.