New for Valentine’s Day - Little Red Velvet and Chocolate Raspberry Polka Dot Cakes. The Red Velvet is layered with Mi2Sweets’ signature sweet cream cream cheese mascarpone filling and frosted in white chocolate buttercream, topped with a red fondant heart. If chocolate is your fancy, how about Devil’s Food cake layered with bittersweet chocolate mousse and tart raspberry preserves, frosted in pink raspberry buttercream, dotted with chocolate fondant buttons. Both cakes come in two sizes perfect for Valentine’s Day - 4″/$16 (perfect for two); 6″/$38. Check out the cakes on the Mi2Sweets Facebook page!
Having FINALLY caught our breathes from the frantic pace of the holidays, it’s time to look forward to embracing the new decade. What does 2010 have in store for Mi2Sweets? Well, definitely more baking/cooking classes for all you people out there who made resolutions to take charge of your kitchen and not just use your oven for storing shoes (yep, I do know someone who does that). While it is fair to say that many of us overindulged during the last two months (blame it on the cold weather and those damn gingerbread lattes!) and have promised to “be good” and trim the fat, we don’t have to cut out the fun stuff completely—and by “fun” I mean desserts and baked goods. It’s really a matter of moderation and making those calories worth it. Learning how to do bake something really good is definitely worth it, because you aren’t just hitting the supermarket for something prefabbed, you’re actually involved in the whole process. And that is what makes the calories worth it. So instead of just your plain old potluck, think baking party and give Mi2Sweets a call.
Holiday madness is upon us, with visions of baked goods dancing in our heads (well they’re always dancing in mine) and no time to trek to the supermarket to gather up the ingredients. No worries. We’ve got the goods to make things go a little easier.
Stop by Prather Ranch Meat Co. down at the Ferry Building for some of Mi2Sweets pie dough, made exclusively for the store using premium Range Brothers leaf lard. Contrary to popular belief, this leaf lard is the GOOD stuff and has less saturated fat than butter–and makes the most excellent, flaky crust.
On a cold December day, nothing’s better than some freshly made churros and warm, sinfully rich spiced chocolate and caramel dipping sauces. The Mi2Sweets Churros Kit ($16) comes with all the fixins–just fry up the already hand-piped churro batter, roll them in our cinnamon-spiced sugar and start dipping!
And check out Mi2Sweets’ other Holiday Kits…
Christmas Cookie Kit$45.00
Gingerbread and vanilla sugar cookies (one dozen each) baked in festive shapes—Christmas tree, reindeer, snowflake, ornament, dove, snowman—ready to be decorated in an assortment of homemade icings and sprinkles.
Hanukkah Cookie Kit$20.00
A dozen vanilla sugar cookies baked in traditional festive shapes—dreidel, Star of David, menorah—ready to be decorated with a selection of homemade icings and sprinkles.
Mi2Sweets Cookie Mixes$6.00/ea
2 for $10.50
3 for $15.50
4 for $21.50
A great gift for the cookie aficionado who loves to bake fresh homemade cookies!Just add butter and eggs to the dry mix and bake away.
Starting Monday, Sept. 28th, you can find Mi2Sweets cookies and cakes featured at Paliopaninoteca on the corner of Montgomery and Commercial Streets! We’ll be offering a selection of classic drop and bar cookies as well as a host of seasonal goodies. Keep your eye out for our brown butter pear upside down and pumpkin-spice cakes, not to mention our signature sticky toffee ginger “pudding” (that’s what the Brits call cake). Halloween sugar cookies will make their ghostly appearance at the end of the month!
After countless hours of experimentation, a gallon of fryer oil, and sugar-buzzed happy guinea pigs (aka friends and neighbors), Mi2Sweets is proud to introduce the Churros Kit. Now you can make fresh churros at home! Price at $16, each kit comes with 18 hand-piped batons of churros batter, individually frozen and ready to be fried, cinnamon sugar, and two dipping sauces–chili-spiced hot fudge and orange-scented salted caramel. All you need is a pot, some vegetable oil and a thermometer and you’re set…then again it just might be the perfect excuse to get that fancy Fry Daddy you’ve been eyeing.
The sky is blue and the temperature still on the balmy side. It can’t be fall yet! But school kids laden with backpacks, a foot deep, are cramming onto buses, so it must be fall. Where did my summer go?
Time to work on new fall desserts and sweets product line. Gone are the berries and stonefruit–in come the apples, pears, spices…and more chocolate and nuts. Halloween is just around the corner. Look for Mi2Sweets fall specials in the coming weeks!
Ever wonder what you looked like on live television? Well, my curiosity has been satisfied (sort of). I was on “View from the Bay” on Tuesday showing Spencer and Janelle how to make my banana cupcakes and top them with my bittersweet chocolate frosting. It was the fastest six minutes of my life. If there wasn’t a video of the segment I swear I’d probably have no memory of it. Check it out.
The last couple of weeks have been a whirlwind of activity! Mi2Sweets was featured in Daily Candy and the response has been wonderful. Link: http://www.dailycandy.com/san_francisco/article/71531/Easy+Bake
We’ve gotten a slew of inquiries about our private in-home baking/cooking classes–a fantastic way for friends and family to get together to do something fun and creative in a casual “party” atmosphere. Mi2Sweets brings all the ingredients and tools, you provide the kitchen (and oven of course)–and everyone gets to enjoy the fruits (or sweets) of their labor! Desserts demystified, who doesn’t love that?
Check out new pics of what’s coming out of the sweet kitchen at Mi2Sweets Twitter and Facebook pages! I’m taking advantage of all the wonderful stone fruit hitting the market. They’re turning up in hand pies, shortcakes and even cupcakes.
Still don’t have any ideas about what to make Mom for Mother’s Day? Well there is still time to order a custom cake or cupcakes from Mi2Sweets.
But if you are really ambitious, you can try this month’s recipe for Strawberry Semifreddo. It’s a great dessert to make ahead, so you can devote more time to entertaining Mom.
STRAWBERRY SEMIFREDDO
1 c. cream � c. mascarpone cheese 6 yolks � c. sugar 1/8 t. salt 6 whites � c. sugar � c. water 1 c. strawberry puree* 1 T. orange liqueur (e.g. Cointreau)
Spray 1.5 - 2 qt loaf pan with non-stick spray and line with plastic wrap, making there is at least 2� overhang all the way around; lightly spray the inside.
Whip together cream and mascarpone until medium peaks form. Set aside and chill. Whisk yolks, � c. sugar and salt in a heat proof bowl set over a pot of simmering water until very thick and pale. Remove from heat. Whisk in strawberry puree and liqueur; set aside.
Combine remaining � c. sugar with water and cook to firm ball stage (about 248F degrees). Whip whites to medium peaks then carefully whip in hot sugar syrup. Whip on high until meringue is thick and glossy.
Fold meringue into cooled strawberry base then gently fold in whipped cream.
Pour mixture into prepared loaf pan. Fold overhang plastic wrap across the surface to protect the semifreddo. Freeze until firm (at least 4 hours). Dip the frozen pan briefly in hot water to loosen sides, peel back the top layer of plastic, then invert pan onto a plate to unmold semifreddo. Remove the plastic wrap and cut semifreddo into slices with a hot knife.
*Puree 1 pt. of fresh or frozen (thawed) strawberries and pass through strainer to remove seeds.