Motley Crew at the Met n Gret

No…  not the band…

Once a year I get a super cool opportunity to go hang out with a group of people.  Its a weird group people who see things inside out and in layers and gradients of colors.  We see music and movement is still objects and tell stories with food and flavors.  We understand that our simplest effort can bring delight and joy and touch people on countless levels through sight, scent, emotion and flavor.

We are cakers.

… and sometimes, we need to escape.

Sometimes, we need to take off our cases and just disappear somewhere fabulous to hang out with each other and talk…  cake.

This year we were in Buffalo, NY.  If you think Buffalo is all about Wings and Water falls, you need to check it out.  Theres a whole lot going on in Buffalo.

By the way, if you think you are NUTS enough to hang, and are interested in attending next year…  apply here.

The Caker’s Escape is put together by the incomparable duo of Aaron & Kara. I simply can’t say enough about these two… so I won’t. Words would fall short.

…but

We stayed at the Reikart House which is a cute boutique hotel North of Buffalo and close to the airport.

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OoOoOoOo…  Swanky!

We ate at the ORIGINAL Buffalo Wing place The Anchor Bar!

Of course we went to Niagara!

There were Food Trucks Festivals and a Wegmans runs too…

…and oh where there SHENANIGANS.

Most importantly though…

…we met and gret.  

(OK, I was trying to say Meet and Greet, but that doesn’t work well in past tense, so BOOM, let me just go ahead and invent a phrase.  Met n gret.)

(Gret is obviously the past tense of greet.)

(Yes, I know it is really greeted.)

(Met n Greeted doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue does it?)

(Think of my writing as poetry, then apply poetic license to change Greeted to Gret.  K?)

(The Grammar Nazi in me sees the Grammar Nazi in you.  Namaste.)

I call this amazing few days as a “Meet and Greet” because the amazing beginning to an amazing mentorship program that I’m entering into with all the amazing people I met in Buffalo. (Amazing, I know.  Look, I accidentally wrote amazing in that sentence about 50 times because I was distracted and then I read it back and it made me giggle…  and remember, my writing is poetry…  so poetic license is still a thing, k?)

I know!  

We made cake too.  It’s a Buffalo eating a Buffalo Wing leaning on a barrel which may or may not be about to go over Niagara Falls.

I gave mine some sexy calves…

…and some boobs.  

Her name was Buffy Lou Wang.  (giggle.  Get it?)

She was either a stripper or a Drag Queen…

…or both.

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Whatever she is, I fully support her quest to be the very best buffalo drag queen stripper she wants to be.  Moo, girl…  moo! (Or, you know, whatever sound of encouragement a buffalo drag queen stripper makes.)

I want everyone to take special notice of the sheer amount of SASS I’m sending out in my picture. Moo girl… moo.

Some super sketchy stuff happened at the Met n Gret before coming home. It involved eating the floral display at the formal dinner, and something about an inflatable chicken at a pajama party… but I don’t want to bore any of you with those details.

As soon as I got home I started working on a cake which could represent my trip to Buffalo and the mixture of ideas, experiences and FUN we all had.

Behold, the Watermelon Jolly Rancher Cake with Buffalo Wing Sauce White Chocolate Ganache!

The cake is so simple…  I replaced all the sugar in my favorite scratch white cake with pulverized Watermelon Jolly Ranchers.  I broke them up with a rolling pin and threw them in the blender.

Pretty!

Be sure you immediately use the pulverized Jolly Ranchers because, as Kara says all the time…  sugar is hydroponic which means it floats in water. ( I just wanted to see if Kara was still paying attention. The actual term is “Hygroscopic” which obviously means “with ketchup and relish.”) You just turned it into a powder, you don’t want it turning back into a lump.  Mix some flour into it then cream with your butter.

ProTip: Always mix your leavening agents in with your butter and sugar when you cream it.  The leaveners get coated with fat and don’t accidentally activate too soon.

If you want the specific recipe I used message me, I’ll gladly share with you…  but this is more of an idea for you.  The cake is slightly sweet, but also has the sour punch of Jolly Rancher.  It was a perfect vehicle for…

Buffalo Wing Sauce White Chocolate Ganache

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Notice the attractive way I feathered the Buffalo Wing Sauce into the heavy cream?

The ratio is simple for my White Chocolate Ganache.  4:1 (Disclaimer: When I call this stuff White Chocolate I really am referring to white baking chips.  They are really mostly wax.  Try a 3:1 ratio if you don’t like firm ganache.  I usually rely on my ganache to be construction grade, so I go 4:1.)

So, for 4 cups of chips, add 1 cup of liquid.  (Read here about some other things you can use…) I only used 2 cups of chips, thus equalling 1/2 cup liquid.  That liquid was 1/4 cup heavy cream and 1/4 cup Buffalo Wing Sauce.

Somehow…  it works.

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Insanity.  

I thought I was just wishing it to be good…  but I fed it to the pickiest person I know.

My husband.

Now… I know this cake is good…  because he ate the entire slice!

I know!

I’m not attaching any recipe this time.  If you have any questions, just ask, and I’ll try to help you through it.

Let me rephrase that…

If you have any questions about the cake or the ganache, I’ll try to help.  

I’m not going to try to explain anything about the Motley Crew at the Met n Gret.

You know who you are Amy, Becky, Justine, Jess, Antonio, Margo, Susan, Lachelle, JoAnne, Aaron and Kara…