Today has been a little more difficult for Haley. We were hoping that she would be sent home but she has been pretty weak and nauseous so we will just wait to see what the doctors say tomorrow. She was able to get up a little bit to walk around and fortunately hasn't flashed anymore nurses! She is still being her high maintenance self and refuses to stoop as low as eating nasty hospital food. Her requests have been for blueberries, Sprite with fresh oranges, & most importantly, Ben & Jerry's coffee Heathbar crunch ice cream! We have been so grateful to everyone for all of their offers to help with anything she needs. She is more than happy to accept that help in forms of ice cream, muffins, cookbooks, & Forever 21 or Nordstrom's gift cards! haha Through it all she is still hilarious as always and continues to keep every one's spirits high! Oh and despite everything that has happened she is most upset that they cut her new white v-neck from Alloy! haha That's Haley for you...

Here are a few more pictures of the car

It's a miracle that she has no back injuries when you see how much her seat shifted

At least she has a nice view of The Capitol from her room...

I had a little run in the other night so I may be out of the blogging circuit for a little while. My sister is typing this as I dictate since both of my arms are broken... I do have quite a bit to catch you up on. I will not be able to complete the wedding cake that I mentioned in the previous post but a gracious friend offered to finish it for me. This past Thursday I officially graduated from culinary school and was told that I would be receiving a scholarship. I'm sure there is more I could catch you up on but this medicine has got me a little groggy so until then, happy baking!!

Ok now this is Haley's sister and I will explain a little more about her accident. On Friday night Haley was heading home from dinner with a friend and was T-boned while turning into her apartment complex. As you can see from the picture, the impact was on the passengers side which was where Haley was riding. They were hit by a vehicle that was traveling anywhere between 90-100 mph. We are praising God for the miracle that Haley and her friend are alive and that the injuries sustained were relatively minor in comparison to what they could have been. Her friend suffered a concussion, a fractured arm and lots of soreness and bruising. Haley suffered a concussion, 2 broken arms (guess she won't be icing cakes for a while), a broken shoulder, as well as lots of soreness and bruising. She had surgery Saturday morning and now has 2 pins in her right forearm, a plate in her shoulder & a pin in her left arm. When she is able to be released, she will go back home with Mom & Dad to recover so please just keep her in your prayers.

For the past few months I have been developing my own little catering business on the side. I haven't been able to do too much with it since I have been pretty busy, first with school and now with my new job, but I have been taking on a few things here and there. My only current project is a wedding cake for April 4th. I will probably bake the cakes off tonight, and will post pictures of the progress soon.

My good friend, Crystal, designed the cute logo that is my header. She has also has been working on setting up my website, and it is up and running! There is not too much to see other than a few scrolling pictures, but at least its something for now. Check it out at www.themuffintop.com

I am so excited that spring is finally here! I am also proud to announce that my blueberry bushes survived the winter! My parents gave me the two bushes for my birthday last summer, and I was a bit worried they wouldn't survive. I neglected them quite a bit during the winter, and didn't water them the entire 2 1/2 weeks I was gone for Christmas. But.... they live! Well, at least one of them really did. I'm not counting the other as dead because some of the stems are still green and there is one lonely leaf. I'm pretty sure another leaf had popped up, but it was mysteriously missing after I let Thumper Rabbit out...hmmm.

Blueberries on my tiny balcony :)

Look at those little berry buds

Ahh... its not dead....yet

See, there is a tiny leaf...

Work has kept me pretty busy, so I still haven't done any personal baking. Sorry.


This week SXSW is going on here in Austin, and sadly I've only managed to go to one show so far. I hate that all of the free shows I really want to go to are during the day while I am at work. But, last night I made it downtown in time to see Laura Marling!! I took a picture of Lori with her and we were pretty excited. If you haven't heard of her you should really check out her stuff on youtube or her myspace.

Good picture.

Great picture!!

Sorry I don't have much to post about this week. This new job has kept me crazy busy, but I am really enjoying it. Today I made a grooms cake from Truluck's famous carrot cake recipe. I don't know if I can give that recipe out to you though... it may get me fired. But everything has a price :) I am liking the job a lot, but the hours have been pretty long this first week. Once I learn everything and get it all down hopefully I'll have some more time to work in my own kitchen.

I am officially finished with pastry school!!! This last week has been a whirlwind; I can't believe it is really over.


My class with Elisa Strauss was great! She is so nice and is an amazing teacher. I learned so many new tricks and methods, I just hope I can remember them all. We made the sushi cake from her book, Confetti Cakes. The cake was actually quite simple to make I am just so slow that I didn't have time to work on the details, which are the things that make this cake so incredible. I completed only 4 sushi rolls (they are pretty thrown together), but I didn't have time to start on the sashimi or the base. Oh well, I still had a great time and am pretty proud of what I did.


The rest of this week I had the opportunity to assist in a class taught by Jacquy Pfeiffer, owner of the French Pastry School in Chicago. It was such an honor to assist in his class, and he is an amazing teacher as well. He has such a great personality and sense of humor; he made the class so entertaining and fun as well as highly educational. I was pretty excited when he taught his methods for French macaroons because I am obsessed with them right now! I could be really selfish and just tell you that his macaroon tips were very helpful, but I wont.... I'll share his tips with you because I guess I like you since you are reading my blog :)

Jacquy Pfeiffer's French Macaroon Recipe and Tips:
(he gave the measurements in grams, so you'll just have to convert them, sorry)
170g egg whites
45g sugar
1g salt
190g almond powder
340g confectioners sugar
25g cocoa powder (if you want chocolate macs... if not just leave the cocoa out)

Procedure:
Whip the egg whites, sugar and salt to medium-stiff peaks. Sift the remaining ingredients and gently fold into the meringue. Keep folding until the mix becomes slightly runny. You will know you are finished folding when you do a peak test (like you do when making meringue) and the peak slowly disappears into the mix. Place mix in a piping bag fitted with a round tip and pipe small discs onto a parchment lined baking sheet. Bake in a 300F oven for 15 minutes. Rotate the baking sheet and continue to bake for another 5-10 minutes, until the macs are no longer tacky when touched lightly.

Tips:
*Let eggs whites sit out over night at room temp to let all of the water in the whites completely evaporate.
*Process your almond flour to as fine as possible and sift well.
*The flavor is always in the filling, never in the base recipe except for chocolate. The same almond base recipe is used for all macs.
*Use food coloring to show flavor (green for pistachio, red for raspberry, pink for strawberry, etc.) Always add color to the meringue before combining with the dry ingredients.
*Allow the macs to sit on the sheet pan for about 30 minutes to let a crust or light skin form over the top.
*If your macs are not puffing up at all when baking, vent your oven with a wooden spoon during the last 5-10 minutes of baking.

Hope these tips come in handy, I know that they really gave me some new insight. Also, I would like to wish a HAPPY HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my roommate, Danielle, and my friend Melissa (tomorrow)!! Love you both!!