Favorite Friend Friday: Emily Nelson of Cult Cakes

We met Emily when she was working at a coffee shop next to our former storefront in Phinney/Greenwood. Little did we know that she was a pastry genius (and making excellent mochas as well)! When I was planning my wedding last year, Emily was working as an assistant with Kelli's Cake Creations, and she assisted and delivered my cake! The cake was dream-like, and I've hired her to make a miniature version of it for our 1st anniversary on May 5th. We at Assemble are so excited that Emily is getting her brand new business, Cult Cakes, started up, and are happy to introduce her to all of our friends and customers. If you need a delightful pastry--Emily takes the cake!


Why baking? What got you started in this industry?
Food always interested me, growing up, so I was always up to something in the kitchen—-mostly baking. Around age 11, I found a spring issue of Martha Stewart Living. There was an article on decorating cakes with candied edible flowers, and I thought that was so cool. For next few years, I experimented with cake decorating, and by the time I was sixteen, I left high school to pursue a degree in baking and pastry. I've always been a creative type, so it was natural to go into cake decorating, where my two passions came together.


Photo by Jaquilyn Shumate Photography

Photo by Cult Cakes
What does Cult Cakes mean to you?
My inspiration for Cult Cakes is usually brought about by pop culture, subcultures, different trends (fashion is a major influence) and finding a way to translate that into a cake. I want to take the cake medium, go outside the box of traditional cake décor, and give it a fresh perspective. Right now I’m working with the classic cake silhouette, but I have a lot different ideas that I’m looking forward to actualizing. Of course, there is always the indulgent aspect of cake, so I want to dazzle people’s taste buds as well as their eyes. It doesn’t matter how pretty a cake is if it doesn’t taste good.

What is your signature recipe?
I’m currently developing my own recipes, but I’m a big fan of Fannie Farmer. I used her cookbook when I was baking growing up, and I find her recipes extremely comforting. My favorite is her Peerless Chocolate Cake—-you can find that one in many of my posts on my blog. I'm also a big fan of her brioche recipe (and I actually baked you Andie a brioche from her recipe last year!) [Editor's note: it was one of the best things I have ever eaten.]


Photo by Assemble
What's your favorite things to make for clients?
Oh gosh, I don’t know if I can pick. I enjoy sculpting, be it the cake itself or figurines made from sugar or chocolate.

What are your goals for your business?
I’m looking forward to running a cake shop with a store front one day. I’m a big fan of knowing where my food comes from, so I’d hope to source locally and make our fillings (like raspberry jam) and decorating materials (like modeling chocolate) in-house. I’m excited to consult with and understand my clients, especially if I am going to be creating a custom cake for them.


Photo by Cult Cakes
If you could eat at only one local restaurant, which would it be? What would you order?
This is a really difficult question for me, haha! Probably Than Brothers, since I feel like I’m always craving pho! I always order the beef pho with broccoli.

Which famous person would you love to see order one of your desserts?
Martha Stewart. I’d have come full circle. And I would cry salty tears of joy.

If you could live in any other location, where would you choose?
This is another tough one! Probably France or New York City.


Photo by Jaquilyn Shumate Photography
What else do you do for fun?
I’m really looking forward to barbecues this summer. I love to feed people. I also enjoy dancing (poorly), singing, gardening, painting, swimming, reading, and sleeping. I'd like to learn French and how to throw a good punch.

Thanks, Emily!

Emily's 9 Holiday Pantry Must-Haves

It's almost Thanksgiving! We want to celebrate here at Assemble with a special Thanksgiving theme week. Now through Thursday, a new post just for the season! Today, Emily takes it from here!

. . .
More than presents or decorating, in our house, holiday means baking! I find myself stocking up the pantry with the very first signs of fall, in anticipation of breaking out my cookie press and loaf pans. I want to share my nine favorite pantry staples, from an otherwise very long list. I'd love to know what's in your cupboards, too!

1. Chocolate Chips
I am a firm believer that higher quality ingredients make a huge difference in baking. So it's funny to me that I really like to use good-old-fashioned Nestle Tollhouse chocolate chips in my cookies -- I keep both milk and semi-sweet in the pantry year-round. The result is always consistent.
2. Tillen Farms Maraschino Cherries
From filling my mother-in-law's cherry bread to garnishing whiskey sours, maraschino cherries have a place in our holiday pantry. But I simply can't stand the bleached-and-dyed processed ones. Tillen Farms is a Pacific Northwest company that makes these all-natural cherries without dyes, sulfates, or preservatives. Score!
3. Solo Almond Filling
Almond paste is easy to find all year long, but I have a harder time finding almond filling for pastries, so I stock up as soon as I see these in the fall!
4. Darigold Unsalted Butter
Good butter = good baking. Darigold is a Northwest, farmer-owned, dairy co-op. I usually use unsalted when I bake, but their sweet cream salted butter is wonderful for cooking or buttering bread.
5. Crisco
Good thing Crisco has a very long shelf life, because I use it only once a year. But it is important -- recipes that call for shortening mean it. It'll make pastries flakey and cookies crumbly, where butter will fall flat (literally.)
6. Walnuts
I keep pecans and almonds around most of the time, but for some reason, holidays mean baking with walnuts. I prefer to buy them raw, in the bulk bins at our market. Nuts are expensive and get bitter if left out too long, so I just buy what I need.
7. Neilsen-Massey Bourbon Vanilla
Buy the best vanilla you can afford. You can smell the difference.
8. King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
I swear by King Arthur products, especially when baking bread! It has the most versatility, and will create high-rise breads or super tender pastries.
9. Organic Pumpkin
From October through December, I love making anything pumpkin flavored. I started using this Farmer's Market organic version and like how rich and pumpkin-y it tastes. Although, Libby's recipe for traditional pumpkin pie is impossible to beat!

Cookin' & Bakin' Playlist

I don't know about you, but my favorite part of gearing up for the holidays is hanging out in the kitchen with my apron on, glass of wine in hand, cooking and/or baking. I usually don't even end up eating what I make, but it's one of those things that just makes me happy. Usually, I'll use a Pandora station, but lately I've been creating my own mixes. Here's one I cooked up just for you guys, for when you're busy in the kitchen. It's full of all of my happy favorites that go perfectly with a Kitchenaid and a Pinot Noir. Enjoy!

Listen to or download the entire Cookin' & Bakin' playlist on Spotify, here.


• I've Got My Love to Keep Me Warm -- Billie Holiday
• Hey, Good Lookin' -- Hank Williams
• Too Darn Hot -- Ella Fitzgerald
• Having a Party -- Sam Cooke
• She Smiled Sweetly -- Rolling Stones
• Bowm Bowm Bowm -- Francoise Hardy
• 9 to 5 -- Dolly Parton
• Sha-La-La (Make me Happy) -- Al Green
• Flowers on the Wall -- Nancy Sinatra
• Silver Threads and Golden Needles -- Skeeter Davis
• I Want a Little Sugar in My Bowl -- Nina Simone
• Et moi, Et moi, Et moi -- Jaques Dutronc

Any more suggestions?

DesignMom's '8 Secrets to the Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookies'

Photo by DesignMom
I began writing a post several weeks ago, discussing how I bake my favorite chocolate chip cookies. I spent a day in the kitchen, photographing the results from different baking pans, amounts of flour, and temperature. I realized my camera was on accidentally on video mode and I wasn't able to capture any usable frames. DARN!

But just this morning, Gabrielle Blair of Designmom posted 8 Secrets to The Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookie. Her pictures, instructions, and baking tips are exactly how I would do it. So I'm referring all of you bakers to her site for the best cookie tutorial I've seen in a while, so head over there to read all about it!. She even includes troubleshooting photos and remedies!

Cookies looking more like the thin ones on the left? Add 3/4 cup flour to get the batch on the right!

Photo by DesignMom
I still would like to share a sweet little video I caught while trying to document my original cookie post. Looks like someone was excited about being my kitchen helper!

Special Weekend Post Part II: Spinach Feta Artisan Bread (from Neatloaf)

And now, for part two: adding spinach and feta!

Remember that post I wrote about making No-Knead Artisan bread? Well, I think I may have made it even better! Follow the recipe on that post, but include these steps as well:

Once your dough has risen for 12-18 hours (this is the wheat-style dough), add 1/2 to 1 cup of thawed, frozen spinach (make sure to drain all of the water out) and 1/3 to 1/2 cup fat-free feta cheese.

Fold the spinach and feta into the dough lightly and leave on the parchment paper to rise for a few more hours. After plopping the dough into the hot dutch oven, sprinkle a tad of garlic salt over the top.

Voila! Serve with butter. Mmmm!

Special Weekend Repost: From Neatloaf (our old blog)

We love this post so much that we didn't want it to get pushed aside into the Neatloaf archives, never to be seen again. I hope you enjoy it (again!), if you've read it before.

Bread-making! Yay! I received this book as a gift a while back because of it's easy, no-knead recipe for artisan bread. There ARE other recipes in the book, but this is by far the easiest and most versatile. I deviate a bit from Jim Lahey's instructions, as I believe that the environments in Seattle change the way that the dough reacts (plus a few practiced secrets from me Mum). A few friends have expressed interest in the method, so here you go, complete with pictures:

Ingredients:
3 cups bread flour
1 1/4 teaspoons table salt
1/4 teaspoon instant or active yeast
1 1/3 cups cool (55 to 65 degrees F) water
and my recommendation: trade bran for sea salt for dusting

In a medium bowl, stir together all dry ingredients, and then slowly add water until you have a wet, sticky dough. I found that I had to use as much as an entire half-cup more of water in order to get the correct consistency.

Add water until it is really sticky to the touch. Then cover the bowl with a plate, tea towel or plastic wrap and put in a warm, dry place to rise for 12-18 hours.

See the rest of the steps after the jump.