Interview with Judy of Silk Cakes (A classically trained pastry chef who makes the best dang icing I've ever tasted.)

One of my blogger buddies Lillian (of Sweets by Sillianah) had posted on Facebook that a new bakery was opening in Queens, Forest Hills specifically. Queens doesn't get many new, cool, or trendy places. Lots of new venues tend to start in Brooklyn or if in Queens LIC or Astoria, so the fact that a new bakery that already has a location in Lower Manhattan opened in the middle of Queens was a treat. And so, I had to try it. My friend Lesley and I ventured to Metropolitan Avenue and found a very clean, sparse, and contemporary looking space that stood out among the fast food chains, banks, and realtor offices. Silk Cakes is sleek and clean and has an array of cupcakes at the ready. I was psyched. Lesley was psyched. And we had some cupcakes to reward ourselves for a quarter-mile walk.

I had a yuzu cupcake with green tea truffle in the middle and green tea buttercream icing that blew my mind. What was this icing perfection and unique cupcake that I wanted several more of in one day? Believe me walking away from Silk Cakes was hard but I did and returned and look forward to returning many more times to a unique bakery with Asian-inspired flavors and match-ups that are decadent yet accessible and incredibly tasty.

Since 2006 Judy has offered specialty and customized wedding cakes that look too gorgeous to eat. Her cupcakes are just as lovely with icing curved along the top of the cake like a Softee swirl of ice cream and is just as smooth, believe me. If you're in the Rego Park, Forest Hills, Kew Gardens area, or just along the Queens Blvd line I implore you to visit and get a taste of Judy's experience and passion for desserts.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The buttercream icing of your cupcakes is unlike any I’ve had before. The texture is reminiscent of silk. It’s smooth and creamy to the touch yet has a solid texture so you don’t have to worry about it losing its form. Not to ask secrets but how long did it take you to create/perfect your icing recipe?  

Many years.

 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Not only are the culinary arts part of your family background but you trained at the French Culinary Institute. What do you think were some of the best things you took away from your time there and at L’Ecole? 

As a classically trained I learned the essentials of many desserts. At L'Ecole, I was in charge of pastries for the a la carte and came up with many innovative desserts. This is where I came up with so many of the unique flavor combinations available at Silk Cakes.

 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Silk Cakes' website notes that you do “Asian inspired designs” and “unique flavor” combinations. Do you think that items such as matcha and green tea, considered more staples of East Asian dishes/desserts, are starting to become more mainstream in American pastry shops? Do you think there’s a method to getting these specific flavors into a dessert without them being lost or too heavy?

Silk Cakes likes to offer unique flavor combinations that no one else carries. Since we've opened our retail store in queens, the general public has really embraced these flavor combinations. In time, the prediction is that these specific flavor combinations will become part of mainstream America. There is definitely a delicate balance that we had to discover when bringing two ingredients together. It was a lot of trial and error. Our cakes are not overly sweet either so you can really taste this balance of ingredients.

 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Queens has been in need of more bakeries, especially in the Kew Gardens Hills/Forest Hills area. With Brooklyn being the borough that’s been getting the bulk of new eateries over the past several years why did you decide to open your second Silk Cakes shop (the first is in the Lower East Side) here?  

We didn't want to follow everyone else, and my sister lives in Forest Hills, so she convinced me to set up my second location there. The neighborhood has been very welcoming since we opened our retail store a couple months ago.

 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

You do very elegant and classic designs and, like your cupcakes, nothing overwhelms or comes across as excessive. As a decorator how do you come to know what may be the best way to convey the customers needs/wants into the design of a cake? 

We usually ask clients to send us visuals of elements that they would like to incorporate into their cake design. Sometimes a client may have an idea and what we do is come up with a sketch and walk the client through our proposal on how we can bring their idea to life in the form of a cake.

 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Besides Facebook, Pinterest, and Instagram are there other social media/online outlets people can get updates from Silk Cakes?  

What you listed are the main social media sites that we use to update our customers. Also, Judy is going to be showcased as a guest chef on the YouTube channel Rogers Powell Worldwide Culinary Apprentice at the end of this month. She's going to teach viewers online the basics of cake decorating. Stay tuned as we plan to announce this on Silk Cakes social media sites.

 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Thanks so much to Judy and her sister Amy for helping with this interview. I look forward to trying the full array of cupcakes Silk Cakes has to offer during my walks. I feel I've earned them. 

#ArtistTherapy: Falling Out of Love, with Your Project

"What? Oh that? I'm not working on it anymore. I don't love it, and I'm on to something new." Soon after I left grad school I worked steadily, made a weekly writing schedule and everything, on a novel/novella about a working-class British guy coming to the States for school and falling in love with a well-off African American girl. As you can imagine over the course of their relationship things got complicated.

Colin and Leslie were the main characters and it was a dual POV story. I got through the first draft, then workshopped portions of this work with groups I found online. I went overseas for the inaugural Pan African Literary Forum to get feedback for the first couple chapters. Then, I'd say more than a year, perhaps two years after I finished the first draft and even after acquiring advice from an agent on it, I found myself irritated and downright disgusted with my characters. Why the hell was Colin with Leslie? What the f*** was Leslie's problem? Colin was such a great guy! The ambivalent ending left some in agreement and others wanting a definitive answer to their relationship. When I went back to revise their love story I didn't have the energy to figure these two twenty-somethings out. I was in my twenties. I was engaged and later married. I was working full-time and had my own crap to deal with on a personal and professional level. Who was I to be writing about these two? Who would want to read about these two obnoxious people? Were they even suffering?!

And that, is how I fell out of love with that project. A project I have never looked back on, though I do have the compendium of files and drafts of the time I worked on it in a folder on My Documents drive.

It happens. You have this awesome idea. A thought that may actually make you jump out of your chair or bed and you start to scribe it down. You may start with scenes, an outline. You may start sketching what you think it should look like or how it sounds. The initial fury of needing to get this thought on paper can be a fantastic burst of energy and pride that can have you working for hours, days, weeks, months, and years on end...if you love it.

As a creative person, and especially as an emerging artist who is not making money off this but treating it as a kind of unpaid job you hope will pay off later on (maybe not monetarily specifically but psychologically/creatively), you hope that this will be the thing that gets you noticed. This new love will be the project that gets you into residencies, awards you grants, lands that agent or that publisher, will get the notice for a show to happen, will spread the word so that you are "The Next Big/Best Thing." However, some things may factor into your progression:

1) Critiques: As mentioned before the right (or wrong) critique can get you amped up to continue (or deflate you enough that you stop and second guess yourself). For the Leslie/Colin book I was getting critiques that were supportive and helpful. But did I want to pursue the revisions necessary to really tackle these people? No.

Which brings me to:

2) Passion: Most initial projects will require a lot of work. No one becomes a master through osmosis. (Man, how I wish that weren't true.) Do you see yourself growing with the work? Do you see yourself delving in and taking the time you need to make it a better/stronger piece from what you first envisioned? And once you do finish, will you be able to set it down for a bit and revisit it later on to further correct or improve upon it? Should you begin to submit your work will you have the fortitude and skin to take rejection? Unfortunately there'll be more barriers than open doors to get a work published/publicized. And if you love it, if you truly believe in what you produced you'll see it through to making this project the best it can be in your own hands. Did I have the passion/will to continue on with Leslie and Colin's romance? Again, no.

I have friends who have spent a decade, more than a decade, a couple decades on work because of their belief in it and love for it. Even bumping against rejections or assurances that what they are doing is seen as important and a good addition to the creative realm they have fought to make their work known in some form or fashion.

I'm not saying something you love should take a long time, but if it does and you're still committed to it that says something about your tenacity and willingness to grow as an artist and the space this project takes in your heart that you'd want to (through the good, enlightening, bad, and horrendous moments) continue on with no assured positive outcome. All you need is the knowledge that this work is important to you.

Do I start projects that I fall out of love or lose interest in? Of course. Do I have the projects I love and have remained committed to 'til the end? Absolutely! There will always be that idea that, like other things in life, "seemed good at the time" before it fizzles out into no man's land. But if you have the right support to move forward and you have the drive to make this happen you won't fall out of love with your project--probably out of like when it gets hard--yet the love will remain. Promise.

#NYCBakeSale 2014: Back at Brooklyn Flea

This counts as the one month (or specifically the 29 day) mark before the NYC Bake Sale strikes again! In previous posts from 2013 and 2012 I have volunteered and baked desserts. While I may not be baking this time around I will definitely be behind the scenes helping and this blog post is just one way of advertising. The NYC Bake Sale, and other bake sales around the nation, make sure all proceeds go to No Kid Hungry's campaign to end child hunger in America. Last year NYC's bake sale raised over $4,500 for this mission and we hope to raise that much more in 2014.

Food bloggers and culinary professionals are donating freshly baked goods that will include gluten-free and vegan items as well as lactose-filled deliciousness. The spread will be amazing and remember all monies raised go to a great cause.

You can visit the NYC Bake Sale's Tumblr site for updates on raffle prizes (win Le Creuset cookware or cookbooks from King Arthur flour!) and on who will be donating goodies. The bake sale will run from 10am to 5pm on May 3rd or whenever we sell out.

If you want to be part of the Twitter discussion and further publicize the event please use the hashtag #NYCBakeSale. You can also get updates and show support by attending via the Facebook event page.

Hope to see you there in May!

Village Voice's @ChoiceEats 2014

Once again the Village Voice held one of the biggest vendor events on a really blustery "spring" evening this past Tuesday. The new venue for Choice Eats was Pier 36 on South Street right next to the water. If you were waiting outside you were hit with all kinds of cold winds coming right off the Hudson. But what would keep you warm, or at least hopeful, was knowing that soon, soon, you would be immersed in a smorgasbord of vendors for savory and sweet treats as well as a variety of alcohol (beer, liquors, and wine). One of my first impressions upon entering the building was how much bigger Pier 36 was and how welcoming it felt. The dull colored carpeting and the expansive space allowed for more movement among the several hundred people in attendance. Much more so than the Armory in the Flat Iron District in years prior. This does not mean it didn't get packed, however. By 8pm it was hard to get through sections or view what vendors were doling out because lines extended past one booth and merged with others for booths parallel to the one you may have been interested in in the first place.

What's great about Choice Eats is it allows for attendees to sample items from new or established eateries around NYC. Ones you may not have known existed. Places from Queens, Brooklyn, and all over Manhattan had large display signs in yellow with red type advertising their dish(es) and people with smiling faces trying to feed the masses as quickly as they could.

If you purchased general admission you got in at 7pm. If you opted to go for VIP status you got in at 6pm, got to sample vendors food without the larger crowd, got a goody bag, and a private lounge to sit in. Again this one was swankier than at the Armory. Whereas the Armory's lounge was downstairs away from the bustle Pier 36's was above the bustle so you could still survey the scene and not feel left out.

For me, this year was a bit hit and miss. Many dishes I wasn't a fan of or were too salty or too spicy taking away from actual taste of the dish for me. But, one of my favorite new finds was the first table my friend Joy and I hit, Cafe Glechik.

Cafe Glechik had the largest portions and were well stocked--even at 8:45 (the event ends at 9pm) they had a whole sheet of Napoleon Cake as well as many blinis and dumplings available whereas many places had run out and bolted. The blini is essentially meat in a crepe and then fried on either side to get that nice warm taste inside. It was well seasoned and not at all spicy. The Napoleon Cake was other-worldly and my favorite dessert. Several layers of phyllo dough with light vanilla creme between each layer was delicious. The only downside was the portions were so huge I couldn't finish. I did see some people bring Tupperware so perhaps that's an idea if you can't sample it all in one day; try and take what may be reheatable home. Just a thought.

Other standouts were Bien Cut's apricot danish. A croissant with apricot cream filling. Fantastic and light, they ran out of it fast. Bien Cut also had corn biscuits with a sweet puree on top that had a nice organic taste to it not like your boxed, run-of-the-mill cornmeal but something much more of the earth. Bien Cut's items were perfectly bite size and lovely to look at.

Other items I did like was the array of soul food proteins and sides from Charles' Country Pan Fried Chicken. They had a nice small plate of down home cooking that included candied yams, collard greens, cornbread, fried chicken wings or baked chicken bits, rib tips, and mac n' cheese. This was one of the longer lines as they had the most offerings. In fact if you visited more of the ethnic fare like Ethiopian or Indian eateries they may have had several items, and ultimately served attendees buffet style rather than focusing on one standout dish. This choice can be good or bad for the vendor but at least more items gives a broader sense of what's available.

There were also old faves like Fay Da Bakery. I love the lightness of their sponge cakes, the fact that they have honey tea and bubble tea, and also their egg custard tarts all in small sizes but in large quantities. And the people at the Fay Da booth are friendly every year.

There was also chocolatey goodness of a chocolate chip cookie with a layer of caramel and a layer of chocolate from Robicelli's. Liddabit Sweets served chocolate caramel bonbons with pistachio and salt atop. Butter & Scotch had their Dark & Stormy flavored popcorn that has been gaining speed since they debuted it last year at the food fairs. And there was La Newyorkina whose line was ridiculous by night's end once people diverted from the savory and sought to fulfill their sweet tooth. One day I shall have Newyorkina. It will happen.

What makes Choice Eats great is the variety, going with friends, enjoying food and some alcohol and learning of new places to dine. The vendors are eager to get their name out there and you're looking to eat/drink so it's a win-win situation really. What I would point out is that this is not necessarily a vegan-friendly or gluten-free (GF) friendly event. Many items are meat and do have dairy. As my friend Joy said at one point, "I'm filled with meat." Vegetarians may fair okay, especially in the dessert realm, but if you're vegan or lactose or GF there may be very slim pickins for you here. As is there were several ice cream vendors and many of the cakes, including Fay Da's and Cafe Glechik's had cream. Vendors don't readily advertise what they'll be giving out beforehand, but for the most part there'll be good eats if you're ready to throw down and get in as much as there is to offer.

Tickets for Choice Eat's sister event Choice Streets will be going on sale on April 2nd. And tickets for Choice Eats tend to go on sale in January.

#ArtistTherapy: Elitism in the Arts

"I write genre, but some say that doesn't count as 'real' literature."  I'm not going to lie to you. There's a divide in the art world as a whole. Look at contemporary artists and abstract artists. Look at pop music and classical and rock and (insert genre here). It's weird and divisive and feels as though it shouldn't exist, but it does.

A couple years after I finished my MFA, I went to my first writers conference. Here, each writing group was their own sect. There was the novel group, the poets, the nonfiction/memoir people, the short story people, and the writing for children class. During a group outing of conference participants I went up to some of the writing for children ladies and informed them of how much I enjoyed their reading the day before. They looked at me with open expressions of surprise. I had noticed how they'd been keeping to themselves. How they rallied with each other and didn't tempt to talk to the other genres, but the same could be said for those not approaching them. While the poets, nonfiction, and fiction writers were intermingling the young adult/children's writers were holding tight. I was in one of the short story workshops and had enjoyed their lively reading of their work. It intrigued me and sounded really good. The ladies and I had some pleasant conversation and they gave me a ride back to the dorms. On the car ride home they admitted that they felt out of sorts and not taken as seriously. They were writing for children. To them they felt others didn't respect them as much as the novelists and short fiction writers and thus felt set apart. Which to me was a damn shame cause their work merited respect.

When it comes to "genre" fiction which includes young adult, science fiction, fantasy, thrillers, mysteries, and such, sometimes these can fall into the "literary" category and sometimes not. (And mind you categories are really tools for the publishing/business aspect, not so much for the writers.) Yet it is interesting the vitriol you can feel from someone noting that you are ignorant in what they like and thus they do not respect what you enjoy. I had a critique group member blast me for being a female who did not read (enough) science fiction and thus felt I could not properly comment on his work.

So what can I say to this? I'll take a queue from what I heard at an AWP panel last year on marketing your book. Plainly and with no sarcasm the panel moderator replied to a question about whether one should worry if they upset their publisher should they hire their own publicist. The moderator's response: "F*** 'em."

If you like writing stories that include dragons. F*** everyone else and write it. If you like a hint of magic in a tale about a  family dealing with grief so be it. This is your work. It's no one else's. In the end the work will have your name on it. It will be touted as yours from beginning to end and you'll thank some additional people (or many additional people) who helped you along the way. But the good, bad, and ugly you hear from others will be targeted to you about what you created. Would you want to put out something you didn't enjoy to fit into a mold that is not inherently part of your creative process? Is that a no? Yeah, I thought so.

I write stories I'm interested in whether they be flash/short fiction, novel form, young adult, adult, literary, speculative historical, thrillers, or an amalgamation of all these. Whatever strikes me as the right form is the right form and I write it because I enjoy it and feel like that is what works for this particular piece. When I was applying to graduate school and as I apply to residencies and conferences I know where certain things fit. I do know that for the most part the literary works of contemporaries like Zadie Smith, Junot Diaz, and Chimamanda Adichie will be the type of work committees are looking to provide time, space, and money to write. I understand that if I tried to send out my speculative young adult thriller to Yaddo it may very well be tossed away because it's not "literary." But that doesn't mean that there isn't a place for this manuscript. Both projects, not just the young adult book or the story collection about race and family, both are works I am capable of creating and loving and wanting to promote as a source of growth for myself.

We all have our strengths and our passions, so don't allow a larger opinion of what "is" and "isn't" art define what you create and how proud you should be of it. Look at authors like Annie Proulx and Stephen King. Yes, one is making a hell of a lot more money than the other and one has a Pulitzer to their name. And if you presented both to a specific crowd one may be lauded way more than the other. One may be considered the best of their generation and the other boring or melodramatic. But both King and Proulx have a way with description. They have a way with creating characters that stick in your mind long after you've placed their tomes down and moved onto something else. I dare you to find one story or even a passage by either Proulx or King that doesn't strike a nerve or play with form and presentation and style and genre even. I dare you to not find a Stephen King piece that doesn't hit home on a larger scale or a Proulx piece that doesn't freak you out a little.

So, in the end, "f*** 'em." Make what you love and you'll have the respect of those who appreciate what you've created.