Bee Stuff at Sur la Table and a Recipe

Why, oh WHY, didn't they sell this stuff while I was an employee and enjoyed a 40% discount?! My seasonal position at Sur la Table ended mid-January but I still found myself in the store last Friday, taking advantage of my last employee perk: one free cooking class per month. As soon as I walked in the door, I was greeted by a full display of temptations.

Two items on display are hot items that I've been waiting for to come back into stock. I left the store $50 poorer.

OMG too cute! but I resisted. House rule is, if something comes in, something has to go out.

SCORE! Use NEWYEAR17 in-store or online through 2/27 for 20% off.

The recipe that comes with the pan makes enough batter for 4 pans, but at $36 a pop, one pan is all I splurged for. Instead of scaling down the recipe ('cuz it hurt my brain to quarter 2 3/4 c. flour, 1 1/4 c. sugar, etc.) for you, dear readers, I developed one that not only yields just 6 cakelets, it proves that baking is not always a precise science experiment with strict rules. The following recipe produces six tender yellow cakelets in under an hour, start to finish.

Beehive Cakelets

High Altitude Baking? Use the lesser amount of sugar and salt. If you want.

Sift together into a medium bowl:
1 c. flour (See NOTE below.)
1/2-2/3 c. sugar
1/4-1/2 t. salt
1/4 t. baking soda 


Stir together in a separate bowl:
1/2 c. buttermilk
1/3 c. veg oil or 6 T. melted, still liquid butter
1 t. extract, whatever's your favorite

Add the wet to the dry ingredients along with 1 egg. Whisk until smooth. Divide among the wells of a greased and floured NordicWare beehive cakelet pan. Bake in a preheated 325°F oven until done (~18"). Cool in pan 5" then trim the cupcake domes. Cool completely before turning out, then decorating with royal icing.

BREAK THE RULES and make this a ONE-BOWL RECIPE. Put all the liquid ingredients into a bowl. Stir the dry ingredients in. A big cake might show unevenness but you'll never see the difference here.

Royal Icing
Stir together in a small ramekin:
1/4 c. powdered sugar
1 t. liquid honey
1 t. lemon juice
Add drops of water/milk/more lemon juice (liquid of your choice) to thin or more powdered sugar to thicken. It needs to be thick but pourable. As soon as it's smooth, drizzle over the cooled cakes.

Serve with a nice cup of tea with lemon and honey.

Honeycomb stamped Faux-reos sound good to you? Check 'em out here!

BAKING TIPS: In case you didn't know, King Arthur Flour declared 2017 the #yearofthebundt. While not technically a bundt pan, the cakelet pan is made by NordicWare, which is famous for its bundt pans. They're my fave, and I have at least half a dozen. Customers at Sur la Table always asked about their cakes sticking or not being flat-bottomed like in the picture, so here's what I told them:

1. CAKE STICKING:
   • Prepare even nonstick pans with a smooth paste made of equal parts shortening, oil and flour.
   • Do not use butter and flour to prep the pan. The solids in melted butter can actually lead to sticking. Same with canned sprays.
   • Use a pastry brush to get the fine details. Rotate the pan 180° to ensure even coverage; pay extra attention to the central tube, if there is one.
   • If the cake seems like it won't release after cooling in the pan, cover the cake with foil and pop back in the still-warm oven for 10".
2. DOMING happens because the batter sets on the outside while the interior is still rising. To lessen the amount of doming:
   • After prepping the pan, pop it in the freezer while you make the batter. Expect a longer bake time.
   • After loading the batter in, use the back of a spoon to make a divot in it.
   • Use a sharp knife to cut the dome off while the cake is still in the pan. In cooking school, we called the trimmings Scooby Snacks.

NOTE> All-purpose is fine. For smoother details and a finer crumb, use cake flour.

How much space does a beehive need?

"I'm thinking about starting beekeeping. How much space does a beehive need?" asked Skylar. It's a great first question but I feel like there are so many other questions a budding beekeeper should ask before that one. Hindsight's 20/20 I suppose. Only after you've kept bees for a while do you realize that the space requirement is not the #1 consideration. Nevertheless, I'm going to try to answer the question in as short a post as possible. 

 

Continuing my #GoodToKnow series of posts, I'll assign this #7: Know Your City Ordinance

 

Aurora city ordinance allows only two hives per one-quarter acre or less. A hive must be at least five feet from an adjoining property and any colony within 25 feet of a property line must have a 6' high, 20' wide wall or fence that alters the bees' flight path. It's important to know the codes so you don't find yourself fighting the city like Denver Bees founder Marygael Meister did in 2008. A useful tool for learning your local codes is www.municode.com/library/

Extrapolating the flight path of the bees in this video by even just 10 feet should give you an idea of how much space a beehive needs.

Young bees learning the location of their hive.

Older bees returning to the hive with nectar.

Essentially, a beehive needs as much airspace as you can offer. 

P.S.: If you're buying bees for 2017, Colorado bees from Grampa's Gourmet go on sale Monday the 9th!

Affordable Epinephrine. Affordable Healthcare.

Interviewing for a job these days is interesting. Instead of action words and bullet points, my new resumé features Honey Glow and prominently displays my social "handles" complete with icons. On the emailed version they are clickable. My first interview went something like this.

UNKNOWN CALLER: "Hello? this is [garbled static] at Sur la Table. I'm looking at your bees. I love honey! When are you going to be finished with getting shots?"

ME: Whoa! I think to myself. Okay, interview mode… That's kinda a weird question. What's the right answer? Something positive but not too detailed. What are they looking at…my Etsy shop? Instagram? Blog? Don't hesitate too long, say something!

UNKNOWN CALLER IS WAITING

ME: "Two more years but I'm thinking of starting again in the spring. I have to carry EpiPens any way, so why wait," I answer optimistically.

Well, the $300-600 per pair cost might have something to do with that. Except, maybe not! At least two groups are working to provide alternative delivery devices. Allergy Stop's got a couple of things going for it that make it a better choice than Mylan's product: it's small and it's going to be affordable. Like 50 bucks, if the doctor that's developing it can raise the financial backing needed to bring it to market. I'm assuming the cost can be so low because the mechanism is pretty basic; you'll get a preloaded syringe but will have to attach a needle to use it. The outer packaging looks pretty sleek.

Learn about Allergy Stop at 

allergystopnow.com.

Learn more about Windgap's device
at youtu.be/4bUQ2Qywtn4.
Photo from marketingmama.com

Windgap Medical is working on another fits-in-your-palm sized device but it's still 2 years from even submitting an application to regulators. Their auto-injector will employ a wet-dry mechanism, which is supposed to make their product more temperature-stable than EpiPens. I'm interested to know what its extended shelf-life will be. It probably won't be as affordable as AllergyStop, but a potential 5-yr shelf life sounds pretty good, and it will have the portability factor that is so important.

I've written before about the form factor of Epi-Pen and AdrenaClick. Unlike the $300 generic EpiPen or $200 generic AdrenaClick, these novel devices are something I can look forward to. I don't care that AllergyStop isn't autoinject, or at least I don't think so. My allergic reaction isn't as quick as for others that suffer anaphylaxis. (Knock on wood.) What matters, to me, is that I'll be able to afford it and once I have it I won't ever choose to not pack it because it's too bulky.

40% employee discount? #yesplease . . . #cheflife #milehighdreams

A photo posted by @backyardbee on Oct 18, 2016 at 11:31am PDT

And now for the second half of the post: Affordable Healthcare. I'd really like to know who the moron is that determined that laying out 9.66% of your HH income for premiums is affordable. Like many Americans, I'm finding the best way to make healthcare affordable is to not have a job (or earn no more than $11,970) and then take the subsidy. It bothers me that the system is designed to encourage Americans to not contribute to our economy. And on top of that, to take from it.

Poverty is pretty easy to achieve, so I'm officially on Medicaid now. Unfortunately, there's still some hinky data in the system preventing me from selecting an actual health insurance plan. Once I do, you can rest assured I'll be getting back on track with the VIT. Should be interesting…I have a pretty strong feeling a build-up phase will be involved.