Rise Up Baking

10.29.08 I had my first two official clients since I put the website up, in one day. Apple Cider Doughnuts, Lemon Mini Cupcakes with Saffron Buttercream Frosting, and Mulled Apple Cider for Adrienne; “Chocolate Chip Cookie” Sachertorte with Dark Chocolate Ganache for Rey. Both clients are friends, and yesterday I saw clearly that It is impossible to sustain self-employment without friends. Thank you both for showing me I could do this! But I can’t take all the credit. As my apprentice said, while carefully cutting doughnut holes, “MAMA… WE’RE A BAKER!”

A mystery of seasonal baking de-mystified! Thanks be to you, King Arthur, for keeping an employee-owned mill open for 200 years, and for answering the really important questions:

Where do doughnuts come from???

“The King Arthur Flour Baker’s Companion” (Countryman, 2003) is one of the few baking bibles to devote an entire chapter to fried dough. It traces the origins of doughnuts to Europe, where fried dough was among the delicacies traditionally consumed for pre-Lenten feasting.

Doughnuts later became associated with the cooler months for many settlers in the northeastern United States and Canada. Why? Because fall is the traditional season both for harvest and hog slaughter — meaning it was the time of year when enough fat was available to fry doughnuts, which traditionally were cooked in lard. (Although most modern cooks fry doughnuts in vegetable oil, some purists still swear by lard to fry up the crispiest, lightest doughnuts.) It is difficult to trace the lineage of the apple cider doughnut in particular, but they have gained popularity in the American northeast, home to numerous apple orchards.

Apple Cider Doughnuts

Click on the Recipes page for a tried and true recipe for Vermont Apple Cider Doughnuts. Thank you, Washington Post & Conklin Orchards.

This post is to send thanks to Adrienne for giving me a reason to fry apple cider donuts, and to all of you for your incredible affirmations, feedback and orders since I put the site up. Keep ‘em rolling in!

To share my recipes for the Yellow Room Lemon Cupcakes (below), Vermont Apple Cider Donuts and Hot Mulled Cider I’m making for Adrienne’s event this Wednesday, click on  our Recipes page, above.

Enjoy! ~ @

At a loss for what to do with all those pumpkins (or that really really really big one on your stoop)?

Click on our Recipes page, above, to share the pumpkin bread secrets of my partner who, in addition to making the hard cider and roasted peppers you see in the picture, also bakes his ass off.

On Thursday, October 16, WHY and its partners held “Step up to the Plate: Ending the Global Food Crisis.”

The event proved to be an emotional, educational, and poignant evening. The Great Hall at Cooper Union was packed with more than 500 people including activists, students, and journalists. All the attendees were enthusiastic to hear what the speakers had to say and passionate about issues affecting and affected by access to local, healthy, and affordable food.

Acclaimed activists each spoke about food access on a global and local level.

• Alice Waters of Chez Panisse and founder of Edible Schoolyard in Berkeley, CA
• Frances Moore Lappé, best-selling author of Diet for a Small Planet
• Raj Patel, author of Stuffed and Starved: The Hidden Battle for the World Food System
• Ben Burkett, president of the National Family Farm Coalition
• LaDonna Redmond, president of the Institute for Community Resource Development
• Pat Purcell of the United Food and Commercial Workers union
• Shari Rose of the Brooklyn Rescue Mission
• Gerardo Reyes Chavez of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers
  

The Call to Action addressed the issue as much more than just food access, but also one of human rights. Improving global trade, finding alternative energy sources and ending poverty at home and abroad all rely on the actions taken by the next president to end the global food crisis we now face. It was a collective prioritizing of the basic belief that every person deserves access to healthy, local, and affordable food.

To read the Call to Action and sign on, visit http://www.usfoodcrisisgroup.org/.

Sponsored by: WHY (World Hunger Year), in partnership with Food First, National Family Farm Coalition, Grassroots International, Agricultural Missions, Pesticide Action Network of North America, Small Planet Institute, Food and Water Watch, Coalition of Immokalee Workers, United Food and Commercial Workers Local 1500, Rainforest Action Network and others.

Supporters: Food Systems Network NYC, Just Food, New York Citizens Trade Coalition, World Neighbors, Global Policy Forum, Community Food Security Coalition, Take a Bite out of Climate Change, Anna Lappé , Edible Manhattan, Hunger Action Network of NY State, Sustainable Table, New York City Nutrition Education Network, Sustainable Connections, Alberto Lovera Bolivarian Circle of NY, The FGE Food & Nutrition Team, Cornell Global Labor Institute, Mazon, Council on the Environment NYC/Greenmarket, New York City Coalition Against Hunger, GreenThumb, East New York Farms!, Added Value, I.N.T.A.C.T. Community Development Corporation, Kalabash Food Cooperative, and others.

Saturday, October 11th there will be two FREE food workshops for kids at 75 Ninth Avenue at Chelsea Market, part of the “Kids Get Cooking” Program!

BAKING FOR KIDS WITH AMY’S BREAD
Time: 10:00 AM (ages 5-6) and 11:00AM (ages 7-8)

COOKIE DECORATING WITH ELENI’S NEW YORK
Time: 12:00 PM; 1:00 PM; 1:45 PM

Rise Up Baking’s first gig since we picked a name for ourselves was a piece of cake.

Alex and Nico brought wrapped, stickered, ribboned cookies down to the studio of WBAI, New York City’s Pacifica station, at 120 Wall Street to support the station’s fall fundraising pledge drive. Upon opening their cookies, volunteers found cheesy stickers that said things like “Great Job!” or “Awesome Work” (yes, just like your 3rd grade math teacher put on your homework). Nico gazed longingly at the Terminal Room, which looks like those computers from the 1960s; heard lots of “Good job, little man!”s from many a cookie-eating, pledge-taking volunteer, and was given a personal invitation to return to the station, sit in the studio and record a station ID by Ayo Harrington, the producer of Eddie Ellis’ show, “On The Count”.

Definitely worth walking through the financial district.

No, sadly we’re not there yet. All baked goods and services of Rise Up Baking come at a price. However, you will find no prices on this site because for now, all prices are case-by case. Enjoy ~ @

Sorry everyone, to wave the “medicinal flowers” in front of you and not name them. Above, from periphery to center we have: Yellow and orange petals of Calendula, an anti-inflamatory both internally and topically; Mint leaves and flowers, which ease stomach upset and stimulate the nervous system; Echinacea blossom, an immune system support.  All of these can be tinctured in alcohol or glycerine, steeped in hot water to make a tea, or eaten raw (and they all taste really amazing in a bite of chocolate mint cake).

Kana Luc Crow was born October 6th. His mama’s chocolate mint birthday cake graces the top of our website, with chocolate mint ganache icing and medicinal flower decoration, and his papa’s cooperative catering organization, Local Sprouts, is a source of much inspiration for Rise Up Baking. Felicidades Familia Crow!!!!!!!