Heaven Scent’s Raspberry Charlotte cake is exquisite & rich and filled with Raspberry Love. It is my favorite cake to make & eat !! It is very time consuming & expensive to produce but is worth every penny spent for the ingredients and / or your purchase. I use 2 pints of raspberries, 3 separate cakes, a pound of raspberry bavarian creme, a ton of raspberry marmalade and several splashes of Framboise ( raspberry liqueur), plus 5 ounces of apricot jewel glaze to kiss it with..If you like raspberries ( who doesn’t, right ?) you will fall head over heels for this cake. This is a year round cake, but is also on the seasonal menu. I personally will make one for our Family Christmas celebration and pair the food flavors and textures around this centerpiece. The finishing touches are the apricot jewel glaze and Heaven Scent’s Swiss Meringue Butter cream piped around as a border.
The new cheesecake for my Seasonal Menu which will include tastes of Fall, Winter & the Holidays.It is a vanilla based cheesecake base with fresh local Golden Supreme apples, spices & oatmeal crisp streusel top, then abundantly piped fresh H.S. caramel sauce…The new menu will include a chocolate rum pound cake, Jewish pear cake, some cheesecake flavors and petit fours. Petit Fours are great for gift giving and will make you the star of any party you take them to !! Menu will be up by September 15th…
If you have already read my blog post entitled ” The Land of Misfit Toys” then this post will make more sense..If you have not, please start there & then return to read this one to be brought up to speed.
I am baring a large part of my soul here for the world to see (literally 49 countries & counting) so I will speak in generalities of others involved and in reality, it’s not about me but about the concept of the soul that was once fractured into many pieces that are returning to be whole again ( or for once ).
I have had to act tough my whole life to protect myself like a porcupine if you will..Not the toughest animal, but no one wants any part of a porcupines quills.I grew up in a neighborhood of mostly boys ( about 20/ more) and was the smallest, youngest of them all .So human nature being what it is, they picked on me fierce just because they could.I grew up very angry, bitter, mean & vengeful.The cracks are beginning to form..
Wherever I went I was always considered the black sheep, including my own family. The only place I fit in was when I was alone, by myself. I got me, I understood my thought processes, my motives, what made me tick & never misjudged what I said or meant. But most other people ?? Nope..Because I was so different no one took the time to try to understand, they judged me according to their standards or how I was “supposed” to act & think. Cracks becoming fissures..
So I spent as much time by myself as I could, climbing trees, away in the woods exploring nature, etc..I was happier being a lone wolf.I didn’t know God had gifted me as an empathic, intuitive, visionary, discerning old soul. I only knew I was different & didn’t fit in. So now, I’m angry at God too because he could’ve made me more like others. But he did not. People back in the day were very “churchey” so the usual comments were ” God really has a special purpose for you, he has special plans for you, etc..” . I thought sell that down the street sister, we’re all filled up on crazy here. Everywhere I looked for answers, there were none for me. Pieces are splintering here and separating.
At 12 years old I began drinking with a friend and doing drugs which made me temporarily feel better but even less socially acceptable.the only way to rid myself of my demons was to seek to be drunk or high at least 95% of the time and I chased my haunts hard for 12 more years to little or no avail. Somewhere in all this mayhem and debauchery and yes elusive occasional nirvana my soul shattered into many pieces and literally broke off of me. I was thin & spiritually dead and barely living, just existing. I left out the women, sex and really sordid stuff in case my daughter may read it. Suffice it to say I got my heart broken, trampled and mangled many, many times. Empathics, intuitives , etc.. are very sensitive people. So now, I’m a fractured soul with no hope, full of despair, angry, mean, disgusted with life & myself & hated everyone in the world. Well almost everyone, there were a few left; my Mom, Daughter , Grandmother , friend Laurie and a few others, but you get the picture…
So I will wrap up many years into a few sentences here because the purpose was not to be a victim. God forbid, I don’t like whiners. I merely wanted you the reader to understand when I said I was a fractured soul, I meant it. AA, counseling, church, having a support system, living long enough to be able to heal and never, never giving up my quest for answers, for healing, for wholeness, for the broken pieces to come home..
Today and of late ( this year mainly) I have had my broken shards brought back together, fitted into a stained glass mold & soldered into a very cool mosaic of Bryan. I am who I am, I accept that, I am very different, unique ( & I Love that about me) and whole. I have received answers to many perplexing problems and situations I couldn’t grasp before and have been set free. I feel whole, complete, rejuvenated, fulfilled & ready to take on the world. I am happy & blessed being what the good Lord gave me to work with, for being different now is a monster blessing !!! Many obstacles have been removed, I am moving forward with the sun shining on my “stained glass” , the wind in my sails, and truly enjoying being me, being alive & being whole. The simple things in life bring me the greatest joy, my Grandsons, my Daughter, my gardens, my pastries, spending time alone and doing whatever is the next right thing to do…The point to this whole post is..If I can do it, anybody can..Everything that’s really worth it, seems impossible from the starting line. Start anyway, keep moving & stay laser focused on your goals..I was so amazed when I was very young in sobriety & I’d meet an ” old timer ” in AA with 25 years or more of sobriety which looked impossible from where I was. I asked an old codger from Loiusville, Ky, ” How’d you do it ? “..He said very simply, ” I didn’t drink & I didn’t die “. Forget the words can’t, impossible, and never & replace them with can, will, possible, and I’m so there….Be your dreams, be yourself, be your own best friend, be unstoppable..And CHOOSE happiness every day, every second of every day…Live Large…Bryan
I have on my property several brambles of wild black raspberries, so many in fact that I was picking & eating over 2 quarts a day for the last several weeks. Seeing that the wild blackberry bushes were coming on that is a signal that the raspberry harvest would be waning. I decided to make the most of it with a sweet reward for myself.
I bought some Breyer’s vanilla bean ice cream, added some freshly plucked berries and smothered it with Heaven Scent’s caramel sauce..Not only did it look fab, but tasted ethereal. I have to admit to consuming the bowl you see and then there may have been another bowl involved in said party. I’m not copping to it..LOL
Heaven Scent’s Rich Caramel Sauce
4 ounces organic sugar
1 ounce water ( 2 Tbsp.)
5 ounces heavy cream
a small bowl of water and a brush
add sugar to non aluminum sauce pan ( I use a copper bottomed one)
add water to cover & turn to med hi heat
stir with a wooden spoon slowly & brush any crystals off the sides of the pan with the brush dipped in water.
If you don’t stir erratically, you shouldn’t have to water brush it more than 2 times.
I don’t use a candy thermometer, I just do it by sight, but if you want to get technical at about 234 degrees the water will evaporate & the sugar will begin to color slightly
**You Must Watch it Very Closely at this stage!!! Take it to a deep amber color, remove it from the stove & add heavy cream CAREFULLY to avoid getting burned by the steam..
Allow it to cool and set for about 5 minutes..Then begin with low heat and slowly increase as you stir chunks of caramel into a yummy, rich, buttery homogeneous sauce..Pour into a glass container & keep for 3 days at room temperature. There are a million uses for fresh homemade caramel sauce and this is one of the ones I use for several of my cheesecake creations..This is 1,000 times better than store bought. So if you’ve been used to that goo you should taste it before adding to anything because it is very, very rich..
Let’s face it, most of life can be summed up as a puzzle. Sometimes in figuring out people, things and events I retrieve information stored in my mental Rolodex. I listen to people very intently and I also observe what they don’t say, which lots of time is way more important to getting to the truth quicker.
The mental Rolodex is where I store nuggets of information given to me such as names, dates, figures & events in people’s lives that they later forgot they told me, but I always remember. These things help me to discern patterns of behavior and truly understand why people or things are the way they are. We all wear masks. It is what it is. We all on some level have fears, apprehensions & are weary of people getting to know the truth about who we are and why. Time is one of my most valuable commodities and I don’t appreciate or tolerate it being wasted. So being attentive is crucial to figuring things out in a timely manner.
Another method I have found to eliminate feelings or relying on too many statistics is Bayes Theorem. Some call it inverse probability and one aspect I often use is Bayes Probability. Essentially you have a visual see saw from your childhood playground in mind and in the middle you place a theory you have, then you begin to place facts on one side representing a correct theory and the other representing a false one. Eventually one side begins to teeter to being more dominant and therefore raising the probability of being correct. I use this for bigger problems and ones that I have more time to solve.
A good example in tying this all together would be figuring out if a new love interest likes you in return. Women in particular are brought up to be nice and to not unnecessarily hurt others so it can be difficult to discern their interest at times. So I put “She likes me” as my theory & then begin to place facts where they belong on each side until one outweighs the other. I also use this to figure out where the price of gold may be headed, where price action may go next with a certain stock or the entire Dow, are we headed to deflation ? or to inflation ?, to war (s), where the economy in general is headed, etc..It really is extremely versatile as you can see. And since I own a business I use it to make business decisions such as should I expand by buying equipment or buildings, should I hire any employees & what is the future of the sweet business in an economic downturn.
It helps me solve life’s problems quicker and more efficiently thus saving me precious time, energy and keeping emotional turmoil at bay. God has given me a true gift of being prescient, however Baye’s theorem is priceless for helping solve the Rubik’s cube of life’s many dilemmas. Keep the wheels turning by using the brain the Good Lord gave you & stay bright and untethered to troubles……….BWC original 5/16/16
I am very traditional when it comes to writing poems, so this is way out of my comfort zone. Is it even a poem ? You decide, me ? I’m not into details, they bore me to tears..
So endless, so endless,
life giving, sustaining
mere mentioning of her,
sends shivers of joy & peals of glee.
equilibrium,freedom & cyclical nature
balances my soul, sets all things right.
waves crash in, stress flows out.
peaceful serene, buckets of joy
to linger too long is take her for granted,
lean in for a kiss , a gentle sweet tryst,
to partake too much, dulls the senses,
she’ll be there each time you come to imbibe,
inhale her, exhale her, plunge to her core.
let her healing fill you, then come back for more.
My mistress the ocean, described in four words,
Joy, Bliss & Sacred Devine.
For my dear friends Kurt n Laurie & BTW; Happy Anniversary !!
Naked Cake you say ?? Alright you dirty birds settle down, it’s a cake with no side frosting and sometimes no top frosting either.
This one is a white cake baked with fresh lemon zest & lemon extract whisked in. It is topped with my streusel and then baked & cooled. Once cool, I split it, mascerate it with vanilla syrup & slather the middle with lemon bavarian creme. To finish it it is lightly dusted with 10 X sugar and voila..Naked Lemon Cake is born.
Sometimes there are large prices to pay for seeing and not doing. Sometimes there are unforeseen calamities if we say to ourselves, ” I’ll deal with that tomorrow.” Case in point: I saw water collecting on my pool cover, I also saw leaves floating on the surface and ice glaciers but, in my “wisdom” I said to myself-yes it’s a good day to sump it off, but tomorrow will be warmer and a “perfect” day to do it. Sometimes the tomorrows we envision never materialize.
I neglected to do what I knew in my heart needed to be done. Sometimes the time is now, this present moment. Well long and short of it is the weight of the iceberg & or the leaves went crashing through the liner, dumping in the pool, it was Not pretty. I tried to skim off as many leaves as I could to minimize my mess to no avail. Later after a severe wind storm two plastic weights blew off and began to pull the liner off which added to my joy of the bullfrog & his homies ( hundreds of tadpoles) congregating and partying at my expense.
The pool guys are coming. All will be restored, I will swim this year with my homie ( Grant, my Grandson) & his Mother, & I will have pool parties with pizza and cheesecakes and bikini clad beauties & take dips after pushing the self propelled mower in the July smelt we get in Ohio and all will be good again. The point is; it was all unnecessary and sad, silly and well stupid. I sometimes learn things the hard way, but then I never forget the lessons.
Moral of the story ? I need to follow not only God’s leadings, but my intuition, and pulling the trigger when the time is good and stop looking for the perfect moment, idea or opportunity to bloom. If I make the decision at a good time, but not perfect, it sure beats procrastinating and the inevitable mistakes and heart aches from neglecting my duties. Today I take my own advice and will finish painting my kitchen cabinets..Why you say ? Well because it’s a good time and this dog is learning some new tricks..You’re never too old to learn !!
This is what I call a stages cake, because there are many steps to be taken before completion..First, I baked my scrumptious moist chocolate cake layer weighed up to be half of its normal size..Cooled it & then placed in the bottom of a spring form pan to which the sides were covered with parchment paper strips, then strawberry halves were placed along the sides..Once secured I made my chocolate velvet mousse & poured it all over to the top of the pan & chilled it.After removing from the cooler, I glazed it with chocolate ganache and chilled it once again briefly..Lastly I piped with my Swiss meringue buttercream the letters and the chocolate flowers & then piped a chocolate border..
Since I am still actively selling these cakes & tortes I am keeping some recipes back as trade secrets.I will however give you the chocolate ganache recipe I use for most cheesecakes and cakes to glaze the top.Chocolate ganache is very versatile and I change the ratios of chocolate to heavy cream depending on what I need it to be for each recipe.I use this one for say 75-80% of them.
Chocolate Ganache for glazing cheesecakes and cakes
3 ounces chocolate chips
3 ounces heavy cream
Weigh up the chocolate, add the heavy cream and microwave for 22-33 seconds depending on your microwave.Whisk together till blended, pour over cake being careful to not let any spill over the sides.Chill & then proceed with your pastry endeavour. Voila.**I also use this (equal amounts) ganache for pouring in baked cookie crust tart shells at a slightly higher yield like 12 ounces each for a 11″ tart shell.Thanks for your continued support !!
Heaven Scent Cheesecake & Spice Co. 