Le Pop Shop at Surfas Culinary District

Neon Hearts & Gumball Machines

Le Pop Shop's first opportunity to show off our Macarons was February 2nd, 2013 at Surfas Culinary District in Costa Mesa.  Danielle and Susan of Surfas invited me to provide my macaron demo and I graciously accepted.  I was delighted to have this opportunity because Surfas is such a unique platform for chefs to share what they do best.  As recon, I took my family (kids included) to Surfas to see Chef Quinn from The Playground do his demo.  I thought "ok about 40 people showed up, I can handle that, I teach 16 in class... this should be a breeze."  Then I just started baking pieces for the event so I wouldn't get nervous.

Chef Katie & Sweet Mary 

                                    The day of the event I had a lot of support. My husband came which was the first time he had seen me in action in front of a crowd.  I also had a wonderful Sous Chef, Amber. We have worked together in many classes and I couldn't have hoped for a better person by my side.  We also had the support of culinary students from Newport Harbor High School and they were as sweet as could be.  Our graphic designer, Diego Torres,  came by to support us as well and we got to feature the adorable business cards he just produced.  Chef Rolon from The Art Institute, where I attended Pastry & Baking School also stopped by as well as James, an old classmate of mine. Lastly, my beautiful students Mary and Lynn made the long trek to show their support which meant more to me than you will ever know.

Chef Katie teaching piping skills

   Surfas said about 100 people showed up.  Did we mention we were the first to use the oven?  It was so fun asking for volunteers, seeing what a great job they did and answering Macaron questions.  This experience was more fun than we could have imagined.  Meeting so many new people with a passion for baking assures us that all of our hard work is worthwhile.  Surfas sold out of almond four in 10 minutes and we heard Le Pop Shop sold more products than any other demo previously held!  We have quite a few fans in LA and hope we have the opportunity to do a demo at the Surfas in Culver City in the future.  We will definitely have more recipes & macarons for that one, we promise.  I'd also like to thank Valerie at Surfas, we appreciated all of your help.  And oh yes, a big thanks to the sweet woman that I picked as the first volunteer that gave me those cough drops, you saved the whole demo! Thank You!!  I truly hope you all enjoyed our demo and if so, please let us know your favorite part in the comments section below and please email us a picture of the macarons that you bake.  We are going to start a "Le Poppers" Pinterest Page with your photos. The email address is lepopshop@gmail.com. Happy Baking!!!

about 100 attended the Le Pop Shop Demo.

You Tube Slideshow of Demo. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xPu-xac_Lwg

Birthday Boy!!

Happy New Year!! Ok, we're a little late but hopefully your year is starting out fabulous.  January 25th was my son Jack's 6th birthday.  As a mom on a budget I find the best ways to spend what little money we have in the best way possible.  We live in Irvine, California and let me tell you, it's expensive. Especially when you only have one income and you're trying to build a business.  Right now we are making sacrifices... like not having a hair cut for a year, selling class rings for grocery money and whatever else it takes to make sure our kids have what they need.  We planned to have our son's birthday party at a park after school since our two bedroom apartment was a little too small to fit 15 crazy 6 year olds and their parents, not to mention it fit the budget of free.  On Jack's birthday it was pouring the rain so I sent my husband to ask our apartment manager if we could possibly use the clubhouse for the party, normally a $500 charge!  She kindly said yes and thank goodness because our son has what he needs but has never been to Legoland or on a vacation and it's been a few years since Disneyland so canceling a 6 year old's birthday would have been pretty sad but thank goodness for sweet people.  Alejandra of The Marshmallow Studio sent us Angry Bird Marshmallows that tasted amazing.  Angry Birds are Jack's and all his friends most favorite thing in the world right now.  I found the most adorable Meri Meri Pirate decorations about 6 months ago at TJ Maxx and the kids loved hitting the pinata even if it was on the ground.  So many parents in our area have the most extravagent parties which is fine and I love the parties but even if you don't have a lot, and you can bake a good cupcake, you're always nice and help others when you can, you can have an amazing party too. After all, we did!  Thank you Woodbury Lane and The Marshmallow Studio for making Jack's Birthday so special!!

Birthday Boy Jack, Nevin, Kobi, Cousin Jonah

Introducing Honeycomb Pops!

My friend Chef Alexa has a beautiful daughter Ana who is gluten and dairy free.  I have the pleasure of making desserts for Chef Alexa's events from time to time and I wanted Ana to have more choices for desserts.              When worked at a high-end Italian restaurant for an Iron Chef we made these cookies called Honeycomb.  Combined with my love of putting everything on a stick the Honeycomb Pop was born.  Chef Alexa and more importantly Ana loved them.  

Honeycomb Pops taste like a crunchy, sugary cookie.  The ingredients are simple: granulated sugar, water, corn syrup, baking soda, colored white chocolate and sprinkles of course! We displayed the pops with SweetWorks Sixlets and made a rainbow combination to match the sprinkles.

http://www.sweetworks.net

Amy Atlas Event at William Sonoma Beverly Hills

Meeting people that are extremely successful in your industry is always a thrill and meeting Amy Atlas was… thrilling, to say the least.  Her combination of style, simplicity and practicality make her the best in the business.    I remember when I first decided to go to culinary school about two years ago, my friend Melissa emailed me, “Have you seen her?” with a link to Amy Atlas’ page /http://amyatlas.com/.  Amy's use of color blew my mind and I’ve been a fan ever since.  When I heard about her book signing and realized I was off work that day, I knew I had to go meet this amazing person.  On July 1^st with my Amy inspired outfit and Macaron Pop Bouquet I was off to Beverly Hills.   A picnic inspired Dessert Buffet was completely adorable of course and Amy was even sweeter than you could imagine.   She really took the time to explain her methods and gave us very useful tips for entertaining and setting up the most beautiful dessert tables.  If that wasn’t enough, we now have all her secrets in the new bible for entertaining.  If you will ever throw a party you should get this book.  As a baker I love the recipes, as an artist I appreciate the colors and as a mom I cherish the simplicity.  My favorite party, “Darling Dots” I’m in love with the candy board.  “Perfectly Preppy” is also pretty darling.   Amy was so nice and spoke to each fan several times, it was an Amy Party.  I had the time of my life and Amy Atlas loved the bouquet of macarons.  They were “California Flavors”; pink bubble gum, lemon, lime and orange blossom and I even put bubble gum by SweetWorks under the macarons.  The best part was that they matched her outfit, too funny.  I even had the pleasure of meeting Adri from maskipops.by.adri.  Her cake pops are amazing and she was a delight.  What a wonderful day, Thank You Amy!!

Rainbow Meringue Pops Recipe

This is my go to recipe for Meringues.  I always get so many compliments on them and they only have two ingredients. I know my measurements need a scale but it will make you a better baker and your recipes will turn our fantastic, I promise. 

Rainbow Meringue Pops

Ingredients:

Egg Whites                   240g

1st Granulated Sugar     227g

2nd Granulated Sugar    253g

Bubble Gum Flavor        1/2 teaspoon

Gel Food Coloring          4

Parchment Paper

Sheet Pans

Cooling Racks

Disposable Pastry Bag

Round Pastry Tip #805

Toothpick

White Chocolate

Wooden Skewers

Lollipop Stick

Foam Block

Instructions:

1.Place Liquid Egg Whites in a bowl and use the whisk attachment, whip on medium/high until foamy.

2. Add 1st Granulated Sugar to mixer, gradually.  Continue to whisk on medium high until the mixture is glossy with stiff peaks.

3. Remove mixing bowl from the stand and fold in the 2nd Granulated Sugar and add your Bubble Gum Flavor.  Be careful and don't over-mix the meringue.

4. Cut a whole in your Pastry Bag and drop in the Pastry Tip.  Pick out your 4 favorite Gel Food Colors.  Take your Toothpick and streak the Gel Food Color on the inside of your Pastry Bag in a straight line, bottom to top.  Repeat three times on opposite sides of the Pastry Bag.

5. Drop your Meringue in the center of the Pastry Bag and fill.

6. Pipe your Meringue on a Parchment Lined Sheet Pan.  Pipe from the inside out in a circular motion creating a lollipop shape.

7. Bake Meringue at 225 F 1.5-2 hours.  Test your Meringue to see if it's cooked by breaking a piece.  If it snaps it's done and if not bake longer in 10 minute increments. 

8. Once Meringue is cooked remove it from the oven and place the sheet of parchment on a cooling rack.

9. When Meringue has completely cooled, lightly drill a hole with the Wooden Skewer in the Meringue where the Lollipop Stick will be placed.  Gently insert the Lollipop Stick to make sure it fits.  Take your Lollipop Stick and dip it in Melted White Chocolate and insert Lollipop Stick, set in Foam Block to dry.

Variations-

Flavor- vanilla extract, lemon extract ect.

Color- use any colors you like

Cookies- use star tip or round tip

About Le Pop Shop

As a Pastry Artist living in Orange County, California I am constantly inspired by the fun colors and sweet smells in the air.  Going to culinary school to pursue my creative side, I attended classes at the Art Institute of Orange County specializing in Baking & Pastry.  After working for an Iron Chef as a Pastry Assistant and playing with cake pops I decided to start teaching Baking & Pastry at Sur La Table in Costa Mesa, California.  Le Pop Shop is a way for me to express my creative freedom through pastry.  As a child I must have watched “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory" at least 1000 times.  Absolutely loving color and candy, I had to find any way I could to work them into pastry, so I do, and by sharing my pastries on Facebook and Le Blog I get the opportunity to see what the world thinks of them!  I immensely enjoy reading the sweet comments and seeing the beautiful pastries from Australia, South Africa, Puerto Rico, Miami, France, England and more.

I hope you find inspiration and happiness when you see my pastries and I will soon be able to provide you with the techniques to make them yourself.  After all, anyone can bake anything but it’s your imagination that makes you original.  Stay tuned to see what pastries we pop out next.

Want to know how we did that??  Leave us a comment and we will share with you some inside tips on how we make our tasty treats.  The macaron, cake cone or macaron pop mentioned the most will be featured in our next "Le Blog."