Sunday Randomness #113 : Mrs. Backers Bakery in Utah

Mrs. Backers Bakery has been around since before I was born. (Which is a number of decades now!)

We bought their mini eclairs for Mica and FryGuy (Sven?)'s reception.  They are one of the last if not the only bakery left in Utah to make everything from scratch for their eclairs from the choux pastry to the custard to the ganache and buttercream flower on top.  We received so many compliments on the eclairs-we had done taste tests with over a 1/2 a dozen other bakeries and definitely preferred the ones from Mrs Backers.  The above cookie and other treat pictures were taken this year (2024)-so glad they are still making their delicious bakery goods! My personal favorite?  Their white cupcake with the pink poof frosting on top.  I remember getting one after obstetrician appointments (when I was expecting Hedgehog and Daisy) which happened to be at a medical office building conveniently across the street from Mrs. Backer's. 

See their website for more pictures of their treats and desserts: https://www.mrsbackers.com/desserts/  They are also on some social media platforms.

Mego found these pages from a 1958 Mrs. Backer's Pastry Shop calendar that his mom had saved-I'm sharing the vintage nostalgia:

 

Sunday Randomness #3425 State Fair Entries 2023: Ribbon count

34 food entries-

 25 ribbons: 8 blue first place, 7 red second place, 9 white third place, and 1 pink fourth place

While it was fun, if not grueling at times, endeavoring to make so many food entries, I'm undecided if I will enter things in the fair next year or not.  We'll just have to see.  I am proud (and thankful to my friend!) for the sourdough start that I've kept going and made a number of loaves of bread along with some chocolate muffins and cinnamon rolls.

State Fair Entries 2023: The submissions

(pecan roll and bacon/cheddar cornmeal muffins not pictured)

 

Bakery comparison: Carol's Pastry Shop and Mrs. Backer's Pastry Shop

Carol's lemon tart, eclairs, chocolate donut, maple bar, wedding cookie  Everything was good but the pate choux shells of the eclairs was great. The filling not so much.  Carol's Pastry Shop was established in 1948 in the Salt Lake valley in the sugarhouse area.  Find out more at their site: https://carolspastryshop.wixsite.com/carolspastry

Mrs. Backer's was established in the Salt Lake valley in 1941 in the downtown area.  Find out more at their site: http://www.mrsbackers.com/    Mrs. Backer's chocolate donut, eclairs. wedding cookie, maple bear donut  (continued below)

 

Mrs. Backer's pink sugar cookie, macaroon (coconut based-not the French sandwich macaron cookies), fancy cakes-german chocolate and pineapple rum chocolate.  Everything was great except the maple bear and chocolate donut which were just good.  

We're probably going to stick with Mrs. Backer's Pastry Shop for the most part. We did a taste test of eclairs from all over the valley including Mrs. Backer's Pastry Shop, Carol's Pastry Shop, Granite Bakery, Schmidt's Bakery (which does have the best marzipan cakes in the valley in our opinion!), Leslie's French Pastries, Eclair French Pastry (where the eclairs are $5.00 each and about 20-30% of the time the filling has been curdled inside-do not recommend but should probably try them again), V & R Bakery (which have some of the best danish pastries I've ever had along with rustic breads, cakes, amazing individual deserts,etc...),  and some grocery store eclairs.  Dan's grocery store use to have really good eclairs at some of their stores but now they tastes like the same prepacked filling that is used by grocery store bakeries and even some little individual bakeries.  

Mrs. Backer's eclairs won over-all for their pate choux, house made pastry cream, and chocolate ganache. 

Author #173: Coppens cake and geology

Geology Is A Piece Of Cake by Katie Coppens.  Cleverly tying together geology with cake, Ms.Coppens, a middle-school English and science teacher, takes the reader on a journey linking science with science from geologic structures and processes to how they relate to different aspects of cake such as how eating a piece of cake is related to how animals cause weathering.  She uses cake to help explain Mohs scale of hardness.  The book is primarily about geology with some cake references included.  She's got a good balance-just enough cake references to whet the appetite and keep you going through the book without feeling like you're overwhelmed in sweetness.  Her approach also makes geology easier to understand and encourages the reader to learn more about science in general.

Sunday Randomness #255: Bakery Cake

We bought a Groupon to One Sweet Slice and the next day I checked their FB page only to see the notice that they were closing in about a week!  So we rushed to order our cake before they closed.  I've never ordered a bakery cake like this before-we've had birthday cakes from Costco that we just picked out of the "ready-now" case (not special ordered) but that's the closest thing.  We decided on the Strawberry Lemonade flavor which has strawberry cake and lemon curd filling.  There was fondant over a shortening frosting.  We enjoyed the details and the sprinkle of glitter.  I didn't specify any design-they put down creative freedom on the order sheet.  

We thought it was a very cute design and the cake was yummy.  We wish there had been more lemon curd filling  (see picture below to see how much the frosting went in between the layers) although I know that they like the filling to stay contained so it doesn't leak out.  The very thin fondant layer and decorations  were definitely edible but the thick white shortening frosting? Meh.  No buttercream-just straight shortening, powdered sugar and a little bit of flavoring that couldn't save it.  (At least that's what it tasted like.)  We scraped it off as much as we could-that was the only downside.

Overall it was a fun experience and we're glad we got to try One Sweet Slice!

Lighter Lemon Pound Cake with 7 Up

Top picture with some ingredients

Bottom picture finished cake

7 Up Cake p. 103 in the VV5 ward cookbook from 2008

 1 1/2 c. butter
3 c. sugar
6 eggs
3 c. flour
2 Tbsp. lemon extract
3/4 cup 7 Up  (or other lemon flavored soda beverage)

Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy.  Add eggs one at a time and beat well. Add flour. Beat in lemon extract and 7 Up.   Pour batter into well greased and floured jumbo fluted pan.  Bake at 325 degrees F for 1 hour and 10 minutes or until done.  Cool about 15 minutes and then remove from pan.


(Baker's note:  We cut the butter down to 1 cup and baked it in a regular large bundt pan.  We also added about 10-15 minutes to the bake time until a toothpick came out clean.) 

Author 65: Charise Mericle Harper & cupcake toppers

Visit Ms. Harper's site at: http://www.chariseharper.com/SITE/Start_here_New_Books.html

We made the cupcakes and frosting from the recipe at the end of the book, Cupcake, and they were delicious!

Author 49: Ree Drummond-Pioneer Woman

Mmmmm...........The Pioneer Woman Cooks by Ree Drummond


We made the Egg-in-the-hole. I browned one side of the toast first and flipped it over before cracking in the egg.


Here's the other side after I flipped the toast a second time. They were delicious with lots of butter in the pan.

And how could I leave out the wonderful chocolate sheet cake that Eva made (with a little help from mom)? Chocolate gooey yumminess. Eva says: "it was quite yummy, especially the frosting! It's pretty much chocolate cake with chocolate frosting with pecans in the frosting. I suggest you make it!"

I'm sorry the cake picture is so washed out-we're having camera issues again-now the camera spontaneously turns itself off even with fresh batteries. Hurumph!

I'm not sure how many recipes we'll try, but the cookbook is certainly a lot of fun with full color pictures of steps for each recipe and pictures of ranch life. But I don't think I'll take up ranching any time soon. (Although I'd still love to build a chicken coop and run.... just for a few backyard chickens of course! Who knows when I'd ever get to that project!)

Recent adventures with cake

Chocolate cake from cake mix with homemade marshmallow frosting and red and blue sugar crystals for the Fourth of July. Made through a collaborative effort from multiple family members. (Mom cake, Jessica frosting, Sarah decorating sprinkles.)


Jessica made a pound cake base and then buttercream frosting and marshmallow fondant for the sun and ribbon cakes. She colored the fondant a light green with color assistance from Sarah. She then proceeded to frost and decorate the cakes and took the sun cake to a young womans activity. Find the marshmallow fondant recipe (yum-edible fondant!) at: http://whatscookingamerica.net/PegW/Fondant.htm
I think Peggy Weaver was one of the first to post this recipe with instructions. Reasoning?, because now one finds many copycats. But go back about four or five years ago and it was hard to find a homemade cake fondant recipe. Most sites recommended buying a certain commercial brand which really lacked in both the taste and workability categories.

After some searching I was pleased to again find Peggy's recipe which is easy to use and actually tastes edible. Now Jessica is learning about cake decorating with fondant, along with hundreds if not thousands of others, through the magic of sharing knowledge via the internet. Thank you Peggy!

And here's Eva's entry: She picked out the chocolate sheet cake from the Pioneer Woman's Cookbook the first night we had the book. The very next day she helped make the cake and frosting. I was surprised at how much she knew about cooking. She even washed most of the dishes afterward!


All three styles and kinds of cake were delicious in their own right and fun to make and decorate!

Blueberry Pound Cake and Sauce

Blueberry Pound Cake
(thank you to Aug/Sept 2003 Taste of Home magazine and Nancy Zimmerman for submitting the recipe)

1 cup butter (no substitutes), softened
3 cups sugar
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
1/2 tsp. lemon extract
6 eggs
3 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 tsp baking soda
1 cup (8 ounces) sour cream
3 cups fresh or frozen blueberries*
*(if using frozen blueberries, do not thaw before adding to the batter)
Confectioner's sugar (powdered sugar) (opt.)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Beat together the sugar and butter, then beat in the extracts and then the eggs, one at a time. Mix in the baking soda and flour alternately with the sour cream. Lastly, fold in the blueberries. Divide into two greased and waxed paper-lined 9" x 5" x 3" loaf pans. Bake for 60-65 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool for 10 minutes and then turn out to finish cooling on racks. Sprinkle with the powdered sugar if desired.


Blueberry Sauce

1 cup sugar
1/4 cup cornstarch
1/2 cup cranberry juice concentrate
6 cups fresh or frozen blueberries

Combine sugar and cornstarch and concentrate, mixing until smooth. Add blueberries and bring to a boil over medium heat. Stir and cook for a few minutes or until thickened. Serve warm or cold.

More Campfire Cake (Part 3)

(Please be sure to see the beautiful upside down cake featured in part 1 of today's three posts.)

Here is just one example of the great individual orange cakes we made. I was lucky to finally get a picture since we started eating them and almost forgot the picture for historical and reference use. They over-flowed the oranges somewhat but smelled and tasted delicious.

Because I didn't want to waste the leftover cake batter, I decided to experiment using wax paper cups, a pan with water and a tent of aluminum foil. Amazingly enough, my experiment worked. The hypothesis was that the water bath would protect the cups from scorching during the baking process and the tent would help trap moisture and keep out campfire fumes. The cakes baked up in the cups and tasted average even if their appearance leaves something to be desired.

Again, if you want to see something edible-looking than be sure to see the picture of the pineapple upside down cake further down on the post of delicious dutch oven dinners #5 before the campfire cooking.

Delicious Dutch Oven Dishes (Dish #5) (Part 1)

Pineapple Upside Down CakeThis is the beautiful cake that I made in Dutch oven while we were camping this summer. The recipe is basically the same as for the traditional cake except it works out better for clean-up if you line the Dutch oven with aluminum foil before melting the butter and adding the brown sugar and pineapple and cherries.

For the main dish on a different night I made chicken and rice casserole in the Dutch oven.