Introducing My Assistant Woody Wolston
May 02, 2009 | From the kitchen of Rose
This posting is the first one from Woody who has been working with me for the past five years.
Woody’s Cake for Grand Master Choi 70th Birthday Surprise Party
Real gold does not fear the fire and neither did Grand Master Choi when I presented him with his birthday cake topped with seventy lit candles that blazed like a bon-fire. With one short powerful breath he blew them out in a second.
I have been practicing T’ai-Chi for the past twelve years at the Twin Cities T’ai-Chi Chuan studio in St. Paul, Minnesota. T’ai-Chi is an internal-style martial art, which is practiced for health, meditation, and self defense. Along with T’ai-Chi, our two head instructors Sifus (Chinese for master) Ray and Paul also teach other martial art styles, including Liu Ho Pa Fa, a style that embodies three internal styles, which was learned from Grand Master Choi.
Grand Master Choi is the legacy holder of the Liu Ho Pa Fa style, which he taught for many years in Chicago till he recently retired. His entire life has been devoted to the martial arts. In his twenties he won the 1971 Southeast Asian Hand-to-Hand Martial Arts tournament. About every other year, Grand Master Choi conducts workshop weekends at our studio. This past weekend, Grand Master Choi came to teach and give corrections for two styles, Hsing-Yi and Liu Ho Pa Fa, as well as lessons to Sifus Ray and Paul, which culminated with the birthday dinner for a small group of students.
Since I have also assisted Rose with researching, writing, and testing of cakes for Rose’s Heavenly Cakes, I have needed many tasters, thus a perfect union of my T’ai-Chi and cake baking has evolved with many cakes coming to the studio for tasting as well as for birthdays and special celebrations. Last week, I was asked to make a birthday cake for Grand Master Choi’s upcoming dinner and surprise birthday party. Since Chinese are not big on sweets or heavy desserts, I decided to make a lighter cake for the occasion. From the Cake Bible I composed a cake made of two layers of the White Whisper Velvet Cake, filled and topped with Lemon Curd, the sides frosted with Stabilized Whipped Cream, and piped with Food Processor Whipped Cream. Thirty-five blue and thirty-five white candles were placed on top to make the Chinese Yin and Yang symbol.
Sifus Ray and Paul escorted Grand Master Choi to the Mai Village Vietnamese restaurant and was greeted by a group of forty students, enthusiastically singing, “Happy Birthday”, Grand Master Choi was led to a table to open presents. He was amazed and humbled as Chinese normally do not celebrate a birthday in this fashion. As he finished dinner, I walked through the dimly lit room with my cake glowing beacon of candles and set it on his table. “Make a wish,” cheered Sifu Ray. Grand Master Choi’s powerful breath extinguished all seventy candles, including sailing wax across the five foot wide table to splatter onto the cheering students seated across. The cake was then quickly sliced, plated, and eagerly enjoyed. I was told later that this was Grand Master Choi’s first-ever birthday cake. The Lemon Curd proved to be “real gold” as the “fire” from the candles coated it with lava trails of candle wax, which amazingly peeled off leaving the curd untainted.
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Patrincia
05/09/2009 01:17 AM
Lovely cake Woody... congrats on your first post! I really like the cake photo!
Hector, join the crowd... I wish someone would make me a birthday cake from Rose's recipes. Instead my family takes me out for dinner... fun, but no cake :(.
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Hector
05/05/2009 05:36 PM
re: ciguatera poisoning, point well taken.
i eat papio once every 3 or 4 years, and just the 10 little slices my brother butchers for me, from a fish smaller than 1 foot long.
ciguatera is a well known naturally occurring toxin present in ALL tropical fishes in Hawaii, we go by eating smaller sized fish as bigger fish have a higher accumulated bio-concentration of this toxin.
i have eaten even a 6 inch yellow tang, or the many other tang surgeonfish species, but again only every now and then. pls, it is cake that i eat most =)
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terri
05/05/2009 04:57 PM
hector, one of the reasons that not too many people eat papio anymore is because it is one of the fish that is implicated in ciguatera poisoning.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ciguatera
keep in mind that it is cumulative--you could eat papio for years before finally accumulating enough toxin in your body to get sick
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Tawni
05/05/2009 02:22 PM
will do Hector...and you do the same if you ever come to California!
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Rozanne
05/04/2009 04:32 PM
Great story Woody! Looking forward to more postings from you :) The cake looks lovely.
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Hector
05/04/2009 04:00 PM
tawni, be sure to let me know next time you are in hawaii, so we can exchange alohas!
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Tawni
05/04/2009 03:53 PM
Woody, the cake looks so yummy!!! I think I'll try making that next. Hector, I love those apple bananas. We always buy them from the farmers' market when we're in Hawaii. We've had the best banana bread in Maui that has both the apple bananas and the other bananas. We were in Oahu last July and will be back to Kauai this August (our 3rd time!). What can I say, our family loves Hawaii :op
I just made the Pineapple Upside Cake and Chocolate Fudge cake from TCB. I doubled the Pineapple Upside cake recipe so it'll be enough for the teachers at my daughters' school (Teacher Appreciation Week). Both cakes turned out great. On to the next recipe!!!
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hector
05/03/2009 09:52 PM
on the subject of Hawaii (and sorry Woody in advance to gear your most enduring blog post topic away towards me.. don't i always do that?): i meant to post these photos earlier but had a door lock emergency (could not get inside my own home!), fortunately the locksmith didn't charge me overtime for having to come to the rescue at 9 pm on a Saturday night! THAT is how i spend my weekends now.
here is the so called Apple Bananas from Hawaii, these are about half size as a standard Chiquita Banana, and get even smaller when becoming super ripe. i always leave them out for over a week, till the skin becomes almost completely black and brittle thin. the flesh remains white, ultra sweet, and miraculously firm!
also a test bag of macadamia nuts from my friend Burt in Maui. these are raw nuts, untoasted... food stylist heaven... unlike the toasted ones which you buy and are always full of bruises and chips as this nut so easily gets even when sold inside tin cans.
and my dinner last night wasn't cake (yet, you know when i work on a long cake project, my dinners are mostly cake!), was fish which my brother William just caught from the ocean. the fish variety is called Papio (looks like a silver piranha), it isn't a very popular eating fish, but William assured me when fresh this fish becomes the most heavenly sashimi. William showed up with this "big" bag, and when i opened the bag i found out that most was packaging and ice packs, as he expertly applied tender loving care to bring to my table these 10 slices of sashimi he butchered himself... as we say on the islands: so ono! (or so onolicious, delicious).
i feel a little bit of shame to date, for not having done much with my local tropical bounty with cakes, so for my Hector 4-0 birthday cake I asked Rose to help me think of one. You will love it!
and i am most even more exited because all i had to do one day is turn on my computer and mass email the many farms in hawaii to sponsor a few ingredients for this special cake, and within 24 hours I received dozen of responses: macadamia nuts, vanilla beans, by far are on its way! right now, I am finalizing the logistics for photography, set for May 23rd at an ocean nearby (wrong date you may ask as this is the decisive reason, for May 16th, my actual bday, i will have no cake!)
swan song cake as woody says, or real gold does not fear the fire, applying to me.
enjoy.
http://www.hectorwong.com/roselevy/HectorHawaii4-0_a_BananaMacadamiasBrotherWilliamSashimi.html
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hector
05/03/2009 12:42 PM
Wow, 10 years on the making of a cake, I accept the offer. Just thinking in retrospect, I think cake will be cake as it is today, 10 years from now, or 20 years ago. The techniques and textures may have changed a bit, but we are still eating the same butter cake, genoise, chiffon, buttercream, chocolate, etc.
Just finished whipping a 15.3 cup recipe of mousseline and freeze it in preparation for my birthday this month. I will add the fruit pure and liqueur after thawing it, this way I have stock unflavored mousseline.
Hawaii awaits...
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Woody
05/03/2009 10:24 AM
Yes, we have some time plan for Hector's 50th. It could be a 'swan song cake' for all of us who did not get birthday cakes thru the years.
For those who were curious about "real gold does not fear the fire", that was a saying of Grandmaster Choi and the title to a book written by Sifu Ray in his honor.
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Julie
05/03/2009 06:35 AM
Wonderful cake, Woody! Lemon curd (especially Rose's) is one of my all time favorite things, must have been delicious.
Hector, I had never considered it before, your post made me realize that I am in the same boat, no one has made me a birthday cake either! Who knows where we'll all be in ten years, maybe I can serve as Woody's assistant!
Thanks so much for sharing this event, Woody, I hope you'll post again for your next test cake.
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Woody
05/03/2009 12:48 AM
Thank you, Hector.
I will be glad to make your 50th birthday cake if the opportunity works out. I have never been to Hawaii, so now I have an excuse. My mother did provide me birthday cakes ala Pepperidge Farm or cake mix. However, she did like making Grasshopper pie, which I thought was so cool as it had Creme de Menthe in it when I was underage. I guess I better start banking my frequent flyer miles.
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Bungalow Barbara
05/02/2009 05:38 PM
Lovely cake, Woody, and what a wonderful story!
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hector
05/02/2009 01:01 PM
Woody, it is a priviledge and honor to have your posting. Cake components are also on my light fair taste and the ying yang candles clever! My mother practiced luk tung kwen...a martial art exercise form that wears yellow pants and shirts! Since I was 8, nobody made a birthday cake for me, maybe when I turn 50? Would you?
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PBS 102: Banner Banana Cream Pie & Chocolate Lace Pecan Tart
Away til May 18