Mini Autumn-Themed Pastries!

Chocolate candy cake with pumpkin and macaron on top

If you love pumpkin, pastries, and miniatures, you'll enjoy this collection of miniatures I made! 

Please post in the comments which you would most like me to write a tutorial for! I will post a tutorial on how to make the pastry with the most votes. 

Pumpkin striped candy assortment

Pear tarte

Croquembouche (a tower of cream puffs)

Pumpkin cheesecake!

Pumpkin patch cake

Caramel cheesecake

Pumpkin St. Honore

Pumpkin pie (in the shape of a pumpkin)

Cake with candy corn, pumpkins, and cookies!

Fall flower and leaf cake

Pumpkin layer cake

Pumpkin keuglof

Mini-mini pumpkin St. Honores

Fall leaf, pumpkin, and teacup cake

Candy corn cake with rose and pumpkin

Caramel cinnamon tart

Caramel apple pie (in the shape of an apple)

Pumpkin charlotte

Cupcakes!

Fall chocolate cake

Pumpkin keuglof (another view)

Pumpkin swiss roll

Leaf medley cake

Halloween bonbon charlotte

More cupcakes!

Thank you to Paris Miniatures (http://parisminiatures.blogspot.com/) for inspiring me to make these tiny pastries! Please visit the blog and etsy links to see some of their incredible fall 2015 pastries!

Woodchucks!

You might be familiar with this adorable mammal from seeing pictures of it on groundhog day. These groundhogs, or woodchucks, are field dwellers whose hibernation patterns influenced the rise of groundhog day.

 

Woodchucks' primary diet consists of grass. Since grass does not have great nutritional value, woodchucks must eat immense portions of it. They spend their whole summer and autumn gorging themselves, building up fat reserves for the winter hibernation. Their main foraging times are in the morning and afternoon. Forage sessions usually last no more than two hours.

 After the first frost, woodchucks retire to their burrows to sleep the winter away. During hibernation, their heart rate falls very low, and their body temperature is about that of their burrow. Their only means of staying alive is through their fat reserves. Thus, they must lower their heart rates to at most four beats per minute. The burrows they dig are five to thirty feet deep, which is why woodchucks are sometimes considered pests if they dig burrows in a person's front yard. The burrows are full of complex passages, chambers, and escape holes. In spring, woodchucks give birth to litters of of about six kits. They are solitary animals, meaning that their mates do not stay with them to tend the offspring.

When a woodchuck spots a predator such as a hawk,  fox, or raccoon, it will release a sharp whistle. This is a warning to other woodchucks so they can dash into their safe burrows. 

Invasive Species Alert: Nutria!

 

 This bizarre creature might appear to be an alien cross between a woodchuck, a beaver, and a mouse. In fact, it is a nutria, an invasive semi-aquatic rodent. It is the only member of the family Myocastoridae. Its scientific name, Myocastor coypus, translates from Greek to 'mouse beaver.' 

Nutria are smaller than beavers, and larger than muskrats. The only difference between the nutria and these two animals is that its tail is round with minute hairs like a mouse's tail. Its forepaws have five toes, four of which have claws, and the other one reduced to a stub. They use these paws to dig for roots in swamps, which is their primary diet. Nutria also feed on aquatic plants, consuming about 25 percent of their body weight daily. The hindfeet are webbed to assist in swimming. This combination of foot types enables the nutria to both walk on land and swim in water. Though they are suited to do both, nutria are most at home in aquatic environments. Nutria breed year round and are extremely prolific, producing around two litters a year, each containing 1-13 young. 

 

Baby nutria

 Because they are so prolific, nutria are becoming a threat to aquatic ecosystems. Native to South America and introduced to Europe, North America, and Asia, nutria are invasive species. They were first imported for their fur, but escaped from these fur farms and began to breed. Since they reproduce rapidly, nutria population exploded and expanded. This is a problem of increasing concern, since they devour aquatic plants, which are food for most muskrats and waterfowl. This results in a smaller food supply for native creatures, potentially causing them to die off, while supporting the invasive nutria.

In addition, nutrias' consuming the roots of aquatic plants contributes to soil erosion, harming wetlands and thereby the wetland ecosystem. Their primary predators include alligators, large snakes, and birds of prey. Although they do have natural predators, nutria reproduce so quickly that predation makes very little impact on the population. In addition, according to invasive species expert Dan Murphy, "because of the impact of nutria, the wetland disappeared and what we have now is open water.” If more wetlands continue to disappear, all the animals and plants who dwell in them could become endangered.

 

Today, people have begun efforts to eradicate the nutria. However, these efforts must involve killing them, because, according to biologist Steve Kendrot,  “we are not trying to catch these animals alive to move them somewhere else; unfortunately we don't have a place to take them.” In the past decade, scientists have caught about 15,000 nutria in more than 60,000 hectares of land. While this may seem like a large figure, the eradication project has only begun, and there are far more nutria to remove before wetlands can be restored to their natural state. 

Pastry Photo Gallery: Charlottes

Mint rose, assorted macarons, mixed berry, cream puff (top left, clockwise)

Chocolate, berlingot (a type of French peppermint),strawberry, raspberry, cookie assortment (top left, clockwise)

     

Strawberry macaron, mango banana, mango cake (left to right)

Pumpkin chocolate assortment, pumpkin caramel, pumpkin St. Honore (top left, clockwise)

Miniature Halloween Pastries (with tutorial)

Welcome to a new component of Fun With Flora, Fauna, and Fungi: Food!
I will post images and tutorials on how to make miniature (inedible) pastries. Each week I will post a "Pastry of the Week," a post containing facts, miniatures, real images, and recipes for a particular French pastry. All miniatures I made and post here are inspired by creator ParisMiniatures (http://parisminiatures.blogspot.com/) Please check out her incredibly realistic miniatures on etsy if you want to purchase some tiny pastries (https://www.etsy.com/shop/ParisMiniatures?ref=search_shop_redirect)

 Since it is almost Halloween, I will begin with tutorials on Halloween themed miniatures.

To make these charlottes, or cakes surrounded in lady finger cookies topped with frosting and treats, begin by rolling a sphere of clay. Here is the procedure:
1. Roll a sphere of clay. You may use air-dry clay or Sculpey, but I prefer air-dry clay since it does not require baking and can be found at the supermarket.

2. Flatten the top gently, leaving thick sides. Press edges as desired.

3. Take a small section of clay and roll it into a thin log. It should not be much taller than the cake.

4. Flatten this log until you have the oval lady finger shape, which should not be taller than the cake. Press it to the side.

5. Repeat until your cake is surrounded.

6. Now it's time for the fun part: painting! The charlotte at left is more complicated, so I will begin with that one.

7. Paint the lady fingers your color of choice (in this case I used tan).

8. Turn the charlotte over so that the lady fingers are facing upwards.

9. Scrape a white chalk pastel over the lady fingers with a blunt kitchen knife or clay tool. This creates the effect of powdered sugar. You can also use different colors of chalk pastel to show pumpkin, chocolate, or strawberry flavor.

10. Press the chalk pastel in gently with your finger.

11. Paint the top of the charlotte your color of choice, and begin sculpting the chocolates on top.

12. For a circle chocolate, make a small sphere and press it, shaping the edges. For the tall bonbon, stack two spheres on top of each other. For a heart, make a circle chocolate and push down on an edge with your nail. Push down and round out the edges. Attach the chocolates to the top of the cake with clear liquid glue.

13. For the charlotte at right, follow the same process for the lady fingers (I used orange chalk pastel here) and paint the top. Make a pumpkin by molding a sphere, and then pinching the top with a corner of your nail. Paint the whole thing orange, and then, using a fine brush or toothpick, paint the top and creases black. The creases are lines around the pumpkin.

14. Squeeze dots of gold dimensional fabric paint around the pumpkin. This can be found at a craft store. If you want, scrape more chalk pastel on top for a garnish.

You have made a charlotte! Please feel free to share images of your creations in the comments!