Photo Gallery: Miniature Pastries

Here is a collection of miniature pastries I made. Most of my designs are inspired by ParisMiniatures, a French miniature shop. Their Etsy store can be found here:

https://www.etsy.com/shop/ParisMiniatures?ref=search_shop_redirect

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! 

How You Can Alleviate Suffering: End Animal Testing!

    

   

Imagine being confined in a tiny metal cage your whole life, having never seen the sun, having never known love. This is the life of a mammal subject to medical testing in laboratories. These animals, primarily dogs, cats, primates, and rodents, suffer agonizing experiments and are brutally killed when they are ‘no longer useful,’ meaning when they are old, disabled, or not needed in a test. If we consider torture and massacre of humans evil, why do we let it continue with animals? Numerous studies show that medical mammal testing is unnecessary to and may even harm human health. Thus, the multiple billion dollars of taxpayer money used to fund medical mammal testing is being wasted. 

Mammals used for testing are not treated as living beings who can feel pain; they are treated as machines who cannot suffer, who cannot feel emotions. Therefore, medical testing on mammals is unjust and should be banned. From an early age, humans are taught to be just, fair beings by following the Golden Rule of treating others the way you want to be treated. For this reason, we would not torture other humans. For this reason, we would not slaughter people if they are old or disabled. For this reason, we would not abandon our friends to die a slow and painful death. Why do we justify these exact same behaviors on animals? According to ethicits, “All beings share the desire to live...we share the same origins, we inhabit the same Earth, and we are ruled by the same laws of nature. We are all the same.” We are all the same, therefore we cannot justify torturing mammals in medical tests. We must not live with this injustice and hypocrisy. Martin Luther King, Jr. once said, “injustice anywhere threatens justice everywhere.” Allowing medical mammal testing to continue is unjust, and threatens human nature as a whole. It sets an example of cruelty and encourages discrimination and hypocrisy for all humans. We cherish our pets and would never harm them, yet we allow animal testing in which the same animals are needlessly slaughtered. If mammal medical testing continues, millions of animals will suffer, and future human generations will become desensitized to cruelty and encouraged to discriminate.

The assertion that medical testing on mammals benefits humans by forecasting capabilities of certain drugs is a myth. Studies show that such tests demonstrate nothing about the effects of these drugs on humans, and may even harm human health. According to polio expert Dr. Albert Sabin, “prevention of polio was long delayed by the erroneous conception of the nature of the human disease based on misleading experimental models of the disease on monkeys.” This illustrates that, if it weren’t for animal testing, countless lives might have been saved during the polio epidemic of the 20th century. Today, millions of people per year are dying of cancer, and the primary method of testing potential cures is on mice. However, according to the former director of the National Cancer Institute, “The history of cancer research has been a history of curing cancer in the mouse. We have cured mice of cancer for decades and it simply didn’t work in humans.” If testing on mice had been abandoned earlier for more practical alternatives, thousands of lives may have been saved. In addition, studies suggest that the results of tests on mammals are insignificant and mean nothing in preventing human illness. For example, experiments show that fewer than 2 percent of human illnesses are expressed in animals. In fact, over 106,000 people die yearly from drugs tested safe on animals. This evidence shows that tests on animals are meaningless, harmful to human health, and detract from efforts towards discovering cures for fatal diseases such as cancer. If we continue to experiment on mammals, not only the animals, but also millions of people would die. 

Because medical mammal testing is meaningless, it is a waste of money. Today, the government spends 12 billion dollars of taxpayer money on animal research. Not only does this money contribute towards meaningless drug tests, it also contributes towards proving facts that we already know to be true. Today, the government has spent 20 million dollars exposing animals to drugs in order to prove for the umpteenth time that smoking is dangerous to human health. This money could have been used to alleviate suffering, create jobs or benefit veterans. Instead, it contributed to more people dying of cancer, and one more of the hundreds of studies warning people not to smoke. Every person in the country lost some of their personal income funding this. This illustrates that medical animal tests are an immense waste of money that could eventually lead to increased unemployment, homelessness, and starvation. In addition, alternatives to animal testing are currently being developed. One existing alternative is testing chemicals on cells in vitro. This eliminates all animal suffering, and can produce human-applicable results. Studies show that in vitro tests “produce data that is more relevant...than...a value obtained from mice, rats, or other animals.”

These alternatives have the potential to completely replace animal testing, and could eventually contribute to the development of cures for fatal diseases. Testing on mammals has been a setback in medicine, is unethical, and thereby sets an example of cruelty, discrimination, and hypocrisy for humans. Medical mammal testing is useless, cruel, and a waste of money as I have proven. It is so misguided that it is not only killing animals, but is also killing and impoverishing humans.  Do you want your hard-earned income contributing to human deaths and more studies showing smoking is unhealthy? The answer is a clear no. For this reason, it is imperative that you take action against animal testing.

    How can you help alleviate the agony of animals used for testing? First, you can only patronize cruelty-free companies. Visit the following link to download an app or view a list of companies that do test on animals: http://www.beaglefreedomproject.org/cruelty_free. You lose nothing in replacing one type of shampoo with a cruelty-free one, or any cruel product with a cruelty-free one. However, the animals the product was tested on lost their lives for one fleeting whim. Imagine you were one of these animals. Choose cruelty-free. Another thing you can do is sign anti-cruelty petitions by subscribing to the PETA online news with the following link: http://www.peta.org/features/what-peta-really-stands-for/ (at the bottom of the page). Finally, you can support the Beagle Freedom Project by adopting or fostering rescued beagles (http://www.beaglefreedomproject.org/adopt_or_foster ), volunteering to help (http://www.beaglefreedomproject.org/get_involved),  purchasing their merchandise (http://www.beaglefreedomproject.org/right_to_release ),  or donating (https://beaglefreedomproject.nationbuilder.com/donate).

The 3D Printing Pen

Imagine being able to make your drawings into real objects, customize jewelry, and draw buildings! You're probably thinking, "That's impossible!" However, with the 3Doodler pen, you can do all this and more without needing to learn complicated computer software! The 3Doodler is exactly like a pen, except instead of ink, it releases molten plastic which hardens in several seconds. The 3Doodler requires a special type of plastic strand, which is extremely easy to load into the pen. Once you have pushed the plastic through the back of the pen, you are ready to start doodling! You can either doodle 3-dimensional structures, or make flat drawings, and then lift them right off the paper.

Thanks to Professor Lynn Klett at Pellissippi State College, a scientist studying polymer compositions and 3D printing, I was able to borrow a 3Doodler pen. She showed me how to use it, and explained how it works. She also showed me several 3D printers in action, and told me about one of the world's first 3D printed cars, engineered at the Oak Ridge Lab in Tennessee. Click the following link for more information on how it was made: http://web.ornl.gov/sci/manufacturing/media/news/detroit-show/
                                             Here are some projects I made with the 3Doodler pen:

A neuron

How does this seemingly magical device work? It works exactly like a hot glue gun, heating the plastic until it is soft, then extruding it. However, unlike hot glue guns, it can melt two types of plastic: ABS and PLA. PLA requires a lower temperature to melt, and is a corn-based polymer, whereas ABS is petroleum-based. Why use two different kinds of plastic? ABS can bend more easily when dry, and is easy to peel of paper. PLA, on the other hand, often peels paper with it, and is brittle, but more suitable for drawing on hard surfaces. Although PLA and ABS are more suited for some uses than others, they are still able to make the same projects. For example, if you want to make a detachable paper doodle, you can still use PLA. If you have any questions about general use of the pen, visit http://the3doodler.com/faq/.

All About Morels!

If you aren't a mushroom forager, you probably haven't seen this strange, rare mushroom in the wild. However, you might have heard of it because of its delicious reputation. What is it? It's a morel! Morels only sprout for a short time in early spring - late March through May, and can be found in most of the United States. They are known to grow under deciduous trees in most of the U.S, but under conifers in the western region.  In addition, morels are known to grow in forests frequently burned by fires. Moderate-intensity fires results in higher morel growth than low or high. There are around 60 species of morels, and several color types: yellow (mostly beige) morels, white morels, and black/brown morels, all of which are quite rare and considered a delicacy. However, if you are foraging for morels, make sure you do not find a toxic false morel!

 

This might look like a morel from the outside, but it is not! This is a toxic, more common false morel, which is known to grow alongside true morels. How can you tell which is which? For some species, false morels look quite different:

 

But for some, like the one in the first picture, true and false morels look almost identical. However, determining which is which is not a matter of trial and error. True morels are hollow in both the stype and fruiting body, whereas false morels are not hollow. When you pick a morel, the stype should be brittle and there should be a hole where it was plucked (see following image)

If the mushroom you found looks like this, it is a true morel. If your mushroom looks like the mushroom at right in the picture below, it is not a true morel! 

 However, even if you do find a true morel, especially if it is not growing in a forest, I do not recommend you eat it, since it may contain toxic chemicals from the soil.