When we left off last time I had just checked into the Hotel Ganesvoort and had gotten some pretty sweet swag thanks to Electrolux! We rejoin the story the day after the Super Bowl win of the Saints, a fantastic meal at The Fatty Crab, and a very relaxing massage at the hotel spa.
The evening before the cake event was a welcome reception at The Spotted Pig, a gastro pub run by Chef April Bloomfield.
The reception was held in what used to be an apartment but is not a super-secret kitchen hide-out where chefs in New York go after hours to cook for each other, drink, and tell tall tales!
When we arrived there were a variety of appetizers for us to sample. I tried them all and by far my favorite was the Ricotta Tarts which, of course, I did not get a picture of! There was also an open bar that we were encouraged to enjoy. They didn’t have to ask me twice!
Chef April did two cooking demos for us. Let me start by saying that Chef April was just fantastic and really comfortable with all the nosy food bloggers shoving cameras in her face. Throughout the entire demo she remained composed and answered all our questions.
She prepared a Six Root Vegetable Soup and Crispy Duck Confit with Cabbage. Both dishes were fantastic and I feel like I got a few good cooking pointers to play with at home.
After dinner we went to the hotel bar and had a few drinks and a gift exchange. It was a lot of fun and I scored a bag of coffee! Yum! Sadly, it was a relatively early night because we had places to go early the next morning. We were going to be in the audience of the Live! With Regis and Kelly show and that meant meeting in the lobby at 7:15 am.
So, I got up bright and early and went down to breakfast in the Tanuki Tavern in the hotel.
After breakfast we got into the waiting cars and headed to the show! Here is where I will tell you that I am not a daytime television watcher so I never really watch Live! With Regis and Kelly unless I’m home sick so I am not a huge fan of the show and was not at all sure what to expect.
The show was interesting, but most of it was taped in advance so we spent a lot of time watching television in a very cold studio. Overall, however, the experience was positive and just a little exciting!
One thing I did learn was that when you are in a studio audience of a television show you have to clap in double-time. Apparently, according to the producer who I called ‘Mr. Clap-Clap’, faster clapping sounds better on television. Who knew? (Not me, anyway!)
Once the taping was over we headed back to the hotel. My flight was that evening so I used the time between the show and the rest of the event to pack and get ready for my flight. I was really lucky to be leaving that night, too since the coming snow storm was canceling flights and trains left and right all day!
Before I knew it we were heading over to the Chelsea Market for Kelly’s Cake-Off for a Cause! A light lunch of finger sandwiches and cupcakes was provided. The sandwiches were ok, but the cupcakes were very nice. Oh, and guess who got the last canoli? It was by far the best canoli I’ve ever had. Dallas canoli makers need to head up to Carlo’s Bakery and learn how to do it right.
We entered the room for the event during a photo shoot. It was pretty impressive to see all the cameras shooting all at once. Once the press left Buddy (You know, the Cake Boss on TLC) did a demo with Kelly Ripa. Kelly asked a lot of questions and Buddy answered then, but (and I am being honest) it had VERY little to do with what our teams actually did. Oh, what did our teams have to do? Well, we had to make these:
My team, as you most likely know by now, was the Snow Day Cake. You can still vote, by the way, for the Snow Day Cake and every vote is a $1 donation to the Ovarian Cancer Research Fund! Also, you are entered to win an Electrolx range! How can you lose??
Our team was made of up me, Jessie from Cake Spy and Erika from In Erika’s Kitchen. We had an absolute blast! We got to play with fondant, sugar, and punch out snowflakes! How cool is that! So, how did it turn out?
Pretty well, I think!
To see more about the event you can visit our Snow Day page on Kelly-Confidential.com!
