Instead of shopping and fighting the crowds for the best deals, I was planning a party to sit in front of the television. While the idea was ambitious, time was short, and the concoction started to lean a bit.Black Friday was a little different this year in my house. On the other side was the interior of the house, complete with kids’ bedrooms and a fireplace, mantle, stockings and cookies, all waiting for Santa’s visit. Seuss-style house with Santa’s boots poking out of a chimney. Still, they moved on to the third and final round, where they had three hours to bake a cake inspired by the song “Up on the Housetop.” They made a three-tiered chocolate cake shaped like a Dr. Todd frantically tried to spin sugar by shaking it on forks to enrobe the croquembouches like a garland, but ran out of time. The Kardases made it to the next round, where they again delighted the judges with plates made up of mini-croquembouches and green pâte à choux with brandy-spiked eggnog pastry cream, stacked in the shape of pine trees with a golden star atop. In the end, the four judges (plus Sparks) loved the cranberry-and-orange flair, which they felt was well complemented by the sour hints of the goat and cream cheese. “It’s okay we’ll lose some time, but just start over,” counseled his apprentice daughter. “I forgot the sour cream,” he said, the sweat visible on his forehead. “We’re making an orange-zest vanilla cupcake,” explained Samantha as they worked, “with a cranberry compote filling and a cardamom, goat cheese and cream frosting.” For the decorations, Samantha thought to make fondant and isomalt seashells, because, well, who wouldn’t, right?Įverything seemed to be going swimmingly until her father pulled the cupcakes out of the oven and found that they were sunken. “My parents used to always take me to the beach on Christmas, so I thought we’d make a Christmas Beach Tree,” said Todd. While frantically mixing, stirring, whipping, rolling, cutting, baking and glazing, Samantha and Todd also had to narrate what they were doing when asked by the judges, one of whom was singer/songwriter Jordan Sparks. Any opportunity I have to use color in my work, I enjoy.” She recalled having made an Eiffel tower cake with her father one time, as well as interpreting cards that people write for cake orders to inspire a specific theme, motif or color scheme. “We’re always bouncing off one another, and enjoy coming up with new ideas for muffins and scones and cakes. She and to co-workers share the responsibility of ensuring that The Bakery is full in the morning and that everything flows, she explained. Kardas, who now in her ninth month of pregnancy, has been creating cakes, cupcakes, cookies, muffins, scones and sinfully delicious pastries for the past six years there. Her skills were good enough to get her in the door at The Bakery, a local institution that has been fueling New Paltz with roasted coffee, café-fresh delights and desserts for the past four decades. “Honestly, I think I learned more being around my dad than I did at the CIA, but that looks better on a résumé,” she said. Kardas also had formal training at the esteemed Culinary Institute of America (CIA) in Hyde Park. “When I was seven years old, my dad started taking me to work with him, and I grew up learning that art,” she said. Her father, Todd Kardas, is a pastry chef at a restaurant in New Jersey. “They found my dad, and then he brought me into it as his partner,” said Kardas about her presence on the popular high-pressured televised bake-off. Samantha Kardas, a baker at The Bakery in New Paltz, recently appeared on the Netflix baking show “Sugar Rush.” (Photo by Lauren Thomas)Īt the ripe old age of 29, Samantha Kardas found herself suddenly transported from the cozy confection kitchen of The Bakery in downtown New Paltz to the bright lights and big stage of Netflix’s popular new series, Sugar Rush Christmas, Season 2.
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