Rebecca Michaels

Occupation: Pastry Chef
Specialty: Pastries, Desserts & Breads
Education: Columbia University, French Culinary Institute
Lives: Philadelphia


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Throw a Girl a Scone!
We’ve been deluged by requests to make scones for some of our wholesale clients, so scones have been on The Monkey’s brain in recent days. Whenever we’ve had some spare time, we’ve been playing...


Angel Food Hell
A few years ago I worked for a small boutique wholesale bakery. It was a great job. Not only was I the only baker there, but I learned so much from my boss, Beth–-from fabulous recipes and techniques...


The Monkey Diaries: Update
Well, The Monkey has been open for about eight weeks so far and the response has been very good. We’ve gotten write-ups in a couple of the major papers here in Philly as well as positive reviews and...


Did You Move My Cheese?
I. Love. Cheese. As far as I’m concerned, I could live on bread and cheese alone. But faithful readers know all that already. "Oh, Rebecca, why are you talking about how much you love cheese again?...


Just a Little Bit of Red
Over the past few weeks, The Monkey has gotten numerous requests for Red Velvet Cake.   This chocolate cake with cream cheese frosting seems to have lots of fans on both sides of the Mason-Dixon Line....


Mint Juleps Make the Mark
Ah, if anything evokes thoughts of a sunny summer, it’s sitting outside sipping mint juleps out of silver cups under a cabana striped umbrella by the pool waiting for the barbeque to heat up, right?...


Wedding Cakes: A Primer
Tis the season for weddings! And I thought I’d spend some time chatting with some of you brides and grooms-to-be out there to help you plan out your wedding cake. Well first off, congratulations...


Nostalgia Is a Piece of Cake
I love pretty cakes.  Not fancy, but more of a pretty, feminine, happy look to my dessert design.  My aesthetic has been described by a few people as nostalgic, 1940s, retro, even 'grandma's attic.'  ...


On the Barbie
This is a friendly little reminder that the summer is back and it’s the season to kick back, enjoy the weather and friends, and have some fun as worklife for many of us slows down until September again. Why...


The Cook and the Book
As you can imagine, I have shelves full of cookbooks. Most of them are baking books, but I also have a good number of straight culinary cookbooks – various international books that I’ve picked up in...


Psychoanalyzing Philly Phood-wise
Yesterday I was trolling a popular foodie website that listed the Top Ten Things to Do in Philadelphia. It was sad really. Number 1 was "have a cheesesteak" and Number 10 was "eat pizza on South Street."...


The Monkey Diaries: By the Time You Read This . . .
. . . The Monkey should be open. I may be tempting fate here, but it looks like everything's in order at this point. I've decided to do a soft opening, which is, in restaurant speak, when you open...


Buttercream-O-Rama
Frosting, icing, let me count the ways that I love thee . . . I really like frosting. It's the icing on the cake (every pun in the world intended!). Cake is nice, don't get me wrong, and good cake...


Desserts Down Under
One of my favorite things to do when I travel is to explore the local haunts of a place--the shoe stores, the cafes, the pharmacies (Who couldn't love British-based Boots?), and especially the grocery...


Haud Up Yer Heid Like a Thistle: A Scotch Primer
I am a bit of an amateur Scotch enthusiast. I developed a taste for it while I was concocting the recipe for my brownies. I generally enjoy my Scotch at home, as going to whisky bars is a rather expensive...


Tricks of the Trade
This week I want to share my favorite place to buy pastry tools with you. A fancy cake decorating supply store? A gourmet cooking shop somewhere in New York? Somewhere in France? Well, yes. I do...