My little niece turned 4 years old this Saturday and she wanted a Dr. Seuss  Horton Hears A Who birthday cake, chocolate with raspberry filling. I was more than happy to supply her with one! This is my first attempt at a “Topsy Turvey” cake. It didn’t turn out as perfect as I would have liked but I think good enough for the first try. I definitely learned a lot and will be doing things differently on my next “Topsy Turvey” cake. I made the who family out of SugarVeil. I LOVE LOVE LOVE my SugarVeil system. I have only had it for a few weeks now and have been completley amazed at how versatile it is! Horton is a cupcake that I carved and covered in fondant… I wanted it to look like he is sliding down the cake. Daughter says that he was a very clumsy elephant. I also made some cupcakes with “Specs” to match the cake. I myself have not seen the movie but my daughter schooled me on it. She said that the cake MUST have Specs on it. Apparently these are the little flowers that the who’s live on.

My friends Jennifer & Troy just got a new little pooch named Boomer. And Boomer is the sweetest dog that I have ever met. So I decided to make her some cupcakes… next thing you know I am making them for every dog that I know! I made 2 sizes Chihuahua size and Boxer size! Apparently Boomer hasn’t been eating her food and is loosing weight; but she loved my cupcake! She ate every single crumb!

Puppy Cupcakes

Makes 24 Boxer Size Cupcakes plus 24 Chihuahua Size Cupcakes

• 2 cups whole wheat flour
• 1 large jar of baby food (something with veggies and meat)
• 3 large eggs
• 1 cup milk
• ¼ cup mayonnaise
• ½ cup softened butter
• 6 jerky treats ground up in a food processor
• 1 ½ teaspoons baking soda
• 1 teaspoon baking powder

Preheat oven to 320ºF. Cream butter until smooth. Add baby food, mayonnaise, and eggs. Mix until smooth. Mix dry ingredients into beef mixture until batter is smooth. Fold jerky into batter. Pour batter into cupcake liners. Bake 25 minutes or until done. It will be more like the feel of pressing on a quick bread than a cake. Cool on wire rack 15 minutes.

Peanut butter Cream Cheese Frosting

• 16 ounces fat free cream cheese
• 1 cup peanut butter
• 4 tablespoons honey

Blend all ingredients with an electric mixer in a bowl until creamy.

I like to call these little guys “The Devil Made Me Do It”. I took EVERYTHING that love and shoved it all into one little cucpcake liner; These little guys definitely put me into sensory overload! The sight, the smell (I would walk in and out of the house just to smell it over and over again), and the TASTE! So moist, so sweet and yummy. I’m getting all hot and bothered just thinking about it These little bad boys are truly SINFUL…. and I LOVE IT!

The cake itself chocolate & coconut, with cream cheese and marshmallow floater. Drizzled with chocolate & caramel glaze. Topped with toasted coconut, and roasted marshmallow….. and YES you guessed it…. drizzled again with caramel and chocolate. There I go again, gettin all worked up!… whew!

The Devil Made Me Do It

makes 24 cupcakes

Cake Batter

• 1½ cups cake flour
• ¾ cups granulated sugar
• ½ brown sugar
  
• ¼ cup cocoa powder (do yourself a favor, don’t use Hershey’s! I myself use Ghiradelli. But I have heard good things about Askinosie.. but it isn’t sold in my area and I am far too inpatient to wait for it in the mail)
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• 1 cup boiling water
• 1 cup milk
• 1/3 cup vegetable oil
• ¼ cup mayonnaise (fully leaded… do not attempt to use the low/non fat stuff)
• 1 cup coconut
• 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
• 1½ teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 320ºF. In a large bowl sift together flour, both sugars, cocoa powder, flour, baking soda, and salt. Add boiling water and stir till mixture is completely wet. Add milk, oil, vinegar, vanilla, and mayonnaise whisking well after each addition. Fold in coconut.

Cream Cheese & Marshmallow Floater

• 8 ounces softened cream cheese
• ½ cup confectioner’s sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla
• pinch of salt
• 1 cup small marshmallows

Cream together cream cheese, sugar, and egg. Add vanilla and salt stirring and stir well. Fold in marshmallows.

Fill cupcake cup ¼ of the way. Drop in a tablespoon of cream cheese mixture, and then pour batter over. The cream cheese and marshmallow will float up to the top when baking. Bake till a skewer comes out clean, approximately 20 minutes

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and lay out a thin layer of coconut. Bake at 450ºF until toasted brown. Pull out and immediately toss.

Chocolate Drizzle

• 8 ounces semisweet chocolate, finely chopped
• ½ stick butter
• ½ cup heavy cream
• pinch of salt
• 1 teaspoon vanilla

In a medium size bowl add chocolate, butter, and salt. Bring cream to a boil and pour over chocolate, and stir till it reaches a creamy consistency. Add vanilla and let cool.

Caramel Drizzle

• 1 cup sugar
• 3 tablespoons water
• 1 cup heavy cream

In a heavy sauce pan over medium high heat bring sugar mixture to a boil. Once it starts to boil swirl pot frequently to prevent burning. Once sugar turns to an amber color immediately take off of the heat and quickly add heavy cream. This will cause the sugar to seize and stop cooking. This is important because at this temperature the sugar can go from caramel to burned nasty mess in an instant. Put the mixture back on the flame once the sugar has seized and stir constantly until it reaches a smooth consistency. Allow to cool and stir often.

Drizzle Chocolate and caramel over your cooled cupcakes. Pile on a little bit of toasted coconut, and place 2 small marshmallows on top. With a culinary torch roast those marshmallows! Be careful not to catch the liner on fire… I did it a few times. Just blow it out. Once your marshmallow has toasted then drizzle on more chocolate and caramel.

I made this cake for a friend of my husband. He wanted a special cake for his wife on mother’s day. I think this little baby did the trick! The cake itself is my Chocolate Cherry Dr. Pepper cupcakes…. Turned into a cake. Although I had to use cherry flavored butter cream instead of the 7 minute frosting. It was still just as tasty. The butterflies were made of gumpaste and royal icing, and airbrushed color; I made one fly using white wire. All of the flowers are gumpaste, and the cake is covered in fondant.

OK, so it’s not really Nick’s 63rd birthday… he is 36; but 63 is just around the corner Anyways, I made him these awesome cupcakes because he is a total shit head! Mr. Hankey the Christmas Poo… is one of my favorite South Park characters. I made him out of royal icing. I love sugar art!

These were carrot cake with cream cheese frosting. The carrot cake had a good flavor and was really moist. Everyone seemed to like them a lot.

Carrot Cake

makes 24 cupcakes

• 1 ¼ cup cake flour
• ½ teaspoon baking soda
• ½ teaspoon baking powder
• 1 ½ teaspoon cinnamon
• ½ teaspoon ground ginger
• pinch of nutmeg
• 1 ½ sticks of butter
• ½ cup light brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• ½ cup apple juice
• ¼ cup sour cream
  
• ½ lb. finley shredded carrots
• 1 cup chopped pecans

Preheat over to 325ºF. In a electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment cream together butter and sugars until light and airy; about 4 minutes. Add in eggs one at a time and beat for an additional 3 minutes. Add vanilla, apple juice, cinnamon, nutmeg, salt, ginger, and carrots beat until well combined. Fold in pecans. Fill cupcake cups 2/3 full and bake for approximately 15 minutes or until the skewer comes out clean.

Cream Cheese Frosting

• 8 ounces cream cheese
• 8 ounces unsalted butter
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• 1 lb. powdered sugar

In an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment cream together cream cheese and butter, add powdered sugar (very slowly or else you will make a big mess), vanilla, and salt. Slowly move up to high speed and beat for about 4 minutes.

This months Daring Bakers challenge is brought to us by Elle & Deborah… who in my opinion are the 2 smartest ladies on the Daring Bakers Blogroll!!! This is by far my FAVORITE challenge!!!! They got this recipe from “Sticky, Chewy, Messy, and Gooey” by Jill O’Connor. This is a great title for a cookbook… but after this challenge I am going to just start referring to it as my Bible. As soon as I read this recipe I KNEW I had to have this book. Just thumbing through it I have found at least 15 recipes that I just HAVE TO try! I am so excited… stay tuned in for those later.

My favorite part of this challenge is that I got to dip my lollipops into all kinds of toppings. And I did EVERYTHING!!!!! I had granola, mint candy, pecans, cashews, pistachios, almonds, dried cranberries, and of course sprinkles. And I did them all in BOTH in Ghirardelli’s white chocolate & milk chocolate. I wrapped each one in a little baggie and tied it off with a cute little bow. They looked so fantastic and made me just giddy to look at them. Not to mention that they are just pure UNADULTERATED YUMMINESS!!!!

The only problem that I encountered on this challenge was my appetite. When I was scooping the cheesecake into balls my fingers and hands were all covered in cheesecake and I couldn’t stop eating my hands!!!! I must have washed my hands about a 100 times (have to wash hands after licking them…. Don’t put back into the batter!!!!). So today my hands feel all dry, lesson learned keep a bottle of lotion next to the kitchen sink.

Cheesecake Pops

Makes 30 – 40 Pops

• 5 8-oz. packages cream cheese at room temperature
• 2 cups sugar
• ¼ cup all-purpose flour
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• 5 large eggs
• 2 egg yolks
• 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
• ¼ cup heavy cream

Boiling water as needed

Thirty to forty 8-inch lollipop sticks

• 1 pound chocolate, finely chopped – you can use all one kind or half and half of dark, milk, or white (Alternately, you can use 1 pound of flavored coatings, also known as summer coating, confectionary coating or wafer chocolate – candy supply stores carry colors, as well as the three kinds of chocolate.)

• 2 tablespoons vegetable shortening

(Note: White chocolate is harder to use this way, but not impossible)

Assorted decorations such as chopped nuts, colored jimmies, crushed peppermints, mini chocolate chips, sanding sugars, dragees) – Optional

Position oven rack in the middle of the oven and preheat to 325 degrees F.

In a large bowl, beat together the cream cheese, sugar, flour, and salt until smooth. If using a mixer, mix on low speed. Add the whole eggs and the egg yolks, one at a time, beating well (but still at low speed) after each addition. Beat in the vanilla and cream.

Grease 2, 10-inch cake pan (not a springform pan), and pour the batter into the cake pan. Place the pan in a larger roasting pan. Fill the roasting pan with the boiling water until it reaches halfway up the sides of the cake pan. Bake until the cheesecake is firm and slightly golden on top, 35 to 45 minutes.

Remove the cheesecake from the water bath and cool to room temperature. Cover the cheesecake with plastic wrap and refrigerate until very cold, at least 3 hours or up to overnight.

When the cheesecake is cold and very firm, scoop the cheesecake into 2-ounce balls and place on a parchment paper-lined baking sheet. Carefully insert a lollipop stick into each cheesecake ball. Freeze the cheesecake pops, uncovered, until very hard, at least 1 – 2 hours.

When the cheesecake pops are frozen and ready for dipping, prepare the chocolate. In the top of a double boiler, set over simmering water, or in a heatproof bowl set over a pot of simmering water, heat half the chocolate and half the shortening, stirring often, until chocolate is melted and chocolate and shortening are combined. Stir until completely smooth. Do not heat the chocolate too much or your chocolate will lose it’s shine after it has dried. Save the rest of the chocolate and shortening for later dipping, or use another type of chocolate for variety.

Alternately, you can microwave the same amount of chocolate coating pieces on high at 30 second intervals, stirring until smooth.

Quickly dip a frozen cheesecake pop in the melted chocolate, swirling quickly to coat it completely. Shake off any excess into the melted chocolate. If you like, you can now roll the pops quickly in optional decorations. You can also drizzle them with a contrasting color of melted chocolate (dark chocolate drizzled over milk chocolate or white chocolate over dark chocolate, etc.) Place the pop on a clean parchment paper-lined baking sheet to set. Repeat with remaining pops, melting more chocolate and shortening (or confectionery chocolate pieces) as needed.

For April’s Cupcake Hero contest there wasn’t a specific ingredient. Instead, in honor of Earth Day the theme was “Green”. So I knew that what ever I made needed to be organic & Vegan. Beyond that; I had no idea what to do. I had decided to do a Persian cupcake with cardamom, saffron, and pomegranate juice. But it ended up tasting like ass. So, I went to the grocery store hoping that I would be struck by a stroke of inspiration. And there they were green organic granny smith apples…. UREKA!!! So, there is the story. These bad boys turned out just like I had imagined that they would. Moist and very very yummy! Great apple flavor… and is not all dense and dry like a muffin would be. No sir!!! You can definitely tell that this is a cupcake and NOT a muffin!!! I love the sweet and tart combination. And even my daughter liked the cream cheese frosting…. and she is a total meat lover. No soy anything for her – but I fooled her! Muuaahhhahahaaha I am SO evil!! The cupcakes themselves had a nice rise and did not deflate… that is super important for me as it is a pet peeve. I hate craters in my cupcakes!

For this challenge I made a special trip to Central Market, and I bought everything that I could find that said “Organic” on it. I had organic flour, oatmeal, sugar (who knew), apples, pecans, juice, powdered sugar……. everything in this cupcake is organic!

Anyways, meat lovers and vegans can now live in perfect harmony… behold the Green Apple Cupcakes!

Vegan Green Apple Cupcakes

makes 30 cupcakes

• 2 cups cake flour
• 2 cups coarsely chopped fresh organic Granny Smith apples
• ½ cup chopped pecans
• ½ cup oatmeal
• 1 cup organic apple juice
• 2/3 cup canola oil
• 2 cups organic evaporated cane juice (sugar)
• ½ teaspoon baking powder
• ½ teaspoon salt
• ½ teaspoon cinnamon
• ½ teaspoon ground ginger
• 6 ounces plain soy yogurt
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 1 ½ teaspoon baking soda

Preheat oven to 325ºF. Peal and chop apples using a food processor on pulse. You want a coarse chop… not apple sauce, and set aside. In a electric mixer bowl fitted with a paddle attachment mix together: canola oil, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, soy yogurt, vanilla extract, baking soda. Add flour and cane juice (sugar); and mix on slow. In a slow steady stream add apple juice and continue to mix on slow. Fold in apples, oatmeal, and pecan pieces. Pour into cupcake cups and bake for approximately 15 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean.

Cream Cheese Frosting

• 8 ounces vegan cream cheese, softened
• 1 cup nonhydrogenated margarine, softened
• 2 pounds powdered sugar
• 2 tablespoons vanilla extract
• ½ cup chopped pecans

In an electric mixing bowl fitted with a paddle cream together cream cheese and margarine until smooth and creamy. Slowly add powdered sugar 2 cups at a time, mixing and scraping down the sides. Add vanilla, and mix on medium speed for about 2 minutes. Gently fold in chopped pecans.

Streusel Topping

• ½ cup flour
• ½ cup organic evaporated cane juice (sugar)
• ¼ cup pecan pieces
• ¼ cup non-hydrogenated margarine, softened

Preheat oven to 450ºF. In a medium size bowl add flour, sugar, and margarine. Mix together with a fork to create crumbs. Add pecans and toss. Spread out evenly onto cookie sheet covered with aluminum foil. Bake until golden brown. Once cooled toss and break up crumbs, use as topping for cream cheese frosting.

The cake itself is moist and light with a slight hint of citrus. However, the butter cream definitely had a lemon flavor… but it was not over powering. It was light and airy. Perfect combination of sweet & sour. For my fillings I made a brandy soaking syrup, topped with raspberry preserves, and topped that with white chocolate cream cheese. I topped it all off with raspberries, blackberries, and mint that had been soaking in rosewater. It didn’t look as pretty as I would have liked. But it was a SPECTACUALR combination! Plus I got to use my Agbay knife and that is ALWAYS fun for me. I love that my cakes always have perfect layers and is flat as a board!

All in all this challenge was a great success. I didn’t come across any problems. Everything was pretty straight forward. My only complaint is that I hate lemon zest. Let me clarify. I LOVE the flavor that the lemon zest gives the cake… but for some reason I dread having to zest a lemon! It is like nails on a chalk board for me. Plus I inevitably always scrape my knuckles on the grater… then get lemon juice in it! So, I had to be extra careful on this challenge.

Here is the recipe as I prepared it:

For the Cake

• 2 1/4 cups cake flour (updated 25 March)
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 1 ¼ cups whole milk or buttermilk (I prefer buttermilk with the lemon)
• 4 large egg whites
• 1 ½ cups sugar
• 2 teaspoons grated lemon zest
• 1 stick (8 tablespoons or 4 ounces) unsalted butter, at room temperature
• ½ teaspoon pure lemon extract

Getting Ready
Centre a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Butter two 9 x 2 inch round cake pans and line the bottom of each pan with a round of buttered parchment or wax paper. Put the pans on a baking sheet.

To Make the Cake
Sift together the flour, baking powder and salt.
Whisk together the milk and egg whites in a medium bowl.
Put the sugar and lemon zest in a mixer bowl or another large bowl and rub them together with your fingers until the sugar is moist and fragrant.
Add the butter and working with the paddle or whisk attachment, or with a hand mixer, beat at medium speed for a full 3 minutes, until the butter and sugar are very light.
Beat in the extract, then add one third of the flour mixture, still beating on medium speed.
Beat in half of the milk-egg mixture, and then beat in half of the remaining dry ingredients until incorporated.
Add the rest of the milk and eggs beating until the batter is homogeneous, then add the last of the dry ingredients.
Finally, give the batter a good 2- minute beating to ensure that it is thoroughly mixed and well aerated.
Divide the batter between the two pans and smooth the tops with a rubber spatula.
Bake for 30-35 minutes, or until the cakes are well risen and springy to the touch – a thin knife inserted into the centers should come out clean
Transfer the cakes to cooling racks and cool for about 5 minutes, then run a knife around the sides of the cakes, unfold them and peel off the paper liners.
Invert and cool to room temperature, right side up (the cooled cake layers can be wrapped airtight and stored at room temperature overnight or frozen for up to two months).

Brandy Soaking Syrup

• ½ cup water
• ¼ cup sugar
• 2 tablespoons brandy

In a heavy saucepan on medium heat bring water and sugar to a boil. Take off heat allow to cool and add Brandy. With a pastry brush moisten the top of each layer of cake.

Then follow this warm raspberry preserves (it is easier to spread when warm)

White Chocolate Cream Cheese Filling

• 3 large egg whites
• 11 ounces white chocolate
• 2 – 8oz. packets of cream cheese at room temperature

In a heat resisting bowl over a sauce pan of boiling water, whip egg whites on high speed with an electric mixer for 5 minutes. Continue beating while adding in cream cheese 4 ounces at a time. Continue to whip for another 3 minutes. Take off heat and set aside. In a separate Pyrex bowl melt white chocolate over sauce pan with boiling water. Stirring continuously till creamy. Add chocolate to cream cheese mixture and whip for 2 minutes. Spread a thick layer on top of raspberry preserves.

For the Butter cream

• 1 cup sugar
• 4 large egg whites
• 3 sticks (12 ounces) unsalted butter, at room temperature
• ¼ cup fresh lemon juice (from 2 large lemons)
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Put the sugar and egg whites in a mixer bowl or another large heatproof bowl, fit the bowl over a plan of simmering water and whisk constantly, keeping the mixture over the heat, until it feels hot to the touch, about 3 minutes.
The sugar should be dissolved, and the mixture will look like shiny marshmallow cream.
Remove the bowl from the heat.
Working with the whisk attachment or with a hand mixer, beat the meringue on medium speed until it is cool, about 5 minutes.
Switch to the paddle attachment if you have one, and add the butter a stick at a time, beating until smooth.
Once all the butter is in, beat in the butter cream on medium-high speed until it is thick and very smooth, 6-10 minutes.
During this time the butter cream may curdle or separate – just keep beating and it will come together again.
On medium speed, gradually beat in the lemon juice, waiting until each addition is absorbed before adding more, and then the vanilla.
You should have a shiny smooth, velvety, pristine white butter cream. Press a piece of plastic against the surface of the butter cream and set aside briefly.