cake, cupcakes, cookies, kick ass recipes

For the past 2 months the ingredient for Cupcake Hero has been of the adult nature and my darling daughter has been left out in the cold not able to enjoy my cupcakes. So this month it is all about Stasia!!! Her favorite foods are simple; she is not really into all of the ultra “gourmet” foods. She likes her hamburgers with ketchup and pickles only. Her sandwiches peanut butter and jelly. Her burritos beans and rice only…. No cheese, no sauce, no onions, no meat….. NO Maa’m not for her! Anyways you get the point. These cupcakes will not be containing items such as rosewater, saffron, or ginger. I am taking it old school for this month’s entry… no frills just down and dirty kid friendly yummy goodness!

Her FAVORITE ice cream is Rocky Road; she could eat it every single day if I would let her. So I thought that I would make for her a Rocky Road Cupcake Sunday. I wanted a rich creamy chocolate flavor cake, so creamy that you would almost forget it is a cupcake. And of course…. Has to have soft creamy marshmallow. I have to admit, this is one of my FAVORITE creations. She absolutely LOVED it… as did I. Husband and I took these to work and both got RAVE reviews. Everyone loved how they looked like an ice cream cone Sunday! I even gave one to my boss’ boss…. So they better be good or I stand a good chance of being fired – LOL

Makes 18 cupcakes

Chocolate Cupcake

• 18 cake ice cream cones
• ½ cup buttermilk
• ½ cup water
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• ½ teaspoon cinnamon
• ½ teaspoon baking soda
• ½ teaspoon baking powder
• 2.5 ounces unsweetened chocolate
• ¼ cup chopped almonds
• Pinch of salt
• 1 cup flour
• 1 cup sugar

Preheat oven to 325°F. In a Pyrex bowl over steam continuously stirring melt chocolate and butter till smooth. Take off of the heat and add baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, salt, and sugar and stir together. Add buttermilk and stir smooth, then add flour and water and stir till smooth. Fold in chopped almonds. Fill ice cream cones about ½ ways full. Place on a baking sheet standing up and bake for about 15 minutes or until skewer comes out clean.

*Helpful tip: scratch the bottom seam of your ice cream flat cone so that it will stay standing and not want to tip over. Also, do not over fill your ice cream cone or else when the batter flows over it tips the whole thing and then your cones go down like dominos.

Marshmallow Topping

• ½ tablespoon unflavored gelatin
• ½ cup water
• ½ cup light corn syrup
• ¾ cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• ½ cup chopped almonds
• 1 cup of melting chocolate

In an electric mixing bowl fitted with a whisk add gelatin and ¼ water and let sit for at least 5 minutes. In heavy sauce pan mix ½ cup water, sugar, corn syrup, and vanilla on medium low heat, heat till 244°F without stirring. Remove from heat and slowly pour into mixing bowl while on LOW speed. Gradually …. Very gradually or else you will make a big ole mess… move up to high speed. Let it whip till it triples in volume, around 15 minutes. Fold in chopped almonds. Let stand for 5 minutes. With an ice cream scoop; place 1 scoop on top of each cupcake. My ice cream scoop mysteriously had disappeared and I had to use a spoon (I tried a piping bag and that didn’t work out). It is ok, I actually think that it looks more Yummy kinda sloppy!

Melt some chocolate in a double broiler and dip each cone and finish off with sprinkles.

THEN I GOT TO THINKING….. Since I am taking it old school may as well go FULL FORCE; all the way back to the days of MY childhood. My favorite snack when I was a kid was Hostess SnoBall. I LOVED LOVED LOVED to peel off the marshmallow top and roll it up and shove it all in my mouth at once. Then enjoy the cupcake with a tall glass of milk.

Makes 15 Chocolate Cupcake

Chocolate Cupcake

• ½ cup buttermilk
• ½ cup water
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• ½ teaspoon cinnamon
• ½ teaspoon baking soda
• ½ teaspoon baking powder
• 2.5 ounces unsweetened chocolate
• Pinch of salt
• 1 cup flour
• 1 cup sugar

Preheat oven to 325°F. In a Pyrex bowl over steam continuously stirring melt chocolate and butter till smooth. Take off of the heat and add baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, salt, and sugar and stir together. Add buttermilk and stir smooth, then add flour and water and stir till smooth. Fill cupcake cups 1/3 of the way and bake for approximately 15 minutes or until skewer comes out clean.

Marshmallow Topping

• ½ tablespoon unflavored gelatin
• ½ cup water
• ½ cup light corn syrup
• ¾ cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 large bag of shredded sweetened coconut
• Pink gel food color

In an electric mixing bowl fitted with a whisk add gelatin and ¼ water and let sit for at least 5 minutes. In heavy sauce pan mix ½ cup water, sugar, corn syrup, and vanilla on medium low heat, heat till 244°F without stirring. Remove from heat and slowly pour into mixing bowl while on LOW speed. Gradually …. Very gradually or else you will make a big ole mess… move up to high speed. Let it whip till it triples in volume, around 15 minutes.

With a 1 inch round cookie cutter, carve out a hole into your cupcakes.

Using a piping bag filled with marshmallow fill your whole. Cut the top off of your cupcake core and use and place on top filling the hole (kind of like a cork).

Place coconut into a bowl and add a few drops of pink food color. Toss with your hands until you have a nice even coloring. In a small bowl fill with marshmallow goo and add a few tablespoons of water to thin out. If you don’t it will be too hard to dip your cupcake into. Staying true to the SnoBall form it is a thick marshmallow coating. Therefore I dipped each cupcake 3 times. I gave each cupcake 1 coat and rotated back around till I had 3 coats giving each layer time to set a bit.

On the third coat immediately place cupcake upside down in coconut; be sure to cover all of the marshmallow with coconut.

I then took a pretty cupcake cup (because the original cup got all icky with marshmallow goop) and placed it on, turned my cupcake right side up and shaped it firmly with the palms of my hands to get a nice round shape. And viola! You have a SnoBall!!! AND I LOVE IT!!!

Being that I have a mad love affair with cupcakes; everyone that I come into contact with assumes that I have been to HeyCupcake. HeyCupcake is the “It” place to get cupcakes here in Austin, TX. People look up to me as a cupcake authority…. connoisseur if you will, and all want to know exactly what I think about the cupcakes at Hey Cupcake.

Today was the day. The weather was BEAUTIFUL… the downtown vibe was exciting with SXSW still going on. So we made the trip. Hey cupcake is an Airstream trailer parked on Congress Ave. Congress is full of little boutique shops and restaurants…. and of course the ever famous Continental Club is there. Almost like a mini Melorse Ave. When we arrived they were very busy, and lots of happy people shoving cupcakes into their mouths. I love the Airstream trailer with a HUGE spinning cupcake on top. The ambiance was definitely there.

The menu is simple, but straight to the point.

Vanilla Dream (vanilla bottom, vanilla top)
The Standard (vanilla bottom, chocolate top)
Double Dose (chocolate bottom, chocolate top)
Snowcap (chocolate bottom, vanilla top)
Red Velvet (red velvet cake, cream cheese top)
24 Carrot (carrot cake bottom, cream cheese top)
Michael Jackson (chocolate bottom, cream cheese top)

Stasia got Red Velvet, I got the Michael Jackson and the Double Dose (I know 2 cupcakes…. I’m bad), and husband got the 24 carrot… he is a big sucker for carrot cake. They looked so yummy. These were over filled cupcakes so they looked like a muffin with icing on top. I loved the way that they looked in the box.

Stasia took the first bite. And I was amazed when she took 2 bites and then put it back in the box. Totally unlike my daughter to leave so much as a crumb of cupcake behind.

So then I took a bite of my Michael Jackson. The cream cheese frosting was EXCELLENT… OMG it was SO good!

The cake itself… well, it is better than an HEB or Walmart cupcake. But, it was dry… and kind of bland. I really like a rich moist cupcake. I too put the cupcake down.

Husbands 24 carrot cupcake, same AWESOME frosting…. but even he said that it wasn’t very good. He actually said that it tasted like there was too much baking soda. I didn’t know that he even knew what baking soda was!!! AMAZING! I took a bite of the carrot cake and it didn’t have any of the spices that you would usually find. My double dose… again the frosting was AMAZING…. Rich chocolaty goodness!! SO YUMMY!!… same boring CHALK-let cake. All-in-all HeyCupcake was a disappointments. Cool concept, poor execution.

So my boss totally kicks ass. I’m not kidding, NOR AM I SUCKING UP! She is a totally cool chick! Her birthday was last week and she didn’t tell anyone, so we (her whole team) totally missed the boat. OB (one of my co-workers… that is what we call him) decided to collect money to buy her a cake from HEB. Well, Amanda (my boss) is totally pregnant and been digging all of the chocolate cupcakes that I have been bringing around. She practically got on her knees to get a 2^nd Chocolate Cherry Dr. Pepper Cupcake. So I decided to volunteer my cakin’ services to give her a kick ass cake. The team all chipped in for the ingredients, and the cake design was all up to me. Being the ever clever girl that I am; I told Amanda that it was my dads birthday and that I needed suggestions on the flavor cake to make for him. Her face totally lit up when she was describing what I should make for him. She even started clapping her hands in giddy joy. She suggested chocolate cake with raspberry & white chocolate cream cheese filling. So that is what I did!!

I had been wanting to make a whimsical wedge cake for a while. I had this designed in my head already and was just waiting for the perfect occasion. Plus I got to use my new airbrush… and my even newer Agbay Cake Leveler. By the way, if you don’t have one RUN OUT AND GET ONE!!!! This was my very first run with it. I must admit it was very complicated to set up. But once I got it all adjusted EASY PEEZY!!! OMG I have never seen such PERFECT layers in my life!! Totally worth every penny… I can’t recommend it enough!

A couple of weeks ago husband walked into his break room at work, and in on some friends making fun of him. One guy was joking around about all of the cupcakes that Nick brings into work and said “Look at me, I’m Nick, and I have Dr. Pepper cupcakes”. Well, husband at that moment decided that I HAD to make Dr. Pepper cupcakes. Coincidentally, at that time Dr. Pepper had just released the limited edition Diet Chocolate Cherry Dr. Pepper. I was TOTALLY hooked at first sip. It is so YUMMY, and thought instantly that it would make a great cupcake.

I totally nailed this one. The cupcake is very moist, has a very pretty dome, and tastes EXACTLY like the Diet Chocolate Cherry Dr. Pepper drink. I particularly like the cherry frosting. Very light and airy with good old fashion soda shop cherry flavor. Total pure unadulterated yumminess! Also, this is a single bowl recipe totally easy to make… cupcakes for the lazy people!

Makes 30 cupcakes

Chocolate Cherry Dr. Pepper Cupcake:

• 2 ¼ cups of Dr. Pepper
• 2 cups of sugar
• 2 ½ cups of cake flour
• 2 eggs
• 4 ounces of unsweetened chocolate
• ½ cup of maraschino cherry syrup
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 cup of unsalted butter (2 sticks)
• pinch of salt
• 1 ½ teaspoons of cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoons of vanilla
  
• ¼ cup sour cream

Preheat oven to 325º. In a medium size sauce pan bring Dr. Pepper & cherry syrup to a boil. Place chocolate and butter into a bowl and pour hot Dr. Pepper over, cover and let sit for 10 minutes. Whisk mixture till smooth. Stir in sugar, salt, cinnamon, baking soda, baking powder, vanilla, and sour cream. Add flour in 2 parts alternating with the eggs and whisk till smooth. The mixture will be runny… but tasty. Fill cupcakes cups and bake approximately 15-20 minutes or until skewer comes out clean

7 Minute Cherry Frosting:

• 4 egg whites
• ½ teaspoon cream of tartar
• 2/3 cup of maraschino cherry syrup (you may need more)
• 2lbs confectioners sugar
• ¼ teaspoon salt

Throw everything into a Pyrex bowl ….. except don’t use all of the cherry syrup here. Start with ½ and beat with a hand held electric mixer for 1 minute . Place bowl over a pot of boiling water (be sure not to let the water touch the bowl… just the steam) and beat on high for 7 minutes adding more cherry syrup as needed to obtain desired consistency. Be sure as you are beating that you are also scraping down the sides of the bowl. DO NOT let the mixture set over the bowl as your frosting will soon turn into a large meringue cookie. See this couldn’t be easier! Oh yeah, don’t forget to top your cupcakes with a cherry!

Check out my new hoodie…. it is the BEST!!! I know you are jealous.. you should be!

This is my first month with the Daring Bakers. It took me a while to get up the courage to join. And I have been waiting with anticipation for my very first challenge. Finally, February came along and the challenge was announced. And wouldn’t you know it!?!… French BREAD!!

You see I am one of those very rare folks that hates bread. I mean really…. HATE!! It reminds me of that glue that you make in kindergarten out of flour and water – YUK! I wrap my hamburgers in lettuce…. and pick the croûtons out of my salad. Sorry, that is just me. What can I say; I am 1 in a million! But there was no way that I was going to sit out my very first challenge!!! NO WAY! Besides, my husband and daughter both LOVE fresh french bread. LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE it! So, I went full speed ahead!

This particular recipe for French Bread came from Julia Child’s and was a whopping 15 pages long! Pure craziness… and totally intimidating. I use to watch Julia when I was little. She was always so full of life, and funny. She had the “Oh Well” kind of personality that I loved. She was very down to earth and always stayed true to who she was. My favorite Julia Child’s moment was when I saw her on Oprah, and Oprah surprised Julia with her FAVORITE food. And I was SHOCKED to find out that it was McDonalds french fries! I LOVED that. She had tasted every gourmet food on the face of the planet, yet she preferred good old fashioned McDonalds!

The recipe itself could not have been more simple. Flour, salt, yeast, and water. That is it. Nothing more. I started kneading dough at around 7:30 am and finally put it in the oven at 8:00 pm. Lots and lots of kneading was envolved… and then lots and lots of waiting for it to rise. Then you deflate… and then you let it rise again. Then you shape, and let it rise again. Basically a whole lot of risein’ goin’ on! I was able to follow the instructions perfectly all until I got to the shaping part of the instructions. I really wish that it would have come with a diagram. I found comfort in the memory of Julia and how she herself wasn’t perfect, and would just make due. So that is exactly what I did.

Once my dough finally made it into the oven. I sat right next to it the entire time with a spray bottle and gave the dough a little spritz every 3 minutes. I also had a broiling pan with about 1/4″ of water sitting in it to create steam. When my bread was done it was a beautiful golden brown color. I could not have been more proud. I had made 2 loaves 1 for my family to dig into right away (I knew there was no way to keep them away), and another to actually allow to sit the full 2 hours as instructed. When the bread first came out of the oven the crust was very hard, yet the inside was very soft. I thought for sure that I had messed it up. As it turns out that after 2 hours the crust softens! It was the wierdest thing ever.

I roasted some garlic and preparred some olive oil with rosemary, thyme, basil, and chili peppers to dip the bread in. I liked the garlic and oil part of the deal… the bread I thought was OK. My husband and daughter LOVED it! So, I am going to declare this mission a complete success!

For those of you who have a day to kill and are interested in making this bread here you can get it here

OK OK… So “Liquor In The Front” is actually a Rev. Horton Heat album; one of the best mind you! But when I thought of this months Cupcake Hero ingredient that is what my mind immediately raced too. I have to admit that when the announcement was made for this month’s ingredient I was at a complete loss. Way too many possibilities for me to even know where to begin. Totally over whelmed. I felt like a deer starring into the headlights! I decided that the best possible thing to do in this situation would be to procrastinate!!! As it turns out that was a good thing. Last week David (this guy who sits in the cube behind me) came into work boasting about this cake that his mother had made… an how it used nearly every bottle of liquor in the cabinet. So, I made him go and get me the recipe! As it turns out his mother bakes using a mix. I myself can not do that! I just can’t!!! I think that if I were to bake from a mix God would strike me down dead BOOOM DEAD I SAY!!! Also, her cake was NAKED!! So, I read the recipe and got the general idea. And then changed it up to match what I already had in my liquor cabinet… and my moms (that is what she gets for living 1.28 miles away from me).

The cupcakes came out pretty darn tasty… and I love the little puff of alcohol that the oven omits when you open the door. The only thing that I did not like about this recipe is that my cupcakes did not make the pretty little dome that I usually get. I think that the pudding mix was too heavy and weighed it down. So I am going to recommend a few extra egg whites here to help puff it up. Regardless of how it looked; it was tasty. And I decided that was what mattered. Beauty is only skin deep! But a tasty cupcake will last a lifetime – on your hips that is! LOL!! OK, getting back on track here is the recipe. I like to call it “Stuff I Had In My Liquor Cabinet… and That I Stole From My Mom’s House”:

Makes 24 Cupcakes

Black Russian Cupcake

• 1 ½ cups of cake flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 large envelope chocolate pudding
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 1 ½ sticks unsalted butter
• 1 ¼ cups sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• ½ cup milk
• ½ cup vodka
• ¼ cup sour cream
• 6 large egg whites

Preheat oven to 325ºF Sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda, chocolate pudding, and salt; set aside. In a small bowl mix together milk, vodka, and vanilla. In an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment beat butter and 2 cups of sugar till pale in color; about 3-4 minutes. Scrape down sides and add vanilla and sour cream and mix on low. Add flour mixture in 3 parts alternating with liquid mixture beat until just combined. In a separate bowl fitted with a whisk attachment beat egg whites on low till foamy then gradually add 1/4 cup sugar. Beat on high speed until stiff high peaks form; about 4 minutes. Fold egg whites into mixture. Bake approximatley15 minutes or until skewer comes out clean.

Candy Coating

• ¼ cup Sherry
• 1 stick of butter
• 1 cup of sugar

Mix all ingredients together in a sauce pan. Bring to a boil for approximately 2 minutes. Or just long enough for the sugar crystals to dissolve. Using a soft pastry brush, glaze the tops of cup cupcakes.

Frosting

• 1lb powdered sugar
• ½ cup Crisco
• 1 stick unsalted butter
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• 2 tablespoons & 1 teaspoon meringue powder
• 1 tablespoon Crème Bouquet
• 4-5 drops of pepper mint extract (for subtle flavor)
• ¼ cup of Baileys

In a mixing bowl using the paddle attachment add all ingredients together. Start mixing very slowly and then work your way up to high. Beat for about 4-5 minutes giving the meringue powder a chance to fluff up. Add more Bailey’s as necessary for consistency. Frost cupcake and top with a maraschino cherry… Or my mom has these cherry’s that she got from my grandpa’s house. And they have been soaking in some sort of liquor & look absolutely yummy! But, I knew there was no way that I could talk her out of them… maybe next time.

64 cupcakes later (all with custom sugar art), I am glad that Valentines Day is over!….. I am completely and totally exhausted! No rest for the weary, I had to bake a Tiramisu last night…. did I mention that it was also the worlds ugliest Tiramisu? Well, Lord knows I put enough Brandy and Marsala in it; so hopefully they will get drunk enough to where the stupid thing looks good! (No picture of the cake…. I didn’t want to waste precious megabytes with it – LOL)

I have to head out of town tonight for daughters cheer competition… NCA Nationals. She is super big time excited – she is a total Psycho Bow Head. Sometimes I question whether or not she is my daughter. However, the other day I caught her drawing skull & cross bones… and little pictures of my signature Devil Cupcakes …with a cute little Devil eating them. That confirmed it; she is mine. Any ways, I made these cute little cupcakes for her entire team. They really appreciated the sugar art… big smiles and LOTS of compliments! And the moms were WOW’d too!

I am too tired to type anymore… and I got to start thinking about my Cupcake Hero entry… and one of these days I have to find time to do my Daring Baker Super Secret Project for the month. Wish me luck, cuz this month is a DOOZIE!!!

So, it is Irene’s birthday this weekend. She is one of the coolest chicks that I know…. she is Da Bomb!!! So, what better cake to make her than a bomb cake. Mocha cake with creamy chocolate Ganache filling and covered with chocolate fondant. This cake is totally a choco-holics wet dream! I used semi-sweet chocolate for the ganache to balance out the sweetness from the mocha cake. I hand painted the cake board and cake to make the colors more bold… and used a sparkler to make it look like it is going to BLOW…….KA BOOOM!!! I sure hope that she likes it.

Since this weeks game night fell right smack in the middle of Mardi Gras I decided to do it up with a king cake. Now, I have never had a king cake before…. and certainly never baked one before. But I keep seeing them at HEB… and they looks so messy and good. I had to try it (not theirs of course). So I googled “king cake recipe” and every single blog site seemed to agree that Emerils recipe was where it is at. Since I wanted to try my first king cake in a very traditional manner…. I didn’t even fuck with the recipe. I just baked it EXACTLY as stated so that I can have a PERFECT king cake. However, king cake is ugly…. so I decorated a cake board for it to sit on, try and class it up a bit ;-D

I am now officially a king cake lover (as long as they all taste like this). The creamcheese filling is defintley where the $$$ is at! I can totally forgive it for being so butt ugly, cuz it tasted so dam good. All in all… this cake was freakin AWESOME!!!!

As a little side note, do yourself a favor. If you can’t remember when you bought your yeast. Go to the store and buy a new packet. Really, it is like $1.09 and will save you a big ole’ headache. TRUST, learn from MY MISTAKES!

Recipe 

2 packages dry active yeast
1/2 cup sugar
8 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
5 egg yolks
1 cup warm milk (110 degrees F)
4 to 5 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 teaspoon grated lemon zest
Vegetable oil
8 ounces cream cheese
2 1/2 cups powdered sugar
Juice of one lemon
2 tablespoons milk
Purple, green and gold sugar sprinkles
Plastic baby toy

Preheat the oven 350 degrees F. Combine the yeast, sugar, butter, and egg yolks in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a dough hook. Add the milk. With the mixer on low speed, beat the mixture for about 4 minutes to dissolve the yeast. If the yeast mixture doesn’t begin to foam after a few minutes, it means it’s not active and will have to be replaced. In a separate large mixing bowl, combine the flour, salt, nutmeg, and lemon zest. Add this mixture to the yeast mixture. Mix on low speed until it lightly comes together, then increase the speed to medium and beat until the mixture pulls away from the sides of the bowl, forms a ball, and climbs slightly up the dough hook. Remove the dough from the bowl. Coat the dough with vegetable oil. Return the dough to the bowl and turn it to oil all sides. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap, set in a warm, draft-free place, and let rise until doubled in size, about 2 hours. Meanwhile, in a small bowl, combine the cream cheese and 1/2 cup powdered sugar. Mix well. In another small bowl, combine the remaining powdered sugar, lemon juice and milk. Mix well and set aside. Turn the dough out onto a floured surface. Roll the dough out 30 inches long and 6 inches in diameter. Spread the cream cheese filling across the center of the dough. Bring the two long edges together and seal all sides completely. Using your hands shape the dough into a long cylinder and place on a greased baking sheet, seam side down. Shape the dough into a ring. Place a well-greased 2 pound coffee can or shortening can in the center of the ring to maintain the shape during baking. Press the plastic baby toy into the ring from the bottom so that it is completely hidden by the dough. Cover the ring with a towel and place in a warm, draft free place. Let the dough rise for about 45 minutes or until the dough doubles in size. With a sharp knife, make several slits around the top of the ring. Place in the oven and bake for 30 minutes, or until golden brown. After baking remove the coffee can immediately. Allow the cake to cool. Drizzle the cake with the sugar glaze. Sprinkle the cake with sprinkles, alternating colors. Cut the cake into individual pieces and serve.