Past baked items that were made prior to this blog

A crumb behind!

Well, I have been very busy since my last post.  My friend at work had a request for a treat.  She really loves M&M cookies and she doesn't like much chocolate.  I decided I wasn't in the mood for just making simple M&M cookies so I somehow wanted to combine it into a cookie.  I've made brownie cupcakes with Snickers in the middle so I thought why not try putting M&M cookies in the middle of the cupcake.  My friend doesn't like chocolate so I figured brownies were out.  I filled the cupcake liners 3/4 full with yellow cake mix.  I knew it wouldn't turn out right if the cookies were already baked so I tried freezing some M&M cookie dough in small balls and putting them on top of the cupcake batter.  I then put chocolate buttercream on top.  See how they turned out below.

 

Next, it was another friend's birthday, which is actually 5days before mine, so we decided to have a joint celebration on June 18 at work.  As her present, I told her I would make her a birthday cake.  She told me these were her favorite things: Hello Kitty, the color pink, chocolate, orchids, karaoke, and Lady Gaga.  I made a two-tiered square cake(8in and 10in).  I covered it in HOT pink fondant with a border of white fondant strip.  On top I made a fondant Hello Kitty singing karaoke.  My plan was to put orchids all around the bases, but the gum paste didn't work well for me.  If anyone has any tips, please let me know!  I was also going to pipe out the words to her favorite Lady Gaga song but I was too tired from my day of walking around the city with a friend visiting from home.

Until next time, happy baking!

Pound Cake Cupcakes!

Today was my Sunday, so I decided I would try to make pound cake cupcakes that I found on the Cupcake Project blog while waiting for Poland Spring to not show up.  They're very frustrating.  I guess they'll be coming tomorrow.  I just hope no one steals our bottles since we won't be there to let them in.  But on with the cupcakes...

Below is the picture of the cupcakes before being frosted.

They looked tasty even without the whipped cream.  I thought about trying them, but decided to wait since the whipped cream just sounded so tasty.  The recipe is below:

Pound Cake Cupcake Recipe

Makes 12 regular cupcakes or 24 mini cupcakes

• 3/4 C sugar (If you have some vanilla sugar on hand, this would be a good time to use it.)
• 1 vanilla bean
• 1 1/2 sticks (6 ounces) unsalted butter, softened
• 3 large eggs, room temperature
• 1 T pure vanilla extract (You could use vanilla bean paste here instead. If you use vanilla bean paste, you could skip the addition of the vanilla bean.)
• 2 C (7 ounces) sifted cake flour
• 1/2 t baking powder
• 1/4 t salt
• ¹/3 C (3 ounces) sour cream, at room temperature

1. Place the sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer.
2. Use a paring knife to split the vanilla bean lengthwise, then turn the knife over and use the dull edge to scrape the seeds into the sugar. (Save the pod for another use - like making vanilla sugar.)
3. Blend on low speed until the seeds are evenly dispersed.
4. Add the butter and beat on medium-high until the mixture is very light—almost white in color, 4 to 5 minutes.
5. Beat the eggs with the vanilla in a small bowl.
6. With the mixer running on medium speed, add the eggs to the butter mixture about 1 tablespoon at a time, allowing each addition to completely blend in before adding the next.
7. Sift the cake flour, baking powder, and salt into a medium bowl and whisk together.
8. With the mixer on the lowest speed, alternate between adding the flour mixture and sour cream, ending with the flour mixture.
9. Fill cupcake liners 3/4 full.
10. Bake at 350 F. For mini cupcakes, bake for 12 min. For regular cupcakes, bake for 20 minutes.

The topping is a strawberry whipped cream.  Very simple, you just whip heavy whipping cream, add some sugar, and add some almost pureed strawberries.  Below is the recipe for that:


Strawberry Whipped Cream Recipe

• 1 C heavy whipping cream
• 1/3 C sugar
• 4 T food processed strawberries (take some fresh strawberries, wash them, remove the stems, and throw them in the food processor until they become a thick, seedy liquid)

1. Whip cream until it looks like whipped cream.
2. Mix in sugar.
3. Mix in strawberries until just combined.
4. Be sure to frost your cupcakes before you eat all of the strawberry whipped cream.

If you decide to make these, I really hope you enjoy them as much as I do!  Happy baking!

Memorial Day

Well, I am definitely getting the hang of fondant as my Memorial Day BBQ cupcakes came out great!  They were such a hit.  First no one wanted to eat them because they looked too fun.  After one of my friends came to me to ask if they were for eating and I said yes, they were gone in less than 15 minutes!  They were very simple to make and so much fun.  I just did a simple dark chocolate fudge cupcake and vanilla buttercream frosting.

These were the cupcake toppers before I put them on the cupcakes.  They were sooo delicious. 

I think my next personal project will be Pound Cake Cupcakes with a Strawberry Whipped Cream Frosting.

It's exciting because my co-worker, Juana, and I are into this whole bake off and we have everyone at work do a blind taste test.  It is so much fun just to be able to try new things.  I think this Tuesday will be Rhubarb Pie.  I've never even tasted rhubarb, much less baked with it.  We will see how that goes.

I will let you know how the baking goes!