Baking Season!

Even though it has technically been fall for about a month now, until temperatures start hitting the 40's and 50's I don't really consider it autumn. It's hard to get into the festive mood when you're wearing shorts and tank tops. So now that the fall season has finally arrived I have been in my head about what wonderful treats I should bake. As some of you, all three of my readers, may know I am back at school. And while I to tend to venture home more often than not it's really hard to bake at school. For one, the community kitchen is disgusting, I mean really girls? Your mothers would be so disappointed. I had some waffles I wanted to pop in the toaster for a quick breakfast (come to find out we don't have a damn toaster) and there was egg all over the place, a stack of dishes in the sink that were overflowing, gunk everywhere, I mean it was worse than a teenage boy's room. I'll admit, I'm pretty OCD when it comes to stuff like that but I'm quite positive this would be disgusting by anyone's standards. Long story short, the only time I bake is when I'm home.

I won't be home this weekend because it's Halloween but the Today show did a segment on festive sweet treats so I'm very much looking forward to the next time I'm home. They talked about chocolate fudge cookies and it reminded me of this recipe I tried out a few years ago, Chocolate Snowflake Cookies. You roll the dough in powdered sugar before you bake it and when it's done it looks like a snow flake! Best idea ever! Needless to say I'm pretty excited for the Christmas season so I can start baking stuff like this.

Even though I'm stuck with mostly pumpkin flavors for now, I still have plenty of seasonal ideas pertaining to the fall. Something I think my friends and I will try to tackle this Sunday is Cinnamon Roll Pancakes. I know they look pretty intense but I'm confident in our abilities. I think maybe the cheapo ketchup dispensers like the ones I used for my Red Velvet cupcakes would work perfectly for the cinnamon swirl part. Maybe a few diced apples for an extra added piece of awesome? I'll admit I'm not loving the icing drizzled on top, I think that would be a bit much. I'll stick with maple syrup. Be sure to check me out on Monday to see how we did!

Red Velvet with Cocoa Raspberry Sauce

At work, as you may have read, I was very much inspired to try and make Red Velvet cupcakes. I spent a ridiculous amount of time researching a recipe and how to decorate said cupcakes. I'm dedicated, what can I say? Any who the chef in me was determined to really rock these cupcakes with some sort of sauce. Raspberry seemed to make the most sense but I was still hesitant.
After work I came home for the weekend and Saturday morning I got started on the cupcakes. While they were baking I got to the sauce. Even as I was making it I wasn't too excited about it so on a whim I added some cocoa powder. I let it chill and put it in one of those old school diner ketchup bottles, the kind that's all red with an easy squirt nozzle. The thought being I could drizzle this sauce over my cupcakes in a fancy-shmancy way.
I was suposed to go to a friend's party but unfortunately had to cancel to instead have dinner with some friends who were in town. Excited to have an audience, I happily prepared my cupcakes with the drizzled Raspberry sauce which I had heated just before serving. Omg these were so good. As I mentioned in my last post, I don't know much about Red Velvet cupcakes but I have to say these were phenomenal. Also I never did go to Crumbs to get a cupcake, whoops. And I know I say that about all of my cupcakes but these were so good, and the sauce is what made it. I think it would have made anything taste good. One complaint, I think I over baked the cupcakes by a few minutes. But other than that, heaven. I literally just finished another cupcake, I may try to take some back to school with me tomorrow.

PS I stole this beautiful plate from Little Italy when we were in NY a few weeks ago :] 

Prelude to a Cupcake

A prelude, my mom does this on her blog, and I think it's the cutest thing. Upon conversation with my coworkers (they deserve some cupcakes soon, they really inspire me) I've decided to tackle Red Velvet cupcakes. To me this is huge, people are all about their RV. I feel like when someone talks about a cupcake place the first thing you hear, praise or criticism, is how they did on their Red Velvet. When I have about $50 to spend, because these places are so damn expensive, one day I'm going to go around to all the local cupcake places and buy a cupcake from each so I can scope out the competition.

To be honest I don't think I've ever had  Red Velevet before. It doesn't look that great and to be honest I don't really get it. It's like vanilla? But not? With some cocoa in it? But it's not chocolate? Like, make up your mind cupcake. So in order to determine how RV should taste I'm going to head over to Crumbs and get one. Cupcakes there are huge and a whopping $4-something but word on the street is they offer one of the best RV cupcakes around. Until I conquer this mountain of a cupcake enjoy your Friday and keep an eye out for my post about Kristie's Red Velvet!

A Lifetime of Happiness to Des and Ray

Obviously today is catch up on my blog day. Actually I'm supposed to be studying for a midterm but all that means is do whaetever you can to not study, including blog updates. A week or two ago I was asked to make some cupcakes for a friends wedding. Not instead of a cake but in addition to (thank God, much less pressure). I had taken a batch of my Blueberries and Cream to her bridal shower and they loved them so that's what she asked me to bring. I only brought a few dozen and even though everyone was very complimentary of them we used a lot of the cupcakes for a cake fight. I think because they were much easier to throw. At least a few folks took some of my busines cards...
Shown is a picture of my best bud Gretchen and another best bud Sean, she got him pretty good.
Pow, right in the kisser.

Hostess with the Mostess

No I didn't host. But I did make cupcake that look like Hostess cakes. And I made them back in July, so when I said I didn't make any in July... oops I lied. Anway it was a combination party for a couple of folks birthdays but mainly my good friend Billy. He is the individual seen with the box o' awesome. In addition to being one of the nicest people I know he also does some DJing, some of his stuff can be seen here.

Anywho this party seemed like a great opportunity to show of my baking skills. I don't remember what inspired me to make Hostess cakes cupcakes but I rocked the shit out of these cupcakes. I made chocolate cupcakes and filled them with creamcheese buttercream, dipped them in chocolate ganache frosting, and finally added the signature swirl on top. My only complaint is that I don't think I put enough cream filling on the inside but no one else said anything so I'm hoping I'm just being my worst critic. Other than that, they were really good. I just have to modify how I fill my cupcakes because cutting a hold in each individual cupcake is way too time consuming.

8 Dozen

My biggest fan at work asked me to make 8 dozen cupcakes for her for an event she was having. For those of you counting along at home that would be 96 cupcakes. When I agreed to do it I honestly didn't realize how many cupcakes I was making until someone said it. Then, "oh shit, I'm making almost 100 cupcakes." So the night finally came. The actual baking part was a breeze I have 2 cupcake pans at home and some friends broought a few more over so I finished that part in a little over an hour. now the decorating... well that's another story.

I Googled a few ideas and sent her some asking what she was looking for. She had mentioned a pink and black theme so based on what I found online and what we talked about I just ran with it. Upon my research I came to the conclusion that I would have to use fondant. I hate fondant. I think it's a little lazy and a bit of a cop out. I love sugar flowers and bows and whatnot but when people make entire cake out of fondant... whatever. Now if you can do that with regular icing, then go you. That's my spiel, so obviously I was reluctant to use the stuff. Luckily I had some amazing friends over to help me that night. Mom helped a little too but baking isn't so much her thing. Wine on the other hand...
Anyway so we tackled it, one cupcake at a time. The other two girls hadn't used fondant either but we all did an amazing job adapting and figuring out how to work it. We only used it for 2 dozen of the cupcakes and for decorative lines for some of the other cupcakes. My biggest reason for using it was I needed a flat survace and I wasn't sure how to create one with buttercream. I found this which talks about how to flatten buttercream with a papertowel. It works amazingly but I didn't have a chance to try it out before the big day so I was nervous about it.
Below is one example of the designs used for the cupcakes, needless to say I recieved a lot of compliments from the woman who ordered them and the guests at her event. I think I'm going to get a lot more business because of these babies...

Oh So Sweet Potato

I keep accidentally calling these Pumpking cupcakes. I think it's because people (myself included) forget how amazing a sweet potato is and how much it tastes like pumpkin. I was bored at work one day looking up some creative icing recipes when I stumbled across this little jem. Ginger Honey Buttercream. Initially I wasn't all that interested in making the cupcakes, just stealing the icing recipe but the reviews at the bottom convinced me. To be honest I think I made these the same day I made the Mint Oreo, I was in the baking mood. They were a little time consuming just because I had to boil the sweet potatoes, mash them, blah.
These are so amazing, I can't even describe. Especially when they were fresh out of the oven with the cool icing on top...mmmm. I didn't pipe the icing like I normally do, it was much too soft. Maybe if I refrigerate it next time it would be more manageable. Who knows. Anyway, needless to say I'll be making these again.