Cinnamon Swirl Pancakes

I actually made these a couple weeks ago. I was pretty excited to post about it but ADD kicked in and I forgot, my bad. Despite the late post I can still taste the buttery cinnamon filling, and let me tell you it was delicious. The brown sugar that makes up the cinnamon swirl sort of caramelized on the pancake making a... crème brûlée layer on the top. The cinnamon was great but I think that little bit of a crunch is what made it. No one likes a soggy pancake so it was nice that even after they sat for awhile they still maintained that sugary crunch. The recipe I found suggested a cream cheese topping but I think I mentioned before, that’s just too much for breakfast. With butter and syrup these cinnamon swirl pancakes didn’t need anything else. I would definitely suggest this recipe.

As you can see my swirl is a lot thicker than what they used in the recipe. I wonder how a thinner line of cinnamon would change it. Also I really messed up on the first attempt at a spiral, the cinnamon was still too wet from the melted butter so if you try this recipe, let it cool down before trying to pipe it on the batter otherwise it kind of goops out of the bag.

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving so I will of course be making some desserts. If I can remember I will try to take some pictures tonight on the pie process, I’m making two pecan pies, a pumpkin and an apple. Also on I received an order for a sheet cake to be completed by Sunday so look for pictures on that too. I will be a busy baker this week, have a Happy Thanksgiving!

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!

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.