Miss American Cupcake Contest

The lovely ladies at All Things Cupcake are hosting a cupcake recipe contest, and they're looking for entries from every state in order to do a Miss America-type showdown. Read more about it here. I'm sending in my entry this week...wish me luck as I try to capture the state title!

My first attempt at finding a cupcake to represent Louisiana left a little to be desired. Entries for the contest would ideally be ones that flavor wise capture the spirit of the state they're coming from. Huh? I had to do a little brainstorming for this one. King cake, bread pudding, bananas foster...these are all fine ideas, but they're not cupcakes. I toyed with the notion of making bread pudding in cupcake form, but to me a cupcake shape does not a cupcake make. What should I do? Thumbing through some of my local cookbooks and doing some internet searching gave me my answer: Cajun Cake. I've never heard of or eaten this particular cake, which has a pineapple base and a German chocolate cake-like topping. I decided to go for it, based on the numerous positive reviews I read on the internet. After all, we all know that if it's on the internet it has to be true.

Cooking evaporated milk, sugar, brown sugar, pecans, and coconut on the stove top. Who needs cupcakes to pour this on? I could eat the whole pot. Seriously. Pot, wooden spoon, and all.

The lovely little beauties right out of the oven. Notice how there's just enough room between the top edge of the cupcake and the top of the liner to capture any icing overflow. They're so pretty! But tasty? Ummm...not so much. Kinda rubbery since none of the recipes I came across called for oil. And bland. Bland is bad. I think they needed salt, if that makes any sense. That and I was told a few days later that pineapple doesn't "go" with the pecan and coconut topping. Oh well.

Here they are in all their shiny, golden glory. Oh so pretty. Such a shame that I'm not entering these in the contest. On a side note, remember how I always wish I could take better pictures? As in without my messy kitchen as a background? Notice the top picture of the single cupcake...that's my black dress filling in as a backdrop. Desperate times, folks.

Graduation Party!

My cousin P. just graduated from Xavier University in New Orleans a few weeks ago with a bachelor's degree in Chemistry. I'm so proud of him, but then again I guess I'm a little biased regarding his choice of major. His sister called me a couple of weeks before his party (which was on Mother's Day) to ask me to make a cake for his party. I suggested doing cupcakes in different flavors to suit the varied tastes of the partygoers, *sneaky grin* and she agreed, giving me free license on flavors and decorations. Yay! I quickly envisioned a perfect Neapolitan trio of cupcakes and came up with the following combos: Coconut-lemon, Fresh strawberry, and Chocolate-chocolate chip. (See above) I know that Neapolitan involves vanilla, but I wanted something a little more intriguing. As luck would have it, the coconut-lemon ones were the last to go at the party. Drat. Should've stuck with the basics.

The task of delivering 72 cupakes to New Orleans presented me with a problem though--how was I going to package them? True, I have the Cupcake Courier that I so love to use, but alas- only 36 can fit in them. I searched online and found cupcake inserts that could fit into a sheet cake box (14" x 20"), but they could only be purchased in bulk or would not ship in time. I bought some window cake boxes and had to rig up the inserts myself using gold posterboard, a ruler, and a circle cutter. I'm really satisfied with how they turned out, but the whole thing took a lot more time and planning than I expected. It was definitely well worth the effort though, because for me the presentation "makes it." So I'm just going to go ahead and say it now: I am fancy. Oh, and did you notice the little touch I added with the Fuzzkoala Cake Company sticker? Nice.

Cupcake Backlog

So it's Memorial Day and I promised myself that since I had an extra day off this weekend, I would take the opportunity to update my blog. Well guess what? It's Monday night, 6:30 pm, and I've only just started on my posts. In my defense, I've been busy this weekend. One of my friends graduated on Saturday (with her second bachelor's degree! And now she's off to graduate school for her Master's. Hmm... does someone love school?), so I went to that and the festivities afterwards. Yesterday my dad and I did some flower-planting, weed pulling, and various other yard duties. It was hot. That blew my entire day. So here I am today, updating...

Here are some cupcakes I made in March to share at work for my birthday. March? Wow, I'm behind. Left: Pink Velvet cupcake with cream cheese icing. Right: Cinnamon-vanilla cupcake with coffee buttercream. Mmmmm. Tasty.

Cupcakes for the company crawfish boil in April. Back: Chocolate-Cream Cheese cupcakes with chocolate buttercream. Front: Lemon Funfetti cupcakes with lemon buttercream. These were tart. Too tart. Better luck next time. Here they are in my cupcake caddy:

I'd been thinking about getting Invisaligns for a couple of years now, and in January I decided to go for it since I could now afford it. I couldn't get an appointment scheduled for a consultation until February, and as it happened I caught the "sickness of death" the week I was supposed to go. After rescheduling, then going in twice for impressions, I still had to wait 8 weeks for them to arrive. Well... I finally got them April 24th! And I'm not gonna lie--the first few days hurt. I made the cupcakes below the first night I had my Invisialigns in. Needed something to distract me from the pain, because lying on the couch pouting was NOT an option for me. Baking always gets me in "the zone." Strawberry/strawberry cupcakes and Cookies 'n' creme cupcakes (white cake with crushed Oreos mixed in).

 

A Plate of My Own

It's been a 4-year tradition now that my best friend and I paint pottery at Clayfish Bisque here in town. Our birthdays are two days apart, and we celebrate annually with a girls' day out. With my newly-found cupcake obsession, I knew that this year I had to paint something cupcake-y. Had to. Previous projects include a napkin holder, tissue box cover, and a small jar that has served as both a candy dish and pen holder (though not simultaneously).

For three years running I have taken literally hours to complete my projects, owing to my overly ambitious designs and my meticulous (OCD?) nature. My sister joined us this year for the first time, and this year, yes this year...I finished first. Amazing. I think a lot of this had to do with the fact that I had dreamed up my design weeks ahead of time in anticipation of our little tradition. Part of my inspiration came from a set of rounded square melanine plates I received for Christmas. The plate design itself was black, white, lime, and tangerine...kind of a zebra-y and floral print. But it was the shape and size that really inspired me, for each plate was perfectly sized to hold 9 cupcakes in a neat little square. My heart was just set on painting a square plate this year, and luckily Clayfish Bisque had a few to choose from. The color scheme I chose pays homage to cupcake-related kitchen items I spotted at Cracker Barrel and in my Gooseberry Patch catalog. It's hard to see in the picture, but the frosting is painted with a white speckled paint to mimic the look of sprinkles on a cake. Because sometimes, the sprinkles make the cupcake!

The Reason for My Cupcake Madness

Let me first say that I never watch QVC or the Home Shopping Network. They never seem to be peddling anything I deem worthy of picking up my phone and calling in an order for. Until now. That handy dandy contraption you see above is called a "Cupcake Courier" and it's one of those things that you see and think, "man I wish I'd invented that!" The premise is so simple, and yet the result is so genius--and useful too. I saw this on tv a while back (last year, maybe?), but didn't seem to think it was something I should fork out the bucks for at the time. Tired of toting cupcakes around in cardboard Anheuser-Busch trays**, I decided that my birthday would be the perfect time to splurge and treat myself to a happy little present.

Got mine from Amazon.com for a pretty good deal. I ordered "soft blue sky," which in the online picture and packaging was the most beautiful, soft baby blue. (Even lighter than in the picture above) Upon opening the box, however, I was greeted with a brilliant glow of turquoise. Turquoise? I don't even like turquoise. I can't even pronounce it. Turquoise is neither soft nor blue! But it's grown on me, and right now I'm pretty much loving it. Even bought me a turquoise shirt recently. Tur-kwaaz. I think I like saying it that way. The color looks good on me too...makes me look even more tan, which may or may not be a good thing.

**my parents run a small-town grocery store. Empty beer trays abound, so I have a pretty steady source of cupcake-totin' trays. But then everyone thinks I'm some sort of beer-swiggin' baker or something. I'm not. I don't even like the smell of beer.

Get. In. My. Mouth.

Man do I love apple pie! I'm actually more of a pie filling kinda person--not so much a crust fan, although on this pie I did enjoy eating the top crust. Pies are relatively new territory for me, so I'll count this one as a good learning experience. With a little tweaking my next pie should be...perfection. And now, for the first time ever, I've decided to go ahead and share recipes. (gasp!) I made some adaptations to Alton Brown's Super Apple Pie, but for the most part I stuck to it. Didn't make the crust (too lazy and like I said, not a crust fan so I turned to the Doughboy for help), made some substitutions, and an omission. I'm not buying a whole container of apple cider so I can have 1 tablespoon for the filling. Just not gonna do it. Look up the recipe if you wanna see the original.

I should also add that this recipe takes longer to prepare than most other apple pie recipes, but trust me, it's worth it. You're not "supposed" to cut into it for at least 4 hours. Longest wait ever. Best to make it at night so you can have pie for breakfast. Either that or bake it and then go somewhere for 4 hours while it cools down. What's that, you say? Pie for breakfast? Sure, why not! Eight apples went into the pie, and if you slice it into 8 pieces, that's like a whole apple per serving. And who said pie wasn't a nutritious snack? ;) Have fun!


Apple Pie (version 1.0)
3 to 3.5 pounds of mixed apples: (about 8 my fist-sized apples) I used 2 each: Granny Smith, Golden Delicious, Fuji, and Braeburn
1/2 cup sugar, divided
3 Tbl. flour
1 Tbl. cornstarch
1/4 tsp. kosher salt
2 tsp. apple pie spice
2 Tbl. apple jelly
1 Tbl. water
2 tsp. fresh lime juice
1 pkg. refrigerated Pillsbury pie crust

1. Peel and core the apples, then slice into 1/2" thick wedges. (I cut each apple into 12 slices) Toss the apples in 1/4 cup sugar, place in a colander set over a large bowl and allow to drain for 90 minutes. Cover the colander with plastic wrap, and stir the apples once or twice for evenness.
2. When apples are done draining, transfer the drained liquid into a small saucepan and reduce over medium heat until about 2 Tablespoons remain. Set aside to cool.
3. Preheat oven to 425 deg. F.
4. Combine remaining 1/4 cup sugar, flour, cornstarch, salt, and apple pie spice until evenly mixed, then toss with the apples. Whisk apple jelly, water, and lime juice until smooth and add to apples. Toss to combine.
5. Unroll one pie crust and place into a 9" deep pie pan. Begin layering the apples into the crust, arranging them so the curved part of the apple is in line with the curve of the pan. Continue layering apples in pan, building up a mound in center. Pour any liquid that remains in the bowl over the apples. Cover with second crust; seal and flute the edges. Cut some steam vents. Brush top of pie (but not the edges) with the reduced apple liquid from step 2.
6. Place your pie on a foil-lined, RIMMED baking sheet and bake on the oven floor** for 30 minutes. Transfer to the lowest rack in the oven and continue baking for an additional 20 minutes.
7. Cool on a wire rack for a minimum of 4 hours. (Hardest part!!!)
8. Eat it. Preferably with ice cream. And smile, dang it! That was some good pie!

** I guess if you had an electric stove you wouldn't want to bake on the oven floor since that's where the heating element lives...so in that case I would probably just move the rack to the lowest possible position and bake your pie for 50-55 minutes. Don't forget to use the baking sheet though, because you WILL have bubble-over. Pie baking is messy.

• Things I would do differently next time:
• Seek out and find tapioca flour. Flour + cornstarch = weird look. See below.
• Pie could use a little more sugar. Or use sweeter apples.
• Omit lime juice and apple jelly? Do I really need them?
• Don't use a bottom crust. Hey, now I can make 2 pies.
• Cut better steam vents. You can see in the top photo that I cut a hole in the top, but little x's in the rest of the crust. Apparently the x's didn't help much because by the end of the baking time the entire top circle of crust had broken free and was floating above a layer of bubbling hot apple pie magma. More holes next time.

Poppin' Fresh

It's been a while since I last posted, and I have to admit that I have no reason other than "I am lazy." Here's a sampling of what I've been up to in the past few months. Unfortunately I've also been a bit lazy about snapping photos too, so there are many items I won't be able to show. Enjoy!

Kolaches made with Lil' Smokies

Red Velvet cupcake for Thanksgiving potluck at work

Nothing brightens a rainy day like a stack of pink strawberry cookies

Christmas just isn't the same without gingerbread men :)

Knowing my love of all things koala, my cousin J. gave me a set of koala pans for Christmas in 2006. It's pretty hard to believe that I didn't crack them out until this past Christmas, isn't it? Same dough as for gingerbread men, but pushed into the molds. Turned out a bit denser and chewier than I would've liked, so next time I might try using cake batter. This is, after all, The Fuzzykoala Cake Company. But without the fuzzy. That would be bad in a cake.

Quite possibly the most thoughtful Christmas present I've ever received. J., the same cousin who got me those koala pans, had a personalized embossing tool ordered for me from Williams-Sonoma. I practically squealed with delight!

Cake and cookies: always a winning combination

What have I gotten myself into? I think that I've inadvertently set the expectation that when there's a birthday at work, there will be cake. That's all fine and dandy until I stopped to think about how many people actually work at the company... and it's far too many to be baking something for all the birthdays. Hey, if I was rich I wouldn't mind paying for it all. Oh wait... I'm not. I think I'll cap it at one per month. "Happy November birthdays, everyone!" This one was for another co-worker celebrating another milestone birthday: the dreaded 40th. Sure, it's nearly black with all those crushed cookies on the side. But at least there aren't tombstones and such on it. Or a hill. A hill would've been tacky.

I think I might start bringing a camera along to take action shots and to give you a peek at what my cakes look like inside. This one was deceiving, because you'd think it was a chocolate cake like the other cookies 'n' creme cakes you see at the store, but I'm always one for fun surprises. White cake with Oreo chunks swimming around, all surrounded by a white chocolate pudding icing. Doesn't get any better than that!

Just in time for Halloween

"Holy hand cramps, Batman!"

With Halloween just a few days away, I decided to make some cookies to bring to work. I swear these guys are already spoiled from me bringing them so many goodies lately. Here is an example of how my day goes at work:

"Bring us some biscuits again, Dorothy. I didn't get one last time because T. ate three."

"When are you bringing something again? Cause my birthday is next month, you know."

"Next time bring a red velvet cake. With cream cheese frosting. And a casserole. A casserole would be nice."

It's a good thing I have nothing else better to do with my time and that I really enjoy baking for them. I'm still working out some kinks in the whole cookie making and decorating process, so I promise next time they will be much prettier. Outline first, then flood with icing is definitely the way to go. Because that's not the way I did it, and it shows! We'll see if the cookies are a success on Monday. I used the popular "No Fail Sugar Cookie" recipe found on numerous websites even though I'm always skeptical when a recipe claims to be "no fail" or "best ever." Maybe it's just my oven or whatever, but next time I either need to use different cookie sheets or jack up the oven temperature because my cookies took longer than the 8-10 minutes specified in the recipe. It was more like 12-14 minutes. Oh well, it's all a learning experience for me.

I think I did pretty well for my first attempt, if I say so myself :) And yeah, my ghosts and bats all have the Crazy Eye. On purpose.

Check out this guy:
His leg broke off so I reattached it with some royal icing and put a cast on him. How could you want to eat him now?

Knuckle-deep in chocolate

It's the big 3-0 for my co-worker G. Naturally, this is a cake makin' occasion and I eagerly volunteered to make one of the cakes for his big day. Yes, I said "one of the cakes." He very cleverly got another lady at work to bring a cake as well. She is known and loved by all as the company's cake lady, so it looks like I've got some competition. Hers will be a carrot cake, so as to not steal my thunder. You're darned right you're not bringing another chocolate cake.

Measuring in at 9"x13"x4", this isn't a cake for the weak of heart. It's a diet-busting, tooth-aching, died-and-gone-to-Heaven, where's-my-glass-of-milk? kind of cake. This is the kind of cake that inspires marriage proposals. Initially it was going to be a small round cake, maybe 9" or so, filled with creamy Twinkie-like filling and covered in chocolate ganache. After seeing my fellow lab techs annihilate the batch of biscuits I brought in earlier this week I decided to super-size the cake. How sad would it be if someone couldn't get a piece of birthday cake? (think "Office Space") Go big or go home, right?

I thought it would be kinda cool to Photoshop my pictures to eliminate the clutter I have going on around whatever it is I am snapping a picture of. Well, that only took forever. And it doesn't even look all that great, so don't expect to see more Photoshopped pics. It's at times like these that I remind myself that I need to invest in a good backdrop for my photos. One of those science fair tri-fold boards draped with a contrasting fabric (black or white) is all I need. That might be a good project for this weekend. It'd be a cheap way to really add some professionalism to my photos. You know, for my portfolio.

Tonight's also the first night I realized that I am in a chocolate rut. Why, oh why does everyone insist on requesting a chocolate cake? Someone save me from the monotony!!! Me? I'm a yellow cake/chocolate frosting or a carrot cake kind of gal. Funfetti is good too, if you're in the mood for something festive. If you read my last post you probably saw that I absolutely love Raisin Creme Pies but made chocolate creme pies instead since very few people I know actually like raisins. After all, I don't bake for myself. I do it for the masses. And alas, the people get what the people want.

Pie lovers unite!

Mmmm.... pie.

So here in the South we use the term "pie" to describe two distinctly different baked entities. Pie can refer to the dessert that normally comes to mind when the term arises, whether it elicits visions of apple, lemon meringue, or banana cream pie. However, I am proud to be a member of the collective of people who think of something very different when pies are mentioned. For me, pie is a delightful concoction that usually consists of a layer of creme sandwiched between two cake-like disks. I say "cake-like disks" because the texture hovers somewhere between the realm of cake and cookie. The Little Debbie company manufactures a couple of varieties, with the most famous being the Oatmeal Creme Pie and the Raisin Creme Pie. Some might argue that although the famous Fudge Rounds made by the same company is not named as such, it stills falls well within the pie category.

After watching one of my co-workers steadily work through his box of Fudge Rounds every day during our morning break, I remembered how much I loved pies. Or more specifically, Raisin Creme Pies. I made a mental note to put them on the next grocery list, and two boxes later I've ventured into my own attempt at pie-making. I should note that I don't even like "regular" pie because I never eat the crust. Give me apple pie filling anyday and I'll be happy.

So there you have it, homemade chocolate creme pies. Using a devil's food cake mix as the base and a ripped-off version of Hostess creme filling, I've made a delightful little batch of pure joy. I think if I started with a dark chocolate fudge mix I'd come closer to approximating the new Oreo Cakesters. Cakesters? Give it up, Nabisco. You know full well that those little suckers are mini-pies. Biting into the soft yet chewy chocolate outside inevitably causes the creme filling to ooze out the sides--just enough for you to lick and keep going. As it should be. And I know what you're thinking, so don't even say it. These ain't no Oreos, baby. They're PIE.

This koala's goin' to Candyland

So I thought it would be fun to take a little break from baking and try my hand at candy-making. Seems fitting enough, since Halloween is just around the corner. Not that I would give these out to any kids because they'd just be thrown in the trash anyway. What a waste.
Turning once more to Allrecipes.com, I found a caramel recipe that sounded good and had a pretty respectable 4.5 stars out of 5 rating. I made out my grocery list and headed to Albertson's. Staring at the dairy case, my mind struggled to see the recipe I printed out not 15 minutes earlier. Did it say "heavy whipping cream" or "whipping cream?" I picked up the heavy version, put it in my basket, and proceeded to the next item on my list, only to return to the dairy aisle and grab the regular whipping cream instead. Once home, I discovered that I actually needed the heavy cream. Drat. No biggie, I'll see what happens. It's 8:15 p.m. and I'm not going back out.

The recipe says to "Monitor the heat of the mixture with a candy thermometer while stirring. When the thermometer reaches 250 degrees F (120 degrees C) remove the pot from the heat." Okay...does that mean stir the whole time, or can I stir occasionally? Too lazy to stand there stirring the entire hour it took to reach the 250 degree mark, I pulled up a kitchen chair and kept an eye on the boiling pot of candy. The other eye was busy watching the season premiere of "CSI."

Okay, so I'm stirring, and watching the little blue line in my candy thermometer rise up slowly, when I notice something unexpected happening: the butter is separating from the mixture. Could this be the result of using regular and not heavy cream? Have I upset the fat ratio, causing the butter to come out of emulsion? It's because I didn't stir the whole time, right? I don't know. What I do know is that the 240 degree butter splattering out of your pot hurts. A lot. Proceed with caution, kids. An hour later it finally reached the right temperature, so I poured it into my parchment-lined 11x15-inch pan and left it to cool. It's almost 10 p.m. now, so I was off to bed.

When I got home from work the next day I discovered that the caramel hadn't set up; it was a viscous goo. Tasty goo, but goo nonetheless. Well... maybe my thermometer is off. Me of all people should know that your instruments should be calibrated before you start working with them. So off it goes into a pot of boiling water to check for accuracy. I don't have a mark for 212 deg.F, but it was almost to 215 deg.F after a few minutes in the boiling water bath, so that wasn't the cause of my problem. Drying off the thermometer, I noticed that the handy dandy chart on the back says that "hard ball" stage is 260 deg.F, not the 250 deg.F specified in the recipe. Determined, I scraped the candy back into the pot and cooked to 260 deg.F, stirring the WHOLE TIME. Surely, it has to turn out this time. I poured the caramel into a smaller 9x13-inch pan and waited.

Great success! The next problem to tackle now is wrapping them. Armed with my Cricut (the mascot is a cricket. But it's a cutter. So cri-cut. Cricut! Get it? Haha, I am so easily amused!) paper trimmer and a roll of waxed paper, I cut 120 3x3" squares. In total, I cut 165 squares (about 2 cm big), but my sister took some to work and the rest were tasty "casualties." Wrapping them was going to be a tedious task, but oddly enough I like doing tedious things once I get into a rhythm. Popped in a good CD and sat down at my computer desk to wrap candy while chatting with friends online. And I always say I can't do two things at once. ;)

Pretty as a picture

While cleaning out a junk-filled room in our house, my mom and I found a Bundt pan set that came with its own plastic carrier for toting your goods around town. She purchased this last year to give to me as a Christmas gift, but forgot about it and it got lost amidst the clutter. I have a standard Bundt pan as well as a tube pan for making angel food cakes, but nothing as fancy as this. I was thrilled!

Using the "Whipping Cream Pound Cake" recipe from Allrecipes I filled up the well-greased pan. Greasing it, by the way, took forever and a day because of all the nooks and crannies. I knew all those sharp edges would be good for clinging to cake, so I had to be sure to get those suckers good. Looking at the batter in the pan my mind immediately flashed back to my muffin volcanoes incident. This cake batter came up to within one inch of the top of the pan. Re-reading the recipe to be sure I had the correct pan size, I crossed my fingers, put the pan on a foil-lined baking sheet, and popped it in the oven. Every 5 minutes I turned on the oven light to peep at it and check for overflow.

Rising...rising...getting dangerously close to the top edge...this is a LOT of batter to clean up if it overflows...still getting taller...

Much to my surprise and delight, the batter stayed within the pan. The result was a full, dense, yet fine-textured cake. Added bonus: it's pretty danged purty. It looks and tastes...well... caketastic. Enough said.

A little sad now that it's over...

But I'm definitely thrilled that J.and K. are finally married!!! You couldn't imagine a more perfect match :) I'm just sad because oh, do I love to make cake...and this was CAKE.

Let me just say that I should have never referred to their wedding cake as "The Beast" (see earlier post), because it was a self-fulfilling prophecy. The original plan was to bake the cakes on Thursday night, ice and decorate on Friday night, and deliver the cake on Saturday morning to the reception hall. Well something told me to start on Wednesday night, just in case something unexpected happens and I could avoid staying up all night Thursday with the oven running. I'm so glad I started baking one layer of each tier Wednesday, because it took longer than expected to bake up some of those rounds. Oddly enough, it wasn't the gargantuan 14" bottom tier that gave me grief, but the middle 12" layer... which took an eternity and a half to bake. The results of my wedding cake recipe test over two weeks ago taught me that I needed to adjust my frosting recipe to compensate for the heat and humidity down here. Well... by the time Friday night rolled around I forgot. I made the icing exactly as last time, which resulted in a softer product than I was hoping for.

Luckily it all worked out, although I had to be fast with the piping. Hats off to those ladies (and gents) out there who work full-time and do wedding cakes on the side. I don't know how you do it, because I stayed up till nearly 3 a.m. finishing up that cake. And it wasn't even elaborately decorated! There were definitely lessons learned, and next time (if ever there is one) I'll be much quicker and more confident.

Do I still want to make my own wedding cake, whenever THAT might be? Mayhaps.

When good muffins go wrong...

Please, kids...don't try this at home.

I am a huge fan of Alton Brown, so I have in my possession two of his books: I'm Just Here for the Food and its sequel I'm Just Here for More Food. So I was bored last night and started thumbing through I'm Just Here for More Food; I came across a recipe for Orange Cranberry Muffins that I wanted to try. It looked interesting enough, and I've never made this particular flavor of muffin before so I thought I would give it a shot and bought the ingredients this morning. I put it all together this afternoon (which took forever by the way), meticulously following his instructions in order to get the proper result. Baking is, after all, a science. I'm a scientist. I can do this.

I've seen on some other blogs that some bakers prefer to use "nut & candy cups" instead of standard paper cupcake liners. They're cuter, and the look is different. Different is good. As a plus, you don't need a muffin tin to bake them in because they stand up all by themselves. How could I resist? They work for cupcakes, so they should work for muffins too, right? I mean, isn't a muffin just a cupcake cousin? Then I thought to myself, "well muffins usually have some sort of 'cap' on them... a muffin top, if you will. You NEED a pan to support the cap while it's baking, lest it overflow." I ignored this conversation with myself, eager to try out my new cups. (Mistake #1)

You're not supposed to just swap out ingredients when baking, because it all too often results in disaster. We all know this. I know this. But I'll be okay with just one change, right? Well anyway, the substitution I made was to swap out the unsalted butter for some Blue Bonnet margarine I had in my fridge (Mistake #2). I was trying to save money by not buying any unsalted butter, which to my shock I did not have already stocked since I almost always do have it. Besides, the margarine box proudly claims: "Bakes like butter for less than half the price!" Oh really? Let's just find out, shall we? So does Blue Bonnet margarine live up to its claim? Not in my opinion. The finished result was overly salty, even though I significantly reduced the amount of salt used in the recipe.

But that wasn't the least of my woes. Alton Brown's recipe clearly states that it makes 12 muffins, and that the cups should be filled "to the top." Now I am a very trusting person, but even I was skeptical at this statement. Thinking I was very clever, I decided to make a baker's dozen (that's 13, in case you were wondering) instead of a neat dozen to compensate for not having a muffin tin to support the muffin top. "Ha HA!" I thought to myself, "with that extra cup in there, the batter won't overflow. No cap will form and I'll have the cutest little domes on my muffins." Then I looked at the cups again. And again. "Should I put down 5 more cups and make 18 muffins? Nah, they'd be too small. What about 15 muffins? No, you're fiiine... 13 is better than 12. Alton Brown won't steer you wrong." Ignoring my better judgement, I put the pan in the oven and hoped they wouldn't overflow. (Mistake #3) Boy was I wrong. Luckily I had a baking sheet under them to catch the overflow.

Were these any good? No. Edible, yes, but I would be too ashamed to let anyone I know eat these. I DO have a reputation to maintain, after all. ^_^

Moral of the story (actually there are two):
(1) Don't ignore your baker's instinct.
(2) Don't be cheap when you KNOW that butter is better.

Now that's just obscene.

Here for your viewing pleasure...

I made cupcakes with the extra batter from my wedding cake trial run, and piped the leftover frosting from my experiment on it in the grand swirly fashion that's so popular these days. My title refers to the obscene amount of frosting on top... I mean, do people actually EAT all of that? And not feel sick? I know I couldn't. After the photo was taken I scraped off the majority of the frosting before consuming my delectable little cuppycake. Cute, huh? :)

Wedding cake recipe test

Still not at work yet, I've found that I'm at my wits end as to how to spend my days. Today I decided to go ahead and buy supplies for J. and K.'s wedding cake next month. There are still a few things I need to pick up (more on that later) as well as the actual cake ingredients, but I've gotten what I could from the cake store while I have the free time. Since K. decided upon a chocolate cake, I decided to experiment and see what devil's food cake would look like with the raspberry filling. I've concluded that I'm not happy with the overall look. It's just not as appealing as say, a dark chocolate cake with that glistening deep red filling sandwiched between the layers. Upon reflecting on the cupcakes I made for the bake sale two weekends ago, I realized that the color/flavor of those would almost be what I'm after. I'll compromise and do mix of the devil's food and dark chocolate fudge. I can't wait to try it.

Frosting...
I was told it would be better if the frosting wasn't pure white, since the bride's gown is ivory anyway. That makes things better since now I'm not limited to the recipes I can use. Butter is yellow. If you want pure white icing you can't have butter. Simple as that. Luckily for all involved, color is not an issue. What I whipped up today is the color of mayonnaise, a soft off-white that I think will complement the design of the cake very well. As you can see in the pictures, I had a bear of a time smoothing out the frosting. I used the "upside-down icing technique" posted on Cake Central, and one of the items listed as "necessary" was a spackling knife. I don't have a spackling knife. It's raining, and I'm too lazy to go buy one. Well guess what? It turns out that it's pretty crucial to the success of the technique, as evidenced by the stripe of icing at the top of the cake's side. *sigh* I'll have better luck next time when I adjust the recipe and mixing method. It was WAY too fluffy to smooth out and use that method. I whipped the heck out of that frosting with my KA Artisan stand mixer (in pistachio green, my fav.) Next go around I'll use less whipping cream and turn the speed down a couple of clicks. It tastes amazing though and pipes like a dream, which is one of the main things I was concerned about aside from smoothing potential. Oh well, we live and learn by our mistakes... in the meantime we have cake to eat.

I FINALLY get to make a wedding cake!

Saturday, September 15th marks the debut of my very first wedding cake (or tiered cake, for that matter); it's for my friends J. and K. who are *finally* tying the knot! I'm really excited about this whole thing, partly because I've always wanted to make a mega-sized cake but mostly because I love to bake so much. K. picked a really great flavor combo: chocolate cake with raspberry filling, enrobed in an ivory buttercream. Thankfully, she's also kept the design fairly simple, opting for Swiss dots and a bead border only. Adding a monogram or some type of flower bundle on top (daisies) is a possibility to round out the proportions, but we'll wait and see.

Last Saturday we spent some time in Hobby Lobby, taking up the aisle and making a racket while deciding upon the most aesthetically pleasing size configuration that would also yield the desired number of servings. We stacked pans on top of each other in the middle of the aisle, and not in the most quiet way either because some of the pans were bent and didn't sit level. They kept falling down, which I suspect is the reason they are bent in the first place. I've seen quite a few other prospective brides do the same stacking thing. It really is the only way to visualize the final size and scale of your cake beforehand. While most wedding cakes typically cater to about 100 people, we have opted for a 158 serving behemoth cake with an 8-inch round serving as the top tier. It was decided that we'd do an 8-12-14 configuration with a solid separation under the top layer (which will be served, not saved). Adding a smaller fourth tier to her design would skew it, so we'd have to come up with something new. It wasn't easy coming up with the first one! As for the tradition of saving the top tier for the couple's 1st anniversary... I may either make them a small cake to freeze but not stack on the actual cake, or wait until next year and replicate one for them.

Nothing is set in stone yet, so we'll see. There seemed to be some debate as to the number of guests that would need to be served. The groom's cake, which will not be done by me, will be a red velvet cake. Well dang, guys, if I had to choose between the chocolate/raspberry wedding cake or the red velvet groom's cake, I'd opt for a piece of both!(fast foward to wedding reception)

waiter: "Excuse me ma'am, will you be having chocolate or red velvet?"
me: "Yes."

You're forcing your guests to make a very hard decision. Shame on you both :) I should be getting my cake pans sometime soon, so a practice cake is definitely in the plans. Hopefully they'll arrive early next week so I can get to baking. I'm being so persnickity about the pans I'm going to use that I won't settle for the Wilton ones I can find so easily in town. I'm so excited about my new pans... (edited to add that my pans arrived and they are PANTASTIC lol)

Here is a rough mock-up I drew of what we're planning:

Hamburger Buns

Bored out of my mind and not content to settle for grocery store buns, I decided that I really wanted to try my hand at making my own. My inspiration came from last month's issue of Cooking Pleasures magazine, a publication of the Cooking Club of America (of which I am a Life Member, how geeky is that?). It showcased some innovative burger recipes as well as several recipes for homemade buns. I wasn't sure if I liked the recipe in the magazine, so some internet searching yielded the interestingly named recipe that I tried: "Moomie's Beautiful Burger Buns" from the King Arthur flour company website. I mean come on, with a name like that how could I possibly resist? I adapted the recipe to include the rising technique shown in the magazine, which utilizes a second baking sheet placed on the dough balls during the second rise to create and maintain the shape worthy of a burger bun. As far as the actual burgers... I decided to go the easy route and purchased "Pub burgers" from the Albertson's meat counter. Seasoned simply with salt, pepper, and a touch of "Ragin' Red" seasoning before being cooked on my *fake* George Foreman grill, they ended up being the perfect size for the finished buns. Red onion, green leaf lettuce, American cheese...Now that's a pretty burger.
 

Games of Acadiana

So this is sort of late to be posting, but the Games of Acadiana will be held tomorrow, August 18th, at the Cajundome in Lafayette. I'll be there pretty much all day, but you can find me at the "Speed Stacking" event from 12:30-3:00 pm. Admission is free, and all proceeds benefit the Miles Perret Cancer Center. So come on out and have a great time! Come! Play! BUY! (edit: it was a blast! Definitely going to be volunteering again next year)

 I will be sad if at the end of the day all my baked goods have not sold, so be a friend and BUY. It's for a good cause, and all packages are $1.00. I KNOW you have a dollar. (edit: Anika told me that a lady actually TOOK a pack of my cupcakes out of her hand. Apparently they were a hit! I was very glad to see that around 1 pm, almost ALL of my stuff had sold. It's all in the packaging, ya know. Which was very cute by the way.)

Bake sale madness...
All in all over the past two days I've made:
48 very tasty cream-filled cupcakes (mmm.. like Hostess, only BETTER!)
158 scrumpdiddlyumptious chocolate chip cookies
74 meltingly delicious lemon cookies
 

Here's a picture of what used to be our kitchen table:

And for those of you counting...not all of the baked goods made it to the table! Some were given away, stolen, or "lost" by the baker :)