Merry Christmas Cupcakes!

I know I haven't baked much in the last couple months but that's because school and work have been insane. So instead of squeezing it in and not doing what I want, I waited for the semester to be over and then baked with a vengeance. For the holidays, I thought it would be great to bake for the people I love. I decided to make 3 varieties of cupcakes, box them up and deliver them! I went and got 30 cake boxes and 30 cupcake inserts and a ridiculous amount of baking supplies! The rest were cute cake boxes full of red velvet, yellow and peppermint mocha cupcakes! Cupcakes! A lot of cupcakes!

Like I said, I started with a TON of supplies. I used 6.5 pounds of butter, 23 cups of flour, 8 cups of buttermilk, 9 pounds of powdered sugar...just to name a few!

I did all of my baking at my parent's house because they have double convection ovens and an additional kitchenaid. I had two ovens and two kitchen aids going at once! I was a baking machine!

I did a triple batch of Red Velvet which was taken from Cooks Illustrated:

·         2 1/4 cups unbleached all purpose flour

·         1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda

·         1 pinch salt

·         1 cup buttermilk

·         1 tablespoon white vinegar

·         1 teaspoon vanilla extract

·         2 large eggs

·         2 tablespoons cocoa powder

·         2 tablespoons red food coloring (one 1-ounce bottle)

·         12 tablespoons unsalted butter (1 1/2 sticks)

·         1 1/2 cups sugar

Directions:

Whisk flour, baking soda and salt in medium bowl.

Whisk buttermilk, vinegar, vanilla and eggs in large measuring cup.

Mix cocoa with food coloring in small bowl until smooth paste forms.

With stand mixer on medium-high speed, beat butter and sugar together until fluffy, about 2 minutes, scraping down bowl as necessary.

Add one-third of flour mixture and beat on medium-low speed until just incorporated, about 30 seconds.

Add half of buttermilk mixture and beat on low speed until combined, about 30 seconds.

Scrape down bowl as necessary and repeat with half of remaining flour mixture, remaining buttermilk mixture, and finally remaining flour mixture.

Scrape down bowl, add cocoa mixture and beat on medium speed until completely incorporated about 30 seconds.

Using rubber spatula give batter final stir.

Scrape into prepared pans and bake at 350* until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean, about 20 minutes.

The second cupcakes were Peppermint Mocha and they were delicious!

This recipe was taken from Annie's Eats Blog:

Ingredients:
For the cupcakes:
2 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2-3 tsp. espresso powder
2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
½ tsp. salt
1 cup whole milk
1 cup strong brewed coffee
1 tsp. peppermint extract
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup light brown sugar
2 large eggs

For the frosting:
6 large egg whites
1¾ plus 2 tbsp. granulated sugar
1½ cups (3 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
4 tsp. peppermint extract
1-2 tsp. vanilla extract

Directions:
To make the cupcakes, preheat the oven to 350° F.  Line two cupcake pans with paper liners.  In a medium bowl, combine the flour, cocoa powder, espresso powder, baking powder, baking soda and salt; stir together.  Combine the milk, coffee and peppermint extract in a liquid measuring cup.

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine the butter and sugars.  Beat on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, 2-3 minutes, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed.  Blend in the eggs one at a time.   Alternately mix in the dry and liquid ingredients, beginning and ending with the dry ingredients and mixing just until incorporated.

Divide the batter evenly between the prepared cupcake liners.  Bake 18-20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.   Let cool in the pan 5-10 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

I then frosted them with a peppermint buttercream frosting.

Lastly, I made a yellow cake with green butter cream:

The recipe for this cake can be found on a previous post!

I ended up making 235 cupcakes! It was an amazing process! It took me about 3.5 hours to bake and another couple hours to decorate everything. 

Here's the before:

and after:

Teresa took pictures of all the cupcakes for me and me with them all!

I'm lost in a sea of cupcakes and I'm loving every minute of it!

I honestly couldn't have asked for them to turn out better. I hope that everyone who got some enjoyed them. I loved making them and I wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a great New Years!

Also a big thank you to my parents for letting my turn their house into a bakery for a couple days! 

Thank you to Teresa for taking pictures of the cupcakes and making the awesome Warhol like cupcake art for me with my own cupcake! 

It really couldn't have gone better! Eat up! 

Game Night and Hello Kitty!

I haven't baked in forever but this last week was a baking frenzy because I hosted a game night at my place and I made a birthday cake for my kitchen manager's daughter's 5th birthday. I actually believe it was my best cake yet. The fondant went on perfectly, it didn't crack, it didn't break, the colors were right on and everything ended up super smooth. I'm really proud of it. It took a while but I think it was worth it. The top tier was strawberry and the bottom tier was vanilla. I'm sure she was thrilled with it.

Super lovely! Also thanks to Teresa Prince for photographing it for me at 11:30 on a Thursday night. 

 This was me being super happy that my fondant looked amazing. I might have been more excited than I should have been.

In order to get ready for game night I made two easy desserts and one that was a little bit more involved. I made brownies (its the only thing I bake from a box, I love my friends but chocolate is expensive to make them from scratch, don't judge me) and I also made rice krispie treats with fall colored M & Ms in them. 

These both make for really fast and easy desserts to fill the tummies of those who were at my place working up an appetite losing at Taboo (poor guys)

Since it is October and I love me some pumpkin, well, anything, I made pumpkin cookies with Brown Butter Frosting. This recipe is from Martha Stewart and I think they are divine. That lady knows how to make cookies. Well, her staff does at least!

• For The Cookies

  • 2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1 1/4 teaspoons coarse salt
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
  • 1 1/4 teaspoons ground ginger
  • 3/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
  • 3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
  • 2 1/4 cups packed light-brown sugar
  • 2 large eggs
  • 1 1/2 cups canned solid-pack pumpkin (14 ounces)
  • 3/4 cup evaporated milk
  • 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

• For The Icing

  • 4 cups confectioners' sugar, sifted
  • 10 tablespoons (1 1/4 sticks) unsalted butter
  • 1/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon evaporated milk
  • 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

Directions

1. Make cookies: Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, ginger, and nutmeg in a medium bowl; set aside.
2. Put butter and brown sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Mix on medium speed until pale and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Mix in eggs. Reduce speed to low. Add pumpkin, evaporated milk, and vanilla; mix until well blended, about 2 minutes. Add flour mixture; mix until combined.
3. Transfer 1 1/2 cups batter to a pastry bag fitted with a 1/2-inch plain tip (such as Ateco #806). Pipe 1 1/2-inch rounds onto parchment-lined baking sheets, spacing 1 inch apart. Bake cookies, rotating sheets halfway through, until tops spring back, about 12 minutes. Cool on sheets on wire racks 5 minutes. Transfer cookies to wire racks; let cool completely.

Make icing: Put confectioners' sugar in a large bowl; set aside. Melt butter in a small saucepan over medium heat. Cook, swirling pan occasionally, until golden brown, about 3 minutes. Immediately add butter to confectioners' sugar, scraping any browned bits from sides and bottom of pan. Add evaporated milk and vanilla; stir until smooth. Spread about 1 teaspoon icing onto each cookie. If icing stiffens, stir in more evaporated milk, a little at a time.

I think that Brown Butter is one of the best smelling foods that come out of a kitchen. It's buttery and nutty and delicious. What a brilliant thing to make icing with. It is important to keep a close look on your butter while browning it so you stop before you actually burn it. 

Delicious Butter waiting to melt

Starting to clarify

The power of delicious brown butter...I wish you could smell this picture!

Ready to mix with the powdered sugar

They are pretty cookies as well as delicious!

They display well too!

Overall, game night was a success. We all had a great time. Teresa pouted when she wasn't winning which is par for the course. Honestly, it wouldn't be game night without it! However, I'd like to point out that she was on both winning teams. Seen below:

Trivial Pursuit 90's Edition Winners

Taboo Winners- How they didn't realize we put together a power team, we'll never know!

Happy Baking to everyone else. I'm hoping to make some Halloween cupcakes but after that it may be a while. Grad school is a bitch and takes up so much time!  

Stromboli and a Divine Dessert

I've been wanting to bake for a while since I've been so busy. It's a nice way for me to be in control of my surroundings and make what I want. One of my favorite meals from when I was a kid was my Dad's stromboli because it was made with his homemade bread with yummy fillings. I have roommates, friends and a boyfriend who have been waiting for me to make this as well. I take my Dad's basic white bread recipe and split it in two. I use half to make a stromboli and the other half to make a loaf of bread that makes delicious french toast.

Stromboli:

This was the dough after it had already rose once. It was at least double the size of when I first started it. I then punched the dough down to reform it.

I cut the dough in half and formed one loaf of bread, I let that proof again while I was getting the dough ready for the stromboli.

To make the stromboli, I took a rolling pin and rolled the dough to a long rectangular shape.

I then started layering on the dough down the center. I used provolone cheese, followed by hard salami and then finished it off with ham.

I cut one inch increments down each side of the stromboli so that I could layer them to get a nice braided effect on the top.

I then layed it on a pan sprinkled with corn meal so that it wouldn't stick, coated it with an egg wash and then baked it. It turned out golden brown and delicious.

The bread turned out well too.

While I was making this, I also made cupcakes which were AMAZING. If you are looking for a way to dress up plain chocolate cupcakes and you like peanut butter this is the way to do it. 

I used a basic chocolate cupcake recipe. I actually am a huge fan of the Hershey's Chocolate Cake recipe. I think it always turns out well, is super moist and is very easy to make. However the real winner of this cupcake is the frosting. If anyone knows me, they know I'm not a huge frosting person. This frosting on the other hand is ABSOLUTELY delicious. It makes this cupcake awesome and is really delicious. I borrowed it from a baking blog I found, Glorious Treats. Her frosting is divine and totally worth making.

Peanut Butter Frosting

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature

1 cup smooth peanut butter (chose a peanut butter with no added sugar)

1 (8-ounce) package cream cheese
4 cups powdered sugar
1 tablespoon heavy cream (or milk)

Beat the butter until smooth.  Add the cream cheese, and continue to beat until smooth and fully combined with the butter.  Add the peanut butter and beat until well combined. Slowly add the powdered sugar and continue to mix until the frosting is smooth. Add in the cream, and beat another 30 seconds.  Frost cupcakes.

Teresa came over again to help me taste test and drink some wine. What girl doesn't need a glass of red wine and some chocolate after a long week. If you like peanut butter, seriously try this recipe. You won't regret it!

Happy Baking!

A Quick Update

I have been absolutely awful about updating lately. I've been really busy even though that shouldn't be an excuse because honestly, I'm always busy. I just finished and intense summer class. I've been working out a crazy amount training to walk a half marathon in Des Moines in October. I've lost 16.5 pounds already and hoping to hit 20 really soon. In the last month and a half a lot has happened. Calvin turned 4 (!!!!!!) and I made him a super awesome birthday cake, we had the 4th of July, my friend Jason turned 30 and I bribed a friend's parents to get her a plane ticket with a cake. It's been a busy month! I don't have any recipes in this post but more picture updates of what has been going on.

First, my Calvin has turned 4. He had his birthday on July 2nd, however my cousin Margaret decided that this was a great day to get married so I was out of town for his birthday. (It was an awesome wedding though and Calvin will never know the difference) We had him in Omaha the weekend before his birthday and we celebrated with a very awesome birthday cake.

Calvin is a huge super hero fan. Everything needs to have something to do with super heroes. Luckily I was given a fairly easy task by Nancy to make a Flash cake. I only needed 3 colors and the design was fairly simple. The cake was red velvet with cream cheese frosting that I dyed yellow. I covered the cake with homemade fondant and my friend Teresa was taking pictures and she caught my shocked face when the fondant went on in one try.

The cake turned out well and Calvin thought it was pretty alright too...

Here's a good shot of the inside of the cake:

After Calvin's birthday, we had the 4th of July. I filled an order for my roommate's mom. She wanted cupcakes that would work well for the holiday. I used a vanilla base for all of the cupcakes. The red frosted cupcakes had raspberries in them and the blue frosted cupcakes had blueberries in them. They had a little variety but were overall delicious!

I thought they were adorable!

One of my best study buddies from Grad school turned 30 at the end of our summer session. I told him I would make him a cake and I think he thought I was joking. I told him I would make him a rainbow cake and I still think he thought I was joking. I managed to throw together a cake between getting off work and getting to our last class and it still turned out pretty cute. It wasn't my best effort as it was a little rushed but everyone at the bar loved it and Jason was amazed by the rainbow inside which I think is just fun.

I was also super annoying and got 30 candles to put on the cake. 

It was a VERY bright cake. Sorry Jason!

However, the most successful cake of the month was the German Chocolate cake (Seen here). My friends and I were planning a trip to Kansas City for this Labor Day to enjoy Irishfest as well as their Renaissance Festival and we wanted our friend Katrina to come up. However, she lives in Florida as is broke (just like the rest of us). Seeing as her parents were pretty much my other set of parents in high school I figured there was something that could be done about this. Teresa came over and helped me make the cake. She made the pecan coconut frosting, her first time making it, and she did a lovely job. I made the rest of the cake and we put it all together. Teresa did her usual help of taste testing...

This would be how Teresa usually helps. I think she's doing me a favor saving me the empty calories. :) 

We had an inside tip that her dad's favorite cake was German Chocolate so it was the clearest form of bribery. We showed up unannounced with the cake and pretty much begged them to buy her a plane ticket. Lo and behold, cheesy grins, a little bit of groveling and a super delicious homemade cake not even out of the oven an hour can apparently do wonders, especially when you pipe PLEASE on top! Needless to say that Katrina will be joining us in Kansas City in a couple weeks and I can continue to brag about the ability of my cakes to sway others to view things in my way. 

There are some other cute pictures but I can no longer steal them off Facebook and she hasn't sent them to me! 

I hope to be able to update a little bit more frequently. I need to try a little bit more. Fall is starting though and I loooooove Fall flavors. I promise to be better. I'll take suggestions! Sorry about the delay though. 

Love you all!

Mo Mo

Guinness Chocolate and Brooklyn's Birthday

My lovely niece Brooklyn celebrated her birthday back in May but waited until June to have her party in Omaha at Fun-Plex. I was asked by my sister to make her a 'Mo-Mo cake'. Her favorite color is sky blue so I layered 4 9 inch cakes on top of one another alternating between blue cake and chocolate cake. I had a really busy week last week so I only had an hour here and an hour there to put the cake together. I didn't get to spend as much time on the decorating stage as I usually do but it turned out well considering my time constraints.

The colors unfortunately did not turn up very bright on my camera. Bad lighting...sorry!

It's very colorful 

Chocolate Guinness Cupcakes

Ingredients

• 3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa, plus more for dusting finished cupcakes
• 2 cups sugar
• 2 cups all-purposeflour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• Pinch fine salt
• 1 bottle stout beer (recommended: Guinness)
• 1 stick butter, melted
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 3 large eggs
• 3/4 cup sour cream 

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the cocoa, sugar, flour, baking soda, and salt.

In another medium mixing bowl, combine the stout, melted butter, and vanilla. Beat in eggs, 1 at time. Mix in sour cream until thoroughly combined and smooth. Gradually mix the dry ingredients into the wet mixture.

Gotta love the yummy appearance of Guinness and dairy products 

Divide the batter equally between cupcake tins, filling each 3/4 full. Bake for about 12 minutes and then rotate the pans. Bake another 12 to 13 minutes until risen, nicely domed, and set in the middle but still soft and tender. Cool before turning out.

I topped the cupcakes with a cream cheese frosting and lightly dusted them with more cocoa powder. They are a nice balance of Guinness and chocolate flavors. I hope they go over well!