Stormy Day Baking

You can tell I'm stressed because I'm trying to make time for baking and calm my mind. Last weekend I was able to bake for Easter. This weekend Jon and I spent the weekend at home because we were threatened with a big storm. As I sit here we have only had some intense rain, but nothing huge. I'm kind of disappointed. I LOVE thunderstorms. After we made some yummy waffles this morning, we ran off to the store to get all the fixings for a nice dinner and dessert. There was a recipe I saw in Martha Stewart's Raspberry-Cream Sandwiches in her cookie book YEARS ago and I've always wanted to make them but never had access to full vanilla beans. My sister-in-law made sure I got some in our wedding gift. Today was the day to try the recipe out.

Martha Stewart's Raspberry-Cream Sandwiches

Ingredients:
1 3/4 C all purpose flour
1 t baking soda
1/2 t salt
1 1/4 unsalted butter, softened
1 1/2 C sugar plus 2 t sugar
1 large egg
2 t pure vanilla extract
1 vanilla bean, halved lengthwise, seeds scraped and reserved
6 oz (1 cup) fresh raspberries
7 1/2 ounces white chocolate, coarsely chopped
1/3 cup heavy cream

Directions:
Preheat oven to  350*. Whisk together flour, baking soda and salt, set aside.

Mix butter and 1 1/2 cup sugar with an electric mixer on medium-high speed until pale and fluffy, about 2 to 3 minutes. Add egg, extract, and vanilla seeds; mix until smooth. Reduce speed to low. Gradually mix in flour mixture.

Scoop batter using a 1 inch ice cream scoop, space 2 inches apart on baking sheets lined with parchment paper.

Bake cookies for 8-10 minutes and let them cool on parchment papers on wire racks.

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This was my first venture with real vanilla.

My awesome vanilla from Trina! (Yay!)

Super flavorful vanilla beans! Delicious!

The Raspberry-Cream Filling is a yummy white chocolate raspberry ganache. The recipe in my cook book called for 1 1/3 cup of raspberries and the online version only calls for a cup and I can see why. I think the extra 1/3 cup creates too much raspberry puree and throws off the balance of the liquid and chocolate. The filling didn't set up as much as I would have liked. Next time I won't use as many raspberries. The flavor was delicious but I would have loved for it to have been thicker. 

Directions:

Puree raspberries and remaining two teaspoons sugar in a food processor. Pour mixture through a fine sieve into a small bowl, pressing to extract juice; discard seeds. Set mixture aside. 

Melt white chocolate in a heat proof bowl set over a pan of simmering water. Remove from heat, whisk in cream in a slow stream. Slowly whisk in reserved raspberry mixture. Refrigerate at least 30 minutes. 

Beautiful creamy white chocolate

Spread 1 heaping teaspoon raspberry cream on the underside of half the cookies. Sandwich with remaining cookies. 

I served these for dessert after the dinner we made for us and our parents. We served them with ice cream. Delicious! 

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Dinner:

  Jon and I made a yummy dinner. I haven't been home much because of work and school. I wanted to spend some time this weekend making something that required more than a half hour to make when we were both hungry home from work. We made Alton Brown's Pork Wellington and I made some potatoes that were inspired by Pinterest. It was a great success. 

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/pork-wellington-recipe/index.html

http://pinterest.com/pin/6614730672937786/

Today was a delicious success. I'll be making a cake next weekend for a birthday so I get to bake again. I'm glad that after 3 whole months of barely baking that I'm making a come back in April 

Happy Easter!

It has been far, far, far too long since I have had time to bake and time to update this blog. Luckily, I had my last day at Old Chicago last weekend and so now I have a little bit more free time. While I have a lot of school work to do, I took a mental break. Easter was a perfect excuse to get to baking again. My little sister, Nora, got me some adorable tulip cupcake liners for Christmas and Easter was the perfect reason to use them. I made a yellow cupcake filled with lemon curd and topped with a butter cream frosting. They were delicious and a perfect treat for a lovely Spring Easter Day!

I found a new white cake recipe, I'm always on the hunt for a good, moist white cake. This was a pretty good cake. However, it had a REALLY weird creaming method. It was delicious though. 

Vanilla Buttermilk Cake

from Sky High Triple Layer Cakes

For the cake:

4 whole large eggs

2 egg yolks

2 tsp of vanilla extract

1 1/4 cup of buttermilk

3 cups of cake flour

2 cups of sugar

4 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

8 ounces of butter at room temperature

Preheat the oven to 350F degrees. Butter the bottom and sides of three 8-inch cake pans. Line with parchment paper and grease the paper.Place the eggs and the yolks in a medium bowl. Add the vanilla and 1/4 cup of buttermilk and whisk all the ingredients well. Set Aside.Combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt in the bowl of a mixer; whisk to blend. Add the remaining buttermilk and butter to the dry ingredients and with the mixer on low speed, blend together. Raise the mixer to medium speed and beat until light fluffy; 2minutes.Add the egg mixture in three additions, scrapping down the sides of the bowl after each addition.

I then piped them full of lemon curd. I think lemon curd is so yummy and much easier to make than most people realize. I ended up making Ina Garten's lemon curd. It was different than most lemon curds as it used the entire egg and not just the yolk. It also used a lot of lemon peel. The lemon sugar smelled SO good. 

Ingredients

• 3 lemons
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 1/4 pound unsalted butter, room temperature
• 4 extra-large eggs
• 1/2 cup lemon juice (3 to 4 lemons)
• 1/8 teaspoon kosher salt

Directions

Using a carrot peeler, remove the zest of 3 lemons, being careful to avoid the white pith. Put the zest in a food processor fitted with the steel blade. Add the sugar and pulse until the zest is very finely minced into the sugar.

Cream the butter and beat in the sugar and lemon mixture. Add the eggs, 1 at a time, and then add the lemon juice and salt. Mix until combined.

Pour the mixture into a 2 quart saucepan and cook over low heat until thickened (about 10 minutes), stirring constantly. The lemon curd will thicken at about 170 degrees F, or just below simmer. Remove from the heat and cool or refrigerate.

The curd was delicious, but a little sweet. It also didn't firm up as much as I would have wanted. I think I might go back to the curd I used for the Lemon Raspberry cake I made last year. It's always worth trying new things though! 

I brought these over to my parent's house for Easter dinner. They were a hit and everyone enjoyed them. Ignore my bright red face in the picture (I walked 10 miles outside yesterday and didn't think I would need sunscreen, boy was I wrong!)

The liners were adorable. They were even cute when opening them up and they were the cutest crumpled up after the cupcakes had been enjoyed!

How cute!

It still looks like a tulip!

I hope everyone enjoyed this lovely Spring Day, had a Happy Easter/Passover. I hope I get to bake more often! I miss it and I miss blogging. I should be back more in the next few months. 

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!