I'm Back!

Well that was a bit of hiatus wasn't it? I have no excuses besides laziness. But I've been approached to do cupcakes again for my favorite little coffee shop so I'm excited about baking again and getting back into it full force! To start I ran right out and bought a 5 lb bag of flour and a 10 lb bag of sugar! Ooh baby, that's a good start! I wasn't planning on starting until Thursday to get some good weekend sales in on the cupcakes but Chuck had a long, pretty ugly day at work. He determined that the only thing to cheer him up would be some molten lava cakes. I'm not one to argue against the healing powers of chocolate so I was up for the task!

I found a very simple recipe at Tasty Kitchen. Seriously, it's 5 ingredients and one bowl! You can get much easier than that folks. So thanks to the lovely Brandielle, I had my task set!

I did not have any baker's chocolate but I did have:

When I bought this, my incredibly intelligent 6 year old who reads EVERYTHING asked "why is it called 'Special'" and my only answer was, "because it is!"

So I took my "Special" chocolate, melted it with some butter, added some sugar, eggs, and flour, and viola!

The recipe calls for this being baked in 4 custard cups but since my husband bought me this pan, he insisted I use it! And again, I don't argue when it comes to chocolate so I did! So it only made 2 cakes. Since the girls were already in bed, that was ok with us. We don't share chocolate in our house.

Now, since I was making much larger cakes, I probably should have increased the time by more than the 2 minutes that I did. So I would recommend 18-20 minutes of baking. But Chuck prefers raw batter so it worked out for the best. I did not have any cream in the house so we omitted the fresh whipped cream but I am sure that it would have been fabulous! And as a tip - I always add a splash of vanilla when I make homemade whipped cream. Try it once, you'll thank me!

This is how I wanted it to look:This is how it really looked:But it tasted fabulous!! Warm and melty chocolate will fix the worst of days! I promise!

Molten Lava Cakes:
4 pieces (squares) Semi-sweet Baking Chocolate (or 1/2 cup Special Dark chips)
½ cups Butter
1 cup Powdered Sugar
2 whole Eggs
2 whole Egg Yolks
6 Tablespoons Flour
2 cups Real Whipping Cream
2 Tablespoons Sugar

1 tsp Vanilla (trust me!)

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
Spray 4 custard cups (or 2 ginormous muffin cups) with Pam and place on cookie sheet.
Microwave chocolate and butter in large bowl on high for about 1 minute, until butter is melted. whisk until chocolate is also melted.
Stir in sugar until well blended. Whisk in eggs and egg yolks. Stir in flour.
Divide between cups.
Bake 13-14 minutes until sides are firm and center is soft. (or 18-20 if you're making the big daddies) Let stand 1 minute.
Combine sugar, heavy cream and vanilla and whip until stiff.
Invert cakes on dishes and top with whipped cream. It's best to serve these immediately. Cold lava becomes pretty darn hard, doesn't it? I'm just sayin'.

Because I've been away for so long, I'm going to leave you with a bonus recipe. You see, this cake calls for 2 eggs and 2 egg yolks. That leaves 2 egg whites all by their lonesome and I just can't have that! So I saved them for the morning.

Have you heard of Hungry Girl? She is the guru of eating the good stuff but in lighter forms. I took my little lonely egg whites and transformed them into one fabulous Egg Mug!

Here's how:

2 egg whites + one whole egg (I had just one left in the fridge and I am very opposed to lonely eggs)

1 wedge Laughing Cow swiss cheese

1 slice deli ham

I scrambled those eggs in my favorite mug that I got in Berlin, added the cheese, ham, and some salt & pepper, microwaved it for 1 min, stirred and then nuked it for 30 more seconds and got this:

Are you hungry yet?? Look at that yummy, creamy mug of deliciousness!

Happy Baking!

The domestic goddess

I've been looking at these for ages. They have tempted me and intrigued me and I knew I just had to try them. What are they? Cupcake pops! Yes, candy covered cake truffles that are to die for! I found them on Bakerella who is the queen of these little beauties and has even been featured on Martha Stewart for them. Click here for her tutorial on how to make them and enjoy my attempt. I used a box mix for the red velvet and canned frosting which I usually hate but I was pressed for time since I was doing these for my daughter's class party the next day. This is a time consuming project but worth every minute!

Big bowl of red mush - red velvet cake crumbled with a can of cream cheese frosting! I could have sat there and eaten the entire bowl but I had a job to do!
Best thing to come out of my daughter's Easy Bake Oven - perfect sized heart cookie cutter

I got lazy after doing enough for her class and just rolled balls with the rest of the dough. One batch makes about 50 or so truffles! I stuck them in the freezer for about 30 minutes before dipping. You may want to wear gloves while doing this. I ended up with pink hands.

Dipped in white Wilton's Candy Melts and covered in sprinkles! I just melted the candy in the microwave in 30 second increments. Dipped the pops and then put them in the fridge to cool.

Wrapped in a small treat bag & tied with a bow! Happy Valentine's Day!

These are delicious! Very moist cake center coupled with the crunchy candy coating. Perfection! The supplies are super easy to find too. I found all the ingredients, lolly-pop sticks, candy coating - everything at Walmart! They have an entire Wilton's section! Who knew?!

Because Loretta Lynn's daughter said so

Oh my poor baking blog, how I have neglected thee. It's not for lack of baking, just lack of posting motivation. I have no excuses so I won't offer any, I'll just say sorry and jump back on the bandwagon.
Over the holidays I was commissioned to bake three cakes for my husband's boss. Since I'm really more of a cupcake kind of gal, this task was pretty daunting. The first cake was a red velvet and it came out tasty but short and my icing skills were less than novice so it looked very sad. I was embarrassed but due to time constraints, was unable to start over. To my surprise, we got a text message the next day - "Loretta Lynn's daughter thinks you should open a bakery". OMG - Loretta Lynn's daughter was at the party where the saddest looking cake ever was served?! And she liked it?! I replied that if she would like to donate the start up, I would happily name it the Loretta Lynn Bakery. Alas, they did not agree. The next cake I made was a coconut version of a Tres Leche which again, delish! But it's a basic sheet cake and not much to look at. By my third cake, I had better tools and more practice. I made a German Chocolate cake that I have been craving ever since. I decorated it, not perfectly, but pretty darn good for a beginner. I was so proud, I even did a littl "Ta Da!" move to my hubby when completed.

I then began to delve into the world of fondant. I was a bit intimidated but after reading other sites and instructions, it didn't look that bad so I made a cake for a friend's baby shower:
and some fetus cookies (blame Cakewrecks)

This past weekend, while nursing a post-surgical kidney (yes, I am a glutton for punishment) I baked a cake for the Super Bowl:
It's not perfect but it was fun to make! And totally worth the $11.99 football shaped pan.



So I have been baking, just being lazy about sharing. I promise it won't happen again soon. Tomorrow is my brother's birthday and I have a couple of ideas up my sleeve. ;)

TWD: Pumpkin Muffins

Once again, Dorie has blown me away. These muffins were easy and delicious! I substituted mini chocolate chips for the raisins and a pecan pie glazed pecan for the topper. Those pecans are a one for you/one for me kind of treat. Yummo!

The recipe says it makes 12 but I got 19 muffins which is good since I made them for my daughter's Daisy Scout troup and I would be sad if there weren't extras for, um, tasting. Yeah, I have to taste them to make sure they're edible! You can find the recipe on Kelly's site. It says bake at 400 for 25 minutes but luckily I read the message boards and saw that most were done in 17 minutes. My glazed pecans still got a bit burnt but the flavor was still good and it gives the muffins a sweet, crunchy bite. I omitted the ginger and allspice since I didn't have any. I'm actually sitting here, eating one as I type and wow. Rush out and make some today! I just might make another batch tonight, just for us.

The Lovely Husband Cooks!

Chuck makes so much fun of me taking pictures of just about everything. I've whipped my camera out in restaurants for a pretty plate and he about dies of embarrassment. So this weekend when he made some pretty amazing stir fry, he called up to me, "Aren't you going to take a picture of this?!" And so I did!
Ladies, there is nothing sexier than a man who can cook! These shrimp were to die for! And the meal is pretty simple. We love the Sesame Garlic marinade by Iron Chef and do almost all our stir fry with it. Chuck also sauteed up some onions and chopped portobello mushrooms. Then he threw the cooked rice in to fry in some sesame oil and soy sauce. Our house smelled like Chinese food for 2 days and I did not care!
Note how he plated it so nicely, placing the shrimp delicately on top of the bed of rice? That comes from watching all those Top Chef episodes with me that he claims to not like and yet it's the one reality show where he does not make me change the channel.

TWD: Lenox Almond Biscotti - I mean brownies :(

Um, I'm an idiot and forgot this week. Totally forgot! I was planning on spending Sunday afternoon making these but then got invited to my father-in-law's for dinner and completely forgot about the biscotti until....oh, about 9pm last night! Oops. For what the other bakers did, please click here.

Otherwise, enjoy this photo of the amazing Lady's Brownies I made. Recipe from Paula Deen's Lady & Sons cookbook. It is so simple, no mixers and just one bowl! I added about a cup of toffee chips just for fun!

2cup sugar

1 cup veg. oil.

4 eggs

6 tbs cocoa

1tsp vanilla

1 1/2 cup self rising flour

1 cup chopped walnuts or pecans ( I omitted, nuts take up valuable chocolate space in our mouths) ;)

Preheat oven to 325, blend together sugar, oil, eggs, cocoa, and vanilla. Add flour; mix. add nuts (or in my case, toffee chips); spread into greased 13x9 baking dish, bake 25-30. Easy peasy lemon squeezy! Chuck said they were the best brownies he has ever had! I must say, I baked them for the full 30 minutes and they were incredibly soft and gooey: a perfect brownie texture, if you're of the people who prefer gooey over cakey brownies, which we are.

Tuesdays with Dorie: Caramel (half)Peanut-Topped Brownie Cake

You know how some recipe are dubbed "One Bowl whatever"? This cake is "Four Bowl Cake". Four. Bowls. And one pan. As someone who loathes doing dishes, this was not ideal. Although I was happy that I didn't have to lug my big heavy KitchenAid from under the counter. This cake was very simple to put together. See the recipe on Tammy's site since she is the master mind behind choosing this fantastic recipe!

The caramel topping was time consuming but again, not difficult at all. I think I overcooked it a bit but it still tasted amazing. I have the world's pickiest husband who did not want peanuts on his so I did just half with peanuts. That was tricky since the cake fell so much in the middle. I think I may have undercooked it but when my timer beeped, the oven turned itself off so I couldn't add more time because the temperature had gotten too low. It certainly didn't affect the taste though. The cake was moist and delicious and the caramel was rich and creamy and the peanuts gave it a little saltyness and crunch. A perfect combination. Tastes best with a glass of cold milk!

Apple Spice Cupcakes w/ White Chocolate Cinnamon Cream Cheese Icing!

Wow is all I can say about these cupcakes. So wow infact, that I have no photo. They went too fast. Everyone loved them from my hubby to my 2 year old. The 2 year old wouldn't even wait for me to take off the paper, she was willing to eat that they were so good! The perfect start to the fall season. These cupcakes were moist, light, a wee bit spicy, and just delicous!

For the cupcake, I used my go-to vanilla cupcake recipe that is Amy Sedaris':

1½ sticks of unsalted butter
1¾ cups of sugar beat well
Add 2 large eggs beat in one at a time
2 Teaspoons of pure vanilla beat again
½ teaspoon of salt
2 ½ teaspoons of baking powder
2 ½ cups of flour
1 ¼ cups of milk
Then I added 1 tsp of cinnamon, 1/2 tsp of nutmeg, mixed it all up and then folded in one diced Fiji apple. Fill cups, and bake at 375 degrees for 18-20 minutes. You should get 24. I made 12 regular and 24 mini cupcakes.

For the icing, I had made a huge batch of white chocolate cream cheese icing for some strawberry cupcakes that are a best seller at the coffee shop. So I just took the leftovers and added cinnamon to taste, about a tsp. or so.

The pieces of apple in these cupcakes keep them so moist and give little pops of flavor that have you begging for more. I had to hide them from my daughters. I can't wait to hear how they sold at Get Coffee.

Tuesdays With Dorie - Tea infused Creme Brulee!

OMG, this was sooooooo good. I stressed myself out a bit about it was it was completely worth it for the end result. Thanks to Mari (you can find the recipe on her site) for chosing this week's recipe. It was a lot of fun to make and gave a surprising amount of room for creativity. I infused mine with some Mate Vana tea my sister Erin gave me for Christmas. It gave it a wonderful flavor. Both Chuck and I had a blast (literally!) with the blow torch. I did the first one for my daughter who was home sick and she thought it was the coolest thing ever! Dorie gives several ways to spice this dessert up and I can't wait to try them all!

Tea leaves seeping in milk. The recipe said to line a strainer with cheesecloth which I did not have so I used a coffee filter to strain the milk. Worked perfect.

Frothy custard. Dorie instructs you to "rap the bowl on the counter" to settle the bubbles but no amount of rapping could eliminate the bubbles for me. I guess I whisked too quickly?

Fire! I lucked out and found a Creme Brulee set at Linen's & Things for $15, blow torch and all. Hooray for businesses going down the crapper and having awesome sales.

Yummy, crunchy, creamy creme brulee!

Layla approved!

Chocolate Cupcakes 2 Ways

A few weeks ago I made some toffee topped chocolate cupcakes for Get Coffee. Apparenlty they did pretty well so they requested more. I decided to do half the batch of chocolate cakes with the toffee chips and half with a little minty surprise inside. I put a Three Musketeers Mint Mini in each one. Wow! Baking the candy made them kind of chewy which made for a delicious little treat. I topped the toffee cakes with "Perfectly Chocolate" Chocolate Frosting recipe from the back of the Hershey's Cocoa Powder box. The minty cakes I topped with some Mint Swiss Meringue Buttercream. I can't wait to see how these sell because I loved them both.

For the cupcakes I used the Chocolate-Chocolate Cupcake recipe from Dorie Greenspan's

Baking: From My Home to Yours: (this is the original recipe, I doubled it to be able to make a pan of mini cupcakes also)

1 cup all purpose flour

1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa pwdr

1/4 tsp. baking powder

1/4 tsp. baking soda

1/4 tsp. salt

1 stick butter, room temperature

3/4 cup sugar

1 large egg

1 large egg yolk

1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract

1/2 cup buttermilk

2 oz bittersweet chocolate, melted & cooled

Preheat oven to 350F.

Whisk together the flour, cocoa, baking pwdr, baking soda, and salt.

Use the paddle attachment on your mixer and beat the butter at med. speed until soft & creamy. Add the sugar and beat for about 2 minutes, until is is bledned into the butter. Add the egg, then the yolk, beating for 1 min after each addition. Beat in vanilla, then reduce mixer speed to low and add half of the dry ingredients, mixing only until they disappear. Add the buttermilk, mixing until incorporated, then mix in the remaining dry ingredients. Add the melted chocolate and mix it in with a rubber spatula. Bake cupcakes for 22-25 minutes.

"Perfectly Chocolate" Chocolate Frosting:

1 stick butter

2/3 cup Hershey's cocoa pwdr

3 cups powdered sugar

1/3 cup milk

1 tsp vanilla

Melt butter. Stir in cocoa. Alternately add powdered sugar and milk, beating on medium speed to spreading consistency. Add more milk if needed. Stir in vanilla.

Mint Swiss Meringue Buttercream:

3 egg whites

1 cup sugar

3/4 cup unsalted butter at room temp

1/2 tsp vanilla flavor

1/4 tsp pepermint flavor (more if you like it strong, do 1/4 tsp. at a time b/c peppermint is sta-rong!)

Put egg whites and sugar in a double boiler over simmering water. Whisking constantly, cook until sugar has dissolved and mixture is warm (easiest way is to get some on your finger and see if you can still feel the sugar granules. Pour heated egg mixture into a clean bowl of a mixer fitted with the whisk attachment. Beat egg white mixture on high speed until it forms stiff (but not dry) peaks. Continue beating until fluffy and cooled, about 6 minutes (It's very important to beat it for the whole 6 minutes). Switch to the paddle attachment. With mixer on medium-low, add butter several tablespoons at a time, beating well after each addition. (If frosting appears soupy or separated after all butter has been added, beat on medium-high speed until smooth again, 3 to 5 minutes more.) Beat in extracts. Reduce speed to low; beat 2 minutes to eliminate air bubbles. Stir with a rubber spatula until smooth.

Tuesdays With Dorie: Dimply Plum Cake

I wasn't feeling the plums while shopping. I regret that. I chose white peaches instead and they were not nearly as soft and juicy as I had hoped. I don't know if that was the choice of peaches or if they weren't completely ripe yet. Chuck thought they weren't ripe enough but since I've never had white peaches, I had no way of knowing. It still turned out well enough, just not fabulous. I prefer fabulous when it comes to baking. I do love how the fruit gives the cake a very moist texture around each piece.

I substituted nutmeg for the cardamon to get a more cobbler taste. That was a good decision and it was a very nice, spicy cake. Next time I'm using yellow peaches. Chuck suggested cherries also. Since I made this at night, we topped it with some vanilla ice cream & caramel sauce. Yummo!

Thanks to Michelle for chosing this week's recipe. It's definitely one to play around with, I may even brave the plums one day.

Tuesdays With Dorie - Chocolate Chunkers

There is no better title for these babies. With only 1/3 cup of flour, they are almost entirely chocolate. The batter is melted chocolate and cocoa powder and there two different types of chocolate chunks throughout the cookie. The recipe called for raisins but when I discussed this with my husband he said "why don't you just put some a** in it too." With all the comments from other bakers of the turd-like appearance of the cookies, he wasn't very far off. We also left out the nuts, mostly because we just weren't in the mood for nuts. So we have chocolate chocolate chocolate chocolate cookies and they are good! It doesn't hurt that I'm a total chocoholic! They are better the 2nd day, after refrigeration. Very rich and chewy. Delish!

This week's recipe was chosen by Claudia. As much as I enjoyed these cookies and the Whopper ones, and the granola ones from several weeks ago (which I did make but did not post for some reason), I am ready to move on to a different type of baked good. I'm looking forward to next week's Dimply Plum Cake.

Coconut Key Lime Cupcakes

These were fantastic! I didn't want to sell them but my Avon deadline is quickly approaching so I've gotta bake bake bake to get that money in! I adapted this recipe from Cupcakes! By the Cupcake Doctor. She uses cake mixes in her recipes and I prefer from scratch so for the cupcake, I used Amy Sedaris' vanilla cupcake recipe:

Amy Sedaris' Vanilla Cupcakes
1 ½ sticks of unsalted butter
1 ¾ cups of sugar
Beat well, then add:
Add 2 large eggs
2 Teaspoons of pure vanilla (I used 1 tsp vanilla and 1 tsp coconut flavoring)
½ teaspoon of salt
2 ½ teaspoons of baking powder
2 ½ cups of flour
1 ¼ cups of milk
I also added in the zest and juice of one lime to the batter, next time I will do two limes for more flavor.
Beat well, fill cups, and bake at 375 degrees for 18-20 minutes. You should get 24. I made 12 regular and 24 mini cupcakes.

For the filling, I mixed one can of sweetened condensed milk with 3/4 cup key lime juice, 2 drops of green and one drop of yellow food coloring. Once the cupcakes were cooled, I used a piping bag to fill each one with the key lime filling.
For the icing, I made coconut swiss meringue buttercream:
4 large egg whites
1 1/4 cups sugar
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temp
2 teaspoons coconut flavor

Put egg whites and sugar into the top of a double boiler over a pan of simmering water. Whisking constantly, cook until sugar has dissolved and mixture is warm (about 160 degrees). Pour heated egg whites into the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment. Beat egg white mixture on high speed until it forms stiff (but not dry) peaks. Continue beating until fluffy and cooled, about 7 minutes. Switch to the paddle attachment. With mixer on medium-low, add butter two tablespoons at a time, beating well after each addition. Increase speed to medium-high; continue beating until frosting appears thick, about 3 minutes. Reduce speed to low; add coconut flavor and continue beating 2 minutes to eliminate air bubbles.

After icing, I topped them with more lime zest! Sublime on a hot day!

Tuesdays with Dorie: Chocolate Whopper Malted Drops

Yes, I'm well aware that it's Friday. I'm off to an inauspicious beginning here with this project. I actually baked these on Sunday but then my camera died and I have a whole series of excuses to go with that but I won't bore you with them.
This week's recipe was Chocolate Whopper Malted Drops or Chocolate cookies loaded with more chocolate and candy! In Dorie's cookbook she describes these cookies as something Willy Wonka would make. I have to agree. They were sweet and gooey and much better on day 2. Fresh out of the oven, they were a little cakey.

I had some toffee chips left over from a batch of cupcakes so I did half of the batter with the Whopper candy and half with the Heath Bar chips. I have to say, the toffee chips faired better. When baking chopped up Whoppers, the candy melts and then becomes very chewy and a bit tough.

Also, we had some Breyer's Heath Bar ice cream and intended to make some delectable sundaes with the cookies but they didn't last that long. It wasn't my favorite cookie recipe but you'd never know it by how fast they were gone!

Thanks to Rachel who chose this week's challenge. The recipe is posted on her blog here.

Everyone loves S'mores!

As I showed below, I am now getting special requests for my cupcakes and that is the biggest boost to my ego! I won't lie.
Luckily I had a half day at the office yesterday so I had time to whip up the two different types of cake requested. Even so, I was still up until 10pm baking but I did take a break to fix some bad ass hamburgers for dinner. I even skipped Project Runway to get this stuff done so I hope they're appreciative! (don't tell them I have a DVR and can watch it today)

Look at that lovely. It tastes as good as it looks too. One day I will find a light and fluffy marshmallow icing recipe but this is the 2nd one I've tried and it turned out the same as the first - a bit runny and VERY sticky.

For the Cupcake:
I had some sweet German Chocolate in the pantry and just used the recipe for Sweet Chocolate Cake inside the box. You want to talk about light and fluffy, this cake batter is it! I could eat it out of a bowl it is so delicious!

1 pkg Baker's German's Sweet Chocolate
1/2 cup water
2 cups flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
1 cup (2 sticks) butter or margarine (I always use real butter)
2 cups sugar
4 eggs separated
1 tsp. vanilla
1 cup buttermilk (if you don't have buttermilk, put 1 Tbl. white vinegar in the milk and let sit for about 5 min. I had to do that and it turned out just fine!)

Preheat oven to 350F. Microwave chocolate and water in microwavable bowl on High for 1-2 min. or until chocolate is almost melted, stirring after each minute. Stir until chocolate is completely melted.

Mix flour, baking soda, and salt; set aside. (I sifted mine b/c I get great satisfaction from sifting ingredients into a nice, neat pile.) Beat butter and sugar in large bowl with electri cmixer on medium speed until light and fluffy. Add egg yolks, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Stir in chocolate mixtures and vanilla. Add flour mixture alternately with buttermilk, beating until well belnded after each addition.

Beat egg whites in a separate bowl with electrix mixer on high speed until stiff peaks form. Gently sir into batter.

Pour into cucpakes pans (an ice cream scoop works perfectly) and bake for 20 min. (Note: b/c these were S'more cupcakes, I put a bit of crushed graham cracker crumbs in the bottom of each cupacke liner)

For the icing, I used Paula Deen's Marshmallow Icing recipe:

2 egg whites
1 1/2 cup sugar
5 Tbl. cold water
2 Tbl. light corn syrup
1 cup mini marshmallows

Cook egg whites, sugar, water, and corn syrup over a double boiler and beat for 5 minutes. (this too me WAY longer than 5 min - close to 10). Stir in marshmallows until melted.

I then beat the crap out of that icing with my hand mixer for another 10 minutes to cool it down and try to stiffen it up. Of course with only 2 egg whites in it, there wasn't much stiffening to be done.

I will never work with marshmallow icing in a piping bag again. It is a sticky mess and no matter how tightly I held that bag, it was more than determined to sneak up and out and all over my hand. I used the filling tip and filled the cup cakes with the marshmallow mixture and then filled in the top of the cupcake. It helped that mine were a litte undercooked and therefore sunka bit in the middle creating the perfect marshmallow bowl! I then sprinkled some graham cracker crumbs on top and added a square of Hershey's chocolate and Viola! S'more cupcakes!

Happy Birthday Couture Girl!

To the Kitchen and pronto!

So last week I was in a CPR training class for three days and at the end of each day had to pick up my girls and do all the motherly duties of course and was in no mood for baking cupcakes. Little did I know that my public demands them! Today I received this e-mail:

Hi. I have a special cupcake request. First I was wondering if you could make cupcakes for the shop. I am getting lots of requests for them especially the strawberry and the caramel. I do have one very special request for this Thursday. There is a young lady that works at Winnie Couture up the street from the shop and she lovvvvess your cupcakes especially the strawberry. Her birthday is coming up and her staff has asked if I could order some for her. Would you be able to make the following and deliver this Thursday?:
3 strawberry (along with a batch for the shop if you could)
3 s’mores

Oh Lordy. She hasn't replied back yet but I really hope she means 3 cupcakes and not 3 dozen or else I'm in trouble! LOL

So I need to thank Cassie of How To Eat A Cupcake once again for introducing me to the most popular cupcakes I have made so far. They are selling like mad and in doing so making lots of money for my Avon Walk for Breast Cancer! So HOORAY for caramel!!

Stay tuned for my next post on the S'more cupcakes! The only good thing about my CPR class is that it gave me some comp time so I'm off of work early tomorrow to bake bake bake!

The best cupcake you will ever eat!

This is my absolute favorite cupcake ever! And that is saying a lot coming from a complete chocoholic since this cake has zero chocolate in it. I must use what little creativity I have to alter this recipe for other flavors because it is perfectly moist and spongy. What I'm talking about is the Caramel Cupcake and Thank You Cassie for introducing us to it! (I hope you clicked on that link because her site is totally adorable!) The only change I made was not making them salted.
Folks, let me tell you, Swiss Meringue Buttercream is a very intimidating icing. I recognize that. But it is worth every ounce of work that goes into it. And once you get into the habit of making it often, it's really easy. Everyone who has tried these has told me that it is the best icing they have ever tasted!

For those of you who are all, we don't need no stinking links, here is the recipe which I stole borrowed from Cassie who got it from one of her cookbooks in her ever growing collection of which I am a teensy bit jealous.

CARAMEL CUPCAKES

MAKES 12 CUPCAKES (I actually got 12 cupcakes and 16 mini cupcakes out of this)

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

3/4 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

1 cup firmly packed dark brown sugar

1/2 cup granulated sugar

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

2 large eggs, at room temperature

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 cup whole milk

CARAMEL SWIRL BUTTERCREAM

MAKES ABOUT 2 CUPS

Caramel Drizzle

1 1/2 cups sugar

1 1/4 cups heavy cream

Pinch salt

Buttercream

3 large egg whites, at room temperature

3/4 cup sugar

Pinch salt

1 cup unsalted butter, cut into 16 pieces, at room temperature (I only used 1 1/2 sticks butter)

For the cupcakes:Position a rack in the middle of the oven and preheat to 350°F. Line a standard 12-cup muffin pan with paper or foil liners. In a bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt. In another bowl, using an electric mixer on medium-high speed, beat the sugars and butter together until light and fluffy, 2-3 minutes. Add the eggs and vanilla and beat until combined. Add flour mixture in 3 additions, alternating with the milk in 2 additions, beating on low speed until just combined; scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed. Divide the batter evenly among the prepared muffin cups, filling each about two-thirds full. Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center of a cupcake comes out clean, 20-22 minutes. Let the cupcakes cool in the pan on a wire rack for 5 minutes. Transfer the cupcakes to the wire rack and let cool completely, about 1 hour.

For the frosting:In a heavy-bottomed, high-sided saucepan, cook the sugar over medium-high heat until it begins to melt around the edges, about 5 minutes. Stirring with a clean wooden spoon, continue to cook until the sugar is melted and has turned golden amber, about 3 minutes longer. Carefully pour the cream down the side of the pan in a slow, steady stream (it will bubble and spatter), stirring constantly until completely smooth. Stir in the salt. Pour the caramel into a small heatproof bowl and let cool completely before using. (The caramel can be stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 1 week; bring to room temperature before using.) In a large, clean heatproof bowl, combine the egg whites and sugar. Set the bowl over (but not touching) simmering water in a saucepan and heat the mixture, whisking constantly, until the sugar has completely dissolved and the mixture is very warm to the touch (about 160°F on an instant-read thermometer), about 2 minutes (It always takes about 5 minutes for me). Remove the bowl from the saucepan. Using an electric mixer on high speed, beat the egg white mixture until it is fluffy, cooled to room temperature, and holds stiff peaks (the mixture should not look dry), about 6 minutes. With the mixer on medium-low speed, add the salt and the butter, a few pieces at a time, beating well after each addition. If the frosting appears to separate or is very liquid after all the butter is added, continue to beat on high speed until it is smooth and creamy, 3-5 minutes more. Add the caramel drizzle (I only added about 1/2 cup) and beat until combined (or almost combined for a swirling effect), scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed. Frost the cupcakes with the buttercream. (The frosted cupcakes can be refrigerated in an airtight container for up to 3 days - if they last that long; bring to room temperature before finishing.) Top each cupcake with a caramel candy, sprinkle with a pinch of sea salt (which I omitted), and serve. I topped each cupcake with leftover caramel that I put into a plastic sandwich bag and snipped a very small corner off to "pipe" the caramel in pretty spirals. So good!

Brownie Buttons, getting ready for Dorie

Yesterday I signed up for Tuesdays With Dorie, a blog roll of bakers working their way through Dorie Greenspan's book, Baking: From My Home to Yours. All the recipes in this book look amazing and since I didn't really know where to start, I decided to let my fellow bloggers guide me and see what I could come up with. But since I joined on a Tuesday I have to wait until next week to do the first challenge. So for practice I chose my own goody to start with. It seemed only natural to crave brownies while watching completely svelt swimmers and divers performing for the world so that's what I decided to make. After perusing several of Dorie's brownie recipes I found one that I had all the ingredients for and only took 15 minutes to bake.

Brownie Buttons:

Grated zest of 1/2 orange (optional, I opted out)

1 tsp sugar (optional, again, not me)

1/4 cup plus 2 tbl all-purpose flour

pinch of salt

1/2 stick (4 tbl) unsalted butter, cut into 4 pieces

2 1/2 oz. bittersweet chocolate, coarsely chopped (I used semi-sweet, same difference, right?)

1/3 cup light brown sugar (I used brown sugar Splenda)

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1 large egg

For the glaze:

2 oz. white chocolate

Preheat oven to 350. If you're using orange zest, combine the zest and sugar in a small bowl, rubbing them between your fingertips to blend; set aside. Whisk together the flour & salt.

Melt butter, chocolate, and brown sugar in a meduim heavy-bottomed saucepan over very low hear, stirring frequently with a heatproof spatula and keeping an eye on the pan so nothing overheats or burns. When the mixture is smooth, remove from heat and cool for a minute or two.

Sir the vanilla, egg, and the zest, if you're using it, into the chocolate mixture. When the mixture is well blended, add the flour and stir only until it is incorporated. You should have asmooth, glossy batter.

Spoon the batter into 16 buttered mini muffin cups, using about a teaspoon of batter to fill each cup three-quarters full. Put 1 tsp of water in each empty cup.

Bake for 14-16 minutes or until the tops fo th button spring back when touched. Cool for 3 minutes and then transfer out of the pan to a wire rack to cool fully.

OptionalGlaze (these were awesome w/out it by the way, I have no patience for glaze)

Melt chocolate in a small heatproof bowl over a saucepan of water. Stir constantly adn don't leave chocolate unatended as white chocolate scorches very easily.

One by one, dip the tops of the buttons into the chocolate, twirling the buttons so that you get a little swirl at the centrer of each one and excess choc. drips backintot eh bowl. Refridgerate for 15 minutes to set teh glaze (ha!) I must note that it is important to let the brownies cool completely before dipping in the glaze. My impatience led to big pieces of brownie tops getting stuck in the glaze but that just meant that I needed to take a big spoonful out and eat it so I was ok with that.

Since my hubby is not so much a white chocolate fan as a peanut butter & chocolate fan, I melted 1/4 cup peanut butter chips and 1/8 cup chocolate chips together in the microwave and glazed them with that. They were awesome, perfect little brownie bites. Very moist with a rich chocolate flavor. Chuck loved them too. I made 18 last night and there are only 4 left this morning.