Brewed Chocolate - my review Part 1

One of my must read cupcakes blogs is Cupcake Project. Stef has perhaps the most unique cupcakes I've seen such as BBQ Cupcakes w/ Corn Cream Cheese icing. She's kind of my cupcake hero. Very recently, she has started a new site where she interviews food business owners, creators, chefs, bakers, etc. This is where I discovered Brewed Chocolate. What a concept! There's a whole new way to ingest the most perfect food! And as luck would have it, I won a jar of my very own. Thanks again Stef!!

Ok, so in this Part 1 review, I made the brewed chocolate as directed - add 1 tsp chocolate to 4 oz. hot water. If you can imagine what chocolate tea would taste like, this is it. It's a very light flavor, not your typical chocolate richness, but in the middle of summer, it's perfect. It was very similar to tea that hadn't been steeped long enough, like it need something a bit more. So perhaps next time I will add an extra 1/2 tsp. of the syrup. Then I got to thinking, well I love cream in my tea so maybe this would be better and more flavorful with some cream or milk. So stayed tuned for Part 2 for that result. Once I've gotten a feel for the taste of it, it's on to putting it into my cupcakes!

The way to a man's heart (finally a new post!)

It's been over a month. I've been baking. Lord knows, I've been baking. Just so tired from the baking, parenting, working, beaching, and blogging that I've neglected my poor baking site. So to the 2 people who actualy read this, I apologize.



So a couple of weeks ago I made chocolate cupcakes with Reese's peanut butter cream cheese icing. It was very nostalgic to make something with Reese's because I contribute my husband's proposal to said brand. Well, it played a big part anyway. He was in school in Texas and I sent him a package for Halloween including a big bag of miniture Reese's Peanut Butter Cups. We were actually broken up at the time but "still friends" whatever that meant. He told me when he opened that package, he knew he was loved. One month later, he came home for Thanksgiving, told me he loved me, and the very next day, asked me to marry him. Talk about getting back together! So these cupcakes are dedicated to Chuck, the best thing that's ever happened to me.

I got the recipe for the cupcakes from Couture Cupcakes. She totes it as the "Best Chocolate Cupcake Recipe" I beg to differ. It was a little dry for my taste. The chocolate taste was divine but I'm a big fan of the moist cake. The first step is to melt unsweetened chocolate and cocoa powder in a bowl with some boiling water. This makes the most tempting bowl of chocolate which I kept forgetting was unsweetened so everytime I went to lick some off my fingers, I had to run for my Diet Coke.

For the icing, I just melted one cup of Reese's Peanut Butter Chips and added it to a basic cream cheese recipe which is as follows:
8oz. cream cheese (room temp)
4oz. unsalted butter (room temp)
Beat these two together until smooth. Then add powdered sugar, one cup at a time until you reach the desired sweetness, beating after each cup. Then I mixed in the peanut butter chips and got a beautiful, creamy peanut butter icing. I topped it all off with some mini chocolate chips just for fun! The leftovers went to work with Chuck and I heard they did not last very long.

Triple threat

Whew! I stressed myself out a bit last night. It's Get Coffee's Grand Opening this weekend and I am going camping! So when she asked for three different kinds of cupcakes for her big day, I was under the gun to get them knocked out before I leave this afternoon. On Wednesday, I made orange cupcakes using Amy Sedaris' vanilla cupcake recipe but substituting one teaspoon of orange extract for vanilla and adding a package of vanilla pudding and a drained can of mandarine oranges. It was late at night when I made them so my only reviewers were myself and I think they are amazing and Chuck who said "I don't like Dreamcicles but if I did, I would like these because they taste just like them." So basically, mission accomplished! Put those bad boys in the freezer to stay fresh for Ms. Durenda.

Last night we met up with my wonderful MIL who was in town from Texas and had a bunch of stuff to lend us for our camping trip! So we didn't get home until 9pm and I still had two types of cupcakes left to bake! I made the lemon cupcakes since I still had some Swiss Meringue icing left from the last batch and then whipped up some chocolate malted cupcakes, again using Amy's vanilla recipe but adding a package of chocolate pudding and a cup of sour cream just for fun!

While those baked, I did a batch of Swiss Meringe Buttercream and split it in half. It was kind of goopy - I don't think I whipped the eggs & sugar long enough or my butter was too soft or a combination of bost. But it was tolerable and it was too late at night to try again. To one half I added vanilla extract and to the other half, some vanilla and some orange extract and food coloring. Then I realized I had only small pastry bags left so struggled to keep the two separated to make some cool Dreamcicle-like icing on top. I didn't do too badly really and after some time in the fridge, they set nicely.

Got up way early this morning to make my chocolate malted buttercream and iced the chocolate and the lemon cupcakes before getting the girls up and ready for the day. WHEW! I am exhausted and we're supposed to leave for the campsite at 5:00 today! Did I mention that we haven't packed yet? Pray for me.

Worth it! Lemon Meringue cupcakes

Swiss Meringue Buttercream (SMBC) is the scariest frosting I have ever made in my life. I had nightmares about it all last night knowing I had to get up early to make it this morning. It's the only icing recipe I've seen that comes w/ a warning that says "it will look like crap, but it'll come together eventually. You ARE doing it right." Really? Am I? Because I'm not sure. I watched two videos on the subject before tackling it just to be 100% certain I could handle it. Let me tell you, it was worth every ounce of stress. It is delicious and light, perfect on a hot summer day.

About a month ago I bought several Frey chocolate bars at my local Super Target. In that bunch was a bar called White Lemon & Lime.

I've been dying to make a lemon lime cupcake but my DH is not a fan of the citrus flavored desserts. So now that I have this Get Coffee gig, I can make whatever I want and he won't get upset b/c he's not eating them anyway. So there.


It's hot as hell outside so I wanted a light and fluffy cake and icing. I decided to try the SMBC even though I was scared. I went to myfavorite cupcake site for inspiration, guidance, and most importantly, the recipe. She did not let me down and I managed to make a perfect bowl of Lemon & Lime SMBC! I followed the recipe for Chocolate SMBC, used my White Lemon & Lime bar instead of chocolate, and left out the vanilla.

For my light lemon cake, I used this fabulous recipe. It only made a dozen cupcakes and the icing recipe makes a lot of icing so you'll definitely want to double this:

1 cup flour
3/4 cup sugar
4 Tbl butter
2 eggs
3/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
6 Tbl buttermilk
1/4 cup lemon juice

Beat butter & sugar until well blended. Beat in eggs one at a time. Alternately stir in dry ingredients (I sifted them all together first) with the milk. Mix until combined. Stir in lemon juice. Bake at 350 for 15-18 min.
Viola!

My labor of love

Emphasis on labor. I've been baking like a mad woman and I'm sorry to say, don't have a lot of photographs to show for it b/c I get them out the door just about as soon as I'm done. Today's photos were taken in my car on the way to Get Coffee. Yep, that's how good a time manager I am!


The Taste of Chamblee was awesome! We had thousands of people there and I heard nothing but rave reviews of the event. I never had time to check but I was told that my cupcakes were a hit. I decided on 2 kinds of mini cakes for samples - Banana Muffins w/ Cinnamon Cream Cheese frosting and Bailey's cupcakes with Mint Chocolate Buttercream frosting. Earlier this week I made some Strawberry & Cream cupcakes w/ Vanilla Cream Cheese frosting.


Yesterday I made these babies:

A reprise of the Chocolate Malted Cupcakes. I modified the icing a bit from the original recipe and it came out much tastier I think. Recipe is as follows:

Chocolate Malted Cupcakes:

1 stick butter
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 cups flour
2 tsp vanilla
2 tsp baking soda
1/3 tsp salt
1 1/4 cups milk
1 3oz package instant chocolate pudding

Blend butter until smooth, add sugar and mix well. Add all other ingredients and mix until smooth (it helps to sift the flour & pudding mix together, otherwise the pudding forms lumps.) I've found the best way to fill the cupcake pans is w/ an icecream scoop - the kind w/ the flip handle to push out the batter. It's awesome! (thank you http://howtoeatacupcake.blogspot.com/)

For the icing - blend one stick of room temperatur butter with 3 1/2 cups of confectioner's sugar, 1/2 tsp vanilla, 5 Tbl malted milk powder and I added 2 Tbl cocoa powder to cut back on the sweetness. Mix well and ice your cakes!

If you want to sample any of my delicious cupcakes, remember you can find them at Get Coffee on 5336 Peachtree Rd. in Chamblee!

Hooked on Cupcakes worked for me!

Today I am officially a commercial baker! I make an innocent comment about how I put my leftover cinnamon cream cheese icing on cinnamon rolls and bam! I'm selling cupcakes at the new local coffee joint! Get Coffee will now feature cupcakes by Lovely Baker! And until October (much to the dismay of my husband), I am donating the money made from my mad baking skillz to my Avon Walk.
If you're in the Chamblee area this weekend, stop by our Taste of Chamblee event to sample my goodies at the Get Coffee tent! I will be featuring the very cinnamon cream cheese icing that got me into all this topping the famous Campbell banana bread recipe! This is a very secret recipe and will not be featured on this or any other blog. I was only able to procure it from my mom a couple years ago when I stole it out of her recipe box and copied it into a notebook! Can't make it to the Taste? Well stop by Get Coffee and get cupcakes!German Chocolate Cupcakes (recipe to follow)

Red, White, and Blueberry

Today is my daughter's very first swim meet! They have a theme for each meet and today it is Red, White, and Blue. I'm playing the role of the supportive parent and baked mini cupcakes to sell at the concession stand. Well, the cheese side of me just HAD to go with the theme so I made RED velvet cupcakes with WHITE chocolate BLUEberry cream cheese icing. I topped each one with a fresh blueberry and let me tell you, that little blueberry bursts in your mouth at precisely the right moment!

I used Paula Deen's Red Velvet Cake recipe and I have to say it's pretty darn tasty.

And look how pretty they are!

I used 3 bars of Frey Supreme White Blueberry candy found at Target for the icing. Here's the recipe.

Melt White Chocolate in the microwave.
Whip 8oz cream cheese with 4 tablespoons of butter. Blend in chocolate. Stir in 3 - 3 1/2 cups of powdered sugar and then wisk until you reach a good icing texture.

Easy peasy lemon squeezy!