Winnie's Bakes

Patriots Cake

2012-02-05T11:19:00.000-08:00

In honor of that really big football game that happens every year (Superbowl?), I've decided to make a cake! It's my first bake of 2012 and one of my first bakes for the blog in a really long time... so, it's nice to be back! To start off, I'm baking two nine inch rounds (you can use whatever size depending on how big you want the cake), with a cake mix from Make it Sweet (formerly: All in One Bake Shop). They've make a cake mix that is super easy to work with and is dense enough to make shapes.

Then, I grabbed a picture online of the Patriot's logo, stretched it out on a document, and printed. I'm going to use it as a stencil for the cake because it's a pretty simple design. The cake I'm making in tiny (because I just can't afford to pack on the pounds people! I've got a wedding this year!). BUT if you're dying for a super mega large cake, you can print the image from your home printer in sections using programs like PosteRazor - and make a mega stencil... much like I did for X's grooms cake.

After leveling the cakes, slapping some icing in between, the cutting the cake into the shape of a Patriot's man logo thingie, icing the entire cake, I put in the freezer to set (maybe 1 hour? This is NOT a science, just check back every once in a while to see if it's frozen). This is going to make it easier to have a smooth finish on the fondant (you'll see this later).

Right before you take your cake out of the freezer, roll out enough fondant about 1/4" thick, so you can cover the entire cake. Take the cake out of the freezer. Smooth over the "sharp" edges with your hand, and slap another layer of buttercream, and then put the fondant on top of that (trim and smooth it out).

I'm literally going to paint on the Patriot's logo with food coloring and some fondant fairy dust. I have to mix either lemon juice or vodka with the fondant fairy dust, but not for the food coloring. I just just the food coloring like paint. Remember that stencil you made earlier? Now's the time to use it. I personally like to work on the outermost part of the stencil and work my way into the image.... just pick the one that makes you feel most comfortable.

Voila!

No more hibernating...

2012-01-25T20:15:00.000-08:00

So, due to recent circumstances, I am now able to come back to baking and create some fantastical culinary masterpieces! (OR royally fail) BUT, nonetheless, my first comeback will be to make a Superbowl cake. I don't even watch football, but I thought it would be fun to do. This weekend. So, little childrens, bite your fingernails and sit in anticipation as the next blogpost will be my return to baking. *tear*

Nutella! Puff Pastries

2011-08-28T08:23:00.000-07:00

While browsing the internet the other day I found this awesome recipe for Nutella & marshmallow puff pastries. So, I had to try it.

The end result!

First, you need the ingredients:

1. Small marshmallows

2. Nutella

3. Puff Pastry (this can be found in the frozen section... apparently on the bottom shelf *grrr*)
4. 1 egg
5. Water

The ingredients.

Cut each sheet of puff pastry into four squares (cutting off any extra dry parts) and spread a nice serving (2 tablespoons) of Nutella and about 10-12 marshmallows (I accidentally only put 6 in each, but it turned out just fine!)...

Fold the pastry over and seal the sides by smooshing it with a fork whose prongs have been dipped in water (and I forgot to use the water to do this... pastries are sticky). Brush the pastries with an egg wash (1 egg+ some water). Stick it in the oven at 350 F for about 20-25 minutes (golden).

In the oven!

All done.

Fill up a glass of milk and enjoy! You really can't go wrong with Nutella... it pretty much always tastes good.

The French Flag

2011-08-21T11:12:00.000-07:00

My friend Beth had a bridal luncheon recently, and I had the honor of making the cake! She's going to be living in France for a while, so we all thought it would be fun to incorporate something French-ish. So, I thought, it would be really fun to make each slice look like a French flag! (Believe me I was happy she wasn't living somewhere like South Korea... where the flag would be a lot harder to put in a cake cross-section.)

What you need:
1. Three boxes of white cake mix
2. Three circle stencils for a 9" round (like in the checkered cake blog)
3. Red and blue coloring
4. White frosting, sprinkles, and gum drops for decoration

First, bake six 9" cake rounds: 2 blue, 2 red, and 2 white. Then, let them cool off.


Using the circle stencils cut all 6 cake rounds, and put the colors in the order of the French flag (blue on the inside, white in the middle, and red for the outside circle).


This is what it will look like when the circles are all put together. (You can use the extra cake for cake balls, cake shakes, or another really colorful layered cake!)

Wrap very well and freeze.

Quick tip: To keep the cake circles from falling apart when they are cut into slices, spray the separate pieces on the sides that will touch cake with sugar water before putting the pieces together and freezing.

I wanted to have a cute and simple cake decoration, so, I decided to put gumdrop roses on top. First, you have to get gumdrops (I used the white ones).


Sprinkle sugar on your rolling surface, then use a rolling pin to flatten the gumdrop.


Cut off the rugged edges (if you desire).


Then roll (and shape some) them into little roses. Set aside for when you're ready to decorate the cake.


If you use the store bought frosting, you're gonna want to freeze that cake when you're done, just to set it. It's probably better to use home-made buttercream or stock frosting from your local bake shop.

Two Birthdays and a Father's Day

2011-06-20T20:39:00.000-07:00

For my mom and brother's birthday, and father's day,I wanted to make a cake, but I wanted it to be super awesome. The first thing that came to mind was a vertical stripes cake (because horizontal is borinnnggg...). I was searching online for the best way to do it, and I remembered that my brother's girlfriend knew about this awesome blog called: i am baker. You must check her out because she makes some of the most awesome cakes ever.

SO, in one of her blogs she made a vertical stripe cake, which I thought was totally awesome, but I would have had to make four 9" cake rounds, and I don't want to do that. Instead, I baked one chocolate round and one white cake round (using handy-dandy cake mix from my fave: All In One Bake Shop). The cake mix I used produces a heavier cake - something easier to manipulate than heavenly fluffy boxed cakes. mmmMMMmmm.

1. Bake cake. They must be different colors for this to work (chocolate and white cake, for example).


Black and yellow (black and yellow, black and yellow, black and yellow).

2. Level those cakes!

3. Use your handy dandy stencils to cut out circles, and then switch out every other layer:


Handy dandy stencils (the pink circles) and my highly scientific way of measuring them out.


Cake circles cut out (with a knife...). Then switch out every other layer.

4. Stack the two cakes, lovingly wrap up in plastic wrap and place in the freezer. NOTE: if you want the layers to stick together you must lightly mist the cake layers with some sugar water and then freeze. That way they will freeze together, and when they thaw out together, they will stick together (isn't that sweet?). Your cake will not be soggy, it will be moist and soft. Generally, if you freeze a cake right after baking it (like, for a day), it will be softer after you unfreeze it (this is good!).

5. Cover in frosting and decorate to your heart's content.

6. Then cut it open and bask in the glory. (*sound of angels*) Phew. I'm really glad it worked!

Grown Up Mac & Cheese

2011-06-06T21:39:00.000-07:00

There a few foods that fall into my "Favorite" category.

1. Pizza
2. Pizza
3. Mac & Cheese

I know... I'm really sophisticated. I've had some really good pizza and some really bad pizza (some of which was not made by me). I've had some really awesome mac & cheese and some not so awesome mac & cheese. I feel like I'm rambling. What I'm really trying to say is that most of the mac & cheese I've eaten has been the product of a strange orange powder and thin elbow pasta... the kind that cook within a few minutes. I graduated to wheat mac & cheese and thought this was an upgrade... another step closer to adulthood. Well. Tonight. I'm an adult. *eek* I've made a grown up version of mac & cheese - thanks to Alton Brown!

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/baked-macaroni-and-cheese-recipe/index.html

I chose his recipe because it was the first recipe to show up on my google search when I searched mac & cheese. It's pretty good. I'm just happy that it came out of the oven tasting like mac & cheese. I'm also happy that I have dinner and lunch for the remainder of the week planned out. yum.

First, go to the grocery store and by all these dang ingredients (it's what responsible adults do, geeze).

1/2 pound elbow macaroni
3 tablespoons butter (I used salted)
1 tablespoon powdered mustard
3 cups milk (I used 2%)
1/2 cup yellow onion, finely diced (I bought the smallest one)
1 bay leaf
1/2 teaspoon paprika
1 large egg (I'm pretty sure my egg was medium sized)
12 ounces sharp cheddar, shredded
1 teaspoon kosher salt (Uhm, how about table salt? I think this actually could have made a difference... please just use kosher salt.)
Fresh Black pepper (seems like the pre-made stuff will do!)

1. Boil ze pasta, until al dente:

2. Melt butter in saucepan, add flour and mustard powder until there are no lumps... for about 5 min.

3. Add the milk, paprika, bay leaf, onion - let simmer for 10 minutes.

4. Temper the egg by slowly adding small amounts of the hot concoction in #3 until it's warmed up enough to be totally added into the above mixture without curdling and making your mac & cheese, scrambled eggs. (Yay! Now we all know what tempering is.)

5. Mix in about 3/4's of the cheddar cheese then add the macaroni to it:

6. Put into a casserole dish and bake at 350F for 30 minutes... and put breadcrumbs on top of it if you really want to. Alton Brown suggested that I saute some panko with butter then put it on top of the mac & cheese to bake... but that was too much work and I didn't find any panko crumbs at the grocery store... So, instead I just sprinkled breadcrumbs on top of this.

7. I get a coronary just looking at it. Yum! Good news: I still feel like a kid.

Orange and Chocolate Cookies

2011-05-30T19:00:00.000-07:00

Stunning low quality photo of said cookies. (I promise to try and focus next time.)

Now, this isn't completely my recipe, it's really Martha Stewart's - but to be honest, I made her recipe ridiculously awesome. (Er, thanks Martha!)

This recipe also calls for a cookie press (thanks Martha!) - which is basically a handheld device that looks like a caulking gun, except you fill it with cookie goodness.

3.5 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
3 sticks unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup sugar
2 large egg yolks
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
The magic ingredient: zest of one orange (*heavens open*)
Lots of chocolate (the higher the cocoa butter content the happier you will be eating the cookie... I also recommend milk chocolate)

1. Wisk flour, salt, and cinnamon
2. Beat butter and sugar til fluffy
3. Add yolks one at a time, mixing thoroughly, then doing the same with vanilla
4. Somewhere between 2 and 4 put the orange zest in
5. Stamp out some cookies
6. 350F until the edges *just* brown
7. Let cool
8. Melt chocolate in a double broiler til liquid-y and cover in chocolate any way you want (I just dolloped some on there)
9. Freeze to get the chocolate solid again
10. Yum. Nom.

Groom's Cake: All 23 Flavors

2011-05-10T09:49:00.000-07:00

My friend Xavier loves Dr. Pepper. He also loves the Baltimore Ravens. He recently got married (he also loves Michelle) - so the logical groom's cake is of course a Dr. Pepper cake in the shape of a Baltimore Ravens logo. Viola!

I was much less ambitious than I normally am - opting for pre-made fondant and a simple recipie that I found online.

Cake:
German Chocolate Cake mix (any will do)
Vanilla instant pudding, small box (if my memory serves me right 3.4 oz)
2/3 C. vegetable oil
4 eggs
12 oz. Dr. Pepper
1 t. vanilla

I cooked this at 325F (in advance) - to keep it from making a dome shape. Froze all six 9"x13" layers in the freezer until needed. (Every time I went to the freezer to grab some ice cream, these layers were a constant reminder of me making a grooms cake - something I had never done until now! eek!)

Frosting:
8oz. cream cheese
1 lb. powdered sugar
1/4 cup cocoa
1 stick butter
1 t. vanilla

I whipped these all together in my handy dandy mixer (can't imagine doing this by hand) - it makes it super fluffy.

Using homemade stencils, paintbrushes, vodka (for painting - not palliation), powdered food coloring, and gel food coloring, and 20 hours of work later, you have the above picture.

The bride and groom were happy - that's all I really wanted in the first place. Congrats again you two!

Pepermint Candy Canes!

2010-12-23T09:54:00.000-08:00

I looove Christmas time! You'll might have noticed my absence on here lately - probably because I was decking the halls or something else extremely festive! Nonetheless, I have been baking and here is the proof!

What you'll need:

1/3 c. soft butter
1/2 c. sugar
1 & 1/4 c all purpose flour
1/4 tea. salt
Almond bark
1/4 c. shortening
1 egg
1/4 tea. baking powder
1 tea. peppermint or mint extract

1. Beat butter, shortening, and sugar 'til fluffy. Beat in the egg.
2. Stir in the flour, baking powder, salt, and extract until mixed.
3. Pipe cookie dough into the shape of a cane...or use a cookie press. I used a plastic bag with a corner cut off to pipe the dough, and that was not fun! I highly recommend a cookie press!!!

4. Bake at 375F for 5-7 minutes
5. Allow to completely cool

6. Melt bark in a sandwich bag, cut off a very small corner and pipe stripes on the canes.
* For a super festive look add red food coloring to the cookie dough! *

Quince Cake: Mission Completed

2010-11-21T18:04:00.000-08:00

First defrost all the layers (that were sitting in a freezer for a good week and a half).

Cover the layers in frosting to prepare for fondant-ing.

Cover in fondant and trim.

Do the same to the remaining top two layers.

Smooth out the fondant as best as possible - this part was pretty hard. I knew my decorations would cover up a lot of the imperfections, though, so I didn't stress out... too much.

Stacking the layers was pretty easy. Each layer was on it's own round piece of cardboard. In between each cardboard layer there were wooden dowel rods supporting the layers above. To make sure all the layers didn't just slide off each other, I just used one long dowel rod right down the center (sharpened on one end - to get through each cardboard layer... along with a hammer).

The layers are all secured together. Time to decorate!

Put the cake topper on - and added some brown ribbons around the edge of the circles.

Preparing leaves - hand painted... all 50 of them...

more leaves :)

Applying the leaves to the cake: they stick really well with just a little bit of water. I ended up painting the edges of the leaves to make it look prettier. I just put the leaves in places where there were imperfections. If I accidentally got some of the food coloring on the white parts, I would just wipe it off with a damp paper towel/clean wet paintbrush.

The finished product! 1 hour before showtime. Phew! *beads of sweat roll off my forehead*

Quince Prep

2010-11-10T14:21:00.000-08:00

Here's an update!

This is what 1 hour of fondant making looks like:

It feels like a really kick-butt workout, though. Don't try making fondant if you're already really tired. Also, turns out that if you challenge your electric mixer to knead this super tough fondant dough for long periods of time - the bowl WILL get stuck in the holder:

But no worries, even though I wasn't able to jiggle it out, some WD-40 and my boyfriends biceps were able to shimmy the bowl from the stronghold of the kitchen aid.

I also needed to work on the cake topper for this quince cake! It wouldn't be proper if there wasn't a big ol' "15" on top. So, I knew that I wanted it to be brown, and initially I was going to make it out of sparkles and silly glue. BUT. Then I really had this desire to make it out of chocolate. I have no idea how to work with chocolate, but it can't be that hard.... right?! Just melt it and mold it.

I went to the cake shop to try and find a mold for the number "15". They had really tiny ones (about 2-3" tall) and they were kind of ugly. So, I ended up just buying some lollipop sticks. I decided that I was going to free-hand this "15" even if it killed me.

First:
Set up a double broiler. You don't want to burn the chocolate and this is a good way to prevent that from happening.

Second:

Melt some milk chocolate! I used Hershey's milk chocolate chips.

Third:

Put milk chocolate in a bag you can do some piping in. I totally ran out of frosting bags, so I decided to use a plastic sandwich bag. The chocolate was still pretty hot at first, so I let it cool down - made it easier to work with as well.

Fourth:

Cut the corner of the bag off (about 1/4 inch) and start drawing a "15" on top of two lollipop stick (one stick for each number). Then stick it in the freezer to harden!!!

Fifth:

Flip numbers over when hardened and put chocolate on that side to cover up the stick and make it look preeeettay. Then stick in the freezer!

Voila! Two numbers ready to be stuck on top of the cake!

Gingerbread Men!

2010-11-08T10:21:00.000-08:00

I've been craving some gingerbread man cookies for about a week - so it's about time to make some.

So, I decided to make "The Most Wonderful Gingerbread Cookies."

Check it out:
http://www.food.com/recipe/the-most-wonderful-gingerbread-cookies-80156

3 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon ground ginger
1 3/4 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
6 tablespoons unsalted butter
3/4 cup dark brown sugar - I used light brown sugar
1 large egg
1/2 cup molasses
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest (optional) - I didn't use this.

1. Whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, ginger, cinnamon, and cloves until well blended.
2. Beat butter, brown sugar, and egg on medium speed until well blended.
3. Add molasses, vanilla, and continue to mix until well blended.
4. Gradually stir in dry ingredients until blended and smooth.
5. Divide dough in half and wrap each half in plastic and let stand at room temperature for at least 2 hours or up to 8 hours. I let it sit for a few hours.

6. (Dough can be stored in the refrigerator for up to 4 days. Return to room temp before using.)
7. To bake: Preheat oven to 375°.
8. Grease or line cookie sheets with parchment paper.
9. Roll dough to a scant 1/4-inch thick.
10. Use additional flour to avoid sticking.
11. Cut out cookies with desired cutter-- the ginger bread man is our favorite of course.
12. Bake 1 sheet at a time for 7-10 minutes (the lower time will give you softer cookies).

Project: Quinceañera Cake

2010-11-08T08:15:00.000-08:00

You might have noticed that I haven't been baking as much lately, well I've been working - and MENTALLY PREPARING for the cake that is Margaret Mini-Me's Quince cake. This is really a challenge, but I've decided to start now... 2 weeks before the event.

It's a three layer cake *yikes* - 14 inch - 10 inch - 6 inch. Each tier has 2 layers of cake. The bottom layer of the cake is a pumpkin spice cake and the top two tiers are chocolate cake.

I've decided to make the chocolate layers today - using the chocolate cake recipe from Smitten Kitchen. After making the 10 inch layers and the 6 inch layers, I lovingly wrapped them in saran wrap and put them in the freezer. Now they're just waiting to be slapped together with frosting and fondant! Fun!

Now, since it's a Quince cake - someone is bound to turn 15! So, the cake topper is going to be "15" with leaves spread around it. My dream is to have the "15" to be made out of milk chocolate or semi-sweet chocolate. I just have to figure out how to do that part. From what it looks like, it could be pretty easy to make the 15, depending on what kind of font I want to use.

More to come!

Hello Kitty Cake

2010-10-24T09:00:00.000-07:00

At work, we celebrate birthdays once a month - and for October I got to make the cake! There are some people that absolutely loveeee Hello Kitty, so I thought that would be really fun to make for the October babies.

For the cake part (which I made a day earlier), I used the chocolate cake from Smitten Kitchen and also used a white cake from her website as well.

The White Cake:
3 3/4 cups cake flour
2 1/2 cups sugar
1 tablespoon plus 2 3/4 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 1/2 sticks (10 ounces) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 1/4 cups plus 1/3 cup buttermilk
5 whole eggs
2 egg yolks
2 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1. Mix dry.
2. Add butter and 1 1/4 cups buttermilk, and beat until fluffy.
3. Mix in a separate bowl the rest of the ingredients.
4. Fold the wet into the dry in three parts.
5. Bake at 325 for about 26-28 minutes!

Now for the interesting part! Making the Hello Kitty!

I had two layers of each flavor from a 9" x 13" baking pan.

I had made a chocolate frosting and a vanilla frosting - a sweet recipe, because I knew the cake wasn't too sweet.

So I stacked the layers next to each other with a nice layer of frosting:

Drew a tentative template that I would cut out on top of the cake by dragging the pointy end of my paintbrush along the frosting.

Started cutting carefully to get the shape I wanted:

After getting the shape needed for a pretty Kitty, I made some fondant and covered the cat. I cut out the smaller, more distinctive pieces of Kitty and put them on:

Then the last step was to paint everything! I painted on gel dye for the black parts and painted on dust color (painted it on by mixing with vodka - it evaporates) for the yellow, pink, and red. Here's the final result!

Splenda Cake

2010-10-17T09:08:00.000-07:00

This cake joins the ranks of one of my least favorite cakes ever. If you decide to try and make this one, please don't just use splenda... use half sugar and half splenda. I'm really not sure how this recipe could have made it out there.

The chocolate mousse frosting on the other hand was awesome! I think I could eat that alone or on top of pudding. Just really good chocolate mousse... and it was really simple. Simple is good.

Here goes:

Frosting:
3 c. heavy cream
1 1/2 c. sifted confectioners' sugar
3/4 c. cocoa powder
Dash of salt

1. Whip up all ingredients until stiff peaks form. Delicious!!!

Splenda Cake:
1¾ cups all-purpose flour
½ cup SPLENDA® No Calorie Sweetener, Granulated
½ cup SPLENDA® Brown Sugar Blend
¾ cup cocoa powder
1½ teaspoons baking powder
1½ teaspoons baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
1¼ cups low-fat buttermilk
¼ cup vegetable oil
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup hot strong black coffee

1. Blend dry together.
2. Blend wet together.
3. Mix both together.
4. 350 F for about 15 minutes in two nine inch rounds.

* The finished baked product was actually really weird looking. I just didn't look like a real sugar cake. And it definitely didn't taste the same.

This cake doesn't deserve a real picture:

Another Best Chocolate Cake!

2010-10-15T08:38:00.000-07:00

I feel like I haven't been on here forever! It's been a really busy busy week - ACL, work, birthday, cake! I got this recipe from Smitten Kitchen - she's my role model.

3 cups cake flour
3 cups sugar
1 1/2 cups unsweetened cocoa powder (not Dutch process)
3 teaspoons baking soda
3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
3/4 teaspoon salt
3 sticks (12 ounces) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 1/2 cups buttermilk
3 eggs
1 1/2 cups freshly brewed coffee, cooled to room temperature (I haven't made coffee in forever! It was scary to do, but apparently not really hard to mess up.)

1. Preheated the oven to 350 degrees F. Lined the baking tins with wax paper (two 9 inch rounds and one 8 inch square).

2. In a large mixer bowl, combine the flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt. With the electric mixer on low speed, blend for about 30 seconds. Add the butter and buttermilk and blend on low until moistened. Raise the speed to medium and beat until light and fluffy, 2 to 3 minutes.

3. Whisk the eggs and coffee together (I did this when the coffee was still a little warm and there was no curdling), and add to the batter in 3 additions, scraping down the sides of the bowl and beating only until blended after each addition. Put the batter in the tins.

4. Baked for 38 to 40 minutes - and ate cake!

I made the chocolate frosting that I used for Jessica's birthday cake! It went pretty well because the cake wasn't overly sweet. You could barely taste the coffee! I'm not a huge coffee fan, so this was a pretty big deal.

This cake is just awesome. So soft and great flavor! I'll be making it again for sure.

Pumpkin Spice Everything... Even Cake!

2010-10-04T15:56:00.000-07:00

Probably the greatest creation on earth in the world of cakes. I loved this one!

1/2 cup (113 grams) unsalted butter, room temperature

1 1/4 cups (270 grams) light brown sugar

2 large eggs

1 cup (240 ml) fresh or canned pure pumpkin (about 1/2 of a 15 ounce can)

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

2 cups (200 grams) sifted cake flour

1/4 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon (5 grams) baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon ground ginger

1/8 teaspoon ground cloves

1/2 cup (120 ml) buttermilk, room temperature

(http://www.joyofbaking.com/PumpkinSpiceCake.html#ixzz11Qx87MoC)

1. I said: Butter and sugar - please fluff up together in my electric mixer.
2. Please accept the eggs... but only one at a time. And make them feel welcome, fully incorporated in your dwelling.
3. Meet the belle of the ball: Little Miss Pumpkin Puree and her friend sweet Miss Vanilla.
4. You all should spin around in the mixer and be happy as one.
5. In a separate (but equally important) half-sphere bowl, the spices of life frolicked in the flour.
6. The Spices of Life and Little Miss Buttermilk wanted to join the party in the mixer bowl...
7. So they fought their way in and became one with the mix.
8. Then they baked... in two eight in rounds until a perfect bake they made... at 350 of course.

I covered the sweet delightful layers in buttercream and fondant. mmMMmm.

I have a 5 gallon bag of frozen strawberries = Strawberry Cake.

2010-09-28T14:34:00.001-07:00

I had made some strawberry cupcakes before using Sprinkle's recipe, but now I have this huge bag of frozen strawberries, and I really don't want to make the recipe a million times. So, I googled and found this recipe at www.jasonandshawnda.com:

3/4 cup strawberry puree, room temperature
1/4 cup milk, at room temperature
6 large egg whites, room temperature (I didn't use room temperature ones)
1 Tbsp vanilla extract
2 1/4 cup cake flour, sifted (I didn't sift this)
1 3/4 cup sugar
4 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
12 Tbsp unsalted butter (1 1/2 sticks), softened

1. Combine puree, milk, egg, vanilla and mix well.
2. In a mixer combine sifted flour, sugar, baking powder and salt and mix.
3. Mix at a slow speed and add butter. Mix until it resembles moist crumbs.
4. Add liquids and beat at medium speed until evenly combined.
5. Bake at 350F for about 20 minutes.

I made one cake and some cupcakes out of this recipe.

For the cupcakes I used chocolate icing with strawberries to garnish (Do not use frozen strawberries, they will thaw out and fall off the cupcakes and then dry up and look like shriveled pieces of stuff on your cupcakes. Lesson learned. sigh.)

For the cake I used a dark chocolate icing - which I don't really prefer, but I thought I would try something different.

Julie's Birthday!

2010-09-27T16:28:00.001-07:00

Julie wanted my yellow cake (the successful one) with simple butter-cream frosting, covered in fondant. She told me that I could make any design I wanted to on the front - so dealing with time limitations I knew that I really wanted to do something pretty, but it had to be simple.

Here's a picture of it in black and white for your viewing pleasure! (It's really hard to see the design when it's just a regular photo.)

Nutella Brownies. I licked the spatula.

2010-09-27T14:25:00.000-07:00

Nutella is this amazing hazelnut spread that deserves to be put in every chocolate-y dessert out there. That is why I decided to try out this recipe from www.chow.com:

Nutella Layer:
* 4 oz Philly cream cheese
* 2 tbs softened butter
* 1/4 cup granulated sugar
* 1 large egg
* 1 tbs flour
* 1/4 cup plus 2 tbs nutella

Brownie Layer:
* 3/4 cup all purpose flour
* 1/3 cup Herseys Special Dark Cocoa
* 1/2 tsp baking powder
* 1/2 tsp fine sea salt
* 1/2 stick unsalted butter, softened
* 1 cup granulated sugar
* 1 tsp vanilla
* 2 large eggs

Make the nutella layer first:
1. Cream together butter, sugar, flour, then add 1 large egg until mixed very well.

2. Add the nutella until mixed completely then set aside.

Brownie layer second:
1. Cream butter and sugar, then add vanilla and eggs til mixed completely. Set aside.
2. Mix flour, cocoa, powder, salt in a mixing bowl.
3. Add the creamed mixture to the dry mixture.

Making ta brownies!
8"x8" pan
- Put 3/4 of brownie batter in the pan (really really really thick batter).
- Put 3/4 of nutella mixture on top of that.
- Put dollops of brownie batter on top of that.
- Put remainder of nutella mixture on top of that.
- Level the top and mix around the brownie mixture some with a toothpick/knife/spatula.

Bake ME!
- Put in a preheated 350F oven for about 30 minutes... until cooked to your desire. Less time for a more goey brownie, more time for a more cakey brownie.

Eat ME!
mmmmmmmmmmm. Good dessert.

Carbonara and CAKE!

2010-09-21T08:23:00.001-07:00

If you're familiar with making carbonara, then you know that it requires like 1 million egg yolks... or in this case - eight. Just for fun:

Chicken Sausage Carbonara:

* 2 teaspoons olive oil
* 2 links of sausage cut up thin (probably should have added more!)
* 2 teaspoons minced garlic
* 2 1/2 cups whipping cream
* 1 cup freshly grated Parmesan
* 8 large egg yolks
* 1/4 cup of italian seasonings (that's what the bottle said!)
* Salt to flavor
* Enough spaghetti - pretty much as much or as little carbs as you want
* 1 breast of coarsely shredded chicken
* 1 small pkg of cut up mushrooms

1. Put oil, sausage, garlic on large saucepan on medium heat to brown.
2. Mixed cream, parmesean, yolks, and seasoning.
3. Added chicken and mushrooms to the large saucepan.
3. Added cooked spaghetti to saucepan.
4. Added cream mixture to the saucepan, stirred, then set the heat on low and simmered for about 10 minutes.

We ate it all... before I took pictures. It was really good!

So I had this problem! I had like 10 million egg whites ... or eight. I had one more egg, so I cracked it open and got the egg white and started finding a recipe for angel food cake. I googled a recipe and found this one at cooks.com:

1 cup sifted cake flour
1/2 cup sifted sugar
1 1/4 cups (10-12) egg whites (room temperature) - I only used 9 whites, but it turned out fine.
1 1/4 tsp. cream of tartar
1/4 tsp. salt
1 tsp. pure vanilla extract
1/4 tsp. almond extract
1 cup sifted sugar

1. Sift 1 cup flour and 1/2 cup sugar together 3 times. - which I actually did!
2. Place egg whites in a large mixing bowl. Beat with wire whisk attachment of mixer on high speed until all egg whites are foamy. Add cream of tartar, salt and flavorings. - This was really easy with the mixer - I couldn't imagine doing this by hand.
3. Beat eggs until stiff enough to hold stiff peaks but not until dry. (I wasn't sure what dry meant, but I just beat until it had stiff peaks then stopped.)
4. Add sugar, 2 tablespoons at a time, while continuing to beat on high speed until sugar is just blended.
5. Sift flour-sugar mixture over egg-white mixture about 1/4 cup at a time. (I actually sifted the mixture in! It really wasn't that difficult...)
6. Using a silicone spatula, fold in gently but thoroughly after each addition. (I was worried that there would be huge globies of flour, but it turned out just fine.)
7. Pour batter into an ungreased 10x4-inch tube pan. Smooth top of batter evenly in pan with a wet spatula.
8.Bake in a preheated 350°F oven for 40-45 minutes. (Cake will not bake in this time if your oven is not preheated for 15 minutes before putting cake in oven.) - I followed their tip in parentheses, but I used 2 glass loaf pans and they were finished at different times - not taking more than 30 minutes to cook.
9. Invert pan and cool cake in pan for 1 hour upside down, or until completely cold before removing the cake. Insert a dull knife along sides to free cake if cake is still attached after cooling. (I did this as well - and the loaves came out with no problem... just a litttttle pulling.)

I just couldn't stand the idea of throwing away those egg whites!

When life hands you lemons... make cake!

2010-09-18T19:01:00.001-07:00

This probably should have been my first cake. Either way, here goes:

I walked into HEB and they handed me some lemons:

I went home and googled and found this:

Ingredies (found this at http://www.joyofbaking.com/):

1 cup (226 grams) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup (200 grams) granulated white sugar
4 large eggs
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Zest of 1 large lemon (outer yellow skin of lemon)
2 cups (260 grams) all purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup (60 ml) fresh lemon juice (fresh from the juicer!)

1. Beat butter and sugar together until light and fluffy.
2. Added eggs, and mixed well. Then added vanilla and lemon zest!
3. Suggested sifting (but we all know how long that takes) - I just mixed together flour, baking powder, and salt.
4. Added flour to mixer then put in the lemon juice.
5. Baked about 40 minutes in 350F.

Let it cool off, covered in buttercream, then put the lemon glaze on top. Like so:

1 cup (115 grams) confectioners' (powdered or icing) sugar, sifted
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

1. Mix together.
2. Pour on top of cake.

I ate the part of the cake that I leveled off to make it look pretty and it's a pretty pleasant lemon-ey taste. The glaze on top tastes like lemonade! It's reminds me of summer. Something that you should eat sitting by the pool with a tall glass of milk reading a great book. Can't wait til next summer! Bon appetit!

Picture coming soon!

Sprinkles Cupcakes with Sprinkles Frosting

2010-09-16T07:00:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago I attempted Sprinkle's strawberry cupcakes - and I decided to make them again! Except this time I wanted to stay true to miss Sprinkle's cupcakes and I also used her recipe for strawberry frosting. yum.

So, I was in the kitchen just whipping away and I go to the refrigerator to grab some milk for the recipe, and sure enough I didn't have any milk. I had JUST gone to the grocery store to get some frozen strawberries. There was no way I was going back. So, instead I used some buttermilk that I had in the fridge. I always taste what I make before giving it to anybody else (just in case I keel over), so I did the same with this recipe - and it tasted just fine! It didn't taste any different to me - maybe a little softer. Oh! Also, last time I had used

So, for the frosting:

1/2 cup whole frozen strawberries, thawed
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, firm and slightly cold
Pinch of coarse salt (Kosher salt)
3 1/2 cups confectioners' sugar, sifted (I didn't sift it)
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

I fluffed the butter and the salt together, then slowly added the sugar. The last step was to add the vanilla and put in 3 tablespoons of pureed strawberries. Except, I put in 4 tablespoons of strawberries.

It's really strawberry-ey! I'll put more frosting on them next time.

Orange Dream: In a Cake.

2010-09-14T08:26:00.001-07:00

Before work yesterday, I wanted a different kind of breakfast. Something with oranges. Like orange cake.

So, I juiced 3 oranges and started making this orange cake from cooks.com.

1 cup sugar
1 whole egg
2 egg yolks
1/2 cup vegetable or peanut oil
1 3/4 cups cake flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup orange juice
1 teaspoon grated orange rind (seen below!)

1. Mix ingredients in the order given.

2. Bake at 350 until toothpick comes out clean! (This took about 15 minutes in my oven to make a very very well done cake... I should have taken it out earlier.)

We all know I like an easy recipe. This one is really simple... and gooooooddddd. It has a citrus-ey taste, so citrus-ey that some people couldn't tell if it was lemon or orange. Good news is - the dress was a total hit! When I took the extra to work, they ate it up within the hour!

Don't worry. I'll make more...

Oh! The frosting - it's an afterthought really. I used a "buttercream" recipe from www.cdkitchen.com:

1/4 cup shortening
2 cups powdered sugar
1 dash of salt
3 tablespoons milk, cream or water
1/4 teaspoon vanilla
3 drops butter flavoring (I didn't use this because I didn't have any at home on hand.)

1. Mix all together in electric mixer - let sit for a little - then spread on cooled cakes.

I think the frosting was a little tooooo sweet. This could be due to the 2 cups of powdered sugar... and not much else. I like the use of shortening though. It gives it a really smooth consistency - something that real buttercream frosting hasn't given me yet.

Yum!

The finished product!

Jessica's Birthday Cake!

2010-09-12T15:32:00.000-07:00

One of my very best most beautiful friends (Jessica) just turned 26 and we decided to celebrate her birthday by hanging out at Mozarts and going back to my place to make her a delicious birthday cake!

My lovely friend:

We decided to use the Best Chocolate Cake Ever recipe, but instead of using all-purpose flour, we went crazy and used the finer cake flour! Wild!

The result was a very bouncy cake - something that Bill Cosby would be proud to use in his Jello commercials. The cake also had a little dip in it where the cake collapsed - I'm thinking this is also due to using cake flour.

I ended up trying a new frosting recipe for this cake too - it's a delicious chocolate frosting from Hershey's:

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter or margarine
2/3 cup HERSHEY'S Cocoa
3 cups powdered sugar
1/3 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Their directions:
1. Melt butter (did this is the microwave for about 30-45 seconds).

2. Stir in cocoa (I didn't use special dark chocolate cocoa- just the regular stuff).

3. Alternately add powdered sugar and milk, beating to spreading consistency (this was a little difficult because of the small amount of milk that was called for). Add small amount additional milk, if needed (didn't need to do that).

4. Stir in vanilla (I don't remember doing this step...).

We covered it in marbled-ish purple fondant with little white hearts.

Making fondant purple:

Little white hearts cut out with my exacto:

Paste the hearts on the cake:

Take out a slice (or three):

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!