For the Love of Baking

King Cake: The Mardi Gras Birthday Edition

2011-10-16T06:33:00.000-07:00

This month my dad celebrated his 50^th birthday. Originally we were supposed to take a family trip to New Orleans to celebrate because that is his favorite place in the world. Due to work reasons, he had to cancel. I felt bad that he wasn’t able to celebrate in the one place he wanted to be. You may not know this but I have a crazy obsession for planning parties. I decided to plan a surprise party for him….New Orleans style.

We had the Mardi Gras colors, foods, beverages, and desserts of course. My contribution was king cake and bananas foster cupcakes.

The king cake made me nervous because I didn’t want to screw it up. Pressure for sure. How about it was the most delicious thing I have ever had. I mean melt in your mouth good. It was really fun to make too. But lets focus on how amazing it was. I wanted to eat more than I did. Then I ate some for breakfast.

Things got a little messy

Sweet delicious creamy filling

What is king cake? I am surprised king cake is not as well known as I expected. I am not from New Orleans and I have never celebrated Mardi Gras, but I have had it from our local grocery store. You will find king cake around the Mardi Gras season (February). What I didn’t know and what Wikipedia was so gracious to tell me was king cake season is from the end of the Twelve Days of Christmas until Mardi Gras day. It is bread like dough with a sweet filling and within the dough is a small baby. (Don’t worry….no plastic babies were harmed during the baking of the cake). The catch is if you are given a piece with the baby, you have to bring the king cake to the next party or host the next party. (My dad got the baby in his slice). The cake is topped with a sweet icing and colorful sugar.

My king cake had a cream cheese filling and the filling was so creamy and smooth it complimented the thickness of the dough. It was a true winner around these parts.

If someone emailed me and said they wanted this king cake for their next party, Id do it because it was THAT GOOD!

The Errors of Baking

2011-10-09T10:27:00.000-07:00

I guess its that time I share with you one of my epic fails in this baking experience. So you may remember my “being a bad friend because I don’t send things on friend’s birthdays” post. For one friend it kinda worked out. We only had one casualty. For my other friend I had a few things to send and new ideas on how to send a cupcake in the mail.

Send it in a mason jar. Why not? I have seen it all over blogland and have heard such good things about the end result. I went to Hobby Lobby (or was it Michaels?) and bought a small sized mason jar. I was going to bake a cupcake in the jar, frost it, and sent it on its way to Atlanta. I googled her work address because I wanted it to arrive on her birthday while she was at work. Who doesn’t love surprises at work?

I was excited about the recipe, confetti cake and vanilla frosting. Topped with sprinkles of course. I was excited to try this technique. I made the cake and filled the mason jar with batter. Let me first tell you that you don’t want to fill it over the halfway mark. It will rise and start to look like it will take over your oven. Oops. You also want to bake it in a water bath. I placed the jar in a small pot filled with water. My conclusion is this keeps the glass from breaking? I saw a few places that said it is a must to water bake and being the follower that I am, I did it.

It took forever to bake. I mean almost as long as a normal sized cake would. That is what happens when you get greedy and try to fill the jar completely.

I filled it a little more than this....and by a little I mean a lot.

After almost an hour of waiting I took the jar out of the oven to find the center was still completely raw. I did make 4 little cupcakes with the leftover batter and those cooked at normal time. Then the batter deflated. EPIC FAIL!

The frosting came out but all I had was a cream cheese based frosting so I knew that would not ship without disappointing results.

I would be lying if I said I wasn’t sad this didn’t work out. I was so bummed. I hated that I had to tell my friend there was no awesome surprise coming. BUT to be fair, I will be back home to Atlanta soon enough and I can rebake that confetti cupcake and it is going to be awesome.

What baking disaster have you dealt with recently?

I am so excited to share the next post with you! Stay tuned!

Lemon Pull Apart Bread

2011-10-04T18:52:00.000-07:00

I am what you call a bad friend. I am bad about sending gifts and cards on friend’s birthdays. I don’t know why because I always have great gift ideas to send to my friends, but it never happens. (SORRY!). One of my bestest friends and I share our birth month together (July if you are keeping track) and for my birthday she sent me some funny gifts. I had the ultimate gift to send her, but it involved taking a video to show it worked and I didn’t see it being successful unless I was there.

Then my life got extremely busy. No excuse but I could barely breathe it was so busy. One weekend I found this recipe for lemon pull apart bread and knew she would love it. While I was reading the directions I was a little nervous to tackle something that seemed so complicated. Have you seen all the directions? I knew I would screw this up. The one thing that discouraged me a little bit was there were no pictures for the steps that I felt needed pictures.

A few weekends ago while we were refinishing our kitchen table (hooray to soon having a place to eat dinner) I started prepping to make this “complicated” bread. Let me tell you a little something….it was easy AND I took pictures of the directions that needed pictures. Just for you. Because I love you all.

The plan was to only make 1 pan for my friend and send it to her in Wisconsin, but I was lucky because the recipe made two. One for little old me!

Lemon-Scented Pull-Apart Coffee Cake
From 17 and Baking
Makes a 9″x5″ pan (mine made 2 8x4 pans)

Sweet Yeast Dough
About 2 3/4 cups (12 1/4 ounces) all-purpose flour
1/4 cup (1 3/4 ounces) granulated sugar
2 1/4 teaspoons (1 envelope) instant yeast
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup (2 1/2 fluid ounces) whole milk
2 ounces unsalted butter
1/4 cup (2 fluid ounces) water
1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract ( I used a little more bc that is what I do)
2 large eggs, at room temperature

Lemon Sugar Filling
1/2 cup (3 1/2 ounces) granulated sugar
3 tablespoons finely grated lemon zest (3 lemons) (I think 1 lemon was enough)
1 tablespoon finely grated orange zest
2 ounces unsalted butter, melted

Cream Cheese Icing
3 ounces cream cheese, softened
1/3 cup (1 1/4 ounces) powdered sugar
1 tablespoon whole milk
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

Making the Dough
Mix two cups (nine ounces) flour, the sugar, yeast, and salt in a medium bowl with a rubber spatula.

Meanwhile, in a small saucepan or in the microwave, combine the milk and the butter and heat until the butter is melted. Remove from the heat, add the water, and let rest a minute until just warm (120 to 130°F [49 to 54°C]). Stir in the vanilla extract.

Pour the milk mixture over the flour-yeast mixture and mix until the dry ingredients are evenly moistened. Attach the bowl to the mixer, and fit the mixer with the paddle attachment. With the mixer on low speed, add the eggs, one at a time, mixing after each addition just until incorporated. Stop the mixer, add 1/2 cup (2 1/4 ounces) of the remaining flour, and resume mixing on low speed until the dough is smooth, 30 to 45 seconds. Add 2 more tablespoons flour and mix on medium speed until the dough is smooth, soft, and slightly sticky, about 45 seconds.

Lightly flour a work surface and knead the dough gently until smooth and no longer sticky, about one minute. If the dough is still too sticky, add a tablespoon of flour. Place the dough in a large bowl, cover it with plastic wrap, and let it rise in a warm place (about 70°F [21°C]) for 45-60 minutes or until doubled in size. An indentation made with your finger should keep its shape.

Meanwhile, make the lemon sugar filling. Mix the sugar, lemon zest, and orange zest. Easy right?

Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C). Grease your bread pan (I had 2-8x4' pans)
Gently deflate the dough with your hand. Flour a work surface and roll the dough into a 20″ by 12″ rectangle. [I hope you like my technique of using the tape measure to measure out the dough..I like to add class to my baking]

Use a pastry brush to spread the melted butter evenly and liberally over the dough.
Use a pizza cutter to cut the dough crosswise in five strips, each about 12″ by 4″. Sprinkle 1 1/2 tablespoons of the lemon sugar over the first buttered rectangle. Top it with a second rectangle, sprinkling that one with 1 1/2 tablespoons of lemon sugar as well. Continue to top with rectangles and sprinkle, so you have a stack of five 12″ by 4″ rectangles, all buttered and topped with lemon sugar.

Slice this new stack crosswise, through all five layers, into 6 equal rectangles (each should be 4″ by 2″.) Carefully transfer these strips of dough into the loaf pan, cut edges up, side by side. The bread will rise more after this point. Loosely cover the pan with plastic wrap and let the dough rise in a warm place until puffy and almost doubled in size, 30 to 50 minutes. When you gently press the dough with your finger, the indentation should stay.

Bake the loaf until the top is golden brown, 30 to 35 minutes. [Mine took a little longer than this. I was nervous because the inside was a little doughy, but a little doughy is ok...IMO] Transfer to a wire rack and let cool in the pan for 10 to 15 minutes.

Now make the cream cheese icing. Beat the cream cheese and powdered sugar in a medium bowl with a wooden spoon until smooth, then add the milk and lemon juice. Stir until creamy and smooth. [I added milk until I got the texture I was happy with, so there may have been a little more than recommended]

Flip the loaf over onto a cooling rack.. Spread the top of the warm cake with the cream cheese icing, using a pastry brush to fill in all the cracks.

This bread was amazing! I think I ate half of mine in less than 30 minutes. The amount of lemon was perfect and the icing gave the bread a nice texture.

Now I had to get this bread up to my friend. The bread I was not worried about. The cream cheese frosting…I had doubts. I bought a small plastic container and an ice pack in hopes I could keep the icing cool. I put the icing in the freezer wrapped in the ice pack (because that is what my research told me to do) and wrapped it in tin foil. I shipped it as quickly as I could (I think 2day) to avoid sitting on a truck or in a warehouse. The bread made it perfectly and she said it was delicious. The icing did not make it, was sour and curdled. YUCK!

Bright side: she got the bread!

Back to the drawing board to figure out how to ship baked goods. Especially because I made a KILLER king cake this past weekend that I know I am ready to take orders on. More on this cake later!

Next post: my big fail and just another reason I am not a good sending birthday gifts friend. One day I will nail this.

`Linked up to these parties:`

`Tatertots and Jello`

`Skip To My Lou`

`C.R.A.F.T.`

`Boogieboard Cottage`

`Today's Creative Blog`

If you are having a bad day, eat this cake!

2011-09-05T06:13:00.000-07:00

Happy Labor Day friends! I hope you are enjoying your weekend!

This weekend there was a birthday celebrated around here. It was requested for me to make a chocolate layer cake with a whipped cream frosting. Its funny because I saw this cake awhile ago and said this is a birthday cake I am going to make. We picked out a whipped cream frosting that was thicker than traditional whipped cream and I got to baking.

Rough exterior, delicious interior

First I made the frosting. Its no secret around here, frosting and I do not play nice. I dont know what it is. Maybe I declared my dislike for powdered sugar a little too much? I dont know. Frosting NEVER works for me.

I was happy we found a whipped cream based frosting on Allrecipes to make instead. I love cream cheese

Ingredients

1 (8 ounce) package reduced-fat cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup white sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract (I used a vanilla bean paste and I used about a tsp and a 1/2)
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
2 cups heavy cream (I used 3)
2 egg whites added last minute because peaks were not forming

Directions

Combine the cream cheese, sugar, vanilla extract and almond extract in a large mixing bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer. Fit the mixer with the whisk attachment and mix on medium speed until smooth. While the mixture is still whipping, slowly pour in the heavy cream. Stop and scrape the bottom of the bowl a couple of times while you continue whipping until the cream can hold a stiff peak.

Simple recipe right? I guess not for me. It turned into soup! Delicious soup though. I threw it in the fridge to firm back up. Nope. We threw in egg whites and that ended up helping a little.

I followed the chocolate cake recipe I have used before, only I made some tweaks to change the flavor a little. For this particular cake, you need to double this recipe.

1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for pans
2 cups sugar
3/4 cups good cocoa powder (1/2 unsweetened Hersheys cocoa and topped off with Toll House cocoa)
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 cup buttermilk, shaken
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 extra-large eggs, at room temperature
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract (I used a vanilla bean paste)
1 cup freshly brewed hot coffee (1/8 cup of coffee)

You can find how to make the cake here. I was excited to try out my new flavor: vanilla bean paste.

I found this at Home Goods and knew it was time to graduate from the Kroger brand vanilla extract. Its not cheap though.

So how to make a 10 layer cake. The first thing is to head to the Dollar Store and buy 12 aluminum pans. Using these saves you from washing pans in between each round. You are welcome!

Then take parchment paper and cut circles to line the bottom of your pans. I took one circle and used it as a template for the rest.

Line your pan, butter like butter is going out of style, and then flour your pan. That wax paper is tricky to take off if you dont butter/flour it enough.

When your batter is ready to go, fill the pans with 2/3 cup of batter. Spread evenly and place into your 350 preheated oven.

I baked two pans at a time for 12 minutes each round. They came out looking a little deflated and almost like a pancake. Then I started to layer. Please note the frosting was still soup.

Still looks tasty though dont you think? After layer 10 little cakes on top of each other, we poured the ~~frosting~~ soup on top and spread it. Since it was so runny and we enjoy coconut, we threw it on the exterior. Functional and delicious.

I know this cake wouldnt win awards in presentation (because it was rough), but it was a diamond in the rough and it was REALLY good!! The changes I made to the recipe made this a killer chocolate cake. I had to stop myself from eating more than I did. It was moister than you would ever imagine. The chocolate flavor was perfect. Every bite I MAY have done a little dance. I am so pleased with this cake.

Next time I am sticking to regular frosting!!! In all seriousness though, you must try this cake (mine not your own!!) because it will turn your day around!

Shirley Temple Lil'cakes

2011-08-18T14:57:00.000-07:00

Hi friends! I have not lost interest in baking! I have been super busy and baking took the backseat a bit.

Yesterday I decided the best way to handle current stress was to bake some delicious cupcakes. You can always lift your mood with baked goods. I found a great recipe on JavaCupcakes for Shirley Temple Cupcakes.

Who doesnt love the flavors of a Kiddie cocktail?

Shirley Temple Cupcakes (The Curvy Carrot)

1 1/2 cups plus 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs, at room temperature
1/2 cup Cherry 7-Up, at room temperature (use regular...I dont trust diet)
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon almond extract (I used about 3/4 tsp of almond)
1 tablespoon maraschino cherry juice (I used almost 2 tbs)
Red food coloring (2-3 teaspoons, more if desired) (I used 2, but I think for a lighter color you will use a little less)

Yield: 1 dozen (12) or 2 mini dozen (24)

Preheat oven to 350F and line cupcake pan with liners
In a medium sized bowl, whisk together flour (1 1/2 cups), baking powder and sea salt.
In a standing bowl mixer with the paddle attachment, combine the sugar and butter and cream until light and fluffy at least 2-3 minutes.
Add eggs, one at a time, scraping down the sides of the bowl after each addition.
Reduce speed to low, alternate adding half of flour mixture and half of the Cherry 7-Up, beginning and ending with the flour. Mix until combined.

Add the vanilla & almond extract and mix until combined.
Reserve 3/4 cup of batter in small bowl and combine with 1 tablespoon of flour, maraschino cherry ice and red food coloring.

Evenly distribute pink/red batter in each cupcake liner and smooth out before adding the regular batter to each liner.
Try not to mix the 2 batters.
Bake for 15-20 minutes (for regular sized cupcakes) and 8-10 minutes for minis. It took about 13 minutes in my oven with the mini cake pans. I started checking around 8 mins (very runny at this point)

Buttercream

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature
Pinch salt
2 1/2 cups powdered sugar (I think 2 1/2 cups was too sweet. I will start with 1 cup and add by 1/4 cup increments)
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/8 teaspoon almond extract (I used almost 1 1/2 tsps)
1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice (Since my frosting was too sweet I used about 2 1/2 tsps to tone it down)
1-2 tablespoons maraschino cherry juice (Start with 2 and add little by little to get the flavor you want)
12-24 maraschino cherries with stem, for garnish

In a standing bowl mixer with the paddle attachment, cream the butter until light and fluffy at least 2-3 minutes.
With the mixer on low, add the pinch of salt, powdered sugar, vanilla extract, almond extract and lemon juice and mix until combined.
Whip the buttercream until smooth and add the maraschino cherry juice to the buttercream and mix until combined.
Pipe with a star tip and garnish each cupcake with a cherry.

These were great! I am so so happy with the texture and consistency of the frosting. I used the full 2 1/2 cups of powdered sugar and I thought it was a little sweet. I would have liked the cake to have a little more cherry flavor, but I think this is easily fixed.

A little note about the almond extract...it brings out the cherry flavor. Just like coffee brings out chocolate. The 7Up gave the cake nice moisture.

I will definitely make this again!!

In case you were wondering how I practice decorating the tops:

In the sink.

Melt in Your Mouth Chocolate Cake

2011-07-24T16:48:00.000-07:00

I had not been home for 24 hours after my 3 weeks away when we decided it would be a great idea to start up my baking crusade again. On the menu, Chocolate Cake. Since there is only two of us, a WHOLE cake was not an option (not to mention, healthy eating week starts this week). I have a small approx 6 inch casserole dish I thought would be the perfect size for two.

I found this recipe on Food Network and tweaked it a little because some of the flavors were a little powerful.

Ingredients (I cut everything in half)

1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for pans (3/4 + 2 tbs flour)
2 cups sugar (1 cup sugar)
3/4 cups good cocoa powder (1/4 + 2 tbs Hershey's Cocoa Powder)
2 teaspoons baking soda (1 tsp baking soda)
1 teaspoon baking powder (1/2 tsp baking powder)
1 teaspoon kosher salt (1/2 tsp kosher salt)
1 cup buttermilk, shaken (1/2 cup buttermilk, make sure to shake)
1/2 cup vegetable oil (1/4 cup veg oil)
2 extra-large eggs, at room temperature (1 egg)
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract (1/2 tsp + spillover vanilla)
1 cup freshly brewed hot coffee (1/3 cup of coffee)
Chocolate Buttercream, recipe follows

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Butter two 8-inch x 2-inch round cake pans. Line with parchment paper, then Pam and flour the pans.

Sift the flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder, and salt into the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment and mix on low speed until combined. In another bowl, combine the buttermilk, oil, eggs, and vanilla. With the mixer on low speed, slowly add the wet ingredients to the dry.

Forget to take your egg to warm up to room temp? Put your egg in a bowl of warm water for a few minutes.

With mixer still on low, add the coffee and stir just to combine, scraping the bottom of the bowl with a rubber spatula. Your batter will look like soup, have no fear. Its normal. I was really worried, but it has all the ingredients it needs to rise.

Pour the batter into the prepared pans and bake for 35 to 40 minutes, until a cake tester comes out clean. Cool in the pans for 30 minutes, then turn them out onto a cooling rack and cool completely.

Since I was using a dish thicker than a traditional cake pan, I started checking around 25 minutes to ensure even cooking. It only took about 35 minutes at 350 degrees.

Chocolate Frosting: (I halved everything)

6 ounces good semisweet chocolate (recommended: Callebaut) (4.5 ounces of semisweet Ghirardelli chips)
1/2 pound (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature (1 stick of butter)
1 extra-large egg yolk, at room temperature (1/2 egg yolk, use a knife and cut the yolk in the shell)
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract (1/2 tsp vanilla)
1 1/4 cups sifted confectioners' sugar (1/2 + 1/8 confect sugar)
1 tablespoon instant coffee powder (1/4 tbs instant coffee powder)

Chop the chocolate and place it in a heat-proof bowl set over a pan of simmering water. Stir until just melted and set aside until cooled to room temperature.

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat the butter on medium-high speed until light yellow and fluffy, about 3 minutes.

Add the egg yolk and vanilla and continue beating for 3 minutes. Turn the mixer to low, gradually add the confectioners' sugar, then beat at medium speed, scraping down the bowl as necessary, until smooth and creamy. Dissolve the coffee powder in 2 teaspoons of the hottest tap water. On low speed, add the chocolate and coffee to the butter mixture and mix until blended.

Don't whip! Spread immediately on the cooled cake.
My recommendation is to use less coffee (unless you like the flavor) so it does not over power the chocolate flavor.

And serve with a side of vanilla ice cream. This was so far a BIG success! It was moist and so flavorful. I topped it with almonds for an added crunch. Definitely a winner and will make this again.

Baking Bread

2011-07-13T17:51:00.000-07:00

Sometimes making sweets is just bad news for your teeth (and your waist). With 2 different weeks of cupcakes I thought it was time to branch out a little. For our July 4th feast, I used Tyler Florence's white bread recipe to make homemade bread with my birthday present:

Ingredients

1 cup milk
3 tablespoons butter
1 package (1 tablespoon) rapid-rising dry yeast
2 tablespoons sugar or honey
3 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons salt
2 egg whites, divided and slightly beaten

Directions

In a small saucepan, heat the milk with butter over low heat just until the butter melts. Remove from heat and add to the bowl of a standing mixer fitted with a dough hook. Proof the yeast by adding it to the warm milk and butter. Your yeast will come with directions on how to proof it. You need to make sure the temperature of the milk doesnt go above 110 degrees or else you will kill the buggers. Add the sugar and stir gently to dissolve. Let stand 3 minutes until foam appears. This indicates the yeast is active. I used honey first and did not get results like I did with sugar. The sugar sucked the yeast right up.

Turn mixer on low and gradually add the flour. When the dough starts to come together, increase the speed to medium and add the salt and 1 egg white. Stop the machine periodically to scrape the dough off the hook. Mix until the dough is no longer sticky, about 10 minutes. It did not take 10 minutes, closer to 7 I would say.

Turn the dough onto the work surface and knead for a minute or so by hand. Knead by folding the dough over itself and pushing out with the heel of your hands, not down. Rotate the dough and repeat. The dough is properly kneaded when you can pull it and it stretches without breaking.

Kneading is fun, but make sure you do it EXACTLY how he says.

Form the dough into a round and place in an oiled bowl, turn to coat the entire ball with oil.

Cover with plastic wrap or a damp towel and let rise over a gas pilot light on the stovetop or in another warm place (microwave) until doubled in size, about 45 minutes. Test the dough by pressing 2 fingers into it. If indents remain, the dough is adequately risen.

Once the dough is doubled and domed, turn it out onto the counter. The act of turning out the dough naturally deflates the gas, so there is no need to aggressively punch it down. Handle the dough gently, overworking the gluten at this point will produce a dense loaf that is difficult to shape. I You Tubed this because I did not know what turning out the dough meant. Clearly I read too much into it, you literally fold it out of the bowl.

To form a loaf, pat the dough into a rectangle, fold the long sides to the middle then fold under the ends. Pinch the seams closed and place in a greased 9 by 5-inch loaf pan, seam side down.

Make sure the dough touches all sides of the pan. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise a second time for 20 minutes or until the top of the dough is nearly level with the top of the loaf pan. I put mine in the oven set on warm.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F, place a large pan on the bottom rack of the oven. Bring 3 cups water to a boil on the stove. Pour the hot water into the preheated pan to create a steam bath for the bread. This will make a crisp crust.
Slash dough down the middle of the loaf with a sharp knife to allow the steam to escape during baking. Brush the top with remaining beaten egg white. Bake the bread for 30 to 40 minutes until crust is golden and internal temperature reads 195 degrees F when checked with an instant read thermometer. I was happy with around 27 minutes. The bottom of the loaf should sound hollow when tapped. Immediately remove the bread from the pan and cool completely on a rack.We ate ours warm....you cant pass up melted butter on warm bread

This was absolutely amazing! There were no flaws. Well ok one....I wanted to eat more when I was done. I cant believe how EASY this was to make. One thing I learned about making bread: READ THE DIRECTIONS FIRST. As you can see, there are a lot of steps that can mess you up if you miss.

I cant wait to try more types of bread. Move over cupcakes, there is a new contender in town!

What type of bread is your favorite?

Celebration Cupcakes

2011-07-04T07:20:00.000-07:00

Happy 4th of July friends! I hope you are enjoying it.

Source

This weeks recipe is inspired by one of my favorite treats growing up, the Good Humor Strawberry Shortcake Ice Cream bar. This was and still is one of my all time favorites when I opt for a bar. A few weeks ago we were visited by an old childhood friend, the ice cream man. Since we were feeling frisky, we decided to indulge ourselves with these sugary treats. (Yes we could have easily bought these from the store, but its not the same as from the ice cream man)

While I was ~~eating~~ devouring my ice cream, I started thinking about how delicious it would be to have those flavors in a cupcake. I could tell the one key flavor, strawberry powdered milk.

I searched online to see what types of recipes are out there using the powdery mix, but nothing to my liking. So I improvised.

Strawberry Cupcakes (Nesquik Style)

This recipe makes 12 or 13 cupcakes, depending on how your fill your pans.

1 cup white sugar

3 tbs Nesquik powder (strawberry flavor)

1/2 cup of butter, softened

2 eggs room temp

1 1/4 cup + 2 tbs sifted cake flour

1 1/4 tsp baking powder

1/2 cup whole milk, room temp

1/2 tbs vanilla

In a large bowl, cream your butter, sugar, Nesquik until it is light and fluffy. Then add your eggs one at a time, making sure they are evenly incorporated after each add.

In another bowl (because I like to keep things separate sometimes, but you dont have to), combine flour and baking powder. Stir your batter and milk with egg mix alternately. Then add your vanilla.

This time I used our meat thermometer to track the temps in the oven. I didnt want to have dried out cupcakes. Heat your oven to 350 and bake for 25-30 mins, but start checking around 23 mins.

My oven was playing a few games with me when I made these. I had the temp set at 325 since the last time 350 dried out my cupcakes. The thermometer said the temp inside was around 370. So I turned it down to 300. After 22 minutes my cupcakes were a runny mess and I had to crank it back to 350 (which this time ended up being accurate). Of course this cooked it much faster and made the edges a little crispy.

While these were baking, I decided to take a new frosting route and rely more on cream cheese than powdered sugar. I thought the cream cheese would act as the ice cream flavor in the bar.

Cream Cheese frosting:
1/4 cup of butter at room temp
1 8 ounce box of cream cheese at room temp
2 1/2 cups of powdered sugar

Cream the butter and cheese. Then add sugar. This called for 3-4 cups of sugar, but I am not a huge fan of powdered sugar flavoring, plus I liked the consistency with 2 1/2.

I mixed and mixed and mixed. Of course with all this mixing, it was melting the frosting a little (friction=heat=runny cheese). To thicken it up, I tossed it in the freezer for the length of a shower (hey, baking is dirty work). Then I mixed a little more to incorporate more air and warm it up a little.

The verdict:
3 of 5 stars. I was happy with the shape of the frosting (although I would like it to be a lllliiiittttllllee fluffier). The cake sort of crumbled which was strange. The flavor had hints of the strawberry, but I feel like if salt or something acidic were added, the flavors would have been more dominant. Like I said before, having to change the temp of the oven crisped up the edges, but the middle was moist. The flavor of the frosting was pretty dominant, but I love cream cheese so it did not bother me.

Did it taste like the Good Humor Strawberry shortcake bar? Not 100%, but with tweaks we will get there! And hey, the next day it was even better tasting.

In even better news.......look what I got for my early birthday present:

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

My Baking Wishlist

2011-06-30T18:01:00.000-07:00

I picked the worst time to start a baking venture. My life has been crazy busy with the day job. But have no fear, recipes are coming. It is my birthday weekend after all.

I recently took inventory of everything I had and realized I needed to start collecting baking supplies.

In yellow please....source


Mini Pie Molds....Source


Mini and regular cupcake pans....source


You cant have too many of these....source

Source

Tomorrow I will have a new recipe up. Fingers crossed it works!

Starting with the Basics: Yellow Cake and Chocolate Frosting

2011-06-19T06:34:00.000-07:00

Officially I have started baking for the purposes of creating FTLOB into something bigger. Yesterday I sat down and tackled the basic of the basics: yellow cake.

I could have started with all the crazy, delicious flavors I wanted to start with, but at the end of the day yellow is the most common.

For this recipe I decided to halve it because we cant eat that many cupcakes. But either I didnt fill my cups up enough (which I think I did) or one full recipe makes 40 cupcakes.

Recipe for yellow cake: Makes one cake of 22-24 cupcakes (adapted from Smitten Kitchen)

4 cups + 2tbs of cake flour

2 tsp baking powder

1 1/2 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

2 sticks unsalted room temp butter

2 cups sugar

2 tsp vanilla

2 large eggs room temp

2 cups buttermilk, well shaken

Preheat oven to 350. Butter or line pan with parchment paper (or cupcake liners)

Sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in medium bowl.

In large bowl, beat butter and sugar until pale and fluffy. Then add vanilla. Add eggs 1 at a time, beating until well incorporated and scraping sides.

At low speed, add buttermilk until just combined. Your mix looks curdled and very liquidy. Dont worry

Add the flour mixture in three batches mixing until just covered. The key is to not OVER mix.

Fill your pan and bake 30-45 mins ( I would start checking around the 25 min mark)

While those were out cooling, I decided to make a chocolate frosting. Who doesnt love chocolate and yellow cake?

Recipe for Chocolate Frosting: (I also halved this) (adapted from Crazy About Cupcakes)

6 tbs butter, room temp

2 tsp vanilla

3 cups confectioners sugar

3/4 cup cocoa powder (I used Hershey unsweet)

1/2 cup milk (use as much as you need to get your consistancy)

Cream butter and vanilla together in a bowl. Better yet, dont run out of vanilla. I did. In separate bowl, combine sugar and cocoa. Add dry ingredients to butter mix. Then add milk slowly while mixing. Add as much or as little as you need. I needed more than what it called for.

Mix mix mix.

Here is the final product:

For me, I am not into towering frosting that takes over the cake. BUT I also like frosting that holds its shape.

Verdict: Its time to invest in a KitchenAid Stand Mixer and an oven thermometer. I personally do not like working with confectioners sugar for frosting because its way too sweet. A mixer would have come in handy here because the frosting needed to be mixed for a long time. It fell flat.

An oven thermometer would have been nice because until I can buy an oven I know will work, I am stuck with a 30 year old apartment oven that does not heat well. The outsides of the cupcake were a little too done, while this inside was moist.

They were still really good!

I am going to start experimenting with different techniques on how to make the perfect moist yellow cake. Not bad though for the first run.

The Truth About Eggs

2011-06-15T17:06:00.000-07:00

Apparently I haven't been using my eggs correctly in all of my years of baking. Shame shame.

The past few days/weeks I have been reading a lot about baking and when using eggs in your recipe, they are supposed to be at room temperature. I feel like I should have known that.

What is the difference in final product between straight from the fridge eggs and room temp eggs? I have never (knock on wood) had a disaster when taking my eggs straight from the fridge, but if you warm your eggs up, you have a better batter. Your chances are higher that air will incorporate better than cold and your batter will rise.

Lesson learned. I guess that just means I will have better batter from now on.

(Tip: short on time and cant warm your eggs? Take warm water and warm for about 15 mins).

Baking Lesson: Never skip out on using eggs in your recipe if they call for it. I did that once (because the recipe said to use something else) and the cake fell apart. Eggs are your structure.

Happy Baking!

Welcome to For the Love of Baking

2011-06-13T16:35:00.000-07:00

Thanks for stopping by! I am finally taking the plunge and making my baking hobby into something a little more serious.

For a few months/about a year or so I have been saying over and over that I want to open a little cupcake shop. Right now it seems like the market is saturated with cupcake shops, so while I still want to open a shop (one day) I think my focus will be more than cupcakes.

But we are getting ahead of ourselves. I plan on taking my time to really learn how to bake. I KNOW how to bake, but Im nerdy and like to know the physics behind it.

I hope I can learn and share new recipes and techniques with you. My goal is to make a darn good dessert, start an at home bakery and then open a storefront.

Welcome to For the Love of Baking!!

Comments/criticism/praise/orders/high fives are always welcome...in fact they are highly recommended!

(I know it looks messy around here...Im still making tweaks. Soon it will look nice and polished!)