Craftulous

Dominican Cake Inspired Cupcakes With a Suspiro-Marshmallow-Buttercream Frosting

Kristina — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 15:00:53 +0000

Over the weekend, we attended two parties where a born-and-bred in the Boogie Down Bronx Dominican Cake was served, and I fell head over heels in love! No matter that the cakes, though both gracefully sweet, creamy, moist and spongy, were completely different in flavor, filling and density, they were still both equally delectable and finger-lickin’ good!

Fast forward to Monday: I couldn’t get the cake out of my mind, so I set out to make my own. However, after watching a few instructional videos on YouTube, I realized I had neither the equipment, skill nor confidence to attempt a full, multi-layer “one pound” Dominican cake. FAIL.

But… I CAN do cupcakes!

And so, the following was created:

Dominican Cake cupcakes with Pastry Cream filling
Topped with a Suspiro- Marshmallow-Buttercream frosting

Dominican Cake Inspired Cupcakes

I used Mari’s recipe from Mari’s Cakes (she is, by the way, una DIOSA de bizcocho!), following the 1/2 lb recipe she posted on her blog.

Here is my adapted version of Mari’s recipe with some of the instructions changed to fit the 1/2 pound recipe and for cupcakes:

Ingredients:

2-1/4 cups flour

2 sticks butter – softened to room temperature

1 cup sugar

3 whole eggs

3 egg yolks

1 tablespoon baking powder

½ cup milk or juice

1 teaspoon vanilla
½ lemon zest (optional)

Directions:

1. Pre-heat the oven to 350 F. (175 C).

2. Cream the butter on speed # 2 and add the sugar little by little. Move speed up to #4 and continue beating until butter mixture turns a pale yellow color and creamy texture. This may take about 10 minutes depending on what type of machine you use.

3. Pour the 3 egg yolks one at a time, beat well after each addition, and add the 3 whole eggs in the same way, one at at time. Beat for another 10 minutes or until fully incorporated.

4. Start to add the mixture of flour and baking powder already sifted together alternating with the mixture of milk and vanilla and ending with flour. Beat only until incorporated well (30 seconds is enough). If you decide to add the lemon zest, this is the time to add it.

5. Spoon the mixture into cupcake liners about halfway up. (This will fill up two cupcake pans with batter to spare.) Bake for 25 to 30 minutes. It’s ready when inserted tooth pick comes out clean. Let cool completely before placing on decorating dish, filling and decorating.

Note: Be sure to check out the ORIGINAL recipe for all of Mari’s tips! … and if you love baking, once you go through her blog and check out her videos you TOO will fall in love with this lady

I used the Pastry Cream Recipe from Aunt Clara’s Kitchen: Dominican Cooking and it was great! She provides an excellent recipe, and it was both easy to make AND delicious.

Pastry Cream Custard Filling for Dominican Cake

I tried to make Mari’s suspiro recipe, but I only kinda made it, haha! I think my mistake was being too impatient with the syrup part and not letting it reduce enough. Oh, and having neither lime juice nor Cream of Tartar… even though the recipe said it was optional.

Ah well. I ended up mixing what I did end up with to a marshmallow buttercream frosting, and the flavor came out well enough, albeit a bit on the just a tad too sweet side.

But I won’t let the recipe defeat me! I’ll try it again later this week. I also intend to make a guava filling to layer with the pastry cream/custard.

Teddy Bears and Baby Blue! (Free Cutting File)

Kristina — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 21:53:14 +0000

Initially when I purchased my Pazzles, it was for the purpose of creating a banner for my cousin’s baby shower… yes, yes, in retrospect it is clear that’s pretty unbalanced reasoning for a cutting machine that requires a decent little investment.

Well, last week I finally made the banner — though unfortunately I didn’t get a very good shot of it >_<

Sorry for the lame-quality photo!

Maybe I wasn’t looking in the right place, but because I had a difficult time finding a teddy bear cutout silhouette of a teddy bear, I decided to make my own.

Die Cut Teddy Bear - Again, sorry for the lame pic!

My teddy bear cutting file is available for download completely gratis for all you electronic die cutting machine owners out there! :-D

Teddy Bear Cutting File (zip file)

Notes:

zip file contains .eps and .wpc versions
contains bear silhouette, outline/background and optional details

As you can see in the photos I posted, I only used the silhouette of the bear in the banners, however I have also included optional details (overlay and facial features) for anyone who wants to use those in their project.

P.S. – I also made these for the baby shower:

Handmade Yarn Wrapped Jar Centerpieces

Baby Shower Cake Pops

Customized Cake Pops

sweetpeaNYCpops.com

A video tutorial for the yarn wrapped jar centerpieces is on the horizon…

Psssst….. Please visit Sweet Pea NYC Cake Pops for information about ordering custom cake pops!

Merry Christmas!

Kristina — Sun, 25 Dec 2011 16:08:09 +0000

Merry Christmas to all!

P.S. – I thoroughly enjoyed making my letterpress Christmas cards with my L Letterpress and custom plates from Boxcar Press, but somehow only four out of the twenty I created made it to the mailbox in time to be delivered before today. Such is the story of my life, lol.

Continuing my Letterpress Adventures

Kristina — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 03:49:21 +0000

Inking the Letterpress Plate

Previously, I wrote about how I succumbed to the sweet call of the L Letterpress, despite some poor reviews it has received. It was the few gems of L Letterpress success that I read about that really fueled my interest in this pseudo-press.

Custom Letterpress Plates ordered from Boxcar Press

I LOVE it so much!

I do, however, DESPISE the sorry excuse for printing plates that were included with the kit (shame on you, Lifestyle Crafts!), but I do LOVE my custom K152 photopolymer plates ordered from Boxcar Press!

Not only did the custom photopolymer plates print better, but in my opinion, they were MUCH easier to ink with the included brayer, and thus far I haven’t felt the need to run out and purchase a 6″ brayer like I’ve seen recommended by other users.

I was able to bang out ninety-five two color baby shower invitations, working at a leisurely pace on and off throughout one day.

Laying Out the Letterpressed Invitations to Dry

Don't you just love a nice deep deboss?

Why 95, you ask? Why not 100? - I have no reasonable answer to that, because it was neither the number asked for by the mom-to-be (I made more, in fact), nor was it that I ran out of paper (I had much more left over).

First Day of School Layout – Free Cutting Files

Kristina — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 22:12:38 +0000

My oldest child started kindergarten this past September, and parting with him at the bus stop on the first day of school was quite a bittersweet experience for this mommy right here. He was so excited and looking forward to his first day, meanwhile, with tears in my eyes, I just couldn’t stop thinking about how fast he’s growing up!

{sigh}

First Day of Kindergarten Layout - custom cut overlays that I created (downloads available below), custom apple shape (see below) ,DCWV textured cardstock, DCWV "The Grade School Stack" printed cardsstock, Colorbok cardstock

For your scrapping and cutting pleasure, here are the scrapbooking layouts I created in .WPC format for the Pazzles and .EPS for other software.

The placement and styles of the frame elements in the layout are just suggestions – they can be adjusted or removed of course.

As you can see from the photo above, I included the simple apple cutting file I created in this layout, using it both as an embellishment as well as a die cut element of the overlay.

Download: