Melissa's birthday shindig: Dr. Who cupcakes

I met Melissa through some mutual friends, and was delighted to find out that she is a professional cake decorator. She makes some really fantastic stuff. For her birthday, she decided that she didn't want to make her own cupcakes, so she asked me to make them for her. Of course, I wanted to impress her, so I pulled out all the stops and made some fabulous Dr. Who themed cupcakes. 

Chocolate cupcake with dark chocolate frosting and the TARDIS flying through space. I was delighted to discover that Hershey's Special Dark cocoa powder creates a frosting so dark that it's practically black. No food coloring was needed to create the look of deep space, accented with gold stars, white pearls, and some silver edible spray paint. 

Yellow cake with milk chocolate frosting with a fez and a bow tie, because those are cool now. The swirl of frosting on a cupcake really reminds one of Matt Smith's swoopy hairstyle.

Yellow cake with vanilla frosting and a white chocolate coin inscribed with Melissa's name in circular Gallifreyan. I had so much fun with this app on my phone. It's so cool to me that fans get involved in the languages created by their favorite books and shows and then share that enthusiasm with the world. 

 Chocolate cake with vanilla frosting and a very ominous message written in royal icing. I was going for the feeling of graffiti on brick, and some manipulating of piping bags gave the frosting a slight square edge.

I'm very pleased with how all of the designs turned out. Of course, all of the cupcakes were delicious and the theme was a hit with the nerdy crowd I run with. I made the stand from boxes wrapped in wrapping paper and taped together.

Birthday Part 3: Tres Leches Cake

There are people who don't eat chocolate. I know this is hard to understand, but it's true. Maybe it gives them headaches, maybe it's just not their favorite flavor, whatever. Clearly, I love chocolate and I use it in most of my desserts. However, I do try to be accommodating to the people who might enjoy something else. The something else in this case is the divine vanilla treat known as Tres Leches Cake. It is a Mexican dessert that features a yellow cake soaked in three milks and topped with whipped cream instead of frosting. The cake achieves the delicious sogginess of dipping a cookie in a glass of milk, or dipping a donut in coffee. I used the Pioneer Woman's recipe, linked above.

Cake: baked, cooled, and removed from pan 

Action shot! 

Cake hanging out in a milk bath.

Mmmmm, whipped cream

All frosted 

Finished!

I was slightly disappointed in this cake: it wasn't wet enough. This probably could have been fixed by poking holes in the cake before pouring the milk mixture on, or letting it soak overnight instead of just for a few  hours.

(The best Tres Leches is found at Cafe Latte, where they feature original vanilla, chocolate, and salted caramel versions. All three are amazing.)

Birthday Part 2: Ice Cream Cake

When I was in college, I usually took WinTerm classes during January. This meant my birthday tended to be a little lonely since very few people were around. One year, I got a message from a friend asking me what kind of candy bar I liked best. A few hours later, she showed up at my dorm room with an ice cream cake filled with Snickers bars! I was delighted. I loved the idea of an ice cream cake made in a springform pan, filled with whatever you desired.

With this lovely memory in mind, I decided to make an ice cream cake for my birthday this year. My favorite kitchen toy is my ice cream maker, and I love any excuse to use it. (If you don't have an ice cream maker, get one. If you have one, go buy The Perfect Scoop. You can thank me later.) Almost the entire cake, with the exception of some brownies for the topping, was made from scratch because that's how I roll.

It is just one wafer-thin little cookie...

I started with a chocolate cookie crust. Because I don't do anything halfway, I made my own chocolate wafer cookies. Madeline sent me the recipe for chocolate wafer cookies years ago, and I finally got around to making them. My goodness, I don't know why I haven't made these before! So very delicious. They're a perfect balance of sweet and  chocolate and crispy. They make excellent cookie crusts, you can use them to make ice cream sandwiches or ice box cakes, or you can eat them on their own. I also crumbed up some cookies to go between the ice cream layers.

 I made ganache for the filling between the layers. I was worried that it would be too hard after being in the freezer, but it was just as soft as the filling in a DQ cake.

 The bottom layer of the cake was chocolate ice cream. The recipe called for cocoa powder and baker's chocolate, which resulted in a rich dark chocolate ice cream. It was a little strange because I'm used to ice cream being more of a milk chocolate flavor, but this worked really well in combination with the peanut butter ice cream and all the other goodies. I don't think I'd like to eat this ice cream on it's own, but it's fantastic for pairing with something a little sweeter.

Cookies & ganache added to bottom layer

The completed ice cream cake

The top layer was peanut butter ice cream, a crowd favorite. I topped the cake with brownie chunks an a drizzle of ganache. The final product was impressive to look at and delicious to eat. Preparation took a few days because I had to re-freeze the ice cream maker bowl, but it was well worth the wait.

The devoured cake!

Birthday Part 1: Mexican Chocolate Cupcakes

One of the most delicious flavor combinations known to mankind is the addition of cinnamon and chili to chocolate. It creates amazing subtle layers of flavor - sweet and spicy and wonderful. I felt this would be an appropriate dessert to serve at a chili cook-off. 

I started with the old favorite - Black Magic Chocolate Cake. 

 I used the Wilton basic butter cream frosting recipe. I used 1 part butter to 3 parts shortening.

Hi, Copernicus!

 I added 1 tablespoon of cinnamon and 1 teaspoon of chipotle powder. After mixing in the powdered sugar, I ended up sprinkling in some more of each as the sweetness started to overpower the spices. Next time, I'd do 2 tablespoons of chipotle.

 I used 3/4 cup of tasty tasty cocoa powder. This was only half of what the recipe called for and it still ended up being extremely chocolatey.

 The end result was fantastic - a rich chocolate butter cream with just the slightest hint of heat, and a lovely mellow cinnamon note.

These cupcakes were lumpy, so they were sacrificed to my tummy.

It's coming!

Get excited, kids - the most important holiday of the year is nigh. MAH BIRTHDAY! I'm making at least three desserts (maybe four if I decide I like my coworkers enough) and I will share them with you over the next two weeks as I prepare them. Homemade ice cream cake is going to be the bomb diggity and I'm really excited for it.

Buttercream and Elegance

Last night, two wonderful men got legally wed. I'm so happy that Minnesota legalized gay marriage, for the sake of my fabulous friends Chris and Brian. I was thrilled when they asked me to make their wedding cake. 

Two weeks of hard work and lots of love went into my first tiered cake. Lemon cake with lemon curd filling and vanilla buttercream, and my goodness did it taste fantastic. Protip: when making tiered cakes, transport the layers separately and assemble onsite. That beauty would not have lasted even the shortest car ride without falling over. I got to do the Food Network move-the-cake-three-feet challenge, which was super exciting.   Four tiers get heavy!

On display at the cocktail party reception.

Congratulations again, Chris and Brian. You guys are great and I love you both.

Chocolate Salted Caramel Cupcakes

My life has been a whirlwind lately. We moved into our wonderful new house, and then a week later learned that Herman, our cat, is terminally ill.  Everyone handles stress differently, and I handled mine by baking some cupcakes.

I made my standard chocolate cake as the base for the cupcakes. If it ain't broke, don't fix it, right? 

I haven't found a really good caramel frosting recipe, until now: I found a promising recipe  in The Joy of Cooking, and I gave it a go. It turned out fantastically! I've shared it below for all of you, because I love you too much to keep it to myself. 

Caramel Frosting (from The Joy of Cooking, 75th anniversary edition, Rombauer/Rombauer Becker/Becker)

Yield: About 3 cups

Combine in a medium heavy saucepan and stir until sugar is dissolved:

-2 cups packed brown sugar

-1 cup heavy cream OR 1/2 cup unsalted butter plus 1/2 cup milk

Cook about 3 minutes, washing down any crystals on the sides of the pan with a wet pastry brush. Cook, without stirring, to 238-240 degrees (soft-ball stage). Remove from the heat, and float on top

-3 tablespoons unsalted butter
Cool, without stirring, to 110 degrees, about 45 minutes. Add
-1 teaspoon vanilla
Beat the icing until cool, thick, and creamy. If it becomes too heavy, thin it with a little
-heavy cream or milk
until it is of a spreading consistency. Use immediately, or cover the surface with plastic wrap. This keeps for up to a week at room temperature or about three weeks refrigerated; or freed for up to  six months. Soften and stir until smooth before using.

The best ingredients: sugar and cream. 

You will definitely need a candy thermometer for this recipe. A standard kitchen/meat thermometer lacks the range and sensitivity for working with sugar. They generally come with little clips attached, and pictured below I have MacGyvered a way to keep my thermometer suspended in the center of the pot.

Floating butter islandse 

 The cool-down process took much longer than 45 minutes for me. It could be because I made a double batch and had more to cool, or the air flow in my kitchen, or the barometric pressure, who knows. I also didn't get the frosting to a "cool, thick, and creamy" state from beating alone. My hand beater was starting to overheat when I gave up and went to bed. The next day, my frosting was perfect frosting consistency! So, protip: you can let it sit overnight to achieve proper consistency after beating it a bit.

I sprinkled some sea salt on top to give them that extra special something. They turned out great, and I've even got some frosting left over to dip apples in.