life frosted

I've Moved!

2011-02-10T21:16:00.002-05:00

Hello to all my faithful readers (btw, you're really faithful if you're still visiting my blog). Sad news - this blog will no longer be updated.

GOOD NEWS - I've moved to: http://teatrosweets.blogspot.com

You can find the same things you've been seeing on this blog... and more! Hope to see you there :)

I love bread.

2010-10-12T22:24:00.005-04:00

I know. I'ts been awhile. But I want to say thank you to everyone who keeps asking me when my next blog post is coming. I'm amazed, every single time, somebody tells me they read my blog. It's people like you that keep this blog alive! Muchos gracias.

I'm currently going through a "loaf phase". I love making ~~bread~~ cake in a loaf pan. I swear it tastes better when you bake it in a loaf pan vs. a cake pan or muffin tin. Maybe because there's less crust? I wrap each individually and freeze them so I can take it with me to work for breakfast. Beacuse cake for breakfast... is the best.

What do you eat almond butter with? The only thing I know to eat it with is celery and there has been no celery in my fridge for quite some time. That means a tub of freshly ground almond butter from the farmer's market was sitting there going to waste. So, as with most ingredients that I don't know what to do with, I looked for a way to incorporate into something baked.

I came across several almond butter cake recipes online, but the one that stood out the most was David Lebovitz's. Simple, straightforward, and elegant.

My only complaint would be that it was a little too greasy and it fell slightly in the middle. The recipe called for 1 cup of butter and I used 3/4 cup. Next time I'm going to cut it down to 1/2 cup. Aside from that it was moist and delicious. Especially scrumptuous paired with fruit.

I felt a little cheated when I spied Whitney looking off a recipe during an episode of Master Chef. I know they're amateurs and the dishes they have to cook aren't easy... but still. I will give her kudos though for winning since she is only 22 years old and her desserts were absolutely, hands-down amazing.

One September afternoon I was feeling particularly ambitious, having made dozens of chocolate cakes in the past, and decided to experiment instead of following a recipe.

Success:
1. Just the right balance of leavener to make the cake rise.
2. The right ratio of fat to flour to make it moist.
3. Just enough cocoa and chocolate for a rich chocolate taste.

Failure:
1. Trying to make it healthier by cutting back on the amount of sugar (motivated by my recent visit to the dentist). Failure, with a capital "F". Chocolate cake that is not sweet does that have the right to be called chocolate cake. I will call this "chocolate bread". It was still good enough that, between DY and I, we finished the whole loaf. This recipe needs some tweaking before posting. Coming soon!

There is a chocolate chip pumpkin loaf baking in my oven as we speak. It is making my kitchen smell wonderful - like Fall! Stay tuned...

Best Blueberry Lemon Muffins

2010-08-30T00:32:00.006-04:00

You know what type of recipes I love? The ones that:

1. You can make using one bowl (because anyone that knows me knows I absolutely loathe doing the dishes).

2. All the ingredients you need are already in your pantry/fridge.

3. Turn out delicioso!

I went on a blueberry buying splurge a few weeks ago when they were piled high at the market and stashed them away in the freezer. Completely forgot about them until I was clearing out my freezer to make room for the bags (and bags) of food I brought back from Korea for my mom.

DY and I are hopelessly jetlagged and found ourselves famished at 2am yesterday. I was craving some carbs so I crossed my fingers and went hunting around my pantry and fridge in hopes of gathering enough ingredients to whip up some blueberry muffins. I didn't have milk so replaced it with vanilla yogurt and thus reduced the amount of sugar. I had to up the amount of blueberries to even make a dent in my blueberry stash so the standard blueberry to batter ratio was a bit skewed - but the batter was nice and thick so it did a good job of preventing the blueberries from sinking to the bottom while baking.

The result: super-moist, not-too-sweet, bursting with blueberries, a hint of lemon, a thin delicate crust, and a perfectly shaped dome of a muffin. Mmm mm.

They were so good that only 3 out of the 10 survived for their photo shoot.

Blueberry Lemon Muffins

INGREDIENTS
* 1/3 cup sugar
* 5 tbsp of butter
* 1 egg
* 3/4 cup of vanilla yogurt
* 1 tsp lemon zest
* 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
* 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
* 1/4 tsp baking soda
* 1/4 tsp salt
* 1 - 1 1/2 cups fresh or frozen blueberries

DIRECTIONS
1. Pre-heat oven to 375 degree. Spray muffin pan with non-stick spray.
2. Beat butter and sugar with electric mixer until smooth and fluffy.
3. Add egg and beat on high speed until well blended, then mix in yogurt and lemon zest.
4. Sift half of the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients and beat until smooth.
5. Sift in the rest of the dry ingredients and mix only until flour disappears.
6. Bake for 20 minutes or until tops are golden and a toothpick comes out clean.

Makes 10 muffins.

I'm Baaaaack!

2010-08-27T01:10:00.002-04:00

Where has the summer gone? I can't believe I haven't posted anything in over 2 months! It has been a busy summer filled with good food, good people, and good travels. Instead of trying to catch up on posts, let's summarize. Get ready for a long one folks.

I love baking for other people. Not only does it prevent me from feeling a little too doughy around the midsection, I love being able to be a part of or contribute to a celebration. These cupcakes were for a rather important celebration - friend requested cupcakes for his proposal!

Those are chocolate and vanilla cupcakes with the most decadent chocolate fudge frosting that I promise to share with you in the near future. Topped with pearl dragees and some caramelized sugar.

Congrats S+M!

One of my very first posts were cupcakes made for Miss. Ellie when she was just born. Our dear

Ellie is now 1, which also means this blog is more than a year old! How time flies.

I made these mini cupcakes for Ellie's Hawaiian-themed birthday celebration. Happy 1st, Ellie!

Part of my summer (and one of my excuses for not blogging in forever) was spent in Korea. That country has come a long way - so much culture, creativity, and progression. There is so much to do, see, and eat there. I shall see you again soon, Seoul. To make up for going AWOL, here are some tidbits from my trip that I'd like to share with you:

I should probably sleep now if I'm ever going to get over my jet lag. Goodnight! Talk to you again soon.

Samoas Squares

2010-06-14T18:48:00.001-04:00

That thing was as sweet and rich as it looks. I have to admit, making these samoas were quite the commitment. And eating them was even more of a commitment. If you're craving something sweet, then these are for you.

The best part of these samoas was that coconut/caramel topping. I dipped my finger in for a taste and then scooped out about half a cup into a seperate bowl, plopped down in front of the TV, and ate it with a spoon while waiting for the cookie part to finish baking. It was that good.

I think I could have probably stopped right here:

The cookie (which is essentially a shortbread) topped with the coconut caramel was good enough on its own. But I figured since I had come this far along, I should just finish them off.

The recipe actually calls for you to dip the bottom of the cookie into melted chocolate and then drizzle on top but since the caramel already made it so sweet, I just drizzled. Use your own discretion!

Recipe here! Thanks Baking Bites.

This One Is For You.

2010-06-10T21:06:00.027-04:00

This blog is for Anna, Becky, and Janet (and all my other loyal readers). The ones who recently asked, in one way or another, "Where is lifefrosted?" Thanks for keeping me accountable.

Unfortunately I don't really have a good reason for being gone for so long. Work has been keeping me busy... I guess that's a good excuse, just not an interesting one. Well, I made the pictures bigger for you all. All the more to drool!

This is one of the cakes I made for DY's birthday, almost a month ago! Made 3 in total that week. This one is just a basic chocolate layer cake, but the best thing about this particular cake was the icing. Swiss Meringue Buttercream. Really good. I think it's now my go-to vanilla icing. Not too sweet and the fluffy texture was delectable. Highly recommended.

*That recipe below is based off Smitten Kitchen's, I just cut out about half the amount of butter so it had more of a whipped meringue-y texture rather than a thick buttercream (tastes a lot lighter too!).

Swiss Meringue Buttercream

INGREDIENTS
* 1 cup sugar
* 1.5 cups of butter
* 4 egg whites
* 1/2 tsp vanilla

DIRECTIONS
1. Whisk egg whites and sugar together in a saucepan over low heat until the sugar has dissolved.
2. Whip the sugar/egg whites mixture in a stand mixer until it forms stiff peaks, then add in the vanilla
3. Add in the butter, a couple tablespoons at a time.

The icing will deflate a bit and look like it's curdling once you add the butter. Don't panic! Just keep whipping and it will come together beautifully.

Better Than Second Cup

2010-04-24T12:02:00.010-04:00

I'm sorry Second Cup, but these raspberry white chocolate scones were better than yours. Seriously, some of the best scones I've ever had... thanks to Martha Stewart!

I had a dream the other night that I was eating a white chocolate raspberry scone from Second Cup and of course, I woke up craving one. Too bad for me, there is no Second Cup in the States. But what do you know... that morning in my mailbox was my new edition of Everyday Food magazine and this month's theme: raspberries! And on page 24 was a recipe for "Fast Raspberry Scones".

Back in the day when I was a barista at Second Cup, they used to let us have one pastry/baked good per shift. I remember I used to eye the pastry shelves to make sure there was still a raspberry white chocolate scone left by my breaktime. And then I was so exicted when breaktime came and my scone was sitting there untouched. The little things that make you happy :)

You know that feeling when you bite into something and it immediately satisfies your craving? These scones were so good. Especially when they were still warm and flaky...mmmm... Same taste as the Second Cup scones, but better texture. Also, super-easy to make. In fact, I'm going to go make another batch as soon as I post this because DY and I already scarfed down the first.

FYI: I didn't have any milk in the house but really wanted to make these so when I went hunting around in my pantry for a milk-substitute, I found... coconut milk. I'm not sure if it was the coconut milk that made these scones so good but if you have some in your house, I recommend using that in place of regular milk. This also means you need to work quickly with the dough because coconut milk is not cold so if you knead too much, you'll end up with a sticky blob that is unworkable. Or, I guess you could always just stick the coconut milk in the fridge overnight?

Alright, enough blabbing... here's the recipe!

Raspberry White Chocolate Scones
adapted from Everyday Food magazine

INGREDIENTS
* 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for work surface
* 1/4 cup sugar
* 1 tbsp baking powder
* 3/4 tsp salt
* 1/2 cup (1 stick) cold unsalted butter (make sure it's cold!)
* 3/4 cup of buttermilk (I used 1 tbsp vinegar mixed with 1 cup coconut milk, and just measure out 3/4 cup of that mixture)
* a handful of white chocolate chips (not in the original recipe but it's just not the same without them)

DIRECTIONS
1. Pre-heat oven to 400F. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper.
2. In a food processor, pulse together flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. Add butter in chunks and pulse until pea-size pieces form.
3. Whisk together coconut milk mixture and egg yolk. Slowly pour the mixture through feed tube into processor, pulsing until dough just comes together.
4. Transfer dough to a lightly floured work surface and sprinkle raspberries and white chocolate chips on top. Knead three times to fold in raspberries. Gather and pat dough into a ball and place heaping spoonfuls about 2 inches apart on the baking sheet.
5. Bake 18-20 minutes, or until golden brown on top. Let scones cool slightly. Serve warm or at room temperature. Store in an airtight container, after they've completely cooled and formed a nice crust,up to 1 day.

Makes 12 scones.

Instant Caramel Corn

2010-04-18T17:41:00.018-04:00

3 reasons to make caramel popcorn:
1. I was craving Kernel's "double double" (which, as far as I know, you can only find in Canada).
*Wait. I am mistaken. There is apparently one in California and the head office is in Korea... why does that not surprise me? :)
2. DY was studying for finals and needed an energy booster.
3. A growing stack of instant popcorn in my pantry that I wanted to get rid of.

This recipe was so easy that it doesn't even deserve a recipe box. Actually, I messed up the first batch so maybe it's not that easy. But if you follow the directions and tips below, you'll be fine :)

Directions:
1. Spray a large baking sheet and an even larger mixing bowl with cooking oil.
2. Pop one bag of instant popcorn and pour into the mixing bowl (optional: mix in peanuts or pecans or whatever nut you desire).
3. Melt 1.5 tbsps of butter with 1.5 cups of sugar over medium heat until it becomes a nice golden color *see tips below
4. Take the butter/sugar mixture off the heat and add 1/2 a heaping tsp of baking soda (it will froth up so make sure you use a big enough saucepan).
5. Quickly pour the mixture over the popcorn (it's ok if you can't get all the sauce to come out of the pan, trust me you won't need it all) and using a non-stick spatula, mix the popcorn around in the caramel sauce.
6. Pour the popcorn onto the baking sheet and seperate into small pieces.

Some tips I highly suggest you take the time to read and follow!
1. Use the lightly salted/buttered popcorn. Or, use plain and add about 1/2 tsp of salt to your caramel mixture before pouring over popcorn.
2. Remove the unpopped kernels from the rest of the popcorn before mixing in the caramel. I know it sounds tedious, but trust me you will be thankful for it. I didn't do this and nearly took a tooth out when chomping down on a cluster with a kernel in it.
3. Closely monitor step 3 (melting butter/sugar mixture) because it will happen quickly... if your mixture becomes any shade of brown, it's too late. Try again. This was where I messed up the first time!

And, viola! Caramel corn :) Enjoy.

The Brown Speckles

2010-03-30T19:44:00.006-04:00

Brown speckles = over-ripe bananas. I'm already semi-allergic to bananas so when I try to eat an over-ripe banana... it's not pretty. Red, swollen lips and itchy everywhere. I don't even know why I attempted to eat one...

So, what do you do when you have a basket-full of brown-speckled bananas? Why, make banana muffins of course! In this case banana caramel chocolate chip muffins. I was literally cleaning out my pantry with this baking project.

Oh.My.Gosh. These banana muffins were so good! In fact, for some reason, they tasted even better the next day. I've been sort of obsessed with Smitten Kitchen's blog recently. It replaced Simply Recipes as my "go-to" place for recipes. So after seeing my brown-speckled bananas, I went to Smitten Kitchen for a banana bread recipe... and then promptly felt a wave of guilt for abandoning Simply Recipes because Smitten Kitchen just happened to use a banana bread recipe from Simply Recipes. Heh heh...

Stick to this tried-and-true recipe and do not make any changes. Well, unless you're going to add a handful of mini chocolate chips and caramel pieces, of course :)

Baked With Love

2010-03-26T19:10:00.000-04:00

I got a request from my little cousin Ester at UCSD for some "Georgia" peach jam. I put "Georgia" in quotations because I hate to break it to you all but... it's not really from Georgia. It's actually made in Maryland! My mom was the one who started the rave over this peach jam. She would buy some and take it to friends and family all over the world saying it's from Georgia. Being from Toronto and buying it at the farmer's market in Atlanta, it was only natural to think it was made in Georgia. But McCutcheon's fooled us all. Anyway, it doesn't make it taste any less delicious!

Do you remember what it was like to be back in college? Away from home... late study nights... admittedly, the memories are becoming a little fuzzier for me (how sad) BUT I do remember how happy I was to get care packages from my sister.

So, I decided turn Ester's jam request into a care package and baked her some chocolate almond biscotti. Triple chocolate almond biscottis (cocoa + chocolate chips + dunked in white chocolate). You know, to keep her buzzing during those late nights. They were a tad sweeter than your normal biscotti but perfect to dunk in plain black coffee or espresso! And plain almond biscotti's are so... boring.

Only mistake was that I mailed them just as spring break was starting so they were stale by the time she got back to school. Oops. Fresh biscotti coming for you soon my dear!

[I cannot for the life of me remember where I got this recipe from! I'm searching...]

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

2010-03-17T18:57:00.003-04:00

I don't know why I feel so festive on St. Patrick's Day. Not Irish, not a drinker, not a leprechaun. I don't know. Maybe it's because it's JB oppa's birthday. Or maybe because I like seeing redheads (after hearing that they're starting to go extinct). Or maybe because I'm a Celtics fan... Ok, I obviously have nothing important to say so I'll just finish this post with some pictures of my mini St. Patty cupcakes!

Reyna's birthday cupcakes! I include them here because they were green :)

And the winner is...

2010-03-08T17:32:00.016-05:00

Sandra Bullock! How many of you were happy that Sandra Bullock won best actress and Avatar did NOT win best picture or director? I sure was. I think the Academy finally got it right this time.

My friend, Esther, hosted an Oscar viewing party yesterday and I decided to take some Chocolate Mocha Shortbread Wedges, courtesy of 'Martha Stewart's Cookies' recipe book. (thanks, Dorothy!)

Not only were they super-easy to make with minimal number of ingredients, but they are a step closer to my ultimate baking goal: macaroons. I figured I'd go from cupcakes to cookies to meringues and then macaroons. I've just heard so many horror stories about people attempting to make macaroons that I feel like I should prepare myself.

Now, I'm not really a shortbread fan but I AM a chocolate and espresso fan so I thought I'd give these a shot. The chocolate and mocha flavors really come through, masking the otherwise greasy buttery flavor that most shortbreads have. But you still get that delicate and flaky crumb so, the best of both worlds!

*Be sure you use good quality espresso and cocoa, it makes all the difference. I used Igauca espresso from Brazil, my favorite for baking.

Chocolate Mocha Shortbread Wedges
from Martha Stewart's Cookies

INGREDIENTS
* 1/2 cup plus 3 tbsps all-purpose flour
* 1/4 cup unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder
* Pinch of salt
* 2 tsps good quality instant espresso powder
* 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature
* 1/2 cup confectioner's sugar, plus more for dusting

DIRECTIONS
1. Pre-heat oven to 350F. Line an 8-inch round cake pan with parchment paper.
2. Sift together flour, cocoa powder, and salt. Stir in espresso.
3. In an electric mixer fitted with the paddle atachment, beat butter on medium speed until pale and creamy. Add confectioners' sugar, and beat well. Add flour mixture, and beat on low speed until well-combined.
4. Pat dough evenly into pan. Bake 20 minutes, or until puffed at the edges and dark all over the top. Remove from oven, and let sit 5 minutes; then cut into 12 wedges. Let cool completely on a rack. Sprinkle with confectioners' sugar just before serving.

Makes 12 wedges.

I Need a Cake Lesson.

2010-01-31T23:11:00.002-05:00

C&E was hosting yet again. That's what happens when you have a movie theater in your house :) Thought I would take a cake this time, instead of cupcakes, to switch it up!

My friend Dahee, in Korea, made a comment the other day that made me realize... I haven't made a carrot cake in awhile! I think I've mentioned it before but the first cake I ever mastered was a carrot-pineapple cake. With all these cupcake orders recently, I haven't had a chance to make this lately.

Unfortunately I could not find my hardcopy of this recipe anywhere! There is a version typed up in my old laptop that promptly died after showing me the blue screen of death. So unless I can find it somewhere in my emails... it is lost forever (Dahee, do you have a copy?). So, I resported to the next best thing: Simply Recipes. It wasn't as moist as my version, but after topping it with a very basic cream cheese frosting = cream cheese + butter + powdered sugar (resist the urge to add extracts/milk/etc.!), it was perfect.

A good tip: if you line your cake pans with wax paper (greased), they'll flip out nice & clean.

Another good tip: Put something (be it wax paper, tin foil, newspaper... anything) under your cooling racks. I didn't and the oil/heat/moisture from the cake got all over my wood surface and left great, big, ugly white heat stains :*(

This is why I need a cake lesson. What happened to all my frosting in the middle? Everytime I try to make a layered cake, the frosting in the middle disappears. I even waited until it was completely cooled. Is carrot cake too moist to have a middle layer of frosting? Hmm... tips, please!

1st Wedding Order

2010-01-23T17:19:00.010-05:00

I got this order through a friend of a friend. I have to say I'm meeting a lot of new people doing this cupcake thing, which is pretty cool. I'm also realizing how labor-intensive it is. I love baking and it's one of my best stress relievers, but trying to make 200 cupcakes by yourself with a deadline is actually quite stressful. In the end-- after messing up 3 batches of cupcakes, sending DY out to buy more ingredients (twice!), and turning my kitchen upside down -- it got done and delivered. And that's allllll that matters :)

After the bride's tasting (yes, you get a free tasting for orders over 100!), she decided on red velvet and mint chocolate. I tried out a new red velvet recipe (again) but this time, I really think I found The One, thanks to Amanda at Fake Ginger. I actually stumbled across this recipe while googling "Mark Ingram" (c'mon, after his Heisman Trophy speech, who wasn't a fan?). She was making red cupcakes in honor of the National Championship game. How cute.

I've tried out several red velvet recipes but this one has just the right degree of moistness and mild chocolatey flavor. Just make sure you don't overbake or else it can get a bit crumbly...

Now onto the actual wedding cupcakes. One tip about making large quantities of cupcakes: make enough frosting. It is the most annoying thing to run out when you have just 3 or 4 cupcakes left to frost. I need another KitchenAid... maybe a professional one this time.

Oh, and I finally finished my Nama Rococo paintings! I absolutely adore her wallpaper prints but $180 for each 25x38 sheet... well, it was just cheaper to paint it myself!

How Sweet.

2010-01-20T21:40:00.011-05:00

I got a call from one of my friends who wanted a dozen custom cupcakes for his girlfriend's birthday. Awww... how sweet :)

Basically my only orders were to put specific letters on the cupcakes. I wanted to try making fondant letters but when I went to buy some fondant they were out (and I wasn't bold enough nor did I have enough time to try making my own fondant). So, next best thing... Wilton candy melts and chocolate. I melted and cooled the candy melts and chocolate, spread it out on some wax paper and cut out circular shapes with a mini cookie cutter. Then, spelled out the letters with frosting.

I was trying to make the Tiffany's blue color for the icing but didn't really work out. I quickly realized that I didn't have the right shade of blue and green to start off with. Darn. Don't ask me why but whenever I think of a boy giving a girl something... I picture a Tiffany's blue box! Did you know that the "Tiffany Blue" color is protected as a color trademark by Tiffany & Co.? Nice.

After much trial & error, I've learned a lot about buttercream. I noticed that most recipes out there call for way too much powdered sugar. Also, the temperature that your butter starts off at and how long you're mixing for is pretty important if you're going for a specific consistency. And as always use good & pure vanilla. Happy baking!

Apples & Persimmons

2010-01-19T20:01:00.000-05:00

What do you do when you have a fridge chock-full of apples and persimmons? Why, make muffins of course! There is nothing better than having warm, fresh muffins for breakfast. You can also freeze these in little ziploc bags for those days when you're literally running out the door for work. Perfect!

I got the recipe from "Fat Girl Trapped in a Skinny Body". The only change was that I added a cup of chopped Braeburn apples because my persimmons weren't quite ripe so I wanted to add a bit more sweetness... plus I had too many apples in my fridge. These were realllly good, especially if you like muffins that are moist, not too sweet, fruity, and spicy. I ate FOUR in one sitting...

I'm Baaaaack!!!

2010-01-18T19:30:00.001-05:00

Hello all my faithful readers! Not sure how many of you there are out there but I know there are at least a handful so this is for you.

I can't believe it's been more than a month since my last post. And I can't believe it's two thousand and TEN! I've done plenty of baking (so get ready for a slew of posts in the next couple of days!) but along with that I was travelling for the holidays and work has been insane (H1N1 + anthrax in NH & Scotland + Haiti EQ) = no blogging. What's happened & still happening in Haiti is just heartbreaking. Have I mentioned how much I admire Dr. Sanjay Gupta? I know DY has heard it enough ;) Next time I see Sanjay I'm going to get over my star-struckness and say hi.

But I've found a quiet moment to finally upload some pictures and blog!

Let's start with some photos of cupcakes I made for Sutra Lounge's 5th Anniversary Party back in the beginning of December. I made 4 of my most popular cupcakes: mint chocolate, red velvet, caramel, and cookies 'n cream. Tried a new vanilla buttermilk cake recipe from A Whisk and a Spoon and LOVED it (don't get scared by the amount of eggs!). They rose up beautifully.

And you gotta make some gingerbread over the holidays, right? I think I actually like the smell of gingerbread more than the taste. I am a firm believer in baking just to make your house smell nice. Probably not the most efficient way to get a yummy smelling home, but it always works! I got this gingerbread recipe from Elise at Simply Recipes. Her recipes never disappoint.

How festive!

Mickey Lynn, Part II

2009-12-05T20:38:00.018-05:00

Remember the jewelry designer, Mickey Lynn, that I talked about in a previous post? I met her when I made cupcakes for my friend's event that she hosted at Mickey's gallery. Well, Mickey was nice enough to call on me again for her holiday gala. I love going to TULA... it's so inspiring.

The only two requests that Mickey made was that they were mini and to make some mint chocolate. So, to complete the holiday theme I made mini red velvets with cream cheese frosting, topped with a candied pecan.

I wasn't happy with the way my red velvet cupcakes turned out the last time I made them so I decided to try a new recipe I got from Joy the Baker. Yum, that one is a keeper.

Even though it's starting to get COLD I'm so happy that Christmas is just around the corner! I'm one of those people who actually loves the Christmas music that is on the radio, 24/7 (my favorite is 'Christmas Eve Sarajevo' by the Trans-Siberian Orchestra). This is definitely my most favorite holiday of the year. Can't wait to see my family, eat good food, and just relaaaaaaax :)

Thanksgiving!

2009-12-02T22:06:00.002-05:00

Sorry for the lack of blogging lately! I've been so busy trying to settle into our new place. It's finally coming along though. I must say, I love baking in my new kitchen. House-warming party soon...?

It still feels weird to celebrate Thanksgiving in November and on a Thursday (us Canadians celebrate Thanksgiving Monday in October). Anyway, regardless of when, it's nice to have a day in the year that is solely devoted to just being thankful.

I made a Caramel-Espresso cake for our church's Thanksgiving dinner. Basically I used my go-to devil's food cake recipe but upped the amount of espresso and then topped with a caramel frosting... before it was fully cooled, as you can probably tell from my photo down there. We were late!

Win a Cupcake Tower!

2009-11-16T01:07:00.000-05:00

These things are more expensive than you'd think... and as with most things in life, presentation is key!

The Cupcake Activist is giving away a cupcake tower! Click here to enter and check out her blog, it's one of my favs :)

I Am Such an Amateur.

2009-11-14T11:10:00.004-05:00

A handful of disasters... eventually led to a happy ending. That is how I would sum up the way things went last week. I had a cupcake order for Jamie's 8th birthday party. I was told "horses and pink", other than that the design was pretty much up to me. It was a day before we moved into our new place but I could not say no to this request because Jamie was one of my favorite kids at our old church. Adorable, spunky, and bright. That's how I would sum this girl up!

Disaster #1: Horse garnishes.
A couple weeks ago I did some research on horse-themed cupcakes and found the cutest horse garnish design. I was so excited to make them, but my amateur mistake was not doing a trial run. I planned to make them out of royal icing but I'm still not so great at getting the right consistency to pipe royal icing shapes. I made my first batch of royal icing, spread out my wax paper, prepared my piping bag and was ready to get to work. The first squeeze of the piping bag, and I knew I was in trouble. The consistency of the icing was way too thin and it didn't hold a shape at all. So, I threw out that batch and tried another one. This time it was too thick, it wouldn't come out of the piping bag. At this point, I was exasperated and having a mini-meltdown. Sat down and put my head in my hands for a bit... Then, did some more research and decided maybe I should try using chocolate since you don't have to actually make it, just melt it. Well, what would you know... it's not that easy getting chocolate to the right temperature to pipe shapes either! So then, I decided that I would just spread out the chocolate, wait until it cools, and then use a cookie mold to cut out shapes. Obviously, being the amateur that I am, I didn't have a horse-shaped mold so I used a flower-shaped mold + a paring knife and voila! A horse head. FINALLY. I started to feel more comfortable with the chocolate so I used white chocolate to pipe on the horse's hair and decided to be brave and try one last batch of royal icing for the eyes, nose, and bit. God must have felt sorry for me up there, because this batch was finally the right consistency! I really hope Jamie and her friends were able to tell it was a horse.

Disaster #2: "Uhm, where's all my baking stuff?"
I'm not sure what I was thinking last week when I packed up my KitchenAid and cupcake pans and moved them to our new place, when I knew I had to do the baking for this order at our old place. I got all my ingredients out and then realized I had NOTHING to bake with. At least this one was an easy fix.

Disaster #3: Trying a new recipe for an order.
Although it's a great feeling when you try a new recipe and it turns out awesome, I have come to learn you should not try something new when you have a deadline. I'm sure the chocolate cake recipe from "Smitten Kitchen" is wonderful when you follow it correctly, but it sure isn't great when you put 2 TABLEspoons of baking soda instead of 2 TEAspoons like the recipe says. I have no idea why I used 2 TBSP of baking soda... that is a red flag right there. So, needless to say my first batch overflowed and spilled all over the bottom of my oven causing a smoke storm in there. I still hadn't figured out what was wrong so I put in a second batch but with less batter in the cups (thinking that was the problem the first time around... duh). Same thing happened. Argh. So, I sat down and had my second mini-meltdown trying to think where I went wrong. I haven't had such bad baking experiences since... well, never. Finally it struck me... the baking soda! Oh goodness. So I went back to my tried, tested, and true chocolate cake recipe (after I made a second run to the grocery store since I used up all my cocoa and chocolate in the first batch), and it turned out... perfect. Phew.

Thank goodness the frosting was on my side that day! I don't think I could have handled any more disasters...

But, in the end, I am thankful for this opportunity! I got some good experience and, in hindsight, it was fun! Like they say: you live, you learn and all's well that end's well :) Thanks Kate!

Satisfying a Craving

2009-10-21T18:52:00.007-04:00

Kahi was craving my mint chocolate cupcakes. I got off work early + I will see her tonight = baking!

This flavor seems to be a favorite for a lot of people. I think it's that combination of a dark chocolate cake with a cool mint frosting. YumYum. I halved the cupcake recipe but didn't think to halve the frosting recipe (duh) so I decided to just mound on the frosting. Surprisingly, everyone ate all the frosting (usually you see people scrape off half of it when it's piled on too high). And it looked so pretty piled up like that, I think that I may have to keep doing this!

Recipes are here. Enjoy!

Found a Good One

2009-10-05T23:59:00.012-04:00

I've been using my devil's food cake recipe for most of my chocolate cupcakes but wanted to find another good one since the devil's food cake has coffee in it (not so good for the kiddies). I found an awesome one in Alisa Huntsman's "Sky High: Irresistable Triple-Layer Cakes". The sour cream makes it moist and dense, which I think works for a chocolate cake (not so much for vanilla).

In my most recent "Everyday Food" magazine the feature was on caramel. Yum. So I whipped up a batch a few days ago and decided to put some in my frosting. Ended up with caramel cream cheese frosting on a yummy new chocolate cake. Don't take these guys out of the oven until they are fully baked or else they will sink!

Took a lot of photos this time... so here are a few more that will hopefully make you drool*

Yaaawn. It is getting late. I'm tired and can't think of anything witty to say. Haha, not that I am a very witty person to begin with :) Will post recipes tomorrow! Sorry for the delay...
Goodnight everyone. Dream good dreams.

Brain Food

2009-09-28T21:03:00.007-04:00

DY has been pretty busy with school lately so I decided to bake some banana bread since it's good for a quick snack on the run. If you know DY personally, you will know he can burn calories by just breathing so when he's actually running around, he needs constant sustenance. Also, I was craving something sweet and moist :)

As usual, I overdosed on the chocolate chips. How come it doesn't look like there are a lot of chocolate chips when the batter is wet, but then after it bakes it's like a chocolate bomb in there? I guess I just need to restrain myself and actually stick with the amount of chocolate the recipe calls for and not... double it. Haha. At least the pecans sort of offset the chocolatey-ness. I highly recommend putting nuts in bread. It gives it a nice crunch. I'm a texture person.

Banana Bread w/ Chocolate Chips & Pecans
adapted from Simply Recipes

INGREDIENTS
* 3 large ripe bananas, mashed
* 1/3 cup melted butter
* 3/4 cup sugar
* 1 egg, beaten
* 1 tsp vanilla
* 1 tsp baking soda
* pinch of salt
* 1 1/2 cups flour
* 1/2 cup chopped pecans
* 1/3 cup chocolate chips

DIRECTIONS
1. Pre-heat oven to 350F
2. Using a wooden spoon, mix butter into mashed bananas
3. Mix in sugar, egg, and vanilla
4. Sprinkle baking soda and salt above mixture and mix in
5. Add flour last, mix (don't overmix!)
6. Fold in chocolate chips and pecans
8. Pour batter into an 8x4" breadpan and bake for 50 min - 1 hour

Jewelry, Wine & Cupcakes!

2009-09-25T16:21:00.017-04:00

My first event! I made 150 mini cupcakes for an Atlanta Gspots event at Mickey Lynn's studio. Atlanta Gspots is my friend Grace's blooming business. The website is still in the works but you can visit Atlanta Gspots on facebook. If you've ever wasted time trying to figure out where to eat, you need Atlanta Gspots :)

It was an absolute pleasure meeting Mickey Lynn last night. She is incredibly talented and her jewelry is oh-so beautiful and unique. Check out her website, her line is carried in several stores nationwide and have been worn on many celebrities and TV shows. I spent a good chunk of my time last night wandering around her studio making mental notes of birthday, anniversay, and Christmas gifts DY can buy me! I also fell in love with TULA Art Center. How great would it be to have a studio in there... wishful thinking, for now :)

I had initially planned to make 4 different types of cupcakes, but being the amateur baker that I am, only 3 flavors made it to the event. My red velvet cupcakes came out too dry so all 60 of 'em went down the trash. I'm noticing that I'm becoming more and more picky about my cupcakes and if they don't measure up, I can't bear to have others eat them. So, I ended up with: devil's food cake topped with cream cheese icing (recipe below), vanilla cake topped with chocolate truffle icing (recipes below), and my mint chocolate cupcakes.

My super-talented graphic designer friend, Christina, drew my logo (can't see it very well in the photos but it will be my blog header soon!) If you saw the sad sketch I drew of what I envisioned my logo to look like and then saw the finished product, you'd understand how good she is.

A couple nights before the event, I experimented with royal icing. I never knew how versatile that stuff was! Will definitely be making more use of it for my cupcake garnishes in the future. I made a HUGE batch, not knowing you only really need half a cup to make like 50 mini cupcake garnishes so I spent a good portion of the Colts/Dolphins game piping away... much to my hand's dismay.

White Vanilla Cupcakes
adapted from Sugar Cooking

INGREDIENTS
* 2 1/4 cups cake flour
* 1 tbsp baking powder
* 1/2 tsp salt
* 1 1/4 cups buttermilk (1 tbsp lemon juice + milk to total 1 cup)
* 4 large egg whites
* 1 1/2 cups sugar
* 8 tbsp butter
* 1/2 tsp salt
* 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

DIRECTIONS
1. Pre-heat oven to 350F
2. Whisk together milk and egg whites in a mixing bowl
3. Mix together flour and salt in a seperate bowl
4. Beat butter and sugar at medium speed until light and fluffy
5. Beat in vanilla extract and 1/3 of flour mixture
6. Mix in half of the milk-egg mixture (still on medium speed) and then half of the remaining flour mixture
7. Add rest of milk-egg mixture and beat until incorporated
8. Mix in remaining flour mixture and beat for 2 minutes
9. Fill cupcake liners 3/4 full (these don't rise too much) and bake for 18 min.

Makes two dozen mini cupcakes.

Chocolate Truffle Frosting
adapted from Baked Cookbook

INGREDIENTS
* 12 oz good quality chopped chocolate (I used a mix of semisweet and bittersweet)
* 1 cup heavy cream
* 1 1/2 tbsp corn syrup (gives it a nice shine)
* 1 cup butter

DIRECTIONS
1. Bring cream to a boil in a saucepan, turn off heat
2. Add corn syrup to boiling cream
3. Pour the cream mixture on top of chopped chocolate and let stand for a couple minutes; then whisk smooth
4. Pour chocolate mixture into a mixing bowl
5. Gradually add butter by the tbsp until well incorporated
6. Refridgerate frosting for about 15 minutes until it becomes the right consistency to frost your cupcakes

Mmmarscapone

2009-09-17T20:32:00.026-04:00

If you like moist, you have met your match.

Mmm, this muffin was gooood. DY, who is NOT a sweets-person, gobbled down the first one and then yelled from upstairs, "CAN I HAVE ANOTHER ONE?" :)

Marscapone was on sale at the grocery store so I decided to buy some even though I've never baked with it before. All I know is that those marscapone fruit tarts from the Farmer's Market are darn good. Also Giada is constantly raving about it on all her shows. The marscapone gave this muffin such a nice, light, and moist texture (can't you just picture Giada saying that with her trademark hand gestures? *smirk*) .

I folded in some white chocolate chips I needed to get rid of (I bought a bag thinking I didn't have any at home and then discovered two already opened, 1/2 full bags in my pantry). I think this muffin recipe would go really well with blueberries or raspberries too, though.

White Chocolate Marscapone Muffins
from justJENN

INGREDIENTS
* 8 oz marscapone cheese, softened
* 1/2 cup butter
* 1 egg, room temperature
* 1/2 cup milk
* 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
* 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
* 1/2 cup sugar
* 3 tsp baking powder
* 1/2 tsp salt
* 1/2 cup white chocolate chips

DIRECTIONS
1. Pre-heat oven to 350F
2. Beat marscapone and butter until fluffy
3. Beat in egg, milk, and vanilla
4. Combine flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt and slowly add to wet mixture (*be careful not to overmix)
5. Fold in white chocolate chips (or whatever else your heart desires)
6. Fill muffin liners 3/4 full and bake for 20 minutes

Makes one dozen muffins.

Red, Red Velvet

2009-09-16T15:41:00.009-04:00

After eating Little Cake's red velvet, I started to feel ambitious and thought, "maybe I can make a red velvet this good..." So, I pulled out my trusty red velvet cupcake recipe, tweaked my cream cheese frosting a bit and... well, not so much. It was still quite tasty but I just cannot wrap my brain around how in the world her icing is so light, fluffy, not-too-sweet, and not-too-cream-cheesy. I've been having issues with cream cheese frosting lately. I don't like that over-powering cream cheese taste but to offset that you need to add sugar right? But then it gets too sweet. A conundrum. If anyone has any tips, please please share!

This red velvet cupcake recipe is a keeper though. But cut back a little on the red food coloring, apparently red velvet is supposed to look more like a "ruddy" red. At least that's what Nancy Olson says.

Here's some fun reading for you cupcake fans out there (or if you're just trying to satisfy your sweet tooth through staring at yummy photos during work): Gramercy Tavern’s Nancy Olson Rates New York’s Cupcakes

Not Mine.

2009-09-12T09:33:00.015-04:00

It's been awhile, eh? I've been super-busy at work (go away H1N1!) and travelling. No time for baking. But! I'm planning on doing some baking today. I promise.

For now, I will leave you with photos of deliciousness (not made by me) from the past couple of weeks.

Isn't it wonderful when someone (in my case, DY) brings home a surprise treat? Yesterday I was feeling worn out from the week and sprawled out on our couch and in walks DY who says, "I have a surprrrrrise for youuu." YES. Cupcakes from Little Cake! I have to say, the best cupcakes in Atlanta. The red velvet is to die for... her cream cheese frosting is magic.

Now onto some photos from home (Toronto). This is the best blueberry jam, made by my mom. I can't make jam like this. It's daunting.

Breakfast made by your mom is always the best, right? Chocolate chip waffles topped with strawberries, blueberry jam, and real Canadian maple syrup. YUM.

my personal waffle cooler:

Ok, and finally, some seriously tasty blueberry & thyme cupcakes made by Lily for Ally's bridal shower. ♥ Congrats Ally & Nic ♥

And the cutest dog EVER. Also, not mine. She's Ally's Samee.

Ok, time to bake! :)

Rooibos Chai

2009-09-01T16:30:00.021-04:00

I love tea. One of my favorite things to do when I visit home is to go to high tea with my mom & sister. If I could learn how to make those crumpets they serve at Royal York, I would be one happy baker. One of my favorite teas from Teavana is the Rooibos Chai so I decided to try and make a cupcake out of it.

These cupcakes were rich and dense (thanks the the condensed milk) but not chai-y enough. Next time I'm going to double the amount of tea and steep it longer... maybe add some chai spice to the batter too. I used a vanilla buttercream frosting, which paired well with the chai flavor.

These cupcake liners were the perfect size. My mom bought them for me at a japanese mall. They're sort of in between the size of a regular cupcake and a mini one. She also bought me these:

How precious :) They're so pretty that I don't want to use them! At least not until I can create a cupcake that is worthy of being baked in these cute little things.

Rooibos Chai Cupcakes
adapted from Couture Cupcakes

INGREDIENTS
* 1 cup all purpose flour
* 1/2 cup sugar
* 2 tbsp butter
* 2 eggs
* 2/3 cup plain yogurt
* 3 tbsp condensed milk
* 3 tbsp Teavana Rooibos Chai loose tea leaves
* 1/2 cup boiling water
* 1 tsp baking soda
* 1 tsp vanilla
* 1/4 tsp salt

DIRECTIONS
1. Mix condensed milk into boiling water. Steep tea for 10 minutes.
2. Pre-heat oven to 350F
3. Combine yogurt and baking soda, set aside.
4. Combine sugar, butter and egg yolks at high speed for 1 minute.
5. Add in yogurt mixture and mix just until combined
6. Alternately add flour and tea, beating on medium speed after each addition
7. Beat egg whites until they form stiff peaks and fold into batter (combine until there are no streaks)
8. Fill cupcake liners 1/2 full and bake for 20 minutes

Makes two dozen cupcakes.

Milk Pocky & Coffee Coque D'asse

2009-08-22T10:22:00.026-04:00

These cupcakes were inspired by a couple of my favorite gwaja ("cookie", in korean): Milk Pocky and Coffee Coque D'asse. A chocolate cake cupcake with condensed milk frosting, garnished with a sprinkle of cinnamon and a piece of coque d'asse.

I tried a new chocolate cupcake recipe. I liked them because they were very light and delicate (like coque d'asse!) but they sunk in the middle. I think it's because I filled them too high and I opened the oven door (twice, oops) while they were baking. Oh well, at least the good thing about cupcakes is that you can dress 'em up with frosting and hide any blemishes :)

Esh, the bad thing about baking at night is that there is bad lighting for taking photos.

Chocolate Cake Cupcakes
from The Better Homes & Garden Cookbook

INGREDIENTS
3/4 cups butter
3 eggs
2 cups all purpose flour
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder, sifted
1 1/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
2 cups sugar
2 tsp pure vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups milk

DIRECTIONS
1. Mix together flour, baking soda, salt, and cocoa powder. Set aside.
2. Pre-heat oven to 350F
3. Beat butter on high speed for 30 seconds
4. Gradually add sugar, 1/4 cup at a time, on medium speed until well combined. Scrape sides of bowl; beat 2 minutes
5. Add eggs one at a time, beating after each addition
6. Beat in vanilla
7. Alternately add flour mixture and milk to butter mixture, beating on low speed after each addition just until combined. Beat on high speed for 20 seconds more.
8. Fill cupcake liners 1/2 full and bake for 20 minutes

Condensed Milk Frosting

INGREDIENTS
1/2 cup butter, at room temperature
1 1/2 cups powered sugar
1/2 cup condensed milk
2 tsp pure vanilla extract
2 tsp meringue powder

DIRECTIONS
1. Beat butter at high speed until fluffy
2. Add in condensed milk, vanilla and 1/2 cup powdered sugar. Beat until smooth.
3. Add in meringue powder until well combined
3. Gradually add in remaining powdered sugar and beat on high speed until you get the right consistency

Makes two dozen cupcakes.

Blueberries & Lemon, Honey!

2009-08-18T17:07:00.028-04:00

I'm finally back! August was a busy month. Family visited and lots of traveling... which means that I am tanned, plump, and happy :) It also means that this will probably be a long post!

DY has been asking me for awhile now to make "fruity" cupcakes, something reminiscent of our wedding cake (vanilla with a pear buttercream). So, today I decided to make something fruity -- blueberry cupcakes with a lemon-honey frosting.

The cupcake turned out to be more like a muffin than a cake. Dense and not too sweet (I thought that was an unusually small amount of sugar to put in a cupcake batter!). But the frosting was pretty good. The honey and lemon juice offset the sweetness of your regular powdered sugar. So, I guess you could call this a semi-success. It's tough mastering fruity cupcakes...

I bought a really nice cupcake pan, like one of those heavy-duty metal ones. Good pans do make a difference! Unfortunately, I dropped it on my big toe today so now my toe is swollen, bloody, and purple. Joy.

And what might this be?

CRUMBS! My most favorite cupcakes in the world. No, they did not open a Crumbs in Atlanta (too bad) . The hubby brought 'em down for me from NYC. They had quite the journey:

8/14, 1pm
bought at Crumbs on Wall Street; walked 15 blocks to friend's apt; put in freezer
8/15, 9am
taken out of freezer; carried to bus stop; traveled to Baltimore; put back in freezer
8/15, 6pm
taken out of freezer; carried to airport for 7pm flight to Atlanta
8/15, 7pm
found out flight is delayed until 11:30pm; sat in airport chair for 4.5 hours
8/15, 11:30pm
finally on the plane to Atlanta
8/16, 1:30am
finally home; and they were still surprisingly delicious. thanks hon!

Blueberry Cupcakes
from Cooking Light

INGREDIENTS
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/8 tsp baking soda
1/4 cup butter
1 egg
1/2 cup buttermilk
1/2 2% milk
1/2 tsp lemon zest
3/4 cup blueberries tossed in 1 tbsp flour

DIRECTIONS
1. Mix together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and lemon rind in a bowl. Set aside.
2. Beat butter and sugar on medium speed until light and fluffy
3. Beat in vanilla and egg until well blended
4. Alternately add flour mixture, buttermilk, and 2% milk; ending with flour mixture (make sure to scrape down the sides of the mixing bowl during this step)
5. Fold in blueberries
6. Bake at 350F for 20min

Lemon-Honey Frosting

INGREDIENTS
4 tbsp butter, at room temperature
4 oz cream cheese
2 cups powered sugar
2 tbsp lemon juice (can adjust amount to suit taste)
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
1 tbsp milk
1/2 tsp lemon zest

DIRECTIONS
1. Beat butter and cream cheese at high speed until fluffy
2. Add in lemon juice, zest, vanilla, and 1 cup of powdered sugar. Beat until smooth.
3. Gradually add in remaining powdered sugar and milk (if you find that icing is too thick)

Makes one dozen cupcakes.

Morsels of Chocolate-y Goodness

2009-07-30T16:30:00.020-04:00

I love brownies because you can whip them up in no time and they don't require a lot of ingredients or fuss. Ohhee (she is as cute as her name sounds!) got me craving brownies after asking me for brownie tips the other day. I found a terrific recipe on Simply Recipes awhile back and it's been my go-to brownie recipe since (with a couple minor adjustments, see note below). I don't think there's ever been a recipe on there that I didn't like! Can't say the same for The Food Network website though... not to knock on TFN, you know I love you :)

After the first batch came out of the oven, I saw a lonely bag of caramels left over from the cupcakes below. Who doesn't love caramels+brownies? So, I chopped 'em up and stuck a little piece right down the middle while they were still pipin' hot. Mmm...

Then, I got the brilliant idea to bake the caramels in the brownies for the next batch...

One little piece of advice... unless you're serving the brownies right away, I would just stick the caramel in the brownie after it's done baking. Otherwise, if you're using store-bought caramels, the caramel will harden if it's baked inside the brownie.

*Note: I used 1 tsp of vanilla extract instead of the almond extract that the recipe originally calls for, omitted the nuts (mini brownies are too small for nuts, I think) and baked them in mini-cupcake liners for 18 min on 350F. These little guys don't rise much so you can fill your cupcake liners 3/4 full. Enjoy!

Take Two

2009-07-24T23:32:00.031-04:00

Remember a few blogs down, I made cupcakes for my friends Jen & David's wedding shower? And how only 1 out of 3 dozen actually made it there in one piece? Well, to make up for that I made some more cupcakes for Jen's work bridal shower. I had to make them a day before so I decided to make frostings that would sit well overnight. I made a white chocolate frosting that was SO GOOD (perfect consistency!) and then a caramel frosting inspired by the first gourmet cupcake shop I ever experienced: 'The Cupcake Shoppe' in Toronto. My sister found out about this place when it first opened (she has a knack for finding cool, new places/trends), introducing me to the wonderful world of cupcakes. Thanks, unni!

I made the Devil's Food cupcake (my "go-to" chocolate cupcake recipe at the moment) and tried Martha Stewart's Yellow Buttermilk Cupcake recipe for the vanilla. I was a little scared about the amount of eggs that go into this recipe but it turned out fine, not as sweet as other vanilla's I've made but that was ok because the caramel frosting recipe from Wilton was super-sweet!

White Chocolate Frosting

INGREDIENTS
1/2 cup butter (1 stick)
1/2 cup melted white chocolate
1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
2 cups powdered sugar
2 tbsp milk
1 tbsp cornstarch

DIRECTIONS
1. Beat butter on medium speed until light and fluffy
2. Mix in white chocolate, vanilla, and 1 tbsp milk
3. Gradually mix in 1 cup of powdered sugar on low speed
4. In a seperate bowl mix 1 tbsp milk and cornstarch with a spoon until cornstarch is smooth
5. Mix into frosting mixture and beat on medium speed
6. Gradually add the remaining cup of powdered sugar until light and fluffy

Frosting will stiffen up over time so if you want a smooth & fluffy texture, frost just before serving.

Caramel Frosting
from Wilton Recipes

INGREDIENTS 22 caramels
1/4 cup evaporated milk
1 tsp pure vanilla extract

DIRECTIONS
1. Melt caramels and evaporated milk in a double boiler or microwave (if microwaving, keep at low heat and short time increments)
2. Stir in vanilla
3. Dip cooled cupcakes into caramel and let sit until frosting sets

That doesn't look right...

2009-07-21T17:31:00.024-04:00

What is that, you ask? It is my failed attempt at these. And they are on my cupcake blog because we all know cupcakes are just muffins in disguise. Or, as my friend's nutritionist once told her, "muffins are an excuse to eat cake in the morning." Haha, I love it.

I was a little disappointed in these, not because of the taste (they were delish!) but because the cream cheese fell right to the bottom of the muffin instead of nicely floating on top. What did I do wrong? The first "best" thing I ever baked was a carrot-pineapple cake back when I was like 12, so I decided to use my own carrot cake recipe for this. Hm, maybe my cake was too moist for the cream cheese? At any rate, I'm gonna try these again sometime. I'm determined to make them look nice 'n pretty.

Carrot-Pineapple Muffins

INGREDIENTS
2 eggs
1/2 cup oil
2 tbsp crushed pineapple
1 cup sugar
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
1 cup flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1 and 1/2 cup grated carrots

DIRECTIONS
1. Pre-heat oven to 350F
2. Mix eggs, oil, pineapple, sugar, and vanilla in a medium bowl
3. In a separate bowl, mix flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg
4. Mix dry ingredients into wet ingredients
5. Fold in grated carrots
6. Divide batter evenly and fill halfway
7. Drop a dollop of the cream cheese filling on top of the batter (see recipe below)

Makes a dozen muffins and a dozen mini-muffins

Cream Cheese Filling
from The Delicious Life

INGREDIENTS
4 oz cream cheese, at room temperature
1 egg yolk
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla

DIRECTIONS
1. In an electric mixer, beat the cream cheese, egg yolk and vanilla on medium speed until well-combined
2. Gradually add sugar and beat until creamy and smooth

J&D Wedding Shower

2009-07-20T12:27:00.044-04:00

Saturday was my friends', Jen & David, wedding shower. They're getting married in September at the same venue DY and I were married at! I can't wait for their wedding. The shower was beautiful, even though only a dozen of my cupcakes survived the car-ride. DY drove so carefully the whole way but right before we got into the subdivision, a car in front of us braked really hard causing us to brake really hard and two dozen of my cupcakes went tumbling to the car floor. Next time, I will NOT place my cupcake containers on the seat... they are going on the floor. Lesson learned.

I found a "fool-proof" devil's food cake recipe on The Wedding Bee Pro website, by Melody from Sweet and Saucy Shop. They were delicious. Usually I try to avoid eating the cupcakes I bake (for obvious reasons) and just taste a bite but wow, I could not stop eating these cupcakes! I ended up eating four of them before actually starting to frost. Heh heh.

Since Jen & David's wedding shower colors were light green, pink, and light blue, I decided to make mint and strawberry flavored frosting plus a blue-dyed cream cheese frosting to pair with the devil's food cake and my vanilla cupcakes. The mint buttercream is probably my favorite frosting flavor so far! Courtesy of Simply Recipes, dyed light green with a little meringue powder to get the right piping consistency.

And the ones that didn't make it in one piece, all packed up in my new Crate & Barrel cupcake container. Sooo sad.

Devil's Food Cake Cupcake
By Melody from Sweet & Saucy Shop

INGREDIENTS
2 cups all purpose flour
2/3 cups unsweetened cocoa powder
1 tsp kosher salt
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
2 cups sugar
2 large eggs
1 cup whole milk (I used 2%)
1/2 cup flavorless vegetable oil
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
2 tbsp espresso powder dissolved in 1 cup boiling water (I used good quality instant coffee from Brazil)

DIRECTIONS
1. Pre-heat oven to 325F
2. Sift flour, cocoa powder, salt, baking powder, baking soda, and sugar into a medium bowl
3. Combine egg, milk, oil, vanilla, and dissolved espresso powder in a medium bowl and whisk by hand until well mixed.
4. Pour wet ingredients into dry ingredients and whisk to combine.
5. Divide batter evenly among cups, filling them about half-full
6. Bake 15-20 minutes

Makes 24 cupcakes

Mint Buttercream Frosting
from Simply Recipes

INGREDIENTS
8 tbsp (1 stick) butter, at room temperature
1 tbsp milk
1/2 tsp pure peppermint extract (start with 1/8 tsp and gradually add more, I like my very minty!)
3-4 cups powdered sugar
1 and 1/2 tbsp meringue powder
3-5 drops of green food coloring

DIRECTIONS
1. In an electric mixer, beat the butter at medium speed until creamy
2. Beat in milk and mint extract
3. Beat in 2 cups of powdered sugar and meringue powder
4. Gradually add more powdered sugar until you get the consistency and taste you like

Strawberries & Summer

2009-07-11T14:34:00.024-04:00

I miss my mom. She makes the best strawberry sauce (among other things). Summertime always reminds me of the yummy breakfasts she'd make for us and how I'd pour that strawberry sauce all over my pancakes, and then lick my plate clean, and then grab a spoon and eat the sauce out of the jar on its own. I wish I lived closer to home! Well, I had a carton of strawberries I needed to get rid of soon so I attempted to make her strawberry sauce. But hmmm, it definitely didn't taste like what I remembered! I've got to ask what her secret ingredient is. So, I decided I'd mix some up with my cream cheese frosting and... voila, strawberry cream cheese frosting! I vindicated my sauce and mmm, that frosting was good!

The first batch of icing had too much strawberry sauce and became a glaze. Still good, but it held no form.

These ones were better.

Strawberry Cream Cheese Frosting

INGREDIENTS
1 carton of strawberries, hulled and halved (~2 cups)
2 tbsp granulated sugar
8 oz cream cheese, at room temp
4 tbsp unsalted butter, at room temp
4 cups confectioner's sugar, sifted
2 and 1/2 tsp baking powder

DIRECTIONS
1. Sprinkle strawberries with granulated sugar, let sit for about 10 min
2. Place strawberries in a saucepan and heat under low/medium heat until they're mushy
3. Puree strawberry mixture in a food blender until smooth
4. Strain strawberry puree to get rid of the seeds. Set aside and let cool.
5. Beat cream cheese and butter at high speed until smooth and creamy
6. Add 2 cups of confectioner's sugar and 4 tbsp of strawberry puree, mix until well-blended
7. Add remaining confectioner's sugar until you get the right consistency.

Frosts 2 dozen cupcakes. Pairs well with "Finally Perfect Vanilla Cupcake", recipe in blog below.

At last! A Perfect Vanilla.

2009-07-10T00:59:00.044-04:00

Finally! I have perfected my vanilla cupcake recipe. It took many poor cupcakes thrown into the trash to get to this point. They always turn out too eggy or too dense or too airy, etc. During this process I learned there are 3 things in making a perfect vanilla cupcake:

1) Quality ingredients -- so yes, please shell out the extra $$ for good vanilla. It IS a vanilla cupcake. You won't regret it! Plus, besides the vanilla there are no other "special" ingredients you'll need to include.
2) Right balance of ingredients -- this was the toughest part to figure out. There are always those basic ingredients that go into a vanilla cupcake but getting the right proportions and figuring out what type of butter and flour go well with each other... whew.
3) Stirring and beating -- if you over-stir, beat too hard, under-stir, or beat too slow the texture just won't come out right.

I decided to make some mini's and glaze them with cream cheese frosting. I think glazing mini's is a good idea because there's really not so much cake there and if you load on the icing, that's all you taste. Basically I just made your regular cream cheese frosting, nuked it in the microwave for about 10sec and then dipped the little guys in.

Finally Perfect Vanilla Cupcake

INGREDIENTS
1/2 cup unsalted butter
3 eggs
2 and 1/2 cups all purpose flour
2 cup sugar
1 cup milk
2 and 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 and 1/2 tsp madagascar vanilla extract

DIRECTIONS
1. Bring butter and eggs to room termperature (~30min).
2. Stir together flour, baking powder, and salt in a bowl.
3. Beat butter on high speed for 30 sec
4. Gradually add sugar and beat on high speed until light and fluffy.
5. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Stop the mixer when cracking in eggs.
6. Beat in vanilla at medium speed
7. Alternately add flour mixture and milk (start with flour mixture and end with flour mixture). Keep the mixer going while adding in ingredients but make sure you scrape down the sides.
8. Bake at 350F.

Makes 2-3 dozen cupcakes

Southern Belle

2009-07-06T21:27:00.141-04:00

Although I'm sure I'll be a northerner for life, I thought now that I live in the south I should learn how to make a really good red velvet cupcake. I'm not exactly sure why red velvet seems to be associated with the south because the cookbook I got the base recipe from says it was originally called the 'Red Waldorf Cake', seeing as it goes back to NYC's Waldorf-Astoria Hotel. Hm, maybe NYC created it and the South perfected it... like with all things that contain butter.

First off, don't play with food coloring kids! Obviously my messiness in the kitchen has not improved since I was little.

This was a pretty complicated recipe (DY kept asking, "are you done yet?") but it was worth the time. Just a few things though:
1) Little too much food coloring got its way into the batter... as you can probably tell from the picture above
2) I over-baked and didn't get quite the moistness I was going for (should have taken them out at the 18 min mark)
3) Cocoa powder lumps quite easily so make sure you sift it thoroughly. I didn't and it resulted in some lumpy cocoa specks.

But-- the frosting recipe that went with this cake was amazing! I was all ready to make a traditional cream cheese frosting, but realized I had no cream cheese. So I looked in the recipe book and it turns out they called for a "Creamy Frosting" (essentially a buttercream frosting) so I thought, why not? Glad I did because I think it's the best buttercream recipe I've tried (with a few minor adjustments). Light, fluffy and not-too-sweet. And for all you "Rice To Riches" fans out there, yup that is a Rice To Riches spoon. I think it's the handiest thing to frost cupcakes with so next time you're scraping out the last bits of your rice pudding, don't throw out the spoon!

Red Velvet Cupcake
adapted from The Better Homes & Gardens cookbook

INGREDIENTS
2 eggs, at room temperature
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/4 cup red food coloring
2 and 1/4 cups sifted all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup unsalted sweet cream butter, at room temperature
1 and 1/2 cups sugar
1 tsp madagascar bourbon vanilla (or you can use pure vanilla)
1 cup buttermilk (place 1 tbsp vinegar in a measuring cup; fill rest with milk and let stand for 5min)
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp vinegar

DIRECTIONS
1. In a small bowl, stir together cocoa powder and food coloring. Mix well.
2. In another small bowl, stir together flour and salt.
3. Preheat oven to 350°F.
4. Beat butter on high speed for 30 sec.
5. Add sugar and vanilla. Beat until it has a light, fluffy texture.
6. Add eggs, one at a time, beating on medium speed until combined .
7. Beat in cocoa mixture.
8. Alternately, add flour mixture and buttermilk on low speed until just combined. End with flour mixture.
9. Stir together baking soda and vinegar. Add to batter and mix until combined.
10. Bake until a wooden toothpick inserted in center of cupcake comes out clean.

Makes 24 cupcakes

Creamy Frosting
adapted from The Better Homes & Gardens cookbook

INGREDIENTS
1 cup milk
3 tbsp flour
3/4 cup softened butter (original recipe called for 1 cup, but the first batch came out too buttery...)
1 cup sugar
1 tsp madagascar bourbon vanilla

DIRECTIONS
1. Whisk milk and flour in a small saucepan. Cook and stir over medium heat until thickened and bubbly.
2. Reduce heat; cook and stir for 2 more minutes. Cover and let cool to room temperature
3. In a medium bowl beat butter, sugar and vanilla on medium speed until light and fluffy
4. Add cooled milk mixture, 1/4 cup at a time, beating on low speed after each addition until you get the right consistency.

New Baby

2009-07-02T00:14:00.034-04:00

My friends, Clarence and Eileen, welcomed their new baby girl Eleisha Kaylen Lau into the world on June 15, 2009. She is adorable. Makes me want to have a baby... almost! I made some cupcakes to celebrate Eleisha's first day home.

I used Magnolia's Vanilla Cupcake and Vanilla Buttercream recipe and was not pleased. Maybe I did something wrong or maybe they left out their secret ingredient, but these cupcakes were too eggy. They tasted like those asian egg rolls. The icing was also way too sweet and grainy. So, I continue on my quest of making a perfect vanilla cupcake.

Magnolia's Vanilla Cupcake

INGREDIENTS
1 and 1/2 cups self-rising flour
1 and 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup unsalted butter, softened
2 cups sugar
4 eggs, at room temp
1 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla extract

DIRECTIONS
1. Pre-heat oven to 350F
2. Stir together both flours. Set aside.
3. Cream butter on medium speed until smooth. Gradually add sugar and beat until smooth (~3 min)
4. Add eggs, one at a time. Beat after each addition.
5. Add dry ingredients in 3 parts, alternating with milk and vanilla.
6. With each addition beat until ingredients are just incorporated. Do not over-beat.
7. Bake 20-25 min.

Makes 2 dozen cupcakes

Magnolia's Vanilla Buttercream

INGREDIENTS
1 cup unsalted butter, softened
6 to 8 cups confectioner's sugar
1/2 cup milk
2 tsp vanilla extract

DIRECTIONS
1. Add butter, 4 cups sugar, milk, and vanilla to mixing bowl and beat on medium speed until creamy.
2. Gradually add remaining sugar, 1 cup at a time, beating well after each addition until you get the right consistency.

Beginning

2009-07-01T21:37:00.053-04:00

Welcome to my life, frosted! If you know me at all, you will know that I have been messing up my mom's kitchen ever since I was a wee little one. Flour all over her counters, sugar all over the floors, butter greased across the stovetop... much to her dismay. But, it fostered my love for baking. Now that I'm newly married (March '09) I've been messing up my own kitchen (much to my husband's dismay) and busy stirring up my own recipes. Recently I've been gravitating towards cupcakes because... well, cupcakes make me happy!

For starters, here are some some cupcakes I made for a summer bbq a couple weeks ago...