Tuesday Cakes

ICECREAM CAKES

2009-06-09T17:04:00.000-07:00

Yes they were this good, and almost this yummy. Sorry I don't have step by step pictures for this one, but my kitchen was MESS while I was making them and I was making dinner at the same time. They were QUICK.

I started with the silicone cup cake liners like these http://tinyurl.com/lbt2x3

Then I brushed them with melted chocolate and let that set about 10 min. Then I added a little sliver of cake. I think the cake was 1/3 of a single layer cake. If I figured it right I could cut at least 24 from one cake. Then we put a little glob of hot fudge and a scoop of ice cream. I used my pampered chef large scoop and it was the PERFECT amount of ice cream. We let that in the freezer until we were done with dinner and topped with whipped cream.

They were the perfect serving size sort of, and really hit the spot on a cold day. The chocolate was a little much. I'm thinking next time about brushing the sides with a good brush of chocolate and doing a cookie crumb crust rather than the cake and then fudge and chocolate chips before the ice cream. They went together so fast I'm thinking this would be a GREAT birthday desert rather than a cake for Abbie this year. We will still have carrot for Rick, but this could be fun. If I used real whipped cream I could put that on and freeze it all at the same time, or just roll the ice cream in sprinkles no whipped cream. Not sure, but YUMMA!!!

yard sale gold

2009-06-06T16:06:00.001-07:00

So I haven't yard saled in A LONG TIME, but today we were on the way back from the market and stopped. Abbie found some little toy horses, Rick found a crock pot to cook his car parts, but at the second one I found these.

It's much prettier in person than in the picture. Tablecloth and 12 napkins. FIVE BUCKS. Yep, five bucks. And it's beautiful. it's not perfect, if you look REALLY close you can tell it was eaten on and loved, but that's ok. Here's close up of the detail.

We eat with cloth napkins every night. We got some with wedding money when we first got married. When we got a washing machine we started using them. The we've inherited some from grandmas. Every time someone says they are getting rid of linens I'm the first one with my hand out. I LOVE using them. I also love setting my table with things my grandma or great grandma or friend touched over and over again. We have some perfectly pristine ones but mostly they are ones people used and ate with. Sometimes I wonder what dinner the silent spots are from, who the lap that used them belonged to. If I had more space I'd collect dishes I think. I LOVE them, but for now napkins and I'm really happy with that. I packed one in my bag when I had Abbie. Something about knowing all the hands and fingers that had touched it made me feel better. I can imagine them being washed and folded, maybe even ironed long before me, or when I was little.

So for us it cloth napkins, these are our new ones, and yes I intend to use them.

here they are

2009-06-03T18:49:00.000-07:00

don't miss the cheese shot at the end ;)

cookie cakes. A little bit cookie a little bit cake. We started with from scratch chocolate chip cookies, we used milk chocolate chips, cause that's what I like.

Then we cheated with yellow cake mix, but it's yummy.

Little cake, little cookie, little more cake and you have our sweet for the week.

It was ok. Not a slam dunk, but they'll get eaten.

The one thing I dislike about using cake mix is that it always makes 24 cup cakes. Guess I could split it and save it for next time, but how do you do 1 1/2 eggs!

I think carrot cake maybe next week. We haven't' had any in a while and it's sounding yummy.

coming soon

2009-06-03T15:57:00.001-07:00

cookie cakes

sorry we missed yesterday, pics and description coming later this afternoon

black bottom

2009-05-26T17:10:00.000-07:00

YUMMY! I was lacking inspiration today and didn't feel like digging around on the internet for something new. Rick had some oral surgery today and I've had a cold for the last week or so and I'm just pooped, but it's been a while since I did a cup cake.

I pulled out my Joy of Cooking and looked under cake, found black bottom cupcakes and I had almost all the ingredients. I needed a cup of chocolate chips and only had about a half a cup, but that's ok. Two bowls, sixteen cup cakes liners and 24 minutes later I had this.

They were delish! Moist chocolate with a drop of cheesecake almost in the center. I almost made a chocolate icing but decide that they were just fine on their own. The only thing I might change next time is to put in half the chocolate batter, then the cheese cake, then the rest of the chocolate batter so it was a cheese cake surprise.

black bottom cupcakes

2009-05-26T14:22:00.001-07:00

YUMMY YUMMY YUMMY, pictures and other stuff later tonight, but YUM for a whim

cream soda cup cakes

2009-04-28T15:40:00.001-07:00

Found the recipe at Better Homes & Gardens. I'd say it's a good cupcake. Not outstanding, but pretty good. The icing they suggested, the browned butter icing, too sweet for me really. The cup cake is sort of like a spice cake, but not spice if that makes any sense.

Here are most of the ingredients.

Here are the 2 things missing from above, 2 of Rick's favorite things.

the cream soda really will fizz

done, yummy right?

I did manage to make my own butter milk today and browned butter again. I think the icing is the same as what I had on the snicker doodle cup cakes.

Going to be around, stop for a cup cake.

rainbows on a rainy day

2009-04-20T17:23:00.003-07:00

Well we had rain today, at one point the thunder was so loud it woke Abbie and the dog, then it hailed. But we had rainbows.

Rainbow cupcakes.
Here's how they started

*throwing in an Abbie shot*

Here's how they turned out

Here's how Abbie liked them

Next time, cupcake liners you can't see through, marshmallow fondant on top and painted rainbows on the fondant :)

And what a great idea for a birthday cake.

not cup cakes

2009-04-16T16:52:00.000-07:00

....but something sweet.

Strawberry jam. They had a GREAT deal on strawberries at the Soulard Market when we were home, so I chopped them, froze them and then brought them home and jellied them :) I guess it's jam because it's chunky and not just clear, but it's yummy none the less. The strawberries weren't super sweet, but that's ok because there's 2 cups more sugar than strawberry in those jars. The lids all popped. I'm not sure how much strawberry jam is at the store, but for 15 bucks I got this much

I figure it's about 16 or 17 jars the same size as smuckers.

fondant

2009-04-07T20:03:00.001-07:00

so I tried something new. I've never worked with fondant, I made it and worked with it. Simple yellow cupcakes with cream cheese icing under the fondant. Came out cute I think. I'm going to practice on a cake this weekend I think.

I was pretty tired by the time I got to work on them.

Not bad for sleepy I guess

and the fondant tastes yummy, not like the wilton or premade kind, tastes like marshmallows :)

Night

stay tuned for next week

2009-04-01T17:00:00.001-07:00

We tried making cupcake pops, but huge disaster. Really not sure what I did wrong, but anyway, next week pretty cupcakes I think.

only orange

2009-03-24T11:47:00.000-07:00

Rick requested orange cupcakes. I looked and looked and read and read and found a recipe I thought I'd try. Some had cranberries, some had other citrus, some were muffins, some didn't appear to have oranges at all and some just had too many steps. Here's what I ended with. I'm sorry I don't even remember where I found the recipe that I used.They look sort of lemony, but they are delightfully orange. The cake is very subtle. I'm wondering if they didn't quite cook enough, the tester came out clean, but they are a little soft if that makes sense. The icing is much more orange and sweet, but a nice addition to the soft sweet cake. Next time I'll get some of those candy orange slices or sugar some orange peel or something, wouldn't that be pretty.

Here's the rest of them.

They were very easy to make. I tried a couple new things this time. I sprayed the cup cake liners with bakers joy. Last week it just seemed like we'd lost so much of the cake to crumbs. Well the bakers joy was magic, but it made picking them up to ice them interesting. If we were eating them all tonight I probably would just have taken the wrappers off as I iced. I also decided to use a new method for adding the flour mixture to the mixing bowl. It's a big cake cutting guide, or like a pie crust rolling out mat, just a big piece of plastic really. Worked WONDERFULLY. I don't have a pouring shield on my kitchenaid and always make a mess adding things a scoop at a time or from a bowl, this time NO MESS. Sorry no pictures of that, but here are some more of the cup cakes.

by request from Abbie

2009-03-17T14:13:00.000-07:00

Artsy picture of the Abbiecake

Abbie asked if we could have plain cupcakes, the yellow with chocolate icing. So here they are. YUMMY is all I can say. I googled best yellow cupcake recipe, and found one at http://http://52cupcakes.blogspot.com/2006/05/billys-vanilla-vanilla-cupcakes-with.html, outstanding. Then I found a link for chocolate butter cream, where have you been all my life chocolate butter cream!

I think I should have added a tiny big more milk for texture, but it was YUMMY.

They came out pretty well I think even with the less than perfect icing though. Notice the AMAZING new little stand my sister got me.

I suppose the true test will be how long they last. The cupcakes from last week had to be tossed when I started these, they weren't bad just not good. I've got 24, well had 24 of these to start.

now that's a cupcake

2009-03-16T17:06:00.000-07:00

More real cupcakes tomorrow, but this one is too cool not to share.

I love snickerdoodles but...

2009-03-10T13:26:00.001-07:00

I'm not sure I'm in love with these cupcakes.

They are ok. Taste vaguely like a snickerdoodle. The cake tastes what I think the cookie may taste like if you didn't roll it in the cinnamon/sugar and didn't quite bake it all the way. The icing WAY TOO SWEET. At least for my taste.

I did get to do some things that were fun like "burning sugar" The original recipe was adapted by someone else from a burnt sugar cake. And boiling brown sugar (second picture)

Anyway, here's what the batter looked like, kind of cool with the egg whites folded in and then the cupcakes fresh out of the oven.

52 Cupcakes

2009-03-08T12:43:00.000-07:00

or at least that's the goal. Everyone and their cousin has a cupcake blog. I don't know that I'll start a blog, but I'm going to try to do a new flavor every week. This week, I started with ginger bread cup cakes with a lemon filling. Filling done and cooling on the counter, cupcakes baking in the oven. The batter tastes remarkably like the molasses cookies Rick loves. I just wanted to add, I finshed, filled and tasted the cupcakes. I had no idea how yummy lemon & gingerbread could be! Wow!
Baking, any cooking really, relaxes me, I have something to show for it when I'm done. We've been making bread, bagels, pasta, soup from scratch, that's all boring regular eat every day stuff. The cupcakes will be "special" no plain vanilla or boring chocolate, well unless there's a fancy topping or filling.
While making cupcakes today I realized perhaps the measuring stuff I have needs new friends. We have 2 sets of measuring cups, one was Rick's grandma's. They are the old metal ones with the size stamped into the bottom. The other set of cups, pink for the cure, kitchen aid I think. I also have a measuring cup from Crate & Barrel. I think of my aunt every time I use it, she gave us a gift card when we got married and that was one of the things we brought home. I also have a measuring cup from pampered chef. The kind that you can measure peanut butter with and push it right out. I only have one set of measuring spoons, it matches the pink for the cure cups. My bowls need friends too I think. Maybe none of it needs friends, maybe I need to be organized, but in 51 flavors I bet I'll know.
What's your favorite cupcake recipe/flavor? What's your favorite kitchen tool?