Cheesecake Lady Marmalade

This was a big challenge of my baking abilities. I really learned a lot just from making these cupcakes.

First and foremost, prepping is my best friend! From watching all of the cake reality TV shows I have noticed how the bakers would prep before they would get started on actually making the batter. I think I have mastered this. The more you do before you bake, the easier the baking process (and cleaning process) is.

I also learned the value of reading the recipe. If you think you read it right, read it again. Just a note, because the smallest thing such as putting a heaping tablespoon of crushed graham crackers at the bottom of the liners instead of a heaping teaspoon makes a huge difference. Guess which one I did? Oooops!

Anyway,  I have never made a cheesecake in my life. Let alone cheesecake cupcakes. But I have eaten “many a cheesecake” in my day (and will continue to do so well into the future). I decided to make these cupcakes because my friend Kim missed out on the Chocolate Guinness Cupcakes for St. Patrick’s Day. She gave up chocolate (not Guinness) for lent so I wanted to make it up to her by baking something that is not on the lent list.

The batter was good to go! I folded the egg whites and the cream of tartar (which is a spice…didn’t know that. It sounds pretty gross until you meet one-on-one) into the cream cheese mixture fine. And aside from putting too many crushed graham crackers, I though I did pretty good. If you do make the same mistake just remove the cupcakes from the liners and serve them on a plate and no one will know of your inability to read, just mine!

If you have read my other blog entries you may have picked up on the fact that I have mini freak outs when making my cupcakes, i.e. thinking that the soup-like chocolate Guinness batter is not going to rise. Well, for these cupcakes my mini freak out was due to the fact that the batter looked like it cracked at the top so I just put them in the freezer to cool and hoped for the best. It turned out that the batter just puffs up and then sinks back down. Who knew? And I’m shaving years off of my life. Whatever. I just want to make mention of this so that only one of us is freaking out for the both (or all) of us. Just saying.

Now on to the Orange Sauce. I feel that cheesecake usually comes with one of two toppings, 1. Strawberry or 2. Raspberry. So I said eff that, I’m doing orange. And it was so.

Orange (Sauce) Observations-

Again some of these may see like no-brainers but in case you were unsure, this advice will serve as your confirmation.

1. Do NOT use concentrated orange juice. It makes the sauce come out terrible. I have heard and learned that “fresh” is always the better choice.

2. Also, having a juicer is very convenient (I’m sure because I didn’t have one). I juiced the old fashion way, if you will.

3. I added a little bit of water to my sauce and it made it a little diluted and not as sweet. My office fam is not into super sweet. You just have to know your audience!

4. To bring out the orange flavor of the sauce I also garnished the cupcake with little Cutie Mandarin Oranges to really up the “fresh” factor!

The cheesecake terrain is no longer foreign to me. One small step for cupcakes and one giant leap for mini cheat cheesecake!

Cupcakes and Beer

I know it’s a bit delayed, but St. Patrick’s Day was the perfect excuse to make Chocolate Guinness Cupcakes with an Irish Cream frosting. So I did. Please note that if you use a chocolate Guinness cupcake recipe (or any beer cupcake recipe)  that the batter will look extremely liquidy. Really, really liquidy. But do not fear the liquid (even though I did and added in another cup of flour, which I would suggest as they came out perfect). I am not 100% sure as to why the cupcakes that start out soup-like transform into fluffy treats, but I am pretty sure it has something to do with the yeast in the beer that allows the cupcake to rise. For these cupcakes my “Guinness of choice” was Guinness Extra Stout, which gave it just enough of a “beer-like” flavoring.

As for the frosting, that was the more difficult part. I did not, (but should have) made it a little thicker so that it would remain piped. It piped fine but it did not stay in the piping formation, instead it just slunk into a piped blob. I would advise that you add more confectioners sugar to make it thicker so it stays in place. Regardless, the flavor of each chosen ingredient was still very prominent and the combination of the two put my co-workers at our St. Patty’s Day work festivities in a very cheerful mood!

Cupcake Transformation

This week I set out to make one type of cupcake and it turned out to be a completely different cupcake (flavor, decor, everything) by the time it was done.

I’ve been pinching pennies and since I have been baking for a month now I have a lot of the necessary ingredients that most cupcake recipes call for. You know the usual suspects: flour, baking soda, baking powder, sugar, unsalted butter, etc. So, I wanted to make a cupcake while limiting how much I spent this week. I decided to make a Rum and Coconut Cupcake.

I had some left over Captain Morgan from a pretty long time ago and all of the ingredients to make a golden cake with white chocolate frosting. I just had to buy the coconut accessories (coconut milk and shredded coconut). This cake was supposed to be a golden cake with a rum syrup drizzle and a white chocolate coconut frosting BUT, I ended up making the syrup perfect and forgetting to use it right away (while burning myself) and the coconut milk’s flavor was missing in action in the white chocolate frosting. Now what? I have nothing. Or do I?

Mandy’s mom went grocery shopping for us and picked up some strawberries (among other things) so I decided to use those.

I tried piping with a different nozzle and well it was somewhat disastrous so in my defeat I just frosted the cakes as usual, with a butter knife. Then I placed a pinch of shredded coconut and a sliced strawberry on top. The golden cake was very basic and slightly crumbed like shortbread and with the white chocolate frosting, coconut, strawberry topping I realized I accidentally made a strawberry shortcake. I was still pissed about the outcome of the cake, but I decided (as always channeling Cupcake Wars) to serve my cupcake anyway. And everyone LOVED it!

 

 

 

 

 

 

It was the most simple concept yet biggest “mess up” thus far and they LOVED it? I couldn’t believe it. But the lesson learned was that simplicity definitely took this cupcake. Who knew?

Note to self (and anyone else reading this)- Do not give up on your cupcakes, ever! The outcome may be more than you can fathom.

-Liz

Some White Chocolate Bubbly

Truth be told, my cupcake choices have been pretty ambitious for a first-timer. Even though simplicity does sometimes hold the key, you can still be simple and sample some complexity. This cupcake is the perfect example of this-

A white chocolate cake (with white chocolate chips folded into the batter) and a champagne frosting topped with white chocolate chips.

This so far has been my most “balanced” cake as far as aesthetics and taste go. But I did learn a lot about piping during its creation.

A few notes for the new “Piper”-

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1. The consistency of your frosting needs to be somewhat thick. You can add more confectioners sugar to achieve this.

2. Only stuff your bag half way and make sure you have a good enough grip on the top so that there’s not an opposite end volcanic eruption. I would end up with a hand full of icing (that’s what she said. Mature.)

3. When piping, don’t try to get on the very edge of the cupcake because the icing tends to expand once it is pushed out and it will fall off of the cake. If you start a little closer in it also allows the “eater” to see what kind of cake they are about to indulge in.

4. Slow and steady makes your precision 100% better, thus making your cupcake “well-dressed”. If you will.

There have been a few studies going on that state that the look of your baked good sells people over the list of ingredients. It’s like life, people make judgments based on your appearance before they get to know what’s on the inside. However most times, if the “inside” does not meet the expectations set by the “outside”, it’s still a bad cupcake. The world is a tough crowd so you have to be on top of it (I was thinking it, I cannot tell a lie).

-Liz

Peanut M&M Cupcake

I have an unconditional love for Peanut M&Ms. How does one “unconditionally” love peanut M&Ms you ask? Well have you ever eaten a bad Peanut M&M? If you answered “yes”, you more than likely still enjoy peanut M&Ms and if you answered “no” then to you, there is no such thing as a “bad” peanut M&M. I rest my case.

My love for this delectable candy all started at my dear friend Ryan’s house. His dad, upon returning from his piloting duties, would by a 5 lb. bag of peanut M&Ms. Oh yeah! So what ties this love to a more recent occurrence would be my belated birthday present. Ryan was up in the Orlando area visiting friends and he brought the gift with him. When he gave it to me it was just a medium-sized, slightly heavy square box. I began to shake it and guessed aloud. But when I opened it and to my surprise, it was a 48-count box of individual packets of peanut M&Ms. The size of the ones you stare at while you’re waiting in line at the grocery store and your inner voice says, “Your ass is getting fatter just by looking at these.” Yes, that size. It was pretty close to the best present I have ever received!

However, what was I going to do with 48 packs of these bad boys? That’s right, bring them to work! (I can’t afford for my ass to get 48 times bigger!) I soon learned of everyone’s love for peanut M&Ms in the office and decided to base my next cupcake off of it.

This cupcake came in three different variations. I only have two pictures here as one of the variations is inside that cupcake itself. It started out as a chocolate cake with crunchy peanut butter in the middle. I carved out part of the center of the cupcake and stuffed it with the peanut butter and topped it with a rich chocolate icing. This was my first time piping (ever) as well! The second variation I made a crunch peanut butter sauce and subbed out the actual peanut butter for a peanut butter sauce. Then the third variation was created because I ran out of chocolate icing and needed to frost the rest of my cupcakes. I took the remaining peanut M&Ms and put them in a plastic Ziploc bag. Then I took a small pot and smashed them into pieces. (It was quite refreshing.) After that I used the same recipe that I used to make the peanut butter sauce but subbed out the peanut butter for the peanut M&Ms.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This was a very sweet cupcake. Not everyone enjoyed it, however the ones that did loved it!

I learned/was told a few tricks when working with peanut butter.

1. It is better to use real peanut butter inside of the cupcake instead of a sauce. The consistency holds better.

2. Peanut butter needs to be somewhat melted to be malleable. Putting it in the microwave works.

3. If you plan on filling your cupcakes and do not want to have to carve out part of the cake, you can use creamy peanut butter (somewhat melted) and put it into your piping bag and inject the cupcake instead.

Long live peanut M&Ms (in mass quantities!)

-Liz

New Baking Artiliery

Bed Bath & Beyond has made a fortune off of me. I have been there three times in the past two days to get things for my house and of course, baking. I initially bought a few things (i.e. piping tools) to see which one I liked using better. Since I  watch a lot of cake reality TV like Cake Boss (LOVE Buddy!) and Cupcake Wars (just to name a few and not completely divulge my semi-intense fascination/obsession with cake), I have stolen a few tricks that I observed.

Trial and error tested tips and tools to make your baking go a lot smoother-

1. Use paper liners, if you can. Minimal clean up, especially if you bake at crazy hours like 9:30pm after you’ve gotten off of work and made your third trip to Bed Bath. Some people are crazy, what can I say?

2. Use two pans. I know it sounds like a simple, no-brainer concept but it does make a huge difference that expedites your baking process. And if you are using paper liners clean up should be…starts with an E and ends with an -ASY… Minimal, exactly right!

3. New bakers/pipers: Start out with a plastic bag and experiment with tips. I’ll let your mind wonder. Now focus. They sell them at Bed Bath & Beyond (did you think I was going to say somewhere else?) for around 5 bucks and you don’t need a coupler (thing that holds the nozzle to the bag), plus the clean up is effortless. Cut off the nozzle, clean it out and throw away the bag. Done. However, if you’d like to get a little fancy on a budget you can buy a piping set by Farberware. The set comes with a reusable bag, a coupler and a nozzle. It’s only about $3 to be fancy at Publix.

4. Use a cookie scooper. On Cupcake Wars they use this technique and it just makes sense. I made my first week of cupcakes (the Kahlua cake) using a table spoon like my mom always had, but she has more of a steady hand (and patience) than I do. With the scooper you can get more of an accurate “scoop and release” action thus filling up your paper liners evenly. These scoopers come in various sizes. I personally use the medium size of the Oxo Good Grips scoop.

5. Wear an apron. Listen, I know, I’m not an apron kind of  girl either. My mom is loving this right now. But I do wear an apron. I baked my first two weeks without one and I was fashionably decked out in flour. Again, I know this seems like a simple concept, however I was living on the edge and my clothes paid the price. Plus, after you are done you can take off your flour infested apron, go sit on the couch and enjoy a cupcake. Needless to say, I made sure that my apron was as obnoxious as possible because if I’m going to wear an apron, I am going to wear an apron.

I hope this helps in any new cupcake baking adventures you may embark on. There will be more tips to come as more mistakes (on my part) are made and you will be spared the cost and humiliation.

Happy Bacon!

-Liz

One down, a lot more to grow.

I think I actually still have frosting on my elbow.

This week was my first week of attempting this cupcake experimentation. I must say I thought this was going to be a lot easier and I can’t explain how tired I am.  Basically to sum the experience/experiment up, the frosting, which was completely made of raw egg, (note that it was supposed to be a “meringue” consistency, whatever that is. I’ll have to look that up later) got completely messed up because it just remained as a liquid instead. I guess it would help if I said what cupcake I was trying to make. Well it was Valentine’s Day and although I’m not a big fan most would say since I was caught not wearing red or pink (I really just forgot), I wanted to make these Tiramisu cupcakes for Mandy. She bought all of the ingredients for me because I am in the process of redefining the word “broke”. It’s pretty ridiculous, but the cupcake show must go on and thank god I have a sponsor.

So these tiramisu cupcakes looked easy enough. I got the recipe from this book called Crazy About Cupcakes that I got when I was shopping at Kohl’s with my mom and grandma a while ago. I thought that this would be a pretty good place to start. Cue Julie Andrews, the Sound of Music is always in my head in some form. Moving on. So the cakes came out great even though I misread the recipe a little. Half way through the ingredient process I realized that I was supposed to separate three eggs (yolk and whites) from each other, however after I mixed the whites in the batter I realized that I needed to yolks for another part of the recipe. Needless to say I ended up using six eggs instead of three.  Oops. But I pressed on.

I was seriously thinking about cupcake wars (as lame as that is) when I was baking because regardless of how pissed they may be about their cupcake not turning out right, they still served it up. I moved on with the recipe and Mandy went and got more eggs for the frosting that I will later “mess up”. I finally made the cupcakes and they came out great, just enough over the paper liner. Perfect. I brewed the coffee because to give the cupcakes the “tiramisu” feel you have to pour a coffee and Kahlua mixture inside of them. Okay, I can do that. Now for the battle of the meringue. I mixed the ingredients as instructed, cream cheese, eggs, sugar, etc. but I never saw the “soft peaks” that I was to be looking out for. So here comes the improvisation… I just poured the sugary egg mixture onto my cupcakes in a little “modern” circle on top and still garnished like I was supposed to with chocolate and lady fingers.

So now, my tiramisu cupcake turned into a coffee-Kahlua cupcake with a light cream cheese frosting. But it was still delicious.

Overall, I learned that 1. Cupcakes (overall) aren’t as easy as they look. 2. You can’t miss step when you’re making a meringue. 3. I have a long way to go before I am making “designer” cupcakes. 4. You’ve got to start somewhere.

Better luck next week.

-Liz