Baking Fail

Well it didn't take to long to have a baking fail post...

I decided I would try to make vanilla cupcakes a la Magnolia Bakery with my own Nutella frosting.  Sounds good right? 

Well....

Baking Attempt #1

The recipe seemed easy enough, butter, eggs, flour, vanilla, sugar...

Tip:  Make sure you read all of the directions and measurements.

In my effort to have less dishes, I used the 1/2 cup measuring cup for my sugar instead of the 1 cup measuring cup.  I knew I'd have to use the cup twice for the 2 cups of sugar called for in the recipe, but I forgot that I was using the 1/2 measure (which means I would have needed to add 4 1/2 measure cups).  Needless to say I only added 1 cup of sugar to the batter....

When I took them out of the oven they had pools of butter on them...When we tasted them we decided they tasted oddly enough like cornbread minus the corn...Strange...

Hubby did find a good use for them by adding pulled BBQ pork to them. 

Baking Attempt #2

Sooooooo I made them again, this time adding the correct amount of sugar.  They looked a little better and weren't floating in butter. 

Still, they did not taste as fabulous as I imagined them to be.  But they passed the hubby taste test so I made some frosting for them. 

Again this did not turn out as fabulous as I imagined.  Basically I added Nutella (amazing) to a buttercream frosting recipe.  Not terrible but not fantastic either.  I imagined a more gooey frosting than what I turned out.  So chalk it up to a baking fail.

- Kristi

Traveling Cupcakes

In addition to baking my own cupcakes I love to try other people's sweet creations.  This week we (as in hubby and I) tried some traveling cupcakes from Sugar Babies Cupcakery.  We discovered this treat at Los Al Din Din A Go Go which is just down the street from us every Tuesday night from 5:30 to 9 PM.  This another thing I like, food trucks.  No longer does mobile food have to come from a "roach coach" they are gourmet!

Anyways, back to the cupcakes.

We got a 4-pack for $5.00.  Like the name implies Sugar Babies Cupcakery serves mini-cupcakes!  We got the following:

1.  With All My Heart - Semi-sweet chocolate cake, dark chocolate mousse frosting, dark chocolate candy heart. (Husband ate this one before I could take a picture)

2.  Sugar Baby -Vanilla cake, rich chocolate buttercream frosting, white chocolate candy heart.

3.  Strawberries 'n' Cream - Moist vanilla cake with a sweet strawberry champagne cream cheese frosting.

4.  Red Rose - Our rich, classic red velvet cake, sumptuous cream cheese frosting*

*Descriptions from the Sugar Babies website

Front Left - Red Rose, Back Center - Sugar Baby, Front Right Strawberries 'n Cream

I really liked that the easily identifiable pink pastry box color was on the inside of the box instead of the outside.  I also liked that they were minis and were in cute little plastic cups.  Hubby had the "With All My Heart" and the "Sugar Baby" and I had the "Red Rose" and "Strawberries 'n Cream".  My favorite was the strawberry cupcake (I'm kinda picky when it comes to red velvet - see previous posts).  I really liked the frosting it was really really good and may make an appearance on an upcoming cupcake I make :) . The cake portion was a little different, it's not one I would want to eat on its own but with the frosting it was better.  Overall, you should probably get some if they ever stop by near  you. 

Red Velvet is Easy!

My favorite way to make red velvet is the easy way!  Red velvet and cream cheese frosting is a must.  I really don't understand why they even bother putting nasty vanilla frosting on it at all.  In case you didn't know, red velvet cake is essentially a chocolate cake with red food coloring in it.  According to the Google (I use Google as a noun and a verb, this time it's a noun) the cake was red because cocoa back in the day had a redish tinge to it but modern cocoa is processed differently reducing the redish color.  Also traditional recipes will call for vinegar that reacts with the cocoa creating the red color.  Anyways, as promised here is my favorite EASY red velvet recipe and following is a recipe for cream cheese icing. 

Quick Red Velvet Cake - Adapted from the book The Cake Mix Doctor
Makes 24 cupcakes (really it does)
Prep Time:  8 Minutes
Baking Time:  12-15 minutes based on your oven temp

Ingredients

1 package (18.25 oz.) German chocolate cake mix with pudding (most have pudding if they say "extra moist")
1 cup sour cream (no skimping with light sour cream)
1/2 cup water
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 bottle (1 oz.) red food coloring
3 large eggs
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract ( no imitation vanilla)

Directions

1.  Place a rack in the center of the oven and preheat the oven to 325 and line two 12 cup cupcake pans with cupcake liners

2.  Put all ingredients together in a bowl and blend with an electric mixer for 1 minute.  Scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula and blend for an additional 2 minutes.  The batter should look thick and well blended.

3.  Using a cookie scoop or ladle, fill each cupcake liner about 1/2 way full.  If you use the same size scoop all the liners should be evenly filled.

Cooled and ready for frosting

4.  Place the pans in the oven for about 12 minutes.  Check the cake for doneness by quickly tapping the center of the cupcake with your finger.  Make sure your hands are clean!  You can use a tooth pick but I usually don't have any in the house.  If the cake jiggles when you pull the rack out, don't touch it just put it back in for a few minutes.

5.  Remove the pans from the oven and place on a rack to cool. 

Allow the cupcakes to cool completely or you will not be happy :)

Cream Cheese Frosting (basically the best frosting on Earth)
-Adapted from Southern Living

Makes A LOT!  Way more than enough for 24 cupcakes
Prep Time:  15 minutes (does not include time for the cream cheese and butter to soften)

Ingredients:

1 8 oz block of cream cheese + 4 oz. cream cheese, softened (essentially 1 1/2 blocks of cream cheese)
3/4 cup butter, softened
1 1/2 packages (16 oz. packages)  of powdered sugar (confectioner's sugar is the same thing) sifted
1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract

Directions:

1.  I like using a stand mixer but an electric hand mixer will be fine.

2.  Make sure the cream cheese and butter is softened, if you don't you will have chunks in your frosting.  No one, I mean no one, wants to bite into a chunk of cream cheese.

3.  Place the cream cheese and butter in your bowl and begin to mix.  If you're using a stand mixer, get it started and let it go.  That way you can start sifting the powdered sugar.  NOTE:  Don't let your husband do this!  They make a mess.

4.  After the cream cheese and butter are creamed together and look non-chunky and fluffy, sift your powdered sugar if you haven't already done it.  Sifting ensures no pockets of sugar in your frosting. 

5.  Slowly.  Did you catch that?  SLOWLY.  Add your powdered sugar to the butter/cream cheese mixture.  If you put it all in the bowl and then turn on your mixer your kitchen will look like it was hit by a blizzard. 

6.  Once your powdered sugar is all mixed in add the vanilla to the mixture.



7.  Now mix the frosting for a little while until it looks awesome.  The more you mix, the more air you incorporate and the lighter it will be. 

8.  Now you have a choice on how to frost your cupcakes.  You can either use an off-set spatula, pastry bag and tip, frosting contraption, or a good old zip lock bag.  Yes zip lock bag.  You fill the bag, seal it, cut a corner off and pipe away.  The best thing about the zip lock bag is you can just throw it away when you're done and you don't have to fish a decorating tip out of a frosting filled pastry bag.

9.  Pipe away and make sure you refrigerate these ones!  When ready to serve, take them out of the fridge and let thaw.

There you have it!  EASY Red Velvet and Cream Cheese Frosting.  AKA best cake ever.



All frosted and ready to EAT!



- Kristi

3 Better Than Sprinkles Day

So I'm kinda obsessed with baking. 

Not only actually baking but all things baking related.  When I get within 500 yards of a Sur la Table store it's like a metal detector going off.  I literally have to stop myself from buying kitchen gadgets.  The thing that helps with that is lack of cabinet and drawer space in our apartment :).  The good news is not all the products of my baking stay at home. (My husband and family would say this is a bad thing)  Every Monday I have a captive audience at work to test out delicious new (and old) recipes on.  Today wasn't a Monday but today I took in my first cupcake batch of 2011.

So my first cupcake of 2011 was....

Red Velvet with Cream Cheese Frosting

This is generally a hit and I haven't made it yet for this group of co-workers and it was a hit!  I got three people to confirm they are better than Sprinkles (inner YEAH!!!!)  I'm being lazy and not posting the recipe but it will come soon.  But for now, here's how 2011 started off.

- Kristi