First Wedding!

  Two weeks ago I had my first order for wedding cupcakes - talk about exciting!  The bride and groom selected six different flavors: white with chocolate frosting, chocolate with chocolate as well as vanilla frosting, red velvet with cream cheese, strawberry with cotton candy and finally black bottom with caramel.

My red velvet batter was a little thicker then I had first thought...it broke my spatula!

Switched to a heavy-duty spatula and then everything was alright!

  

The display:

  I ran into the newly weds this past weekend and was told they were a huge hit! All in all, I'd say that everything turned out well!

It's Gardening Time!

  I recently got a phone call from someone asking for birthday cupcakes with a garden theme.  Yes!  Hello imagination, it's time to get to work!  I made some fondant carrots, peas and corn in advance so that they would dry out and be easier to work with.

I made vegan chocolate cupcakes, loaded them with vanilla buttercream frosting, and then rolled them in crushed oreo's to give the cupcakes the look of dirt (because obviously veggies don't grow out of white frosting).

I used graham crackers cut into fourths for the little "seed packet" signs, and covered them each with white almond bark and allowed that to set in the freezer for a few minutes.  Next I flipped the little signs over and placed a small dot of almond bark on the backs and stuck pretzels on as a type of post - the almond bark worked excellent as a "glue".  They also make edible markers (Betty Crocker and Wilton both make them) that you can use to write on frostings, which worked much better then trying to pipe out the letters in frosting.

  I was pretty happy with the way that they turned out - you didn't look at them and have to try and figure out what the vegetables were supposed to be, and that is always a good thing.

Cupcakes and knitting - oh my!

  It's been awhile since I have had anything of interest to blog about, but that all changed Saturday afternoon when I got a phone calling asking for two dozen cupcakes for the following day.  My heart did that sort of pitter-patter it does whenever I'm faced with the opportunity to bake and decorate cupcakes, my imagination suddenly shot into overdrive thinking of all of the cake and frosting flavors I could combine! Vanilla with chocolate.  Chocolate with vanilla. Chocolate with chocolate. Vanilla with vanilla. Boston creme. Chocolate chip with peanut butter. Red velvet with cream cheese. Coconut with espresso! Oh the possibilities!
  I brought myself back down to earth and started to think (instead of daydream), these precious cupcakes were headed to a family with small children - better keep it pretty simple.  I finally settled with making one dozen chocolate chip cupcakes with chocolate frosting, one dozen chocolate chip mini cupcakes with vanilla buttercream and one dozen vegan chocolate cupcakes with vanilla buttercream.  I figured that since the family has a little girl of about 3, sprinkles would be the perfect touch.

Chocolate chip with chocolate buttercream

Mini chocolate chip with vanilla buttercream

Vegan chocolate with vanilla buttercream

  This post isn't quite done yet though!  I spent a few hours last week searching through Ravelry (which happens to be one of my personal favorite websites) for a new knitting pattern when I stumbled across this adorable slouchy hat pattern.  I have been working mainly on socks lately and I wanted to start a new, fast, easy project - and this was it!  I grabbed my size 10 DBNs, a ball of purple yarn and set to work.  Two days later I had this adorable slouchy hat and was impressed with how fast it went.  

St. Patricks Day!

What is out on the lawn all summer and is Irish? (Finish reading this post and you'll get the answer!)


So. St. Pattys Day 2011 has come and gone, how did I celebrate?
Cupcakes of course!


I found a recipe for Guiness chocolate cupcakes with Bailey's Irish Cream frosting.  The chocolate and the Guiness went well together, they were very moist and very delicious.  

I cut the middles out to add a chocolate ganache and found myself eating all of the crumbs!  I added one tablespoon too much of the Bailey's for my liking, but it was still wonderful and was the perfect pair for the cupcake!  I didn't end up using all of the powdered sugar in the frosting, it got too thick so I only used about three cups.

Here's the cupcakes!
Source: Smitten Kitchen

For the Guinness Chocolate Cupcakes

1 cup stout (such as Guinness)
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (preferably Dutch-process)
2 cups all purpose flour
2 cups sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs
2/3 cup sour cream

Ganache Filling 

8 ounces bittersweet chocolate
2/3 cup heavy cream
2 tablespoons butter, room temperature
1 to 2 teaspoons Irish whiskey (optional)

Baileys Frosting (see Recipe Notes)
3 to 4 cups confections sugar
1 stick (1/2 cup or 4 ounces) unsalted butter, at room temperature
3 to 4 tablespoons Baileys (or milk, or heavy cream, or a combination thereof)

Special equipment: 1-inch round cookie cutter or an apple corer and a piping bag (though a plastic bag with the corner snipped off will also work) (I used a knife and just made a small hole in the cupcake, they were so moist it was very easy.) 

Make the cupcakes: Preheat oven to 350°F. Line 24 cupcake cups with liners. Bring 1 cup stout and 1 cup butter to simmer in heavy large saucepan over medium heat. Add cocoa powder and whisk until mixture is smooth. Cool slightly.

Whisk flour, sugar, baking soda, and 3/4 teaspoon salt in large bowl to blend. Using electric mixer, beat eggs and sour cream in another large bowl to blend. Add stout-chocolate mixture to egg mixture and beat just to combine. Add flour mixture and beat briefly on slow speed. Using rubber spatula, fold batter until completely combined. Divide batter among cupcake liners, filling them 2/3 to 3/4 of the way. Bake cake until tester inserted into center comes out clean, rotating them once front to back if your oven bakes unevenly, about 17 minutes. Cool cupcakes on a rack completely.

Make the filling: Chop the chocolate and transfer it to a heatproof bowl. Heat the cream until simmering and pour it over the chocolate. Let it sit for one minute and then stir until smooth. (If this has not sufficiently melted the chocolate, you can return it to a double-boiler to gently melt what remains. 20 seconds in the microwave, watching carefully, will also work.) Add the butter and whiskey (if you’re using it) and stir until combined.

Fill the cupcakes: Let the ganache cool until thick but still soft enough to be piped (the fridge will speed this along but you must stir it every 10 minutes). Meanwhile, using your 1-inch round cookie cutter or an apple corer, cut the centers out of the cooled cupcakes. You want to go most of the way down the cupcake but not cut through the bottom — aim for 2/3 of the way. A slim spoon or grapefruit knife will help you get the center out. Those are your “tasters”. Put the ganache into a piping bag with a wide tip and fill the holes in each cupcake to the top.

Make the frosting: Whip the butter in the bowl of an electric mixer, or with a hand mixer, for several minutes. You want to get it very light and fluffy. Slowly add the powdered sugar, a few tablespoons at a time.

[This is a fantastic trick I picked up while working on the cupcakes article for Martha Stewart Living; the test kitchen chefs had found that when they added the sugar slowly, quick buttercream frostings got less grainy, and tended to require less sugar to thicken them up.]

When the frosting looks thick enough to spread, drizzle in the Baileys (or milk) and whip it until combined. If this has made the frosting too thin (it shouldn’t, but just in case) beat in another spoonful or two of powdered sugar.

Ice and decorate the cupcakes. 

Do ahead: You can bake the cupcakes a week or two in advance and store them, well wrapped, in the freezer. You can also fill them before you freeze them. They also keep filled — or filled and frosted — in the fridge for a day. (Longer, they will start to get stale.)

Answer:
 Paddy O'Furniture