Tuesday, May 24, 2011

3 Vanilla Cupcakes

So I'm not very fond of chocolate cake...

I'm always the one person who wants vanilla....

Vanilla is the perfect spice. Actually, its not really a spice because it comes from an orchid. It smells amazing. It's classy. It's delicious. 

Originally native to Mexico, the vanilla pod is exceptionally hard to grow making it the second most expensive spice. (Saffron is the first) When making this recipe I learned a lot about the power of vanilla. 1. You can never have to much vanilla. 2. The little black specs that you see in vanilla ice cream etc are the tiny seeds. 3. Vanilla is amazing. :)

So I decided to make these cupcakes. They are called 3 vanilla because they use vanilla in three different forms: vanilla sugar, vanilla extract and vanilla beans.


First, let's get making the vanilla sugar out of the way because that takes the longest.
-to make vanilla sugar all you have to do is store however much sugar you need for the recipe in an airtight container with about 2 vanilla beans split in half. Store for a few days and the sugar will absorb the vanilla. 



This is my vanilla sugar

Make sure you scrape out all the seeds in the pod. Those are all you need for the frosting and cupcakes. 



Yesssss

Monday, May 23, 2011

Cookie Cake Pie

This was an experiment....

That turned out amazing! Here's the deal....

How could the combination of cookie, cake and pie all in one not be amazing?
This is probably the easiest recipe ever. No need to slave over making anything from scratch. In this case, it's just as good and so much more convenient if everything is store bought.
 The first layer of this one of a kind dessert is chocolate chip cookie which acts as a crust along with the buttery, flaky pie crust.
 The cake part comes next. And ends up looking like...
 This :) perfectly baked!
 Add some frosting and sprinkles and the deal is sealed

 My life=complete.

Devil's Food Cupcakes

So, I have a confession....CHOCOLATE IS MY OBSESSION!

Therefore in celebration, I decided to bake these delights :)




 Devil's food cupcakes! (Less calories & guilt but still enough to satisfy any chocolate obsession trust me!)


 Devil's food cake is extremely different from regular chocolate cake. It is known for its rich, moist taste, and opposed to regular chocolate cake uses cocoa powder.

 The dark mahogany color of the finished cake contributes to its given name: "Devil's food" = dark and devilishly delicious! ;)


Sour cream is a key ingredient to these cupcakes because it makes them extremely moist and flavorful.
                                 Things are about to get delicious :)

                                              So get ready



As for the frosting, I chose chocolate ganache, a smooth mixture of chocolate and cream- delectable! 









 So chocolate lovers: Enjoy to your heart's content


<3





Saturday, May 21, 2011

Cake Batter Oatmeal Cookies

Never underestimate the multitude of possibilities that come from a box of cake mix.  They feel so out of the box (totally didn't make that a pun on purpose).  I'm not a huge fan of oatmeal cookies, but they're one of my mom's favorite.  Not disrespecting my mom's oatmeal cookies, I just thought they needed some sprucing up.  So voila! This is what I came up with.  Still think I'm crazy?  Well, this is where I came up with the idea so call her contagious. 

hehehe I didn't tell my mom what I put in the cookies.  She's going crazy trying to figure it out. 


The cake batter gives the cookies a natural golden glaze that forms on top.

Here's the recipe:

Cake Batter Oatmeal Cookies

- 1 cup yellow cake mix
- 3/4 cup flour
- 1 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp nutmeg
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 2 cups oats
- 3/4 cups brown sugar
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 2 eggs
- 1/3 cup oil
preheat oven to 300 degrees F.

In a medium bowl combine yellow cake mix, flour, salt, nutmeg, cinnamon, & oats.  Mix and set aside.
In a mixing bowl beat sugar and oil with an electric mixer on medium until it reaches a grainy consistency.  Beat in eggs until well combined.
Add the flour mixture little bits at a time on low speed just until combined. Do not over mix.
Drop by rounded tablespoons onto ungreased baking sheet, 2 inches apart.
Bake for 20-25 minutes until the cookies are lightly golden brown.
Transfer cookies with a spatula to a cool, flat surface.

Cream Puffs Pipped with Crème Anglaise


So I watched this documentary called Kings of Pastry.  I will never underestimate the seriousness of pastry making again.  Seriously, It's intense.  And so it began again; my obsession with the delights inside French pâtisserie's. 

I think it's kind of unfair that for every Starbucks America has, France gets a pastry shop. Because of this, I had to depend on sugar instead of caffeine to get over my jet lag when I was in France. Not that I'm one to complain about the intake of sugar, but when I came home the withdrawals where so debilitating that not even Nutella could cure them.

I guess this documentary gave me a bad case of déjà vu that could only be cured by making something. Making something French that is.  So I tried some macaroons in honor of the famous Ladurée
...That didn't go so well.  Being coated in sticky sugary eggs is not fun.
 
I can't talk about it. I'm still a little bitter over it...

On to the next one - cream puffs.  Needless to say, I am not bitter about this recipe.



Don't have caster sugar? Well, I never do. So here's how to make it

The dough should be stiff enough to hold together but soft enough to squeeze out of a pastry bag.
I had to add water to mine because it was definitely not going to squeeze out of that bag.
..Would pastry chefs condemn me for that?

about 1-inch in diameter
about 1-inch from bottom to tip

 I used Wilton tip #12 to pipe both the cream puff dough and crème anglaise but you can always just cut off the tip of the piping bag.    

You can wet your finger and press down the top of the dough that sticks up.  I thought those tips were just too cuteee so I didn't touch them - - - make me feel normal and agree with me.



For the filling, cut a hole in the bottom of the cream puff with a paring knife.  They are not very fragile, however, I somehow managed to crush a few.

Why aren't the French as fat as they should be?
Here's the recipe:

Choux Pastry
makes 12 puffs

-  1 cup water
- 50g butter
- pinch of salt
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/4 tsp vanilla extract
- 50g bread flour
- 20g cake flour
- 2 eggs (lightly beaten)
- preheat over to 350 degrees F

Cook water, butter, sugar, & salt in a saucepan until bubbling hot. Turn heat to low.  Add the bread and cake flour into bubbling mixture.  Still on low heat, cook the dough for 1-2 minutes until a thin white film is formed at the bottom of the saucepan.
Transfer mixture into a food processor and turn on until the mixture turns luke warm.
Add in eggs 1 at a time and mix until well blended and smooth.
Place batter in piping bag and pipe it onto a parchment lined cookie sheet in rounds about 1-2 inches in diameter. Spray dough balls with water.
Bake at 395 degrees F. for 25 minutes.  Turn oven off and let them cool in the oven for 30 minutes.
This is a great video on how to pipe the profiteroles.

Crème Anglaise

- 1 cup milk
- 5 tbsp caster sugar how to make caster sugar
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- 3 egg yolks (beaten)
- 2 tbsp cornstarch
- 1/2 cup heavy cream
- 2 tbsp confectioners sugar

Mix 1/4 cup of milk with the cornstarch until smooth.
Add the beaten egg yolks into the cornstarch mixture.
Boil remaining milk with the caster sugar in a saucepan until bubbling hot. Pour 1/3 of this hot milk into the egg cornstarch mixture. Stirring the whole time.
Now pour the egg cornstarch mixture through a strainer into the rest boiling milk. Stir until mixture thickens and a film forms at the bottom of the pan. Be careful not to burn the mixture.
Cling wrap the custard with cling wrap with the cling wrap touching the surface of the custard (this is to prevent a hard film from forming on the surface).  Chill for at leas minutes.
While the custard is chilling whip heavy cream in a mixer and slowly add confectioners sugar.  Whip until stiff peaks form.
Fold whipped cream into custard and put in a piping bag.
With a paring knife, cut a hole in the bottom of cooled cream puffs and pipe crème anglaise inside.

Friday, May 20, 2011

How To Make Caster Sugar

Caster (also spelled castor) is basically just super fine sugar.  Finer than granulated sugar but not as fine as powdered sugar.  It's used in a lot of recipes where sugar needs to dissolve quickly or in cold liquids.

Here's how to make it out of granulated sugar:

Step 1: Place granulated sugar in a food processor

Step 2: Process for 2 minutes

Step 3: There's not really a step 3...


Thursday, May 19, 2011

Orange Cupcakes with Tart Orange Frosting

Is it pathetic that when my mom told me I needed more vitamin C in my diet I immediately started thinking of the sweetest way I could get it down? 

Well here I have it: orange cupcakes.  Yay for vitamin C!
Maybe there is only 1/2 cup of orange juice in the whole recipe, but at least I can say I had orange juice today.

As usual I was lacking an ingredient, and this time it was cake flour. But I'm proud of myself because I was resourceful, I made my own.  Forget buying cake flour, this is way easyyy:
1 cup all purpose flour - 2 Tbsp + 2 Tbsp cornstarch = 1 cup cake flour!!!
What the heck do you know? Accept it, I'm a genius... Okay okay, Joy the Baker might have taught me that.

Oh! Just a warning before I forget.  Actually warning sounds a bit threatening.  More like, just a heads up. What I'm trying so say is, this recipe is kinda more than really tart. Personally I like tart but if you don't like tart things, well I warned you. Now you're wondering, "hmmm...Do I like tart things?"  I say go for it.

Orange Cupcakes
makes 1 dozen

- 1 3/4 cup cake flour
- 1 cup sugar
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 2 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 2 eggs, separated and whites beaten until stiff
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup orange juice
- 1 stick butter, softened

Cream butter, sugar, egg yolks, and vanilla in a mixing bowl.
Mix flour, salt, and baking powder in a separate bowl. Add dry ingredients to creamed ingredients in 1/2 cup intervals, alternating with portions of the orange juice.
Fold in beaten egg whites. Spoon batter into cupcake liners until 1/2 full.
Bake for 15 minutes or until toothpick inserted comes out clean.
Cool completely then frost.

Tart Orange Frosting

- 2 cups confectioners sugar
- 4 tbsp butter, softened (1/2 stick)
- 2 tbsp lemon juice
- 2 tbsp orange juice
- 1 orange, zested

Beat all the ingredients in a mixing bowl for about 2 minutes on medium speed until light and fluffy. Using a small spatula, place about 1 tbsp of frosting on top of each cupcake. 
Note: I like to refrigerate the icing for about 30 minutes before icing so it can firm up.