Think - {Chocolate Cake with Vanilla Italian Meringue Buttercream}

Enjoying the damp, dark quiet of an unremarkable night, I'm walking alone on the sidewalk. It seems to move beneath my feet like a giant treadmill and I find myself feeling, although mobile, quite stationary. Lighted by street lamps and porch lights, the path ahead is clearly defined, empty, and normal; but somehow it seems as if my steps are being delivered at the sounding of my souls. I

Cara Cara Vanilla Frosting

Ingredients:
2 cups sugar
1/2 cup cara cara orange juice
4 egg whites
1 tablespoon vanilla
pinch salt
zest of two cara cara oranges
food coloring, if desired

Directions:
In a medium saucepan, bring sugar, vanilla, zest and juice to a boil, stirring occasionally. Continue to boil until it reaches soft ball stage (when a drop of the syrup forms a soft ball when dropped in cool water) while continuing to stir occasionally. Meanwhile, beat the egg whites and salt to soft peaks. Keep the mixer running (you need a stand mixer or a friend to complete this next step) while you strain a continuous stream of the molten syrup into the egg whites. Add the food dye. Beat for about 5 minutes or until the frosting is fluffy, glossy and cool. Frost cooled cake/cupcakes.

My thoughts:

An creamsicle meets marshmallow fluff frosting.

"Don't Make Me Release the Flying Monkeys" Halloween Cupcakes with Orange Frosting...and a little blood...

Roxanne: These are for you!

What can I say...I love Halloween and really look forward to these nutty set-ups I create...all meant in fun!

The cupcakes themselves are relatively unimportant in this case...it's all about the decorating...however, the folks I work with at UMD thought they tasted great...should I say the obvious? They were DEVIL'S FOOD cupcakes!

Enjoy the photos...let yourself go a little crazy this Halloween...take a walk on the wildside!

Eat, drink and be scary!

CQ and Layla

"Don't Make Me Release the Flying Monkeys" Halloween Cupcakes with Orange Frosting...and a little blood...

Roxanne: These are for you!

What can I say...I love Halloween and really look forward to these nutty set-ups I create...all meant in fun!

The cupcakes themselves are relatively unimportant in this case...it's all about the decorating...however, the folks I work with at UMD thought they tasted great...should I say the obvious? They were DEVIL'S FOOD cupcakes!

Enjoy the photos...let yourself go a little crazy this Halloween...take a walk on the wildside!

Eat, drink and be scary!

CQ and Layla

Trick or Treat...Smell my feet...Give Me Some Halloween Cupcakes to Eat!

Here are some really spooky Halloween cupcakes I've made:


Eat, Drink and Be Scary Pt. Deux

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The "It's Close to Midnight and Something Evil's Lurking in The Dark" Halloween Cupcakes

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Halloween Pumpkin Birthday Cupcakes

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Halloween Cupcakes!

Trick or Treat...Smell my feet...Give Me Some Halloween Cupcakes to Eat!

Here are some really spooky Halloween cupcakes I've made:


Eat, Drink and Be Scary Pt. Deux

---

The "It's Close to Midnight and Something Evil's Lurking in The Dark" Halloween Cupcakes

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Halloween Pumpkin Birthday Cupcakes

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Halloween Cupcakes!

How to Make Italian Meringue Buttercream

When choosing between Swiss and Italian Meringue Buttercreams, the latter is definitely the one I prefer. Although it contains the same ingredients, Italian Meringue Buttercream is more airy and light than Swiss, which is the way I like a frosting to be.Unfortunately, I think a lot of people are afraid of this recipe because it involves cooking sugar syrup. But you shouldn't be! It's not that

How to Make Swiss Meringue Buttercream

I receive A LOT of emails and comments about buttercream. I try to respond to them as thoroughly and promptly as I can, but sometimes I just don't have the time to do so, and that makes me feel bad. Like, really really bad. So, what I decided to do was start a bit of a "how to" series on making different kinds of buttercream. I want to be able to address any questions that you guys may have,

Oolong Cupcakes with Lavender Frosting

Ingredients:
for the cupcake:
1 cup flour
1/2 cup light brown sugar
2/3 cup milk
1/4 cup canola oil
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 egg, at room temperature
2 bags Tazo Ti Kwan Yin (oolong) tea


for the frosting:
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup water
2 egg whites
1 1/2 to 2 tablespoons culinary grade lavender
pinch salt
food dye (optional)

Directions:
For the cupcakes:
Bring the milk and tea to a boil. Remove from heat and allow to cool to room temperature. Discard the tea bags after thoroughly squeezing out all the milk back into the pan. Preheat oven to 350. Line or grease and flour 6 wells in a cupcake pan. Place all of the ingredients in a large bowl and mix until well combined. The batter will be rather thin, so don't be alarmed. Fill each well 2/3 of the way full. Bake about 15 minutes or until a toothpick inserted the center of a cupcake comes out clean or with just one or two dry crumbs. Cool briefly in the pan, then remove cupcakes to wire racks to cool completely before icing.


For the frosting:
Beat the egg whites and salt to soft peaks using an electric mixer. Meanwhile, in a medium saucepan, bring sugar, lavender and water to a boil, stirring occasionally. Continue to boil until it reaches soft ball stage (when a drop of the syrup forms a soft ball when dropped in cool water) while continuing to stir occasionally. Whisk the mixture through a fine sieve into a heat safe measuring cup and discard the lavender. Keep the mixer running (to be safe use a stand mixer or a friend to complete this next step) and pour a continuous stream of molten syrup into the egg whites. Continue to beat for about 5 minutes or until the frosting is fluffy, glossy and cool. Frost cooled cupcakes.

My thoughts:

Recently I was approached by Tazo to develop some new recipes using their tea. It is actually quite fun, I got a big box of various teas to play around with and once a week for three weeks I will be sent a mystery ingredient to use in the recipe as well. I was excited for the challenge, after 6 plus years and nearly 1,100 original recipes, sometimes a culinary puzzle is welcome. This week it was culinary lavender. I haven't made anything with lavender before so that was an interesting twist.

I had lots of ideas but I decided to go classic and make some cupcakes. Who doesn't love cupcakes? No one I would like to know. These cupcakes are more for grown ups than the little ones I think, they are subtly flavored and not overly sweet. The cupcakes themselves taste like milky tea and are quite light textured. I love how the fluffy lavender frosting turned out, that is one of my favorite types of frosting to make and as I hoped, the lavender flavor was strong but not overpowering. I did add a little dye to the icing, something I don't always do but I was worried the icing might look grey or a little "off" left unadulterated. I also made a bit too much frosting so if you double the cupcake recipe, I think you could use this same frosting recipe without alteration and have enough to frost all of the cupcakes, it is just a tricky recipe to scale down any further than I did.

It was a Dark & Stormy Night Frosting

Ingredients:
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup dark rum (Goslings)
2 egg whites
3 inch knob ginger, sliced
pinch salt


Directions:
In a medium saucepan, bring sugar, ginger slices and rum to a boil, stirring occasionally. Continue to boil until it reaches soft ball stage (when a drop of the syrup forms a soft ball when dropped in cool water) while continuing to stir occasionally. Meanwhile, beat the egg whites and salt to soft peaks. Keep the mixer running (for best results you need a stand mixer or a friend to complete this next step) while you strain a continuous stream of the molten syrup into the egg whites. Add the food dye. Beat for about 5 minutes or until the frosting is fluffy, glossy and cool. Frost cooled cake.

My thoughts:

Perfect frosting for dark & stormy cupcakes. Or chocolate, rum or vanilla cake. Or eat it from a spoon.

Ethereal Lemon Frosting

Ingredients:
2 cups sugar
1/2 cup lemon juice
4 egg whites
pinch salt
zest one lemon

yellow food coloring, if desired

Directions:
In a medium saucepan, bring sugar, zest and lemon juice to a boil, stirring occasionally. Continue to boil until it reaches soft ball stage (when a drop of the syrup forms a soft ball when dropped in cool water) while continuing to stir occasionally. Meanwhile, beat the egg whites and salt to soft peaks. Keep the mixer running (you need a stand mixer or a friend to complete this next step) while you strain a continuous stream of the molten syrup into the egg whites. Add the food dye. Beat for about 5 minutes or until the frosting is fluffy, glossy and cool. Frost cooled cake.

My thoughts:

I love this frosting! Citrus is at its peak during the winter and I love taking advantage of that and making some really citrus packed recipes. This frosting is light and fluffy-almost marshmallowy- but has a strong, true lemon flavor. Sort of like a lemon meringue pie in frosting form. It is perfect on lemon cupcakes or even plain vanilla.

Martha Stewart's Almond-Hazelnut Cupcakes with Faux-Bois Toppers

Martha says: "You might want to throw a woodland-themed celebration just to have an excuse to make cupcakes topped with chocolate faux-bois rounds. Faux bois, or imitation woodgrain, is a favorite Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia motif; it can be applied to chocolate using a wood-graining rocker, found at paint-supply stores. Made with ground almonds and hazelnuts and covered with dark chocolate frosting, the cupcakes are also worth serving on their own, without any other embellishments."

I made these cupcakes for a pretty special weekend dinner that included Eric's (Catherine's fiance) parents...Tom and Pat Olson...visiting from Norwich, NY...we had such a great time with them and learned many fun things about Eric! Look out! Now back to the cupcakes...actually, the reviews were mixed...the cupcake turned out to be surprisingly dry. It was better with the dark chocolate frosting and the chocolate toppers...but on its own...sorry to say it was very blah! I think I might need some one-on-one lessons with Martha!

Layla...on the other hand...here she is looking at the cupcakes over her shoulder from under the table...she thought they looked great!

One major problem I had was finding the wood-graining tool...grrrrrr...and, when you make the toppers you also need a baking sheet-sized piece of acetate....think about it! There are several steps to both the cupcakes and the toppers, so beware...these takes some time to create.

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Recipe (page 277)
For Cupcakes (Makes 16 cupcakes):
1/2 cup whole unblanched almonds, toasted (see page 323)
1/2 cup hazelnuts, toasted and skinned (have you ever tried to skin a hazelnut?)(see page 323)
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 cup cake flour (not self-rising), sifted
1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup firmly packed dark brown sugar
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
3/4 cup milk
4 large egg whites

1. Make cupcakes: Preheat over to 350 degrees. Line standard muffin tins with paper liners. In a food processor, pulse together almonds and hazelnuts until finely ground (do not overprocess or the nuts will turn into a paste). Into a mixing bowl, sift together both flours, baking powder, and salt. Whisk in the ground nuts.

2. With an electric mixer on medium-high speed, cream butter and both sugars until smooth. Beat in vanilla. Reduce speed to low. Add flour mixture in three batches, alternating with two additions of milk, and beating well after each.

3. In another mixing bowl, with electric mixer on medium speed, whisk the egg whites until soft peaks form. In two additions, gently fold the egg whites into the batter.

4. Divide batter evenly among lined cups, filling each three-quarters full. Bake, rotating tins halfway through, until a cake tester inserted in centers comes out clean, about 25 minutes. Transfer tins to wire racks to cool completely before removing cupcakes. Cupcakes can be stored up to 3 days at room temperature, or frozen up to 2 months, in airtight containers.

5. To finish, use an offset spatula spread a thin layer of frosting over cupcakes, then transfer remaining frosting to a pastry bag fitted with a larget open-star tip (#821). Pipe a ring of frosting around the perimeter of each cupcake, then place a chocolate disk on top. Decorated cupcakes can be refrigerated up to 1 day in airtight containers; bring to room temperature before serving.

Dark Chocolate Frosting (Makes about 5 cups)
1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder
1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon boiling water
2 1/4 cups (4 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
1/4 cup confectioners' sugar, sifted
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 pounds best-quality semisweet chocolate, melted and cooled

Combine cocoa and the boiling water, stirring until cocoa has dissolved. With an electric mixer on medium-high speed, beat butter, confectioners' sugar, and salt until pale and fluffy. Reduce speed to low. Add melted and cooled chocolate, beating until combined and scraping down sides of bowl as needed. Beat in the cocoa mixture. If not using immediately, frosting can be refrigerated up to 5 days, or frozen up to 1 month, in an airtight container. Before using, bring to room temperature, and beat on low speed until smooth again.

For toppers: Go to this link on Martha Stewart's web site...there is a really great "how to" there.

Martha Stewart's Almond-Hazelnut Cupcakes with Faux-Bois Toppers

Martha says: "You might want to throw a woodland-themed celebration just to have an excuse to make cupcakes topped with chocolate faux-bois rounds. Faux bois, or imitation woodgrain, is a favorite Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia motif; it can be applied to chocolate using a wood-graining rocker, found at paint-supply stores. Made with ground almonds and hazelnuts and covered with dark chocolate frosting, the cupcakes are also worth serving on their own, without any other embellishments."

I made these cupcakes for a pretty special weekend dinner that included Eric's (Catherine's fiance) parents...Tom and Pat Olson...visiting from Norwich, NY...we had such a great time with them and learned many fun things about Eric! Look out! Now back to the cupcakes...actually, the reviews were mixed...the cupcake turned out to be surprisingly dry. It was better with the dark chocolate frosting and the chocolate toppers...but on its own...sorry to say it was very blah! I think I might need some one-on-one lessons with Martha!

Layla...on the other hand...here she is looking at the cupcakes over her shoulder from under the table...she thought they looked great!

One major problem I had was finding the wood-graining tool...grrrrrr...and, when you make the toppers you also need a baking sheet-sized piece of acetate....think about it! There are several steps to both the cupcakes and the toppers, so beware...these takes some time to create.

---

Recipe (page 277)
For Cupcakes (Makes 16 cupcakes):
1/2 cup whole unblanched almonds, toasted (see page 323)
1/2 cup hazelnuts, toasted and skinned (have you ever tried to skin a hazelnut?)(see page 323)
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 cup cake flour (not self-rising), sifted
1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup firmly packed dark brown sugar
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
3/4 cup milk
4 large egg whites

1. Make cupcakes: Preheat over to 350 degrees. Line standard muffin tins with paper liners. In a food processor, pulse together almonds and hazelnuts until finely ground (do not overprocess or the nuts will turn into a paste). Into a mixing bowl, sift together both flours, baking powder, and salt. Whisk in the ground nuts.

2. With an electric mixer on medium-high speed, cream butter and both sugars until smooth. Beat in vanilla. Reduce speed to low. Add flour mixture in three batches, alternating with two additions of milk, and beating well after each.

3. In another mixing bowl, with electric mixer on medium speed, whisk the egg whites until soft peaks form. In two additions, gently fold the egg whites into the batter.

4. Divide batter evenly among lined cups, filling each three-quarters full. Bake, rotating tins halfway through, until a cake tester inserted in centers comes out clean, about 25 minutes. Transfer tins to wire racks to cool completely before removing cupcakes. Cupcakes can be stored up to 3 days at room temperature, or frozen up to 2 months, in airtight containers.

5. To finish, use an offset spatula spread a thin layer of frosting over cupcakes, then transfer remaining frosting to a pastry bag fitted with a larget open-star tip (#821). Pipe a ring of frosting around the perimeter of each cupcake, then place a chocolate disk on top. Decorated cupcakes can be refrigerated up to 1 day in airtight containers; bring to room temperature before serving.

Dark Chocolate Frosting (Makes about 5 cups)
1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder
1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon boiling water
2 1/4 cups (4 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
1/4 cup confectioners' sugar, sifted
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 pounds best-quality semisweet chocolate, melted and cooled

Combine cocoa and the boiling water, stirring until cocoa has dissolved. With an electric mixer on medium-high speed, beat butter, confectioners' sugar, and salt until pale and fluffy. Reduce speed to low. Add melted and cooled chocolate, beating until combined and scraping down sides of bowl as needed. Beat in the cocoa mixture. If not using immediately, frosting can be refrigerated up to 5 days, or frozen up to 1 month, in an airtight container. Before using, bring to room temperature, and beat on low speed until smooth again.

For toppers: Go to this link on Martha Stewart's web site...there is a really great "how to" there.

Blueberry Vanilla Bean Frosting

Ingredients:
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup water
2 egg whites
2/3 cup blueberries
1 vanilla bean, split length wise
pinch salt

Directions:
Beat the egg whites and salt to soft peaks using an electric mixer. Meanwhile, in a medium saucepan, bring sugar, vanilla bean blueberries and water to a boil, stirring occasionally, mashing the berries a bit with the back of your spoon. Continue to boil until it reaches soft ball stage (when a drop of the syrup forms a soft ball when dropped in cool water) while continuing to stir occasionally.




Whisk the mixture through a fine sieve into a heat safe measuring cup and discard the blueberries. Keep the mixer running (to be safe use a stand mixer or a friend to complete this next step) and pour a continuous stream of molten syrup into the egg whites. Continue to beat for about 5 minutes or until the frosting is fluffy, glossy and cool. Frost cooled cupcakes or cake.

My thoughts:

The best word to describe this frosting is ethereal. It has an incredibly light and smooth texture and is infused with blueberries and vanilla. So good and perfect for summer.

Martha Stewart's Peanut Butter Cupcakes with Peanut Butter Frosting and Jelly

Layla is very interested in these peanut butter cupakes...but no, she got a doggie treat instead!



Just bought Martha Stewart's book called Cupcakes....and was inspired to make her Peanut Butter Cupcakes with Peanut Butter Frosting and Jelly for my brother, Jim,...symbolically really, because he is in the hospital right now in Spokane, WA, with bacterial pneumonia.



This is how they looked when they came out of the oven....pretty gorgeous, huh? They smelled great, too.



It was fun frosting them and putting the strawberry jelly on top...so far everyone's loved them!



I found these cool plastic containers online and I love them. I ordered both the 1/2-doz and dozen containers. They work great!

This is how they looked on the way out the door!

This is the recipe:

Peanut Butter Cupcakes

Ingredients

Makes 18
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
6 ounces (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
1 1/3 cups sugar
2/3 cup natural, creamy peanut butter
3 large eggs
1/2 cup sour cream
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Peanut Butter Frosting
Strawberry jam, for topping

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line standard muffin tins with paper liners.

Whisk dry ingredients in a large bowl. Cream butter and sugar with a mixer until light and fluffy. Add peanut butter. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating after each addition. Mix sour cream and vanilla.

Add dry ingredients to mixture. Scrape sides of bowl.

Divide batter among muffin cups, filling each 2/3 full.

Bake cupcakes until testers inserted into centers come out clean, about 20 minutes. Let cool in tins on wire racks.

Once cupcakes are cool, frost tops with peanut butter frosting. Place a dollop of jam in center of frosting. Decorated cupcakes will keep, covered and refrigerated, for up to 2 days.

Peanut Butter Frosting and Jelly

Ingredients

Makes about 3 cups
6 ounces cream cheese
1/3 cup confectioners' sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup creamy peanut butter (not natural)
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/2 cup heavy cream

Directions

Beat cream cheese and confectioners' sugar with a mixer on medium speed. Add salt, then peanut butter, then vanilla. Whisk cream until soft peaks form, and then fold into peanut butter mixture. Use immediately, or cover and refrigerate for up to 2 days. (Bring to room temperature, and beat on low speed until smooth before using.)

Hope you like them and...have a great week!

CQ

Martha Stewart's Peanut Butter Cupcakes with Peanut Butter Frosting and Jelly

Layla is very interested in these peanut butter cupakes...but no, she got a doggie treat instead!



Just bought Martha Stewart's book called Cupcakes....and was inspired to make her Peanut Butter Cupcakes with Peanut Butter Frosting and Jelly for my brother, Jim,...symbolically really, because he is in the hospital right now in Spokane, WA, with bacterial pneumonia.



This is how they looked when they came out of the oven....pretty gorgeous, huh? They smelled great, too.



It was fun frosting them and putting the strawberry jelly on top...so far everyone's loved them!



I found these cool plastic containers online and I love them. I ordered both the 1/2-doz and dozen containers. They work great!

This is how they looked on the way out the door!

This is the recipe:

Peanut Butter Cupcakes

Ingredients

Makes 18
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
6 ounces (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
1 1/3 cups sugar
2/3 cup natural, creamy peanut butter
3 large eggs
1/2 cup sour cream
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Peanut Butter Frosting
Strawberry jam, for topping

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line standard muffin tins with paper liners.

Whisk dry ingredients in a large bowl. Cream butter and sugar with a mixer until light and fluffy. Add peanut butter. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating after each addition. Mix sour cream and vanilla.

Add dry ingredients to mixture. Scrape sides of bowl.

Divide batter among muffin cups, filling each 2/3 full.

Bake cupcakes until testers inserted into centers come out clean, about 20 minutes. Let cool in tins on wire racks.

Once cupcakes are cool, frost tops with peanut butter frosting. Place a dollop of jam in center of frosting. Decorated cupcakes will keep, covered and refrigerated, for up to 2 days.

Peanut Butter Frosting and Jelly

Ingredients

Makes about 3 cups
6 ounces cream cheese
1/3 cup confectioners' sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup creamy peanut butter (not natural)
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/2 cup heavy cream

Directions

Beat cream cheese and confectioners' sugar with a mixer on medium speed. Add salt, then peanut butter, then vanilla. Whisk cream until soft peaks form, and then fold into peanut butter mixture. Use immediately, or cover and refrigerate for up to 2 days. (Bring to room temperature, and beat on low speed until smooth before using.)

Hope you like them and...have a great week!

CQ