Cake Pops - Attempt II

Epic Fail #2. Somehow I just don't think cake pops are in my future. This was my second failed attempt at making cake pops. Actually, I'd have been happy to have succeeded at making cake balls correctly. Didn't get that part right either. It looked like it was much better than my original attempt but still too moist. The sticks were tearing through the cake balls. They were coming apart in my icing. They just don't seem to be working for me. Maybe I'll stick to actual cakes and cupcakes. We'll see. You never know what I'll do. Right now I was hoping to make some for Easter. Looks like I'll be making something else.

Help!

I need some feedback here. I want to try to make a "new" cupcake flavor. New for me anyway.  I'm borrowing some flavor combinations that sounded really good to me. My favorite is Cherry Limeade, but I'm also considering a chocolate malt cupcake and possibly a margherita cupcake. What does everyone else think?

Wish I knew how to set up a poll on here. That would be so much easier! LOL...one of these days I'll get it figured out.

Random Things of Happiness

Hello all! Sorry I've not posted much lately. No, I didn't fall off the face of the earth. It's the busy season for me at work, add stress and just personal issues to go along with that and I've not done much to blog about nor felt like looking at the laptop after working on a computer all day.

Here's a few little "somethings" that brought me some happiness during the past several weeks of craziness. Much love to my cousin M, my bestie SMD and my mom for being my rocks and anchors when I felt like the boat was sinking. I love you all.

This is my new apron my wonderful mom gave me. Isn't it just the CUTEST? Little, sparkly cupcakes all over. And it's reversible too. The other side has coordinating stripes like the ones along the bottom of this side and two cute little pockets. I love it! The glittery sparkles will probably come off in the wash a little each time it's washed, but it will still be fabulous, sparkely or not.

This is my souvenir my honey brought back for me when he went to a haunted halloween convention in St. Louis, MO a couple weekends ago. I love, love, love monkeys and he saw this little guy and knew it was perfect for me. Inside the rim it says "Have fun monkeying around." I very much enjoy having hot tea in the evenings and coffee in the mornings and this mug is the perfect size. It's lightweight and sooo adorable! Yep, he did good picking this out. It was accompanied by a pumpkin spice flavored lip balm. Pumpkin is one of my absolute favorite flavors. It's the best thing about fall every year.

My niece Kayla came to stay with us for several days while she was on Spring Break from college. We don't get to see her very often and I like to try to bake something with her when she's here. Usually she reaps the rewards of our efforts because we send her back to college with goodies. I reap the benefit of getting to spend time with her. These are Apricot Pecan Thumbprint cookies. They were simple to make, didn't take a lot of time and are really good. The recipe called for peach but I didn't have that, so I used apricot instead. I can't remember off the top of my head where the recipe came from. I found it online somewhere. Maybe Pillsbury's or All Recipes websites. I can't recall but they were delicious. We also made smokey four cheese mac-n-cheese which just lit her entire demeanor up. LOL...I've NEVER seen anyone that excited about Mac-N-Cheese. She had to text her friends about it. Don't worry, she took home a container full of the stuff.

That's all for now. Hopefully I'll have more to post in the weeks to come. I'm wanting to make a second attempt at making cake pops. Last time I wasn't successful with making just the cake balls. I've learned a few things since then, things being done incorrectly, wrong amounts, etc. So I'm about ready to give it another go and see how well they turn out this time. Let's keep our collective fingers crossed they actually turn out this time!

Lots of love to you all and keep on baking! I'd love to see what's been cooking in your "laboratories!"

Mocha Latte Cupcakes with Double Shot Latte Buttercream - February 2, 2011

Mmmmm...doesn't that look really good? This is the "Chosen One." Ha ha, it's the one I chose to taste test and I wasn't disappointed this time. Thanks go out to Cousin Maria, she found this recipe in Southern Living Magazine, February 2010 issue. You can find their website here. Just click on the "The Magazine" tab, then choose Magazine Archive. Lots of good stuff on their site.

The cupcake is simply chocolate but the frosting has the latte flavor to it. The recipe called for 1 1/2 tablespoons of instant espresso and 2 teaspoons of vanilla. I used espresso powder, 1 teaspoon of vanilla and 1 teaspoon of pure coffee extract. Figured if I substituted one of the teaspoons of vanilla with a teaspoon of the coffee extract it would punch up the flavor a bit. Personally, I really like it and it has just the right amount of sweetness to it too. Sprinkle a little cinnamon on top and voila, perfecto! You could also sprinkle any number of toppings that you like on them. Some suggestions were chocolate shavings or cocoa powder, chocolate covered espresso beans or just a coffee bean. For those of you who like a little spicy kick to your chocolate, you could try some cayenne pepper or maybe a sprinkle of mexican chocolate. One of these days I'm gonna have to try that.

I'm not sure why but the recipe made 36 regular size cupcakes. It was only suppose to make 24. The recipe said the batter would be thick. "Thick" didn't come close to properly describing the consistency of the cake batter but they baked up just fine.

Since I had so many cupcakes, I sent some to work with my mom. Her co-workers really liked them. I'm glad she works with a wonderful bunch of people. I mean really, could you not send some if you had THIS MANY? 

You Know It's Bad When.... - February 1, 2011

Yikes! You know it's bad when...the cupcakes stick to the paper baking cups, white chocolate ganache didn't do anything for them, and not even the frosting could salvage a decent compliment...and that's from the baker herself!

I was trying to change up a strawberry cupcake recipe by substituting blackberries for the strawberries in the recipe. Oh noooooo. BLECH! Can you say NASTY??? I did, that's right, 100% nastiness. I wouldn't feed those things to anyone's dog. They need a Mr. Yuck sticker.

In all fairness it could very well have been my own fault. I halved the recipe since I wasn't sure how it was going to turn out and I didn't want to make a bunch of cupcakes that no one would eat. I'm wondering if maybe some of my division on the measurements weren't correct.

Mis-Adventure of the Mocha Cupcakes - January 27, 2011

I wanted to make these mocha cupcakes, they sounded really good. They looked really good when they were done but I didn't particularly like the cake or the frosting. It called for dutch process cocoa powder which I thought I had, but I didn't, so I used the special dark cocoa powder that I did have on hand. That might have been the downfall of the cake part. It was too dry for my taste. The frosting was meringue and not sweet enough for me. I don't care for sickening sweet frostings but this one REALLY needed just a bit more sugar. It did have a wonderful coffee flavor. It was nice & strong, you KNEW it was coffee "buttercream." Pretty, but I'll have to tweak the recipe a bit before I like them.

Coconut-Lime Cupcakes January 20, 2011

On January 20th, 2011 we were blessed with a winter storm. I know, I know...I usually don't consider a winter storm a blessing but this one allowed me to stay home and make these wonderful Coconut-Lime Cupcakes for my aunt's birthday. Oh they were soooo good. In fact, one of my cousins was jealous she didn't get any so I promised I'd make her some when she came to visit us. Naturally, she loved them!

What can I say? They speak for themselves. Coconut-lime cupcakes with coconut frosting...mmmm. Here's a visual to help you out.

Yes, that's a pretty big mug, noooo the cupcake isn't actually that tiny.

Here's my progress, in pictures of course.

First, I baked my cupcakes and cored them with a cute little gadget I got at Williams & Sonoma. It's called the Cuisipro Cupcake Corer. You can click on the above link to go to their webpage. It's a fantastically simple tool, hand operated, easy to wash and it works great on standard size cupcakes or muffins. I haven't tried using it on jumbo cupcakes, so I cannot say how well it would do with such a large medium. I really like that it's quick and simple to operate.

 

Then I filled them with some wonderful lime curd. First time I've ever made any kind of curd. Truthfully, making lime curd always sounded like a daunting task. In my head I was always thinking "that sounds like it would be very complicated to make and it probably takes a lot of time." In reality it's fairly simple and actually quite easy to make. My next flavor of curd that I plan on making is grapefruit. Yep, you heard me, grapefruit curd. There's a nice recipe that actually sounds interesting enough that I'm just going to have to try it to say I at least attempted it, and either liked it or not. I'm actually hoping that I'll like it. I'm not a big grapefruit fan at all.

Finally I piped coconut buttercream frosting on them and then sprinkled coconut flakes on top of the buttercream.  Absolutely lovely cupcakes and the only person that wrinkled their nose up at them was my boyfriend. After 7 years together he finally says he doesn't like lime. Go figure!



Chai & Honey Cupcakes

I got a new cupcake "cookbook" if you will, on my birthday and decided to make one of the recipes for a get-together on New Year's Eve. They looked simple to make and I've always wanted to try making chai flavored cake. I used one of the new teas I bought at Teavana so I didn't have to use 3 servings worth, I only used 2 but brewed it according to the recipe directions.

Baking was a tad worrisome because there was some kind of liquid bubbling up out of the middle of every cupcake. I suspect it was part of the honey that was in the batter (the batter was very runny too.) I put them back in the oven and let them bake a couple minutes longer. That seemed to do the trick. I cooled them and then made the honey whipped cream topping right before we were to leave for the party. Transporting them "frosted" wouldn't have worked out too well so I finished them once we arrived. They looked and tasted really good!

Cake Balls - Blah!

A friend of mine introduced me to a cool website called Bakerella. She specializes in cake pops which are balls of cake on sucker sticks. I thought they'd be good to take to our Christmas party at work. Then I got to thinking that having this stick taking up room on your plate might be kind of annoying. I decided to do cake balls instead. I've never made cake pops or cake balls before and I thought a practice run would be a good idea.

Should have been...

I had some ugly looking cake balls. I quit after making only 12, they were pitifully ugly. Dad said they tasted "great" but I wasn't happy that they were ugly. I must have gotten too much icing in the cake and it was doing weird things to my melted chocolate. The cake balls wouldn't even freeze! This is something that's gonna take practice. Next time I try to make some I'll use a can of store-bought icing so I use the correct amount. I used my own cream cheese icing this time. Oh well...gives me an excuse to make them again!

The office will probably be getting peppermint cupcakes for the party! I KNOW those are good!

Happy baking until my next adventure (or disaster!)