S'mores Cupcakes

Crumbly graham cracker cake filled with chocolate ganache and topped with gooey marshmallow creme. 

I know its been a while but i'm back! Summer was so nice. There were lots of trips to the beach, my family came to visit and I started a new job that I'm really enjoying. There wasn't much baking, and most cooking project involved simple grilling so you didn't miss much.

I had told the people at my new job that I liked to bake. During my second week there was a bake sale to raise money for charity so it was the perfect opportunity to show off my skills. I decided I wanted to make something summery- so I had the idea of s'mores. I dare you to try to find someone who dislikes s'mores. They don't exist. Everyone loves them and eating them brings back memories of childhood summers. Luckily Bon Appetit had test driven this recipe for me so I only had to make a few adaptions.

S'mores Cupcakes
adapted from Bon Appetit
makes 12 cupcakes

Ingredients
1 1/2 cup graham cracker crumbs (about 15 whole crackers)
1/2 cup all purpose flour
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
3/4 cups sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 cup whole milk
8 ounces bittersweet chocolate
1/2 cup heavy whipping cream
one 8oz jar marshmallow creme

Preheat oven to 350°F. Line 12 standard muffin cups with paper liners.

Whisk graham crumbs, flour, baking powder, and pinch of salt in medium bowl. Beat butter and sugar in large bowl until light and fluffy. Add eggs 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Add vanilla with last egg. Add graham-cracker mixture in 3 additions alternately with milk in 2 additions, beginning and ending with graham-cracker mixture.

Divide batter among muffin cups Bake cupcakes until tester inserted into center come out clean, about 22 minutes. Transfer cupcakes to rack; cool completely.

While cupcakes are baking place chocolate in medium bowl. Bring cream just to boil in small saucepan; pour over chocolate. Let stand 1 minute; stir until smooth. Cool ganache until lukewarm.

Use knife to cut holes in cupcakes. Fill with ganache and replace top. Ice with marshmallow creme, and garnish as desired.

A few notes:

I actually piped my marshmallow cream on top of the cupcakes- which turned out to be a total waste of time because it ended up oozing down the sides- but I still though it looked fine. Just know that it won't act like normal frosting would.

The ganache was so simple to make. i had no idea how easy it was. I'm going to have to experiment more with ganache fillings.

The cake, while yummy, isn't your typical cake. It was very delicate and crumbly. I still enjoyed it but thought i'd give fair warning. My cupcake corer didn't work because of the consistency- so I used a small knife.

I used a mini torch to toast the marshmallows. It was my first time using it. Any recipe where you get to use a torch earns you extra awesome points.

Pistachio Chai Muffins

Recipe Review: Spice and Tea flavored muffins with a hint of sweet and a nutty crunch. Perfect if you don't like overly sweet breakfast pastries. 

I was reading last months Cooking Light when an article mentioned a Chai & Pistachio Breakfast muffins.  The recipe instantly went to the top of my "to make" wish list. I hate how most of the baked good breakfast options are super sweet. Don't get me wrong- I love dessert- just not first thing in the morning. These muffins are much more savory than they are sweet. The flavors were surprising, and although they are quite different from any muffin I've had before- I really liked them

Pistachio Chai Muffins

1 3/4 cups flour
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 chai tea bags
1 cup low-fat buttermilk
1/4 cup butter, melted
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 large egg, lightly beaten
1/3 cup shelled dry-roasted pistachios, chopped
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1 tablespoon water

Preheat oven to 375°.

Combine flour, brown sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl. Stir with whisk until combined. Cut open tea bags; add tea to flour mixture, stirring well. Combine buttermilk, butter, 1 teaspoon vanilla, and egg in a bowl, stirring well with a whisk. Add buttermilk mixture to flour mixture, stirring just until moist.

Place 12 muffin-cup liners in muffin cups; coat liners with cooking spray. Divide batter evenly among prepared muffin cups. Sprinkle nuts evenly over batter. Bake at 375° for 15 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool for 5 minutes in pan on a wire rack.

Combine remaining 1/2 teaspoon vanilla, powdered sugar, and 1 tablespoon water, stirring until smooth. Drizzle glaze over muffins.

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If you follow this blog you might have noticed that I haven't had a post in quite a while. April was a whirl wind. I took a trip to LA with my sister over Easter, and also started working a part time job. Things have settled down a little bit and I'm getting into a new routine. Hopefully now that I've adjusted I'll be able to fit blogging in more easily. I really have missed it! New advances since I've updated is I am now a pinterest addict (who isn't) So if you'd like to follow me you can find me here!

Blood Orange Mimosa Cupcakes

Recipe Review: The prefect brunch cupcake! You'll have some leftover champagne so pour a glass and enjoy with your cupcake!

Last year I made my good friend Amber champagne cupcakes for her birthday. This year I took it one step further and made blood orange mimosa cupcakes. They use the champagne cake and buttercream recipes that I followed last year- along with a blood orange filling, and candied blood oranges for garnish.

Champagne Cupcakes
yield: 15 cupcakes

1/2 cup butter, softened
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 3/4 cups flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup sour cream
1/2 cup champagne

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  In a bowl cream together butter and sugar with an electric mixer (or in bowl of stand mixer fitted with paddle attachment) until light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time beating well after each addition.  Add vanilla and mix. 

In a medium sized bowl mix together flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt, set aside. In a separate bowl whisk together champagne and sour cream (mixture will fizz and bubble). Add flour 1/3 at a time, alternating with champagne and sour cream mixture. 

Fill cupcake liners with level 1/4 cup of batter. Bake for 17-20 minutes until tops are just beginning to brown. Cool completely before frosting.

Champagne Buttercream Frosting

1 cup champagne plus one tablespoon

1 cup butter softened

2 1/2 cups confectioners sugar

Place 1 cup of champagne in a small saucepan, and simmer over medium high heat until it has reduced to 2 tablespoons. Remove from heat and allow to cool. 

Cream softened butter. Add confectioners sugar in three batches, using a medium high speed. Add in reduced champagne and additional tablespoon champagne and mix well.

printable recipes for Cake & Frosting

Blood Orange Filling

1.5 cups chopped blood oranges, with pith removed

1/4 cup blood orange juice

1/2 cup sugar

1/4 cup water

2 tbsp corn syrup

Add orange pieces, sugar and orange juice to a saucepan. Cook on medium low for 5-10 minutes until a syrupy mixture forms. 

Mix corn syrup and water together with a fork or small whisk to make a slurry. Add to the pan, and stir constantly for 5-10 minutes. The mixture will go from opaque to translucent and thicken considerably. When the mixture is thick and goopy, remove from head and allow to cool to room temperature. The mixture will continue to thicken as it cools. Can be made ahead and refrigerated overnight, if desired.

Sugared Orange Slices

2 oranges sliced thin
2 cups sugar
1 cup water

Bring a pot with 2 cups of water to a rolling boil. Thinly slice lemons, add to water and blanch for 5 minutes. Drain lemons and place in a cold water bath.

Add sugar and water to pan and stir until sugar dissolves completely. Add lemons to sugar water and bring to a gentle boil. Reduce heat to a low simmer, and cook for 1 hour.

Spray a cooling rack with non stick spray. Transfer lemons to rack to set for 24 hours. 

Blood Orange Filling and Sugared Orange Slices printable recipes

A few notes- 

I added a little bit of the filling to the frosting to turn it light pink, then piped it own using a IM wilton tip. I also melted some filling and drizzled it on top. The pictures don't really show it that well but there is also edible disco dust glitter that I got at a local baking supply store- Do it with Icing.  I used these adorable baking cups from bake it pretty that I picked up last year but haven't really known what to do with. I really liked the look and think I'm going to have to use more baking cups like these in the future!

The birthday was great. We took the ferry to Coronado Island and had lunch then walked around a little. The day started out clear- (see pic above) but then got rainy towards the end of the afternoon. It worked out perfectly for me as I sometimes secretly enjoy rainy afternoons and curling up with a cup of tea and a book. I'm currently re reading Hunger Games after seeing the movie reminded me how much I loved the books.

Thin Mint Chocolate Cupcakes

Warning- these are super duper chocolatey- so if you go into a heavenly chocolate mint coma after eating one, don't blame me. You were warned. 

 The thin mint themed recipes continue with thin mint cupcakes! You know I couldn't resist this one right?? The breakdown of what we have here is, chocolate and mint frosting, on a chocolate cupcake. I used some left over thin mint truffles and popped them in the batter- but honestly that didn't work that great. The fudge was a little too dense. If you want a surprise in the cupcakes I would suggest putting a whole cookie at the bottom of each cupcake before pouring the batter in. That's what I'm gonna do next time! If you can't get your hands on the cookies this will still replicate their classic chocolate mint flavor.

For the base I used my standby Martha one bowl chocolate cake recipe. Its an easy recipe with constant results, but what really makes it is the frosting. Also I've noticed that with this particular recipe the cake is yum day of, but the quality declines rapidly after. This is a great recipe to use for cake pops since its simple and only uses one bowl.

Thin Mint Cupcakes
adapted from- Martha Stewart
yield- 18 to 24 cupcakes

3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/ 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs
3/4 cup warm water
3/4 cup buttermilk
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
24 thin mint cookies

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line pan with cupcake papers and place a cookie in each one.

Sift together cocoa powder, flour, sugar baking soda, baking powder, and salt into a large bowl. Add eggs, warm water, buttermilk & vinegar mixture, oil and vanilla to bowl and mix well until smooth, about 3 minutes. Scrape down the bottom of the bowl to ensure batter is well mixed.

Pour batter into muffin cups, over cookies, filling 2/3rds full. Bake until the tops spring back when pressed lightly, about 20 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack and let cool completely before frosting.

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Chocolate Mint Frosting
yield- enough for 24 cupcakes. 


adapted from: allrecipies.com
yield: enough frosting for 2 dozen cupcakes

1/2 cup butter
4 oz unsweetened chocolate
4 cups powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup milk
1 tsp peppermint extract

Melt chocolate and butter in the microwave, or in the top of a double boiler. In a large bowl combine sugar vanilla and 1/2 of the milk. Blend in the chocolate mixture. Whip on medium high setting of mixer with whisk attachment. Add peppermint and remaining milk a little at a time until desired consistency is achieved.

 

The best part about this frosting is that you can make it as minty as you want. Be careful. Peppermint extract is really strong. I only used a small amount in because I really wanted the taste to be mostly chocolate with a hint of mint.

In other news... Kevin finished my thin mints. Yep. I woke up last week to find the empty sleeve sitting on the kitchen counter. He claims that he had low blood sugar in the middle of the night and they were the only thing we had. Hummph. While I guess that is sort of a pretty good excuse for eating the last 4 thin mints it still sucks. I still haven't had a chance to make thin mint brownies, so I guess those girl scouts are gonna be getting more of my money.

Sweet Potato Garlic Knots

Recipe Review: The sweet potato adds a unique flavor to these easy to make garlic knots.

After the success of my valentines day pretzel experiment I've suddenly found myself unafraid of making my own bread. The yeast and the rising and the kneading all sounded too many possible steps that I might flub. Now it just seems silly that I waited so long. Attach the dough hook to your KitchenAid and no kneading is necessary. Perfect dough just forms before your eyes. I've always wanted to make my own garlic knots, so they became my next project. A quick tastespotting search led me to a variety using sweet potatoes- yum!

Sweet Potato Garlic Knots
adapted from: kholercreated.com
yield: 16 rolls

1 cup warm water
1 envelope active dry yeast
2 tablespoons agave nectar
1/2 cup sweet potato puree
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
3 1/2 cups flour
6 cloves minced garlic
1/8 cup olive oil

To make sweet potato puree: Wash and peel sweet potato and cut into 1 inch squares. Place in a large pot of boiling water and cook for 20-25 minutes, or until fork tender. Remove from heat, drain, and return to pot. Beat with hand mixer until smooth.

Pour warm water into the bowl of your stand mixer and add yeast. Let sit for 10 minutes, then add in honey, olive oil and sweet potato puree. Mix until well combined.

Attach dough hook to mixer. On lowest setting add flour and salt very slowly. Continue to mix until dough forms, about 5 minutes. Remove dough, rinse and dry bowl. Use olive oil to generously oil the inside of the bowl. Return dough to bowl and roll to coat with the olive oil. Place in a warm area, cover with saran wrap and allow dough to rise for at least one hour, until it has doubled in size.

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Divide dough into 16 equal pieces. On a floured surface roll them into 8 inch strips and tie into knots, tucking ends under each knot. Bake for 12-14 minutes, until golden. While rolls are baking mince garlic and combine with olive oil. Brush a generous coating onto rolls immediately after removing from oven. Lightly salt rolls with fresh ground sea salt. Allow to cool for 3-5 minutes before serving.

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These were really yummy. Nothing beats fresh bread out of the oven. Spread them with some herbed butter and they are heaven. I can't wait for the fall when I can try this out using pumpkin puree. I brought these to a housewarming potluck, and I was surprised how quickly they disappeared. I want to experiment with making the dough in advance and then either freezing or refrigerating the knots. How awesome would it be to have them all ready and just pop them in the oven?

Last weekend out fridge broke down so we found ourselves frantically calling people on craigslist and ended up with a huge chest freezer for only 40 bucks! I'm actually excited because now we can really make the most of our costco membership. Also I now will have the opportunity to do things like cooking huge batches of chili and freezing it, or buying sale turkey's after thanksgiving. So if you know if any freezer friendly recipes, or tips or maximizing the freezer let me know!

Whole Wheat Soft Pretzels

Review: It looks like a pretzel, it tastes like a pretzel, and its not that hard to make!

disclaimer before we start: That pretzel picture is pretty lame. They tasted good though. I'm sure I'll be making them again so hopefully I will eventually update this post with better pics.

A KitchenAid Mixer will change your life. For reals. A year ago I had never baked from scratch before. I was a box cake mix girl. As you might have noticed I now am completely obsessed with baking from scratch, most often its cupcakes, but its pretty much always dessert. As I pulled home made soft pretzels out of the oven it really hit me how much I've changed. A year ago pretzels were something that you bought- not something that you made. It really is all because of the KitchenAid that I got for Christmas 2010. I don't think I would have ever attempted all the different recipes I've made without it. I use it at least once a week now and it has become an essential part of my kitchen.

Anyways back to the Pretzels. Kevin and I decided on doing a low key Valentine's day, dinner at a local restaurant (nothing too fancy) and we decided to forgo the gifts. I couldn't just not do anything for him though, since he was taking me to dinner. Also I really love celebrating holidays, and love giving creative gifts. Kevin has a bit of a soft pretzel addiction, so I decided that I would make him some homemade ones.

Soft Pretzels
adapted from Alton Brown
yield: 8 pretzels

1 1/2 cups warm water
1 tablespoon sugar
2 teaspoons kosher salt
1 package active dry yeast
11 oz of whole wheat flour
11 oz of all purpose flour
2 oz of butter melted
vegetable oil, for pan
10 cups water
2/3 cup baking soda
1 large egg yolk beaten with 1 tbsp water
sea salt

Combine the water, sugar and salt in the bowl of a stand mixed and sprinkle the yeast on top. Allow to sit for 5 minutes or until the mixture begins of foam. Add the flour and the butter. Using the dough hook attachment, mix on low speed until well combined. Change to medium speed and knead until the dough is smooth and pulls away from the side of the bowl. Removed the dough from the bowl, clean the bowl and then oil it. Remove the dough to the bowl, cover with plastic wrap and let sit in a warm place for approximately 1 hour, or until the dough has doubled in size.

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper and coat with non stick spray.

Bring the 10 cups of water and the baking soda to a rolling boil in a 8 quart saucepan.

In the mean time turn the dough out onto a slightly oiled work surface and divide into 8 equal pieces. Roll out each piece into a 20 inch rope. Twist into your favorite shape. For a classic pretzel make a U shape, cross the ends twice and then fold in half, pressing the ends into the bottom of the U.

Boil the pretzels one at a time for 30 seconds each. Remove from water and place on baking sheets. Brush with egg yolk and sprinkle with alt. Bake until golden brown, approximately 12-14 minutes. Let cool and enjoy.

Pretzel making diagram via tomatoesontomatoes.com

 printable recipe with diagram



These were super yum! The original recipe didn't use wheat flour but I like to up the nutrition content and I had both flours on hand. These were super yum and they tasted like pretzels. (Ok so I know that's sort of a weird thing to say, but sometimes you make homemade things and they don't taste like their store bought counterparts. This did.) Kevin is now requesting that we use the pretzel dough to make mini pretzel pizzas. I don't see why that wouldn't work. I also want to make pretzel pigs in a blanket using small pieces of sausage and pretzel dough. I need to win the lottery so I can stay home all day and try new recipes. That would be heaven.

Pink Velvet

Recipie Review: same great taste as red velvet but with a fun pink color

I was sorta over red velvet- I've baked them about a million times this year (Including the 6 dozen a made for a wedding- phew!) But it was requested for a friends birthday. I double checked that she liked pink- and used it as a chance experiment with gel colors. (I also got to play with fire... you'll see that pic a little later) The cupcakes weren't quite as hot pink as I would have liked, so I guess I'll keep experimenting, but they still tasted great. The red velvet recipe was a new one for me too, and I liked it much more than the one I was using before. This recipe seems a little less dense, and cake rose really nicely.

The baking supply store that I go to had some new fabulous edible glitter that I snagged. Its a little expensive but I really think that it makes the cupcakes look amazing.

Pink Velvet
adapted from Sprinklebakes.com
yield: 24 cupcakes

1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 tbsp liquid food coloring
2 tablespoons cocoa powder
2 1/2 cups all purpose flour, sifted
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt 1 cup buttermilk
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon white vinegar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Prepare muffin pan with paper liners.

In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine butter and sugar until fluffy. Add the eggs and vanilla, mixing well after each addition. In a small condiment cup, stir together liquid food coloring and cocoa powder until smooth and then add to the butter mixture.**

Sift together flour, baking powder, and salt. Add flour to butter mixture in three additions, alternating with the buttermilk. Begin and end with flour.

In a small cup, combine baking soda and vinegar. Mixture will bubble and foam. Pour into the cake batter and mix until well incorporated.

** if you are using gel food coloring add it after the flour, a little at a time until desired color is achieved

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How awesome is that picture? Lighting sparklers indoors is probably not one of the smartest things  I've ever done but I love the photo!!

I updated my cream cheese frosting recipe- before I was using a 2:1 cream cheese to butter ratio- I've upped the butter and it at 1:1 ratio. It has a very very mellow flavor- but the cream cheese really cuts the sticky sweetness of the powdered sugar in plain buttercream.

Cream Cheese Frosting

8oz cream cheese, softened
2 sticks butter at room temperature
6-8 cups of powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 tablespoons milk

Combine cream cheese and butter and cream until light and fluffy. Add powdered sugar a little at a time until you reach your desired consistency. If frosting is too thick add milk to thin.

Brownie Stuffed Cookies

Recipe Review: woah. 

When I saw these on Bakerella I seriously had a small heart attack. How simple and genius and I had never seen it before. Why on earth haven't people been stuffing cookies all along?

Bakerella called these "pillow cookies" and made them jumbo sized. I did this at first, and while they tasted AMAZING I didn't like that they were oversized, and they didn't look aesthetically pleasing. I played around with different batches and different ways to combine the brownies and cookie dough before coming up with something that I liked.

Eventually I devised a way to make the cookies just about normal sized, with a bite of brownie in the middle. In person the cookies have noticable bump in the middle so you can tell that there is something in them- for whatever reason the photo doesn't relaly represent that, so I just wanted to warn you ahead of time that it's normal!

How to make brownie stuffed cookies

1. Bake some brownies.

• I used fudge brownie mix- not really sure what kind, whatever was on sale. Use your favorite! You don't want the brownies to be too thick so be sure to bake them in an 13x9 pan. Be sure not to overbake them- they're gonna go in the oven again with the cookies, so if they are on the slightly underdone side its ok.

2. Make your cookie dough.

• I've been baking chocolate chip cookies using the recipie on the back of the Nestle chocolate chip morsels bag since I was a kid. I never change it. My tips however are to let your butter soften to room temperature rather than microwaving it. The butter's temperature and consistancy makes a big difference in how the cookies turn out. Also bake the cookies on parchment paper, and always start with a cool baking pan or the cookies will spread too much and turn out thin.

3. Assemble cookie/brownie stacks.

• Use a 1inch circle cookie cutter to cut out brownie circles. Scoop cookie dough into balls using a dough scoop.  Pinch a little bit of dough into a pea sized ball. Squish the brownie down a little to compress, but don't flatten completely. Stack ball of cookie dough directly on top, smoosh the cookie dough down on to brownie to get it to stick. You'll want the cookie to be directly on top because if it is off center the ball of dough will fall off in the oven. Flatten the pea sized dough and use it to stick the brownie to the sheet. 

4. Bake according to your cookie recipe, cool, and enjoy!

Nautical Cupcakes

It's A Boy!

Last weekend I made some baby shower cupcakes for a friend of a friend. It had a nautical theme, and she found the cutest little cupcake toppers on etsy. I used my go to vanilla cupcake recipe- along with a two toned vanilla butter cream and a strawberry filling. I tinted the frosting with Wilton Cornflower Blue Icing color. The baking cups I ordered off Bake it Pretty- my guilty pleasure baking supply website. 

Vanilla Cupcakes
adapted from "I like You: Hospitality Under the Influence" by Amy Sedaris
Makes 24 cupcakes

1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter at room temperature
1 3/4 cups sugar
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
2 1/2 cups flour
1 cup milk
2 tablespoons sour cream

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease or line a cupcake pan with paper liners

in a large bowl cream together butter and sugar. Beat in eggs one at a time. Add vanilla, salt, and baking powder.

Add flour in three batches, alternating with the milk. Add sour cream with last milk addition. Mix until batter is smooth with no lumps, but do not over beat.

Divide batter evenly among cups, and bake for 18- 20 minutes or until tops are just golden and toothpick inserted into center comes out clean. Cool on rack to room temperature before frosting.

printable recipe

I just started a new job and now I have weekends free!! Basically I will have less time for blogging (which I used to do from the old job in my downtime) but more time for weekend cooking projects and cupcake jobs. I'm excited to be trying something new and hope that it'll work out to be more of a career. I wish my career was cupcakes and crafts all day long. (But hey at least that can be my weekends!)

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cake Balls

All your cake and frosting in one little bite- Yum! Plus- Starting to Simmer's first giveaway!

Guess what- I'm alive and blogging again! Earlier this month I was really freaking busy abducted by aliens so I couldn't blog. I'm back with some cake balls for everyone. Cake balls and I have a bit of a love/hate relationship going on right now. I love the idea of them. Compact and cute, very portable, and more durable with a longer lifespan than cupcakes. Ok that was the love part. I hate dipping the little suckers! I cannot figure out how to do it right. The chocolate was really too thick to pour (I tried) and without making up a huge vat, it would be tough to actually completely submerge them in chocolate, and I would hate to waste chocolate! The best method I could come up with was to dip half the ball, and let it harden, then flip, and dip the other half. Simple right? No. This involved much swearing and the kitchen looked like some sort of chocolate grenade had gone off inside it. It also caused me to stay up much later than intended. So I need help. Does anyone have tips for dipping cake balls?? At the point its just such a labor intensive process that its not something I would do regularly. If I found a better way to do it I would be much happier and much more inclined make more cake balls!

The first step to making cake balls is to make your cake, icing, and filling. Once you have all the components ready you can start making the cake balls. In addition to the cake, frosting, and filling you will need candy or chocolate melts to dip the cake balls in, so be sure to pick up a few bags of those. You can use any cake and frosting combo, and you don't have to fill them if you don't want. I used chocolate cake, chocolate frosting and a peanut butter filling. I dipped some of the balls in chocolate and some in peanut butter candy  melts. 

One Bowl Chocolate Cake
adapted from: allrecipes.com
yield: one 13x9 cake

2 cups white sugar
1 3/4 cups all purpose flour
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
1 cup milk
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup boiling water

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour a 13x9 inch cake pan.

In a large bowl, stir together the sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Add the eggs, milk oil and vanilla. Mix for 2 minutes on medium speed of mixer. Stir in the boiling water. Batter will be very thin. Pour into cake pan

Bake for 30 - 35 minutes until a toothpick inserted into the middle of the cake comes out clean. Cool in pan for 10 minutes, then remove from pan and allow to cool completely.

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Chocolate Fudge Frosting

adapted from: allrecipies.com

yield: enough frosting for one cake

1/2 cup butter

4 oz  unsweetened chocolate

4 cups powdered sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 cup milk

Melt chocolate and butter in the microwave, or in the top of a double boiler. In a large bowl combine sugar vanilla and 1/2 cup of the milk. Blend in the chocolate mixture. Whip on medium high setting of mixer with whisk attachment.  Add remaining milk a little at a time until desired consistency is achieved.

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Peanut Butter Filling

adapted from joyofbaking.com

1/2 cup peanut butter

1 tablespoon butter at room temp

1 pinch salt

1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

3/4 - 1 cup powdered sugar

Place the peanut butter, butter and salt in a microwaveable bowl. Heat for about 1 minute, stirring every 20 seconds until warm and soft, but not hot. Stir in the vanilla extract and powdered sugar and mix until it has reached the consistency of cookie dough, adding more sugar if necessary.

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Cake Ball assembly instructions

Ok now that you have all the cake ball elements its assembly time. Break the cake into large pieces and pulse in a food processor to make crumbs. Transfer to a mixing bowl. Add frosting one scoop at a time, mixing until the dough will hold together.(Kneading with clean hands may be helpful.) Keep testing by trying to make a ball, if its crumbly you need more frosting. At this point you can form the cake/frosting dough into 1 inch balls. If you want filled cake balls use your knuckle to press a dent into the ball. (Don't be shy, you want the dent to go down half way into the cake) Take a pinch of the peanut butter and roll it into a ball the size of a marble. Push the peanut butter ball into the dent and pinch the cake closed over it. Assemble all cake balls and pop into the fridge to chill for at least 10 minutes.

While cake balls are chilling melt chocolate, following the instructions on the bag. Remove cake balls from fridge, and dip one side into the chocolate. Let set in fridge for about 5 minutes. Dip other side in chocolate using a small spatula to fill in any gaps. Add any sprinkles or decorations while the chocolate is still soft.

I've done a little research on my problem with dipping the cake balls. People suggest adding vegetable oil or shortening, but caution that it can cause the chocolate to taste funny, or not set up. So I'm stuck. I really hope people have some suggestions!! The good thing was even though they were a bit frustrating to make, these tasted great! I was afraid when I was baking the cake since the batter was so so thin, but it tasted great. This frosting was much more fudgy and decadent than cocoa based chocolate buttercreams. I'm completely in favor of using melted chocolate in frosting instead of cocoa powder now. To get the chocolate drizzle on top of the cake balls I melted a contrasting color of chocolate, and put it in a frosting bag, snipped off the end and then drizzled across the cake balls. Another tip is that you can skip the cake all together and just dip the peanut butter filling if you want!

***CAKE BALL GIVEAWAY***

I was inspired by the comment from Galexi Cupcakes and have decided to do an impromptu giveaway!

Here's how it works:

1. Leave a comment on this post

2. "Like" Starting to Simmer on facebook (use the link on the right side of the blog)

Next Monday August 1st a winner will be randomly selected and I will send them some Cake Balls!

To participate you must live in the continental USA. One entry per person. Only comments left before 11:59pm 7/31/11 will be entered in the drawing. Family members who I have already mailed cake balls to are ineligible. Make sure to leave a link to your blog, or a way for me to get in contact with you if you win!

Red Hott Cupcakes!

Recipe Review: Red Hots Cupcakes. Are you ready to rock?? These cupcakes are!

Some of our good friends play in an 80's cover band called Hott Thing. They describe their music as "80's rock decadence". I was commissioned to make some rocking cupcakes for their  band members birthday. At first I was a bit stumped as to how I was going to make cupcakes that would fit the occasion, but then I came up the the idea of doing a cupcake with pieces of red hots candy in them. Red Hots for Hott Thing- Perfect!! There weren't many recipes online, a few involved adding red pepper and cinnamon to cupcakes, but I wanted that lovely sugary sweet but spicy flavor from Red Hots candy. Also I wasn't digging the effort it would take to melt down the candies into a syrup. What I decided to do was just to put Red Hots into the cupcake batter, and hope for the best. I used a basic vanilla cake recipe, smashed up Red Hots and threw them into the batter. The candy melted and made lovely little bursts of cinnamon spiciness when you took a bite.

Red Hott Cupcakes
adapted from recipe by Amy Sedaris

Makes 24 cupcakes

1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter at room temperature

1 3/4 cups sugar

2 large eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

2 1/2 cups flour

1 cup milk 

2 tablespoons sour cream

1 cup red hots candy, crushed

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and prepare a cupcake pan with paper liners.

In a large bowl cream together butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs one at a time, mixing after each addition. Add vanilla, salt, and baking powder.

Add flour in three batches, alternating with the milk & sour cream. Mix until batter is smooth with no lumps, but do not over beat. Fold in crushed red hots.

Divide batter evenly among cups, and bake for 18- 20 minutes or until tops are just golden and toothpick inserted into center comes out clean. Cool on rack to room temperature before frosting.

printable recipe

The best way that I found to crush the red hots was to put them in a plastic bag and to smash them with a rolling pin. You have to use a thick plastic bag (like a freezer one) so the bag doesn't bust apart. The candy still ends up ripping though a little bit but its manageable. I tried putting them in a mini food processor that I have but that smashed them too much and they ended up a powder.

**PS: Ok So I've been assuming that everyone knows what I'm talking about when I talk about Red Hots) I'm talking about these:

You should be able to find them at any grocery store. I used one box and had enough candy for the cupcakes and extra to decorate the frosting with. 

OH and in case you were wondering... 

This is  Hott Thing!

***EXCITING NEWS*** I am now taking orders for cupcakes!! If you live in the San Diego area and would like me to bake cupcakes for your next event please check out my Cupcake Portfolio !!

Red Velvet 4th of July Cupcakes

Recipe Review: Red Velvet cupcakes that are really red, and instructions for 2 tone icing

My first batch of these turned out flat as a pancake. No worries I used them to make delicious cake pops but this is what I learned. I actually sifted together the flour and salt. (Something I hate doing... its so tedious) I added an extra pinch of baking soda, threw in the baking soda and vinegar mix right away and was careful every step of the way not to over mix. Also I hadn't really given any thought to the fact that the bottom rack of my oven had a sheet of aluminum foil on it to catch drips from something a roommate had made earlier in the week. Doing this alters the heat circulation of the oven. (According to Reynolds Wrap's website overtime it could actually melt away and damage the oven, or catch fire from grease, so if you use the foil to catch drips it should be thrown out after each use.) In general these cupcakes have a very delicate composition and if you even look at them wrong they go flat. So be gentle with them, and try not to open the oven door while baking.

I've posted this recipe before (its the same one that I used for the wedding cupcakes I made earlier this month) but I thought I'd throw it up again. Its crazy how different cupcake wrappers, a little food coloring, and different icing tips turn the same exact recipe into two completely unique cupcakes. A tip is that if you want superrrr red cupcakes (like these) add an extra dab of Wilton red gel icing color when you are mixing the food color and cocoa powder. Also If you don't have cider vinegar you can sub plain white vinegar instead.

Red Velvet Cupcakes

adapted from Sprinkle Bakes

yield: 24 cupcakes

2 1/2 cups flour

1 tsp salt

2 cups of sugar

1 cup butter softened

2 eggs, room temperature

1 tbsp cocoa powder

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 1/2 tbsps liquid red food color

1 cup buttermilk

1/2 tsp plus one pinch baking soda

1 tbsp cider vinegar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Prepare pan with cupcake liners.

Sift flour and salt together. Set aside. In large bowl combine butter and sugar and beat on medium until light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, mixing after each addition. In a small bowl mix together the red food coloring, cocoa powder and vanilla until a paste forms. Add the food coloring mixture to the butter mixture and blend until color is evening distributed. Add the flour mixture to the bowl 1/3 at a time, alternating with the buttermilk, beginning and ending with the flour.

In a small bowl stir together the baking soda and vinegar. This will start to foam up and should be added to the batter immediately. Blend on medium high speed until the batter is consistent. Do not over blend. Spoon 1/4 cup of batter into each cup. Bake for 25 minutes until a tooth pick inserted into the cake comes out clean. Cool completely before frosting.

Cream Cheese Icing

1 8oz package of cream cheese

1 cup butter

1 tsp vanilla extract

4 cups powdered sugar

For Icing: Cream together butter, cream cheese and vanilla. Gradually add in 4 cups of powdered sugar. Increase speed to medium high and beat until frosting has a soft fluffy consistency. (If frosting is too heavy add milk 1 tablespoon at a time while beating until desired consistency is reached.)

printable recipe

Want awesomely impressive two tone icing? First divide your icing in half and tint to desired shades. (I use Wilton Icing colors, they are super concentrated so you can get bold colors without thinning the icing). Next scoop each color of icing into individual bags (no tips attached). Use about half the amount of frosting you normally would, and try to distribute it evenly, so the bag isn't too fat in the bottom. Next prep an empty decorating bag with your desired frosting tip. (I used a Wilton closed star tip for these cupcakes) Snip the ends off the frosting bags about half an inch from the bottom, and put them both into the empty bag prepared with the tip. Twist the top of the bag closed and pipe onto cupcakes!

Ok so I have to admit, I made these cupcakes for Memorial Day and posted later. I don't know how other bloggers do it, posting holiday themed stuff in advance. Do they make everything a second time day of? When I'm doing food for a holiday I want to enjoy it that day- not a week before! I baked these in red cupcake liners from Michael's. For decorations I used firework cupcake picks that I got at Michael's as well. The cupcakes turned out bright and bold and really decorated the table. (I wish I had a picture of the table but my memory card corrupted and I lost a lot of pictures. boooo) Anyways happy 4th of July. I hope everyone enjoys their weekend!!

Lemon Cupcakes

Recipe Review: Lemon cupcakes are sweet and refreshing, with a little zing- The perfect summer cupcake!

I have cupcake fever! I love it!!! I know this blog is becoming a little cupcake centric, but I've been getting a lot of requests for cupcakes, so that’s how it goes. My good friend just moved back into the area and threw a little combo housewarming/ birthday party. She asked me to make her some lemon cupcakes.  I had made lemon cupcakes for the first time earlier this year- I adjusted the recipe a little and this time I completely nailed it.

Wedding Cupcakes

Recipe Review: Red Velvet takes a walk down the aisle 

This weekend I had my very first paid cupcake gig! And an ambitious one at that. My good friends little sister was getting married on a budget and so I was comissioned to bake 13 dozen (aka 156) red velvet cupcakes for the occasion. I have to admit I was incredibly nervous about this. I had never baked anything close to that volume before. It took a few test batches to get the recipe and color just right. The morning of I set out to buy massive quantities of butter, eggs, sugar, cream cheese, and red food coloring. Since there was butter in both the frosting and the cupcakes I needed 32 sticks. I wheeled my crazy cart full of baking supplies to the check out, headed to my friends house (bigger oven), unpacked my KitchenAid and it was time to get baking.

Just in case you are curious, it takes approximately 10 hours to bake, frost, decorate, box, and clean up after the incredible mess making this many cupcakes creates. About half way through I was starting to loose a little steam and get stressed out. Luckily my friends dad came home about half way through the process and urged me to start drinking wine.

While these cupcakes taste amazing I would caution that this recipe is incredibly fincky. To date I have made it 10 times. (Twice for practice, 8 times day of) The first batch I made didn't rise at all. This happened again with one random batch in the middle of baking. A few batches rose too much and turned out having oversized tops. I had read a recipe tip that if you are baking two pans of cupcakes at once you should switch their positions half way though. I think thats a really bad idea. It lets a ton of heat out of the oven and might have contributed to the batch that didn't rise enough. If anyone has any tips on how to get the cupcakes to be consistant I would love to know. Overall I think the project was a success, but for now i'm going to stick to to smaller orders from now on. I can handle a few batches on my own, but I need back up help for this volume.

Red Velvet Cupcakes
adapted from Sprinkle Bakes
yield: 24 cupcakes

2 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp salt
2 cups of sugar
1 cup butter softened
2 eggs, room temperature
1 tbsp cocoa powder
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/2 tbsps liquid red food color
1 cup buttermilk
1/2 tsp plus one pinch baking soda
1 tbsp cider vinegar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Prepare pan with cupcake liners.

Sift flour and salt together. Set aside. In large bowl combine butter and sugar and beat on medium until light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, mixing after each addition. In a small bowl mix together the red food coloring, cocoa powder and vanilla until a paste forms. Add the food coloring mixture to the butter mixture and blend until color is evening distributed. Add the flour mixture to the bowl 1/3 at a time, alternating with the buttermilk, beginning and ending with the flour.

In a small bowl stir together the baking soda and vinegar. This will start to foam up and should be added to the batter immediately. Blend on medium high speed until the batter is consistent. Do not over blend. Spoon 1/4 cup of batter into each cup. Bake for 25 minutes until a tooth pick inserted into the cake comes out clean. Cool completely before frosting.

Butter Cream Cheese Frosting

1 8oz package of cream cheese
1 cup butter
1 tsp vanilla extract
4 cups powdered sugar

Cream together butter, cream cheese and vanilla. Gradually add in 4 cups of powdered sugar. Increase speed to medium high and beat until frosting has a soft fluffy consistency. (If frosting is too heavy add milk 1 tablespoon at a time while beating until desired consistency is reached.)

 
printable recipe

Congratulations to the lovely bride and groom!! I hope you and your guests enjoyed the cupcakes. Thank you for letting me be a part of your wedding- it was a pleasure baking for such lovely people.

Cake Pops

Recipe Review: What do you do when your cupcakes fall flat? You make cake pops.

It was memorial day weekend and I had my sights set on making some patriotic red white and blue cupcakes for a barbecue that we were having at the house. Problem is that when I took my red velvet cupcakes out of the oven they didn't have  happy little rounded tops. Instead they had flat tops- and by the time they had cooled completely they were concave. They still tasted amazing... but they didn't look amazing, and well I have a "This is Sparta" mentality about cupcakes and inferior cupcakes will not be allowed.

So what was I to do with all of these sad flat little cupcakes? Make cake pops of course! Cake pops are quite trendy and have been popping up everywhere. They're a really nice size, just about two bites, and hold up better than normal baked goods so can be made a few days in advance. Between cake flavors, candy coating colors (Wilton has about 20 different colors you can get at Michael's) and decorations you have endless possibilities. I've seen people make some snazzy cake pops in fun shapes, but I'm not that fancy. (Yet...)

How to Make Cake Pops

adapted from: Bakerella.com

yeild: about 2 dozen cake pops

Ingredients:

One batch of your desired flavor of cake, baked an cooled

(I used about 2 dozen cupcakes- this would translate to 1 box of cake mix, or one 13x9 cake)

2 cups desired flavor of icing

1 bag of Wilton candy melts

sprinkles or any desired decorations

24 lollypop sticks

Use a food processor to blend cake into crumbs. Add icing and kneed with hands until you reach a doughy constancy. Roll into small balls and set on a baking sheet. Pop into fridge to chill.

Melt the chocolate candy melts in the microwave according to package directions. You don't want to get them too hot, just melted. Poke holes into cake balls about half way through with lollypop stick. Dip stick into melted chocolate and press into cake ball. Return to fridge for 5 minutes.

Dip cake balls into chocolate and tap to remove any excess. Apply any sprinkles or other decorations while chocolate is still soft. Set aside for 5-10 minutes while chocolate hardens.

printable recipe

I apologize that I don't have prep step photos- my camera's memory card corrupted and needed to be reformatted so I lost those :-(

Cake pops aren't hard to make- but in my experience they are a bit tedious. I can never seem to truly "dip" the pop into the melted chocolate without it falling off the stick. That would be so easy. Instead I end up using a large spoon and holding the pop horizontally and twirling it into the spoon of chocolate, rather than inverting it completely. I use floral foam to stick the pops into while they are setting, and this works well for when you are serving them too. I brought a few left over pops to work the next day, and one of the managers actually thought that I had bought them at Starbucks for everyone! I love when anything I make is mistaken for a professional product. For this batch I used red velvet cake, vanilla buttercream frosting, and white chocolate melts that I tinted blue. I've done these before with chocolate cake too. I recommend reserving some of the cake crumbs and frosting so you can adjust the mixture until you reach a consistency that is slightly drier than cookie dough. You don't want make them too dry or too moist. Basically this is the perfect thing to taste test until you get it just right. (taste testing is just awful right?? heh.) Check out the Bakerella website for some adorable cake pop ideas from the cake pop master.

Blue Velvet Cupcakes

Recipe Review: OMG BLUE CUPCAKES! and they taste yummy too

I needed to test a red velvet recipe for some cupcakes that i'll be doing next month, and my friends birthday was this week so it was perfect timing. Well except for the fact that my friend is a guy- and red velvet cupcakes aren't really that manly. The solution- Blue Velvet Cupcakes! Ever since I stumbled upon the recipe foron Sprinkles Bakes I have been dying to try making them. I was a bit dubious- Are they really going to turn out that color? Were the colors of the photos on the blog tweaked? I had baked Blackberry Cupcakes this year an while the batter was an amazing purple color it changed a lot while baking. I went into this not really knowing what to expect. The recipe is the same as the traditional red velvet except it uses blue food coloring instead of red. The cupcakes turned out a dark denim blue on the outside and a brighter blue once you bit into them. I was very pleased with the results.