First wedding piece EVER...the grooms cake

      So imagine climbing into bed getting ready to fall asleep when your phone rings. It's your boyfriend so of course you answer, what you do not know is that you are about to agree to something that you have never done before. That's right, you are going to make a grooms cake for a wedding. Something fell through with the original baker of this cake and Taylor decided to talk up my baking skills. Now, I'm usually up for anything in the baking world but this was kind of major. It's a wedding, the last thing anyone wants to do is ruin a piece of wedding even if it's a small piece...it's still a wedding. The bride-to-be is so sweet, which is why I agreed to do it though I had my reservations. As you all know I do cupcakes and have no experience with 14" cakes...NONE!
    I decided I had to practice. The first cake, I tried a new cake recipe. It was a chocolate cake made with coca-cola and marshmallows. My taste testers loved it....me not so much. I thought it was too dry. So on my second practice cake I used my favorite chocolate sheet cake recipe (I will post it here eventually). Since I had no experience with large cakes I decided to even practice making the 14" cake. First of all let me just say, 14 inches of cake is a lot of freaking cake...A LOT! Luckily for me I work with people who are not opposed to eating a lot of chocolate cake and I am also at an elementary school, with teachers...who are hungry...and love cake.  This cake was a success, I even had non-cake eaters (yes they exist, this surprised me too) asking for seconds.
    Tonight was the night...I made it! It worked! The wedding is on Saturday (Congrats Tom and Whitney). Here is the cake...the 14" hockey puck shaped cake...that I made...from scratch (minus the edible logo I ordered that).

S'mores Cupcakes and Key Lime Pie Cupcakes

A friend of mine was having a birthday for her 2 year old step son...naturally I offered to make the cupcakes. I made two different kinds: key lime pie and s'mores cupcakes. The party was going to be outdoors and it was 90 degrees so I had to make an adjustment to the key lime pie recipe. Normally it should be topped with fresh whipped cream, however I knew it would melt right off the cupcakes. I substituted vanilla frosting for whipped cream and it seemed to work very well.

I also learned something very important: when toasting marshmallows in the oven do not multi-task and forget about them...because they will burst into flames.

Attempt one at marshmallow toasting was a fail as you can see...but lesson learned. We then got the final product and everything was splendid.

Key Lime Pie Cupcakes

White Cake

Ingredients

·         1 cup white sugar

·         1/2 cup butter

·         2 eggs

·         2 teaspoons vanilla extract

·         1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

·         1 3/4 teaspoons baking powder

·         1/2 cup milk

Directions

1.      Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour a 9x9 inch pan or line a muffin pan with paper liners.

2.      In a medium bowl, cream together the sugar and butter. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, then stir in the vanilla. Combine flour and baking powder, add to the creamed mixture and mix well. Finally stir in the milk until batter is smooth. Pour or spoon batter into the prepared pan.

3.       For cupcakes, bake 20 to 25 minutes. Cake is done when it springs back to the touch.

Key Lime Pie Filling

Ingredients

·         1 (14-ounce can) of condensed milk

·         1/3 cup key lime juice

·         1 Tbsp of lime zest

Directions

Combine all ingredients in bowl and mix together. Chill for 1-2 hours or until thick.

Vanilla frosting

Ingredients

·         ½ cup butter, softened

·         3-4 tbsp whipping cream

·         1 tsp clear vanilla extract

·         1/8 tsp salt

·         1 (16 oz.) package powdered sugar

1. Beat first 4 ingredients at medium speed with an electric mixer until creamy

2. Gradually add powder sugar, beating at low speed until blended. Beat at high speed until creamy. Yields 3 cups.

OR

Whipped cream

Ingredients

·         1 ½ cup whipping cream

·         2 tsp. vanilla extract

·         ¼ cup sugar

Directions

1. Beat whipping cream at high speed with an electric mixer until soft peaks form. Add vanilla and sugar until stiff peaks form. Yields 3 cups.

Assembly

 After making and cooling the white cake, core out the center of each cupcake. Then, fill with key lime pie filling. Top with vanilla frosting or fresh whipped cream and sprinkle with graham cracker crumbs.

Orange Chocolate Cupcakes

These delightful little cupcakes I made were at the request of my dear Taylor, the citrus lover. They are a basic chocolate cake with an orange cream cheese frosting:

Chocolate Cupcakes

Ingredients: 

1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for pans
2 cups sugar
3/4 cups cocoa powder
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup buttermilk, shaken
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 extra-large eggs, at room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup freshly brewed hot coffee

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350

1. Sift the flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder, and salt into the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment and mix on low speed until combined.

2. In another bowl, combine the buttermilk, oil, eggs, and vanilla. With the mixer on low speed, slowly add the wet ingredients to the dry. With mixer still on low, add the coffee and stir just to combine, scraping the bottom of the bowl with a rubber spatula.

3. Pour batter into cupcake liners, about 3/4 full for each. 

4. Bake in preheated oven for 20-22 minutes, or until tester comes out clean.

5. Cool completely then frost. 

Orange cream cheese frosting

• 3 ounces cream cheese, softened
• 2 tablespoons butter, softened
• 1 teaspoon orange zest
• 2 tablespoons fresh orange juice
• 2 1/2 cups confectioners' sugar
• 3/4 cup chopped walnuts

Directions

1. Beat cream cheese, butter or margarine, orange peel, and orange juice until creamy. Beat in confectioner's sugar until blended and smooth.
2. Chill for an hour and pipe onto cupcakes

Chocolate Covered Pretzel Cupcakes

These are my Chocolate Covered Pretzel cupcake. They have a bottom pretzel crust, then chocolate cake, then chocolate ganache frosting topped with more pretzels. As you can see from the third picture we all have trial and error moments in baking. I still have no idea how this happened…all the pans were filled with the same amount but only this one overflowed and created a cupcake disaster. 

Here are the recipes for all pieces of this cupcake:

Brown Sugar Pretzel Crust 

Ingredients: 

1 1/2 cups pretzels, crushed

1 stick unsalted butter, melted

4 Tablespoons dark brown sugar 

Directions:

1. Mix all the ingredients in a small bowl.

2. Press into bottoms of cupcake liners, bake on 350 for 8-10 minutes.

Chocolate Cupcakes

Ingredients: 

1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for pans
2 cups sugar
3/4 cups cocoa powder
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup buttermilk, shaken
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 extra-large eggs, at room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup freshly brewed hot coffee

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350

1. Sift the flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder, and salt into the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment and mix on low speed until combined.

2. In another bowl, combine the buttermilk, oil, eggs, and vanilla. With the mixer on low speed, slowly add the wet ingredients to the dry. With mixer still on low, add the coffee and stir just to combine, scraping the bottom of the bowl with a rubber spatula.

3. Pour batter into cupcake liners, about 3/4 full for each. 

4. Bake in preheated oven for 20-22 minutes, or until tester comes out clean.

5. Cool completely then frost. 

Chocolate Ganache Frosting

Ingredients: 

4 ounces unsweetened chocolate, coarsely chopped

2/3 cup unsalted butter, room temperature

1 1/3 cups powdered sugar, sifted

1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

Directions: 

1. Melt the chocolate in a heatproof bowl either placed over a saucepan of simmering water, or in the microwave. Remove from heat and let cool to room temperature.

2. In the bowl of an electric mixer, or with a hand mixer, beat the butter until creamy, 2 minutes. Add the sugar and beat until it is light and fluffy another 2 minutes. Beat in the vanilla extract. Add the chocolate and beat on low speed until incorporated.

3. Increase the speed to medium-high and beat until frosting is smooth and glossy approximately 3 minutes.

4. Frost your cakes!

Source: projectgadabout.squarespace.com

Peanut Butter and Jelly Cupcakes

This weeks theme was grape. Grape! There are only like 4 recipes that include grape. However, I found a loophole…grape jelly. These are peanut butter and jelly cupcakes (grape jelly of course). I’ll admit I made myself sick testing the batter and the frosting and really couldn’t enjoy the cupcakes as much as I wanted to once they were done. I think if I used the peanut butter cupcake recipe with maybe chocolate frosting or ganache it would make for a perfect cupcake. I got the peanut butter cupcake recipe and the peanut butter frosting recipe from Martha Stewart. I substituted grape jelly for strawberry jelly to fit the theme. I also put the jelly inside the cupcake as opposed to putting it on top of the cupcake like she did.

Peanut Butter Cupcakes

Ingredients

• 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

1. Make cupcakes as directed in Basic Cupcake How-To, adding peanut butter before adding eggs. Use sour cream and vanilla as wet ingredients. 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

   Ingredients

   • 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

   1. 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.)

Aldajores De Maicena

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Last week was one of our maintenance guys last week. He was moving to Argentina to be closer to his family. We all love Charley so in honor of this we did and Argentinian theme. I made Alfajores De Maicena (short bread cookies with dulce de leche sandwhiched in between. I added the chocolate drizzle.) It took 4 hours for the dulce de leche to cook and 6 hours total to assemble and bake! 

Here is the recipe (like I said I drizzled mine with dark chocolate that was kind of a touch of my own):

2 sticks of butter at room temperature

1/2 cup sugar

1 egg plus one yolk

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 cups flour

1 cup cornstarch

1 teaspoon baking powder

1-2 cups dulce de leche (link to make your own, store-bought is also fine)

powdered sugar (optional)

In the bowl of a stand mixer, cream the butter and the sugar.  Add in the egg plus yolk and vanilla and beat over medium speed until incorporated.  In a separate bowl, mix the flour, cornstarch and baking powder together.  Add the flour mixture to the butter mixture and continue mixing until it forms a consistent dough. 

Remove the dough from the mixer and divide the dough into two balls.  Wrap the balls in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least  half an hour or overnight. 

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.  Unwrap the dough and roll it out (it will be cold and stiff at first) onto a floured surface.  Roll the dough out to about 1/4 inch thickness, then cut with a small round cutter (or a juice glass).  Repeat the rolling and cutting until you have used all the dough.  Place the cookies on a parchment-paper lined cookie sheet, and bake for 15 minutes, just until the edges start to brown.

Let the cookies cool completely, and then place a generous dollop of dulce de leche on one cookie, topping with another cookie to make a sandwich.  Press gently together.  Cover in sifted powdered sugar, if desired.

Pasted from <http://www.fromargentinawithlove.typepad.com/from_argentina_with_love/2009/09/alfajores-de-maicena-and-foodbuzz-blog-awards.html#more>

Dulce de Leche

4 cups milk 

2 cups sugar 

1 teaspoon baking soda 

1 Tablespoon vanilla extract

Bring the milk to a boil in a heavy bottom sauce pan. Add all other ingredients, being sure to stir the sugar with a whisk until it’s completely dissolved.  (Otherwise, your Dulce de Leche will have a gritty consistency—not so good.) Cook on medium low until it turns into caramel, about 2-3 hours.  It should have a rich tan or brown color and smooth texture when done.  Consistency is a matter of taste-some like theirs runnier than others, but test it by spooning some onto the center of a plate.  If it stays without running and making a puddle, it’s ready.

Pasted from <http://www.fromargentinawithlove.typepad.com/from_argentina_with_love/2008/02/dulce-de-leche.html> 

Source: fromargentinawithlove.typepad.com

Ginger Carrot Cupcakes with Orange Cream Cheese Frosting

This is my contestant for week 3. I do not have a photo of the bread I made from week 2.These are carrot ginger cupcakes, with orange ginger cream cheese frosting. Thank you Martha Stewart!

Here is the recipe:

Carrot-Ginger Cupcakes

YieldMakes 12 cupcakes Ingredients

• 2/3 cup (2 ounces) pecan halves
• 6 carrots (about 7 1/2 ounces), peeled
• 2 large eggs, room temperature
• 1/4 cup buttermilk, room temperature
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1 1/3 cups sugar
• 1 cup vegetable oil
• 2 teaspoons freshly grated ginger
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• Orange Ginger Frosting

Directions

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees. Spread pecans in a single layer on an ungreased baking pan. Transfer to oven, and roast until toasted and brown, about 8 minutes. Give the pan a shake midway through roasting to make sure they roast evenly. Remove pan from oven, and let stand until completely cool. Finely chop pecans, and set aside. Line muffin tin with cupcake liners. Set aside.
2. Using the smallest holes (less than 1/4-inch in diameter) of a box grater, grate carrots to yield 1 3/4 cups. Place grated carrots, eggs, buttermilk, vanilla, sugar, vegetable oil, and ginger in a large bowl; whisk until well combined.
3. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon. Using a rubber spatula, fold the dry ingredients into the carrot mixture until just combined. Fold in toasted pecans.
4. Using a large metal spoon, fill each cupcake to the top of the paper liner. Bake until a cake tester comes out clean, rotating the pan halfway through, 20 to 25 minutes.
5. Let cool in pan for 10 minutes, then remove to cooling rack to cool completely. Spread about 1/ 4 cup frosting on each cupcake and serve. Store in an airtight container up to two days.

Pasted from <http://www.marthastewart.com/314435/carrot-ginger-cupcakes>

Orange Ginger frosting

• YieldMakes about 3 cups

Ingredients

• 4 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature
• 8 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
• 1 cup confectioners’ sugar
• 2 teaspoons freshly grated orange zest
• 2 teaspoons freshly grated ginger
• Pinch of salt

Directions

1. Place butter in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, and beat on medium-high speed until fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add cream cheese and confectioners’ sugar, beat until well combined and fluffy, about 2 minutes more. Add orange zest, grated ginger, and salt. Beat an additional 5 minutes.

Pasted from <http://www.marthastewart.com/319175/orange-ginger-frosting> 

Source: marthastewart.com

Lemon Raspberry Cupcakes

These are the *winning* cupcakes I made for week one. They are a lemon cupcake, with a raspberry filling, lemon cream cheese frosting topped with a fresh raspberry. These were a crowd pleaser for sure, I’m still being asked about them! Here is the recipe:

Raspberry -filled Lemon cupcakes

2 2/3 cups all purpose flour

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

3/4 cup butter, room temperature

1 2/3 cup sugar

1 tbsp lemon zest (or 1 tsp lemon extract)

2 large eggs

2 tsp vanilla extract

1 cup milk

Seedless raspberry preserves or Lemon curd for filling (optional)

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Grease 24 muffin cups with non-stick baking spray or line with paper liners.

2. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder and salt.

3. In a large bowl, cream together butter, sugar and lemon zest until light and fluffy. Mix in eggs one at a time, followed by vanilla extract. Stir in 1/3 of the flour mixture, followed by half of the milk. Add another 1/3 of the flour and the remaining milk, then stir in the remaining flour, mixing only until no streaks of flour remain.

4. Divide batter evenly into prepared muffin cups, filling each approx 2/3 to 3/4 full.

5. Bake for 16-19 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean and the top springs back when lightly pressed. Cool completely on a wire rack.

6. If desired, use a pastry bag and tip to fill the cupcakes with seedless raspberry preserves or lemon curd.

Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting

Adapted from the Better Homes and Gardens New Cookbook: Bridal Edition

6 ounces cream cheese, softened

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, softened

1 tsp. fresh lemon juice

4 1/2 - 4 3/4 cups sifted powdered sugar

1 tsp. lemon peel

1. In a mixing bowl, beat cream cheese, butter, and lemon juice on low to medium speed with an electric mixer until light and fluffy.

2. Gradually add 2 cups of the powdered sugar, beating well.

3. Gradually beat in remaining powdered sugar until frosting reaches spreading consistency. Stir in the lemon peel.

Pasted from <http://www.playinghouseblog.com/2009/12/raspberry-filled-lemon-cupcakes-take-1.html>

Who I am and what I do

Hello, my name is Jessica I am a student at Metropolitan State College of Denver. This is unfortunately the beginning of my 6th year, however I am almost done. I’m working on my B.A. in English and my licensure in Elementary Education. I love kids and I cannot wait to be in a classroom of my own. However, I also LOVE baking and for the past few weeks it has been a competition at work. I should have started blogging about it as soon as we started since we are doing our last competition next week. This does not mean I will stop baking. If I had another dream along with being a teacher it would be to open a bakery and who knows, maybe some day that will happen, but for now I will be baking out of my kitchen and working on creating recipes. I have started baking cupcakes on the side for friends and family as a small business, which keeps me entertained. 

Cheers!

Jessica