Red Velvet Mini-Cakes with Sugared Pansies and White Chocolate Ganache

Gosh, I can't even tell you how hectic this week has been, or how hectic next week will be. I'm producing a student production at my high school and opening night is this Thursday. To say I've been busy would be an incredible understatement, but gosh, it is the best kind of busy. It's all the little things that are my guilty pleasure - organizing mundane things, keeping track of minute details, talking to businesses like I'm some kind of important person who deserves their time and money... All the things that attract me to the business world. I've been enjoying it. I like the stress. But honestly, when Saturday rolled around and it was time for me to resume my normal, low-key life, gosh was I the happiest little munchkin. I sat down thinking of something new to bake, and my mind raced with ideas! Baking has always been my stress relief and I suppose THIS was my body's way of telling me it was about time. 

Spoiler! Today's recipe will produce this.

I wanted to do something cute, a little spin-off of an old classic. As a cupcake fanatic, I decided they would be my base. I wanted to use the cupcake tins to make flat-topped cupcakes without wrappers so they looked  like miniature cakes and treat them like mini-cakes rather than just frost the top like cupcakes. Using red velvet seemed like a good choice, because red velvet is notorious for being denser than most cakes, which seemed like a good base for something without a cupcake wrapper.


Oven Temp: 350 F
Prep Time: 20 minutes
Bake Time: 20 minutes
Decorating Time: 15 miuntes
Ready-In: 1 hour

1 1/4 cup sifted cake flour  

pinch of salt

2 tbls cocoa powder

1/4 cup butter, at room temp

3/4 cup sugar

1 large egg at room temp

1 tsp vanilla

1/2 cup buttermilk (or 1/2 milk with 1 tsp lemon juice)

1 tablespoons liquid red food coloring

1/2 tsp white distilled vinegar

1/2 tsp baking soda

Preheat oven to 350 F and place rack in center of oven. Carefully butter each cupcake pocket in a cupcake tin. Flour the butter pockets and set aside.

 In a mixing bowl sift together the flour, salt, and cocoa powder. Set aside.

 

Beat the butter until smooth and soft. Add the sugar and mix until fluffy. Add the egg beating well after each addition, then mix in the vanilla and beat until combined.

I always find it rather cumbersome to go out and buy buttermilk, so I usually just make it myself by mixing a teaspoon of lemon juice into 1/2 of milk. 

It has to sit for 5 minutes before use. When ready, whisk the red food dye into the buttermilk. 

Slowly, alternately, add the flour mixture and buttermilk to the butter mixture.

In a separate cup or bowl, combine the vinegar and baking soda. Allow the mixture to bubble to its heart's content and then quickly fold gently into batter.

Working quickly, divide the batter evenly between the twelve muffin cups. As this is a dense recipe, make sure to smooth the tops off.  

 Bake in the preheated oven for approximately 15-18 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cakes comes out clean. Let the cakes cool completely. This will give them enough time to shrink down so they should be easy to pop out. Before you proceed to frosting/decorating them, they need to me completely cooled so the frosting will stick better.

As the cakes were baking, I prepared my sugared pansies. These are very pretty and very easy to do. Gently wash your flowers (cut as close as possible to the bud) by dipping them in cool water and blotting them dry. 

Gently drying

Next, whisk an egg white until gently bubbly, with no clumps. Delicately paint the flowers with a q-tip or a small paintbrush. Coat in superfine sugar. Place on wax paper to dry.

 

While the cakes are cooling, begin making the frosting. I wanted to pair them with a white chocolate ganache, because I wanted the smooth look of a fondant on a cake. The traditional choice, of course, would be a cream cheese frosting.

Here's a helpful ganache how-to that I found the first time I made ganache.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uBZ3z4n7Fhc

Ganache is really easy. It's just equal parts cream and chocolate.
Start by warming the cream until it's just boiling. Pour over the chocolate chips. Allow to sit for several minutes. Slowly begin stirring to incorporate the chocolate into the cream. It will take several minutes for them to mix together. You know it's mixed when the chocolate is entirely melted and small air bubbles are visible. You don't want to over mix though!
If the cream isn't warm enough for everything to melt, either microwave briefly, or make a double boiler. Allow to sit overnight. 

Allow to cool for a few minutes to thicken up. I found that when melted, the white chocolate was semi-transparent, but I didn't want to pour it over the cakes until it started to looking pretty white. If you pour when it's too warm, it will just glide off. I chose my least appealing cake to be my experimental one.  

As the ganache is cooling, decorate with anything you want to have held in place. 

 

Lots of little things to go here and there, but the finished project is quite pretty!

 

Sheepy Cupcakes!

My English class decided to set up a snack sign up sheet, so we could finish our school days with a treat. I signed up for the first day - convenient for me because it was a monday. Thought it would be a great time to try out these little guys.
I have to say I admire the first person who came up with this idea. Who looks at a cupcake and thinks "Gosh, wow, I could make that a sheep!". Not me. But they are cute. Quite charming in fact, with little cake pop heads and marshmallow wool to keep them cozy. Look at this guy, just willing you to eat him.

  
Or, more likely, to not eat him.

Bake Temp: 350 F  
Prep Time: 15 Minutes
Bake Time: 25ish minutes
Ready-In: 1 hour

(makes 24-27 standard sized cupcakes)

2 cups sugar

1 3/4 cups all purpose flour

3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa (best quality available)

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

2 eggs (room temp)

 1 cup whole milk (room temp) 

1/2 cup vegetable oil

2 teaspoons vanilla extract (best quality available)

1 cup boiling water

5 Tablespoons Flour
1 cup Milk
1 teaspoon Vanilla
1 cup Butter
1 cup Granulated Sugar

Milk and eggs out to warm

Line muffin tin with paper liners.  Heat oven to 350F. Now, because I wanted to make sheep, I knew I would need some extra cake to make the heads, so I made a batch and a half.

In a large mixing bowl, stir together sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt.

You'll see that I separated my dry ingredients. I put 2/3 (the equivalent of one batch) in one bowl, and the final third in another bowl.

Add eggs, milk, oil and vanilla.  Beat on medium speed for one minute.

"Splat"

Milk bubbles encapsulated in oil

Stir in boiling water. It will be thin, but you want that.

Fill liners 1/2 to 2/3 full with batter.  (I put the batter into a large measuring cup with a pour spout, and then pour the batter into the liners.) I baked 2/3 as cupcakes, and 1/3 as a cake in an 8x8 pan.

Bake cupcakes for aproximately 18-22 minutes and cake for 23-25 minutes.

Sheep Heads

Cool completely on wire rack before frosting.

As the cupcakes are baking, prepare frosting.  

In a small saucepan, whisk flour into milk and heat, stirring constantly, until it thickens. You want this to be a very viscous fluid -  like brownie batter. Make sure to whisk constantly. Remove from heat when ready, and let cool to room temp. Once properly cooled, stir in vanilla.

While the mixture is cooling, cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy.  Because we are using granulated sugar, not confectioner's, you want to make sure it's as smooth as can be.Stir in cooled milk mixture and beat until it resembles whipped cream.

  Sheep Assembly Time!
Frost cupcakes.

Cover with mini marshmallow wool. Mash together about 1/3-1/2 cup frosting with prepared cake to make the same mixture you'd use for cake pops. Form ovaly spheres and attach to cupcakes. If you want the heads to overhang, you could use a thin pretzel to attach it to the cupcake. For the eyes, I used leftover frosting and rolled up mini cake balls for the pupils.

Of course, there's always one or two that just won't seem to come out right (the black sheep in the family, if I may) ...I thought this one looked particularly grumpy.

I think I'll have to make my dad eat it.

Fauxstess Cupcakes (Vegan)

I think we're all hurting a little from Hostess going out of business. People who haven't craved Twinkies in a decade are now feeling the pain worse than ever before. You can purchase boxes online for tens of dollars. I imagine people are stocking up, a lifetime stock because they never go bad. Phrases like "Be the Hostess with the Hostess" have been seen far and wide. Yes, America is hurting.
At the same time, I've been exploring more vegan options in my cooking and baking. One of my sisters was vegan for about a year, so luckily we own a handful of vegan cookbooks. I was perusing through one such cookbook when I encountered a Hostess knock-off recipe and was inspired to create my own version. So, yes, this recipe is vegan, but it also quite closely replicates the flavors of a chocolate Hostess cupcake. 

For Cupcakes:
1 cup flour
1/4 cup cocoa flour
3 tablespoons of the darkest cocoa powder you can fine (if not, just use regular cocoa powder)
 1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
pinch of salt
1 cup plain soy or rice milk
1/4 canola oil
1/2 maple syrup
1/4 cup sugar
1 tsp apple cider vinegar
2 tsp vanillar

Filling:
1/4 margarine (or SmartBalance)
1/2 cup shortening
3/4 confectioner's sugar
2 tsp vanilla

Chocolate Icing
1/3 cup soy milk
 4 ounces chocolate

White Squiggle Icing
1 cup confectioner's sugar
1 tbls water



Mix together  flour, cocoa powders, baking powder, baking soda and salt. 

In a larger bowl, stir together wet ingredients and sugar until well combined.

Stir in dry ingredients in two parts, mixing gently.  Beat for a minute until well combined.

Line a muffin tin with cupcake wrappers. Heat oven to 350. Scoop out about 1/3 cup batter into each liner. They should be 3/4 of the way full. Bake for 26-30 minutes, until tops are firm.

When they are done they should look like this, but you'll want to work on the frostings in the mean time

As it's baking, you'll want to begin making all three of the frostings. I like to start with the chocolate ganache because it has cooling time.

Bring the soy milk to just a boil. Remove from heat and add in chocolate, stirring constantly until melted.

Begin making the fluffy filling. Beat together the margarine and shortening until very well combined. Add sugar and vanilla and continue beating for a long time until very fluffy. Taste and see if it's yummy. Add more sugar if necessary.
Finally, time for white icing. Mix together confectioner's sugar and water. You want it to be as thick is it can be while still spreadable. Think tooth paste. Add in more sugar or water as needed.
Spoon both white icing and fluffy filling into separate bags. In the fluffy icing bag cut a 1/2 inch hole in the corner. In the white icing cut the smallest hole possible.

Hopefully by now the cupcakes are cooled, but if not, let them cool for 10-15 minutes outside of the tins. To assemble, poke a whole in the center of each cupcake and wiggle around to create a cavern. Fill with fluffy cream.

My army of holey cupcakes

Gently cut the tops off the white fluffy filling to create a smooth cupcake top.

Frost with the chocolate ganache and swirl the white frosting on top.

Ta-da! Homemade Hostess.

Easy Fondant (And Chocolate Coffee Cupcakes)

The purpose of this recipe was to try out an amazing easy fondant recipe. Of course, you can't just make fondant; who would eat plain fondant?
What's this fondant thing I speak of? Oh! How rude of me for not explaining. You know how those cakes you see in bakeries are far more beautiful than anything you've ever been close to making? Well, they use this pliable frosting, aka fondant, to make make beautiful designs. I went through a phase about a year ago where I was obsessed with making beautiful cakes using fondant, and, well, failing. It really bummed me out. But then one day, I was just stumbling around and I found this recipe where all you really need is marshmallows and confectioner's sugar. Holy cow. That's all. And, even better, it worked. It worked so well.
You see, from time to time I find my mind wandering. If I have a pencil in hand, I'll down at my paper only to discover that some ghost has drawn a cupcake there. And the always look pretty similiar. So today, in experimenting with this miracle fondant, I decided to try my hand at making my drawings into reality. Here's one: 

There were so much fun to make, and, two of my three siblings were home hanging out in the kitchen while I baked. How strange to have such a busy house again! I can't imagine how I spent 15 years with such a hectic household.
This recipe day is a two-for-one. The fondant, a prized recipe, is the focal point of this post, but I'll give you a cupcake recipe as well. Chocolate cupcakes with coffee buttercream frosting. Yummmmmm.

For the fondant:
This makes about a pound and a half, which is easily enough to cover one batch of cupcakes. I made a double batch.

Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cool Time: Ideally overnight
Ready the next morning (I let mine sit for about 4 hours and it seemed perfect)

8 ounces of mini marshmallows
1 tbls water
1 lb confectioner's sugar
Lots and lots of grease

You know just how sticky marshmallows are when they are melted. You HAVE to grease everything. Have to, have to. I never bake with Crisco, but I went out and bought some just for this. Grease grease grease. Grease yourself from head to toe. 

Begin by placing your marshmallows in a greased microwaveable bowl and sprinkling with water. 

A pound of marshmallows

Heat at thirty second intervals, stirring in between, with a greased spatula, until they are entirely melted (about 2 or 3 minutes total).

Partially melted mallows

Grease a mixing bowl, and mixing paddles. Dump in all the sugar and melted mallows into your mixer.

Mix until the mixer can mix no more.

After the mixer could mix no more

Dump unto a greased surface and knead until smooth.

My pottery classes gone to good use- proper kneading technique

Wrap up and store overnight in your refrigerator (or as long as you can.)

Phase 2 - cupcakes. As previously mentioned, these are chocolate based cupcakes with a coffee frosting and, of course, fondant decoration.

Oven Temp: 400 then 350 (to get a nice domed top)

Prep Time: 30 minutes

Bake Time: 18-20 minutes

Fondant Decorating Time: 30 minutes

Ready-In: 2 hours

Ingredients:                                                                           Coffee Buttercream Frosting:

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour                               1 stick warmed up butter (slightly melted)

2 cups sugar                                                                          2 cups confectioner's sugar

3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder                                     1/4 strong brewed coffee

1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup vegetable oil

1 cup strong brewed coffee, cooled

3 large eggs

1 cup sour cream

2 teaspoon vanilla extract 

Mix together flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder and salt.

Pour in oil and cooled coffee. Mix.

Crack in the three eggs, sour cream, and vanilla and mix until combined.

Preheat oven to 400 and line cupcake tins with wrappers, I went with a double layer because I love the design on the outside layer. With cupcakes this liquidy, if you don't want the liner to bleed, you should double layer.

Fill each liner 3/4 off the way up. Once you place cupcakes in the oven, lower temperature to 350 and bake for 15-20 minutes, until toothpicks come out clean.

In the meantime, you can being playing around with the fondant. I started by making mushrooms. I got the idea from the same place where I got the fondant recipe.
To do so you begin by rolling the top, making a rounded triangular prism shape. Roll a layer of fondant around a toothpick, to make the stem and insert into the top. I rolled my tops in cocoa powder to give a light brown color. My brother painted a mushroom top red using food dye and left some white dots to make the classic poisonous mushroom. You can paint the surface of the fondant using food dye watered down, or dye a whole section one color by kneading the dye into the fondant, although it will dye your hands as well.

Before laying fondant on, I frosted each cupcake with coffee buttercream frosting. (Prepared just by mixing all the frosting ingredient together).

These were my visionary cupcakes. I rolled plain fondant out thinly, cut out the "frosting shape" by make a wavy circle. I dyed a large amount of fondant red and rolled into spheres for the cherry on top.

This is the creation of my siblings. My sister made a parsnip.

Chocolate cupcake with coffee buttercream frosting.