baking up for lost time

sampled - georgetown cupcake (mail order)

2010-08-28T12:25:00.000-07:00

My friend Christy and I had a bet that if I scored a new job/promotion at work we would go in on ordering Georgetown Cupcakes. We have wanted to try them for quite some time but were deterred due to the crazy shipping charges. Well Christy, being the good friend and fellow cupcake lover she is, went ahead and ordered them for me as a congratulations gift, hoo-RAY! We of course tried one right away and then had a cupcake tasting later with a two of my other co-workers. Here are the highly scientific (not) findings.

Now you can see why the shipping charges are justified. GC ships all orders overnight with gel freezer packs and an insulation bag. Each cupcake had a pick in them to protect the frosting from being smushed. Within the bigger box is another pink Georgetown Cupcake box and within that box is the plastic carrier for the cupcakes. They did arrive unharmed and still the perfect temperature. There is definitely a reason behind their method.

I selected the chocolate x 2 as our first cupcake to try. YUM, the cake was very chocolaty and moist and the frosting very thick, almost fudgy. Great flavor, rich. There was a bit more frosting than I personally like but that was my only complaint, everything else was perfect. It tasted so fresh!

After lunch I invited two of my other co-workers to an (un) official taste testing session and we all kept track of our findings. We rated them from 1-5, 5 being the best. Special thanks to JY for taking pictures.

Cupcake #1: Salted Caramel

ME - 4, very moist, frosting a little too sweet, couldn't taste the "salted"
KC - 4.5, not very salty
CS - 4.5, needs more salt
JY - 3.5, frosting too sweet, cake is good

Cupcake #2: Red Velvet

ME - 3.5, the bright red color is very pretty, cake is good, frosting had a slightly weird aftertaste
KC - 4.5/5, deep red color, tangy cream cheese frosting
CS - 4, very red, tangy frosting
JY - 4, frosting has a nice tangy aftertaste

Cupcake #3: Peanut Butter Fudge

ME - 5, YUMMM, ganache filling yum, peanut butter yum, enough said
KC - 5, ganche filling, super moist, peanut butter appropriate
CS - 5, life changing
JY - 5, better than Barefoot Contessa

Cupcake #4: Vanilla Birthday Cake

ME - 4, good vanilla flavor, very light/whipped frosting
KC - 4.5, delicious vanilla, whipped frosting texture
CS - 5, vanilla flavor = perfect
JY - 3.5, great milk chocolate frosting, melts in your mouth

Clearly Peanut Butter Fudge was the winner among us, it really was soso good.

My husband and I did not have a special tasting for the remaining cupcakes but here are some thoughts.

Chocolate x 3: what is not to like, chocolate to the extreme, yumm

Lemon Blossom: good lemon flavor, frosting had a nice flavor and texture

Cookies & Creme: my husband liked this one, I thought the frosting was a little off.

Chocolate Coconut: YUM, really good coconut flavor and the chocolate cake was moist and delish

I still have the Chocolate Hazelnut left to try and the Honey Banana.

Overall these were definitely some of, if not THE best, cupcakes I have ever had! I hope I can make it to a GC store some day and try out more.

coconut cupcakes (ina garten/barefoot contessa)

2010-08-05T18:17:00.000-07:00

I totally forgot to blog about these, oops! They were DELICIOUS. I dyed the frosting pink for an "it girl party" I was going to, the idea was to get creative women together to network. I definitely recommend this recipe, I found a version on the Food Network website but I am sure you can find several variations out there.

Check out some of the fun decorations too.

raargh, monster cookies! (paula deen)

2010-07-07T18:20:00.000-07:00

Ok, ok, so I am like a week behind but we can pretend these are everyday cookies and not 4th of July cookies. Regardless they were DELICIOUS! Paula Deen knows what is up, there is a whole jar of peanut butter in these babies, chocolate chips, oatmeal, doesn't get much better.

Yes, finally, I am on a roll here people, these were GOOD but getting them good wasn't easy...

Attempt 1: We have started using European butter such as Plugra or Presidente since it is supposed to enhance the flavor. Well, dumbass here forgot that a "stick" of European butter is really two sticks of traditional what we will call American butter. So yeah, I put TWO sticks of butter in and you would think yeah do it, MORE BUTTER! But no, it made it greasy and runny, boo, I was mad/sad/angry/annoyed/wanted to quit baking forever.

Attempt 2: We were in a hurry to get to a friend's bday party so I made the dough and refrigerated it thinking I could bake the next day. EH, wrong, the inside of the cookie didn't bake all the way. Do you have to bring refrigerated dough to room temp? F if I know.

Attempt 3: Under the close supervision of my husband I finally got it right! And can you believe I had to separate the blue and red M&M's each time, I couldn't track down special "freedom" M&M's.

I have some lovely coconut cupcakes ready to blog about soon, until next time!

where the hell have I been?

2010-07-05T18:56:00.000-07:00

I know you've all been wondering where the vegan component of this blog equation has gone. No? Just my mom and my sister? Okay well, I have no real excuse except that no one wants to see pictures of me cooking in a dirty kitchen and it seems the kitchen is always in disarray when I set out on a baking adventure. That and my friend Morgan keeps borrowing my camera (I don't ask, I assume it's for something illicit).

And not only have I been horribly negligent to date, this post ISN'T EVEN ABOUT BAKING! I know, crazy. But bear with me because I think this is still worth sharing (even if there are no in-process photos). I've made the most perfect thing in the universe...

Nutella Ice Cream.

Basically every word in that phrase should be in quotes because this contains no cream or Nutella brand chocolate-hazelnut spread but it does the job of getting the point across. And I've made it twice, with some variations and it is knock your socks off good both ways.

I started by making a vegan-style Nutella. You may recall from my Buche de Noel that I was duped into making hazelnut butter from scratch by this recipe. I was not falling for it again and just bought pre-buttered hazelnuts. I used the entire jar of it and added the same amount of cocoa powder and powdered sugar as the truly-from-scratch version. This makes enough notNutella to make 2 batches of ice cream and still have plenty left over to slather on anything you put in your mouth for a week. Mmmm...nutella toothbrush.

First batch (not pictured), was a chocolate notNutella ice cream. I was horrified to find most chocolate ice cream recipes call for cocoa powder. Seriously? To make ice cream, you already have a saucepan full of warm milk-like-substance. Isn't this the perfect place to gently melt some actual chocolate? Of course it is.

Let me back up a bit. Your standard vegan ice cream base goes like this:

3 cups of your choice fake milk (soy, almond, coconut, etc.)

3/4 c sugar

pinch of salt

2 Tbsp arrowroot powder

1 tsp vanilla extract

You use 1/4 c of the fake-milk to make a slurry with the arrowroot powder. Set that aside. Heat up the remaining fake-milk with the sugar and pinch of salt. This is also when you incorporate whatever other flavoring you want in there (i.e: blueberry puree, strawberry puree, chocolate, etc). Let that come to a low boil then pull off the heat and stir in the slurry. It will thicken very quickly. Then toss in the vanilla. Let that chill in your fridge for a few hours and then process it in your ice cream maker per its instructions.

Okay, back to the specifics. I melted 8 oz of semi-sweet chocolate into the base of my first batch as well as adding about 1/4 c of the notNutella. In the second batch (pictured), I used about 1/2 cup of the nutella only for flavoring. In both cases, I used a mix of hazelnut milk and full-fat coconut milk as my base. I've found if you keep the ratio of coconut milk to less than half, it doesn't taste so much like coconut flavored ice cream. Once chilled, I processed away in my awesome, sister-given ice cream maker. It comes out very soft-servy and can always benefit from an overnight in the freezer. When transferring from the ice cream maker to its temporary freezer container, layer in generous amounts of the remaining nutella so there is a ribbon of fudgy goodness running through your ice cream.

One last note, it is good to let your ice cream get a bit melty before serving or eating. It really makes a huge difference. Also, super cute bowls from Anthropologie, like these but wee-er, not only make the scoop feel more like an occasion, but keep you from eating too much in one sitting.

fleur de sel caramels (vanilla & lace)

2010-06-25T19:04:00.000-07:00

I made these sea salt, or if you are fancy"fleur de sel," caramels months ago and completely forget to post about them. I should have right away since these are probably my favorite thing I have made so far. They were seriously delicious and I ate a ton of them, oops. I found the recipe on Vanilla & Lace.

I liked using a candy thermometer, it made me feel like I couldn't screw it up. And I didn't!

These were super time consuming but soso good. I need to make these every week, I am pretty sure of it. I just ordered Jacques Torres' book on Amazon the other day, I am excited to explore chocolate making. Off to make coconut cupcakes for a party tomorrow, tata!

donut cake (williams sonoma)

2010-06-07T15:50:00.000-07:00

One of my co-workers got me this cute cake pan for "administrative professionals" day so when his birthday rolled around a few weeks later I figured it was the perfect time to try it out. I will say cakes are much easier and quicker than cupcakes but the flavor was definitely lacking. I used the recipe on the back of the box and not sure if I did something wrong but it came out very dry and "flour-y." Bleech. And my chocolate glaze was definitely more runny and thin than shown on the box and also in the video on the WS website. But it sure looked adorable! I will try a new recipe sometime because I do want to use this pan again. I wonder if you can just use any standard cake recipe. Think of all the fun frosting and sprinkle color combinations you could do.

sampled - yum! and wuollet's + a woodland baby shower

2010-05-29T07:16:00.001-07:00

So a few weeks ago I got to combine my love of cupcakes with my love of party planning. My dear friend insisted she didn't want a baby shower so we threw her one as a surprise and included her favorite things to make it seem not so "showery." She has loved owls ever since I met her in the 7th grade and when she informed me she choose owls and trees in the nursery I was thrilled since that was the theme I had been planning.

I had read great things about yum! cupcakes in Minneapolis so I knew they would be included in the spread. I ordered 3 of each of the following, vanilla, chocolate, angel food, and the signature yum! which is similar to a hostess cupcake, chocolate with yummy marshmallow inside. I ordered the cupcakes in advance and went to pick them up at the store which is on Minnetonka Boulevard in St. Louis Park. I come to find out their cupcakes are HUGE! Which is quite alright except I had made adorable paper wrappers in wood grain print to wrap around a standard size cupcake. I also was foiled once again, I need to learn my lesson about specifying which color frosting I would like. Don't assume the frosting will be white and brown, this was no fault of yum's, I didn't think to ask and the bright yellow just wasn't going to work for me.

I grew up in Wayzata, Minnesota and knew the Wuollet's name but had never tried one of their baked goods. A perfect time to try so I went down to their Wayzata location and viola, they had several flavors and plain colored frosting. Hooray! I bought a few carrot, devil's food, and red velvet.

The upside of this frosting fiasco? I then got to try out the yum! vanilla and chocolate cupcakes I wasn't going to use for the shower. They were delicious! A little too much frosting for me personally and the cupcakes are a challenge for one person to devour but overall I thought the cake was really moist. I didn't get a chance to sample the angel food, signature yum! or any of the Wuollet's cupcakes (so sad I know!) but I heard great things. I did try some of the Wuollet's brownies I picked up, SO good, I could have had 10 of them! The service at both yum! and Wuollet's was great and I will definitely go back. And I was able to still use the wood grain wrappers by doubling up two and taping them together.

The shower was loads of fun to plan and we pulled off the surprise. My mom was a HUGE help throughout the whole process and my husband and dad were a big help in the kitchen and with last minute details. I think I am hooked! Now to plan my garden party birthday brunch...

All pictures taken by my husband.

cupcake bootcamp two at the chopping block

2010-04-26T17:52:00.000-07:00

I was beyond thrilled when the Chopping Block announced they were offering cupcake bootcamp with new recipes. My pal Christy signed up with me again, here are some pics from the day.

That's me! Our instructor this time was Quincy, we quickly gave him the nickname "Q-bones." Hard to tell if he liked it or not but we love him, he is our new CBFF (cupcake best friend forever).

Same set up as before, we made all the batters first and cooked those, took a break for lunch and then make all the frostings. The recipes this time were german chocolate with coconut caramel frosting, rhubarb with lavender whipped cream, lemon with lemon curd filling and meringue frosting, malted chocolate chip with chocolate ganache, and carrot with cream cheese frosting and candied pecans. The malted chocolate chip (big surprise) were my favorite and carrot a close second.

Here are what the german chocolate cupcakes SHOULD have looked like...

Here are ours...

Not our finest and then we had to do the lemon curd filling for the lemon cupcake twice! But the second batch was "perfect" so we felt pretty good about that.

Then we had wine and I started getting mouthy with Q-bones. Oops! Sorry QB.

Hey these look good. Chocolate chip with crushed malted milk ball topping, yummers!!

Torch time! Kind of think I need one of these, my husband however would strongly disagree. :(

Another eventful time at Cupcake Bootcamp! Keep reading for Christy's always clever and hilarious recap.

Oh Cupcake Bootcamp! How I love you so!

Um. Normally I would type something hilarious and insightful here BUT it seems like Emily pretty much covered it. So maybe I will just resort to a numbered list of awesome stuff (which, as every blogger knows, is a great fallback when you want to post but are too lazy to write something truly coherent or develop an actual idea).

QBONES – he is awesome! Very hands-on. I think I will take his knife skills class next.
The caramel topping for the German chocolate cake cupcakes was amazing. I wish our cupcakes would have turned out better, but I was happy to eat the frosting on its own. (I made it, so maybe I am biased, but I am pretty sure it was one of the most perfect frostings ever made.)
I met Tina the blogger, whom I loved! Emily actually already knew her from teh interwebz……… it’s such a small world.
There was actually a MAN IN CUPCAKE BOOTCAMP. It was crazy! He was really nice (and very cute…… a dead ringer for Ashton Kutcher!) His girlfriend needs to lock that down NOW. Seriously, how many guys do you know that would spend 5 hours on a Saturday in a roomful of women making cupcakes? Exactly.
Lunch was delicious, even though Q-Bones kind of had to scramble at the last minute to accommodate all the vegetarians – too bad for them, because the flank steak he prepared was yummers!
And not to state the obvious, but I love cupcakes. The malted chocolate chip ones were super delicious (and topped with a chocolate ganache, ALSO PREPARED, BY ME, TO PERFECTION). I wish I had one right now.

And that’s all! Happy cupcaking to all. J

french macarons (vanilla & lace + tartelette)

2010-04-17T20:21:00.000-07:00

I have been lucky enough to acquire great friends through my husband, some of which share my love of baking and baked goods. Together we decided to venture into the scary world of macarons. It went a little something like this...

Must have a little wine first.

And some cheese.

Ok, maybe not that much wine...

Husbands wait patiently, hoping for delicious macarons.

Cute photo op followed by intense reading.

MUST FOLLOW DIRECTIONS

Circles don't look perfect but we got...

FEET! On the FIRST TRY!

And they tasted delicious.

Hours of hard work in the kitchen = time for a beach break!

We made raspberry ones too. Cuteness.

Needless to say it was so much more fun cooking with friends. Going into it I was very nervous, I had studied up on macarons and knew how tricky they could be. I had aged the egg whites 2 days before and got myself a brand new digital scale, I was ready as I could be.

I picked the recipe for the chocolate macarons from Vanilla & Lace and the raspberry marscapone from Tartelette. Tartlette also had a super helpful article on making macarons. I have no clue how they would turn out but knew once we saw those "feet," we were in the clear.

They are A LOT of work, hours in the kitchen, but very delicious. If I do make these again I need to invest in a food processor. Using our Waring blender to grind the almonds was not cutting it, not even close. Making these as more of a party really relieved stress and pressure, if they didn't turn out then so what, we were having fun trying.

Pictures by my husband and the talented, gorgeous Annie Sifferman.

snickerdoodles (smitten kitchen)

2010-04-13T16:05:00.000-07:00

I made snickerdoodles awhile ago and forgot to post about them! These were a special request from our friend Holly and her soon to be born baby. I got the recipe from one of my favorite blogs, smitten kitchen. I never had a snickerdoodle before but they were quite good, pretty much a sugar cookie but with cinnamon. It made me wonder where they got their name, yay for internet! According to Wikipedia snickerdoodle is either Dutch or German in origin, no exciting story behind it, bummer.

The recipe makes several dozen. One of our batches got burnt, for me it was hard to tell when they were ready and then another batch we stored overnight and they got pretty crunchy. So we tried again and they were delicious, moist and chewy. Maybe these are the kind of cookies you just have to eat right out of the oven. Mom to be and baby approved!

Pictures taken by me and my husband.

I made macarons AND homemade sea salt caramels this past weekend so more posts coming soon!

sampled - saint cupcake (mail order)

2010-04-06T19:27:00.000-07:00

My friend Christy at work scored some sweet tickets to be in the audience for Oprah so I had to think of the perfect thank you gift. She mentioned awhile ago about wanting to order some cupcakes from Saint Cupcake in Portland, so I did just that. I ordered the cupcakes online Sunday night, they shipped Monday and arrived to us by Thursday, not bad at all! They also included a gift note I had e-mailed them to request, check out the cute packaging.

Since we weren't about to chow down on all 6 cupcakes (believe me we wanted to) in the middle of a work day we decided to try two and split them. You get to pick 6 cupcakes, 6 frostings, and 6 sprinkles. I am already terrible at making decisions so this was extremely difficult but I tried to get a good mix. Mail order packs come in 3, 6, or 12.

First we tried the vanilla chocolate chip cupcake with chocolate buttercream frosting and then chocolate sprinkles on top. The cake was really good, I can only imagine if this is what they taste like 3 days later what it must taste like fresh at the bakery. Seriously wow, the frosting was so creamy. Yumyumyumyum.

Then we tried the chocolate cake with vanilla buttercream and rainbow sprinkles (first picture, scroll up). OMG even better! The cake was soooo moist and delicious and again the frosting was smooth and creamy. I must get to Portland stat to try these suckers live. I have never ordered cupcakes through the mail before so I will admit I was skeptical of how they would taste but honestly they were AMAZING. I can only imagine the other flavors were equally amazing. I may have to order a box for myself!

Disclaimer: Sorry for the blah pictures, I didn't have my fancy camera and my photo assistant (husband). Also, I was in no way compensated for this review but Saint Cupcake you can send me free cupcakes anytime, just putting that out there...

devil's food cupcakes & caramel frosting (magnolia bakery)

2010-04-05T19:36:00.000-07:00

I decided to try the devil's food cupcake and caramel frosting recipes from my Magnolia bakery cookbook. I must say the cake was delicious, very moist, great chocolate taste - loved it! The frosting however, bleech. It came out very grainy and all I could taste was the brown sugar. In the book they recommend leaving the frosting to sit overnight to help the graininess. I did. It still didn't help. I would not make the frosting again but will definitely use the cupcakes in another trial. Still looking for that perfect frosting!

In honor of my love of Kate Spade (and also hate since they make it impossible for me to afford any of their amazing things), I bought some cute pinwheel toothpicks to decorate. Spring has almost sprung!

whoopie pies (zingerman's)

2010-03-17T18:14:00.000-07:00

I know I am a little late (ok a lot late) but...Happy St. Patrick's Day! Whoopie pies won the last poll by one vote so I decided to tie them in with the holiday. I used this recipe from Zingerman's (I LOVE ZINGERMAN'S) via the New York Times for the cake portion and then this recipe from Stylish Cuisine for the filling. I wanted a marshmallow filling versus a buttercream filling. I have never had a "real" whoopie pie but from what I gather the more traditional ones are filled with the marshmallow. If you want to know more about whoopie pies click here.

They were fairly easy to make, I did run out of frosting, ooops. Also, note to self I need a smaller ice cream scoop. The one I used to measure the cake part of the pies was huge, definitely a challenge to eat one of these bad boys in one sitting.

You will probably notice I didn't start taking pictures until half way through, oops again, American Idol was clearly a distraction for me (so sad Alex Lambert is gone BTW).

A little food coloring and viola, whoopies suited for the hungriest of leprechauns!

My co-workers all gave them two thumbs up as well as my husband. I personally was not a huge fan, too much cake action for me. I am much more of a cookie/brownie girl. My husband asked me today if cookies and brownies would become the next "big thing." Umm hello when did they ever stop? If they need to make a comeback then count me in!

Misha was our frosting tester, hard to tell if she approves or not...

I hope you are all drunk off green beer or bathing in your pot of gold! Up next time: SNICKERDOODLES

cupcake wearables

2010-03-15T11:36:00.000-07:00

Are you wondering, "Hey yo! Where is the food at?" Not to fear, whoopie pies coming later this week!

In the meantime I wanted to share some of my favorite cupcake items from around the web, one of which was inspired by the cupcake loving Liz Lemon on 30 Rock. The cupcake craze has been going on for quite awhile now so as you can imagine there were a lot to choose from but here are a few of my top picks.

1. flannel cupcake pajamas 2. cupcake socks 3. cupcake onesie 4. cakespy cupcake tee 5. cupcake beanie 6. cupcake apron

cupcake wrapper template from snow and graham

2010-03-12T07:11:00.000-08:00

I know DIY wrappers have been out for awhile but I saw these on Snow & Graham's blog and they are just so adorable. I must try this! I would love to make some with this paper from Whimsy Press.

If only I could re-do the dessert buffet from my wedding last year, I would have been all over this.

new feature - bakeries & cupcakeries

2010-02-28T14:35:00.000-08:00

We have added a new list of links on the sidebar of bakeries and cupcakeries we have visited or would like to visit. Please send me any suggestions and we will make sure to post pictures and reviews of all our adventures!

cupcake boot camp at the chopping block

2010-02-21T14:38:00.000-08:00

I will start by saying I definitely recommend this class to anyone in Chicago who likes to bake, I loved it! I went with my girl Christy to the Lincoln Square location, we made 5 different kinds of cupcakes in 4.5 hours, a boot camp for sure. When I told my friend Melinda I was going to "cupcake boot camp" she said "does that mean you eat cupcakes and then work out?" And though we did get a few discouraging looks from the instructor there were no orders of "drop and give me 20" so that was a relief!

There were 12 people in the class (all women, no surprise there) and we were split into groups of 4. We made all the batters and baked the cupcakes first and ate lunch while they cooled. After lunch we made all the toppings and then frosted the cupcakes. It seems like it would be a long class but you are busy the entire time and stopping for lunch is a nice break. Plus free lunch, woo hoo can't argue with that. Oh and they had breakfast treats too, holler!

A lot of the ingredients were pre-measured for us and then they had a community table set up to get all the dry ingredients. Some of dem ladies from the other groups were getting feisty but not to worry, no cat fights. Our instructor Carolyn did a great job, I was convinced she hated our group since we were off to a slow start but she warmed up to us later, I think leaving her some of our finished cupcakes may have helped. She had an assistant, Liza, who would take all of our dirty bowls and utensils, she would have them cleaned and then placed back on our table. Umm hello, where can I get one of those!

My camera did die about 2 hours into the class but then I was able to get a few shots at the end. We each got to take home about a dozen cupcakes, so far the peanut butter chocolate fudge cupcakes are my (and my husband's) favorite.

Thanks to Christy for helping me out taking photos today! Keep reading after the pictures for her hilarious comments on the boot camp.

I am obsessed with all things cupcake, so when I saw that The Chopping Block was offering a cupcake bootcamp, it was a no-brainer. All I had to do was convince one of my most favoritest people in the world (aka Emily) to go with me. Since she is as obsessed as I am, it was an easy task.

Like Emily said, the title of the class is a little misleading...... the instructor did not question our sexuality, give us disparaging nicknames or make us do any type of physical activity (other than standing for 4+ hours). Rather, it was a baking marathon where formulas for deliciousness were drilled into our heads.

(Actually, not really; all the recipes were on printouts. No memorization required!)

Our group did not get off to the best start, and I feel like I'm to blame. The first thing we did was make batter for Boston Cream cupcakes - this sounds simple enough, right? Except I was in charge of mixing, and I am 100% sure that I overbeat the batter. Sigh.

Luckily, things improved, and the rest of our attempts were on the successful side. Yay! The peanut butter fudge cupcakes are AMAZING, and I also like the coconut lime ones (though I will probably choose a different frosting the next time I make them).

I also learned a couple things (which I guess was the point). I can now separate eggs like a pro, and I understand the importance of having all of my ingredients at room temperature. And some other stuff, which I am not remembering right now (but which will hopefully come back to me next time I need to bake something).

Other awesome stuff:

1. Using James' camera! It's fancy, so I felt like a serious photographer. Even though I kind of suck at taking pictures.

2. Having someone to clean up after me, even when I get batter everywhere. (Though I was responsible for wiping off the chocolate I got on my face.)

3. Freshly baked cornbread at lunch! Also, enjoying said cornbread with a bottle of 312.

4. Hanging out with Emmers!

5. Cupcakes. (Obviously, but I thought I'd reiterate it just the same.)

(kiss my bundt) red velvet bundt cake

2010-02-11T17:33:00.000-08:00

One of my bosses (I have three, can you imagine?) got me a bundt cake pan for Christmas and his birthday is tomorrow so I figured it was a perfect reason to use the pan for the first time. I found this recipe from Kiss My Bundt bakery on the LA Times food blog. I thought red velvet would be fun for Valentine's day. Typical, yes. Delicious, also yes!

My photographer husband was passed out on the couch so my pictures this time around probably aren't as good so I apologize in advance.

This cake was pretty easy to make, but of course I forgot to set out the eggs and butter ahead of time. I always do that! They needed to be room temperature but placing the on the stove as it preheated seemed to help.

Mixing the ingredients for the cake was simple, I did however get a few splatters of red on the wall in the process, ooops. Need KitchenAid mixer!

Combine the flour, sugar, etc. mixture to the liquid and mix, easy enough.

As the cake was baking, took over 45 minutes, I started on the cream cheese frosting. Also simple, cream cheese, butter, powdered sugar and a bit of vanilla.

Frosting the bundt cake was (for me) a little more tricky due to the ridges but I think it turned out ok. It was a hit at work, I told them to be honest and I got a 7.5 out of 10. Not bad! I couldn't try it myself sadly since I am still on this loser elimination diet but people said it was good, maybe a little dry but still good flavor and texture. Hooray!

cupcake bootcamp!

2010-01-29T12:47:00.000-08:00

I can't believe it has been over a month since I last posted, ooops! Well I have a fairly good excuse for at least some of that time. I have been on a horrible, no fun, sucky elimination diet which includes no sugar, no chocolate, no nothing good. Can you believe it? One more week to go...

BUT

I have something to look forward to! My friend Christy and I have just signed up for Cupcake Bootcamp at the Chopping Block here in freezing Chicago. I plan to report back with lots of pictures and hopefully some good tips. And I am planning on making a red velvet bundt cake right before Valentine's Day so stay tuned!

merry buche de noel!

2009-12-24T15:17:00.000-08:00

So far, I've gone really easy on myself. I've only chronicled recipes that I know I would totally dominate (oh wait, I've only done one. Well there you go). This time, I have tried to rise to the challenge set forth by our other sister... a Buche de Noel (I know, I'm totally skipping all the appropriate special characters. If Blogger had a glyph menu, maybe.)

Remember that we are novice bakers and, in my case, don't have the knowledge to veganize non-vegan recipes yet. So first I had to find a vegan spongecake (or genoise) recipe. I found a few, none that I thought was a clear home run. I chose this one. I decided to get even more fancy-pants by choosing a hazelnut cream filling and nutella buttercream frosting that I also found online but can't find now to link to it. Poor form, Laura.

I'm not going to bore you with photos of the prepping of all the batters since my photos are not as glorious as the Emily and James photographic powerhouse. I WILL bore you with my musings on the experience of making them (theoretically, that's what you're here for).

First, I made the hazelnut filling. My recipe called for hazelnut butter which I dutifully purchased. Making it was a simple affair handled easily with a hand mixer. Next, I made the veganized nutella. This recipe had me toasting the raw hazelnuts, wiping off the skins and then liquifying it in the food processor to make....HAZELNUT BUTTER! Muther effer. I'm not really sure which I'm angrier about; the hassle of making it from scratch or spending a pretty penny buying it pre-made. I tell you what, that vegan nutella is damn good. Then most of the nutella went into a buttercream frosting that came out cra-mazing!

So all that happened last night, today I made the cake. I was dubious about egg replacers ability to reach the soft peak stage and sure enough, it didn't. It did, however, get pretty fluffy and I think that was good enough. The instant gratification girl in me loved how quickly the cake baked (15 min). Finally it's picture time!

The still warm cake is placed on a cocoa powder dusted tea towel. On every cooking show I've ever seen with a genoise cake featured, they brush liquor on it. So I did too. Kahlua. This may have been a bad call (not the Kahlua choice, just any kind of liquid).

Here's the hazelnut filling. I had originally made it about peanut butter consistency but ended up thinning it out a bit to make it more spreadable. And spread it I did. Right away. Now some recipes I read have you roll the cake unfilled and let it cool before filling. But at least one said it could be filled for that first rolling.

It rolled up easily without any major cracking. Hooray! But that warm cake went to town on the filling and it got oozy melty. Hmmm..."maybe it'll firm up as it cools," I think.

I leave it alone for many hours before cutting it to create the more realistic log shape complete with truncated appendages. This is when I learn that I've made one seriously moist cake. Almost pudding-like in its moistness. So it seems like this needed less...uh, moisture. I don't think skipping the Kahlua alone would have made much of a difference. Maybe no Kahlua, less of the hazelnut filling and let the cake cool before filling. Maybe.

This is the insanely awesome nutella frosting. It's super tasty. It's not, however, very tree bark colored. More like the color of my coffee (yeah, I drink wussy coffee). I had contemplated covering the whole thing in ganache. But now I realize that would make a huge mess since I couldn't transfer the cake back to the wire rack without its bread pudding innards collapsing. I decide I could use a vegetable peeler to make shavings off my block of chocolate to mimick bark. Being Southern, I can only picture pine bark so I attempt to carve big pieces. This only sort of works.

I knew I had to warm up the chocolate to get it more pliable but that was messy so I was reluctant to do it again when the block started cooling off and my shavings got smaller and more brittle. You can probably follow my progression along the cake surface based on the size of chocolate pieces. At this point, I'm thinking its a hot mess. Mushy insides, janky birch bark on the outside...how can it be salvaged?

It's the miracle of confectioners sugar! What holiday problems can't be solved with a lovely light dusting of snow?

me like brownies (baked nyc)

2009-12-23T17:10:00.001-08:00

You may remember these brownies as being one of the options from the last vote. I really wanted them to win but I wasn't about to cheat, I knew I would make them next if they didn't. I got the recipe from my Baked NYC cookbook. Sources claimed these were like the best brownies in the whole wide world! Ok well maybe they didn't exactly say that...but I had very high expectations. Come on, they were one of Oprah's favorite things and Oprah don't fuck around.

(This blog is not sponsored by any of the above products, but please, send me free stuff)

Melty, melty, melty. Mixy, mixy, mixy.

I got this silcone brownie thingamiggy (is it a tray? a pan? a mold? and oh damn I just saw they make one for brownie "pops" too) from Michael's. It is pretty neat, the brownies popped out easily and bite size made it much easier and less messy to serve. Oh and you really must use a pastry bag and tip in order to get the brownie mix to go into these small squares.

YUMMERS! I will be making some goodies tomorrow evening (this lady has to work, booo) for Christmas but probably won't get to blog about it until the weekend so happy holidays yo!

(pics by my hubs and i www.jamesjulius.com)

and the winner is...

2009-12-06T15:50:00.000-08:00

The results are in, thanks so much to those who took the time to vote, and white chocolate snowballs came out on top. I got the recipe from Real Simple and yes, it was fairly simple, although prepare to have toasted coconut everywhere!

I must say, mixing dough for cookies is a a lot tougher than for cupcakes. Especially when you are trying to make 3 batches at once (I don't recommend this). Luckily my husband was nearby taking pictures so he could step in and mix once my arm was about to fall off.

Form the dough into teaspoon size balls, try to be as consistent as possible, it helps to have them all a similar size for when you are pairing them together later. When rolling the dough balls into the coconut be very generous. I was only covering them lightly at first but once I realized how much flakes off in the process of cooking them, transferring them and then assembling them, I figured it was better to go a little crazy with the coconut.

Let the cookies cool completely, overnight if possible. Then melt the white chocolate, yummm. You don't need a lot of white chocolate per snowball cookie, press lightly with the top cookie otherwise all the chocolate will ooze out the sides. It helps to put the sheet of completed snowballs in the fridge so that the chocolate sets more quickly. And ta da!

Now get out your vacuum because I guarantee there will be flakes of coconut all over your kitchen floor!

(pics taken by my hubs and i www.jamesjulius.com)

best of intentions

2009-11-30T17:00:00.000-08:00

I know you were all waiting anxiously for a thanksgiving vegan baking spectacular. I had every intention of delivering that too! Unfortunately, I have not perfected the balancing act of purposeful cooking with quality photography. Seems you have to being doing one or the other.

I have a chocolate chip cookie post in the queue just waiting for pics so stay tuned! After that, the ambitious Buche De Noel challenge.

- Laura

mini smores cupcakes a la emily (by way of martha and sew darn cute)

2009-11-08T18:18:00.001-08:00

The people who have benefited the most from my new endeaver into the world of baking are my husband and my co-workers. I on the other hand do not need another excuse to eat sweets but what is a girl to do, I needed a hobby! So these are for a co-worker's birthday tomorrow (happy b-day JY!) and I think they turned out decent. I do prefer the mini cupcakes, they are much easier to frost!

I used the "one bowl chocolate cupcake" recipe from my Martha cupcakes book. Good chocolate taste but not as moist as I would have liked, very easy to make though.

There are several recipes out there for marshmallow frosting but I wanted something super easy that I wouldn't mess up, me versus frosting = 0-2 thus far. Plus I don't have a nifty culinary torch (yet) which most of them called for. I found this recipe on Sew Darn Cute and I may have actually succeeded! I would have thought the marshmallow flavor would have been more prevalent but still very yummy, especially once you add the graham cracker crumbles and Hershey bar slice. I cut the Hershey slice in half since they were mini cupcakes.

And doesn't the frosting job look much better?? My new kit worked great, especially on the minis, it was so easy. There you have it, another day in the kitchen and I do think progress has been made, success! Now I am off to watch the Mad Men finale.

Don't forget to vote on what I make next!

(pics taken by my hubs and i www.jamesjulius.com)

laura makes the best vegan biscuits (if I do say so myself)

2009-11-04T15:12:00.000-08:00

This will probably be one of the few non-sweet entries you're gonna get out of me. And, as a further departure from the nature of this blog, biscuits were one of the baked goods that actually appeared regularly in our home growing up. Dad was the family biscuit maker. Was. That's right, the student has become the master. FACE!

Because we believe in giving credit where credit is due, and also don't have the funds to fight off possible copyright infringement lawsuits, I will not be posting the recipe for these biscuits. I will tell you they are based off of the Easy Biscuits recipe from How It All Vegan. I will also tell you my modifications and techniques that make them extra-awesome.

First, let's answer the question "how easy is easy?" Within 4-5 makings, you can have the biscuits ready to go in the oven by the time it preheats to 450º. Sometimes I even have the dishes washed before popping them in. And this is usually done in pre-coffee condition. Also, I almost always have all the ingredients on hand so they don't require a special trip to the store. Just roll out of bed, throw on an apron and presto! Biscuits!

Second, they are so cheap! In general we all know making from scratch is significantly less than buying pre-made. For me, the frugality of biscuits becomes all the more obvious because the individual ingredients are so inexpensive. The fact that you get something so great from those unassuming ingredients seems like magic.

So here's my big secret to biscuit making; treat it like pie crust. Keep the fat cold and don't futz with it too much to establish layers/pockets for that flakey finished product.

After setting the oven, next step is to sour the milk (I use soy, I know others have used nut milks with great success) so it can curdle a bit before adding...which is not now. Next, sift together all the dry ingredients. (I use 1 tsp less baking powder than the recipe calls for because, seriously 3 teaspoons?) Cut the soy margarine into cubes and then add to the dry ingredients. What is cutting, you say? Back in the old days, you would use a pastry cutter. And if you actually have one, you can use that. I like to get my mitts dirty and "pinch" the butter into the flour.

This is what pinching looks like. You know that gesture you make when you use the word "moo-lah" for money? Where you rub your thumb across your fingers? Do that! Just point your fingertips down into the bowl instead of up. This incorporates strands of margarine into the flour. It won't get anywhere near evenly distributed so don't even try. Remember, no futzing.

I wish I had either a third hand or an adorable photo assistant so you could have a picture of incorporating the soured milk. Again, this is best accomplished with your hands so I was way too gooey to stop and shoot. You definitely want to add the milk gradually, about a third at a time. While baking is generally regarded as a science, this part is more art. Or some sort of science I don't understand...which is most of it. Anyway, it seems that day to day it changes how much moisture the dough can take. Today I used it all and had to toss on a little extra flour to make it manageable.

You like a nice fat biscuit, right? Well then don't roll out skinny dough. I don't even roll mine, I just pat it out to about an inch thick. I haven't found the perfect size biscuit cutter yet so I'm using a glass. They say that a sharp metal cutter will facilitate better rising over blunt drinking glass edges. But feast your eyes on this...

I don't think I have a height issue with these. I think these are the most perfect things ever. I think I will eat the entire batch. In one sitting.

carrot cupcakes & cream cheese frosting

2009-10-23T17:19:00.000-07:00

For my first attempt I went for a classic - carrot cake with cream cheese frosting. I used the recipe from Martha Stewart's Cupcakes book (my first cookbook of what I hope to be many, are you reading this Santa). They turned out decent but I am definitely going to need practice, for some reason I thought I might be a natural, ha!

An ice cream scoop is a great tool for making cupcakes, it makes it much easier to divvy up the batter and then you have an excuse to eat ice cream in the future, score!

So up until this point it was pretty painless, until I got to making the frosting...

See all those chunks/clumps in there? Martha would not be proud. What did I do wrong you ask? I broke the number one rule, I didn't follow the directions. Instead of mixing the ingredients in as instructed I mixed them in all at once, oops. I was forced to go out and buy a can of Betty Crocker frosting, I know, the shame!

Ta da! The finished product. I did half with toasted coconut and half without but I must say the ones with were the first to be snatched up by my co-workers. I can't offer any tips or tricks on these as I barely got through them myself. Practice makes perfect (we can only hope).

I desperately need to work on my decorating skills, I purchased a frosting bag which came with 5 assorted tips and I also bought some other goodies. Stay tuned to see if they improved my presentation!

well hello there

2009-10-23T16:55:00.003-07:00

We're Emily and Laura, two sisters who, growing up, never got to eat sugar (at least not as much as we wanted). We each have horrifying stories of what we would eat in vain attempts to get our dessert fix. Bakers chocolate was licked and dipped into the sugar bowl. Jello eaten "raw" from the box. Spoonfuls of sugar (brown and white). Some of our greatest successes were found in the medicine cabinet. Flintstone vitamins, children's aspirin...our third sister even sucked all the sweet coating off a bottle of Advil tablets one time (imagine finding that when you have a headache).

When we did get the sweet treats we were so desperate for, they came in the form of pre-packaged goodies. While we're proud that our mother and grandmother were not slaves to the stove, we've found ourselves wanting to get our oven mitts dirty. We're starting nice and easy. We'll be chronicling our experiences working with published recipes letting you know what went wrong, what went right and what we might change to make it even awesomer. In an extra special twist, you'll get two baking blogs in one! Emily bakes traditional goodies and Laura cooks vegan-style.

A brief bio on the bakers:

Emily lives with her hubs in a coach house by Lake Michigan just north of Chicago. Likes: J.Crew ("J.Crizzy"), red wine, her brat kitty Misha, Mad Men, motown, chocolate, ruffles, polka dots and the color yellow. Dislikes: Miley Cyrus, that she can't just eat whenever and whatever she wants, ankle socks, mayonnaise and roller coasters.

(PS all the pictures from my posts that actually look good are from my talented husband)

Laura lives in veganville, usa (unincorporated) so doesn't cook as often as she should. Likes: food eating (competitive and casual), Pitchfork-y music, terrible television, liberal politics, and boots. Dislikes: bike culture (sorry, portland!), Fox News, and lots of other stuff too numerous to list.