So Long, Farewell!

We recently had a coworker retire, so of course I made a cake for the party on his last day. Now this gentleman used to live in Nebraska and is a big fan of the Nebraska Cornhuskers (I know, I know, there's no accounting for taste sometimes). Fittingly I made him a cake in the shape of the iconic Nebraska 'N'. I made sure to take pictures along the way, because I figured this would be a great opportunity to showcase a carved cake.

The Husker-tastic finished product!

To do this cake I baked two 9 inch square cakes, let them cool overnight, took them out of the pans and placed them on my decorating turntable with some wax paper to keep the display plate clean. I printed off an 'N' that I found online, copied into a word document, and measured out to just under the 9 inch cake size. I trimmed the 'N' and filled and stacked the cakes. (Vanilla custard buttercream filling recipe to come another day!) After positioning the cut out on the cake I took a sharp serrated knife and cut through the cake while holding on to the paper with the other hand. And I still have all of my fingers! Woohoo!
Hint: keep those cake scraps to make cake balls/pops, or to fill in any holes should you have a cake disaster.

Ready to carve

Once it was carved I cleaned up any excess crumblies and applied a crumb coat of regular white buttercream frosting. This step is important because it traps any crumbs so they won't show up on the final frosting layer. See how it still looks like that 'N'? I was so excited.

Lookin' good!

After the crumb coat the cake went into the fridge for half an hour to set the frosting. Once those crumbs weren't going anywhere I put another thin layer of white buttercream frosting on, which I then airbrushed a lovely Husker red. To get that buttercream extra smooth, run your spreader under hot water for a few seconds, then dry it off. Smooth the frosting with the hot spreader, making sure to clean the edge frequently.

And look at that clean display plate!

When it was done I (carefully) pulled the wax paper out after running my spreader between the cake and the paper to loosen it. I wasn't too worried about smudging the bottom because the bottom border hides that. All that was left was to pipe on the white border using a round tip, and write on the message! Lots of ooohs and ahhhhs at work that day!

The Best Chocolate Chip Cookie Ever?

It's a question still because they're not done yet :( that has been answered! I have been searching for a while for a new and improved chocolate chip cookie recipe. A few months ago I found Cheryl's blog with what she is claiming to be the 'BEST chocolate chip cookie recipe'. We'll see. I'm just a little skeptical, you know, because I have been using variations on the Tollhouse recipe for years. I always thought my cookies were pretty darn good, but that was just maybe because in this day and age any homemade cookie is special when compared to the influx of store bought goodies gracing our tables. So today I am trying this recipe. It is not for the faint of heart as it is quite involved and you apparently must be precise. I'm so not that way with baking. I toss, add, dash, pinch, and guesstimate to my little heart's content. But that's probably why my cookies are never consistent, and therefore why I was hunting for a new recipe! This recipe needs about 24-36 hours to prepare (not constantly, that includes chill time, relax), so it's totally not for those last minute bake sales.

They're as big as my hand!

UPDATE: These cookies are the shiz-nit. I used to work at a grocery store bakery and these remind me of the 'jumbo' cookies we sold there. But homemade. I wish I could give you all samples through the computer, because you would totally be running out to buy cake and bread flour right now (or putting in your orders to me). My only regret is not making a double batch because these suckers will be gone in no time since it makes 18 cookies.

The Goods
2 cups minus 2 tablespoons (8 1/2 ounces) cake flour
1 2/3 cups (8 1/2 ounces) bread flour
1 1/4 teaspoons baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
2 1/2 sticks (1 1/4 cups) unsalted butter
1 1/4 cups (10 ounces) light brown sugar
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons (8 ounces) granulated sugar
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 1/4 pounds chocolate chips

Notice how there are weights listed here? Yeah, like I said, precision is key with this recipe. Turns out, dry goods should really be weighed, not measured, for a consistent outcome. I mean, it makes sense. Am I the only one who was ever confused by brown sugar packing instructions? Lightly/loosely/densely/firmly pack the brown sugar. Totally subjective. But 10 oz is the same no  matter where you go. One other note before you start, the quality of your ingredients affects the outcome just as much as the consistency in measurement. A better vanilla and great chocolate chips will taste different than artificial extracts or bargain brands. Just sayin'.

The Instructions

1. Sift both flours, baking soda, baking powder and salt into a bowl. Set aside.
2. Using a mixer fitted with paddle attachment, cream butter and sugars together until very light in color and consistency. You may need to scrape down the sides once or twice during this step. I love my KitchenAid, we've been through a lot together, but it doesn't quite reach the bottom. Add eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Stir in the vanilla. Reduce speed to low (or you'll make a giant mess like I did), add dry ingredients and mix until just combined. Drop chocolate pieces in and incorporate them gently without breaking them. Press plastic wrap against dough and refrigerate for 24 to 36 hours. Cheryl tells us that the dough may be used in batches, and can be refrigerated for up to 72 hours. I think if it stayed longer than the 24 hours called for in the recipe the hubs would be eating it out of the bowl.

See, looks yummy so far!

3. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. I used both cheap-o cookie sheets and my fancy schmancy ones. I didn't use parchment or SilPat mats on either. And you know what? They turned out just fine. Weigh out the dough to 3.5 oz balls. They will look ginormous, bigger than golf balls. 3 oz would be totally cool too, just decrease the cooking time by a few minutes.

See the spoon for comparison on size. Huge.

4. I baked three cookies at a time on my cookie sheets for 19  minutes each. Start at 18 and go up from there, this totally depends on your oven and how true your temps are.

Put the others in the fridge while some are baking

5. Super important here! After they are done in the oven, pull out the pans and let them rest on the pans for 10 minutes!!!!! I can't put enough exclamation points to tell you how crucial this is. I didn't do this with the first cookie and it literally disintegrated. Sad day. Not really, I got to eat that one :) After ten minutes, transfer the cookies to a wire cooling rack. Let them cool until you can't stand it anymore and nom away. 

Oreo Heaven

I think my favorite flavor combination is probably cookies and cream. Whether it's ice cream or these cupcakes I did today, nothing can really beat it. Plus, there's so many different possibilities of flavors depending on what cookie you use! Today I used chocolate cream filled chocolate cookies. Yummy! Again, these cupcakes seem gourmet but take very little effort.

Cookies and Cream Cupcakes
1 box white cake mix (any eggs/water/oil called for on the box)
1 package Oreos of your choice (I used chocolate cream)

See how easy that sounds?!

Mix the cake mix as called for on the box. Preheat your oven according to the instructions on your cake mix. Line 24 cupcake tins with paper liners and place one Oreo cookie in the bottom of each liner.

Crumble the remaining Oreos from the package (I always have six left, no snacking!) into the cupcake batter. Spoon about 2T of batter into each liner on top of the whole Oreo.

Bake for about 20-22 minutes. This is longer than I normally go for, but the cupcake liners are more full with the Oreo in the bottom, and will take longer this way.
Let them cool completely and frost with your choice of white or chocolate buttercream, or even cream cheese frosting.
I didn't have extra cookies for a garnish, but if you save a couple you can crush them into crumbs and sprinkle the crumbs on top of the frosting.

(White) Chocolate Rain!

Gosh, life is getting so busy already this summer! Between getting my yard ready, flowers planted, work, two cats, a dog, and a hubby, I find that I hardly have time to bake right now. Like, only a couple treats a week ;) So I'm delving into the Cupcakery archives for an old favorite. Chocolate cupcakes with white chocolate cream cheese frosting and strawberry filling. Mmmmmmmmm....*drool*. Even better, this recipe works great with just about any fruit, cherries, raspberries, blueberries. Basically anything you would pair with a cheesecake :D Perfect for summer time and all of this fresh produce I have!

White chocolate cream cheese frosting and strawberry filling! Yum!

Chocolate Cupcakes
1 box chocolate cake mix (and any eggs/oil/water called for on the box)

Prepare the cake according to the directions on the box and let cool.

Strawberry Filling
1 lb fresh strawberries
1/2 C white sugar (or 1/4 C honey/agave nectar for you healthier people)
1/4 C water

OR
2 C fresh strawberry jam

Wash, dry, and hull strawberries. In a large pot on the stove on medium high heat, mash strawberries with a potato masher. Add sugar/honey/agave and water. Bring to a boil and boil for five minutes or until you reach a jelly consistency. Be careful to keep stirring otherwise the bottom will scorch. Ew.
Let cool.

White Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting
16 oz softened cream cheese (that's two bricks)
8 oz white chocolate (melted)
2-3 C powdered sugar
1 T vanilla
Cocoa powder


In a large mixing bowl combine the softened cream cheese and melted white chocolate. Add vanilla. Clear vanilla is best as it won't alter the color of this white frosting, but regular brown vanilla is totally cool too. I like to use Madagascar or Tahitian for frostings. Slowly add the powdered sugar. The amount depends on how stiff you need the frosting. As you can see in the picture above, I kept mine fairly soft.

Put the cupcakes together:
Take the unfrosted cupcakes and poke a decent sized hole in the top, just not all the way down to the liner. Using a spoon, bag or piping bag fill the holes with the strawberry deliciousness. Now either spread the frosting on with a knife or pipe it on. I used a large round tip for these ones since the frosting was too soft to hold the edges of a star tip. I dusted mine with cocoa powder. A slice of fresh strawberry on top would be awesome too!

What's your favorite fruit to use with cakes?

When Little Bear's Away, Big Bear Gets to Play!

In honor of Little Bear's birthday this past week I, Big Bear, made her a super easy and super delicious Oreo Poke Cake. As a birthday present I asked LB to pick a dessert of her choice for me to make and she chose one that she had seen on Pinterest a while back. Luckily for me, it was one that even the most kitchen-challenged husband could attempt. It's all box mixes or pre-made ingredients that get put together to make a cake that nobody would know wasn't homemade.
I had no idea what a "poke cake" was when LB asked me to make one. I assumed that it was poked, but how and for what reason was beyond my comprehension. Turns out, after the cake is baked you poke it with the end of a mixing spoon and pour pudding into the holes. Makes sense.
LB graciously allowed me to take some of her birthday cake to work. Not to brag or anything, but it was so amazing nobody believed I made it instead of her. To quote a co-worker "This is the best, and most moist cake ever!"

See how the pudding absorbs into the cake?

Oreo Poke Cake
1 box chocolate cake mix (and any eggs/water/oil called for on the box)
1 small box instant vanilla pudding (and any milk called for on the box)
2 containers whipped topping

Take the whipped topping out of the freezer and put in the fridge to thaw. Mix and bake cake mix according to the instructions on the box in a greased 9x13 pan. Allow the cake to cool thoroughly (I stuck it in the freezer for 20 minutes to speed that up). After it is cooled, take the handle end of a wooden spoon and poke holes in the cake being careful not to punch down to the bottom of the pan. I did 5x10 for the holes. Next, mix the pudding and milk in something that is easy to pour from, like a large measuring cup. Slooooowly pour the pudding over the holes in the cake. There should not be any pudding pooled on top of the cake, so stop pouring if that starts to happen! If it absorbs, start pouring again until the cake can take no more. Put the cake in the fridge until the pudding is set. Right before serving the cake spread the two containers of whipped topping on top of the cake. This will impress, amaze, astonish, and/or astound all those who taste it.

I Swear I Only Watch for the Commercials

I was a little disappointed by the match up for the big game this year, so I focused on making something delicious instead. I made a few revisions to the chocolate buttercream used for the frosting, and I think it's the best one yet!

Football Cupcake Cake

You will need:
1 box cake mix, any flavor, and any ingredients called for on the box

Chocolate Buttercream
1/2 C butter
1 stick shortening
3 C powdered sugar
2 t chocolate extract
32 oz melted chocolate chips (2 small bags)
1/4 C milk

Make and bake the cupcakes according to instructions. The size of football that I made used 23 cupcakes. Yay! That means there's an extra one for "quality assurance" testing. While the cupcakes are cooling, mix up the best ever, new and improved chocolate buttercream by creaming together the butter and shortening. Slowly add the powdered sugar. At this point, take out about 1 cup of frosting and put it to the side. You'll need this frosting white for the seams and decorations on the ball. In the larger bowl, pour in the slightly cooled (as in, not straight from the stove top) melted chocolate chips. Mix in the chocolate extract. Start with 1/4 C of milk and add until you reach the desired consistency. Also add milk to the reserved frosting that you put to the side until you reach your desired consistency.

To decorate, arrange the unfrosted cupcakes in the general shape of a football first. This is the time to play and move them around until you're happy with the shape. Once you've achieved this, take a knife or spreader and smoosh a little frosting on the bottom of each cupcake to "glue" it into place. This way the cupcakes won't move around which is great if you're going to need to transport it. Now that the cupcakes aren't going anywhere, pipe a healthy (or unhealthy, if you prefer) amount of the chocolate frosting on top of each cupcake using a large circle tip. The more frosting, the better because it's easier to take away from what's there than to evenly add more on. Once all the cupcakes are piped on, use a knife or spreader, or an offset spatula if you have one, to smooth and level out the frosting. Fill another piping bag (or zip-top baggie) with the reserved white frosting. Pipe a thick band across each end of the football as well as a seam across the middle. Add in any well wishes or wording you would like around the seams.

Voila! A football that everyone would rather eat than throw!

Go Pack Go!

I know, I know, the Packers weren't in the Super Bowl this year. That's why the treats I made for Super Bowl Sunday were distinctly generic. But, with a few easy tweaks these goodies could easily showcase your love for your favorite team for the big game!

Chocolate Covered Strawberry Footballs

You will need:
1 bag chocolate candy wafer melts
1 bag white chocolate candy wafer melts
A bunch of strawberries (I used one small box)

First melt the chocolate wafers over a double boiler or in the microwave. Using regular chocolate chips here isn't preferred, they don't set up as quickly or as nicely as the candy melts. I tend to prefer the double boiler melting method, mostly because I don't have to take it out of the microwave and stir every thirty seconds. While the chocolate is melting give the strawberries a quick rinse and look over and gently pat them dry.
Make sure you have a deep container for the chocolate. This makes dipping the strawberries much easier. Once you have smooth, melted chocolate, go ahead and start dipping. While you're dipping, you can start melting the white chocolate candy wafers. In order to get a look that was nice and even on all sides I held the strawberries over the chocolate until the candy had hardened (only about 30 seconds). Once you have all of your strawberries coated in chocolate, go ahead and put the chocolate in a sealed container in the pantry, you're all done with it.
Once you're done with the chocolate, and your white chocolate is melted, spoon about 1 cup (or about 3/4 of a disposable pastry bag) of the melted white chocolate into a pastry bag. I chose to use a disposable pastry bag and just snipped the end off, no special tips needed! You can even use a re-sealable plastic baggie for this part if you don't have pastry bags. The white decorations were a little more tricky for me and definitely took a few tries to get it right. I found that if you hold the strawberry by the green leafy end and have the small pointed end pointed up towards you, it's much easier to simply move the bag around the tip instead of moving the berry. Again, hold the berry until the decorations have hardened, about 30 seconds. I went ahead and did all of the pointed end circles, then all of the seams, then all of the large end circle, but it's up to you if you want to decorate the whole berry at once.

Storage Tips:
Do not store these in the fridge!!! They will get water droplets on the outside of the chocolate, and will make the berries go mushy faster inside the chocolate. That being said, these are best to be prepared no more than 1-2 days in advance and kept on the counter...if you can keep from eating them for that long before the big game!

Love Is In the Air

Looking for a chocolatey dessert for Valentine's Day? Look no further! This week we are having a chocolate cupcake with chocolate chip and cream cheese filling, and chocolate buttercream. Because who doesn't want a chocolate overload on the most chocolate centered holiday of the year?

Cupcakes:
1 box chocolate cake mix

Chocolate chip cream cheese filled cupcakes!

Filling:
16 oz softened cream cheese (or Neufchatel cheese if you want to save the calories)
2 C powdered sugar
1 C mini chocolate chips

Frosting:
1/2 C butter
1/2 C shortening
6 C powdered sugar
16 oz melted chocolate chips
1 T chocolate extract

Once the cupcakes are cooled, use the handle end of a wooden spoon to make an indentation into each cupcake. (You don't want to go all the way to the cupcake liner, but have a big enough hole for a good amount of filling). Pipe the filling into the cupcakes using a large piping tip (so the chocolate chips don't get stuck), or gently spoon it in. Once the cupcakes are filled, frost the cupcakes. If you use a large star tip you can make a swirl pattern by starting at the outside and working up and in, or, you can make a rose by starting on the inside and working out to the edges (but not up).

There you go! A super easy, quick and delicious Valentine's dessert. Because we all know you'd rather not spend the whole night in the kitchen ;)

Smother Me....In Frosting!

Chocolate cupcakes w/vanilla & chocolate cream cheese frosting

 Ok, I have to admit, frosting is probably my favorite part of any cake. I request corner pieces just to get the extra sides of frosting. I have a problem, I know. But I'm glad to know that I'm not the only one with a frosting addiction, as my boss recently requested "tons of frosting" for her birthday cupcakes. Oh Fearless Leader, you have no idea how happy that made me since cream cheese frosting is my absolute favorite to make (lots of taste tests!). She requested chocolate cupcakes and cream cheese frosting, which is what we have for a blog subject this week!

For these cupcakes I just used a chocolate cake mix, but upped the flavor profile by adding 2 teaspoons of chocolate extract. Mmmmmm, liquid chocolate....But back to the recipe. Once you have made your 24 cupcakes, whip up some cream cheese frosting.

Cream Cheese Frosting:
8 oz softened cream cheese
1/2 C softened butter
2-3 C powdered sugar (2 C for soft frosting, 3 C for stiff frosting)
1/3 C milk
1 T vanilla extract

Cream the butter and cream cheese together and slowly add the powdered sugar. Add milk until you reach a desired consistency, then fold in the vanilla. Divide frosting in half, leave one as the vanilla cream cheese frosting. Add 1 T chocolate extract and 1/4 C sifted cocoa powder to the other half of the frosting to make the chocolate cream cheese frosting.

I mixed and matched the two flavors by putting a chocolate filling in the vanilla topped cupcakes and vanilla filling in the chocolate topped cupcakes. I used a large star tip for the vanilla frosting, and just a plain ol' butter knife for the chocolate frosting (with a 'healthy' dollop of vanilla on top of that).

Isn't my new stand so pretty?

*Tip* To make it easier on yourself to fill a pastry bag, simply grab a tall drinking glass, place the pastry bag tip end down into the glass, and fold the top sides of the bag over the edge of the glass. Now you don't need four hands to hold, scrape, scoop and clean off the counter!

Do you have a favorite helpful tidbit for frosting cakes and cupcakes?