Happy Turkey Day!

Howdy! Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving! I know I did... my family's greatest strength is finding and preparing delicious food, so of course our Turkey Day dinner was delicious!

So by now, my family has caught on to me, and figured out that while I can make mashed potatoes or green bean casserole, my real forte is baking. Naturally, that meant a Thanksgiving day dessert!

I thought long and hard about this one, wavering between pie (which I've never done) and cake, which is my favorite. I finally decided to make a turkey cake, dinner style, to surprise the family.

For example:

found here.

But my mom decided that might be a little too weird, even for our family. So instead, I went for a LIVE turkey cake. Much more aesthetically appealing, no?

I started with a basic recipe for White Almond Sour Cream cake, and added my own changes.

2 boxes spice cake mix (the original obviously calls for white cake mix, but I thought spice would be more festive)
2 cups flour
2 cups sugar (I used Splenda granulated - no need to add any more calories than are already present!)
1 1/2 tsp salt
2 2/3 cups water
1/4 cup vegetable oil (I didn't have any, so I just melted some butter and used that instead.)
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 tsp almond extract
1 cup sour cream (the original calls for 2 cups, but I substituted a cup of pumpkin instead)
1 cup canned pumpkin

8 egg whites (you can use 6 whole eggs instead, since you don't have to worry about them coloring the white cake, but it's a few less calories to use only the whites)


Preheat the oven to 325. Grease your pans. (An important step I forgot, but luckily my mother is magic at getting cakes out of pans.)


Stir all the dry ingredients together with a whisk. (or a whisk attachment) Add in all the other ingredients, and mix on medium for about 2 minutes. Make sure to scrape down the sides and bottom, especially if you're using a stand mixer. Oh, and since there's so much batter, don't put the mixer on medium right away. Work up to it. Believe me.


I poured the batter into the two halves of my Wilton Ball pan, and also into a large bundt pan. Throw the pans in the oven, and wait FOREVER for them to finish cooking (There's no real bake time for these, but plan on about 40 minutes to an hour. Since the ball halves and the bundt cake are all so dense, it takes a little while to cook. Once they're done, let them cool.


When you're ready for decorating, use a knife to level off the tops of the two ball halves, so they'll sit evenly when placed on top of each other. Also level off the bottom of one of the halves, so it has a base to sit on.


Smear a little chocolate icing on the leveled bottom and attach to the cake board or plate. Smear more chocolate icing on the top of the ball, and attach the top half. ***I iced the bottom half a bit before putting it on the board, because it is nearly impossible to do once the cake has been attached. Ice the whole ball in chocolate icing.


Measure the bundt cake so you can cut off about a quarter while still giving the turkey a tail that shows above his head. Smear more chocolate icing on the bottom of the tail to attach it to the plate. From the leftover bundt cake, trim a head and neck shape, and attach to the body. I used dowels to help give it more support, since it had very little cake to sit on.



Once all the pieces have been attached, the decorating is easy. I created different colors out of vanilla icing and food coloring. Then I just painted them in alternating stripes for his tail.

Then I covered his head in chocolate icing, and used a little blue icing tube to pipe on eyes. His beak is a jelly orange slice cut in half, and his waddle is some red cookie icing.

Tada!

You Don't Have to be 18 to Vote!

.... at least, not on the Iron Cupcake:Earth Apple Challenge!!

Get out there and vote vote vote! This month I made Apple Pie Cupcakes, and I'm hoping for a win! Voting is open until December 4th, so you have plenty of time to vote for your favorite cupcakes!

Go here: No One Puts Cupcake In a Corner

Please and Thank you!

Iron Cupcake: Earth - Apple!

So, it's already that time again! Time for my Iron Cupcake: Earth submission... I can't believe November's already almost over! Really, where does the time go??

Anyway, I don't quite want to let go of Fall yet, (I have a thing about winter. If it's gonna be that cold, the least it can do is snow.) so I was excited to see that this month's ingredient was apples!

But, in keeping with the "not letting go of the seasons" theme, I decided to make a cupcake based on a dessert that is usually served in July....

APPLE PIE!

So, here is my adaptation of an apple pie cupcake.

Recipe adapted from the New Best Recipe Cookbook

1 1/2 c. flour
1 c. sugar
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
8 tablespoons butter, softened
1/2 c. sour cream
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
2/3 c. unsweetened applesauce (this was my addition because A, I didn't have any eggs. whoops. and B, I wanted to add some more apple flavor to the cupcakes!)
1 3/4 tsp. cinnamon (also my addition, to give it more of an "apple pie" taste)

Preheat your oven to 350. If it's like ours, you might have to preheat it before you even pull the ingredients out of the cabinets, because it takes forever to preheat. While it's heating, whisk together (or throw in your stand mixer) flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt until well blended. Add in the butter (I cut it into chunks as I tossed it in to help it stir in better), sour cream, vanilla, and apple sauce, and mix well, pausing to scrape down the sides every once in a while. Then throw in the cinnamon and mix a few seconds more until it's evenly distributed. Spoon batter into 12 cup baking pan lined with cupcake cups, and pop into the oven for about 20-22 minutes.

When the cupcakes are done, they won't have a rounded top, because the eggs usually provide that estra bit of fluff that the applesauce obviousl doesn't. But that's okay, just remember to tip them out of the pan almost immediately, so you don't end up with sticky and torn edges, like I did.

It was okay though, they still tasted delicious, and were super moist!

Now you can do one of two things. You can let them sit, which is what I did (I baked them the night before a dinner) or you can continue making them while they're still warm, which I think would probably be delicious.

Heat up some yummy pre-made apple pie filling (I used a sugarless one that was still amazingly delicious). You may need to cut the larger chunks up into smaller pieces. I just kind of chopped haphazardly around the bowl to make them a bit easier to work with.

Then, spoon the filling over each cupcake,

And add the pie crust top! (I bought premade, rolled pie crust at the super market. I used a heart-shaped cookie cutter to cut out the crusts, and then baked them for about 10 minutes at 450.)

A little ice cream or whipped cream, and you're set!

And, as always,

Don't forget to vote for my cupcake on Iron Cupcake:Earth starting November 27, on No One Puts Cupcake In the Corner!

I am competing for these prizes:
The Demy by Key Ingredient
"Hello, Cupcake" by Maren Tack and Alan Richardson
Bella Cupcake Couture
Cupcake Stackers by Gourmac
"The CAke Mix Doctor Returns!" by Anne Byrne
Beautiful Baking Liners by Vestli House
Sweet Cuppin' Cakes Bakery & Cupcakey Supply

Bon Apetit!

My Very First Daring Bakers Challenge!

...and what a challenge it was!

The November 2009 Daring Bakers Challenge was chosen and hosted by Lisa Michele of Parsley, Sage, Desserts and Line Drives. She chose the Italian Pastry, Cannolo (Cannoli is plural), using the cookbooks Lidia’s Italian-American Kitchen by Lidia Matticchio Bastianich and The Sopranos Family Cookbook by Allen Rucker; recipes by Michelle Scicolone, as ingredient/direction guides. She added her own modifications/changes, so the recipe is not 100% verbatim from either book.
First of all, when did it get to be November?? Holy Mackerel!Anyway, cannoli. Apparently "cannoli" is the plural of the word "cannolo." So all these years I've been saying "cannolis" and been totally wrong. What else is new?

Anyway, these were very interesting to make, for a number of reasons. First, I didn't exactly have all the supplies I needed. We don't have a deep fryer at my house, so I was using a normal pot. Then, we only have a meat thermometer, not an oil/candy one (hint hint, Christmas!) so once the temperature got above 200, I was kind of guesstimating. Third, I don't have cannoli forms, so I was REALLY behind the proverbial 8-ball.

Nonetheless, here are how my cannoli turned out.

*Note: I am an idiot, and totally forgot to take pictures of the filled cannoli. Duh. so, no "finished product" photos this month.... sorry.*
These were chocolate cannoli disks which would be topped with mint filling. A little too minty for me, but everyone else seemed to enjoy them. The chocolate flavor was good though!

These were regular cannoli shells in the shape of little bowls (I used a mini muffin pan turned upside down and baked them instead of frying) which were filled with pumpkin filling. I thought the pumpkin filling was super delicious, and probably could've eaten them all day!

Here is my single photo of cannoli filling. Pumpkin filling with chocolate chips. Delicious!

Bon apetit!

Voting Has Begun!!

The voting for this month's Iron Cupcake:Earth challenge has begun!! Go vote for me and my "Banana Split for My Baby" cupcake, and take a look at the other baker's submissions as well! Voting continues until November 5th!!

http://www.ironcupcakemilwaukee.com/

Get out there and vote!!

Iron Cupcake: Earth - Music Edition!

Well, all kinds of excitement this month. I joined the Iron Cupcake:Earth challenge, and of course this month the theme was "music." Normally it's something like "savory" or "cheese" but this month, since it is the beginning of IC:E's 2nd year, they decided to try to get Ellen Degeneres to invite us to her show!

So the challenge was to create a cupcake based on a song title. Way more difficult than it sounds, I promise. So I thought for days, and consulted my brain trust. Luckily, my dad, Mr. Mike, loves strange challenges and sent me a website of songs with food in them. On that list was a song that my sisters and I used to love dancing around the kitchen to, and was just the perfect song for this challenge. Maybe you've heard it?

So, a banana split for my baby. Shouldn't be too hard, right? Well, it wasn't terrible, but it definitely took some creativity on my part. Which, really, is what this challenge is all about, right? So, I made a "neapolitan" cupcake, with a vanilla chocolate strawberry batter, topped with all the typical toppings of a banana split - pineapple, strawberry, chocolate syrup, nuts, and a cherry! And to hold it all together, banana cream frosting! So, here are my banana split cupcakes!

Banana Split Cupcakes

(cupcake recipe adapted from "The New Best Recipe" Cookbook)

Their recipe makes 12 cupcakes, so I doubled it for 24. These are the doubled measurements.

3 cups flour

2 cups sugar

3 tsps baking powder

1 tsp salt

2 sticks butter, softened (I stuck mine in the microwave for a few seconds)

1 cup sour cream

2 eggs

4 egg yolks (in addition to the 2 whole eggs)

These are my additions:

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 tsps strawberry extract (can be found at Wegman's, Whole Foods, and some Walmarts)

1 cup semisweet chocolate chips, melted

5-6 drops red food coloring

First, preheat your oven to 350. Place your baking cups into the baking pans and set them aside. I got these super cute ones from Wegman's - how cute??

Whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. Beat in the butter, sour cream, eggs, and yolks. Then, separate batter equally into three bowls. Into the first bowl, mix in 1 teaspoon vanilla extract. Into the second bowl, mix in the strawberry extract and red food coloring. The extract amount wasn't entirely exact, so just go with your nose - I added strawberry until the batter smelled like strawberries. Then, add red food coloring, a couple drops at a time, until the batter is nice and pink. For the third bowl, melt about a cup of semisweet chocolate chips, and stir them in. I started with about a 1/2 cup of chips, but they didn't really make the batter look chocolatey enough, so I added some more.

Once everyone is mixed up, begin spooning the batter i

nto the cupcake liners. I used a small dinner spoon to measure my batter. I layered the batter:

strawberry

chocolate

vanilla

Once all the batter is in the cupcake pans, place the cuppies in the oven for about 20-24 minutes. Mine took about 25 minutes to cook and brown on the top a bit. When they're done, take them out of the oven, and let them cool.

Banana Cream Frosting

(found on eHow)

I also doubled this recipe for the frosting.

1 cup of butter

2 medium banana

6 cups confectioner's (powdered) sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

Beat the butter until smooth. (I softened mine a bit before throwing it in the mixer) Slice the banana and add to butter, beating again until smooth. Add confectioner's sugar, one cup at a time, until blended. Add vanilla extract and mix until blended. (I had to chill mine after this step in order to get it to the right firmness, but I think I might just have worked with the butter for a little too long.)

To assemble:

Put a smear of pineapple topping on the cupcake, followed by a smear of strawberry topping. Follow with a healthy dollop of banana cream frosting. To finish, add chopped walnuts, chocolate syrup, and, of course, a cherry! Bon Apetit!

Don't forget to vote for Iron Cupcake:Earth starting October 30, on No One Puts Cupcake In the Corner!

I am competing for these prizes:

The Demy by Key Ingredient

"Hello, Cupcake" by Maren Tack and Alan Richardson

Bella Cupcake Couture

Cupcake Stackers by Gourmac

"The CAke Mix Doctor Returns!" by Anne Byrne

Beautiful Baking Liners by Vestli House

Sweet Cuppin' Cakes Bakery & Cupcakey Supply

Whoo Hoo!

twelve layers!!

Fun Fact: 12 is only 1 more than the number of runs the Phils scored last night against the Dodgers. Oh, and 12 more than the Dodgers scored. Just sayin'.

But, even better, 12 is the number of layers in this delicious cake I made! I originally got the idea from Bakerella, but wasn't sure if I wanted to make a Southern 12-layer cake, or a traditional German baumkuchen. In the end, I decided to make the 12 layer cake, mostly because I didn't have a spit to bake my cake on. :/

So here, it is, the delicious, deceptive 12-layer cake!

(Semi-Healthy) Twelve Layer Cake

(adapted from here.)

3 1/2 cups whole wheat flour

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 1/2 tsps baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

1 1/2 cups butter

2 1/2 cups Splenda/sugar mix (if you're just using sugar, it's the same measurement)

6 large eggs

3 cups milk

1 1/2 tsps vanilla extract

icing/glaze

1 1/2 cups Splenda (if using the mix or sugar, use 3 cups.)

1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1 cup butter, cut up

1 can evaporated milk (what in the world is evaporated milk? I always expected it to be powdered. ya know, evaporated. but it's a liquid. what gives?)

1 tbsp vanilla extract

So, there are a few different ways you can go about baking this awesome cake. Bakerella calls for an individual disposable pan for each layer. This recipe calls for 4 identical cake pans cooked in 3 batches, which is what I used. Luckily, Grandmom Lulu came to the rescue yet again, and I was able to use the 2 9 inch cake pans from her with my mom's 2 round cake pans.

But first things first. If you're like me, your oven takes FOOORRRRRREEEVVVEEERRRRRRRR to heat up. If that's the case, turn it on before you even get your ingredients assembled. That way it'll finally be ready to go by the time you're ready to start baking. For this cake, heat it up to 375.

To start, sift your flour into a bowl with the other dry ingredients (except the sugar) and get them all mixed up and confused. Set them aside. Then beat together the butter and the Splenda/sugar mix. The recipe says to mix them "until light in color and texture." I'm not really sure what that means, so I mixed it until it looked like it was pretty well mixed.

Then add the eggs one at a time. If you're lucky like me, and your mom lets you use her stand mixer (or if you're really lucky and have your own - jealous) then you can just leave the mixer running and just crack them in while it's going. Next up, add in the flour and milk in alternating groups, going flour milk flour milk flour. Lastly, add in the vanilla.

When it's all mixed into a nice little batter, it's time to spoon it into the pans. I just used some Baker's Joy and skipped the whole parchment paper/flour deal and they still worked out. The recipe says to put a "scant" cup into each pan, but I accidentally grabbed the 1/2 cup, so I just heaped that and it worked out just the same. Smear the batter around the pan so it sits in an even thin layer, and throw all 4 in the oven at the same time. Bake for about 12-15 minutes, until the cake comes loose from the sides. Cool in the pan, then flip them out onto a rack.

Once you put the final batch in the oven, start making the glaze. Put the sugar, cocoa, butter, and evaporated milk in a saucepan and bring to a boil. Lower the heat and cook until the sauce thickens. It's supposed to thicken until it's the consistency of chocolate syrup, but mine never did. Add the vanilla, stir it up, and set aside to cool and thicken a little more.

When it's go time, just start stacking. Place a layer on a cake board, and pour just enough glaze to cover it. Throw the second layer on the first and glaze that one. Rinse and repeat until all 12 layers are on board.

Pour the rest of the glaze over the top of the cake and make sure all the sides are covered in chocolate deliciousness.

Now this is where the original recipe ends. However, I stole one more step from little miss Bakerella and used some canned (gasp!) dark chocolate fudge frosting to cover the outside of the cake and hide the layers.

Bon Apetit!

Next Up: My Submission for Iron Cupcake: Earth! Stay Tuned!

Currently Watching:

well, hallo, cupcake!

So first, let me gush about how much I am loving this background!! Cupcakes are quickly becoming my favorite thing to make. Think about it. You've got a perfectly proportioned piece of cake, with the perfect amount of icing, and no messy cutting involved! ANNNND, it comes in its own handy-dandy wrapper! Hellooooooooo, cupcake!!

But this post isn't about cupcakes. Well, a little, but it's mainly about cake.

I don't know about you, but every year I get so excited about Fall. I like that the weather gets a little cooler, reminding me that Winter is on its way, and of course the leaves changing color are awesome, but mostly, I like

pumpkin.

Yup, pumpkin. Pies, especially. And bread. Pumpkin bread is deeeeelish. What could be better than both of them put together???

A pumpkin spice cake that looks like a pumpkin. I mean, duh.

(Doesn't L's table look super cute??)

So BLT had a Oktoberfest/Halloween party this past weekend, and I (por su puesto) offered to make dessert! I had this perfect little ditty in mind and couldn't wait to make it.

First, I got out my new favorite baking cookbook, Cake Mix Creations by Taste of Home. Now, most of you probably won't ever buy a baking cookbook (most normal people don't) but if you ever do, BUY THIS ONE. It's the perfect kind of book for a lazy baker. You want your cake to taste amazing, but don't feel like spending 3 hours prepping, mixing, and baking? Shockingly,
neither do I! I'd rather spend my time on more important things, like decorating! And eating!

So, here it is, my (slightly modified) version of the Pumpkin Spice Cake.

PUMPKIN SPICE CAKE

2 18 1/4 oz boxes of spice cake mix (I used Betty Crocker, but only because she was on sale. I'm not picky.)

6 eggs

1 15 oz can of solid-pack pumpkin (I think that means use real pumpkin, not pre-made pie filling.)

2/3 cup canola oil

2/3 cup evaporated milk (They didn't specify a fat content, so I used low fat. Turned out FINE.)

1 12 oz bag of vanilla chips (I used chocolate, because they taste better. Simple.)

2 cans vanilla icing (I used buttercream, again, because I think it tastes better. Also, Betty, but also because it was on sale.)

1 cup flaked coconut

food coloring

In a large bowl (AKA the bigger bowl on my mom's awesome stand mixer) I mixed the 2 cake mixes, the pumpkin, the milk, the eggs, and the oil, in no particular order. I beat them for about

30 seconds on low, then bumped it up to medium for around 2 minutes. (J asked what would happen if I threw it up to 10. I told him I'll show him in his kitchen sometime - where he can deal with the mess.) Then I mixed in the chocolate chips (a few mysteriously disappeared...) on low.
Next up, baking. First, two very greasy muffin cups each got some cakey love. Then, this lovely heirloom from Grandmom Lulu

got greased up and loaded with some batter. (I could only bake one half of the cake at a time, because I didn't have a matching bundt. It took FOREVERRRRRR)

Pop 'em all in the oven at 350 for around 20 minutes for the cuppies, and 40-45 for the bundt.

Then have a dance break.

When the baking is finished, take everyone back out and let them cool. I let them cool overnight because I am incredibly impatient and knew that I would try to start icing while one or all were still warm. So I restrained myself. (Barely)

The next morning, I leveled off my cakes (which is much harder than it sounds) and smeared some buttercream on the top of one. I plopped the other bundt on top, and make sure they were sturdily held together. They were. Phew. Then, came the coloring!

On the box of the food coloring, the mixture for orange is supposed to be 12 drops of yellow to 4 drops of red. For one can of frosting. I used about 1 and 2/3, and still had to use 42 drops of yellow and 14 drops of red. So, as long as you keep the right ratio, you'll get there eventually. Once it was nice and orangey, I began icing. Toooootally harder than I originally thought, mainly because the bundt I used has many little ridges, and I had to make sure the icing got in all the
little crevices. When I was done though, it looked GOOOOOOOD. Then, I leveled off my cuppies, and plopped one of them right-side-up into the middle of the bundt, to act as a plug. I threw a little icing on there, and smooshed the other one upside-down on top of it. Perfect!

Next up: The Secret!

I love Betty Crocker. She invented this awesome little doohickey

which makes it impossibly easy to do icing. I just pumped a little of the icing out of the hair-mousse-like can, and smeared it all over the top cuppie for the stem. Then, I used the round tip to just make squiggly vines all around the pumpkin, growing from both the stem and the base. And then came my favorite part.
This thing has 4 different tips to use, one of which happens to be the leaf tips. Leaves are super easy and super fun to make. I'm pretty sure I had at least 3 times as many leaves on the vines as was necessary, but I couldn't help myself! Look how cute they were!

(I hate that you can see a little of the white icing peeking out the top, but hopefully you will be distracted by the adorable leaves....)

Last step was to dye a little coconut green and sprinkle around the base as grass!

Bon Ape Tit!

(As Sean Connery would say...)

Next post:
12 Layer Cake!

Giving In

So, for months, I've wondered what in the world to do with this blog. Leave it out here in the blogosphere and hope for inspiration? Shut it down? Or, sit down and decide what in the world it should be about?

Luckily, I chose option 3. Phew.

After much hemming and hawing (what a great expression!) I gave in to what everyone has been telling me and decided to start chronicling what I do best: food. Mainly, baking. (and other desserts.)

So today, I joined the Daring Bakers! It's a group of men and women who love to bake. Each month one (or two or three) of the members chooses a recipe, and sends it out to all their fellow bakers. Then, each Daring Baker works on the recipe, and all 3000 post the recipe on their blogs on the very same day. It's very secretive, and they don't tell anyone what the recipe is until the day of the big reveal.

Well, I like secrets. And adventures. And baking. So secretive adventurous baking sounds like it's right up my alley, no?

Also, there are plenty of holiday parties coming up soon (How is it October already??) so there will be plenty of other baked goodies to come as well.

Get excited!!