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!