Guest Post: Petit Fours

This was Terry's last week in Los Angeles, and what better way to see him off then with some tiny little cakes?  I have never been to the South so the petit four was quite a mystery to me, but in the end I am totally sold.  They are moist little sugar bombs that don't require sharing.  What could be better than that?  Besides Terry staying in Los Angeles, of course.

Sponge Cake
Adapted from Taste of Home (We doubled the recipe because we love cake that much)
Servings:  One 9x13 cake

It is quite the lovely, fluffy batter!

Time:  20 minutes prep, 40 minutes baking
1/2 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup vegetable shortening
2 cups granulated sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 teaspoon almond extract
2-2/3 cups all purpose flour
4 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1-1/3 cup whole milk
6 egg whites, room temperature

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F
2. Grease a 9x13 pan, line the pan with parchment paper, and then grease the parchment paper
3. Sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt in a large bowl and whisk to combine
4. Cream the butter, shortening, and sugar with the paddle attachment of a stand mixer - be sure to scrape down the sides of the bowl periodically
5. Beat the vanilla and almond extracts into the creamed butter/sugar mixture
6. Alternate adding the dry and wet mixture at low speed being careful not to overmix (1/3 dry -> 1/2 wet -> 1/3 dry -> 1/2 wet > 1/3 dry)
7. In a separate bowl, beat the egg whites until soft peaks form 
8. Very carefully fold the fluffy egg whites into cake batter - don't worry about getting all of the egg whites incorporated, it is better to leave streaks of egg white than to overwork and deflate the batter that you worked so hard to make
9. Gently pour the cake batter into the pan and bake for about 40 minutes (the original recipe is for a 9x9 pan, so doubling the batter but not doubling the pan size resulted in a thick cake that took forever to bake - when it comes to making the cake, I would start checking the cake around 30 minutes and then use your best judgement, aka toothpick, to decide when to take it out)
10. When the cake is done, let it cool in the pan on a cooling rack for about 20 minutes, then remove the cake from the pan and let it cool to completion - easier said than done, as seen below

These are some amazing soft peaks,
thanks to Courtney and her impressive muscles

Remember what I said about that parchment paper?  Well, Terry and I didn't think to use it and this is what happened.  Luckily we were able to carve out quite a few squares for the petite fours.  The cake is very moist and light and it almost has the texture (and stickiness) of angel food cake.  Everyone kept eating the leftover sponge cake while waiting for the petite fours to be finished.  But things were about to get even tastier...

Almond Glaze:
Time:  10 minutes

1 pound confectioner's sugar, sifted

1/3 cup plus 1 tablespoon water (or milk if you want a creamier glaze)

1-1/2 teaspoons almond extract

1. In a large bowl, combine all glaze ingredients - try not to think about the pound of sugar
2. Blend until smooth
3. When the cakes are cool, spoon the glaze over the cakes until the top and sides are all covered by delicious, sugary glaze (and if you really love sugar, you can go back for round 2 and give them a second dose of glaze)
4. Let the glaze harden and dry on the cakes, about 20 minutes

Orange Glaze:  (who doesn't like choices, especially ones that smell like creamsicles?)

Time:  10 minutes

1 pound confectioner's sugar, sifted - yes, we used 2 pounds of sugar for the glaze and we still weren't done!

1/3 cup plus 1 tablespoon water (or milk if you want a creamier glaze)

2 teaspoons orange extract

1. Do the same thing as for the almond extract, except get ready for some orange

Who needs energy drinks when you can just pop a few of
these sugar landen cuties?

Buttercream Frosting:
Time:  10 minutes

6 tablespoons butter, softened

2 tablespoons shortening

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

2-1/2 cups confectioner's sugar (now we are done with the sugar, I promise)

Gel food coloring - we went with pink and blue - is someone expecting a baby??

1. In the bowl of a stand mixer using the paddle attachment, mix the butter, shortening, and vanilla, scraping down the bowl as necessary
2. Carefully add the sugar (and enjoy the break from sifting you get for this round)
3. Split the frosting evenly among two cups (for two colors), add a few drops of food coloring, blend, and smile as you imagine turning everyone's teeth blue and pink
4. Put the cups of frosting back into the refrigerator until ready to use

Xiaoming helped decorate some of them, and this petit four
is loving topped with a goldfish - can you see it?

While each step of the process is straightforward, the whole thing takes about 2 hours from start to finished product (of course, both Terry and I lack basic decorating skills).  But the time is definitely worth it, especially if you have someone as awesome as Terry to bake these little cakes with.  Now it's time for me to stuff myself with the delicate cakes in an attempt to console myself over Terry's leaving.  I think it will work.

We bake together, we die together.  Bad Bakers For Life!

Cupcake Saturday Part Deux: Chocolate Caramel

Remember to remove the giant sugar decoration before trying to eat the cupcake in one bite.

For the second cupcake of our epic day of baking, Jenny and I decided to balance the fruit cupcake with some chocolate. We had previously made a devil's food cupcake topped with a ganache that was good, but a little too one note since it was just chocolate on top of chocolate. To fix this we made a cupcake that contained the gooey severe burn hazard caramel and a cream cheese and caramel frosting.

The following recipe yields 28-30 cupcakes.

Salted Caramel
From Bakingdom.com
Time: 10 minutes + cooling

1 cup sugar
1/4 cup water
1 tbsp corn syrup
1/2 cup cream
2 tbsp unsalted butter
1 1/2 tsp sea salt, crushed

Progression of the caramel. 

1. Stir the sugar, water and corn syrup together in a medium sized sauce pan (make sure there's plenty of extra room because scolding hot sugar is not something you want touching you).
2. Bring to a boil and swirl occasionally (do not stir).
3. When the mixture gets a hint of amber color remove from heat (see picture). It's very easy to burn the caramel. It will rapidly progress once it hits this color (even after you remove it from the stove).
4. Very carefully add the cream in a slow but steady stream and stir with a long wooden spoon. The mixture will steam and grow, so you might want to wear a cooking mitt on your hand that is adding the cream.
5. Stir in the butter and salt then let cool to room temperature. You should cover it with a paper towel, since anything that lands in it will get stuck.

The finished highly viscous treat also works great as a hair gel.

This is a great caramel recipe. The only change I would consider making is either adding a little more salt or use a coarse sea salt to really bring out that salty/sweet contrast that I love so much in desserts like Pizzeria Mozza's Butterscotch Budino.

Sugar Decorations
From Bakingdom.com
Time: 10 minutes + cooling

1 cup sugar
1/4 cup sater
1 tbsp corn syrup

We're quite artistic when it comes to randomly dripping hot sugar.

1. For the decorations, you just need to follow the same procedure as the caramel without adding any of the cream, butter or salt.
2. Quickly drizzle shapes onto a sheet of parchment paper and let them harden.
3. Remember to remove the drizzling tools from the mixture as they will become stuck.

Like I said, remember to remove the spoons from the sauce before it thickens...

Once you've made the caramel, making these sugar decorations is a snap. Plus, it's super fun. The Bakingdom site also recommends making spiral shapes by lining a rolling pin with parchment paper, but we weren't quite up to that decorating challenge. Try to use parchment paper that isn't too waxy. If it is, the caramel designs will roll and break apart.


Chocolate Cake
From Anne Thornton's Recipe
Time: 15 minutes prep + 25 minutes baking

2 sticks unsalted butter, softened
2 cups all-purpose flour

3/4 cup Dutch processed cocoa powder

1 1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp sea salt

1 1/4 cup packed light brown sugar

1/2 cup granulated sugar

4 eggs, room temperature

1/3 cup semisweet chocolate, melted and cooled

2 tsp vanilla extract

1 1/2 cups buttermilk, well-shaken

Mmm chocolatey

1. Preheat the oven to 350.
2. Sift the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt into a large bowl. Set aside.
3. Cream the butter and sugars together in a mixer on medium until light and fluffy.
4. Add your eggs one at a time until fully incorporated.
5. Mix in the melted chocolate and vanilla well.
6. Alternate adding the dry ingredients and buttermilk at low speed (1/3 dry -> 1/2 buttermilk -> 1/3 dry -> 1/2 buttermilk -> 1/3 dry). Scrape the sides down after each cycle and be careful not to over mix.
7. Scoop the batter into a lined cupcake pan. Fill each division 1/2 to 2/3 full to avoid muffin tops.
8. Bake for 24-26 minutes or until the toothpick test comes out clean. Make sure to rotate halfway through.
9. Let cool in the pan for 1 minute then remove to a wire rack.

Originally, we tried the cupcake recipe from Bakingdom, but we were not happy with the results. The cupcakes tasted fine, but they had a very strange, gooey consistency with caved in tops. The recipe calls for 2 cups of liquid and applesauce instead of eggs, so the combination of that probably led to our problems. Not to be deterred, we embarked on Anne Thornton's recipe that I previously used for whoopie pies. It was far too cakey for the whoopie pies, but perfect for our cupcakes. 

Caramel Cream Cheese Frosting

From Bakingdom.com

Time: 10 minutes

8 oz cream cheese, softened

1 stick unsalted butter, softened

1/2 tsp vanilla

5-6 cups powdered sugar

Salted caramel sauce (see above)

Sugar decorations (see above)

1. Cream the butter and cream cheese together in a mixer.
2. Add in the vanilla.
3. Mix in the powdered sugar 1 cup at a time. Stop when you reach the desired sweetness.
4. Glaze the cupcakes with the caramel sauce or add it as a filling in the middle.  You may have to microwave the caramel if it has hardened too much. Go for 15 seconds at a time at medium power.
5. Drizzle the inside of a piping bag with caramel then add the cream cheese frosting.  Pipe on the frosting.
6. Garnish with a sugar decoration.

Glazed wins out over filled because you get caramel in every bite.

The caramel swirls in the frosting added a great element of color and flavor. Even though both of our frostings today were cream cheese based, they actually provided some nice variety. The sugar decorations add a nice crunch, so you should also make some small dot shaped ones that are easier to eat.

At last a cupcake Rorschach test! I see a dancing lizard.

We preferred the glazed cupcakes over the filled ones, but the filled ones were like a super awesome Hostess cupcake. I'm starting to think that every cupcake should have some sort of delicious glaze or drizzle on top. Everything came together for one great cupcake that is definitely my favorite chocolate cupcake so far. 

It was a fantastic day of baking with Jenny that will hopefully be followed by many more. Now, I just need to finish convincing her to put up a baking blog, so my stomach can live vicariously through it.

Cupcake Saturday Part I: Bananas Foster

Yesterday was my second foray into the delicious and manly world of cupcakes with my friend Jenny. Jenny was a fellow chemistry grad student at UCLA and bakes about twice a week. She is one of the best teaching assistants out there, so she was a natural choice to teach me all about proper baking techniques and show me the error of my flour packing ways.  For our first cupcake, we decided to use the New Orleans favorite dessert Bananas Foster as inspiration.

Note: All parts of the recipe are adapted from Food.com. This makes 24 cupcakes.

Bananas Foster Mixture
Time: 5 minutes

3/4 cup unsalted butter
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon
2 ripe bananas, halved and chopped
3 tbsp bourbon
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1. Melt the butter over medium heat then stir in the brown sugar and cinnamon until dissolved. (Note some of the butter fat will rise to the top. This is normal.)
2. Add the bananas and cook until tender (about 1 minute per side).
3. Turn off the burner and add the bourbon and vanilla extract. From a safe distance (read: with a long match) light the mixture and stand far away. It should extinguish in a few seconds. If like mine your mixture won't catch on fire, then boil off some of the alcohol over medium heat for about 1-2 minutes.
4. Remove the bananas and set aside to cool. Store the sauce for use later as a glaze.

My failed attempt at lighting alcohol on fire. I'm a bad chemist. 

The only hard part about making the bananas foster mixture is keeping from eating it all, so you still have something to put in your cupcakes. Again, I substituted bourbon for the traditional rum.  This recipe also works great topped with ice cream (a la my Bourbon Peaches Foster) if you don't feel like going through all the trouble of making cupcakes.

Cupcakes

Time: 15 minutes prep + 20 baking

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

3/4 cup butter, softened

3 eggs, room temp

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 tsp bourbon

3/4 cup sour cream

Bananas Foster from above

1. Preheat the oven to 350.
2. Combine the dry ingredients (flour, baking soda and salt) in a bowl. Set aside.
3. Using a mixer, cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy
4. Add the eggs 1 at a time to the creamed butter until fully incorporated. Then add the vanilla, bourbon, and banana mixture. The bananas may still be quite large after mixing, so you can use a fork to mash them further if you like.
5. Now alternate adding the dry mixture and sour cream over low speed (1/3 dry -> 1/2 sour cream -> 1/3 dry mixture -> 1/2 sour cream -> 1/3 dry mixture). Scrape down the sides after each dry/wet cycle. Be careful not to over mix.
6. Using an ice cream scooper, fill a lined cupcake pan. Each cupcake should take up between 1/2 and 2/3 of the liner. Anything higher will give unsightly muffin tops.
7. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until the toothpick test comes out clean (note: this is a tricky toothpick tests because you might hit a moist banana). Be sure to rotate them after 10 minutes.
8. Let cool for an additional minute in the pan then remove to a wire rack.

The blog might be called My Mess Their Kitchen, but luckily this was her mess in her kitchen. Just wash it in the sink. It'll be as good as new...

The cake itself lies somewhere between a traditional cupcake and a muffin, which is pretty common for banana cupcakes. It was nicely moist and the occasional banana pieces were always fun to bite into. The only real change I might make is to put a little more banana into them next time to really emphasize the flavor.

Frosting

Time: 10 minutes

8 oz cream cheese, softened

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1/2 cup butter, softened

3/4 tsp vanilla

1/2 tsp bourbon

2-3 cups powdered sugar

Sauce from bananas foster (above)

Banana chips

1. Beat the cream cheese, butter, cinnamon, vanilla and bourbon together over medium speed until light and fluffy.
2. Add the powdered sugar half a cup at a time and mix well. Stop when you reach the desired tanginess/ sweetness combo.
3. Glaze the tops of the cupcakes with the bananas foster sauce.
4. Pipe the frosting on in the desired shape.
5. Garnish with a banana chip.

Since they have bananas in them, they surely make a healthy breakfast...

The frosting is absolutely incredible. We went with 2 1/3 cups powdered sugar because we didn't want the sugar to completely overpower the cream cheese, and it worked wonderfully. The real star, though was the decision to glaze the tops of the cupcakes with the leftover sauce. We found that we kept tasting the mouth-watering sauce while we were baking, so it only seemed right to not let it go to waste (really a philosophy that should apply to anything containing bourbon).

If you look closely, you can guess which ones Jenny frosted. Additional frosting help was provided by my former labmate Xiaoming.

Of the four batches of cupcakes Jenny and I have made, these were hands down everyone's favorite. You get three fantastic layers of flavor as you bite into it from the frosting to the glaze and the cake itself. The bananas foster really comes through in all parts of the cupcake.  While I did think that the banana chip was a cute and tasty garnish to the cupcakes, I would like to figure out a way to add a little color to give them more visual pop. Any suggestions?