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? 

Sloth Love Chunk: A Tale of Two Pizzas

Pizza night in our household is the most sacred of nights. It's a magical time where cheese and carbs come together to bring great happiness to all. Tonight's version was special because it was my first attempt at making every part of the pizza from scratch. Previously, I had been using a delicious cornmeal crust from Whole Foods. Then we took the time to actually read the nutrition facts, and, well, that has since been nixed. Our menu this evening included a twist on traditional pepperoni pizza and a version of the Kennair family favorite mushroom and olive pizza.

Pizza Dough
Bobby Flay's Flatbread Recipe
Servings: 2 pizzas
Time: 3 hours

1 1/8 tsp dry active yeast (half a packet)
1 cup warm water
2 1/2-3 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp fine sea salt
Olive oil

1. Dissolve the yeast in the warm water and let sit for 5 minutes.
2. Stir in the salt and 1 1/2 cups of flour. Once smooth, add another cup of flour. 
3. Add extra flour 1 tbsp at a time until the dough comes away from the bowl but remains sticky.
4. On a lightly floured surface, pull the dough apart then fold in on itself about 10 times until it becomes more manageable. Then knead for another 5 mintues.
5. Roll into a ball and coat with a small amount of olive oil. 
6. Put it in a bowl and cover with plastic wrap until it doubles in size (about 2 hours). You can test to see if it's ready by pushing down on it with your thumb. If the imprint stays, then it's good to go.
7. Split the ball into two, coat each with oil and let sit for half an hour.
8. Roll a ball on a well-floured surface until it is the desired size (typically about 1/2 inch thick).
9. Pinch edges then coat the inside with olive oil to prevent the toppings from making the dough soggy. Make small dents in the dough to prevent it from bubbling and add the toppings.

And then the dough undergoes mitosis...

I used this recipe previously to make flatbread and thought it would work perfectly for pizza dough. It's very tasty and easy to make, but the big flavors of the pizzas ended up rendering the dough into a bit player. Incorporating garlic butter or oregano, basil and sage into the dough might go a long way toward helping it stand out.

Pizza Sauce
Servings: 4 pizzas worth
Time: 30 minutes

6 oz can of tomato paste
1/2 cup water
Salt
Pepper
Garlic powder
Oregano
Basil leaves
Honey

1. Mix all the ingredients to your desired taste. Vary the amount of water depending on how thick you want the sauce to be. 
2. Let cook over low heat for half an hour.

"Pepperoni", Fennel & Gouda Pizza: Sloth

Hey you guys!

Veggie pepperoni

Fennel

Smoked gouda, shredded

Dough (see above)

Pizza Sauce (see above)

Butter

1. Preheat the oven to 425.
2. Sauté the fennel in butter until soft (about 2 minutes)
3. Top the prepared dough with the pizza sauce then add pepperoni, fennel and cheese.
4. Transfer to a cooking sheet coated with aluminum foil. Bake for 10-15 minutes until cheese is melted and crust is golden brown.

From the picture on the right, you can see why this is named Sloth. 

I was surprised at how well this pizza turned out. The veggie pepperoni is actually better than normal pepperoni because it's not as greasy. Also, the smoked gouda was the perfect cheese for the pizza and really melded well with the pepperoni. Unfortunately, the fennel was lost in the rest of the flavors, but it didn't really matter since the other two hit the spot. This pizza was heavily deformed when I tried to move it from the rolling surface to the baking sheet, but the thinness actually served to benefit the pizza. This was definitely the winner of the night.

Mushroom, Olive & Sun-dried Tomato Pizza: Chunk

Ladies love the truffle shuffle, and if there's one thing I know, it's truffles.

1 Portobello mushroom, sliced

Kalamata olives, sliced

Mozzarella cheese, shredded

Sun-dried tomatoes

Dough (see above)

Pizza Sauce (see above)

Butter

1. Preheat the oven to 425.
2. Sauté the mushroom in butter until soft and fragrant (about 3 minutes)
3. Top the dough with pizza sauce then add mushrooms, olives, sun-dried tomatoes and cheese
4. Transfer to a cooking sheet coated with aluminum foil. Bake 10-15 minutes until cheese is melted and crust is golden brown.

So it is possible for the pizza to maintain its shape.

Somehow all the strong flavored ingredients on this pizza came together magnificently with each bite highlighting a different aspect. Despite my best efforts to press the pizza and keep it from rising, it still formed a very thick crust that actually managed to be successful and differentiate it from the other pizza.

In the end, these two very different pizzas provided an excellent amount of variety to the meal. Then again, you can't really go wrong with pizza night. If only I could figure out how to make a Baby Ruth pizza...

                                                 Oddly enough, I had the exact same conversation with the pizzas.

Favorite Dishes: Ghostbuster Red Velvet Cookies

Who you gonna call? Paula Deen!?!

A few months ago, the Hollywood Forever Cemetery was showing Ghostbusters. Yes, that's right. A cemetery was playing Ghostbusters. I previously had a great time at their Night of the Living Dead screening (aside from my Catholic guilt telling me I was doing something wrong), and I wanted to make this night even more special for my friend who had somehow never seen this movie (what a horrible childhood). Naturally, cookies covered in Ghostbusters designs were in order.

Ghostbuster Red Velvet Cookies
From Paula Deen's Recipe
Servings: 8 large cookies or 16-20 normal ones
Time: 40 minutes (plus decorating)

Red Velvet Cookies

Seemingly boring cookies... but not for long!

1 1/3 cups all purpose flour
2 tbsp cocoa powder
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 cup butter, room temp
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
2 tbsp buttermilk
2 tsp apple cider vinegar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tbsp red food coloring


Cream Cheese Frosting
1 pound cream cheese, softened
2 sticks butter, softened
1 tsp vanilla extract
3-4 cups powdered sugar
Colored icing

Yes, marshmallows do taste better toasted, but that's just overkill.

1. Preheat the oven to 375.
2. Mix together the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a bowl. Set aside.
3. Cream the butter and sugar in a mixer until it's fluffy (about 3 minutes).
4. Add the eggs 1 at a time until well incorporated.
5. Beat in the buttermilk, vanilla, vinegar and food coloring. 
6. Slowly add the dry ingredients until thoroughly mixed.
7. Line a cooking sheet with parchment paper and drop the batter onto it using an ice cream scooper. Note this is going to spread a lot so give them room.
8. Bake for 10 minutes or until the toothpick test comes back clean. Let cool on the sheet for a couple of minutes then move to a wire rack.
9. Make the frosting by beating the cream cheese, butter and vanilla until smooth on low speed. Then slowly add in the powdered sugar. Once the powdered sugar is all in, ramp it up to high to make it extra fluffy.
10. Once the cookies are cool, spread on the frosting in the desired shapes then finish with various colored icing pens to add detail. 

My decorating skills are a work in progress... a delicious work in progress.

Here's a general rule when it comes to desserts: you can always trust Paula Deen (so long as you have a licensed cardiologist at the ready).  Her recipe makes wonderful, cakey red velvet, and the cream cheese frosting really hits its mark. I actually found these cookies tasted better when cold, so let them refrigerate for at least an hour before eating. If for some reason, you don't feel like frosting awesome Stay Puft marshmallow men, then I highly recommend you turn this into a cookie sandwich.

The night was more fun than you could ever expect to have at a cemetery, and the cookies were a hit. Between them and the s'mores we made, it was quite a tasty evening that even Walter Peck would approve of.

I'm gonna take a wild guess and say this is the first food blog to feature Mr. Peck.

Cantaloupe Sorbet

Sorbets are incredibly easy to make and are just as tasty as ice cream without any of the fat. I feel like cantaloupe is a pretty overlooked fruit, but this sorbet is bursting with flavor (perhaps due to the copious amount of sugar). Dentist's orders be damned! You have to try this now.


Cantaloupe Sorbet
Servings: 10
Time: 8 hours (mostly for freezing)

1 cantaloupe, peeled and seeded
1 1/6 cups granulated sugar
1 cup water

1. Mix the sugar with water over medium heat until it dissolves completely. Bring the mixture to a boil then set aside to cool
2. Put the supersaturated water in the freezer for an hour until cold.
3. Puree the cantaloupe in a blender until smooth.
4. Add the cantaloupe to the syrup and stir well. Let it freeze until almost firm (about 3 hours). Stir occasionally.
5. Fluff with an electric mixer then let it freeze until firm without stirring (at least 3 hours).

Cantaloupes: great for sorbets and throwing at things!

All I really have to say about this is that it tastes just like dreamsicle snowballs from back home, and that's all you could ever ask for in a dessert.  The basic recipe is fairly versatile and should work for any fruit mixture. Just adjust the amount of sugar depending on how sweet the fruit is.

Kale Chips

Sure they look 1000 times worse than potato chips, but they're every bit as good.

Tonight we needed a little something to go with our sandwiches. We had the ever useful kale in the fridge, so I decided to make some veggie chips for our side.

Kale Chips
Based on Allrecipes.com
Servings: 3
Time: 25 minutes

1 bunch of kale
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp salt
Red pepper flakes to taste

Cutting the kale. The stems can then be used for poking things.

1. Preheat oven to 350.
2. Remove the kale from the stems. Wash and dry very well. 
3. Break into 1-2 inch pieces.
4. Drizzle on olive oil, salt and red pepper flakes. Toss.
5. Place the chips on a cooking sheet lined with parchment paper and bake for 5 minutes. Turn the chips and bake for another five minutes or until the edges start to brown (but not burn).

These chips worked nicely with our sandwiches. They were charmingly toasted and not greasy. However, there was a problem with the salt. The salt tended to clump up on the edges of the kale leaves, so half of the chips were far too salty. In the future, I think this could be corrected by sprinkling on the salt once they're on the baking sheet instead of tossing it with the oil. The red pepper flakes were a great addition that really gave the chips life. Next time, I might add some sweetness to it with agave nectar or some sourness with lemon.

Summer Relish Gardein with a Strawberry, Pine Nut & Spinach Salad

Here's a great and wonderfully refreshing summertime recipe that involves almost no actual cooking. It's definitely one of the healthier yet tastier things I have posted on here. Don't let the relish name fool you; this is definitely light years above your average hot dog topping.

Summer Relish Gardein
Adapted from Gardein Recipes
Servings: 4
Time: 15 minutes

4 Gardein Chick'n Scallopini patties
12 oz grape tomatoes, quartered
1/4 cup red onion, chopped
1 tsp thyme 
1 1/2 tsp olive oil
1 tbsp capers
2 tsp sherry
1 tsp mustard (dijon or ground with garlic)
Salt and pepper to taste

1. Mix everything but the patties together in a bowl. Stir well
2. Cook the patties over medium heat until both sides are browned (about 4 minutes per side)
3. Top with the relish.

I had a few minor qualms with the relish. It was a little heavy on the thyme, which tasted fine but added a weird needle-like texture throughout. Also, this typically involves about 1 tbsp of mint, which would have brought another great dimension to it. 

Strawberry, Pine Nut & Spinach Salad

Time: 5 minutes

Baby spinach

Strawberries, sliced

1/2 cup pine nuts, toasted

Fig Balsamic

Gruyere, shredded

1. Combine ingredients.
2. Drizzle a small amount of the fig balsamic on the salad. Toss and serve.

This is far and away my favorite salad. It's incredibly light and refreshing. I love how the crispness of the lettuce and pine nuts interacts with the juicy strawberries. The savory fig balsamic is a great addition that helps keep it light while adding flavor. The fig balsamic also tastes great with the Gardein patties, so I highly recommend dipping them in any balsamic that's left on your plate. Overall, the salad works splendidly with the patties for a complete and healthy meal.