Tartcuppins - An Experiment Making Mini Piecakens

Oh internet, you show us the most amazing things...

If you're addicted to any social media site, you've probably at one point or another come across what is known as a Piecaken.

No? Well, check it out

Yes, it's a pie baked into a cake. iced with cream cheese frosting.

Delicious or horrifying? You decide

My friend Dave had his birthday party over the weekend and decided that the theme of the party would be dessert. I had mentioned the piecaken to him before and he asked me if I would mind making one for him for the party. After agreeing, we decided that the pie should be cherry and the cake should be chocolate.

Closer to the day, I started to wonder how much of the picaken would get eaten at a dessert party. Knowing that there would most likely be some left over and he would be taking it to work, I thought maybe a less messy and more portable version would be better. I decided to make Tartcuppins instead. Basically tarts in cupcakes.

Now there isn't really a recipe to piecaken/tartcuppins. Everything I found looked like this:

PIECAKEN - By The Shaky Baker

• Two 9″ round cake pans that are 3 inches deep
• 2 cake box mixes and the ingredients the box calls for (your choice of flavors)
• 2 pre-cooked 6-inch pies (your choice of flavors)
• Buttercream icing (double batch or 2 tubs of store bought)

Take one box cake and make the batter according to instructions.  Pour half the batter in a 9” round cake pan. On top of that, put the first pie. Pour the rest of the cake batter on top of that and bake it according to the box instructions.

Take the next box cake mix and make the batter according to instructions on the back of the box. Pour half the batter in a 9” cake pan. On top of that, put your second pie. Pour the rest of the cake batter on top of that and bake it according to the box instructions.

Once both cakes are done, wait until they cool and then assemble and decorate cake as normal.

I decided to try to do it more from scratch. Although I did take a few shortcuts.
I bought tart shells and cherry pie filling. I know, I know. I would usually make this kind of thing from scratch, but I've never really made pie before and with the cupcakes as well, this didn't really seem like the best time to start.

Now, pre-made tart shells come in those tiny aluminum plates, which wouldn't work too well inside of cupcakes. I had to peel each one off.

Well, actually, I had to bake them first for about 10 mins so that I could actually take them out without breaking them.

my first attempt at removing the foil

I filled them with cherry pie filling and set aside. I used Selections brand (Metro's no-name) and it turned out to be fantastic! I was really impressed.

I used the cupcake recipe from The Devil Made Me Do It And I Liked It. It's still one of the best chocolate cake recipes that I've ever found.

I placed the liners in the cupcake tin and filled them just slightly with cake batter

I then placed the tarts on top of it and pressed them down just slightly

Once placed, I covered them with more of the cupcake batter, making sure to get it down and around the sides of the tarts

And put them in the oven to bake.

Now, with tarts in your cupcakes, it's really hard to get the tops to bake. The heat just didn't rise through the tart as well as I hoped. I had to add on 15 extra minutes and then broil the tops to make them bake properly. I actually ended up burning the tops a bit with the broiler, but just shaved that part off.

For the icing, I made a cherry chocolate buttercream recipe from Kitchen Goddess

3 cups icing sugar
1/3 cup butter, or stick of margarine (softened)
2 teaspoons vanilla
3 ounces baking chocolate, melted. So this is about 3 individually wrapped squares!
3 tablespoons milk to make the end product more spreadable.
Maraschino cherries (juice) (or in my case, pie filling)

I ended up up using a lot more pie filling to give it a really nice cherry flavor.

Finally, I got to cut one open and take a look to see how it worked.

The tart sunk a bit while baking, but it didn't matter, they tasted fantastic! I was actually really impressed.

Also, for the party, Adam made an Oreo Fluff Cake!

(And I managed to get his recipe and a few pictures while he made it)

1 package of Oreos
1/2 cup of butter
1 (113ml) box of chocolate pudding
1 1L tub of Cool Whip
1 cup of cream cheese
1 cup icing sugar

1. Crush oreos with a food processor or in a bag with a rolling pin. Set aside 1/2 cup to sprinkle on top when finished.
2. Pour remaining crumbs into a 13x9 cake pan.
3. Melt butter and pour over crumbs in cake pan.
4. Stir butter and crumbs together and spread to evenly coat the bottom of the pan.
5. Prepare chocolate pudding according to its provided recipe.

6. In a mixing bowl, blend the cream cheese until smooth.
7. Add the powdered sugar to the cream cheese. Mix well.
8. Add 1 cup of Cool Whip to the cream cheese. Mix well.
9. Pour the cream cheese mixture evenly over the oreo cookie crust. Smooth with a spatula.

10. Pour the chocolate pudding evenly over the cream cheese mixture. Smooth with a spatula.
11. Add a layer of Cool Whip on top of the pudding, smoothing as necessary.
12. Sprinkle the Cool Whip with the cookie crumble set aside in Step 1.

13. Garnish with whatever! I used caramel! 

(yes he did! And it was totally awesome)

The party was great and the desserts went over extremely well. I'm pretty sure Dave is in a sugar coma now, but probably doesn't care.

I will totally try this recipe again and I hope that you give it a shot too. It's worth it.

As always, if you do try this out, let me know how it goes and what you did to make it better/your own.

Geek Cookie Stamps

Ever feel like your cookies aren't geek enough? Don't have time, energy or skill to painstakingly ice them into geek things? If you answered yes (which I totally have recently) then these cookie stamps are for you!

Totalum cookie stamps are awesome! Easy to use and lots if geek variety.

Star Wars

Harry Potter

Pacman

Batman

Star Trek

Avengers

Game Of Thrones

even Hunger Games!!

I can't decided which ones I like best, I guess I'll have to buy them all! Which ones do you like? What designs would you prefer to see? Drop me a line and let me know

Geeky Kitchen

I've been looking around lately for geeky stuff for my kitchen. Since I will soon have a different kitchen in which I can decorate as I please, I was thinking about giving it a geek motif.  But to do that, there are some things that I would need.

Star Wars Plates

How amazing are these! I would totally serve food on these. They're dishwasher safe as well!

Hulk Vs. Wolverine salt and pepper shakers

I'm not sure why they picked these 2, but I think it's pretty awesome. My only problem would be deciding who's the salt and who's the pepper. I'd probably put salt in the Hulk, since he looks like he holds more and I don't use a lot of pepper.

Star Trek salt and pepper shakers

I love how these fir together. Although it might look funny with my Star Wars plates.

Twilight bake ware

I would prefer it to say Baking Dawn ;)

Pi Plate

Every geek needs a Pi Plate

Wonder Woman Mixer

sadly these are only available in Brazil :(

And last but not least

Star Wars Ice Cube Trays

I would totally make chocolate in them too!

So, what kind of geeky things do you have in your kitchen?

Thanks to That's Nerdalicious! and Stellar Four for wanting to help make my kitchen awesome

Cherry Almond Vanilla Cupcakes: An Easter Treat

Easter came and went fast, didn't it? Ron and I had a whirlwind weekend, from going to the ROM to see the Mayan Exhibition, to visiting his family, then off to see mine. By the time we got back we were both exhausted. 

On Thursday, before all the traveling started, I remembered at about 9:30pm that I had been planning on making cupcakes to take with us. Knowing that Ron's family was going to be there bright and early, I did the only thing I could think of; I ran to the grocery store before it closed and stayed up late making cupcakes, Cherry Almond Vanilla cupcakes to be exact.

I had picked up a cupcake magazine awhile back and thought that I would make something fun. 

1/2 cup butter

4 egg whites

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp baking soda

3/4 cup buttermilk or sour milk

1/3 cup maraschino cherry juice

1 1/2 cups sugar

1 tsp vanilla

1/2 tsp almond extract

12 maraschino cherries, halved

24 maraschino cherries with stems (optional)

 Allow butter and egg whites to stand at room temperature for 30 minutes. Meanwhile, line twenty-four 2-1/2-inch muffin cups with paper bake cups (or coat with cooking spray). In a medium bowl stir together flour, baking powder, salt, and baking soda.

 In a 2-cup glass measuring cup combine buttermilk and cherry juice; set aside.

Cut cherries in half

(try and tie a cherry stem into a knot with your tongue. Congratulate yourself; cuz you still got it!)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. In a large mixing bowl beat butter with an electric mixer on medium to high speed for 30 seconds. Add sugar, vanilla, and almond extract; beat until combined.

Add egg whites, one at a time, beating well after each addition.

 Alternately add flour mixture and buttermilk mixture to beaten mixture, beating on low speed after each addition just until combined. 

 Spoon batter into prepared muffin cups, filling each about two-thirds full. Use the back of a spoon to smooth out batter in cups. Press a cherry half into batter in each cup.

Bake for 15 to 18 minutes or until tops spring back when lightly touched. Cool cupcakes in muffin cups on wire racks for 5 minutes. Remove cupcakes from muffin cups. Cool completely on wire racks.

They even look amazing without icing!

Cherry Almond Vanilla Icing

1/2 cup butter

4 cups powdered sugar

3 tbsp maraschino cherry juice or milk

1/2 tsp almond extract

In a large mixing bowl beat butter with an electric mixer on medium speed until smooth. Gradually add 1 cup of the powdered sugar, beating well. Beat in maraschino cherry juice and almond extract. Gradually beat in additional powdered sugar. If necessary, beat in additional juice or milk, 1 teaspoon at a time, until frosting reaches a spreading consistency. Makes 2 cups frosting.

I actually ran our of icing sugar and since it was a holiday, the grocery store was closed. My icing was a bit liquidy, but I added some more butter to it to make it thicker and it worked quite well

The cupcakes were fantastic and didn't last very long at all. I will make these again for sure

St. Lawrence Market Named World's Best Food Market

It's a proud day to be a Foodie in Toronto. Our very own St. Lawrence Market (where I do a lot of my specialty grocery shopping) was just named World's Best Food Market by National Geographic!!

The 200-year-old landmark ranked above New York's Union Square Greenmarket and St. Lucia's Castries Market in a list of the 10-best food markets from around the globe.
A short blurb on National Geographic's website credited the farmer's market emporium for playing an integral role in the city's old town neighbourhood.
St. Lawrence Market was founded in 1803 and, for a time beginning in the 1830s, operated as Toronto's town hall.
St. Lawrence Market hosts more than 120 vendors and merchants selling everything from Italian pasta and seafood to fresh produce, cheeses, curries and marmalades.
Rebecca Grima, marketing and community consultant of St. Lawrence Market, said she was thrilled the market was included on the list.
"St. Lawrence Market is engrained within our city's culture. It has helped build the neighbourhood," Grima told CTVToronto.ca on Wednesday. "When you look at all the merchants and the vendors in the market – it is so multicultural. You have almost every single nationality in there, and I think it is a great representation of Canada." - CTV News

I fell in love with the Market my first year living in Toronto. George Brown, the collage that came to Toronto to attend, was just down the street from it. My friends and I often went there on our lunch break. The food vendors were always amazing and we always tried something new for lunch.

As the years past, I still go there when I'm planning to do a lot of baking or cooking to get supplies. It's easy to get beautiful cuts of meat, fresh veggies, high quality cheeses and baking supplies all at a really good price. I always spend a bundle when I go there, but I know it's worth every penny. I'm so excited that National Geographic has recognized what a wonderful place it is.

Easter Chocolate Worth Going To The Dark Side For

With Easter coming up this weekend, all I can think about it chocolate. Ok..ok... and jellybeans, cupcakes, truffles, my Mom's cooking... you see where I'm going with this... But mostly chocolate.

While surfing Star Wars Facebook'd, my #1 go to sight for all things silly and Star Wars, I came across this picture

Yes, that is a chocolate Millennium Falcon filled with even more chocolate.

you're drooling... 

Don't worry, I am too. Very little is actually know about these amazing chocolate treats, other than people seem to think that they're made from a toy mold. You can see that both sides are attached and then filled after through a small whole in the top.

You can see it right above the front right pointy thing? Oh man, I need to learn more about Star Wars vehicles.... Ok, they're called forward mandibles... I guess right where the sensor dish is....

let's just pretend I didn't have to look this up...

The only fact that we seem to have is that they were made by André Murrai. You can find him here on facebook. You can also find these other amazing treats that he has made

I like to think that the head of Darth Vader is filled with pistachio cream.

And that Han Solo isn't really in carbonite, it's really filled with coffee cream.

Surprisingly, out of all of them, I really want to eat the Batman one the most. I'm not sure why, but when I look at the picture of it, I can almost feel it melting in my mouth... drool...

How would you like to wake up Easter morning to find this Easter Basket waiting for you?

This is my kind of Easter :)

Thanks to Star Wars Facebook'd (and Danielle, of course), Geekologie, Wookieepedia and of course, André himself for making these amazing chocolates.