Challenge #13: Bittersweet Paris

I know I haven't been posting lately, but I honestly haven't had much time to bake or blog. Considering that I work silly hours, by the time I get home, I'm wiped and mostly just want to go to bed. If I do manage to get something baked, I'm usually still baking after midnight, which isn't as much fun as it sounds.

Most of my baking, these days, stems from celebrations. This one, in fact, was Canada Day and also my 1 year anniversary with my sweetheart.

I was trying to think of some sort of Canadian flavor I could make, but the best I could come up with was maple/bacon. And as much as I would like to try that one day, I wasn't really in the mood for it. After rifling through cookbooks for awhile, Adam asked how The Challenge was going. To be honest, I've veered away from it as of late due to a total flop recipe, which I didn't even bother to blog about. (boo to you Taste of Summer the Way It Used to Be - Peachy) I'm also getting to the weird flavors in the book and I know they'll be great for some random occasion, but that occasion hasn't come up yet.

Anyway, I digress. I grabbed out The Icing On The Cupcake and started flipping through it.

That's where I found Bittersweet Paris. I've been wanting to try this one for awhile and it lent itself well to making it lactose-free.

5 tbsp butter

1 cup coffee

1 cup buttermilk

2 eggs, room temperature

1 1/2 cups sugar

1 cup cake flour

1/2 cup cocoa powder

1 tsp finely ground salt

1 tsp baking powder

1 1/2 tsp baking soda

2 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 350' F. Place 12-15 paper liners into cupcake trays.

Make the coffee. When it's ready, melt the butter into it. Whisk in the buttermilk (or in my case, almond milk). Set aside.

it separates, so you mix it back together from time to time.

Put the eggs and sugar in another bowl and mix on a low speed. Gradually add one at a time - flour, salt, cocoa powder, baking powder and baking soda. Mix until just combined.

Add the vanilla and coffee mixture. Mix until combined.

Pour batter into paper liners. Fill almost to the top.

Yes, it totally is just liquid. I was worried, but I decided to see if the recipe would work, so I popped them into the oven instead of giving up.

Look! They're rising!

Bake 15-20 minutes, or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean. I found it best that I bake them for 15 minutes, turn off the oven and leave them in there for another 10 minutes. It worked better that way. Otherwise, they were burnt on the outside and didn't cook enough in the middle.

Cool 5 minutes and then move to a baking rack.

Orange Frosting

1/2 cup (or 1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature

1 egg yoke, room temperature

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 1/4 cups sifted powdered sugar

1 tbsp orange juice

the zest of an orange.

Cream the butter with an electric mixer until fluffy, about 3 to 5 minutes. Add egg yoke and vanilla. Beat for 4 minutes.

Add orange juice and zest. Beat 1 minute. 

Add sugar (and food colouring, if you want) and beat until smooth.

This recipe didn't make a lot of icing and I had already drank the rest of my freshly squeezed orange juice, so we decided to make 2 different flavors of icing for the cupcakes. Instead of the orange juice, in the second batch, I added cherry and almond extract. 

They were both really good and went with the chocolate really well. I'm not sure which one I liked better.

As soon as they were iced, it was off to the Canada Day BBQ.

I didn't get a lot of feedback on them, simply, since everyone that showed up at the party brought dessert. I ended up taking a bunch of them back home with me, which was awesome, because we ate them for breakfast the next day. Yes, I'm classy like that :P

So, what do geeks do when they mix booze and sparklers?

Yup. We're pretty awesome.

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.

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