Halloween - Bake Star Wars For Me Style

Wow, there has just been so much going on these last few months, I've barley had time to breath, let alone bake or blog. When did life get so busy?

This last week was no exception, especially with Halloween.

Now, I know I usually blog on Talk Star Wars To Me about Halloween, but this year, I figured that here was more appropriate, considering that there was a lot of food involved and not as much costuming. 

Let's start with pumpkins. My awesome friend Jocey, invited me over for some good old fashioned pumpkin carving! Now I hadn't carved pumpkins since I was a kid, so I was super excited and kind of leery  about my pumpkin carving skill level.

But as you can see, I don't think I needed to worry, Jocey had a plan.

 And an awesome array of pumpkins, squashes and gourds

This little guy's name is Gord.

Jocey's fantastic Jack Skellington

Lou and Hillbilly Billy

My Ernie turned out pretty good if I do say so myself

 Here they are all lit up

Check out how creepy this guy turned out!

So, the day before Halloween, I made cupcakes for the night itself. We had a Call of Cthulhu RPG night planned and I wanted to make cupcakes that would go with it.

But what flavour do you make something so dark and mysterious?

I went with the only thing I could think of; Guinness. I mean, it does absorb the light around it...

Guinness Cupcakes

by My Baking Addiction

1 (12-ounce) bottle Guinness Stout
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
3 large eggs
3/4 cup sour cream
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa 
2 cups sugar
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda

 Preheat the oven to 350°F. In a large mixing bowl, combine the Guinness, milk, vegetable oil, and vanilla. Beat in the eggs, one at a time. Mix in the sour cream.

 In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the cocoa, sugar, flour, and baking soda. Gradually mix the dry ingredients into the wet Guinness mixture.

I love my mixer soooo much!

 Butter 24 muffin tins and divide the batter among the muffin tins

I used these awesome cupcake liners that I've had kicking around for a few years now and never had a good reason to use. I think they were perfect for this.

 Bake 25 minutes, until risen and set in the middle but still soft and tender. Cool before turning out of the tins.

I didn't really like the icing recipe that went with these, so I decided to make this instead.

Cream Cheese Icing
by Allrecipies

2 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese,
softened
1/2 cup butter, softened
2 cups sifted confectioners' sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

In a medium bowl, cream together the cream cheese and butter until creamy. Mix in the vanilla, then gradually stir in the confectioners' sugar.

I then tinted it red with more red food colouring than I'd like to admit.
I couldn't find my awesome piping tip so I had to ice them by hand, which leaves a lot to be desired. I then added slivered almond teeth and chocolate covered almond eyes and there you have it

THE EYE OF AZATHOTH!

Perfect for a night of Horror!

This was my costume for work. Yup, I was a business-casual Darth Vader.

I really just wanted to wear my Darth Vader dress. Can you blame me? It's pretty awesome.

We also attended a Halloween party with some friends on the weekend and were asked to bring snacks.

Instead of making something sweet, like I usually do, we decided to try something else instead.

Deep Fried Ravioli

by Chaneling Contessa

1 package store bought ravioli (about 24)

1 cup buttermilk

2 cups Italian style bread crumbs

1 tsp dried Oregano

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp freshly ground pepper

grated Parmesan or Pecorino Romano

vegetable oil and olive oil for frying

fresh basil for garnish

Preheat the oil: Fill deep frying pan with two inches of oil- 3/4 vegetable oil, 1/4 olive oil. Preheat until a thermometer reads 325°. Or you can guesstimate like we did, but I don't recommend it.

While the oil heats and sauce cooks, prep the ravioli. Place the buttermilk in a shallow bowl. Place the bread crumbs, oregano, salt, and pepper in another bowl. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper for the ravioli. Dip first in the buttermilk, shaking when lifting out of the bowl, then dredge in the bread crumbs. Place on the baking sheet while you coat the remaining ravioli.

When the oil is hot, fry the ravioli in batches, turning until golden brown- about 3 minutes.

Using a slotted spoon, transfer the ravioli to paper towels to drain.

Sprinkle with extra cheese and shredded basil.

How amazing do these look?

Cheesy Marinara Sauce:

1 14 oz can diced tomatoes
1/2 onion, minced
2 large cloves garlic, minced
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp red pepper flake
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1/2 cup grated pecorino romano cheese

 In a medium sized saucepan, sautée the onion in olive oil over medium low heat for 8-10 minutes, until very soft. Stir in garlic and cook for about 1 minute, until fragrant. Add in the tomatoes, salt, and red pepper flake and cook over medium low heat, stirring occasionally, for 10 minutes.
Remove from the heat. Using an immersion blender, blend the sauce directly in the pot until mostly smooth. Fold in the  grated cheese.

You're going to want to try this recipe. It's fantastic! It was hard not to eat them all myself.
They didn't last very long at the party. Once people started trying them, they disappeared!

As for costumes, Adam and I went as Hipster Mario and Luigi

Yeah, we went there.

I love his moustache!

So hipster....

So how was your Halloween? Do/make anything special? Let me know.

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.

House Braeby

I'm not much of a A Song Of Fire And Ice (Game Of Thrones) fan. I've tried reading the books, but I always end up putting them down for something else. I'm currently on the 3rd book for the second time.

I enjoy the show, but part of me still wants to read the books before I watch all of it, so It's gotten put on the back burner as well.

What's this got to do with anything?

Well, I was checking out some of my favorite blogs, (which you can see in the side bar of Talk Star Wars To Me) Geeky Hostess, to be exact, and I came across a Game Of Thrones Family Arms creator.

Now, I love stuff like this.

I went over to check it out and ended up making this

Come on, how awesome is that? I just had to share.

You can make your own here.

Saturday Morning Cartoon Birthday Treats

My very awesome boyfriend just turned 30 the other week.

Him and his friends are always throwing theme parties and his birthday was to be no exception to that rule.

But what kind of party to throw?

A Saturday Morning Cartoon Party, of course.

Art by Suppa-Rider

Everyone wore graphic t-shirts of their favorite cartoons, we threw on netflix and watched all sorts of 80's and 90's cartoons; Transformers, She-ra, Power Rangers, G.I. Joe, Sonic The Hedgehog and Jem. It was fantastic.

But what's a theme party without themed food?

We went with a breakfast theme, of course. But what do you make for a breakfast themed birthday cake? I scoured the internet for breakfast cupcakes and came across this amazing recipe from one of my favorite baking blogs; Confessions of A Cookbook Queen

 

picture by Confessions of a Cookbook Queen

Captain Crunch Cupcakes with Peanut Butter Marshmallow Frosting

1 box Duncan Hines Classic Yellow cake mix 1 cup buttermilk 4 large eggs 1/3 cup oil 4 cups Cap’n Crunch cereal, plus more for garnish
Preheat oven to 350. Line 24 muffin tins with baking cups and set aside. Using a food processor or a large Ziploc bag and rolling pin, crush 2 cups of the cereal very finely (to a cornmeal consistency). 

If you don't have a food processor or a rolling pin, an empty wine bottle works just as well. Who knew?

In the bowl of a mixer, add the cake mix, crushed cereal, buttermilk, eggs, and oil. 

Beat on low speed about one minute, stopping to scrape down sides of the bowl. Increase speed to medium and beat 2 minutes more. 

 
Fold other 2 cups on uncrushed cereal into the batter.

Fill liners 2/3 full and bake for 12-15 minutes or until tops spring back when lightly touched. Allow to cool on cooling racks.

 

To Make Frosting:

2 sticks butter, at room temperature (I used salted) 1 cup peanut butter 1 teaspoon vanilla 1/4 cup milk 4 cups powdered sugar 7 oz jar marshmallow creme

In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat the 2 sticks of butter, peanut butter, milk, and vanilla on medium low speed until well blended. 

Slowly add powdered sugar and beat on low until just barely blended. Increase speed until medium and beat for about 2 minutes, until light and fluffy. 

 

Fold in Marshmallow Creme, not fully combining to allow for a swirl of marshmallow throughout.

Frost cupcakes generously and add a sprinkle of cereal to the top.

Note the Spiderman foils. Perfect for a Saturday Morning Cartoon Party.

I'll be honest, I was worried about this recipe. First off, I'm not one to use a box mix. I like making things from scratch, but I couldn't figure out what I needed to change by doing it from scratch, so I went with the box mix. Second, I wasn't sure how good putting cereal into cupcakes would be. But for both accounts, I was wrong. The cereal in them seemed to almost caramelize. Yum!

These cupcakes were AMAZING!!! 

Everyone loved them. 

The other new recipe I tried was bacon related from The Food Network

Candied Bacon

 

12 slices bacon, about 1/4-inch thick
Finely ground black pepper
1/3 cup light brown sugar
Equipment: 2 baking sheets, preferably the same size


Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F.

Put bacon slices in a bowl, season them with pepper and toss with the brown sugar. 

 

 

Cover a baking sheet with parchment or foil and arrange the bacon in a single layer on top. Sprinkle any sugar left in the bowl over the bacon. 

 

 

Top with another layer of parchment or foil and top it, squarely, with another baking sheet. The baking sheet will flatten the bacon as it cooks. 

 

Place the tray in the center of the oven and bake for 20 minutes. Check the bacon by lifting the top tray and parchment. If it is not golden brown and fairly crispy, resist the temptation to turn up the oven temperature, and cook it for 10 to 15 minutes longer. Check it again. Keep in mind that when you remove the tray and transfer the bacon to a serving platter or individual plates, the bacon will "crisp" up a little more. Be patient!

My first batch got a little burnt, so I turned it back a bit for the other batches. (sorry, I only got a picture of the burnt batch)

It was really, really good. But by the third batch, the smell of it was getting to me and I didn't end up having more than a few pieces. Of course, there was none left over for me to try again the next day.

Other party foods that we served were mini bagels, berries, pancakes, hash-browns and nutella and peanut butter sandwiches. Sooooooo gooood!!!