A is for Andrew! And Alligators!

A means Andrew!  My little adorable neph Andrew turned 1!  And nothing says Andrew like an Alligator!  So to match some cute gator-plates, a gator cake was in order.  Nothing fancy, but big enough for a crowd - and something kids would like too.

I made my standard chocolate cake, filled with a yummo ganache and then a buttercream frosting airbrushed with my trusty Duff airbrush kit.  To make the gator, I considered a 3D "statue" of a gator but I wanted something BIG that matched the paper plates and decorations so I free-handed the picture with a toothpick on fondant and then just "colored" in by using my food colors as paint.  So cute, if I do say so myself :)  And I do!

To supplement, I added a dozen cupcakes with jimmies - in case the chocolate was too intense for anyone - and because who doesn't like variety!  I used an orange buttercream this time....

Cupcakes Across America: House of Cupcakes - Princeton

Like every home baker and lover of cupcakes, I watch Cupcake Wars  and am frantic as I see the professional bakers make big errors, or worry when they are trying something new but am mostly humbled by the creative artistry in both decoration and flavor.  So how lucky am I to frequently be in the neighborhood of such greatness with House of Cupcakes in Princeton?  I'm LUCKY!  They appeared on Cupcake Wars in 2011 and as you might notice in their pic below - they won!  YAY!!

How cute is their shop - so cute - so Princeton - so delicious.

I stopped by there for Big Mama's birthday celebration.  Having a string of birthdays all in a row, we were a little caked-out so a single serving portions were in order. I swung by HOC to pick up a six pack for our little celebration.  They have up to twenty flavors on any given day and they are always so super nice.  They do minis too by advance order.  I got a mixed load on this day with Big Mama's favorite, Vanilla - or Vanilla Riot as HOC calls it, as the star: 

 

 

To fill out the mixer, I got a bunch of other flavors including Creme Brulee, Oreo & Peanut Butter cup. 

I've had a bunch of different flavors from HOC on many visits there.  The staff is always friendly and speedy in filling your order.  I've never had a bad experience or product out of this shop and their prices are reasonable - even for Princeton where everything is 10% more expensive.  I especially like their Red Velvet - so moist and for me, the exact cake to frosting ratio!

I <3 you House of Cupcakes!

PacMan Birthday!

If there was an award for the worst blogger of all time, I would probably get it.  I’ve been so busy with work after a re-org that my writing has fallen aside a little.  Fortunately, I’ve still been baking, reviewing bakeries and keeping it real.  I’ve also developed an addiction for Fro-Yo.  What is it about self-serve frozen yogurt that gets people going?  Not to mention the ability to pour on the jimmies (sprinkles) until you can’t even see the fro-yo beneath only to have the high schooler at the register look at you judgingly?  Anywho, let’s talk baking!  One of my favorite days of the year is my birthday – if you know me and you’re reading this, you should know that!  Nine years ago on my birthday, my adorable sister did the unthinkable to steal my birthday thunder by having a child.  My nephew Braden was born and the entire family rejoiced in the hilarity that is having to share a birthday when all you live for is your birthday.  Incidentally, when Braden was old enough to understand that we “share” a birthday, he was none too pleased about it either.  In the years that followed “the birth” I have come to terms with the fact that a kid’s birthday always takes some sort of precedence.  So, as is the case, for many family birthday parties, I am the baker of choice for the cake! 

Braden is a huge video game fan.  He has all sorts of game devices:  a Wii, a Nintendo 3DS , an iPod touch pretty much devoted to game playing.  And through all of the amazing graphics and animations that are available for these systems, I was thrilled to find out that he is a huge PacMan fan.  I mean, what child of the 80’s didn’t love Pacman?  I still recall learning the ‘greater than’ and ‘less than’ signs in elementary school by drawing a little Pac man symbol around them and reasoning that Pacman would eat in the direction of more little dots.  Well it turns out that Pac man is now all souped up with some amazing graphics and faster moving ghosts and now he even moves in other directions besides right angles.  (How much math did we learn from PacMan?!)  So when Braden said he wanted Pac Man for his cake, how could I do anything but a round cake with a chunk cut out?!    But any idiot could do that.  And this idiot did…..  but PacMan is not a one man show.  He would have nothing if not for Inky, Winky, Pinky and Clyde – the famed “Ghosts”!  so It seemed like the perfect time to break out the air brush machine. 

I made a combo of vanilla and chocolate cupcakes – just a standard recipe for each and then covered them with an drape of fondant which I airbrushed to the appropriate bright colors.  Then a dollop of white chocolate for the eyes and how CUTE did these turn out!  I’m totally in love with them.  Without having kids of my own, I rarely get to experience the thrill of having other moms be completely jealous of what you made for your kids’ party.  Eat your hearts out moms!

More Cupcakes Across America! VEGAS STYLE!

Sometimes in life, you’ve got to roll the dice.  Other times, you’ve got to know when to fold ‘em or hold ‘em.  And sometimes, you’ve just got to double down.  And that’s exactly what I did on my recent trip to Vegas.  Partly for work and partly for a girls’ weekend in a cabana @ Mandalay Bay surrounded by 1200 marines! – yeah – marines – and it wasn’t even my birthday.  Anywho, when the dealer gives you 7 days in Vegas, you must try at least two cupcake joints. 

First – and my apologies for not having any photos of it – The Cupcakery in Monte Carlo.  I had to walk right by it to get to Starbucks in the morning.  These cupcakes were good.  I got a Lemon Crème – it was good – moist, sweet yet tart.  A solid showing from this three location spot.  I also got a sample of the Julius – orange pineapple cake with a heavy cream frosting.  That one was good – a strong flavorful cupcake but the frosting wasn’t my fave. Nonetheless, good texture cake.

Then – The Sugar Factory.  This place is fun – part restaurant, part bar, and part candy/treat shop with their largest location in the Paris Casino Hotel on the strip and then a few other mini-shops around town.   Here's a pic from one of the mini-shops:

They make some questionable decisions on celebrity promotion:

Just kidding sitch!  We should hang out!

I went to the restaurant for dinner and it was quite good for an American style brasserie.  I had a salad and picked some onion rings and other treats from my friend’s plate.  They did have some creative ideas – macaroni and cheese pops – really – balls of mac and cheese in battered ball form and deep fried onto a stick.  Pretty brilliant.    For the cupcake test, I picked up a vanilla cupcake at the Sugar Factory mini-shop in the Miracle Mile Shops in Planet Hollywood.  While there it occurred to us that this mall used to be in Aladdin.  Remember Aladdin?  Easy come, easy go in Sin City.  

Here's the cupcake - looks good right?  

Anyway, this vanilla cupcake was not good.  Way too dry and crumbly texture and seemed stale.  The frosting was like a whipped shortening which was barely sweetened.  And is often the case with dry cake, the sides did not hold up - look at this side of this poor little guy:

Finally, the saving grace of the Sugar Factory, is the cute merch.  They have all kinds of candy, giant lollipops, and even cakepops.  And what goes better with that than an adorable rubber ducky to make the trip home with you.

More cupcakery reviews to come as I head back out west!  

A Broad Abroad

Sometimes you have to see the good in things that seem like a pain in the ass.  For example, sleepless nights at far away hotels and time spent racing through or waiting in airports means  a magical treat:  Frequent Flyer Miles!  YESS!!!!  All the work trips are worth it when you finally cash in your miles for a free vacation flight somewhere and this time it was Dublin!  So among all the sites:  Christ Church, Glasnevin Cemetery, and the Guiness Factory, I managed to suss out the really important details of the local landscape and culture like the best bakery in town. 

I researched where to go in advance but was unsuccessful in finding some of the places that Google told me about.  I managed to ask the locals who directed me to a shop cleverly named "The Bakery".  I usually just look for a cupcake shop but this place seemed too good to pass up.  Other reviews claim that it's good for a quick sandwich or soup or snack.  But I'm on a mission for cupcakes. 

The Bakery is in Temple Bar - a touristy area also frequented by locals for its many shops, restaurants and trendy bars.  I found it on one attempt on a Sunday but it was closed - I couldn't find the hours posted on the door so we tried again on Monday.  Finally at about 4:10 we popped in and they had quite a few cupcakes left so I got a vanilla.  They had some standard flavors, nothing exciting or original so I went with something simple.    It was AWESOME!  The cake was moist but had a small cell structure.  The frosting was good but a kindof unoriginal buttercream although they added some white (and pink) chocolate shavings in the middle which brightened up the frosting texture but didn't add much in the way of flavor.  I would have liked a fluffier frosting but that's how buttercream rolls - sometimes it's just too think.  Still yummy and I actually ate the whole thing.  I'd give The Bakery 3.5 stars out of 5 on my arbitrary scale.  It was a solid cupcake with good flavor but they lacked imagination in cupcake types - maybe because they aren't cupcake exclusive?  And the buttercream could have been lighter - again -maybe because they make so many other things.  

Either way - The Bakery is worth a stop if you're in Dublin!  They had all sorts of treats that might hit the spot for you when you're there!

Here's my cupcake experience:

Why are there so many cakes about rainbows?

This weekend I had the profound pleasure of celebrating a friend’s 40^th birthday.  He threw a huge bash with fun party treats like glow-necklaces, birthday cake martinis (shut up!), blinking ice cubes and a playlist that had me strap my groove on by 8pm.  No one throws a party like a gay dude.  I’ve had homosexuality on my mind recently for a few reasons – 1.  The awesome party that I knew was coming.  2.  A friend recently came out to our group of pals and 3.  The ridiculousness of how people’s personal lives are intertwined with our political system.  This isn’t a political blog so I won’t get too far into my opinions but when did a candidate’s religious based opinion become how we judge what is right for the country – in my book, if someone isn’t hurting other people and doesn’t break the foundation of our country’s values of everyone’s right to pursue happiness, then it shouldn’t be anyone’s business and certainly not part of a campaign platform.    Anywho, how can you celebrate the fabulousness of diversity without cake?  I made the cake below based on Whisk Kid’s idea for a rainbow layer cake.  I used a completely different vanilla cake recipe and used plain buttercream instead of the Swiss meringue version.  Her delightful recipe and pictures can be found here:  Whisk Kid RainbowCake.  Thanks for the brilliance Whisk Kid!

Here is what I learned –

Whisk Kid used 6 layers instead of 7 – but there are 7 colors in the rainbow.  But 6 is probably easier to stack.  Maybe that’s why she was on Martha Stewart and not me.

Even out your cake layers or your layers will break   and your cake will be round on top.  Whoops!

When you make this as a birthday cake for a straight dude, you’ll get funny looks and questions.

I apparently have no idea what color indigo is.  Blue?  Purple?  Purplish blue?  Wtf?!

Use more food coloring than you think you need – in rainbows there is no such thing as too much color.

Nonetheless - this one was a hit - really yummy and HUGE!

Not quite finished but already tall!                 

French Goo. Crème Pâtissière or Pastry Cream (in American)

You ever have something that is so good that you just want to put your face in it?  Like no matter how much of it is available – it’s never quite enough?  The kind of thing where if you were in polite you would leave a bit on your plate but if you were home alone, you’d actually lick the plate until your nose is sticky.  This is my relationship with pastry cream.  I’ve mentioned it a few times already and you will definitely hear more about it in the future but I thought I’d outline my relationship with Crème Pâtissière – that’s French because I’m fancy like that.  Actually, it’s French because I learned the magic of pastry cream in Paris.  Yep – be jealous there for a minute. 

When a friend says – hey – come meet me in Paris for the weekend – you go.  Those are words to live by people.  And when that friend is someone you’ve been bffs with for over 20 years, you know that you’re in for a good time.  And sometimes that bff goes above and beyond in planning and finds you a baking class that teaches some traditional French baking techniques in English. Cookn With Class is where I learned the deliciousness that is pastry cream.   Below is not the recipe they gave us but this is darn close and not in the metric system which is handy for us Americans. 

In the class, we also got hands on experience with croissants and pain au chocolate as well as brioche, boules, and a yummy sweet raisin bread.  This was seriously and adventure in flour and butter that would not soon be forgotten.  Our teacher, Pino was extremely fun and engaging and offered lots of opportunities to try the techniques.  As a bonus, we got to take the many treats with us and we had them for breakfast every day during our trip. 

Here are some pics of our sweet treats:

Now onto the Pastry Cream – this seriously is a versatile deliciousness that I would squarely put in the category of “goo”.   Technically, I think it might be a custard.   A little more sturdy than a pudding, it works great as a filling for cakes, cupcakes, cream puffs and other sweet treats you might fill.   Or just fill a bowl and eat it with a spoon. Don’t judge me. 

Pastry Cream you'll want to swim in...

1 ¼ cups whole milk

1  vanilla bean

4 egg yolks

¼ cup white sugar

2 tbsp cornstarch

2 tbsp flour – all purpose

Mix together the egg yolks and sugar.  Add in the flour and cornstarch until smooth – a whisk works well here.

Heat milk and vanilla bean to just about a boil.  Take off heat and add a splash to your egg mixture and whisk.  Then add the rest of the milk slowing – whisking the whole time.    Note – if you get some cooked egg pieces, you should pour mixture through a strainer.  Take out the vanilla bean – CAREFULLY! Split bean down the center lengthwise and scrape out the seeds.  Add the seeds to your mix and put the whole thing back into your saucepan and put over medium heat until boiling – WHISKING the entire time!  Seriously – be ready to whisk!  Once it boils, keep whisking until it thickens.  It will get to a pudding-like consistency and it hardens up a bit more in the fridge.  Once you get the pudding-like consistency, remove from heat and pour into a clean bowl.  Cover with plastic wrap with the wrap pressed onto the surface of the cream to prevent a skin.  Cool to room temperature or refrigerate up to 3 or 4 days.  Whisk again before using. 

MMMMMMM....Beer caramel sauce

I don’t like beer – that’s right!  I said it!  I do like most other booze but I don’t much care for beer.  Beer bread on the other hand- - yum!  Beer cupcakes – oh yeah!  Beer in any form except for actual beer form is really what I’m looking for.  The ironic thing is that two of my very good friends actually own a beer company:  Evil Genius Beer Company.  Every time I take a swig of one of their new products, I think to myself –yep – tastes like beer!  I’m told it’s all really good and in fairness, their Good n’Evil Kolsh is pretty good – even for someone who’s not a beer drinker.  One of these dudes, Trevor, is one of my besties and listens to my overall life nonsense on a regular basis.  Like when I wonder if gnomes are real or if they are just little people with funny hats – Trevor is my go-to guy.  So when Trev asks for a cake, I’ll usually just make one for fear that he’ll stop listening to my crap. 

So their company is still pretty new and when they signed with a local Philly distributor, a celebration was in order.  Trevor called and asked for a cake to bring to the distributor and I easily agreed.  Now, when it comes to making cakes – I pretty much got a system but working beer in – well that’s always a challenge.  For their cake, I didn’t want to go too crazy – I’m not sure of the audience so what if they are all chocolate folks but I gave them banana flavor?  That’s a bad scene and I’m sure it’s not quite the response my pals would want.  I went with a vanilla layer.  I filled it with a delicious pastry cream – because I’m in a pastry cream phase – more on that another time.  But before I put it together, I assaulted my cake layers with the business end of a fork and made holes all over.  Then I poured a spiced beer caramel sauce made from my buddies’ beer.  That’s right – and old fashioned poke cake!  Why don’t we appreciate poke cakes more?  They can turn a dry cake into a food-gasm in the space of 2 seconds.  I mean when other stuff is dry, we moisten it right?  Why not cake? And honestly, have you ever poured caramel over anything and regretted it?  Me either.   So I whipped up some beer caramel – or rather, I experimented with hot sugar and beer.    I got to something that seemed lovely and so the recipe is below – it’s should come as no surprise that it’s beer, sugar, and cream – wtf else would it be? 

Finally, I attemped to make their Good n’ Evil logo – a true labor of love.  There is a chic on there with a horn and a halo – hence good n’ evil.  Trevor calls her…..I forget – I listen to his crap too but sometimes when he’s talking I think about cupcakes or rainbows.  Anywho, the chic and some pretty intriqite hops all outlined in an oval with a  banner going across makes for some pretty challenging detail work.  The rest of the label at first appears just a golden color but as it turns out, has a very faint hops-like pattern.  Here is my version of their logo in fondant:

I rolled out and cut – kindof freehand and kindof using some paper cutouts as a guide.  The hard part was getting the details right.  I was still pretty new at fondant so I wasn’t sure the best method to use was.  I started  with just those edible markers from  Americolor.  That wasn’t really giving the effect I was hoping for so then I considered piping but that doesn’t have enough control for such small specific details.  Finally, I made myself a “paint” using vodka and food color gels.  At the end, I was pretty proud of it. 

Here is the final cake – covered in fondant that I sprayed gold and then went over with some of my vodka paint.  I also used it to paint on the faint hops pattern. Here is the finished product.  I was pretty proud of it at the time and I still am but now I think I'd work a little harder to get the fondant even.  

Here is how I made the beer caramel:

24 oz beer

2 c. brown sugar

1 c. white sugar

2 tbsp butter

2 c. heavy cream

1 tbsp vanilla extract

Boil the beer until you're down to about a cup left.  The alcohol will boil out first and then the water.  It takes a while. 

Add in both sugars and stir gently

Let simmer and when it looks like the sugar has dissolved, add in the butter.  Continue to simmer until you get to a  caramel color and it becomes syrupy.  If you're not sure you're there yet - try the ball method of testing.  Drop a bit into a glass of cool water and if the syrup balls up, holding it's form rather than just dissolving into the water, you're probably good to go.

When your at a deep amber color and you've reached the syrup stage, you're ready to add the cream. BE CAREFUL!  When you add the cream, it is likely to boil violently!  I usually add the cream with my hand and arm covered with a dishtowel in case it splatters. 

The boil will drop down quickly and then you can just stir and you're pretty much done.  If it seems that the cream has cooled the mixtures down too much and you have some solid chunks, keep it on the heat for a bit until those melt. 

Stir in the vanilla - I also splashed in some cinnamon extract  to get a nice "spiced" flavor.

Voila! done! 

You could keep this caramel in the sauce in a tighly covered jar and refrigerate - I wouldn't use it beyond a week or 10 days though. 

Learning Fondant

A few years ago I didn't even know what fondant was.  I'm still not entirely sure I know what it is except that it's awesome.  If you're a caking kinda gal - or dude - you probably already know and love fondant for its flexible options as far as making smooth surfaces that can be airbrushed, painted or piped upon.  It also can be shaped, molded and cut into anything.  I think the best part of fondant is that it's fun!  It's like playdough for grown-ups.  My first forray into fondant was for my nephew's 6th birthday.  As a huge fan of the Flyers and future NHL star, he wanted a hockey cake.  He wanted it to be in the team colors with their logo.  Then every day or so, he'd call me to ask me how his cake was coming and then he would request more features.  First he wanted an ice rink, then a hockey stick, then a hockey "guy".  I wasn't sure about using fondant but how hard could it be?  All the descriptions online and on tv made it sound easy peasy.  And for the most part it was pretty easy to figure out.  I picked up some of the typical tools from Wilton, a few tubs of their precolored fondant, a roller and some of those edible ink markers.  Looking back, it's not bad for a first attempt but anyone who would see it would definitey think "hmph! amateur!". It certainly wouldn't win me any prizes on Cake Wars.  (Which I totally think about winning when I'm making a cake.)   I think this cake was a good lesson in knowing your audience.  When I brought the cake to my sister's house in preparation for the ice skating party my nephew was so excited!  Seeing his eyes light up and proclamations of "WOW!" was such an awesome feeling.  And one of the best moment of my life was when asked if he liked it he said "I LOVE IT!"    Here is my first fondant cake - it's a standard vanilla cake - I'll post my recipe another time - with pastry cream filling.  It's mostly buttercream frosting with the ice rink, hockey stick and "guy" made from fondant.  In hindsight, I'd probably have used gum paste.

A note on store-bought fondant.  Lots of folks don't seem to like the premade stuff. It's ok.  I don't find it as delicious as buttercream but I don't think anything is as good as buttercream - I'd have buttercream oatmeal with buttercream coffee and a buttercream banana for breakfast everyday if I could.  The store-bought stuff works - there's always a consistency and the pre-colored stuff does save a lot of time.  I've made fondant myself and there's a time and place for that too.  More on the store-bought fondant vs. homemade another time...

Awesome amateur hockey cake: