Abstract art: Hello Kitty

Hello Kitty cupcake

It’s been a year since I started this so-called biz.  How do remember the date?  It’s been one year since I made custom Pinkalicious cupcakes for a coworker’s daughter’s birthday.  This year, Hello Kitty cupcakes were requested.  Due to time and budget constraints, I had to think about how to make some basic cupcakes that still clearly screamed cutesy Japanese white cat without going overboard.  (BTW, did you know that Hello Kitty is 37 years old???)

The abstract art idea popped into my head after browsing the ThinkGeek catalog (I love the stuff from that store!) and seeing a tee shirt that was a play on Hello Kitty.  It was just a white cube with the trademark bow with the headline “Hello Schröddy” and that was perfect for a cost-effective cupcake design.  I got a kick out of the physics joke about Schrödinger’s cat, too (yes, I wholeheartedly embrace my nerdiness).

A crackly and "eh"-looking experimental first bow... which is why it's called a "test bow"

I made a super light vanilla cake batter and whipped up some white vanilla frosting for basic swirl designs.  That part was easy.  Making the bows turned out to be a bigger undertaking than I expected, even when I used *gasp* ready-made fondant.  Yeah, I know… I said I’d never use it again, but I was in a pinch.  And in hindsight, MAYBE I should have just made my own.  The bright red fondant-from-a-tub was the perfect color, but it dried up soooo quickly.  After rolling out the fondant, I was barely able to cut out shapes for three bows @ max without the fondant starting to crack.  WTF?  I had to toss a chunk of it out b/c the fondant was rock hard and useless, so I just rolled out a small ball of it and cut a few shapes @ a time.  I don’t have bow-shaped cutters and had to improvise so I used circle cutters that were two different sizes: a tiny one for the middle of the bow and the sides are actually pinched-in larger circles.   After making about ten of these, I realized I left out a little nub on each side of the bow but decided eh, I was over it.  They look pretty close though, right?  The fondant dried within minutes, so I immediately placed each bow on the corner of each cupcake.

There you have it: abstract Hello Kitty cupcakes with signature red bows.  So simple and yet so kawaii!  And I saw a pic of  a really happy birthday girl loving her cupcakes =)

An army of totally cute cupcakes

When pigs fly…

Pig sprinkles atop a hot pink cloud of frosting

Labor Day weekend signifies the last weekend of summer, and most normal people spend it chilling out, maxing, relaxing all cool being all lazy, but we were the anti-thesis of beach bum, BBQ-ing, beer guzzling couch potatoes.  We had just signed the papers to sell our house on Thursday, and we had people coming to view the house Friday.  I was let out of work a few hours early on Friday for the holiday and had originally planned on baking cupcakes and making frosting for Vin’s little niece’s 2nd birthday party, but I rushed home to re-organize some clutter @ home before the potential buyers came. (Cross your fingers!  They really liked the house!)  I was too pooped to even think about baking by the end of the night, so I woke up early on Saturday to do everything before the party @ 2.

Chocolate cupcakes with hot pink vanilla-raspberry icing and pig sprinkles

The theme for Penny’s birthday was pink pigs in honor of the petting zoo animals that were coming to her party.  I knew I wouldn’t have time to plan for and decorate an entire pig cake, so I promised cupcakes instead.  The birthday girl had asked for chocolate and hot pink, so chocolate cake and hot pink frosting she got.  Vin’s sister had requested about two dozen cupcakes, and the batch of cake batter I made was enough for 37 (perfect for exactly 3 dozen cupcakes for the party and 1 test one to cut up into tiny bites to analyze and eat).  I decided to turn the extras into “adult” cupcakes… not anything with genitalia shapes (if I did, I wouldn’t be posting pics!), but added some booze and caffeine  =)  I was like, “hmmm….” and whipped up some Kahlua-coffee-mocha frosting for the extra dozen; the icing was a little melty b/c of the liquor, but it tasted really good!  AND, to top it off,  I just so happened to have pig-shaped candy sprinkles for the cupcakes.  Tiny white pigs were carefully placed on the hot pink frosting and one little pink pig was put on the grown-up cupcakes.

Chocolate cupcakes with Kahlua-mocha frosting

Both versions of cupcakes were well-received; both kids and adults loved the pink frosted cupcakes, and I clearly didn’t make enough of the coffee-Kahlua ones.  Oh well.  Next time y’all should get in on that limited edition stuff faster.  Baked goods + booze = fun time for grown-ups @ children’s parties.  haha

Now it’s back to cleaning and sorting our junk… I’d love to be able to get rid of half of my things, but that’ll happen when pigs fly.  Sorry, I had to say it  =P

Happy birthday, Penny!

Pâte à Choux aka Cream Puffs

Little Miss Irene came and went this past weekend without leaving her mark on our property.  There were some of us that said the storm would be overhyped in our area so we just stayed in and didn’t buy into the apocalyptic frenzy at the supermarkets, especially b/c we were fully stocked with liquids and snacks and batteries and candles and food anyway.  (I went grocery shopping on Monday afternoon and it was kind of funny to see bare shelves where cases and cases of water used to be and one lone dented jar of peanut butter next to tons of jelly and jam.)  We got lucky.  Some parts of the East Coast were hit hard: crazy flooding that covered cars, huge trees that crushed houses, and power outages that are STILL ongoing =(  Thankfully, no one I know got hurt…

The only thing that affected us was that the LIRR was suspended on Monday.  Man, what a pity =P  Vin and I worked from home and I was excited to use the extra time NOT COMMUTING to bake.  That didn’t happen.  A realtor was coming to check out our house the next day and I rushed to tidy up the place to appear semi-presentable.  I left work early to make sure I got home in time for the appointment with the real estate agent.  The train ride was surprisingly on time, so I had a couple hours to spare and decided to start making the dough for cream puffs, or pâte à choux en français.   I triple-checked to make sure I didn’t leave anything off the super simple ingredient list and cut the measurements in half (uhh, I have no reason to be making 80 puffs). 

Filled pâte à choux

As with many things that come out of my oven, this was a first time experiment and I made some amendments.  The first adjustment was… I mixed everything by hand.  I didn’t want to make a huge mess with the mixer so I mixed the dough with a wooden spoon and whisked the filling by hand.  And you wonder why I have Michelle Obama arms.  (Just kidding!)  I also added a whole extra egg to the dough just b/c I just felt like it.  In overused reality TV show speak, “this could totally make or break me,” and it turned out to be a great idea.  No risk, no reward, right?  (Though, I shouldn’t really be thinking such things considering my job.  haha)   The other change was that the recipe said to bake the choux for 25 min @ 380 degrees.  Uh… not in this kitchen.  I tested my first tray of puffs @ 350 for 10 minutes and they didn’t puff up enough (still tasty even though they look more like macarons than puffed pastries), so I tried the next tray @ 370 for 10 minutes.  MUCH better.  The final tray was the best @ 370 degrees for 12 minutes.  They were a buttery golden brown on top and puffed up to look like pastry roses b/c I piped them in swirl shapes.  I was worried about burning them or over-drying them, but I think if I left them in for just 30 seconds longer they would have been absolutely perfect.  Maybe.  I don’t know.  It needs to be tested.  =)

The realtor came in as I was placing the choux on the cooling rack and the house conveniently smelled awesome.  Seriously dude, I need to bottle that sh*t in a spray and have this odor wafting through the house whenever potential buyers come so maybe we won’t have our house stay on the market for long… I’d offer a year’s supply of baked goods to whoever buys our house but unfortunately I don’t think that’ll seal the deal.  haha  I whipped up a basic filling that tasted like a mix between whipped cream and Boston creme pie filling and squirted it in the puffs until they overflowed.  Vin tried one of the unfilled f*ck-ups.  He said it was still light, airy and fluffy. I couldn’t fill the flatter choux so I just dipped them in chocolate and dropped rainbow sprinkles on them.  Haphazard?  Yes!  Gross tasting? No!

I packed a bunch for my coworker since it was her birthday, hid a couple in Vin’s lunch, brought some to my sister and her boyfriend, and added some as part of a housewarming gift to a friend.  So far, the feedback has been outstanding (yay!): my coworkers loved them and said, “You always make people happy with your baking!”, my friend said “They’re so light and awesome I feel like I could keep popping them in” [A, that’s a totally TWSS  =P], and my sister said they were “Delightful!”  Vin said this is his favorite thing I’ve baked so far (crème brûlée, you just got served!) and almost ate all the extras last night.  haha  I can’t believe how incredibly easy this was, and I think for Thanksgiving I’m going to make a tower of them with caramel and spun sugar.  And hopefully, making a croquembouche won’t keep me up all night baking the day before the party.  haha

Citrus and cinnamon on Sunday

One cinnamon-lemon roll with lemon-cream cheese glaze and lemon zest

We had friends visiting this weekend and I had planned on making a nice breakfast and baking lemon rolls for them to wake up to on Sunday morning.  They ended up just staying for the day on Saturday b/c of a high-maintenance pet back @ the apartment… boo.  But I still wanted to make the lemon rolls anyway.  So I did.

Freshly baked cinnamon-lemon rolls

Making rolls isn’t so much complicated as it is time-consuming.  It mostly consists of waiting for the dough to rise.  I grated and juiced three lemons by hand (LOVE the scent… so fresh and so clean, clean!) and then made dough.  The recipe I used didn’t call for cinnamon, but I couldn’t help it.  I couldn’t have a cinnamon-less cinnamon roll.  So I snuck in a tablespoon to go along with the nutmeg.  While the dough rose, I started prepping for dinner… which isn’t baking related @ all but I was really, really excited about it so I had to share.  Plus, it ties in with the cinnamon and citrus theme anyway.  =)

Being that it was a rainy, dreary, completely blah Sunday, it was perfect weather for soup.  Not just any soup, but Vietnamese pho ♥  We had some oxtail in the freezer and I was craving this and waiting for the right time to make it, and I had the perfect opportunity being stuck inside with the crappy waterworks outside and 8 hours @ home on my hands.  This is the equivalent of an Italian grandmother spending all day making the perfect sauce; I needed all day to get the meat super tender and the broth flavor JUST right.  I started braising the oxtail around noon and worked on prepping the soup and getting the lemon rolls together @ the same time.  As the dough was rising the first time, I got my seasonings together for pho: seasoning packet, paste, fish sauce, roasted onion and ginger, star anise, peppercorns, cardamom seeds, cloves, sugar, chiles, and cinnamon sticks to go w/the theme of the day (the citrus will come later).  I just let all this simmer in the biggest pot in the house so I’d be able to save the extra broth for when I’d have my next hankering for Viet food… which will probably be for dinner tonight  haha

I went back to the dough and patted it out to fill it with the lemon-sugar mixture, roll it up, and laid them out in a Pyrex dish.  I was tempted to add more cinnamon and anise flavoring to the rolls, but I was worried it might be too much.  Maybe the smell of the soup was permeating my brain and I wanted everything to have the same taste.  haha  I had to let the cut up dough sit and rise AGAIN, so after sealing plastic wrap over the Pyrex, I sampled the broth in the metal tub on the stove.  *sigh*  The flavor definitely reminded me of home.  I added some beef balls (Asian meatballs, not the Rocky Mountain oysters variety) and prepped the rest of the fixin’s for the soup: lime, onion slices, scallions, and jalapenos for more heat and greenery and took out some hoisin sauce and Sri racha.  Unfortunately, I didn’t have fresh cilantro, Thai basil, or bean sprouts.  Enough said about the limited selection here in my ‘hood; I made do with what was available (and the special ingredients smuggled over by my mom and my sister) and it was pretty damn good.  My mom bought me a pack of broad pho noodles and I boiled them al dente so it wouldn’t get too mushy in the soup.  The oxtail fell off the bone; it was just so flavorful and tender.  And after Vin and I had two bowls each, I had enough leftover broth and meat to fill five plastic quart containers.  This means I’ll be happy with awesome dinners for the rest of this week!

Oxtail and beef ball pho... yum!

While the rolls were baking in the oven, I made a glaze topping out of cream cheese, sugar, and lemon juice. I really like it; it’s not too sweet, the citrus provides a nice amount of tartness, and it’s really creamy.  The baking was the only minor glitch in my day, and even then the unexpected surprise didn’t turn out to be so bad.  Knowing how hot the oven (or what Vin referred to as “the mutant”) gets, I cut down the suggested baking time by a substantial amount and reduced the oven temp by 25 degrees after about 10-15 minutes.  Good thing I made adjustments b/c I pretty much had to take them out of the oven when I checked on them because I didn’t want them to be overdone.  After the rolls cooled a bit, I spread the glaze on and sprinkled the remaining lemon zest.  The edges were a teeny bit drier than I’d prefer and I wish it was a little gooey-er in the center of the roll, but it still tasted really good.  I just had one for lunch today and it was perfect after zapping it in the microwave for 30 seconds.  Vin had one for breakfast @ work.  I gave one to a co-worker b/c it was his birthday.  And there is STILL a huge tray leftover.  Into the fridge it went…

Fully glazed and zested lemon rolls

There are times when my fridge and I go head to head and see who will come out on top b/c only so much can fit in there.  Between all the soup components and broth containers, the lemon rolls, tons of beer I’m not able to drink, other leftovers, and the rest of the food, it was pretty packed.  But I think I inherited my dad’s packrat skills and was able to fit everything comfortably in there.  I win again, fridge… you have no chance.  =)

Somewhere over the rainbow…

(I had technical issues with my hard drive so this post is a week late.  As they say on Spartacus, “Apologies!”)

Vin’s brother hit a milestone birthday and I knew I HAD to make something better than last year’s cakeAt the same time, I was crrrraaaazyyy busy with work and other events so I needed to make something with impact, but nothing TOO complicated.  Vin emailed me this really cool shot of a clean white and vibrant rainbow cake and I knew I had to make it.  I know it’s totally ripping off someone else’s idea, but it just looks awesome.  I had to save this for a special occasion, and FT’s birthday was perfect for it.

Rainbow Pac man... I should have cleaned off the cake crumbs and wiped up the frosting smears before this was taken =/

I made a crapload of basic white cake batter then divided it into 6 containers.  (I think I’ve come up with the perfect white vanilla cake recipe.  Extra steps make it time consuming as hell, but it’s so worth it!)  Then I added food coloring to each plastic container (ROY G.  BV–no indigo in this cake) and mixed in the color by hand.  I only have two 8″ round cake pans so I couldn’t prep all the pans at once.  I wanted Red to be the base layer of the rainbow cake, so I made this layer a little thicker so it could support the rest of the cake.  Assembly was easy: cake layer, white frosting layer, cake layer, white frosting layer… wash, rinse, repeat till out of cake layers.  Then I dirty iced it, let it sit in the fridge overnight, and then put the final crisp white frosting layer on the next morning.

My pails of "paint"

From the outside, this looks like a clean, simple, plain @ss white cake.  I mean, I feel like I did a REALLY nice job making the edges perfect and smooth.  BUT, that can’t be an all boring white vanilla cake b/c 1) it’s a milestone birthday; 2) FT’s a really creative and artsy guy and would probably consider this cake “blah”; and 3) everyone expects more from me @ this point in the game.  I can’t blame them; I would be pissed @ myself too if I presented a mediocre, bland-looking cake right now.  AND, I’d also be pissed if I gave boring birthday presents.  I LOVE picking out the right gifts for people, and knowing his love for Alice in Wonderland, I got FT a set of tumblers with John Tenniel illustrations… in January.  haha  When FT was about to blow out the candles, everyone asked what kind of cake it was, and I said, “You’ll just have to wait till it’s cut,” and someone even asked if the cake was going to ooze blood or explode.  haha  Maybe next time.  But still, everyone was pretty surprised.  I was looming over FT while he cut the cake to make sure the layers looked OK; I’m so technical about this that’s all I care about.  Everyone else was like, “Ooohh it’s so colorful!  It’s so summery!” and in my head I was thinking, “yeah that’s nice… I need to check to make sure everything is clean and even or I’ll be mad @ myself.”  haha  I didn’t eat any (I had a bite of one of the extra cupcakes to make sure it was ok) and was told that this was “the most amazing tasting and looking cake we’ve ever had.”  Awww, shucks.  =)

After the candles have been blown out, it's just a plain white cake... OR IS IT???

My co-worker (expert mochi reviewer) also asked me to make a small birthday cake for her husband, so I used some of the extra batter to make a psychedelic little cake with yellow filling.  (Side note: her birthday is coming up later this month and I will make her something for that, too.)  AND, it was also my friend J’s birthday (SO many August birthdays!) and she had requested, “All I want is one cupcake from you!” and so I made some trippy rainbow cupcakes with the last of the batter.  In return, she showed me off to her office mates and booked me for birthday cakes for her family.  What a good friend.  haha

Left: A mini filled birthday cake; Right: Half a dozen birthday cupcakes

I have to say, this rainbow layer cake is perfect for recent NYS news (gay marriage!), kids’ parties, anyone who loves color, or any all around fun person that deserves a cool surprise in cake form.  Actually, this would be pretty cool for weddings, too.  It’s got the clean white look on the outside and the beautiful splashes of color inside, and it would be AMAZING in multiple tier form!  Any takers on a rainbow wedding cake?  I just want to have a reason to make it and see how awesome it would look as a massive multi-tiered cake!

Rainbow cupcakes before icing

Happy birthday, FT!

A no bake weekend

I promised my mixer and oven some time off this week since they were worked to the point of slave labor during most of July (my poor oven… it seriously needs a cleaning).  But I felt like I still had to make SOMETHING and ended up using the stove and microwave instead.

I had about a dozen leftover red velvet cupcakes from last weekend’s bake-a-thon.  These were the f*ck-ups; they were a tray of red velvet gone wrong and was slightly overbaked in my inferno oven.  They didn’t taste bad; they were just a little dry but I would have been mortified to give them out to anyone b/c they weren’t absolutely perfect.  Plus, a week had gone by and they were starting to take up prime real estate in the fridge.  I also had 2 boxes of strawberries I bought last week that were about to turn, so it was getting to the use ’em or lose ’em stage.  However, being Asian, I felt guilty letting good food go to waste (thanks, mom!  =P)  so I gave myself a “Chopped”-like challenge with a subconscious spherical theme in mind.  What to do with very ripe strawberries and stale red velvet cupcakes…

Strawberry-rose mochi with red velvet cake balls. Yes, I know the plating attempt is cheesy. haha Vin's photography just made it look nice =)

The cupcakes were an easy save: cake balls.  They were actually a pretty ideal consistency for crumbling into… um, crumbs, and I just mashed it with some leftover cream cheese frosting.  I got a dozen little balls out of this and dipped half of them in melted Hershey’s milk chocolate and the other half in the never-ending supply I have of green candy coating.  I think I got the hang of making cake balls now that I figured out what tools work best and I’m pretty deft with the whole dunk/swirl/gently-yet-quickly-get-dipped-ball-off-stick-to-dry-on-tray-with-minimal-touching thing.  It took muuuuuuch less time than my first time w/the balls and I’m sure I’ll be a ball-dipping machine come fall for those wedding orders.  (TWSS!)  And there you have your basic reconstructed cake –> cake balls.

Now for the strawberries, there were so many options.  At first, I was thinking of making strawberry shortcake but then I’d have to bake the buttermilk biscuits and that would go against my “no baking” rule.  So I looked through my flour and spice collection and saw a box of rice flour I bought a while back from this Korean grocery store in LI.  (It’s a b*tch to get to though, and even then I still have to ask my sister to smuggle me some goods from Manhattan’s Chinatown b/c this place doesn’t have much in terms of Viet ingredients).  I’ve been meaning to make mochi, so I decided it would be good to try to test out strawberry mochi.  I chopped up 2 pints of strawberries into 1/4″ pieces and made a fresh compote for the filling.  I don’t know why, but I felt like throwing in some vanilla, rum, and rose water in the compote and now the whole house smells like roses.  I mixed in some drained liquid from the cooked compote to enhance the strawberry flavor in the mochi dough.  It was sooo sticky.  I kept coating my hands and the roller with powder so it wouldn’t stick to everything, and that probably changed the whole consistency.  This was definitely an experiment.  I mean, it IS pretty unconventional and non-traditional b/c I didn’t use red bean or green tea filling, but hey, what the hell, you can’t die from eating it and personally I thought it tasted good.

I had Vin try a test mochi ball while he was editing pics from a photo job.  Here’s how the exchange went down:

Me: Hey baby, you want to try a bite of the mochi?

Vin [eyeballs the pink ball in my hand like I just stuck an alien fetus in his face]: Uh… sure. [He takes a smaller bite than I thought he would.] …Interesting.

Me [I cock my head and raise my left eyebrow–it’s a reflex, I can’t help it–and blink @ him for a couple seconds]: You’ve HAD mochi before, right?

Vin: Uhhhh oh look, I was about to spell “Greene Ave” incorrectly for this caption…

[I blink @ him again, then quickly turn my heel and walk out of the room.]

Vin [calling out after me]: Yeah, I’ve had it before!  It tastes gummy… like edible gum… that you can eat…  [His voice trails off in the distance as I’m already back in the kitchen, sulking.]

PPPfffffttt.  Sorry, baby, but that was weak.  That was like, giving your wife the wrong answer when she asks, “Does this dress make me look fat?”… which, I can honestly say, I’ve never tricked Vin with that question with the intent of entrapment.  haha   Whatever, I’m just teasing…  he’s the best and most supportive taste tester ever <3  But I admit, “…interesting” was not what I wanted to hear. 

I decided to take a couple mochi balls into work to get better feedback.   It sounds like food snobbery, but well… some of my co-workers are Japanese and I’ll believe their critique over Vin’s on this one.  haha  I brought in a couple to one of the Admins and she was instantly impressed by their appearance (phew!).  I should probably disclose that she loves strawberries so maybe her opinion may be a LITTLE biased, but my co-worker was honest.  She said that my “homework was to make the mochi dough a little stickier”, but other than that they were “really good!”, she liked the flavor combination, and she said they looked really nice considering I don’t have a mochi machine (I wasn’t aware these things existed  haha)  Yay!  It wasn’t a terrible review @ all!

I’m pleased now and can go merrily back to baking.  This weekend is Vin’s brother’s birthday and the plan is to make something really special.  Stay tuned…

Bridal shower bash

M's gift box of pink, purple, and white cream cheese frosted cupcakes

One of my girlfriends from college is getting hitched next month to one of the most thoughtful guys I’ve ever met and I couldn’t be happier for the two of them!  And M has always been super supportive of my baking and has been waiting to try a cupcake, so her bridal shower was the perfect occasion to bring some nice baked goods as party favors.  Luckily there weren’t any objections from the maids of honor about red velvet cupcakes with cream cheese frosting.

I fell a little behind schedule this week because of work, so I didn’t make the frosting until Thursday night and didn’t bake till Friday night.  (I had to leave for the shower on Saturday morning!)  I colored some of the frosting to be hot pink and purple, and personally I thought the color combination looked pretty nice with basic star piping.  However, the addition of gel color made the frosting liquidy (again, I REALLY have to look into some powdered coloring…) and I was so nervous and paranoid about the icing melting in this ridiculous heatwave that I watched my bag of mini cupcakes like a hawk on the LIRR.  Then once I got off the train, I had to carry my shopping bag upright and maneuver my way around airheaded beachgoers and silly tourists who liked to stop mid-stride in front of me (Penn station really brings out the best in me, if you can’t tell).  I was holding my bag of goodies like Golum… all shifty-eyed and jumpy and scowling @ people who wanted to knock into “my preciousssses” and finally made it outside to get a cab (yeah RIGHT I was going to take the subway with these!).  Luckily I didn’t have to wait long and the cabbie wasn’t stingy with the A/C, so I made it to the restaurant without any damage to the goods and I could cool it with the freaking out.  Not even one little bite-sized cupcakes flipped over or had its frosting smear.  Yay!

Display of mini red velvet cupcakes with ever-so-slightly melty cream cheese frosting (Deb, I totally swiped this photo from you! =)

I helped the maids of honor set up the mini cupcakes on the tables and gave the beautiful bride-to-be her own take home box of red velvet cupcakes with pink, purple and white cream cheese frosting.  The feedback from the table was that these were good, fluffy and not grossly sweet!  I was really happy everyone liked them, and most importantly, M liked her own personal box of cupcakes and said (via facebook) “your cupcakes were soo goood. 🙂 ♥”   Congrats again, J +M… love you guys and can’t wait for the wedding!!!

Set of mini red velvet and cream cheese cupcakes

Remind me to not carry baked goods between the months of June-September into Manhattan on the crappy LI train ever again.  It’s too much of a high blood pressure adventure and my little heart can’t take too much excitement.   haha (I’m not doing this unless you’re really really special to me and/or I’m delusional from heatstroke.)  Cross your fingers that this is the last summer I’ll be transporting cakes and frosting on the LIRR…   =P

Babar & Tiny Tim go to this party…

Vin’s bro got married last year and he and his wife are expecting a little baby boy in a month.  They’ve decked out the baby’s bedroom in this nice yellow and got these cute elephant-related bedding and decor for little Timmy’s arrival.  Since their theme was quite obvious, I wanted to create cupcakes for my sister-in-law’s shower that had elephants… and yellow.

My test elephant on a red frosted cupcake; the final cupcakes had green frosting.

I guess the best thing to do was make cake toppers for the cupcakes.  I made batches of blue, grey, and yellow fondant (there goes 2 pounds of confectioner’s sugar) and had extra green frosting from the Sesame Street cupcakes so the toppers would stick.  I already had alphabet cookie cutters for the “T” for “Timmy” (“Timmahhh!”) but I couldn’t find a decent elephant shape that didn’t look weird or would fit on the little cupcakes.  Necessity being the mom of invention and me being of creative and adventurous spirit, I hand cut my own elephant shape.

A few months ago Vin and I were browsing HomeGoods and I was scouring the kitchen/bakeware section for fun new things (I have a tendency to buy cool sprinkles and rarely have occasion to use them so if anyone would like anything with cute sprinkles, please ask!) and I came across this random set of cookie cutters from Italy.  There were letters, numbers, generic shapes like stars and hearts, holiday cut outs, a few animals, etc. etc.  I bought this mostly b/c it was supercheap (plastic instead of metal), there were a lot of cutters (and b/c the size of the letters and numbers would fit perfectly on cupcakes.

I scanned the box to see if they had an elephant for me… there was one, but it just looked odd and was too big anyway.  And then I did a double take.  Included in this box of cookie cutters were a few dinosaurs.  There was a brontosaurus.  Its head and long neck were PERFECT FOR AN ELEPHANT’S TRUNK!  I cut out 3 small fondant circles and made a test cut of the dino head in the fondant then laid it out.  The original idea was to see the elephant’s head straight on using 2 circles for the ears, one as the head, and then the trunk.  It was cute, but way too big for the cupcake.  I rearranged the pieces so that the elephant would be facing the left and 2 circles would be used as the ears.  Not only did it fit better (the trunk was hanging off the side but it was kind of cool like that), but it actually looked more “realistic”.  Quite happy with the outcome, I was… which really was no surprise since I’m a genius and all.  =)

Fondant cake toppers

The next steps were a breeze.  Rolling out the yellow fondant then cutting out circles to be the base for the toppers wasn’t bad @ all, and punching out little “T”s were easy.  I assembled the toppers and stacked the layers on paper plates to stabilize in the fridge for a day.  I actually couldn’t attend the baby shower b/c we were heading upstate for my best friend from high school’s wedding party (<3 you, K +P!), so I had to bring all the naked cupcakes, the green icing, the toppers and a piping bag to Vin’s parents’ house to put everything together.

In the end there were 14 cupcakes with blue “T”s and 14 with elephant faces, and I threw in some chocolate minis with plain green icing.  I didn’t have a chance to get final close up shots of the cupcakes before the shower.  (I guess I’d better teach myself how to use the SLR to take my own photos.)  I heard the party was fun and that the cupcakes were enjoyed (phew!).  Can’t wait for little Timmy!!!

Photo of the baby shower table set up

Suuuuunny day… Sweepin’ the… clouds awayyyy…

Close up of the Sesame Street-themed cupcakes

This is one insanely hectic month for me.  Looking @ my baking calendar, I think I’ll just schedule sleep for when I’m dead.

Last weekend I was on vacation with some girlfriends (we were being patriotic and celebrating July 4th in PR) and I came back to busyness @ work (yay for quarter end) and braced myself for all my baking projects.  This weekend’s order was for a neighbor’s cute little boy’s huge Sesame Street-themed birthday.  By huge I mean 7 dozen cupcakes and a dozen minis.  I had offered to make the frosting into faces, but I’m kind of glad they just opted for basic designs b/c this was a pretty big order.  (Maybe one of these days I’ll make a slew of Sesame Street character faces.)  The oven was hot from 1130 am to 230 pm b/c trays kept going in and out.  (Our next oven must have a window so I can peek without having to open the door AND must have rack spacing that isn’t so darn close to the heated wires.)  I ended up making more than 10 dozen chocolate and vanilla cupcakes, along with 24 minis, and almost 2 gallons of frosting.  And as usual, I made Vin try everything and got feedback like, “It tastes like chocolately deliciousness” and “The vanilla is even better than the chocolate!”  That’s my kind of feedback  =)

Running out of table space...

After divvying up the frosting into 4 bowls, I mixed gel food coloring into the icing and tried to match the colors of the hand crafted cake toppers: green, blue, red, and yellow.  Red was the toughest since the plain version of the gel tastes the grossest and I had to use a lot of color.  There just has to be a better option besides Wilton’s “No taste Red” b/c it still does come up bright enough.  I went through a whole container of yucky plain “Red” and all of a “No taste Red” and ended up with a slightly pinkish-red.  Maybe it’s time to explore powdered coloring…

I put basic swirls on the little cakes and just stacked them in clamshell containers.  I was staring @ 15 very colorful cupcake boxes and wondered how the hell they would all fit in the fridge, along w/all the extra cupcakes, too.  I think I spent a good half hour going through all our cold food and condiments, tossing out half-eaten jars of pickled something-or-others that were God knows how old (well, OK not more than 2 years old since we moved in in 2009), cramming plastic take out containers of leftovers in the crisper and deli meat drawers, and stacking smaller cans on top of jars and larger canisters of food.  I made use of as much space as I could and stacked things up until I was able to fit all the cupcakes and quart containers of frosting in the fridge.  I warned Vin that I basically hid everything and if he needed any food to let me know.  And now we know the max amount of cupcakes my refrigerator can handle!  =D

I brought them over to my neighbor’s house and helped her put in her hand-crafted cupcake toppers.  She ordered these cute custom toppers that had her son’s name on them and pictures of Big Bird, Oscar, Elmo…  and she glued them to lollipop sticks and tied ribbon on them.  We stuck them in the cupcakes and arranged them on a stand while her son sampled the goods.  =)  It looked fantastic and I heard it was a fantastic party!

Colorful cupcake display

Next week’s project: baby shower cupcakes…

Obnoxious trendy deliciousness

Bacon cornbread with Sriracha & truffle salt butter

A few weeks ago, my cousin and I were griping about how certain foods have become ridiculous fads.  I was rolling my eyes about how Sriracha sauce was EVERYWHERE as a go-to ingredient and was seen in every other cooking show like it had JUST been discovered, and my cousin was disgusted with the bacon-everything craze and how it abuses the privilege of enjoying bacon.  It got to the point where we tried to think of the craziest food product that contained the most overhyped ingredients, and we came up with: truffle and bacon bread with artisanal cheese and ramps topped with Sriracha crème fraîche with a side of foie gras and a cupcake (ok, that last one hit home a little, but I agree; it’s totally trendy  hahaha).  As my cousin said, “I love those things independently, but together, it’s grotesque.”

These look fancy enough to be served at a trendy restaurant. Let’s see who steals this snack… watch, it’ll be on “Top Chef” or “Chopped” or something soon  =P

All our bitching aside, I didn’t have any orders this weekend so I had some free time to experiment and decided to basically make a grotesque concoction of our fad food pet peeves… well, minus the ramps (they don’t exist in the ‘burbs of LI), the crème fraîche (I COULD have made it @ home, but it would have taken a couple days and I didn’t feel like waiting when I could just watch the “South Park” episode  instead), foie gras (see explanation for “ramps” above… Vin and I were overjoyed to have found bone marrow a few times @ the supermarket but it’s not a readily available product), and the cupcake (I hadn’t baked cakes since Vin’s steak cake and unfortunately we had to throw out the leftovers.  Like steak, cake and fondant don’t last forever).  I ended up making cornbread mixed with bacon and Vermont white cheddar cheese (aged… in our fridge) with Sriracha butter and truffle-seasoned salt (yes, it’s a knock-off, but truffles are wicked expensive and if anyone wants to buy me one, be my guest).  And the kicker is… “grotesque” ended up looking AND tasting pretty good.  I made different variations of it: one with the elegant swirl of spicy orange-hued butter topped with a bacon crisp, and the other had chopped candied bacon bits sprinkled on it.  I only had a square of cornbread and bacon since any more would be pushing it and I’d be back in the hospital, but it really wasn’t too bad with the light hint of brown sugar.  Vin said it was pretty tasty, too.  Either way, the Sriracha butter was surprisingly delicious.  That stuff is a keeper.  And I can say that b/c I’ve pretty much been eating Sriracha w/Viet food since I was born and I keep a stockpile of it in our basement.  Like butter, I’d get antsy if we were ever down to the last bottle.  haha 

Toffee and chocolate cake cookie bars

I actually wanted to make something more elaborate like macarons or a specialty cake this weekend, but I had a migraine yesterday and my head was pounding too much to prep in advance for major baking projects.  I still felt the cloudiness in my head and had bouts of “fuzzy vision” today, but I had to bake SOMETHING.  Yet I felt the trendy cornbread was too quick and easy, so I rummaged up some dark chocolate and crushed Heath bar cookies, but baked them in the same square-shaped pan as the cornbread (I really like this shape) so it came out a bit more like cake.  Two baked items in one afternoon… not too shabby, eh?