Swiss Buttercream

Oh frosting. So tasty and pretty for decorating. But how do we choose which one for what cake. Buttercream, cream cheese, cooked frosting, meringue, pastry cream, I mean I could go on forever.

Classic is of course buttercream and this is better-ish.

It's a hard to choose between them, I suggest using it when you want a lighter touch and for decorating!

So what we need:

3-6 Egg whites (you can use meringue powder - also wait for next blog about what to with the yolks)

1 1/4-1/2 cup of sugar

1 tablespoon Vanilla Extract

3 Sticks of Butter

So making a double boiler (pot with water and bowl on top) the water can be simmering and boiling just don't let the bowl touch the water. We mix egg whites and sugar and whisk. Heat until all sugar dissolves or it reaches 140-160 F degrees either way, you can touch the mixture it will be lukewarm and the sugar will not be there.

We then move to stand mixer (you can use a hand mixer - but whatever you have will do. 

Using a whisk attachment at a low speed and moving it up until you have meringue.

See how pretty it is - shiny. 

 

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This is so yummy as is, you can use in pies, cookies, cakes and cupcakes. 

But we must continue on for more greatness. 

Try to get all that goodness back in the bowl (it is majorly sticky stuff) and switch to a paddle attachment. (Go ahead and lick the whisk clean - I give you my full consent) 

So here's the butter in all it's sinful glory you can throw it in stick by stick until incorporated or you can do it my way and dump it all in at the same time. 

Eh, it's not pretty at first - especially my way but it gets better. 

At speed 4 I think. (Kitchen Aid - locked and walk away.)

See that's after 10 minutes of letting it go on and it is beautiful.

You have to let it go - trust me. 

This is after it's been colored and trust me it's amazing! 

Angel Food Cake

That little composition is my favorite snacks.

Nutella, strawberries, almonds, whipped cream, angel food cake.

Yummy!



Look at those sliced almonds. Expensive little sons of guns. But so worth it.
And whipped cream just everywhere.
Lovely.


So where do we start?

Sliced almonds - I guess you can buy whole almonds and crush them.
Whipped cream - cheaper if pre-made, but fun to make at home. (Recipe coming soon)
Angel food cake - impossibly hard and annoying but so fluffy (Recipe coming soon)
Homemade nutella (Recipe coming before all the rest, because everyone needs it)

For now I suggest you go to your supermarket and buy all these pre-made and fall in love. And then when I post the recipes and go head try it at home, decide pre-made ingredients are cheaper and less than 12 egg whites for the cake! Or maybe decide that yellow cake is just fine! Either way this is amazing.

Remember that if there is whipped cream, there should be a strawberries.

Infused Sugar

We've all heard of vanilla sugar, right?



And like amazing people we are, we make it at home, correct?
Please, tell me you make it at home?
We all go to IndriVanilla and get amazing, affordable vanilla beans right? Well I hope so, because I've looked and this was a gift from the goddess.
Anyways after finding that wonderful easter egg, I looked into many things; vanilla paste, vanilla extract and vanilla sugar. Easily the most wonderful discovery in the world of cupcakes.


Yummy!


Oh, no! I'm almost out.
The sadness of that is overwhelming.
Anyways this is mostly a follow up to the creamsicle cupcakes!


Orange infused sugar. Oh I wish you could just smell it.
I suggest you go find some orange (and many more) zest and sugar, oh and jars. Lots of jars.

Infused sugar is that extra kick you really really want. Lime, lemon, coffee, lavender, mint, coconut, rosemary, any other fruit.
With most fruit you will have to get dried fruit and pulverize them in a blender or food processor. The same thing with coffee and other plants. Zest should be left to dry overnight.
Now what are these sugars good for? Baking, cooking and mixing.

I like lemon and lime for margaritas and margarita cupcakes.

Defiantly one of my favorite cupcakes I've ever made, you can even see the crystal sugars on the top.
Now lavender and lemon can also be used for pound cakes.
Coffee and mint are great for chocolate cakes and mint cakes, wonderful flavors that go together.
I like rosemary for dinner rolls or french bread - yummy.
And all fruits is good for summer drinks and fruity cupcakes!

I'd love to hear some other flavors to mess with, hopefully I can update with some great flavors I've experimented with.


Update!

Coffee sugar rivals only vanilla sugar in taste and smell! 

Creamsicle

2012 Ice Cream Cupcake Contest Rules with the Cupcake Project




And don't forget Scoopalicious


This post is for a 2012 Ice Cream Cupcake Contest! Links are above!


I don't usually give out a lot of recipes but these are special and must be shared! There is two versions of this wonderful creation: liquor infused and virgin!


Are you ready?


We start with the nice version.


Like most cakes we have: flour, sugar, baking powder, salt in the dry version and for extra kick we add TANG!





Wonderful and you won't get that orangy flavor without it.


Now in a bowl we leave them in there (no sifting) just whisk it together and leave it be.
Wet ingredients: butter, milk, vegetable oil, extract (orange and vanilla) and eggs. Add eggs last and one at a time, please.


Baking at 325F for 25 minutes. I choose regular or jumbo, no minis (the filling doesn't really work well with them)




Now the ICE CREAM part!
This is where the naughty part comes in.

Alcohol infused ice cream.
We can choose to cheat and pick up  your favorite vanilla ice cream and add favorite liquor. Choices are endless (whiskey, flavored vodka, flavored liquor.)  


We can make the ice cream (with ice cream maker) or my favorite way: heavy whipping cream = cool whip. Adding sweetened condensed milk and vanilla extract and a little bit of powdered sugar to stabilize it. First whip the heave whipping cream to whipped cream then adding other ingredients and letting it chill in piping bag. (Lets say anywhere from 30 minutes to 2 hours) 


Now frosting: we are close to the end of a creamsicle cupcakes: we have the orange cake - a ice cream filling (with or without some booze) and ending with more orange frosting. 


Now I like buttercream but it might be to heavy for such a light summery pop, so either don't use so much, thin it out (with heavy whipping cream not milk) or use swiss meringue buttercream.


Now powdered sugar (or regular sugar with SMB) butter, vanilla and orange extract.


There you go: Creamsicle Cupcakes! With real ice cream filling! I hope you all enjoy and wish me luck!


P.S. Have you heard of infused sugars? Of course you have! 



That up there is orange infused sugar and makes everything better - learn more here.

Chocolate and so much more

First I must explain. I love chocolate.
Exhibit A and B

I became a little obsessive after I re-organized my kitchen.







But today at the Farmers Market I found Rosemary!

Rosemary is amazing.
I love it so.












With that rosemary I made rosemary rolls.

Aren't they pretty?








And I realized that I must share more than chocolate from my kitchen.



So,
Coming Soon:

Egg in the Hole!

The Best Muffins Ever!

My take on Red Lobster, Garlic Cheddar Biscuits.

Something amazing with this baby potatoes, most likely with rosemary.





















And possibly and sadly I have no visual aid, Rosemary Truffles!!!


Oh dear.


That could be devastating.

For my hips.

But I forgive myself.

So more pictures

Oh strawberries, I do love you. I'm trying to grow you in my little apartment.
Eight stories high.

More on that later.

On the bright side, I buy organic. Yum. But we must move on from these lovely red berries. And melt chocolate, which means that we can:

A: melt in microwave
B: make a double boiler
C: you already have a double boiler, lucky bastard.

I make my double boiler and melt this beautiful chocolate.

Dip and taste.
Trust me it was very delicious.

Chocolate Sheets, Simple and Yum-tastic

So I've been a little bit in a chocolate madness mood for the last 18 years or so but lately I've been experimenting with chocolate sheets, bowls, roses, spider webs, shot glasses, truffles. This is just one products of that obsession.

Chocolate sheet/bowl, with chocolate covered strawberries.

I wonder how many times I've said the word chocolate, this question will be answered at the end of the blog.

Anyways, chocolate. I've decided to make this blog about the amazing things you can make with chocolate.

First melting chocolate; by itself, with heavy cream or butter/shortening.
I like melting by itself and not adding any of those things, but they do make the chocolate smoother, so have at it if you'd like.

Second, flavors! Cayenne, coffee, orange, vanilla, liquor; all amazing all can be added while melting the chocolate. Layers of flavor, get them in there!

Next shaping the chocolate! Molds people! Molds! They are everywhere, use them. Spoons, candy molds, strawberries, almonds, martini glasses. Parchment paper is your best friends here! And bowls like the one pictured above... BALLOONS! Is genius when you think about it!

Finally: Toppings! Zest, lemon, orange, almonds, pistachios, sea salt, more chocolate!

I will explore every aspect of chocolate in later post, but for the most part I'm done and do some non-chocolate stuff. I know it's sad.

Chocolate said a total of: 15 times!
Hooray.

This is Healthy, I promise

So organic strawberries dipped in dark chocolate, sprinkled with almonds.

Healthy fruit, antioxidant rich chocolate and almonds are good fat.

Also I did not spend my time making this instead of homework and or studying.