Guiness Cupcakes with Bailey’s Buttercream Frosting
March 1st, 2012 § 3 Comments
My favorite holiday is fast approaching and I can’t think of anything better than an Irish Car Bomb in cupcake form. Anyone else over the moon that St. Patrick’s Day is on a Saturday this year? I know I am!
For those of you who don’t know what an Irish Car Bomb is- it’s a horrible St. Patty’s Day drink where you drop a shot of Baileys into a glass of Guinness and try to chug the whole thing in one gulp before the Bailey’s curdles into disgusting chunks. I am not the type to chug my drinks so I always end up with curdled Bailey’s. Sick.
The Guiness bottle tops made the perfect finishing touch. I found the recipe for the cupcakes here - the Bailey’s ganache in the center was delicious but for some reason after being left out for a few hours it turned into the consistency of a truffle so I’d suggest leaving that part out if you do not plan to serve right away.
Butterflies and buttercream
February 27th, 2012 § 1 Comment
Chocolate cupcakes with raspberry buttercream! As pretty as they turned out it was really the frosting that stole the show- but by the time they were being eaten the cupcakes had been plucked of their butterfly and the leaves removed so aesthetics were a wash at that point.
Today was my niece’s first birthday party- my sister asked for butterfly cupcakes so after poking around Etsy for inspiration I stumbled upon edible butterflies. Here are the ones I wanted- unfortunately their shop owner didn’t respond to my rush order question in time so I had to order from a different shop.
The idea was for the cupcakes to look like a rose with a little butterfly perched on top. My buttercream rose making skills aren’t what they should be and according to my mother (who spent two years of her young adult life frosting cakes) the frosting just wasn’t fit for roses so off comes the petal tip on comes the star-ish shaped tip.
The wrappers were designed in photoshop-printed and cut. If I were to make these again I would go with brown baking wrappers instead of silver so the leaves stand out more.
I found the raspberry buttercream recipe here. I loved how simple it was- three ingredients! I will definitely use this recipe to experiment with different jelly flavors (I’m thinking blueberry next.)
One thing I should mention- the icing was SUPER sweet, it overpowered the subtle flavor of the chocolate cake. Next time I plan to pair the frosting with a super dark chocolate cake to balance the flavors out.
Maple Bacon Cake Pops
August 15th, 2011 § Leave a Comment
If you have ever been to Portland, know someone in Portland, or follow any food blog updated in the past year, then you’ve heard of Voodoo Doughnuts and their to-die-for Maple Bacon Bar, which is essentially a super-tasty maple bar with a couple of crispy slices of bacon on top.
Photo from Food in Mouth
So I made Maple Bacon Cake Pops- I tried a few different combinations….
Maple in the cake, maple in the coating, peanut butter coating…
Luckily I have roommates to help out in my “test kitchen”…
… and the winner is maple and bacon on the inside, vanilla candy melts on the outside. Now you can enjoy all the flavors of breakfast in one bite! Recipe below.
Maple Bacon Cake Pops
Ingredients
- 1 box yellow butter cake, prepared and cooled
- 3/4 can vanilla frosting
- 1 package bacon, prepared and coarsely chopped
- 1 tbs maple extract
- 1 package white candy melts
Put it together
- Grind up cake into a large bowl, mix with frosting, bacon (reserving 2 tbs for garnish) and maple extract.
- Roll cake into quarter-sized balls and place onto a cookie sheet lined with wax paper
- Place sheet in the freezer for 15 minutes to set
- Heat candy melts in a small, deep glass bowl in the microwave- stirring at 30 second intervals until melted, one to two minutes
- Dip the tip of a lollipop stick into the candy melts and stick into cake balls
- Dip cake balls into candy and dry by sticking vertically into florist’s foam, garnish with reserved bacon bits
Lavender on the menu
July 18th, 2011 § Leave a Comment
Lavender season is coming! Being from a small town, it wasn’t until college when I was introduced to the crazy idea of actually eating it. Lavender had always been something that comes in soap or lotion.
When I was 10 my Girl Scout troop made wands out of lavender which my mother proudly hung in my bathroom… and there it remained for the next twelve years before it was eventually taken down, boiled, and made into a delicious cocktail. True story
Lavender Martinis! There is a bar in the artsy part of Seattle called Chapel that has what I believe to be the best lavender martini I’ve ever had. I convinced the bartender to share the recipe. The drink on the right had blackberry juices added to it, I do not recommend.
It’s all about the lavender simple syrup. The recipe made a ton so I’m hoping to experiment with other recipes (lemon squares with lavender or perhaps lavender-rosemary lemonade?)
Here’s the recipe- make sure and warn your guests that the drink is particularly deceptive. It’s much stronger than it tastes!
Lavender Martini
- 1/2 oz Lavender simple syrup (recipe below)
- 3 oz vodka
- 1 oz fresh lemon juice
Add to a shaker filled with ice, shake it up and serve in a martini glass. Sugar rim optional.
Lavender simple syrup
- 3 tbs fresh or dried lavender
- 1 cup water
- 2 cups granulated sugar
Bring water to a boil with lavender in a medium saucepan, stir in sugar until it is dissolved. Remove from heat and refrigerate for 1-3 hours. Strain out lavender and serve. Makes about one cup syrup.
Broccoli Crunch Salad
July 4th, 2011 § Leave a Comment
Taking a slight break from my emerging trends week. Hey, it’s a holiday. My mom asked me to make something with veggies for her birthday yesterday and I immediately thought of the broccoli crunch salad they make at Whole Foods. Partly because it has cashews in it which is my mom’s guilty pleasure, but mostly because it is an incredibly addicting crisp, sweet, delicious crunchy salad. Perfect for summer.
I scoured the internet to find the recipe but it seems like none is out there. I did find the list of ingredients provided by Whole Foods and I took on the rest. I made it once yesterday, and again today because we were supposed to save half for my aunt’s 4th of July party and well, that didn’t happen so here I am again making the recipe. The recipe only takes about 15 minutes tops.
Broccoli, bacon bits, currants, golden raisins, and candied cashews in a honey-chipotle mayo dressing.
Cashews candy-ing on the stove. I remove them as soon as the sugar dissolves and they barely get that toasted look on the bottoms.
When chopping the broccoli I turned the head upside down and hacked fairly close to the head to get perfect bite-sized pieces.
For the recipe- I personally like my salad a little light on the dressing to balance out with the rest of the components. If you’re one of those people that likes the dressing to dominate the salad then I’d suggest doubling up. I got the best feedback from my two-year old nephew who, upon his first bite, actually did a little happy dance. Love it.
Broccoli Crunch Salad
Ingredients
- 2 medium heads of fresh broccoli
- 1/4 cup currants
- 1/4 cup golden raisins
- 2 strips turkey bacon
- 2/3 cup roasted and salted cashews
- 1 tbs sugar
- cayenne pepper
- 1 cup mayonnaise
- 2 tsp sauce from a can of chipotle peppers
- 2 tsp honey
Method:
- Candy the cashews by cooking in a medium-sized skilled with sugar, dust with cayenne.
- Remove from heat and lay out on waxed paper to cool once sugar is dissolved and nuts are slightly browned.
- While the nuts cook, prepare the turkey bacon and allow to cool.
- Wash and chop the broccoli into bite sized pieces and place in a bowl.
- Once bacon has cooled, chop into small bits, set aside.
- In a separate bow, combine mayo, chipotle sauce, and honey.
- Stir dressing into broccoli, then add currants, raisins, bacon bits, and cashews.
Picnic themed barbeque with Slider Bar feature
June 14th, 2011 § 1 Comment
My family had never seen me go into full-blown party panning mode until this Mother’s Day- as a present to my mom I offered to not only style the party she hosted for my giant army of aunts/uncles/cousins, etc. but also do all of the cooking and baking.
Chalkboard paint put to good use.
I printed out the “Lemonade” sign from my computer before tracing over the black ink with chalk- one of my favorite party tricks. I like to smudge the paper a bit to give it the chalkboard effect. 
The best part was the slider bar!
The guests loved being able to try different combinations of gourmet toppings without the commitment of an entire burger.
Grilled pineapple, caramelized onions, sautéed mushrooms, cheddar, and blue cheese.
Spreads in mason jars- I loved the idea of using clothespins for the labels. Avocado, barbecue sauce, teriyaki sauce, mayo and ketchup.
And yes, it may take some hunting but some of the fancier grocery stores actually sell slider buns- brioche is a good alternative and there’s always dinner rolls.
My little creations.One grilled pineapple/onion/mayo/teriyaki sauce. The other sautéed mushrooms/blue cheese and bbq sauce. SO good.
Double-Rainbow Cake Pops
March 23rd, 2011 § Leave a Comment
I’ll admit it- I’m kind of obsessed with this You Tube hit of a man’s passionate appreciation of natural beauty. I’m helping out at a bake sale to raise funds for Japan and what better way to spread a message of hope than double-rainbow cake pops?
Rainbow sprinkles on the outside, rainbow funfetti cake on the inside. Basic cake pop tutorial here.
All packed up and ready to go! So intense.
Pot-o-Gold Cake Pops
March 14th, 2011 § 1 Comment
First off I want to dedicate this posting to one of my favorite bloggers out there- Angie Dudley of Bakerella- an amazing writer, baker and a huge source of inspiration. She’s having some health complications and can definitely use some Irish luck right now- so this one’s for her.
After my failed attempt to find a good pot-o-gold treat for my St. Patty’s Day posting, I thought I’d take matters into my own hands and make some pot-o-gold cake pops. To make- you’ll need everything from the basic recipe, plus white candy melts, black oil-based food coloring (water-based will turn the candy melts into paste,) and gold dragées.
The key is to shape the balls into little pots before chilling. I just flattened one end by forming a little divot on one end and pulling outwards. I then indented along the edge to make it look like the lip of the pot.
The trick to adding the gold was to dip the pops, then wait just a few seconds for the melts to become tacky before adding the dragées with a tiny spoon- otherwise they sunk into the melts. A little bit went a long way.
Voila!
… but something still isn’t right. Is it me or do those cake pops look suspiciously… I don’t know…. not black? On one hand I am a little annoyed that the black dye I bought turned out to actually be mislabeled purple dye. I figured this out after dumping half the bottle into my candy melts- therefore ruining the cake pops because dye tastes pretty heinous.
On the other hand the Washington Huskies, which happens to be my alma mater, won the PAC-10 championship in basketball the next day. Their colors are purple and gold. Coincidence? I think not. Maybe these cake pops are good luck!
St. Patty’s Day Cupcakes
March 8th, 2011 § 3 Comments
I love St. Patrick’s Day- every year my mom hosts a party for the family to celebrate the half of my dad’s side that is Irish with corned beef, cabbage, potatoes, and lots of Green River and O’Maley’s Irish Cream (never Bailey’s.) At some point as the night goes along she coerces me into doing what little Irish dancing I learned when I was 10.
Since this year for Lent I am (gasp) giving up alcohol (Yes. It’s true ) I thought I’d post some amazing St. Patty’s Day treats I’ve seen that I want to try and make this year.
Lucky Vanilla Cupcakes by Sprinkle Bakes. The green dusting is actually pistachios and how freakin’ cute are those chocolate horseshoes?
You can’t have St. Patrick’s Day without these two staples. Guinness and Bailey’s Irish Cream Cupcakes from Annie’s Eats.
Leprechaun-sized “Green” velvet cake balls from Bakerella
…speaking of leprechaun’s I found these adorable rainbow cupcakes here.
And what goes at the end of the rainbow? Nothing. Absolutely nothing. I looked all over the web to find the perfect gold or pot-o-gold cupcakes and found nada. Guess I have my work cut out for me!
A Very Domesticated Holiday
January 9th, 2011 § 1 Comment
I was at Michael’s chatting with the cashier and I said to her “There really ought to be more holidays centered around baking and crafts!” Being a Michael’s employee, of course she couldn’t agree more.
I made this Christmas card using blank gift tags, a glue pen, and lots of glitter on a basic white card with a textured red background.
then I made another 50. I did not send out a single one. So if you’re one of my friends reading this- yours is in there somewhere. Merry Christmas.
Because the cost of Thanksgiving skyrocketed after I picked up cooking- my mother has limited my meal planning to the appetizer. Above is a puff pastry tart topped with brie, carmelized onions, and dried cranberries. And butter. Lots of butter.
Cake pop bouquet- the mason jar made the perfect container. The cake pops were red velvet on the inside, white candy melts on the outside, then rolled in crushed candy canes, inspired by this post on HWTM.
Presents wrapped Northwest style!
Hope you all had a very safe and Happy Holidays! Definitely sending out my Christmas cards early next time…
