Hi Hat Cupcakes I did it. I finally made them. Hi Hat Cupcakes have consumed my cupcake thoughts since I first saw their tall chocolate dipped tops online after I started blogging. But, I have to tell you, I’ve been nervous to make them. They scare me. I knew for sure I would screw them up and end up with a melted mess. But this weekend, I tried them. So I decided to use the only recipe I remembered seeing. > Update: I just realized this recipe is also from the book, Cupcakes! Chopped chocolate. But even better with the frosting. If I had paid attention to the directions beforehand I don’t know if I would have been as eager to get started. 12 minutes later and a candy thermometer in check to make sure the frosting formed stiff peaks at the right temperature. Actually, it never made it to just the right temp, but after 12 minutes… I was over holding the hand mixer. So I took a leap of faith it would work and piped it on the cupcakes… as tall as I could get it. One bag of semi-sweet chocolate. Tasty. More…
new york cheesecake New Yorkers have a reputation for being pushy and over-the-top — these are things you learn when you leave the city for a weekend, and a ticketing agent at the airport in Tulsa, for example, informs you that you’re so much more polite than she thought a New Yorker would be. We apparently like things bolder and taller and shinier and more intense and while I’m not sure if this really applies to your average straphanger commuting from walk-up to cubicle and back again everyday, I am absolutely certain that it applies to our cheesecakes. (No, the other kind, silly.) How is a New York Cheesecake unlike any other cheesecake? To begin, it’s very very tall. Most cheesecakes — like my Bourbon Pumpkin, Cappuccino Fudge, Key Lime and a Brownie Mosaic riff — use 3 bricks of cream cheese; this uses 5. This is where I come in, with your ticket to Big Apple bliss, but better because it is can (and also roving crazies that crack up at jokes they imagine in their heads) -free, in your kitchen.
The Peanut Butter Cup All-In-One Cake Last Friday as a few of us Buy.com’ers said farewell to Mili, a very special Marketing Intern who after spending a short summer with us, will be returning to finish her senior year at Duke University. Typically our farewells are held at the local brewery, however since Mili isn’t of drinking age we went out for lunch instead. The restaurant everyone agreed upon was Opah, and although I’ve driven by it every almost weekday for the past seven years, this was my very first time eating there. A few minutes after being seated we were greeted with a couple of these… Then thanks to Melissa we all shared this incredible tower of sweet potato chips dusted with aged parmesan and served with a side of chipotle ranch dressing. The sweet potato fries alone were worth the visit! Those of us who knew what we would be having for dessert later that afternoon opted for a light lunch. One of the funniest moments during lunch was when the tallest of the group was served these two tiny sliders, it was comical!
Strawberry Champagne Ruffle Cake for a Virtual Baby Shower – Cook Like a Champion Without a doubt, one of the most rewarding things about food blogging is all the amazing friends I’ve made along the way. Even though we’ve never met in person, I am so thankful to have made such wonderful friends, and I hope we’ll all have the chance to meet someday. I hate that we’re spread all over the country because I know we would all have a fabulous time together. There are some things that simply have to be celebrated with friends, no matter the distance between them. Ashely from Delish made mock champagne punch . Shawnda from Confections of a Foodie Bride made pink/blue corn blinis with crab and avocado crema . Nikki from Pennies on a Platter made baby hummus sandwiches . Elly from Elly Says Opa made stuffed mushrooms . Amy from Sing for Your Supper made these adorable chicken salad bites . Josie from Pink Parsley Catering made pimento cheese fritters with red pepper jelly . Michelle from Brown Eyed Baker made caramelized onion, mushroom and gruyere tartlets .
pumpkin cupcakes Oh, people. I know you’re pumpkin-ed out and it is not even Thanksgiving yet. But if there could be room in your gullet for one more pumpkin love — perhaps even as a last minute, the-heck-with-pie, Hail Mary pass of a Thanksgiving meal dessert — I think that these wee cakes are a worthy cause. So many pumpkin cakes and loaves and muffins are heavy, playing off the dense qualities of pureed squash, and the deep, warm spices we like to eat them with. The original recipe is from our friend David Leite, of the Consummate Chocolate Chip Cookie fame. How to make roses: I worked at a bakery in high school where I picked up some party tricks — ha! One year ago: Curried Lentils and Sweet PotatoesTwo years ago: Fettuccine with Porcini Pumpkin Cupcakes With Maple–Cream Cheese Frosting Adapted from David Leite Yield: 17 to 18 cupcakes Frosting Two (8-ounce) packages cream cheese, softened 1 stick unsalted butter, room temperature 2 cups confectioners’ sugar 1/4 cup pure maple syrup 2. 3.
Chocolate Peppermint Cake Boy did I get an earfull from the guys the day I brought this chocolate masterpiece into the office—I suppose I should have seen it coming, being the mother of three boys and all. They went on about how in the past seven years that we’ve been working together, I had never taken the time to make something like this for them. You would think the “guys” who usually get first dibs on everything else I bring into the office. ie. french macarons, cinnamon rolls, chocolate chip cookies, banana bread—practically 80-90% of what you will find on this blog has made it’s way into the office—would be OK with me making a special cake for a couple of non-IT birthday girls. The girls were even sweet enough to share the cake with everyone—thanks for sharing Michelle & Melissa! On a lighter another note… let’s talk about this delicious Chocolate Peppermint Cake. There is however, a particular form of mint I used in this cake that I’d like to talk more about… Chocolate Peppermint Cake Chocolate Curls/Shards
sweet saturday: one minute peanut butter cake Picture this scene: it’s 8:30 in the evening. The sky is just starting to get dark outside your living room window. You ate a delicious, healthy and veggie-filled dinner a few hours ago and now you are ready to sit down to the most recent episode of So You Think You Can Dance and dive into a decadent plate of dessert. Oh wait, you have no dessert. No chocolate, no cookies, no ice cream, no cake, no pie, not even a Jordan almond. What’s a girl to do? Well she’s to go to her microwave. You can make a delicious, fluffy, moist peanut butter cake in your microwave in about one minute (30 seconds mixing, 30 seconds zapping). The options are also pretty endless. One Minute Peanut Butter Cake Print This Recipe Serves One Like my peanut butter microwave cake? Ingredients: 1 egg, beaten1 tablespoon brown sugar1/2 teaspoon baking powder1 heaping tablespoon flour2 tablespoons peanut butter1 teaspoon milk1 tablespoon powdered sugar (give or take) Directions:
best birthday cake Some people find out they’re going to be parents and — you know, after the whole “yay babies!” cheer has simmered down a bit — freak out because they haven’t yet a) traveled the world, b) made their first million, paid off all of their debt and saved up enough for $200 toys for their little snowflake or c) well, grown up yet. But me, I actually had a moment of panic because I hadn’t yet found the perfect yellow layer cake recipe. And apparently — and yes, probably ridiculously — central to my image of the kind of mom I want to be is not to have to turn to a box of Duncan Hines Moist Deluxe Butter Recipe Golden (anyone else ever been perplexed by this wording?) cake mix to get a reliably perfect two-layer celebration cake. It’s the Smitten Kitchen, afterall: People have expectations! But I’m not knocking on Duncan Hines, or anyone else who — like me — thinks they do a frighteningly good job of making a consistently perfect, moist and plush yellow layer cake. Best Yellow Layer Cake
Chocolate Salted-Caramel Mini Cupcakes To make the cupcakes: Preheat oven to 350°. Line mini muffin pans with paper liners. Whisk together flour, cocoa, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Add eggs, buttermilk, oil, vanilla, and water. Using an electric mixer on low speed, mix until smooth. Fill muffin pans about 2/3 full. Cupcakes can be stored overnight at room temperature or frozen in an airtight container for up to a month. To make the filling: Heat sugar, water, and corn syrup in a heavy saucepan over high heat. Boil, gently swirling pan occasionally, until mixture is caramelized and temperature just reaches 360°. Remove from heat. Use a paring knife, cut a cone-shaped piece, about 1/2-inch deep, from the center of each cupcake. To make the frosting: Combine cocoa and boiling water. Using an electric mixer on medium-high speed, beat butter, confectioners’ sugar, and salt until pale and fluffy. Frosting can be refrigerated up to 5 days or frozen up to 1 month.
Caramel Apple Pie Cupcakes « The Craving Chronicles It seems like once the weather cools down everyone wants to jump right into pumpkin season. Don’t get me wrong, I love pumpkin as much as anyone else, but to me September is apple season. I was thinking about how often apples get overshadowed by pumpkin a few weeks ago when my husband asked me if I wanted to attend a dinner party with some of his coworkers. “Hrmmm. Maybe…”, I said. It took me a while to decide on an approach for these cupcakes. Ultimately, I decided the best way to pack that punch of apple flavor into a cupcake was to use apple pie filling. I was apprehensive while putting these cupcakes together. In the end, they didn’t. They tasted approximately a million times better than I had imagined. I was hoping for good cupcakes, but these were amazing. Caramel Apple Pie Cupcakes Printable Recipe (Includes all sub-recipes) Makes about 24 cupcakes There are several steps to complete before assembling the cupcakes, but some can be done a day ahead to speed things up. Ingredients
red wine chocolate cake Saturday night, New York City was the loudest I’d heard it in a long time. I should preface this by saying that I live in a noisy part of an already noisy neighborhood and under the best of circumstances — NYU students gone for the summer, long holiday weekend, rain — there’s always a Saturday night ruckus. But this was something else. This woke me up. I don’t have a 9/11 story. The next year was a blur of trying to get our heads around the unfathomable, and I barely remember it. This month marks another anniversary, the fifth of this site. One year ago: Linguine with Tomato-Almond PestoTwo years ago: Cheesecake Marbled BrowniesThree years ago: Baked Brownie, Spiced Up and Braised Romano BeansFour years ago: Tortilla de PatatasFive years ago: Romaine Pesto and Egg-Stuffed Tomatoes Red Wine Chocolate Cake with Whipped Mascarpone Adapted loosely from this Everyday Chocolate Cake, and you Now, the essentials: The wine does not, I repeat, does not, fully bake out.
Cream Chz Pound Cake w Easy Caramel Frosting Last Saturday served as a perfect example of why I dread the coming winter. It was a frigid day filled with misty rain and capped by a gloomy, gray sky. The slick streets were inundated with horrible Charlotte traffic. Depressed by the lack of sunlight for taking photos, I was nevertheless trekking to the store and to my parents’ house to gather materials for a cake. If you’d caught a glimpse of me, you might’ve mistaken me for a little black raincloud; in fact, all I needed was to take Winnie’s cue and strap a balloon around myself for the illusion to be complete. I scowled about the drivers who neglected to use their turn signals, griped to myself about the parking situation at the store, stepped in a billion ice-cold puddles, and bought a plate for my cake only to find it was “not for food use.” [youtube= Flipping some delicious Low-Carb Pumpkin Pancakes. Dad enjoying his breakfast. The best pound cake ever in the history of the universe, hands down.