November Daring Bakers
posted by joeli under Daring Bakers, cupcakes
My first Daring Bakers challenge! I decided to sign up to be a Daring Baker because I like the idea of being challenged to bake something that I wouldn't normally do. They've done thing like éclairs and pretzels, and so to be honest, I think I got off easy for my first challenge. This month the challenge was Caramel Cake with Caramelized Butter Frosting. The recipe comes care of Shuna Fish Lydon of Eggbeater. The recipe can be found here. The only hard part was making the caramel and luckily enough I mastered that on the first try!
» Read more
Iron Cupcake: Cranberry
posted by joeli under cupcakes, ironcupcake
I'm not really a big fan of cranberry. I like it as a juice and in Wensleydale cheese, but that's about it. So when I heard this was our secret ingredient for Iron Cupcakes, I wasn't too inspired. That said, what has come out as a result is perhaps my favorite cupcake I have made so far. This cupcake taste like those chocolate donut holes you can get from Dunkin' Donuts. It's delicious. Fair enough, you can't taste the cranberry in the least. But these cupcakes have inspired me to use cranberry juice as a secret ingredient more often. (I've also made these cupcakes with coffee instead of cranberry juice and I can tell you the juice definitely made a difference)
» Read more
Book review #3 plus a quick experiment
posted by joeli under book reviews
The first part is "Secrets of the Kitchen" and is sort of myth busting for food. It takes common theories about food (putting a silver spoon in champagne bottle to keep the fizz, blowing on coffee to cool it down faster) and puts them to the test.
The second part is "Physiology of Flavor" and is pretty much does what the title says. It goes into things like how chewing effects the flavor of food.
The third part is "Investigations and Models". This section is the longest and discusses the science behind specific foods. For example, he discusses how to get a perfect sabayon and why this method works. But again don't expect any recipes but do expect to be using a thermometer to boil your eggs.
The forth part is "Cuisine for Tomorrow" and is about experiments to take food to the next level. For example, there is a section on mayonnaise and how to make different types of mayo (egg white only for example).
» Read more
Chocolate Overload Birthday Cake
posted by joeli under cake
I have a little problem with birthday cakes--I always seem to ruin them somehow. Last year I tried to make a cheesecake and a lemon meringue pie and both turned out soupy. The year before I tried to make a yellow cake from scratch and it came out awful. But somehow, this year, I managed to do okay (barely). It took seven hours, a kilo of chocolate, 3 cups of cream and so many dirty dishes that I had to fill the washing up bowl three times, but I did it. I present to you the super duper chocolate overload birthday cake.
» Read more
Book Review #2
posted by joeli under book reviews
For my next book review I want to talk about A Baker's Field Guide to Cupcakes.
Overview: This book consists of 15 master recipes (7 cupcake recipes and 8 frosting recipes) and 60 recipes which adapt those master recipes. This is a format which I absolutely adore. Now, don't be worried--the 60 recipes are not the 7 cupcakes with each different frosting. Though it is true that some of the main recipes are used much more often than the others, there is a wide variety and most recipes have something added in which makes them more than just a basic cupcake. The master recipes are utilized as follows: sometimes a main recipe will call for "12 yellow cupcakes" in which case you simply follow the master recipe for the yellow cupcakes and then proceed as follows. Other times the main recipe will just call for "1 batch batter from yellow cupcakes" in which case you make the batter but then are probably stirring something in. Please trust me that this format does not in anyway get tedious. You probably have 20 shirts in your closet which are all variations on the basic T-shirt but which are all different enough to give you a reason to buy them, right? Well the cupcakes in this book are definitely all very different.
» Read more
Eyeball cupcakes
posted by joeli under cupcakes
Happy (Belated) Halloween! I hope everyone had a great weekend. Halloween isn't very big in England but I'm American so I needed to do something. After much pondering I settled on cupcakes!
» Read more
