Domo-kun: "Otanjoubi omedetou!" *

*”Happy birthday” in Japanese

I had a fantastic birthday weekend… more like birthday WEEK.  Vin took me on a long-awaited, much needed vacation to Riviera Maya and we ate/drank/got crazy tan lines while everyone else was dealing with a snowstorm in the Northeast.  Then we come back to NY and had a whole smoked pig dinner with all the fixin’s.  Then we had a fancy steak dinner on my actual birthday with Vin’s family.  Then I had ice cream cake with my family the day after my birthday.  And I walked away with booze (thanks, Uncle Rob!) and gift cards to Bed Bath & Beyond, Michael’s and Williams Sonoma since everyone ganged up on me and felt like catering to my weakness for high-end liquor, baking supplies and kitchen gadgets.  hahaha  Seriously, I love the gifts… thanks so much, and thanks to Vin for putting up with all the birthday madness!  <3

I spent the last evening of my extended birthday festivities making my own cake. Last year Vin got me a little Domo monster stuffed toy.  I don’t know why, but I really really wanted one.  And I don’t know why I had the urge to make a double chocolate Domo-kun cake for myself for my birthday, but here it is.  It looked way cooler in my head and I felt like this was a little sloppy.  Then again, I DID start decorating around midnight and this wasn’t for a real order, so I admit I was a little lazy about this one.  And I didn’t mean for the cake to look this angry, but it did.  Oh well.  It tastes awesome.

 

I’m bringing this into work tomorrow to celebrate with co-workers since I didn’t have time to bake last Thursday night.  Plus, it just so happens that one of my co-workers has the same birthday as me and his desk just so happens to be right behind mine so maybe it wouldn’t be so weird bringing in a cake I made by myself for myself.  It’s not like we’re in 3rd grade and you have to bring in cupcakes to share with your entire class; I’m pushing 30 now.  haha

Turning 28 isn’t so bad…  especially since I had an awesome birthday and I still look like I’m 18  =P

**Sorry about the not-so-great photos.  Vin is asleep (as most people are apt to be @ 2:30 in the morning) so I didn’t ask him to take pics and I just couldn’t get a nice image =/

Holiday leftover bake-a-thon

Thank goodness Christmas is done and over with!  I was on a baking binge for the past week.  I just couldn’t stop making SOMETHING and I made almost one item a day.  Insane!  I feel like confectioner’s sugar, flour, and butter are seeping out of my pores.  I think I need to detox now.

 

For Christmas eve dinner @ the T house I made another Bundt loaf of savory monkey bread.  Personally, I think it came out better for Thanksgiving because I used more butter.  Seriously, what was I thinking trying to cut down on the butter for Christmas?  It was still good.  There was about half the loaf left by the time the 14 of us were done eating.  Vin and I packed up some leftovers but left the bread for Mom T.  I can easily make some @ home for us (more on this below) and she loved it the most, so it’s the least I could do  =)

 

I brought over the eggnog crème brûlées for Christmas eve dessert and they were a hit. Vin helped me torch the sugar just before serving and went around telling everyone to eat them and basically shoved the ramekins in their faces.  (Aww… my #1 fan  <3)  I introduced one of my brothers-in-law to it since he had never had crème brûlée before, and another one was raving about it all night (then again, he and Vin had a lot of scotch so it could have been the liquor talking  hahaha). I didn’t try any during Christmas eve, but today I had a little bit of the last ramekin we saved.  The custard consistency was perfect and the flavor of my improvised eggnog was on the money.  It was so money it was like Guy Fieri and his permanent sunglasses tan.  Now, what other flavors can I infuse into the next batch of crème brûlée… HHHMMMmmmm…

 

So I lied and broke out mixer again before New Year’s.  Poor baby.  The little monster probably thinks I hate it because I’m so abusive.  Whatever.  It’s still protected by the warranty and I needed to make frosting.  I still had plenty of leftover chocolate cupcakes and we were going to make rounds to see other family, so I decided to whip up frosting and quickly ice two dozen cupcakes and a dozen minis.  I have a tendency to rummage and be impulsive, so on a whim, I made Bailey’s mint-flavored frosting.  Yes, you read that correctly: Bailey’s.  With mint.  And it was delicious!  I swirled it on the cupcakes and sprinkled some red/green/white sugar on top and voila!  Instant awesome desserts.  We brought a dozen to each of Vin’s sisters’ houses.  I have to say, I always like watching everyone’s reactions when they eat my baked goods because I always worry it doesn’t come out well or they don’t like it, so when people say, “This is the best chocolate cupcake I’ve ever had!” or “The frosting is perfect!” or “Oh my God I’m soooo full but I ate the whole thing it was so good!”… I just love it!  It’s all I need.  As long as I have fans who like eating my baked goods, I’ll keep having fun  =)

The view from our front porch @ 8 pm
Today is the day after Christmas and it’s been snowing alllll day.  It’s coming down hard and it’s so windy the house is creaking… like there’s someone walking around in the attic *shudder!*  We had the fire going today, and I made more savory monkey bread just for the two of us.  This time, I added crushed red pepper for some kick and Vin chopped up some green olives and pimentos to incorporate in the bread.  And I used smaller square pans.  And more butter =P  They came out flawless this time.  There’s a wonderful crust along the edges but a fantastic chewiness inside and the flavor of the olives just takes it to another level.  I wasn’t intending on baking today, but it was nice to have the oven on the warm the house.  Or… smoke up the house because the butter bubbled over and burned in the bottom of the oven, which made smoke come out and the detector to go off and Vin laugh @ me and ask, “What is going on in there?”  hahaha  Oooops.  Either way, the kitchen smells awesome.
The roaring fireplace in our sick living room.

Right now Vin is playing with his Christmas present.  Let’s hope it doesn’t fritz out on him or I’d be pissed.  And I don’t even know where to start with mine.  It’s a crazy awesome machine that’s “1) a very mysterious and powerful device and 2) its mystery is only exceeded by its power”. (Ten points if you know where that’s from. Hint: it’s my favorite movie.)  I think I’m going to let it sit in the box for a while (you can even see it on the left in the pic of our living room) and let the idea of my owning a crazy Cricut Cake machine fester.  I don’t even know where to start with this.  It’s like… if I take it out, it’ll force me to go to the next step: using fondant.  That’s unknown territory I’m not quite ready for yet…

Chocolate holiday cupcakes, part deux

It’s 4 am.  Why no, I haven’t slept yet.  This is the second night in a row I’ve been up past 2.  Part of me wonders if it’s worth it to even “nap” since I have to get up in about 90 minutes to get ready for work because I don’t feel that tired @ all…

Today’s order was for a friend’s Christmas party with her family.  I offered to make fancier flavor combinations, but my friend decided that she wanted chocolate cupcakes with vanilla frosting and red and green holiday sprinkles, half of which would have raspberry icing filling.  Since my taste tester went to bed by midnight, I broke off a small piece of a cupcake and I have to say, I’ve outdone myself.  Really.  These ones taste even better than the ones I made on Saturday and they’re SUPER light and fluffy and chocolately and moist.  What can I say?  I completely amaze myself sometimes. =)

Honestly, this really shouldn’t have taken as long as it did because I had made the frosting in advance and the designs were relatively simple.  I think I just kept getting sidetracked trying to clean this in the midst of doing that.  And then I didn’t want to use Vin’s camera(s) without asking because… well, you just don’t come between a man and his camera settings, so I spent some time trying to take cell phone pics so please bear with the crappiness of the photos.  Oh wait… it was the sprinkle placement, too.  I was too meticulous in artistically hand dropping individual sprinkles at first (above: note the pure perfection of the mini cupcakes. See how each sprinkle is gently nestled in the creamy swoops and swirls of the frosting and how the red ball sprinkles are strategically cradled in the slightly-off center arrangement… I digress), and then finally it was like, “Oh my God it’s 3 am WTF.” And THEN, I had to make room in my fridge.  There are still cupcakes from this past weekend, leftover food, TONS of sauces and condiments taking up space, and the eggnog crème brûlée ramekins from last night’s late baking episode (I would have posted a shot of the nice caramel top, but I seem to have used all of my sugar for this evening’s cupcakes…  however, Vin had one and said it was great, so that’s a relief!)… somehow, I made room for it all.

 Anyway, I think I should get some shut eye.  My mixer is on vacation till next week; too bad the oven still has to work overtime.  I’m making another loaf of savory monkey bread for Christmas @ the T house.  Speaking of Christmas, I know you’re wondering, “Hmmm, what can I get Katherine?”  Well, fret no more.  You still have a couple days to get me something, and I could always use sugar, unsalted butter, and tasteless red food coloring.  Thank you in advance  <3   Of course, if you’re really busy with last minute Christmas things, I guess I’ll understand.  You can just make it up to me for my birthday in 3 weeks. hahaha


Merry Christmas everyone!

Eggnog crème brûlée

I had planned to make crème brûlée @ some point this week but wasn’t sure when I would have the time.  Of course inspiration randomly bit me in the @ss as I was staring out the window on the LIRR, on my way home from a late evening out with a girl friend.  By “late” I mean the night ended @ 8:50 pm. On a work night.  OOOoooohhhh… totally girls gone wild, right?  hahaha  Anyway, after Vin picked me up and I put away the dishes to make room for the ones in the overflowing sink, I noticed that he was “photo-ing”.  And the “Inception” soundtrack was playing.  And I took this to be my cue to get started on the crème brûlée because the aforementioned “photo-ing” (a.k.a. “photo editing”) would take some time.  @ 11:40 pm.  On a work night.  I wasn’t feeling like I wanted to make the same old crème brûlée, which, I’ve made plenty of times before since it’s Vin’s favorite dessert. So after taking out the separated egg yolks (the whites are for macarons!), I came across imitation rum extract while rummaging through my random flavors.  I figured I might as well take a shot @ making something slightly different and thought eggnog would be perfect!  A splash of “rum” here, a dash of nutmeg there, a hint of cinnamon…. I sipped a taste and the flavors were pretty spot on.  And from what I gather, the actual recipe for eggnog is very similar to the pre-oven crème brûlée mixture anyway.  I filled the ramekins to the brim and the delicious holiday smell of ‘nog wafted from the oven.  


Right now the ramekins are cooling in the fridge.  I’ll have to post a picture of the actual brûlée’d caramel top tomorrow (err… later today) before we eat it.  Why not now?  It’s almost 2 in the morning and I’m in no mood for sugar now and… it’s a work night.  This midnight-insomnia baking is getting a bit out of hand…

Update 12/26/10: click here for a shot of a torched crème brûlée serving.

Chocolate cupcakes, as far as the eye can see…

 

I had overly ambitious plans for myself this weekend: chocolate cupcakes for an order for a Christmas party and to bring in to work, macarons, crème brûlée, and I really wanted to make an edible Christmas tree out of frosting.  Not a big one, maybe 5-6″ or so.  I know, pretty modest dreams, right?  

I intended to get a start on this Friday night and bake all the cupcakes, but I didn’t feel so hot and needed sleep.  Bright and early Saturday morning, I got up and cleared out the kitchen counters so I could make an even bigger mess.  I’ve learned several things from this weekend’s baking episode: 
1) My KitchenAid monster can handle over 3 batches of cake mix, which translates to approximately 5 dozen regular cupcakes and 10 dozen mini cupcakes; 
2) I’m completely in the zone when I’m baking. Don’t sneak up on me or I’ll have a heart attack.  I didn’t hear Vin behind me while I was measuring ingredients and when he said, “How’s it going?” I almost screamed/fainted/spilled milk everywhere; 
3) I’ve realized I get a little nervous and antsy when there is less than 3 pounds of butter in my fridge or freezer @ all times.  This worries me for some reason.  Luckily, Stop & Shop had butter on sale and I stocked up and the world is @ peace again… for now;
4) Now that I have all the basic supplies I need, I think I have this thing down to a science; trays went in and out of the oven in an efficient, orderly, military-like fashion and I’m so awesome @ filling cupcake liners now that not a smudge of batter dripped onto the cake trays.  None. Nada. Zip.  Those babies stayed spotless during my baking frenzy and as silly as it sounds, I’m damned proud about this feat because my equipment will stay nicer longer… plus, I don’t have to spend all this time cleaning and scraping the burnt crud off the trays.  haha 

So the request was for chocolate cupcakes with peppermint frosting and crushed candy cane topping.  I honestly was worried that the frosting would end up tasting like toothpaste (kinda gross to eat), but Mr. Taste Tester said it was fine.  I ended up baking exactly 128 mini and 60 regular chocolate cupcakes that were pretty darn light and fluffy.  My only concern was the food coloring; once I added the red (two containers worth), I noticed a tinge of bitterness, but eaten with the cake and peppermint candy… it came out all right.  Initially, these were going to be topped with chopped candy canes but I was worried they’d crack everyone’s teeth, so I took out the Ninja Master Prep Professional Blender, Chopper and Ice Crusher and processed the hard candies into a powdery dust.  These ended up tasting and looking pretty good!

Bringing these into the office…
I only needed about 3 dozen for the Christmas party order.  The reason I made so many extra ones?  I’m giving them out on Monday as “thank you” gifts for my co-workers.  I won’t get into specifics about my day job, but I kind of-sometimes-occasionally-possibly, um… harass people for reports and information all day.  And I’m actually a really sweet and funny girl, but when it comes to work, I will hound you down and call and email and bug you until the job’s done and done well, dammit.  These cupcakes are my way of saying “Thank you SO much for all the help you’ve given in the past year and hopefully I won’t be @ the top of your sh*tlist for 2011!”  As you can see, I’ve bugged a lot of people.  I may have to bring in more on Tuesday…  =P

I think the crème brûlée and macarons will have to wait for tomorrow… plus, on Wednesday I have to bake again for another Christmas order: Raspberry frosting-filled chocolate cupcakes!

Tiramisu test run

I stayed up late last night to make tiramisu.  I felt like it was a half-assed effort and that I did not do right by my favorite dessert because… I didn’t use legit ladyfingers.  I resorted to using these gluten-free ladyfingers because the regular kind just did NOT exist at the supermarket.  Which is kind of insane since there are pizzerias and Italian restaurants every 2 blocks, and tiramisu is an Italian dessert… so you’d think that ladyfingers would be a common find.  Nope.  These organic, gluten-free cookies were way overpriced and taste like Styrofoam.  I still went through with making the egg-sugar-mascarpone filling and hand-shaved chocolate for the small Tupperware-sized trial run of my caffeine + booze-filled dessert. 

It ended up tasting better than it looked.  Vin actually liked it (SCORE when my non-sweet tooth husband likes a dessert other than creme brulee!) because the filling tasted great.  I’m glad I didn’t completely butcher this thing!  Next time, I’m going to make my own savoiardi* from scratch.  Tiramisu take two will be SO much better, I promise!

*biscuits à la cuillère or boudoirs or ladyfingers

Bread and brownies for Thanksgiving

I was having trouble deciding what to bring for Thanksgiving @ my in-laws’; there were just too many tasty things I wanted to make and it was tough to narrow it down to one item.  I couldn’t choose between making an appetizer/side dish or a dessert so on Wednesday morning (just before Vin’s nephew #3 was born!) I opted to make both: a savory monkey bread to go with the meal and brownies with salted caramel frosting topped with chopped bacon and pecans.  Yes, I said “bacon” and “brownies” in the same dessert.  If you really think about it, it is the perfect “crave satisfying” food: salty, crunchy, chewy, sweet, or as one of my aunts says, the bacon caramel brownies make up “three of my favorite food groups!”

I hit up Stop & Shop to get some last minute ingredients for my baking creations and I didn’t start prepping till 10 pm.  Yes, it’s becoming a bad habit this late night baking thing… but the macarons were a spur-of-the-moment/late night idea and they turned out wonderfully so I was kind of hoping my last-minute preparation of contributions for the big family dinner would come out well, too.  I made the brownies first, and while they were in the oven I dumped a ton of sugar and butter into a pot on the stove for the caramel.  This would take a while to heat up, so I chopped up some pecans and minced slices of cooked bacon into itsy bitsy little pieces and popped them in the toaster oven for a bit, just to bring out the crunchy goodness.  After the caramel cooled, I whipped in some cream and I have to say, this is one of my favorite frostings.  It was super light and fluffy and was JUST right with the sweet, chewy chocolate from the brownie, the solid crunchiness from the nuts, the all-around perfection of bacon, and a light dusting of sea salt and cocoa powder.  I know… bacon + anything is getting played out and everyone and their mom knows it from watching any food show or scanning the menus of hot, trendy restaurants, but 1) I love bacon; 2) I’m making this dessert so I can do it any way I please; and 3) the family really liked them.  I get that the combination of flavors would be an unusual and new concept for some, so for those that wanted to play it safe, I left out the bacon sprinkles on some of the pieces.  *sigh*  Oh well, more bacon for me!

Yeah, so the brownies were good, but the bread was the star of the show.  You may be familiar with monkey bread as more of a dessert item with brown sugar and honey and nuts… but this was a savory monkey bread with spices, grated cheese and a Paula Deen-approved amount of butter for added deliciousness.  I made this on Thanksgiving morning because I still wanted it to be warm when we brought it to Vin’s parents’.  We left it in the car for a bit while we met his sister’s new baby @ the hospital (he’s sooooo cute!) and the entire car smelled awesome when we came back.  Seriously, we were drooling the whole ride to the T house and couldn’t wait to break into the bread.  If I could patent that smell into an air freshener I totally would.  You’d be ruined if you were on the Atkins or some carb-counting diet and got a whiff of this, for sure.  hahaha

Brought the bread into the house @ 130 pm.
This is what it looked like @ 133 pm between the 4 of us.

And it tasted as good as it looked. After flipping it onto a large plate, Vin and his parents and I ripped off pieces and tried it, and we couldn’t stop eating it.  It was simple to make and it was such a huge hit!  By the end of the evening, there was just one little piece left, and mind you I used THREE pounds of dough for this bread.  I’m most definitely making this again for Christmas Eve, if not sooner  =)

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

PCP and macarons

This past weekend we went upstate to celebrate an early Thanksgiving with my extended family and Katie and her cute babies (traveling next weekend would have been hellish so the off-holiday party was a brilliant idea).  My little brother (I made a Pikachu cake for his graduation) is obsessed with pie for some reason, so I suggested that we make our pineapple coconut pie (aka “PCP”) for dessert and he was psyched.  We made this for Easter after finding a recipe for pineapple pie and completely tweaked it to include condensed milk and coconut and made fresh whipped cream for topping =)  My bro and I made two pies (somehow I ended up doing most of the work while he was scraping for the last remnants of the sweetened condensed milk can), but unfortunately no pics were taken before the first one was devoured and I can guarantee by now that between my dad and my brother, the second pie is long gone.  haha  Oh well.  I’ll have to make it again @ some point.

A macaron is awesome because it’s really light and yet part of it is a bit like a chewy cookie with filling.  I love meringues, and the consistency of a macaron is just fun to eat.  I like them, but they’re not my favorite dessert.  My husband, on the other hand, seems to have fallen in love.  Vin has been very subtly hinting that I make macarons ever since I brought him a sampling from Macaron Cafe.  (His clues ranged from “I found all these websites that have macaron recipes and just emailed you”… “Where do we get almond flour… does Stop n Shop have it? What about Michael’s? Are you sure? I bet you didn’t even look!” … “You know you have to let the egg whites sit for a while in the fridge”… to blatantly telling me, his family and my family: “Screw cupcakes… you should just make macarons!” haha)  I WAS interested in trying my hand at it, so I bought a coffee/spice grinder to make almond “flour” and separated and whisked eggs and took out the sil-pats.  It was kind of silly of me to decide to do this @ 11 pm on a Monday night, but I just didn’t want to watch TV or go to bed just yet (again, my reasoning of making a bigger mess instead seemed completely logical @ the time) and made 4 trays of macarons.
 

This experiment was very Goldilocks-like to say the least.  The recipe said to put them in the oven for 10 minutes @ 325. Knowing my temperamental inferno of an oven tends to run hot, I set it closer to 300.  Somehow, I was able to burn the bottoms yet not fully cook them.  There goes one batch.  The second set was in for less time @ the same temp and came out better but not so great, and the third and fourth batches were more acceptable @ lower heat and less time.  I took a small bite of one and I THINK it kind of tasted like the macarons I bought?  I needed a second opinion, and unfortunately my taste tester was already fast asleep. I whipped up some peanut butter frosting and slathered it on half the edible macarons, and alternated with Ferrero Nutella - 26.5 oz and strawberry jam for the other halves.  I packed a container for Vin’s snack tomorrow and hopefully he’ll enjoy the objects of his obsession  =P

Eventually I’ll have to make another attempt @ this and try to make different flavors.  Goldilocks, out.

Update 11/23: Vin had a couple macarons this morning and said, “they were delicious baby!!” and “the texture was perfect.”  He brought some into work and his co-workers (I was told some of them are French) said they loved them and said, “Wow, she did well for her first time!”  To which I thought “TWSS and merci”  =)

Carrot cake cupcakes

A repeat customer requested carrot cake cupcakes for this weekend.  I used to not like eating carrot cake at all, but I guess that’s because most of the carrot cakes I’ve had from stores or restaurants were too dry or too sweet or too SOMETHING.  Since I started baking things from scratch, I’ve made carrot cake twice, and not to pat myself on the shoulder or anything, but carrot cake doesn’t taste gross anymore.  =D

Carrot cake used to be pretty up there with red velvet in the “pain in the @ss to make” category because we didn’t have a legit food processor so it used to be pretty annoying to peel and hand grate all the carrots for this. We bought a “Ninja” chopper/snow maker/blender/etc and it’s not too bad.  I still had a helper hand grate half the carrots though (thanks, baby!) and added a mix of secret ingredients that weren’t in the original recipe.

As I was spooning the mixture into the cupcake pans, the texture and color reminded me of vomit.  See for yourself.  Who knew it this would soon be something so delicious and appetizing! MMMMmmm… yummy…

Since I wasn’t sure how long it would take to bake these babies, I kept checking the first batch.  I know, I know… constantly opening and closing the oven isn’t good and I did my best to only take quick peeks so the cakes would rise properly.  I got lucky that I didn’t over or under bake the cupcakes and I got the timing down to a science.  I was on a roll and made over 4 dozen cupcakes, but towards the end I got sloppy.  I started getting careless and grazed the side of my arm on the open oven door and now have a lovely 2″ burn on my forearm.  =(

While the cupcakes cooled, I made fresh cream cheese frosting.  We had gone to Costco and got a three-pound block of Philly cream cheese and I went through a pound of butter no sweat (hellooooo, Paula Deen!).  I guess I was so used to the scent of carrot and spices that I wasn’t affected by the inviting, perfect-for-fall odor of cake wafting through the house, but Vin was!  He said the house smelled awwwwesome and kept asking if I had tried any yet.  I saw him eyeballing the cupcakes and told him to go ahead and crack one open so I could check to make sure it cooked OK.  He said they were perfectly moist and tasty!  Yayyy!

A quick swirl of frosting and neatly placed mouse-brain sized pecan finishes the perfect carrot cake cupcake!

Checkerboard birthday cake

This is one way of killing two birds with one stone… giving your parents an awesome birthday present and giving me business @ the same time.  hahaha  My friend Danny wanted to order a birthday cake for his parents (what a sweet son he is!) and was open to any ideas. So I asked what his parents liked: what kind of cake (one likes vanilla, the other likes chocolate cake), what frosting flavors (vanilla and chocolate-raspberry), what colors they liked (green and yellow)… so I had this wild, ambitious idea to make a checkerboard cake instead of making one boring layer of chocolate, one blah layer of vanilla…

On the outside, this is a normal 9″ three-layer cake with my trademark roses in yellow (I really should learn how to make other things out of frosting  haha) and basic border design in green with standard white vanilla icing and freehand “Happy Birthday” in yellow.  (My apologies to Danny’s parents; “Mom + Dad” didn’t fit after I wrote “Birthday”.)  However, on the inside, this baby is CRAZY awesome.  Once you slice it, you’ll see a delectable raspberry-chocolate frosting in-between layers of…  a checkerboard made of cake!  Not too shabby, eh? EH?  =)

I was SO glad Danny’s family liked this!  ¡Feliz cumpleaños, Senor y Senora V!