Cupcake Wars Part 3: The Final Countdown

Dear Employees of my Awesome Boyfriend's Kick-Ass Company,

I have to say a huge thank you to all of your support and participation as test subjects for my many baking endeavors. I know it must be hard on all of you when Evan brings in boxes of cupcakes for your approval and commentary, but I appreciate you persevering for the benefit of my culinary skills. Today's feat was particularly challenging and I know that asking you to decide between the epic Cookie Dough Cupcake and the tasty Chocolate Guinness Extra Stout/Irish Cream Cupcake was not going to be a simple one, but I knew you were up for the challenge. You did not disappoint. For that, I applaud you! I will remember you for future baking challenges and hope that you will continue to entertain my need for approval by devouring my delightful treats and offering comments and suggestions.

You are truly heroic.

Thank you!

Sincerely,
Shelly

Ah, now that we've got that out of the way...

It is time for the results of the epic Cupcake War: Cookie Dough vs. Chocolate Stout/Irish Cream. Evan so kindly hauled 5 boxes of cupcakes into his company's kitchen today. I had them all laid out on plates and they looked so very pretty, but that just wasn't practical. I mean, there was no way that they would survive such a very dreary, drizzly day and a ride in Evan's car, so we packed them into their tupperware boxes and he delivered them in 36 beautiful pieces.

I had my thoughts about which cupcake would reign supreme, of course. I assumed that, since everyone loves cookie dough and not everyone is as wild about beer as my dear boyfriend, the Cookie Dough Cupcake would come out on top.

At first, the reviews were mixed.

I received word from my dear friend, Casey (who happens to work at Evan's company), that they were a big hit. In fact, her exact words were: Loved your cupcakes this am!! Guinness/Bailey's Cupcakes=Breakfast of champions!!!

One of the other employees said: The cookie dough was completely amazing! I didn't try the stout but the cookie dough rocked!

Once I talked to Evan, however, there was a clear favorite. The Chocolate Stout/Irish Cream cupcake flew out of the kitchen while the Cookie Dough cupcake was slow and steady throughout the morning. I hesitate to call either on the "winner" but, if we're going by initial interest alone, The Chocolate Stout came out on top. I think curiosity killed the cookie dough.

I tried to get "artsy" here and give you a shot
of the Chocolate Stout in front and the
Cookie Dough in back, but it didn't turn out like I expected.
But you get it, right?

I look forward to hosting more of these challenges in the future and hope to have more conclusive results for you all. I have to say that I feel like it was a win-win situation for both cupcakes though because they taught me something new and made me think out of my Betty Crocker box. Thanks, rainy days and boredom, for inspiring me to do something I've never done before.

Cupcake Wars Part 2

Ok, so...yesterday I made those delicious cookie dough cupcakes. My taste for experimentation was not quite satisfied yet, though. Evan and I went out to the store and got the supplies for some yummy chocolate stout cupcakes. I used a couple of different versions and combined them.

I had a lot of trouble with this one. I've never really made cupcakes 100% from scratch, but I felt it was necessary for this one. I'm not going to go into a lot of detail because it literally took me all day to make these and the mess in the kitchen is still waiting for me...

I had fun with this but I have to say I won't be making these again anytime soon. I used Guinness Extra Stout in the batter (8 oz only, not the whole bottle, which made Evan very happy since he got to drink the leftovers) along with some butter, cocoa powder, sour cream (I know...it didn't sound right to me but it was good, trust me!) and the usual suspects in the baking department.

This was a very dense batter and I was kinda worried about it not getting cooked all the way through so I'm afraid to say that I may have over-cooked them just enough to make the tops all crusty. :( Sad panda for sure.

However, Evan didn't seem to mind once they were all put together.

I used a glaze recipe from my new favorite site: The Cupcake Project

I didn't have a very good experience with this however. I really don't know what I did...things turned out to be much runnier than I wanted and they also didn't taste quite as much as like the stout as I wanted. However, I tried to doctor it a bit but I failed. I failed miserably and it made quite a mess. I made it work as well as I could, but they were not up to my standards.

After I exhausted myself to no end with that debacle, I chose to make an Chocolate Irish Cream Buttercream frosting for little blobs on top of the glaze. This stuff tasted amazing. All I did was take store bought buttercream and add a bit of Bailey's Original Irish Cream and cocoa powder in there.

Please, don't tell me that they look like poop blobs. I already know that...

I sprinkled a bit of cocoa powder on top of it to make it look a little more refined and I think I made them decent.

According to Evan, they were much better than I thought they were going to be. I'm not sure if he was just telling me that or he was being honest, but I really needed to hear that after about 5 hours of struggling in the kitchen.

I guess the only way to decide if they were really truly good or if Evan was just flattering my ego is to send them to his office and let them decide. While I'm at it, I might as well see what they thought of my cookie dough cupcakes, too! :) Looks like his office is becoming my test market for my baked goods.

Hopefully they don't mind. Tune in later for the results in Cupcake Wars Part 3!

Cupcake Wars Part 1

Picture it: Labor Day weekend, 2011...it's Sunday and it's drizzling and dreary outside. Evan and I were invited to a friend's house for a beer tasting (all of these homebrew guys getting together to geek out about some very special beers...oh joy!) and I felt it necessary to bring something. After all, every well-mannered Southern girl knows it's rude to show up to a party without something in hand.

Of course, I decided to make cupcakes. But not normal cupcakes...Oh no. I really wanted to make a beer-centered cupcake but Evan wasn't prepared to part with any of his precious beers and, seeing as how we live in Georgia, we couldn't go out and buy any. So, I set aside my dreams of chocolate stout cupcakes for another day and focused on something I could make with just a quick trip to the grocery store.

I stumbled upon this delightful website: http://www.cupcakeproject.com/

It's like something out of a dream! She's done all this work and come up with some fantastically creative cupcake ideas! :)

I searched through her files and found this delicious recipe for Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cupcakes.

I altered it a little bit because I was short on time. I used a plain yellow cake mix and prepared according to the directions. While they were cooking, I sat down and followed the recipe for this yummy raw cookie dough that's safe to eat. No eggs. Delicious and safe? Count me in!!!

All you have to do is mix everything together in a big bowl. No muss, no fuss.

• 2 C all-purpose flour
• 1/2 t salt
• 3/4 C unsalted butter, melted
• 1 C packed brown sugar
• 1/2 C white sugar
• 1 T vanilla extract
• 4 T milk
  
• Mini chocolate chips (you can really use anything you want, but I chose this)

I actually doubled the recipe so that I could use some part of it to make the frosting for the cupcakes. I separated out 1 1/2 cups before I put the chocolate chips in it.

Anyway, once the cupcakes were cooled, I cut out a cone shaped portion so that I could then stuff some cookie dough balls in there.

Once that was finished, I mixed the separated portion of the cookie dough with a cup or so of heavy cream and spread it out on top of the cupcakes.

Cookie Dough Icing? Yes, please!

Finally, as they looked a tad plain, I topped them off with a tiny ball of cookie dough. They turned out so cute, didn't they?

I absolutely LOVE cookie dough, so these were superb in my mind. :) It was definitely a successful Sunday.

However...the Chocolate Stout cupcakes were still on my mind...stay tuned for Cupcake Wars Part 2 to see how that turns out.

Oh sugar sugar!

A couple of weeks ago, I had the pleasure of watching some of my best friends' little boy, Little N, for a few days while they went out of town for a work convention. 2 year old boys are so much fun and so sweet, but definitely require a lot of activity. We did just about everything: Chuck E. Cheese, running through the sprinklers and playing outside with sweet Cali. But you don't think I wouldn't put some sort of craft/art/cooking project, do you?

Of course not! Now, I didn't really want to do something that would allow Little N to make a huge mess and possibly ruin something in his parents' house, so painting was out. I also didn't want anything that required a whole lot of planning, but I did want something that would peak his interest and get him excited! What do little boys like more than anything (other than The Wiggles, that is)? COOKIES!

Big box of cookie cutters...
$9.99 at Bed Bath and Beyond

We went out and got some sugar cookie dough, cookie cutters, chocolate frosting and sprinkles! I rolled the dough out between two sheets of parchment paper and let Little N pick out his cookie cutters. I won't lie and say I let him do it all by himself. I'm too much of a control freak for that. I let him do a couple and then sent him off to play for a few minutes while those cooked. While they were in the oven, I rolled and cut most of the rest.

Little N chose this one for mom and dad...
Apparently he thought they spent their whole vacay on the plane. 

When they were out and cooled, I let Little N help me put some frosting and sprinkles on top of the cookies. He was so proud. I wish I'd taken some pictures of the final product because no one in the world will believe the insane amount of sprinkles that were on some of these cookies. It would have made a large man have a sugar high that could last for days.

With the left over dough and sprinkles, I had a great idea. I rolled it into balls and let Little N roll them around in bowls of sprinkles. They turned out really cute, but he didn't like these as much as his crazy sugar-coated sugar cookies.

All I can say is YUM! 

All in all, I have to say this was the highlight of my weekend with this little guy! I had so much fun, I almost wanted to tell his parents to go away for another few days so we could do more fun stuff! :) Almost...

Give me "Samoa" that Cake!

Oh birthdays...I love them! Especially when they involve my wonderful boy or my girls! This past Saturday we celebrated Rachel's birthday and I have to say, I wasn't sure I could top what I did for Gen's birthday! Rachel also wanted something very specific and I wasn't really sure I could make that happen either.

But I did...

Enter the tastiest cake I've ever made...

The (total knockoff of a Girl Scout Cookie) Samoa Cake:

Man, it looks like a hot mess in these pictures (and, honestly, it kinda was a hot mess, but there's a reason for that) and it fell apart when we were trying to cut it, but who the heck cares when it tastes just like a Samoa cookie.

If you guys don't know me very well, you might not know that every year I tell myself not to buy Girl Scout cookies from the nanner girl, but every year, she gives me that sad puppy-dog look and her big blue eyes guilt me into buying 3 or 4 boxes of Samoas and 2 boxes of Thin Mints. (As far as I'm concerned, they might as well not even make any of the other cookies. They don't exist to me.) And every year I manage to consume all of the boxes I've bought within two weeks. Sometimes even one.

That said, I knew I had to make this cake taste perfect. To be fair, Rachel didn't ask for a Samoa cake specifically, but she did ask for a chocolate coconut cake and when she said that, all I could think of was the delicious coconut and caramel mix of my favorite cookie drizzled with chocolate on top of shortbread. Sigh...when are those damn girl scouts going to take my order?

I started off by making my own version of the cookie to see if I could get it right, but I used dark chocolate instead of milk chocolate and they didn't taste quite right. I decided to call them Samo-eh's and let E take them to work. Everyone in his office (with the exception of one guy who doesn't like coconuts) liked them fine but agreed that they weren't quite the same.

I perfected my recipe and was all set to go to the grocery on Thursday, but then it started storming like crazy. Another fun fact about me: I HATE thunder. I will not go outside while it is happening and I will not do anything involving me and water. I think I was told as a kid that you shouldn't take showers or baths while it's thundering outside because I won't go near the stuff. I am also pretty sure mom made me try to take naps during storms because they ALWAYS make me sleepy if I'm at home.

So, I made a plan for Friday. I was all set to go. But then I took the nanner kids on a little excursion. On bikes. Down the road. Which was dumb. Everything was going well at first. But then nanner girl, bless her heart, stopped short in front of me and I had to swerve to miss her, causing me and nanner baby to tumble to what could have been our collective doom. Thankfully we lived and he was totally fine. I sustained some minor scrapes, some extensive bruising and a (still) very painful shoulder, elbow and wrist injury.

As it was my dominant wrist that got hurt, making this cake proved to be a challenge, not only to my baking skills, but also to my ability to push through pain. Hence why the cake is a little less clean looking than I would like.

Anyway, here's what's inside. Sorry I don't have a picture of this, but it was rather messy once we cut into it.

It's similar to Gen's cake in that it has layers and the whipped cream but I changed some stuff up a bit.

Layer of dark chocolate cake, layer of dark chocolate icing, layer of homemade shortbread, layer of coconut caramel mixture (just like the cookies...ahhhh), layer of chocolate cream cheese whipped cream. One more layer of that topped with a final layer of cake and SUPERCALIFRAGILISTICEXPIALIDOCIOUS...

You've got the interior finished. Now, ice it with the chocolate frosting, cover with chocolate fondant, sprinkle it with leftover shortbread and coconut, drizzle with chocolate.

I'd recommend keeping this in the fridge until you're ready to eat it. The problem lies in the coconut mixture. I have to find a way to keep it softer, even in the fridge, because as it was, it was nearly impossible to cut.

It sure tasted good though...I even got marriage proposals from some of my friends. Although Evan didn't seem amused by this, I took it as a compliment.

Chocolate Covered Goodness!

Sometimes it seems surreal, but almost a decade ago, I met my absolute best friend. We weren't exactly friends at first, but one fateful weekend in our old sorority house, when everyone else had gone home for a break, Gen and I had no choice but to bond. Since then we've done practically everything together. (You know, except for the fact that she has a husband and a kid now, but that's besides the point.) 

Anyway, two weeks ago I got to celebrate Gen's 27th birthday with her. How better to do so than with an epic cake and some new Jessica Simpson shoes! If you don't know me, I LOVE shoes! Evan thinks I have a problem. Maybe I do, but I love the fact that Gen and I wear the same size! 

Nicole, Gen and me in our FAB shoes!
We all love shoes and share excellent taste,
if I do say so myself! :) 

While putting on our dancing shoes and hitting up our favorite places in Buckhead was fun, the cake definitely deserves a mention! I usually try to surprise people, but I pretty much run everything by Gen, so why should this time be any different? I asked her what kind of cake she wanted. She said "chocolate with strawberries. Nothing too fancy."

You really want me to do something simple? I didn't think so! I took her idea and I ran with it.

I knew I wanted to do something with strawberries in the middle and I knew I wanted to layer it a little. Kinda like a trifle, but not really. I started with the basic chocolate cake (2 of them actually) and baked them in the awesome 9x square pans my mom just bought me (thanks mom!). After they cooled, I sliced them and put a thin layer of cream cheese icing on the first layer. Then I put a layer of strawberries on top of that.

A note about the strawberries: I cut them up, sprinkled them with sugar and let them sit for a while. When I say I sprinkled them, that is a lie...I actually poured sugar on them, but I suggest just sprinkling because pouring lead to a massive mess later.

After the strawberries I added a layer of homemade cream cheese-based whipped cream. This stuff was AMAZING! I can't even pretend to be humble about this. It was a total success. You blend the cream cheese and sugar together with my secret ingredient: 2 teaspoons of ALMOND EXTRACT. My Nana is probably fussing at me from Heaven because she believed religiously in vanilla extract and would NEVER have put cream cheese in her whipped cream, but let me tell you...this was a whole new ball game, Nana...you would have been proud. Whip in the heavy whipping cream until it makes a stiff peak. Layer that on top of the strawberries. Add another layer of cake, icing, strawberries and whipped cream. One more layer of cake and you're finished with the inside of the cake.

Stick it in the freezer for a minute while you mix the fondant. I set some aside once it was mixed and left it white. Then I mixed up the color for the rest of it. I was trying to make red, but unfortunately I mixed pink in there instead. Fortunately it ended up looking really pretty so I decided not to freak out about it. Later. I did freak a little at the time and my hands were stained pink for quite some time.

With the leftover white fondant, I did something that most people would call...obsessive. I rolled it all into little tiny balls to look like pearls. :) Pearls make everything classier!

Once the cake was cooled and delicious looking, I covered it with the same cream cheese icing and then rolled out the fondant and placed it over top. Then I stuck it back in the freezer. For good measure. And to solidify its perfection.

While that was going on, I decided to cover some strawberries in chocolate and drizzle with white chocolate on top. Then I did that on the cake too. Top it off with the strawberries and add the pearls at the bottom and voila! You've got a masterpiece for your mouth. Delicious!

Happy Birthday, bestie! So happy we've been friends for so long! You're the best!

Beer me, Baby!!

So. I'm pretty much the best girlfriend in the world at this point. Evan and his twin brother had their birthday this weekend and I have been planning an epic birthday cake for months now. Evan and Cam both really like beer. And I really like challenging myself. So I decided to make a "beeramid" cake.

As much as I would like to go into great detail here, I'm not feeling super hot today and I've got to work (7 days off and I've forgotten how cute these kids are!) so it's gonna be a short post with lots of pictures.

Here's the short-hand how-to...

Cut off the end of a can: 

Spray it with PAM and stuff it with rice krispie treats that you JUST made (don't let them cool down and harden!)

After you've made as many as you want (one batch of rice krispies will make about 4 cans), let them harden over night. 

Cali badly wanted to eat them. Mercedes did too, but she
was trying to be stealthy about it and was hiding
from the camera. Smart cat...

Mock-up of how they'd stack...looking good I think...

Put a ring of fondant around the top and use some fondant to fill in any weird holes or gaps in the treats. 

Then cover the whole thing with grey fondant. I also used a little darker grey to make the hole and the same light grey to make the pop top. :)

Make sure you are using cornstarch to keep the fondant from sticking to your rolling surface or itself. Please avoid getting cornstarch on your dog. She will not like it. 

Now you've got to figure out what you need to do for the labels. I talked to one of Evan and Cam's best friends, Andy, who just happens to know everything there is to know about craft beer. I asked him to send me a few pics of craft beers in cans that the twins liked. He recommended Brew Free or Die, Gordon, Dale's Pale Ale, Surly Furious and then I added in Yuengling because I know Cam likes it. 

I rolled out white fondant in the right size for a label and used edible markers to decorate. The lovely ladies at Cake Art also suggested this white edible food coloring that I used much like acrylic paint. It worked some of the time, but not all of the time. Might have been user error on that one. 

Anyway, I can't tell you how I made the labels look so awesome because I'm just talented like that...ok, I'm just really good at copying things. But I still can't help you get better at that. You have to do that for yourself. Anyway, I finished up the beer cans and decided to do some playing cards as well. Reason for this: anytime there ends up being a "beeramid" on the table, there has usually been a drinking game of some sort that involves playing cards. Simple enough. 

Anyway, the next day, Cam's girlfriend, Allie came over to help me do the grunt work. We made the cake (1/2 sheet red velvet...exciting, right?) and covered it in icing and fondant. She also had the great idea to make a playstation remote for the cake as well. Since I am lousy at sculpting on my own, I was glad she was there to do that part. She sculpted the remote and I made the buttons. Then we decided it was time to add everything to the cake. 

We used skewers to make sure the cans stayed where we wanted. That was harder than it looks.

Remote close-up

Crushed can: I carved some of the sides out and made it
look all crushed like that before I added the label.

The cake with all the candles.
There is a napkin in front of it for a reason.
Someone decided to put their finger in it. :(

Anyway, that's all she wrote. Hopefully y'all liked the cake. I sure enjoyed making it! :) Thanks for the help, Allie! Happy Birthday, boys! :) 

Chow down!!