Uncategorized

Beet red velvet cupcakes with cream cheese frosting

Standard

I have chronicled my trials and tribulations with the formidable red velvet cake before. From the not-so-successful results to successful but potentially toxic results to preparing for a more natural version of these vividly colored cakes (and the mess that ensued).

The result…

The use of peeled, juiced raw beets achieved and maintained the color desired. In my study of the topic, and in the desire to avoid food coloring, I learned that cooking the beets would dim or destroy the red color (the main reason for using beets!). Perhaps there is a way to account for and prevent this (using lemon juice in the cooking, perhaps?), but it seemed just as easy to peel a handful of beets and throw them in a juicer to get pure, raw beet juice and fine beet pulp, which turned out to be ideal for these cakes.

In addition to the raw beet juice, I changed the recipe slightly from the original recipe I had used (I may try the original recipe again just to see if it makes a difference).

(Beet) Red velvet cupcakes
3/4 to 1 cup of beet pulp
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 1/2 teaspoons rice vinegar
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup butter, softened
3/4 teaspoon vanilla
3/4 teaspoon salt (if using unsalted butter)
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1 1/4 cup flour
2 eggs
1/2 cup buttermilk
1 tablespoon cocoa (unprocessed, natural cocoa powder)

(To make the beet puree, I used a juicer. I peeled four or five beets, threw those into the juicer, which separates juice from pulp. I used the resulting 1 cup of beet pulp and then used some of the beet juice to achieve the right level of liquid – I did not measure this, so it might be a trial and error process for others who attempt this.)

Preheat oven to 350F/175C.

Mix the beet pulp, lemon juice, rice vinegar together.

In a mixing bowl, cream the butter and sugar, add the eggs, then the vanilla. Add the beet puree mixture.

Sift together dry ingredients (flour, salt, baking powder, cocoa) and mix the dry mixture into the butter-beet mixture alternately with the buttermilk. If the batter is really thick, you can add a bit of the beet juice from the juicing process. You do not want this batter to be too thin, however.

Bake for about 20 to 25 minutes in lined cupcake pans. A toothpick inserted in center of the cupcakes should come out clean. Cool in pan on rack for two or three minutes before removing the cupcakes from the pan and allowing them to cool completely on racks.

Frost with cream cheese frosting.

Cream cheese frosting
8 ounces (227 grams) cream cheese, at room temperature
6 tablespoons (3/8 cup or 85 grams) butter, at room temperature
3 cups (330 grams) powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon lemon juice [juice of 1/2 a lemon]

Cream together cream cheese and butter in a mixing bowl.
Slowly sift in powdered’s sugar and continue beating until fully incorporated. Mixture should be free of lumps.
Stir in vanilla and lemon juice.

I did not use this exact frosting recipe and ran out of powdered sugar, so my frosting was a bit less than solid – but no one seemed to mind much. The handful of people who provided feedback, as lab guinea pigs do, said they were really good. Still, I think this is one recipe that can continue to be improved on. And filled with beets, perhaps we can convince ourselves they are slightly healthy! (And just for Janne and Esteban: Remolacha!

Tipsy cake – Guinness cupcake and Baileys Swiss meringue buttercream

Standard

At last, a successful attempt at Guinness cupcakes and Baileys frosting. I doubled the recipe, so I had an exceptional number of these, which I spread liberally throughout the office – ensuring of course that my Irish friend and colleague had easiest access to them!

Guinness cupcakes (or you could use any stout beer you want to use)
1 cup butter
1 cup Guinness (or other stout)
2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 cup brown sugar
2 cups flour
1 cup white sugar
1 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
2 eggs
1/2 cup sour cream

Heat butter, Guinness, cocoa and brown sugar on the stovetop until the butter is melted and the mixture comes together cohesively. Set aside and let cool to room temperature.

Mix flour, white sugar and soda. Add the Guinness mixture. Mix well.

Beat in the eggs, one at a time, followed by the sour cream.

Divide into lined cupcake pans and bake at 350F/175C for about 20 to 25 minutes (until toothpick inserted into the center of the cupcakes comes out clean). Let cool 10 minutes before removing from the pan. Place on a cooling rack to allow to cool completely before frosting.

Baileys Swiss meringue buttercream frosting
3 egg whites
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup unsalted butter, cut into pieces
3 tablespoons Baileys

Mix the egg white and the sugar over a double boiler. The sugar should be completely dissolved when you remove it from heat. Pour the mixture into a large bowl (preferably the mixing bowl of a stand mixer — Swiss meringue is mixing intensive, so a stand mixer works best). Whisk on high speed until stiff but still wet peaks form. Continue to beat for about five or six minutes after these peaks form.

Switch to the paddle attachment and turn the speed to medium low. Add the butter in one or two tablespoons/pieces at a time. The mixture might start to look lumpy and curdled. Don’t worry. Keep mixing. When things start to come together, beat in the flavoring (in this case, the Baileys) and keep beating for another two minutes. It might take some time to get to the right texture. You will know when it comes together in a solid, fluffy, frosting-like consistency.

Frosted days: Baked results for Thursday

Standard

No, frost (as in ice crystal type frost) has not set in yet. I am thinking about how tomorrow will be filled with making frosting. All those cupcakes I made need frosting. I have to make the frosting and then transport it with me to Oslo and frost all the cupcakes when I get there. I don’t have sufficient transportation options for taking fully frosted cupcakes with me. I am not a big decorator anyway, but it is not as though I can make lovely frosting designs on the cupcakes thanks to this transport challenge. Sigh.

So… the list of everything that is coming with me to work on Thursday (I think this is everything, but can’t be sure)…

*Kahlua coffee cupcakes
*Lemon cream oat bars
*Mini chocolate pudding pies baked into vanilla cupcakes
*Crème brûlée cupcakes
*Dark chocolate hazelnut mini tarts
*Oreo truffles
*Highly experimental red velvet cupcakes
*Dulce de leche bundt cake
*Carrot-pineapple cake with a brownie layer in between carrot layers
*Brown sugar cupcakes filled with Toblerone candy
*Brown sugar shortbread
*Licorice cupcakes
*Banoffee cupcakes
*Vanilla orange biscotti
*Guinness cupcakes with Baileys frosting

Lemon cream oat bars

Standard

One of the simplest things I have ever made. Lemon cream is literally a can of condensed milk mixed with lemon juice and lemon zest… and that gets sandwiched between an insanely simple bar-cookie crust. I would argue that the simplicity is the reason a lot of almost-non-bakers opt for bar cookies (to me they just seem like something a(n) (American) Midwestern soccer mom might make. Not sure why bar cookies feel Midwestern to me. They just do. On occasion, though, they join the rest of my repertoire.

Like today.

Lemon cream oat bars

Crust:
1 1/3 cup flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 cup butter
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup oats

Preheat oven to 175C. Mix and press half the mixture into an 8-inch by 11-inch greased pan.

Filling:
1 can sweetened condensed milk
1/2 cup lemon juice
zest of 1 lemon

Mix well. Spread onto bottom layer of crust.

Top the filling with the remaining crust until fully covered.

Bake 20 to 25 minutes. Cool. Once cool, refrigerate.

Once chilled, cut into bars and serve.

Banoffee cupcakes – Baking experiments to eat at one’s own risk

Standard

Beware of baking experiments. As I have written before, I don’t taste any of these things, so the experiments especially are… well, totally experimental. This means that no one has tasted them before they end up on offer in the workplace, making my colleagues unwitting (even if entirely willing) lab rats. People take their taste buds into their own, eh, hands, every time – although this rings true more starkly when I am making something I have never attempted before.

Behold the banoffee cupcake, which is aptly named for banana and toffee mixed together. I made a lightly toffee-flavored cupcake and will fill it with caramel and banana and frost with dulce de leche Swiss buttercream. I doubt that this will be the final word in banoffee cupcake experimentation, however.

Banoffee cupcakes
3 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
12 tablespoons butter, softened
1 1/3 cup sugar
1/2 cup neutral-flavored vegetable oil
4 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla
3/4 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup dulce de leche (or some kind of thick caramel)

Preheat oven to 175C.

Whisk dry ingredients together and set aside. Cream butter and sugar, add the eggs, one at a time, scraping the sides of the bowl after each addition. Add the vanilla and oil. Alternately add the dry ingredient mixture with the buttermilk in three additions. Add the half-cup of dulce de leche.

Put batter into cupcake liners and bake – probably about 15 to 20 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. I used larger cupcake liners and it took closer to 35 minutes for mine to bake through.

To assemble, you can decide for yourself how best to deal with it. I am going to cut the center out of the cupcake and fill with dulce de leche and banana slices and frost with dulce de leche frosting. Maybe sprinkle some graham cracker crumbs and/or crushed Daim candy on top. We shall see.

This would be infinitely easier in cake form rather than individual cupcakes.

Vanilla orange biscotti and the dullness of liquor stores

Standard

It seems that when I bake, I like to include biscotti in every big haul of baking. No clue why. This recipe is a new attempt – not sure what I think of the dough or the recipe itself. I had to make modifications – the recipe that inspired this choice called for orange liqueur, and I am not really someone who has a large stock of alcohol on hand. I happen to have a handful of things specifically for baking (Guinness, Baileys, Kahlua and vodka…), and I find it to be one of the dullest things on earth to go to liquor stores. (It has always been the “norm” for me that alcohol is only available in a state-run liquor store – in Washington state, Iceland, Norway and Sweden, this was normal. Washington recently passed a law privatizing liquor sales, so all alcohol is now available in grocery stores and the like… but that does not help or concern me, not only because I no longer live there but also because I would hardly go out and buy a whole bottle of something just to get a tablespoon of it for a cookie recipe.)

Orange zest and a dash of orange juice just have to cut it. (And it did! These were quite popular and well-liked.)

Vanilla orange biscotti
1 1/2 cups sugar
10 tablespoons butter, melted
3 eggs
1 tablespoon vanilla
1 tablespoon orange liqueur (I used orange juice)
1 tablespoon orange zest (I used the zest of one whole orange)
3 1/4 cups flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 cup sliced/slivered almonds
1 large egg white

Preheat oven to 175C.

Mix all ingredients together (except the egg white at the end, which is for brushing onto the logs of dough), adding the dry ingredients only at the end, just before the almonds, which will be added last. The dough is very sticky, so handling it will require either that you flour your hands or keep wetting your hands with cold water. Make two logs with the dough, each about 2 1/2 inches wide and 1 inch tall. (You will need your hands for this, and this is where the sticky part gets… stickiest!) Whisk the egg white and brush it onto the dough logs (will help them lightly brown).

Bake 30 minutes, remove from oven and allow to cool. Once cool, slice the logs into 1/2 inch slices and turn them on their side. Reduce the oven temperature to 150C and bake on each side for about 10 to 15 minutes.

Carrot pineapple cake with middle brownie layer

Standard

In my last big bake, I made some carrot-pineapple-spice cupcakes with vanilla Daim frosting.

This week, I decided to make this in cake form with a brownie layer in the middle. Not sure how it turned out taste-wise, but will provide some more info on that front soon.

Carrot layers
1 cup carrot juice
280 g (2 cups) flour
65 g (1/2 cup) almond flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon ground cardamom
1/4 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
400 g (2 cups) white granulated sugar
3/4 cup (175 mL) neutral flavored vegetable oil
450 g (1 lb) carrots, finely grated
160 g (1 cup) crushed pineapple (strain most of the juice from it)
3 large eggs
2 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Put carrot juice in a medium-pan and turn the heat to high on the stove. When juice starts to boil, reduce heat to create a low simmer and cook until the juice has reduced to 1/4 cup (about 5 or 6 minutes). Let the juice cool slightly.

Preheat the oven to 350˚F and butter/flour two 9-inch-round cake pans.

Put the flour, almond flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and spices in a large mixing bowl. Whisk together to make uniformly mixed.

Put sugar, oil, grated carrots, chopped pineapple and reduced carrot juice in the bowl of a standing mixer. Beat on medium for 15 seconds or until well blended. Add the dry ingredients in thirds, incorporating each addition. Add the eggs, one at a time, then add vanilla. Beat until incorporated.

Divide the batter into the prepared cake pans. Bake 35 to 40 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle of the cakes comes out clean. Remove and allow to cool on wire racks.

Brownie layer
57 g (2 oz) unsweetened chocolate
113 g (4 oz) semisweet chocolate
113 g (1/2 cup) unsalted butter
105 g (3/4 cup) all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
150 g (3/4 cup) granulated white sugar
3 large eggs
2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 325F. Butter and flour a 9-inch cake pan.

Chop both chocolates into chunks. Melt the chocolate in a large microwave safe bowl (or over a double boiler) along with the butter and microwave for 30 seconds to melt. Stir and microwave again for 30 seconds. Stir and repeat a third time for 30 seconds. At this point most of the chocolate and butter should be melted. Stir with a fork until all solid chunks of the chocolate have melted.

Add the sugar to melted chocolate and mix. Add the eggs, one at a time. Add the vanilla.

Whisk the dry ingredients (flour, baking powder and salt) together. Then mix this into the liquid ingredients.

Put the brownie cake layer in the center of the oven. Bake 25 to 30 minutes or until a toothpick placed in the center comes out with just a few crumbs stuck to it. Do not overbake the brownie – it should be moist.

Kahlua coffee cupcakes

Standard

Kahlua coffee cupcakes
6 tablespoons cocoa powder
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup + 2 tablespoon flour
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 tablespoon butter (1/2 stick), melted and cooled
1/2 cup milk, room temperature
1 large egg, room temperature and lightly beaten
1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup boiling water

Preheat to 350˚F.

Combine cocoa powder, sugar, flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Whisk to combine. Add butter, milk, egg and vanilla. Mix at medium speed for 2 minutes. Add boiling water and beat to combine. (The batter will be quite thin.)

Divide the batter into each cupcake liners and bake for 18-20 minutes. Let cool completely.

For the Kahlua glaze:
1/4 cup water
3/4 cup sugar
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
2 tablespoon Kahlua

Mix all ingredients except Kahlua on stovetop in a small saucepan. Heat on low until sugar is dissolved. Remove from heat and then stir in Kahlua and set glaze aside.

When cupcakes are cool, poke holes in each and pour a teaspoon of the glaze on top of each cupcake. Then frost as desired.

Toblerone filled cupcakes

Standard

I used the brown sugar cupcake recipe from my last big bake (the one that I slathered in maple frosting and topped with sugared bacon) and plopped Toblerone candy into the batter before baking.

Toblerone cupcakes
1 cup brown sugar
1 large egg
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
3/4 cup milk
1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted and cooled (you could also use a neutral-tasting vegetable oil)
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt

Preheat oven to 350F. In a bowl, combine dry ingredients. Set aside. Line a cupcake tin with liners.

In a large bowl, whisk brown sugar and egg until smooth. Add in vanilla and milk, again mixing until combined. Slowly pour in melted butter, continuing to whisk. Add in the flour, soda and salt, mixing with a large spoon until batter is smooth.

Add a small amount of batter to the bottoms of the liners, drop in a mini Toblerone, top it with enough cupcake batter to cover then candy.

Bake for 16-19 minutes, or until tops are golden, and allow to cool completely.

Frost as desired.