A 35th Anniversary Celebration

When my parents decided to do a 35th Anniversary party, naturally I stepped up to be in charge of the dessert end of the event. Initially I was planning on doing my two favorite cupcakes: chocolate with mocha frosting and chocolate with coconut frosting. But as the party date drew closer, I decided that I wanted to make a small cake for them to cut combined with cupcakes for the guests to eat. I also haven't made a "cake cake" in a long time and I do miss the process of making and frosting a cake. The solution was a 6" chocolate with coconut buttercream cake and the cupcakes in chocolate with mocha.

It was quite the experience making a double batch of both frosting and cake, and I learned that my Kitchen Aide is much better suited for single batches. This makes it easier to someday justify that candy apple red 7 quart Kitchen Aide someday!

Analysis of the Cake
Round two of Miette's double chocolate cake recipe went even more amazingly than the first round (which was a pretty awesome round on it's own).  The biggest problem the first time around was that the cake was incredibly crumbly, however this go-around I adjusted the baking time and perfection was found. Since yays and nays were established in the previous post, enjoy the photo montage of the process as well as the final results!

Buttered cake pans dusted with cocoa powder  to give the final cake a lovely matte sheen!

The finished cake, almost too pretty to frost!

The final spread complete with sparkler candles to celebrate 35 years

By taking the butter cream base, adding a splash of coconut rum, and garnishing with toasted coconut, a delicious coconut butter cream is created!

Cutting the cake! Happy Anniversary!

Analysis of the Frosting
To make the coconut butter cream, I simply take the butter cream base, add some coconut rum and garnish with toasted coconut to bring the subtle but sweet taste of coconut to the picture! It's a gentle enough combination that even people who don't like coconut have praised the creation.

Mocha Frosting Analysis

Chocolate Cake with Oregon Strawberry Cream Cheese Frosting

July has certainly been the month of cupcakes with the numerous birthdays and celebrations that popped up. We round out the month with a return to finding the best chocolate cake and exploring a heavenly sounding frosting flavoring suggested to me by a friend. These cupcakes were a birthday present for my dear friend Melanie (there's your shout out!) who has a soft spot for cream cheese frosting so I figured there wouldn't be a better audience to test these out on!

All packaged and ready to be delivered to the birthday girl!

Analysis of the Cake
The last time I made chocolate cupcakes was way back in April, but after a recent visit to Miette bakery in San Francisco (my own personal Mecca of cupcakes and bakery decor) and a sampling of their chocolate cake, I'd been recently feeling inspired to attempt to recreate it. But, I was also torn because I got my yellow cake recipe from Miette's cookbook as well and a part of me wanted to explore some of the other cookbooks whose cake recipes have been relatively untouched by my crafting. But, a sign from the heaven's came down unto me as I was searching through Rose's Heavenly Cakes. There within it's pages was Miette's chocolate cake recipe. So, since it was in two separate cookbooks I decided I should just give it a go.
The Yays

• Holy cow does this recipe pack a chocolatey punch. Using 70% dark chocolate courtesy of Scharffen Berger and natural cocoa powder, the cupcake delivers on a dark, strong but not overpowering, and smooth chocolately taste. 
• That same strong chocolately taste is strong enough to match equally flavorful frostings without being lost in the mix. As was noted in my previous chocolate cake adventure, the last recipe I used was overpowered by the mocha frosting.
• The techniques used for mixing deliver a foamy soft batter (whipping the eggs, straining the batter through a sieve as a final mixing step to avoid over mixing) and a subsequently light/airy cupcake
• Those who know me well also know that a lot of times cake is a just a vehicle for me to eat frosting, my one true love. But these cupcakes are so damn good they don't really need frosting, I would literally just eat the cake and skip the frosting. That's fairly unheard of for me.

The Nays

• The cupcake did not hold its structure well by the last bites but I think it's my fault and not the recipes. I would like to try this recipe a second time but maybe cook it for less time to avoid the breakage that ensues.
• There is literally nothing else wrong with this recipe

Overall Impression: ohmuhlord, this is definitely the new winner for chocolate cake with some minor tweaking the second time around.

Analysis of the Frosting
Cream Cheese Frosting. 

• Although the last time I made this particular recipe I wasn't sure if it was the best cream cheese frosting, the more feedback I got from others (and a few more samplings myself), the more I decided it was addictingly delicious and the cream cheese frosting I will crown as perfection.

Strawberry Flavoring

Overall Impression: Ohmuhlord this is amazing and the combination of strawberry and cream cheese is simply to die for. De-lish.

Lemon Cake with Lemon Buttercream Frosting

After originally tasting these cupcakes, I wrote the most bitter (yeah, pun probably intended) blog post ever. The flavor just was not what I was expecting at all and I was slightly heartbroken at the failed adventure as these cupcakes are a gift for a 65th birthday extravaganza. But, I took another taste later and the tart after-tart was not so mouth-puckeringly bitey and I received confirmation from my official taste tester, and boyfriend extraordinaire, that this was indeed how they were supposed to taste. What follows is a less emo post about my first adventure in lemon cake and lemon buttercream.

Soft, sweet, and very very tart

Analysis of the Cake
I spent a great deal of time reading through the recipes in my cookbook collection and weighing the pros and cons to each one before finally settling upon Cake Love's "Light and Lemony" recipe. What drew me to this recipe originally were the multiple lemon flavor sources (segmented, limoncello, lemon oil) and the sour elements to counter the sweet (cream cheese, heavy cream). Also, it was the only lemon cake recipe I had that stated it could be made into cupcakes as well as other cake forms. I've previously made a spectacular lemon cake that would not translate well into cupcakes (however see nays for the shocking results).
The Yays

• New technique learned! How to segment a lemon! I did pretty well for my first try too. Lesson learned though: wear gloves. My dry nurses hands felt like the fire of a thousand suns by the second lemon. According to the recipe, by using a segmented lemon the lemon juice flavor is still translated into the batter but since it's still contained in it's pulpy cocoon the batter doesn't get too watered down. Noted.
• New ingredient used! Turbinado sugar! Smells like happy! Supposedly makes a huge difference but honestly I'm not really sure it did in the end. In fact, the batter was almost a little too gritty-sugary tasting. 
• The cake has a wonderful texture, light, spongy, kind of melts on your tongue. Almost like cotton-candy cake.
• They baked quite lovely and had a wonderful golden top as seen in the photo above. I did have to extend the baking time by quite a bit however, but all is well that ends well.

The Nays

• I'm definitely not sold that this is the best lemon cake recipe in existence. I still feel that the tart aftermath is a drawback and a recipe with a more subtle tartness would be much more pleasant on the palate. The first cupcake I had was difficult to finish because it was so tart but the second more mellowed out sample I had still had the tartness but perhaps not in as strong of a form as the first (or so I hope).
• The cupcake paper does not want to let go of the damn things, which is something I've experienced with lemon cakes before. It was a disappointment because I thought that since this recipe specifically gave directions for cupcakes this problem would be avoided. Lies.

Overall Impression: Bleh, probably won't re-visit this one

Analysis of the Frosting
The good news is the frosting is simply to die for. With our base of Italian Meringue Buttercream, I added pure lemon oil as suggested by Rose's Heavenly Cakes. This too was a heavily deliberated choice and in the battle between limoncello, lemon oil, and something else (I honestly can't remember at this moment) the sage advice from my mother (who has spent years perfecting a lemon cheesecake) was to go with the lemon oil as it was the least artificial tasting. And that advice was spot on. Sweet with a hint of lemon it was the perfect, light, and refreshing taste you would expect from something of the lemon variety.  
Overall Impression: Ohmuhlord, this one's a keeper

It's hard to go from something as wonderful as my recent endeavor with red velvet cupcakes to something that missed the mark, but that's why I'm on this quest so that I can filter through everything and find the best of the best. Until next time, keep on keepin' on!

Red Velvet Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

I have a confession: I find red velvet cake to be somewhat gimicky (I am also confused as to the appeal of funfetti cake which is also flavorless). It never tastes like anything, and when this fact is presented people pretty much always respond with "That's true, but I really like cream cheese frosting." So it seems as though we are all eating tasteless cake just to get cream cheese frosting when really we could plop the frosting on a number of other types of cake that actually taste like something.

But, I came across a recipe from America's Test Kitchen (the holy grail for most any recipe) and decided if they couldn't win me over, nobody could.

Had to add some blue sprinkles as these were made for a belated 4th of July party!

Analysis of the Cake
I have to admit, this was the best red velvet cake I've had to date. Well played America's Test Kitchen, well played. I'm not necessarily convinced enough that I would incorporate it into my regular rotation, but it was winning enough that if someone requested red velvet cake, I would at least have some delicious ammunition to win them over with.

Velvety and Red, just the way they should be

The Yays

• The finished cakes had the prettiest dark red color which was exciting because I've definitely made red velvet before that had kind of a tinge to it which is always disappointing
• They actually tasted like something! I'd have to go back and compare recipes but off the top of my head my I thought it was due to the buttermilk, vinegar, and cocoa powder a flavored cake was born unto us. But, after a brief google search for red velvet cake every recipe has these. So I am somewhat dumbfounded as to the how and why, but all I know is it actually tasted like something instead of a flavorless cake so win.
• The finished product was super moist and the flavor did hold its own well against the cream cheese frosting, one did not out compete the other
• I managed to get no red food coloring on anything which is a huge win for me. My clothes, towels, and the rest of my kitchen are intact (this has more to do with my ability to avoid an accident than anything the cake did, but knowing my track record with accidents this is a big deal.)

Inside view of the deep red hue

 The Nays

• Still not completely sold on the whole red velvet trend, but again now I have a decent recipe in my repetoire.

Overall Impression: Somewhere between meh and ohmuhlord
 
Analysis of the Frosting
I used America's Test Kitchen's cream cheese frosting (might as well keep with the theme) and while it was good, I have to say I think I've made better. It's been awhile since I've made cream cheese frosting so I may not be remembering it quite right (guess I'll just have to do some taste testing ;) ). I feel that previous recipes I've made have been a little tangier, which I like. However this particular recipe was a good blend of cream cheesy and sweet and also looked like a fluffy white cloud of heaven. My one complaint, and this is of all cream cheese frosting, is that I have a hard time piping it with the star tip because it's just a little too soft/unstructured. But, seeing as how that's just a texture thing in the future I would not use the star tip to frost with (problem solving at it's finest).

Fluffy happy fun times

Overall Impression: Somewhere closer to ohmuhlord but still not quite there

Well team that concludes another adventure is seeking out the best recipes of treats known to man. Next up on the quest: a birthday request of lemon cake with lemon frosting. Stay tuned!

Yellow Cupcakes with Oregon Strawberry Buttercream

On our last adventure we established the perfect yellow cake recipe. Today we expand upon our yellow cake and frosting combinations to employ a local, seasonal fruit whose existence is how I know God loves me: The Oregon Strawberry.

You may have been tricked by the grocery store into thinking that strawberries come from California, but this is a sham. The Oregon Strawberry is tiny, short seasoned, and packs so much more sweet sweet flavor than anything our neighbors to the south could ever produce. Enough of a rant about the wonders of Oregon strawberries and back to the subject at hand.

Analysis of the Cake
See previous entry and enjoy these photos of part of the process!

The Quest for Perfection includes perfect tools! I finally have a double boiler! All-Clad makes my heart skip a beat or two.

Egg and Vanilla mixture, getting heated up to just the right temperature!

Velvety smooth yellow cake batter. I may have sampled a teensy bit of the uncooked goodness...

Analysis of the Frosting
As always, the base of our frosting is an Italian Meringue Butter Cream a la Cake Love. After scouring all of my cookbooks for strawberry frosting, I decided that the strawberry puree found in The Cake Bible would be the first runner up in perfecting strawberry frosting. The reason: science. As to be expected by her previously underwhelming recipe, Martha Stewart's solution was to just put strawberries in a blender and mix it in the frosting. Sure, this will indeed give you strawberry frosting but my speculation is that the frosting will be somewhat lackluster. Other cookbooks had concepts similar to The Cake Bible, but did not incorporate quite as much science as I feel is necessary when involving berry flavor extraction and syrup creation. The Cake Bible, however, incorporates a much more complicated yet logical sequence for delivering a wham-bam punch of strawberry. The first step is to freeze the strawberries in order to begin breaking down the enzymes of deliciousness. The strawberries are then thawed in a colander over a series of hours. The sweet sweet juices collected below the colander are then made into a reduction while the remaining strawberry chunks are pureed in ye olde Cuisinart. These are all combined with a splash of lemon juice. This confection may then be added to the base frosting of your choice for a splendiferous delivery of strawberry.

I'm not sure if you can tell, but I kind of geek out over the scientific process of baking. Now, the breakdown:

The Yays

• Holy cow, this captures the essence of everything wonderful that is Oregon strawberries. Perfectly sweet, with a tiny hint of berry tang at the end and all of it encompassed by buttery goodness. 
• The strawberry puree freezes up to a year and can be thawed and re-frozen multiple times without damage to the puree according to the author. This excites me greatly as I will be able to enjoy a summertime treat in the middle of winter. That's a win all around!
• The frosting and yellow cake together are a heavenly dream come true and are a better interpretation of strawberry shortcake than actual strawberry shortcake. Amazingness times infinity. This is a winner for sure.

The Nays

• I did the frosting the night before the cupcakes and refrigerated it. Bad call. The consistency wasn't quite right even after re-warming the buttercream to room temperature. So, if crunched for time I would do it in reverse order (cupcakes the night before). This is not the frosting's fault.
• Last time I did a normal batch of frosting (4 cups) for the 18 cupcakes the yellow cake recipe yields and had copious amounts of chocolate frosting left over. In order to be less wasteful I did a half recipe (2 cups) of frosting but now have about 6 naked cupcakes. Something is amiss in measurement land so maybe next time I do yellow cake I should just do a double batch of cake.

Waiting to top off some cupcakes!

 Overall Impression: Ohmuhlord, we have a winner!

Yellow Cake with Dark Chocolate Frosting: Round 2

May is my birthday month and since work is preventing me from celebrating my birthday on my actual birthday, I decided to make my birthday cupcakes a week in advance. Therefore yellow cake with chocolate frosting, being the ultimate birthday cake/frosting pairing, was on the docket for this adventure. Also, having recently found my baking soul mate in Meg Ray, owner of Miette (the introduction to the book is an expanded version of my treat manifesto AND if I were to actually own a bakery Miette is exactly what it would look like), I was excited to try a recipe from her collection. So when I saw that she had a recipe for yellow cupcakes that she herself had spent awhile perfecting, I said to myself "challenge accepted."

What do you get when the frosting is too warm to pipe your regular way? A new way of piping!

Analysis of the Cake
 After the disappointing results from Martha's cookbook previously, I was one part skeptical of this recipe one part super anxious to potentially have a new found yellow cake recipe. And I have to say, I'm pretty sure my search for the perfect yellow cake recipe has ended.

A sea of golden-yellow cupcakes, baked to perfection

The Yays

• These cupcakes couldn't have possibly baked any more beautifully than they did. Perfectly domed in the middle, perfectly golden  at the edges. Almost too pretty to eat.....almost.
• They had a completely new method of mixing that I'm curious to learn more about the science of and which I'm also fairly certain led to the perfect yellow cake taste of the cake. The process involved heating up the egg prior to mixing with the dry ingredients as well as heating the milk and butter pre-group mix. 
• The taste balanced itself extremely well with the strength of the dark chocolate butter-cream. It presented a buttery texture and mellow flavor to counteract the richness of the frosting, unlike the previous adventure in yellow cupcaking.
• The inside was delightfully moist, had the perfect crumb (not too crumbly, not too stiff), held it's shape well outside of the wrapper, and had a slight buttery after-taste on the tongue (and really, who doesn't like butter?) 

NOM!

The Nays

• The tops were a little on the crispier side, but I think this could have been operator error in over baking. This will be easily remedied the next time I bake these bad boys however. 

Overall Impression: OHMUHLORD we have a winner!

Analysis of the Frosting
See previous entry

Chocolate Cake with Mocha Frosting

So technically I have made this combination of cake and frosting before, but a) this was a new chocolate cake recipe and b) this frosting combo is so fantastic that it deserves an appearance on this blog and c) I learned via youtube a new way to frost cupcakes! So it's semi-new and semi-previously done before.

Bird's-Eye-View of the Finished Product! Yay newly discovered rose swirl!

Analysis of the Cake
The "Chocolate Butter Cupcakes" recipe was brought to us today by Rose's Heavenly Cakes. The author of this cookbook has also written The Cake Bible, a cookbook I own but have yet to try cake recipes from. So the bar was set pretty high, I mean if you are going to make a book that is self-titled the end all be all of baking then you hopefully know your stuff pretty darn well. So let's take a journey, shall we?

All ready to battle the heat of the oven!

The Yays 

• The technique used for mixing was vastly different from any other I have used before, and while I was skeptical it did make a lovely textured batter. Rather than creaming the butter and sugar as the first step, this recipe had you mix the dry ingredients then add the butter then add the egg/vanilla mixture. Future Hillary will continue to experiment with this mixing technique and possibly research the science of this method
• The texture of the finished product was quite delightful. The cupcake held its shape well out of the wrapper and it had a soft/melty texture on the tongue. Quite delightful, really.
• It had a nice, delicate chocolate flavor. Definitely a solid basic chocolate cake recipe that will be filed away as the current winner of overall basic chocolate cupcake recipe for the time being.

Way to hold your shape little guy!

The Nays

• Not a bold enough chocolate cake to be paired with the mocha frosting, a devil's food would have been better. But that isn't the cake's fault. I suppose in the future though I would still like to try getting more of a chocolate BAM from the cake. Regardless, if you paired it with any other frosting it still wouldn't lick that chocolate craving I would be seeking from a cupcake.

Overall Impression: Somewhere between Meh and Ohmuhlord. 
  
Analysis of the Frosting
Using the aforementioned Italian Meringue Buttercream frosting with some melted chocolate and the "Classic Mocha Espresso" recipe from The Cake Bible, the most perfect melding of chocolate and coffee in frosting has been discovered. And that is a lot coming from someone who doesn't like coffee or most coffee flavored things. But this one's definitely a winner.

Overall Impression: Ohmuhlord

In summary, we have ourselves a current winner in the category of basic chocolate cake, however that has not been officially sealed for all eternity. With the onset of Oregon berry season rapidly approaching (especially if we continue to have this lovely weather!), I foresee a further continuation of the quest for the perfect yellow cake paired with  strawberry buttercream frosting on the horizon. Stay tuned!

Yellow Cake with Dark Chocolate Buttercream Frosting: Round 1

As previously mentioned, the perfect frosting has already been discovered, so unless otherwise mentioned it's safe to assume that the base of the frosting will the the Italian Meringue Butter Cream from Cake Love with experimentations to the flavorings.

That being said, this most recent adventure involved yellow cake and dark chocolate frosting. Future posts will have better photo depictions, but since I didn't get the idea for the blog until after I had baked and given away these bad boys, this one picture will have to suffice!

Analysis of the Cake
The cake recipe was the "Yellow Buttermilk Cupcakes" recipe from Martha Stewart's Cupcakes. Now, I already have kind of a beef with this cookbook (mainly that it touts 175 recipes for cupcakes when half of them are really just muffins and also that it appears to focus on the flashy instead of the quality) but the recipe seemed pretty simple and involved buttermilk, something I've found to be an indicator of a good cake recipe. But, overall I felt that the cake was rather bland and needed more of a robust "yellow cake" hurrah and was easily overpowered by the fantastic frosting.

The Yays

• Baked nicely, a little golden brown on the edges just like you'd want
• Held it's shape well when unwrapped, not too crumbly (there's nothing worse than either of those things)
• The unbaked batter was fantastic
• Good amount of sweetness

The Nays

• A little bit on the drier side. This recipe used cake flour and all-purpose flour which I'm highly skeptical of because some of the best cakes I've baked were from recipes that used all-purpose flour. I think somehow the gluten content of the conflicting flours was the culprit
• Underwhelming taste, could have had more oomph

Overall Impression: Meh
I just have a gut feeling a better recipe exists out there. It's not horrible, but it definitely does not qualify for "ohmuhlord" status

Analysis of the Frosting
For the frosting I took the chocolate additions from Martha Stewart's Cupcakes recipe for Dark Chocolate frosting and added them to the Italian Meringue base. Using a combination of cocoa powder in boiling water and melted semi-sweet chocolate chips the result was fantastical. The frosting retained all of the wonderful things about the Italian Meringue but had a nice rich dark chocolate finish.

Overall Impression: Ohmuhlord
This one is a definite winner and will be recorded in my personal cookbook I am building.

In summary, there still exists a quest for a better yellow cake and my suspicions of Martha Stewart's focus on the flash rather than a good tasting product were partially confirmed. 

Pre-Established Perfection

Awhile back, a major element of this journey was established: the perfect frosting. And holy cow is it good.

The Italian Meringue Butter Cream found in Cake Love is pure perfection and let me break down why.

Consistency
When properly created, this frosting is stiff enough to hold its shape when piped onto either a cupcake or cake, yet buttery enough to capture that perfect "melt in your mouth" deliciousness that a good butter cream should.
Frostability
This recipe for frosting is super easy to pipe. Not so thick that you are squeezing the living daylights out of your piper of choice (classic bag or newfangled mechanical) and not so thin that it just kind of goops out. 
Buildability
Suggestions are given in the cookbook for ways to alter flavor and taste of the frosting and they are definitely a good start. However, what is awesome about the base of the frosting recipe is that it gives you a solid foundation to expand some creative thinking and come up with your own experimentation.
Taste
I have never made a frosting recipe with a base of powdered sugar and enjoyed it. Because of the too sweet taste of powdered sugar frosting, I long maintained that canned frosting was good enough. But then....I made this one and realized that this actually beats out canned frosting. By quite a bit of yardage. Not too sweet, right amount of buttery love this frosting tastes a-mazing.


It took me a couple of times to really understand the zen of creating this frosting as it can be a little tricky perfecting the meringue portion of the recipe. Where I really struggled the first couple of times was beating the four sticks of butter in enough so that there weren't any surprise tablespoon chunks of butter spread on my cake.

So, since it has been established that this is indeed the best frosting base the journey of frosting in this blog will be the new creation of different flavors to go along with the frosting base and honing in on the perfect concoction to get each desired flavor.
 

A Treat Manifesto: Taking Treat from "meh" to "Ohmuhlord"

If there is one thing that I can't stand about dessert these days, it's that everyone focuses on making things gimmicky (800 flavors of mediocre ice cream!) and flashy (a dry cupcake filled with a different flavor than the frosting!) rather than perfecting the basics and delivering a high quality treat. Portland is extremely guilty of this crime. This results in desserts that are impressive at first, but at the core don't even taste very good. After too many experiences where I left describing the treatery as "hit or miss" I have made it my mission to find the perfect recipes for treats.

I've been baking for years and years but mostly focusing on perfecting the technique of baking. Now that my  skills have been honed, it's time to focus on finding on the creme de la creme of recipes to produce. This blog is a chronicling of my adventure. It begins with building a repertoire of perfect cupcakes/cake and frosting. I'll start with the basics (chocolate cake, yellow cake, etc) and work my way towards the more complex/fancy.

Treat Beliefs:
-High quality, fresh ingredients make for a better final product
-Understanding the science of baking is critical for success
-Establishing a good quality base of the basics before moving outwards to the fancy/gimicky/flashy
-Don't you dare fill a cupcake with anything other than the frosting on top. This is a one-way ticket towards taste overload. Seriously it's not that big of a tasting space so why complicate it with three competing flavors?
-Find lot's of people to give your treats away to after baked. Your pancreas will thank you.

Buckle up and enjoy the ride!