Mmm. Cupcakes.

Yes, yes. I'm a bit late to be posting such festive Fourth of July cupcakes. Actually. Even if it was around Fourth of July still.. I wouldn't be making cupcakes to represent those colours. That's just not me. Unless it's Halloween. Mmmm. I would so make some chocolate cupcakes with orange frosting. I love Halloween. But I digress.

You see, the reason I am posting such obnoxiously flamboyant American cupcakes is that the theme for this month's Cupcake Hero is Red, White, and Blue. Fun.

It took me quite a while to figure out what to do. After countless ideas going between my friend Michael and I of all the sweet and savory ideas we could come up with, I finally settled on these. Strawberry and Malibu Lemon Cupcakes.

I found a lemon cake recipe, attempted to colour it blue. And it worked. Well. When it was still batter. Now... everyone has been saying, "You just had to have some green, huh?" Sigh. Oh, well.
Since the blue in the cupcakes pretty much failed, I threw on some blue star sprinkles to make up for it. Which I didn't want to do. But I did it in the name of Cupcake Hero. I really do hate sprinkles.

The frosting was a recipe for a coconut buttercream I found on my hunt for a lemon buttercream. I decided to try it out instead. But I chose not to get the imitation coconut extract which is all you can find in stores. Instead, I used a couple tablespoons of Malibu. If you want, you could just use extract. Not that much. But. To make it "kid-friendly." But truthfully. There really isn't that much that I don't see why a child couldn't consume it. Because think about it. If I had used -all- the buttercream on twenty-four cupcakes, that would be about a quarter teaspoon of alcohol to each cupcake. Now really? That's not much at all. And yes, it only made twenty-two cupcakes. But I still had about a cup and a half of buttercream left. So each cupcake probably had less than a quarter teaspoon.

And finally.. my red. I used a strawberry puree. Really not that hard. Frozen strawberries, thawed, blended, little bit of sugar and lemon juice. My only problem was that I usually just get the one-pound store-brand bag. But of course they were out. So I had to spend twice the amount on a ten-ounce bag of organic frozen strawberries. I don't have a problem with organic. I just have a problem with the price. You can try preaching to me about how the benefits make up for the cost. But I don't really want to hear it. You know you would so rather spend a dollar fifty on a pound of strawberries than three bucks on ten ounces. It's simple logic.


But anyway. With all the squeezing lemons and making strawberry puree.. I started craving strawberry lemonade. So I did the quick and easy thing. I took a can of Minute Maid Light Lemonade, swirled a bit of strawberry puree in and presto. Strawberry lemonade. And yes. It was good. And no I don't feel guilty about using canned lemonade because psht. Five calories and I don't have to squeeze lemons? Thanks. But you can make your own if you'd like. After making lemonade from lemons almost every other week at school the whole second semester.. I'm done. And even so. Does that not look good? Well. It looks good to me at least.

So. Onto the cupcakes.

Lemon Cake

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
1/2 cup (one stick) salted butter, softened
3 eggs
1 cup buttermilk (I didn't have any, so I just used sour milk: 1 tablespoon lemon juice and enough milk to make one cup.)
2 tablespoons finely grated lemon zest
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
blue dye if you really want

Preheat oven to 350°F.

Line two cupcake pans with 22 muffin cups. If you can get 24 cupcakes from the batter, congratulations. I couldn't. :)

Combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a medium bowl and stir to combine.

In the bowl of your mixer, combine the butter and sugar and beat until well-blended on medium speed. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add flour mixture and buttermilk alternately to sugar mixture, beginning and ending with the flour. Beat in the lemon zest and juice.

Fill each cupcake cup about two-thirds full and bake in the pre-heated oven for about 15-17 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the centre of a cupcake comes out clean. Allow to cool completely before frosting.

Malibu Buttercream (adapted from Epicurious)

4 egg whites at room temperature
1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
1/2 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
1 1/4 cups sugar
1/2 cup water
3 sticks (1 1/2 cups) unsalted butter, cut into pieces and softened (I just quartered each stick lengthwise and cut that into tablespoon pieces and seperated about half of them into individual squares and put it back in the fridge to firm up a bit whilst the sugar syrup was cooking.)
2 tablespoons Malibu Caribbean Rum (the original Coconut flavour.)

Beat the egg whites in the bowl of your mixer with the whisk attachment until frothy, then add the cream of tartar and beat just before stiff peaks form.

Meanwhile, stir together the sugar and water in a small heavy saucepan and bring to a boil over moderately high heat, stirring until sugar is dissolved and washing down side of pan with a pastry brush dipped in cold water. (I actually didn't do that. And I probably never will because I tend not to slosh it around that much. But you can if you'd like.)

When syrup reaches a boil, put your candy thermometer into it and continue boiling, without stirring, until it reaches about 238-242 degrees Fahrenheit. Immediately remove from heat, turn your mixer back on (if you had it off like me) and slowly pour the hot syrup in a thin stream into the egg whites, beating constantly at high speed and making sure to not pur directly on the side of the bowl. Beat meringue until the bowl is cool to the touch. It took me about 20 minutes. When you have about five minutes left, take your butter out of the fridge. Oh. And my butter was still a little cold after five minutes and my meringue was just a tad warm. They canceled each other out.

At this point you want to change out your whisk for your paddle attachment and scrapes down the sides of the bowl. On medium speed, gradually add butter about two pieces at a time, beating well after each addition until incorporated. (I just threw about two pieces in, waited about ten seconds, and threw about two more in.) Continue beating until buttercream is smooth. (Mixture may look curdled before all butter is added, but will come back together before beating is finished. If that doesn't work, try chilling it a bit in case your meringue was too hot.) Finally, add the Malibu and mix thoroughly.

Strawberry Puree

10 ounces frozen strawberries, thawed.
2 teaspoons sugar, more or less (to taste)
1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice, more or less (to taste)

Place the strawberries and their juice into your blender. Pulse a few times until pureed. Stir in the sugar and lemon juice until it's the taste you want.


Finally, take a cooled cupcake, pipe or spread on a bit of the frosting, spoon over some strawberry puree, sprinkle on a few sprinkles (or not) and consume. They're amazing.

Finally. Internet Again.

Okay. So I'm incredibly sorry that I was late on the Daring Bakers reveal for June. I had been without internet and was not able to get on at the precise date. I'm going to post it now, even though I might be penalized. I'm sorry.

So. When I found out that we were doing danishes, I was rather.. terrified. I had always avoided laminated doughs because I had these great fears that it would all wind up a giant melted puddle of butter and soggy dough. (I have an active imagination.) Nevertheless, I decided to push through and do it.

It was easy. Like.. really. It really wasn't as bad as I thought. The hardest part was not getting too many tears in my dough. But I really think it was okay.

So after I made my dough, all I had to do was figure out what fillings to dough. I didn't want to do the apple one, and all I could think of were cheese danishes. So I made one. It was amazing. Only my dad, Gram, and I ate it. But it was amazing. I also made a pizza danish for lunch for my sisters, my Gram, and I one day. My dad ate some of the cold leftovers and was so amazed by it. My mom had some even later and is now trying to get me to make it again.

In the end, danish wasn't so bad. I went through a lot of butter and cream cheese making it, but oh well.

And again. Terribly sorry for not being able to post on the true date.



This is my favourite one of all. My cheese danish. The filling has lots of lemon zest it in so it has a very bright, clean flavour with the cream cheese.
This is my pizza danish. It was pretty nifty.

And these are my medley of danishes. It's apple, peach, and mixed berry. A few have some sweetened cream cheese as well. My friend Chris came over on my birthday and we made them. :)

Okay, I lied.

I didn't get you any update a couple weeks ago. But I'm here now! Finally. I've been wrapped up in graduation stuff, finals, etc. I've also had little sleep. But, I've brought cupcakes. So that's good. :)

These are actually my entry to Cupcake Hero this month.

Well. This past year was the first year my high school had its Culinary Arts class. Since we had planned on making it into a restaurant, we needed a name. So we had a contest. Whomever's name was picked for the restaurant won a free dinner for two. They got to plan the meal, everything. Within reason, of course. Well. The French teacher won. She asked for cake with "real buttercream frosting." Crap.

Buttercream had always been my enemy. Actually. I just had never attempted it. It seemed scary. Whipped egg whites. Cooking sugar without cooking it too far. Preventing crystallization. Not letting the butter melt and it all turning into a soupy, melted disaster. Ack. I have an active imagination. But I knew I had to do it. I plan on making wedding cakes for a living. I have to do it sometime. But I could get out of it! She continued on, "But anything chocolate is fine." That could work. Or, I decided, I could combine the two. Chocolate cake with chocolate buttercream. Genius. And better yet. Chocolate cupcakes. Because the theme ingredient for Cupcake Hero is cocoa powder. So I did it.

The buttercream was amazing. I loved it so much, I made it again a week later. Double-batch. >.> It's now sitting in my freezer. I plan on baking some kind of cake this weekend since all my family is out for my graduation.


Chocolate Buttercream

4 ounces semi-sweet chocolate, melted and cooled (I used chips.)
3 sticks (1 1/2 cups) salted butter
6 tablespoons water
3/4 cup sugar
3 large egg whites
1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
6 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder

Chop the butter into about 1/2-inch cubes. You want to let it soften, but not too much. I just chopped it, put it in the fridge, then took it out when I was whipping the egg whites with the sugar syrup.

In a small saucepan, bring the water and sugar to a boil, stirring until sugar is dissolved. Boil syrup, without stirring, until a candy thermometer registers 245 °F.

While syrup is boiling, beat the whites until foamy, then beat in the cream of tartar in your mixer using the whisk attachment. Beat the whites until they just hold stiff peaks and beat in hot syrup in a stream (try to avoid pouring onto beaters and side of bowl). (I tried to get it in time, but I wound up stiffening my egg whites before the sugar syrup was hot enough. I just turned it off, then turned it back on when the sugar syrup was about 240°F.) Beat mixture at medium speed until completely cool, about 10 minutes. (At this point I took the butter out. It was still a little firm. It worked fine.) Change out your whisk for your paddle attachment. Beat in butter, 1 piece at a time, beating until mixture is thickened and smooth. (I've been told that the buttercream may start to look curdled at some point. When I made the single batch, it didn't happen. When I made the double batch, it happened. I'm guessing the difference in volume. Don't worry. As soon as all the butter was in, it was thick again.) Beat in the cocoa powder and melted chocolate, beating until smooth.

You can make the buttercream ahead of time, just make sure you bring it to room temperature first. Apparently some people beat it in their mixer once it's to temperature. I just handmixed it with a rubber spatula. It worked fine. And I didn't have to get out my mixer.
(Adapted from Epicurious.)


Chocolate Cake (actually adapted from a recipe I found on Laurie's blog.)

INGREDIENTS
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
½ cup plus 1 tablespoon cocoa powder
2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup unsalted butter (I made this at school. If it was at home, I would have used salted butter and cut the salt down to 1/4 tsp or so.)
2 1/2 cups packed brown sugar
3 eggs
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 cup sour cream
1 cup really hot water. Or just hot water.

Preheat oven to 350 °F. Line two muffin pans with liners. (Which I didn't do. >.> That's what Pam for Baking is for!)

Sift together the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.

In a large bowl, beat the butter and brown sugar until well mixed, trying to get some sort of volume (it will lighten a bit in colour... and it took me a while to get it to do that. I think part of it had to do with such a small batch in an industrial-size mixer). Add eggs one at a time. Beat in the vanilla and oil. Add 1/2 the sour cream and then 1/2 the dry ingredients to the butter mixture until well blended.

Add the remaining sour cream and dry ingredients to the batter. Stir in water.

Fill cups about 2/3 full with batter. Bake for about 15 - 20 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Allow to cool completely before frosting.



In the end, the chocolate buttercream didn't kick my ass. It liked me. And I liked it. And I found out the "real buttercream" she asked for was a butter and powdered sugar one. Last I knew, that was mock buttercream.

Yay! Buttercream!

So. It took a lot longer. But that's only because some water people came. Trying to sell us stuff. They wanted to do a "quick demo." Two hours later, I could finally do stuff in my kitchen.


So with this being my first ever buttercream, I am quite happy. It was very light. It had a good chocolate taste, but wasn't overpowering. (For me.) I'm weird. I like dark chocolate, but too much and I sneeze. Yeah.

I wanted to just eat it all right then. But there's the whole fact that it's for cupcakes I have to make at school. So, yeah. But I am taking a pound of butter home with me. So make up for the butter I had to use. Mmmm. It's so good. I need to make a double batch if I want to do a cake. Because I use a lot of frosting.

Tomorrow I will post pictures of the cupcakes complete with frosting and give the recipes. That is, if I don't eat the frosting beforehand.

Buttercream.

So I'm going to do it. I'm really going to do it. I'm going to make a buttercream. And not just any buttercream. A chocolate buttercream. We'll see if I'm alive after this or if it kicks my ass like the German chocolate cake frosting did. (Even though I saved it.) Which reminds me that I should probably put that up here. So yeah. Buttercream. I'm going to start in about... ten minutes. Or whenever my mother gets here with the chocolate. Which leads me onto my tangent! :)

So. I was supposed to get chocolate today from some teacher on campus because Georgi, the whore that he is, didn't buy the chocolate for me. We only have industrial size mixers at school and, while I adore them, they are simply too big to whip three measly egg whites with. So I planned to make it at home (and it just happens to use cocoa powder, which is Cupcake Hero's theme ingredient this month).

Well, Georgi told me to go get it while I was videotaping Landon and wasn't really paying attention. I walked with Landon to his class and then left to go back to Culinary Arts because I completely forgot about the chocolate. On my way, however, I saw Adam. Which brings me to my -next- tangent.

Adam is this boy at school who I've seen all year, but never actually talked to. Then he cut his hair and shaved off his beard and I didn't recognize him for a bit. He wasn't bad-looking before. But... he is -cute- without the beard. I was very much pleased. Still. I am too painfully shy to just walk up to him and start talking to him. Then my best friend agreed to go with me to prom, then asked someone else. That left me dateless to my senior prom. I thought about asking Adam. Two problems. I didn't know his name at the time, and I had never spoken to him before.

So prom came on Saturday and I went to it. While I was sitting there with a few of my friends, I saw Adam walk in. He talked to someone and came and sat at my table. Oh, my God, he looks good in a suit. I have some pictures of him.. but I think it would be too creepy if he goes strolling through the internet and finds pictures of himself on my blog. So I won't post them. But he did look good.

After a while (read as: at the end of prom) they played a couple slow songs. The first one came on and I got up my nerve, looked up, and asked Adam if he wanted to dance.

"No."

Ouch. So I just turned around and didn't say anything. Another slow song came on right after. So I asked him why he didn't want to dance. Because I'm naturally curious like that. You tell me to do something or give me some sort of negative reasoning, I need to have an explanation.

"I don't dance."

Okay. I don't, either. But it's a slow song. You hold my waist and go in a circle.

So after a few more comments from the both of us (he had never danced before) I asked him, "Pleeeeeeease?"

"Okay."

And so we danced. :) I was happy. And he walked out with me when it ended and hung out with me. ("Fortunately my mother isn't here on time.") He made me giddy.

So. When I saw him I decided to go talk to him. Even though he clearly is very socially awkward. And so am I. So it makes me want to talk to him. His English class had to go do the "Fitness Gram" thing. Mile run. Fun. My friend Kelsey is in his class, so the three of us walked down together. They did their running. I took pictures. Then we went back up to their class. And we looked at pictures from prom. Though it took some encouraging to get Adam to come sit near me.

Which explains perfectly why I don't have chocolate. I just couldn't tell you the short version. That, and nobody is reading this anyway. So I can ramble all I want.

Now I just have to await my mother.

So.. I haven't posted here. In a long time. And I really need to get on that.

It's not that I haven't made anything. Or that nobody reads this. (Which they don't.) But that I have yet to find anything worthy enough to send.

Hopefully I'll have something tomorrow. My Culinary Arts teacher is forcing me to bake a cake for one of the administrators. He's twisting my arm. Really. I don't want to. Not at all. :)

Lazy day.

Spring Break Lunch #3... was from a box. I wasn't feeling very up to cooking anything because I've had a cold and it got worse yesterday after the rolls. So while I sat watching Idle Hands (so cheesy) I let the oven preheat for my amazing meal of..
A Freschetta Frozen pizza! Oh, yes. I did add a bit of cheese to it.


It was good. It didn't cause a mouthgasm. But it's something I would consider having again. I think it needs more vegetables, though. (I actually sautéed up some asparagus and put it on my slice.)

And then, for dinner, it was off to Jacqueline's to watch Meet the Robinsons. Cute movie. Our meal included freshly popped microwave popcorn.

And an array of Skittles, M&M's, and Strawberry Twizzlers. Not Pull-And-Peel, though. I was slightly disappointed.
We also had some of my orange rolls and cupcakes. Because I had to get rid of them somehow.

And there you have it. Having colds are fun. Not really. But eating only junk food for a day, hanging out with friends, and blaming all the bad food on the cold is. Cooking will happen tomorrow. But not much. I'll post pictures anyway. Nothing fancy.