Monogrammed Cupcakes

Oh where to start? How about with this: My friend Leora is engaged! And she had a party. And I baked. Of course. Cupcakes! With their initials on them! I cannot speak in full sentences! I don't know why.

Cop Out Cake

I'm not good at decorating cakes. Cookies, I seem to have figured out, but cakes still elude me. Unless they include copious amounts of fondant that is. But since I generally value taste over aesthetic, I opted out. I seem to even be better at shaped cakes, but a frosted-covered canvas is what scares me the most.

But, I think I've discovered something that even I can master, so I'm sharing it with you today.

Snowcrastination

As I sit here on what is officially Wednesday but still feels like Tuesday, I feel the pangs of guilt for neglecting you dear reader(s). Posts this past month have been sporadic, infrequent, and it is downright rude. I could make excuses - work, school, endless hours of watching American Idol, but the truth is I'm just Lazy. With a capital L. Somehow I always get in the kitchen, but I don't always get online. And now I'm sitting here, hoping against hope, for a snow day. Which, in this stage of my life, means a day in which I decide that snow prevents me from leaving the house. It could happen.

One thing that drags me in to the kitchen every time is an Occasion. With a capital O. (Sensing a trend?) I love to bake for something. I'd love to bake for the greater good of humanity, but it's more likely a birthday, an engagement, a dinner party or any Jewish holiday.

On Sunday, my friend Rachel (who along with her mother Debby are most valuable readers) celebrated her birthday, which also fell on Superbowl Sunday. Now, while I don't really know much about football except that it rarely involves feet, I never refuse a chance to cook. So, along with delicious mushroom barley soup (which I tweeted about) I made these festive birthday cupcakes!Of course since my failures at writing on baked goods are well documented, I attempted two letters and gave up, letting Sarah finish the task. Meanwhile, poor Alana sat directly in front of the cupcake tray, staring and them until Rachel showed up to claim her treat. Let's just say, I came close to wishing her a Happy B-da. But she held off, and was rewarded. At the end of the night, I was left with HE.
Meanwhile, poor Esti had her birthday back in JANUARY and has yet to see her delicious cake posted here. Next "snow day," my dear.

Word of the Day:

• Snowcrastination: accomplishing nothing under the assumption that tomorrow will be a snow day and you won't have to leave the house.

Snowy Village

For Chanukah this year, my ever thoughtful brother bought me this "Snowy Village Cakelet Pan" from Williams-Sonoma (which is unfortunately no longer available). I bought him a robot, so I think it was a good deal.In any case, I've been having a great deal of fun with my new toy.
The greatest thing about them is that they look uber-adorable and presentable with the least amount of effort: just a sprinkling of "snow" and you're set.

Each of the six "cakelet" molds is unique, with a different roof, chimneys and door.


They popped out of the pan with little rounded bottoms, which I sliced off so they all sat evenly instead of wobbling around like Russian nesting dolls.

Which of course, meant snack time!
Once I had my village set up....
...it was time to bring on the blizzard.
Thank goodness I don't have to shovel. (Ha, like I ever shovel).
Which is a good thing, since the snow is just getting heavier!
Residents are requested to remain indoors.
The walkway isn't cleared!
Put some entrepeneurial soul managed to get out to build a snowman.
How brave.

Anywho, I couldn't possibly tell you what cake recipe I used for these since I can't remember at all (and I doubt many of you have a snowy village cakelet pan in your possession). There was a recipe that came with the pan, but I found it didn't make nearly enough to fill them the first time around. So that batch went straight in to our mouth shaped garbage.

So...anyone having a housewarming party soon? I have the perfect gift.

Lemon Layer Engagement Cake

When my friends Racheli and Shaya got engaged a few weeks ago, I knew a cake was in the works. And knowing that Racheli loves all things lemon made me reach for this recipe for lemon layer cake from Smitten Kitchen, that I'd been eyeing for months. And boy was that a good move.

This cake starts with Paula Deen's famous 1-2-3-4 cake, which I've used before. The recipe makes three layers, which Deb (of Smitten Kitchen, of course) thought would be quite high, and I agreed. So instead, like her, I made 2 layers, and 6 very large cupcakes.
But of course, I couldn't possibly skimp on the lemon filling, so instead I cut those two layers in to four, and filled them all with the delicious lemon curd that I kept licking off my fingers.

Then of course, came the frosting. This recipe called for the famous 7-minute-frosting, which is basically a mixture of whipped egg whites, sugar, corn syrup and a couple other ingredients, at exactly the right temperature, for exactly the right length of time, to produce a meringue like frosting. Notice the word exactly. Not quite my thing.

Nevertheless I forged on, and armed with my handy candy (tee-hee) thermometer, I began the process. Unclear of what the final goal was even supposed to look like, I was apprehensive and worried, but it did appear to be thick and shiny as per my instructions.

And then. Disaster struck. Bum, bum, bum. While whipping with my hand mixer (and by hand mixer, I mean stand mixer separated from the stand), I hit the thermometer (that wasn't supposed to be in there anymore) and cracked it, sending shards of glass throughout the frosting.

Now, while a stray piece of egg shell may not kill you, I sure as hell wasn't going to serve frosting with death fragments in it. Ok, perhaps I'm being a little dramatic, but man, oh man, was this frustrating.

But, being that this wasn't just any old cake my friends, family or coworkers would manage without, I set out for 7-minute frosting part 2. Which, by the way, is more like twenty minute frosting, and forty if you have to make it twice.
Now, while I'm pretty sure the frosting turned out how it should have, I'm not so sure how I felt about it. The cake - the cake was fantastic, super lemony and moist. But the frosting - it was kind of like a big gooey meringue. Which some people like. I was kind of on the fence. Of course, I conducted a hasty survey of the consumers (is there anything you'd like more at a party then some crazed baker hovering over your shoulder, asking "did you like it? did you like it?") and responses were split. Guess it's just not for everyone.

Anyway, I decided to try a fun technique I saw during my endless hours of food network watching, by rotating the cake as I drew lines around it with a spatula - to make a cool, ribbony effect. I'm not sure anybody but me noticed.

(Yes, those are avocados.)
Anyway, by now you're probably thinking, aren't you done already? I've spent more time reading this post than it probably took you to bake the cake. (And you'd be wrong). But we're far from done, because next came the writing.

Now, I've mentioned before that I hate writing on cakes, and it makes me super nervous. But here it was kind of necessity, so I thought I'd try a new technique and pipe the letters on to parchment paper, let them set, and then apply them to the cake. That way I wouldn't ruin the cake if my writing was, well, up to my usual standards. (Different fridge, different vegetables. And I spot an apple!)

[For my non-Hebrew-literate friends, on top is the Hebrew lettering for "Mazel Tov" which means congratulations.]
However, they just kept breaking (and being eaten), so I took a deep breath, and went for it on the cake itself...

...not bad. Perhaps I'm not off the guest list after all.

More importantly...a good time was had by all.
Of course, this was just engagement party, part 1. Just wait until you see what part 2 has in store.

Tip of the Day: Keep your candy thermometer away from whirring kitchen appliances! 'Nuff said.

Recipe: (from Smitten Kitchen)
Cake:
1 cup (2 sticks) butter or margarine, softened
2 cups sugar
4 eggs
3 cups flour
4 tsps baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla

Beat the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy.
Beat in eggs, one at a time, waiting until each is well combined.
Add the flour, baking powder and salt alternatedly with the milk, until all is mixed in.
Add in the vanilla.
Divided between 3 9-inch round pans or 2 pans and 6-8 cupcakes.
Bake on 350F for 25 to 30 minutes (about 15 for cupcakes).

Lemon Curd:
8 egg yolks
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter or margarine
zest and juice of 3 lemons

Mix all the ingredients together in a glass bowl.
Place in a double boiler - over boiling water - without letting the bowl touch the water.
Cook and stir the mixture until it begins to gel or thicken very slightly.
Remove from heat and let cool.
Cover and refrigerate to thicken.

Seven (Twenty) Minute Frosting:
5 tbsps water
1/4 tsp cream of tartar
1 1/3 cups sugar
2 room temperature eggs whites
1 tbsp light corn syrup
1 tsp vanilla

Whisk all the ingredients except the vanilla together in a stainless-steel bowl.
Set the bowl in a wide skillet with about 1 inch of simmering water in it.
Beat the mixture on low until the temperature reaches about 140F on a thermometer.
Beat on high speed for five minutes.
Remove from the skillet and add the vanilla, continuing to beat for two to three minutes to cool.

Assembly:
If you are using two layers, slice each in half. Place the bottom layer on a cake plate or tray, and spread lemon curd on top. Layer cake then curd, until the final cake layer - do not spread curd on the top.
Cover the top and sides of the cake in frosting.

A Note on Cake Decorating

Cake decorating isn't really my thing. I'd like it to be - I'd love to whip up stunning wedding cakes and beautiful fondant creations and birthday cake perfections - but I can't.

I've got some things down - I can spread some nice frosting, I've even covered a couple cakes in fondant, and I was pleasantly surprised by my wedding cookies.

But one thing that really eludes me? Writing. What birthday cake is complete without a beautifully scrawled message across? But somehow my skill is writing on cake are severely lacking.

So when I created my friend Alana's birthday cake I was determined to get it right. Her cake was another thing entirely - I won't bore you with the burned fingers, oozing filling or near-drop experience, but I will tell you about the writing.

I tried.

I failed.I tried again.Moral of the story? If at first you don't succeed, try, try again. Sounds familiar, right? I used to think that it didn't really apply to cake decorating - that one shot was all you got. But with the right techniques, you can fix, hide, redo and cover your mistakes.

Or run to the store.

M Cake

When my friend Miriam had a birthday this summer, I didn't want to make a round or square cake. Boring! Instead, I whipped out my knife (or gingerly removed it from the drawer) and carved up my square cake into letter M.
(Portions of today's programming are brought to you by the number 7, and the letter M.)

I started with a square layer cake, and trimmed off the edges. And ate the edges.
Then I cut out a triangle from the top of the square, and the M shape into the bottom.

A lot of frosting and one candle later - celebration!
Now, hypothetically speaking, you could attempt this with any letter - but I lucked out here with the M, probably one of the easiest to do. An S would be more of a challenge to cut, and an A would certainly be difficult to frost. An L would be great, except you wouldn't have too much cake. What I really need, is to make a new friend whose name begins with Z. Any takers?

Tip of the Day: Your cake must be completely cool before frosting or it will all melt off. If you're in a rush and don't have time to let it cool on the counter, stick it in the fridge or freezer for a short while. But make sure you don't freeze it solid if you're planning on eating it right after!

Recipe:
Cake: (adapted from smitten kitchen)

2 cups plus 1 tbsp flour
2 tsps baking powder
1 1/2 tsps baking soda
1 tsp salt
1/2 cup (1 stick ) butter or margarine, softened
1 cups sugar
1 tsp vanilla
2 eggs
1 cup buttermilk

Beat together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add in the vanilla.
Beat in the eggs, one at a time. Beat in buttermilk (mix will look curdled).
Gradually mix in flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
Pour batter in to a parchment paper lined 8 inch square cake pan.
Bake at 350 F for 35 to 40 minutes.
Cool in pan ten minutes then invert on to wire rack.

Frosting (from smitten kitchen)

12 ounces semisweet chocolate, finely chopped
3/4 cup heavy cream
1 1/2 tbsps sugar
1 1/2 tbsps light corn syrup
3 tbsp butter

Bring the cream, sugar and corn syrup to a boil over low heat, mixing until well combined.
Remove from heat and whisk in chocolate until melted and smooth. Add in butter until stir until melted and combined. Let sit until comes to room temperature. Do not refrigerate before use - it will harden.

A Cookie, A Wedding, A New Beginning

Last week, my friends Shiffy and Noam got married. And the weekend before the wedding, us girls got together for one last pre-wedding gathering to bond, talk, sing, and of course, eat.

So when my friend Miryam challenged me to create decorated cookies for the event, I accepted her gauntlet, even though I'd never done it before.

And so a very long day began...and ended with 80 pretty, frosted, delicious cookies.
Though I'm sure many of you have done this before, this was my first time, and I was a little nervous. The cookies have two components: the sugar cookie and the icing. Sugar cookies I've done before, and my trusty recipe came through again here. The recipe below should make about 100 heart shaped cookies - I used a 2 1/2" Wilton cutter.
I made mostly hearts, but I also made a handful of circles, and about a dozen "S" and "N" cookies - I really had no advance plan, so anything went!
The icing, however, was new. This type of icing is called royal icing, but why, I don't know. It is a simple mixture of egg whites, a small amount of liquid (I used lemon juice, but water would also work) and confectioner's sugar. A lot of confectioner's sugar. You can also add a little vanilla for flavoring (I didn't), but be careful with the amount of liquid in the recipe.

If you're not comfortable using egg whites in the icing, you can buy pasteurized eggs, powdered eggs or a product called meringue powder.

This icing is used for decorating cookies because it dries to a beautiful, shiny, hard finish - and you can add as many detail and layers as you want.

The basic recipe (below) can be thickened with more sugar or thinned with more water as needed.

Oh - and a word on food coloring. Gel food coloring is preferable, as it won't thin out your icing the way that liquid coloring will. Apply a little bit of the coloring at a time with a toothpick to the icing. And, as you know, when it comes to food coloring, less is more. You can always add color, but you can't take it out. Now back to our regularly scheduled programming.

My first try, I used the icing straight out of the recipe, and spread it on the cookies with the back of a teaspoon. This was the result.
My second try, with the blue icing, I thinned it out a little first with some water, and it spread out more evenly. As with the color, less is more with adding extra liquid. Even a drop of water will make a difference when mixed in

Another side note:

Actually, preface to the side note. Where did a first time cookie decorator gain all these tips? Youtube of course. Search for "cookie decorating" on the popular video sharing site, and you will be entertained for hours. That is, if you're entertained by watching people decorate cookies.

Back to the side note: There are many different ways you can put that first coat of icing on your cookies. The back of a spoon is one of them. You could also use a small paintbrush, or you could use a piping bag to pipe a line around the edge of the cookie, and fill it in with a squiggle of the icing, using a toothpick to nudge it into place.
I used every method imaginable with these cookies, and with almost a hundred to experiment with, I had a lot of trials and a few errors.

Now, I know in the past I've told you that ziploc bags and a hole cut in the corner work just as well as a piping bag - but not here. You can still use the plastic bag, but proper icing tips are essential.

As are these:For those of you who don't know, this is a coupler. To use it, you place one end inside the plastic bag, and then place the icing tip over the outside, and screw the other end of the coupler over it. This does two things. Firstly, it gives the icing tip stability, and it also enables you to switch tips without moving the icing to a new bag. For those of you who are interested, I alternated between a #2 and a #5 tip for the decorating.

Let's just say, by the end of the day, I had a dining room table covered with cookies, bowls of icing, used toothpicks, plastic bags, icing tips and food coloring. It may or may not have looked a little something like this.
After you have put the first layer of icing on, it will start to harden immediately. As will any bags or bowls of icing you leave out for too long. After about a half hour, you can add more details to your cookies, but check with your finger that you have that smooth, shiny finish first.

You don't have to give every cookie a first coat, however, and I left some without. But all the cookies got a decorating touch. Swirls, dots, lines, squigglys, and some writing - I was having fun. I stuck with three colors of icing: pink, blue and white. Practically no two cookies were the same.
The one thing that went bad during my deluxe cookie decorating bonanza, was the photography. By the time I was done, daylight was long gone, and no matter how hard I tried the photos didn't come out how I wanted. Forgive me?
After I delicately arranged each and every cookie on the platter, ate the few that wouldn't fit (about 75 of the original 90 baked cookies made it to Shiffy's house), I delivered the cookies.

The next day, at our gathering, I couldn't believe every last cookie was finished before the end of the evening. Unlike the elaborately decorated cookies you can get in the bakery, these were truly delicious as well as pretty. And hard to resist.

So I tried a new technique, Shiffy and Noam are beginning a new life together, and a new school year is just starting.

While I'll no longer have the time now that I'm back in school to spend an entire day on cookies, I'm sure there will be many more firsts, both in and outside the kitchen, ahead this year.

Tip of the Day: If you're worried about your cookies coming out well or you're a newbie like me, always make a handful more cookies then you need, so you won't be too worried if a few aren't perfect (and the ugly ones taste just as good!).

Recipe:
Sugar Cookies:
1 1/2 cups (3 sticks) butter or margarine
2 1/4 cups sugar
3 eggs
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
4 1/2 cups flour
3/4 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp salt

Beat together butter and sugar until light and creamy.
Beat in eggs and vanilla.
Gradually mix in flour, baking powder and salt.
Shape dough into 4 balls and wrap in wax paper and refrigerate overnight (or freeze for a couple hours).
Lightly flour your counter or surface, and roll out dough 1/4 of an inch thick.
Cut out as many shapes as possible with a cookie cutter.
Transfer shapes to ungreased cookie sheet.
Reserve the trimmings for rerolling.
Reroll the dough and the remaining dough as many times as necessary.
Bake the cookies on an ungreased cookie sheet for 10 to 13 minutes at 350F, without letting them get brown.
Transfer to wire racks to cool.

Royal Icing:

3 egg whites
3 teaspoons lemon juice
4 1/2 cups confectioner's sugar, sifted

Beat the egg whites and lemon juice together.
Gradually add in the sifted sugar on low speed until smooth.
Use immediately or cover and refrigerate or it will begin to harden.

Chocolate Chocolate Cupcakes

While I do love frosting, sometimes its nice to have a cupcake with just a little decoration.
These chocolate, chocolate cupcakes are just the thing, really simple and without that big mound of buttercream on top.

The recipe called for 12, but I only got 11 out of it. Guess mine were a little too big.
They baked up with beautiful domes, nice and high which I like. Flat cupcakes are boring.
To decorate these, I used my trusty chocolate frosting (recipe below), and a ziploc bag. That's right, just a plastic bag. Sure, I have fancy decorating bags and tips and couplers and all that stuff, and I do use them, but really, for something like this, a plastic bag with the tip snipped is all you need.
This is also a great tip to give a finishing touch to almost practically any baked good - what couldn't be improved by a chocolate drizzle?Tip of the Day: If you're all out of toothpicks and you need to check if your cake or cupcakes are done, press gently on the dome. It should be firm, and spring back within a second or two.

Recipe:
Cake (from Food and Wine)

4 tbsp (1/2 stick) butter or margarine
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup water
1 cup flour
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup plus 2 tblsps cocoa powder
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/8 tsp salt
1 egg
1/4 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla

Melt the butter, oil and water together. Add it to the flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt, and beat together until well mixed.
Add the egg and beat until incorporated.
Mix in the milk and vanilla. Pour the batter into 12 cupcake tins lined with paper cases (I got 11). they should be about 3/4 full.
Bake on 350 for about 25 minutes.

Frosting: (from smitten kitchen)

6 ounces semisweet chocolate, finely chopped
6 tbsp heavy cream
3/4 tbsp sugar
3/4 tbsp light corn syrup
1 1/2 tbsp butter

Bring the sugar, corn syrup and cream to a boil.
Remove from heat and stir in chocolate until melted.
Add butter and mix until melted.

Airplane Cake

The Troublesome Trio met again a few weeks ago before we departed for different corners of the world. What better way to celebrate than with Airplane Cake?
Sarah, Ariel and I (seen before in Cow Cake, Chocolate Ganache Bars and Cupcake Cones) met up before Sarah took a trip to Kazakhstan, (she's since returned) and Ariel went to Copenhagen for the semester (follow her travels at Ariel Abroad), and I....well I stayed in New York. Clearly I'm not well traveled enough to be friends with these two.

Which is why I brought cake! After deciding that an airplane cake was the way to go, I spent hours googling other airplane cakes, before deciding on my plan of attack. I've never made a carved cake before, so I was a little nervous.

I started with two plain old 9 inch rounds. You can see the recipe I used below.
I froze my layers for a while before starting, because it makes all the carving and slicing easier, as well as reduces crumbs when frosting.

Oh my god, a naked airplane!
This was the first coat of frosting, called a crumb coat. It gets all the possible crumbs stuck down, to prepare it for the second coat.
I never quite got the coverage I wanted, even with several coats with refrigeration in between. I probably should have used a better quality frosting (this was canned), plus its harder with white than chocolate or another color.
After I was satisfied with the multiple coats. Now, decorating isn't really my thing, although I've been getting more practice at it lately, so I'm sure most of you could do better than my misshapen windows. And this was the better side.

Now all that's left is to clean off the cake board! Some people would rather cover the board with strips of parchment paper and pull them out afterwards, but I'd rather have to clean the board then have them in the way.
Let them eat cake!
We're really great at posing for pictures. Some may say we have a gift.
After spending so much time on a cake, it is sometimes hard to cut into it - but Sarah didn't have that problem!
Airplane cake guts. It was delicious.

Tip of the Day: If you don't have a cake board that is the size or shape you need, just cut it out from a large piece of cardboard and cover it with heavy duty foil. Just make sure your cardboard is strong enough to hold your cake and won't buckle.

Recipe:
Cake: (from smitten kitchen)
4 cups and 2 tablespoons flour
2 tsps baking powder
1 1/2 tsps baking soda
1 tsp salt
2 sticks (1 cup) butter or margarine, softened
2 cups sugar
2 tsps vanilla
4 eggs
2 cups buttermilk

Beat together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add in the vanilla.
Beat in the eggs, one at a time. Beat in buttermilk (mix will look curdled).
Gradually mix in flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
Divide batter between two parchment paper lined 9 inch round cake pans.
Bake at 350 F for 35 to 40 minutes.
Cool in pan ten minutes then invert on to wire rack.

Assembly:

Trim the two 9 inch rounds so they are flat and even.
Slice one exactly in half, and sandwich the two halves together to create a double layer semi-circle. Trim the top of the semi circle so it is flat.
Attach it to your cake board with a dollop of frosting.
Cut the remaining round in half as well.
Cut one of the halves in half again. Each 1/4 of a cake will be a wing of the cake.
Arrange them around the body of the plane, and attach with frosting.
Cut a tail shape out of the remaining cake and attach it to the back of the plane with frosting.
Cover the whole cake with frosting - you will probably need two layers. Decorate as desired.