Cupcake Heaven

Oh, man, have I been sitting on these cupcake pictures from Wilmington's Concord Pike strip mall cupcake haven, Cupcake Heaven, for a long while. Like, maybe half a year! Sorry.

If you're looking for inventive flavors and a wide variety of cupcakes, Cupcake Heaven is just the place for you. With about 120 different cupcake flavors in their repertoire, and 25-30 of those available daily, you're gonna have to root around to find your favorite. Sugar-free, vegan, and gluten-free cupcakes can be made by special order, as well as larger cakes for special occasions.

With so many flavors, and, of course, personal preferences, some of Cupcake Heaven's creations are complete misses, but others are hits. I've found some cakes to have different textures and levels of moistness, too, making some perfect and others not so much.

Cute cupcakes are (were) trendy, but Cupcake Heaven missed that memo, and is operating out of passion, not fashion. The website could use an update, and the strip mall shop set up as a cafe that also offers soup, sandwiches, and coffee lacks warmth, classy decor, or any other inviting qualities beckoning customers to stay longer than it takes to order, pay, and hop back in the car. It's a shame, really, but don't let that stop you from dropping by.
This chocolate cupcake with chocolate frosting and pretzel pieces was moist, rich, sweet, salty, and perfect. The French Toast cupcake reminded me nothing of French Toast and was a little dry, but that's OK, because three out of four cats prefer cream cheese frosting.
Red Velvet was underwhelming, which is on par with most, and the other cupcake (I've forgotten what it was, it's been so long, but pretty sure it was eggnog) was just spiffy.

Cupcake Heaven
2117 Concord Pike, Wilmington, DE 19803
(302) 426-0270
Mon-Fri: 7am-8pm
Sat: 8am-8pm
Sun: 9am-2pm

Chai Buttercream Cupcakes and Miniature Quiches

Happy Easter, everyone! I'm offering up not one, but two recipes today in honor of Spring, Passover, (well, the end of Passover, so now you can eat these) and Easter.Cute flower arrangements at Stop and Shop...

They are both portable, individual portions, and will definitely put you in the mood for beautiful weather. Up here, it's absolutely gorgeous, and I've been celebrating the weather with dinner parties and walks in town.

These little cupcakes are delicious finishes to any meal, and the frosting is to die for. It's amazing what a little chai concentrate, like Oregon Chai, can do to a recipe. The flavor is really adjusted and I think it's an interesting taste. We used this in substitute of milk when we were out, and the cupcakes are still just as fluffy.Ingredients (makes six cupcakes)
Cake
1 1/2 cups flour
1 cup of sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons of baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup of chai concentrate, or a 50/50 mix of milk and concentrate for a less intense flavor
1/2 tablespoon of vanilla
2 large eggs

Frosting
1 1/2 cups of confectioner's sugar
1 stick of butter, room temperature.
2 tablespoons of chai tea concentrate
Sprinkles to garnish

1. Preheat your oven to 350. In a medium sized mixing bowl, sift together all the dry ingredients so that they are thoroughly combined. In a larger bowl, combine the liquids and gradually add the dry ingredients into the wet ones. Don't over-mix!
2. Fill a muffin tin with cupcake wrappers, and fill the tin to about 3/4 of the way up- these get really fluffy and puffy! And pop them in the oven for 9-11 minutes or until the tops are golden brown and have risen to above the level of the wrappers.
3. While that's all going on, make the buttercream frosting. Have your butter out and softened, and with a strong hand or an electric mixer, mix it in with the chai concentrate and half and half and the confectioner's sugar until combined and fluffy.
4. Once the cupcakes are done, let them cool to room temperature before frosting, and then decorate as you please.

And now, onto the quiches. These are disgustingly simple. And the presentation is absolutely adorable. I have Erik to thank for a late-night quiche craving.Ingredients (makes six)
1 package of puff pastry, with six individual pieces
3 eggs
1 cup of cheese- cheddar, Havarti, whatever you like. Even stinky cheese.
5 slices of bacon
1/2 cup of half and half (If you say that three times fast, I will give you a quiche)
Salt and pepper to taste

1. Preheat your oven to 425 and start thawing the puff pastry. It has to be completely malleable for these to cook correctly. Cut the bacon into tiny squares and toss it into a pan to fry up until very crispy.
2. Mix together the eggs, 3/4 cup of the cheese, the half and half, salt and pepper. Save 1/4 cup of the cheese for later. Beat it up until it's bubbly and pretty. When the bacon is done- LET IT COOL, for god's sake, don't plop it in and risk cooking the eggs before you bake the quiches. And once it's coldish, put it on in and mix some more.
3. Take those muffin tins and pop the puff pastry in, like baby crusts, and it will fit in perfectly and form a little cup. Make sure it's rolled out thin or they will have raw bottoms. Heh. And then, once all the cups are formed, you can start filling them. You can put cheese on the bottom for a gooey bottom quiche, and then fill with the eggs. Make sure that there's an even distribution of the toppings, as they tend to sink down to the bottom while the mixture sits. Garnish with cheese.
4. Here's the part that's a little tricky, but really, just requires some careful watching. Bake the quiches for 10 minutes at 425, and then, reduce the temperature to 350 and bake for another five minutes. Take them out once they're golden brown and scrumptious looking. Let cool for about ten minutes, or five seconds if you're hungry, and eat!

Guys, enjoy the holiday and the weather and cook up a storm!

The Foodette

Iron Cupcake Challenge

This past weekend I was asked to be on a panel of judges for The Iron Cupcake Challenge held at The Green Apple Bistro in Moorestown, New Jersey. My judging companions were E of Foodaphilia and Vince Frank of Swanky Bubbles. We all had a lot of fun judging, and, believe it or not, picking a winner was extremely difficult.

The Iron Cupcake Challenge is a local meetup group where any local bakers and food enthusiasts can join for a monthly cupcake face-off. Kati Angelini of Kati's KupCakes organizes the event the NJ/Philly area where each month a new ingredient is presented, and all participants bake their interpretation of the ingredient in cupcake fashion. Proceeds go to a different charity each month (Ronald McDonald House was this month's recipient), and the victor goes home with a crown and a $100 check.
Judges' table.

Next month's cupcake challenge flavor is pumpkin (hello, Autumn!) and the event will be held at The Pop Shop (hello, 30 varieties of grilled cheese!) in Collingswood, NJ. If you think you've got what it takes to be the next Iron Cupcake Champion, join up and pony up the $15 entry fee. You know you've always dreamt of winning a local bake-off!

Iron Cupcake Challenge: Moorestown
The Pop Shop, 729 Haddon Ave., Collingswood, NJ 08108
Sunday, October 25, 5 pm

Buttercream Cupcake Truck

I was eagerly peering into Jefferson Square park this past Saturday, waiting for Kate Carrara and her Buttercream cupcake truck to appear at the Cupcake Bandit Film Festival. Once spotted, I was there with wallet in hand.

Kate, or 'the cupcake lady', is just as cute and friendly as could be! At this event, she was selling mini, regular, and jumbo cupcakes that she bakes at the Philly Kitchen Share kitchen and sells out of her roaming, cupcake-styled, remodeled mail truck.I grabbed two regular cupcakes ($2 ea): vanilla with chocolate frosting, and chocolate with peanut butter frosting. The cupcakes are made from scratch, but Kate has mastered the formula for baking up cakes with a moist, light, fluffy texture reminiscent of box mixes (admit it, you love cake from mixes). The chocolate frosting was the smoothest frosting I've ever had, and the peanut butter frosting was light and airy.

Fond memories of childhood bake sales (when parents actually made goodies, instead of picking up from the grocery bakery) danced in my head as I gobbled up the Buttercream cupcakes.Be on the lookout for the cupcake truck around town and at events. Location and cupcake updates are tweeted at @buttercreamphl. The Buttercream truck is your new bff!

Buttercream Truck
Philadelphia, PA
267-505-7486

The Fancy Lady Gourmet Cupcakes and Cookies

I got another package in the mail, from The Fancy Lady Gourmet, and as soon as I opened it, I couldn't believe how adorable it was.

The packaging itself is exquisite. The packing was baby blue tissue paper, and each confection was packed in a colorful Chinese food carton. I felt like I was opening an individual gift with each one. There was a label on each telling me what I was opening.

The first thing I tried was a coconut brownie cupcake with graham cracker crust. Now, I'm not really a fan of coconut, but this blew me away. The brownie was like a delicious, dense hybrid of cupcake and brownie, it was definitely an amazing homemade treat. The frosting was a bit hard, which I can expect, being in the mail, so I popped my piece into the microwave and let it nuke for a few. Probably one of the best decisions I've ever made. I then realized that the frosting wasn't frosting at all, but white chocolate with toasted coconut on top. Delicious. It basically turned into a ganache.

This brownie cupcake was fantastic. I think I'm a convert.

9/10- FANTASTIC

The next treat was a s'mores brownie. Opening this was just like a real s'more! Very gooey good! The marshmallows were nice and toasty brown, but the cake was very dry and had a really strange mouthfeel to it. It left a film in my mouth and a strange aftertaste that I can't put my finger on. I'm not sure if it was the graham cracker crust or the brownie itself, but something was a little off. I did like how the marshmallows were roasted on top, though, instead of being put in the mix.

5/10- OKAY

This last one was really the star of the show. It's an adorable little red velvet cupcake with a lovely fondant flower on top. The cake is a deep, dark, rich burgundy color, almost, and you can smell the cocoa scent of a good red velvet from three feet away.

I almost don't want to cut into this cupcake, it's so cute. It's got a perfect daub of white chocolate on top. I'm torn between eating it or putting it by my bedside table and making it my firstborn child. But alas, I must share with Patricia, as my family ate her last share of baked goods, so...I must cut.

The cake is a little bit dry, but maintains a deep, rich, buttery red velvet flavor that goes perfectly with milk. The frosting is delicious, again, a really buttery white chocolate dollop on top, and the fondant was a pleasant surprise for me. The cupcake was smaller than the brownie, but this was perfect. Any more would have been too much. The density is just perfect with this one.

8/10- TASTY

I strongly recommend these desserts for anyone to try. The Fancy Lady Gourmet is out of Moonachie, NJ, and can be found on her website on Etsy.com

The Fancy Lady Gourmet
Moonachie, NJ

CakeKraft

Michelle Poole of CakeKraft is back in town, and is lovingly and masterfully baking cakes, cupcakes, vegan cakes, gluten-free cakes, cookies, and other treats with all-natural ingredients and the best local, organic, and free trade ingredients whenever possible. Expect to see her cakes soon in and around the Philly area, including the Philly suburbs, New Jersey, and Delaware, at coffee shops, restaurants, and markets.

If you're jonesin' for some cakes and cuppers from CakeKraft right now, you're in luck, because she also does custom orders. Contact Michelle on her website and place an order for your next wedding, party, or event (sitting around the TV watching Top Chef with friends qualifies as an event), and deliciousness will be delivered to your door.

I know I've presented fresh baked cupcakes from a bakery at a party before, and, gosh, besides having more variety than I would ever dare bake at once, CakeKraft's desserts are just tastier and prettier than what I can whip up.Oh, you want to know how they taste? I sampled four varieties of CakeKraft cupcakes (two vegan, and two regular) and they were all fabulous, satisfying my raging sweet tooth without being overly sweet. And the vegan cupcakes were just as delicious as the regular cupcakes. Seriously. The regular cupcakes had a finer crumb than the vegan cupcakes, but that was the only difference.

I ate (all at one sitting, of course):

• vegan pumpkin-carrot spice with cream cheese frosting (walnuts and dried cranberries had me swooning hard)
• vegan dark chocolate with chocolate ganache (not too sweet, deep chocolate flavor with espresso undertones)
• chocolate with cappuccino buttercream (that cappuccino buttercream is crazy good)
• vanilla buttercake with vanilla bean buttercream (can't beat a classic)

Now, go get some!

CakeKraft
cakekraft.com

Chocolate Peanut Butter and Jelly Cupcakes

Need I say more! OK, just a tad more…

I made these for my friend’s birthday. She’s not a sweet person, but when she does indulge she prefers chocolate. So, I indulged her. It was her birthday, after all!

I wanted to make her a special chocolate cupcake. Chocolate and peanut butter (two great tastes that taste great together!) were on my mind. Then I ran into peanut butter and jelly cupcakes made by hollowing out the center of a white cupcake, filling with jelly, and topping with peanut butter frosting. Yum! But let’s make it chocolate. Even better!

I had great success with the chocolate stout cupcakes I made last year for her birthday, but didn’t want beer all up in my cpb&j cupcakes. A little coffee subbed for the beer did the trick!

Grape jelly just wasn’t going to cut it. I used cherry preserves, and, oh my god! If you’re thinking of skipping the jelly part, don’t!

Chocolate Peanut Butter and Jelly Cupcakes
Makes about 22 cupcakes

Cake
1 cup brewed coffee
2 sticks unsalted butter
3/4 cup cocoa powder
2 large eggs
2/3 cup sour cream
2 cups all purpose flour
2 cups sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt

• Bring coffee and butter to a simmer in a saucepan over medium heat on the stove. Whisk in cocoa powder until smooth, and let cool.
• Beat eggs and sour cream in a large bowl.
• In another bowl, mix flour, sugar, baking soda, and salt.
• Add the flour mixture to the egg mixture, and beat to combine.
• Fill individual, lined cupcake molds 3/4 full, and bake for 18-20 minutes in a preheated 350° oven. Let cool.

Frosting
2 cups powdered sugar
1 1/2 cups smooth peanut butter
1 stick unsalted butter, room temperature
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
2-4 teaspoons whipping cream

• Beat sugar, peanut butter, butter, and vanilla extract together. Add whipping cream, if frosting is too thick.

To Assemble
1 jar of cherry preserves
cupcakes
frosting

• Cut a cone shaped hole in the top of the cupcake with a sharp knife. Remove the cupcake plug, cut the tip of the cone off, and set the top aside. Fill the hole with jelly, and place the top of the plug back on the cupcake.
  
• Frost cupcake. (Chocolate shavings optional.)
  

Vegan Red Velvet Cupcakes

Not sure if it’s because Valentine’s Day is around the corner, but this site has been getting lots of hits for vegan red velvet cupcakes this past week. There’s a recipe for red velvet cupcakes, and the word vegan floats around this blog a bit, but there is no recipe for vegan red velvet cupcakes here at the M&C…until now!

I love vegans. I love red velvet cake. I love cupcakes.And I just hate to see people land on this site, and not find what they’re searching for. I guess that means I love you!

I compared the red velvet cake recipe in Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World to my Aunt’s recipe for red velvet cake, and the two are virtually identical.In the vegan version, vegetable oil replaces the shortening and eggs, and soy milk replaces the buttermilk. For the cream cheese frosting, margarine replaces the butter, and vegan cream cheese replaces regular cream cheese.Simple!

The resulting vegan cupcakes are super moist – almost a little too moist – due to the vegetable oil, and the frosting is just as good as non-vegan cream cheese frosting. I do prefer the lacto-ovo red velvet cupcakes to the vegan cupcakes, because I think the vegetable oil in the vegan cupcakes changes the original texture of the cake, but that’s not to say I didn’t scarf three of the vegan red velvet cupcakes the second they were frosted!

Vegan Red Velvet Cupcakes
Adapted from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World and my Aunt
Makes about 22 cupcakes

Update: Because some commenters are concerned about the vegan-ness of red dye, let me clarify: some, but not all red food coloring is made from insects. Cochineal/Carmine is made from beetles (sometimes labeled E120). Red #40 is derived from coal. If you’re concerned about ingredients in red dye being vegan or not, just read the label.

Cake
2 cups soy milk
2 teaspoons apple cider vinegar
2 ½ cups all-purpose flour
2 cups sugar
4 tablespoons cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2/3 cup vegetable oil
2 ounces red food coloring
4 teaspoons vanilla extract

• Add vinegar to soy milk, and set aside to curdle.
• Sift flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl.
• Add vegetable oil, food coloring, and vanilla extract to the curdled soy milk, and mix.
• Pour liquid ingredients into the dry ingredients, and mix.
• Fill cupcake liners ¾ full.
• Bake in a preheated 350° oven for 20 minutes or until done.

Frosting
½ cup margarine, room temperature
½ cup Tofutti Better Than Cream Cheese, room temperature
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
4 cups confectioners sugar

• Cream margarine, cream cheese, and vanilla extract.
• Slowly mix the confectioner’s sugar into the creamed sugar, and then beat until smooth and fluffy.
• Frost cooled cupcakes.

Key Lime-Coconut Cupcakes

I don’t own what is probably the most popular vegan cookbook out there – Vegan with a Vengeance by Isa Chandra Moskowitz. Neither do I own Moskowitz’s Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World. I like to think that it's not that I'm slow or cheap, but that I was just waiting for the big kahuna – Veganomicon: the Ultimate Vegan Cookbook.

Ok, I'm cheap. I was waiting for someone (Santa) to give me one of Moskowitz’s cookbooks.

The first recipe I made out of Veganomicon was mini key lime-coconut cupcakes for the last Philly food blogger meetup. Can’t find key lime-coconut cupcakes in the index of your Veganomicon? That’s because it’s not there.

I knew I was making non-vegan mini key lime bars, but wanted a vegan counterpart. When I saw the coconut-lemon bundt cake recipe in Veganomicon, I immediately thought of banana-lime bread with lime glaze that I used to make that also used coconut. Bingo! Substitute lime for lemon, put the batter in a mini-cupcake pan, and slap a lime glaze on those suckers!

I liked these guys a lot. They were sweet, but not cloying. If you want cloying, just add a lime and cream cheese-like frosting. Cloying is good, too.

Key Lime-Coconut Cupcakes

1 ⅔ cups granulated sugar
⅔ cup vegetable oil
1 14-ounce can coconut milk
¼ cup rice or soy milk
¼ cup lime juice, (key lime or regular)
3 tablespoons grated lime zest
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 ½ cup shredded coconut, (sweetened or unsweetened)

Key Lime-Rum Glaze

¼ cup brown sugar
1 tablespoon rum
3 tablespoons lime juice, (key lime or regular)

• For the cake, combine sugar, oil, coconut milk, rice milk, lime juice and zest, and vanilla in a large bowl.
• Sift the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt into the wet ingredients in batches, mixing well after each addition. Mix in the coconut.
• Pour the batter into a greased mini-cupcake pan, and bake for 18 minutes in a pre-heated 350° oven, or until the cake is done. Let cool.
• To make the glaze, combine brown sugar, rum, and lime juice in a small pan over low heat, stirring constantly for about 5 minutes until a thin syrup develops. Brush tops of cupcakes with glaze.

Thanksgiving Cupcakes

Thanksgiving cupcakes from Whole Foods.

How could I resist a carcass-topped cupcake? And the mini-meal made me want to break out the dolls I never owned and play house.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Brown Betty Dessert Boutique

After a light lunch at home on a lazy Saturday afternoon, I was yearning for more lazing…but in a cute coffee shop or dessert parlor with a piece of cake in front of me. A last minute invite for an impromptu dinner put a wrench in my plans of lazing, but not my plans of having cake. I’ll just pick up some dessert as my contribution to the dinner – cake for them and me!

On the way out of town, I stopped by Brown Betty Dessert Boutique, a mother and daughter run bakery in Northern Liberties that uses Grandma Betty’s vintage recipes. Like many grandmas, Brown Betty’s namesake, Elizabeth Hinton, was famous for her pound cake. Other family cake recipes, such as carrot cake, cheesecakes, and chocolate cakes are also baked daily with a pinch of love and family tradition. The cakes proudly pay homage to the women in their family with cute names like Hattie Don’t Play™ and Aunt Eva Says™.

Most of the cakes in Brown Betty’s repertoire are available in cupcake form – perfect if you’re prone to eating an entire cake in one sitting (and want to avoid that), or just want to sample all the cakes (one per day, or in one sitting). I had a dozen assorted cupcakes boxed to go for the dinner party. I am embarrassed to say that I ate more than my fair share of the cupcakes (in one sitting), but I'm doing investigative work, and, um, need to do thorough work.

I was inexplicably drawn to the strawberry cupcake (forgive me, I cannot remember the names off all the cupcakes), stemming perhaps from fond memories of squeezing Strawberry Shortcake’s head to snort the synthetic fruit vapors wafting from her hair when I was a child. There were two strawberry cupcakes, one with chocolate buttercream frosting, and one with strawberry frosting. I ate both. The cake was moist and light, but the delicate strawberry flavor was overpowered by the sweet frosting.

I then ate a pound cake cupcake. The pound cake cupcakes really are pound cake, so don’t expect a light vanilla cake – these cupcakes are heavy and dense…and oh so good.

I heroically swooped down to finished the chocolate cupcake with chocolate buttercream frosting when a dainty person could not bear to finish the beautiful cupper since being weaned from rich, sweet desserts. I was happy to assist her in her shortcomings, as I’m declaring this cupcake my favorite in the bunch.

After consuming three and a half cupcakes, I needed to put an end to the piggery. From there on out, I just took a pinch from the edges of a few more – all in the name of research, of course. The buttermilk pound cake with lemon frosting was my favorite pound cake, simply because lemon and pound cake are a classic pairing. The pound cake with pineapple was also outstanding, and a different twist on pound cake for me. If you like carrot cake, let me just say that you should start here. The carrot cake with white chocolate cream cheese frosting is the lightest and moistest carrot cake I’ve ever had.

Grandma Betty – and all the other fabulous women in their family – doesn’t put out a single bad cake. Betty was obviously one bad ass lady, and her family is doing her – and us – right.

Brown Betty Dessert Boutique, 1030 N. 2nd St., #601, Philadelphia, PA, 19123 215-629-0999 Tues.-Sat., noon-7 p.m.; Sun., noon-5 p.m.; Mon., closed.

Boston Cream Cupcakes

There was a run on cupcakes this past week at my house. These Boston Cream Cupcakes were the undoing of me, though. There’ll be no more cupcakes for a while.

While I don’t remember eating Boston cream cake when younger, Pink Rose Pastry Shop in Philadelphia has remedied that omission in my life. I love Boston cream cake. A white or yellow cake with chocolate icing is my favorite kind. The cream is an added bonus that I’ve taken to with little arm-twisting.

Thanks to a Cook’s Illustrated double subscription snafu, we’ve been receiving Cook’s Country, a cooking magazine by the same editors of Cook’s Illustrated. Cook’s Country uses the same recipe testing approach that Cook’s Illustrated uses, only with more homey recipes. Every thing I’ve cooked out of Cook’s Illustrated has been golden, so when I saw a picture of my cupcake fantasy (Boston cream cupcakes) in Cook’s Country, I needed a reason to justify making them. Weekend cookout? I’m there. With cupcakes!

Three-part cupcakes – cake, filling, icing – are major pains in the asses to make. I did this last year, and complained then, too. Last year, I hollowed out miniature cupcakes to fill and ice. I thought working with larger cupcakes would be better. Not really. I spent over three hours in the kitchen making these cupcakes. Once a year! Filling cupcakes will only happen once a year – and you better be getting married or something else grand. (Exception: The black bottom cupcakes made earlier this week are pain-free – in and out of the kitchen in 30 minutes.)

I wanted to print the recipe for Boston cream cupcakes to share, because I was so excited about them, but I found the cake and cream components less than perfect. I would not put you through three hours of baking and assemblage with this recipe. Instead, I’d suggest using your favorite white cake, pastry cream, and ganache recipe to create these cupcakes. Getting the filling inside is done by cutting a cone from the top of the cupcake, hollowing the inside out a little, filling the cupcake with cream, cutting the tip of the cone off, and placing what, now, looks like a lid on top of the cupcake.

These cupcakes were very tasty, and not one was left at the end of the night, but they were not perfect. The cake sank after baking, and was too dense. The cream looked promising, but was not as velvety as expected. I’m sure pastry cream is something that needs to be mastered. I did not achieve mastery. Hopefully, there’s a more fool-proof pastry cream recipe out there. The ganache was simple. Ganache always is.

Unfortunately, the cupcake marathon ended on a slightly down note. Not what I wanted. Take this idea and run with it. I won’t be filling any cupcakes until next year.

Chocolate Stout Cupcakes

My friend’s birthday is five days after mine. She always requests a cake - I think because she knows I’ll actually make it. (Reliable is my middle name.) Last year the request was for red velvet cake. This year it was for chocolate cake with chocolate icing. I guess if it’s your birthday, you get what you want. So, I obliged and made a chocolate cake with chocolate icing.

What I did not do was make a cake. I made cupcakes for a myriad of reasons:

• Small always wins the cute contest.
• Cupcakes are easy to eat when you don’t have a fork and plate.
• Individual cakes allow you to taste your handiwork without leaving a gaping wedge announcing you’ve been there.
• You can scarf down six of the twenty-one cupcakes and claim the batter only made fifteen!

I don’t have a standby chocolate cake recipe, so I searched food sites and blogs. I landed on the Chocolate Stout Cake over at Smitten Kitchen. (She actually snagged it from Epicurious, who snagged it from Bon Appetite, who snagged it from Barrington Brewery in Barrington, MA.) Pictures always help seal the deal with uncharted recipes, and Smitten Kitchen’s pictures are awesome.

This chocolate cake contains Guinness Stout. Reviewers at Epicurious said they could not taste the beer, but I could! I hate beer, so am very sensitive to its distinctive smell and taste. The good news is that chocolate and sugar makes beer taste good. (Next time someone thinks they’ll convert me with a sip of the most awesomest awesome beer, I’m going to ask for a fun size Snickers bar as a chaser.) The beer just adds a deeper flavor to the chocolate, and is not offensive to even those most offended by beer.

I used half of the original recipe, and baked the cupcakes for 20 minutes at 350 degrees. I ended up with twenty-one cupcakes. My friend’s getting cheated out of six cupcakes, but she doesn’t have to know. Shh.

Black-Bottom Cupcakes, You Make The Rockin' World Go Round

Help! I need more time. I need to wear a bikini in about three weeks. This is very bad timing, because I normally put on about five pounds in the winter. I don’t gain this weight pigging-out at Thanksgiving and Christmas. I gain this weigh at the beginning of the year when winter really hits hard. This is because my activity level drops in relation to the plummeting thermometer.

My job (gardener) requires me to be outside, so, when the mercury hits the 20’s, I stay home and waste countless hours sitting on my ass in from of the computer. I do other things – sew, knit, read, and work on little projects. (Sounds like a dream, but it’s quite boring. Without riches to travel the world, retirement is gonna be a fat drag.) Unfortunately, all of these home activities don’t qualify as aerobic activity, and have never helped anyone get a smaller ass.

Let’s just say that February was COLD. I worked about five or six days the entire month. I also gained about five or six pounds.

Now that I’m back to work full-time, I’m burning loads of calories as I squat down to pick up sticks, push wheel barrows filled with mulch across lawns, rake the last lingering leaves, and contort my body to prune the branch juuust out of reach.

Because of work, I can now have my cake and eat it, too. What a relief! I saw David Lebovitz's black-bottom cupcakes featured at Apartment Therapy recently, and knew that this was exactly what I wanted to break my unsuccessful sort-of-trying-not-to-eat-everything fast.

These black-bottom cupcakes are a grown-up cupcake, in that they are not overly sweet. If you’re one of those weird people that doesn’t like dessert to be too sweet (Isn’t sweet part of the definition of dessert?), this is for you. The cream cheese filling studded with chocolate chunks also makes these cupcakes more sophisticated than the iced cupcakes you bake for a kid’s birthday party.

I love these cupcakes the way they are, but if you want things sweeter, add some ice cream. I’ve been loving the new Häagen-Dazs Extra Rich Light Ice Cream. (Two pints in the last two weeks!) The carton reads,” We spent ten years with European scientists perfecting our Extra Rich Light ice cream.” Time well spent. Time well spent

With all the cupcakes and ice cream, I’m afraid I’m just running in place getting no where fast with these five extra pounds, but, damn, it tastes good. I guess I need to go to work eight days a week.

Green Tea Cake

I just TJ-hoarded…again! That’s what one must do when one fears the demise or long absence of a product at Trader Joe’s. And the sad thing is that I hoarded without even knowing if the product was going to be good. Luckily the green tea cake mix I just found on the “New Items” end cap turned out to be good.

Always check the “New Items” end cap to see interesting new arrivals. (Like the dried hibiscus flowers that I’ve yet to use.) These items may make it into the regular rotation, or TJ’s may make it walk the plank.

My intuition tells me that this is not going to be a smashing hit with the general public, and will disappear when the initial lot is sold. Ppsh, the general public does not know what is good for me! I love green tea flavored anything. My survival instincts kicked in and I hoarded.

The mild green tea flavored cake would be excellent with ginger sour cream frosting. The cake looks greener than the picture on the box and the picture I took, so would be excellent for a funky cake.

Fun Food

I found some fun things to make this holiday weekend. First is faux-fun sushi made from cake and candy over at Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories.Next up are the super cute caramel apple cupcakes at Cupcake Bakeshop.

One day I'll get to these, but not this weekend. I have about 20 pounds of mac and cheese to make for two parties. Yep, I'm getting my procrastinating ass off the computer right now!

I Try Food From Other Bloggers

I tried another cupcake from Chockylit – the Samoa inspired cupcake. It was to die for, but never again!

I started in the kitchen around 11 a.m. and figured I’d be there at least until 3 p.m. I was there until 6 p.m. Some of this time was used to make Jell-O shots in orange wedges that I saw at NotMartha, but that task was cake, unlike the cupcakes.

I decided to make miniature cupcakes since the calorie count was out of this world for one regular size cupcake. Miniatures also worked well for the weekend cookout. The batter goes farther so more people can partake.

Working in miniature tries my patience. Instead of assembling twelve cupcakes, I had to assemble about fifty cupcakes – in miniature.

The recipe calls for four different components: cake batter, caramel, ganache, and coconut topping. All of the components turned out well, but save time by skipping the caramel.

You’re instructed to cut a cone from the cupcake – again, lots of fun in miniature! – and fill with caramel. By the time you eat the cupcake, the cake has absorbed the caramel. So, the cake is just a little sweeter. No gooey caramel center like I was hoping to bite into.

The coconut topping is similar to icing on a German chocolate cake, and ganache is ganache. Everyone loved the cupcakes, but never made the connection to Samoas® until I told them that the Girl Scout cookie was the inspiration.

The cupcakes were phenomenal; don’t get me wrong. The caramel and coconut topping were so yummy. I had tons left over, but immediately trashed them so as not to keep sticking my finger in the bowls.

The Jell-o® shots were a smashing hit. Every one loved how they could easily get the shot out of the orange wedge by popping the wedge in front of their teeth and chomping down. Apparently Jell-o shots don’t come out of the traditional paper cup too easily.

So, thank you food bloggers for sharing your ideas and experiences. You’re more creative than most cookbooks.

Papaya-Coconut Cupcakes with Ginger-Lime Cream Cheese Frosting

Speaking of exotic flavors, I finally got around to making one of the scrumptious sounding and looking cupcakes at Cupcake Bakeshop by Chockylit, a blog devoted to the cupcake. If you haven’t been to the site, do go. I put it on my blogroll a few months ago.

Her cupcake darlings are creative and inspiring. They're not your standard flavors offered at bakeries. Here’s a sampling of the unusual-for-cupcake flavors: tarragon, basil, fennel, chili, tea, eggnog, persimmon, and lychee.

Some of the cupcakes are complex and amazing. I’m eyeing a cupcake inspired by the Samoas® Girl Scout cookie for an upcoming eating event – my second favorite Girl Scout cookie after Thin Mints.

I’m a sucker for pictures, and her pictures are gorgeous. I know my cupcakes will never look that good due to my chronic impatience and lack of a pastry bag, yet I still am not afraid to dive in and try to recreate the beauty.

The cupcakes all look good, but I decided to try the papaya-coconut cupcakes with ginger-lime cream cheese frosting.

I had everything already in the kitchen, expect for a papaya. The recipe calls for six ounces of papaya, but I don’t have a scale. I just threw some in; I’m not sure how much.

I substituted reduced-fat coconut milk and reduced-fat cream cheese because it was on hand. I would not recommend reduced-fat cream cheese if you were taking these to an event, only because the resulting icing is softer. If it’s warm outside, the icing could be a melting mess.

The result was very good. The cake was more like a fruit quick bread. The icing was my favorite part – tangy lime with spicy ginger. I put the full tablespoon of ginger in, but for my taste I could have put more in.

If only I had the time and metabolism to make and eat every one of her cupcakes!

Red Velvet Cupcakes

My friend and business partner’s birthday is a few days away from mine. It’s sort of like having to share your birthday with a sister. Since she’s younger, does that mean I get to beat her up, too?

She told me she loved red velvet cake, so I made cupcakes last year for her birthday and this year, as well. Next year she’s getting something different. I'm ready for something new.

My Aunt Mary Elizabeth (that’s four syllables and pronounced very quickly, an-mare-lis-buth) in Georgia was famed for her red velvet cake, and it is my brother’s all-time favorite. My aunt uses an icing made from flour, milk, sugar, vanilla, and butter that is cooked, but I once tried this with disastrous results. Instead, I'm using the other common pairing of cream cheese frosting.

Almost all recipes you find for this cake are very similar. The cake is traditionally known as a Southern cake, but has unknown and fabled originsthat sound quite dubious.Wherever it originated, the red batter screams to be used at Christmas, Valentine’s and special occasions.

Red Velvet Cupcakes

½ cup shortening
1 cup buttermilk
1 ½ cup sugar
2 eggs
2 ounces red food coloring
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 ½ cups cake flour, sifted
3 tablespoons cocoa powder
1 teaspoon vinegar
pinch of salt

• Cream shortening, sugar, eggs, and vanilla in a large bowl.
  
• Make a paste of the food coloring and cocoa and add to the sugar mixture.
• Mix salt, vinegar, baking soda, and buttermilk together.
• Add the flour alternately with the buttermilk into the sugar mixture and mix until well incorporated.
• Pour into muffin liners and bake for about 20 minutes at 350 degrees.

Cream Cheese Frosting
12 ounces cream cheese
½ stick of butter
4 cups sifted powdered sugar
2 teaspoon vanilla

• Allow cream cheese and butter to reach room temperature.
• Cream together cream cheese, butter and vanilla.
• Add the sifted powdered sugar and beat until creamy. Add more sugar for a thicker and sweeter frosting.