Iron Cupcake: Chocolate

This past Monday was the Iron Cupcake SF Challenge.. theme: chocolate. As I mentioned before, I was a little nervous because this would be my first challenge as a baker and I wasn't sure how to stand out with such a common ingredient. People literally put chocolate with anything, but I thought I could count on a few standards showing up at the challenge: chocolate w/ raspberry, chocolate explosions (just every kind of chocolate packed into one cupcake) and chocolate with caramel. Which is why I felt like I was very clever when I came up with the idea to do a Chocolate Malt cupcake, fashioned after a chocolate malt milkshake. As it turned out, I was the only one with chocolate and malt, but literally there was nobody with a berry flavor, and very few, if any, with caramel. There was just a lot of choco choco choco cupcakes and some random combinations like chocolate w/ marzipan and one person even did red velvet.
Back to my idea.. I tested it once before executing the final and was disappointed with the lack of malt flavor. It wasn't showing up anywhere in the cake, and the frosting had only the slightest hint. As luck would have it, a Cook's Illustrated mag showed up at my house with a recipe for "the best chocolate cupcake" and accompanying frosting. The frosting had a few varieties.. and one of them was malt! I didn't have time to test again before the challenge (wedding cake excitement) but decided to go with their recipe, which was essentially a swiss meringue buttercream with malt added at the end. Honestly I would have come up with this myself because I love swiss meringue, so it was a little annoying CI stole my thunder.
Everything went as planned. The cake came out perfect, the frosting came out as good as can be with a stronger malt flavor (but still not very punchy), and I even located a stabilized whip cream recipe in a new cake book I purchased but hadn't expected would be delivered before the competition. I topped the cupcakes with half a maraschino cherry to finish off the milkshake theme. They came out really nice!!:
I knew they were good but had hesitations about them standing out at the actual competition. Would people buy the milkshake theme?? So I decided to name them "My Milkshake Brings all the Boys to the Yard" and printed out a picture of Kelis sitting in a milkshake cup. It was super cute.
I ended up getting to the competition later than I wanted, and my cupcake ended up being second to last in order (14/15). I wasn't too worried because the last time, I tasted in reverse order because it was easier to cut the tiny cupcakes on the tray that way. Although after making some keen observations I noticed I was one of the few people who actually do that :D I heard people making comments about the display and idea and they all seemed positive, so that helped me feel more secure in my position.
As tasting began... and brace yourselves here because I'm going to get catty... I knew I had a real chance at placing. There were a lot of chocolate DISASTERS. I won't point fingers. I easily picked out my top competition and a few others I could have lost to depending on what other people like most about chocolate (things like sweetness and texture). As usual, tallying took eons, so my friends left for dinner wishing me luck, and I nervously waited outside with Jodie Froster and her fan club. Finally the moment came.. the announcer read in a super slow and slightly stage-frighty voice, "number 14....." then Jodie shouted excitedly, "THAT'S YOU!!!!" and the announcer finally said, "Colleen.." I was in total shock and only managed to give my best, "heuurrrrhh?" as I walked to the "stage." I was so so in shock I didn't know how to act.. how do Oscar winners accept awards with such grace!? Here I am winning 3rd place and acting like Girl, Interrupted!! What's wrong with me! Of course it didn't help that by this time, the majority of my fans had left, so it was just me and a bunch of strangers taking my photo!! Ha! When I got over my stage fright, I felt like some kind of d-list celebrity!! And I say that in the absolute BEST way possible! I still don't believe I won! Here is my prize package:

I'm also happy about who placed ahead of me. 2nd place went to a boston cream pie type creation that was super delicious and labor intensive, and 1st place went to a woman who made her own chocolate liners/molds and placed a super chocolatey cupcake inside. Actually, it was more like a brownie but I guess that didn't bother anybody! She really put a lot of work into it.
I learned a lot from this experience and cannot wait to do it again! I'm hesitant on the next ingredient, which is herbs, but I might have a few ideas I'm running through in my head :)
For now, I'm very much enjoying being an award wiener!! Yay me!! This has been an awesome baking week :) :) :)

Going pro!!

I might need a nap! I finally finished my anniversary wedding cake after four days of work. Hurrah!

I started out making the raspberry filling Wednesday night. That's easy.... just some frozen raspberries, lemon juice, cornstarch, sugar and heat. I leave the seeds in, and only recently started wondering if that's weird. Is it? Do people hate seeds? I like them, it feels more real, but I can see how the crunch would be distracting in an otherwise smooth cake. Whatever, it's not like they're plum seeds...

Okay, so on day two I made the custard and the lemon curd. I've only made custard once or twice many moons ago, so I don't have a recipe I really like. I'm going to be frank and tell you I went with easy on this one. I found a lot of custard recipes with a lot of steps, and almost went for a custard buttercream which looked totally monchable, but it had like, 10 steps, so I nixed it. I found a recipe on some random site that had a lot of positive reviews, and went with that. Pretty much you just throw a bunch of stuff in a pot, cook it, and add butter and vanilla at the end. It came out just fine, nothing fantastic.. but then again, the custard was never meant to stand alone, so it was fine. I used a Martha recipe for the lemon curd, and fresh meyer lemons from my tree outside. Lemon curd makes me nervous because it looks a little like scrambled eggs if you let the zest trick your eyes. I finished the curd and grew weary; there wasn't much of it. Fortunable I was using it in the 6" tier so I just ignored myself and moved on with life.

Last night I made the cakes. Now, I'm kind of a spaz when it comes to using different sized pans with cake recipes that are tailored for your typical two 9" rounds. I was working with 8"/6", and wasn't quite sure how to handle it. Eventually I just decided to make two batches of cake and bake one 8" and one 6" together at a time. It worked out OK except I had a lot of batter, which was to be expected. I had to bake longer as well, which made me a little nervous in the service as I'm used to just watching the clock for the last few minutes.. this time around I was checking every 2 minutes after the first 20. But no burnage!

Then it was a waiting game for the cakes to cool. This is also the perfect time to make buttercream, do the dishes, tell your cat she is annoying and squirt her with vinegar water so she gets off the counter, read your new "heavenly cakes" book, finish watching the last few episodes of season 1 "United States of Tara.." the possibilities are endless. Honestly.. it's anything to get my mind off of one thing.. the next step.. torting. Torting is torture. It also makes me think of "tortuga," which is kind of beside the point. Simply put, I suck at torting. I have this special tool that's like a cheese cutter (no, not Brad), but it's for cakes. It only works sometimes, and it becomes useless when you can't measure or use a steady hand. So I thought I'd try Rose Beranbaum's (whatever her name is) technique of putting the cake on my turntable thing and hold a knife steady as I spin the cake around. This rendered worse results than the cheese cutter. Waaahh! But I was able to cut each layer into two semi-even layers so I could begin filling.. which happens to be one of my favorite steps!

Filling a cake is like wrapping a bunch of christmas presents, and it's more fun with more layers. For the 8" I filled with the custard and raspberry. I really wasn't sure how to do this initially. Do I alternate between each layer or make a sangwich..?? So I looked up custard raspberry cakes online and oddly enough came across a cake I've had before! The princess cake from Copenhagen Bakery in Burlingame. I like the princess cake, but it's not my fave because it's pretty plain. Other people love it, but I think it has to do with the lovely marzipan they put on it. Which got me worried... I have no marzipan! But I stole their idea of custard first, raspberry on top, and did that for each layer. On the 6" I just stuck with lemon curd in each layer, which was sadly spread thin because of the small amount. I really should have made more. Lesson learned! I went to bed after putting a crumb coat on each tier, and dreamed of decorations allll night long.

First thing I did this morning was make more buttercream and added a final coat to each cake. Then I sucked it up and just started the process of decorating. I have a few tools from the arsenal Brad gifted me this past christmas, which really helped me get a design together and measure it out before putting anything on the cake. I had a few mess ups, but since I was using white on white buttercream, they were easy fixes. At one point I had a hissy fit about my buttcream not smoothing, and then I caught Brad making himself late for work watching this hilarious frosting tutorial, trying to help me out. It was a nice distraction... I just like the way she says "buuuudacream." Please note, I figured out why it looks so easy in her video.. Edna LOVES trans fat. It made me feel better knowing I was using real butter and not shortening.. who cares if it's not smooze or extra extra white.

So I finished up the cake and was pretty happy with it! Totally by no means perfect, but it turned out really well and I'm super stoked about having gotten this experience under my ever expanding belt.

My "customers" planned to pick up the cake at my house... but they were about 30 minutes late. The poor children were locked in my room to avoid a calamity and spent a little more time in lockdown than any of us expected! I started this blog as I waited, so that helped calm my nerves. When they arrived I invited them in and they saw my kitchen, which was clean of course, but I was paranoid that they'd find a crumb and refuse the cake. Thankfully, that didn't happen. The husband was really nice and asked how I started baking, and then the wife asked me how much I charge. I don't know why but I find this conversation incredibly awkward! I reminded her that I've never once charged for a cake so she asked for the cost of ingredients. I said about $20, which totally was true because I used not-on-sale Challenge butter which adds up!! She write out the check and pushed it toward me on the counter, but I was purposely distracted putting the cake in the box so I didn't look at it. I thanked them and congratulated them, wished them a fun evening, and they were on their way. I came back into the kitchen and saw a check for $100 on my counter..... !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm still in a bit of shock. !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

With that, please enjoy a couple of photos, because I don't know what else to say but... !!!!!!!!!!!!!

first dollar

I will be needing one of those special frames.. the kind that people use to frame their first dollar.. why? you might ask..

Because I have been commissioned to make a cake! I'm getting paid! WTF!

It all happened because of those peanut butter and cream cheese chocolate cupcakes I made for my coworker's birthday. She took some home to her mom, her mom raved to all of her friends, and now one of the mom's friends wants a 40th anniversary wedding style cake for Saturday. We talked over the phone and decided it will be a two tiered 8"/6" white cake with vanilla buttercream. The bottom tier will be custard and raspberry filled, and the top tier will be lemon curd filled. Seriously, I couldn't have asked for a better first cake to make! She's got taste!

So, more on this later, with pictures, etc.. I'm just too excited and had to share.

p.s. I don't even know what I'm charging and don't even care, ha!

Chocolate Challenge

Quick blog to mention that my Iron Cupcake idea was tested over this weekend and failed. The challenge ingredient this month is chocolate. It's such a common flavor that it makes this month extra challenging.. how to stand out!? Well, I have a pretty good idea. I don't want to give it away just yet, but I will say that my special ingredient should not be added until the end of the buttercream process, and I should avoid using whipped cream although I don't know how that is possible because it is an important aspect of my theme. I have to make my cupcakes the night before the contest, bring them to work, then drive them up to the city to make it there by 6pm. Whipped cream just won't survive that process. Any suggestions? I was thinking of using gelatin, which I've used before in a fruit and cream layer cake. It holds up pretty well and still kind of tastes like whipped cream.
The competition is 1.5 weeks away!! Ha ha! What's wrong with me!!
p.s. My mom and her bf tried the cupcakes and they both LOVED them. So that's good.. but they also eat anything and call hostess "zingers" (or whatever) their favorite.. so who knows.

Sibby's Delight Night

Clearly I have a thing for baking.. which has also morphed into a thing for trying other peoples' baked goods. I like this plan but it means I have to work out more.. which doesn't always happen!

We all know that with the help of Oprah and other trendy celebrities, the mid 2000's introduced suburbia to boutique cupcake shops or "cupcakeries." I tend to hate food trends just as much as clothing trends. I can appreciate a good tart yogurt place or a pair of quality snow boots, but when the yogurt places start popping everywhere seeminlgy disguised as day spas, and are filled with milfs wearing fuggs.. I die a little inside. Which is why I cannot stand Sprinkles or Kara's.. the cupcakes and shops look as sterile as the people who buy them.

I heard about Sibby's on yelp and had to try them after reading all the fab reviews. I felt even more intrigued when I learned they don't have a retail storefront.. hmmm.. no threat of scenesters.. maybe this place really is focused on making quality cupcakes! And it couldn't be more true. Sibby's are the best cupcakes I've tried (besides mine, of course, ha!).

I ordered the minimum order of 12 cupcakes (because I'm a total glutton) and quickly realized what a bad plan that was, so I invited my girlfriends over for dinner with a Sibby's cupcake sampling for dessert. We tried the coconut, buttercup, confetti, grandma's, lemon, and flavor of the month, strawberry. They were all very moist and decorated to perfection (I just got their signature decor, nothing personalized). Strawberry was by far the best all around, with great cake and frosting flavors-we could all really taste the fresh strawberries. Next best was the lemon drop- it was a happy, light sunshiney flavor. The chocolate cakes were very good with an ever so slight hint of espresso/coffee (brings out the chocolate flavor). The plain cakes were a bit too homemade tasting and not very cohesive; I could taste the flour and baking soda/powder every now and then. There was actually one called the "buttercup," which I thought was a really cute name, but I felt like the butter flavor was a bit too forced and made me think maybe they were using butter "flavor," but I'm not sophisticated enough to know for sure. The chocolate frosting on grandma's tea cake was a fantastic dark chocolate, and all the other lighter/dyed frostings had the slightest hint of cream cheese in them which was fab, but a little redundant.

I had a lot of fun with the girls trying all the different flavors. In all, we split 6 cupcakes which felt like an enormous amount, but when we did the math we realized we all only had one and half cupcakes total. Not too bad!!

Sibby's Adorable Cupcakes:

From top center clockwise: Buttercup, Grandma's Tea Cake, Confetti Surprise, Strawberry, Coconut, and Lemon Drop in the center.

Kitty Catty's Birthday

I've had the urge to make peanut butter frosting for about a month now. I think it's because one of JoAnna's cakes for her upcoming wedding, either the rehearsal dinner cake or the groom's cake, is peanut butter fudge. I'm not a huge huge peanut butter fan, but when somebody says peanut butter fudge I can't help but drool and mentally take a tums.

Cat's birthday snuck up on us year, and with peanut butter on the brain, I decided chocolate cupcakes with peanut butter frosting would be divine. Brad and a coworker reminded me that not everybody immediately thinks of peanut butter when they think of cupcakes.. so I also made some cream cheese frosting to top a few.

I boxed four of the cupcakes to give to Cat in case she wants to take them home, and I'll display the rest on a tray in her cube, assuming she wants to share ;) And, thanks to Brad's mom, I had lots of chocolate and other Easter candy on hand, which made decorating these cupcakes fun and easy!

Popping the Iron Cupcake Cherry/Bacon

So last Monday was the Iron Cupcake Challenge in San Francisco, the one I wrote about a little while back. You know, the one with the challenge ingredient bacon?? That stuff I don't actually like, but tolerate (mostly after a hangover)? That stuff that somehow ends up being a topping on my potato or salad, even when I don't ask for it. That stuff that gives me heartburn and a stomach ache just thinking about? Ha! I was so committed to scoping out this iron cupcake thing, I decided to forgo my inhibitions and roll with it.

I had the perfect cupcake in mind, too, but didn't make it because I felt it was too risky to enter a competition I knew nothing about, using an ingredient I never eat. But I'll share my idea anyway. The inspiration: hawaiian pizza. The main ingredients: corn cupcake, ricotta cream cheese frosting, topped with pineapple and bacon bits. It is totally a home-run idea, if I don't say so myself. It came to me in the early morning hours when I was half asleep. I tend to get my best ideas when I'm sleeping :)

I told my friend Allyson about Iron Cupcake, and the upcoming challenge ingredient, and she responded with her eyes first- they got huge and twinkled- then she followed with "BACON.. aaaaannnddd..... CHOCOLATE." Adorable. She is a savage and planned to bake, even though she was a newbie just like me. The plan was to meet Ally at Leland Tea Company, where the challenge is held. She lives in the city and I was coming from Redwood City. As I exited the freeway, I saw she was calling.
"Hey Ally!! I'm almost there!"
"Hee eey Colleen (defeated)"
"UH OH WHAT'S WRONG!"
"I spent all day on my cupcakes, put them on the back of Spandy (scooter) to drive down to the place, checked them halfway there, and they were a mess... totally destroyed. So I came back home."
"OH NOOOOOOO!!! I'm so sorry!!!! Are you still coming? Please say yes!"
"Uh... yeah but can you give me a ride?"

So I drove down to her place to get her and she showed me her cupcakes. The poor things looked like they had been through a tornado. But I sampled one and it was DELICIOUS!!!!!!! Maple cupcake, custard filling, maple buttercream, chocolate drizzle, and a perfectly cooked, generous slice of bacon on each one. Such a shame. I can say with confidence now that she would have won with those little maple wonders.

We headed over to the venue and it was packed. At first I was intimidated.. so many people, a lot of them our age, looking all in-the-know, and surrounded by tea trays filled with mini cupcakes all packing a tremendous visual punch. The space was pretty cramped, and immediately the nice volunteers paired us with another girl to share our cupcake samples with. One by one, each group filled up their trays with one of each little cupcake. We were given a scorecard to judge based on appearance, taste, and creativity. I decided the most unbiased way to judge was to taste last.

First I judged appearance from the cupcakes on my tray. The majority of them were really cute. Some needed some serious help in the frosting presentation department.. bird poop splatters aren't cute, kids! But hey, I've never piped a mini cupcake, so I can't really judge.

Next, to judge on creativity, I went to each little tray where the baker's descriptions were laid out. Most people just used the provided cards to indicate the name and provide descriptions of their creations. It helped me understand the concept of each one, especially when it wasn't apparent with presentation. For example: elvis heads attached to toothpicks inserted in banana cupcakes with peanut butter frosting topped with bacon, indicated that these cupcakes were inspired by one of the king's favorite meals. Who knew! Gag.

Finally it was on to taste. As I mentioned, the space was crowded. Three of us needed to split each mini cupcake. There was no place to cut them. I didn't want to man handle each one, nor did I want anybody else to.. sharing germs with strangers.. gguuuhh. I found an open chair and began to slice, starting with the last cupcake first, and got through as many as possible before I just couldn't stand the feeling of claustrophobia and buttercream on my fingers any longer. I don't remember what the first bite felt like, but I know it wasn't as bad as I was expecting. A couple cupcakes in and I thought, "I can handle this! bring on the bacon!" Number 13 was a total surprise: cinnamon cupcake with vanilla buttercream and no bacon flavor. Immediately I knew the cake was martha's snickerdoodle cupcake, and I couldn't quite place the frosting but it was good and therefore probably also martha's. It was heavenly, but I couldn't help being annoyed that there wasn't a trace of bacon. A few more cupcakes in and I came close to spitting one out- can't remember what it was, but I believe it was a "bacon and eggs" theme. I was impressed to find only one corn cupcake, which was actually more of a muffin because it had no frosting.. still, I gave it high marks for originality. I really liked #6, it was maple inspired with the right amount of bacon and presented well with little chocolate maple leaves. #4 also got top marks from me, it was chocolate with bacon bits topped with maple buttercream some more bacon bits. Now, #2.. dear lord, save me. I took one bite and almost vomited. It crumbled in my mouth and my first thought was "grandma's closet!" I ran to spit it out, and returned saying, "oh god, grandma's closet! grandma's closet! moth balls!!!!!!" I didn't realize Ally was still sampling and she looked horrified that she was about to swallow. Honestly, it was the worst thing I've ever tasted. I'd rather eat those Harry Potter vomit jelly beans ANY DAY.

We waited for what seemed like an hour for the judges to tally the results. #6 got third place, I can't remember second place, and #13- the cheater!!! won!!! Apparently her concept was "french toast stuffed with bacon." Hmmmm. She won $120 to an acupuncture place, a bottle of wine, a gift certificate to a bakery, and some other random stuff. I was a little disappointed; sure she had a great tasting cupcake, but I really hope the next time the winner is somebody who's cupcake not only tastes fabulous, but more closely resembles the theme. And let me tell you, I can't wait for next time!!! I really had a fabulous time!

*all of these pictures were taken by Ally (she's got mad photography skills)

establishing shot:

the contestants (1-15 starting at the top left):

me and ally with our scorecards:

ally's fabulous cupcakes that were later the victim of scooter warfare and could not entered: