Lots of people are born in July.. including lots of coworkers. I've set the standard of celebrating birthdays at the office (previously nobody did anything when it was somebody's birthday). Celebrating soon turned into bringing baked goods in. Which is fun, but honestly.. I work with something like 40 people, so it gets tiring! Fortunately a lot of people take their bdays off, so I don't bake too often. But then I run across high density birth months, like July, with 5 birthday boys and girls! I knew I wouldn't be able to bake something and bring it in 5 times this month, so I told all the birthday kids I'd be baking on a specific day and to send any requests my way. I got two requests for German chocolate, and one for chocolate raspberry. I thought it would be best to have at least three flavors, but I didn't want to make two different kinds of cake (lazy). So I went with German Chocolate, Choco-Raspberry, and Chocolate with Peanut Butter frosting. I've said before, it's a bit scary how insane people go for the peanut butter frosting, but it's also fun to watch the lunacy so I bring it in as often as I can.
In all I made 96 mini cupcakes but brought about 80 in, divided evenly among each flavor. For the German Chocolate, I didn't have time to make my own coconut pecan frosting so I used store bought. It hurt to resort to that but it's good I did because I would have been up making cupcakes way too late. To decorate, I piped some homemade chocolate frosting around the edge and filled it with the coconut frosting, then piped a little chocolate star in the middle. They looked super cute. The raspberry and peanut butter were decorated the way you've seen in previous posts.
I brought the 80 minis in the kitchen at 8:30. They were completely gone by 1:30. People who came by to thank me mentioned they loved the German Chocolate the best, but I did notice that peanut butter was the first flavor to run out. Lots of people confessed to eating at least 3! I love it!
Speaking of peanut butter...
JoAnna's groom's cake at her wedding was a Peanut Butter Fudge cake from Icing on the Cake in Los Gatos. I didn't get to try any because it disappeared in a flash, but I heard it was phenomenal. I do not think the bride and groom got a slice either, so they ended up ordering another one when they got back from their honeymoon. JoAnna brought a hugical slice to my house and I immediately dug in. Delicious! The cake was peanut buttery moist with little hints of actual nut, the filling was a creamy peanut butter, and it was frosted all around (tops and sides) with a dark and fudgey ganache type frosting. I really enjoyed it.
However, it had me thinking that I could pull off a way better version. Buttermilk cake (no chewy nuts, thanks), a generous peanut butter frosting filling and top frosting (more whipped than creamy), and a rich chocolate fudge frosted around the edges of the cake. I like to think of this as a fantasy cake.. something I should only eat in my dreams. So if I end up making it, please make sure you only let me have one slice. Thanks :)
Here's why. I consider myself pretty fit.. that is, in comparison to my old self. I've never been overweight by Dr's standards, but I've always hung around the top of my weight range. I started working out about two years ago and noticed a big difference in my energy and strength. Initially I lost weight but then I plateaued, and then I gained a little when I got too adventurous in my eating/baking. But I still feel better than ever so my weight number doesn't usually bother me. Until last night, when I went on the scale. I happened to have some banana muffins in the oven at the time, which I had hoped to fill with caramel and top with cream cheese. After seeing my reading, I went inside and nixed the caramel/cream cheese plan. I had one banana muffin, gave Brad two, and packaged up the rest to bring to Mom & Mike and a coworker. I felt sad but so right. I really needed that reality check.
I do not plan to stop baking. I just need to pretend I'm a real baker and not eat every single thing I bake- it just isn't beneficial anymore. I know what I make tastes good.. I don't have to try it to prove it. Or if I do taste test, leave it at a taste.. not 3 cupcakes! Hahaha!
Speaking of trusting myself. Iron Cupcake was last Monday, theme: alcohol. I tried and tried to get excited about the theme but I just couldn't come up with anything I really wanted to make. Plain and simple, I just don't like alcohol in baked goods- it doesn't taste right to me and overpowers everything else in the recipe. Same with chocolate cake that uses espresso or coffee.. I only taste the coffee, yet the coffee is supposed to "enhance" the chocolate flavor. If I want a mocha, I'll go to starbucks! Of course this is personal preference, so don't get me wrong.. I'm not saying other peoples' preferences are inferior, honest! ;) So, in the end, I decided to skip out on the alcohol challenge. I checked out the winners and noticed they had 5 people who placed! It appeared at least 19 bakers participated on top of about 100 tasters. HUGE! So I guess alcohol cake is popular.. d'oh! But I am glad I trusted my instincts and didn't put myself out there with something I don't necessarily like. Next month is coconut and I have two amazing ideas up my sleeve. The competition is Monday, August 30 in SF.. hope you can make it!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
There are so many wonderful things in this post! You should be glad that I am not one of your coworkers because I would have surely polished off at least five of your mini cupcakes.
ReplyDeleteThat's one of the problems with being a proficient baker; it's so easy to whip up something delicious that, before you know it, you've baked a pan of brownies and eaten half of them. Oops!