Checking In- July Babies, Wedding Cake, Banana Muffins and Iron Cupcake.. oh my!

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!

Caramel Cake Bake-Off!

Willful and I both read The Help by Kathryn Stockett and both of us were left with an unrelenting craving for caramel cake. So, Will suggested we do one of her infamous "face-bake offs" using the same recipe. We did this once before with bagels- the technique involved baking the same thing at the same time and posting photos/videos of the process on facebook. Will found the recipe for this bake-off from the annual publication of America's Test Kitchen: Best Recipes and Reviews of 2009. She took the time to copy and snail mail me the recipe and it turned out I actually had the publication already :D

We baked at 2p.m. pst / 3p.m. mt (how do you abbr. mountain time??). Molly came over to help document. The result is the video below.. which ended up being about 8 minutes.. WAY long in my opinion but there are a few scenes in there worth waiting for :) Will even makes a cameo!!

Enjoy :) and... don't mind the video quality.. I exported in the highest quality possible but youtube always turns it to shit so I don't know what to do, and I don't have the time to figure it out at this point.

Rehearsal Cupcakes Photo!

I was convinced a photo of these didn't exist, but Devina got one! Hurrah! Bird's eye view isn't the best for minis, but you get the idea. YUM.

coconut cupcake w/ cream cheese frosting and toasted coconut &

lemon cupcakes with raspberry buttercream and a fresh raspberry garnish:

That's all for now!

New Challenges

I'm going to do this to this.

Super excited for a new challenge. I don't expect to win, but I do expect to learn a lot. Just to compete with some real talent out there is reason enough to enter!

Oh, and Wilful and I are going to have a facebake-off with Caramel Cake, inspired by my favorite book, The Help. Wil read the book and loved it to, and wanted Caramel Cake just as much as I did after reading it. If you have read the book, you'll know why we're obsessed with this cake! Read it!

Monch.

Time Management

These past couple of weeks have flown by. That said, I have to remind myself that time always moves at the same pace. Life is what speeds up and slows down. So, as life happened at lightening speed, I realized I needed to get a better grip on my time management skills.

First there was JoAnna's wedding. I offered to make mini cupcakes for her rehearsal dinner. I asked that we keep it to two flavors, considering the guest count was roughly 35 and I could bake two sets of 48 cupcakes with relative ease. JoAnna loved the idea, but had one condition: no chocolate. Arg. First off, I like chocolate, it's the best. Second, it keeps longer, which means I can make it the day before. I just have a hard time making white and yellow cakes the day before because I know how much they dry out; they're still delicious, but I know in my heart they tasted better yesterday. But, the bride wants what the bride wants and I didn't object. She decided on lemon cake w/ raspberry buttercream, and coconut cake w/ coconut cream cheese garnished with sweetened coconut , and I decided I would make them the day before anyway. Self-rebellion feels so good sometimes.
The night before the rehearsal, she and Sara came over to finish up wedding favors while I baked. They showed up at about 6pm, but before we could get to work, we had to pick up all the booze for the wedding. Then we had to go to Safeway to get what they didn't have at Costco. It took much longer than expected. We got home around 8:30 and I realized I had no mini baking cups. So all I could do was make the buttercream and cream cheese frostings, and as I watched the girls make favors, I concluded I was not in the mood to do anything crafty with paper and bows and candy, so I had a stroke of genius and toasted a bunch of coconut for garnish on the mini coconut cupcakes. Originally I was just going to use regular old coconut, but as the smell filled the house with warm happiness, I knew I made the right last minute choice.
The day of the rehearsal, I made all the cupcakes. I kept running out of things and can't remember what, but it was a race to the finish. I ran to meet the bride and groom for a mani/pedi, and barely made it back in time to curl my hair and put on makeup. I really wanted to find a cute new dress to wear but there was no time, NONE! Everybody seemed to be running behind that day. Sara and I showed up late to the rehearsal, and the bride and groom even later.
Finally it was time for dinner and I got to show off my mini cupcakes. Everybody loved them, especially the coconut. But unfortunately, I was so rushed, I did not even get a chance to take a photo, and neither did anybody else. Tear.
JoAnna's wedding coming and going was so bittersweet. I had so much fun helping her with her plans, throwing parties and doing girly things with my best friends. But I also felt relieved to have life go back to normal, slow down, and have time to enjoy the things I missed, such as gardening, lazy Saturdays and going to the beach.

Then I realized Deema's shower was coming up, and I committed to making the cake.. the weekend after JoAnna's wedding! Ah! I was excited to do it, but just a little burnt out. I thought I had the wedding stuff behind me, ha.
Deema never expected me to bake and thanked me a million times over for even agreeing to do it. She is one of my biggest fans and I love her and baking so much, baking her shower cake could never feel like a chore. It was just the lack of time and energy on my end that slowed me down.
Once again I spent a Friday night in baking. Which is not a problem, in fact, it's amazing, but friends just sometimes don't get it.. oh well. I had Ashley over for dinner that night. We talked until about 9 and I was like, ah, I have to bake! She was excited to watch. I busted out my square pan for the first time evar. Guest count was 25 so I went for a 12" pan. I didn't really know what I was doing, but hoped that one recipe of white cake would do the job for one 12" layer. It ended up being fine, although just a little short- each layer was 1" which meant I'd have a 3" cake. I made note to learn pan size to batter ratio better- really need to work on getting a 4" tall cake!!
By the time I was done with the first layer and cleaning up, it was 11pm. I had an early morning so I opted to go to bed. I started baking again at 9am. I didn't have a square cake board, anything to put it in for carrying, or even a gift for Deema. I don't know what I was thinking. I baked the second layer, made the strawberry buttercream, chopped up some fresh strawberries for the filling, and ran out of the house to pick up the things I needed. I got back home at 12 and the shower was set to start in an hour. ACK!!! I cut the board, frosted the first layer, made a "stabilized" whip cream for the filling, threw on the strawberries, added the second layer, whipped out a crumb coat, and threw the cake in the fridge to harden a bit while I did my hair and makeup. Came back to work on the cake and I was completely flustered. I had 10 minutes until the party started and the damn corners of the cake would not stay frosted. The bar stool was in my way so I shoved it as hard as I could and it hit the wall slightly. Brad began telling Jeepers and Fiona that "Mean Colleen" was here and to watch out. Looking back it was funny but I had to use all my mental strength to ignore him while I struggled. He reminded me that this happens a lot- me frosting at the 11th hour, which of course only made me more upset. But I'm glad he pointed it out because it is true and something I definitely need to work on. Baking is not much fun when you're in a rush.
Due to the lack of time, the decor came out elementary. I'd say I'm embarrassed but that wouldn't help anything. However, please note the pointy umbrella, funky short sleeved wedding gown, sad little gifts, and size 18 ring. They are pretty hilarious.
In the end, I produced a square foot of delicious white cake w/ whipped cream and fresh strawberries frosted with a supreme strawberry buttercream, decorated to unperfection. I'm still happy because this really was about the process... and boy did I learn! As we cut into the cake at the shower, we all discovered that stabilized whip cream is quite the opposite of stable. The layers split apart so it looked like each person had two slices of cake, haha! This is the second time Rose Levy Berenbaum has failed me, so she gets only one more chance before I sell her book on Amazon.

With weddings officially behind me, and a lack of enthusiasm for the next Iron Cupcake (alcohol theme), I have so many options for my next baking adventure! I'd like to work more on the square cakes and really study the steps of baking so I can plan better for my next event.

a square foot of cake:

1st Place!!!!!!!!!!!

It finally happened! I won first place at Iron Cupcake! Challenge: Berries!

The win meant a lot to me because raspberry happens to be my favorite fruit, and the cupcake I made is my personal favorite cake/buttercream/filling combination. Okay, my favorite homemade cake.. I still love funfetti just as much :)
It's no secret that my favorite thing is chocolate and raspberry. I don't know when I discovered this, but I do know I fell in love with Brad our first Valentine's day together when he presented me with an entire pound of See's chocolate raspberry truffles and buttercreams. I ate the entire thing on my own. Suddenly I knew what people meant.. love hurts.
The cake I used for this challenge is a modified chocolate cake recipe I found deep in the interwebs, perfected after several fails in California, and one in the land of enchantment (high altitude). Willful, please do email me for what I believe is the final edition of that chocolate cake. The buttercream is your basic swiss meringue with my own special method of adding raspberry. First I need to add that, yes, swiss meringue is wonderful, but no, it's not always the best choice or more sophisticated. I find it to be a great topping for certain cupcakes but definitely not all. This cupcake, however, cries for it. I think the raspberry takes to it so well because the lack of sweetness in the buttercream allows that special tang we all know and love about raspberries to really shine through. The final component I used was a raspberry filling. The raspberry filling I use is just plain amazing, in my biased opinion. It's basic as can be, but also my secret weapon so I cannot share the recipe, just know it is the punchiest of all punches and will knock you out. Willful probably has the recipe though.. roomies share everything! Except lime green holey tongas...
Anyway, I never attempted this combo in a cupcake before, only in cakes. I tested out my plan on Deema's birthday and it came out so well, I decided not to change anything for Iron Cupcake. I think what really helped was my executive decision to use the raspberry filling in a way most people don't in this competition. Instead of coring out the already miniature cupcake and filling it, I skipped that. Why? Because these cupcakes are shared between four people (blasphemy!) and reducing the amount of cake by that much can really put you in a bad situation when it comes judging time. A lot of judges focus on the cake flavor and if it's not there.. good luck. So instead, I made a dam of buttercream around the edge of the cupcake and filled it with a pool of raspberry filling, then piped more buttercream on top to cover the pool. I toped each one with 1/2 of a raspberry and piped a little green leaf next to it.
At Leland, JoAnna and I had to come up with a name for my little squirts, and it was not easy.

Me: I wanted to name them "Devil's Lady" but they're too cute for that
JoAnna: Yeah they're so tea-cakey
Me: Yeah, I was thinking, "summer at grandma's"
JoAnna: that sounds like torture
Me: HAHA. Okay, "if the devil had a baby..."
JoAnna: What's your obsession with the devil!?! oh, god.. because it's devil's food..
Me: (defeated) oh.. yeah (hysterically laughing) that's embarrassing!
JoAnna: Tea with the Queen?
Me: What does that have to do with berries?
JoAnna: Oh! Queen of Hearts, because the middle is raspberry!
Me: Done.

There were 15 contestants and only a couple of stand outs. I liked one that was peanut butter and jelly; even though the use of berries was questionable, it was still pretty good. I also really liked a strawberry margarita cupcake that was super cute with big sugar crystals sprinkled on top to look like salt. Two people made mini cheesecakes, which I didn't really understand because I was under the impression we were making cupcakes. They were both delicious, but also a stretch. My friends and I joked that for the next competition (alcohol), whoever it is that likes to push the envelope would probably make a jello shot. HA!
Winner announcements came and 3rd place went to a cheesecake maker, second place & most creative to the fabooo strawberry margarita, and first place to me! The announcer got my first name out and suddenly I felt a breeze as loud guttural screams were flying in my direction from the mouths of Brooke, Nicole, and JoAnna. I was in such shock I didn't know what to do.. so I made my way up to the front and accepted my prize shyly. Amid the claps and continued screaming from my fan club, I heard a booming voice yell, "WHICH CUPCAKE!!!!!! WHICH CUPCAAAAAKKE!!" and I said, "#1, #1... number ONE!" As loud as I could, which apparently didn't translate well. It must have appeared I was cheering myself on, when I was really just shouting the actual number of my cupcake, which was the first of fifteen contestants. I get a good chuckle thinking about this. I'm the last person on the planet to toot my own horn, although I think I'm beginning to get a bit better at it in my old age ;)
So there you have it! I WON! So crazy!
Thanks for reading!!!!

Raspberry Pools:

Crazy Piper:

Queens of my Heart!

Babies Shower.. again!

Edith and Joe are having triplets. It makes sense for them to have multiple showers.. three babies, 3x the fun! This time around, I attended as a guest. When I got the invite, I asked if I could contribute anything and the hostess said, "sure! what can you bring?" And of course.. I said, "CAKE!" and of course, she said, "we have two cakes already! feel free to bring more though!" HA!!! So I settled on mini cupcakes, which everyone loves, especially kids, and there would be plenty of those little creatures at the shower ;)
Edith likes chocolate, and Joe likes vanilla. Easy! I made 24 of each variety in mini cupcake form. I wanted to decorate all baby-style but it just didn't happen for me due to time restrictions, so I went with sprinkles and m&ms. They came out pretty cute! And as suspected, the kids gobbled them up. I saw one in particular go back 3 times and run outside with them.

view of the chocolate:

view of the vanilla:

I had some left over cupcakes which I frosted up using the frosting I had just made and some others I had still fresh in the fridge. What to do with them? I had a few options:

-Eat them (yes, no, yes, no! help!)
-Save them for Brad (who loves eating them and then getting mad at me after the fact)
-Give them to friends (didn't want to leave anyone out)
-Bring them to work (see description for brad)
-Give them to my one dear referrer
-Give them to Brad's dad for father's day

I went with the last two options. The lady who has referred me all the business I've gotten this year deserved a thank you. So I packed up 11 extra in a cute box and brought them to her daughter to give to her. She was ecstatic. <3
I packed up the remaining and brought them to Brad's dad on my way to the shower. He loved them. I knew I made the right choices :)

some the "leftovers" I brought to lady and brad's dad: