Category Archives: Recipes

Jan 1 2013

New Year’s Eve Champagne Cupcakes

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Happy New Year everyone!

It is a time for resolutions, new beginnings, and nursing your hangover from last night’s party! If you didn’t already have more than your share of champagne for the year, you’ve got to try out these fancy champagne cupcakes.

This endeavor was full of firsts for me. It was the first time making cupcakes with alcohol and the first time I measured all my dry ingredients using a kitchen scale instead of measuring cups. I’ve learned that measuring by weight is much more accurate. I’ll have a video explaining how to measure flour by weight up soon if you don’t already know how to do it.

I found the recipe for the cake and frosting at Gimme Some Oven last week and thought these cupcakes would be a great addition to the fancy pajama party my friends throw for New Year’s Eve each year. I followed the recipe from Gimme Some Oven exactly and they came out pretty good. The frosting is very sweet but the cakes are light and compliment it well. I wish the champagne flavor was more apparent in these cupcakes, but they still taste great regardless.

For decorating these babies, I wanted to do something elegant. I found a tutorial for making 4th of July sparkler cupcake picks from Two Shades of Pink and modified it for my New Year’s Eve theme. Instead of using wooden skewers (I had difficulty finding them), I used those little coffee stirrer straws. Color-wise the stirrers went with my color scheme better anyway. I found that I needed to use a little hot glue to shape them more because tying them in the middle with a string didn’t poof them into a bursting shape very well.

To make the champagne topper, I used some scrap card stock in green and red and a wrapper from a white chocolate Lindor truffle. I marked out a bottle shape on the green paper and then used bits and pieces of the candy wrapper for the foil accents and label. For a little extra touch I cut a little tiny band out of the red paper and glued it over the foil on the neck of the bottle.

To make these cupcakes really sparkle, I hot glued some rhinestone ribbon around the tops of the cupcake liners after they were done baking. One thing I learned from this is make sure to get all of the hot glue strings off of the cupcakes before you frost them. They are tricky to find.

Have a wonderful new year! Did you do anything fun for New Year’s Eve?

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Mar 10 2012

Crazy for Cake Pops Review and Giveaway

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I received a copy of Crazy for Cake Pops: 50 All-New Delicious and Adorable Creations by Molly Bakes for review from Ulysses Press recently and decided to make something from the book. There are many great decoration ideas in this book with lots of photographs of each cake pop.

Besides the cake pop decorations, there are also many other sections of the book. It starts out with descriptions of all the equipment you’ll need for the projects, as well as recipes for chocolate, red velvet, vanilla, peanut butter, toffee, and lemon cakes and the frostings that go with them. There is also a section in the back that shows some techniques for making the cake pops.

Never made cake pops before? Don’t worry. There are detailed explanations of how to make cake pops and plenty of colorful photos to show you the process. I’ve made cake pops once before, so I was familiar with the instructions, but it was nice to refresh my memory.

As I flipped through the book I came across a ton of designs I wanted to try, but I settled on the Moustache Cake Pops. I thought these looked great and simple.

Unfortunately, I had a few issues with making these. One thing I’ve realized from making cake pops is they always end up more complicated to make than they look. I used the recipe for the chocolate cake and chocolate frosting from the book (recipes below). The cake turned out pretty good although I may have overcooked it. This didn’t matter too much though, because I mixed it with the frosting and it became moist again.

The frosting was a little weird though. I followed the instructions exactly, but the mixture was less like frosting and more like a truffle mixture. It tasted great but wasn’t fluffy like the instructions said it would be. Not sure what happened. I mixed a little half and half in to soften it, but it was still really hard. It did mix into the cake crumbles well though and the mixture seemed right, so I guess this “frosting” didn’t mess it up, but I wouldn’t use the recipe for actual frosting.

Another problem I had was that my cake mixture wasn’t holding together well enough to form the moustache. It kept falling apart. I don’t think I mixed enough of the frosting into the cake.  Oops! I was able to make regular cake pops though so this is what I ended up with:

Not too bad, although I was bummed that the moustaches didn’t work out. I’ll try them again sometime. If you think you could do better, the recipes and instructions for the Moustache Cake Pops are below. Post a picture on my facebook page if you give these ones a shot. I’d love to see them!

Print
Chocolate Cake

Yield: Makes enough for approx. 20 medium cake balls

Ingredients

  • 55 grams (8 tablespoons) cocoa powder
  • 250 milliliters (1 cup) boiling water
  • 120 grams (½ cup) unsalted butter, softened, plus more for greasing
  • 200 grams (1 cup) granulated sugar
  • 200 grams (1-2/3 cups) self-rising flour*, plus more for the tin
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • ¼ teaspoon baking soda
  • ¼ teaspoon salt
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 2 eggs, at room temperature

Instructions

  1. Put the cocoa into a heatproof bowl, pour in the boiling water and stir until combined. Set aside to cool. Preheat the oven to 375°F (190°C). Lightly grease and flour a 10-inch (25-centimeter) round cake tin. Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Cream the butter and sugar until pale and fluffy. Mix in the vanilla. Add the eggs one at a time, mixing well. Pour in the dry ingredients and gently beat until combined. Fold in the cooled cocoa until the color of the mixture is even. Pour into the tin and bake for 45–60 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Once baked, leave to cool in the tin for 20 minutes. Turn out onto a wire rack to finish cooling.

Notes

*I didn't have self-rising flour so I made some using this recipe: 1 cup flour, ½ tsp. salt, 1½ tsp. baking powder sifted together.

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Print
Chocolate Frosting

Ingredients

  • 120 grams (½ cup) unsalted butter, softened
  • 200 grams (2 cups) powdered sugar, sifted
  • 100 grams (1-2/3 cups) chocolate, melted and cooled

Instructions

  1. Cream the butter. Gradually add the powdered sugar and then the chocolate. Continue to cream until light and fluffy. Refrigerate for 30 minutes before using.
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Moustache Pops

Ingredients

  • 20 medium cake balls, chilled
  • 1 (14-ounce) bag black candy melts

Instructions

  1. Roll each cake ball into a log shape with your hands. Use a lollipop stick to make an indentation in the top center and bottom center of each “log.” Squeeze and pinch the center of the “log” to shape the middle of the moustache. Now squeeze and pinch the ends, curling each one upwards to create a handlebar moustache shape.
  2. Melt the candy. Dip the end of each lollipop stick ¾ inch into the candy and insert a stick into the center of each moustache. Leave to set. Dip each pop into the candy, dipping from left to right to get an even coating. Insert into a polystyrene block to dry.
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{Overall Opinion}

Overall, I love this book. I personally need to practice making cake pops more often so I can make some of the more complicated cake pops in the book. For those of you that are cake pop newbies like myself, there are some easier designs to make in the book too. The great thing about cake pops is there are many ways they can be decorated, and even the easiest ones (like mine above) still look nice. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone interested in making cake pops.

{Buy It}

Crazy for Cake Pops is available on several websites such as Amazon and Barnes and Noble in paperback and e-book form.

{Win It}

Ulysses Press has graciously offered to send one of my readers a copy of Crazy for Cake Pops: 50 All-New Delicious and Adorable Creations! To enter fill out the Rafflecopter form below. If you’ve never filled one out before, sign in with either Facebook or log in with your name and email address. Then fill out the first three entries. You don’t have to complete the first three entries but you can’t get to the other entries without finishing them. Once completed, all of the extra entries will become available for completion. Let me know if you have any problems filling out the form.

I WILL BE VERIFYING ENTRIES! So please leave any requested info for the entries. If any requested info is missing from the form, I will not be able to verify your entry and will choose another winner.

The giveaway will end at 11:59pm EST on March 17, 2012. US entries only, please. Terms and Conditions are located at the bottom of the Rafflecopter widget.

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Feb 14 2012

Chocolate-Dipped Brownie Bars

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These are so easy to make and turned out very tasty. I went the easy way out and used Betty Crocker’s Dark Chocolate Premium Brownie Mix for this because I was too lazy to find a recipe. Sue me.

All you need for these are brownies (either from mix or your favorite recipe), melted chocolate (I used Baker’s semi-sweet baking chocolate), and Valentine sprinkles. That’s it!

Cool surprise: My pink sanding sugar looked like iridescent sparkles on the chocolate!

Make the brownies according to the box or your recipe, let them cool completely, and then cut them into bar shapes. Melt some chocolate in a mug so that you don’t have to melt too much but still have enough depth to dip the bars in. Then dip them and place the brownies on a cookie sheet covered with wax paper. Add sprinkles and colored sugars to the chocolate and chill in the fridge until the chocolate sets up.

Now they are ready to be scarfed down!

What are your favorite Valentine desserts? Do you like easy recipes or ones you have to put a lot of effort into?

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Feb 12 2012

Valentine Pancakes {Recipe}

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This pancake recipe has been passed down in my family since my great grandmother, Bubba, and over time has changed a little bit. This weekend my Mom and I decided to try modifying them for Valentine’s Day by coloring them pink and red and shaping them into hearts on the griddle. They turned out ok, but I’d probably just keep them regular next time, you’ll see why.

After making the batter, my first attempt to heart shaping was using heart cookie cutters. I sprayed them with cooking spray and put the batter in. Even still, the pancakes stuck to the cookie cutters a bit and so I scrapped that idea, even though the pancakes themselves didn’t look too bad.

Then I tried to shape them myself by pouring the batter out in heart shapes. They started to look a little wonky, but I liked their unusual character. Eventually, I just gave up on odd shapes and made round pancakes. As you can see, I like chocolate chips in my pancakes. It’s a requirement when I eat them but this is just an option.

The end result was pretty cute. Of course they got a little darker after being cooked but the colors on the inside were still pretty vibrant. Here are the directions for the pancakes. To make them regular, don’t add the food coloring.

{Recipe}

Bubba’s Pancakes

INGREDIENTS:

  • 1 lrg. egg
  • 1 cup buttermilk
  • 2 tbs. sugar
  • 2 tbs. vegetable oil
  • 1 cup flour
  • 1 tsp. baking powder
  • 1/2 tsp. salt
  • just shy of a 1/2 tsp. of baking soda

(Optional)

  • 2 tbs. wheat bran
  • 1 tbs. wheat germ
  • chocolate chips
  • powdered sugar
  • butter
  • (For Valentine Pancakes: pink and red food coloring)

DIRECTIONS:

  1. I’m not sure what to tell you to turn your griddle or stove top to for heating the pancakes. On our griddle we set it to med.-high heat and that seems to work, but it’s up to you to figure out the right temperature for your personal stove and skillet or griddle.
  2. Whisk together the egg, buttermilk, sugar, and oil in a bowl and set aside.
  3. Then sift together the flour, baking powder, salt, and baking soda in another bowl. Pour the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients. If you want heartier pancakes sprinkle the bran and wheat germ on top of everything at this point.
  4. Stir the batter gently until all ingredients are combined but make sure the batter is still lumpy. If it becomes too thin, the pancakes will not rise when they cook. For the pink and red pancakes, I split the batter into two bowls and put a few drops of coloring in each. If you’re going to color them, make sure not to stir them too much before you put the food coloring in because you will have to stir them more to get the color you want. It’s a little tricky. For simplicity, just make them regular and skip the coloring on your first try at these.
  5. Once the batter is mixed but still lumpy, let it sit for about 5 minutes.
  6. Pour 1/3 cup of the batter onto your griddle or skillet for each pancake. If you like chocolate like I do, drop a few chocolate chips on to the pancake before you flip it over. You can also add other things at this point, such at nuts or apple slices, for example.
  7. When the batter starts to have little bubbles start popping up in it, it’s about time to flip it. The pancake is done cooking if you poke the middle and it bounces back fairly quickly.
  8. Butter the pancakes as soon as they are done and sift some powdered sugar on top. Or instead put some syrup on top. The garnishes and toppings are up to you.

Makes about 10-12 pancakes.

 

Come join #DairyBreakfastClub recipe party at TidyMom along with The California Milk Advisory Board and RealCaliforniaMilk.com

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Feb 6 2012

Pac-Man Cake {Guest Post}

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Recently I asked my friend and blogging buddy, Amber Seree, to write a guest post for Shane’s Killer Cupcakes. She came up with a great tutorial for making a Pac-man Cake! If you’d like to be a guest poster for SKC read the Guest Post Guidelines and contact me to pitch me your idea. Enjoy!

Hey there, guest blogger Amber here. I thought I’d share this with you all, because this cake is an easy, fun way to create something for your child’s birthday, or for a gaming enthusiast. My step son and I baked and decorated this together for his birthday. It turned out delicious and it was fun too!

You will need:

  • 1 Box Duncan Hines Devil’s Food Cake Mix ( or other chocolate cake mix. Use ingredients on the box accordingly)
  • 1 1/3 Cups Water (from Duncan Hines mix box)
  • 1/2 Cup Vegetable Oil (from Duncan Hines mix box)
  • 3 Large Eggs (from Duncan Hines mix box)
  • 1 Bag Dark Chocolate Chips (substitute with semi-sweet or milk chocolate, or mix if you’d like)
  • 1 Can White Frosting
  • 1 Can of Chocolate Frosting (the large can is not needed, the regular size will do)
  • Yellow Food Coloring
  • Butter (to grease the pans)
  • 2 8” x 1 1/2” Round Baking Pans
  • Flour (for cake pans)
  • Large Mixing Bowl
  • Whipped Cream (optional)

Other:

  • A spatula would be nice
  • An electric mixer or whisk (though you can use a fork!)
  • Something to spread the frosting evenly, you can use a butter knife, but there are specialty tools

Directions

Baking:

  1. PREHEAT oven to 350° F for metal or glass pans, or 325° F for dark coated pans. Butter the insides of the pans lightly. You can flour the inside of the pan as well, though we skipped that step and it came out fine.
  2. Blend the cake mix, oil and eggs in a large bowl until completely mixed. With an electric mixer this will be around 2 minutes, if you are mixing with hand, this will take longer.
  3. Pour the batter into cake pans. Add chocolate chips as desired. My stepson chose to sprinkle them liberally on one layer, and concentrate them in the middle on the other. However you want to do it should work fine. If you will use chocolate chips for the eyes, be sure to save at least 10 to accomplish this.
  4. Bake for 33-36 minutes for metal or glass pans. Add a few extra minutes for dark coated pans. Trick: carefully stick a toothpick into the center of your cake, if it comes out clean, it’s ready. Just be aware of your chocolate chips!

Frosting:

  1. Put white frosting into bowl. Add up to 10 drops of yellow food coloring at first, and mix it well. You may need to mix in more to get the vibrant yellow you are looking for. I added 24 yellow drops and one green drop, but the green addition almost became a disaster. If you are going to try to add 1 green drop for a richer, deeper yellow, I’d recommend having an extra can of white frosting on hand just in case. I also highly recommend starting with only 10 yellow drops and working your way up. The type of food coloring and frosting you use may make results vary. Once you have the yellow color you are looking for, set it aside.
  2. Once cake layers COOL COMPLETELY, flip the first one out onto a plate. Be careful of breaking it. The best way I have found is to set plate or platter on top of the cake pan and flip them both upside down together. I’d recommend flipping it back over so that the flat edge is on the bottom. To do this, simply repeat the steps above but without the cake pan. Make sure you use the final serving plate or platter the second time.
  3. Frost the top of the first cake layer thickly with chocolate frosting.
  4. CAREFULLY flip the second cake layer on top of the first. For this top layer, you want to be sure you get the bottom (flat edge) on top, and the rounded (top) facing down. This way you get a smooth surface for your pac man.
  5. Once your top layer is in place, carefully frost the entire cake in the yellow frosting. Be sure to leave an empty triangle for the mouth! Pay extra care to the sides, especially when you get close to the chocolate frosting in between the two layers. Leave the triangle empty all the way down the side of the cake.
  6. Fill in our mouth area with left over chocolate frosting. You may want speciality tools for this, but I used a butter knife and a steady hand and it came out fine.
  1. Lastly, make an eye with chocolate chips. Though you could probably use a chocolate candy melt, a reeses peanut butter cup or other various chocolate candy.
  2. To add extra flair (& possibly cover up the bottom edge of the frosting, as in my case) add whipped cream flourishes around the base of the cake, and voila! You’ve got yourself a Pac Man cake.

{About the Author: Amber Seree}

 Amber Seree is a graphic/web designer, as well as a writer, and a sometimes-baker with a passion for reading and watching good things.  You can find her art at {infinitefathoms.com} or her writing over at {hellcatchitchat.com}, where she is currently blogging about TV and movies. If you like to watch good things too, then check it out.
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Jan 30 2012

Butter Pecan Cupcakes

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My mom asked me to make her some cupcakes for her birthday recently and loved the sound of a the Butter Pecan Cake from Taste of Home. So, as any daughter would do, I set out to turn the cake recipe into cupcakes! The recipe was easy to put together, but be careful when toasting the pecans. I got sidetracked making the batter and almost burnt the pecans in the oven! So keep an eye on those and stir them regularly.

The above recipe is for a three layered cake and it ended up making about 32 cupcakes. Don’t over cook them either. I wouldn’t cook them any longer than 15 minutes if you’re going to make them into cupcakes. It might even be better to check them at 12 minutes. The cake consistency is almost of a muffin and they aren’t very sweet, which I liked, because they tasted great with the super sweet buttercream frosting I made for them.

The Butter Pecan Cake has a frosting recipe included, but I wasn’t sure if I liked the proportions in it so I opted to use one of my favorite, and easy, buttercream recipes from Savory Sweet Life. Her Classic Vanilla Buttercream Frosting is very good and added a good sweetness factor to the muffin-like cupcakes. I chose not to stir the leftover pecans into the frosting and instead sprinkled some on the top of each one as garnish.

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