Found Another Keeper

Marshmallow cupcakes were a success! Thank you cupcake corer :)

I brought in my latest batch of cupcakes, chocolate with a homemade marshmallow filling and basic chocolate frosting. Looks like I will be adding this flavor to my basic 10, yay, that means I've 2 outta 10 down. 8 more to figure out.

I was glad I got good reviews on the marshmallow filling, it was rather tricky. Making your own marshmallows isn't too difficult (start off making meringue then add more sugar) but the first batch I made was too runny and kept getting soaked up in the cupcake, no bueno. I had to thicken up the filling so I'd actually have an ooey-gooey center. Figured out that more egg whites would be needed to accomplish such a task.

Next up, per Kim's request is gonna be a banana cupcake with a cream cheese frosting. I've got to limit myself to trying *maybe* 2 new flavors a month. Otherwise, that's a whole lotta baking and a whole lotta cupcakes for the people around me to suffer through. After the banana, it will depend on what I can find in season in the grocery store.

Here we go!

 

The best frivolous cooking tools ever!

 So I was browsing online the other day and saw at Williams-Sonoma (my favorite cooking store, if only I could afford it!) had some fun new gadgets that I was super excited to try out. Now, keep in mind the title of today's blog: The best most frivolous cooking tools ever. The two items I picked up today are absolutely not necessities, but they sure do make baking more fun. And although you often make do without certain tools, why restrict yourself when a tool is created that makes an easy task a complete breeze?

                  First up, what every cupcake baker needs--a cupcake corer! yay! When I have made filled cupcakes in the past, I just insert my frosting tip into the cupcake and watched for the cupcake to swell, yes, you can actually see the cupcake bloat when its got enough filling in it. The annoyance here is that not each cupcake gets the same amount of filling, and I need consistency. Also, the filling often then overflows up out of the cake if the cake swells too much. Unsightly. So, enter the cupcake corer. It basically punches out a dime-sized hole and voila, no more overflow from over bloated cakes, awesome! Right now I am in the midst of making my chocolate cupcakes with marshmallow filling, so I am excited to put this bad boy to work.

Next up, who doesn't like poptarts? nobody that's who. So why not make your own at home? You can make them with any kind of filling you want, sweet or savory (think breakfast poptart, mmmm), and then top it off with what ever frosting you like. Perfect. So I picked up a toaster pastry press at Williams-Sonoma which basically is a sandwich press setup and you make some pastry dough, use the press to cut out the top and bottom pieces, fill as you would a pie, press together with tool and tada! Baked in your very own oven is a yummy pastry. I am thinking about using some of the homemade blueberry compote I made in my first batch. Just another fun thing for me to try out in my kitchen.

Nothing like a little competition...

....to get you motivated!

I couldn't believe that a cupcake shop was opening up at the Alderwood Mall.  What?! Really?! That's what I wanted to do, granted I am not in a place where I can drop a couple grand on a store front, but it was like a slap in my face-throwing my dream job right back at me! Boo.  I couldn't stand for this atrocity. 


SO, my strategy is to check out Pinkabella's this weekend when it opens up and scope the place out.  Keep you enemies close right?

Actually, I've been to Pinkabella's at the Redmond Town Center, and I distinctly remember not liking her cupcakes, yes the store is super adorable with pink ballerina decor all over the place, but I felt the cupcakes themselves were lacking.  The cake was dry and the frosting grainy.  Bias toward my own product, not at all.  I'll shout it from the roof tops that I really like Cupcake Royale--I believe they have some good stuff down there.  Trophy? ehh.  Good cake, frosting not so much.  I can't compete with Cupcake Royale, but I can surely stand my own against Pinkabella. 

Store front at Alderwood mall in the outdoor shoping area

What throws me more for a loop is that this is Margo's (owner) 3rd store and she has only been in business for 17 months, bananas!  I guess that means she must be doing something right...

Part 2 of my master plan, get my signature flavors down.  I can't do a store front, but that's what the world wide web is for.  I'm gonna go online.  I figure I need at least 10 solid flavors before moving any further.  A for sure flavor is gonna be the one I just made this past week, pound cake with brown sugar cream cheese frosting.  My poor co-workers are gonna be cupcaked out since I am using them as my taste-kitchen.  I've already got a request for a banana cupcake with cream cheese frosting, another friend added I should include real banana pieces and walnuts.  Next on my list is to make a chocolate cupcake with marshmallow filling and maybe a butter cream meringue frosting (less sweet than traditional butter cream). 

We'll see which ones make the cut and which get tossed.  This is gonna be fun!

Spring Snow



My view from the lift



Pictures of my recent trip to Stevens Pass.  Mike and I went up last Friday and then I went back up this past Sunday solo. 

What I love about spring boarding is that you're boarding in toasty 45-50 degree weather.  Its nice taking off your gloves and not having to get them back on as fast as possible because you can feel frostbite setting in!

Another perk is there are significantly less people on the slopes.  Oddly enough, there were more people out and about on Sunday than on Friday.  A nice surprise was that the backside of Stevens was finally open, yay!



Yay, both backside runs were open, nice!



I am motivated to get up to the slopes as much as possible from here on out since my seasons pass is collecting some dust on it, I've been up 4 times thus far, almost makes up the cost of my pass.  I think 2 or 3 times should help me break even.  Of course I will aim to go above and beyond that magic number, so anyone looking to get some spring boarding/skiing in, shoot Mike and I email or call us up!

Hopefully the season will be extended, both days I was up there it started to snow lightly...so here's hoping.



The view from the top of Hogsback



Love that almost no one else was up there, wide open spaces!







Looking over Skyline

Going up Hogsback



Bottom of Gemini on the backside, love the blue sky



From the base

(almost) Red Velvet Cake

Anyone who knows me knows I love desserts. Anyone who really knows me knows I adore red velvet cake...

So I tried my hand at making some red velvet cake. But it didn't quite come out the way I wanted it to, first I ran out of red food coloring so the red is not the correct depth of red that I would have liked to see. Second, my baking powder is a tiny bit flat so the density of the cake was a little off. However, aesthetics aside, the flavor was there. I did like the cream cheese frosting with white chocolate curls and the marshmallow frosting filling, it added some sweetness that balanced the tartness of the cream cheese. I even blended some of the marshmallow frosting into the cream cheese which made it silky smooth without altering the flavor significantly.

  Mike took it to work for a good-bye party for one of his co-workers, how convenient that I was baking the night before his departure! Now Mike got to score extra points in the office, he owes me since my friends at work didn't get to have the red velvet that I promised them~instead, they got the pound cake cupcakes with brown sugar cream cheese frosting (which I actually preferred!). 

 

So I'll have to make it up to my friends at work another day...I am itching to try this recipe again
and getting the end product just perfect.

Creating Princess Leia

So Mr. Jonas is having his 4th birthday this weekend and I am helping make his cupcakes.  He is having a Star Wars themed party so my friend decided to go with Princess Leia cupcakes.  She found a picture from another blog and I tried to follow it as best I could.  Here are the steps I took to re-create them:

                                                  Started with plain white cream cheese frosting

                                     Added some chocolate hair with the right frosting tip

Then some chocolate dots for eyes

Then I used some heart sprinkles for her mouth

And the finishing touch, some chocolate filled oreo cookies for her trademark buns