THE QUINTESSENTIAL CUPCAKE

the quintessential cupcake: a cherry on top

I was walking down the street one day, holding a tray of these cupcakes when I suddenly heard a voice.

"Good-looking cupcakes!"

An ambulance was parked at the gas station pump getting a fill-up and sitting in the passenger seat with the window open was a man leaning out, smiling and drooling at my cupcakes.

*sigh!*

I said "thanks".

Gone are the days when I would walk by a construction site and get wolf whistles and hubba-hubbas.

here's the tray of cupcakes that the ambulance attendant was so hot, hungry and drooly for...


Nowadays, I turn on men (with the exception of my husband who hates all sweets!) with my baked goods. Well, let's be fair here. I've been known to turn on women with my baked goods too.

You might be wondering why I was walking around town holding a tray of cupcakes? Well, it was parent-teacher interviews that day and I was bringing a tray full of chocolate cupcakes for the teachers' pot-luck dinner! What a fabulous idea! an appreciation dinner where parents bring in pot luck dishes to feed the teachers!

I remember how hungry it can get hanging around the school until interview time and then sometimes being fully booked to the point where you can't even take a pee-break or get a bite to eat!

So I was only too happy to contribute these cupcakes for the teachers that day. I hope they enjoyed them!

I baked up a batch of my favourite chocolate cupcakes with this recipe and frosted with this recipe in a girlie pink buttercream. I employed my new arsenal of chocolate plastic roses , making them as mini as I could to fit atop the cupcakes (not an easy task!) I also sprinkled dragees on others. My favourite cupcake that day was the glaceed cherries I popped on the tops of some. They were picture perfect. The cherry on top evokes the perfect image of a cupcake. They were tasty too!

CHOCOLATE ROSE TUTORIAL

so you want to learn how to make a chocolate rose?

Hey hey! I know you're back here for that Chocolate Rose Tutorial...

So you wanna impress your friends and neighbours? Make a cake/cupcake and top it off with a few of these chocolate beauties and they'll be oohing and aahing. In fact, you'll be oohing and aahing. It's so easy!

Are you excited yet?

Have you been playing with your big wad of chocolate plastic since my Mini Chocolate Pumpkin Tutorial?

People have been asking me if they could use white chocolate. Of course you can use white chocolate! You can also tint it with food colouring if you wish too! Do whatever your little hearts desire! The fun part is fooling around with chocolate, in my opinion. You could make so many little figures with it! Just imagine the possibilities!

It wasn't easy taking pictures while working with the Chocolate Plastic. I had a bit of chocolate gunk on my hands and lighting wasn't so good. I had to take the shot balancing the camera in my right hand while holding the rose in my left most of the time. I was too lazy to whip out my cumbersome tripod. I was doubly lazy when I thought of having to move all my gear down to my cheapie cardboard box food porn "studio" downstairs. I ended up photographing everything at the kitchen table.

Remember to have fun with this Chocolate Plastic. I love the stuff. My daughter pops those little chocolate pumpkins in her mouth and exclaims how yummy they are. Fondant is pretty, but Chocolate Plastic is tastier!

There were a lot of pictures in this step-by-step tutorial. There was also a lot of me fiddling with the chocolate plastic, putting it down, picking up the camera, swearing 'cause of the crappy lighting and taking the shot anyway. I'm sure you'll understand...food is my passion and teaching is my occupation. Photography is neither. I know why they call it "F-stop" now. There was a lot of me stopping to mutter the F word.

CAKEBRAIN'S CHOCOLATE ROSE TUTORIAL:

Please check out my Mini Chocolate Pumpkin Tutorial post for the recipe & storage instructions for the Chocolate Plastic.

Roll a handful of chocolate plastic into a ball. I have a plastic-lined board from my Wilton decorating kit that I like to use that creates a smooth surface. You can also use a wooden or marble board. I'm using my fondant rolling pin. In this case, a smooth surface isn't important because you'll be reworking it with your fingers anyway. Roll the chocolate plastic to about 1/8" thickness.

Using a small circle cutter about 1 inch in diameter, cut out 15 circles.

I used my a cutter from my Wilton flower decorating kit for cutting out the circle shapes.
Take a small chunk of the remnants left from cutting the circles and create a small ball about the size of a marble.

Roll the remnants into a smooth ball. If you roll too much, you might have a sticky situation. I just apply light pressure and work quickly. Apparently, I heard from Mark at No Special Effects that he didn't have much luck working with White Chocolate Plastic because of his hot and humid climate. That's too bad. I live in a temperate climate and had no problems with the chocolate plastic melting. Yay for living in Vancouver!


Create a teardrop shape from the ball. Just bring one end to a point. This part of the rose will be your base on which to build the petals. Don't make your base too big or you'll be in trouble later.

Take each circle and, using primarily your thumbs and index fingers, flatten it into petal shapes so that the edges are thinner at the edges. I just rotate the petal while flattening the edges. Don't overwork it and don't try to make it look perfectly circular. Learn to love little imperfections.

1st row of petals (3 petals required): taking one of the prepared petals, wrap the teardrop base so that the tip is mostly hidden. You should be only be able to see a bit of the tip of the teardrop when looking from the top of the rose. Take another petal and overlap the first wrapped petal. This picture shows what you'll have with 2 petals wrapped around the base. Take the third petal and again, overlap the last petal you applied to the base.

2nd row of petals (5 petals required): the key to the second row of petals is that these should stand straight up whereas the first row were wrapped towards the centre. Wrap each of the 5 petals one by one; overlapping the preceding one. Continue in this manner until all 5 are attached. Use your fingers or a cotton swab to adjust the position of the petals, if you wish. This picture shows the first petal applied for the second row.

This picture shows the second row of upright petals.


3rd row of petals (7 petals required): the third row of petals should be curved slightly. Attach each petal as in the previous steps, using your fingers to gently curve the edges outwards. Form each petal one at a time or you'll have the petals sticking to each other in a mangled mess.

This picture shows the rose with the third row of petals almost finished (with 3 curved petals applied). Adjust the third row of petals to look as natural as possible.

The finished chocolate rose will be unique. It's almost impossible to make all your roses look the same. This is a good thing though because it'll look more natural. You can make some roses look like buds, and have others fully blossomed, like the one above. Make your chocolate rose leaves from the leftover chocolate plastic.
Have fun! Tell me how it goes!

PUMPKIN PIE CHIFFON CAKE

dulce de leche dripping down ethereally soft pumpkin chiffon: doesn't that look sexy?
lookie...here's that adorable mini chocolate pumpkin i made! it's especially cute on cupcakes too!

Here's a recipe I promised to post utilizing some of the leftover pumpkin puree from my Mini Pumpkin Cheesecake Brulees. BTW, I'm thinking of making those again because they were so good!

This Pumpkin Chiffon cake was so delicious! It was moist and had a tender crumb. The pumpkin puree, pie spices and cinnamon gave it a pumpkin pie flavour but the texture was so light and airy. You know how eating a pumpkin pie at the end of a meal can put you over the top? It tends to be very rich and dense in texture. Well, you could eat many more slices of this cake after your turkey meal and not feel the seratonin repercussions!

CAKEBRAIN'S PUMPKIN PIE CHIFFON CAKE
1 cup sugar
½ cup golden brown sugar
1 1/3 cups cake flour (measure unsifted)
1 ¼ tsp baking powder
¼ tsp baking soda
½ tsp salt
7 large eggs, 2 left whole, 5 separated (at room temperature)
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 tsp vanilla extract
½ tsp cream of tartar
2/3 cup water
1 cup canned pureed pumpkin
1/2 t. cinnamon
1/2 t. pie spices


1. Adjust oven rack to lower-middle position and heat oven to 325°F. Whisk sugars, flour, baking powder and salt together in large bowl (at least 4-quart size). Whisk in two whole eggs, five egg yolks (reserve whites), water, oil and extract until batter is smooth. Stir in pumpkin puree, cinnamon and spices.
2. Pour reserved egg whites into large bowl; beat at low speed with electric mixer until foamy, about 1 minute. Add cream of tartar, gradually increase speed to medium-high, then beat whites until very thick and stiff, just short of dry, 9 to 10 minutes with handheld mixer or 5 to 7 minutes in standing mixer. With large whisk, fold whites into batter, smearing any blobs of white that resist blending.
3. Pour batter into ungreased large tube pan ( 9 inch diameter, 16-cup capacity).
4. Bake cake on lower middle rack in oven until wire cake tester inserted in center comes out clean, 60-70 minutes. Immediately turn cake upside down to cool. If pan does not have prongs around rim for elevating cake, invert pan over bottle or funnel, inserted through tube. Let cake hang until completely cook, about 2 hours.
5. To unmold, turn pan upright. Run frosting spatula or thin knife around pan’s circumference between cake and pan wall, always pressing against the pan. Use cake tester to loosen cake from tube. For one-piece pan, bang it on counter several times, then invert over serving plate. For two-piece pan, grasp tube and lift cake out of pan. If glazing the cake, use a fork or a paring knife to gently scrap all the crust off the cake. Loosen cake from pan bottom with spatula or knife, then invert cake onto plate. (Can be wrapped in plastic and stored at room temperature 2 days or refrigerated 4 days.)
Serving: Drizzle a slice of the pumpkin chiffon with dulce de leche or caramel sauce. Top with a cute hand-made chocolate mini-pumpkin!


I have entered this dessert in the World Food Day Event hosted by Ivy at Kopiaste. Thanks to Giz, at Equal Opportunity Kitchen for informing me about this worthy event!
I have much to be thankful for: A healthy family, great friends and a food blogging community that is both inspirational and supportive!

PLAYING WITH CHOCOLATE: MINI CHOCOLATE PUMPKIN TUTORIAL

Here, by popular demand, is my tutorial on making Mini Chocolate Pumpkins.

Since it's a long-weekend here in Canada, I have an itty bitty amount of time between stacks of marking to give you a quick run-down on how to work "Chocolate Plastic" into cute Mini Pumpkins.

Remember those Chocolate Roses I made? (Check back later because I have to post that tutorial next!) I still have plenty of leftover chocolate plastic from making the roses. I kept it tightly wrapped in plastic wrap and then put all of that in an airtight plastic container. All you have to do is take a small piece of the chocolate plastic and warm it up in your hands or beat it with a rolling pin! What fun! Yes, the beating part.

The recipe is simple: Melt 6 oz bittersweet chocolate and combine it with 1/3 cup
corn syrup. Mix thoroughly until combined. Spread the mixture thinly and evenly on a plastic wrap-lined sheet pan for a few hours (covered with more plastic wrap). Knead the chocolate plastic to soften and keep it wrapped in plastic wrap when you're not using it.

Pinch a small ball of chocolate plastic in your fingers and create a ball by rolling it between your palms. You remember...kind of like when you were a kid playing with Playdough!

I like a squat shape for my mini pumpkins, so I kind of squash the ball between my palms. Then I use a toothpick (or a skewer, or my favourite tool--my metal "cake tester") and trace lines up and down...and all around the pumpkin to--well, make it look like a pumpkin!

Take a tiny ball of chocolate plastic and roll it into a tiny log to make the stem. Cut off a stem-sized piece and use a toothpick to position it into the pumpkin.
I like to make a hole down the top of my pumpkin with a toothpick first. I drill down to about the centre of the pumpkin.It's a delicate matter. You can use tweezers I suppose, but I find a toothpick works fine because the little point helps guide the stem end into the hole.

I use the toothpick tip to squish and press down the stem to attach it firmly to the pumpkin top and then proceed to make a leaf.

Create a tiny ball of chocolate plastic into a leaf shape. I know that pumpkin leaves don't look like this, but I'm working in such a tiny scale that I don't really care. This simple leaf design is so much easier to handle. If you're so inclined, go ahead and make the pumpkin leaves look botanically correct. I find that trying to make little curly tendrils doesn't work well as the plastic chocolate doesn't hold its shape so well when it's rolled so thinly.
You can use the Mini Chocolate Pumpkins to adorn Mini Pumpkin Cheesecake Brulees or this Pumpkin-Pie Chiffon Cake oozing with Dulce de Leche. They're great on cupcakes too. If you want, you can use white chocolate and tint the finished shapes with food colouring but I'm not as crazy about the white chocolate flavour as real dark chocolate :)

Yes, I'll post my original Pumpin-Pie Chiffon Cake Recipe next (I was a busy little baking-bee this weekend). It's yummerific. I'm on a roll because I winged the recipe with all the extra pumpkin puree I had on hand from making those Mini Pumpkin Cheesecakes. I still have some puree left and am thinking of adding it to a certain creamy dessert I've made in the past...

Enjoy!

MINI PUMPKIN CHEESECAKE BRULÉE

there's no squash quite so adorable as the pumpkin!

Canadians will be celebrating Thanksgiving this upcoming Monday. I am gearing up by buying little decorative pumpkins for the kids and I'm looking around for things to do with pumpkin puree as I just opened this massive can and have so much left over!

mini pumpkin cheesecake brulées: smooth, creamy and not over-spiced!

I used my mini cheesecake pan from Williams Sonoma to make some Mini Pumpkin Cheesecakes. I bruléed the tops after they finished their overnight cooldown in the refrigerator and topped them with these adorable little chocolate "plastic" pumpkins. No, it's not plastic! It's made out of quality bittersweet chocolate and corn syrup! These are more yummy than the fondant pumpkins I made last year for my cupcakes. "You can't go wrong with chocolate" is my motto. I have plenty of this chocolate playdough left over from making those chocolate roses from the other day. I'll be doing a chocolate rose tutorial soon. Come back and check it out later!The recipe I created makes only 8 mini cheesecakes. I just wanted to use one brick of cream cheese, and I kind of just made the recipe up along the way.

MINI PUMPKIN CHEESECAKE BRULEE

Crust:

• 1/2 cup crushed graham cracker crumbs
• 1 T sugar
• 1 T melted butter

1. Preheat oven to 350°F.
2. Combine all the ingredients together, mixing well. Press an equal amount into 8 mini cheesecake molds.
3. Bake for 10 minutes. Let cool while making the filling.

Pumpkin Cheesecake filling:

• 8 oz (250g) Philadelphia cream cheese, at room temperature
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1 egg, room temp.
• 1/4 cup canned pureed pumpkin
• 1/2 t. cinnamon
• 1/2 t. pie spices
• 1 T. milk

1. Lower heat to 300°F.
2. Beat cream cheese in a standing mixer until creamy and smooth.
3. Add the sugar, pureed pumpkin and spices and beat on medium speed until well combined.
4. Add the egg and continue to mix for about 1 minute. Finally, add the milk and mix thoroughly.
5. Spoon equal amounts of the cheesecake filling into all 8 prepared molds.
6. Bake the cheesecakes for 20 minutes at 300°F
7. Allow to cool for 10 minutes in the molds.
8. Refrigerate for at least 2 hours or overnight. Remove the cheesecakes and brulee just before serving.

Serving:

• Sprinkle granulated sugar over each cheesecake and use a brulee torch to caramelize the sugar until golden brown.
• Top with a mini chocolate pumpkin. Form small balls of chocolate plastic with your hands and use a toothpick to form grooves on the pumpkin and veins on the leaf. see tutorial

CHOCOLATE ROSES: WHAT FUN! IT'S LIKE PLAYDOUGH!

I have a very good excuse for not having posted for a while. Really! I do.

Bib is now recovering from a UTI she developed about 2 weeks ago. At first I thought she was teething (two bottom teeth happened to pop up at this time), but her fever continued and she also started to alternate between fevers and chills. This was going on for about a week and it was worsening. She was fussy and seemed to be in pain all the time. The doc told me to go to emergency if it didn't get any better. He thought it might be either a UTI or perhaps she was fighting a virus. So I did the next day after seeing him because she seemed to be worse. Thank god I did. At Children's emergency, they took 2 vials of blood. Stomach said, "do you have to take that much? she's only a little baby". The nurse kind of just shrugged and did it anyway.

They also put her on an IV and she went through 2 bags of the IV fluid because she was dehydrated from vomiting so much. She was crying 2 hours straight and kept trying to rip the IV out of her. I felt so bad for her. After the urine test confirmed her UTI, she was put on antibiotics. Almost overnight, her whole demeanor changed and she wasn't as fussy. I was able to put her down to sleep (instead of carrying her all night long). Most importantly, I was able to get more than 2 hours of sleep thereafter! I think I'm too old for this kind of stuff. I should have had kids when I was younger!

My other excuse: a stack of essays for marking that's about 6 inches thick. This is just part of the other marking and prep I have to do. The marking is kind of weighing down on me mentally as well as physically. You see, it's always at the back of my mind. If I go out for dinner, I'm thinking that I ought to be marking when I get home. If I play with the kids, I think I ought to be marking (but I don't mark because I want the kids to have time with me). If I sit back and help Bebe with her piano practice, I have a stack of marking next to me and I'm marking...or I'm thinking that I should be marking while she's practicing. Geesh. Most importantly, when I'm blogging, I'm thinking about the ominous stack of marking next to me. I realize the marking burden will never end until June sometime. I should have thought about being a P.E. teacher or something!

Today I'm going to show you something wonderful you can do with Chocolate. You can mold and shape it (like fondant) into roses! I used Nick Malgieri's recipe to make the "Plastic Chocolate". All it is, is corn syrup and melted bittersweet chocolate. I halved the original recipe and used 1/3 cup corn syrup and 6 oz. melted chocolate. I knew full well that I'd have too much if I used the full recipe because all I wanted was to make flowers. I didn't need it to cover a cake.

You essentially wait for the concoction to cool down a few hours and then you knead it (it's very stiff) until it's pliable. Roll thin between plastic wrap and cut petals and leaves. I used my Wilton flower-making kit because it has the perfect sized circle cutters for the petals and leaves. Working with chocolate plastic is like playing with the kids' playdough. It's so fun! If something doesn't look right, you can just ball it up and try again! you can etch it, roll it, stamp it, cut it and most importantly (unlike playdough) eat it! I'll post a step-by-step guide on how to make a chocolate rose soon. I still have quite a bit of the chocolate plastic left over and will make some more flowers and perhaps some other nifty things...

The chocolate cake that I made was the Barefoot Contessa's recipe. It's a never-fail, go-to recipe for me. It never disappoints. I decided to try Greenspan's Chocolate Malted Buttercream recipe. The frosting is a bit disappointing because its consistency is too loose for piping properly and the texture of the buttercream is particularly grainy (it contains light brown sugar) even though I followed the instructions to the letter. I even beat it for additional minutes as instructed as the mixture seemed too loose. The flavour is okay but I don't think I'll be working with this one again because I don't enjoy decorating with it. It doesn't hold up very well at all. It's a perfect frosting for swirling, but it definitely doesn't work well for a smooth polished look. The malted frosting also tends to weep and sag under the weight of the top layer of cake. Once chilled though, the butter in the frosting sets it up hard. Though Greenspan indicates to bring it to room temperature to serve, I like the frosting better cold. I think I'm the only person out there who likes cold buttercream! I love buttercream that's cool and slightly solid. Not rock hard, but almost! I know the flavour's supposed to be better at room temperature, but I'm not as crazy about buttercream that's greasy-feeling in my mouth. That's just me, I suppose.