Chocolate Covered Blueberry Cake

This weekend we went to a friend's place for a small dinner party of sorts. I volunteered to make dessert because, that's what I do.

And then, on Thursday night I panicked because I had no idea what to bake. I didn't want to make cookies (I made enough of those in December) and *gasp* I didn't feel like making cupcakes. What in the heck was I going to do?

My husband suggested I make a cake. Being the chocolate lover that I am, I responded with "a chocolate one, obviously." Then I proceeded to mull over filling options out loud.

"What about blueberry," asked my husband. Hmm, chocolate and blueberries? I wasn't sure about that combination. But, then I remembered that when we visited Ghirardelli in CA we ate some delicious chocolate covered blueberries.

So, on Saturday I put together a chocolate layer cake using my go-to chocolate recipe (Martha's 1-bowl chocolate cake). Because I'm not a huge fan of fruit jam layers in my cake (personal preference), I decided to make a fresh blueberry whipped cream for the filling.

I don't really use a recipe anymore when I make whipped cream, I kind of wing it. For this particular whipped cream, I put two containers of fresh blueberries (approx 2 cups-ish) into my food processor and pureed them. Then I put the puree into my kitchenaid with a pint of heavy cream, a tablespoon of sugar, and about a teaspoon of vanilla and using the whisk attachment beat the mixture on high until peaks formed.

To top it all off, I used a dark chocolate frosting recipe, which I think is too rich/sweet to not be a ganache (though, technically, it isn't as it does not use cream at all). This is another recipe from Martha. I halved the recipe though, because it makes 5 cups which is just about always way too much.

I would recommend refrigerating cake until serving, and storing any left overs in the fridge as well.

Enjoy!

Icebox Cake

A few weeks ago my husband and I were watching TV on Sunday morning, aimlessly. I settled on Food Network's "The Best Thing I Ever Ate" and the theme for that episode was something like frozen/cold treats.

I don't remember much more from the episode, except that someone mentioned an icebox lemon pie. At that moment both of us started drooling just thinking about it.

My husband said "make that" so I hopped online to try and find a recipe. I didn't like what I was pulling up, but I remembered seeing a post a while back on Smitten Kitchen for an Icebox Cake.

This was super easy, but definitely worth it. It's twelve layers (the recipe over at SK calls for 11, but I wanted to use up all the cookies) of chocolate wafer cookies and sweet whipped cream goodness. One thing to keep in mind- the cake has to refridgerate overnight. That's what allows the whipped cream to soak into the cookies.

It tastes like a gigantic Oreo cookie. It's so stinking good, we probably could have eaten the whole thing in two sittings. However, we paced ourselves- because this is not a diet friendly recipe.

Anyways, if you're looking for a cool treat this summer- make an Icebox Cake. I promise you won't regret it.

Faux-stess Cupcakes

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Annnnd....after a brief (hah) 3 month hiatus, we're back! Life kind of got in the way lately (new job, play, the holidays, etc), but I can assure you that I have been baking and crafting over the past three months. I'm going to try to play catch up and post about some things I did in Nov-Feb, but for now how about something current?

My husband and I have been in a play for the past five weeks (closing is this weekend), and last weekend one of our castmates had a party. She decided to have a pot luck, so obviously I chose to bring dessert. Originally I was going to decorate the cupcakes using details from my character, but I ran out of time.

I've been wanting to try my hand at a Faux-stess cupcake (faux Hostess cupcake) for some time now. I love Hostess Cupcakes. I don't think there was ever a time when I didn't like them, but when my husband and I started going on road trips together they were the perfect treat. Two to a pack, so we could split them, and not something we ate on an every day basis.

My husband asked me to make extras (for a coworkers) birthday, so I decided to make the cupcakes in both chocolate and orange flavors (I know the Hostess site says "golden" but I swear those suckers taste orange to me).

I used a Martha Stewart 1 Bowl chocolate cake recipe for the chocolate cupcakes. I was a little iffy on the cupcakes when I put them into the oven- but holy cats were they awesome after baking! This is probably the best chocolate cupcake I have made. They were light, fluffy, and really flavorful.

For the orange cupcakes, I modified a recipe from Wilton for Golden Yellow cupcakes by using 1/2 orange extract and 1/2 vanilla extract (instead of only vanilla). They came out pretty well- light, fluffy, flavorful- but I might cut back a tiny bit on the orange if I make them again.

After baking the cupcakes (each recipe yielded 24 cupcakes), and allowing them to cool, I used the cone method to fill the cupcakes. I definitely need a little more practice with this method but it wasn't hard.

I used a recipe from Baking Bites for the filling, and while it tasted just fine, I'm not sure I would use it again. It called for thickening milk with flour over a medium burner (on the stove) and I hated that method. Just hated it. I would much rather just make a whipped cream frosting for the centers.

The cupcakes were all topped with white whipped cream frosting- because I felt they were already rich enough. Using buttercream would have pushed them over the edge to sickeningly sweet.

Everyone at the party (and my husband's work) loved them. I will definitely be making these again.

I will post a photo of the orange verson as soon as I upload it from my camera.

Banana Caramel Toffee Cupcakes

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This weekend I also baked some birthday surprise cupcakes. The birthday girl isn't a fan of regular cakes or cake that is overly sugary sweet. My husband did some covert work (as the birthday girl is a coworker) to determine a flavor she might like.

I'd found this recipe on How to Eat a Cupcake a while back, and this seemed like the perfect time to try it out. I made a double recipe and only got 15 cupcakes.

I haven't yet had one (mine is still waiting at home, in the fridge for me), but according to my husband they got rave reviews around the office.

The toughest part about this recipe was cutting up the caramels (to bake inside the cupcake). Caramel will always seek out caramel and attempt to stick together. I ended up cutting up the caramels one at a time- after finishing one, I would toss it in with the flour and sift before cutting up the next caramel.

The cupcakes are topped with a light caramel whipped cream frosting.