Monday, August 27, 2012

Done? Really? Maybe?

We had this crazy project at work that took months, and I was afraid it was going to take years. We finally finished and I baked cupcakes resembling the vendors logo to celebrate. Yay!

In order to get the "swirl" of icing, I filled the pastry bag with half orange on the left and half yellow on the right and squeezed away!

Devil Pops

No this has nothing to do with the devils being in the playoffs, I actually root for the flyers. Anywho, I made cake pops for mother's day. OMG. They took forever. After work Thursday baking a cake, letting it cool, mashing it into crumbs, adding icing and rolling perfectly identical size balls. I think I went to bed at 1AM. Legit.

I thought this was the worst of it, but no. Friday night I simply had to dip them in chocolate. Simply my tushy! Cake balls have been in the fridge for a solid day at this point (only really need a few hours, but this girl works full time). You melt chocolate, dip the stick in chocolate, then put the stick into the ball, dip ball in chocolate, then put it in a block of Styrofoam to dry. Sounds simple enough. Getting the chocolate to melt correctly and put a smooth coat on the ball is an art. An art I'm not good at. Don't forget to put on any decorations before they dry, they do dry quickly.

Best of luck! Actually best of luck limiting your fowl language while making these! Hah. 


Caramel Spiced Apple Cupcakes

I went rooting for a recipe, and combined a few different recipes to make these cupcakes.

What you'll need:

Box of Spice Cake Mix (and associated oil, eggs, water)
1 apple
Caramel Sauce (see recipe below)
Butter
Powdered Sugar

Cupcakes


Prepare the spice cake mix according to the box. Dice up the apple and add it to the batter. Bake as directed.

Homemade Caramel Sauce.

 (taken from http://www.simplyrecipes.com/recipes/caramel_sauce/)

Ingredients

  • 1 cup (210 g) of sugar
  • 6 Tbsp (85 g) butter
  • 1/2 cup (120 ml) heavy whipping cream

Method

1 First, before you begin, make sure you have everything ready to go - the cream and the butter next to the pan, ready to put in. Making caramel is a fast process that cannot wait for hunting around for ingredients. If you don't work fast, the sugar will burn. Safety first - make sure there are no children under foot and you may want to wear oven mitts; the caramelized sugar will be much hotter than boiling water.
caramel-sauce-1.jpg
2 Heat sugar on moderately high heat in a heavy-bottomed 2-quart or 3-quart saucepan. As the sugar begins to melt, stir vigorously with a whisk or wooden spoon. As soon as the sugar comes to a boil, stop stirring. You can swirl the pan a bit if you want, from this point on. Note that this recipe works best if you are using a thick-bottomed pan. If you find that you end up burning some of the sugar before the rest of it is melted, the next time you attempt it, add a half cup of water to the sugar at the beginning of the process, this will help the sugar to cook more evenly, though it will take longer as the water will need to evaporate before the sugar will caramelize.
caramel-sauce-2.jpg caramel-sauce-3.jpg
caramel-sauce-4.jpg caramel-sauce-5.jpg
3 As soon as all of the sugar crystals have melted (the liquid sugar should be dark amber in color), immediately add the butter to the pan. Whisk until the butter has melted.
caramel-sauce-6.jpg
4 Once the butter has melted, take the pan off the heat. Count to three, then slowly add the cream to the pan and continue to whisk to incorporate. Note than when you add the butter and the cream, the mixture will foam up considerably. This is why you must use a pan that is at least 2-quarts (preferably 3-quarts) big.
5 Whisk until caramel sauce is smooth. Let cool in the pan for a couple minutes, then pour into a glass mason jar and let sit to cool to room temperature. (Remember to use pot holders when handling the jar filled with hot caramel sauce.) Store in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks. Warm before serving.
Yield: Makes a little over one cup of sauce. 

Caramel Buttercream

  • 1 recipe caramel sauce (I used a little over half of what I made above), cooled
  • 1 1/2 sticks butter, room temperature
  • 5-6 cups confectioners’ sugar
Beat Butter, then add Caramel and beat until well mixed. Slowly add sugar until you reach desired consistency.

Pipe onto cupcakes, drizzle with extra caramel. Enjoy!



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