10 Tips to Make Perfect Cupcakes

TLC Cooking "10 Tips to Make Perfect Cupcakes"

Here are some very standard, but very important baking tips for cupcakes! Posting a helpful link counts as a post, right?

Forgive me, I have many, many pictures on my camera that are yet to be uploaded. Most of them are "real food," too! While my primary kitchen-related pastime is baking, I do occasionally eat actual food, and I believe all that is worth sharing as well! (Plus, if it's cooked in an oven, it's technically a "baked good" anyway, right?) More to come.

I have a huge list of baking projects that I plan to tackle in the next few months. With the fall semester just around the corner, classes, labs, research, orchestra and other extracurriculars will definitely cut into my baking time, but with the help of a few of my favorite friends and baking assistants, I hope to manage baking with life.

I am currently intrigued with the possibility of opening my own bakery one day. While I currently do not see myself ever waking up at 4 AM to start baking, the possibility is, as I said, intriguing. Maybe if I cannot find a job as a "real" chemist upon graduation, I can find a part-time job at a bakery! Or, maybe I'll do what most people do, and just go to graduate school to prolong the real world job concept.

Bakery-owner or not, I still have a lot to learn, and share. To list a few things I would like to make by December...

Cupcakes! And not just any cupcakes, but red velvet, carrot, lemon, banana, chocolate, vanilla, and many more!

Frostings! Because they go really well with cupcakes. Buttercream, cream cheese, ganache, you name it!

Fillings! Because they are delicious inside of cupcakes. Lemon curd, chocolate ganache, custard, they're not just for doughnuts anymore!

Gnocchi! Because it is delicious, even if it is not a cupcake. And because I don't need to buy a pasta machine to make it!

Adorable shortbread cookies! Because they will make great Christmas gifts, and because I did buy all those cookie cutters for a reason now, didn't I?

And, of course, anything else that just strikes my fancy.

Stay tuned!

Soft Pretzels

As soon as I saw this recipe on smittenkitchen, I knew that I absolutely had to try it. So, I immediately showed the recipe (mainly, the pictures) to my baking assistant/muscle for dough-kneading boyfriend, and his reaction was, essentially, "Pretzels! You should make those!"


Well, we were supposed to make them yesterday, but then we got distracted, I fell asleep, and, well, it basically just wasn't going to happen after that. So, this morning, making these pretzels was the only thought in my mind.

I have two cookie sheets, so I put one on the top rack of the oven, and one on the bottom rack. I actually took the tray on the top rack out of the oven after about 7 minutes, because the pretzels were golden  then moved the one from the bottom rack to the top rack and baked it for the total 12 minutes. My pretzels were on the small side, so I would imagine larger ones would need the full 15 minutes. Also, next time, I would not place the just-boiled pretzels directly back on the parchment paper. In the first batch (which only baked for 7 minutes), a couple of the larger pretzels seemed slightly soggy on the underside. They were, of course, still delicious. Jake preferred the fully-baked ones, whereas I preferred the slightly under-baked ones.

I believe Jake approved.

Overall, though, I doubt I will be buying a soft pretzel from that stand at the mall again. These were perfection, sprinkled with a bit of kosher salt prior to baking, and served warm-from-the-oven with some spicy brown mustard.

Soft Pretzels

Recipe from Deb at smittenkitchen.com, adapted from Martha Stewart

I went with Deb's suggestion of just using a wooden spoon to mix the dough, rather than the electric mixer. I find using a spoon and some good ol' fashioned arm muscle (read: Jake's good ol' fashioned arm muscle) to be much faster and easier, and involve less cleanup. The more I run my dishwasher, the higher my electricity bill seems to be.

Makes 16 full-sized or 32 miniature (I got about 24, some larger than others)


2 cups warm water (100°F to 110°F)
1 tablespoon + 2 tablespoons sugar
1 packet active dry yeast
5 to 6 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting
1 tablespoon salt
2 teaspoons canola or other neutral oil
1/4 cup baking soda
1 large egg
Coarse or pretzel salt
Vegetable-oil cooking spray


1. Pour warm water and 1 tablespoon sugar into bowl of electric mixer fitted with a dough hook* and stir to combine. Sprinkle with yeast, and let sit 10 minutes; yeast should be foamy.


2. Add 1 cup flour to yeast, and mix on low until combined. Add salt and 4 cups more flour, and mix until combined, about 30 seconds. Beat on medium-low until dough pulls away from sides of bowl, about 1 1/2 minutes. Add another 1/2 cup flour, and knead on low 1 minute more. If dough is still wet and sticky, add 1/2 cup more flour (this will depend on weather conditions); knead until combined, about 30 seconds. Transfer to a lightly floured board, and knead about ten times, or until smooth.


3. Pour oil into a large bowl; swirl to coat sides. Transfer dough to bowl, turning dough to completely cover all sides. Cover with a kitchen towel, and leave in a warm spot for 1 hour, or until dough has doubled in size.


4. Heat oven to 450°F. Lightly spray two baking sheets with cooking spray (parchment paper, ungreased, also works). Set aside. Punch down dough to remove bubbles. Transfer to a lightly floured board. Knead once or twice, divide into 16 pieces (about 2 1/2 ounces each) or 32 if making miniature pretzels, and wrap in plastic.


5. Roll one piece of dough at a time into an 18-inch-long strip. [I find the pretzels much easier to roll on an unfloured board, oddly enough, but see what works for you.] Twist into pretzel shape; transfer to prepared baking sheet. Cover with a kitchen towel. Continue to form pretzels; eight will fit on each sheet (you may need a third sheet if making miniatures). Let pretzels rest until they rise slightly, about 15 minutes.


6. Meanwhile, fill large, shallow pot with 2 inches of water. Bring to a boil. Add baking soda (and step back, it foams up quickly) and remaining 2 tablespoons sugar. Reduce to a simmer; transfer three to four pretzels to water. Poach 1 minute on each side. Use slotted spoon to transfer pretzels to baking sheet. Continue until all pretzels are poached.


7. Beat egg with 1 tablespoon water. Brush pretzels with egg glaze. Sprinkle with salt. Bake until golden brown, 12 to 15 minutes. Let cool on wire rack, or eat warm. Pretzels are best when eaten the same day, but will keep at room temperature, uncovered, for two days. Do not store in covered container or they will become soggy.


* These days, I mix all of my bread doughs by hand, with a wooden spoon. I find it a fantastically easy process, and not very hard to stir by hand. No need to mix for several minutes, just a minute or so after it looks combined. To save even more dishes, I rinse out the bowl, oil it and use it for proofing the dough. And you thought making bread wasn’t simple!

Yellow cake with chocolate buttercream

It is almost the end of my summer vacation, and I regret to say that I have done a pansy job of baking these past few months. Oh, there have been some delicious cookies and some blueberry cake (both of which I regret not taking pictures of, but in my defense, they were eaten instantly by , not really giving me time to get out my camera) but I feel like my proudest moment within these past couple of months was a yellow double-layer cake, with chocolate buttercream frosting.

I made this cake for a friend's birthday. Well, my boyfriend's friend's birthday, who I am now friends with due to the making of this cake. The cake was amazing. It was ridiculously moist, the layers came out perfectly even, and it definitely beat any "yellow cake from-a-box" that I've tasted. The buttercream was amazingly smooth (though melty, so it had to be refrigerated) since it was made with actual butter. Three sticks of butter, I might add. Next time, I may actually substitute a half cup of shortening for a stick of the butter, just because it would cause the frosting to hold up better at room temperature (read: during a summer in the south. It is currently 95 degrees Fahrenheit outside). And I'm actually immensely proud of myself for the decorating. I, for once, kept with simplicity, with a touch of elegance. Plus, with the frosting as smooth as it was, the roses were literally a breeze. I only made three, and put all three on the cake. I used to only use shortening in buttercream for decorating, since it allows roses to hold up better (since butter turns to mush at room temperature), but these turned out rather nicely (even though it was hard to make them without them falling over). 

Overall, the cake was even more delicious than it was gorgeous. Or so I heard. I got nothing back but an empty cake carrier.

Yellow Layer Cake

Adapted from smittenkitchen

I made a few changes from the original recipe. I used all purpose flour instead of cake flour (since that's what I usually have on hand), whole milk instead of buttermilk, and changed the baking temperature and time to 325 degrees F for 45 minutes (to ensure more even baking, resulting in flat layers). Since my pans are nonstick, I also skipped the parchment paper and just greased the pans using a canola oil cooking spray. The rest of the instructions were followed exactly as written.

4 cups plus 2 tablespoons cake flour (or 4 cups - 6 tablespoons all purpose flour)
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 sticks (1 cup) unsalted butter, softened
2 cups sugar
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
4 large eggs, at room temperature
2 cups buttermilk (or 2 cups whole milk)

Preheat oven to 325°F. Butter two 9-inch round cake pans and line with circles of parchment paper, then butter parchment. (Alternately, you can use a cooking spray, either with just butter or butter and flour to speed this process up.)

Sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a medium bowl. In a large mixing bowl, beat butter and sugal with an electric mixer at medium speed until pale and fluffy, then beat in vanilla. Add eggs 1 at a time, beating well and scraping down the bowl after each addition. At low speed, beat in buttermilk until just combined (mixture will look curdled). Add flour mixture in three batches, mixing until each addition is just incorporated.

Spread batter evenly in cake pan, then rap pan on counter several times to eliminate air bubbles. (I like to drop mine a few times from two inches up, making a great big noisy fuss.) Bake until golden and a wooden pick inserted in center of cake comes out clean, about 45 minutes. Cool in pan on a wire rack 10 minutes, then run a knife around edge of pan. Invert onto rack and discard parchment, then cool completely, about 1 hour.


Chocolate Buttercream Frosting
Loosely adapted from smittenkitchen's Instant Fudge Frosting

This buttercream is smooth and feels light, but the combination of cocoa powder and actual melted chocolate really brings out a nice, semi-bitter chocolate flavor. If you prefer your chocolate to be milder, try using milk chocolate in place of semisweet, or omit the cocoa powder. If you feel like you would rather have more chocolate flavor, then by all means keep adding more until it suits your taste.

2 cups semisweet chocolate chips (I used Nestle Toll House brand)
2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder (I used Hershey's)
1 pound (about 4 cups) powdered or confectioner's sugar
3 sticks (1 1/2 cups) unsalted butter, softened
6 tablespoons whole milk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon salt

Melt the chocolate chips, either using a double-boiler (or bowl over a pot of simmering water), or the microwave. Whisk together sugar, cocoa powder and salt. Combine all the ingredients in a bowl, and beat using electric mixer on medium speed until smooth. Taste and add more chocolate/cocoa/sugar if necessary.


Assembly:

Invert cake pans to release cake layers. Place first cake layer on a cake board or platter. Using an offset spatula, ice the top of cake with some of the chocolate buttercream for the cake filling. Place second layer on top of first layer, and frost top and sides of cake completely with buttercream frosting. Decorate as desired.

(Since I did white roses on top of my cake, when I made the buttercream frosting, I actually combined and beat all the ingredients except for the chocolate and the cocoa powder with the mixer, set aside about a cup of the white frosting, then added the other ingredients and beat it with the mixer.)

Making buttercream roses

How to decorate a ninja cake: a lesson on pattern transfer

I took the Wilton cake basics class this past March at my local Michael's (Hobby Lobby has them as well), and it was really fun. The first course is great for people who want to learn the basics of cake decorating. You learn how to do do stuff like icing a cake, borders, drop flowers, and pattern transfer, plus more. My friend Evy and I decided that, while we already knew how to make delicious cakes, making pretty, delicious cakes has its advantages as well.

The first cake I made for the course was Jake's birthday cake. Now, before I share a picture, let me just defend myself by saying that first of all, I really wanted to incorporate everything we had learned so far into making the cake, and also, it was very close to Easter, and spring, so I was in a very pastel-y mood.

Paige, my roommate, immediately started laughing, and making fun of me, saying it looked like a baby shower cake someone would have given Jake's mother 19-and-a-half years ago, and that she could not believe I made that cake for him.

However, once Jake cut the cake, and everyone had a slice and determined it was delicious, they got over it.

Meanwhile, look at all the different techniques! Tip 5 pastel blue polka-dot circles,tip 2D star drop flowers, the green star border around the bottom of the cake, the shell border around the top, and the yellow and green "heart" on the top of the cake. (Actually, the heart was supposed to be three balloons; if you look at just the yellow portion, you can see how it's supposed to be a balloon, right? Right?)

Anyway, what I want to talk about here is a technique called pattern transfer. It involves finding an image or pattern that you want to use, tracing it with clear piping gel from a decorating bag on parchment paper, then inverting the parchment paper with piping gel onto an iced cake, causing the piping gel pattern to appear on the cake.

So, one day in April, I decided that I wanted to make a ninja cake. A cake with a ninja on it, because what would be more epic than that? I started by looking for a ninja picture on the internet, and then printed it out.

After that, I baked and iced my cake with buttercream frosting (I used the recipe given to be from my cake decorating instructor, which can also be found on the Wilton website). Then, I fitted a plastic decorating bag with a coupler and tip 1 (though tip 3 would also be fine), and filled it with a small amount of clear piping gel. I put a sheet of parchment paper (wax paper is fine, they are the same to me) over my ninja pattern, and traced it with the piping gel. Then, I placed the parchment paper, gel side down, onto the top of my iced cake, and smoothed it down with my hands, tracing the pattern with my finger to make sure the gel visibly sticks to the cake. I then slowly peeled off the parchment paper, making sure that my ninja pattern did transfer onto the cake. I squeezed the rest of the piping gel from the bag back into the container, so it could be reused for another time.

Then I used a decorating bag, filled with black icing and fitted with a coupler and star tip, to outline the gel ninja pattern.

Then, using the star tip, I filled in the ninja outline. And then I used a tip 1 and orange buttercream icing to outline the sword so it looked like it was glowing. What kind of ninja wouldn't have a glowing sword?

At this point, it was very late at night. Between baking and icing the original cake, making the black frosting (where I started with chocolate, then painstakingly mixed in black black gel icing color until it finally turned black), and my usual ADD, I had already spent a few hours on this cake, and it was almost 1 AM. Anyway, it was at this point I was going to "color in" the ninja's face... only, the closest thing I had to a skin-tone icing color was a lemon yellow, and, according to Paige, I could not use that unless I wanted to look like the most racist person in the world (ha ha). So, then Paige decided that I should make the ninja a zombie ninja, and it was late enough and I was tired enough to actually go with that idea.

Of course I had to label it "zombie ninja," because otherwise, I'm pretty sure no one else would have any idea what it was supposed to be.

I also added a blue shell border around the bottom of the cake, and then decided I had leftover green icing and that the obvious solution to using this up was to play with my new leaf tip.

In that last picture, he actually looks a lot like a zombie in scuba gear, don't you think? Scuba-diving zombie? I'm guessing the ocean blue icing and the random plants help that image.

I have a Ninjacake album uploaded on facebook, if you're interested in seeing more pictures, captions included.


Mira

I have my kitchen stuff back... plus more!

So Paige moved into our apartment on Sunday, and as you may have heard, she had been holding all my kitchen stuff hostage in her storage unit. A week without pots and pans seems so much longer than just a week. Either way, I am quite thankful to be able to make the simplest spaghetti again.

Yesterday, Heather and I went to Ross to go shopping for dresses and stuff. Somehow, we ended up in the kitchen stuff aisle, as always. Heather's purchases included a colander, some pie plates and a square baking pan, and I, well, just about raided the aisle. There are so many kitchen gadgets available these days that you wouldn't believe are actually, well, things that people have invented. A super-nifty flour sifter, for one. Really adorable, tiny strainers, which I suppose can be used for berries and other small fruits (even though larger, less adorable but more useful strainers also work for tiny things, but, shh). A strawberry container that looked like a giant strawberry! And there was a whole set of adorable egg things that were shaped like eggs with eyes and beaks and cuteness, including an egg flipper? (It was really just a very egg-shaped spatula-like apparatus, with the same adorable egg figure on it.) The only thing stopping me from buying every (reasonably priced) item in that aisle was, well, having to justify my purchases to Jake, and I didn't feel like being up to more scrutiny than necessary.

Anyway, I did leave with an adorable t-shirt, in addition to the round and square cake pans, wooden spoon set, and new measuring cups.

Next time I intend to go shopping for sunny sundresses, strappy sandals and the like, I may go to a store that does not include a kitchen stuff aisle. I tend to get lost in those places.

I just found The Best Thing Ever.

So, I have been contemplating baking my own wedding cake. I feel like, in the end, it will be much cheaper, and much more delicious than one baked by, well, someone who is not me. Professional wedding cake bakers don't do a lousy job of baking, necessarily, but I find that, since they may do several cakes in a week, they make their cakes somewhat ahead-of-time, so by wedding day, they may look pretty, but be rather dry. And a lot of them use shortening in their frostings rather than butter! *gasp* While shortening, a solid at room temperature with its high melting point, has its advantages in, say, hot weather (where butter would just melt, causing your cake to, well, melt and droop), buttercream with butter just tastes a whole lot better. If your wedding is indoors (in a banquet hall, in a hotel, an air-conditioned venue, etc.), your cake should be fine.

Anyway, I just found The Best Thing Ever on the Wilton website, while I was just browsing for the heck of it, because the internet in my apartment just started sucking really hard, and won't let me watch videos.

I feel like this is every chocolate-obsessed bride's dream, who wants to send her wedding reception guests into a chocolate coma. Not to mention, it's chocolate, covered in chocolate, with more chocolate on top. How can you go wrong?

I feel like I could totally pull this off, too. I may alter the amount of cake, but the design is pretty, requires minimal effort, and is flexible enough to incorporate any new ideas, like, oh, chocolate-covered strawberries, perhaps? I'm seeing this as chocolate layer cake filled with raspberry jam and chocolate ganache, stacked with the solid chocolate discs, and decorated with the truffles, and perhaps some fresh raspberries or chocolate-covered strawberries? The possibilities are really there.

The other great thing about this cake is that a lot of it can be done ahead of time. The chocolate discs and the truffles can all be made days (or weeks?) in advance and stored in the freezer. And, since the truffles are the main decorations, with just an icing comb used to decorate the sides of each cake/tier, there's no piping detail to worry about. It seems that the main time investment is making the truffles, (which are also the main decorations) which, as I said, can be done well ahead of time. Just get to the reception site, and frost, stack, decorate, and, you have the most chocolatey chocolate wedding cake ever.

Also, some people might say that a chocolate cake is not appropriate for a wedding. While even I at first thought that there wasn't going to make a chocolate cake as elegant as a white cake, this idea is a perfect example of how chocolate covered in chocolate with more chocolate on top can look absolutely elegant, and still be, well, chocolate.

Not to mention, it's your wedding, and you can do what you want to.

Mira

First Blog Post (And a Recipe for Stir-Fried Ramen)

Hi! My name is Mira, and this is my cooking/baking/recipe blog. I have written a couple of blogs in the past (none of them notable, so don't worry about them), and since my main hobbies are cooking, baking and cake decorating, I thought I would dedicate a blog to just that.


It's summer, so I'm home right now. Meaning, I'm not allowed to cook because my mother does not like me "making a mess of her kitchen." But that's okay, because this meant I could just sit around and be lazy for the couple of weeks I spent here. I'm going back to school on the 20th to do research in the chemistry department for the summer. So, until then, I'm just chilling at home, not really doing much of anything.


Future posts will likely include pictures, recipes and overall cooking and baking suggestions. For now, I'm just sitting around at home, blogging out of boredom.


When I lived at home (basically, before college) I would occasionally help my mom cook, but for the most part, she found it more efficient to just work by herself. I theoretically knew how to make a number of dishes, but I would mostly just do my homework at the kitchen counter, and watch. Occasionally I would make a pot of spaghetti, or my mother would ask me to put a pot of rice on the stove (no rice cooker here! In fact, I am still not skilled at using a rice cooker), but I rarely did much "real" cooking.


I first started really cooking my sophomore year of college. I had a small apartment with a kitchenette-type thing (really tiny, but included an oven and stove and sink and basic kitcheny stuff for cooking). This was also the year I decided, "eh, meal plan. Dining hall food. I know! I can totally cook my own food, and forgo a meal plan altogether! It would save money, and my food would totally be better anyway!"

My parents were a little skeptical, but in the end, they (for once) let me do what I wanted. So, they sent me off to school the next fall with a few pots and pans, as well as boxes of spaghetti and a bag of Basmati rice, confident that I knew at least how to cook that much. My roommate, Emily, also had a decent amount of cooking skill (more than me and my spaghetti), and the two of us managed to survive the year without starving to death.


Some of our staples included: stir-fried ramen noodles, boxed macaroni and cheese with canned corn, and pasta (our staple) with either red Ragu sauce-from-a-jar or Emily's alfredo sauce. Oh, and grilled cheese sandwiches. Grilled cheese is your friend.


I actually learned most of my cooking and baking basics from Emily that year. She taught me how to crack an egg (no, seriously! I went from not knowing how to crack an egg to practically having my own bakery in my kitchenette in a mere semester!), how to make alfredo sauce, how to use an electric mixer (the one she ended up losing by taking it home for break, then not being able to find it when coming back to school) without making a colossal mess and covering the kitchenette in chocolate cake batter, and several other basics.


So, now that I have rambled quite a lot about my cooking history, I may as well share a recipe.


Mira and Emily's Stir-Fried Ramen Noodles


Makes 2 servings


2 "bricks" (packs) ramen noodles
Oil (Olive, Canola, Vegetable... whatever your general preference is)
1/2 cup frozen peas and carrots (maybe a little more or less, depending on how much you like your vegetables)
1/4 onion
2 cloves garlic
2 eggs
Salt
Black pepper
Soy sauce
Sriracha Hot Chili Sauce (optional - and use very carefully in moderation! This stuff is spicy.)


Boil the ramen with included seasoning packet in a pot for a few minutes, until almost done, but not quite done. (If it's too well-cooked, it will just turn into mush when you attempt to stir-fry it.) Alternatively, cook in microwave for 2-3 minutes, until not quite done. Strain out liquid. Set aside.

Scramble eggs in pan with a little oil. Season with salt and pepper. Set aside.

Peel, crush and mince the garlic. Mince the onion. Sauté garlic and onion with some oil in pan on stove.

Add frozen peas and carrots, and cook until they are not frozen.

Add cooked ramen noodles and stir, adding a little more oil to the pan if necessary. Add scrambled eggs. Add some pepper. Take off heat and add soy sauce and hot sauce to taste.


Other seasonings you can use if you happen to have them in your pantry and like them: poultry seasoning (chicken powder), seasoning salt, garlic powder (if you are too lazy to use actual garlic cloves), crushed red pepper, ginger, stir-fry sauce. If you are really ambitious, you can even add other vegetables.

Eat noodles (and vegetables, no matter how much you dislike them). Attempt to eat with chopsticks to make yourself feel Asian. Eventually give up and settle for fork, since that means you are more likely to actually get the food into your mouth.

Enjoy!


Mira




P.S. If you click on the title to this blog entry, you will be taken to the page where I originally posted the Stir-Fried Ramen recipe (essentially, my other blog).