Wednesday, September 28, 2011

False Black Forest Cake..THE WHITE FOREST!

I have let myself fall behind with my blogging. Shame, Sydney, shame on you. So be ready for a snowball of posts over the next few days!

One thing you should know about me is that I love short cuts. Not cheating, just faster ways of doing necessary tasks. One of those tasks being leaving the kitchen to walk to the grocery store to buy an ingredient I thought I had but actually didn't.
Some may think of it as lazy, but I prefer the term innovative. Using whatever I find lying in the fridge or pantry I can usually come up with a make-shift ingredient to make my recipe work!
My example from last week being Black Forest Cupcakes. I had the cupcakes all made and hollowed out for the filling when I realized that I had no cherries.....dundundun! No fears, I found some mixed berry jam in the fridge and decided that would be close enough to cherries for that particular recipe.


Taadaa! Filled the cupcakes with Jam! And they didn't really taste like Black Forest...but they were pretty close. So I have decided to create my own cake flavour: WHITE FOREST! haha, I think that may be copyrighted...but oh well!


Yum, right? Yes, very much so! I enjoyed  them quite a bit.
So if you're ever in a pinch, I give you full permission to use my idea of White Forest Cupcakes. And I promise not to sue you for stealing my idea. :)

Have a great evening,
Sydney

Saturday, September 24, 2011

By "tomorrow" I actually meant almost a week later...

I cannot believe I forgot to post my chocolate cake recipe! I got so super busy this past week that it totally slipped my mind.
But no worries, here it is now, as good as ever :)

Quick-Mix Chocolate Cake
  • 1 1/2 cups white flour
  • 1 cup white sugar
  • 1/4 cup cocoa powder
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla
  • 1 cup water
  • 1/3 cup oil
  • 1/4 cup vinegar
*Pre-heat oven to 350°F
*Throw everything in one big bowl and mix with an electric mixer on high until all the little lumps are gone.
*Pour in an 8x8" pan or into a lined cupcake pan.
*Bake for 25 minutes(cake) or 19 minutes for cupcakes.

Taadaa! There you have it....the most delicious and crazy easy chocolate cake recipe you will ever find!
Credit goes to my great grandmother for this recipe!

Don't know what to do this weekend? Why not bake me a cake? :)
Juuuust kidding.....or maybe not!
Adios!

Sydney

Tuesday, September 20, 2011

For all you Musicians out there

LaaaLaaaaaaaaLAAAAAAAA!
Yup, that's about all the musical talent I have. It's quite sad actually but I'm pretty sure my musical talent is decreasing as I get older. Not that I was ever the next Beethoven or Mozart...but I was decent on the piano and the trumpet. And now....well, I just stay away from all things musical!
.....With the exception of cupcakes of course. :)


Now just for the record, I think I spent more time googling what each instrument looks like than I did actually making them! I am 100% "type A" personality!

I just used marshmallow fondant....and colored it accordingly. Oh, well we're on this topic I shall ask for some advice! I used black Wilton gel color for the black and it ended up tasting really gross. I had to use a fair amount in order to actually make the fondant black not gray...Any suggestions for achieving a black without getting the food coloring taste?


At least there were only small amounts of the black so they cupcakes still tasted good!
Well.....that's all the time I have for today, folks. I shall now go drink tea and sit in my hot tub!
Happy Rainy Day to You!
-Sydney <3

Ps. Tomorrow I'll post my recipe for no-fail Chocolate Cake! :)



Monday, September 12, 2011

A swirl here; a swoosh there

There's nothing I love more than making cakes for family events. So this past Saturday when it was my parent's 23rd wedding anniversary I was more than happy to make a cake for the celebration!

My mom is a crazy chocoholic, so what would she like more than chocolate cake? Absolutely nothing. My dad on the other hand, eats anything you put in front of him. But I think I found a perfect combination for them with a Black Forest Cake.


So my photography skills may be lacking, but besides that I think it looks pretty good! I will admit to being very impatient when it comes to cake decorating. When I read to put the cake in the fridge for an hour I usually do it for twenty minutes...but I'm learning to follow instructions! I really am!

Also, a word of advice for crumb coating cakes: FREEZER! After you take the cake out of the pan, pop it in the freezer for fifteen-ish minutes and BAM! Your cake is a dream to ice!

Chocolate Chip borders are faaar easier than piping borders!

As far as piping the cake, I used my Wilton #2, 3, and 4 tips for different line thicknesses. I stuck with a basic buttercream because I love piping with buttercream, if you wanted lines with sharper edges I would suggest Royal Icing though.



Oh, and this cake carrier that is pictured above (well that's actually just the lid for it, but anyways...) is my favorite for displaying cakes! It's from Wal-Mart and it was like $16...you should go buy one because it's super awesome! Plus it also doubles as a punch bowl...nifty, right?

Well, have a splendid week and I shall be back soon :)
Sydney

Tuesday, September 06, 2011

Can I have s'more please?

If you're looking for the easiest cupcake frosting, this will be the last place you need to look.

I was on my way to a friend's house for a fire yesterday and I decided it would only be appropriate to bring cupcakes (a very common decision for me!). But what kind of cupcakes do you bring to a fire? One word: MARSHMALLOWS!

This is soooo simple. You could have absolutely zero baking talent and make these look amazing! Plus, they take about six minutes to decorate!

  1. Make any kind of cupcake you want. (I went with Chocolate because chocolate and marshmallow sounded like a good combination to me!)
  2. Bake the cupcakes for a minute or so less than you would normally (to avoid over-baking later on)
  3. Remove the pan from the oven and place a marshmallow on top of each cupcake.
  4. Put them bake in the oven for 3-4 minutes, until the marshmallows start to look soft.
  5. Take the cupcakes out of the oven again, this time pushing the marshmallow down to cover the top of the cupcake.
And there you have it! The easiest cupcake frosting I've ever made! If you want to add a more "firey" feel to the marshmallow frosting, broil them in the oven for a minute or so, until the tops look golden brown.

I, for one, don't like s'mores. But top a chocolate cupcake with a golden brown marshmallow and this girl is happy! I imagine these would taste delicious made with a graham wafer crust and topped with some shaved chocolate


The perfect cupcakes to munch on while sitting around a fire :)

My variation of  a snowman: the Cupcake Man :)

Happy Back to School, Everyone!
Sydney

Sunday, September 04, 2011

❀ Flower Power ❀

Summer is coming to an end...and that means the flowers are starting to die and the plants are no longer green. Now I won't pretend to enjoy gardening, but I do enjoy looking at all the different flowers in the garden. So in one last attempt to keep summer around for a bit longer, I decided to make some flower cupcakes.

I'm not the best at Royal Icing Flowers but I gave it my all, and I think they came out decently.


I love how the luster dust looks! I tried for so long to find some and I finally did! If you're looking, I got mine at Michael's in Winnipeg.

We also made some changes in our household yesterday! We picked up Brenda from the airport and she'll be living with us for the next ten months! :)

Apparently I can't make it the size I want, so sorry if you can't read them!
Taadaa! Welcome here, Brenda!
It's off to work for me later today. And hopefully some more summer cupcakes tomorrow!
Take care,
Sydney

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