Tuesday, July 19, 2011

Toothpick Cake for Reid's birthday

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Ok, so my husband's family makes this cake they call "toothpick cake."  It's kind of famous within their family.  Reid's grandmother came up with it.  It's a boxed mix chocolate cake with a homemade cooked caramel icing.  It really is quite fabulous.  The reason it's called toothpick cake is because she couldn't keep the gooey icing from sliding off the cake and taking the top layer with it.  So she stuck toothpicks in it to hold it all together.  Reid's mom also makes the family toothpick cake.  Growing up, they had no air conditioning in their house and with Reid's birthday in July, she literally had to sit in the fridge with the door open to frost it so it didn't melt off as she was doing it.   Reid loved this cake as a kid because it was fun to him to pick out the toothpicks.  Ah, the things that little kids find amusing!  As an adult he still loves it because it tastes so good.

So anyhoo, one of the first birthdays we spent as a married couple Reid asked me if I would make him toothpick cake.  So I called his mom to get the recipe.  I immediately saw the problem- they made the caramel icing with margerine instead of butter.  No wonder it was so runny!  So I made my first batch with butter and it was a solid (pun totally intended) success.  I have made this for him every year since wtih an exception here and there, like the year I started getting so many requests for my oreo cake.  He had to have an oreo cake that year.  But we are back to basics once again and all is well in Birthdaycakeland.

But you know me- I can't make the dreaded BOXED MIX CAKE that he grew up with.  I have a from-scratch cake that I now make.  And this cake has a story too.  Last year my daughter brought home a book from the school library called The Bake Shop Ghost.  It's about a ghost that lived in a bakery and wanted a chocolate cake.  Tallulah asked me if we could make a chocolate cake from scratch.  Heck yeah we can!

Cake inspiration #1: Reid's grandmother (Nana).  Can you see her buried under those great-grandchildren?
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Cake inspiration #2
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First the cake...

Get out your ingredients.
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Spray and line your pans with parchment.
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Melt your chocolate and butter over a very low heat.  Make sure you use good-quality chocolate.  The recipe states that you can use bittersweet or semi sweet.  I just LOVE that dark chocolate flavor.  I recommend Ghirardelli 60% chocolate chips.  They are fab.  If you prefer it a bit sweeter, then use semi sweet.
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Mix your dry ingredients in your mixer.
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Beat your eggs like they owe you money.  Not really- just beat them lightly.
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Once your chocolate looks like this, it's done.  It shouldn't even be really hot, just a little warm.  If it's too hot, let it cool a bit or you'll end up with scrambled eggs in your batter.
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Mix water, vanilla and eggs together then pour into dry ingredients.
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Wisk it all together.
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Pour into prepared pans.
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While the cake bakes, watch your husband and kids play the new Mario sports video game he got for his birthday.  Serioulsy, I don't know who is more obsessed with the Wii- Reid or the kids!!!
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Looks done to me!!!
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Caramel icing
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Melt butter in a small saucepan.  Add brown sugar and milk.  Boil gently while stirring.
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Let sugar mixture cool for 10 minutes.   Look at how dark and yummy it looks!
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Blend into powdered sugar.
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Beat until smooth.
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Trim the rounded part off the top of one cake and lay it cut side down.  I always put waxed paper down on the cake plate so I don't slop all over it.
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Spread frosting on bottom layer.
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Put top layer on, flat side down (don't trim this one unless you prefer a perfectly smooth, flat top).  Frost the sides.  Just spackle it on.  This frosting gets firm quickly.  Well, not FIRM.  It's... I don't even know how to describe it.  It's still creamy even when it's dry but it just sets up really fast.  It's magical.
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Glop on the top layer.  Try not to drool.  The smell of the warm buttery caramel is still in the air and right under your nose.
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It's impossible to make this a pretty cake unless you can work very fast.  To me it makes no difference.  At least not with this cake.  The flavor makes up for the non-smoothness.
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When you discover your candle supply is low, dig into your daughter's leftover candles.  Hubby won't mind as long as THIS cake is under them.
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Birthday person gets to choose their cake plate first.  Then everyone else gets to pick.
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Make a wish!
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Plain vanilla ice cream is the perfect match for this sweet, rich, dense cake.
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I didn't think to make perfect, clean slices for photos.  But just look at it's chocolately goodness staring at you!!!!!  I swear it is moist and awesome.  My horrible camera flash washes everything out.
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Yes, yesterday it was all about Reid.  But now that nonsense is over, let's get back to ME.
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The men of Winterfell approve of this entry.
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Caramel Icing

2/3 c. butter
1 c. brown sugar (dark looks best but light works just as well)
1/2 c. milk
1 pound powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla

Melt butter in pan.
Add sugar and milk, bring to boil.
Stir constantly while boiling gently for 5 minutes.
Cool for 10 minutes.
Blend in powdered sugar and vanilla.  Beat until smooth.




Sunday, July 17, 2011

Ice Cream Cone Cupcakes made w/ White Velvet Cake

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White velvet is becoming my most-requested cake/cupcake recipe.  Even though I didn't create the recipe, I probably shouldn't share it... but who am I kidding?  You know you'd rather ask me to bring this to your party than make it yourself!  ;)
In addition to the corndog cookies I mentioned in an earlier post, I also brought cupcakes to our block party.  BUT, just like I couldn't "just" bring cookies, I had to make them look like something else.  I also wanted to bring cupcakes that looked like something else.  And just like the corndog cookie, I got this idea from somewhere in the internet world.  I had downloaded the photos to my desktop but didn't save the link.  So not my original idea but I can't credit the one to came up with it because I don't know who it was.

I can't believe I'm sharing these photos because this was kind of a Cupcake Fail.  It was so fucking hot in my kitchen (despite the fact that the rest of the house was a comfortable 72 degrees) and the buttercream icing kept melting.  I'd stick it in the freezer for a few minutes but then it would get too hard to pipe out so I'd have to set it out, then it would start to melt again.  Ugh.  THEN, I noticed when I was decorating that some of the cucake bottoms were burned.  Just the bottoms.  I never would have noticed if I hadn't put a dot of icing on the bottom to "glue" them to the cake board.  The rest of the cupcake was totally fine.  Tops were not dry (ok maybe a teeny bit dry) and didn't taste burnt.  I'm guessing one of my cupcake pans was touching the side of the oven.  (Note to all of you: this is why you aren't supposed to let your pans touch the side of the oven).

But I spent so much time on these damn cupcakes THERE WAS NO WAY I WASN'T BRINGING THEM!!!!!!!!!!  Deal with it!!!!!!!  Ah so much cupcake rage going on here...  Did I mention that we had to get up at 5am this same morning to drive all the way out to Munster for my daughter's swim meet????  Then drive aaaaaaall the way back home so I could put all this together?
Ok, enough excuses.  Let's get to the photos and recipe.

Bake your cupcakes and let them cool.  You could use your favorite flavor of cupcakes for this idea.  I chose the white velvet because I thought it would look better with a white base.

I made a buttercream icing and divided it into 3 bowls.  I tinted two of them to look like strawberry and mint choc chip.

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By now they're all melting and gloppy.  The green was really too melty.  But eh, still kind of cute.  At this point, I just threw frosting on the rest of the cupcakes without decorating.
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Corndog Cookies

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Nothing says summer fun food like a corndog!   Even if it's a fake corndog.  Last night for our annual summer block party, I made some corndog cookies on a stick.   I used my favorite sugar cookie recipe.  I never used to like sugar cookies.  Despite their name, they are usually kind of bitter and they just don't taste good unless you put a ton of gloppy icing on them.  Not that I don't love gloppy icing, but if you NEED gloppy icing to eat something, it's probably not worth eating.  The texture of these is fabulous too.  They're soft-ish cookies unlike the normal crisp and tasteless sugar cookie.  AND, they do not spread when you bake them!  If you make a star or Christmas tree shape, they don't bake into these weird, round Patrick Starfish shapes.  So this recpie is also perfect for cutouts for holiday cookies.

After you make the dough you can roll it out then cut it into your favorite shapes.  I didn't have a cutter for this kind of cookie so I took a corndog out of the freezer, set it down on a piece of cardboard and traced it.  I cut that out and used it as a template.  I set it on top of the rolled out dough, used a sharp knife to cut it out and placed them on a cookie sheet.  I slid popsicle sticks into them then baked for about 8 minutes.  I made them on the thick side so it took a few extra minutes.

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See that grey thing in the lower right corner- that's my corndog template.   High-tech, eh?

Bake until juuuuuuust a smidgen golden around the edges.  Don't overbake or you'll get a nasty crisp cookie.
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Decorate using a "cookie decorating" icing so you get that shiny look.  You could used canned or a regular buttercream but you won't get the same look.  I tried a decorating recipe years ago that had that Wilton dried egg white meringue (sp?) stuff and it was awful.  So I shied away from ever using decorating icing but then found this kind of icing recipe recently.  It uses cornsyrup and powdered sugar.  And that's what makes it shiny and tasty too!  Very easy to make, very easy to work with.  There are a ton of these recipes out there.  I like this one because it doesn't use almond extract.  I got it from a girl on a LJ baking community that I'm in.

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I found the paper hot dog holders at Kroger last week on clearance in the summer/picnic section.  I think I got them for like $1/package.

My taste-testers loved them!  They were a hit at the party too.
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Don't even let Tanner's face fool you.  He got a cookie too.  He was just mad that he ate his before I even had a chance to pick up my camera.



The Best Ever Sugar Cookie Recipe

3 Cups sifted all-purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 c. white sugar
1 c. butter
1 egg, lightly beaten
3 tbsp cream (I never have cream except around the holidays so I usually sub. skim milk for this)
1 tsp vanilla (which means 1 tbsp for me but I ALWAYS use lots of extra)

1. Preheat oven to 400

2. Over large bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, salt and sugar. (NOTE: I did this the first time I made these cookies.  Later I broke my sifter so the next time I made them I just used a whisk to blend the dry ingredients together and the cookies came out the exact same texture so the sifting is entirely up to you).

3. Cut in butter and blend with pastry blender OR pulse in food processor until mixture resembles cornmeal.  Stir in egg, cream and vanilla.  Blend well.  Dough may be chilled if it is sticky.

4. On floured surface, roll out dough to desired thickness.  Cut into shapes and transfer to cookie sheet.

5. Bake for 6-8 minutes or until just barely golden around the edges.


Sugar cookie decorating icing

1 c. powdered sugar
1 tbsp milk
1 drop lemon juice
1 tbsp light corn syrup

Combine powdered sugar corn syrup, milk and lemon juice in a bowl.
Divide the icing into different bowls and add your gel coloring (don't use the liquid food coloring drops).
You can make it a bit thicker for outlining by tossing in a bit more powdered sugar or make it thinner for filling in larger areas inside the outlies by adding more milk- BUT just a drop at a time.  This gets thin very easily.

Sunday, July 10, 2011

Stacie's Hoosier Caviar

Ok, so this dish is originally called "Texas Caviar" but I got the recipe from my friend Stacie and she's from Indiana so I have always called it Stacie's Hoosier Caviar.  Deal with it!

This is Stacie.  She is posing with cheese at a huge gas station on the way back from a girls-only weekend getaway.  We went on a brewery tour and saw a No Doubt concert on this trip.  That is all I can tell you.  The rest is top secret and if I give you any more information, I will have to kill you.
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I love how this dip/relish/salsa/salad can be adjusted to any taste.  You can add more or tone down any ingredient.  I don't even follow a particular recipe.  I just start chopping the ingredients.  I have shared this recipe with many people.  Everyone who tries it asks for it!

Here are the players in this game.  The tomatoes (already chopped and in the bowl) are roma tomatoes.  First time I tried using them instead of the regular big slicing tomatoes.  I think i made a good choice!  Also, I have always used green peppers in this dish, but I just bought a bunch of red peppers and I wanted to use them so I diced up two.  They added a bit of sweetness that was really good!  Also added cilantro, a red onion that I minced up in teeny tiny pieces, green onions, a can of black eyed peas drained and rinsed and Kraft Zesty Italian dressing.
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Oopsie- garlic and jalapenos forgot to get in the family photo above.  I minced 3 garlic cloves and about 2 1/2 jalapenos.  You can use fresh jalapenos, but I loooove the jarred jalapenos.  They're still spicy but they have that vinegary taste I love.  Nom nom.  But don't use anything other than fresh garlic!
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Chopping up the cliantro is always my least favorite part of this recipe.  After you wash it, the leaves stick to your hands no matter how dry you try to get it.  And it takes forever because I pick all the individual leaves off so there are NO stem pieces.
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Toss everything in a large bowl to mix.  Hee-hee, I don't normally line everything up.  This is strictly a photo-shoot thing.
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Add the dressing.  This is where Stacie and I are different.  I used half of one bottle- just enough to coat everything and give it a bit of zip.  If I remember correctly she uses the whole bottle, maybe more?  You can adjust to your own taste!
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Isn't that gorgeous???  Sooooo fresh and crunchy and good!!!
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You can eat it like a salsa with some chips, spoon it on grilled chicken or fish (sooooo good on grilled meat!!!) or my favorite way- put some in a bowl and eat it with a fork like a salad.
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Store in a glass container so you can look at it every time the fridge is open.
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Here Stacie and I are vandalizing our friend's car while she was in the bathroom at a rest stop on the above-mentioned road trip.  That's me on the left with the amazing hair cape.
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The "recipe" for Stacie's Hoosier Caviar

tomatoes (this time I used 8 roma tomatoes), seeded and diced
green peppers (but this time I used 2 red bell peppers), seeded and diced
red onion, chopped into tiny bits
green onions, white and green parts, diced
black eyed peas, 1 or 2 cans rinsed and drained
jalapeƱos, 2 or 3 minced
garlic, minced
cilantro, large handful, minced
Kraft Zesty Italian dressing

Chop up everything into small bits.  Toss it together in a large bowl with dressing.  Start off with a small amount and adjust to your liking.