Mobile Blogging

I'm blogging from my cell phone, so hopefully everything goes smoothly. I just remembered not 5 minutes ago that the deadline for the Iron Cupcake Challenge was today! So, as I'm sure you've already realized, I did not get around to this challenge. :( however, I have been baking recently. Last weekend, of course, I made a cake for my cousin (with James' and Adam's help) and this weekend I'm in the process of making my grandma's cake. As soon as I have access to my computer again, I'll post both of those delectable creations. And maybe I'll make the wine cupcakes just for fun later. :)

Baking with Boys

 

Ah, it's always an adventure when I invite my little brothers (aged 10 and 5) to bake with me.

The occasion? Our cousin Art's birthday is on Monday.  I can't remember how old he'll be, mid-twenties I'm guessing considering he's a recent college graduate.  Anyway, my brothers absolutely love it when he comes to visit (he lives in Florida) because they love to talk about alien movies and army men toys and computer games and all that other cool guy stuff that their older sisters care nothing about.

I'm not sure who suggested that I make him a cake for his birthday (Mom? Grandpa? I don't know), but I was happy to comply and thought that my brothers would enjoy helping too...

And they did love to help.  Adam decided to make a mission of it, and they brought in the Army Men toys (even this one) to serve as guards for our base, and Adam was Master Chief (which I think is a Halo reference) and/or the Cake Helping Ninja, depending on who asked.  James joined in on the fun, and since he's older, I gave him a few more tasks.  For example, I knew Adam could pour the sugar into the mixer, but James would be able to handle cracking four eggs.

Well, about that.  It turns out that he has an 80% success rate as far as egg-cracking goes.  Four out of the five eggs he cracked landed in the bowl.  The other egg?  It went splat all over the table top.  Never fear, we cleaned it up between ginormous fits of giggling and squealing "ewwww."  Like I said, it's an adventure.

The cake is in the oven right now, and tomorrow I'll decorate it.  Since we have family coming into town this weekend, there will be plenty of people to party it up on Monday (which is a holiday, of course).  I'm thinking about making a crocodile theme, since there are apparently plenty of gators down in Florida (we've heard many stories about a gator named Limb who, I believe, lives in a retition pond in front of Wal-Mart.)  Hopefully, my fondant-sculpting skills have not dryed out since the last time I used them.

Petit Fours- Not Again!

Yes, I'm attempting to create the elusive petit four again.  As you can all recall, I'm sure, from my last adventure into the world of tiny cakes, the fist attempt was pretty disasterous.  At least, if the crummy (and crumby) quick-pour fondant and lumpy cakes is any

However, this time around I'm taking things slow and easy.  I've got a really yummy butter cake recipe that I'm going to use (Yes, I know that sponge cake is preferred for these tiny treats, but sponge cake is a lot of work and butter cake is just a tad harder to mess up), and a new fondant recipe, simple syrup, and some filling, and some extra help.  [And I know this has absolutely nothing to do with petit fours, except that I found this recipe for fondant while I was looking up petit four recipes... anyway, it looks really good, and since I'm not having a lot of luck with the MMF, I'd like to try it.]

Hopefully this time around, things will be different...

Later that same day...

 

So they really didn't turn out that bad, did they?  After the cake cooled (it was a 9" x 13", using that butter cake recipe I mentioned earlier), I used some little cookie cutters that I've never used before.  The funny thing is, they were a summer set, with sea shells and flamingos and all, and I'm using them in the middle of winter. =]  I used the mini cutters: butterfly, heart, flower.  The heart was the easiest to coat, by the way.

Then I put all the little cut shapes in a container and I froze them.  (Don't worry, we ate all the cake scraps!)  I mixed up some "quick pour fondant" on the stove, and proceeded to ice the little cakes.

I used a piece of wax paper under a cooling rack, and took a few cakes out of the freezer at a time.  I slowly poured the fondant, with a spoon [I know! I forgot to use a squirt bottle], over each cake, to make sure that I covered the sides and all of that.  It's definitely a tedious process and a labor of love, but perhaps it will get easier the more I practice.  After all, this is only my second attempt.

I didn't fool with doing two layers, and putting a filling in between them, or covering them in simply syrup.  I know that's a good idea, and I probably should have, but I got lazy, and I know my family will eat them anyway. :-)  Speaking of lazy, by the time I got to the last few cakes, the fondant had really thickened (not sure why), and I was so tired of icing them, with the thin icing, so when it got to thick, I sorta just say "forget it" and blobbed the fondant all over.  It didn't look so bad, but not as nice as the first ones that I made.

So, now you know that if you are making petit fours, and you mess up, there is hope for you yet!  I've very pleased with this attempt, even if I didn't use filling, or syrup, or cute decorations (again, the lazy thing).  So now I'm off to my grandparent's house for a family get-together and we're going to eat all of the goodies!

 

(That's one of the blobby ones)

I knew it!

Last night, when I went to bed, I was thinking a lot about how much I wanted to bake.  It is the new year, after all, and I haven't done any new baking.  Not since the cookies, but those were last year's cookies.

So I was thinking about cupcakes.  And how much I really wanted to eat the chocolate ganache icing in my fridge, but how I knew that I needed to use it on a cake or cupcakes or something, and I can't just eat it straight out of the container.  However, I didn't want to make any cupcakes until I knew what the ICE challenge is.

The next thought that popped into my head was "I wonder what the January challenge will be?"  So I thought about it.  Something festive, probably... Or really interesting...  Something in the same vein as cranberries, chillis, cheese, etc.  Some of my thoughts for what the challenge should be include some interesting/weird spices, like anise, or curry, or cloves, or something.  Or maybe an exotic fruit, like dragon fruit.  I thought of all kind of ideas, including something worth ringing in the new year.  Like chamagne or wine.

Wine?

Exactly!  Just in this morning, the challenge theme for January is wine!  I don't know how I knew a day in advance, except that maybe I'm just a lucky guesser. :-)

I'm not really sure what I'm going to do for this challenge.  Especially considering that I doubt my mom wants me to use our wine in some cupcakes.  Even though the alcohol cooks out if it's in the actual batter.  And, by the way, how does alcohol affect the baking of a cupcake?  I've never used alcohol in my cooking/baking before.  And then there's the whole fact that I'm only 17, and the legal age to drink is 21.  Although I'm not really drinking, I'm just baking and eating (not drinking).  And it is for the new year and all that.

Anyway, I've got a lot to think about, and 22 days to think about it (the challenge closes on the 24th).  I hope I have time; January is going to be a very busy month!

Happy New Year, everyone!

(P.S. Thanks for voting for me @ No One Puts Cupcake in a Corner!  I appreciate it!)