Birthday Cupcakes from Crumbs

My birthday was a couple of days ago and one of the birthday presents I received tonight when I got home from work was a package on my doorstep from my old friend and college roommate, Caroline.  Caroline has a history of giving not only awesome presents but also creative ones that are usually things I wouldn't think of buying for myself or can't justify buying just for myself.  Which makes them the perfect presents, right?  This time around, it was a package of cupcakes from Crumbs Bakeshop in New York.  I had heard of Crumbs before but have never visited their bakery or tried anything from it.  Once again, perfect present. 

The package contained 6 good-sized cupcakes and Caroline had even sent me cupcake pedestals from Olive & Cocoa so I could display these properly.  I plan to try one a night until they're gone.  In the meantime, I'm packaging them into ziploc freezer bags (one cupcake to a freezer bag - they're that big) and putting them into the freezer for safe keeping.  Until it's their turn.  Pictures speak a thousand words so I will let the cupcakes speak for themselves.  Thanks, Caroline!

The beautiful box

A look inside the box - the even more beautiful contents

Cookies n Creme Cupcake

Peanut Butter Cup Cupcake

Chocolate (I assume) or a Black & White

Upscale cupcake version of a Hostess cupcake

Red Velvet, always a favorite

Not sure - Vanilla maybe?

Mocha Pudding Cake

Mocha Pudding Cake - made July 16, 2011 from The Great Book of Chocolate by David Lebovitz (book #140)

At last I'm in the 140s for my baking challenge.  For some reason it felt like I was in the 130s forever, trying to bake through all my current baking books.  I'm almost at the point where I can count the remaining baking books I have left and know how much farther I have to go before I've tried a recipe from every cookbook I own.  Almost.

I love pudding cakes because they're so easy to make and almost by definition are moist and rich.  Mix up the cake batter, sprinkle with cocoa and sugar, pour the liquid on top and bake.  It's hard to dry out a pudding cake unless you really don't pay attention and leave it in the oven too long.  Plus, you're supposed to eat it warm with ice cream - bonus.

For the barbecue I went to last weekend (same as what the cupcakes were for), I threw this together.  Normally you'd serve pudding cake warm from the oven but since I was going to someone else's house, I had to make this ahead of time in my own kitchen and I just warmed it up before serving with vanilla ice cream once I was at the barbecue.  I had done a straight chocolate version of a pudding cake before but this differed because instead of pouring water over the top, you poured a cup of coffee.  Hence the "mocha" in the name.

You really do want to time this one as you can't rely completely on the toothpick test since the center is supposed to be "wet".  You can tell it's done when a toothpick inserted at the edges comes out with moist crumbs while the middle is still somewhat jiggly.  I baked mine exactly 25 minutes and it was done at the edges and definitely still jiggly in the middle.  I warmed it up slightly when I was at the barbecue before I served it.  The taste was good although you couldn't taste the coffee part as strongly as I had expected.  But next time, I would bake it for a little longer, maybe another 5-7 minutes as the middle was definitely far more liquid batter than I wanted and I would've preferred more cake.  The pudding part seemed more like batter than liquid fudge. 

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 ½ cups sugar

6 tablespoons plus ¼ cup unsweetened cocoa powder, natural or Dutch process

1 teaspoon baking powder

½ teaspoon salt

2 large eggs, at room temperature
2 tablespoons butter, melted

½ cup milk

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 cup hot, very strong, great-quality brewed coffee

1.   Adjust the rack to the center of the oven and preheat to 350⁰F.  Butter an 8-inch square cake pan.

2.   Sift together the flour, 1 cup of the sugar, the 6 tablespoons cocoa, baking powder and salt.

3.   In a medium bowl, mix together the eggs, melted butter, milk and vanilla.

4.   Stir the liquid ingredients into the dry ingredients until just combined.

5.   Spread the batter into the prepared pan.

6.   Mix together the remaining ½ cup sugar and the ¼ cup cocoa powder and sprinkle evenly over the top.  Pour the hot coffee over the cake batter, then bake for 25 minutes, until it appears just set around the edges yet still jiggly in the center.

Silver Cake

Silver Cake - made July 16, 2011 from Old-Fashioned Baking Book by Jim Fobel (book #139)

I needed vanilla cupcakes to take to a barbecue this weekend so I converted this recipe for a 2-layer, 9-inch cake into 22 cupcakes.  It uses only egg whites rather than whole eggs so it's a bit lighter than the norm.  I can't pretend it's healthy though since you've still got the butter, sugar and flour in it.  For the frosting, I just beat a stick of butter until it was soft, added a couple cups of powdered sugar and enough milk to make it spreadable.  Plus a teaspoon or two of vanilla extract.  I didn't measure anything exactly since frosting can be pretty forgiving as long as you get it to the right consistency.  This was a basic vanilla cupcake.  I wouldn't say they were the best cupcakes I've ever made but I'm also sometimes cupcake impaired since I either never bake them long enough or bake them a minute past done.  Cupcakes dry out easily so they're best consumed the day they're made. This was okay but I'm not sure I would make this again and would probably got for a whole-egg version instead for a better mouthfeel.

2 ¾ cups sifted cake flour

1 tablespoon baking powder

½ teaspoon salt

8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened

1 ½ cups granulated sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

4 egg whites

1 cup milk

1.   Position a rack in the center of the oven and preheat to 350 F.  Grease and flour two 9-inch round cake pans, tapping out the excess flour.

2.   In a medium-sized bowl sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt.

3.   In a large bowl combine the butter and sugar and beat with an electric mixer until well combined.  Add the vanilla and egg whites and beat at high speed until light, about 2 minutes.  Beat in half of the dry ingredients, just until blended.  Beat in all fo the milk and then the remaining dry ingredients.  Beat for one minutes and then turn into the prepared pans, dividing batter equally between them.  Smooth the tops with a spatula and firmly tap pans on the surface to level.  Bake on same shelf until the tops spring back when lightly touched and a toothpick inserted in the center emerges clean, 30 to 35 minutes.  Cool in the pans on a rack for 10 minutes and then invert onto racks.  Return one layer to an upright position and cool both layers to room temperature.

4.   Place one layer bottom side up on a serving dish and spread with 1 cup of frosting.  Add the second layer, right side up, over the frosting.  Spread top and the insides with the remaining frosting.

Double Chocolate Fudge Brownies with Oreo Cookie Crust

Double Chocolate Fudge Brownie Bars - made July 12, 2011 from Baking 911 by Sarah Phillips (book #138)

I'm still baking for goodie bags to give to friends I'm meeting for lunches and dinners this month so the brownie baking continues.  Many brownie recipes are quite similar so they're just the easiest for me to try out as new recipes and be fairly confident they'll turn out and be up to standard to give away.  I've had a tendency to keep adding the Nutella Crunch Topping to plain brownie recipes lately but for this one, I tried something different.  Instead of a topping, I made a bottom crust out of crushed Oreo cookies, 2 ounces of butter and 1 teaspoon of vanilla.  I didn't measure the Oreos but simply used up the ones I had left in the package.  You can adjust the amounts; you just want to make sure the mixture is crumbly enough to make a layer without falling apart but not be wet or liquidy.  Even if you don't get the proportions perfectly right, it's the bottom layer and can be forgiven a lot of sins when it's propping up a rich, fudgy, dense brownie.  I actually ran a bit short on the Oreos so I wasn't able to make an even layer on the bottom.

This one came out a little thicker than I expected which was fine since I don't like thin brownies.  But you do have to watch the baking time.  The directions say to bake for 40 minutes exactly but I don't believe in "exact" since ovens vary so widely and 40 minutes in one oven could be perfect but dry in another and underbaked in a third.  The toothpick test almost never fails me, especially since I'm so bad about remembering to time things.  And no, I don't have a timer and have never invested in one since I'd probably forget to set it anyway.   Anyway, I took these out when a toothpick inserted in the edges came out just about clean but inserted in the middle came out with a bit of batter still on it.  Normally I would've left it in there longer but since the edges were done, I didn't want to take a chance on overbaking.  As it turns out, that was the right call as you can see from the picture that, once cool, the chocolate set and was fine and fudgy.  Taste-wise, I thought these were okay - remember I'm super picky so "okay" to me is probably perfectly good to someone else....or so I've been told....repeatedly.  This does not have a rich dark chocolate but a typical semisweet chocolate flavor. Oh and if you like brownies with a top crust, this one has it.  I don't which is another reason why this goes into the "okay" category for me.

¼ cup Dutch-processed cocoa powder

1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour

½ teaspoon baking powder

¼ teaspoon salt

3 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped

½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature

3 large eggs, room temperature

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 ½ cups sugar

1.     Position a rack in the center of the oven and preheat the oven to 350˚F.  Grease an 8 x 8-inch baking pan.

2.     Sift cocoa before using.  In a medium bowl, blend the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, and salt.  Set aside.

3.     Put the chopped chocolate in a small bowl.  Warm the butter in a small saucepan until just melted, and remove from the heat.  Pour the butter over the chocolate.  Swirl the pan so the hot butter warms all the chocolate and covers it.  Let the mixture sit 2 minutes.  Stir to melt the chocolate.  Let cool until slightly warm.

4.     With a fork, beat the eggs and vanilla together in a medium bowl until just combined.  Stir in the sugar with a rubber spatula.  Pour in the cooled butter-chocolate mixture and mix until smooth.  Do not whip.  In 2 additions, fold in the flour mixture until almost combined.  Scrape the batter into the pan and smooth it.  Tap the pan bottom lightly on the countertop a few times to remove excess air bubbles.

5.     Bake for exactly 40 minutes.  This recipe will puff slightly in the oven, then fall and crack; that’s normal.  The brownies will seem underdone in the middle but will harden as they cool.  Do not overbake.  Cool in the pan on a wire cake rack before cutting into squares.

Storage: Store well-covered at room temperature for 3 to 5 days.  Freezes well for up to 3 months.

Thin and Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies

Thin and Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies - made July 10, 2011 from Got Milk? The Cookie Book by Peggy Cullen (book #137)

This is the chocolate chip cookie recipe I used to make the bottom layer for the Crispy Caramel (no) Cashew Bars below.  Normally I wouldn't even glance at a recipe that said it makes a thin chocolate chip cookie but since I needed a chocolate chip cookie dough to spread as the bar cookie layer, it seemed serendipitous to try it.  I doubled the recipe and had enough for the bottom layer of a 9 x 13 pan plus the dough for a baker's dozen of individual cookies.

There's not much I can say for these as a cookie - they did spread but not too thin as the name would have you suppose.  In fact, they baked just like a typical chocolate chip cookie.  I wouldn't say there were head and shoulders above the rest (they're not) - they're nicely ordinary.

5 ounces (1 ¼ sticks) unsalted butter, softened

¼ cup granulated sugar

½ cup packed light brown sugar

¼ teaspoon salt

1 ½  teaspoons vanilla extract

1 large egg

1 cup plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

½ teaspoon baking soda

1 cup (6 ounces) chocolate chunks or chips

1 cup nuts (optional)

1.       Preheat oven to 375⁰F. 

2.       In a medium bowl, using an electric mixer, beat the butter, sugars, salt and vanilla until well combined.  Beat in the egg.  Scrape down the bowl using a rubber spatula and beat for a few more seconds.

3.       In a small bowl, whisk together the flour and baking soda.  Add the dry ingredients to the wet mixture on low speed and mix just until absorbed.  Combine the chocolate chunks and nuts in a small bowl and stir into the dough.

4.       Shape the dough into 1 ½” balls and drop them about 3 inches apart onto ungreased baking sheets.  Bake for about 10 to 12 minutes or until the edges are golden.  Let sit for 5 minutes then transfer to wire racks to cool completely.

Chocolate Chip Caramel Crisp Bars

Crispy Caramel Cashew Bars - made July 8, 2011 from Cookie Dough Delights by Camilla V Saulsbury (book #136)

This is another baking book that I'm baffled I bought since I almost never bake with store-bought cookie dough and that's exactly what the recipes in this book are based on.  I must've been lured by the cover or had convinced myself it was a good opportunity to try out something I don't normally do (I can rationalize anything when it comes to buying baking books). However, this is also another baking book I'd recommend for novice bakers or busy bakers with kids who want to help in the kitchen.  The recipes are easy to follow and typically require less ingredients than making cookie doughs from scratch.

In this case, I followed almost nothing from this recipe since I still couldn't bring myself to buy store-bought cookie dough and I left off the cashews featured in the title but I do credit this recipe with giving me the idea for the flavor combinations so I'm posting it as the recipe writer intended for it to be made.  But I essentially made this one up as I went along.

In my case, contrary to the premise of the book, I made the chocolate chip cookie dough from scratch - you can use your favorite cookie recipe and just spread the dough as the bottom layer.  This is the one time where it's okay to use a recipe where the cookies are apt to spread.  In fact, it's better if you do since you don't want a cakey or stiff dough.  I also didn't use caramel apple dip and instead melted caramels with a bit of milk for the caramel.  That's more of a flavor and texture preference on my part.  Once the bottom chocolate chip cookie layer was baked and had cooled, I spread a layer of melted caramel over it and let it set before I covered it with the nutella crunch topping I'm so fond of.

This turned out to be a nice bar cookie confection - it's good with the chocolate chip cookie layer but if you wanted to make it even more decadent, you can make a chocolate brownie base instead, top it with caramel then the nutella crunch.  Serious calories but worth it.

1 18-ounce roll refrigerated chocolate chip cookie dough, well chilled

2 cups milk chocolate chips, divided

1 16-ounce container (about 1 ½ cups) caramel apple dip, divided

3 cups crisp rice cereal

1 ¼ cups chopped lightly salted cashews

1.       Preheat oven to 350⁰F.  Spray a 13 x 9-inch pan with nonstick cooking spray or line with foil.

2.       Slice cookie dough into ¼-inch-thick slices.  Arrange slices in bottom of the prepared pan.  With floured fingers, press dough evenly to form crust.

3.       Bake 10-14 minutes or until light golden brown (dough will appear slightly puffed).  Remove from the oven; cool 15 minutes.

4.       In a large saucepan, combine 1 cup of the chocolate chips and 1 cup of the caramel dip.  Cook over medium heat until melted and smooth, stirring constantly.  Remove from heat.  Stir in cereal and cashews; immediately spread over cooled crust.

5.       In small saucepan, combine remaining 1 cup chips and ½ cup caramel dip.  Cook over medium heat until melted and smooth, stirring constantly.  Spread over cereal mixture.  Refrigerate 30 minutes or until set.  Cut into bars.

Super Fudgy Five Chocolate Brownies - with dulce de leche

Super Fudgy Five Chocolate Brownies - made July 7, 2011 from Chocolatier Magazine, February/March 2004 issue

Chocolatier is (or was) a magazine and not a baking book but it has plenty of great recipes and up until the magazine folded and got incorporated into a less fantastic publication, I had a "lifetime" subscription for over 10 years.  I've tried many recipes from it and was sorry to see the magazine go.

I need to make a bunch of brownies over the next couple of weeks, some to go into care packages I promised to send out and others to bring to friends when I meet them for lunches and dinners over the next 2-3 weeks.  So you're going to see a steady stream of care package/goodie bag type treats in the coming days.

I omitted the glaze on this one since I was mailing it in summer weather and didn't want it to arrive in a melted, non-appetizing-looking state at its end destination.  Instead, I added dollops of dulce de leche within the brownie itself.  This makes it easier to cut and package since the dulce de leche is inside the brownie and not on top.  I like taking close up shots of brownies so you can see what I mean by fudgy.  You get this look and texture as long as you don't overbake the brownies.  I think brownies are one of the easiest things to bake but I've had several friends tell me they find it hard because they have a tendency to overbake them.  Overbaking is the death knell of a good brownie.  The trick to baking fudgy brownies is to take them out when a toothpick inserted near the center comes out with moist crumbs, not raw batter.  You don't want the toothpick to come out clean from the middle.  By then it's almost certainly overbaked, especially at the edges.  Remember that chocolate sets once it cools so err on the side of underbaking rather than overbaking.

This was good but I think it would've been better if I had used the dulce de leche in a brownie that had more unsweetened chocolate and had a darker chocolate flavor.  The basis of the chocolate in this brownie is mostly from chocolate chips so it was more of a semisweet than a real dark chocolate brownie.  Still good though.

Fudgy brownies

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, cut into tablespoons

1 cup firmly packed dark brown sugar

2/3 cup granulated sugar

18 ounces (3 cups) semisweet chocolate chips

2 ounces unsweetened chocolate, coarsely chopped

5 large eggs, at room temperature

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

1 ½ cups all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons instant espresso

¼ teaspoon salt

1 cup walnut halves

Bittersweet chocolate glaze

1/3 cup heavy cream

6 ounces bittersweet chocolate, coarsely chopped

Decoration

1 ounce milk chocolate, coarsely chopped

1 ounce white chocolate, coarsely chopped

1.       Make brownies: Position a rack in the center of oven and preheat to 350 F.  Line a 9 x 13” pan with aluminum foil so that the foil extends 2” beyond the two long sides of pan.  Butter bottom and sides of foil-lined pan.

2.       In a medium saucepan, combine butter and sugars. Over medium heat, stir mixture with a wooden spoon for 5-7 minutes, or until butter is melted.

3.       Place chocolate chips and unsweetened chocolate in a food processor fitted with metal chopping blade. Process chocolates for 15-20 seconds, or until finely chopped.  With motor running, pour hot butter mixture through feed tube and process for 15-20 seconds, or until chocolate is completely melted, scraping down the sides of the workbowl as necessary.  Add eggs and vanilla and process for 10-15 seconds, or until combined.  Add walnut halves and pulse about 10 times to incorporate them into mixture and to chop them slightly.

4.       Scrape batter into prepared pan and smooth top with a rubber spatula.  Bake brownies for 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted 2” away from center comes out slightly moist.  Do not overbake.

5.       Cool brownies completely in pan set on a wire rack.  Using 2 ends of foil as handles, lift brownies out of pan.  Invert onto a cutting board and remove aluminum foil.  Reinvert brownies so they are top-side-up.  Using a sharp knife, trim sides of brownies so that they are straight and smooth.  Place the brownies on a wire rack and set wire rack over a baking sheet.

6.       Make the bittersweet chocolate glaze (optional): Do not make the glaze until brownies are cool.  In a medium saucepan over medium-low heat, bring cream to a gentle boil.  Take pan off heat and add chocolate.  Let sit for 1-2 minutes to melt chocolate.  Using a wire whisk, stir chocolate and cream until smooth.  Strain glaze through a fine sieve into a small bowl to remove any air bubbles.  Cool glaze for 5 minutes, until slightly thickened but still pourable.  Pour glaze evenly over brownies allowing glaze to drip down sides onto baking sheet.  Spread glaze with small metal offset cake spatula, making sure that the top and sides of brownies are completely covered.

7.       Decorate brownies (optional): In top of a double boiler over hot, not simmering, water, melt milk chocolate, stirring often, until smooth.  Transfer milk chocolate to a small paper cone or small plastic bag.

8.       Repeat above step using white chocolate.

9.       Cut a 1/16” opening at tip of both paper cones or plastic bags.  Pipe thin straight parallel lines of milk chocolate at ½” intervals across top of brownies.  Pipe thin straight lines of white chocolate in between lines of milk chocolate.  At 3/8” intervals, draw the tip of a toothpick or metal skewer completely across brownies perpendicular to the piped chocolate lines, reversing direction in which you pull toothpick across brownie.  Wipe toothpick tip clean between each pull.  This will create a feathered design.  Refrigerate brownies for 15 minutes, or until glaze is set.  Cut into 15 bars.  Store brownies in an airtight container at room temperature.