Apr.
30

So what do Roast Chicken and Chocolate Fudge Cupcakes have in common, you ask?

Nada. Not. A. Thing. Unless you count the fact that I made both tonight :)


This afternoon I discovered that the sweet girl over at Musings of a Disillusioned Grad Student (love the title! LOL!) had included me on her blogroll. Woohoo :) Her post for yesterday concluded with the question “What’s your favorite roast chicken recipe?”. I had to think about… and I realized I didn’t have one. But I posted a comment about how I **would** do it if I **were** to do it :) And in my thinking and writing about it, my tummy started grumbling… and after work I hit the market on the way home and picked up a whole chicken and decided I was gonna roast it :)

Now realize, this is something I’ve never done before. Never ever ever never have I bought a whole chicken. But I figured it can’t be all that hard to make since other people do it all the time. Recall that way of thinking tends to get me in over my head, but hey, I bit the bullet, bought the chicken, brought it home and roasted it. And it was delish :)

I just removed the innards (I’m sure there’s a technical name but “innards” works for me… does it work for you? good, I’m glad we agree {grin}), washed and dried the bird, rubbed it with olive oil, stuffed the cavity with sliced lemons, minced garlic, rosemary and capers… and then rubbed the outside with more rosemary and dusted with garlic powder, seasoning salt and fresh ground pepper. I took my Lodge Enamel on Cast Iron 5.5qt Dutch Oven, placed a small round rack inside, poured some water in the bottom, tossed in a slice of lemon then placed the bird in and put it in the oven. I let it cook for 40 minutes at 500F and then turned the temp down to 450 and cooked until the meat thermometer registered at least 170F (I did have to put an aluminum foil “tent” over it to prevent it from burning too quickly… and I did turn the bird after a while to ensure the other side browned as well).

And that was it… the result was an incredibly tasty roasted chicken :)


Tomorrow is DJ’s daughter’s b’day. I thought of some fancy, elaborate, gourmet cupcakes to make but that’s not something she’s into. She likes the “basic” stuff, nothing frou-frou or fancy. The easy solution was to bake Chocolate cupcakes and top them with chocolate fudge icing… that’s about as basic as it gets if you ask me! LOL Just to dress them up a little bit, I cut out some letters from rolled fondant icing and added a few royal icing flowers for good measure. Pretty basic and pretty tasty…. uhm… well… I mean… not that I had any of course ;-)

Posted in cupcakes, food | 2 Comments »

Apr.
28


{channeling my best Homer Simpson voice} M’mmmmm…. cheesecake…. nom nom nom.


I love cheesecake. Do you love cheesecake? More importantly, do you love cheesecake as much as **I** love cheesecake? I dunnnnnooooo…. might be hard cuz boy do I love cheesecake :) In this one week I’ve had to make not one but two cheesecakes… two completely different recipes. One was for a friend’s birthday… and the other was for this month’s Daring Bakers Challenge.

Truth be told, making a cheesecake isn’t really hard. It’s pretty much just cream cheese, sugar, flour, salt, eggs, vanilla and heavy cream. And all ya gotta do is pretty much combine em together and bake…. right? I mean, how hard could it be… right? HA! Making cheesecake is easy – - – but making **goooood** cheesecake? That’s not so easy.

For a smooth cheesecake you need all your ingredients at room temperature. And you don’t want to overbeat… overbeating will cause the cheesecake to crack as it’s cooking. And you don’t want it to cool too quickly… cooling too quickly will cause it to crack. Cheesecake is rather finicky wouldn’tcha say?

As part of the Daring Bakers, we take an oath… and pinky swear… that we’ll make the same recipe, following the directions as they’re given. This month it was a good thing, too, cuz if left to my own devices this would have never come together.

After getting all the ingredients into the prepared pan, this recipe requires you to bake the cheesecake in a water bath… this is also known as “bain marie” style (hey, I dunno, I don’t speak French, I barely can get things right in English, but it’s called bain marie… and if ya can’t pronounce it right then just say “water bath” and folks will understandja {wink}. I only have a small tea kettle so I filled it with water and timed things pretty well so that once I got the batter into the pan, the tea kettle started whistling not a minute later. I thought I was doin goooooood :) Until I discovered that my tea kettle full of boiling water barely, and I do mean **barely**, covered the bottom of my roasting pan. ACK!! I had to boil more water! It was almost like a scene from a movie where a lady’s getting ready to have a baby and everyone’s running around yelling “BOIL SOME WATER!!! BOIL SOME WATER!!!” cuz yes indeedy Ricky Bobby I was in my kitchen just yammerin away in disbelief “water!!! I need more boiling water!!!!!” …. as if anyone was around to take care of that task for me…. HA! As if! I mean, sure, there’s three of us in the kitchen but they’re “me”… “myself”… and let’s not forget “I”…. and we were all busy shakin our heads in disbelief that we didn’t have enough boiling water and well, ya know when ya NEED boiling water, the water takes FOR-EV-ER to boil. {sigh}

Okay so we (all three of us, recall) got the pan in enough boiling water to call it a water bath (yeah, yeah, I know… bahn mah-rie… that’s what I said… water bath). And then…. we let it bake. It took about an hour for this baby to finish baking but it looked beautiful if I must say so myself. After chilling the cheesecake for a few hours, you scoop out some balls, insert lollipop sticks and let em freeze for a good long time.

Finally comes the fun part… dipping them in melted chocolate and decorating :)

Now that you’ve heard my story and seen my pictures, why not check out the results of the other Daring Bakers to see their handiwork too :)

Thanks to this month’s hosts Deborah (Taste and Tell) and Elle (Feeding My Enthusiasms)

RECIPE AND INSTRUCTIONS

Cheesecake Pops
Makes 30 – 40 Pops

5 8-oz. packages cream cheese at room temperature

2 cups sugar

¼ cup all-purpose flour

¼ teaspoon salt

5 large eggs

2 egg yolks

2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

¼ cup heavy cream

Boiling water as needed

Thirty to forty 8-inch lollipop sticks

1 pound chocolate, finely chopped – you can use all one kind or half and half of dark, milk, or white (Alternately, you can use 1 pound of flavored coatings, also known as summer coating, confectionary coating or wafer chocolate – candy supply stores carry colors, as well as the three kinds of chocolate.)

2 tablespoons vegetable shortening

(Note: White chocolate is harder to use this way, but not impossible)

Assorted decorations such as chopped nuts, colored jimmies, crushed peppermints, mini chocolate chips, sanding sugars, dragees) – Optional

Position oven rack in the middle of the oven and preheat to 325 degrees F. Set some water to boil.

In a large bowl, beat together the cream cheese, sugar, flour, and salt until smooth. If using a mixer, mix on low speed. Add the whole eggs and the egg yolks, one at a time, beating well (but still at low speed) after each addition. Beat in the vanilla and cream.

Grease a 10-inch cake pan (not a springform pan), and pour the batter into the cake pan. Place the pan in a larger roasting pan. Fill the roasting pan with the boiling water until it reaches halfway up the sides of the cake pan. Bake until the cheesecake is firm and slightly golden on top, 35 to 45 minutes.

Remove the cheesecake from the water bath and cool to room temperature. Cover the cheesecake with plastic wrap and refrigerate until very cold, at least 3 hours or up to overnight.

When the cheesecake is cold and very firm, scoop the cheesecake into 2-ounce balls and place on a parchment paper-lined baking sheet. Carefully insert a lollipop stick into each cheesecake ball. Freeze the cheesecake pops, uncovered, until very hard, at least 1 – 2 hours.

When the cheesecake pops are frozen and ready for dipping, prepare the chocolate. In the top of a double boiler, set ov
er simmering water, or in a heatproof bowl set over a pot of simmering water, heat half the chocolate and half the shortening, stirring often, until chocolate is melted and chocolate and shortening are combined. Stir until completely smooth. Do not heat the chocolate too much or your chocolate will lose it’s shine after it has dried. Save the rest of the chocolate and shortening for later dipping, or use another type of chocolate for variety.

Alternately, you can microwave the same amount of chocolate coating pieces on high at 30 second intervals, stirring until smooth.

Quickly dip a frozen cheesecake pop in the melted chocolate, swirling quickly to coat it completely. Shake off any excess into the melted chocolate. If you like, you can now roll the pops quickly in optional decorations. You can also drizzle them with a contrasting color of melted chocolate (dark chocolate drizzled over milk chocolate or white chocolate over dark chocolate, etc.) Place the pop on a clean parchment paper-lined baking sheet to set. Repeat with remaining pops, melting more chocolate and shortening (or confectionary chocolate pieces) as needed.

Refrigerate the pops for up to 24 hours, until ready to serve.

Posted in daring bakers, recipes | 23 Comments »

Apr.
27

Basic Breakfast Potatoes

Posted by Em at: 6:41 pm | No Comments


As I mentioned earlier… I’m busy today.  Real busy.  Very, very busy.  But as I was waiting for something to finish cooking in the oven, I started perusing the blogroll and came across something I just had to make.  Right. Now.  I had to.  It was calling out my name.


Last night DJ made a special dinner for DD’s birthday.  She turns 15 on Wednesday but there’s not enough time on a weeknight for him to make a full on dinner so he did it last night.  We had an enormous (like dinner-plate sized) baked potato leftover that no one touched.  DS and I split one so that’s why there was an extra.  Anyway… I just put it in the fridge with no idea of what to do with it thinking… er hoping and praying… I’d find some inspiration somewhere for this lone gigantaur potato.

As I was cruisin the blogroll I read one of my faves… The Pioneer Woman.  She has a section with food and recipes and truth be told I just love love love LOVE her blog!  I clicked on the link figuring “heck, Ree never updates on weekends so what am I wasting my time for”… but today, Sunday, Ree did update… and I’m surely most definitely certain she updated just for moi :)

Get thee to her blog… and make this recipe.  I added some garlic, green onions and red pepper just cuz I have em and I like em… a lot.  Other than that, I followed her directions… and then… and then… and then… I had to write about it… quickly… because it was just that good!!!

I’m busy… very very busy… but I had to do a quick write up and post these pics because… uhm… well…. errrr…. uuuhhhh… I just had to!!!  And now just as much as I had to write this post… I have to get back to the other busy-ness of my day.  

Happy Happy!


Posted in food, recipes | No Comments »

Apr.
27

I have a lot to do today so I wanted to get this cupcake review off my “to do” list :) Aside from my normal family activities for the day, there’s the Daring Bakers Challenge to finish off and write up… dance shoes to find… dance class to take… and it’s going to be a steamy 100F today in my part of southern California :( Now that I’m taking honest-to-goodness classes, I’ve decided it’s time to buy some real, honest-to-goodness shoes that are made for dancing…. so I can look all professional-like. Or… at least not look like some newb who’s taking her first class ever ;-) LOL!!
Yes, with all I have going on today I still have cupcakes on the brain! I don’t think they’ve actually left my brain for the past couple of weeks. This morning’s review is of Violet’s Cakes in Pasadena, California. I picked up four cupcakes to try out… Vanilla, Strawberry, Raspberry Lemonade and Red Velvet.

 

 

 

When I arrived it was rather late in the day and the selection looked rather picked over. The designers were busily assembling cakes and thankfully there was only one customer ahead of me in line. I looked thru the display case and saw there were no Raspberry Lemonade cupcakes behind their little sign. ACK! I experienced a moment of panic and had to regroup my thoughts to come up with a “plan B” which turned out to be “okay so I suppose we’ll just buy three cupcakes instead of four“. Yeah, I’m all over that complicated plan-B stuff, as you can tell… and let’s not discuss how long it took for my brain to make that decision {wink}.

 


The customer in front of me had been there for quite a while before I walked in… and we both waited quite a while before someone came to help us. Now see, in my brain I’m thinking about what I want before the sales person comes to ask “Can I help you?”. Isn’t that how most people handle this kind of thing? I always thought they did. Apparently this is not how it goes for the customer who was in front of me. Despite the fact that she’d been waiting and waiting for someone to come help her, she’d put absolutely no thought into what she wanted before she was asked. ACK! And of course, she wanted a dozen cupcakes and had to decide, on-the-fly, which ones to choose. Took. Her. For. Ever. Yes indeedy it did. And there were only three Strawberry cupcakes left when I got there and as slowly as she was making up her mind and then changing it and then adding more of certain flavors, well, I started to panic there’d be no Strawberry cupcakes by the time she was finally done. Okay… so she finally, finally, finishes her dozen and I think “oh yay, I’m home free, there’s one strawberry cupcake left for me”. The sales girl is closing up the box and the customer say “Yanno… that might not be enough, let me get another half-dozen too”. {insert screeching tire sound here}. OMG OMG OMG I think I’m gonna die. She wants to add more cupcakes? OMG OMG OMG surely she’s going to take her sweet blessed time AND take the last Strawberry cupcake. I’m sure of it. Thank God she got an assortment of Chocolate cupcakes and left my Strawberry alone! whew! Lucky for her because otherwise, well, I don’t even wanna share with you what mighta happened ;-) hehehehe


They had more of the Raspberry Lemonade in the back so I was able to get one. YAY! And doesn’t it just look so purdy? =) I was really excited to try this flavor in particular. It was actually not bad! I was so relieved because after what I’d gone thru to get my precious bundles of delight, the last thing I wanted was to have some dried-out, leftovers from yesterday ;-) This cupcake had a lot of lemon zest in the cake itself but surprisingly it had very little lemon flavor. The icing had a definite raspberry flavor… and there might have been some raspberry puree under the crown of the cake. I say “might” because I’m honestly not sure. It was very very dark purple-ish in this area of the cupcake, all the way thru it, and it was either a God-awful huge patch of mold… or… it was raspberry puree. I’m goin with “raspberry puree” thankyouverymuch {wink}. I think most of the lemon flavor in this cupcake came from the little lemon-ball candies sprinkled on top because I really got very little flavor in the cake itself, despite the big chunks of lemon zest.

One thing I’ll say about Violet’s Cakes, the cupcakes (while rather rustic looking) are gorgeous sitting in the display case. Really, they are sooooo purdy sitting there all nicely lined up screaming “choose me!! choose me!!”. Wait. You mean you don’t hear those screams when you look at a case full of cupcakes? Hmmmm…. Uhmmm…. well, I do. That doesn’t make me weird or anything, does it? Okay, no matter, cuz I do hear it :) Anyway, cupcakes from Violet’s Cakes are very pretty in the case… but… it would be nice if they took some pride in the packaging of them because they did not survive the trip home very well. In fact, these cupcakes look the worst for the wear of all the different bakeries I’ve purchased from lately. Now, I realize a divided box would be expensive but a strip of parchment paper between the cupcakes wouldn’t add a huge cost and would keep them from sliding around in the box and becoming joined-at-the-frosted-crown with the next. See this post here for an example of some good packaging. Also, is it really necessary to frost all down the wrapper? I’m all for having enough frosting to cover the whole cake but when it’s all over and halfway down the wrapper, it’s messy… it’s messy for packing/unpacking, it’s messy for eating and it’s certainly messy for photographing. I tried in vain to find a good side of each cupcake to shoot. Either it had a boatload of another cupcake’s frosting on it… or… it had a boatload of buttercream sliding down the wrapper.

I have come to love and appreciate Red Velvet cupcakes. I came to them late in life, having never tasted one until earlier this year. Done right, Red Velvet is very good. But at Violet’s Cakes they commit what I consider to be the cardinal sin of Red Velvet. They make a definitively chocolate cake… {insert screeching tires sound here} and add a touch of red food coloring to it. Red Velvet cake is not meant to be a chocolate cake. Red Velvet is meant to be a brightly red colored cake with a hint of chocolate flavor. “Hint of” being the important words. I took a slice shot of this cupcake so you could see what I mean. Now, if you’re a lover of chocolate, Violet’s red velvet might be right up your alley since it’s chocolate cake and it’s topped with chocolate shavings. It most definitely was not my cup of tea. The cake itself was bordering on being dry… dry to the point that the crown fell off of one half when it was sliced. That was probably caused in part by the heaviness of the cream cheese icing which was very smooth but very very sweet.

 

The Vanilla cupcake. Okay before we go any further let’s talk about the elephant in the room. See that picture of the Vanilla cupcake? I’m sure the very first thing you notice is my big ol thumb print on the left side of the icing. Big apologies for that. Big ol apologies coupled with some crocodile tears for good measure. Had there been just a teensy bit of care applied when packaging I might have been able to get the cupcakes out of the box without messing them up. Them’s the breaks, I guess. But the taste of this cupcake was rather good. The cake texture was very much like angel-food cake… very much so. The icing was tasty too. But neither had an actual vanilla flavor. It was more like “plain” cake and “plain” icing cuz yanno how vanilla has an actual flavor to it? Well, this did not. The texture was good but the flavor was extremely non-existent.

The Strawberry cupcake was also like plain angel food cake… but the buttercream frosting had a hit of strawberry flavor. This cupcake was surprisingly good especially since it sat on my kitchen counter overnight in the box. It was still extremely fresh and had a good, though very subtle, flavor.

If you’re in Pasadena, California and jonesin for cupcakes I’d recommend Violet’s Cakes over Dots Cupcakes in a heart beat. While Violet’s may not look as pretty as Dots, they taste a whole lot better. But, if you want “pretty pretty” to impress friends at a party, then perhaps Dots is more your style. Either way, in Pasadena you’ll have a choice :)
Happy Sunday!

 

Posted in cupcakes, reviews | 6 Comments »

Apr.
26


{{yawn}}

It’s a little early here. I like mornings – I’m definitely a morning person. The sun comes up and that’s it… I’m up!… I’m awake!… I’m ready to go!… I don’t know to where… and I don’t know for what… but I’m up!… I’m awake!… I’m ready! woohoo!!! Of course, by about 2pm I’m petering out and ready for a nap which like 95% of the time I never get :( And while I rise with the sun, ready to greet the day, DJ on the other hand participates in sleeping as if it’s an actual sport and he’s practicing to make the Olympic Team.

groan!!!

I. Just. Do. Not. Get. It.

ugh!!!

I mean, when it comes to sleeping, I just don’t get him… {sigh}… but I love him just the same :) And he loves me… even though he doesn’t get my desire for, appreciation of, fascination-bordering-on-obsession-with cupcakes :) But he loves me… and with that, all is right with my world :)

Last night I had to run an errand in Pasadena. It’s about 35 miles from my house and is a really neat place… especially Old Town Pasadena. Shopping! Lots and lots and lots of shopping! Sur la Table… Abercrombie… LUSH… Tiffany… Crate-and-Barrel… The Container Store…. did you know they have a Container Store in Pasadena? I did not! How did I not know!?!?! I love that store… and that store loves to bleed my wallet dry and leave it mournfully crying out “WHY???”… but… I had no time for The Container Store or Sur la Table… I had no time for things such as leisurely shopping or upscale nor casual dining or people watching… for I was on a mission… I had to get to Dots Cupcakes!!!


Why…, you ask? Well, let’s review, my lovies… it’s all in the name of RESEARCH dear hearts. My willingness to sacrifice my time (though hopefully not my waistline) and go to great lengths to bring you pictures… and, of course, my opinion of… cupcakes in southern California :)


Dots Cupcakes is a cute little place… and I do mean little. Luckily I was the only customer because I seriously think 2-3 of us would have been very cramped inside. But no matter. It’s not about the size of the store, it’s about the cupcakes :) The salesgirl was extremely helpful and friendly… and even late late in the day they had an excellent selection.


As you know… I’m partial to the mini-sized cupcake. Hey, when you do as much cupcake eatin as I do, size definitely matters. And if it’s a mini, well, I don’t have to share! LOL!!! :)


I ended up with 4 minis (Lemon Drop, Strawberry Shortcake, Pina Colada and Red Velvet) and one regular size (Vanilla – they were out of the mini size in this flavor). Here is their website description of each flavor:
Lemon Drop – “tart lemon cupcake with creamy crushed vanilla bean frosting adorned with crystalized lemon rind”
Pina Colada – “pineapple cupcake with creamy crushed vanilla bean icing adorned with toasted coconut“
Strawberry Shortcake – “strawberry cupcake layered with whipped cream frosting“
Red Velvet – “light chocolate with pure Mexican cocoa with a touch of red and cream cheese frosting“
Vanilla – well, they had no description but it’s vanilla cake and vanilla frosting.

Don’t they just sound sooooo sooooo good!!?!?!! I know, they do, huh??? OMG – I just knew I was in for a real treat when I got home. Ooooohhh yeaaaaahhhh :)


Well, lovies, let me tell you… at the risk of sounding harsh, though in my opinion I’m just keepin it real, either their descriptions are full of false advertising… OR… the mini cupcakes are not the same as their full sized counterparts. Either way, their descriptions differ greatly from the reality of the cupcakes I received. And this did not make me happy. Not in the least :(

The cakes are fresh and moist. No denying that. But the Lemon Drop? This was straight up vanilla cake with lemony flavored icing. Nothing special at all. Certainly it was not a “tart lemon cupcake” and didja see even a single piece of “crystalized lemon rind” on top in my photo? Nope, it was a lemony swirl. It wasn’t a bad cupcake… it was fine. But that’s it. Fine.


Pina Colada also tasted like straight up vanilla cake with vanilla icing and coconut on top. Not sure how they figure this is “pineapple cupcake” when there wasn’t even the faintest nor slightest hint of pineapple flavor in the cake itself. It wasn’t a bad cupcake… it was fine. But that’s it. Fine.

Strawberry Shortcake was very reminiscent of vanilla pound cake with a slice of strawberry on the very bottom and buttercream frosting on top. There was nothing about this that was even close to perhaps maybe kinda sorta like “strawberry cupcake layered with whipped cream frosting“. The texture was different, like pound cake, and it was tasty… but nothing drool-worthy that’s for sure.

Red Velvet was again, fine. Nothing to write home about. The “cream cheese frosting” had no twang in it… if you ask me it was regular buttercream… and the cake itself was unremarkable.

Vanilla was also, fine (notice a theme here?) and unremarkable overall.

I can’t say there was a single bad cupcake in the bunch. But I also can’t say any one of the 5 made me want to return. The cakes were fresh and moist… no “yesterday’s leftovers” as I’ve questioned about other places. The icings were tasty. But in general there was nothing stand-out about these cupcakes. They’re definitely pretty, though. And photograph beautifully, if I must say so myself ;-) Oh… in the store, by the register, they do have a magazine-spread posted of how Jerry O’Connell and Rebecca Romijn had Dots Cupcakes for their recent wedding. That’s nice! It’s really nice! But that doesn’t make their cupcakes any more remarkable or memorable for me.

Happy Saturday!!!

Posted in cupcakes, reviews | 6 Comments »

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