Gingerbread Train Part 2

To put the train together, I piped royal icing in the color I intended to frost the train with along the edge. I placed the two halves of the train together and keep them on the side for at least an hour. I smoothed the icing into any cracks where the halves did not met each other perfectly. (Wilton Royal Icing recipe)

To make the caboose:
I piped Wilton #17 rosettes on the sides of the caboose containing windows. Next, I piped royal icing where I planned on placing the caboose. (I waited until the train was ready and then placed them on the board together.) The edges were not perfect, but I piped rosettes on the ends to fill in the space.I used vanilla wafers for the wheels.

To make the trees:

I followed the Wilton instructions, but I changed a few things. Instead of using ice cream cones, I used the cones that come with the Calla Lily kit. I wrapped them with wax paper and scotch tape. If the wax paper was too large for the cone, I cut the edges off so that it was flush with the calla lily cone. I used tip #16..

I decorated some of the trees with the small round candies that came with the gingerbread village kit. Since they were difficult to pick up one by one, I used a pair of tweezers.

To make the pond:
I made a pond shape out of aluminium foil. Be sure to make a tall enough rim so that the melted Jolly Ranchers will not spill out. I sprayed the foil lightly with cooking spray. Place the aluminum foil mold on a baking sheet. I added the crushed blue Jolly Ranchers to the foil and distributed them evenly. They were baked at 350F until melted. I removed the baking sheet from the oven and let cool. When cool, I placed the baking sheet in a refrigerator. (When the candy is really cold it is easier to remove the foil.) When I was ready to place the pond on the display board, I carefully remove the aluminum foil.

Wilton Tips used:

#4 for the icicles on the houses

#32 for gold trim on train

#18 for rosette trims on houses

#17 for the body of the train

#16 gold trim for the train

Gingerbread Train Part 1

Tis the season for baking! What better way to start than with gingerbread? The  recipe I used is from http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Gingerbread-House-103229 with some modifications. 

I roughly halved the recipe and used vanilla instead of ginger. It may not be called gingerbread anymore, but it's still yummy!

3 3/8 cups of flour

¾ teaspoon cinnamon

¾ teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon vanilla*

½ cup (1 stick) of butter

½ cup sugar

2 eggs

½ cup molasses

Sift the flour, cinnamon, and baking soda; set aside. Cream the butter and the sugar together until light and fluffy using an electric mixer. Add each egg, mixing thoroughly before adding the next one. Add the vanilla and the molasses and beat on high speed until well blended. Add the dry ingredients in four additions and beat on low speed until a dough forms. If the dough is a little dry, you can knead it for a few minutes by hand for it to come together into a ball. Refrigerate for at least 6 hours. (I refrigerated it overnight.)

**Be careful if you use a handheld mixer because the dough will be fairly stiff and may burn out the motor.**

For the train I used the Wilton 3D Choo-Choo Pan. First, I greased the pan by using a paper towel to wipe shortening throughout the inside. Next, I rolled out the gingerbread to a size larger than the pan. I also rolled the gingerbread  a little thicker than usual. This allowed the dough to maintain all the detail of the train pan. If you roll the gingerbread out as thin as you would for cookies, the train will still be structurally sound -- it's just easier to push the dough into the crevices of the pan if the dough is a little thicker because it is less likely to break. Since I didn’t know which thickness was better, I tried both. As you can see from the pictures, when the dough was rolled out a little thicker, it bubbled when it was baking. To counteract this you could either push down on the dough when you take it out of the oven using a spoon or fork or when you are baking it you could use pie weights or beans.

Left-Thicker dough,  Right Thinly rolled dough

The gingerbread is ready when you can see it starting to pull away from the pan. I let the pan cool for a few minutes and then flipped it out on to a baking sheet. After it came out of the pan, I flipped it back in to finish cooling. I flipped it out while it was still warm because I didn’t want the gingerbread to get too cold and get stuck in the pan. I then put it back in the pan and let it cool there so it would retain its shape.

For the train car I used a 6in square pan. I greased the pan with shortening and also greased a strip of aluminum foil. I placed the aluminum foil where the top of the train car would be. I rolled the dough out to a size that is bigger than the pan and draped it in and cut the excess that was hanging over the edges.

Where the aluminum foil was, I cut 3 windows. I also placed strips of dough between and above the windows to reinforce them. To make the stained glass windows I place crushed Jolly Ranchers in each cut out area. I baked the gingerbread at 350 F until it was somewhat hard to the touch.

 

 
 

The Jolly Ranchers melt fairly quickly so you will have to check on the gingerbread often. If they get too hot, there will be air bubbles in your glass. To counteract that, you can take the gingerbread out, let it cool for a few minutes and then place it back in the oven. Since the gingerbread was rolled out fairly thin, it bakes quickly so you may only have to do this a few times.

**I don’t know if it is possible to bake the gingerbread and then add the Jolly Ranchers. If you try it, let me know!

When you have removed the ½ car from the pan, it will still have the aluminum foil on it. To easily remove the aluminum foil from the windows, place the ½ car in the refrigerator for a few minutes.

Pineapple Upside-Down Cupcakes

One of my favorite things about the holidays is the enormous amounts baking that is done. It's easy to know when my mom is baking a pineapple upside down cake because it fills the house with the aroma of pineapple, brown sugar, and vanilla. It's amazing. I thought it might be fun to try and replicate her cake in cupcake form.

To start, I used a golden vanilla cake mix. I beat the eggs first and added cinnamon, nutmeg, and vanilla extract. Instead of water I used the pineapple juice from a can of pineapple chunks. (You will need one 20 ounce can for this recipe.) I mixed in the pineapple juice and then the oil. Finally, I added the cake mix. I follow the order of eggs-water-oil as opposed to the directions on the box to ensure that the eggs are well beaten and that all the wet ingredients have been mixed together thoroughly.

I lined cupcake pans with cupcake papers. In the bottom of each paper I put a thin layer of light brown sugar. I cut a chunk of pineapple in half and then placed each piece on top of the brown sugar.

I filled the cupcake papers 2/3 of the way of batter and baked at 350F until a knife or toothpick inserted into the middle of the cupcake came out clean.

To serve you can peel the papers off of the cupcakes and flip them over on to a serving dish. Or you can serve them in the cupcake papers.

This makes between 24-28 cupcakes.

I still think my mom's cakes are best. :-)

Apple Crisp

It's Fall and that means it's apple season. What better time to make apple crisp? Also, Hurricane Sandy is pummeling the East Coast with heavy rain and strong winds so staying inside and baking seems like a good idea.


To make four personal apple crisps I used 3 Golden Delicious apples.

I peeled and chopped the apples directly into greased 3.5 in ramekins. (I even put the apple peel into a separate ramekin to bake along with the apple crisp.)

 
To top the apples I used strusel topping (see Lemon-Blueberry Muffins post), mixed with old fashioned oats, cinnamon, and nutmeg. I baked them at 350F.

 

The result

Caramel Apple Cupcakes

It's fall which means it's apple season! I decided to try my hand at making Caramel Apple Cupcakes.

To make these cupcakes I started with Golden Vanilla Cake Mix by Betty Crocker. I beat the eggs first and then added the oil. Instead of water I used apple cider. I added the mix last. I also added cinnamon and nutmeg to the cake batter. 

While the cupcakes were baking I peeled and chopped 2 apples--one large Gala apple and one small Golden Delicious apple. (You can use whichever variety of apples you like best.) In a saucepan I cooked the apples until they were soft. I also added ~1/4 cup of apple cider while the apples were cooking. I did not add sugar to the apples when I was cooking them because I knew the cupcakes themselves would be fairly sweet and they would be topped with the caramel frosting.

 

When the cupcakes were cool, I cut out the centers.

I placed the cooked apples into the center of the cupcakes.

To make the caramel frosting I followed the recipe by http://sweetpeaskitchen.com/2011/08/chocolate-turtle-cupcakes/. (By the way the chocolate turtle cupcakes are amazing!).

To make the caramel decorations I adapted the Caramel Grid recipe from Jacques Torres' book Dessert Circus At Home. I made half the recipe and had leftovers.You can use the leftovers in hot cocoa.

1/4 cup of water
1 1/8 cup of sugar
1/3 cup of light corn syrup

Mix the ingredients together in a heavy-bottomed saucepan over medium-high heat. Place a candy thermometer in the pan and cook the mixture to 311 degrees Fahrenheit  (155 degrees Celsius). This is known as the hard crack stage. Stir the sugar gently and slowly to ensure that it cooks evenly. Keep the inside of the saucepan clean by dipping a pastry brush in cold water and brushing the inside of the pan. When the sugar is ready, pour it into a medium-sized heat proof glass bowl. Do not leave the sugar in the saucepan because it will continue to cook and turn dark brown. By using a glass bowl you can reheat the caramel in the microwave when it starts to harden. Lightly spray parchment paper with vegetable cooking spray. Using a stainless steel spoon, drizzle the caramel onto the parchment paper in a grid. Do not make the lines too thick. After the caramel cools for a few minutes you should be able to lift it off the parchment paper.  

Notes:

• You can drizzle the caramel in any design you want.
• I didn't clean the inside of the pan with a pastry brush.
• The temperature will change quickly as it reaches 300F, so watch the thermometer so you don't burn the sugar.
• Work quickly. The caramel can harden in the bowl. Unfortunately I do not have a glass bowl and used a metal one which meant I could not microwave it after it started to cool
• Be careful! The caramel is around 300F. As a result, the bowl is very hot.
• The caramel will melt on a humid day. Also, make this a few hours before you plan to use it. 
• Boil water in the saucepan you used to make the caramel. It will dissolve the remaining caramel making the saucepan easy to clean.

Instead of making a bunch of little grids I made a few large ones and broke them up to put them on the cupcakes.

I frosted the cupcakes using Wilton tip #108 and place the caramel decorations on top.

Poire Belle Helene Cupcakes

Chocolate and Pears, who knew they were so good together?! Again, this is from the book Cupcakes Galore.

I dislike melting chocolate in a microwave. The likelihood that it will scorch is fairly high. Instead, I like to use the double broiler method to melt chocolate. I don't actually own one but the right-sized pot and bowl work extremely well. (I used 85% Lindt chocolate for both the batter and the chocolate sauce.)

 

I let the chocolate cool too long so when I added the flour the 'batter' looked like this--instead of nice and smooth.

I used a handheld mixer on low speed to mix the egg whites into the batter instead of folding them in, so I could achieve a smooth batter. I beat an extra egg white on the side and folded that in to help make the cupcakes lighter. I don't think this did much but it couldn't hurt. These cupcakes were dense though, be forewarned if you prefer light and fluffy cupcakes.


Just out of the oven. As you can see they did not rise much.

Frosted with chocolate sauce, what an excellent idea!

Topped with pears! Yum!

So a while ago I found a cupcake carrier! And it has 2 tiers! I was excited because I was carrying cupcakes in a regular cake container and you can imagine the drawbacks. The one I have holds 24 cupcakes. I can even use the carrier for a really tall regular cake because the cover 'expands'.


My recommendations:

• Work quickly after you add the sugar and the flour because the chocolate will set and instead of a smooth batter you will have a dry one. (which isn't much of a batter)
• Instead of adding the pears to the batter, add the chopped pears to the cupcake papers then add the batter. This will ensure that each cupcake will have pieces of pear in it.
• A small can of pear halves (mine had 5 halves) works well. Whether or not to buy sliced or halved pears is up to you--they depend on how easy it is for you to chop them. The halves are easier to cut and you can make decorative slices for topping your cupcakes.
• Sift the flour into the pot for the chocolate sauce, this will make it easier to incorporate the flour into the sauce and avoid lumps.
• A fast and easy way (I have not tested this so let me know if this works) to make this cupcakes would be to use your favorite chocolate cake mix, add the chopped pears, and use store bought chocolate sauce.

Chocolate and Coffee

I decided to make cupcakes as a going-away gift for the summer research student in our lab. I made them a few months ago and they were surprisingly good; I would have never thought that sour cream could go into chocolate cake batter. The first time I made these I frosted them with buttercream icing. For a more adult treat, add some Bailey's Irish Cream to the buttercream icing.

 

 Here are the changes I made to the recipe:

• I creamed the butter and the sugar, then added the sour cream.
• I beat the eggs separately with a little vanilla extract before adding them to the butter, sugar, and sour cream mixture.
• I sifted the cocoa powder into the dry ingredients after I measured it to ensure that it would be mixed evenly.
• I added the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mixed with a spatula. Then, I finished mixing the ingredients with a handheld mixer on low. (If you have ever tried to use a mixer right after you have added dry ingredients you have inevitably encountered the ‘cloud’ of flour. If you gently mix the wet and dry ingredients together with a spatula first, you can prevent that and ease clean-up.)

Because it’s summer and I would not be able to fit all of the cupcakes in my refrigerator, I let the ingredients for the whipped cream frosting sit in a bowl overnight and made it in the morning. I also added the chocolate dragonflies.

 

 

I melted Wilton Candy Melts in a disposable pastry bag for the piped dragonflies. The body and the wings were piped separately on wax paper and placed in the refrigerator to harden. To make them, I piped warm chocolate onto the body and placed a wing on it. After letting the chocolate set for a few seconds I piped chocolate on top of where the wing was attached and placed the second wing on. I held the second wing on until the chocolate set. 

It is very important that the chocolate stays cold. When the chocolate starts getting warm, it becomes fragile. After making a few dragonflies, place the remaining components back into the refrigerator. It also helps to make extras of the wings and bodies.

The recipe for these Mezzo-Mezzo Cupcakes can be found in the book Cupcakes Galore by Gail Wagman.

A muffin by any other name is…a cupcake

Muffins. I know they're not considered dessert. But let’s be honest—it is a large cupcake with a different name that allows us to justify eating an inordinate amount of sugar first thing in the morning.  And who doesn’t love muffins? With this reasoning, I felt that muffins wouldn't be out of place here, thus lemon blueberry muffins with streusel topping and lemon glaze.

(Also, if you have ever had the Costco lemon blueberry muffins you’ll see why I wanted to attempt to recreate them at home. They are amazing… They also inspired me to make Lemon-Blueberry pancakes.)

Lemon Blueberry Muffins and Glaze: 

http://www.myrecipes.com/recipe/lemon-blueberry-muffins-10000000444741/

Streusel Topping:

http://www.food.com/recipe/streusel-topping-127724

I omitted the cinnamon and used half brown sugar and half white granulated sugar for the streusel topping.

Buttermilk

I managed to forget to buy buttermilk when I went to the grocery store. Amazing since I actually wrote a list of stuff I needed and managed to bring it with me… I had milk so I decided to Google “buttermilk substitute”. Easy enough. 1 tablespoon of vinegar or lemon juice (I used lemon juice for obvious reasons) to 1 cup of milk and let it sit for 5 minutes. Use as directed in recipe.

Also, I did not use butter in the recipe. I used Smart Balance Buttery Spread. The muffins came out fine. (I noticed that I didn't have enough butter for both the muffins and the streusel topping, hence the substitution.)

After I poured the batter in a prepared muffin tin, I added the streusel topping and baked.

Before glaze:

After glaze:

You may want to increase the amount of sugar in the muffin recipe if you decide to skip the streusel topping. I found that the muffins themselves could have been a little sweeter. Adding the streusel topping and glaze compensated a bit, but more sugar in the recipe would be desirable.

Science for the Day:

Why couldn’t I have substituted regular milk for the buttermilk? If you look at the ingredient list for the muffins, baking soda is listed. Baking soda is a base and in order for the muffins to rise, there has to be an acidic counterpart. Remember the baking soda volcano? The vinegar and baking soda mixed together and formed carbon dioxide gas. Buttermilk is slightly acidic and therefore will react with the baking soda forming carbon dioxide. Baking powder is another leaving agent. It is made up of baking soda and cream of tartar. Cream of tartar is an acid. Therefore, if you mix baking powder and water you will see bubbles but if you mix baking soda and water you get a slurry that isn’t useful for anything except cleaning or soothing bee stings.

Mmm... Lemony

Cupcakes, an undeniable source of happiness, are perfect for a birthday. A few weeks ago I made cupcakes for a friend with a taste for lemon, thus, lemon meringue cupcakes.  Filled with lemon cream and topped with meringue, they surely brightened her day!