marshmallows

Good Luck, Charlie!

~ Laura ~ Leave a comment

Sometimes people come into your life and you don’t realize the impact they have. Today marks one week that a very special employee retired from our company. I was asked to make the desserts for his party and I jumped at the opportunity. I was flattered that they asked, but more so, I was thrilled to do this to show him how much he truly means to all of us. I have stated before and I will state it again – baking is how many of us show and share love with the people around us. WE ALL LOVE CHARLIE and he so deserved the kind words, the endless recognition and to eat LOTS OF CAKE!

13516186_507226809484352_2417428643004849372_nSo I went to work making enough cake and cupcakes to feed a small army. I decided on keeping the cake flavors simple, but to go slightly crazy on the frostings!

13507152_507226762817690_2884251503118510521_nI made 84 cupcakes (not all shown) and one double 13×9 cake. The cake was chocolate cake with peanut butter frosting and filled with chocolate ganache and decorated with PB cups and a printed sugar sheet (thanks Callie and Frank’s Bakery!)

13524454_507226776151022_8454461130550016230_nThe cupcakes were chocolate cake either frosted with marshmallow buttercream, espresso buttercream or chocolate ganache buttercream, and vanilla cake frosted with either peanut butter frosting, chocolate ganache buttercream, vanilla buttercream or filled with key lime curd and topped with marshmallow buttercream.

They all came out great! Everyone enjoyed them and I had a blast piping all the frostings in different styles with different tips.

Key Lime Pie Cupcakes

~ Laura ~ Leave a comment

Sometimes you crave a flavor combination. Sometimes that flavor combination is known for a specific dessert already. Sometimes you want the flavors but not the dessert they were “intended” for. Hence why I decided to make Key Lime Pie Cupcakes for the other half of my brain as her birthday treat!! I love Key Lime Pie, but I didn’t want to make a pie, and as with most birthday treats for each other we like to experiment. So I decided I would make Key Lime curd to fill cinnamon cupcakes and top them with a delicious Fluff buttercream. These are definitely going into my recipe book as they were not only a hit, but a refreshing summertime treat! If you love Key Lime Pie, you will love this spin on a classic.

13537779_505734049633628_3339730287453242550_nFor the Key Lime Curd:
1/2 c. fresh squeezed Key Lime juice at room temp.
1 1/2 c. sugar
1 stick unsalted butter at room temp.
2 ex. lg. eggs at room temp.
1/8 tsp. salt

Remove the zest of your limes with a zester. Put the zest and sugar into a blender and blend until zest is finely minced and mixed with the sugar. Juice limes to make 1/2 cup and set aside. With a mixer, cream the sugar mixture and butter. Add eggs one at a time scrapping the bowl after each one is added. Add lime juice and salt and mix until combined. The mixture will look separated, which is fine. Put mixture into a medium sauce pan and cook over low heat, stirring constantly, until it has thickened enough to leave a path when you scrap the back of a coated spoon. Pour into a bowl and press plastic wrap down onto mixture to avoid a skin from forming – place in fridge to cool and store until use.

13516410_505682656305434_3295211559007071609_nFor the Cinnamon Cupcakes:
I debated on using my vanilla cake recipe and adding cinnamon, but I decided to go the the web and try a new recipe out, since I was experiment with flavor. I used a Cinnamon Vanilla Cupcake recipe by LizP (see recipe and instructions here: http://www.food.com/recipe/cinnamon-vanilla-cupcakes-439272) that I found on food.com. This created a dense almost muffin-esque cupcake. This was good for the curd filling, as it held up nicely to the extra moisture. This made 12 cupcakes in large cupcake liners. I also went with 2 tsp. of cinnamon to really give it that flavor.

For the Fluff Buttercream:
2 c. butter, softened
2 1/2 c. powdered sugar
1 13 oz. jar of Fluff
1 tsp. vanilla extract

Cream butter in electric mixer until light and fluffy. Gradually add in powdered sugar. Add in Fluff and vanilla, and mix until combined. Put into pipping bag for later use. I kept it on the table so that it would be room temp. for easier piping onto my cupcakes. This frosting is prettier when piped versus using a knife or small offset spatula due to it’s consistency.

13095975_505734042966962_3414481367897242628_nAfter letting my cupcakes cool, I used a large piping tip to hollow out the center of my cupcakes to make a good size whole for the curd to go into. I then piped a generous amount of frosting on top and sprinkled with gold luster dust for a pop of color and pizazz. These are birthday cupcakes after all!

Marshmallow Popcorn

~ Laura ~ Leave a comment

While shopping for a holiday party, my daughter and I were discussing her birthday cake and party. She had decided to have friends over for pizza, a movie, popcorn with candy and cake! We saw cute tall plastic bags that had printing to make them look like old style popcorn boxes and next to them we saw large plastic tubs made to also look like popcorn boxes. Inspiration hit and I knew I had to make a “popcorn cake!”

IMG_1463When thinking about making popcorn for the top I immediately thought of mini marshmallows. I bought a bag and went to work. I took each one and cut the top in a cross hair pattern about a 1/4 to 1/2 way down, which made them look like molars!! Not exactly what I needed for this cake, but who knows what I might need in the future!

IMG_1464I pinched the bottom where it wasn’t cut and twisted which made them puff slightly where it was cut. On some I pulled the cut ends a little more apart to give variation to each “kernel.” Grab a marshmallow, cut, pinch, pull, repeat. Once I had enough to create the illusion of a mound of popcorn, I added a layer of fresh buttercream to the top of the cake to ensure the pieces would stick to the cake. To give it some color I took some yellow gel food coloring and put some in a dish with a touch of water to make it easier to paint onto the marshmallows. I did try the liquid food coloring first, and even with water, it looked more orange than yellow. I randomly picked pieces to color, and the end result was amazing!

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