For the Love of Chocolate: Daring Bakers February 2009

***Don’t forget to vote for my Alexandra Cupcakes! They’re really amazingly yummy and sooo cute, too!***

Remember back when I joined Iron Cupcake and said I wanted a challenge? Well, that wasn’t enough for me. I had to go all out – I am now a Daring Baker. It took me a while to get my confidence up, and I’m glad I waited until AFTER those terrifying French Yule Logs in December, but I finally went for it. And I think I got very lucky that my first challenge was such a relatively easy one.

The February 2009 challenge is hosted by Wendy of WMPE’s blog and Dharm of Dad ~ Baker & Chef.
We have chosen a Chocolate Valentino cake by Chef Wan; a Vanilla Ice Cream recipe from Dharm and a Vanilla Ice Cream recipe from Wendy as the challenge.

Easy as the recipe was, I actually had to make the cakes twice. The first time, I stepped away from the mixer for a minute as the whites were whipping and they ended up too dry. With all the frostings, meringues and other stuff I make regularly, the whites always have something in with them, so I forgot how quickly just plain egg whites would whip up. I KNEW they were overwhipped, but I still tried to fold them in and bake the cakes anyway. That obviously didn’t work and I had to drive half an hour each way to get more chocolate and eggs in the middle of the night. Because I’m nuts. Luckily, the second batch turned out perfectly and I was finally able to go to bed.

The original recipe for this cake (which really tastes more like candy to me, like fudge or a really rich candy bar) calls for it to be baked in a heart-shaped pan. I didn’t have one of those, but I did have a couple of 4″ springform pans and some cute shallow oblong ramekins, so I used those. I ended up with two round cakes and three smaller oblong ones. The bigger ones sunk perfectly, just like they were meant to.

Ooh, what's THAT on top?

The smaller ones obviously were much too shallow to sink, but turned out just as rich and delicious.

The cream was DIVINE, but it doesn't look very elegant here. Better, more ridiculous picture coming up...

When I found out what we were going to be making, I immediately knew I’d have to make two different things to go along with it. Somehow I decided that the perfect thing to go with this dessert (which I had never tasted before, let alone made) would be a lavender whipped cream. Sweet, light and floral, just the thing to cut the chocolatey richness. However, that kind of thing wouldn’t really appeal to Z. So I had to do something else.

Did You Know: whipping cream + sugar + flavor = Chantilly Cream...doesn't that sound nicer?

I originally wasn’t going to make the ice cream, because I (wrongly) assumed it would be hard to do without any sort of ice cream maker, and also because IT’S FEBRUARY. Not peak ice cream season where I live. Eventually, though, I made it anyway, because I had egg yolks and heavy cream sitting in the fridge from the creme brulee that never got made (you wouldn’t think it would be this hard to find butane for a torch). I could have made Wendy’s ice cream, which was much simpler than Dharm’s classic custard-based one, but besides the super-rich ingredients I already had sitting around, I also had vanilla beans. I did not have vanilla extract, as called for in Wendy’s recipe. This is a problem only Daring Bakers (or people who are just as weird as I am) have, I’m sure.

Making the ice cream was, as with many homemade goodies, much easier than you’d think. The custard alone was delicious! The only problem I ran into was using entirely the wrong sort of container to freeze my ice cream in. I didn’t have a big enough plastic one free, so I used Pyrex glass. Which conducts cold a lot better to the ice cream, necessitating a 10 minute thaw on the counter before the ice cream is even remotely scoopable. Lesson learned; ice cream still tasty anyway.

You may be wondering what that orange stuff is.

Plain cake and ice cream is all right, but I thought it needed something more. Luckily, I had it all figured out: You may remember my slightly overcooked but still delicious marmalade. When I mentioned that to the creator of the recipe, she suggested it might be good on ice cream due to its slight caramel flavor. That sounded perfect – just the thing to brighten up what was otherwise a very heavy, rich dessert.

The only thing here that’s really original is the Lavender Chantilly Cream. Heh…Chantilly. What a cute word! Lavender Chantilly sounds like a great name for a frilly-but-saucy lady who wears great hats, maybe in the early 1900s. Or an adorable flapper girl.

This plating is merely for decorative purposes. I'm not quite nutty enough to eat whole dried lavender like that.

I would have liked to have used a nicer tip to do the piping on that whipped cream, but I took that picture a couple days ago and only got my (giant!) set of new Ateco tips today (and they are fascinating). So, I did the best I could.

Lavender Chantilly Cream

...Also the cake is kind of frozen. What? The sun was going down, the cream was separating and I needed pictures!

1 cup whipping cream

2 Tbsp extra fine (not powdered) sugar, or granulated sugar pulsed in food processor or ground roughly with mortar & pestle (guess which I had to do)

2 Tbsp Monin lavender syrup

Place cream in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whip attachment, or use a handheld mixer. Whip the cream on high until soft peaks form, add the sugar and lavender syrup, then whip until stiff peaks form. Dollop onto cake with spoons or use a pastry bag to pipe.

And here is the recipe for the cake and ice cream. If you really like chocolate, and I mean REALLY like chocolate, I definitely recommend making it. It’s pretty easy and very tasty, just make sure you use good chocolate (I used Ghirardelli which in the scope of all things chocolate is pretty bottom-of-the-line…I mean it’s GOOD…for grocery-store chocolate…just use a chocolate you really really like).

Mmm, pile of tiny ice cream scoops.

Chocolate Valentino
Preparation Time:  20 minutes
16 ounces (1 pound) (454 grams) of semisweet chocolate, roughly chopped
½ cup (1 stick) plus 2 tablespoons (146 grams total) of unsalted butter
5 large eggs separated

1. Put chocolate and butter in a heatproof bowl and set over a pan of simmering water (the bottom of the bowl should not touch the water) and melt, stirring often.
2. While your chocolate butter mixture is cooling. Butter your pan and line with a parchment circle then butter the parchment.
3. Separate the egg yolks from the egg whites and put into two medium/large bowls.
4. Whip the egg whites in a medium/large grease free bowl until stiff peaks are formed (do not over-whip or the cake will be dry).
5. With the same beater beat the egg yolks together.
6. Add the egg yolks to the cooled chocolate.
7. Fold in 1/3 of the egg whites into the chocolate mixture and follow with remaining 2/3rds. Fold until no white remains without deflating the batter. {link of folding demonstration}
8. Pour batter into prepared pan, the batter should fill the pan 3/4 of the way full, and bake at 375F/190C
9. Bake for 25 minutes until an instant read thermometer reads 140F/60C.
Note – If you do not have an instant read thermometer, the top of the cake will look similar to a brownie and a cake tester will appear wet.
10. Cool cake on a rack for 10 minutes then unmold.

Dharm’s Ice Cream Recipe
Classic Vanilla Ice Cream
Preparation Time: 30 minutes

Recipe comes from the Ice Cream Book by Joanna Farrow and Sara Lewis (tested modifications and notes in parentheses by Dharm)

1 Vanilla Pod
300ml / ½ pint / 1 ¼ cups Semi Skimmed Milk – in the U.S. this is 2% fat (or use fresh full fat milk that is pasteurised and homogenised {as opposed to canned or powdered}). Dharm used whole milk.
4 large egg yolks
75g / 3oz / 6 tbsp caster sugar {superfine sugar can be achieved in a food processor or use regular granulated sugar}
5ml / 1 tsp corn flour {cornstarch}
300ml / ½ pint / 1 ¼ cups Double Cream (48% butter fat) {in the U.S. heavy cream is 37% fat)
{you can easily increase your cream’s fat content by heating 1/4 cup of heavy cream with 3 Tbs of butter until melted – cool to room temperature and add to the heavy cream as soon as whisk marks appear in the cream, in a slow steady stream, with the mixer on low speed.  Raise speed and continue whipping the cream) or use heavy cream the difference will be in the creaminess of the ice cream.

1. Using a small knife slit the vanilla pod lengthways.  Pour the milk into a heavy based saucepan, add the vanilla pod and bring to the boil.  Remove from heat and leave for 15 minutes to allow the flavours to infuse
Lift the vanilla pod up.  Holding it over the pan, scrape the black seeds out of the pod with a small knife so that they fall back into the milk. SET the vanilla pod aside and bring the milk back to the boil.
2. Whisk the egg yolks, sugar and corn-flour in a bowl until the mixture is thick and foamy.  3. Gradually pour in the hot milk, whisking constantly.  Return the mixture to the pan and cook over a gentle hear, stirring all the time
4. When the custard thickens and is smooth, pour it back into the bowl.  Cool it then chill.
5. By Hand: Whip the cream until it has thickened but still falls from a spoon.  Fold it into the custard and pour into a plastic tub or similar freeze-proof container.  Freeze for 6 hours or until firm enough to scoop, beating it twice (during the freezing process – to get smoother ice cream or else the ice cream will be icy and coarse)
By Using and Ice Cream Maker: Stir the cream into the custard and churn the mixture until thick (follow instructions on your ice cream maker)

I think I’m going to try to get an ice cream maker for my birthday this year. It’s deceptively easy to make and I’d love to experiment with more flavors. Just not until the weather is warmer!

Crepe Wednesday, Anyone?

I really wanted to post this yesterday, a.k.a. Pancake Day, a.k.a. Fat Tuesday, a.k.a. Mardi Gras.  But, unfortunately for me, I live in Maine, and we got hit with a big, stupid storm on Sunday night (that absolutely NO ONE seemed to see coming) and had our power knocked out from then until early this afternoon.  Out of over 150,000 people to lose power, we were among the last 20,000 to get it back.  Apparently the line crews were out on snowmobiles and with snowshoes.

Those strawberries were GOOD. Talk about a taste of summer in the middle of winter!

Luckily for me, we have a gas stove, so I was still able to make my crepes on Monday.  I figured crepes are an older, more traditional recipe than pancakes, and since Z wanted some kind of fruit and cream as topping instead of butter and syrup, crepes were a better fit.  We picked up some wonderfully ripe strawberries and kiwis at the store on Saturday and decided to use those, along with some homemade vanilla sugar whipped cream.  Do you have any idea how much cheaper it is to make your own whipped cream than to buy it in a pressurized can? About a third as cheap!  And you need less since whipping cream is so rich.

That is one golden plantain. Yum!

We had a few leftover on Tuesday and I decided to warm them in the oven, which made them crispy and toasty – perfect for wrapping around yummy, slightly-caramelized plantains.  I prepared the plantains the way I normally would: Sliced the long way, pan-fried in oil (canola or safflower, so it doesn’t smoke) and dusted with lots of cinnamon.  I topped everything off with some powdered sugar and they were wonderful.  The toasting and longer filling made them easy to pick up and eat sans forks (which were all dirty by that time anyway, and I couldn’t clean the kitchen since we have a well, which doesn’t work when the power is out).

One thing I was concerned about, being someone who finds 99% of her recipes via Google, was how was I going to access the recipe I’d bookmarked?  Hmmm…Then I remembered that I own a copy of The Joy Of Cooking, and all was well again.  I actually read the majority of the book over Monday and Tuesday, skipping the sections about skinning bunnies and butchering turtles.  For the record, I have absolutely no interest in turtle soup, mock or otherwise (so THAT’S why the Mock Turtle in my copy of Alice in Wonderland has a calf’s head…nasty).  Seriously, though, I’m so glad I bought this book.  My absolute favorite passage is a list of suggested additions and garnishes to homemade ice cream recipe, which includes such awesome items as preserved chopped ginger with some of the preserving syrup; crushed chocolate molasses chips (what are those and where can I find them?); crushed macarons plus sherry or liqueur; Polvo de Amor (homemade shredded coconut with a kickass name); candied violets (yes PLEASE); chopped candied citrus peel; crystallized angelica, cut in tiny fancy shapes (it actually says that and makes me giggle inside just typing it); decorettes (what are thooooose?); marzipan fruits; and Sweet Sauces.  Mmm, Sweet Sauces…

Crepes (adapted from The Joy Of Cooking)

Lacy lacy crepe!

3/4 cup AP flour

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp double-acting baking powder

2 Tbsp powdered sugar

2 eggs

2/3 cup milk

1/3 cup water

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Sift together the dry ingredients (I whisked and there were still bigger lumps than I would have liked, so definitely sift).  In a separate bowl, beat the eggs, then add in the rest of the ingredients and beat well.  Make a well in the dry ingredients and add the wet ones, combining with a few swift strokes, ignoring any small lumps.  Place a medium skillet (non-stick is fine) over medium heat and grease it with a few drops of oil.  Add a small amount of batter (1/8-1/4 cup) to the pan and tilt the pan around to allow the batter to spread out as much as possible.  When the crepe is lightly browned underneath and easy to lift, flip it and cook until the other side is browned as well (the first one probably won’t turn out well, which is normal).  Once both sides are evenly cooked, remove from pan.  Add a little more oil for each crepe.  If you use a bit too much oil it’s ok, you’ll just have crispier edges.

So goldeny!

To serve with strawberries, kiwi and vanilla sugar cream, slice berries and kiwis and alternate in a line across the bottom of each crepe.  Roll from the bottom up.  Grind a tablespoon or so of vanilla sugar with mortar & pestle (or grind in a food processor) to make fine sugar.  Whip 1/2 cup or so whipping cream to soft peaks and add sugar.  Whip to stiff peaks and dollop onto crepes.  Garnish with extra fruit slices and sprinkle with a little extra vanilla sugar.

To serve toasted with plantains, peel and cut in half, then slice in 1/4 inch thick planks.  Heat a few tablespoons of canola or safflower oil in a skillet or other shallow pan.  Fry plantains in two batches, turning once to get both sides evenly golden and caramelized around the edges.  Remove to a plate lined with paper towels and toss in ground cinnamon to coat.  Meanwhile reheat cooled crepes in a 200 degree oven for a few minutes, until warm and crispy.  Remove crepes from oven and lightly butter one side, then lay out plantain slices across the bottom of each crepe and roll from the bottom up.  Dust powdered sugar over the crepe and garnish each with a small piece of plantain.

Delicious Medicine

Winter. Ugh. I’m so over it. Aside from the gray, dreary skies, the frozen, dirty ground, the dry, itchy skin and ALL THAT SNOW, there’s a ton of nasty viruses giong around. Pretty much everyone I know has been sick lately, mostly all with stomach issues. I was sick a while ago with one of those viruses. No fun at all.

What if a spoonful of sugar IS the medicine?

One of the most effective things I tried to calm my stomach was ginger tea. Lots and lots of ginger tea. If I had had some of this crystallized ginger at the time, I would have been nibbling on it in between cups.

How about a paper cup-ful of the sweetest, hottest medicine?

I really enjoy candying things (and making candy in general), and I REALLY love ginger, so I knew I had to try making my own crystallized ginger. It’s different from the big, juicy slices of candied ginger you find in the store most of the time – the ginger is sliced very thinly and is chewy and dry with huge, crunchy crystals of sugar. I think I may have used too much sugar since I don’t have a scale and just guessed at the amount. It was still really fun and something I definitely will make again and again. I’d love to try making the big, thick, juicy kind of candied ginger, too.

Crystallized Ginger (recipe from Alton Brown)

Just looking at this makes me want to go eat more.

1 lb. fresh ginger, peeled and sliced thinly

5 cups water

1 lb. sugar (approximately – you want equal weight cooked ginger and sugar)

Place ginger and water in a 4 qt. saucepan, cover and cook over medium-high heat for 35 minutes, or until ginger is tender. Transfer the ginger to a colander to drain, reserving 1/4 cup of the liquid (I set aside as much as possible and reboiled some with extra sugar to make ginger syrup). Combine the ginger, 1/4 cup ginger water and sugar in the saucepan and set over medium-high heat. Bring to a boil, stirring frequently, then reduce the heat to medium. Keep stirring almost constantly until the syrup dries up (about 20 minutes) and sugar is recrystallized. Quickly transfer the ginger to a greased cooling rack over a pan and separate the pieces. If your syrup has completely dried up you will probably have to break pieces apart and remove excess gigantic sugar crystals (like I did). Once completely dry and cool, store in an airtight container up to 2 weeks.

I’m thinking I might chop some of these up for the second monolithic carrot cake I’m working on. Once I make them chewier, they’d be great for dipping in dark chocolate.

And the Marshmallows Just Keep Coming

I haven’t been doing an awful lot of new things that I can post about yet.  I tried to make key lime tartelettes and pots de creme last night, but that didn’t go as planned.  Lesson learned: never do your shopping according to one recipe and then use a different recipe.  Also, don’t have over 500 recipes bookmarked.  And even if you do, FOR GOODNESS SAKES SORT THEM ONCE IN A WHILE!

I’ve been continuing my marshmallow experiments.  They’re just so easy to make!  And you know I’m a sucker for anything that goes from hot slush to fluffy magic within minutes.  However, there was one problem with my recipe, and that was the corn syrup.  It’s probably the only corn syrup I consume, but it’s corn syrup nonetheless, and people don’t like that stuff (with good reason).  I figured since the corn syrup just gets boiled into a sugary mass then I could easily substitute something else for it.  And in the interest of science, I was going to substitute flavored syrups.

I had a jar of cara cara orange syrup sitting in the fridge from the last time I made candied orange peels, so for my first batch I halved the recipe I’ve been using and subbed the cara cara syrup for the corn syrup.  The result was a flowery, subtle citrus flavor, though there was a bit of a granulated crunch to the marshmallows.  That may be because I didn’t strain the syrup first – I’ll try that next time.  They also dried out a lot faster than normal because I made them fairly thin and cut them out in star shapes.  I wouldn’t make them that thin again, but the stars were cute.  I also used a bit of gel food coloring to try to make them orange, but they came out barely tinted.  Marshmallow just generally wants to stay white I guess.

Pretend you're a ninja! These throwing stars are safe to throw into friends' mouths!

I didn’t stop at orange, though – as you can see, I also made some purple marshmallows.  Violet, to be exact.  I replaced the corn syrup with some Monin violet syrup.  Those marshmallows came out much sweeter and smoother – they’re the softest, smoothest marshmallows I’ve made to date.  They are also very, very sweet, and I had to cut them into tiny little pieces because more than one small bite at a time was too much.  They also really like to absorb the powdered sugar I rolled them in, because they get stickier as time goes on and I’ve had to re-roll them once or twice.  So, not quite perfect, but good enough to pack in fancy little boxes and mail to people!  Yeah, even when you halve the already smaller-than-normal recipe I’ve been using, you still get way too many marshmallows for two people.

The idea here is that the violet marshmallows are like clouds, and the orange ones are the sun, hiding behind...Ehhh?

As you can see, I also used food coloring in the violet ones.  Despite the syrup being a lovely shade of deep violet, it didn’t come through in the actual marshmallows.  I used a lot of blue and a little red.  Mostly blue.  I like the color very much, kind of an understated grayish blue that reminds me of afternoon tea with refined old ladies.  These marshmallows beg to be served on a doily, with some nice china.  Maybe with some bitter hot chocolate.  I also think I want a flower-shaped cutter for them.  As fun as it is to dismember a giant marshmallow with kitchen shears, I’m not very good at cutting them straight (let alone spreading the marshmallow evenly before it sets).

I’m going to continue these experiments, and hopefully I’ll have better pictures to post of those results.  Once I candy some ginger I should have ginger syrup to play with, and I’d love to try making some rose ones, though I worry they might end up too strong as rose flavor can be really overwhelming.  I just can’t resist the idea of rosy pink marshmallows!

Anyone got any flavors they’d like to see me tackle?  I’d also like to try strawberry-chocolate, and maybe jasmine if I can figure out how to do that.  I’m sure if I went through the kitchen I could find all sorts of interesting possiblities.  I wonder if the syrup from canned fruit would work?  Of course, I’d have to come up with a use for the fruit, too (and that use would probably just be me eating it).

Iron Cupcake Earth: Coffee I

Don’t let this recipe color your opinion of me.  Yes, it is the fifth Iron Cupcake entry of mine in a row that contains alcohol.  I promise I am not an alcoholic!  In fact, I rarely even drink anymore and would generally much rather bake with any alcohol I do have.  The only reason this cupcake contains alcohol (which is in the batter anyway so the alcohol content bakes away, as opposed to the Ispahan cupcake which has drunkylicious frosting) is because a couple of months ago I acquired a bottle of homemade Tia Maria from my totally awesome mom.  As I’m not a big coffee drinker anymore, I was a little stumped by this challenge and was very glad to have a unique source of inspiration.

Don't you just love the color of that frosting?

I knew I wanted to create a cupcake based on a cocktail, but there aren’t too many drink recipes that use Tia Maria.  Generally, it’s used as a stand in for Kahlua.  No good – I wanted something that was specifically meant to use Tia Maria.  I searched around online for a bit and kept coming up with one recipe on many mixology sites:

The Alexandra

1/4 Tia Maria

1/4 Cream

1/4 Rum

1/4 Cocoa Cream

I wasn’t familiar with Cocoa Cream, so I looked it up.  It’s a liqueur flavored with chocolate and strawberries…that sounded good!

Whatcha doin' back there, cupcake?

Since I’ve got a pretty good basic cake recipe that I’ve been working with, I decided to use that.  It’s always light, moist and generally a great vehicle for experimentation, so I flavored it with the Tia Maria.  I chose a basic pastry cream filling flavored with vanilla bean – it’s pretty neutral, but a nice texture contrast in the middle of the cake, and is a good representation of the cream in the original drink.  I left out the rum, not really seeing a need to lushify my reputation further.  Though I considered tracking down a bottle of real Cocoa Cream to flavor the frosting, random liqueurs really aren’t in my budget at the moment so I took advantage of the Florida winter strawberry season and used fresh pureed strawberries and melted dark chocolate instead.  I’m glad I did because the frosting is the best part!

Miss Alexandra! Show some self-respect!

I’ll admit that I really enjoyed the process of figuring out the best way to translate a drink into a cupcake.  Have I mentioned that I went to bartending school?  Probably.  Well, my interest in mixology and in creative baking are definitely related.  Boozy reputation be damned, I might just keep this kind of thing up.  If I could afford it, I’d love to invent cocktails as a part of this blog as well.  But it’s cheaper to make cupcakes than to keep a well-stocked bar.

A couple notes on this recipe: I slightly overfilled the cupcake papers and got 18 cupcakes instead of the usual 24 for this base recipe.  Because of this, I halved the frosting recipe.  I was a little worried about this not yielding enough frosting, but it was perfectly fine.  I think using a meringue buttercream instead of a French one makes for more volume due to the fluffiness.  What is posted is what I did, so if you are making mini-cupcakes or something then you may have to double the recipe I give.

Alexandra Cupcakes

I'm honestly not trying to make such consistently girly cupcakes, they just come out this way!

For the Cakes:

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, soft and cut into Tbsp

1 1/2 cups sugar

2 cups AP flour

3 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1 cup Tia Maria or other coffee liqueur (Kahlua is probably too syrupy)

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

4 egg whites

Sift together the flour, baking powder and salt, set aside.  In a stand mixer, cream butter and sugar together until fluffy, then add the Tia Maria and dry ingredients alternately in fourths until fully incorporated.  Mix in vanilla, then add egg whites and mix on high until light and fluffy.  Bake in a preheated oven at 350 for 10-15 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of one comes out clean (edges will be just lightly golden).  Allow to cool fully before filling.

While the cupcakes are cooling, Make the Cream Filling:

1 1/4 cups milk

1 small vanilla bean, split

3 egg yolks

1/4 cup sugar

1/8 cup flour

Scant 3 Tbsp corn starch

Sift together flour and cornstarch, set aside.  Combine sugar and yolks, then add the flour mixture and combine well – it will yield a smooth paste when fully mixed.  Set aside.  In a small saucepan, combine the milk and vanilla over medium heat until the milk boils.  Remove from heat and add slowly to the egg mixture, whisking continuously to prevent the eggs from curdling.  Remove vanilla bean and strain mixture, if any lumps have formed.  Scrape remaining seeds from vanilla bean and add them to the mixture.  Place in a medium saucepan over medium heat, whisking constantly until it boils.  Keep whisking for another 30-60 seconds, until it is thick and hard to stir.  Remove from heat and pour into a clean bowl.  Cover with plastic wrap pressed down on the surface of the cream so that a skin doesn’t form.  Refrigerate until fully cooled.

Once both the cupcakes and the cream filling are cooled, you can fill the cupcakes.  Using a small round cookie cutter (about 1″…I didn’t have a round one and a half-moon shape worked great, I just had to twist it a little), press into the center of each cupcake, removing a little “cap” from the top.  Set aside and use a small spoon to hollow out the cupcakes a bit more.  Spoon enough pastry cream into each cupcake to almost fill the hole, then firmly press the “caps” back into place.  Keep refrigerated.

Now Make the Frosting:

2 egg whites

1/2 cup sugar

1/8 tsp cream of tartar

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened and divided into Tbsp

2 oz. dark chocolate, melted

1/4 cup pureed strawberries

1/8 tsp red liquid food coloring

Combine whites, sugar and cream of tartar over a double boiler with simmering water.  Whisk to combine, then continue whisking intermittently as you cook the mixture, about 5-7 minutes or until it reaches a temperature of 160 (to kill any bacteria).  Pour into the bowl of a stand mixer and whip on high for 6-8 minutes, or until stiff peaks form. Switch to the beater attachment and beat on medium high, adding the butter one piece at a time.  Wait until each piece is fully incorporated before adding the next, and if at any time the mixture should appear to “curdle” just wait it out; the beating motion will smooth everything out in a few minutes.  Once all the butter is mixed in and the frosting is light and fluffy, add the chocolate, strawberries and food coloring, beating until everything is an even color.  Scoop into a pastry bag fitted with your choice of tip and frost the cupcakes.

If I made these again, I might try adding a little espresso powder to either the cream or the cupcakes to heighten the coffee flavor.  The Tia Maria has good flavor and makes the cakes sweet and interesting, but not as coffee-ish as some might prefer.  I’m sure they’d turn out a little differently if you used commercial Tia Maria as well, but if you have the inclination to make homemade liqueurs, you’d have more control over the flavor in general.  I probably won’t make this whole recipe again, but the frosting is amazing and would be fantastic for Valentine’s Day, on a simple chocolate cake with a strawberry filling perhaps, or even on a plain white cake.

Since this is an Iron Cupcake entry, here’s the obligatory shtuff (and don’t forget to vote for me in the first week of March! Link will be posted once voting is open):

Our February ETSY PRIZE-PACK is from artists:

• DIANAEVANS - http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5599270
• as well as a pair of cupcake earrings from LOTS OF SPRINKLES at http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=6057281.
• PLUS, IronCupcake:Earth can not forget our good friend, CAKESPY, http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5243382, who is now going to be doing a piece for our winner each month until further notice – sweet!

As an added bonus for February, SWEET CUPPIN CAKES BAKERY AND CUPCAKERY SUPPLY will be tossing in a variety of cupcaking supplies, http://www.acupcakery.com/index.html.

Last and certainly not least, don’t forget our corporate prize providers: HEAD CHEFS by FIESTA PRODUCTS, http://www.fiestaproducts.com, HELLO CUPCAKE by Karen Tack and Alan Richardson, http://blog.hellocupcakebook.com, JESSIE STEELE APRONS http://www.jessiesteele.com; TASTE OF HOME books, http://www.tasteofhome.com; a t-shirt from UPWITHCUPCAKES.COM http://www.upwithcupcakes.com/. Iron Cupcake:Earth is sponsored in part by 1-800-Flowers, http://www.1800flowers.com .

Eating Sunshine for Breakfast

This is just a quick post about my first adventures in jam/jelly/preserves-making.  It’s not something I’m going to be getting into regularly, as the threat of botulism is a scary one, but this recipe is safe and easy.

It's not actually meant to be that dark...oops.

I did manage to screw it up, despite it being easy.  In my determination to get it to the right temperature I overcooked it quite a bit, and once it was in a jar and chilled it was like cement.  Not remotely spreadable.

So sweet and sticky. Yum!

When I had some time, I stuck the open jar in a pan of boiling water to loosen it, then reboiled the marmalade with some water and transferred it to a new (clean) jar.  Much better!

So what kind of marmalade is it?

I made this marmalade with meyer lemons and vanilla bean.  The recipe is here, and I encourage anyone who can get their hands on the ingredients to try it.  Just don’t boil it for an extra 15 minutes in an effort to get it to just the right temperature.

The flavor was only slightly affected by the over-boiling…a little more “caramelized” than it should probably taste, and definitely a little darker in color than it should be.  But it’s really tasty anyway and I’m definitely enjoying it!

Marsh of the Penguins

Confession: I’m a terrible vegetarian.

Using a cookie cutter to cut out marshmallows is not recommended unless you want to spend an hour doing it.

No, I haven’t been sneaking steaks, secretly gobbling chicken or snacking on sausages.  Nor do I plan to…yuck.  What I have been doing, however, is eating gelatin.

Something chocolatey lurks in the background...

Not straight-up gelatin, that would be gross.  Or Jello, for that matter.  Nope, I’ve been making and eating more marshmallows, which definitely contain gelatin.  Does that make me a bad vegetarian?

So soft and squishy!

Some would say yes, some would say no…I don’t really care either way!  They’re MARSHMALLOWS!

…Besides, it’s not like I’m vegan or a member of PETA (yikes) or anything.  At this point, there are two main reasons I don’t eat meat: It keeps me thin and healthy and, after ten years, I just don’t like the taste.

Aaanyway…MARSHMALLOWS!

March, little penguins! March into my mouth!

I was lucky enough this past Christmas to get a bunch of awesome cookie cutters from my best friend, one of which is shaped like a penguin.  I initially had another idea for a really cute use for it, but it will have to wait until the weather is warmer.  Right now, though, is definitely a good time for hot cocoa with tons of fluffy marshmallows, and what could be cuter than penguin marshmallows?

Admittedly I did not keep many of the penguins for myself – I made some cocoa mix and delivered jars of that along with little packages of squishy penguins to my former co-workers yesterday.  I did have to come up with a use for the scraps of marshmallow left over after I cut out as many penguins as I possibly could (I think I got 29 of them, not bad), so I busted out the kitchen shears and made mini-marshmallows!

These marshmallows are pure awesome.  The vanilla bean I used was particularly oily and lovely, and the little beans sometimes crunch in your mouth as you eat the marshmallows, giving an extra burst of vanilla flavor.  They also melt slowly and wonderfully, forming a thick layer of sticky-sweet goodness on top of the cocoa, as opposed to dissolving into nothing like commercially-made marshmallows.

You can see the little tiny bits of cayenne...mmm, spicy.

The cocoa mix I made is based off of Alton Brown’s recipe, and, unsurprisingly, is absolutely delicious.  The only thing I added was a bit of cinnamon, just because I don’t think hot chocolate is complete without it.  The recipe already called for cayenne pepper, which is a really brilliant addition that gives the cocoa heat even when it’s only lukewarm.  The cinnamon, I think, sort of bridges the gap between the chocolate and the pepper, so you don’t notice that extra heat until you swallow a sip of cocoa.

Vanilla Bean Marshmallows with Homemade Cocoa

Smooshy melty mallows!

For the Marshmallows:

1/2 oz. unflavored gelatin (2 packets Knox gelatin)

1/2 cup cold water + 1/4 cup

2 cups sugar

2/3 cup light corn syrup

1/4 tsp salt

1 vanilla bean, scraped, pod set aside for another use (I replenished my vanilla sugar supply, and had extra for a friend)

Powdered sugar

Place 1/2 cup cold water in bowl of a stand mixer.  Add gelatin and allow to bloom for 10 minutes.  Meanwhile, combine sugar, corn syrup and remaining water in a saucepan and bring to a boil.  Once it reaches a rolling boil, add it to the mixer bowl, along with the salt and vanilla.  Beat on medium-high for about 10 minutes.  You want it to be fluffy but not stiff.  While the mixer’s going, line a pan with oiled plastic wrap.  If you want big, thick marshmallows, use one that’s about 11″x7″…I used the biggest one I had since I wanted these to be fairly thin so I could use the cookie cutter on them.  Pour the marshmallow mixture into the pan and cover with another piece of oiled plastic wrap.  Allow to sit for 3 hours, then remove top layer of plastic wrap.  If you’re just cutting the marshmallows normally, flip the marshmallow into another pan filled with powdered sugar and cut with a knife or kitchen shears that have been coated with the sugar, re-applying it every other marshmallow or so.  Make sure to thoroughly dredge each marshmallow in the sugar so that there are no sticky spots.

If you’re using a cookie cutter, dust the top of the marshmallow with powdered sugar and coat the cutter with sugar as well, reapplying as needed.  You’ll still want to have a pan of powdered sugar for dredging.  Use kitchen shears to snip the remaining marshmallow scraps into small pieces and coat them in powdered sugar.  Store any marshmallows in an air-tight container for up to a couple of weeks.

For the Cocoa Mix:

1 cup cocoa powder

2 cups powdered sugar

2 1/2 cups powdered milk

1 tsp salt

2 tsp corn starch

Pinch of cinnamon

Pinch of cayenne pepper

Combine all ingredients in a large bowl and whisk together.  Store in an airtight container (will keep well for months, but you’ll go through it faster than that).  To make hot cocoa, fill a mug one third to one half full with mix and add boiling water.  Stir until dissolved and add marshmallows.

I actually had to make a second batch of cocoa mix this morning, as I gave most of the first batch away yesterday.  I’m normally not a fan of hot cocoa made with water, but the inclusion of powdered milk makes up for it.  The cocoa is rich, chocolatey, not too sweet, subtly spiced and just plain creamy goodness.  I even drank some instead of my usual gunpowder tea this morning.

Don’t You Just Love the Word Marshmallow?

I guess it’s been almost a week since I posted anything! Oops!

I’ve been having somewhat tea-themed adventures, and while the cookies I made weren’t exactly what I was looking for, I did make some lovely matcha marshmallows.

Sunny sunny matcha mallows!

I’d been looking around for a good marshmallow recipe to start with that didn’t use three packets of gelatin. If four packets come in a box and your recipe uses three, that’s just stupid math. Luckily, there was a recipe on Coconut & Lime that I was able to use. It was so easy and super food-magical (you know, food magic…like meringue and bread and stuff).

With two packets of gelatin, I got a ton of marshmallows and ended up mailing some to a cousin. I might even halve the recipe and try other flavors, to get thinner marshmallows. Then I can use cookie cutters on them.

These have a very strong matcha flavor, and are crazy fluffy and delicious. They are really good with dark chocolate, and if anyone’s got any good recipes for like a sweetened rice and/or sesame cracker, let me know – I want to make bastardized s’mores out of them. They’d be wonderful just covered with the chocolate, too.

I’ll be back with more food in a few days…I’ve got a ton of things I need to make this month but want to take some time to focus on art projects. I’ll post about the successful ones!