Hummingbird Takes Flight

I finally made the hummingbird cake this last Sunday after watching the Bears lose to the stinky cheese Packers. Needless to say, I drank one two many beers and came home and wanted to bake. Charlie's brother Craig came over too, so I had a new person to try my baked goods. Even though I was slightly inebriated, I was able to pull off a delicious cake!

I made the cream cheese frosting... and it was one of my best batches. I wanted to practice my two tone frosting technique, so I decided to add some blue. It didn't come out as planned, but I was using a ziplock bag instead of a decorating bag. Then I topped it with some toasted coconut that I torched with my new kitchen torch.

They were a hit. The coconut really tied in all the flavors. I took a bunch to work and spread the joy and everyone seemed to like them--including my mom who doesn't like anything that has fruit, nuts, or coconut, or anything really good for you. So after spitting out the walnuts, and scraping off the coconut, she finally said, "Mmmmmm." And many other people at work declared them to be the best cupcakes they have ever had. (I have already turned some of the left over cakes into cake truffles that are finishing up on the counter right now, and they look yummy!)


Other updates, my cupcake order has been pushed back two weeks. There were some family issues, so now I will being baking them for February 12. Which is good. That gives me time to really practice my frosting, and try out some new recipes. I'm thinking about doing a Vanilla Bean Cookies and Cream cupcake today. I already made Chuck the peanut butter blossoms I pinky sweared I would make for him, so the kitchen is open to make some other things.

I wonder what will be for dinner tonight. I'm in the mood to cook something new.

My First Cupcake Order

So today I got my first order for cupcakes from a co-worker whose niece is having a birthday next week. To me, this is exciting mostly because I love to bake, and like to make people happy, but because someone else liked my cupcakes enough to want to buy them. It's a "princess" themed party, and she wants 1 dozen chocolate and 1 dozen white vanilla (like the ones from the baby shower) with a whipped frosting. Now I just need to decide on a price, and decorations. I have already enlisted the help of my mom next Thursday since my usual assistant will be working. I'm thinking I want to maybe make a crown to top off the frosting, and some sanding sugar for a little pizazz. I got a few days to plan before I do some shopping. Maybe with this order, there will be more and soon I'll be getting orders all the time. Maybe not enough to quit my job and retire into the kitchen, but enough to have fun days off baking and having the house smell like a bakery.

Other news, my soon to be mother-in-law found a kitchen torch at a thrift store, in the box, pretty much brand new from williams-sonoma, and got it for me. I can't wait to make s'mores cupcakes and torch the little marshmallow on top.

There's so many things to do! First things first though, birthday cupcakes that get my little home bakery going!

You can never have too many bananas in your freezer

There was a woman at work, and when her father died, his freezer was full of bananas. Her dad made banana bread a lot. I always think of that when I open my freezer. I just put a fresh batch in there the other day and made a few loaves of banana bread. It's easy to make, and it calms me and helps me stop thinking about things going on in life. And I needed that after this last week and a half. My mom recently had a cancer scare, and I had never been so scared in my life. I didn't know if I could handle losing my mom, and her being sick, or anything. My mom means a lot too me, and I kept thinking of all the lost time when I was a teenager and I didn't like her. And then we she moved to Arizona, and I was left in Indiana. Those were the longest two years without my mom. You never realize how much your mom means to you until she's not there anymore, and I didn't think I could handle that. But it was good news... her PET scan came out good. She still has emphysema, but we can work with that. I just realized how much cooking helps me get through a lot of things. If I have a bad day at work, or suddenly feel like I'm in a rut and that I will spend forever working at a meaningless job, I always turn to the kitchen.

 I just hope that when I'm gone, my son or daughter will find bananas in my freezer, and always remember that.

So I made the cake balls. I used the left over Red Velvet cupcakes from the baby shower and the chocolate appeals from the chocolate monograms.  I think they turned out fantastic, and now I know what to do with left over cake and cupcakes. Perfect, if I own a bakery.

Also this last week, I made a family recipe for Beef and Barley soup. It's from my dad's side of the family, and this is the first recipe I've gotten from the Bair side. Surprisingly it's really easy and delicious. I just put some beef stock I made from prime rib in a crock pot. Added about a 1/2 can (a big can) of tomato juice and some beef stew meat. I cooked that on low all day and had my sous chef Chuck add the barley in before I got home from work. Well, he added the whole box of barley. So when I got home, there was no liquid! I added the rest of the can on tomato juice and about a cup and half of water and let that simmer. I also added some dried bay leaves and garlic salt and pepper to give it a little more flavor. After everything was said and done, it was very good, even with all that barley. I gave some to my parents and they loved it. So I guess it was a recipe artfully executed, and will be done many more times.

I got the can of pineapple for the hummingbird cake, and the coconut so now I'm just trying to find the time to make it. I still want to make bagels, and have yet to try the Irish Carbomb cupcake. But, I'm getting there. The list of things I want to do keeps getting longer, but at least I'm still crossing things off the list.

Update and Ideas

Well the cupcakes were a hit yesterday. At least I hope they were because I only had a chance to eat a vanilla one, and never got to try the chocolate strawberry cream filled one, which I think I will call the "Cebria" cupcake in honor of the up and coming baby and her wonderful mother. They were all gone. That's fine by me though. I have some left over red velvet ones in the garage right now. (yes, the garage is cold, and my kitchen and refrigerator is cluttered enough as it is.)  But, I enjoyed baking these baby shower cupcakes, and think that I would really love to do this day after day for people, because cake makes people happy. Actually anything freshly baked and homemade just for you makes you happy.  At least it makes me happy.

So now, with the left over cupcakes I want to try and make these cake ball that I saw in the December 2010 issue of Food Network Magazine. There are a lot of companies out there already making them, so I'm assuming they've been around for awhile so contrary to a lot a beliefs, it isn't something new and inventive if you come across them. The Cake Ball Company in Dallas, Designer Bake Shop in Hollywood, Austin Cake Ball Shop in Austin, and Bakers at Sacred Sweets in Long Island are a few companies out there that are offering these little pieces of heaven. They are pricey though, but I am tempted to order some just to try them.  But really, it doesn't seem that hard. Cake and the frosting, mixed and rolled into a ball, then dipped in chocolate. It's like a cake truffle, and that's what mine will be. Bair Cave Cake Truffles. I might do that later today.

I also have been toying around with the idea of an Irish Car Bomb cupcake. A chocolate stout cake filled with a caramelized whiskey center and then topped with a stout infused chocolate buttercream. We'll see about that one. I'll have to google it and get some ideas. Any thoughts?

I still want to make my smores cupcake and peanut butter cup one too. But those really seem easy enough to execute so I'm not too worried about those. But I was watching Cupcake wars today, and I really want to try and make a hummingbird cake. I have seen a lot of recipes for them and it seems delicious, minus the coconut, but I am willing to work through the texture and try it. After all, I have been doing good with eating oranges and not gagging, and I do like macaroons. I'm sure I can get my assistant baker, Chuck, on board for that one.

And I need to work on writing on cakes. I don't think I have the touch to write words on cakes. I try, but it just doesn't come out like I want....

It's not bad, but not what I had in mind. And I needed a smaller tip to do that. But it tasted good.

I don't know what's next in my kitchen, but I do know I need to plan some dinners for the next week and go grocery shopping. So maybe next blog will be some cooking instead of baking. Not sure where it's going to go, but at least it's going.

Baby Shower

A fantastic woman at work is having a baby soon. We have seen her through her whole pregnancy. To me, it's been wonderful to see this. She is truly happy, and thankful, and humble, and caring, and loving. She is going to make a great mother. You never really see someone so incredibly thankful that a baby chose them to be their mom, and this woman is. She is due very soon, and everyone at work is counting down the days until we see this beautiful baby (the father also works with us, so it is twice is exciting). So this Wednesday we are throwing her a work baby shower. Nothing too big, but big enough to show her that we are there for her and super excited for her. Since I love to bake, I wanted to do something really special for her.

Today I spent 8 hours baking 3 different cupcakes, 1 cake, 2 frostings, buttercream roses, a strawberry cream filling, and chocolate monograms.

First cupcake made was a red velvet with buttercream frosting. (I would have done cream cheese frosting, but I wanted to make the assembly line easier, so I stuck with buttercream.) I wanted to do chocolate monograms for these, but I didn't have much success with it. I'm too impatient and want things to be done right the first time. So, I didn't do what I had planned but I think they still turned out okay in the end.

After the Red Velvet, I made a white cake and a chocolate cake, made 12 cupcakes of each and used the rest of the batters to make a marble layer cake.  The vanilla cake was topped with vanilla buttercream and heart sprinkles.

The chocolate was filled with a strawberry cream filling made from a recipe on Wilton.com, and then topped with a chocolate ganache using white and dark chocolate swirled chips I got from work, that I have dubbed the Willy Wonka chocolate chips. For decoration, I made pink roses and put those on top.

I frosted the marble cake with buttercream using the fantastic spatulas my wonderful boyfriend gave me for christmas. It's not fantastic, but cupcakes are more my thing. And I'm not good at my letters yet.

So I spent 8 hours today setting off a baking bomb in my kitchen, and not only did it make me happy, I hope it make another special someone happy.

If only I could spend 8 hours every day baking, and make money, I would definitely have a happy life doing what I love. But for now, I do it as a hobby for other people to make their days a little better.

Bananas and Honey

So last Thursday I decided I was going to experiment and do some baking. I planned my day around it. I looked up recipes and compared to others. I checked my pantry to make sure I had what I needed and prepared to bake.

First off, I've been dying to make a banana cupcake with peanut butter frosting. I took a simple white cake recipe and added in 3 mashed bananas that are over taking my freezer. (Banana bread is a common occurrence in my house when I have buttermilk.) 25 minutes at 350, and they came out fantastic. It was the perfect density, it was moist, and it was delicious. I winged some peanut butter frosting and I had a fantastic cupcake. Since these were only taste testers, they are very pretty looking, but in the end, all that matters is how it tastes.

Then, I have been wanting to make a honey vanilla cupcake... which didn't come out as perfect as I wanted, but I didn't think it through as I threw this one together. I did the same white cake recipe from the banana one, but then added 1/4 c. honey to the batter and another splash of vanilla. I didn't think that the batter would raise a little more than the banana so I filled it 2/3 full. Well, it did, so they didn't look as good. Then I made a cream cheese frosting and mixed in honey hoping to pull more of a honey taste from the whole thing, but the powdered sugar was a bit too much, and it was too sweet. Then I thought if I added something bitter it would offset the sweetness over all and balance it out. I sprinkled some cinnamon sugar on top and it actually worked. I would like to tweek the recipe a little more, but all in all it was a success.

So I took them to work to share my success, and the few people that ate them ( since I'm picky who I share with) seemed to enjoy them, and that's really why I like baking. I like to see people happy and enjoy food.

Chocolate Cupcake with Mint Chocolate Truffle Center topped with Cream Cheese Frosting

Let's See

So I've been trying to decided how I want to start this, or if it's even worth it, and where is it going to go, and who will even read it. And I have no answers for any of that. The only thing I can really think of to do, at first, is put pictures up and just write what they are about. I would like to start a weekly blog about the things I've made each week, cooking and baking, but with the holidays just ending, I'm trying to find time to actually experiment and try things. So for now, we'll start off with some things from last year.