Help a baker make more whoopie...pies

A few days ago I learned about Beryl Hall who started a humble boutique bakery specializing in making just one thing: whoopie pies or as she calls them, cupcake sandwiches (love that!). After working in politics in Washington D.C. for years, at the age of 62 she decided to follow her heart. Armed with her family's recipes, her life savings, and a dedication to using only the best ingredients, Beryl rented a kitchen and B.Hall Baker was born.

That was three years ago and since then Beryl has made quite the name for herself. Her whoopie pie menu quickly grew from five flavors to over twenty-five, including my favorite, "whatever your little heart desires". I've never met Beryl or even tried one of her whoopie pies but I already know I like her!

Recently her sweet treats were awarded a 5 star ratings on The Knot which earned her bakery the Best of Weddings 2012 award. Not only that, but her sincere treats have been praised by Food & Wine Magazine, Daily Candy, and USA Today and that's just to name a few.

Because of all the great press, Beryl's business is booming but has quickly outgrown her rented kitchen. As such, she needs a little help buying a new oven which she desperately needs and a second refrigerator. To help her raise the $8,500 she has started a fundraising page on Kickstarter.
As of today she has raised over $5,500 towards her goal. That's where you come in. Could you send a dollar or two her way? She's sweetening the deal by providing some really yummy incentives! For a $10 pledge she will share her mother's fabulous Chocolate Cake recipe or for a $25 pledge she will send you two Whoopie Pies and her famous Chocolate Cake recipe. There are other packages to pick from too!

I know that we are asked to give money to all kinds of worth wild causes these days but this happy story touched my heart. I love seeing hard working people reach for their dream and be successful. That and I love the warm feeling I get helping out a fellow baker.

Inspiration in the thread count

Shortly after I completed the Happy Bee Day cake, my client Shauna was so delighted with her order she asked me if I would be interested in helping her with another baby shower. I was immediately interested because baby shower cakes usually offer the most creative challenges and have thus become my favorite type of party cake to make. However when Shauna told me that she wanted something with "...flowers and butterflies in soft pinks and lavenders..." I was a little deflated. So much so that I actually tried to talk her out of it. I asked for the mom-to-be's name so that I could take a peek at her registry to see if there was anything in there that could offer me inspiration. Shauna dealt with my artistic neurosis happily and sent me a link a few minutes after I asked. True to Shauna's word, Erin's, the mom-to-be, registry was brimming with pink and purple butterflies and flowers. Surprisingly the only things that she registered for was for various parts of the Gabrielle Nursery Bedding Collection. Could I translate the bedding into a cupcake design? A few weeks before the cake order was due I decided to make a pilgrimage to my local Pottery Barn Kids store so I could see the bedding up close. The sheets captured my attention first with their heart shaped leaves and arched branches in a mottled palette of browns, pinks, and lavenders. The large, echoing flowers in various sizes looked as though they had been traced from a cookie cutter. I started to "see" the finished cupcakes as I waited in line with a new muse: a pillowcase in the Gabrielle pattern. I just couldn't help myself.
You see, anyone that knows me knows how much I love bedding! I rarely ever buy a matched set and take pride in piecing together patterns and solids to create looks that I can call my own. I have created entire ensembles from sheets I bought from clearance bins, duvets from estate sales, and pillow cases from thrift stores. Some of my favorite patterns are from the late 1960s that have been washed so many times you would think they were 400 thread-count Egyptian cotton but...I digress. :) So where were we? Cupcakes! So along with some photos of the crib bumper I was able to create a entire cupcake theme using the pattern in the sheets. I decided early on that I'd try to create unique patterns for all the larger cupcake, keep the mini cupcakes simple, and focus on reinforcing the color palette into the cake pops. For a little something extra I hand-painted the new parent's initials on to the anchor cuppies. These two cupcakes held the banner that I hand-painted with the phrase "Cailín leanbh nua". It means "welcome baby girl" in Gaelic and was chosen by Shauna because the new parent's were, as Shauna said it, "300% Irish." And in keeping with the Irish theme, I made my go-to Guiness Chocolate Stout cupcakes and and topped them with Bailey's Irish Cream Cream Cheese frosting. I didn't want to use alcohol in the frosting and ended up using favored non-dairy creamer which to my surprise worked nicely.

Bailey's Irish Cream Cream Cheese Frosting
1/2 cup Irish cream flavored coffee creamer ( or actual Bailey's Irish Cream)
1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
8 oz cream cheese, softened
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon of cream of tarter
1 box (16 oz.) confectioners sugar (maybe more, maybe less)

1. Combine butter, cream cheese, salt, cream of tarter. Beat until light and fluffy and little to no clumps of butter are visible. Scrape down blade and bowl.
2. Add half of the confectioners' sugar slowly, beating on low speed. Scrape down blade and bowl.
3. Beat in irish cream coffee creamer one tablespoon at a time until desired consistancy is reached.
4. Add more powdered sugar until you get to your desired consistency and taste.

Yield: Enough to frost 24+ cupcakes
Would I Make This Again?Although using non-dairy creamer probably wouldn't be my go-to when making a frosting, it's nice to know there is a solid alternative to flavoring frosting when alcohol isn't an option.

R2D2 much fun

Sometimes all you really need is a little pomp and circumstance to make a cake great. I made this little R2D2 for little Luke's 5th birthday party. He might only be 5 but he's a huge Star Wars fanatic and really wanted an R2D2 cake for his party. I couldn't say no, could I? When Luke saw the finished product, oh how I wish I had had a camera! He was SO excited!
I made Mr. R2D2 entirely out of fondant but only because I didn't have enough gum paste on hand. I started out with a basic shape and slowly filled it up using layers of other colors and shapes. For a brief moment I considered putting a few tiny LEDs inside R2's top "eye" but just ran out of time. Maybe next time. :)

Happy Bee Day!

Hi everyone! It's been a long, long time since I've make a cake like this one (or blogged in general...my apologies for that). So long, in fact, that I had to read up on some of my techniques for working with fondant. Thank goodness Elisa Strauss wrote a cookbook! A few months ago a college from work referred her friend Shauna to me to make a cake for a baby shower she was hosting. Her theme was classic Winnie the Pooh and wanted something with warm yellows, sagey greens, and snuggley browns. She sent me a photo of a cake that she liked but gave me artistic freedom to make changes as I saw fit. I tried to stick to her original muse as much as I could. I made the colors a little softer, made the bees cuter, and "Julia-fied" the overall look. :) In addition to the beehive cake I also made 30 cupcakes and 24 cake pops. The beehive cake was made entirely out of my tried and true Chocolate Stout Cake. It's perfect for carving as its dense texture really holds its shape well. I made it two days early so it could sit in the fridge and chill. This allows the chocolate flavors to really blossom and develop. I filled it with chocolate ganache and chocolate cream cheese frosting and did two layers of Italian meringue buttercream on the outside to seal and stabilize the cake further. This also provides an excellent canvas for the fondant.

The cupcakes were a combination of the same chocolate flavor and one of my favorites, Vanilla Malt. It's a great alternative to just plain vanilla but really benefits from a dominantly flavored frosting like milk chocolate. However, since I needed to dye the cupcake frosting green and yellow, it had to have a white base so chocolate was out of the question. So I added a layer of homemade dulche de leche between the cupcake and the frosting for just a little extra flavor. No matter how cute it looks, it still has to taste good! I had so much fun making this cake! It's nice to know that I haven't forgotten everything I've learned over the years. And the best part, it got me to post again and for that I'm beeyond happy. :)

PS: If anyone knows where I can find these little fluted cupcake liners, I would be very appreciative. I ordered them a few years ago and can't remember where I found them online. They are rigid and don't need to bake in a cupcake pan. I love them!

Malt-Ball Cake
adapted from Brooklyn's Baked Bakery

Cake
2 1/4 cups cake flour
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup malted-milk powder (I like Carnation brand)
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
1 stick unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/2 cup solid vegetable shortening, at room temperature
2 cups sugar
1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract (Best quality you can get. It has a big influence on the flavor!)
2 cups ice water
4 large fresh egg whites, at room temperature (avoid egg whites in the carton)

MAKE THE CAKE
Preheat the oven to 325°. Butter and flour three 8-inch cake pans and line the bottoms with parchment paper or line a a cupcake tin. In a large bowl, whisk the flours with the malt powder, baking powder, baking soda, salt and nutmeg.

In the bowl of a standing electric mixer fitted with a paddle, beat the butter with the shortening until creamy. Add the sugar and vanilla and beat at medium speed until fluffy, about 3 minutes. Beat in the dry ingredients in 3 batches at low speed, alternating with the ice water, occasionally scraping down the side of the bowl.
In a clean bowl, beat the egg whites at medium-high speed until soft peaks form. Fold the egg whites into the batter. Divide the batter between the pans, spreading it evenly, and bake the cakes for 40 to 45 minutes until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Let the cakes cool in the pans for 20 minutes, then invert them onto a rack and let cool completely. Peel off the parchment.

To make cupcakes, bake for approximately 12-15 minutes. Remove from the oven the moment that the cake is solid on the surface and when you put a toothpick in the center of one of the cakes it comes out clean. Let them sit on a cooling rack in the pan for about 5 minutes. The cupcakes will continue to bake while they cool off and they get more stable too so don't be tempted to pick them up or they will crack.

Home made Dulce de Leche

1 can of sweetened condensed milk
pinch of salt

Put oven rack in middle position and preheat oven to 425F.

Pour condensed milk into pie plate and stir in a generous pinch of salt. Cover pie plate with foil and crimp foil tightly around rim. Put in a roasting pan, then add enough boiling-hot water to reach halfway up side of pie plate, making sure that foil is above water. Bake, refilling pan to halfway with water about every 30 minutes, until milk is thick and a deep golden caramel color, about 1 1/4 to 2 hours. Remove pie plate from water bath and transfer toffee to a bowl, then chill toffee, uncovered, until it is cold, about 1 hour.

Yield: 1 9x9 cake (enough to make about 25 cake pops) and 18 cupcakes Would I Make This Again?Yes! I love these recipes. They are now a part of my go-to list!

Juanita's Space-Time ContinuYum Chocolate Mayonnaise Cake

It has been months since I made this cake but it was a recipe that I really wanted to blog about. For one, it tastes fan-freaking-tastic and I don't even like chocolate cake. But, more importantly, making this cake reminded me of the all the reasons why I enjoy baking, most specifically, the ability to trigger a taste-memory or feeling of nostalgia for the recipient.

On a crisp, chilly Sunday morning, while eating breakfast with my boyfriend's mom and dad, I learned that his dad had a birthday fast approaching. For my gift to him I offered to make him any dessert he wanted. At first he politely declined but in almost the same breath he changed his tune. "You know," he said, his eyes grew wide, "there is actually this one cake my mother used to make. I haven't had it in decades, but I remember it was chocolate and it was made with..." and he paused, "...it was made with MAYONNAISE!" Without missing a beat (or even a hint of a wince), I flashed him a dimpled smile and said, "I can make that! What flavor frosting?" He looked almost childlike and practically blurted, "Chocolate cake with chocolate frosting! That's just how she made it." In that moment, I was so excited to make it I think I actually clapped and bounced up and down a little in the booth.

On the day of his birthday, my boyfriend treated him to lunch and since I couldn't go, he broght the cake with him. Later that evening I got the sweetest text message from his dad. Unfortunately I don't have it verbaitum but it was something along the lines of, "...Your cake created a bit of a space time continuum! For a few minutes today I felt like a little boy sitting at my mom's kitchen table. It was wonderful! Thank you so much!..."

My heart swelled a little in that moment. Mission accomplished.

Juanita's Space-Time ContinuYum Chocolate Mayonnaise Cake

Cake
2 ounces bittersweet chocolate (do not exceed 61% cacao), chopped (try using block chocolate and not chips if you can. I used chocolate from Trader Joe's)
2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (Droste is my preferred brand)
1 3/4 cups boiling water
2 3/4 cups all purpose flour (unbleached is fine)
1 1/4 teaspoons baking soda
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup (packed) dark brown sugar or light brown sugar + 1 tablespoon of molasses
1 1/3 cups full-fat mayonnaise like Hellman's or Best Food's brand (do NOT use reduced-fat, fat-free, olive oil based mayo, or Miracle Whip)
2 large eggs at room temperature
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Frosting
10 ounces bittersweet chocolate (do not exceed 61% cacao), chopped (try using block chocolate and not chips if you can. I used chocolate from Trader Joe's)
1 1/2 cups (3 sticks) unsalted butter , room temperature
3 cups powdered sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla extract

For cake
Preheat oven to 350F. Butter and flour three 8-inch-diameter cake pans with 1 1/2-inch-high sides. Combine chopped chocolate and cocoa powder in medium metal bowl. Add 1 3/4 cups boiling water and whisk until chocolate is melted and mixture is smooth. Set aside.

Sift flour, baking soda, and baking powder into another medium bowl. Set aside.

Using electric mixer, beat both sugars and mayonnaise in large bowl until well blended, 2 to 3 minutes. Add eggs 1 at a time, beating until well blended after each addition - about a minute each. Beat in vanilla. Add flour mixture in 4 additions alternately with chocolate mixture in 3 additions, beating until blended after each addition and occasionally scraping down sides of bowl and the beater. Divide batter among prepared cake pans (about 2 1/3 cups for each).

Bake cakes until tester inserted into center comes out clean, 30 to 32 minutes. Cool cakes in pans on racks 20 minutes. Run small knife around sides of cakes to loosen. Carefully invert cakes onto racks and let cool completely. Wrap in plastic and store in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours or until the cake is totally chilled. I would strongly encourage you to store it at least 24 hours though. This helps the flavor to become more developed and makes the cake easier to frost.

For frosting
Place chopped chocolate in medium metal bowl. Set bowl over saucepan of simmering water (NOT boiling!) and stir until chocolate is melted and smooth. Carefully remove bowl from over water and let melted chocolate cool until lukewarm, stirring occasionally.

Using electric mixer, beat butter in large bowl until smooth and creamy. Sift powdered sugar over butter and beat until well blended, about 2 minutes. Beat in vanilla. Add melted chocolate and beat until well blended and smooth, occasionally scraping down sides of bowl and the beater.

Assembly
Place 1 cake layer on platter. Spread 3/4 cup frosting over top of cake layer to edges. Top with second cake layer; spread 3/4 cup frosting over. Top with third cake layer. Spread remaining frosting decoratively over top and sides of cake. Cover with cake dome and let stand at room temperature at least an hour before serving.

Yield:Depends on the way you cut this little cake but about 6-8 pieces. Would I Make This Again? Yes. This is my new go-to chocolate cake recipe. It was so moist, very chocolaty but not overly so, and it's fun to make. Good conversation piece!

wouldn't pink blueberries be purple?

Hello everyone! A big, huge hug to all of you that took the time to send me email and leave comments...wow, I was pretty overwhelmed by the outpouring of support! You guys are really very special to me and it means a lot that you all care so much. Your encouragement has contributed to me being able to move forward. Everyday is getting a little better.

This winter in Seattle has been a bit strange. We had a lot of snow around Thanksgiving, but since then we've only seen a few flurries and a lot of rain. We've been spared the frigid temperatures that so much of the country has been suffering with. But because the weather has been so mild, many of my spring bulb have started to pop-up all over my yard! This has me thinking about cleaning out my plant beds and planting something new, but what? Well, I was at the doctor's office one day a few weeks ago and while flipping through a magazine, an article about pink blueberries caught my attention. Yep, you read that right, PINK blueberries! How fun! I can't wait to plant a pair in my yard and make a batch of pink blueberry muffins. Stark Bro Nursery has them available for sale (along with a lot of other great plants!) and calls them Pink Lemonade Blueberries. I wonder if the name is indicative of the flavor? I can't wait to find out! And here's a bonus: they've graciously agreed to give my readers $5 off any order $50 or more. Just enter coupon code: 12FLOURS (valid 2/10 - 4/30, 2011, 1 use per customer.)

By the way, I have been baking a little and plan to blog a few things that I've made very soon. Thanks for sticking with me!