Chicago Cubs Red, White, and Blue Celebration Cupcakes

Guess what?! This is my 150th post, woo hoo! Boy that's a lot, huh? Sometimes I look at this blog and I can hardly believe that it's mine. Speaking of which, have no noticed how little I've been posting lately? Well, I think I the baking blahs. Maybe it's just the warm days of summer? Who knows! I am not saying that I'm going to stop blogging, but I think I just need a little break from it for a while so don't be alarmed if you don't see anything new from me between now and the beginning of August. My hope is that with a nice long break, I'll come back ready and raring to go. Knowing me, I'll probably be back to posting well before then.
In the mean time I wanted to post these red, white, and blue cupcakes in anticipation of the big holiday month of July. Not only is it Independence Day here in the USA, but it's Canada Day (just red and white, of course) on the 1st and Bastille Day in France on July 14th. All three holidays can benefit from the theme. I made these cuppies for a friend at work as gift for her friend's 27th birthday (that's where the idea for the jersey came from). Since she asked me to come up with something that a Chicago Cubs fan would love, I thought it would be fun to try to do a swirly red, white, and blue "tie-dye" theme along with some fun decorative Cub logos I made out of fondant and gum paste. They came out so good I decided to use the same technique on Emma's Beachy Keen Cupcakes.
I used Martha Stewart's Versicle Yellow Cake recipe for these cupcakes. I'm totally in love with this cake and it worked well for this recipe as well. I have to say those that because of the extra moisture from the food coloring gel, the cupcakes tend to shrink after they bake, but they still taste really yummy!

Red, White, and Blue Cupcakes
adapted from Martha Stewart

3 sticks unsalted butter, at room temperature
3 3/4 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for pans
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoon salt
2 1/4 cups sugar
3 large eggs plus 5 large egg yolks
1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract (or lemon if you prefer a lemony cupcake)
1 1/2 cups low-fat buttermilk

Your choice of Food Coloring Gel (America Color Red-Red and America color Navy Blue are the colors I used)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line cupcake pan with white cupcake liners.

In a medium bowl, whisk flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.

In a large bowl, using an electric mixer, beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy. With mixer on low, beat in eggs and yolks, one at a time. Beat in vanilla. Alternately beat in flour mixture and buttermilk, beginning and ending with flour mixture; mix just until combined. (Beware! The batter is super yummy! Try not to eat it all!)

Divide the batter between three bowls. Set one aside. Using gel based food coloring, add drops of red food coloring gel until you reach the desired color. Be prepared to add a lot of color to get really vibrant colors, especially with the red. Be sure to mix really well with a small fork or spoon and to scrape the bottom of the bowl too to look for any pockets of white batter. Repeat with the second bowl of batter using the blue food coloring gel.

Using a normal everyday tablespoon, take your time and fill the cupcakes with a layer of batter in each of the three colors (or how ever number of colors that you're using). There's really no wrong way to do this -- just have fun! Just use small blobs and try to focus their placement towards the edges of the paper, instead of the middle, but be sure to put some in the middle too. Fill the cup until they are a little more than 2/3rds the way filled. Using a toothpick, gently swirl the cupcakes, being careful not to touch the cupcake paper. This isn't a totally necessary step, but it does make the cuppies look really pretty!

Bake the cupcakes for 18-22 minutes, until the centers come out clean. Remove from the oven and let the cupcakes sit for about 5 minutes before removing them. NOTE: The cupcakes will look big and glorious after you take them out of the oven. However, the will shrink like a shrinky dink! Don't worry though -- they will still look and taste good.

Let them cool completely before frosting them.

Yield: around 30-33 cupcakes
Would I Make This Again?Yes! Although next time I want to try making it with powered food coloring to see if that effects the whole shrinky-dink factor.

Two Cakes for the Road: Mountain Biking and Liverpool Soccer Club

I really wish I could have recorded the moment when my friend arrived to pick up her cake order, because it was one of the most precious memories I'll have for a long time! You see, Stephanie had ordered two cakes to celebrate two birthdays: one for her husband Roger that was decorated with a mountain biking theme, and a second one for their friend Gavin who is a die hard Liverpool Soccer Club fan. Stephanie was trying to keep it a surprise but eventually had to spill the beans.

Stephanie, her husband, and their new baby Conner arrived at my house late on an overcast Friday morning to pick up the cake as they were leaving to go to Cannon Beach for the weekend. At first Roger didn't know why they had to stop by my house but the moment he got out of their truck, he had this big grin on his face and said, "Ohh! Am I getting a Julia cake?!" and then proceeded to jump up and down like a little kid. So adorable!!

I had the cake covered in a box but he couldn't wait to see it. With Stephanie's permission I opened the lid to show it to them and the look on his face was absolutely priceless. He loved it! I gave them a moment alone while I went in search of a better carrier; and when I returned, Roger and Stephanie were hugging. He was thanking her for his birthday cake, it was a very sweet and genuine moment. It was something very special; I was so excited to be a part of it, and it will be something I won't soon forget. For the design of Roger's cake I used a combination of designs that I found on the Earth Design Website (which is a really cool site, check it out!): a sprocket wind chime and a Kokopelli guy doing a wheelie. I decorated the base of the cake using chocolate rocks that I found at my local grocery store's bulk food department. For the cake itself, it was a very deep chocolate that was filled and frosted with Oreo frosting. I had made way too much filling and decided to use it to frost the cake, which in the end was a good thing because it replicated the look of mud! Just one of those happy accidents. This chocolate cake recipe is one that I use a lot but this time decided to try something different and replace the sour cream with Oikos Greek Yogurt. The good folks at Stonyfield farms sent me some coupons to try their yogurt for free, and it was excellent! According to Stephanie and Roger, the cake was really moist and a little tangy (in a rich, dark chocolate sort of way).

Perfect Chocolate Party Cake
adapted from Elisa Strauss

2 2/3 cups (12 ounces) All-purpose unbleached flour
1 1/2 cups unsweetened cocoa powder, best quality you can find (I prefer Droste)
2 cups (14 ounces) granulated sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 cup Stonybrook Farms Oikas Greek yogurt (you'll need 2 5.3 ounce containers)
1 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1 teaspoons almond extract
1 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
2 eggs, at room temperature
10 ounces strong coffee, at room temperature

Preheat the oven to 350F. Brush the bottoms and sides of the pans with melted butter and line the bottoms with parchment paper.

In a large bowl, sift together the flour, coco powder, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.

In a separate bowl, combine the yogurt, vanilla, and almond extract. Set aside.
In the bowl of a standing mixer fitter with a paddle attachment, combine the butter and sugar and beat on medium speed until smooth.

Set the mixer to low speed and add the eggs, one at a time, scraping thoroughly between each addition.

Alternately add the flour and sour cream mixtures to the butter mixture in two batches, starting and ending with the flour mixture. Scrape down the bowl after each addition.

Gradually pour in the coffee. Scrape down the bowl and beat until thoroughly
combined.

Divide the batter evenly between the cake pans. For 9-inch cake pans, bake 1 hour or until a toothpick comes out clean; for half-sheet pans, bake 45 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean; for cupcakes, bake 20 to 25 minutes, or until they spring back after being touched.

Allow the cakes to cool for 20 minutes. Once the cake is cool, release it from its pan by running a metal spatula or knife along the sides of the pan. Flip the cake over onto another pan or cake board and peel away the layer of parchment.

Oreo Cake Frosting
adapted from EasyCakeIdeas.com

1 pound bag of powdered sugar
1/2 cup milk
1/8 to 1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
2 sticks butter, cut into ½ inch slices, that's at room temperature
1/2 cup plain shortening
1 cup crushed Oreos

Using the whisk attachment on your electric mixer, mix the powdered sugar, salt, vanilla and milk at low speed until smooth.

Add butter, one slice at a time, until incorporated

Add shortening and whip at highest speed 10-12 minutes, until volume increases by at least 50%.

Add crushed Oreos, beat on high speed until it's well combined.

Yield:The cake recipe makes four 6" chocolate cakes or three 9" cakes, 24 cupcakes, or one half-sheet cake. The recipe for the filling made a lot of frosting, enough to fill both 6" cakes, frost them, and have quite a bit left over. My guess is that there was about 3-4 cups of frosting.
Would I Make This Again? Yes! This is my go-to chocolate cake recipe and now that I've tried it with Greek yogurt, I don't think I'll ever go back to using sour cream again. The buttercream frosting base is my new go-to recipe for frosting, especially for cupcakes. It's very smooth and thick, and the texture is just perfect.

Emma's Beachy Keen Cuppies

Tomorrow is Emma's 9th birthday and these cupcakes were made to celebrate her last year of being in the single digits. I made these last night and instead of spending a bunch of time writing a long blog post, I've decided to just hurry up and share these with you. I have a bunch more posts coming so stay tuned for the recipes. I just couldn't wait! (If you want to see a full screen version of the slideshow, click here.)

A Cake For The Books

Boy am I behind! I usually try to post more often but lately it's been really hard for me to blog. Part of it has been due to the amazingly beautiful weather that Seattle has been fortunate to receive the last few weeks but the other reason has been because I've just been really busy! (So to all my fellow bloggers, I'm really sorry for not commenting more on your posts... I'm trying!)Anywho, here's a cake I made last weekend for my neighbor Liz. Her son was graduating from high school and she wanted a cake that incorporated a bunch of things: his high school graduation, the fact that he was a goal keeper on his soccer team and his acceptance to college. That's a tall order! I thought about making a soccer field but just couldn't "see" it with everything else she wanted on the cake. Then one morning during a brutal run, it came to me: a book! I presented my idea to Liz and she loved the concept. Filling the pages was a bit harder than I anticipated and wished I could have thought of some more things to decorate the "college" side, but my creative bone was just dry! I used a big art book I picked up at a rummage sale a few years ago (Paintings of the Musée d'Orsay) as my muse. I really wanted to try and accurately capture the way the book looked open, with the gaping spine and arched headband (yes, I admit it, I'm a nerd for knowing what this part of a book is called.) Carving it was tricky, but I took my time and went really slow. Boy did I make a big mess though(check out the slide show below for photos)!
I used a bit of a tromp d'oeil technique to give the impression that one side of the book was smaller than the other (the left side) and was really tickled with how well I was able to illustrate that.Overall I was very pleased with how the cake came out. Oh, and in case you're curious, the cake consisted of 2 layers of devil's food and one of vanilla bean cake, with dark chocolate ganache filling and crumb coated with vanilla Italian buttercream.

Here's a little slideshow of the cake's progression to being completed.

Adele's Peppermint Heart Cookies

One Christmas season many, many years ago, I was invited to bake cookies with my friend Adele and her family. It was an annual tradition for them, something I found to be completely foreign. The only things I recall my mother ever baking were a lackluster lemon meringue pies at Thanksgiving and drop-biscuits that were super dry and literally tasted the way Bisquick smells. My mom could cook like no body's business, but baking was never her forte.

I remember arriving to a kitchen that smelled heavenly, full of the aromas of cinnamon and browned butter. Freshly baked cookies and pastries sat cooling on racks while Adele, her mom, and sister busily toiled away on their own individual creations, yet seemingly working together. Various baking supplies peppered the kitchen counters: newly opened bags of flour, big black bottles of pure vanilla extract, and sticks of unsalted butter softening on the counter.

At Adele's request, I had come prepared with a recipe in hand. The night before I flipped through my mom's big plastic container of laminated recipe cards, each one boasting a full-color photograph. It didn't take me long to find the recipe I wanted to make: Peppermint Heart Cookies. Peppermint seemed perfectly appropriate for a holiday cookie and for some unknown reason the fact that they were pink and heart shaped didn't seem to matter one bit.
I remember being nervous, but really excited. I followed the recipe very carefully, being sure to take my time to not make any mistakes. The rest of the day is a bit of a blur; I don't remember much except listening to Manheim Steamroller, cracking jokes about the Whisper 2000, and watching the lights on their magnificent Christmas tree twinkle.

Years have past, friendships have been made and forgotten, and many miles have separated us, but Adele and I have remained friends. Our paths may have taken us in completely separate directions in life but when she writes, calls, or I am lucky enough to actually see her, we pick up like right where we left off.

A few weekends ago Adele was in town for a conference and even though it had been more than four years since I had last seen her, I couldn't wait to spend the day catching up. And of course I couldn't greet her empty handed! I arrived with a big tin of these cookies as a belated birthday gift which she dove into almost immediately, which I loved. I think that these are the perfect cookie to celebrate an important friendship in your life and it doesn't even have to Christmas to make them.

Peppermint Heart Shaped Cookies
Cookies

1 cup of sugar
1 cup of unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 teaspoon of pure vanilla extract
1 eggs, at room temperature
3 cups of all purpose, unbleached flour
1 1/2 teaspoon of baking powder
1/2 teaspoon of kosher salt

Cream the butter and sugar. Add vanilla and eggs. In a separate bowl, mix dry ingredients together. With the mixer on low/medium speed, slowly add dry ingredients to the wet, being sure to scrape down the bowl frequently. Turn the dough onto a lightly floured surface. Form the dough into a ball, wrap it in plastic, and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
Separate the dough ball into 2 balls and place between two sheets of parchment paper. Roll the ball out to about 1/4 inch thick being sure to keep all the dough between the sheets of paper. Transfer to a cookie sheet and store in the refrigerator for at least 1 hour or until firm (you can also cheat by putting them in the freezer).

Preheat oven to 350F. Cut out desired shapes (I used a big heart shaped cookie cutter plus a slightly smaller one to create a heart shaped frame) and place onto a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper or a Silpat mat. Bake for 8-12 min. Keep a careful watch on your first batch so you can establish the correct cooking time. After 6 minutes, keep checking them every minute until they are firm to the touch and just the slightest bit brown. Cookies will continue to bake as your remove them from the oven. Let them sit for a minute, remove the cookies from the baking sheet with a spatula big enough to support the entire surface of the cookie (or they may break) and cool on a wire rack.

Repeat steps with left over cookie dough.

When they are completely cool, store them in an airtight container or a big zip-lock bag. You can even freeze them and save them until later.
Peppermint Buttercream Frosting
adapted from More From Magnolias Bakery

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
3 to 4 cups powdered sugar
1/2 cup cold milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon peppermint extract (if you don't like peppermint, use vanilla)
pink food coloring gel (optional)
4-5 red peppermint candies or one candy cane, crushed but not pulverized (optional)

Place the butter in a large mixing bowl and beat on medium speed for 2 minutes. Add 1 cup of the sugar and then the milk and vanilla. On the medium speed of an electric mixer, beat until smooth and creamy, about 3-5 minutes. Gradually add the remaining sugar, 1 cup at a time, beating well after each addition (about 2 minutes), until the icing is thick enough to be of good spreading consistency. You may not need to add all of the sugar or you may find you need to add more milk. If desired, add a few drops of food coloring and mix thoroughly until you get your desired color. (Use and store the icing at room temperature because icing will set if chilled.) Icing can be stored in an airtight container for up to 3 days.

Assembly
Carefully spread each heart-shaped cookie with a generous dollop of pink frosting. Top with a heart shaped cookie frame (if desired) and sprinkle a little crushed peppermint candy in the center.

Yield: About 16-20 sandwich cookies (it really depends on how much dough you eat. It's yummy!)
Would I Make This Again? Yes and I always will!