Let's Eat

Today was the very anticipated potluck. The potluck for which I baked all weekend! Me and my friend made the chocolate croissants and the chocolate pudding cups.

And now for the self critique:
The croissants were fairly tasty. They weren't what I expected though. When I think about chocolate croissants I think about very soft and flaky dough. The ones we made were too hard and the dough was more stiff than flaky. I got the shape almost perfect though! I didn't know if they were gonna come out too big but after they were baked they looked pretty awesome. The people at the potluck liked them, and by the end of the morning there were only 3 out of 18 left. I took these home and I'll be having them for breakfast the next few days.


The chocolate pudding.... All I can say is YUUUM!!! It was soooooo good! It was sweet but not too sweet. It was soft but not too liquid. It looked like pudding, it tasted like pudding and it was as enjoyable as pudding! So so so good! The chocolate cups barely survived. They were melting way too fast so when we got there they were melting into each other. When we tried to separate them they broke a little bit but they were still eatable and presentable! We also added some sprinkles on top of the pudding for a little extra color! I absolutely recommend Bakerella's Chocolate Pudding Cup recipe. Just delicious.

Croissants au Chocolat

Chocolate croissants are my favorite kind of croissant, obviously, I mean, they have chocolate inside! and so because I've always liked them I researched some recipes to see if I could make them at home. It turns out that every single recipe I found was intimidating: they were long, wordy and each of the 13 to 15 steps were whole paragraphs of confusing explanations! Honestly I don't know how bakeries around the world make so many every day and they come out so yummy!

I tried to make them this weekend. It took me all weekend.

I discovered that there's a lot of waiting around during the process of making croissants because of the yeast and the gluten in the dough. I don't have much experience making bread dough but the waiting was exhausting! Meryl Streep made it look so easy on "It's Complicated."

The end result was... ok I guess. The dough was a little hard and not flaky like I was expecting it to be; the chocolate got burned inside although you can't really tell. I know I still have a lot to learn about bread dough and I will most certainly try again, maybe with a different recipe (I used Martha's so if you have a good one I can use please comment and send it!).

I also have a question for who ever can answer it: the recipe says that I have to spray the oven with water before and after putting the croissants in... anybody know why??

Chocolate, Chocolate Pudding Party

A few weeks ago, a fellow baker friend of mine sent me a link to one of the most creative baking sites I've ever seen. Bakerella is a site that features a enormous amount of fun recipes and creative sweet inspirations. It's written by a woman who took a cake decorating class and she "just haven’t stopped." Her most famous creations are what she calls "cake pops" which are mini cupcakes on a stick. she decorates them as many fun things like pigs, reindeer, Winnie Pooh and other very detailed cartoon characters.

But the reason my friend sent me the link had nothing to do with the cake pops. She sent me the recipe for what Bakerella calls "Pudding Cups." For the most part, the name is pretty much self explanatory, its chocolate pudding... but what really impressed me was that the cups that the pudding was served on were made of chocolate! This woman made bowls out of chocolate!

How did she do it? The answer is wildly entertaining: She took water balloons and filled them with air, melted some chocolate and dipped the balloons in the chocolate. To make them stand, the dabbed some of the chocolate on a parchment lined baking sheet and placed the balloons right on top. After the chocolate cooled and hardened, she popped the balloons and removed any rubber that was left. Genius right? I know!

Me and my friend attempted to make the cups this weekend...... Everything seemed perfect at first but when we were ready to pop the balloons we ran into some trouble. It turns out that your life will be easier if you use the tiny water balloons. we had no water balloons so we used regular sized balloons and filled them with just a little air. they wouldn't pop because the rubber was not tense so we had to deflate them and gently peel the rubber off the chocolate. Another problem we had was that the cups were made of thin chocolate..... and chocolate melts! As soon as we grabbed the cups to peel the balloons off, the cups woudl start melting because of the heat in out hands. We has to work soooo fast and put the cups back in the fridge mid process. We broke 2.

The pudding was fairly easy though. It just takes a while to thicken and you must be patient.

We'll serve the cup on Tuesday so I will most certainly tell you about the final product but for now, here are some pics of the fun balloons!

The Hummnigbird Bakery

There is a bakery in the little town of London, England called the Hummingbird Bakery. It is inspired by American-style pastries such as cupcakes, pies, brownies, muffins and cheesecakes, among other things.

My mom bought me their cookbook and it is just perfect. First of all, it's pink! Second, it has so many delicious-looking and exciting recipes that seem fairly easy to make. But I have to talk about one in particular: the Black Bottom Cupcakes. To describe these cupcakes the only thing that seems prudent is to copy the description directly from the book.

"The black bottom cupcake looks innocent, but packs a punch! A dark chocolate sponge with a dollop of cheesecake baked into it, we top ours with Cream Cheese Frosting for extra impact. The chocolate sponge is different from our normal chocolate cupcakes - it's darker, slightly less sweet and marries well with the cheesecake center."

Honestly if you don't think that sounds incredibly delicious, there is something seriously wrong with you! I might makes these for work one day. The sooner the better!

Delicious Wedding Cake

I finished the wedding cake just in time for the presentation. I have to admit, decoration a cake is really hard, specially if you don't have the right tools. I had to improvise a tool to smooth out the icing and the tip of my piping bag was way too thick. Also, I had no idea what king of design I was making and improvising is not my forte. If anybody knows of a good site to get patterns or decorating ideas, I'd love to see them!
Overall the cake was pretty tasty! My professor had seconds and there was only a little piece left at the end of class.
The sponge wasn't as soft and airy as it was when I first made it because I had to put it in the refrigerator after icing for the buttercream to harden. Next time I make a cake like this I am making the whole cake just a day before I need it so the sponge is fresher, and I will most definitely be more prepared for the decorations!!
I took some pictures for you... hope you like them!PS: the piping is supposed to be green but you can't really tell in the pictures!

Wedding Cake 1

Howdy! so, as you can recall, I told you the other day that I would be making a cake this week. It is a tasting wedding cake for my Event Planning and Management class for which we are pitching a wedding plan for a fake couple this coming Thursday. That sounds confusing, I know but that's what we're doing! planning a fake wedding. The cake is vanilla sponge with chocolate buttercream and fresh strawberries filling and vanilla buttercream icing (this is the buttercream I made last weekend).

I made the sponge yesterday and the recipe was courtesy of my dearest Martha Stewart. The cake came out sooooo spongy, soft and smooth. Then I cut it to the size I wanted it (a little less than 6 inches in diameter), I waited until the chocolate filling thawed and started filling. I've learned from the many hours spent watching shows like Cake Boss, that you have to pipe a dam on your bottom layer so that your filling stays in place and it doesn't drip out of the sides. This is really important because the filling is darker than the icing so you want to keep the chocolate in check!

Then I filled the dam and put slices of fresh strawberries on top of the buttercream. After that, I just placed the other layer on top and the cake was almost done! I haven't iced it yet because the vanilla cream was not thawed yet.

I promise to post pictures of the finished cake tomorrow!

Buttercream: check!

The title of the post reminds me of the episode of Friends when they leave for London for Ross' wedding and Monica is talking to herself while packing! Guess we're both nuts!

But aaaanyways.... I finished both buttercreams: the vanilla and the chocolate. It's the first time I've ever done this so I was a little scared at first but it turns out it is really really easy!! After I added the butter I thought I'd messed up because it wasn't thickening but it is just so magical how it just becomes this thick cream out of nowhere, not to mention a delicious cream!

The recipe said to add 3 ounces of semisweet chocolate but when I did it was still too light so I added almost an ounce and a half more to make a more chocolaty color. It turn our the tiniest little bit of chocolate goes a long way.

Does anybody have any ideas on what other flavors I can make?



Chocolate Buttercream (for vanilla don't add the chocolate, instead add about a teaspoon of vanilla extract)
Makes 2 1/2 cups
3/4 cup sugar
3 large egg whites
1 cup (2 sticks) plus 6 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature
3 ounces semisweet chocolate, melted and cooled

Directions
Combine sugar and egg whites in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment. Place over a pot of simmering water; whisk until hot and sugar is completely dissolved, about 3 minutes. Transfer bowl to mixer stand, and beat on high speed until cooled, 7 to 10 minutes.
Replace whisk with paddle attachment, and set mixer on medium-high speed; add butter, 1 to 2 tablespoons at a time, until incorporated. Beat in chocolate. If not using immediately, refrigerate buttercream in an airtight container for up to a week. Bring to room temperature, and rebeat or stir vigorously before using.