March Madness

Photo credit Tina Phan via kathyphantastic

It's the most wonderful time of the year!  If your team is headed to the Final Four, it's definitely time to celebrate and when I saw these super cute cake pops I just had to post them.  No, I DID NOT make these but I am inspired to try some!

Photo credit Tina Phan

Living in Kentucky, I'd be hard pressed to find someone who didn't like both basketball and cake!  Combine the two and I'm sure to have a winner...right?  Unlike my NCAA bracket this year.  It's pretty much a bust!  Cake pops are all the rage thanks to kitchen divas like Bakerella.  I've yet to give them a spin even though they seem super easy.  Check it out.

Cake Ball Mix

What you need
1 batch Super Moist Devil's Food Cake (store bought)
8 ounces cream cheese, softened
2 cups confectioner's sugar
4 tablespoons butter
1 tablespoon milk (or more, as necessary)

Bake the cake and let it cool completely on a rack. This is a very moist cake, which is ideal for this recipe. It's best to let it cool overnight at least. When it is completely cool, break the cake into a large bowl. Crumble it with forks or your fingers until it is in fine crumbs.

In a separate bowl, whip the cream cheese, butter, powdered sugar, and milk together until smooth. Pour into the cake crumbs and mix with a spoon. Then continue mixing with your fingers, kneading and mixing until fully incorporated into the cake. Check to see if it will roll into a ball. It should: this makes a very malleable, easy-to-handle cake mixture. But if it needs a little extra moisture, add milk a spoonful at a time.

When the mix is completely done, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate until firm. You can leave the mix refrigerated for several days at this point. You could probably also freeze this.

Making Cake Pops

What you need
Lollipop sticks (found at Michael's, JoAnn's, or other craft stores)
12 ounces chocolate chips
12 ounces white chocolate bark
Edible wax, optional
Colored sugars, candies, and other decorative sprinkles

Rainbow Cupcakes

What's St. Patrick's Day without a leprechaun chasing a rainbow to find a pot of gold?  At least that's how I'm justifying serving up these cupcakes today's for my daughter's class!  This day is about more than just pinching your neighbor who's not wearing green.  Ok, admittedly perhaps I like St. Patty's more than the average person, but I can't help it.  It's in my blood.  Literally.

Anyway, back to the cupcakes.  I happened upon this recipe during one of our many snow days earlier in the year and knew I had to give it a shot!  It's one of those tricked out cake mix recipes - love those!  But...it is a wee bit (there's the Irish) labor intensive, so be warned.  I think this is a great idea for any springtime event - rainbows = spring, right?   As with any recipe, there are usually multiple variations floating around on the web.  I found the one I liked on With Sprinkles on Top, one of my favorite blogs.  NOTE:  She made buttercream icing for her cupcakes.  Since these were for a school class, I went the easy route and used canned frosting.  Chances are nine year olds are not food critics.

Rainbow Cupcakes

(Adapted from Withsprinklesontop.net)

1 box white cake mix (plus ingredients needed for the box mix, like eggs and vegetable oil)
Food coloring (I used Wilton gel colors: violet, sky blue, leaf green, orange, yellow, Christmas red)
24 cupcake liners

1. Make cake mix according to directions on box.
2. Divide the batter into six bowls. (I used 1 cup of batter per bowl.)
3. Color each bowl of batter with a different dye.
4. Line cupcake pans with liners and spoon a LITTLE of each color batter into the liners. I started with purple and worked my way up to red. Don’t worry about them not being perfectly balanced or neat, they will turn out regardless!  Remember - ROY G. BIV!  (Rainbow acronym)
5. Bake according to the recommendations on the box.

Decorate!

I found cute shamrock candies by Wilton at Michael's as well as gold pearl dust and lightly sprinkled that on the frosting.  (What's a rainbow without gold?)

Luck of the Irish

Kiss Me I'm Irish Cakes

I've often wondered what life was like for my Great-Great-Grandfather Porter in Ireland before immigrating to the United States.  Recent marketing ploys have me wanting to find out more and search Ancestry.com but what I'd really like to do is walk the countryside and see the very sites where my family once lived, farmed, and gathered with friends.  Knowing some of what I do about my heritage, I'm not exactly sure that my GG Grandfather would have kicked back at the local pub after a hard day in the field and shared a pint with the likes of Darby O'Gill and Sean Garrigan.  But...maybe a bit of me likes to imagine that he would...after all, that's what this week is about, right?  Celebrating Irish heritage, the legend of St. Patrick who brought Christianity to the Emerald Isle, and dreaming catching little men in the hopes of getting wishes granted.

In honor of my own Irish heritage, I decided to combine my new found love of baking with a touch of the homeland.  The result...something I'm calling Kiss Me I'm Irish Cakes (but feel free to call them anything you want)!  There are many variations of this recipe online.  I took bits and pieces of a few and fit them to meet my needs (and what I had readily available).  Warning:  Due to the fact that this is related to an Irish heritage...yes, liquor is involved!  Straight up Irish whiskey and stout in these cupcakes if you please!  

KISS ME I'M IRISH CAKES

(Adapted from several recipes)

Cupcakes

1 cup Guinness
1 cup unsalted butter
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2 cups flour
2 cups sugar
1-1/2 teaspoons baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs
2/3 cup sour cream

1. Preheat oven to 350F.
2. Bring 1 cup stout and 1 cup butter to simmer in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add cocoa powder and whisk until mixture is smooth. Cool slightly.
3. Whisk flour, sugar, baking soda, and 3/4 tea. salt in large bowl to blend.
4. In another bowl, beat eggs and sour cream together with an electric mixer.
5. Add the stout-chocolate mixture to the egg mixture and beat just to combine.
6. Add flour mixture and beat briefly on slow speed. Using a rubber spatula, fold batter until completely combined.
7. Fill the lined cupcake pans 2/3 to 3/4 of the way full. Bake 17 minutes or until tester comes out clean. Cool completely on a rack.


Frosting
3 to 4 cups powdered sugar
1 stick unsalted butter at room temperature
3 to 4 tablespoons Bailey’s

1. Cream the butter with an electric mixer.
2. Gradually add the powdered sugar
3. Add the desired amount of Bailey’s (or milk, if you don’t like Baileys) to the frosting to make it a little creamier.
4. Ice the cupcakes and decorate.

Westward, Ho!

One of the great things about being the mom of an elementary student is the family interaction when it comes to school projects!  One of the great things about being the teacher is seeing all of those projects carried into class by students and parents alike...both beaming with pride on their collaborations!  Enter such a project....Westward Expansion.

"Pioneers would have stirred..."

It's not unlike my child to wait until the very last possible moment to make up her mind about what to wear, eat, play or, in this case, create for her social studies project.  Each child received a list of several ideas relating to the Manifest Destiny....skits, reports, dioramas, and (surprise) recipes.  Ok, the project list was my doing...I'm still a kid at heart and remember the fun of research and creativity.  And, yes, I've been a history geek as long as I can remember.

Finally, after days of hounding, poking and prodding, my dear child finally decided on making some pioneer food.  (Yes!)  No, really, I did not lead her in this direction....honest!  So...to the web.   Who knew there were so many pioneer recipes out there?  Hoe cakes, Brunswick Stew, pocket yams, rice cakes, potato candy (I really wanted to try this one), jerky, and doughnuts!  Well, those were some of the tame recipes....trust me, there are plenty more.

So....here's what we learned tonight about the pioneers and their vittles on the trail:

Prepping the dough for frying

Pioneer people were also called early settlers. They did not have many of the foods we have today. Almost every meal they ate had corn as one of the dishes.  They ate things like dried corn, cream corn, hull corn, dried corn mush, and sometimes they ate corn bread. Some people still eat these foods.  Another thing they had was crabapple jelly, and sun-dried fruit. Sometimes for dessert they ate huckleberry pie, and pumpkin pie. Pioneers collected blackberries, gooseberries, and blueberries. Another common pioneer food was doughnuts.

(Excerpt from Cooking on the Trail - http://library.thinkquest.org/6400/cooking.htm)

She read the recipes, studied the ingredients and directions, and decided on doughnuts.  After all, who doesn't like fried bread covered in sugar?

Yummy doughnut with brown sugar and cinnamon!

This recipe is from The Little House Cookbook.

For 2 dozen doughnuts you will need:

 2 pounds lard
1 egg
1 teaspoon of baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
1 cup sour cream
2¼ cups of unbleached all-purpose flour
a shaker full of powdered sugar
quart kettle
quart bowl
rolling pin
candy thermometer

Melt the lard in kettle over low heat.  Beat egg, baking soda, and salt into the sour cream in the bowl.  Beat in 1 cup of flour until well mixed.  Continue to work in flour, ¼ cup at a time, until you have a dough that can be rolled.  Roll the dough in a strip about 4 by 16 by ¼ inches.  With a floured knife cut into inch strips about five eighth inch wide.
Heat the lard to 375 degrees F.  Twist a strip like a corkscrew (it will stretch as you do); bring ends together and pinch them.  Drop twisted dough in hot fat.  In 2 minutes the dough should be brown on both sides, crisp and cooked through.  If browning takes more than 3 minutes, the fat is not hot enough; if browning takes less time, the fat is too hot.
Remove cooked doughnut to brown paper to drain and coat it with powdered sugar.  Continue twisting and cooking the remaining dough strips.  Serve the doughnuts immediately.

Mardi Gras!

Sweet dough and PC tools

There's definitely a reason to call it Fat Tuesday...I realized this as I watched my sweet, yeast-filled dough puff in a hot boiling pot of oil!  Yep, it's beignet time again.

Like I mentioned earlier, there is an official mix produced by Cafe Du Monde.  I've never tried this, but have an inkling that it's probably a mixture of the dry ingredients included in many beignet recipes.  Speaking of recipes, you already know how much I love Allrecipes.com.  When looking at my favorite beignet recipe, I came across another that's just slightly different.  The results, however, were definitely more satisfying.

Ready for powdered sugar

Note to self: must buy a good spider from Williams-Sonoma.  It would be infinitely handy in my beignet production!

Spider skimmer from WS

COSTAS FRENCH MARKET DOUGHNUTS (Beignets)

INGREDIENTS:

1/2 cup water 1 tablespoon yeast 1/4 cup shortening 1/2 cup sugar 1 teaspoon salt 1 cup boiling water

1 cup evaporated milk 2 eggs, beaten 7 1/2 cups flour 1 quart vegetable oil for frying 1 cup confectioners' sugar for dusting

DIRECTIONS:

1.	Pour 1/2 cup room temperature water into a small bowl. Sprinkle the yeast over the water and let stand for about 5 minutes to dissolve.
2.	Combine the shortening, sugar, and salt in a large bowl. Pour the boiling water over the shortening mixture and then stir in the evaporated milk. Wait for the mixture to cool down until it is lukewarm. Then, add the yeast and water mixture and beaten eggs.
3.	Slowly mix in the flour until the dough forms a ball. Cover the dough with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes to 1 hour.
4.	Working with a small portion (a little larger than a baseball) at a time, roll out the dough 1/8-inch thick. Cut the rolled out dough into strips 2 to 3-inches wide, then cut again in the opposite direction and at an angle, making diamond shapes.
5.	Heat your oil for frying in a deep and wide, heavy-bottomed skillet over medium-high heat to 360 degree F (180 degrees C).
6.	Slide dough slowly into the oil to avoid splattering and deep fry until they puff up and are golden brown, 3 to 5 minutes. Carefully remove onto a rack with paper towels underneath and allow to cool until you can handle them. Place in a clean paper bag with confectioners' sugar and shake gently until covered generously or, use a sifter to dust the beignets with powdered sugar.

Cafe au lait, anyone?

First batch of beignets...not Cafe du Monde, but not bad!

I'll admit, I've never been to Mardi Gras nor have I ever visited New Orleans.  (It's on my list.)  However, I love all things Cajun and Creole almost as much as I love jazz and Harry Connick, Jr.

Last year around Mardi Gras, I had the hankering for some beignets.  Not exactly something you can run to the bakery and buy (at least in Georgetown).  Now, I will say that if you live or work near downtown Lexington, Doodle's is your beignet fix!

The official mix from Cafe du Monde

What to do to satisfy this craving?  I know some markets actually carry the official Cafe du Monde beignet mix.  Again, I'm in Georgetown...so, to my fav cooking site Allrecipes.com!  (Have I mentioned how much I love this site?)   I found a pretty simple (if a beignet recipe can be simple), straightforward entry with a slew of great reviews.  Another thing I love about Allrecipes.com is that other folks try out the recipes listed and give feedback kind of like Amazon.com.  (I'm one of those nerds who loves to read reviews and ratings.)

The ingredients were simple enough.  The directions not too complicated.  I realized, though, that having a Fry Daddy would have been handy!  The result...not too bad!  Light, cripsy and sweet...and perfect with a hot cup of cafe au lait!


BEIGNETS
(from Allrecipes.com)

Ingredients:

2 1/4 teaspoons active dry yeast 1 1/2 cups warm water (110 degrees F /45 degrees C) 1/2 cup white sugar 1 teaspoon salt 2 eggs

1 cup evaporated milk 7 cups all-purpose flour 1/4 cup shortening 1 quart vegetable oil for frying 1/4 cup confectioners' sugar

Directions:

1.	In a large bowl, dissolve yeast in warm water. Add sugar, salt, eggs, evaporated milk, and blend well. Mix in 4 cups of the flour and beat until smooth. Add the shortening, and then the remaining 3 cups of flour. Cover and chill for up to 24 hours.
2.	Roll out dough 1/8 inch thick. Cut into 2 1/2 inch squares. Fry in 360 degree F (180 degrees C) hot oil. If beignets do not pop up, oil is not hot enough. Drain onto paper towels.
3.	Shake confectioners' sugar on hot beignets. Serve warm.

Starbucks Via Infused Minis

Starbucks Via Infused Cupcakes

Ever have one of those days when the only remedy is the drive thru at Starbucks?  Or maybe the venti latte (double shot) and some dark chocolate?  Yes, my coworkers and I have those days often.  In fact, we love our coffee so much, we decided to be part time baristas last Halloween!  (We were pretty cute I'll admit.)

What could be more natural than combining both of these life changing antidotes into a cupcake?  To celebrate the birthday of one of my coworkers, I decided to liven up a normal chocolate cupcake by adding a pack (or three) of Starbucks Via.   The cake itself was the old standby Duncan Hines Devil's Food (already had in the pantry).  Literally, the only change was adding the Via to the batter while mixing.

To top it off, some homemade dark chocolate buttercream.  I used the time tested Hershey's "Perfectly Chocolate" Chocolate Frosting....the same recipe my mom has used for years.  Yes, it's the one on the Hershey's Cocoa box!  Careful with this frosting, though...it's persnickety!  I add the vanilla last and keep the milk handy as it will have almost a cement consistency rather than a nice, fluffy frosting.  I add more milk by the teaspoon until it looks nice and spreadable.  Most important - always use real butter!  Margarine's fine for toast, but it has to be real butter for frosting!  (Yes, I've learned the hard way!)

I found baking these in mini form was most effective as there was a lot of punch...rich, dark caffeinated chocolatey goodness!

From the back of the Hershey's Cocoa box:
"PERFECTLY CHOCOLATE" CHOCOLATE FROSTING 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter or margarine 2/3 cup HERSHEY'S Cocoa 3 cups powdered sugar 1/3 cup milk 1 teaspoon vanilla extract Melt butter. Stir in cocoa. Alternately add powdered sugar and milk, beating to spreading consistency. Add small amount additional milk, if needed. Stir in vanilla. About 2 cups frosting.