So…the new kitchen is unpacked. The rest of the house…not so much. I have a recipe picked out to hopefully bake this weekend.
I have a new project in mind and have a book on hold at the library that might be an inspiration. It may turn out to be impossible, but here’s a clue…
So…
We’ve been looking for a new house…since September…
In an attempt to make my house look more spacious, I packed up all of my baking supplies.
We think we have found a house. Price agreed upon. Inspection was yesterday. Hopefully, we will close at the end of February and move in March! Fingers crossed.
This is the kitchen I will be leaving…
Western side of the kitchen
Eastern side of the kitchen
We will (if all goes well) have a kitchen that 2 people can comfortably move around in. We will be able to put something in the frig if the dishwasher is open. I’ll be able to store my baking supplies IN THE KITCHEN!
I know it’s been awhile…3 months since V was for Vanilla Coke…
A lot of supplies need to be obtained…there is no flour in the house…or chocolate…
There is a jar of Carnation Malted Milk Powder in the cabinet, the main ingredient for W= Whoppers. It’s progress. I’m 1/10 of the way there…
Stay tuned…
Mr Shuck and I ventured out to the U District today. Our first task was lunch (to be followed by a visit to the Apple Store for a new laptop!). We originally planned to go to Hillside Quickie, a vegan sandwich shop, but the staff decided to take a break and closed up. We ended up right up the street at Araya’s Place, a vegetarian Thai restaurant. As we walked across the street to the restaurant, I saw this sign and knew I had a dessert plan.
Cupcake Sign: click to enlarge
Following our tasty Thai buffet at Araya, we walked back next door to their espresso/tea shop, Nanung. The cupcake menu looked interesting. Mr Shuck was especially happy about the free coffee.
Nanung Cafe Menu, click to enlarge
We wavered back and forth between Thai Tea and Banana Chai, finally deciding on the latter. I was disappointed when I walked over to place our order, only to discover they were out of both! Darnit! Instead, I settled for the Chocolate Matcha.
Chocolate Matcha: click to enlarge
This was an extremely dry cupcake! I wish I had gotten my own coffee because I drank half of Mr Shuck’s in an attempt to wash down my cupcake. That said, I was still fairly happy with my treat. The green tea flavor was mild and the cake was only slightly sweet. The chocolate balanced well and the whipped cream added some softness (and moisture!) without being overpoweringly cloying like some frosting can be. I’m hoping that I just got a bad batch as I’d really like to try again. The flavors seem inventive and I like to support other vegetarians. The cupcakes are not vegan, but they did have a vegan cake option.
Cupcake Choice #1
Cupcake Choice #2
Cupcake Choice #3
I was very proud that my far away friend April chose my Irish Car Bomb recipe for her husband’s birthday surprise. I didn’t realize when I sent her the link to the recipe that I didn’t include complete directions for the butter cream. The ingenious girl invented her own. I think they turned out beautifully. I wish I could have had a taste!
Irish Car Bomb by April
Hers looked better than my original AND she didn’t spill white chocolate all over her kitchen.
irish Car Bomb: Click to enlarge
So, my brother, who is currently serving in the Army in Afghanistan, found the time to send copies of the photos he took at my wedding (last April). He got a really good one of my cupcakes.
Our cupcakes were done by Sweet Pockets in Atlanta. We had a huge carrot cupcake on top to cut (and to not share with guests!). The other flavors (I think) were strawberry, caramel apple and lemon. I must admit, we chose this cupcakery mainly because they were the only cupcake place in Atlanta with a bronze cupcake stand…which looked better at Magnolia Hall, our wedding/reception site, than the white ones that every other place had. I was EXTREMELY happy with Lennie and staff at Sweet Pockets. Most of our planning had to be done via email and we couldn’t decide on flavors until the day before the wedding. The cupcakes were great. The display was pretty. Only complaint: our guests didn’t eat enough cupcakes! We were giving cupcakes away to everyone at the hotel the day after the wedding. We had the pigs flying around the cupcakes because it took us a REALLY long time (13 years) to get married. Pigs were definitely flying!
This is totally unrelated, but was on the disc. My favorite food, which was one of the buffet choices at my wedding: Shrimp and grits.
So, I’ll admit that I don’t know a lot about baking. I’m learning.
When I read that a recipe produces a cake with a moist, tender crumb, I have no idea what is meant. I understand moist, but I don’t understand “tender crumb”. I know what I like in a cake, but I don’t always know how to describe it to others with words more complicated than “yummy”, “good”, “dry”, or “I threw the rest in the trash.”
These things I know:
Have ingredients at the appropriate temperature:
Cakes made with butter should be served at room temperature or they will be too firm. Cakes made with oil can be served directly from the refrigerator. So, if the icing needs refrigeration, the cake should be made with oil, not butter.
You can use almost anything to flavor butter cream, but the flavoring should not exceed 1/2 the total weight of butter.
If you are using Dutch process cocoa, which has been treated to decrease the acidity, you have to use baking powder instead of baking soda or your cake will not rise appropriately. Baking soda can be used if there is another acidic ingredient in the recipe, like buttermilk.
On a trip to Central Market to buy chocolate, I saw that they had grind-your-own milk chocolate hazelnut butter in the nut butter area. I will be attempting to bake something with it soon. It’s a rough grind, so the hazelnuts are grainy. There’s no added sugar apart from what’s in the chocolate so it’s not as sweet as Nutella®. It tastes yummy and would make a nice cupcake filling. Nutella® is a bit too thick and sticky unless its heated. (A perfect example of heated Nutella is a lovely Nutella brioche purchased at the Thriftway earlier in the week. I wish I had photographed before eating since it was cupcake-esque….maybe a repeat visit for a future post.)
I did photograph the chocolate hazelnut butter nestled in its plastic container. I decided against posting since it ended up looking more like a laboratory sample than a pastry filling.
So perhaps as a joke, Mr Shuck brought home a box of Hostess Cupcakes for me to review. My first observation is that Hostess Cupcakes are a bargain! $2.99 for 8! My initial cupcake was completely consumed, so I guess it’s not THAT bad, considering I have left some cupcakes on the plate recently. (By this very act, I think I have demonstrated to myself that I’m not a cupcake snob.) The cake is okay….it’s moist and chocolatey…a little sticky in the teeth. The icing, on the other hand, is HORRIBLE! It tastes like plastic and has a waxy texture. The white filling doesn’t have a lot of flavor. I assume it’s sweetened shortening or something. It adds a nice mushiness in the center.
Last night, I made ganache as I intended to make cupcakes tonight, but am not in the mood now. I made 1/2 with cinnamon and ancho chili powder and the other half just plain. It hardened up a bit too much, so I added some warm cream today in an attempt to increase the fat content and have it cool down softer for baking tomorrow. The last 2 Hostess cupcakes ended up drenched in warm ganache: plain for me and spicy for Mr Shuck. I must say that a Hostess cupcake topped with slightly warm ganache is AMAZING. You can’t taste the plastic icing when it’s covered with Callebaut bittersweet chocolate ganache.
I wish I had taken the time to take a picture before cramming the yumminess down my gullet.
The Cupcake Addict might be becoming The Cupcake Snob. I think my cupcake expectations might be becoming a bit unrealistic. I’m also pondering changing my rating scale from a max of 4 hearts to a max of 5 hearts. Hmmmm……
The Cupcake Addict's Cupcake Collection 