Mini Bake-Sale

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En realidad eso no es nada nuevo, sólo nos tardamos en publicarlo en el blog. d:

La razón por la que desaparecimos durante estos últimos meses es que hemos estado practicando e investigando recetas y técnicas para mejorar nuestro entendimiento de las bases de repostería. Un cursito por aquí, un montón de tutoriales por acá, todo por mejorar.

El viernes pasado tuvimos una venta de pastelitos y galletas a la que le dedicamos una semana entera para preparar. Después de momentos de alegría y otros de frustración, todo salió muy bien y, lo más importante, delicioso.

Para esta ocasión quisimos ofrecer tres tipos de sabores: uno clásico, uno un poco mas aventurero y otro inesperado:

Very Vanilla, un pastelito de vainilla
con betún de vainilla y confetti de colores.

Chocolate - Mint, pastelito de chocolate
con betún de menta y chispitas de chocolate.

Berry Cream-cheese, pastelito de mora azúl
con betún de queso crema y chispitas moradas.

Interesantemente, el más popular fue Berry Cream-cheese.

También ofrecimos galletas con frases que hacían referencia a la cultura geek:

Embolsando galletas de azúcar.

Con frases relacionadas a Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter y Game of Thrones, ¡nuestras galletas fueron un éxito!

La noche antes de la venta

Hippie Birthday Cake

Last week, a friend of mine ordered a cake for her mom's birthday; she wanted it to be hippie themed, colorful and with flowers, and all made with fondant.

I really took my time with this cake because it was my first time working with fondant on a bigger scale (see Alice in Wonderland post), and it was also my first time with a proper frosting spatula and an improvised rotating cake stand.

First the cake.

I made a basic yellow cake that turns a very pretty golden color once baked.

For the frosting I made vanilla buttercream and used my new frosting spatula and the makeshift rotating cake stand to frost it as neatly and evenly as possible.

I admit this is the first time I've ever made such pretty frosting.

My mom loves to play with fondant, so she came over and helped me with it. I covered the cake with purple marshmallow fondant, and made some bicolor flowers to decorate the sides. I was gonna make a peace and love decoration for the center, but we decided a multicolor flower would look better.

The spots you can see on the fondant is just water, I took the pics before it dried but I'm planning to take another one right before I deliver it.

Mini Blueberry Muffins

Last saturday, my boyfriend and I sort of had an early Valentine's day celebration. He had everything planned for dinner: he would prepare three pieces of meat with one rub each (pepper, brown sugar and coffee), make some asparagus with garlic butter and mash potato.

When we went to pick up everything at the grocery store, I asked him if he wanted me to make some dessert and he said he wanted "something bread-y". I knew I had everything at home to make something "bread-y", except for that something special, so I grabbed some blueberries and decided to make my first-ever blueberry muffins.

They were moist and soft inside, with a delicious thin crust on the top!

Note for the future: use more bluberries!

Midnight Chocolate-Chip Cookies

Happy new year, everyone!

This year I celebrated with my family. My boyfriend and I had a hearty meal at my grandma's and left a little before midnight to go home and save my dog from having a heart attack with all the fireworks.

Right after the clock stroke midnight, I had the sudden urge to make my first chocolate-chip cookies ever because I knew I had Hershey's semi-sweet chocolate chips and a huge bag of some sweet, generic chocolate chips.

I used Hershey's recipe for Chocolate Chip cookies and I HAD to eat one with a glass of milk as soon as it came out of the oven.

They are delicious!

Snow men cupcakes

I haven't had much time to bake anything lately, but I really wanted to make something for christmas. A friend of mine showed me a picture of melted snowmen cookies that were very cute and funny, so I decided to make snowmen cupcakes!

Another friend of mine invited me and my boyfriend on friday (Dec 23) to make a Brioche and to help me make the cupcakes. We were so hungry by the time he brioche was done, that we forgot to take pics, but here, have a picture of it just before we put it in the oven!

The cupcake cups were a little tall, I think they're actually for muffins... Anyway, this is the second time I try this vanilla cupcake recipe and it was as good as the first time!

We made three batches of those, and while the last batch was in the oven, I started to decorate the snowmen heads: marshmallows with black icing.

Oh look, you can see some of the Brioche in that pic!

I started with neutral ones, with eyes and mouths of "coal", then we got excited and my friend and boyfriend kept giving me ideas! Toon Link that ended up looking like Michael Jackson, a Sheikah Stone, Doug, money eyes, a snowman in love, Harry Potter and Voldemort (which ended up looking like a chinese man), a zombie, dead snowmen (burned marshmallows).

Then I made the frosting, and they went to buy some oreo cookies for the hats... which ended up being berrets 'cause we couldn't figure our how to make a top hat.

They added the noses, we added the hats and frosted the cupcakes and...

Neutral snowmen, three eyed snowman, Harry Potter and Money eyes.

Snow man in love.

Burnt snowman

Zombie snowman.

Elvis snowman.

We even made a Bert!

Happy Holidays!!

Lilac Cupcakes

Some pretty chocolate cupcakes I baked for my Grandmother's 86th birthday. I'm in love with the vanilla lilac frosting and the pink pearls, despite them being a little bit hard to chew. 

More Christmas Cupcakes

Vanilla cupcakes with vanilla frosting. Tried the open star tip with the green frosting cupcakes and the closed star tip with the white frostin cupcakes. Only 10 days for Christmas! 

Christmas Cupcakes

'Tis the season to be jolly! And also, bake Christmas treats. I've been meaning to make some Christmas-themed desserts but I didn't have time until now. My aunt asked me to bake her some treats for her get-togethers with her friends, and I went with the always reliable cupcakes.

While doing my shopping I came across these lovely cake cups. I didn't occur to me that the chocolate cake will darken the cup and the Christmas decorations would be lost. Oh well, I still have some of them left and am planning to do some vanilla cupcakes later.

 I used some vanilla frosting and added a few drops of green dye. If there's something I can't stand about food colorants it's the obnoxious amount you have to use to get a solid color. Although these pastels look pretty, if I wanted it to be Christmas-tree green, I would had have to use A LOT of green dye. 

And to finish them up, just added a few Christmas sprinkles. Voilá, an easy-pretty Christmas dessert. 

Cookies&Cream Cake

Using Bakerella's Cookies&Cream Cupcakes recipe, I baked this cake for my friend Sergio's birthday party. Unfortunately I was in a rush and could not take pictures of the making of, but you can trust me when I tell you the bottom bread is chocolate and the top bread is vanilla, both mixed with Oreos cookie pieces.

This is the first time I am completely satisfied with the way I applied the frosting! I used a lot of it, but for once it did not get bread crumbles mixed in it (they are a bit of a pain when it comes to dark bread and light frosting!) And just like the cupcakes, I sprinkled mashed Oreo cookies on top of it.

Cookie Monster Cupcakes

This time I tried to make the famous Cookie Monster cupcakes, as shown by this tutorial. I've seen the picture of them around tumblr and the internet a couple times, so I decided to give them a try when my boyfriend asked me if they were difficult to make. 

Once I got around it and watched the tutorial I felt very disappointed when I learned she used purchased muffins instead of cupcakes. I realized the reason to do so makes it easier to fit the cookie inside the bread, since the muffin have bigger tops that the cupcakes. However, I decided I would bake my own cupcakes and in case they were too small, purchase muffins as my back-up plan. 

My first batch of cupcakes were not big enough for a Cookie Monster cupcake. I kept them and figured I could make some 'Cookie Monster' inspired cupcakes with them later. The second batch looked like this:

Then we had the frosting. She is not kidding when she says you need A LOT of blue dye to get the right color. I think mine's still a little too light, but I was about to finish the bottle and had my hands completely tinted in blue.

Now, for the furry-like shape of the Cookie Monster, she used dried coconut and dyed it blue. It seemed fair enough so I did the same thing. Once again, I used a lot of blue dye and actually got it looking more blue than the frosting.

So I took my cupcake and applied the blue frosting making sure to cover all of it. Next step is to dip it in the dried coconut. 

...not quite the result I was looking for. Although it did not look bad, it certainly did not resemble the Cookie Monster! The problem here is that my dried coconut came in stripes, while hers looked more like powder.

After a panic attack, I looked for my handy-dandy pastry bag and star-shaped tip and did my best to give it a furry effect. 

I also decorated the smaller cupcakes with the same blue frosting and added small chocolate chips as if they were some sort of blue cookie. 

Next step was adding the cookie to the cupcake. The gap she makes with a knife in the video is quite big, but I discovered that (since my cupcakes are smaller than a muffin) I did not need to cut that much. Just a small cut will do to make the cookie stay. 

Here's where things did not turn out very successfully. Unfortunately they don't sell Cadbury chocolate in Mexico, so I could not get the white buttons. I found something similar in a local bakery shop, although I discovered quite late they were not big enough for the cupcake. The result is that instead of having the big-googlie-eyes that characterize the Cookie Monster, I got a very reasonable-looking Cookie Monster. I guess he won't steal your cookies.  

Halloween treats

I haven't been able to make something for my friends lately, and since I couldn't want to go to any Halloween parties this year, I decided to bake something for them.

The original idea was to have three kinds of cupcakes: chocolate, vanilla, and orange, with vanilla frosting. All made from scratch, a first in frosting and vanilla for me.

Sadly, the first chocolate cupcakes I made overflowed and dripped in the oven, so I had to take them out and clean everything before they started a fire. I cried in frustration for a while, and after washing everything I moved on to try the vanilla cupcakes. They came out surprising well! (my previews tries had only ended in sunken, raw un-edible things)

I made them green and put them in purple cupcake cups, purple frosting, and green chips to make them the zombie cupcakes. After I finished, I realized they could also be Hulk cupcakes, lol.

Then, while my amazing boyfriend was buying me more butter, trying to make me feel better about the ruined choco-cupcakes, I started to make the orange cupcakes. He arrived and helped me put them in the cupcake pan, we put them in the oven and we were happy.

After 10 minutes in the oven, I realized I forgot to color them! Oh well, I'll color the frosting.

Ok, so I didn't color them, but they're still pretty!

They were supposed to be purple, in green cups, with green frosting and purple chips. To make them the other zombie cupcakes. Or reversed Hulk ones.

I tried again with the chocolate cupcakes, and for some odd reason, they sunk! I was sad, and I was thinking of trying another batch, when my mom said I should make brownies since they always come out right. Plus, the frosting is not too sweet, so I could frost them and they'd still be good. So I listened to my mom.

I made black cupcakes and put them in orange cups, with orange frosting and black chips!

I am VERY satisfied with the results!

The vanilla cupcakes that were moist and delicious and just sweet enough. The orange cupcakes with their tangy flavor and subtle maple hints. The brownies to which I added a bit of baking powder so they would rise a bit and come out fluffier. AND my first ever frosting from a Paula Deen recipe! It came out so velvety and flavor neutral, you can use it on everything! Plus, it makes a crust after a while, so it stays put.

I now have one mixed dozen for work, and two mixed dozens for my friends, plus some left overs of each for my family. I am happy (and hyper) camper. :D

Brownie experiments

A few weeks ago I decided to make some brownies for snacks.

I made a pan of brownies with cranberries, and another one that was half plain - half with marshmallow. I cut them into different shapes and used the scraps to make brownie pops!

Cranberry Brownies

Marshmallow and plain Brownies

Brownie pops!