Where the Buffalo Roam

Now, I'm not a fan of buffalo, hot sauce, any of that stuff so I didn't try this recipe but it got some pretty good reviews. My boyfriend loves anything buffalo and I wanted to make a savory "cupcake" that he would like and while it's not really a cupcake, it's close enough and he devoured it. Point, me.

I'm still kind of nervous about making a savory cupcake like this with actual cake batter so I decided to go with biscuit dough. Not really a cupcake but I still made 'em square and easy to eat. It was trickier than I thought.

I didn't make the biscuits from scratch, just bought the dough in a tube and thought if I pulled them apart in a bowl, I could make a big ball of dough to form into squares. Not so easy because at that point the biscuits have already decided they want to be round. Needless to say, I made it work.

I then used my favorite kitchen tool ever next to the Kitchen Aid Mixer; The Ninja. I had some chicken tenders that I wanted to add to the dough but I didn't want just giant chunks so I chopped them up and doused them in buffalo sauce to add to the stubborn biscuit dough.

I highly suggest you invest in the Ninja. It comes with a smaller attachment but mine is still in a box somewhere from when I moved so the pitcher works for now, also great for margaritas. I'll show you later how awesome it was to make zucchini bread with.

Anyway, mixing the chicken and buffalo sauce was kinda difficult with the biscuit dough and it ended up a little crumbly. Surprisingly ended up working out giving a nice crunch to it. At least it was okay according to my boyfriend but he wouldn't say anything bad about my baking anyway :).

I crumbled the pieces and squished them to form to the size of my pan and dabbed a little hot sauce on top of each one before I put the into the oven.

Follow the dough instructions, it's usually 350-375 for 10-15 minutes. You be the judge on how soft or hard you want them.

For a "frosting," not really, I got an idea from my boyfriend's aunt to mix sour cream and ranch dressing. Done! Just whisk it together and spoon it on top or have it on the side for dipping. I had the idea to chop up some celery and fold it in or garnish with it but the audience I was working with isn't a fan of celery. You can always crumble blue cheese on top as well.

While it's not a cupcake, it's still pretty cute and ends up working perfectly for Sunday afternoon or Monday night football.

From this part of town, Go Bears and enjoy!

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Super Cupcakes for a Super Birthday

I was asked a very big favor a month ago and was very excited. I was asked to make cupcakes for a five-year-old's birthday and not just any kind of cupcakes (why be boring?), super hero cupcakes.

I found out he likes chocolate so I obviously had to make a chocolate cake but I didn't stop there. I added cream cheese and Nutella in the center. It definitely broke up the chocolate without losing too much of the chocolate flavor. Different textures usually help. 

My original intention was to put a hot chocolate mousse in the middle, but that didn't go so well.

Now onto the decorating. I made a normal buttercream frosting and divvied it up to make different colors per super hero. Spiderman obviously got red, Superman was red, blue and yellow (I bought the appropriate cupcake paper too) and Batman was blue. I found some toothpicks with the characters and decided to add M&M's on top, for another different texture. 

Needless it say it was a success and I'm really excited for more themed cupcakes. Shoot me an email if you're looking for something sweet for your next event! In the meantime, I can't wait for October...

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Baking Fail: How NOT to Make Mousse

I've made a lot of mistakes on this baking adventure but not so much where I sacrificed 50 cupcakes...

I was so excited to make chocolate cupcakes with chocolate chip mousse filling for a birthday party and thought I had it in the bag. I had my heavy cream, some powdered sugar and I used mostly hot chocolate packets to sweeten and give it a hint of milk chocolate flavor. Who doesn't love hot chocolate?

It came out beautiful. I had a huge geek moment. After all, not many people get excited over the fluffiness of homemade mousse. I was proud!

The picture doesn't really do it justice, but you get the point. 

I couldn't just leave it at that. Nope, I had to be gutsy which in turn became my downfall. I chopped up milk chocolate and white chocolate chips that I wanted to add to it. Well, they're kind of heavy and I got a little overboard and while it still tasted delicious, it flattened the mousse. And my spirit. 

It became a soupy mess and I was more upset than I should of been but hey, now I know. Ease up on the chips and fold them in instead of tossing them into the mixer. 

I tried baking them in the center anyway and it was a complete disaster and I had to start all over. I couldn't bare to serve them like that. 

So now we know and I thought I'd spread the word on how NOT to go about experimenting with mousse and you're welcome. :) Although I still highly recommend using hot chocolate packets. 

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Tea and Crumpets? Kinda...

Crumpets are a griddle cake that pretty much look like an English Muffin and are mainly eaten in the United Kingdom with tea. Well around these parts, I bake cookies with my tea.

Let's start with the tea. Chai tea has always been my favorite, especially the chai tea lattes at Starbucks. Chai is a black spiced tea from india and the word Chai simply means 'tea' in Hindu. There are strong notes of cinnamon and cloves that stand out but also cardamom and ginger.

I wanted to play off the cloves and cinnamon aspect of the chai. I've made chai frosting before with pumpkin bars but that's a whole new ballgame that we'll get to come fall. I've ironically not been much of a fan of cinnamon but I do enjoy cinnamon sugar so I wanted to incorporate that into the cookie but not too much to where it would take away from the spiced chai flavor.

So I turned to the snickerdoodle. I haven't experimented with the snickerdoodle much but I'm glad I did. The dough is stickier and more doughy than normal cookie dough which gives it a little flakiness. I rolled the dough into balls, rolled it into some cinnamon sugar and baked about 10-12 minutes at 350.

While they were baking I made a chai glaze. It's easier than it sounds. All I used was powdered sugar, water, ground cinnamon and ground cloves. I combined everything with a whisk until I reached a taste and consistency that I wanted and dunked the cookies in. The advantage to the square shape is that it sinks a little in the middle and holds onto more of the glaze that hardens in the fridge after awhile.

I dont mean to toot my own horn but I continue to impress myself and definitely see myself making these in the future. Tea party or not.

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Fresh fruit and new coffee!

Last month I was on a mission. I had to prepare for a coffee tasting and wanted to make something that would compliment my coffee well. Luckily enough, Starbucks came out with Kati-Kati.

It means "In Between" in swahili and is the in between or balance of citrus and spice from Kenya and Ethiopia. If any of you old timers out there remember Gazebo Blend -

It's similar but wayyy better. Gazebo Blend use to be used for Iced Coffee before Tarazza came out and it was a very good acidic and citrusy coffee that only came out in the summer. I was bummed when it left but am super excited for Kati-Kati. It's very acidic, light and fresh and goes great with fresh fruit. More specifically it pairs well with lemon and strawberry. Did you see the lightbulb go off? 

I decided to make lemon cupcakes with fresh strawberry frosting. I hit some snags but it ended up being the perfect compliment to the new citrusy summery coffee. 

That snag came with the fresh strawberries. I diced 'em up and thought I'd toss 'em in the frosting while I had the mixer going. It was good until the juices from the Strawberries made the frosting soupy. I kind of panicked but just added another stick of butter and some more powdered sugar to get that consistency back. I'm thinking maybe next time just fold the strawberries into the frosting. 

Needless to say, I killed the tasting and killed a new recipe that will be used again. 

Don't have the energy to bake or can't take the extra heat? Chop up a fruit salad and it's just as good with a fresh french press. 

Also, try it iced! Just brew it at double strength, pour over ice and refrigerate. It's that easy and just as good iced. 

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Break me off a piece of that ...

I think that Kik-Kats are kind of underrated. They're not usually the first thing people think of when you say candy bar but I realized it's the perfect mix of chocolate and crunch and good consistency for a frosting. I've also had requests for red velvet cake and instead of the normal cheesecake frosting I mixed it up with some crumbled kit-kats. Simple, but delicious.

I've done red velvet before - for Valentine's Day, how cliche! - and I wanted to mix it up. I did before by adding chopped up white chocolate and chocolate chips to the frosting and white chocolate chips in the batter but anyone can make a red velvet cupcake with cream cheese frosting. My creativity escaped and I've been thinking about what I can make with Kit-Kats and this was perfect. I LOOOVVEE Red Velvet and balancing it out with a buttery frosting with the milk chocolate from the Kit-Kats balanced it out pretty well. 

I've got quite the knack for turning candy into cupcakes. Any more ideas??

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Why don't you build me up, buttercup baby...

Now that the Foundations are in my head...

Here's a take on a couple of the best candies around; peanut butter cups and Reese's Pieces. I've always made chocolate chip cookies with Reese cups in the middle but now I've turned it into a cupcake. And I couldn't just put any old frosting on top, had to add some crunch and compliment it with it's hard shelled crunchy counterpart. 

I put them in a ziplock and crumpled them up a bit, not too much so they'd still be crunchy and added them to my normal butter, powdered sugar and vanilla frosting and it's pretty epic. But before all of that, we can't forget about the hidden treasure that is the peanut butter cup in the center of the cupcake. 

Too much? No such thing. Right out of the oven they were good and still gooey but even better after a night in the refrigerator. I've always put chocolate in the refrigerator - taking after my father who does the same - and the fridge helps hold everything together. 

And there you have it, death by peanut butter. The Reese's Pieces on top balance out the rich chocolate in the center while still keeping it in the same candy family and it's perfect for a late night sweet tooth.

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