Monday, March 29, 2010
Sadness
Soon, there will be more baked goodness, but sadly, not today.
Thursday, March 11, 2010
Tin Tin surprise
The characters I used for my mom's gift are the five in the middle. Starting on the left, the bearded man in the blue sweater is Captain Haddock, then TinTin, Snowy and the identical not-brothers Dupond and Dupont (in english, they're called Thompson and Thomson.)I made fondant silouettes of the character's profiles and put them on cupcakes.
My mom was pretty psyched about the whole thing, bringing them in to the office to show them off to all of her co-workers. Mission birthday present was a success!
I used mocha cupcakes with coffee buttercream. The cupcakes were a little lacking, but the buttercream was a definate keeper! On the sweet side, but you can always use less sugar than the recipe calls for.
Ingredients
1 cup unsalted butter, room temp
3 cups powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 tablespoon instant coffee granules
4 tablespoons hot water
Cream the butter until smooth. In a smaller bowl, dissolve coffee granules in the hot water. Slowly add sugar 1 cup at a time to butter, alternating with sugar, vanilla, sugar, coffee, and finally sugar. Mix until smooth and spread onto cooled cupcakes of your choice.
This frosting is pretty sweet, so make sure to ice your cupcakes in moderation.
I wish I had some coffee beans to decorate these with! Alas, but oh well.Wednesday, March 10, 2010
Double the chocolate, double the fun!
Today we have Chocolate White Chocolate Chip Cookies. Sounds good already, doesn't it?
Now, this recipe is much easier to mix with a machine, but seem to get a kick out of getting hand cramps. I usually ignore my shiny mixer for a good old fashioned wooden spoon. Please use some of the sense that I am clearly lacking and use an electric mixer.
On to the recipe!
Ingredients:
1 cup butter, softened (salted, if using unsalted, add 1 tsp salt to flour)
2 cups sugar
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 cups (or 1 12 oz bag) white chocolate chips
Anyhow, you'll want to start with creaming the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs one at a time, then add the vanilla.
In a sperate bowl, sift together the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda (and salt if needed.)
Add the dry ingredients to the butter mixture and stir until just combined, mix in the chocolate chips.
It should look something like this:
Maybe not quite as appetizing as the last chocolate chip cookie dough, but just you wait.
You can make mini cookies like these...