Well, sadly my cupcakes didn’t place. But my lemon pound cake came in 3rd :D. I’ll post both recipes soon.
But I did learn a lot. I attended a couple demos, and some classes. I learned about isomalt , icing printers, and modeling chocolate. Here’s some cakes that really stood out to me.
This weekend I’m entering a cake show/cupcake challenge
I had to make and decorate freaking 9 dozen cupcakes. I had them all lined up on the counter like a little cupcake army and I thought it was hilarious. Until they tuurrnnnneddd.
What started our war was we were out of vegetable oil, awesome. No biggy I just melted some crisco and WALLA vegetable oil. So I go to make the chocolate part of the cupcake, and the butter is MISSING. There’s only one thing to blame, the ingredients. They did not want to go in the 350 degree oven, they wanted to stay batter forever! But I found some margarine, so we were fine. I get the cupcakes in the oven, go to make the icing. I’m making the icing, singing away. But of course I didn’t see that the recipe said UNSALTED butter, I had use margarine. Greaattttt. No problem, I threw that out and asked my mom to pick up some stick butter. That batch was fine. But when I tried to start decorating them, the bag was fine. I had practiced and all with it. But right when I started decorating the first cupcake, A HUGE FREAKING HOLE POPS UP AND SQUIRTS ME. AWESOME, right? And it’s not even like I use crappy bags, I use perfectly user friendly wilton ones. So I get a new bag, that one is working fine. I get a couple done. But then it hits me. It just took me ten minutes to do 2, I have to do 108…. How am I supposed to do them all before tomorrow? Of course I try to hurry, and mess them up. Alright no problem just scrape it off and try again. 20 minutes right there. I get a dozen done, SWEET only 8 of those left. But now I want to put the chocolate on it. So where is the chocolate? IT’S MISSING TOO! I eventually found it, but I was starting to get ticked. I make another dozen, open the box they were supposed to stay in and the lid falls on them. Well that dozen is completely messed up. I blame the cupcakes for moving. I got 24 done and safely moved to the box, and I only got those done because I wasn’t trusting them. I had my cat staring them down. But then I realized, she was about to pounce on them. I blame the cupcakes for this too, they just looked too good. So I got my cat blocked out of the kitchen. I eventually got all 9 dozen done. It took 9 hours, that’s not very long. If you consider there’s 8,760 hours in a year. But now I have a phobia of cupcakes, and I’m probably going to need therapy. I don’t know why these cupcakes hate me. But I know it definitely had NOTHING to do with me. But there is a possibility I got in a fight with the cupcakes because I’ve only had a few cupcakes and a sandwich today. Maybe a power bar will help….
This is the last cupcake I decorated, I was so happy when I was done.
Doesn’t it just bug you SO much when you go to put your second layer on your layer cake, and it CRACKS? It bugs me too, hopefully this post will help you some.
If half of the cake stays in the pan:
Grease the pan well
Seriously. I usually use crisco or wilton cake release. However you can use nonstick cooking spray and vegetable oil as well. NEVER USE FLOUR OR BUTTER. Flour tends to show in the frosting, and butter just melts and your cake absorbs it.
Don’t let the cake cool for more than 15 minutes before removing it from the pan
But don’t take it out before 10 minutes. It will stick to the pan if you let it cool more than 15, and it will be very tender if removed before 10.
Drag a knife or a spatula around the outside of the cake before removing
This way it won’t be sticking on one side, and come out easily on the other.
If the cake splits after it’s out of the pan
DO NOT OVER-BEAT
This is what causes the dome. Beat the cake as long as the recipe says to, not as long. Or it WILL have a annoying dome.
Level the cake
Place a bread knife level on the cake pan, and cut off the dome.
Don’t stack the cakes until they are completely cool
They will be more tender if you do this.
I hope this post helped!
-Ruth
This is my recipe that I’ve been making forever, it’s awesome with white sauce pasta (recipe coming).
Ingredients
1/2 cup butter or margarine
1/2 cup vegetable oil
pinch of salt
pinch of pepper
pinch of basil
pinch of cilantro
1/2 teaspoon garlic (minced, fresh, or powdered)
5 thawed chicken breast
Preparation
Put oil, butter, and garlic in microwave safe bowl. Microwave until butter is melted. Add other seasonings. Place chicken in greased glass pan, spoon butter mixture over each piece of chicken. Pour remaining mixture into pan. Bake at 350 for 20-30 minutes until thermometer reaches 170.
You can sprinkle cheese over chicken when there’s 3 minutes left. Don’t put it on before you put it in the oven, it will burn.
-Ruth
I hate it when there’s a bunch of crumbs showing in my icing. It really annoys me, so I hope this post helps you.
Properly grease the pan
I like using crisco, or wilton cake release. However you can use vegetable oil, or any non stick cooking spray. DO NOT USE BUTTER OR FLOUR TO GREASE THE PAN. The butter melts, and flour makes more crumbs. I like crisco because it does not melt, and I don’t know what’s in cake release. But. It. Is. Magic.
Remove excess crumbs
By gently brushing the cake.
Crumb coat
Ice the cake very thinly and let it crust over before icing the cake fully.
-Ruth
I’ve been making this cake FOREVER, and no one ever gets tired of it!
http://www.hersheys.com/pure-recipes/details.aspx?id=184&name=HERSHEY’S
Today I made fondue for the first time.
It was actually pretty good, you can substitute the colby-jack with your favorite cheese. And if you love white cheddar, than just omit the colby-jack! I picked up immediately that fondue recipes NEED to be doctored to your liking.
http://fonduebits.com/recipes/cheese/cheddar-ranch-fondue.html
INGREDIENTS
3 cups white Cheddar cheese (finely grated)
3 cups Colby-Jack cheese (grated)
4 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 tablespoon corn starch
2 tomatoes (peeled, seeded, and diced) (I didn’t put this in, I don’t like chunks)
1/2 cup dry white wine
1 (1 ounce) package Ranch seasoning mix or 2 and ½ tablespoons ranch dressing
DIRECTIONS
1. In a heavy saucepan over medium-low heat, melt the butter. Add tomatoes and saute until the tomatoes begin to soften (about 2 minutes). Add the package of ranch mix and stir gently to dissolve.
2. Toss corn starch and cheese. Stir the wine into the tomato mix and slowly stir in handfuls of cheese until it is completely melted.
3. Transfer to a cheese fondue pot and keep warm with burner. Serve right away.
I don’t have a fondue pot, so I just used a food warmer.
What should I dip?
Well I dipped: chicken, grape tomatoes, baby potatoes, and broccoli. But common things to dip are: French and Italian bread, cooked chicken, cooked ham, sausage, potatoes, asparagus, broccoli, cauliflower, peppers, and granny smith apples. However anything you think would be good, probably will.
-Ruth
Today I made Paula Deen’s pound cake
and honestly it was probably the best pound cake I’ve ever had.
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/paula-deen/mamas-pound-cake-recipe/index.html
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
With a mixer, cream butter and shortening together until slightly fluffy. Add sugar, a little at a time. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating after each addition (you can separate the eggs and beat the egg whites until peaks form. then mix the yolks in. This will make the pound cake much fluffier.) . Stir dry ingredients together in a bowl and add to mixer alternately with milk, starting with the flour and ending with the flour (it really doesn’t matter). Mix in vanilla. Pour into a greased and floured tube pan loaf pan and bake for 1 to 1 1/2 hours, until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean.
I like Paula Deen, but for some reason I always feel the need to doctor her recipes and make them more unique tasting.
This recipe is very sweet, so you may want to take out some sugar. I didn’t and my family loved it. So it’s really a personal preference.
-Ruth
Well, I just started this blog not even a hour ago, and wordpress has ALREADY confused me. Dannnggg that was quick. I’ll be posting my first real post this weekend sometime, see you then!
Ruth Bakes 