In search of purple velvet....

My future sister-n-law's birthday was tonight, well, last night? The 26th... Anyways, I told her I'd be happy to make her her cake. I asked her what kind of cake she wanted but she didn't really have an idea. Their family normally gets white or chocolate cakes or ice cream cakes for birthdays. So I pretty much had free reign on what I thought I should make. I was between Pioneer Woman's Strawberry Shortcake Cake, as Sam loves strawberries, or a red velvet cake.

I've been wanting to make a red velvet cake for a long time now. Of course in my search to find the perfect recipe, I come to realize I've made it before. A few years ago I made Jesse a Red Waldorf cake with red and green batter (green's his favorite color, red's mine). I'd totally forgotten about it until I kept getting referred to a red velvet being a red waldorf. So there you go...

Back to my search for the perfect recipe..... I threw red velvet into my google search bar and went through quite a number of recipes. I made sure to read comments and see how many people a) baked it, and b) loved it. "Loved it" is important. I also looked for the comment, "moist" as red velvet should be. Eventually I came to Pinch My Salt's recipe. The pictures looked beautiful and the comments were all around complimentary. But, I ran into an issue of what kind of frosting to use. Should I use cream cheese frosting, which is the most popular choice in these here parts, or should I make the traditional frosting for a red waldorf, a roux based frosting?? What do you do when you run into these issues? Well, I decided to bake cupcakes and try both frostings.


So, last night (Friday) I made the cupcakes for my family. I made them purple instead of red. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention Sam's favorite color is purple so my plan was to make the cake purple instead of red from the beginning. Back to my story.. I made both types of icing and gave bites of the cupcakes with each frosting for everyone to try. While I actually prefered the roux-based frosting, every single other person at my house prefered the cream cheese frosting. Guess which went in the cake?
The cupcake on the left is cream cheese and the cupcake on the right is the roux-based frosting.

I baked the cakes Friday night and made the frosting, then I passed out so I could put it all together in the morning. It came together beautifully. I hadn't worked with black fondant before so that was interesting but it worked out nicely. And as it was her 21st birthday I had decided to add the nice little touch of a stripper popping out of the cake, thanks to Mr. G.I.Joe. Unfortunately, all G.I.Joes are sculpted with the their shirts so I wasn't going to be able to strip him down. I traveled over to the Barbie aisle and found the only Ken doll. He's got a nice set up going on, by the way. One man to all the ladies that the Barbie line has to offer.... Well, it turned out that the Ken doll looked a hell of a lot like Sam's boyfriend. All he needed were some glasses and tattoos.... An easy task for Jesse.Jesse and I kept the Kyle/stripper doll a secret till we added it on at the last minute. We did show Kyle because Jesse had called him to ask about his tattoos and we thought it was fair for him to see his likeness before hand. When we brought the cake out everyone was amazed and could not get over the likeness or hilarity of the doll. We made Sam wait in the room until it could be all set up and when she came out she was so happy. They did make me cut the cake which I don't like doing.... But I gave up when I was told I was making the slices too big. Slice it yo-self then....It's not so easy to see from this picture but it was a very vibrant deep purple. It was quite pretty to cut into. I was very satisfied with the color as well as the taste. Jesse says everyone loved it and it's true that people kept telling me it was delicious and beautiful. I did get 1, maybe 2, bridal commisions out of this. That's always nifty. Oh and here's a picture of Sam enjoying the sight of her cake. And you can see Kyle and posiibly compare the like-ness....

Strawberry Shortcake

My aunt and uncle are down(up?) visiting from Texas. Every time they've been here I was too busy to be able to bake anything for them. So this time I was determined to make something tasty for them.

Last night Jesse and I went to the store to get some baguettes and brie to snack on. It's cheap, it's easy, and it may not have the deliciousness of real baguettes and brie but it's readily available. I had decided I was going to make some strawberry shortcakes as they are also pretty damn easy. Lucky for me, my mom still had some strawberries in the fridge so I didn't even have to buy them. Score one for my wallet. I did buy some butter just in case my mom had used it all without replacing it. But, by the time we got back, everyone was pretty much prepping for bed.

I woke up today and added strawberry shortcakes to my list of things to do. This list included going through and throwing out old spiral notebooks, reorganizing the kitchen area of my room, taking a shower, and doing like 3 loads of laundry. I did get through most of these things, if only halfway through a few of them. I even sort of made the bed. Sagittarius projects....start one, only to move on to another.

I went into the mainhouse to see the activity level. My mom, aunt, and uncle were going to see a movie so I told them I'd make them the shortcakes when they got back. Jesse came home not long after they left. He brought in his bookcase, and now he's only 2 major furniture pieces from living with me. Yay!

So, I made the strawberry shortcakes and it is pretty ridiculous how easy they are to make. Just cut some strawberries, sprinkle with sugar, and let them sit while you do the rest. Which is just combining the A.P. flour, sugar, baking powder. Then you add milk and a beaten egg, which are combined, to the flour mix until it is evenly moistened. Then drop onto a prepped pan and bake off. When they're cool, cut in half, spoon strawberries on bottom half, put some whipped cream on (home-made or bought, whatever), and add the top half like a little hat. Ta-dah! And everyone ohs and ahs and eats it. Yum yum.

Chocolate Souffles....

I decided to make some chocolate souffles for dessert tonight. My mom was making dinner for all of us, delicious chicken soup that is always made when the weather turn even slightly cold. It was like 84 degrees, with cold breezes, and an overcast sky. I know, I know, soooo cold, right? Coming from 95-triple digits last week, it was. And it's rather cold tonight too.... For southern california summer, anyways.

When I made the blackberry pie the other day, I was making it for Jesse's grandmother's birthday dinner. Well, my oldest brother Louis and his girlfriend were at home and had apparently scoped it out. They decided to come ask me if they could have some but by the time he came to get me, the pie and I were long gone. They were so disappointed and craving pie that Louis was forced to go to Marie Calenders. Haha. Well, the plan was to eat said pies tonight for dessert. I decided that was not going to do.

My mom had also recently bought a new (can you see how shiny it is?) toaster oven that has a convection oven setting. Well, what dessert is more perfect for a convection oven than a souffle?

I debated on what recipe to use. I have a recipe from school, which I've used before, for a chocolate souffle; on the other hand, I just recently bought 'Mastering the Art of French Cooking' by Mrs Julia Child. I ended up decided on giving her recipe a try as I've never used it before. It was pretty easy to follow and get through, but I did run into the problem of not enough ramekins and a lot of batter. Her recipe calls for a big souffle ramekin and I was making little individual souffles. So, I ended up having to throw about half the batter away. Bummer. There were plenty for everyone, though.

I put them in the toaster and discovered the oven grid is kinda flimsy. I'm going to pick up a small 1/4 sheet pan tomorrow at work and maybe a bigger souffle ramekin. The grid held up fine but it made me nervous. I was also a little concerned the souffles were going to pour over the sides, like cake batter, instead of rising and then I would have a huge toaster mess to clean up. The souffles rose beautifully though. And in half the time of Mrs Child's recipe as she was using a still oven.

As you can see, I had to use pyrex custard cups as well as ceramic ramekins. They worked surprisingly well. And it was pretty cool to see the air bubbles expand as the souffles baked.

Anyways, the souffles were a smash and everyone enjoyed it. I think next time I will make chocolate sauce to pour into the centers. Then they will be ultra delicious.

Blackberries

I want to post more on my baking. I just always forget to taking freaking pictures. In the last week and a half I have baked blackberry creme brulee, chocolate cream pie with whipped cream and blackberries on top, and a blackberry pie. See a theme? I've also been cooking a lot more, although that's all about wanting tasty, cheap, and real food as opposed to baking which is about practice and making Jesse smile.

I think I'm going to join the Daring Bakers Challenge. In fact, I think I'm gonna go do that now. Haha.

Agh. I should have gone when my brother invited me to a Muse concert like 3 years ago. Now I'll never be able to go, nor will it be as fun....thanks to all those twi-tards. haha. I just made that one up. Man. Gerard Butler is hot. That's all. (He just presented Muse on MTV Music Video Awards).