Search Results for: yellow cupcake

chocolate chip cookie dough cupcakes

08/09/2013 By bridget

I might have mentioned, once or twice, that I am a fan of cookie dough. Any cookie is good, but chocolate chip is the best. And not any of those new recipes that are based on melted butter, those make greasy dough. I want the classic light and fluffy, pale, grainy dough. For me, the chocolate chips are mostly a distraction, but I figure they’re part of the package.

But it’s my birthday, and I guess chocolate chip cookie dough is not an appropriate celebratory dessert to share. I figured these were the next best thing. A yellow cake adapted with extra brown sugar and chocolate chips, an eggless cookie dough filling, frosting with brown sugar and even raw flour, all topped off with the most adorable chocolate chip cookies you’ve ever seen. Do you know how many opportunities this was to eat something resembling chocolate chip cookie dough? A lot.

I have to admit that my favorite part was the filling – pure dough, with none of this cake distraction. The frosting was impressive too, the raw flour and brown sugar really made it resemble cookie dough. It was pretty much the perfect birthday cake for me, especially because there’s extra filling in the fridge for the rest of the weekend.

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Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cupcakes (adapted from Annie’s Eats and Martha Stewart’s Yellow Cake recipe)

Makes 30 cupcakes

I baked the cookies a week early and froze them. I made the filling two days early. I made the cupcakes the night before, then filled, frosted, and garnished them the morning before I served them.

For the cake:
1½ cups (7.2 ounces) all-purpose flour
1½ cups (6 ounces) cake flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
12 tablespoons (1½ sticks) unsalted butter, softened
1¼ cups (8.75 ounces) brown sugar
½ cup (3.5 ounces) granulated sugar
1 teaspoon salt
4 large eggs, at room temperature
¼ cup canola oil
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1¼ cups buttermilk, room temperature
1 cup (6 ounces) chocolate chips

For the filling:
8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter
½ teaspoon salt
½ cup (3.5 ounces) brown sugar
¼ cup (1.75 ounces) granulated sugar
2 tablespoons milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons (5.6 ounces) cups all-purpose flour
½ teaspoon baking soda
1 cup (6 ounces) chocolate chips

For the frosting:
16 tablespoons (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
½ teaspoon salt
½ cup (3.5 ounces) light brown sugar, packed
2 cups (8 ounces) confectioners’ sugar
⅔ cup (3.2 ounces) all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

For the garnish:
mini chocolate chip cookies (optional)
chocolate chips (optional)

1. For the cake: Adjust an oven rack to the middle position; heat the oven to 350 degrees. Line 24 muffin wells with paper cups. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flours, baking powder, and baking soda.

2. In a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment (or a large bowl if using a hand-held mixer), beat the butter, sugars, and salt on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes, scraping down the sides of the bowl as necessary. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition, then mix in the oil and vanilla. Reduce the mixer speed to low; add the dry ingredients in three additions, alternating with the buttermilk and ending with the dry ingredients. Beat each addition just until incorporated. Stir in the chocolate chips.

3. Divide the batter between the prepared muffin cups, filling each cup about two-thirds full. Bake for 16-20 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center of a cupcake comes out clean. Transfer the pan to a wire rack to cool. Remove the cupcakes from the pan after 5 minutes. Cool completely before filling and frosting.

4. For the filling: In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment (or a large bowl if using a stand mixer), beat the butter, salt, and sugars on medium speed until light and fluffy, 1-2 minutes. Add the milk, beating until incorporated, then mix in the vanilla. Reduce the mixer speed to low and gradually add the flour, mixing just until incorporated. Stir in the chocolate chips.

5. For the frosting: In a standing mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, beat the butter at medium-high speed until smooth, about 20 seconds. Add the brown sugar and salt; beat at medium speed until pale and fluffy. Reduce the speed to low and slowly add the confectioners’ sugar and flour; beat at medium-low speed until most of the sugar is moistened, about 45 seconds. Scrape the bowl, add the vanilla, and beat at medium speed until incorporated, about 10 seconds, then increase the speed to medium-high and beat until light and fluffy, about 4 minutes, scraping down the bowl once or twice.

6. To assemble: Use a paring knife to carve a cone out of the center of each cupcake, leaving at least ¼-inch of cake on the bottom of the cupcakes. Fill each divot with filling. Frost the cupcakes, completely covering the filling. Garnish with cookies and additional chocolate chips, if desired.

Filed Under: cake, chocolate, cookies, dessert

banana cream pie cupcakes

01/14/2013 By bridget

This is the first of his birthdays since I met Dave over eleven years ago that I haven’t made a banana cream pie. This is okay with me; for one thing, it isn’t one of my favorite things to make; I don’t get to use the mixer and there’s no batter to eat, where’s the fun in that? For another, I’ve pretty much expended the banana cream pie category, making versions with regular and graham cracker crusts, richer and lighter pastry creams, traditional and tweaked whipped cream toppings, even additional layers of chocolate and caramel. There’s not much for me left to explore in the banana cream pie realm.

Except turning it into cake. Dave actually requested green tea crème brûlée for his birthday dessert this year instead of pie, but I also offered to make cupcakes to bring to work. This would hopefully head off our standard office procedure of a coworker making an emergency trip to the grocery store to pick up a cake for an afternoon birthday celebration. (It sort of worked; instead, someone made an emergency trip to the store for cheese and crackers and fruit for the afternoon birthday celebration.)

These are not so different than all the various banana cream pies I’ve made over the years. There are still sliced bananas, pastry cream, whipped cream, and a buttery mixture of sugar and flour. The difference is that the butter and flour is baked into cupcakes instead of rolled into a pie crust. Dave is generally a bigger fan of pie than cake, but he enjoyed these, and our coworkers raved. And by my standards, they’re a heck of a lot more fun to bake than a pie, so everybody wins.

One year ago: Asian Lettuce Wraps
Two years ago: Feta and Shrimp Macaroni and Cheese
Three years ago: Maple Oatmeal Scones
Four years ago: Savory Corn and Pepper Muffins
Five years ago: Lasagna Bolognese

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Banana Cream Pie Cupcakes (from Annie’s Eats and Cooks Illustrated’s Yellow Cake recipe)

Makes 24 cupcakes

For 23 cupcakes, I fitted a slice of banana into the bottom of the carved out center before spooning on pastry cream and topping with a portion of the removed cone. For the last cupcake, I decided to try adding the pastry cream first and then topping with a banana and discarding the entire cone. This was much more successful because you can fit in more pastry cream and the banana makes a stable surface for the whipped cream topping.

Filling:
1 cup half-and-half
¼ cup (1.75 ounces) sugar, divided
Pinch of salt
3 large egg yolks
1½ tablespoons cornstarch
2 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut into 4 pieces
¾ teaspoon vanilla extract

Cake:
2½ cups (10 ounces) cake flour, plus extra for dusting pans
1¼ teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon baking soda
¾ teaspoon table salt
1¾ cups (12.25 ounces) sugar
10 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly
1 cup buttermilk, at room temperature
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
6 large egg yolks plus 3 large egg whites, at room temperature

Topping:
1½ cups heavy cream
½ cup (1 ounce) powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1½ bananas, peeled and sliced

1. To make the filling, heat the half-and-half, 3 tablespoons of the sugar, and the salt in a saucepan over medium-high heat until simmering, stirring occasionally to dissolve the sugar. Meanwhile, combine the egg yolks and remaining 2 tablespoons sugar in a medium bowl and whisk until the sugar has begun to dissolve and the mixture is creamy, about 15 seconds. Whisk in the cornstarch until combined and the mixture is pale yellow and thick, about 30 seconds. When the half-and-half mixture has reached a simmer, slowly add it to the egg yolk mixture to temper, whisking constantly. Return the mixture to the saucepan, scraping the bowl with a rubber spatula. Return the mixture to a simmer over medium heat, whisking constantly, until a few bubbles burst on the surface and the mixture is thickened and glossy, about 30 seconds. Off the heat, whisk in the butter and vanilla. Strain the pastry cream through a fine mesh sieve set over a medium bowl. Press plastic wrap directly on the surface to prevent a skin from forming and refrigerate until cold and set, at least 3 hours and up to 2 days.

2. To make the cupcakes, adjust an oven rack to the middle position and heat the oven to 350 degrees. Line 24 cupcake wells with paper liners. Whisk the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and 1½ cups (10.5 ounces) sugar together in a large bowl. In a 4-cup liquid measuring cup or medium bowl, whisk together the melted butter, buttermilk, oil, vanilla, and yolks.

3. In the clean bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, beat the egg whites at medium-high speed until foamy, about 30 seconds. With the machine running, gradually add the remaining ¼ cup (1.75 ounces) sugar; continue to beat until stiff peaks just form, 30 to 60 seconds (whites should hold peak but mixture should appear moist). Transfer to a bowl and set aside.

4. Add the flour mixture to the now-empty mixing bowl fitted with the whisk attachment. With the mixer running at low speed, gradually pour in the butter mixture and mix until almost incorporated (a few streaks of dry flour will remain), about 15 seconds. Stop the mixer and scrape the whisk and sides of the bowl. Return the mixer to medium-low speed and beat until smooth and fully incorporated, 10 to 15 seconds.

5. Using a rubber spatula, stir ⅓ of the whites into the batter to lighten the mixture, then add the remaining whites and gently fold into the batter until no white streaks remain. Divide the batter evenly between the cupcake liners. Lightly tap the pans against the counter 2 or 3 times to dislodge any large air bubbles.

6. Bake until a toothpick inserted into the center of a cupcake comes out clean, 18-20 minutes. Cool the cupcakes in the pans on a wire rack for 5 minutes, then remove them from the wells and cool completely on a wire rack.

7. Use a paring knife to remove a 1½ inch-diameter cone from the center of each cupcake; discard the cones. Spoon 2 teaspoons of pastry cream into the well of each cupcake, then top with a slice of banana.

8. To make the topping, beat the heavy cream on medium-high speed in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment until frothy. Add the sugar and vanilla and beat until the mixture holds stiff peaks, scraping the bowl as necessary.

9. Pipe the whipped cream onto the cupcakes. Top with a slice of banana.

Filed Under: cake, dessert, fruit

dulce de leche cupcakes

09/08/2011 By bridget

This was not my first attempt at dulce de leche cupcakes. My first attempt resulted in cupcakes that rose out of their wells, spread over the top of the pan, and baked into one solid mass. And they tasted like pancakes.

They weren’t even really dulce de leche cupcakes. They were brown sugar cupcakes with cream cheese dulce de leche frosting. I’m sure that combination is wonderful, but it wasn’t what I wanted, which was cake that was flavored with dulce de leche. Also cake that didn’t explode in the oven.

This is the cake that I wanted. It’s based on a yellow cake recipe (similar to Martha Stewart’s, which did well in this comparison), with dulce de leche replacing a portion of the milk. I had my doubts that the caramel flavor would be evident after baking, but I was very pleasantly surprised.

And then there’s the buttercream, which might be the best thing I’ve eaten in weeks. It’s so smooth and creamy, and so dulce de leche-y. With a drizzle of pure dulce de leche on top, these cupcakes were perfect, and a very far cry from my first attempt.

One year ago: Beer-Marinated Flank Steak
Two years ago: Zucchini Bread
Three years ago: Crawfish (or Shrimp), Roasted Tomato, and Farmer’s Cheese Pizza

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Dulce de Leche Cupcakes (adapted from Confections of a Foodie Bride)

I made these twice; the first time, they seemed dry, so I replaced a portion of the butter with canola oil and increased the buttermilk.

1½ cups (7.2 ounces) all-purpose flour
1½ cups (6 ounces) cake flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
¼ teaspoon baking soda
12 tablespoons (1½ sticks) unsalted butter, softened
1⅓ cup (9.33 ounces) granulated sugar
¾ teaspoon salt
½ cup dulce de leche
4 large eggs, at room temperature
¼ cup canola oil
2 teaspoon vanilla extract
¾ cup buttermilk, room temperature
Dulce de Leche Swiss Meringue buttercream, recipe below

1. Adjust an oven rack to the idle position; heat the oven to 350 degrees. Line 24 muffin wells with paper cups. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flours, baking powder, and baking soda.

2. In a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment (or a large bowl if using a hand-held mixer), beat the butter, sugar, and salt on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes, scraping down the sides of the bowl as necessary. With the mixer running, gradually add the dulce de leche; beat another minute, until thoroughly incorporated. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition, then mix in the oil and vanilla. Reduce the mixer speed to low; add the dry ingredients in three additions, alternating with the buttermilk and ending with the dry ingredients. Beat each addition just until incorporated.

Dulce de Leche Swiss Meringue Buttercream

4 egg whites
1¼ cups (8.75 ounces) granulated sugar
Pinch salt
24 tablespoons (3 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
⅓ cup dulce de leche
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1. In the bowl of a stand mixer (or a large bowl if using a hand-held mixer), combine the egg whites, sugar, and salt. Set the bowl over a pot of simmering water, making sure the bottom of the bowl does not touch the water. Whisk constantly until the mixture reaches 160 degrees.

2. Fit the mixer with the whisk attachment; beat the egg white mixture on medium-high speed until stiff peaks form and it has cooled to room temperature, about 8 minutes. Reduce the mixer speed to medium and add the butter 2 tablespoons at a time, adding more once each addition has been incorporated. Increase the mixer speed to medium-high and beat until the buttercream is thick and smooth, 3-5 minutes. Add the dulce de leche and vanilla; mix until incorporated.

Filed Under: cake, dessert, mexican

yellow cake comparison

02/10/2011 By bridget

I was going to wait to post this because now I want to do more yellow cake experiments. But this week I have a couple batches of cookies I want to make, and last week it was bread pudding and chocolate mousse, and next week it’ll be something else. By the time I find an opportunity to make more yellow cake, I’ll have forgotten everything about this batch.

The three recipes I chose for this comparison are Cooks Illustrated’s Fluffy Yellow Cake (CI), Martha Stewart’s Yellow Butter Cake (MS), and Smitten Kitchen’s Best Birthday Cake (SK). Like all yellow cakes, they all include butter, whole eggs (unlike white cake, which only uses the whites), granulated sugar, vanilla, salt, leavener, flour (cake or all-purpose), and dairy (whole milk or buttermilk). I baked them all as mini cupcakes at the same temperature for the same amount of time. I used the same size scoop to transfer the batter to the muffin cups.

CI (blue wrappers), which uses cake flour and buttermilk, is unique among these recipes in its inclusion of oil and extra egg yolks. It is also mixed like a chiffon cake, in which the dry ingredients and liquid ingredients (including melted butter) are combined, then beaten egg whites are folded in.

MS (red wrappers) uses a mixture of all-purpose flour and cake flour, as well as whole milk instead of buttermilk (it is therefore missing the baking soda the other two recipes require to balance the acidity of the buttermilk). It is mixed using the creaming method, in which the butter and sugar are combined, the eggs are added, then the milk and dry ingredients.

SK (yellow wrappers) also uses cake flour and buttermilk. There are no tricks up this cake’s sleeves. It is also mixed with the creaming method.

CI (blue) was buttery and moist with a nice sponginess. The top was a little sticky (easily covered up with frosting, but we were testing them plain) and crisp. It was my and Dave’s favorite.

MS (red) was less sticky and fluffier, but it was also less buttery, and, to be honest, a little bland. It has half the salt as the other recipes, so that’s probably the culprit, although it could be the use of whole milk instead of buttermilk.

SK (yellow) had a nice, buttery flavor, but a solid, flat top. For cupcakes, the flat-topped spreading is a deal breaker for me, but I believe it would be fine for a layer cake. And because this cake has over three times more baking soda than CI, I suspect that cutting it in half would solve the spreading problem, which I attribute to overrising.

(sorry I switched the order around in this photo)

So the cake with the best texture (MS) – fluffy, slightly domed, with no stickiness or overly hard tops – had the least impressive flavor. I’m inclined to think that it would be easier to bump up the flavor of that recipe than it would be to adjust the texture of the others. I would also love to try SK as a layer cake and/or with less baking soda. To complicate matters further, a reader recently pointed out another yellow cake comparison with several more recipes I’d like to try.

In the meantime, Cooks Illustrated’s Fluffy Yellow Layer Cake has the best balance of these three recipes of full, buttery flavor and a light texture. And once the cakes were smothered with chocolate frosting, I couldn’t tell the difference between them anyway.

(Oh, were you wondering what the best chocolate frosting is? It turns out I compared three chocolate frosting recipes in the same (exhausting) night. I’ll discuss those next.)

One year ago: Oatmeal Pancakes
Two years ago: Red Velvet Cake comparison (odd coincidence)
Three years ago: Potstickers

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Fluffy Yellow Layer Cake (from Cooks Illustrated)

Makes two 9-inch round cakes

2½ cups (10 ounces) cake flour, plus extra for dusting pans
1¼ teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon baking soda
¾ teaspoon table salt
1¾ cups (12.25 ounces) sugar
10 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly
1 cup buttermilk, at room temperature
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
6 large egg yolks plus 3 large egg whites, at room temperature

1. Adjust an oven rack to the middle position and heat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease two 9-inch cake pans and line the bottoms with parchment paper. Grease the paper rounds, dust the pans with flour, and knock out the excess. Whisk the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and 1½ cups (10.5 ounces) sugar together in a large bowl. In a 4-cup liquid measuring cup or medium bowl, whisk together the melted butter, buttermilk, oil, vanilla, and yolks.

2. In the clean bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, beat the egg whites at medium-high speed until foamy, about 30 seconds. With the machine running, gradually add the remaining ¼ cup (1.75 ounces) sugar; continue to beat until stiff peaks just form, 30 to 60 seconds (whites should hold peak but mixture should appear moist). Transfer to a bowl and set aside.

3. Add the flour mixture to the now-empty mixing bowl fitted with the whisk attachment. With the mixer running at low speed, gradually pour in the butter mixture and mix until almost incorporated (a few streaks of dry flour will remain), about 15 seconds. Stop mixer and scrape the whisk and sides of the bowl. Return the mixer to medium-low speed and beat until smooth and fully incorporated, 10 to 15 seconds.

4. Using rubber spatula, stir ⅓ of the whites into the batter to lighten, then add the remaining whites and gently fold into the batter until no white streaks remain. Divide the batter evenly between the prepared cake pans. Lightly tap the pans against the counter 2 or 3 times to dislodge any large air bubbles.

5. Bake until the cake layers begin to pull away from sides of pans and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, 20-22 minutes. Cool the cakes in the pans on a wire rack for 10 minutes. Loosen the cakes from the sides of the pan with a small knife, then invert onto a greased wire rack and peel off the parchment. Invert the cakes again and cool completely on rack, about 1½ hours.

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Yellow Butter Cake (from Martha Stewart via Annie’s Eats)

Makes two 9-inch round cakes

16 tablespoons (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature, plus more for greasing pans
1½ cups (7.2 ounces) all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting pans
1½ cups (6 ounces) cake flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
1¾ cups (12.15) granulated sugar
4 large eggs, room temperature
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1¼ cups milk, at room temperature

1. Preheat the oven to 350˚ F. Line the bottoms of two 9-inch round cake pans with parchment paper. Butter and flour the edges of the pans, tapping out the excess; set aside. In a medium bowl, combine the all-purpose flour, cake flour, baking powder, and salt; whisk together to blend well and set aside.

2. In the bowl of an electric mixer, combine the butter and sugar. Beat on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 4 minutes, scraping down the bowl as needed. Mix in the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Blend in the vanilla. With the mixer on low speed, add in the dry ingredients in three additions, alternating with the milk. Beat each addition just until incorporated.

3. Divide the batter between the prepared baking pans. Bake, rotating the pans halfway through baking, until the cakes are golden and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, 30-35 minutes. Transfer the pans to a wire rack and let cool 20 minutes. Run a knife around the edge of the pans to help remove the cakes. Invert the cakes onto the rack and peel off the parchment. Let the cakes cool completely before frosting. Level the cakes if necessary.

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Best Birthday Cake (from Smitten Kitchen)

Makes two 9-inch rounds

4 cups plus 2 tablespoons (16.6 ounces) cake flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1½ teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
16 tablespoons (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
2 cups (14 ounces) sugar
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
4 large eggs, at room temperature
2 cups buttermilk, well-shaken

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Butter two 9-inch round cake pans and line with circles of parchment paper, then butter parchment. (Alternately, you can use a cooking spray, either with just butter or butter and flour to speed this process up.)

2. Sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a medium bowl. In a large mixing bowl, beat butter and sugar in a large bowl with an electric mixer at medium speed until pale and fluffy, then beat in vanilla. Add eggs one at a time, beating well and scraping down the bowl after each addition. At low speed, beat in buttermilk until just combined (mixture will look curdled). Add flour mixture in three batches, mixing until each addition is just incorporated.

3. Spread batter evenly in cake pan, then rap pan on counter several times to eliminate air bubbles. Bake until golden and a wooden pick inserted in center of cake comes out clean, 35 to 40 minutes. Cool in pan on a rack 10 minutes, then run a knife around edge of pan. Invert onto rack and discard parchment, then cool completely, about 1 hour.

Filed Under: cake, dessert, recipe comparisons

dorie’s chocolate cupcakes

10/28/2008 By bridget

I was excited all day about baking the chocolate cupcakes that Clara chose for TWD. I almost always look forward to baking, but I was downright giddy this time. With the variety of desserts I make lately, I guess I forgot that classic chocolate cake is my favorite!

Clara also suggested that we decorate these for Halloween. Ack…even simple cake decorating inevitably ends up as a huge mess for me, and I’m incapable of making things easy on myself. My six little cupcakes required four colors of frosting, one of which I didn’t actually have food coloring for (orange – I had to mix yellow and red) and another that involved chocolate (black – to give it a head start toward being dark enough). And I am far from an expert cake decorator, so my design options were limited to the few piping tips that I know how to use properly.

The cake itself was a little disappointing. I was getting worried that I would start to sound like a Negative Nellie when it comes to Dorie’s recipes, but this time it seems that a lot of people ended up with dry cupcakes that were a little too tame in chocolate flavor. Not that they were inedible or anything, but Dave and I didn’t need a side-by-side comparison to recognize that we like my other recipe a lot more. One nice thing, since it took a few days for us to eat all of them, was that these seemed to get denser and fudgier with time instead of tasting stale.

Whether I think it’s the best chocolate cake ever or not, I’m always happy to eat cupcakes. I made my favorite Easy Vanilla Buttercream instead of Dorie’s ganache frosting since I needed something that would pipe well. To check out Dorie’s recipe, go to Clara’s blog.

Filed Under: cake, chocolate, dessert, tuesdays with dorie

bittersweet chocolate and pear cake

10/10/2014 By bridget

Earlier this summer, one of my coworkers brought in peaches from his tree, so I took some and made peach cupcakes to share at work. Then a couple weeks ago, another coworker was giving away apples, so I took some and made apple pie-cake for everyone. After that, the apple grower was excited to find someone to offload her apples to, so she brought me another bag, and I made apple cake and then apple muffins. Also, my mom gave me pears, so I made pear chocolate cake.

It sounds weird, right, pears and chocolate together? That’s what most of my coworkers said, but then they said that it definitely worked. It’s a fun recipe, with the eggs beaten until foamy and the batter spread in the pan with the fruit and chocolate on top. As the cake bakes, it rises up due to all the air beaten into the eggs, incorporating the fruit and chocolate.

Just like in a chocolate chip cookie, the chocolate here provides a bitter richness to compliment the sweet butteriness of a fruit-based cake. Sugar and butter being, of course, the perfect compliments to almost any fruit. Basically, if you have too much fruit, give it to me and I will make cake out of it.

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Bittersweet Chocolate and Pear Cake (rewritten but not significantly adapted from Al Di La Trattoria via Smitten Kitchen)

My homegrown pears were small, so I used five of them.

8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted
1 cup (4.8 ounces) all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
3 eggs, at room-temperature
¾ cup (5.25 ounces) sugar
3 pears, peeled, cored, and diced into ¼-inch cubes
¾ cup (4.5 ounces) bittersweet chocolate chunks

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a 9-inch springform pan with nonstick baking spray (or oil and flour the pan). In a small bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, and salt. In a small skillet over medium heat, melt the butter. When the foaming subsides, start swirling the butter around the pan. When the milk solids sink and turn brown and the butter smells nutty, remove the pan from the heat and pour the butter into a small bowl or measuring cup so it stops cooking.

2. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment (or a large bowl if using a hand-held mixer), beat the eggs until light yellow and thick, about 5 minutes on a stand mixer and 9 minutes with a handheld mixer. When the whisk is removed from the bowl, the egg should flow off of it in a thick ribbon. Gradually add the sugar to the eggs, beating for 1 minute after it’s all added. Reduce the mixer speed to its lowest setting and add one-third of the flour mixture, then half of the butter, another third of the flour, the rest of the butter, and the rest of the flour, beating just until combined.

3. Spread the batter evenly in the prepared pan. Evenly distribute the pears and chocolate over the top of the batter. Transfer to the oven and bake until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean, 45-60 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. If desired, dust with powdered sugar just before serving.

Filed Under: cake, chocolate, dessert, fall, fruit

radiation sugar cookies

07/06/2012 By bridget

If I don’t often talk about what I do for a living, it’s because it’s hard to explain. I don’t have one of those jobs that you can name in one word and people will get at least some idea of how you spend your days, like being a teacher or nurse or accountant or engineer. My official title is either Scientist 2 or Difficult Waste Expert.

If I say I work with nuclear waste, you might start to picture Homer Simpson’s job, but mostly I work in an office with spreadsheets. Our official task is to come up with ways to get radioactive waste (stuff mostly left over from the Cold War; not spent nuclear fuel) safely disposed of. There is a radioactive waste repository near my town, half a mile underground in a salt deposit, but I never have any reason to go out there.

Even so, my coworkers and I are trained on what the radiation symbol looks like, including the colors – yellow and magenta, at least until you run out of magenta icing, and then black is acceptable. Not even one of the thirty or so people in my office have been required to wear hazmat suits for our current positions, but the idea was too cute to pass up.

I was worried my nuclear containment guys would end up looking like yellow astronaut teddy bears, but I think I got the point across. Other than one manager who thought they might be eskimos, my coworkers loved these. And after another long day looking at computers, trying to make tiny steps toward solving the country’s nuclear waste problem, a distraction in the form of cute cookies is something we could all use.

One year ago: Baked Eggs in Mushrooms with Zucchini Ragout
Two years ago: Vanilla Bean Cupcakes
Three years ago: Sourdough Bagels
Four years ago: Apple Cheddar Scones

Filed Under: cookies, dessert, royal icing

chocolate frosting comparison

02/17/2011 By bridget

Let me put this right out there: Chocolate frosting isn’t my favorite thing. Chocolate cake, chocolate cookies, chocolate pie, yes. Vanilla frosting, cream cheese frosting, lemon frosting, yes. Chocolate ganache, that richest of chocolate glazes, yes. But frosting, not so much, and so this comparison was by request. And curiosity – is there a chocolate frosting out there for the likes of me?

My theory is that I haven’t found the perfect chocolate frosting because I like chocolate things to be very very chocolately. A hint of chocolately is just a tease. And with frosting, you’re playing a balancing act between squeezing in as much chocolate flavor as possible while maintaining a light, fluffy texture.

I compared Cooks Illustrated’s Creamy Chocolate Frosting (CI), Ina Garten’s Chocolate Frosting associated with her recipe for Beatty’s Chocolate Cake (BC), and Martha Stewart’s Chocolate Frosting (MS). Other than the addition of some sort of chocolate and some sort of sugar, they have little in common. Well, that and butter. Lots and lots of butter. I used the same bittersweet chocolate for all of the recipes. We tasted the frostings plain.

CI (wider star tip) – This recipe is a swiss meringue buttercream, in which warmed egg whites and sugar are beaten together until fluffy, then soft butter is slowly whipped in. Melted bittersweet chocolate and vanilla extract are added at the end. The ratio of chocolate to sugar and butter in this recipe is 1 ounce bittersweet chocolate to 0.4 ounces granulated sugar and 2.0 tablespoons butter.

MS (round star tip) – This recipe is a mixture of butter, cream cheese, powdered sugar, cocoa, sour cream, and bittersweet chocolate. For every 1 ounce of bittersweet chocolate, there is 0.8 ounces powdered sugar and 1.6 tablespoons of dairy fat (from various sources). Plus 1.5 teaspoons of cocoa powder. My ratio system doesn’t work so well for this recipe.

BC (finer star tip) – This frosting includes butter, an egg yolk, vanilla, powdered sugar, coffee and bittersweet chocolate. There is 0.8 ounces powdered sugar and 2.7 tablespoons butter for every 1 ounce of bittersweet chocolate.

CI –This frosting was smooth and light with no graininess. With the least amount of sugar and a high ratio of chocolate to butter, I was expecting this to deliver the rich chocolate flavor I was hoping for, but it tasted as light as it felt. Maybe all that air from whipping the egg whites to a meringue diluted the flavor?

MS – This frosting was creamy and mousse-like, although a bit grainy. It was by far Dave’s favorite, and it was mine as well. (The magic word is mousse-like.)

BC – This frosting was thinner and a little grainy. Similar to Ina Garten’s popular brownie recipe, I thought the coffee flavor was overpowering. It would make a great mocha icing, but for a classic chocolate frosting, the coffee powder should be eliminated or at least reduced to a pinch.

(Cooks Illustrated, Ina Garten/Barefoot Contessa, Martha Stewart)

It comes as no surprise to me that the recipe that includes cream cheese is my favorite. It does surprise me that Dave would feel that way, as he generally isn’t as much of a fan of cream cheese. Perhaps it’s because Martha Stewart’s recipe had the least fat per chocolate in it, although it does have plenty of other goodies in there. Or perhaps that extra sprinkling of cocoa bumped up the chocolate flavor more than I expected. Whatever the reason, this rich creamy frosting was chocolately enough to overlook the slightly grainy texture.

Already, just hearing about this comparison, new chocolate frosting recipes are being recommended, so this isn’t the end of this story. But at least it’s a beginning.

(Cooks Illustrated, Martha Stewart, Ina Garten/Barefoot Contessa)

One year ago: Jalapeno-Baked Fish with Roasted Tomatoes and Potatoes
Two years ago: Pot Roast
Three years ago: Vanilla Frosting comparison

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Chocolate Frosting (from Martha Stewart via Annie Eats)

14 ounces bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped
9 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
9 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature
3 cups (12 ounces) confectioners’ sugar, sifted
6 tablespoons unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder
Pinch of salt
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons sour cream

1. Melt the chocolate in a heat-proof bowl set over a pot of simmering water. Set aside to cool until just barely warm.

2. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the cream cheese and butter on medium-high speed until pale and fluffy, about 3-4 minutes. Gradually mix in the confectioners’ sugar, cocoa powder and salt. Beat in the melted and cooled chocolate and then the sour cream. Continue beating until the mixture is smooth and well blended. Frost cupcakes immediately.

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Creamy Chocolate Frosting (from Cooks Illustrated)

⅓ cup (2⅓ ounces) granulated sugar
2 large egg whites
pinch table salt
12 tablespoons (1½ sticks) unsalted butter, softened and cut into tablespoon pieces
6 ounces bittersweet chocolate, melted and cooled to 85-100 degrees
½ teaspoon vanilla extract

1. Combine the sugar, egg whites, and salt in the bowl of a stand mixer. Set over a small saucepan of simmering water, and, whisking constantly, cook until the mixture is slightly thickened, foamy, and registers 150 degrees on an instant read thermometer, 2-4 minutes.

2. Fit bowl to stand mixer, and with the whisk attachment, beat at medium speed, until mixture is the consistency of shaving cream and slightly cooled, 1-3 minutes. Add butter 1 piece at a time, until smooth and creamy. The frosting may look curdled halfway through, but it will smooth out eventually.

3. Once all the butter has been added, pour in the cooled chocolate and vanilla. Mix until well combined. Increase speed to medium-high and until light and fluffy, another 30 seconds to a minute. Frost cupcakes.

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Chocolate Buttercream (from Ina Garten)

6 ounces good semisweet chocolate (recommended: Callebaut)
½ pound (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 extra-large egg yolk, at room temperature
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1¼ cups (5 ounces) sifted confectioners’ sugar
1 tablespoon instant coffee powder

1. Chop the chocolate and place it in a heat-proof bowl set over a pan of simmering water. Stir until just melted and set aside until cooled to room temperature.

2. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat the butter on medium-high speed until light yellow and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add the egg yolk and vanilla and continue beating for 3 minutes. Turn the mixer to low, gradually add the confectioners’ sugar, then beat at medium speed, scraping down the bowl as necessary, until smooth and creamy. Dissolve the coffee powder in 2 teaspoons of the hottest tap water. On low speed, add the chocolate and coffee to the butter mixture and mix until blended. Don’t whip! Spread immediately on the cooled cake.

Filed Under: cake, chocolate, dessert, recipe comparisons

Food Photography Basics

There are, undeniably, better photographers than me. I would provide links, but there are too many to choose from. So what, then, do I have to offer someone who’s trying to learn the basics?

Exactly that – I only recently learned myself. I remember the frustration of not being able to showcase my subject (whether it be food, a child, nature) to the extent that it deserves. And I remember exactly how I learned.

If you’ve asked people for help before or have done some web searching on the topic, you’ve probably heard these three pieces of advice:

1. Use natural light
2. Don’t use flash
3. Use the macro setting on your camera (for food)

And while each of these is, in essence, true, they’re also incomplete. What kind of natural light? And what does natural light mean? What do you do when you turn the flash off and your pictures end up blurry?

Don’t worry – there isn’t much to learn, and you don’t need an expensive camera. You do, however, need to learn how to maximize the camera you have. You can’t be afraid of your camera’s manual. By learning how to adjust the settings on your camera, you take control of your photography, instead of letting your camera make the decisions.

1. Natural light

Photography, especially of food, almost all comes down to lighting. Food styling and composition are nice too, but, frankly, if your lighting sucks, your photo will suck.

Light can be different colors. You don’t necessarily perceive that, because you’re smart and your brain automatically corrects for it, but your camera does pick it up. For photography, you want the ambient light to be white, which means it won’t cast a tint on your photo. If you take a picture in your kitchen at night with light from tungsten bulbs, everything in the picture will look yellow or orange. Evening light tends to be a little blue. The whitest sunlight is usually during the middle of the day. This is the light you want.

While sunlight is best, you usually don’t want to take photographs in a sunbeam because it introduces harsh shadows.

2. White balance

So am I saying that you can only take photos in the middle of the day? No, of course not. This is where you need to learn about your camera.

Your camera can correct for the tint of the light. You can tell it what kind of light you’re shooting in – whether it’s sunlight, a cloudy day, tungsten light bulbs, etc. Another option is to set the custom white balance. For the custom white balance, you take a picture of something white and tell your camera that that’s white, and it adjusts the other colors accordingly.

You absolutely need to learn to set the white balance! Play with the settings and find what works best for you, your setting, and your camera. For example, my Canon Rebel invariably tinges photos blue on the automatic setting. If the ambient light is essentially white, the sunlight setting works best. For my Nikon point-and-shoot, the custom white balance is always best. Unfortunately, neither of my cameras do a good job correcting light from tungsten light bulbs.

copy-of-time-of-day-sunrise copy-of-time-of-day-afternoon

copy-of-time-of-day-fluorescent copy-of-time-of-day-sunset
clockwise from upper left – sunrise; early afternoon; sunset; fluorescent

3. Exposure compensation

Setting the exposure compensation allows you to make your pictures brighter or darker. It’s based on a scale from, for example, -2 to 2, and 0 is the default. A setting higher than zero will make your photo brighter. I tend to prefer food photos on the brighter side. But again, this is something you’ll need to learn how to adjust in your camera and play around with. Like the white balance, it should be a relatively easy feature to set, and it can make a huge difference.

clockwise from upper left: -1.0; 0.0; +1.0; +1.7

4. Flash

Built-in flashes are a pet peeve of mine. Your camera really wants you to use one in almost all situations, but, honestly, they’re an almost no-fail photo ruiner. Using an on-camera flash will make your photo unevenly lit, as the front is a lot brighter than the back of the photo. Furthermore, shining so much light directly at your subject means you don’t have any subtle shadows that give your subject texture. So, in almost all situations: Turn your flash off.

Using an external flash is an entirely different (and rather expensive) subject.

left – flash; right – no flash

5. ISO setting

Adjusting the ISO setting is another way to make your photos brighter, but it comes at a price. If you find that, after turning your flash off, your pictures are often blurry, it’s because your camera’s shutter is open longer than you can hold the camera still. Changing your ISO setting can help. Your camera is more sensitive to light at higher ISO settings (for example, 800 compared to 100), so you can get away with using a faster shutter speed while still getting nicely lit photos. On the flip side, photos taken at high ISO settings are lower in quality, introducing graininess and color errors.

This is particularly important if you plan to print your photos, and the larger print you want, the more problems you’ll have. However, if you’re just posting your photos on your blog, you can usually get away with higher ISO settings.

How many problems high ISO settings cause is highly dependant on your camera, so again, you’ll want to experiment with this setting. And unfortunately, really basic cameras might not have the option to adjust this.

left – ISO 100; right – ISO 1600

At this size, you might not be able to see the problem, but if you click on the photo with ISO 1600, it’ll enlarge and you can see the graininess, especially in the shadows.

6. Tripods

When you’re taking photos inside without flash, you might have trouble holding the camera steady long enough to get a clear, unblurred shot. Your answer is a tripod. For food photography, you don’t need a large or expensive one. I bought a cheap countertop tripod from Target for my point-and-shoot, and it served me well. I can’t stress enough the importance of a tripod. You’ll be able to take well-lit, clear photos as the sun goes down.

7. The macro setting

Food photographers seem to love the macro setting, but I don’t really feel the same. Too often, people get too close to the food, and it’s 1) a little disconcerting (attack of the cupcakes!) and 2) you lose perspective, and sometimes it can be difficult to even identify the subject. Furthermore, on my point-and-shoot, I can’t adjust the white balance and exposure compensation when I use the macro setting.

8. Depth of field

Depth of field (DOF) refers to how much of the photo is in focus. Is everything in the picture clear (large DOF), or is the subject in front clear and the background blurred (small DOF)?

left – long depth of field; right – short depth of field

People tend to love short depth of field in food photos. I certainly do. If you have a dSLR, you’ll change the aperture setting to adjust the depth of field. If, however, you have a basic point-and-shoot that doesn’t allow you to adjust how much of the photo is in focus or even what section of the picture is in focus, there is one trick at your disposal. Use the macro setting – in this case, the lens is set to take a picture of something close, and it simply can’t get the background stuff in focus too. That must be how I got this shot, although I didn’t know it at the time.

left – macro setting; right – automatic setting

9. Photo editing

Don’t be afraid to edit your photos, and honestly, there’s no excuse not to, with several free photo editing software options available. For food photos, you’re probably not going to get overly creative in your editing in-computer, but you can correct any color and lighting issues, as well as do a bit of sharpening, cropping, and resizing. It won’t take you more than a few minutes to learn how to do these tricks, and they can really take your photos to the next level. Some free photo-editing programs include the GIMP (which is what I used for a long time), PICNIC, and Picasa.

left – before editing; right – after editing

10. “Studio”

I think you’ll be hard-pressed to get away without setting up any sort of studio for food photography. You don’t need anything expensive or space-consuming. In the summer, when there’s plenty of natural light available, just a white board propped up next to a window can make a huge difference in how clean your photos look. Things are trickier in the winter, and you might want to make or buy a light box.

Even your stove can be a decent area for pictures.

11. DSLRs

My personal (strong and rather judgmental) opinion is that if you don’t know how to adjust the settings on your point-and-shoot camera, there’s no reason to get a dSLR. The advantage of a dSLR is that it has more options and provides you with greater control over the photo-taking process. If you’re using your dSLR on auto, you’re just carrying around a cumbersome and expensive point-and-shoot. My suggestion is to learn how to maximize your point-and-shoot first, and if you then find yourself too limited, invest in a dSLR. This has the added advantage that you won’t be so overwhelmed with how much you have to learn when you do get a fancier camera. Honestly, you can take great photos with a point-and-shoot. People do it all the time.

12. Practice

If you make an effort, you will improve with time. Keep trying! Keep learning!

If you have other questions or find that any of this information is unclear (or even incorrect), please don’t hesitate to leave me a comment or send me an email at crumblycookie.bridget at gmail dot com.