Coconut Cupcakes

Mmm....coconut.  I loooove coconut!  There's just something very comforting about coconuts.  I remember talking with my cousin C about cupcakes.  I had asked her, if she were to get married, what cupcakes would she choose to have at her wedding?  Coconut was one of her choices...which amazed me because coconut is usually not a flavor the norm picks...but it was a flavor I would have loved to have too!  What can I say...great minds think alike, riiight? ;)
Last month, I made a whole bunch of different flavored cupcakes for a cake tasting and the base of this coconut cupcake was part of the tasting.  However, for the tasting, I had added pineapples to the mix and made a coconut-pineapple cupcake.  I've been meaning to play around with this coconut cupcake again but haven't found the time until a couple days ago.  I was going to meet up with C in Los Angeles for a "fun" day! :)  C is a somewhat health nut.  She is dedicated to exercise and the gym and that would probably be the <3 of her life, if it wasn't for me and the goodies I make and force upon her =D I guess it doesn't help that we are best buds in the foodie world either!  ....I digress....As I was saying, I made these cupcakes in honor of C...and let me just say, these coconut cupcakes were beyond delicious.  I'm not saying this just because I made these cupcakes! LOL...I mean, I usually don't eat a lot of the goodies I make.  I can usually eat one or two to see whether it's worthy of my recipe box and whether I need to fix the recipe.  However, these coconut cupcakes were sooo good!  So good, in fact, that C only got 6 of them...I was able to get 18 cupcakes out of this batch...C got 6, and what was left over was 4.  Yes, my math is completely correct...  The missing 8 ended up in my tummy.  And yes, I am completely serious.
   
Seriously...!  Oh, let me not forget, since I'm shamelessly confessing all my guilty secrets...all 8 disappeared on the same day......Have I convinced you how yummy they were yet?  If not, I have pictures as proof ;)

I made these coconut cupcakes with two different kinds of toppings.  The thinner shredded coconut is the typical coconut you'll find at any major grocery store.  They are the sweetened flaked/shredded coconut.  The fatter coconut topping is an unsweetened organic coconut flake.

I must say, though, that overall,  I truly enjoyed the sweetened flaked/shredded coconut better than the unsweetened organic flakes.  The unsweetened flakes were tasty in that, overall, the cupcakes weren't that sweet (because of the unsweetened topping).  However, the sweetened flaked/shredded coconut had a much better texture.  I'm not sure if it was because of all the sugar coated onto the sweetened coconut that made the shreds more tender, or if it was the size these coconuts were shredded to, but the sweetened coconut flakes were definitely softer and easier eat, albeit, a bit sweeter.  Whereas, the unsweetened coconut flakes took on a crunchy, stale taste :(  If only they had unsweetened finer shreds of coconut...This would then be a perfect coconut cupcake!

Mmmm...coconut cupcakes...must. make. more!

Chocolate Chip Cookies

Yesterday was a very special day for me.  I was invited to a very special school in Pasadena, CA to teach some very special kids how to bake.  Ms. G, the teacher of Classroom 2 and my friend from back in the days, is definitely not a baker...not even an amateur baker!  When she told me of the horror stories of the baking escapades that occurred in Classroom 2, I was shocked and horrified and totally feel her kids' pain!  (Sorry, Ms. G, but I just have to tell some of those stories!...no worries though, you shall remain anonymous! LOL).

Here goes:  Ms. G has a lot of baking stories, but this one I found both hilarious and sad at the same time!  It's THE brownie incident.  So, Ms. G's brownies started from a box.  No worries, Ms. G, I forgive you ;) She measured everything and followed the directions on the box, down to the T!  Crossing her fingers, she put her pan into the preheated oven and pretty much prayed that the brownies come out right.  I mean, there were students with shining eyes just waiting the whole day for these brownies!  As the aroma of freshly baked chocolatey goodness started to wafe throughout the classroom, Ms. G felt a sense of accomplishment and relaxed her guard.  "Yes!" she thought..."there WILL be brownies today!"  As the time came up for the brownies to come out, Ms. G thought "hmmm, I usually like my brownies a little bit chewier and crispy around the edges."  So, she set the timer for another couple minutes and didn't stay by the oven's side to wait it out.  (Oooh boy, Ms. G....wrong move!)  The next thing she knew, she opened up the oven when the timer went off, and was greeted by burnt, hard brownies!  Oh dear...those poor, poor children!  Ms. G, you  were so close!  "Don't worry, children," she said, "I'll promise to bring you something tomorrow!!"  And that's the story of Ms. G's baking luck!...

But now, Ms. G has me!  Ms. G's the teacher and I'm the baker!  I offered her my services and love the chance at teaching kids the wonderful world of baking!  Last time, the kids and I made chocolate cupcakes with vanilla frosting.  This time around, I decided to show them how to make chocolate chip cookies.

 The kids had a blast making these cookies!  Many of them wanted to eat the cookie dough and lick the spoons!  I decided not to bring the KitchenAid mixer this time and thought we could just use man power to mix up the batter.  As we started adding chocolate chips and nuts, the batter got thicker and thicker!  Boy, it took all the kids to mix the cookie dough!!

 Can you believe how perfect these cookies came out?  The kids did a fantastic job helping out!  It was a good thing Ms. G had some milk in the fridge!  Milk, chocolate chip cookies, and a movie was the perfect ending to a long Monday!

Cheers to Ms. G and chocolate chip cookies!

Sprinkles Strawberry Cupcakes

I find it kind of weird that I'm intrigued with strawberry anything, but never really eat strawberry flavored anything...Does that even make sense??  For example, do you remember those neopolitan ice cream sandwiches?  I used to eat them when I was younger and I would eat the vanilla and chocolate ice cream part and then toss the strawberry part.  Why??  To this day, I have no idea!?  I would have thought I'd love the strawberry part, since it's always such a pretty colored pink!  (For those who don't know me yet, I *heart* anything pink!)  :) 

Hence, the need to make strawberry cupcakes.  It is now strawberry season and I live in Oxnard, where a lot of the strawberries are grown.  I happen to have a tray of strawberries in the fridge and decided to make cupcakes out of them.  I was thinking of the beautiful perky pink of the batter from the fresh strawberries, along with a pretty shade of pink for the frosting.  After all, when you think strawberries, doesn't images of pink come up??
Although, these cupcakes didn't turn out as pink as I would have hopes, they certainly tasted of fresh strawberries!  I decided to use a pretty floral black/white cupcake liner and some pale pink ones.  I'm sad to say that only the black/white liners showed up well.  That pink one in the back turned up like regular cupcake liners :(
I found the recipe for these strawberry cupcakes online.  They are a "Sprinkles" brand recipe.  I recently had one of their cupcakes in LA and thought they were sooo tasty!  (We got a chocolate coconut and a chocolate peanut butter..mmm, mmm!)  I had wanted to buy a few more, but at $3.50/cupcake, the baker in me couldn't do it (well, the baker in me and C, my live conscience and partner in food crime).  Didn't get a chance to try the strawberry cupcakes, so I'm not sure if these cupcakes taste like the store's cupcakes...I'm guessing not, because these were a bit buttery, in my opinion (hence, the oily looking liners!).   But still very pretty :)

I also thought I'd make this cupcake more interesting by putting a filling of custard creme, topped with some strawberry puree and then covered with strawberry buttercream!  It looked very pretty and had an element of surprise for those biting in :)

 Overall, these cupcakes were very easy on the eyes, but a bit too buttery.  I guess it doesn't help that I use buttercream as the frosting!  =/  It's a learning process...I'm hoping to create a fantastic strawberry cupcake in the future!

Mini-Pineapple Upside Down Cake

A couple months ago, as I was browsing through one of my favorite discount store, I stumbled upon a mini-pineapple upside down cake pan.  Of course, it was a great price for this quality pan, but I thought to myself, "Self, do I really need this cute pineapple pan??  Like, really really??"  My heart was telling me that I want it and of course i "need" it, but my head was telling me something totally different!  So, what did I do?  I carried that pan with me throughout the store while browsing some more, contemplating whether this purchase qualifies as a splurge or steal.....Alas, I waited in line to pay for it, but had a change of heart at the last moment (actually, my heart didn't change it's mind, but the mind convinced my heart that this purchase qualifies as a splurge) =( 

Fast forward about a month after this "almost-purchase" and here I am, back in the favorite store..."browsing"...again.  You see, I've been thinking bout that pineapple pan for a while and have finally decided to go and get it..but you know how it is..time just gets away from you!  I was really hoping it's still there...there were only 3 of them when I first saw the pans!  And even though I knew that items go pretty fast at discount stores, yet, I wondered: is anyone really going to buy these pans?  I mean, I can't see someone baking pineapple shaped cake regularly at home...  So, I wasn't worried about it not being there!  Lo and behold, no pineapple pan. DARN, I thought..." I shoulda bought it when I saw it!! Darn, Darn, Darn!"  >:I

You know what this means, right??  This meant that I was a raving mad women, now intent on finding myself that cute pineapple pan even if it meant "browsing" at all the discount stores close to home (and some not quite so close!).  It probably wasn't until about a month ago that I finally found my pineapple pan.  And of all places, back at the original discount store...hmph..what are the chances of that happening?  This time, however, there was only one left!  And after all this time thinking and yearning for that pan, I stopped myself and questioned myself again (!) "Do I really truly need/want this???"  I even went as far as getting a second opinion from my cousin C (who happens to looove pineapple upside down cake) whether I should buy this pan or not.  She told me not to buy it because I don't need it.  So what did I do?...I bought it =D ....besides, I could always return it ;)

My cute lil pineapple pan, once taken home, was stashed high on a cabinet with all my other baking pans.  And what did I do?  I promptly forgot about it...until today.  You see, I've actually never had pineapple upside down cake, so today (after a weekend filled of couch-potatoing, watching all the episodes of Jericho and eating junk food with the husband), I decided that I should do something productive.  Like bake.  I wanted to bake something different, since I baked some strawberry cupcakes (next post!) earlier over the weekend (in fact, I made strawberry cupcakes, a bunch of different recipes of buttercream, and more chiffon cupcakes!).  That's when I remembered my cuuute pineapple pan.  So, mini-pineapple upside down cake it was today!

They weren't that cute upside down in the pan (once baked), but after flipping them over onto a plate so that they're right-side up, they were sooo adorable!

I love close-up shots :)

Hope you enjoyed this post!  Look out for the next one on strawberry cupcakes!
Cheers!

Puff Pastry Heaven

Today is a very good day.  You might be wondering why.  Well, I'll tell ya :)  Today, the Puff Pastry God smiled down upon me and graced me with beautiful layers of buttery yummy goodness!  This was my second attempt at making puff pastry from scratch, and I'm happy to say that it was a success!  Let me tell you...that first time I made puff pastry...it was not a very pretty sight.  I mean, I don't know why I felt compelled to make the whole batch...It just didn't occur to me to halve the recipe so that it would have been a whooole lot easier to work with (and a whooole lot less butter wasted!) > : (

I can still remember when I first made puff pastry.  I could seriously understand why I've heard a lot of people say that they don't spend the time making their own and would rather just buy the pre-made sheets.  Granted, those sheets from the grocery stores are a lot easier to handle and saves the baker a lot of time and aggravation, but they cannot compare to the taste of home-made puff pastry!  Mmmm....buttery goodness.....oops, I'm digressing...back to my first trial.  It was ugly.  Seriously, really ugly.  First of all, I totally do not have the counter space to be rolling out such a large batch of puff pastry.  Secondly, with the first rolling movement, two pounds of butter (yes, I said pounds) squirted out everywhere! And with every movement, the butter just kept right on leaking out =( And it wasn't as if I only had to roll it out once...no, unfortunately, I had to roll it, fold it into a book shape, and then refrigerate for about 20 minutes, four times!! And yes, each of those four times that I re-rolled it, the butter squished out everywhere!  It was a disaster!! And to top it all off, it was my homework assignment for the week and I had to bring my failure into class so that the chef could bake it and see what a horrible puff pastry maker I was...waaah! =(  It was shameful...and here I thought I was a better baker than cook...*shakes head*...tsk, tsk, tsk...

It was at this point that I decided, yes, I, too, will just have to make do with store-bought puff pastry! I just kept thinking of all that wasted butter (2 pounds +)!  It wasn't until last week in class, we made a French apple tart brulee, using puff pastry, that I decided I shall attempt puff pastry again....yes, that French apple tart brulee was that good! This time, however, I was much smarter!  *smirk*  I halved the recipe (and still ended up with plenty of puff pastry!), and it made rolling the buttery dough sooo much easier!  Take that Puff Pastry! HA!  The butter didn't squish out as badly as the first attempt, but squish out it still did!  I didn't sweat it though...it was already looking a lot better than before! =)  For the ultimate test, I was going to make those apple tarts again, but decided to do custard with strawberries instead.  I cut the puff pastry into scalloped circles and created a little pocket for the custard.  It was mmm mmm good!  I am a very happy woman today!

Just look at all those lovely buttery golden layers of yummy goodness!! 

And the best part of all?  I have five of these lil tart yummies waiting to be eaten =D  And more puff pastry in the freezer!  I'm a very happy woman, indeed!

Anything but Plain Jane

Have you ever heard the phrase "plain Jane" or "plain as vanilla?"  Most people have this weird idea that vanilla doesn't have flavor...and that it's so boring!  Well, I beg to differ!  Vanilla is anything but plain!! It has a distinct, floraly, rich, sweet flavor that is complex, yet comforting and simple at the same time.

I must admit though, that,  although I've always been more of a vanilla person than a chocolate person, I, too, used to think vanilla was pretty plain.  That's because all the vanilla flavored goods I had tasted was...well, boring!  In fact, most of the time, the vanilla flavor was lost in the sea of sweetness.  It wasn't until I started dabbling in the kitchen myself...actually, it wasn't until I started using quality ingredients in the kitchen (because my early years of baking in the kitchen included cheapy ingredients, as I was a poor student...) that I realize the importance of quality!  Real vanilla has flavor!!  Let me repeat that: Real vanilla has flavor!!  By George, it's not as plain as I had thought! :)  Now that I realize how incredibly rich vanilla could be, the real challenge was incorporating it into a recipe where the vanilla would shine...And I chose cupcakes =D

"Cupcakes, eh...how boring" you might think...But let me just say, vanilla cupcakes are actually very difficult to make!  Not making the cupcakes itself, but trying to figure out the right balance of ingredients to create a delicious, moist, vanilla-y cupcake, where the vanilla is the star!  After countless trial and error efforts, I came up with my own version of vanilla cupcakes.  It has a balance of sweetness and richness...and most importantly, the vanilla shines through!  I usually just pipe some kind of swirl upon my cupcakes, but this time, I thought, why not make these cupcakes more fun and elegant?  I had dabbled at making fondant Briar roses a few nights ago and they were happily drying out for the past few days, so I thought , why not..they would look perfect atop my cupcakes!  I should hope that you find these cupcakes anything but boring!  :)
 
Aren't they fun?  The little specks you see in the frosting is vanilla beans!...it definitely makes the frosting much more tasty!

It's very important to me that my cupcakes are moist and flavorful.  Can you see how moist this cupcake is?  I can attest to the yumminess of these cupcakes ;)  I thought they even tasted great on its own without frosting!  It wasn't too sweet but had incredible flavors that were complex and interesting! 

I think I shall learn how to make more fondant flowers!  They look incredible, even atop cupcakes!

I hope that this post encourages you to go out and find the best vanilla cupcakes you can find (or make!) and truly experience the wonderful flavor of vanilla! :)

A Favor for a Favor

I love weddings.  No, seriously, I really do!

Actually, let me rephrase that: I love (lower cased) weddings, but I LOVE (upper cased AND italicized!) weddings that I can butt into =D  I absolutely LOVE helping people plan their weddings and help them decide vendors and styles and colors and fabrics...and pretty much everything dealing with the wedding!!  I especially love focusing on the details...more specifically, the smaller, itty-bitty little details dealing with weddings.

  So focused with the details am I that this weekend, I made wedding favors!  I am trying to hoist wedding favors upon people...I mean, I know a lot of people feel that favors are a total waste of money and that weddings already cost an arm and a leg, etc... (so why add to to the cost?), but I am a firm believer that a favor is a nice gesture to thank guests for taking time out of their busy lives to come and celebrate! (especially those who need to travel a ways to get to the wedding!)...Right??  Or am I just an old-fashioned woman who can't get with the times?  Either way, I love to give food type items as favors.  My eyes always lit up when I attend a wedding and there's some kind of candy as the favor!  Is it just me?  Admit it, you love them too ;)  I mean, we scoff at those tulle wrapped Jordan almonds or those little tins filled with M&M's (just because the bride and groom have names starting with M's) yet, they save us every single time as we're waiting on the food (they're running late)! We find ourselves munching on them, and we think "thank goodness for this candy...I"m starving!"  It's ok to admit it...I won't tell ;) See?..the merits of food favors!  For my own wedding, my bridesmaids and friends helped me dip over 400 strawberries in chocolate, then boxed and ribboned them up...the night before the wedding!  I know, I know, that was a lot of work, but they were beautiful...and I have since compensated them with my love and they are still speaking to me and remain my friends :) Perhaps I'm a bit biased with the food favors, since my own favors were food-related...?  Who knows? :)
So this weekend, my favors to my brides were to check out the favor goodies and to think about it :)

 I made some, might I be bold enough to say myself, stunningly simple wedding cake cookies ;)  I love the simple sophistication it adds to sugar cookies!  The fondant flowers adds a beautiful extra touch to a simple cake!  I also tried the bride and groom attired hearts.  Instead of having two separate cookies, I used a double heart cookie cutter and had conjoined bride and groom cookies.  The dilemma of having to buy two cookies for each guest (one each of the bride and groom) or feeling weird if a guy got the bride cookie and a gal got groom cookie (if you intended on one cookie per guest), solved!  Aren't they cute?

These home-made sugar cookies are not your average sugar cookies!  I developed this recipe after countless batches of tasteless, blah average-tasting cookies.  Yummy cookies + Simple Sophistication = Fantastic Wedding favors!! :)

It's been suggested to me that perhaps I should marry again...then I can make these cookies as favors :) Hrmm...I shall keep that in mind ;)

Cheers!