Rainbow Cake!!! (Whisk Kid)

Yay!

This came out sooooooo cute!

A HUGE thanks to Kaitlin (aka Whisk Kid) for this wonderfully fabulous recipe and for her great help/advice with the frosting!

And a big Thank You to Dianne for forwarding this recipe to me!!! :)

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Made this for my lil neice's 10th Birthday and she loved it!

It was such a hit that I'm making it again next weekend for Mother's Day!!!  :)

Used the Wilton's Gel Coloring for extra vibrant color!!!

Separated my batter into 6 bowls.  (This, for me, ended up being about 1 cup each.    ie- Six 1-cup bowls).  And added the gel coloring!

ROY G BIV!  

(Red Orange Yellow Green Blue Indigo Violet)

Assembling the layers...

Colorful candles for a colorful cake!

Mmmm... It was sooooo good!

When I make this again next weekend, I will definitely add thicker frosting between cake layers!

I really want those colors to Pop!

Fun Birthday Mustaches for the Birthday Girl and her silly Aunt!

Grrr... We're tough...

:)

tres leches cake

Tres Leches cake

This came out sooooooooooo good!!!!

Again, I know... not a cupcake.

But I'd been craving this recently (for some odd reason) so I decided to make it.

This recipe is super easy to follow.

Oh geez... FIVE eggs!

So, there aren't too many pics on this one as I was trying to work fast!

I wanted my eggs to stay light and fluffy...

Meanwhile, the milks...

Recipe calls for Rum, which we don't have, so I added Kahlua... I think it's even better!!!

Mmm...

Of the entire cake, this is all that was left!

2 pieces!

So, again... Thank God for the YouTubes (as my mom would call it...)

I learned:

• make sure eggs are room temp (I had no idea it would matter!)
• visually saw what 'soft peaks' look like vs. 'stiff peaks'
• learned to add sugar, etc once soft peaks have formed
  
  This video was really helpful:
  

as well as a video from Epicuriousdotcom (embedding disabled): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LVcNDhwwFB8

Happy Birthday Hubby!!!

He loves his whipped cream! (Home made, of course)

From Joy of Cooking:

1 cup cold heavy cream
1-4 tbsp confectioners' sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla

Remember to keep bowl and mixers cool in fridge for awhile before using!

martha stewart - yellow butter cake (with chocolate frosting)

Happy Easter!

Ok... I know this isn't 'cupcakes' but think of it as one BIG cupcake!

We celebrated Easter at our place this year and since everyone was over, we also celebrated lil niece's b-day and my MIL's b-day!

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I thought this Martha Stewart Yellow Butter Cake sounded good and seemed easy enough, and since I'm short on time these days... It was perfect!

Recipe was easy to follow. The ingredients are all the basics.

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Buttered my 9 inch round pans. Cut a piece of parchment paper into circle-shape and put at the bottom of the pan. Buttered that too! Sprinkled with flour.

Was in a bit of a hurry that day so...

Fast forward to cakes are done!

Recipe called for 30-35 mins cook time but I started checking at 20 mins.

My main concern was that I had one dark pan (which bakes quicker) and one light pan (which bakes longer)!

Sure enough, the dark pan came out at about 20 mins and the light pan came out at about 30 mins.

Thank God for the cake tester!

Cooled 'em on the rack...

~
Meanwhile, made the frosting...

3 sticks of buttah... unbelievable!

Mmmm...

There's all that crazy butter...

Oh geez... this frosting came out soooooo good! Nice and creamy! I was worried since my frosting is a bit 'hit-or-miss' but this came out perfect!

Yay!!!

This cake came out sooooooooo yummy!

Everyone loved it, esp lil niece who loves the chocolate!

I really feel like all of the things I've learned so far really paid off with this cake...

• Putting the stuff on the center rack to bake
• spooning flour into measuring cup
• checking cooking time consistently
  
• not over-beating my eggs
• thinking things thru 1st... I know this last one sounds silly but you wouldn't believe how easily I forget something once I start baking... (same goes for cooking... Thank God I don't cook as much!)
  

:)

500 cupcakes - chocolate & chili cupcakes

Who DOESN'T love the movie Chocolat...

(um, and who DOESN'T love Johnny Depp!) ;-)

This latest recipe from the 500 Cupcakes book calls for some teaspoons of Chipotle Chili Powder, which made me think of the movie and so I've been dying to try these...

Needless to say... they came out AWESOME!

So, I've been trying to apply some of the things that I've been learning as I go... and I think it's really helping! (I think it's contributed to the ultra-yumminess of these latest cakes).

One of the new things I tried:

Swans Down Cake Flour

This came per the recommendation from one of hubby's co-workers (who is a master baker).

Also, after reading up on Joy of Baking, it seems All Purpose or Cake Flour is the way to go (not Self-Rising). Good to know! :)

Frosting ingredients... recipe calls for "Tia Maria"... I had no idea what that was! After researching it, it seems Kahlua would also do the trick. ;-)

Yummy!

So other things I did:

Again, thanks to Joy of Baking, I spooned my cake flour into the measuring cup (as opposed to using measuring cup to scoop flour out of the box/bag...which is what I used to do!).

Since flour's already packed, no need to pack it again! Hence, spooning!

(Those 'lumps' are whole chocolate chips! YAY!)


And thanks to What's Cooking America, I used my unsweetened cocoa powder (since I can't find Dutch-Process ANYWHERE) and added a lil baking soda, per substitution chart!

While the guys were baking, I made the frosting.

The recipe called for putting all ingredients (just butter, Tia Maria (Kahlua), cocoa powder & confectioner's sugar) in food processor and processing...

It came out soooooooooo nice and thick and creamy and yummy!

Soooooo good (and it doesn't hurt that I added extra Kahlua) ;-)

Mmmm... I'd eat that just like that...

Ding! Outta the oven.

I ended up taking 'em out a couple of minutes early cause the toothpick test came out good.

Cute...

Oh geez... This is making me hungry for one...

These came out sooooooooo good and I'd absolutely make them again!

The Chipotle Chili Powder adds an interesting kick, which I really like!

The other yummy fabulousness is that the batter calls for adding whole chocolate chips before baking. Extra Yum!

These pics are courtesy of hubby who commandeered the camera...