This is the kind of baking I'm doing these days

A Nutella mug cake. Microwave baking. Never thought I'd do that, but what the heck, right? This was what we had for dessert on the night of Wes' birthday after the kids went to bed. It tasted great even though my sleep deprived foggy brain forgot to put in the sugar.

Recipe found here:
http://pinterest.com/pin/80572280804924436/

This is the kind of blogging I'm doing these days...the mobile kind.

That's my life these days, microwaved and mobile. Enjoy!

Second Birthday Cake

For Emeline's birthday this year, I decided to make her a strawberry themed birthday.  I tried to think of what things are Emeline's favorite, and I only came up with a few including Elmo and strawberries.  I am not ready into the land of animated character themed birthdays, so I decided to go with something a little more simple:  Strawberries.  Not Strawberry Short Cake the character, who by the way is totally from the 80s in my book, but just straight up strawberries.  And what a delicious theme that would be too!  So I decided to try out some strawberry cake recipes to see which one would make the cut for a birthday cake.  Here's what I tried....

First cake: Strawberry Cake from Martha Stewart
http://www.marthastewart.com/336020/strawberry-cake

I forgot to take pictures of mine, but it was delicious.  Needs no accompaniment or icing, it's a very dense rich cake.  Was good with milk on it to soak into the dense cake.  I liked this cake a lot, but I thought it might be better for a breakfast or brunch, or dessert too of course, but just didn't seem quite right for a birthday cake.

 
Second cake: Strawberry Shortcake Cake from the Pioneer Woman
http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2009/05/strawberry-shortcakecake/

And here are the photos of my cake.  I tried to frost it completely so the strawberries wouldn't show, just to look a little more like a potential birthday cake that could be done up and decorated.

This cake also tasted great.  Moist, especially after soaking up the strawberry juice, and dense too.  I was skeptical at first about the cream cheese frosting with the strawberries, but it tasted really good.  I did do a carrot cake with cream cheese frosting for Emeline's first birthday, so I thought maybe I should try something different for this one, but this is definitely a good cake and birthday cake option.

Third, final and winner cake:
http://glorioustreats.blogspot.com/2011/05/strawberry-shortcake-cake.html

The last, but definitely not least cake was a more traditional white butter cake with fresh strawberry filling and whipped cream frosting.  Emeline LOVES whipped cream, so that with the traditional nature of this cake won me over.  I had the opportunity for a few different versions.  For her actual birthday at home, I made the full cake version as in the recipe above.  Here are some assembly and final cake pictures.

 

 

 

 

 

But for Emeline's birthday party I wanted to make a cupcake version, but as you know, I like to practice this sort of thing first; so for Easter, I did a trial run.  They turned out great.  I forgot to take pictures of the process, but I just baked the batter a little shorter for cupcakes, then I cut little holes out of the centers of the cupcakes (they were refrigerated, and this helped a lot), put a spoonful of strawberry filling, and then piped a simple swirl on top with a star tip.  The flower cupcake liners made them extra springy.

 

 

 

Since the cupcake version was a hit, I went ahead with full scale production ;) for the birthday party.  I had to make 50 cupcakes, and because this batter was so fluffy, I think I only had to do a double or 2.5 times amount to get that many cupcakes.

The other thing I tried for the first time was stabilized whipped cream.  I've never tried this, but have been wanting to because you know how easily whipped cream falls and is difficult to pipe with.  I wanted the swirls on the cupcakes to hold their shape in the unseasonably hot April weather we were having.  This recipe worked great, and the whipped cream held for the cupcakes just fine, and even until all the leftovers were eaten (a few days later) in the fridge.

So here are the cupcake photos!

 

 

 

It was a fun party, good friends, and one last baking hurrah before our kitchen remodel.

Cadbury Creme Egg Cupcakes

I saw a pin for Cadbury Creme Egg Cupcakes on Pinterest, and I immediately knew I had to try these.  I am a sucker for these ridiculously sweet Easter treats, and ever year I take advantage of how long the commercial holiday season is and I stock up...or just keep buying them.  Some years I guess I forget, but other years, it's a little crazy how many of these I'll eat before the next holiday's treats are out.

Anyway, I tried them.  It's not much of a recipe, but a fun idea.  Just bake a mini creme egg into a chocolate cupcake.  Top with white and yellow buttercream and another mini egg.  The only important instruction is to freeze the eggs that go inside the cupcake so they don't melt away during baking.  

Here are the little guys baking...

And here are some shots of them all dolled up.  Mine done look as perfect and cute as the ones on Pinterest, but that's ok.

They look a little like fried eggs from the top.  LOL.

Unfortunately, I must say that these cupcakes were not my favorite.  The creme filling kind of caramelized inside the cupcake, and though that didn't taste bad, it no longer tasted like eating a Cadbury Creme Egg.  So the best part, to me, was the actual egg on top, and it wasn't so great on the inside.  This recipe actually uses the insides of the creme egg to make a buttercream frosting.  Now that sounds like a good idea! 

Halloween Birthday Cake

I have been doing some baking lately, which prompted me to take some pictures of my most recent work, and I realized I never got to posting about Wes' birthday cake.  It was a fun challenge for me, so I didn't want to forget it. This is a VERY belated post, but I hope those of you still reading Nisamina enjoy it.  

Wes' birthday is on Halloween, and I had some leftover fondant, and I had been wanting to try making a pumpkin cake.  A friend of mine, and actual professional baker, suggested using a bundt cake to get the pumpkin shape.  It seemed like a great choice, but I hadn't thought it, so I googled pumpkin bundt cakes, and I found lots of examples.  I found this little tutorial, which seemed simple enough, so I decided to try it.

Then I asked Wes what kind of cake he wanted for his birthday.  He said chocolate with chocolate mint frosting.  I thought a pumpkin flavored cake would be much better in pumpkin form, but who am I to disappoint.  So I baked some chocolate mini bundts (I chose mini because my larger bundt pan is extra fancy and actually wouldnt make the shape of a pumpkin) and got to work turning them into pumpkins.  I put frosting between two mini bundts and sandwiched them together.  Then I filled the centers with frosting to get the tops even.  Then I did a crumb coat of frosting.  I dyed the fondant I had orange and little bit of it green, and I got to rolling it out.  I covered the little pumpkins in the orange fondant, pressing the fondant into the ridges to get the pumpkin shape.  Then I used the green to mold some stems, and I cut out some leaves.

I did all the decorating during one miraculously long nap time.  It was quite a rush, and I probably was not as careful as I could have been, but I was happy that I even got to do it!  The bottoms of the pumpkins were a bit wrinkly cause I went to fast, but I think the fact that they are supposed to be pumpkins made the design less forgiving.  Here is what I got!

I really liked how the stems turned out.  They were super easy.  I just rolled kind of a tear drop shape, then I flattened the bottom, twisted the top, then made finger prints to stick them to the pumpkin and give it some more shape.  I also rolled some little viney things to put in the center of the pumpkin cluster.

 

I was really happy with the result, but I decided to try the last step in the tutorial.  I put some cocoa powder on a cue tip and ran it down the ridges of the bundt cakes.  This was supposed to give it a more antique looked.  Looking at the photos now, I think I almost prefer them without it, but once I started, I had to do the whole thing.  They still looked good. 

Wes was thoroughly surprised! He was not expecting a cake like this!  It was good, but I think it was a little weird to cut into a pumpkin and taste chocolate mint.  But that's ok.  Next time I'll do a pumpkin flavored bundt!