60th Birthday Cupcakes

I wish I had a good reason for my lack of blogging lately. Well, I actually do - my Grams has been in and out of the hospital, I've been really busy at work, and I've been busy worrying about baking 50 some cupcakes for my Dad's 60th Birthday party. Cupcakes that his friends would be eating (and judging). These cupcakes were to take the place of a cake, and this was a huge birthday, so it needed something good. Those all would be good reasons for not baking or blogging, but I have baked a few things and have just been lazy about blogging.


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June 7, 2010

That was my entry when I started it last week. However, since then my Grams has been put on hospice care and, though I am getting many requests for new blog posts, I fear I am not up to any just yet, nor am I baking at this point - just trying to spend some time with the woman who was for years like a mother to me, at times my best friend and always the best grandmother ever and an amazing role model.

Below are two pictures of the cupcakes I referred to above. Regrettably, we didn't take the time document the process, but at least we got a couple of the finished product. My Dad and everyone seemed very pleased with them, including me! I must give due credit to my wonderful friend Claire though, whom I couldn't have done it without. She claims she knew barely anything about baking, but you'd never know it.

We made key lime pie cupcakes, which were white cupcakes filled with key lime pie filling (sweetened condensed milk and key lime juice), topped with a lime juice whipped cream and lime slices; white chocolate strawberry cupcakes, which were white cupcakes with strawberry extract (homemade) and white chocolate chips in them and a strawberry cream cheese frosting; and chocolate raspberry cupcakes, which were chocolate mayonnaise cupcakes stuffed with raspberries topped with a dark chocolate raspberry butter cream frosting.




May my Dad have many more happy years, may my Grams not suffer in her last days and know that she was very loved, and may you all be well. I'll be writing at you again soon...

Blackberry Tart

Yesterday when we were in Trader Joe's, I noticed they had double containers (12oz) of blackberries for only $3.69 - a huge deal, especially looking as good they did! I snapped them up, along with a big carton of strawberries that was only $3.29. I thought I would make a quick fold over tart (where you lay a pie crust out on a baking sheet, place your fruit in the middle, and fold the edges up over it - See my Cranberry Pear Tart entry) with my goodies. However, when I got home and saw my muffin pan on the kitchen island, I decided to try making mini tarts instead, with just the blackberries. I guess I will have to bake something else with the strawberries; maybe my early summer tradition, Strawberry Rhubarb Pie.

I have made pies before, and mushroom tarts, but not mini fruit tarts. So, I decided to use my knowledge from the others and try to come up with my own recipe.

First, I cut circles out of a pie crust using a biscuit cutter. I only got 10 circles, so I had to roll out the remnants to get 2 more. After the circles were cut, I pressed each circle as evenly as I could into the bottom of the muffin pan.


I took butter, brown sugar, vanilla, brandy and walnuts and heated them in a sauce pan. Then, I whisked in flour. I then added the (washed) berries.

Next, I poured the berry mixture into each crust, arranging them so there were 6 berries in each - just enough so the pie crust were full, but not overflowing. Finally, I baked them.

The tarts came out tasting awesome, if I can say so myself! The berry mixture expanded a little into each tart and was just sweet and gooey enough. The crusts provided just enough to cup it all. My husband said the only thing that could've made them better was some custard on top. Pretty good for an experiment, and a wonderful treat when you don't want to put too much effort into making something! Also, a very good use for those summer berries which will soon be in abundance.

When I was making this, I didn't measure everything exactly, and I don't think you have to with such a recipe. However, I tried to estimate the measurements of each ingredient so I could provide a recipe here. Hope you find it as enjoyable and easy as I did!

Recipe

1 tbsp butter

1/3 cup brown sugar

1/3 cup chopped walnuts

1 tbsp vanilla

1 tbsp brandy

1/4 cup flour

12 oz blackberries, or 72 berries - 6 for each tart

1 pie crust

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Heat the butter, brown sugar, walnuts, vanilla and brandy in a medium sized saucepan over medium heat, stirring occasionally

When the above mixture is melted and well combined, whisk in the flour

Stir in the berries

Cut the pie crust into 12 circles and press each one evenly into the bottom of each cup in a muffin pan

Pour the berry mixture into each cup

Bake for 20 -25 minutes, until you can smell the berries baking, and they look a bit gooey

Margarita Cake

Tomorrow is Cinco de Mayo. For Mexicans, it represents the celebration of a battle victory, though I recently found out it is more an American holiday (reason to drink and party) than anything. However, why not use the opportunity for a little celebration and a bit of baking?

What is more recognizable as part of a Mexican meal or celebration than margaritas? Well, it seems it is for us Americans, anyway. So, what better thing to incorporate into baking than that great drink? I have been wanting to make a cake, and set out to find recipes that incorporated margaritas into cake. I found a Betty Crocker recipe for margarita cake online today that called for a crushed pretzel crust, white boxed cake, a cool whip frosting and some margarita fixings added in. Since we are going to be out to dinner with friends tomorrow night (yes, at a Mexican restaurant), I decided to take the cake to work for a change.

As tonight was to be the only night this week that Nick and I had alone, at home, I actually considered getting the boxed mix the recipe called for. However, when Nick found this out, he scoffed. The Sendiks by our house didn't have any white boxed mixes, so that was that. I found a recipe for simple white cake mix on AllRecipes.com and decided to try that. What was going to be a quick and easy cake turned into one of my couple hour baking projects, but I think it was worth it!

First, I pounded the pretzels to mash them into little pieces and crumbs. Then, I mixed them with sugar and butter as directed in the first recipe.


Next, I creamed the butter, made a margarita and mixed the dry ingredients. Then, I mixed them all together, alternating dry and wet ingredients.


The batter turned out frothy, almost like meringue, and it sure tasted good - like margaritas!

I made a couple of cupcakes, as well as the cake, since I was making the cake for work, and knew Nick might not be able to try it otherwise. I doubled the cake recipe so it would fit into my 9x13 pan (rather than the 9x9 pan called for), and had more than enough batter to make a few cupcakes. Nick, being the mathematician, did the numbers and figured out that I could have made 7 cupcakes and still had enough batter for the cake. I didn't feel we needed 7 cupcakes though!

The cupcakes turned out pretty well, the pretzels sticking well in the cupcake. However, the cake was a little dense and the pretzels overtook the margarita taste. The pre-made whipped frosting I used to ice them (so I didn't have to break into the cool whip and not have enough for the cake) did not do them justice; I can't wait to try the cake with the cool whip tomorrow!

*Update* The cake turned out much better than the cupcakes, with the pretzels and the cake being a good combination. The cake is not quite as dense as the cupcakes, and there is much more of it compared to in the cupcakes. You can also taste the margarita more in the cake. The cool whip frosting is light and a nice, airy, sweet, compliment to the slightly salty cake.

I got to work at 10 a.m. and by 11 a.m. most of the cake was gone; I would say that is a successful recipe! If I were to make it entirely as cupcakes, I think I would do something different, like making the pretzels more powdery (Nick's suggestion), or putting more batter into each cup, but I don't think I will mess with the cake version!

Overall, I would say this turned out very well!

There was just enough cake leftover after work so that I could cut a good peice for a picture:

Though I combined two recipes into one, I wound up changing many of the ingredients. Here is my final recipe:

Margarita Cake

pretzel mixture (3 cups smashed pretzels, 1/2 cup sugar, 1 stick melted butter)

2 cups sugar

1 cup butter, at room temperature

4 eggs

1 tbsp vanilla

3 cups flour

3 1/2 tsp baking powder

1 1/2 cups margarita (1 cup tequila, a dash of orange liquor (or triple sec), lime juice)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Butter a 9x13 baking dish

Press the pretzel mixture into the baking dish

Cream the butter and sugar together and add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition

Beat in the vanilla

Sift the flour and baking powder into another bowl

Make the margarita mixture

Beat in the dry ingredients and the margarita mixture, alternating, in 4 additions each

Pour batter into baking dish and bake for approximately 30 minutes, until a tooth pick inserted in the middle comes out clean

Happy Cinco de Mayo!