Fashionably Fit

I made another hamburger cake last week.

You may remember the cake from my 25th and 26th birthdays and because this blog did not exist when I turned 24, here is a photo of that cake, too:

This time, the cake was in honor of a coworker’s birthday. Before we departed for the office, the cake took some time to hang with my new salt and pepper shakers.

As always, the “bun” was a golden butter cake (mix) and the “burger” was chocolate chunk brownie (mix). The “tomatoes” are strawberries and the “pickles” are kiwis. I decided to frost the bun to make it look more authentic, and I’m so glad I did — it makes a huge change! I used brown gel food coloring from Wilton, which was about $2 at AC Moore. The “sesame seeds” are roasted sunflower kernels.

And that buttercream frosting was intense.

It has taken me about a year, or six attempts, to perfect my buttercream. I follow the recipe on the bag of the powdered sugar bag from Target, but it is really a matter of slowly adding sugar and tiny, tiny bits of milk until you get the perfect consistency. The first time I tried it, it was liquid, and I just stared at it dumbfounded.

Now I just have to get handy with a pastry bag!

Tell me about your latest baking creation!

I’ve mentioned more than once that I look down on box-mix baked goods with disdain.

There’s a lot of reasons I get all holier-than-thou when it comes to Duncan Hines and Betty Crocker – such as they don’t taste the same as the from-scratch stuff, duh –   but the biggest is just that as someone who used to gobble Little Debbies and Chips Ahoy with nary a thought of — or appreciation for! — what I was eating, I feel I’ve earned the right to be a baking snob.

So there.

But when our friends had us over for dinner Saturday — we really want the puggle to be BFF with their Boston terrier — I offered to bring a dessert. With about two hours to get it together. Oops.

It felt like summer this weekend, so fiance suggested key lime pie. I liked the idea, but I didn’t have a recipe and couldn’t recall coming across one. I started browsing the recipe indexes of my favorite blogs and came across Lime Cupcakes from The Culinary Couple.

Sold!

The original recipe calls for a plain white cake mix, but when I got to the store and saw Funfetti, I thought, go big or go home. You make the cake mix as directed and add half the Jell-O packet to the batter, and if I make these again, I probably will stick to white cake, as the Funfetti flavor was a little stronger than I remembered.

The real star of the show, though, was the icing. I beat together 1/4 cup melted butter with 2 tablespoons milk, then added powdered sugar and the other half of the lime Jell-O until I got the perfect, thick consistency. 

I added neon green food coloring, too, because lime frosting should be eye-popping green.

It pains me to admit how damn good this artificially flavored confection was.

I might even have to try it with another flavor of Jell-O.

Damn.

So, my beloved Steelers lost the Super Bowl. Disappointing, but … what can you do? Besides, I’d rather lose the Super Bowl than choke in the playoffs (Philadelphia, I’m looking at you).

Win or lose, these black-and-gold cupcakes are so festive and delicious. I’ll be making them next season … and probably next week (a little red food coloring and BAM! Valentine cupcakes!). I really, really love the rich, dark chocolate cupcakes; the frosting is very sweet, but it works well with the chocolate.

This is one recipe that I didn’t change at all. I didn’t have buttermilk on hand, so I added some lemon juice to 1 percent milk, but that was the only substitution I made. You can find the original recipe from Shape magazine here.

Last week, it was once again my turn to bring the goodies for our staff meeting. The last time it was my turn, I made muffins. I saw a recipe for lemon blueberry cornmeal muffins on the side of the cornmeal bag and was intrigued, but I didn’t want to seem like a one-trick pony.

I was set on the lemon-blueberry combination, though, and eventually, Google led me to Food Network’s recipe for blueberry scones with lemon glaze. I had never made scones before, so I followed the recipe and some tips I found online and crossed my fingers.

So you can imagine my relief when that became …

Helpful scone reading:

Rachel’s herb and cheese scones

Blueberry scones from Burghilicious

Maple Oat Nut Scones — On a Lobster Placemat

The thing about scones — at least, the ones you make at home — is that they consist of more butter and cream than flour, which makes them a good bet if you are insulin resistant. Or if you’d just prefer to not feel ravenous an hour after breakfast, which is what happens to me after eating pancakes, bagels or any starch of your liking.

I decided to make some more scones again this weekend, with one change to the Food Network recipe: I decided to use half-and-half and vanilla Greek yogurt instead of heavy cream. I added the Greek yogurt for protein, a creamy consistency and flavor.

Scone dough is tricky, because it has to be just the right amount of sticky. You just keep adding cream — or half-and-half, or yogurt — until it’s perfect.

We ate these before church, and while I wouldn’t count on one to power me through a weekday morning, they’re the perfect lazy weekend breakfast.

Where do some of the best recipes come from?

I started paying attention to “back of the box” recipes when I covered the baking contests Hershey’s sponsors at the Pennsylvania Farm Show each year. Hershey’s has a ton of awesome recipes on their website, like the peanut butter paisley brownies I make for special occassions.

Last week, it was my turn to bring the goods for our weekly staff meeting, and I decided to make muffins. When I pulled out the flour to make another recipe I found online, I saw the sour cream blueberry muffin recipe on the side of the bag. I decided to swap Greek yogurt for the sour cream and chocolate chips for the blueberries and … wow. I had half of one when it came out of the oven, then took the rest to work and didn’t have any more.

But then I couldn’t stop thinking about them, and it was the weekend, and …

I tend to beat the bejeezus out of any sort of dough or batter, but you can’t do that with muffins. I combined the ingredients until everything was just wet.

And then this emerged from the oven.

When I made them for us, I reduced the sugar to 2/3 cup. I like muffins to taste like muffins, not naked cupcakes.

Hello Kitty cupcake wrappers are optional.

Printable recipe

A few weeks ago, I picked up a few old cookbooks at an estate sale — one was compiled by members of a church in 1985, and the other is the 1973 edition of “What’s Cooking, Doc?” which was put together the Florida Medical Association’s women’s auxiliary — and there are so many old-fashioned Southern recipes in them, and none of them are complicated.  A former editor recently sent me that newspaper’s holiday recipe insert, and there are some great ideas in it, too.

I wouldn’t make most of the dishes for us for a regular weeknight meal, but you can’t beat these simple old recipes if you’re entertaining, cooking for a potluck, etc.

What’s your favorite back-of-the-box recipe?

A few weeks ago I blogged about my major cupcake fixation and the delicious-sounding recipes that USA Weekend had recently printed. Last week, I made a dozen of the Perfect Vanilla Cupcakes.

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 sticks (12 Tbs.) softened butter (I used Smart Balance, and it made no difference)
  1 cup sugar
  3 large eggs
  1 1/2 cups self-rising flour (I used Swan’s Down Cake Flour, and it didn’t hurt)
  1 Tb. warm water
  1 tsp. vanilla extract

For once, I followed the recipe’s directions instead of just throwing everything in a bowl and beating on high. First, you beat the butter and sugar together until fluffy — I beat for much longer than I usually do, paying close attention to the consistency (you know, like you’re supposed to) and then, “starting and ending with an egg,” added the eggs and flour. (I wasn’t real precise with dividing up the flour.) Then you beat in the warm water and vanilla.

For the frosting, I decided to make the one on the back of the Nestle Toll House Cocoa Powder box. This is the recipe from the box, verbatim:

• 3 cups sifted powdered sugar, divided
• 2/3 cup Nestle Toll House Baking Cocoa
• 1 stick butter (again, I used Smart Balance)
• 5 to 6 tablespoons milk, divided
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Beat 1 cup powdered sugar, cocoa, butter, 2 tablespoons milk and vanilla extract until creamy. Gradually beat in remaining sugar and milk until smooth.

I never sift powdered sugar, mainly because I don’t have a sifter, but it’s never seemed to matter. This frosting is good, but it is rich. Some of the best dessert recipes I’ve ever found are directly from baking companies, like the Reese’s double peanut butter paisley bars.

But wait a minute! you say. Didn’t I just write last week that I can’t bring a half carton of ice cream into the house? Why are cupcakes any different? They’re delicious, too.

They sure are.

I’ve found that  cookies are too easy to eat several in one sitting, and a pan of brownies or a cake is dangerous too because I’ll cut a little sliver here and a sliver there and oh, oops, I’ve eaten a quarter of the pan! But for some reason, for me, cupcakes are too small to pick at and too big to eat several of in one sitting. I don’t bake them all the time — not that I don’t want to, ha — but they’re a nice treat to have around every now and then.

I would love to get the books “Hello, Cupcake!” and the recently released sequel, “What’s New, Cupcake?” and some cake decorating tools, but 1) I don’t have a light touch and my cupcakes would probably look deformed and 2) that sounds like a risky  hobby to pursue.