save the ta-tas.

My office celebrated PINK day a couple weeks ago- a huge effort to raise money for the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer 3-Day event.  Part of the fundraising involved a bake sale, and so naturally, I offered up my services.  I originally wanted to do some sort of pink macaron. They'd be light and fluffy (I think... seeing as though I've never made or eaten a macaron before) and awesome.  But then I looked at how complicated the recipes were and decided to go with chocolate and strawberry whoopie pies.  I'll attempt macarons one day, but not today.

The Cakes.

The cakes were by far the easiest part of the recipe.  Some butter, brown sugar, flour, cocoa powder & some other basics are all it took to create this lovely little batter.  It's almost pudding-like in consistency. 

I dropped tablespoon-fuls of batter onto a lined cookie sheet and then baked for about 10 minutes.

 

The Filling.

The majority of my baking struggles deal with frostings.  I have a love hate relationship with them.  Completely unpredictable.  So, my first idea was to take a marshmallow creme frosting and add strawberry puree to get a lovely PINK color and some strawberry flavor.  Great idea, right?  No. Not at all.  It was a very very bad mistake.  It started off okay, but was completely shot once I added the strawberry puree.  It was far too thin to be spread on anything.  So, I came up with another great idea!  Cornstarch!  After a bit of Googling, I discovered that you could boil 2 tablespoons of cornstarch in a cup of milk, and use that to thicken your frosting.  Just FYI, if your frosting is almost liquid to begin with, no amount of cornstarch can save you.

The cornstarch concoction.
 

And this is the unfortunate result.  No filling or frosting should EVER look like this.  It tasted okay, but I couldn't get past the texture.  Ugh.

So, I switched gears, and found a strawberry buttercream recipe I could be proud of.  Super simple, and extremely tasty.  And here's the finished product.  Happily tucked away in a tupperware dish for safe transportation to the office.

Classic Chocolate Whoopie Pie
from Whoopie Pies
1 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature
4 tablespoons vegetable shortening
1 cup packed dark brown sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup milk

• Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
• Line baking sheets with parchment paper.
• In a bowl, sift together, flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt.
• In another bowl, beat butter, shortening and sugar with a mixer on low until just combined. Increase speed to medium and beat for about 3 minutes.
• Add egg and vanilla and beat for two more minutes.
• Add half of the flour mixture and half of the milk and beat on low until incorporated. Repeat with remaining flour and milk and beat until combined.
• Using a tablespoon, drop batter on baking sheet two inches apart. Bake for about 10 minutes each or until pies spring back when pressed gently.
• Remove from oven and cool for about five minutes before transferring them to a rack to cool completely.

 The batter made about 60 cakes for me (30 finished whoopie pies).

Strawberry Buttercream
2 sticks (16 tbsp) of butter, room temperature
1 cup strawberries, pureed (I measured out the strawberries first and then pureed them)
3-4 cups powdered sugar

1) Cream butter in a mixer on medium-high speed for about 3 minutes.
2) On low speed, gradually add 2 cups of powdered sugar and turn back up to high for a few minutes to really incorporate the sugar. 
3) Turn to low speed again and fold in the strawberries.
4) Add more sugar until the desired consistency is achieved. Mix well.

I used about 1/2 cup of pureed strawberries and right around 2 cups of powdered sugar.  More berries, more sugar.  It's a pretty easy recipe to manipulate.

root beer float cake & a quarter century

Happy happy birthday to my big sister, Riley.  She has crossed over from the "18-24" age bracket to the oh-so-distinguished "25-34" year old category.  I think 25 will be a good year for her.

And since it was a birthday, it had to be celebrated with cake.  Root beer float cake to be exact.  Once again, a delicious brown eyed baker recipe (there's a theme going on here....).  And I'm super proud because it was NOTHING like the death cake!! I'm having more and more birthday success ;)


The cake is super moist and has just a hint of root beer flavor, nothing overwhelming.  The recipe says that the root beer flavor gets stronger if the baked cake sits overnight.  Mine sat for a day before we ate it, and my sister still couldn't taste the root beer.  But even if the root beer hides itself, it's still an amazing chocolate cake.  Fudge frosting is awesome too.

Recipe is below!

Root Beer Float Cake 

Yield: One 10-inch bundt cake

Prep Time: 30 minutes | Bake Time: 35 to 40 minutes 

For the Root Beer Bundt Cake:
2 cups root beer (do not use diet root beer)
1 cup dark unsweetened cocoa powder
½ cup (4 ounces) unsalted butter, cut into 1-inch pieces
1¼ cups granulated sugar
½ cup dark brown sugar
2 cups all-purpose flour
1¼ teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 eggs

For the Root Beer Fudge Frosting:
2 ounces dark chocolate, melted and cooled slightly
½ cup (4 ounces) unsalted butter, softened
1 teaspoon salt
¼ cup root beer
2/3 cup dark unsweetened cocoa powder
2½ cups powdered sugar

 1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F*. Generously spray the inside of a 10-inch bundt pan with nonstick cooking spray, or butter the pan and dust with flour, shaking out the excess flour; set aside.

2. In a medium saucepan, heat the root beer, cocoa powder and butter over medium heat until the butter is melted. Add the sugars and whisk until dissolved. Remove from the heat and let cool.

3. In a medium bowl, whisk the flour, baking soda and salt together

4. In a small bowl, whisk the eggs until just beaten, then whisk them into the cooled cocoa mixture until combined. Gently fold the flour mixture into the cocoa mixture. The batter will be slightly lumpy, which is okay. Do not overbeat it, as it could cause the cake to be tough.

5. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for 35 to 40 minutes, rotating the pan halfway through the baking time, until a small sharp knife inserted into the cake comes out clean. Transfer the pan to a wire rack to cool completely. Gently loosen the sides of the cake from the pan and turn it out onto the rack.

6. To make the Root Beer Fudge Frosting, put all of the ingredients in a food processor. Pulse in short bursts until the frosting is shiny and satiny, scraping the sides of the food processor a couple of times. (If you don’t have a food processor, simply throw it all into the bowl of a stand mixer or a large bowl using a hand mixer and mix on medium-low until combined and satiny smooth.

7. Use a spatula to spread the fudge frosting over the cake in a thick layer. Let the frosting set before serving. Store leftovers wrapped well or in an airtight container at room temperature.

 *Note: If you are using a dark, nonstick pan, heat the oven to 300 degrees F.

(Recipe adapted from Baked: New Frontiers in Baking)

update: vanilla cupcakes with strawberry buttercream

I've made these cupcakes twice since the last time and i'm still in love =)  The first was for a friend's graduation/going-away party and then for my co-worker's baby shower.  The cake is tender and moist, and the buttercream is just sweet enough.  The strawberry flavor is amazing.  Here are some pics from my new camera!


Introducing Blue.  She's a Nikon D5100.  I love her.  And she takes great photos of great things. Like butter and eggs.