Category: Cake

Caramel Apple Cupcakes

10/15/2011

Aren't these so cute? I saw them in a magazine someplace last week; wish I could remember which one it was! Anyway, when there was a bake sale at school a couple days ago, it was the perfect excuse to make them!

You can make any kind of cupcake; I chose an applesauce cake recipe to go along with the look. These also got a caramel filling, topped with caramel frosting, rolled in sprinkles, and then poked with a clean craft stick.

Mix up a batch of cake batter, either from scratch, or using a yellow, white, or spice cake mix: to make it applesauce cake, replace half the oil or butter in the recipe with twice as much applesauce (you can replace all the oil, but the cupcakes will be a little bouncy- fat adds tenderness). For a 24-cupcake batch (same size as for a 9x13 pan full), also add 1 Tbsp. cinnamon. If you have them (or like them!), you can also add a total of 2 teaspoons of other spices: ground cloves (go easy here!), nutmeg, ginger, and/or cardamom. Bake as usual. When cool, fill them if you like. I used a sweetened condensed milk caramel (see Making Tres Leches Cake, second paragraph down), mixed with an equal amount of vanilla pudding to make it go further, since I was making 5 dozen. Use whatever you like- homemade or jarred caramel sauce, butterscotch pudding, sweetened cream cheese (2 Tbsp. sugar per 8 oz. cream cheese), cream cheese frosting, or whatever sounds good with apple or caramel.

Make a batch of caramel frosting (see second page here); leave the pan over low heat to keep it warm and soft. If you want sprinkles on the edges, pour a layer about 1/4" deep in a wide bowl or on a plate.

Dip the top of a cupcake in the warm caramel frosting.

Let excess drip off for a couple seconds...

then twist the cupcake so the drips end up on the frosted top.

Put the cupcake on its side in the dish of sprinkles, then rotate it around to coat the edges all around.

Set it on a tray for easy transporting, and insert a craft stick.

Done! (Wasn't that awesome?)

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Fluffy Frostings That Are Not Too Sweet, non-artificial colors

6/23/2011

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Do you have to go colorless when avoiding artificial colors?

The NYTimes recently ran an article called "Colorless Food? We Blanch", claiming nobody would want to eat food anymore if manufacturers didn't use artificial colors. It was a little ridiculous. One response to it is found here.

Yesterday I needed to make a pink and purple unicorn cake for my daughter. And one extra issue- use no artificial colors, or one son couldn’t have any of the cake. At least not with any frosting.

My husband now has a new favorite frosting, as does a neighbour who stopped by: Fluffy Blueberry Cheesecake Frosting, which was my answer to needing a purple mane, tail, and border.

(If you just want the frosting recipe, go to the bottom of this post. To read about making a non-artificial pink-and-purple unicorn, read on.)

To make the basic pony part, I greased a pony-shaped cake pan, mixed up 4 cups of liquid with enough gelatin, and let it set up in the fridge. I use unflavored gelatin; Knox comes that way in packets, but I buy it in the bulk section of a local health food store. To make the pony pink, I used fruit punch as 3 cups of the liquid, and 1 cup sour cream (or plain yogurt; I used kefir ‘cause that’s what was in the fridge!) to make it opaque pink instead of transparent red. Use twice as much gelatin as you would normally; otherwise it will fall apart when you flip it out of the pan. (Mine did, thus the recommendation to double the gelatin!) It might anyway, but at least you’ll be upping the chance for success.

I baked a rectangular cake big enough for the pony to fit on and frosted it with Fluffy Cheesecake Frosting. I set the pony pan in a sink of hot water for just a couple seconds, then flipped the pan over the cake so the pony landed in the right place. Then I decorated with the purple frosting, and carved a horn out of a stick of jicama. (I was going to use the tip of an ice cream cone, but we were having jicama for dinner.) Voile! Everyone’s happy!

Fluffy Blueberry Cheesecake Frosting- makes about 2 1/2 cups
(See here for Strawberry Cheesecake Frosting)
1 cup fresh or frozen blueberries (or 6 oz. other berries)
½ c. sugar
1 Tbsp. Ultra Gel
8 oz. cream cheese, softened
4 oz butter, softened
½ tsp. vanilla

Combine blueberries and sugar; either puree them in a blender until smooth, OR cook and stir until boiling; cool. Beat cream cheese until smooth, add butter, sugar, blueberry mixture (cooled if you cooked it), Ultra Gel, and vanilla. Beat until smooth and fluffy. Let stand 5 minutes.

_____
Ultra Gel needs five minutes to fully absorb liquid; that’s why I’ve added the 5-minute wait time. These frostings are easy to adjust- if too thick or pasty, add a little (1-2 tsp.) water, or as needed. If too thin, sprinkle on another 1 tsp. Ultra Gel and beat it in.

The cream cheese frosting recipe I tweaked to get this, above, as well as the white base layer:

No-cook “cooked”
Fluffy Cheesecake Frosting
½ c. sugar
1 Tbsp. Ultra Gel
8 oz. cream cheese
4 oz butter (1 stick), softened
¼ c. milk
½ tsp. vanilla

Stir together sugar and Ultra Gel, set aside. Beat cream cheese until smooth, add butter, milk, vanilla, and sugar mixture. Beat until smooth and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Let stand 5 minutes.

Another variation I’ve come up with, in case you don't use table sugar at your house:

Fluffy Honey –Cheesecake Frosting

8 oz. cream cheese
4 oz. butter, softened
1/3 cup honey
3 T. water, milk, or cream
½ tsp. vanilla
2 Tbsp. Ultra Gel

Beat cream cheese until smooth; add butter, honey, water, and vanilla. Sprinkle the Ultra Gel on top, then beat all until smooth and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Let stand 5 minutes.

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Basic, Simple, Adaptable, FREE Cookbook

3/10/2011

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My version of the finished cookbook. What will yours look like?

Title page: this is as close as I get to scrapbooking! The book also has a table of contents and an index.

Each section has a tabbed divider stuck onto the page. I just used the tabs you find in the office supply section of a store.

The first recipe of each new section gets a colored 'scrapbooking' paper behind it.

I’ve put together a cookbook of basic recipes and cooking concepts (like how to take a basic yellow cake recipe to make any number of variations). It was designed to be portable and highly useful. I hope it is! I had non-cooks, college students, and young missionaries in mind. It’s typed in 3x5/4x6 card format, so you cut out the cards and slip them into the sleeves of a small photo album. This collection fits perfectly in a 72-sleeve album. If you only find bigger ones, you can use the extra spaces for blank cards to write recipe notes on, or slip a photo of the food in the sleeve next to the recipe. If you like the photo idea, I already have pictures of lots of them. Email me if you want them, [email protected]

Rather than give a link to the whole cookbook, I’ll put an installment of it once or twice a week here on my website. That way you have time to really look through the recipes, at a manageable pace. The first one is below:

Cakes and Frostings page 1
Cakes and Frostings page 2

Note on printing these pages: the links open to GoogleDocs. To print, select GoogleDoc's print button, don't do Control-P or you'll print the browser page and only get half the recipes.

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Making Tres Leches Cake

11/8/2010

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If you've never had a Tres Leches cake, you're in for a treat! It's very moist, with a Dulce de Leche flavor throughout. It's soaked with a mixture of 'three milks'- whole milk, evaporated milk, and cream, normally. I tend to use whatever's on hand, though. If you don't have cream, replace with an equal amount of evaporated milk. You can even whip evaporated milk, if it's very cold. 30 minutes in the freezer usually does the trick.

This is how you get the Dulce de Leche flavor- caramelize a can of sweetened condensed milk. It takes two hours if you let the unopened can boil, ALWAYS completely covered by water (or it could explode). Or if you open up the can and pour it in a bowl, it takes 7-15 minutes in the microwave. It really boils up, though, so use the biggest microwave-safe bowl you own! And cover it with plastic wrap. The condensed milk on the left is caramelized; the condensed milk on the right is what it looks like beforehand.

The baked cake, a sturdy hot-milk sponge cake. Let it cool for ten minutes, then poke holes all over, using a skewer or similar. (My 'skewer' is the bottom of an instant-read thermometer.)

While the cake is still hot, but the 'milks' mixture is cool-ish, pour all over the cake. It will start soaking in. Refrigerate for at least 3 hours, to let the liquid totally soak in and start to set up a bit.

You know how food blogs make it look like everything is always perfect?

Well...
a doubled recipe + the same size bowl = scrubbing!

For an easy-to print version, click on one of these, below.
Tres Leches Cake recipe, or Gluten-free, Dairy-free, Egg-free version here.

To get the milk mixture to soak in properly, the cake should be hot and the milks room temperature: make the milk mixture first so it can cool during cake baking time. This was modified from the Cook’s Country recipe. I live at 3500 ft. elevation, and their version kept falling in the center. If you live around sea level, you might need to increase the sugar back up to 2 cups, and the baking powder to 2 tsp.

Tres Leches cake

Milk Mixture:
1 (14 oz) can sweetened condensed milk (or use the powdered-milk version)
1 (12 oz) can evaporated milk
1 c. heavy cream (sometimes I just add 1 c. more evap. milk instead)
1 tsp. vanilla
           Caramelize the sweetened condensed milk by either boiling the can (covered at ALL TIMES by water) for two hours OR in the microwave: pour into a large microwave-safe bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and microwave for 7-15 minutes, until slightly darkened and thickened. Stir every couple minutes, especially at the end. This takes 7 ½ minutes in my microwave. If it looks a little burned, it’s still OK. Stir in about half of the evaporated milk, then set aside 3 Tbsp. for the top of the cake. Whisk in the remaining evaporated milk, cream, and vanilla. Set aside.

Cake:
½ c. unsalted butter (if using regular butter, reduce salt by ¼ tsp.)
1 c. milk
4 large eggs, room temperature
1 ¾ c. sugar
2 tsp. vanilla
2 c. flour
1 ½ tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. cinnamon, optional (I prefer the cake without)
           Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Heat together the butter and milk until the butter melts; set aside. Beat the eggs for about 30 seconds, then slowly add the sugar while beating. Beat on med-high for 5-7 minutes, until they become very thick and glossy. Mix in vanilla and hot milk/butter. Add flour, baking powder, and salt (I dump them on in that order, then mix them with my fingers a bit before beating them into the batter.) Pour into a greased and floured 9x13 pan. Bake for about 30 minutes, until cake tests done with a toothpick. Let sit on a cooling rack for 10 minutes. Poke holes every half inch all over the cake with a skewer; pour milk mixture over top. Let sit for 15 minutes, then refrigerate for at least 3 hours and up to 24. Frost right before serving.

Frosting:
1 c. whipping cream
3 Tbsp. reserved cooked sweetened condensed milk
1 Tbsp. sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
           Beat all together until whipped and thick enough to spread.

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Forward>>

Caramel Apple Cupcakes

Fluffy Frostings That Are Not Too Sweet, non-artificial colors

Basic, Simple, Adaptable, FREE Cookbook

Making Tres Leches Cake

Need a Search bar?
One day I may upgrade my website-- but until then, use your web browser search bar. Type in my web address and what you're looking for, like this--
www.theprovidenthomemaker.com pumpkin -- and you should get results.

Author

Archives

Categories

Caramel Apple Cupcakes

Fluffy Frostings That Are Not Too Sweet, non-artificial colors

Basic, Simple, Adaptable, FREE Cookbook

Making Tres Leches Cake

Need a Search bar?One day I may upgrade my website-- but until then, use your web browser search bar. Type in my web address and what you're looking for, like this-- www.theprovidenthomemaker.com pumpkin -- and you should get results.Author

Archives

Categories

Need a Search bar?
One day I may upgrade my website-- but until then, use your web browser search bar. Type in my web address and what you're looking for, like this--
www.theprovidenthomemaker.com pumpkin -- and you should get results.

Author