Birthday Cupcake

My uncle's birthday is this coming Tuesday, and we had some leftover icing, so Mom made a lovely little cupcake for his birthday cake:


This is way too much fun!

On Our Own

We ordered some natural food colourings from India Tree and were anxious to give them a try with our own recipes. Mom sort of goes "by guess and by..." with her icing making, so I don't know what recipe she was following, other than using lots of icing sugar, a little butter, a little whipping cream, and I convinced her to use a little lemon juice (given the flavourings of our cake & filling). I can give you the recipes for the cake and filling though:

Lemon Cake

1 cup cream cheese
1 cup softened butter (although when baked, we found this way too much butter for the end result, so I'd suggest half that)
3/4 cup granulated cane sugar
3 eggs
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
2 tbsp lemon juice
1 1/2 cup brown rice flour
1/2 cup sifted whole wheat flour
1 tbsp grated lemon peel (enough from one lemon)

• Cream butter & cream cheese until smooth.
• Mix in sugar and beat again until smooth.
• Add eggs one at a time, beating until incorporated well.
• Stir in vanilla and lemon juice and lemon peel.
• Combine flour with baking powder, then stir into batter and beat until well combined.
• Pour into 2 greased loaf tins, or one 7" diameter round cake tin, or (probably) 12 cupcake cups (fill each 2/3 full).
  
• Bake at 350 F for 50-60 minutes (less for cupcakes), or until golden brown and cake tester comes away clean.

Lemon Custard Filling

3/4 cup granulated cane sugar
5-6 tbsp cornstarch
2 cups water
2 eggs, beaten
3 tbsp butter
1/3 cup lemon juice
2 tsp grated lemon rind

• In microwave-proof glass measure, combine conrstarch and sugar.
• Gradually add water, stirring until smooth.
• Microwave on high (100%) 3-5 minutes until mixture thickens, stirring often.
• In a small separate bowl, beat eggs. Add small amount of hot cornstarch mixture into eggs, mixing, until bring temperature of eggs up.
• Slowly pour eggs into remaining hot cornstarch mixture, beating rapidly to prevent lumping.
• Cook custard on medium (50%) in microwave for 2-3 minutes until custard thickens slightly, and coats back of spoon. DO NOT BOIL or custard will curdle.
• Add lemon juice and rind and butter, stirring until butter melts and rind is incorporated.
• Let cool, but not set, if using for cake filling.

To use as cake filling, build a dam of icing about 1/4" in from edge of cake, then pour just enough custard within that dam so that it doesn't exceed the height of the dam.


We stuck the tooth pick into the top half and bottom half of the cake before separating the layers so that we could align it properly after the filling was added. Put the top layer of cake onto the filling, then frost the cake. We used the "blue" straight out of the bottle for the base icing; however, there is no true natural "blue" that you can eat, it was more lavender coloured, which was actually very pretty.

We formed roses using the red and yellow dyes, respectively, which made beautiful colours individually.

You can see that the "blue" is quite lavender, and as a result, the "green" isn't! Next time, we'll start with yellow and add just a hint of blue; this time, we were using the icing from the cake which was "blue" to start with.


The consistency of our icing was also far to thin for the roses; I think next time we'll stick with the Wilton "stiff" recipe for proportions, or use royal icing for the roses. The other problem is that the dyes are very liquid (unlike the artificial colouring that we used during the course), so you have to adjust the recipe to include the amount of dye you're going to use (or add more icing sugar). The butter in the icing also melted really fast in our hands in the piping bags, so it's worth chilling it in the bag first, then doing some icing, and maybe chilling in between once in a while.


As you can see, we didn't spend a lot of patience on trying to smooth the icing on our cake first. We did a little, but not a lot. It still tasted good! We used the "green" for the bottom border, and I placed some yellow and pink icing in one piping back without mixing to get the two-toned star border.

The cake was very rich and moist, and the use of a little whole wheat flour with the rice flour worked really well. The lemon custard could be more lemony, so I'd recommend a little more lemon juice and/or rind.

Last Cake Class

...for now, anyway! This class we learned how to make roses (can you tell?!?). The "old rose" coloured ones are mine, the white ones are Mom's, and we both did leaves & the bottom border. The buttercream (except we used Crisco for this class) icing got kind of soft; I'd like to try with a royal icing. The roses were difficult, but I think with practice, they'll be fun to do. I just ordered some natural colouring, so we'll hopefully get to play with that soon.

We really had a great time in this four-week introductory piping class. We've signed up for a fondant animal sculpture workshop (assuming I'll still be able to make it... it's scheduled for June 12, so we'll see! At least the teacher is OK with me cancelling at the last minute). So if we make it to that workshop, I'll be sure to post about it. Otherwise, it'll be awhile before we take any more classes, but we might get an opportunity to practice what we've learned.

Cake Decorating

Since we've got a new addition on the way, Mom was getting into "Grandma" mode and really wanted to get prepped for making some proper birthday cakes in the future. We signed up for an introductory cake decorating class, and have been having a lot of fun with it. This class is about introduction to piping techniques, and how to bake & ice the "perfect" cake. It's being held at At the Sea B&B in Mill Bay, as the instructor, Pat, much prefers to work out of her own kitchen when possible (although she does teach at the Michael's in Langford, too).

The first class was a demo by Pat, then the next class we had to bake & ice a cake, and prepare icing in a bunch of different colours & thicknesses before the class in preparation. I just about walked out on the project at that point; I had no idea it would be so much prep work!! But the end result (a combination of piping techniques by both Mom & I) was pretty darned good for a first try:


As Mom can't eat the cake (made with an instant cake mix for this class) or the icing (because of the food colouring), and I just didn't want to eat all that fat & sugar all by myself, we gave the cake to our cousins, as we figured they'd at the very least have more mouths to divide the results between (they are five in the family).

We do have a recipe for a pound cake that works really well with rice flour, and apparently pound cakes are good for cutting up into layers, so we'll give that a try. I've also found some "natural dye" suppliers, so we'll also give that a go, rather than the chemical dyes that we don't really want to use anyway. Of course, they won't be as intense, but what the heck!

The third class this week was more piping techniques, but this time on cupcakes. Fortunately, we had left over icing, and we were a little better prepared so it wasn't quite the mad dash that the prep work for the second class was. Here are our results:


Mom's cupcakes:

and my cupcakes:

and our two "clown" cupcakes:

Next week is the last class; we'll be learning the "Wilton Rose" which is a somewhat fancy piped rose, as well as sweet peas. The cake is baked, and while we've got the icing made, I think we might need to make some more or adjust what we have for consistency, and definitely add some colour to some of the batch (unless we want just white roses - which we might do). It's been really fun, and I'm looking forward to taking further classes in the future. Since next month is "D-Day", I think I'll have to hold off for at least a few months before I sign up for the next sessions, though!

Mmmmmatcha!

I love green tea lattes. But I don't like how sweet they are commercially, so I thought I'd try to make something myself. This works very well, and you can totally control the sweetness.

Green Tea Latte
(makes a grande - 2 cup size travel mug)
1 scant tsp matcha powder (same green tea used in the Japanese Tea Ceremony)
1/3 - 1 cup whole milk (or whatever you like: skim, soy milk, rice milk, etc. - and use the greater amount if you want it creamier)
1 tsp - 1 tbsp honey (again, flexible to what sweetness you want)
make up rest with boiling water

Stir & enjoy. Mmmmmm.

Another wonderful recipe that I discovered via Cake Wrecks was on Bakearella, the Chocolate Matcha Bundt Cake. Here's our version from tonight - if you use a silicone bundt pan, the cake comes out perfectly. My version is not as beautifully green as Bakearella's, and considerably less sweet, but it was very moist, rich and tasty, so give 'er a try!

Chocolate Ginger Matcha Bundt Cake

Chocolate Mixture
1 cup plus scant 1/4 cup rice flour*
1/2 cup cocoa
1 1/2 tsp baking powder

Matcha Mixture
1 cup plus scant 1/4 cup rice flour*
2 tsp matcha powder (original recipe calls for 3 tbsp of a "sweet" (?) matcha, but the original tea ceremony stuff I used is very bitter, and very expensive, so you decide!)
1 tsp ground ginger
1 1/2 baking powder

*original recipe is 1 1/2 cups flour per dry mixture, and you need 1/8 cup less rice flour per full cup of regular flour when baking; so I measured a full cup, took away 1/8, then added another 1/4 cup when measuring for this

Wet Ingredients
1 cup honey
2/3 cup olive oil**
2 duck eggs (or 3 chicken eggs), room temperature
1 3/4 cup milk, room temperature
**this version is more liquid than original, so you won't easily be able to marble batter

Preheat oven to 325 F. Dust a 10-12 cup bundt pan with cocoa powder.
Mix dry ingredients for chocolate mixture in small bowl and set aside.
Mix dry ingredients for matcha mixture in small bowl and set aside.
Cream oil & honey.
Beat eggs, then add to creamed mixture. Incorporate milk and mix until thoroughly combined.
Divide the creamed mixture evenly into two separate bowls.
Slowly add chocolate mixture to one half of the creamed mixture and mix thoroughly.
Slowly add matcha mixture to other half of the creamed mixture and mix thoroughly.
Carefully pour both mixtures in slowly & simultaneously (if possible) into bundt pan to achieve a marbling effect.

Bake about 1 hour & 15 minutes or until set and toothpick comes away clean.

Thanks, Bakearella!!

Penuche me, baby!

Having been cursed with a sweet tooth, but insisting that any dessert I might want, generally I have to make, I baked us a cake last night. The cake was my aunt Mary's Gingerbread cake, which is a ridiculously easy, few-ingredient requiring, very moist cake. Not quite satisfied with just cake, I also made penuche icing. Penuche is a fudge (actually, I just discovered a link to penuche fudge candy and no-bake penuche drop cookies; might have to try those - without the nuts for me). This is a fudge icing, and unfortunately, is very easy to do.

Gingerbread
(the cake, that is, not the house or cookies!)

1 1/2 cup flour
1 tsp ginger
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp cloves
1/3 cup olive oil
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 egg, beaten
1/2 cup molasses
3/4 cup boiled water
1 tsp baking soda

Grease an 8"x8" baking pan & line with wax paper cut to the shape of the bottom of the pan. Preheat oven to 350°F.

Combine flour & spices. In separate bowl, cream oil & sugar, then add beaten egg and mix well. Add molasses & mix well. Add flour mixture in two batches & blend after each addition. Dissolve baking soda in boiled water, stirring to dissolve. Add this solution into the mixture and stir until well blended and of even consistency. Pour into baking pan & bake for 30-40 minutes.

Note: it's really important to dissolve the baking soda in the water, rather than to do the normal thing & mix the baking soda into the dry ingredients. I forgot that once and got huge weird bubbles in my cake. I don't recommend it.

Easy Penuche Frosting

(I think this was originally from a Betty Crocker cook book of my Mom's. Every year, I'd demand spice cake with penuche frosting for my birthday cake. I still like the spice cake with this, but the gingerbread is so easy and moist, it's hard to beat as the penuche substrate)

Note: for single-layer cake, please HALF the recipe.

1/2 cup butter
1 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cup milk
1 3/4 cup sifted icing sugar

Melt butter in heavy-bottomed sauce pan. Stir in brown sugar and keep stirring as you bring to boil over medium-low heat. Stir over low heat for two more minutes. Stir in milk (NB - you're adding a cold mixture to a boiling sugar; it'll bubble up a lot and really go at it in the pot, so it's very important to keep stirring as you add the milk) and stir constantly until incorporated, and keep bubbling for about a minute more. Cool to luke warm (you can use an ice water bath to achieve this goal quicker) and stir in icing sugar in gradual batches; you may not need as much icing sugar as the recipe calls for, just enough to get to a nice, smooth, thick spreadable consistency. Spread over still-warm cake for melt-in flavour. Enjoy!