5 posts tagged “food”
My favorite cupcake bakery in New York is Magnolia Bakery. They are little cups of heaven. I used to think my favorite kind was vanilla with chocolate frosting (the same as my favorite kind of cake, in general) but after trying the Vanilla/Vanilla ones I've decided those are my favorites. I also loved the chocolate cake with vanilla frosting.
A few weeks ago, I decided to try baking them myself. You can find the recipes in their second cookbook, More from Magnolia. You can also find the recipes posted online. I found the cake recipe here, and the chocolate frosting recipe here.
My frosting did not turn out as fluffy as it should have, which I'm sure is because I don't have an electric mixer and had to beat by hand. But it still tasted great, so no harm done.
The cupcakes turned out extremely well; I'll definitely continue to use this recipe. The cake had an excellent flavor, much better than any boxed mix. I think next time I'll make the vanilla frosting. (The vanilla frosting recipe is also available on the links above.)
One tip I have for any cupcake baker: try tinfoil cupcake papers. The lovely thing about them is that you don't need to use cupcake trays to make them, you can just set them on a regular cookie sheet. This cuts down the total baking time a lot for me, because you can prepare the next batch while the current batch is in the oven. Also, because the sides of the cupcake aren't touching the metal pan, the don't get browned on the sides, they stay light. Therefore, the sides of the cupcake taste just like the middle, which is very nice.
Here are some more pictures from my baking evening:
The third and final part of my Day of Cooking posts (previously: parts 1 & 2). I wanted to make a Lasagna, one of Ryan's favorite dishes. I've never made one, and I used a recipe a friend uses and said is a real crowd pleaser: World's Best Lasagna.
World's Best Lasagna
INGREDIENTS
* 1 pound sweet Italian sausage
* 3/4 pound lean ground beef
* 1/2 cup minced onion
* 2 cloves garlic, crushed
* 1 (28 ounce) can crushed tomatoes
* 2 (6 ounce) cans tomato paste
* 2 (6.5 ounce) cans canned tomato sauce
* 1/2 cup water
* 2 tablespoons white sugar
* 1 1/2 teaspoons dried basil leaves
* 1/2 teaspoon fennel seeds
* 1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
* 1 tablespoon salt
* 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
* 4 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
* 12 lasagna noodles
* 16 ounces ricotta cheese
* 1 egg
* 1/2 teaspoon salt
* 3/4 pound mozzarella cheese, sliced
* 3/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
DIRECTIONS
1. In a Dutch oven, cook sausage, ground beef, onion, and garlic over medium heat until well browned. Stir in crushed tomatoes, tomato paste, tomato sauce, and water. Season with sugar, basil, fennel seeds, Italian seasoning, 1 tablespoon salt, pepper, and 2 tablespoons parsley. Simmer, covered, for about 1 1/2 hours, stirring occasionally.
2. Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Cook lasagna noodles in boiling water for 8 to 10 minutes. Drain noodles, and rinse with cold water. In a mixing bowl, combine ricotta cheese with egg, remaining parsley, and 1/2 teaspoon salt.
3. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C).
4. To assemble, spread 1 1/2 cups of meat sauce in the bottom of a 9x13 inch baking dish. Arrange 6 noodles lengthwise over meat sauce. Spread with one half of the ricotta cheese mixture. Top with a third of mozzarella cheese slices. Spoon 1 1/2 cups meat sauce over mozzarella, and sprinkle with 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese. Repeat layers, and top with remaining mozzarella and Parmesan cheese. Cover with foil: to prevent sticking, either spray foil with cooking spray, or make sure the foil does not touch the cheese.
5. Bake in preheated oven for 25 minutes. Remove foil, and bake an additional 25 minutes. Cool for 15 minutes before serving.
This recipe was long, but worth it. It was an excellent lasagna. I got a little worried, because it said to use 6 noodles for each layer, which felt like way too much to me, because only 3 fit in the pan, so it would have been a double layer. I used no-cook noodles, and I didn't want them to be crunchy by being on top of each other. I decided to use 4 per layer, which had just a slight overlap. Then, at the end I had enough noodles and both sauces, so I did another layer. I was terribly worried about it, but it came out perfect, with the same cook time.
(Side note: Has anyone ever found a 6.5 ounce can of tomato sauce? The store I went to had dozens, and all were a standard 8 ounces. I used the extra 1.5 ounces in both cans.)
I also made simple homemade garlic toast. Take your favorite load of bread (I used thin brick oven white bread) and butter both sides. (Place all slices on an ungreased cookie sheet.) Lightly sprinkle each side with garlic salt and parmesan cheese. Cut in half diagonally before putting in the oven. The cook time can vary from 325 to 425, if you want to stick them in with something else you're cooking. Just keep an eye on them and flip them. The bottoms will get toasted before the tops do. Leave in until your desired level of crispness, which for us is about 15 minutes, 10 on the first side, 5 on the second. These taste good on their own, and even better dipped in a tomato based pasta sauce from your main course.
I forgot to take a photo of the Lasagna after it came out, but do have one from before, which is basically a big mess of cheese:
Part 2 of my cooking extravaganza (see part 1 here) was more ambitious: Ooey Gooey Chocolate Cakes.
You may be wondering why I decided to make Ooey Gooey Chocolate Cakes when I was already making a yellow cake with chocolate frosting. (Very possibly you were not wondering this, but let's humor me.) There is a very good explanation. The Ooey Gooey Chocolate Cakes came first. I saw this recipe weeks ago on Design*Sponge, and knew I wanted to make them for dessert for Ryan's birthday dinner. A while later, I decided I wanted to make him a regular birthday cake too. Especially since the Ooey Gooey cakes only made 4 tiny individual serving sized cakes. Plus, what's better than 5 cakes?
Ooey Gooey Chocolate Cakes
6 oz bittersweet Ghiradelli chocolate (One and a half bars)
4 oz unsalted butter
2 tablespoons cake flour
1/3 cup cocoa (unsweetened)
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 large eggs
3/4 cup granulated sugar
Heat oven to 325 degrees. Butter and sugar 4 (4 oz) ramekins. Melt butter and chocolate in a double boiler. (or do what I do since I don’t have one: put ingredients in smaller saucepan, fill a larger saucepan partway with water and float the smaller saucepan inside the larger one). Sift cake flour, cocoa and salt in a small prep bowl. Whisk eggs and sugar in a larger prep bowl. Add melted chocolate and butter mixture to egg and sugar mixture a little at a time. Fold in dry ingredients with a whisk. Fill ramekins and place in large glass pan and pour hot water from double boiler around them. Bake about 35-40 minutes until slightly cracked on top and soft on the inside. Serve with Häagen-Dazs Vanilla Bean ice cream and fresh or frozen raspberries.
These were absolutely incredible. I got really worried, because mine didn't crack on the top. They hadn't cracked at 40 minutes, so I left them in for 10 more. Then I got really worried that I had over-baked them and decided to take them out anyway, despite the fact that they still hadn't cracked. I then worried that I left them in for far too long and that they were dry (the tops look a little dry). The moment of truth came after dinner, when I dug my spoon into one. As soon as I saw what came out, I stopped worrying. It was very black, ooey gooey chocolate cake. It was a little ramekin of heaven. The recipe says to serve with Vanilla Bean ice cream and raspberries, and it's not kidding. These little guys are rich. My photos don't show the toppings, because after you put ice cream and raspberries on an ooey gooey cake, who stops to take a picture?
The original post on Design*Sponge is definitely worth checking out if you're interested in making these. It includes a cute intro by Matte Stephens, one of my favorite indie artists who was the one to submit this recipe to D*s. There are much better photos than I took on the original post, and they are even doodled on by Matte. (He even did stop to take a photo of the treats with their toppings. Amazing!)
Additionally, if you want to make this recipe, but don't have ramekins (like I didn't) there's a very good set of six on Amazon for only $8.39.
Ryan's birthday was Sunday, and we celebrated all weekend. I wanted to cook him a nice dinner, and we decided to do that on Saturday, since it meant me being in the kitchen all day. Then we could relax on the actual day of his birthday, and play video games and watch the Oscars.
Saturday morning I started with the cake. I had never made a layer cake before. In fact, I'd only made sheet cakes that never left the pan. I'd also never made a cake from scratch before; I'd only used the boxed mixes.
I used this recipe for four egg yellow cake. It turned out pretty well, it had a nice flavor and was fairly moist. Both layers also came out of the round pans easily. I sprayed the pans with non stick cooking spray, and put a circle of wax paper on the bottom of the pan. (Trace the bottom of the pan onto the wax paper with a pencil, and then cut on the inside of your line.) I let the cakes cool for over 3 hours before removing them from the pans, but that was just because I was busy. Just make sure they're completely cooled.
Four Egg Yellow Cake
INGREDIENTS
* 1 cup shortening*
* 2 cups white sugar
* 4 eggs
* 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
* 2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
* 3 teaspoons baking powder
* 1 teaspoon salt
* 1 3/4 cups milk
*I read in the comments that you can also use 1/2 cup shortening and
1/2 butter. I used all shortening, but next time I'm going to try
50/50. I think it will make it much more (surprise) buttery, which
would be an improvement.
DIRECTIONS
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour one 9 x 13 inch pan.
2. Cream together shortening and sugar. Beat in eggs and vanilla.
3. In a separate bowl, combine flour, baking powder, and salt. Add to creamed mixture alternately with milk. Mix well. Pour batter into prepared pan.
4. Bake for 45 minutes, or until cake tests done. Cool.
For the frosting, I used a recipe that my mom always uses, the one on the inside of the Baker's unsweetened chocolate baking squares box. It was a good recipe, the frosting has a great flavor, and is very easy to make. The best part is you have a while between making the frosting and actually applying it to the cake. A lot of other frosting recipes I've seen say that they harden quickly, and you have to use it right away.
Baker's One Bowl Chocolate Frosting
INGREDIENTS
4 squares (4 ounces) unsweetened Baker's chocolate (I actually used Ghiradelli - one bar is 4 ounces)
16 ounces powdered sugar
1/2 cup of softened butter or margarine
2 teaspoons vanilla
1/3 cup milk
Put chocolate in microwave on high for 2 minutes. Stir until completely melted (put back in microwave if needed). Cool five minutes or until room temperature. Add powdered sugar, butter, and vanilla. Beat (or stir by hand) until well mixed. Gradually add milk, beating until well blended.
This recipe will make 3 cups of frosting, a good amount for frosting a full sheet cake or an 8 or 9 inch two layer cake, including the middle layer and sides.
I haven't done much reading (or book shopping!) so far this month. Earlier this month I devoured The Principles of Uncertainty by Maira Kalman in 24 hours. (Here's a link to Julia Rothman's wonderful post about The Principles of Uncertainty on her Book By Its Cover blog. It includes photos.) I also went to a book event/signing for Maira on the 7th, which was fantastic. She also absolutely has the best signature ever:
I
finished The Kite Runner last week. It was great all around - well
written, fascinating, moving. It's no wonder everybody and their dog
loved it.
Now
I'm reading Atonement by Ian McEwan, since I want to finish it before
seeing the movie. I'm still undecided as to how much I like Ian
McEwan's writing style, but I do love his characters. He's able to
describe their thoughts perfectly and realistically; it's not a big
mystery why he wins so many awards. I'm not sure if it makes sense to
not be crazy about a style in general but really like the character
description, but there you go.
Here's an interesting short
interview with Heidi Pitlor, the new series editor for the Best American Short
Stories series. She talks about the process of going through thousands of short stories during the year, and how her collaboration with the 2007 guest editor, Stephen King, worked.
Last and most important, I'm
super excited for Thanksgiving. Two of my very dear college friends are
visiting for the long weekend - Emma and Josh - now living in Clinton,
MA and Washington DC, respectively. I bought Wits & Wagers and Apples to
Apples for us all to
play while we're trying to digest massive amounts of turkey, mashed
potatoes, stuffing, green beans, homemade cheesecake, homemade pumpkin
pie, cupcakes, candy, and tacos. And Uno. We must play cut-throat, high
intensity Uno, it's a tradition.
This weekend Ryan and I did an ungodly amount of grocery shopping for the upcoming long weekend. For fun, I took a picture of just a small portion of our "harvest."
Coming
soon: pictures of the rather odd Thanksgiving decorations that I
created and installed in our apartment, as well as "making-of" photos,
cooked food, our table, and general merriment.
