4th of July Cupcakes

Better late than never, right? I made these cupcakes for Caitlyn's second (and not final!) birthday celebration. These were for a sleep-over she had with two of her best friends. I just plopped myself in front of the TV and went to town on these guys. It was fun! It also beat going crazy with smoothing over frosting on a cake -- over and over and over again, putting it in the fridge, and smoothing it over, over and over AGAIN. With cupcakes I feel like you can have more fun. It's okay for them to look homemade, right? What's also great about cupcakes is if you're making them for someone else, you can always have one or two for yourself. You can't exactly cut a piece of cake for yourself. . . and then give the cake away. Or maybe you can. . . extra frosting anyone?

That chocolate frosting

The recipe for that chocolate frosting I'm always referring to is actually a recipe for Mocha Buttercream Frosting. It offers a variation for Chocolate Buttercream Frosting, so see below for those changes from the original recipe here:

Mocha Buttercream Frosting:
Makes 2 cups, enough to fill and frost an 8-inch round 2-layer cake

Note from the author, Carol Gelles:
Mocha is a hard flavor to pin down -- not quite chocolate and not quite coffee. I think this frosting has a good balance between the two flavors. If you prefer mocha with a strong coffee flavor, halve the cocoa; for a more chocolatey flavor, use less coffee and 1 tablespoon more cocoa.

Note from Mel:
I always make a 9-inch round 2-layer cake and this much frosting is NOT quite enough, so I would recommend 1.5X or 2X the recipe for that size. . . 2X if you want left-overs for spontaneous cupcakes later in the week (not that I've done that).

1 Tbs. hot water
1 1/2 tsp. instant coffee granules
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, softened
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa
3 Tbs. sour cream
3 1/2 cups sifted confectioner's sugar (I usually don't measure this, OR sift. . . I just add it a little at a time and mix it well until the frosting's a good spreading consistency)

1. In a small bowl, stir together the water and coffee until the coffee is disolved.
2. In a large bowl, beat the butter until light and fluffy. Beat in the cocoa until completely combined. Beat in the coffee and sour cream. (Using a stand mixer doesn't mix this well enough. . . so while I DO use mine, I also have to get in there with a metal spoon to make sure it's really mixed well. . . it's annoying, but otherwise you're going to have spots of chocolate throughout later).
3. Beat in the confectioner's sugar one cup at a time until all the sugar has been incorporated.

Variation: Chocolate Buttercream Frosting: Omit the instant coffee and water and use 2 tablespoons milk instead.

Updatey

1) Cardamom in my coffee is where it's at, hot or cold. I loooooooooove the flavor!

2) Something else I tried recently is cold-brewed coffee. Have you ever tried this? You've got to, especially if you're interested in making your own iced coffee. Even if you don't like iced coffee, you can still use the cold-brew method. You can look for the article in the NYTimes that was published last year, but the premise is to brew the coffee overnight, or 12 hours, in cold water, at double the strength. I love the coffee brewed this way, it just has a different taste than the traditional hot water method; and again, I tried it with the cardamom and the flavor is even more pronounced (but still subtle, if you can believe it). I LOVE IT. It's not Morocco, but it'll do for now.

3) I made a curried spinach and pea soup with the pound of peas that was dying a slow death in my freezer. I love me a good curry, but this soup was disappointingly disgusting for too many reasons to list here. It's not really soup season anyway, but that doesn't matter; I wouldn't have liked this soup in the dead of winter, either. I will not be buying peas again in the foreseeable future.

Pizza! Pizza!

While lounging at the pool last Saturday I was craving pizza, and I decided I'd make myself one for dinner. Saturday morphed into Wednesday - but I finally made the pizza. Because I had so many days to dream about it, I went all out. Introducing my white pesto sauce pizza with asparagus, tomatoes and mozzarella!

First, we'll start with the dough. I found a recipe for Parmesan Pizza dough, and I used that. First you combine one yeast packet, a teaspoon of honey, a tablespoon of olive oil, and a cup of hot water. Stir it up until it's all dissolved and let it sit for 5 minutes. It will become foamy, this is good. Then add in 1 1/2 cups of flour and a pinch of salt, and stir it together. Continue adding flour by the quarter cup (until you've reached 2 3/4 total), mixing with hands each time to incorporate the newly added flour. Then, add in a half a cup of grated parmesan. Now for the fun, flour a clean surface and knead the dough. You want to make it smooth and uniform. It may still be a bit 'tacky' which is fine. Drop a tablespoon of oil in a bowl, and flip the dough through that, cover the bowl with plastic wrap and set in a warmish place (I use the top of my preheating oven) for an hour and a half. When it's done punch it down - literally - and roll it out. The recipe I read suggested to put corn meal on the pan before baking. I did this, but I'm not sure why!

While this was rising I roasted some garlic. I sliced the tops off of 4 heads of garlic, this proved to be too many, I could have gotten by with 2! Pour a bit of evoo on the cut end, sprinkle some salt and pepper and place cut-end down on an aluminum foil covered pan. I roasted for about an hour, at 350. It might have been too long, they were mushy - but since I don't have a food processor the mush was actually better.

The sauce started with a roux, two tablespoons each of butter and flour. A cup of milk (I used whole!) Heat and stir, heat and stir, until it thickens. Then I added in a few scoopfuls of pesto (not made from scratch, but purchased!) and I added about half of my garlic mush. Stir, stir, stir, heat, thicken.

When the dough was done and punched I rolled it out (by hand, for lack of rolling pin) and made a pizza crust. In retrospect, I made it too thick. I should have made a bigger pizza or used only part of the dough. Practice makes perfect. I poured the sauce on. Now I spread out some pre-sliced mozzarella balls, sliced roma tomatoes, and asparagus tips.

Because the crust was thick it took longer in the oven, maybe 20 minutes at 350. But, it was delish (and will be tomorrow, and the next day, and the one after!)

deconstructing

I'd been waiting for something spectacularly clever to say about this, and since NH seemed to be on hiatus also, I thought I had all the time in the world. Much like our scrabulous games, he's beaten me.

Please, go check this out: Deconstructing Dinner



I don't seem to get tired of watching various vegetables be sliced back together by some amazing knife skills. Keep 'em coming NH! (I'm still waiting for the Thanksgiving episode...the drive from SF to AusTex can't be that long, bring the pup for tofurkey day and you can film it!)

Happy Birthday....America!

While I was out yesterday afternoon watching the Red Sox Yankees game with some friends we devised our 4th of July fireworks viewing plan - to meet at a friend's house at 7:30pm and head over from there for the show starting at 8:30. By the time I got home from the game I had about 2 hours before I had to be ready to leave again, and I still had to go and walk the dog (as an aside, I've been dog-sitting for a week, and this dog likes to hike through the woods, where we see coyotes!!!) I left my house, headed for dogs house, and stopped at the grocery store on the way - I was not going to show up for pre-fireworks party empty handed. She likely doesn't know, but Melanie helped me devise this recipe while I was AT the grocery store. A few quick text messages back and forth and we'd decided on filling those little phyllo pastry cups with chocolate pudding and whipped cream. I decided to top them with strawberries and blueberries, for the full patriotic effect.

I must say, while this is like less homemade and more "semi" than what Sandra Lee would put on her show, they came out looking quite cute and being quite tasty. And, of course, the simple fact that I showed up with something in-hand made me quite pleased.

Happy and safe 4th to everyone!

Happy 4th of July. . . Birthday!

HAPPY 4TH OF JULY! I mean, HAPPY BIRTHDAY, CAITLYN! This little girl shares her birthday with the nation, and embraces the red, white, and blue (and brown?) I imagine this will get old after a while, but when you're eleven, it's pretty cool. . . the cookouts, flags, and fireworks. . . all on your birthday. I get it.

So this is just the chocolate cake recipe on the back of the Hershey's cocoa container. The chocolate frosting is DELICIOUS. It's from 1000 Vegetarian Recipes -- one of my favorite cook books. I don't feel like getting out of my comfy chair to get the recipe, so if you want it, let me know. As for the decorations, yeah, my stars could've been a LOT better. Oh well. It was really late and I was tired. . . and she's eleven, so whatever.