Whoopie!

When I saw this blog post, I couldn't resist making these cute treats for Valentine's Day. I wanted to try something different, and I had never made whoopie pies before. They are all the rage lately, so I thought I would give it a shot.

The recipe was easy enough - some flour, brown sugar, cocoa powder, buttermilk, and red food coloring. The instructions said not to mix the batter too much. I tried not to overdo it, but it did take a good bit of mixing to get the red food coloring incorporated evenly. Maybe that's why my pies turned out a little flat. For whatever reason, they weren't as light and fluffy as I had imagined.

The cream cheese filling got rave reviews. It didn't call for too much sugar, so it had more of a rich, creamy taste to it. Everyone who tried it said it was really good. ("The bomb-diggety" was the exact quote I received.)

The instructions for piping the pies call for using a heart shaped cookie cutter as a template. After searching my kitchen thoroughly, I couldn't find mine. I've used it many times (including several Valentine's past) but it seems to have disappeared this year. So in the interest of time, I had to pipe my hearts by hand. Which ended up in them being a little wonky... but still recognizable as hearts... Sadly, mine didn't look as pretty as the picture in the original blog, but I guess that didn't affect the taste.

I wish I had a picture to share, but they were all gobbled up before I had a chance to snap a shot!

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30, Love

My sister-in-law plays and coaches tennis. It's a large part of her life. So as her 30th birthday approached and I discussed plans for her cake with my brother, we both thought a tennis ball cake would be very fitting. I decided to reprise Dad's basketball cake, just with a different color scheme. This time, it was even easier, because there was no fondant.

I baked a standard yellow cake. This time I knew it would take about an hour in the oven, so I didn't worry. I mixed up a pretty light yellow buttercream, left a little white, and make just a bit of green. After the cake was cooled and leveled, I made the white lines of the tennis ball and then used the 3 star tip to fill in the body of the ball. Tennis balls usually have the name of the manufacturer written down the middle. (I googled lots of pictures of tennis balls to make sure I got it just right.) But I was nervous about trying to write an entire name in cursive - I stopped writing cursive after elementary school. So I decided just to write Leslie's first initial, a large capital L, ala Laverne and Shirley. I debated the border around the bottom of the cake and thought that grass would be fitting. My brother thought Leslie would appreciate the Wimbledon reference. And the cake was done.

I thought the color scheme was really pretty and very appropriate for a spring birthday. This cake was one of my proudest accomplishments yet.

(Maybe it was a little too good, because I didn't bake much for several months after this. Hmm...)

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Peppermint Twist

I have abandoned my blog over the past year - half by accident and half on purpose. I wasn't very good at posting in a timely manner, so I decided not to bother. However, after reading through some other baking blogs for ideas, and showing off my own accomplishments, I have decided that I like the idea of having one place to keep all the tasty treats I've made. (Whether anyone reads or comments or not.) So the next couple of posts will be about catching up on some baking I've done in the past year.

This Christmas, I wasn't sure what I was going to make. I thought about stepping out on a limb and trying something new - not just the cupcakes that everyone has come to expect. Plus, I wanted something that wouldn't be quite as time consuming. Then I had a pre-Christmas lunch with Ginger. And after lunch, I helped her make the cutest peppermint cupcakes for her church Christmas party. I knew I had to make them too.

After stealing the idea, I went shopping. Mine turned out a little different, due to the colors of candy canes and sprinkles that I had available.

I debated whether to make chocolate cupcakes or yellow. I should have gone with chocolate... At the last minute, I decided to try to turn a box of yellow cake mix into chocolate cake - because chocolate and peppermint just sounds good together! I googled different solutions for adding cocoa powder to the yellow cake mix and decided to give it a try. It didn't turn out as well as I'd hoped. I ended up with a slightly brown, less moist cake that didn't really taste like any particular flavor. It was about the same color as a spice cake, and I wasn't able to taste any of the cocoa. I was short on time, and they weren't terrible, so I had to go with it. Next time, I will just get the box of devils food mix.

The icing, however, did not disappoint me. I made my regular Wilton recipe and substituted peppermint extract for the butter flavor. The mint was tasty and not overpowering. In the interest of saving time, I decided that white icing would work just fine and didn't add any coloring.

All in all, they were cute cupcakes for minimal time spent. I might have to try this recipe again with chocolate cake though.

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