Chocolate Cupcakes

I have been pretty busy this week.  My husband has been asking for some chocolate cupcakes, so I tried out a new recipe for him yesterday.  He likes them, but I think they need more chocolate taste.  I forgot to take a picture, but I added chocolate chips to the top for decorations.  I also made two cakes for this weekend.  It's a new recipe and the filling needs to sits on the cakes for at least 3 days.  The cakes are pretty dense, I hope that is the way they are supposed to be.  If it tastes good, I'll post the recipe next week after I try it.

My pictures turned out pretty fuzzy.  Boy did the baking make my house hot yesterday! It's over 100° here in TX.   I'll post the recipe for the cupcakes at the end of this post.

My neighbor's six year old asked me to make her an apron out of this ugly pink velvet material and peach satin. I measured her and made a big pocket in the front for her toys and dolls and a little pocket for little toys. With the peach satin I made her a flower. 

Her mom gave me a jean skirt and asked me to make her a bib apron.  I cut it up then sewed it back together to make this apron.  I also made my first boxed pleat ruffle.

Classic Chocolate Cupcakes from Whimsical Bakehouse:
Grease the tops of 2 - 12 mold muffin pans and line them with paper liners.  Preheat the oven to 350°F.  Have all ingredients at room temp.

In a saucepan over low heat, melt, whisking often:
*1/2 cup milk
*1 cup brown sugar, packed
*3 oz chopped unsweetened chocolate (I used choc. chips which is     why it was probably not chocolaty enough)

When chocolate is melted, whisk in:
*1 large egg yolk

Remove from the heat and set aside.

In the bowl of an electric mixer at medium-high speed, cream:
*4 oz (1 stick) unsalted butter

Add and cream until light and fluffy:
*1 cup granulated sugar

Add slowly, beating well and scraping down after each addition:
*2 large eggs
*1 large egg white
On a piece of wax paper, sift together:
*2 cups cake flour
*1 tsp baking soda
*1/2 tsp salt

On low speed, add the dry ingredients alternately to the butter and egg mixture with:
*3/4 cup milk
*1 tsp pure vanilla extract

Stir the chocolate mixture into the batter by hand, mixing only until combined.

Pour the batter into the cupcake liners, filling each 7/8 full.  (I use an ice cream scoop)  Bake for 18-22 minutes, or until the tops spring back when lightly touched.

Car Cake and Stockyards Pictures

Well, I had a bit of a challenge last week! I had an order for my first sculpted car cake! I had no idea how to do one so I found some tutorials (See last week's post). This is how it turned out. Next time I will make myself a checklist of details I want to add to make sure I don't forget anything!

This will be a quick tutorial since I I don't have much time.  I baked 2 9x13 cakes and a square I think 7 in cake.  Next time I will just do one 9x13 since my filling smooshed out through my fondant while I was decorating and I burned one of the 9x13s since it was so small.  I made two cake recipes.  I blew up a picture of the car to help me guide my shape while cutting.

I trimmed just a little at a time and rounded the edges.  Did you notice my new vintage apron I'm wearing?  I got it at a thrift shop for a $1!  I always wear a bandanna over my hair to keep hair out of my food, also since it is so long I will also braid it or put it in a bun since hair can fall out of pony tails!  Do you like my huge knife?  It was a gift from my DH years ago!

I had a lot of scraps left over after carving.  I lightly frosted my cake and took extra frosting with me since my friends don't like the fondant it was peeled off before eating and then more frosting applied.

I rolled out my fondant and put it on the car.  I smoothed it down with a fondant smoother.  For the windows I marbled some gray and black fondant.  I put a black strip on the back of the car since that is the way the pictures looked.  I also indented the lines for the trunk, hood, lights (they were closed), and doors.

I outlined the wheel area and pushed it in with my fingers and put round, black tires there.  Next time I will put spokes on the wheel.  On the front I put brake lights and a place for his license plate.  I made a bumper and tail lights for the back.  I forgot to make the door handles!  uggh!  Next time I will outline all the windows with black fondant too.  I made another cake for serving also.  Since I had carved so much off the cake I ended up having to bake an extra cake at 11:00.  I was up until after 1 am decorating this cake and then had church the next morning.  I also made rear view mirrors that I stuck in with toothpicks.

The reason I was doing the cake so late that night is because my husband and I went to the Stockyards in Ft Worth to celebrate our 15th wedding anniversary.  We had a lot of fun!

We paid a guy $5 to let me sit on the longhorn so that Chris could take pictures!

Happy Baking!

Missy

First Sculpted Cake

I am making my first sculpted car cake this week!  I have never made a car cake before so I have been searching for tutorials on the web for help.  I'm one of those people that have to have a picture and step by step directions!  Here is what I have found to help me.




Here is a great tutorial!  I think it looks like they just used two layers of cake?  What do you think?
http://sugaredblog.blogspot.com/2009/04/how-to-make-3d-car-cake.html

I like the details on this mini slideshow of make a car cake:
http://www.blackmarketbakery.com/cakegallery.html

If any one has any suggestions for making this cake, let me know!
Happy Baking,
Missy

How To Make A Fabric Flower

I have fallen in love with fabric flowers!  They are so fun to make, I'm still new at it, but I want to share what I have learned so far!  These I made by folding the fabric over.

These I made with just one layer of fabric for a frayed look.

I am going to teach you how to make the one with the folded fabric, although the concept is the same for both.

I cut two small strips for my two smaller flowers out of the blue, then I wanted a double blue and white flower for the top, so I cut the white strip, which was my bottom layer, bigger then my blue strip which was my top layer.  I then folded the flowers over and ironed them down.

I then took my two ends of a folded strip and sewed it together on the machine (It can be done by hand if you don't have a machine).  I was not doing this at first, but it provides a cleaner finish if they are sewn together first.  You then take your sewing needle and stitch around the entire length very closely together (see pictures) and it naturally makes a circle.

Then you sew the middle sides together to close up the hole.  You want to make sure you don't have any holes gaping open under your button, it is supposed to look like a flower after all.  You are almost done!

If you are making two layers of your flower, place them on top of each other.  Then sew on your button.  If your thread was long enough, you will still be using the same needle and thread through the whole process.  Put your thread through the button a few times. 

Then with the thread still attached, position your flower where you want to sew it on your fabric and sew it through the button a few times to make sure it won't come off.




 
 

I then tack the flower on around the circumference to make sure the flower doesn't "crinkle up" in the wash.  Notice my edge where I sewed the two sides together?  That was done by hand and looks sloppy which is why I started doing it by machine first.  That's it!  You're done!  A great finish to any apron or project you are working on!  Flowers are also great for hiding any mistakes you make!  I'm still new at this, so if you have any suggestions, fell free to let me know!