dessert – Page 5

Apples, Bread, Caramel, cinnamon, Desserts, Fruit

Caramel Apple Monkey Bread

October 28, 2014March 25, 2015by thebusyspatula7 Comments

There are a few things that scream “autumn”. Pumpkins, apples, fall foliage, football and Thanksgiving are at the top of my list. A couple several weeks ago, I went apple picking with a group of friends and came home with a big ol’ bag of apples. Apples are notorious for lasting along time (as long as they are not bruised) and I have plans for the other ones I have in my fridge. But for now, I have this recipe for you.
If you’ve never had monkey bread, you’re missing out on some serious yum. If you took cinnamon rolls but made them bite sized and decided to glue them together with some cinnamon sugar, you’ve got monkey bread. Cut up some fresh apple chunks and stuff them in the sweet dough and you have fall in bread form.
I have to be honest. I’ve made and shot this recipe weeks ago and I started writing the first paragraph last week, but things became hectic and that’s as far as I got. But to be fair, I threw a Star Wars Rebels themed party and that kept me quite busy for a several days. I’m excited to share it with you on my next post!
Caramel Apple Monkey Bread

Ingredients:

1 ¼ c. milk
2 tsp. instant yeast
4 c. all-purpose flour
5 tbsp. sugar
1 tsp. salt
1 egg
5 tbsp. unsalted butter, melted
3 apples, peeled, cored and cut into small bits
1 ¼ c. firmly packed dark brown sugar
2 tsp. cinnamon
½ c. (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted and cooled

Instructions:

Generously spray the inside of a 10 in. Bundt pan with nonstick cooking spray.
In a small bowl, warm your milk, add the yeast and whisk to dissolve. (Do not warm it above 110˚F or you will kill the yeast).
In the bowl of a standing mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the flour, 5 tbsp. sugar, egg, and salt until combined.
Slowly add in the milk mixture until combined. Add the 5 tbsp. melted butter and mix until the dough comes together.
Replace the paddle attachment with the dough hook attachment. Continue to mix on medium speed until the dough becomes silky and tacky, but not sticky, about 8-10 minutes.
Spray a large bowl with cooking spray. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let it rest in a warm area until the dough has doubled in size, approximately 1 hour.
Use your clean hands to push down and deflate the dough. Roll out dough in a rough rectangle, ¼ in. thick. Spread 1/3 of apple bits onto half of the rolled out dough. (As pictured above)
Fold dough in half and spread another 1/3 of apple bits on another half of the dough and fold once again in half to form a quarter of its original size. (As pictured above)
Cut dough into 1 to 1 ½ inch pieces and roll the pieces into balls (apple pieces may stick out). Place the balls on the sheet pan.
In a small bowl, stir together the sugar and cinnamon. Place the melted butter in a separate bowl.
Dip one dough ball in the melted butter. Let the excess butter drip back into the bowl, roll the ball in the brown sugar mixture, and place it in the Bundt pan.
Continue this process with each ball, until halfway where you will scatter the rest of the apple pieces.
Wrap the Bundt pan tightly in plastic wrap and let rise in a warm area until the dough balls have doubled in size.
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
Bake until the top layer is deep brown and the caramel coating begins to bubble around the edges, about 30 minutes.
Cool the bread for 5 minutes, then turn it out directly onto a platter and serve warm. If you have any leftovers, reheat them in a 300 degree oven until warm to the touch.

Recipe adapted from Baked Explorations by Matt Lewis and Renato Poliafito.

Bread, Cakes, Caramel, Cheesecake, Desserts, Fruit

Toasted Marshmallow Caramel Banana Cake with Cheesecake Frosting

August 12, 2014March 25, 2015by thebusyspatula17 Comments

Wordy, I know. This journey of mine started when I was trying to figure out what to post next for the blog. I have this great caramelized banana bread recipe that I use and was going to blog about that. But right when I was about to start baking, I realized that banana bread recipes are a dime a dozen on the internet.
Why would I bore you with something that has been done for the umpteenth time? No, I needed to do something different, maybe even drastic. That’s when I spotted a bag of caramel bits that I picked up at Target a few months ago and the cogs in my brain started turning.

It starts with a soft caramelized banana cake. What makes it “caramelized” banana cake? Because you caramelize bananas with sugar and melted butter until it starts to smell like banana heaven in your kitchen. Then you mix your caramel bits into the batter to increase the caramel factor.
Next, the cake layers are sandwiched with cheesecake frosting which is essentially my version of a cream cheese frosting only it is extra thick and tastes very much like cheesecake. Then the entire cake is surrounded by marshmallow frosting which you toast with your kitchen torch (or in your oven if you don’t have one) and as if you really needed more, you finish it off with a caramel drizzle.
Sweet, gooey, soft, toasty, and slightly chewy (from the caramel bits) this cake is definitely worth making for a celebration… or for no reason because it’s your kitchen and you can bake if you want to. 😉
Toasted Marshmallow Caramel Banana Cake with Cheesecake Frosting

Makes one 6 inch 4-layer cake

Caramelized Banana Cake

Ingredients:
2 oz. unsalted butter
¾ c. brown sugar
3 medium brown bananas
½ c. buttermilk
2 tbsp. vegetable oil
2 large eggs
1 c. all-purpose flour
1 c. cake flour
¾ tsp. baking soda
½ tsp. ground cinnamon
½ tsp. kosher salt
8 oz. caramel bits

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 350˚F and prepare four 6 inch cake pans by spraying them with non-stick spray and lining the bottom with parchment paper.
In a small pot, melt the butter. Once the butter melts, add the brown sugar and bananas and cook for 4 minutes. Cool mixture for 10 minutes before transferring mixture into a bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment. Beat for 2-3 minutes until mixture is cool and combined.
In a small bowl, whisk buttermilk, vegetable oil and eggs until homogeneous.
In another bowl, mix both kinds of flour with baking soda, cinnamon and salt.
With the mixer on low, add half the buttermilk mixture followed by half the flour mixture.
Finish the batter by alternating the buttermilk mixture and flour mixture again.
Fold in the caramel bits into the batter.
Divide the batter evenly between 4 pans and bake about 12-15 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean.
Let cool for 10 minutes in the pan and then remove from pan and let cool completely on a wire rack.

Cheesecake Frosting

Ingredients:
10 oz. cream cheese
4 oz. unsalted butter, softened
1 ½ c. powdered sugar
8 oz. mascarpone cheese
2 tsp. vanilla extract
1 pinch of kosher salt

Instructions:

In a standing mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat cream cheese and butter until combined.
Add the powdered sugar slowly, followed by the mascarpone cheese, vanilla extract and kosher salt. Do not overbeat the mascarpone cheese it will separate if you do.

Marshmallow Frosting

Ingredients:
4 large egg whites
¾ c. sugar
¼ tsp. cream of tartar
1 tsp. vanilla extract

Instructions:

In a metal bowl of a standing mixer, whisk egg whites, sugar and cream of tartar over a small saucepan with simmering water.
Whisk until sugar is dissolved and whites are slightly foamy and warm to the touch, about 2-3 minutes.
Transfer bowl to the standing mixer fitted with the whisk attachment and beat starting from low speed and gradually moving to high speed until stiff and glossy.
Mix in the vanilla extract to finish the frosting.

Caramel Drizzle

Ingredients:
3 oz. caramel bits
¼ c. heavy cream

Instructions:

In a small saucepan, melt caramel bits with heavy cream until a thick sauce forms. If the sauce is too thick, feel free to add more heavy cream.

Assembly:

Frost each layer of banana cake with cream cheese frosting, ending with a layer of banana cake. Make sure you smooth the sides as well as you can. (As shown above.)
Generously frost the top and sides with marshmallow frosting using your spatula to make swirl patterns along the cake. This will make a more impressive cake when you toast the frosting.
Toast the frosting with a torch (kitchen, butane, or propane your choice) until golden brown.
Drizzle caramel frosting.
Stand back and enjoy your work of art.

Caramelized banana cake adapted from espresso and cream.
Marshmallow frosting adapted from Martha Stewart.

Cakes, Desserts, Disney, Holidays

Elsa Doll Cake

August 7, 2014August 7, 2014by thebusyspatula8 Comments

This is a little late in the whole Frozen craze, but I finally made an Elsa Doll Cake. But it must’ve been in the stars because I was lucky enough to simultaneously have a doll cake request and was finally able to get my hands on an Elsa doll. It blows my mind that even after 9 months of its release, it is still difficult to obtain an Elsa figure. How?? Does every little girl in the world want an Elsa doll? It’s either that or they are releasing them ever so slowly to keep the demand up. By the way, I still can’t stop listening to the Frozen soundtrack which is a testament to how great it was. Speaking of soundtracks, did you guys watch Guardians of the Galaxy? If so, one phrase… Awesome Mix Vol 1. That’s it. If not, watch it. It’s fantastic in every way.
Back to the cake. The thing about Elsa is, unlike Sofia the First, her dress is fairly simple from the waist down. It’s a sparkly slinky number with a high slit and there is no place to fit a cake under there. So this is my interpretation of what a poofy Elsa dress would look like.
It’s fairly straight forward in terms of decorating it, but here are a few tips when creating your own doll cake: 1) Make sure your cake is well chilled- it will help reduce the number of crumbs when you carve it. 2) Try to make your frosting as smooth as possible to reduce the number of bumps and lumps when you put on the fondant. 3) When rolling out your fondant, make sure it isn’t too thick (it will be hard to mold) or too thin (it will tear when you drape it). 4) If your fondant shapes become too soft, toss it in the freezer for about 30 seconds to firm up. Do not freeze fondant, it will melt when it comes to room temperature. Above all, have fun making it. The world is your oyster when it comes to designing a doll cake.
Elsa Doll Cake

You will need:

light teal fondant
teal fondant
white fondant
snowflake fondant cutters
edible glitter, silver star shape
white shimmer dust
silver pearl dust
an Elsa doll

Instructions:

Prepare a lightly frosted, 4 layered 6 inch cake that has a hole cut in the middle for your doll. (pictures 1 and 2)
Chill the cake and while the cake is chilling, prepare your Elsa doll by removing her skirt and wrapping the bottom portion of the doll completely and tightly with plastic wrap. Put her arms up and her cape up and over her head and wrap the top portion of her body with plastic wrap. (picture 3)
Remove the cake, insert the plastic wrapped doll and cut along the top quarter of the cake at a 45˚ angle. Use your eye to gauge where you want the skirt to start and the desired slope of the skirt. (picture 3)
Crumb coat the cake, giving it a rough shape and making sure to cover the gap between the hips and the cake. (picture 4)
Give it a second coat of frosting, hiding the crumbs and making it as smooth as possible to make it easier for the fondant to stick. (picture 5)
Roll out a piece of light teal fondant and cut a rounded door shape for the front of her dress. Adhere it onto the front of the dress. (picture 6)
Roll out a larger piece of teal fondant and drape it over the waist down to the bottom of the cake, making sure to have all of the buttercream covered. (picture 7)
Using your hands, roll a skinny teal fondant rope to blend the top and the bottom of the dress together. Adhere it where the waist meets the cake. (picture 8)
Cut out a white snowflake fondant and adhere it to the center of the dress to cover the seam. (picture 9)
Using vodka, paint white shimmer dust and pearl silver dust all around the teal portion of the dress to give it a shimmery effect. (picture 10)
Take the silver stars and place it over the light teal fondant portion of the dress. (picture 11)
Using your fondant cutter, cut out various shapes of white and light teal snowflakes and adhere it to the teal portion of the dress. Feel free to use any pattern that suits you, but remember that there will be a transparent snowflake cape that covers the back of the cake. (picture 12 and 13)
Remove the plastic wrap from the top portion of the doll, be careful about positioning the arms and letting the snowflake cape flow over the back of the cake. (picture 14)

blueberry, Cake Balls, Cake Pops, Cakes, Desserts, Fruit

Blueberry Cake Balls

July 30, 2014March 25, 2015by thebusyspatula7 Comments

So, I made blueberry cake balls that look like blueberries. Where in the world did I get such an idea? It all started with a text from my sister, who sent me a photo of a strawberry layer cake that looked like a strawberry. I wasn’t surprised that it originated from my favorite macaron café of all time, Laudrée. This image fueled my creative fire and with the help of a good friend, we came up with an idea for this cake ball.
Blueberries are in season right now, and here in Jersey we grow some very tasty ones. They’re really fat and juicy, but I feel that the most “blueberry flavored” blueberries are wild blueberries. They are very small, but they pack a huge wallop of blueberry flavor. This cake ball uses both kinds of blueberries for the biggest berry impact.
The cake ball consists of blueberry vanilla cake mixed with blueberry frosting then dipped in a thin coat of chocolate (your preference dark, milk, or white) and then finished off with a thin layer of fondant. When I tried this recipe out, I dipped a handful of the cake balls in chocolate and left the others plain. When I proceeded to wrap both kinds in fondant, I was surprised that they both held up well. Unfortunately, I celebrated too early because the moisture from the blueberries in the cake and frosting started melting the fondant on the non-chocolate coated ones. Lesson learned: you must cover this with chocolate before proceeding to the fondant portion
Please tell me I’m not the only person who thought of Violet Beauregarde from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory when I saw these. If you don’t know, Violet is the girl who turns rotund and blue like a blueberry in the book and movie. To get this shade of blueberry, I mixed three kinds of gel food coloring: Wilton’s violet, Spectrum’s royal blue and Americolor’s super black. As for the fondant, I tried to mimic the flared crown by doing a double layer of fondant but it wouldn’t stay. So I settled on drawing it in with black food coloring and a small paint brush (which I reserve for food use only).
I know there may be a few of you who are looking at this post (or maybe many of my other posts) thinking, “Yeah, I can never do that”. Whenever I try a novel concept, I always have my doubts whether it will work or not. Am I wasting precious time, ingredients and money? Is it worth the pile of dishes? But in the end, I always feel like the risk of taking the dive outweighs watching from the sidelines. If I fail, I fail but not without learning something. So, why don’t we just dive together? 🙂

Blueberry Cake Balls

You will need:
1 batch of blueberry cake
1 batch of blueberry frosting
chocolate or candy melts
blue tinted fondant
black gel food color

Instructions:

Mix blueberry cake with a third of the blueberry frosting until fully incorporated. If the cake does not hold shape, add more frosting and mix until desired consistency is reached.
Scoop tablespoon sized portion of cake and roll into slightly flattened circles.
Chill in the freezer while you melt your chocolate.
Once the chocolate has melted, dip your cake balls into the chocolate using a fork and make sure to tap off the excess.
Chill the chocolate covered cake balls while you roll out the fondant.
Roll out the fondant as thin as possible.
At this point the chocolate should have set, if not then refrigerate until the chocolate has set.
Cover the cake balls and make sure you smooth it out so that there are no lumps.
Mix your black gel food color with a little bit of water to loosen up the pigment.
Draw a five pointed crown on the top of your blueberry and a dot in the center.

Blueberry Cake

Ingredients:
1 ½ c. cake flour
1 c. sugar
½ tbsp. baking powder
⅛ tsp. salt
¾ c. buttermilk, divided
4 oz. unsalted butter, room temperature
2 eggs, room temperature
1 egg yolks
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 pint fresh blueberries, washed and drained

Instructions:

Preheat the oven to 350˚F and line a 9×9 in cake pan with parchment paper.
In a bowl of a standing mixer with the paddle attachment, add flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. Mix until combined.
On low speed, add ½ c. buttermilk and butter and mix until combined.
In a separate bowl, whisk eggs, egg yolk, ¼ c. buttermilk, and vanilla extract until homogenous.
On low speed, slowly add the egg mixture to the flour mixture.
Increase speed to medium, and mix until combined.
Fold in fresh blueberries
Bake about 25-30 minutes until cake is done or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
Let cool in pan for 10 minutes, and then move onto a cooling rack until completely cool.

Blueberry Frosting

Ingredients:
2 c. frozen wild blueberries
¼ c. sugar
2 tsp. lemon juice
4 tbsp. butter, room temperature
½ tsp. vanilla
1 tbsp. heavy cream
⅔ c. powdered sugar

Instructions:

In a small pot, cook blueberries, sugar and lemon juice until the mixture reduces to about half or until thickened.
In another bowl, beat butter, cream and vanilla.
Slowly add powdered sugar ⅓ c. at a time until completely used.
Once the blueberry mixture has thickened and cooled, add to the sugar mixture until fully incorporated.

Desserts, Frozen Yogurt, Fruit, Ice Cream

Piña Colada Frozen Yogurt (Pineapple Coconut Frozen Yogurt)

July 25, 2014March 25, 2015by thebusyspatula12 Comments

Do you also hear Rupert Holmes’ Escape a.k.a The Piña Colada Song when someone mentions Piña Coladas to you? For me, it’s as if a record starts playing in my head and the very familiar “If you like Piña Coladas and getting caught in the rain…” begins.
The weather has been ridiculously hot this past week, and the thought of turning my oven was a major turn off. (Insert HIMYM joke here.) So with Piña Coladas on the brain, I started a journey for a pineapple coconut frozen yogurt. I’ve always loved pineapples, but coconuts have been a love-hate relationship until a few years ago when out of nowhere I became a coconut fiend. Dried, toasted, grated, shredded, fresh – I ate it all until like all good things, I eventually got tired of it. But this recipe has sparked the love again, and I’m back on the coconut train.

Pineapple Coconut Frozen Yogurt 1 Instead of using only shredded coconut as most recipes call for, I added a good dose of coconut cream into the yogurt base. To make coconut cream, refrigerate a can of full fat coconut milk overnight. When you’re ready, open up the can and the cream should’ve separated from the coconut water. Scoop up the thickened cream and reserve the coconut water for another use. So easy, yet it adds a surprising coconut element that you can’t put your finger on.

Pineapple Coconut Frozen Yogurt 2 I have to say, this frozen yogurt was not easy to photograph. Because of the added water content of the coconut cream and the pineapple, it is icier than your normal frozen yogurt. This translated into melting quickly and causing me much grief. If I could do this again, I would make them into popsicles. I had half a mind to just scrap the project, but it was too tasty not to share. Onto the next one …
Pineapple Coconut Frozen Yogurt 5

Piña Colada Frozen Yogurt (Pineapple Coconut Frozen Yogurt)

Ingredients:
2 c. vanilla whole-milk yogurt
2 c. plain nonfat or reduced-fat Greek yogurt
½ c. granulated sugar
3 tbsp. light corn syrup
1 batch of coconut cream
1 20 oz. can of crushed pineapple, drained
2 c. sweetened shredded coconut

Instructions:

In a large bowl, whisk whole milk yogurt, Greek yogurt, sugar, corn syrup and coconut cream together until combined.
In an ice cream maker, pour the yogurt base and churn according to the manufacturer’s instructions until you reach a soft serve consistency.
Transfer to a plastic container and fold in crushed pineapple and shredded coconut. Line the top with plastic wrap and seal with the lid.
Freeze for at least 2 hours. Let it sit out for about 15 minutes if completely frozen.

Coconut Cream

Ingredients:
1 – 14 or 13.5 oz. can of full fat coconut milk

Instructions:

Place can of coconut milk in the refrigerator for 8 hours or overnight.
When ready for use, open the can to reveal a thick layer of coconut cream.
Carefully scoop out the cream portion of the coconut milk. You will see the separated coconut water when you harvest all the cream.
You can whip the coconut cream like whipped cream if desired.
Do not throw out the coconut water. You can use it for smoothies, recipes or just drink it.

*Frozen yogurt recipe adapted from The Food Network.

Cakes, Desserts, Tea, Vegetables

Mini Green Tea Cake

July 15, 2014July 15, 2014by thebusyspatula10 Comments

Mini Green Tea Cake 2 It’s been forever since I posted something on the blog. This is what happened… The weekend before I left for my vacation to Korea, I made a wedding cake, mini wedding desserts and did desserts for a confirmation banquet. It was jam packed with sugar, whipped cream, flour and butter. At this point, I was so sick and tired of seeing ingredients I had to take a break. If you follow me on Instagram, you probably saw that I went on a two week vacation to South Korea and by the time I got back, I was so jet lagged I didn’t have it in me to do anything. And so here I am, three weeks later posting a new recipe for you guys. I think I’m sufficiently rested and I hope to continue on this culinary journey with you with no more stops in the road.
Mini Green Tea Cakes 4 This green tea cake was inspired by my trip to O’Sulloc Tea Museum in Jeju, South Korea. Unfortunately the weather was horrible the day we went and I wasn’t able to see the plantation but, I did enjoy some green tea desserts.I paired my cake with both red bean and sweet potato frosting. The slight bitterness of the green tea balances well with the smooth creamy sweet potato and the red beans give it a pop of interesting texture. While we are talking about sweet potatoes, I should let you know that I do not mean the orange fleshed American sweet potato. This is the potato I am talking about. The Korean/Japanese sweet potato has purple skin and yellow flesh. When baked, it tastes slightly like a perfectly roasted chestnut and is less water logged than its American cousin. With that bit of information, I hope you give it a try! Enjoy 🙂

Mini Green Tea Cakes

Green Tea Cake

Ingredients:
¾ c. cake flour
2 tbsp. matcha powder
1/2 tsp. baking powder
¼ tsp. kosher salt
4 large eggs, separated
pinch of cream of tartar
¾ c. granulated sugar, divided
2 tablespoons buttermilk

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 350˚F and line a half sheet pan with parchment paper.
In a bowl, sift together cake flour, matcha powder, baking powder and salt. Set aside.
In a bowl of a standing mixer fitted with a whisk attachment, whisk egg whites and cream of tartar on medium speed until foamy. Once foamy, slowly add ¼ c. granulated sugar until incorporated and raise speed to high until stiff peaks form.
In a separate bowl of a standing mixer fitted with a whisk attachment, whisk egg yolks until pale and thickened. Then add ½ c. granulated sugar and mix until thick and the batter forms ribbons when whisk is lifted.
Stir in buttermilk to the egg yolk mixture until combined.
Fold in flour mix into the egg yolk mix until just combined.
Fold in egg white mixture until fully incorporated.
Pour batter into the prepared pan and spread evenly.
Bake for 10-12 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean or the cake is springy to the touch.
Let cool.

Sweet Potato Frosting

Ingredients:
1 lb. Korean/Japanese sweet potatoes, roasted and peeled
2 tbsp. heavy cream
pinch kosher salt
⅓ c. vanilla frosting

Instructions:

In a food processor, add all the ingredients and puree until smooth.

Red Bean Frosting

Ingredients:
8 oz. canned sweet red beans
⅓ c. vanilla frosting

Instructions:

In a separate bowl, mix red beans and vanilla frosting until completely blended.

Assemble the Mini Green Tea Cakes:

Using a 2” cookie cutter, cut out 2” cake rounds.
Use the same cookie cutter to assemble the cake.
Place a cake round into the cookie cutter and proceed to layer the red bean frosting, a cake round, sweet potato frosting and finish off with a cake round.
Slowly remove the cookie cutter to reveal your layered cake.
If desired, you can garnish the tops of the cake with powdered sugar.

Green Tea Cake adapted from Oh Sweet Day!

Cakes, Chocolate, cupcakes, Desserts, Ice Cream

Hi Hat Cake Cones

May 21, 2014May 21, 2014by thebusyspatula6 Comments

The weather is finally starting to warm up and these ice cream cones were screaming to be used. I originally used them for my ice cream cone macarons, but I had half a box that was sitting on my counter looking useless and forlorn. I wanted my next post to be hi hat cupcakes, so I stuffed it into a cone.
It’s ridiculously fun and easy to eat. The crisp chocolate coating breaks into the soft marshmallow frosting and rich chocolate cake. You can also sprinkle it with different combinations of toppings and change the color of the candy melts to suit the occasion. I used Swedish pearl sugar and sanding sugar as toppings, but you can use anything you want to top it. It also looks very cute with sprinkles.
On another note, why is the weather cloudy 80% of the time I’m trying to shoot photos? Can’t a sista catch a break once in a while? Every time I start conjuring up an idea for a project, the forecast is bound to be cloudy or rainy. If you are into photography, you know the value of natural light and can understand my frustration. If you’re not, then please excuse this rant of mine.
Hi Hat Cake Cones

You will need:
1 batch of chocolate cake batter (recipe below)
1 batch of marshmallow frosting (recipe bleow)
white candy melts
pink candy melts
blue candy melts
pink sanding sugar
Swedish pearl sugar
mini ice cream cones

Chocolate Cake

Ingredients:
1 c. all-purpose flour
1 c. sugar
1/3 c. Dutch-process unsweetened cocoa powder
1 tsp. baking soda
½ tsp. baking powder
½ tsp. kosher salt
¼ c. vegetable oil
1 extra-large egg, room temperature
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
1/2 c. strong, hot coffee

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and put one mini ice cream cone in each cup of a mini cupcake pan.
In a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, mix flour, sugar, both cocoa powders, baking soda, baking powder and salt until fully combined.
In a separate bowl, whisk vegetable oil, eggs, and vanilla extract until combined.
With the mixer speed on low, add the egg mixture to the flour mixture until combined.
Turn off the mixer. With a spatula, scrape the sides of the bowl to fully incorporate the two mixtures.
Turn the mixer on low and slowly add the hot coffee to the batter. Once added, raise the speed to medium until completely homogenous.
Fill mini ice cream cones½ full with batter and bake about 10-13 minutes. Checking at 10 minutes for doneness with a toothpick test.*
Let stand for 5-10 minutes when done, then put onto a cooling rack to fully cooled.

Marshmallow Frosting

Ingredients:
4 egg whites (120 g.)
1 c. sugar
a pinch of cream of tartar
a pinch of salt
1 tsp. vanilla extract

Instructions:

In a small pot fill about 1 in. of water and let it come to a simmer.
In the bowl of a stand mixer, whisk egg whites, sugar, cream of tartar and salt until homogenous.
Once the water comes to a simmer, place the bowl on top of the pot and whisk the egg white mixture until the sugar is completely dissolved and no longer grainy.
Move the bowl to your standing mixer fitted with a whisk attachment and beat on high speed until glossy and stiff.
Add the vanilla extract and mix completely.
Fill a piping bag fitted with an open star tip.

Assembly:

Pipe a swirl of frosting onto cooled cake cone.
Put into the freezer for 15-30 minutes until completely cold.
In two separate bowls, melt white and pink candy melts and blue and white candy melts.
Remove the cake cones from the freezer and dip the frosting portion into the melted chocolate. Do not be afraid, the frosting will not fall off if sufficiently cooled.
Before the chocolate sets, sprinkle sanding sugar and Swedish pearl sugar.
Let chocolate set and enjoy.

* The toothpick test: insert a toothpick into the cake and if the toothpick comes out clean or with a few crumbs clinging to it, it is done.

Chocolate, Cookies, Desserts, Fruit

Chocolate Chip Raspberry Meringues

May 15, 2014by thebusyspatula4 Comments

Happy National Chocolate Chip Day! Chocolate chips are such a simple concept yet so pivotal in the world of baking. It’s so versatile and can be subbed for chocolate in a lot of recipes. I always wondered if Ruth Graves Wakefield kicked herself for exchanging her invention for a lifetime supply of chocolates. I know chocolate chips are synonymous with chocolate chip cookies, but since I just posted a recipe involving a cookie cake, it seemed redundant. Usually chocolate conjures up rich, heavy and decadent desserts and I ran the opposite direction with it this time. It’s a light chocolate chip studded meringue cookie sandwiched with fresh whipped cream and raspberries. It melts in your mouth, but still has a chewy middle. It’s so yummy and easy to make, yet fancy enough to serve to guests. In other words, a win-win-win.Chocolate Chip Raspberry Meringues

Meringues

Ingredients:
4 large egg whites, room temperature
1 c. sugar
pinch of cream of tartar
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 c. mini chocolate chips, divided

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 200˚F and line a sheet pan with parchment paper or a silicone mat.
In a small pot, fill it with an inch of water and let it come to a simmer.
In a bowl of a standing mixer, whisk egg whites, sugar, and cream of tartar.
Place bowl over the small pot and whisk until the mixture reads 160 degrees.
Whip with a stand mixer until stiff, glossy peaks form.
Add in the vanilla and fold in ¾ c. mini chocolate chips.
In a piping bag fitted with a plain tip, pipe half of the batter as 2“ round, flat bases and the other half as 2” round, domed tops.
Bake in oven for about 30 minutes or until the cookies are firm and dry to the touch.

Whipped Cream

Ingredients:
1 c. heavy cream
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 tbsp. confectioner’s sugar

Instructions:

In a bowl of a standing mixer with the whip attachment, add the heavy cream and whip on high speed until soft peaks are just about to form.
Add the vanilla extract and sugar and whip on medium speed until stiff peaks form.
Do not over whip! The cream will turn into butter.

Assembly:

On a round, flat meringue cookie base, arrange raspberries around the circumference of the cookie.
Put about 2 teaspoons of whipped cream in the center of the cookie.
Finish with a domed meringue cookie top.

Cakes, Chocolate, Desserts, Flowers, Holidays, Parties

Rose Cake

May 13, 2014by thebusyspatula5 Comments

This weekend was crazy busy for the Park family. We had a graduation, Mother’s Day and my dad’s birthday lined up 3 days in a row. We ended up celebrating Mother’s day and my dad’s birthday in one go, and I tried to think of a birthday cake that would serve both occasions. I suppose the mauve color of the cake was a little too feminine for a man’s birthday, but my mom didn’t get any flowers for Mother’s day so I hope this made up for it a bit.
Like many celebration cakes, this cake takes a long time to decorate but isn’t necessarily challenging. What takes the most time is rolling out the petals and chilling the petals in between steps. I wanted to use 100% modeling chocolate for the cake, but something went wrong during the process and I had to add about 30% fondant to make it useable. Do not fight the weather, as soon as your modeling chocolate/fondant starts to lose its shape, stop and chill it in the freezer. This will save you a lot of frustration and heartache down the line.
It does have a certain eye opening charm and it’s very flexible in terms of the variation of celebrations and colors. An all-around crowd pleaser.
Rose Cake
You Will Need:
14 oz of modeling chocolate or a mixture of fondant and modeling chocolate
1 batch of vanilla buttercream
1 8” cake, layered and filled
a set of round cookie cutters
round ended fondant tool

Instructions:

Frost your cake with vanilla frosting into a dome shape.* (Pic 1)
Mold a 1½ in. cone with modeling chocolate and place in center of the cake. (Pic 2)
From this point on, the modeling chocolate will be rolled out to 1/8-1/16 in. thickness.
With your 1.75 in. round cutter, cut out 2 pieces of modeling chocolate and mold it to a petal shape using a round ended fondant tool.
Wrap the cone with the 2 petals with some buttercream, overlapping each other to form a bud. (Pic 3 and 4)
With your 1.75 in. round cutter, cut out 3 pieces of modeling chocolate and mold it to a petal shape using a round ended fondant tool.
Wrap the bud with the 3 petals with some buttercream, overlapping each other at the edges. (Pic 5 and 6)
With your 2.25 in. round cutter, cut out 5 pieces of modeling chocolate and mold it to a petal shape using a round ended fondant tool.
Wrap the bud with the 5 petals with some buttercream, overlapping each other at the edges. (Pic 7 and 8)
With your 2.5 in. round cutter, cut out 5 pieces of modeling chocolate and mold it to a petal shape using a round ended fondant tool.
Wrap the bud with the 5 petals with some buttercream, overlapping each other at the edges. (Pic 9 and 10)
With your 2.75 in. round cutter, cut out 5 pieces of modeling chocolate and mold it to a petal shape using a round ended fondant tool.
Wrap the bud with the 5 petals with some buttercream, overlapping each other at the edges. (Pic 11 and 12)
With your 3 in. round cutter, cut out 5 pieces of modeling chocolate and mold it to a petal shape using a round ended fondant tool.
Wrap the bud with the 5 petals with some buttercream, overlapping each other at the edges. (Pic 13)
With your 3.25 in. round cutter, cut out 7 pieces of modeling chocolate and mold it to a petal shape using a round ended fondant tool.
Wrap the bud with the 7 petals with some buttercream, overlapping each other at the edges. (Pic 15)
Cut 2-3 in. wide strips of molding chocolate and curl the edges with a straw, about 8-13 pieces.
Chill in the freezer to set, about 1-3 minutes.
Use some frosting to wrap the cake with the strips, overlapping at the edges and curled edge pointing up. (Pic 16)

* This is what I did. In hindsight, you could do the regular sharp corners, it shouldn’t make a difference.

Cakes, Desserts, Disney, Holidays, Parties

Sofia the First Doll Cake

May 9, 2014October 21, 2015by thebusyspatula13 Comments

There are many things that make birthdays special: friends, family, presents, food… the list goes on. My favorite part of a birthday is the cake. I’m not sure what the exact reason is. It may be because it’s the centerpiece of a celebration or because it foreshadows the inevitable sweet ending of a party or simply because I love cake.
I did not have many birthday parties when I was little, but I do remember seeing many beautiful cakes at American bakeries wishing I would have one for my birthday. I always ended up getting a Korean cake. By Korean cake, I mean a simple sponge cake filled with whipped cream and fruit and a simple decoration on top. (I have to say, Korean bakeries have stepped up their decorating game since I was a little kid.) Many a day did I wish for the sugary sweet American buttercream counterpart but it just didn’t happen. So that’s why when it’s someone’s birthday I try to make it special the only way I know how, with cake.
Andy’s niece LOVES Sofia the First, along with Minnie Mouse and Max & Ruby. I’ve always wanted to try my hand at doll cakes so the present was twofold: the cake and the doll in one.

If you’ve never made doll cakes before, I’ll tell you that it’s definitely more time consuming than a layer cake but the reaction you get makes it worth the trouble. When we walked in the door, the first thing she screamed was “Sofia!!” and asked to hold it thinking it was a real doll. We were successful keeping her hands off until the end when the urge was too great and she made a grab for it. 🙂

Sophia the First Doll Cake

You will need:
Purple Fondant
White Fondant
White Buttercream
White Sugar Pearls
4 layers of 6” round cake
Purple Food Marker
Isomalt (optional)
Small Gem Mold (optional)

Instructions:

Cut out holes in the cake layers so that it would fit your doll. I used this doll.
Prep your doll by tying its hair up, taking off the dress, and wrapping the doll with plastic wrap.
Roll out a piece of purple fondant and drape around the doll adhering it with either a very thin layer of buttercream or water. (As shown above.)
Frost and layer the cake layers and place your doll inside.
Mold the cake into a dress shape by cutting it along the top in a rounded shape.
Frost the cake smoothly up to below the waist of the doll. (As shown above.)
Roll out a piece of white fondant and cut out a 2-3 in. strip. Drape it around the bottom of the dress to form the underskirt of the dress. (As shown above.)
Roll out a piece of purple fondant and cut out a ¼ in. strip. Adhere the purple strip over the white fondant with either buttercream or water to form the stripe around the underskirt. (As shown above.)
Roll out a large piece of purple fondant (about 10 in. in height) and cut out scalloped shapes along the bottom. Drape right below the waist of the doll connecting the two ends together in the back. (As shown above.)
Roll out two more pieces of fondant in a semi-circle shape and drape around each side of the doll to create the top layer of her dress. (As shown above.)
Roll and cut a thin ribbon of fondant and wrap around the waist to meld the top and bottom together.
With the purple marker, draw two lines and a loop design on the front of her dress. (As shown above.)
Adhere pearls along the neckline and the purple stripes. (As shown above.)
Adhere pearls along the top layer of the dress. (As shown above.)
Optional: If you have time, you can continue the pearl all across the back of the dress. I did not so I opted to continue it with a white ribbon made of white fondant.
Adhere pearls all along the top and bottom skirt of the dress
For the circular pattern along the bottom of the dress you can either:
1. Cut out the pattern with the fondant and adhere it.
2. Make white teardrop jewels with a small gem mold with either sugar or isomalt. This gives it an interesting 3D effect to the dress. You can cut out the triangular shapes with fondant and adhere it.
If you have time, you can fancy the dress up in the back with more pearls and sugar jewels. (As shown above.)
Optional: You can also paint the crown with silver paint and bling it out with little purple gems like I did above. It makes the cake look a little more expensive and detailed. (As shown above.)