Archive for the ‘Sweet Stuff’ Category
Most cake recipes are going to bake up a full sized bundt, sheet or layer cake, which means that your options are limited when you want to have just one piece of cake to satisfy your sweet tooth. If you already have leftover cake sitting around, of course, you won’t have a problem. If don’t already have cake available, you may be tempted by a microwave cakes for one that you make in a mug for a single-serving of cake. I’ve made this type of cake before (and have seen similar ideas on many other blogs over the years), and it’s essentially a small, steamed cake that isn’t going to beat out a slice of devil’s food layer cake, but will certainly satisfy a craving. I recently picked up a box of Dr Oetker Caramel Mug Cake, a cake mix that promises to simplify this simple cake idea even more. I wanted to see how it stacked up to the homemade version.
The cake mix is poured into a mug and mixed with a small amount of milk before being microwaved for less than 90 seconds. The cake rises up to the top of the mug as it bakes, then falls slightly as it cools before it is ready to eat. Mine looked just like the cake on the box, although I suspect that I used a slightly larger mug than the “standard mug” recommended. It was very moist and very tender, more than I expected that a steamed cake would be. It also had a very pronounced caramel flavor, as though you had poured a generous amount of warm caramel sauce over it before serving. It is sweet, but very good for a cake that takes just over a minute to make!
I turned mine out of the mug and topped it with a little whipped cream to dress it up, but if you happen to give these a try (they’re sold at many specialty stores, as well as Cost Plus World Market, which is where I got mine) you can eat it right out of the mug with a spoon.
After a busy day, nothing will perk you up like a freshly baked cupcake. Sometimes, however, it’s hard to make it to a bakery before they close to pick up that cupcake – especially if that bakery is across town and you have to fight traffic to get there. Sprinkles Cupcakes in Beverly Hills is making it easy for cupcake-lovers to get their fix 24 hours a day by introducing a cupcake ATM. The ATM works just like the machines that dispense electronics and other non-cash goods, where you can input a credit card and select your cupcake of choice. Each one comes out individually wrapped in a cupcake box, looking just as good as it would if you had walked up to the counter. The machine is also going to dispense Sprinkles merchandise, including their cupcake mixes, and cupcake-shaped dog treats.
The ATM is scheduled to officially open for business in just a couple of weeks. It will restocked every couple of hours (and before closing) with fresh cupcakes and will start by offering eight of their most popular cupcake flavors, including red velvet. The plan is to slowly increase the options that the machine offers, and even to make the yet-to-be-launched Sprinkles Ice Cream available from the machine! If it’s a success, you can bet that the cupcake ATMs will make their way to other Sprinkles stores outside of Los Angeles, too.
Now, I have to say that the other way to get a 24 hour cupcake fix is by baking your own cupcakes (even if you use a cupcake mix!), but I do love the novelty of a cupcake ATM and would definitely swing by to see it in action and pick up a single cupcake if I were in the mood for one.
Lemon curd is a thick, creamy spread that is made by cooking together lemon juice, egg yolks and sugar. Fresh lemon juice and sugar provide the flavor of the curd, while the egg yolks serve to thicken up the mixture as it cooks, just as eggs thicken up a cooked custard. Most curd recipes also call for butter to be added to the finished curd, just to add a little extra richness and an extra-silky mouthfeel. Lemon curd has a bright, sweet-tart lemon flavor. Other citrus fruits are often used to make variations on lemon curd, but you can also use purees from non-citrus fruits, such as raspberries and strawberries, to make other types of curd.
Lemon curd can be used for a variety of different things. The simplest way to use it is to spread it onto a homemade scone, into a crepe or onto a toasted English muffin. Folding some in to a plain batch of buttercream will make a delicious lemon frosting for a cake, and plain lemon curd can also be used as a filling for a cake, or as a sauce on the side. It can also be incorporated into a variety of recipes, including ice cream and tarts.
Oreo cookies are one of the most beloved and most easily recognizable cookies that you can find anywhere – and there are many reasons why people love them (even when they regularly bake cookies at home!). Oreos made their debut 100 years ago, at the Nabisco factory in New York on March 6, 1912. The sandwich cookies were originally available in two flavors: lemon meringue and cream. The cream-filled chocolate biscuits were Nabisco’s more popular offering, but they kept the lemon meringue flavor on the market until the 1920s when they dropped it in favor of the combination we all know today. The origin of the name Oreo seems to be shrouded in mystery, with no direct answer even from Nabisco historians.
The cookies have really changed very little over the years, with the exception of the design stamped on the top, which underwent a few changes before taking on its current appearance. The current design (above, right) has been unchanged since 1952. The cookies are still the best selling cookie in the US and more than 491 billion Oreo cookies have been sold to date all over the world. The Oreos sold in the US are also produced here, and are both dairy and egg free.
The original cookies remain popular, but these days Nabisco is constantly adding new products and limited edition items to the Oreo line to keep things fresh for consumers. They are playing with flavors and colors while keeping the look and feel of the cookie the same so that Oreo-lovers can always Twist, Lick and Dunk their cookies into a tall glass of milk. In fact, they’re even launching a Birthday Cake flavor in honor of their 100th anniversary. The chocolate cookies n’ cream flavor combination is also so popular that there are all kinds of recipes that use it as their inspiration, from cookies n’ cream ice creams to Oreo brownies and cheesecakes.
I’ll still dunk one in milk when I have a package at home, but most of my Oreos are going into tasty cookies n’ cream baked goods like these:
Tempered chocolate is very glossy, has a firm finish and melts smoothly at around body temperature. Simply melting the chocolate before you use it to dip berries, truffles or other goodies does not temper it. The process of tempering involves raising and lowering the temperature of the chocolate to encourage strong, organized crystallization of the cocoa butter so that the finished chocolate will have that glossy look, a sharp snap and will be resistant to chocolate bloom. In short, tempering chocolate makes it last longer and look better, and if you are serious about using chocolate in your kitchen, it is good to know how to do it.
There are several ways to temper chocolate and this method is known as seeding. It is very simple and it is very easy to do at home, both with small and large quantities of chocolate. For this demonstration, I am working with dark chocolate. Milk and white chocolates also need to be tempered and can be tempered in the exact same way as this dark chocolate, but the tempering process happens at a slightly lower temperature.
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