I am terrible at it. It never comes out the way I want it to. Plain and simple I do not enjoy it.
To me the beauty of cooking is there are so many options and so many ways to create something great on your own - even by accident! Its not going to destroy a dish if you add a little more garlic or if you replace feta for goats cheese. In fact, many times I end up making a dish better by adding my own personal touch to it. But with baking, there is no room for expirimentation or improvisation. Too much flour and your cake is dry... too much milk its too wet... and in my own recent kitchen disaster... get the wrong semi sweet chocolate for chocolate walnut cookies and they will taste like dirt. Literally like grainy...muddy...dirty dirt. Ask my husband. He was not impressed with his valentines day baking "treat".
However, dispite my distaste for the regimented baking world, I could not help myself when I came across these little Easter bundles of fun. I know a special friend of mine with a natural talent for these little guys will appreciate this post.
The pictures are just too cute not to share...
Care to try one out?
You daredevil you...
Here is the recipe for the "Little Lamb Cupcakes" (its the first picture you see)
Happy Easter Everyone!
Ingredients
1 vanilla cupcake, taken out of the paper, recipe follows
About 1 cup White Fluff Frosting, recipe follows
1 large marshmallow
2 white candy eyes
1 purple jujube candy
1 short 1/4 inch and 1 long piece 2 inch black string licorice
35 mini-marshmallows
4 purple and 2 pink jelly beans
Directions
Frost cupcake. Place the large marshmallow in the center. Lightly frost candy eyes and press onto the marshmallow. Frost the back of the jujube candy and put below eyes to for a nose. Frost the short piece of licorice lightly and press underneath the nose to make the mouth. Press mini-marshmallows all around the cupcakes and the face to make the lambs coat. Frost the tips of the pink jelly beans to make ears. Stick the purple jelly beans in the front and back of the cupcake for feet. Curl the long piece of licorice and press into frosting to make the lamb's tail.
Vanilla Cupcake:
2 2/3 cups sugar
1 cup (2 stick) unsalted butter, cut into 1-inch pieces
2 large eggs
2 large egg yolks
2/3 cup milk
2/3 cup water
2 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
2 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/3 cups cake flour
4 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon fine salt
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line two 12-cup cupcake tins with paper liners. (To avoid cupcakes sticking if they overflow slightly, lightly spray the tops of the pans.) Put tins on a baking sheet. Set aside.
Process sugar and butter in a food processor until very creamy, scraping sides as needed, 1 to 2 minutes. Add the eggs and yolks, one at a time, pulsing after each addition. Add the milk, water, and vanilla and process to blend.
Whisk both flours, baking powder, and salt in a medium bowl. Add the dry ingredients, in 3 batches to the wet, pulsing, and then scraping batter off the sides of the processor as needed after each addition. Process until the batter is very smooth and pourable like pancake batter, about 2 minutes.
Evenly pour the batter into the prepared cups, filling them 3/4 of the way full. Bake until the cakes are just firm and spring back when gently pressed, and the tops are golden, 18 to 25 minutes. Cool slightly in tin, and turn out of tin when cool enough to handle. Cool cupcakes completely on a rack before frosting.
Yield: 24 cupcakes
Prep Time: 20 minutes
Cook Time: 25 minutes
Fluff Frosting:
1/4 cup whole milk
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
10 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
5 cups confectioners' sugar
1/2 cup marshmallow fluff
Pinch fine salt
Whisk the milk and vanilla extract together in a small bowl.
Slowly beat the butter and sugar, in another medium bowl, with an electric mixer until incorporated. Raise the speed to high and mix until light and fluffy, about 5 to 7 minutes. (Occasionally turn the mixer off, and scrape the sides of the bowl down with a rubber spatula.) Add the fluff and salt and reduce the speed to low. Add the milk and vanilla mixture, scrape the bowl down, and mix until fully incorporated. Raise the mixer to high and beat briefly until fluffy, about 1 to 2 minutes. Use immediately.
Yield: 3 3/4 cups
No comments:
Post a Comment