The Cake Dish

Wednesday, October 26, 2011

Red Velvet Cupcake Bites

So, it's been a few weeks since I last posted... I thought about writing the obligatory post on balance and what having a blog means to me and how I'm gonna just do what I can when I can and let the rest fall where it may... But instead, I've decided to share with you one of the things I've actually had time to bake recently. Baking has definitely slowed down here since work has gone crazy. It's okay because I am taking a great cake decorating class where I'll be decorating my first non-styrofoam cake next week and I'm really excited!

On to the cuties that I made last week.

These were the perfect two bite cupcake. I want to eat more now that I see them again :) The taste of red velvet cake and cream cheese icing with fresh raspberry is amazing! I had never really thought to put it together before seeing it in a photo. I thought it would just be a cute garnish but after eating it, I want a little raspberry in every bite of red velvet from now on.

I made these using a muffin pan from Ikea with the liners they sell to go with it. They are taller and thinner than our normal pans so I used about 2 tablespoons of batter per cake instead of the 3 that I normally use and it worked perfectly.

The pan was about 10 bucks and totally worth it! I want to pick up a few more so that it will be quicker to make a bunch of these next time. Oh darn, another excuse to spend time at Ikea, like I needed that... We don't have one very close to our house so it's always a good day when we get to go and roam through Ikea or hang out in their decorated rooms and pretend that we live in those spaces.

Friday, October 7, 2011

Double Doozies: Chocolate Chip Cookies with Chocolate Buttercream

It's time for the second edition of the Crazy Cooking Challenge! And for October, we are in search of the ULTIMATE chocolate chip cookie recipe! Enjoy the post and don't forget to vote at the bottom for your favorite recipe!

Growing up, my sister and I were always delighted when our mom would let us get a cookie at the local snack shop in the mall. We were beyond ecstatic when she agreed to a Double Doozie! Have you ever had one of those? It's two cookies with icing between them. We usually couldn't finish them because they were so big and it was just too much of good thing. Wait, did I really just say that? Is there such a thing as too much of a good thing???

So you can imagine my excitement when I stumbled across Crumbs and Chaos' Double Doozie recipe while surfing on Pinterest for chocolate chip cookie recipes. If you haven't checked out this blog, I highly recommend it! It's written by sisters who have so many creative and yummy ideas in the kitchen. So fun!

I made this delicious dough from the recipe (I'm sure you can't imagine how I know the dough is delicious...). It was so simple and quick that I forgot to take any photos of the process. Oops!

I placed scoops of the dough on my bar pan stone spaced evenly apart from one another. These cookies didn't spread too much so next time I could probably place them a little closer to one another.

I used the back of a spoon to flatten the dough a bit. I didn't do that on the first batch and they came out in the same shape as the scoop. Again, it's a thick batter that doesn't spread too much.

Golden brown and oh, so, yummy! It was hard to not eat them just like this.

But once I had one like this, with the chocolate buttercream in the middle, I knew it was worth the wait!

Don't forget to check out all of the other wonderful recipes linked up below. And please vote for your favorite Ultimate Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe!!! My recipe is number 65, just in case you're wondering... :)

I'm linking up!!! Melt in Your Mouth Monday, Recipe Sharing Monday, Mouthwatering Mondays, Makin' You Crave Monday, Tasty Tuesday, Too Cute Tuesday, Tip Me Tuesday, Tuesdays at the Table, Tempt My Tummy Tuesday, These Chicks Cooked, Works for Me Wednesday, Cast Party Wednesday, What I Whipped Up Wednesday, Foodie Wednesday, Whisking Wednesday, Show & Share, {Wow Me} Wednesday, Full Plate Thursday, Sweet Treats Thursday, Turning the Table Thursday, Sweet Tooth Friday, Chic & Crafty Party, I'm Lovin It, Tasty Thursday, Bake with Bizzy, Friday Favorites, Friday Flair, Foodie Friday, Sweets for a Saturday, Strut Your Stuff Saturday, Sweet Indulgences Sunday, My Inner Baker, Simply Delish

Wednesday, September 28, 2011

Chocolate Caramel Apple Pops

I don't know if you've found Pinterest yet, but it is my new ~~addiction~~, uh, love! It is such an easy way to hang on to all of the amazing ideas that I find on everyone's blogs these days. You know, that's the part of blogging I didn't think about when I started my blog. I was already an avid blog reader but as I've expanded where I link my posts up to, I've found more and more great blogs to read which means more and more ideas to try! Pinterest lets you create different boards to organize all of the ideas you find. Take a look at my boards and follow me. I'm always looking for new people to follow myself! Just be careful, it will suck you in!

The more I started using it, the more I wanted my sister on there. I always email her links but I kept thinking it would be easier with her on there with me. So, I invited her and it's so much fun sharing all of our great finds with one another. There were a couple ideas we both fell for, hard! We love caramel apples and so many people have posted about making Apple Pops, Caramel Dipped Apple Slices, Apple Nachos -- so many apple recipes. And we live in North Carolina where apple season is starting and the apples are so good. So she tried to make caramel dipped apple slices. For some reason, she has trouble with making dipped snacks, and her slices didn't work. I decided to try to make some apple pops to see if I could find some pointers to help her out. Plus I had gotten these beauties delivered in My Produce Box on the same day that she called about her slice disaster...

Fresh, local produce always makes me happy!

My mom taught me to soak cut apples in salt water to prevent browning. It doesn't leave them tart like lemon juice -- it even makes them taste a little sweeter, in my opinion. So I filled a bowl with a few cups of water and about a teaspoon of salt and stirred until the salt dissolved.

I used my melon baller to cut balls of the apple and soaked each piece in the salt water. Since this was my first try, I only did two apples and it yielded almost 20 balls.

I didn't have any caramel candies at home so I just made some from scratch. It's cheaper and easier anyway... I added my sugar and butter to a small skillet and started heating it up over medium-high heat.

Melty sugar and butter... yum!

Bubbly...

It's getting there. Waiting on that gorgeous color to start showing up.

There it is! Caramel!!! I sat this off to the side while I melted some chocolate chips.

I added a spoonful of vegetable shortening to the chocolate chips just to smooth out the consistency a bit.

I melted the chocolate in the microwave this time. I put the bowl in the microwave for 30 seconds at a time and stirred it thoroughly each time. It only took 3 spins through the microwave to look like it does in the left-most photo above. I then stirred it until it looked smooth as in the right-most photo. I always rely on stirring to melt it in the end so that I don't risk burning my chocolate.

By this time, the caramel has cooled so I added a little cream to thin it out. I heated it over medium heat to combine.

It all came together and got all bubbly again.

I poured the caramel into a bowl and placed it close to the melted chocolate and some chocolate jimmies. Time to dip now :)

I pulled out the apple balls and dried them very well!!! I couldn't decide if I wanted to dip them peel side up or peel side down so I decided to try it both ways.

The caramel stuck just fine with the peel side up.

So it went into the chocolate. No problems here either.

The sprinkles finish it off.

I placed it in a paper cup to cool while I made the rest.

The pops with the skin side down worked, too :)

I will tell you that these were pretty yummy but I don't know if I'll make them again... I think the heat from the caramel made the apple balls release so much juice that these would not last very long. I placed them the refrigerator to cool all of the way and some were leaking apple juice within an hour. They were still yummy to eat that way but messy!

And I'll also share that while dipping, my caramel cooled too much and stopped sticking to the apple. Boo! I reheated and started dipping again right away.

And the caramel was too hot to really work then. So you will have to work with the caramel to get to just the right temperature for dipping.

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Chocolate Caramel Apple Pops

2 medium apples - 18-20 balls
3/4 c semi-sweet chocolate chips
1/2 tbsp vegetable shortening
Caramel - recipe below
chocolate jimmies

Use a melon baller to cut ball shaped sections of the apple, with skin still on the apple. Soak the cut apples in a bowl of salt water to prevent browning for at least 10 minutes. While apples are soaking, place chocolate chips in a bowl with the shortening and microwave for 30 seconds intervals, stirring thoroughly between each one. This should take no more than 1 to 1.5 minutes -- be careful not to overheat your chocolate. Once chocolate, caramel and jimmies have been placed into separate bowls and you are read to dip, remove apple pieces from water and dry completely with paper towels. Insert lollipop sticks and dip each apple segment into caramel, then chocolate, then jimmies. Place them in a mini candy liner to harden, in the refrigerator. Serve as soon as the chocolate has hardened and enjoy!

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Caramel for dipping

3 tbsp butter
1/2 c sugar
1/4 c half & half, optional

Place butter and sugar in a small skillet over medium-high heat. Stir together to combine while it heats. Continue stirring as the sugar melts and the mixture develops a gorgeous golden brown color. Once color develops, allow caramel to cool a little. If caramel thickens too much, half & half can be added to thin it over medium heat.

Wednesday, September 14, 2011

Red Velvet Cake

This past Sunday, I was searching for comfort. It was a sad day. As I usually do, I turned to food.

I am a southern girl so it had to be Red Velvet Cake. I mean is there anything better to make you feel like all is right with the world?

I have tried tons and tons of Red Velvet recipes over the years and I've recently found one that I love! It was over at Moments of Twenty. My only modifications to this recipe are that I don't make a paste out of the cocoa and food coloring. I add them in separately. I don't like how the paste can be lumpy... And I use CREAM CHEESE FROSTING. I do love the icing recipe featured in the post but not for Red Velvet Cake. For me, Red Velvet Cake must have Cream Cheese Frosting. It's just a law in my world.

This cake makes everything better!

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