Black Velvet Cupcakes

A family friend of my Husband and mine is celebrating a birthday this week.  I wanted to use some of the edible glitter hearts I purchases and thought they'd look great with a black cupcake.  I was hoping for a sophisticated looking treat.  I do think I achieved the effect I was going for, but I have to admit the cupcake itself was not so tasty.  I am not even going to post the recipe because I cannot recommend anyone to make these themselves.  I'm not sure if it was the taste of the black dye, but this cake has a not-so-pleasant aftertaste.

I did find some adorable boxes to transport cupcakes.  I am thrilled to have a more attractive way of presenting my baked goods.  It's a shame these cupcakes don't taste very good, because they look wonderful!

I will tweak this recipe to make it more appetizing.  I love the idea of black cupcakes.  In the meantime, however, I am going to make some cute pink cherry chip cupcakes for our friend's special day.  I do want her to have a happy birthday, after all!

UPDATE:  I have since made delicious Black Velvet Cupcakes, which I have happily shared the recipe for!  Click here for the recipe!

Chocolate Dice Bunco/Casino Cupcakes

My latest interest has been molded chocolates. I was browsing through a cute shop that specializes in melting chocolates and molds and discovered the possibilities are endless and a bit overwhelming! Wandering around I felt like a kid in a candy store. Oh, wait, I guess I actually was (minus the kid part)! I tend to be an impulse shopper so I took my time and finally settled on a few molds that seemed as though they would be good for beginners. Right.

Let's start with the dice. Very simple mold. White dots, red chocolate. Easy. Except that I made the chocolate dots too thick, so when I added the red chocolate, the white melted and ran into the red. And the air bubbles! I did tap the mold against the counter to rid the chocolate of air bubbles, as is recommended.  However, I wasn't entirely successful and there were random, tiny holes in my dice. 

Examples of the dice should NOT look.  ;)

Sigh.  Obviously chocolate molding isn't as easy as I thought it would be!  I'd prefer to ice cookies any day of the week.  Since I purchased the chocolates and molds, though, I persevered and finally had some decent looking dice.  I baked chocolate cupcakes, mixed up some buttercream icing, and topped them with the chocolate dice.  These will be cute for a casino theme party.  I think the finished product looks great!  Unfortunately, my husband had our "good" camera while I was making these chocolates, so I was not able to document the process of making the dice.  I also made chocolate covered Oreos, which I'll cover in another post, that I was not able to document, as well..  When making my next set of chocolates I will definitely be photographing the process!

Tiffany's - Not Just For Breakfast!

To begin this week I wanted to make something fun, so I chose to bake "Tiffany" blue colored cake pops. For an extra bit of color I made a deep pink strawberry cake for the inside. I love the way they turned out! The only challenge I faced was the consistency of the chocolate. It was too thick to smoothly coat the pops. After some research I found that Paramount Crystals will do a great job of thinning the chocolate, so I will buy some and try it for myself. I'll do another cake pop post once I have them and let you know the results! In the meantime, onto the "Tiffany" pops!

After baking a cake and letting it completely cool, it must be broken down into a sand-like texture. One way to do this is to cut the cake into fourths. Take two pieces at a time and "sand" the cake chunks by rubbing them together. The method I use is taking a fork and gently running it through the cake repeatedly until it turned into fine crumbs.

Next, add frosting. This is a tricky thing. If you add too much the cake does not stay put on the sticks while dipping into the chocolate. If you add too little, the cake will not form into balls and keep their shape. One tip I can share - ADD A LITTLE FROSTING AT A TIME! You can always add more, but you can not take excess frosting out. You may be surprised by the small amount of frosting that goes a long way. For approximately 3/4 of a cake I added about 2 large spoons full of frosting. It was plenty. After mixing (with a spoon to fully incorporate the cake and frosting) you should have a sticky, doughy result that can be shaped into balls.

Proceed to roll the mixture into balls. Some like to use a cake pop/cookie scoop for size consistency. I do it by hand and don't find have any issues. For now, that works just fine for me. Once the ball is rolled place it on a cookie sheet. Repeat until you have used all of the cake/frosting mixture.

Next, you will do one of two things. You can either place the cookie sheet in the refrigerator for a few hours, or in the freezer for 5-10 minutes. I can be at times impatient, so I use the freezer method. Beware, however, if the balls are too cold when you dip them, the chocolate coating will crack. It's a fine balance that you will work out through practice, trial and error.

While the chilling is happening, begin the chocolate melting process. I used Wilton chocolate melting discs. You can also use white chocolate bark, and I will be investigating Ghiradelli melting chocolate, which I have read tastes GREAT and has a nice sheen to it. I have many bags of the Wilton chocolate, however, and until it's used up will not be purchasing any more! Okay, so now melting the chocolate (I use the microwave method. An alternative is to use a double boiler):

Pour the chocolate melting chips into a microwavable bowl. Heat at 30 second increments on power setting 2

Stir the chocolate at each 30 second interval. It will appear lumpy and seem like it will never be smooth, but have faith and continue heating!

Finally, smooth, melted chocolate.

Now it's time to add the color. When dyeing chocolate, you MUST use candy dye. Using icing colors will not work, it will cause oil separation and ruin the chocolate. I used Wilton Candy Dye. You can purchase it at craft stores, such as Michael's.

To achieve that classic Tiffany Blue color, add small amount of the blue candy color to white chocolate. Since it was my first time and I was nervous about adding too much blue, I used a toothpick to add the coloring. Once again, you have to just kind of use trial and error to get the color right. Also, again, you can add more coloring, but you can't remove it once it's once it been mixed! Eventually, I achieved the right hue. Be sure to time the melting and coloring of the chocolate so it will be complete at the same time your cake balls are finished chilling. Remove them from the refrigerator or freezer and get your lollipop sticks (can be purchased at a craft store, such as Michael's) ready - it's time to dip!

Every girl's favorite shade of blue!

Unfortunately, with only two hands (and both were busy dipping), I could not photograph the process of making cake pops, so I'll have to describe the last few steps. First, take a lollipop stick and dip about an inch and a half into the chocolate. Insert the stick inside a cake ball approximately 3/4 of the way up. Next, dip the cake ball into the chocolate and make sure the entire ball is covered and the bottom is sealed with chocolate. If you don't seal the entire ball the cake will ooze out. Once you've gotten reached this point in the time consuming process, you don't want small openings in the chocolate  to ruin your pop! Once the pop is coated, let the chocolate set by placing the it into a piece of styrofoam to keep it upright (pre-poke holes in the styrofoam before dipping into the chocolate). Here is an example of "setting" cake pops:

And there you have your cake pops! Here is a finished Tiffany pop. I love it:

Add a plastic wrapper with some ribbon and you have a beautiful party favor, dessert offering, or snack!

They are quite time consuming, but worth it. If you have a few hours you can set aside, try making cake pops yourself and enjoy!!

P.S. Tiffany did not compensate me for this mention. I just LOVE everything Tiffany!  Who doesn't?  :)

I shared this recipe on:  Things that make you say Mmmmm....Monday

Recipe Roundup

Treating our Troops

In the past few days leading up to today, the 10 year anniversary of 9/11, I have dedicated my baking time to honor our troops with some baked goods. Tomorrow they will be shipped off to to the unit of a former high school classmate currently serving in Afghanistan. I am focusing this entry on simple recipes for cookies that can easily be sent overseas, as well as a great method of wrapping them to ensure they will reach their destination fresh (as is possible) and in one piece (I hope).

I did some reading about what to and what not to send. The information was a bit overwhelming and sometimes contradictory. I read it's important not to ship anything made with butter. This didn't make sense to me since I also read how much our troops love homemade chocolate chips cookies. I tried to find out if it was reasonable to send cake truffles, to no avail. In the end, I decided no, since the heat on the Middle East would probably turn them into gooey messes. Obviously, decorated iced cookies would not be wise to send. The icing will likely melt and there's a high likelihood of breakage. No moist breads, such as banana bread. They heat will make them go rancid. So, I went back to basics. I mixed up some classic recipes, which I love, and spent a few days baking dozens of cookies. :)

I began with peanut butter cookies. To say I love peanut butter cookies is a bit of an understatement. I have absolutely zero control around them, so I feel great that any of them made it to the wrapping-up stage! Here is my favorite recipe of all time:

Peanut Butter Cookies (adapted from Betty Crocker's Cookbook)

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup peanut butter (I prefer Reese's Peanut Butter)

1/4 cup shortening (I prefer Crisco baking sticks, butter flavor)

1/4 cup butter, softened

2 tablespoons milk

1 egg

1 1/4 cups all purpose flour

3/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

2 tablespoons milk

Cream together the butter, shortening, and peanut butter. Mix in sugars, egg and milk. Add the remaining ingredients. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Roll the dough into 1 1/2 - 2 inch balls and place on an ungreased cookie sheet at least three inches apart. Using a fork make a crisscross pattern by pressing down on the cookie. Dip the fork in flour between cookies to prevent the dough from sticking. Bake between 9-10 minutes. Let cookies cool several minutes before removing them from cookie sheet.

Indents for criss-cross pattern made with a fork.

Perpendicular lines by fork press.

Repeat process with each cookie.

Ready to eat!!

These cookies are just the way I like them...soft and chewy on the inside, a bit crispy on the outside. Looking at these pictures as I post them makes me want to whip up a batch right now and eat spoonfuls of the dough before they even make it to the oven, so let's move on to chocolate chip before I lose control of myself and act on it!

While growing up, I was a chocolate chip cookie baking fanatic. I loved making them. I followed the recipe on the back of the Tollhouse Chocolate Chip bag to a "T". Over the years, I stopped making them in favor of more diverse, "mature" recipes. A few months ago I had a craving for the cookies of my childhood, so I purchased some of my beloved Tollhouse semi-sweet chips, followed the recipe on the back in anticipation of the moment I would be tasting gooey chocolate melted in delicious dough. The moment finally came and, well, they were good, but not as good as I remembered. Thus, began my hunt for THE chocolate chip cookie recipe. The one that is everything I hope for it to be!

I found a promising one on Allrecipes.com. It has the exact same ingredients as the Tollhouse version, but in different increments. I do not want a flat, crunchy cookie with all kinds of nuts, chips and flavors. I'm looking for a chewy, chocolatey version of the original. This was was pretty close, but I'm not sure it's THE ONE.

Best Chocolate Chip Cookies

1 cup butter, softened

1 cup white sugar

1 cup brown sugar

2 eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

3 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

2 teaspoons hot water

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cream together butter, white sugar, and brown sugar until smooth. Beat in the eggs one at a time, then stir in vanilla. Dissolve baking soda in hot water. Add to batter along with salt. Stir in flour and chocolate chips. Bake for 10 minutes or until edges are nicely browned.

Chocolate chip cookies are a "drop" cookie. This means it's a type of dough you just sort of "drop" by the teaspoon full onto a cookie sheet. You can also use a cookie scoop to do the job.

Culinary Institute of America Cookie Scoop

I baked half of a sheet of cookies using the drop method, the other half using a scoop to see which I preferred.

Unbaked dough - Drop method on left, cookie scoop on right.

Baked cookies - Drop method on left, cookie scoop on right.

Both my husband and I like the "drop" method cookie better. I enjoy their imperfect shape. It takes a bit longer doing it this way, but I think it's worth it to recreate the cookies of my youth. :)

Next up: Chocolate Cookies with Peanut Butter Chips. I. Love. These. Cookies. Oh yes, I do! This chocolate cookie recipe is perfect and I would do nothing to change it. The wonderful thing about this dough, as well as the chocolate chip cookie dough, is that you are not limited in the creations you can make from them. You can add anything, change flavors with extracts, change colors. Anything you can think of! They are great bases for experimenting. As for me, I add the peanut butter chips to this dough and wouldn't have it any other way. :)

Best Chocolate Drop Cookies

1 cup butter, softened

1 1/2 cups sugar

2 eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

2 cups all-purpose flour

2/3 cup baking cocoa

3/4 teaspoons baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 bag Reese's Peanut Butter Chips

Mix butter and sugar until creamed. Add eggs, beating well into the butter/sugar mixture. Add vanilla. In a separate bowl, whisk together flour, baking cocoa, baking soda and salt. Stir flour mixture into creamed mixture a bit at a time until it is all combined. Add peanut butter chips. Refrigerate dough for at least an hour. Bake at 350 degrees for 8-10 minutes.

You can use the spoon "drop" method or a cookie scoop for this dough.

Simple, yet so delicious!

These chocolate cookies would also taste great with some mint extract (substituting for the vanilla) and mint chips. Or some orange rind and flavoring during the holidays. Mmmmm.....

Lastly (as far as cookies go), I made chocolate cut-out cookies. They are not very sweet, but they have a deep chocolately taste with bits of salt and they are AMAZING. I found this recipe on the Bake at 350 blog, which is an endless source of inspiration and wonder. I highly recommend stopping by Bake at 350 and you will be amazed, too!

Chocolate Cut-Out Cookies

adapted from recipe found on Bake at 350


1 cup unsalted butter

1 cup sugar

1 egg

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/2 cup baking cocoa

1/2 teaspoon coarse salt

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Whisk together the dry ingredients and set them aside. Cream together butter and sugar. Beat in the egg and vanilla. Combine the flour mixture a little at a time. Roll the dough onto a floured/cocoa-ed surface. Cut out desired shapes with selected cookie cutters. Freeze cut-outs on cookie sheet for 5 minutes before baking to ensure baked cookies will keep their shape.  Bake for 8 minutes.  Decorate with icing as desired.

I used a star shaped cut-out for the Troops. Perhaps they are not the best design as far as breakage, but I think they are all stars and want them to know it!

These are incredible cookies. Trust me. If you like dark chocolate candy bars sprinkled with sea salt, you will love these.

So, that's the end of the cookies for Soldiers. However, that was not the end of my baking. I had my mind set on making cake balls (cake pops without the sticks). As I previously mentioned, I realized they probably would not travel well and likely would melt in the heat. I came up with a different idea that I hope will work out.

I made vanilla and red velvet mini-cupcakes and will send a few cans of frosting. I can't be sure they will arrive in edible condition, but I'm going to give it a try and see what happens!

I have one more bit of advice for those of you who send baked goods overseas: how to pack them. After much investigating, here's what I found:

Work with about six cookies at a time. Lay the stack on cling wrap.

Roll the stack of cookies over, wrapping it in one layer of cling wrap. Fold the sides of the wrap over on top of eachother to securely wrap the cookies.

Wrap the cookies around several times (without folding each roll) until you have a few layers of wrap around the cookies. Separate the wrap from the roll and fold in sides securely.

Voila! Wrapped cookie stack. Now it can join the others!

Lined up and ready to do their duty!

Place your baked goods in a sturdy box filled with insulation (baking peanuts, bubble wrap, newspapers, etc) to protect against the knocking around packages go through on their journeys and hope for the best! You will need to fill out a declaration form, but the post office does not need to inspect your package before mailing it so you can take it all sealed up. You should not pay to insure your package, insurance does not cover mailings for soldiers.

On a final note, I would like to offer my appreciation and gratitude to all of the men and women who not only serve us in the military, but also to our Firemen, Policemen, and EMT men and women. This country is dependent on the sacrifices you make each day for us. I would especially like to thank my sister Sandy, her partner Nate, my brother-in-law Corey, and my Dad, who have all served during wartime. THANK YOU.

End Of Summer Stenciling For My Family

Sorry about my lack of updates during this past week. I took a mini-vacation in Buffalo to spend some time with my family and to meet my new niece, Ellie. She is just the sweetest thing in the world!!

Ellie Kristine!!

I also have twin four year old nieces, who love all things pink and sparkly. They have the most wonderfully inventive imaginations and amuse me endlessly. This trip was no exception! My husband and I always bring little gifts home for the girls; and this time I wanted to bring them a sweet treat. I had very little time before our trip, so I decided to make some quick stencil cookies with a fairy design.

I do like the design of the stencils, but am not too happy about the powder colors I chose. I don't know why it didn't occur to me that yellow would not show up particularly well on a white/yellow cookie! However, the powder I used has a glittery/sparkly effect, so it did the trick. I will try different color combinations next time, or dye the dough a shade that will show off the stenciling a bit more.

The other project I tried did not work out, either. I made a batch of chocolate cookie dough (maybe the best chocolate cookies I've EVER had), dyed it black, refrigerated it, and could NOT find my intended cookie cutter. Anywhere. Again, as I was trying to get ready for our trip, I had to accept the force was not with me (there's a clue in there, ha ha ha :) and use the dough for something else. I have taken steps to finish that project in the coming week!

When I purchased the fairy stencils I also ordered some "talking hearts" stencils. They will be perfect for Valentine's Day treats. I gave them a trial run.

They turned out cute and will be great as a heart shaped cut out cookie. I took them to Buffalo and they were a big hit with everyone! They are not too sweet so my Dad enjoyed a couple with his coffee in the morning. Also, we had a family get-together, which gave me an opportunity to make rainbow cupcakes again. They were loved by all. :)

Today and tomorrow I am working on some cookies and cake balls to send overseas to some of our soldiers in Afghanistan. Due to the length of delivery time and the long journey they will make, I am not creating anything too fancy or breakable. On my list is: Peanut Butter, Chocolate Chip, Chocolate with Peanut Butter Chip, Sugar Cookies, and chocolate cake balls. Next week I will resume more creative endeavors...but this week our troops are getting my time and attention. They deserve it.