Hello friends! Recently I was watching Food Network and they were showing how to make Swiss meringue buttercream. My mom asked me to make it to see what all the fuss is about, so I went on the hunt for the perfect recipe as well as the perfect cupcake to pair with it. I ended up adapting a simple vanilla cake recipe and taking general ideas from many buttercream recipes. Here's what I came up with:
The Lineup (Cupcakes):
2 1/4 cups AP flour
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 box instant pistachio pudding mix
8 tbsp. butter, softened
1 3/4 cups sugar
2 eggs, room temperature
Splash vanilla
1 1/4 cups unsweetened almond milk, room temperature
(Buttercream)
4 oz. (1/2 cup) egg whites
1 cup sugar
16 tbsp. butter, cubed and softened
Seeds from 1 whole vanilla bean
The Play-by-Play:
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit and line 2 cupcake pans.
- Mix flour, baking powder, salt, and dry pudding mix in a small bowl and set aside. Add a splash of vanilla to almond milk and set aside.
- Cream together butter and sugar in a large bowl until fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add eggs 1 at a time, mixing in between.
- Alternate adding flour mixture and milk mixture, beginning and ending with flour. Mix until just combined and smooth.
- Evenly distribute batter between 24 cavities, filling about 2/3 full. Bake 16-18 minutes until springy to the touch. Cool completely.
- Over a double boiler, combine egg whites and sugar until all granules dissolve and whites reach 160 degrees Fahrenheit on a candy thermometer. Place bowl in an ice bath to bring down to room temperature.
- Pour egg mixture into the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a balloon whisk and beat on medium high for about 10 minutes until soft peaks form. Add vanilla beans.
- Quickly add butter piece by piece while mixer is still going, mixing until combined and before buttercream starts to break down.
- Pipe buttercream onto cooled cupcakes. Enjoy!
I wish you all the best,
Erin
Hello friends! I recently was asked to cater a small bridal shower, so here's how I did everything from the menu and prep timeline to setting up my food stations, as easily as possible.
Menu: Bruschetta Bar, Pasta Primavera, Cannoli Dip with Pizzelle Chips, Sangria Cupcakes & Chocolate Salted Caramel Cupcakes
Recipes:
Bruschetta Bar
Crostinis: Slice French bread on the bias, brush with olive oil. Toast at 350 degrees for
5 minutes.
Bruschetta: Dice 3-5 tomatoes, removing seed pockets to avoid too much moisture. Add
1 clove crushed garlic, 1/4 chopped basil, 2 tbsp. olive oil, 1 tbsp. red wine
vinegar, and salt and pepper.
Whipped Ricotta: Whip 15 oz. part-skim ricotta with 1 tsp. salt.
Pesto: store-bought
Olive Tapenade: store-bought
Balsamic Berries: Reduce 1/2 cup balsamic vinegar over medium heat 8-10 minutes.
Combine with approx. 2 cups (total) blueberries, raspberries, and chopped
strawberries, and about 6 chopped mint leaves.
Honey & Walnuts: That's it. Easiest topping ever.
Pasta Primavera
1 red bell pepper, chopped
1 green zucchini, chopped
1 yellow zucchini, chopped
1 bunch asparagus, chopped
1/2 bunch broccoli, chopped
1 container mushrooms, chopped
1 bag spinach
1 container cherry tomatoes
Olive oil
Salt & pepper
Cayenne pepper
2 boxes pasta
Grated Parmesan
Juice of 1 lemon
1. Chop all vegetables (except spinach) to the same size. Drizzle with olive
oil, season with salt and pepper. Roast peppers, zucchini, and broccoli for 12 minutes,
tomatoes for 7 minutes, and asparagus and mushrooms for 5 minutes, all at 425
degrees.
2. Heat approx. 1 tbsp. oil in a skillet. Add spinach, salt, pepper, and cayenne pepper.
Toss until spinach is wilted, remove from heat.
3. Cook pasta according to directions, drain. Mix in all vegetables, lemon juice, Parmesan,
salt and pepper to taste.
Cannoli Dip
15 oz. ricotta
8 oz. mascarpone
Splash vanilla
1 1/2 cups confectioners' sugar
Dash cinnamon
1 cup mini chocolate chips
Pizzelle cookies for dipping
1. Whip ricotta and mascarpone until smooth, add vanilla. Mix in confectioners' sugar 3/4
cup at a time, add cinnamon. Fold in chocolate chips. Serve with pizzelles.
Sangria Cupcakes
1 box angel food cake mix
Zest of 1/2 orange
1/2 cup blueberries
1/2 cup strawberries, chopped
2 cups red wine
1/4 cup sugar
1 cup shortening
1 cup butter
Splash vanilla
4 cups confectioners' sugar
Blueberries, strawberry & orange slices for topping
1. Prepare cake mix as directed, folding in zest and berries before scooping batter into
lined cupcake tins. Bake as directed, let cool.
2. Combine wine and sugar into small saucepan, bring to a boil on medium-high heat.
Reduce to medium-low heat 20-30 minutes, take off heat, let cool.
3. Whip shortening and butter together. Add vanilla and 1/2 cup wine reduction,
combine. Add confectioners' sugar 1 cup at a time, whipping until combined. Add pink
and purple food coloring, if desired.
4. Pipe frosting onto cupcakes, top with reserved fruit.
Chocolate Salted Caramel Cupcakes
1 box chocolate cake mix
1 box chocolate pudding mix
1 cup shortening
1 cup butter
Splash vanilla
1/2 cup caramel sauce
4 cups confectioners' sugar
Sea salt
1. Prepare cake mix as directed, adding pudding mix to cake mix before combining. Scoop
into prepared cupcake tins. Bake as directed, let cool.
2. Whip shortening and butter together. Add vanilla and caramel, combine. Add
confectioners' sugar 1 cup at a time, whipping until combined.
3. Pipe frosting onto cupcakes, sprinkle with sea salt.
Timeline: The shower was on a Saturday evening, so I prepped and made as much as I could on Friday. Friday morning, I started with the sangria cupcakes. While those were cooling, I chopped made the bruschetta, leaving out the basil until serving the next day. When the cupcakes were cool, I made the chocolate cupcakes with the same tins. With those in the oven, I chopped most of the primavera vegetables and put them into a bag and kept them in the fridge. Then I made the cannoli dip. After that, I made the balsamic berries, leaving out the mint until serving the next day. Then I made the red wine frosting, piped it onto the cupcakes, and left the fruit topping for the next day. Finally, I made the caramel frosting, topped the chocolate cupcakes, and sprinkled on the sea salt.
On the day of the shower, I made the pasta and kept it warm in foil pans placed in a towel-lined cooler. I also did finishing touches, like topping the sangria cupcakes and adding the herbs. I also didn't make the crostinis until the shower was about to start.
Setup: The shower was in a house, so I utilized the space I had to make food stations. On the kitchen table, I put down brown butcher paper and laid out my bruschetta bar. On the counter, I put the cupcakes and cannoli dip, and put the pasta on the stove. There was also and Italian wine tasting (which I was not in charge of) in the dining room. This all allowed people to grab what they wanted easily and kept it so that no one area was too congested.
That's it! I've never catered a whole event before, and this was really catering made easy. Everything was successful - Italian food done like this always impresses, and it's way easier than it looks.
I adapted the sangria cupcakes and cannoli dip from these blogs:
http://thefirstyearblog.com/sangria-cupcakes/
http://www.ifyougiveablondeakitchen.com/2016/02/06/easy-cannoli-dip/
The rest of the recipes are mine, so please credit Streamers of Consciousness if you use them elsewhere.
I wish you all the best,
Erin
Hello friends! I've been super into baking lately, specifically turning classic things (sangria, snickerdoodle cookies, etc.) into cupcakes, and this is one recipe that I'm actually using for my final project in one of my classes. Here's my take on the classic ice cream Drumstick, in cupcake form.
The Lineup:
Vanilla cake batter of your choice
Vanilla frosting of your choice
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 cup heavy whipping cream
Roasted peanuts for topping, chopped
Waffle or sugar cones for topping, broken into large pieces
The Play-by-Play:
1. Pour prepared cake batter into lined cupcake tins, bake according to cake batter
recipe.
2. When cupcakes are cool, pipe prepared vanilla frosting on top, with desired tip on
piping bag.
3. Pour chocolate chips and heavy cream into microwave-safe bowl. Microwave for 1
minute and stir until combined, reheating in 10 second intervals if necessary.
4. Generously drizzle ganache onto frosted cupcakes, mostly covering frosting.
5. Sprinkle chopped peanuts onto ganache and place cone pieces in before it sets.
Enjoy!
Quick Play:
This is my own adaptation, and I never really focus on the basics for things like this. Feel free to use whatever cake batter and frosting you want, and don't be afraid to change up the flavors. Also play around with the size of the cupcakes. When I made the trial batch of the recipe, I did standard size cupcakes, but for my class, I will be doing mini cupcakes. Really anything goes with this one.
I wish you all the best,
Erin
Hello friends! Happy Halloween! Yesterday was the day of fun costumes, tasty treats, and ghouls and goblins galore. Here are the treats I made for a family Halloween party, the tricks my family planned, and my costume. Enjoy!
Treats
Because I'm still at school and going home on the weekends, I needed to shortcut these recipes. Of course, you can tweak these to your liking and do them from scratch (typically I would, but shortcuts work just the same), and there are a million ways to decorate them.
First, I made Creepy Cupcakes. Cake batter is the one thing I can never get right from scratch, so I always need a little help from Betty Crocker or the Pillsbury Dough Boy. I started with these adorable candy corn cupcake liners by Wilton, and filled them with vanilla cake batter. When they were done, I loaded my chocolate frosting into a Ziplock bag with a decorating tip, and iced away. The liners came with these adorable decorative picks, and that's how I topped mine off. You could use red velvet cake to make these extra creepy, but I wanted the designs on the liner to show through.
Next up, I made Ghastly Ghost Cookies. Again, homemade dough is my preference, but I was all about ease this time around. I used Nestle Tollhouse Mini Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough (in the refrigerator section) and baked as per usual. When the cookies were cool, I melted some white chocolate and spooned it onto each cookie in a puddle-like shape. I topped each puddle with a marshmallow and attached some Wilton candy eyes with melted semi-sweet chocolate, which I also used to pipe on a mouth. You can use any type of cookie for these, and I also saw online using Whoppers (instead of white chocolate and marshmallows) and making spiders or bats.
Tricks
My family loves Halloween, especially my uncle. He turns their house into a graveyard/haunted mansion deal every year, and always invites us over to check out his months of work. It was creepy to say the least.
My Costume
I'm not the type to dress up in the gore (or teeny tiny outfits) typical of Halloween, so finding a costume is usually a challenge. This year, I decided to combine one of the makeup trends of the season with a classic character, and came up with comic book Superwoman. I did the pop art makeup, curled my hair, and made a tee shirt with the logo. After that, it was super easy: all I needed were red pants (I had some red jeggings), a gold belt, and a cape (I got mine for $7 at Party City). Typically Superwoman wears patent red stiletto boots, but I didn't have those and certainly wasn't going to buy them, so I opted for some white tennis shoes. I also layered my tee shirt over a white thermal because it was quite chilly out.
I wish you all the best,
Erin
