Sunday, June 25, 2017

S'mores Indoors

A family friend recently got married. This young lady has been a friend of mine since she was five years old. Making her wedding cupcakes meant the world to me, and I wanted them to be perfect. She has an adorable precocious little boy, and his cupcake request was a S'more cupcake. As important as it was to make her happy, I have to admit, pleasing this little guy was top on my priority list. Kids are brutally honest, have high expectations, and they haven't had any baking disasters yet (my point there being the empathy level is pretty much at nil). So naturally I wanted these to be PERFECT.



I'm not sure if I achieved ultimate perfection, but by the end of the reception, there was a happy boy on a sugar high. Mission accomplished.

With this recipe, I struggled with three things. Number one - marshmallow frosting. I really wanted it to taste like a s'more, so I needed a strong marshmallow flavor. I researched a million different recipes. I've made a marshmallow buttercream with marshmallow fluff before, adding graham crumbles, a mini marshmallow garnish, and a chocolate square.




They turned out well, but they just were not marshmallow-y enough for me. I decided to rework the recipe to make a true s'more, one that even a child would find faultless.

I found their is no substitute for actual marshmallow but marshmallow. I found some giant marshmallows on sale and just cut them in three slices. If you cut them neatly, they melt ever so slightly under the broiler (but watch them like a hawk!! They burn easily.) and they have a good shape with that beautiful golden brown color when toasted. After it cools that will make a light crisp over the marshmallow.









My second challenge was the amount of sweetness. The main flavors in a s'more are chocolate, marshmallow, and graham. None of these have any savory or acidic notes to them. So to counteract the sweet - and to amp up my s'more flavor profile, I added a graham cracker pie crust bottom with some salt added. Graham crusts are usually graham crumbs, butter, and sugar. I just added a little salt to this, and it turned out great.





My third and final issue - avoiding a bitter or dry chocolate cake. I do a couple things to avoid this: add pudding & hot fudge. What chocolate isn't better with pudding and hot fudge??? They're delicious and moist. Just be sure to keep the hot fudge in the fridge until you're ready to use it. It needs to stay cold before baking. And make sure you get that little bit of chocolate well covered in the middle of the batter.



Whenever you bake follow the all important rule of beat Beat BEAT the wet ingredients, and fold ever so gently once you've added the dry. You should end up with a nice and fluffy batter, even after dry ingredients have been added.




S'more Cupcakes
(Yield: 36 cupcakes)

Graham Crust
1 1/2 cup finely crushed graham crackers
1/3 cup butter, melted
3 Tablespoons sugar
1/4 tsp butter

Chocolate Cake
1 1/4 cup butter, softened
1/3/4 cup sugar
3 eggs
2 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup cocoa
3 tablespoons instant chocolate pudding
1 3/4 cup whole milk
1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
1/2 tsp imitation almond extract
hot fudge, chilled (use about 1/2 teaspoon per cake)

Chocolate Glaze
1 cup semi sweet chocolate chips
4 Tablespoons corn syrup
4 Tablespoons strong brewed coffee

Toppings
1 sleeve graham cracker
12 giant marshmallows, sliced in 3

1. Preheat oven to 350.
2, Mix together graham crust ingredients and press 1 tablespoon into each cupcake liner.
3. Beat butter to cream and gradually add sugar, beating 5 to 7 minutes, until very light and fluffy.
4. Add eggs 1 at a time, beating well and scraping the side after each addition.
5. Sift together flour, baking powder, soda, salt, cocoa, and pudding.
6. In a separate bowl, mix together milk and extracts.
7. Add flour to butter batter, alternately with the milk, beginning and ending with the flour mixture.
8. Beat at low speed until just blended or fold by hand, scraping the sides after each addition.
9. Spoon into paper lined cupcake pan.
10. Drop hot fudge into each cup, and cover well.
11. Bake for 12-15 minutes or until done.

To make the glaze

1. Combine all ingredients over a double boiler. Heat until mixture begins to thicken. It will look like this:

Assemble by adding about a teaspoon of glaze to each cooled cupcake, spread over the top and add graham cracker, broken in pieces.


Top with marshmallow slice. Place the cupcakes under the broiler and watch them carefully! They will be done in a couple of minutes. Remove when top is a golden brown.



Enjoy your s'more!

Thursday, June 1, 2017

My Favorite Cake Recipe

Cake made from scratch is all about beating. So if you don't have a good stand mixer. GET A KITCHENAID. I love mine. It's white and lovely and I call him George. He's never let me down.

The key to this simple, simple recipe is just knowing when to beat, and when not to beat. An easy rule of thumb with any cake recipe is this, if it's just wet ingredients, beat it a lot. Once you add the dry ingredients, fold gently. Stick with that and this recipe will come out great. It's moist and light, and has a great flavor.

Ingredients
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 1/2 cups cake flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 sticks butter, room temperature
1 3/4 cups sugar
4 large eggs, room temperature
1 1/4 cups whole milk, warmed to room temperature
3 tablespoons french vanilla instant pudding
1 tablespoon pure vanilla
1 teaspoon imitation almond extract

1. Preheat oven to 325.
2. Sift  dry ingredients and set aside.
3. Cream together the butter and sugar until fluffy and pale in color.


4. Beat the eggs in one at a time, scraping the sides of the bowl after each addition. 
Here is where you really DON'T SKIMP ON BEATING. Just beat, beat, beat, beat, beat. 





Once you've got that lovely airy batter, you're ready to move on.
5. Add the extracts to the milk.
Now remember, when you add the remaining ingredients to mix as LITTLE AS POSSIBLE. Feel free to fold it in by hand if you like. At this point over mixing will kill all that lovely air that you've beat into it. 
6. Add about a third of the flour mixture, and gently beat or fold to incorporate. Add about half the milk mixture and gently incorporate. Repeat this process till all the remaining dry and wet ingredients are mixed together. 


7. Scoop out batter with an ice cream scoop and fill paper cups. This makes about 36 cupcakes. Bake for 12-18 minutes depending on your oven. In the picture below, I'd incorporated some sprinkles as well for fun. 


Add cinnamon to dry ingredients for a snickerdoodle cake. Play with adding different extracts, oils, zests, and pudding flavors to make it your own.