Tag: Desserts
Pirate Cupcakes
So I know I’m a little late in doing this, because National Talk Like a Pirate Day was last Thursday the 19th, but I’m gonna go ahead and post these adorable pirate cupcakes. Because, hey, maybe you could make them for the next Talk Like a Pirate Day, or for a child’s birthday party, or because you just really, really have a thing for pirates, like one of those women at Disneyland who reportedly couldn’t keep their hands off the Jack Sparrow character. (Which, in all fairness, Disney denied, but you still have to wonder.)
Anyway, speaking of Disney, the road to me making pirate cupcakes (believe it or not, this is not something that would have occurred to my thirty-something adult self) started with a Disney TV show. My two-year-old is OBSESSED with Jake and the Neverland Pirates, the mercifully much less racially inflammatory spinoff of the movie Peter Pan. (Seriously, have you watched Peter Pan any time since like 1965? NOT OKAY.) Jake and his little band of child pirates take on Captain Hook, who seems to have mellowed in the sixty years since he disappeared into the sunset with a crocodile nipping at his bottom. Now he’s more of a petulant meddler than a bloodthirsty tyrant. My two-year-old constantly requests this show–and my four and six-year-old boys enjoy it plenty as well. I should also mention that months ago my four-year-old got a Jake and the Neverland Pirates play set that included a pirate hat and sword and has been inseparable from the sword ever since. He wears it tucked in the back of his shirt on a daily basis…just in case.
Recently, while I was scheduling playdates for our play group, I came upon a website that listed all the holidays in every month. “Holidays” being everything from excuse-to-eat days like National Chocolate Milkshake Day and the much less fun-sounding National Beheading Day. When I saw Talk Like a Pirate Day, I knew my kids would go nuts if we had a pirate-themed playdate. I put in on our playgroup calendar: a Pirate Picnic! Attendees were invited to meet us at the park dressed like pirates for a picnic lunch. I promised to provide cupcakes.
I found the idea for these delightful little guys on an event planning website, which has great, super detailed instructions on how to decorate these using certain frosting tip numbers, etc. I on the other hand don’t have any of those kinds of supplies, so here I will give you the quick and dirty, no-Wilton-cake-master-class-required version. Even decorated using just a Ziploc bag, I think they turned out pretty darling–or should I say dARRRRling?
Pirate Cupcakes
(Recipes from Betty Crocker’s Cookbook, Bridal Edition; decoration idea from Frilly Milly Events)
Ingredients:
For the cupcakes:
1 c. and 2 Tbsp. all-purpose flour
3/4 c. sugar
6 Tbsp. butter, softened
1/3 c. baking cocoa
1/2 c. and 2 Tbsp. water
3/4 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. vanilla
1/8 tsp. baking powder
1 egg
For the frosting:
3 c. powdered sugar
1/3 c. butter, softened
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla
2-3 Tbsp. milk
For the pirate faces:
Chocolate chips
Red food coloring
Black cake gel
Directions:
To make the cupcakes:
Heat oven to 350 degrees. Grease 12-cup cupcake tin.
Beat all ingredients with an electric mixer on low speed 30 seconds, scraping bowl constantly. Beat on high speed 3 minutes, scraping bowl occasionally. Pour into cupcake tin.
Bake 20-25 minutes. Cool completely before frosting.
To make the frosting:
Mix powdered sugar and butter in a medium bowl by hand or with electric mixer on low speed. Stir in vanilla and 1 Tbsp. of the milk. Gradually beat in just enough of the remaining milk to make frosting smooth and spreadable.
To decorate:
Once the frosting is made, mix 1/2 c. of frosting and 5-10 drops of red food coloring in a small bowl until desired red color is achieved. Place this frosting in a small Ziploc bag, pressing frosting down into one of the bottom corners of the bag. Squeeze excess air out of the bag and twist top shut. In the corner the frosting has been pressed into, use scissors to snip a very small hole (approximately the same size as the hole on the cake gel tube). Set aside.
Use remaining white frosting to evenly frost the cupcakes. For a smoother surface, press a clean, unpatterned paper towel over the top of the frosted cupcake. Take bagged red frosting and, starting 1/3 from the top of each cupcake, draw pirate bandanas over the top 1/3. Press a chocolate chip into the white frosting for an eye patch and draw the eye patch string and rest of the pirate face with black cake gel.
Makes 12 cupcakes.
Chocolate Butterscotch Blondie Cake
As I mentioned in my last post, someone around here had a birthday last week. (Okay, it was me.) The great thing about having your birthday right around Labor Day–or frequently on Labor Day–is that you can generally count on a three-day weekend that feels pretty much especially for your birthday. For me, any of the other three-day weekends (Memorial Day, Veterans’ Day, Martin Luther King, Jr. Day) are tinged with just a little bit of guilt for not being more patriotic and/or social justice-oriented. As in, we don’t put out the American flag on those days (we don’t have one–I know, I know, that’s no excuse) and frankly, I don’t know what I’m supposed to do for Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. All the things I’m brainstorming right now just come out sounding patronizing and offensive, so I won’t even mention them…yikes.
As three-day weekends go, then, Labor Day feels like an irreproachable freebie. It was instituted in the 1880s and ’90s (various states adopted it at various times) as a “national tribute to the contributions workers have made to the strength, prosperity, and well-being of our country,” according to the U.S. Department of Labor.
Hey, I’m a worker! …Or at least I was before I had kids, and now I work harder than ever, though I technically don’t “have” a “job” (picture this statement with Chris Farley van-down-by-the-river air finger quotes). So, see? Like I said! This holiday’s for meeeee! And you, and you, and you. Pretty much anybody who’s ever had a job.
All that to say it’s an ideal time to have a birthday. Thank you, Mom, for going into labor in that Wendy’s drive-thru in Peoria, Illinois on Labor Day weekend 1982. You were on to something: labor on Labor Day. And I must say, this birthday was a really great day. In the morning, my husband made my favorite cinnamon pancakes (eventual blog post to come about this wonderful recipe), I went to a yoga class, got to do some shopping, and made my own birthday cake. Some people say you shouldn’t have to cook on your birthday, and I’m sure that’s true for people who don’t really like to cook, but I certainly enjoyed making this cake. It’s basically two layers of blondie brownies slathered in butterscotch and chocolate ganaches. It’s like if Brownie and Cake got married and made a sweet, sweet baby. “Brownie” in the sense of “dense blondie texture,” and “cake” in the sense that it’s “stacked” with “frosting” (again, Chris Farley air finger quotes–sorry, I’ll stop). So don’t be surprised if it doesn’t come out of the oven super moist and airy like a traditional cake. It might just be better.
Chocolate Butterscotch Blondie Cake
(Adapted from Annie’s Eats, originally from Bakerella; chocolate ganache from Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan)
Ingredients:
For the butterscotch brownie cake:
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 3/4 cups packed light brown sugar
1 tbsp. vanilla extract
2 large eggs
1 (11 oz.) package butterscotch chips, divided
For the butterscotch ganache:
3/4 cup butterscotch chips
6 tbsp. heavy whipping cream
3 tbsp. unsalted butter
For the chocolate ganache:
4 oz. bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped
1/2 cup heavy cream
2 tbsp. sugar
2 tbsp. water
To make the cake, preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Butter and flour the sides of two 8-inch round cake pans. In a medium mixing bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt. In a large bowl, combine the butter, sugar and vanilla. Beat on medium speed until creamy. Scrape down the bowl and mix in the eggs until well incorporated. Gradually beat in the flour mixture on low speed just until combined. Stir in 1 cup of butterscotch chips with a rubber spatula.
Divide the batter evenly between the prepared pans. Sprinkle with the remaining butterscotch chips. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Transfer the pans to a wire cooling rack and allow to cool completely before carefully removing from the pans.
To make the butterscotch ganache, combine the cream and the butter in a small saucepan. Warm over medium-high heat until the mixture is almost boiling. Place the butterscotch chips in a small, heatproof bowl. Pour the cream mixture over the butterscotch chips and allow to sit for 30 seconds. Stir until smooth. If too runny, place in refrigerator until it thickens enough to not run too quickly off the cake.
To make the chocolate ganache, place the chopped chocolate in a small bowl. Bring the cream, sugar and water to a boil, then pour the liquid over the chocolate and let sit for 30 seconds. Gently whisk the mixture together until smooth. Leave the glaze to sit until it thickens a bit to your desired consistency.
To assemble the cake, place one of the cake layers on a wire rack with a sheet of wax paper. Drizzle butterscotch ganache over the top so that it drips over the edges of the cake. Drizzle with a small amount of chocolate ganache as well. Lay the remaining cake layer on top of the first and top with remaining chocolate ganache so that it drips over the edges. If desired, place remaining butterscotch ganache in a squeeze bottle and use it to decorate the top of the cake–or simply use extra butterscotch chips to decorate. Transfer the cake to a serving platter.
Key Lime Yogurt Pie
You may recall that giant box of Cheerios I got for free and was trying to use up. Well, despite making another batch of peanut butter Cheerio bars, the bottomless Cheerio pit was still not exhausted (can you believe it?) You’re probably thinking, Sarah, just throw out the dang box of Cheerios already. You won’t go to hell. I know, I know. But I can be a real stickler about food waste, so I’ve been wracking my brain trying to think of how to finally mine the last of the Cheerio quarry. Somehow or other I started to wonder if crushed Cheerios could stand in for crushed graham crackers as a pie crust. Recently I’ve been craving a yogurt pie my grandma used to make with a chocolate Rice Krispy crust. If Rice Krispies can suffice as pie crust, why not Cheerios, eh?
With this in mind, I decided to look for a yogurt pie recipe that I could try with a Cheerio crust. I ended up opting for a Greek yogurt-based key lime pie, chosen primarily for the fact that it doesn’t contain any Cool Whip (or marshmallow snot, as I like to call it–seriously, have you ever read the ingredients in Cool Whip?) The result was a luscious, creamy dessert with no artificial ingredients.
So there. Now I’m FINALLY rid of that entire monolith Cheerio box.
I’m freeeeeeeee!
Except……guess what came in the mail yesterday:
Greek Yogurt Key Lime Pie
(Heavily adapted from Cooking on the Side)
Ingredients:
1 1/3 c. crushed Cheerios (or graham crackers)
3 Tbsp. butter, melted
1 Tbsp. white sugar
1 c. plain Greek yogurt
1 c. key lime juice
1 14-oz. can sweetened condensed milk
2 eggs
whipped cream, for topping
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a small bowl, combine crushed Cheerios or graham crackers, melted butter, and sugar. Press into the bottom and sides of a 10″ tart pan. Bake for 10 minutes. Allow to cool before filling.
Whisk together Greek yogurt, lime juice, sweetened condensed milk, and eggs. Pour into prepared crust and bake approx. 25 minutes or until the custard is set but still slightly jiggly. Chill for at least two hours. Garnish with whipped cream.
Chocolate and Peanut Butter Two Ways
How would you describe the perfect cookie? I think I would describe it like this:
Wait, no. Like this:
Nope, changed my mind again. Like THIS (as in most of the way eaten):
Hmmmm, I’m sensing a theme here. Chocolate and peanut butter…peanut butter and chocolate…Finkel and Einhorn….wait, what? Certain food pairings were simply meant to go together–wine and cheese, strawberries and banana, and definitely peanut butter and chocolate. I have this daydream that in the Garden of Eden the peanut butter tree was located right next to the chocolate tree, and that’s how the magic started. And even though Adam and Eve went and royally messed things up, at least this flavor combination has endured to make for happy tongues and tummies to this day.
In a nutshell, with peanut butter and chocolate, you can’t go wrong. Well, okay, maybe you could if you went and added eggplant or something, so just steer clear of a move like that. (I’m guessing you knew that.)
These are two of my favorite PBCH desserts: a soft, chewy chocolate drop cookie with peanut butter chips and a decadent Reese’s cup-type bar. Both satisfy the craving for good-to-the-last-crumb dessert comfort food. Now just imagine what it would be like to eat them together.
Chocolate Peanut Butter Chip Cookies
(Adapted from Allrecipes.com)
Ingredients:
1/2 c. butter, softened
2/3 c. white sugar
1 egg
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 c. all-purpose flour
1/3 c. cocoa powder
1/4 tsp. baking soda
1/8 tsp. salt
1 c. peanut butter chips
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
In a large bowl, beat butter, sugar, eggs, and vanilla until light and fluffy. Combine the flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt; stir into the butter mixture until well blended. Mix in the peanut butter chips.
Drop by rounded teaspoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheets and bake for about ten minutes, or until just set.
Makes approx. 20 cookies.
A bit ironic that I made both of these the week I did a lesson on dietary fat for my nutrition course…
Chocolate Peanut Butter Bars
(Also adapted from Allrecipes.com)
Ingredients:
1/2 c. butter, melted
1 c. graham cracker crumbs
1 c. powdered sugar
1/2 c. peanut butter
1 c. semisweet chocolate chips
In a medium bowl, mix together the butter, graham cracker crumbs, powdered sugar, and peanut butter until well blended. Press evenly into the bottom of an ungreased 8×8 inch pan.
Melt chocolate chips in the microwave until smooth. Spread over the prepared crust. Chill at least one hour before slicing. Store in the refrigerator.
If you ever need to identify me by my dental records, please refer to this cookie.
Lemon-Thyme Granita
I always used to be skeptical of granita. Typically containing only three ingredients–fruit juice, water, and sugar–it kinda sounds like some Weight Watchers trick to make you think juice is dessert. (Nice try, Weight Watchers.) But then I started making it, starting with this fancy-schmancy lime recipe, and I’ve been hooked ever since. It still doesn’t exactly fit the bill for a “real” dessert in my book (I think my definition for real dessert is “must contain fat”) but it is a lovely, light, refreshing after-dinner palate cleanser. Any fruit juice will do to make it. I’ve tried grapefruit, watermelon, lime, and lemon, and I’m especially curious to try this sangria version.
This time around, I happened to have a couple of lemons hanging around waiting to be put to some culinary use, so Dear Old Uncle Google willingly obliged an appropriate recipe. I love the unique twist the thyme infusion gives the flavor here–a subtle depth that balances the lemony sweetness nicely. Excellent for a little something different!
Lemon-Thyme Granita
From Taste of Home
Ingredients:
1 c. water
2/3 c. sugar
2/3 c. fresh lemon juice
2 fresh thyme sprigs
In a small saucepan, bring water and sugar to a boil. Cook and stir until sugar is dissolved. Remove from the heat; stir in lemon juice and thyme. Transfer to an 8-in. square dish; cool to room temperature.
Remove thyme sprigs. Freeze for 1 hour; stir with a fork. Freeze 2-3 hours longer or until completely frozen, stirring every 30 minutes.
Stir granita with a fork just before serving; spoon into dessert dishes. Yield: 2 cups.