Cupcakes in Real Egg Shells

My little sister sent me this idea courtesy of Cupcake Project. It's such a fun concept so I decided to make them for a friend to surprise her little girls with. I can't wait to hear about their reactions. They didn't turn out as pretty as I'd hoped, but I think they'll still be fun.

Easter Cupcakes

I was browsing various food blogs one day, like I do, and came across this recipe for pistachio cupcakes. Yum, right? You use boxed cake mix, which I'm ok with sometimes. I love making stuff from scratch, but I also love stuff not taking forever. I figured Easter was great occasion to try this recipe out and make some adorable nest cupcakes. They're cute and really easy: the perfect combination for holiday baking.

Irish Cream Chocolate Cake

I've been on a Bailey's kick lately that coincides nicely with St. Paddy's Day. I knew I wanted to make a cake with Bailey's but couldn't find quite what I was looking for. I settled on an Irish cream chocolate cake. I sat with that idea for a few days before I inspiration struck on exactly what I wanted to do with it and I was so pleased when it finally did. Irish Cream chocolate cake with a coffee cream filling and Irish Cream Dark Chocolate ganache. Yes, please!

Irish Coffee Blondies

I had already decided what recipes I was going to make for St. Patrick's Day when I opened the Martha's March issue and saw this recipe. I knew I needed to include it in the rotation. I love blondies, truthfully. I also love coffee and whiskey. Sounds like a match made in heaven.

Chocolate Pudding, Peanut Butter and Marshmallow cookies (!!!)

Did you read that title? When I saw this recipe on Taste and Tell I knew I had to make them. First off, a cookie batter that contains chocolate pudding?? That's combining two of my favorite things. Then you add peanut butter chips and marshmallows? Ok, great. I'm sold.

It's a quick, easy cookie with ingredients you can find in any grocery store. I agree with Debbie, the author of Taste and Tell, that they aren't the prettiest cookies, but man are they delicious. The marshmallow gets a little crazy and melty. I found if you rolled them in a ball, so most of the marshmallow was on the inside, it's pretty ok. Or just let them be ugly and like it. And let's be honest: the batter itself is damn good. Yes, I will scrape the bowl clean, thank you.

I will definitely make these again, and I will probably experiment with this cookie dough base, adding other things. Debbie suggested graham cracker pieces instead of peanut butter chips to make a s'more cookie. I think I might try oats, chocolate chips and walnuts. Check back to find out.

Nutella Meringues

I've been baking, but not blogging, and I'm getting caught up today. I saw this recipe online, at Cream Puffs In Venice, and thought it looked amazing. Nutella+meringue? Yes, please. Plus they're pretty simple and only take 3 egg whites. It made more cookies than I expected.  Basically, you melt Nutella in a double boiler, make a meringue, fold in the cooled Nutella and bake.

My family makes "mint meringues" every year Christmas which is just meringue cookies with green food coloring and mint chocolate chips. Maybe it's just nostalgia, but I like them better. I suspect my meringue was too stiff when I stirred in the Nutella, which was a bit too hot still. So mine came out flat, too crunchy (in my opinion) but sticky where the Nutella was. She also bakes hers differently than my grandmother taught me.

The author of the recipe instructs you to bake these on parchment-lined baking sheets. My grandmother always baked meringues on brown-paper-grocery-bag-lined baking sheets. I used a silicone baking mat. All of them do essentially the same thing, which is give you a flexible, less adherent surface. You would never get whole cookies off the sheet otherwise. If you enjoy baking, do yourself the favor and buy a silicone baking mat. They're wonderful and nothing in the world sticks to them.

Maybe I'd make these again, if someone wanted them, but probably not for myself.  Truthfully, I'm not sure I like Nutella as much as I think I do. I feel like I love it but then I'm underwhelmed when I eat it. I say, try these for yourself and let me know what you think.

East meets West

Once I know how to make the basic version of something I think of how I can change it up and angel food cake was no exception. I started thinking of things you could put in it to add flavor. Filled angel food cakes are popular, but that gets a bit squishy for my taste. Then the most brilliant idea hit me. Green tea! I love the flavor. It's good for you-hello antioxidants! And I keep hearing about people cooking with Matcha green tea powder. I had no idea whether it would work or not but figured it was worth a shot.

I visited my local Whole Foods Market to find Matcha. It's pretty expensive, but potent and delicious. The box I got had 10 2g packets meant for individual servings and it ran me $20. I followed the recipe like before, but stirred two packets of powder in with the sugar that gets added to the egg whites. It was just the right amount to add noticeable flavor but not be overwhelming. The meringue didn't get as fluffy as it originally did and I was worried the cake would turn out flat. But it ended up rising in the oven more than the original and turned out great. Nice and tall and fluffy and golden with a beautiful pistachio color inside.

I decided to try another experiment and frost the cake with ginger whipped cream. It was the right choice for sure! I bought the tiniest piece of fresh ginger my grocery store had which cost me 27 cents. I've never used fresh ginger before and wasn't really sure how to go about it. I peeled the ginger and grated it on a zester. It made a juicy pulp that was still pretty woody. The texture would have been gross in whipped cream so I improvised.  I dumped the tea out of a regular ol' tea bag and put the ginger pulp inside then squeezed the ginger juice into the bowl. I added probably 1 1/2 teaspoons of juice to the cream before I whipped it. It was perfect! It had the nice buttery flavor of fresh whipped cream and just a little bite from the ginger.

I served it at a friend's birthday party and people raved over it, which makes me extremely happy. The whole thing was gone in a matter of minutes. I thought the combination of the two flavors was great. The cake would also be great with a plain glaze or whipped cream. I would absolutely make this recipe again.

Tip: If you don't want to drop $20 on Matcha, an anonymous Whole Foods employee recommended that if I only needed a little for baking I should visit Starbucks and tell them I can't find it anywhere. She'd had a couple customers who were able to buy enough for a recipe from them.
Photo credit: Susan Liedke

I can hear them singing now...

I was inspired by a book I read to attempt angel food cake from scratch. Angel food is a family tradition for us. I grew up eating it fairly regularly. But for some reason it never occurred to me to think outside the box, literally. My curmudgeon of an aunt told me "It will never turn out as fluffy as Duncan Hines." That turned it into a mission to prove her wrong more than make a beautiful cake. 

I turned to my trusted food guru, Alton Brown, for a recipe.  You can find it here. It calls for a dozen egg whites and unexpected things like putting the sugar in the food processor. I initially thought that step would be a bit silly. It's sugar, like the food processor can make it any smaller. To my surprise, it did! Not quite powdered sugar, but definitely super fine. The recipe is fairly straight forward and easy. Alton recommends starting with a wisk and moving to a hand mixer. I used the Kitchen Aid the whole time and it came out fine.

You basically make a meringue and fold flour and sugar into it. Something magical happens along the way that gives the batter the most beautiful iridescent sheen. The photo doesn't do it justice. As beautiful as it is, angel food batter is not one I'm tempted to lick off the beaters. It has a tangy, sort of metallic taste to it. But put it in the oven and it turns into fluffy golden goodness.

The part I like the most about angel food cake, other than the eating of course, is that when you take it out of the oven you turn the pan upside down and balance it on a glass to cool. Love it! That way it doesn't deflate on you. Traditionally my family tops angel food cake with whipped cream. I opted for a strawberry glaze. It was really yummy, especially in the middle of winter. For as much poo-pooing as I got and warnings about it not cooking through and falling out of the pan, it turned out beautifully. It had the best texture and was brilliantly fluffy! So don't let other people scare you. Baking is never is as terrible as people make it out to be.

Forgive the quality of these pictures; they're from my phone. I need to get my camera back in action and I'll take more photos of the process.