Baseball Truffle Topped Cupcakes

My friend Michelle and I are the baking dream team for our coworkers and friends.  Not only are we both mildly obsessed with trying new and unbelievably unhealthy recipes, we are both a smidgen anal and compulsive when it comes to planning.  When working on a team, you'd think having two chiefs with obsessive compulsive disorder and no Indians would be an inevitable disaster, but for some reason when we bake together we bring out the best in one another.

Part of it is because we both know how to take constructive criticism (and welcome it!) and part of it is because we both have different strengths.  Michelle is the cake and butter cream goddess, having made some of the most beautiful and delicious weddings cakes I've ever seen.  I am more into little details- tiny fondant roses, a million different desserts in a spread, things like that.  

This has been working incredibly well for the wedding dessert buffet we are planning together.  In fact, right after we delivered the following concoction, we spent 4 hours at my house mocking up the dessert buffet table-scape. Yup, we painstakingly placed cupcake wrappers on platters and trays and arranged them on a make-shift 12 foot table in my dining room to make sure we had enough room and platters for all the food.  We didn't.  Then we went to Walmart.  All is good now.

How did I get this far off topic?  So since our friends have realized how much we thrive on adorable baking projects, we occasionally get requests like this.  Michelle was asked to make baseball themed cupcakes for a kids birthday party, and she commissioned me to help.  Her idea was to have a baseball truffle (my part!) on top of a cupcake frosted in butter cream grass (her part!)  What resulted were the cutest darned cupcakes I've ever seen.  Yay us!

Cupcakes topped with Baseball Truffles (Cookie Dough Flavored)

Make a batch of cookie dough truffles (which I've made here) and dip in almond bark.  Make sure that the truffles will be small enough to fit on top of the cupcakes.  Let cool before proceeding.

Melt red candy melts according to package instructions and place it in a plastic bag (if this is too thick to pipe, thin it using shortening.)

Start by drawing the two half circles on the truffle with the red candy melts.  Add stitching.  Work quickly to avoid having the candy harden.

When they are dry, pipe butter cream dyed green onto your favorite flavor of cupcakes so that it looks like grass.  Top with your truffle and serve.  

Enjoy!

Caramel Mocha Cake

For the people I love and care about, birthdays are nearly always preceded with a wide-eyed me desperately and timidly asking "so, do you need a birthday cake?" I try to act like it's no big deal, but I'm really jumping up and down on the inside screaming "LET ME BAKE YOU SOMETHING."  But when one of my besties moved across the Midwest to the desolate, cold, altogether too damn far away land known as "Minneapolis," I hadn't yet formed this obsession with baking.  So I've never really gotten to bake for her!  Except her bridal shower.   And several parties I've thrown and she's attended.  And a few showers we threw together.  Hell, the last time I saw her she was forced into washing dishes for me as I filled heath cupcakes in a fit of baby-shower-themed-food insanity.

But she lives far away and she's never gotten a birthday cake from me, so her spring break visit was my opportunity!  I even spent an evening forming fondant flowers for the top of the cake.  Mainly because I don't think anyone has ever really made fondant decorations for her, and I felt she deserved something extra special.

So the week before she came and I set out for the grocery store on foot, husband/grocery bag carrier by my side.  I had absolutely no idea what I was going to make her, and pinterest is too slow on my phone (Thank you very much, Verizon.) So I had to go back to my roots- brainstorming things up all on my very own without the help of the world wide interwebs.  She and I had pretty much spent half of our friendship across the table from one another at a coffee shop, so I decided to go with a cappuccino themed cake.  With chocolate.  And caramel.  Caramel swirled with ganache. And butter cream- oh god- COFFEE butter cream. 

This is what happens when I have too much time on my hands.

Chocolate Coffee Cake

Recipe adapted from: http://allrecipes.com//Recipe/too-much-chocolate-cake/Detail.aspx

Ingredients

1 (18.25 ounce) package devil's food cake mix

1 (5.9 ounce) package instant devils food (or chocolate of any kind) pudding mix

1 (8 oz) container of Daisy sour cream (full fat)

1 cup vegetable oil

4 eggs

1/2 cup warm water

2 tsp coffee extract

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees  

Mix all of the ingredients together in a large bowl, or your trusty stand mixer. 
Pour batter into two nine inch rounds.

Bake as directed on your box mix.

When completely cool, you may wrap and freeze the layers until you are ready.

Coffee Butter Cream

Make a double recipe of my favorite butter cream but replace the vanilla with coffee extract. If you want to decorate the cake with a different color, make sure to set aside a cup of frosting before you add the coffee.

Caramel Mocha Cake Assemble

Ingredients 

2 nine inch rounds Chocolate Coffee Cake, ideally frozen, recipe above

Double Recipe Coffee Butter ream, recipe above

1 can dulce de leche (I used nestle)

1 recipe dark chocolate ganache, prepared fresh, recipe found here 

Directions

Split 9 inch rounds in half and place the three bottom layers on plates.

Make your ganache.

Pipe a large bead of butter cream around the diameter of these three layers.

Place 1/3 of the dulce de leche in the middle of each cake layer.  Carefully spread the caramel over the cake.  You may not cover the entire surface and that is ok.

Pour 1/3 of the hot ganache over each of the cakes, on top of the caramel.

Set the cakes in the fridge until the ganache is set. 

When the layers are ready, stack the cake and frost with the remaining butter cream (a double recipe is enough for a crumb coat, a final coat, and all accents.

Boston Cream Pie

So for my last entry, I told you all about how for my in-laws, I'm the official birthday cake maker.  I apparently neglected to mention that I also hold this title for my family.  And my friends.  Thus this entry, and the next one to come.

To celebrate my fathers birthday, we went out for Italian food and followed it up with this Boston cream pie.  I noted the changes I would make- I made a very traditional cake recipe, but it wasn't as moist as my usual "doctor up a box mix" method, so in lieu of being fancy, in the future I'll cut corners and end up with something more delicious.

The Cake
I used this recipe but I didn't think it was worth it.  I suggest you make a yellow cake using these directions, but prepare in two 9 inch rounds.

Pastry Cream
Recipe adapted from: http://allrecipes.com/recipe/pastry-cream-2/

Ingredients
2 cups whole milk
1/4 cup white sugar
2 egg yolks, room temperature
1 egg, room temperature
1/4 cup cornstarch
1/3 cup white sugar
2 tbsp butter
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
1/2 tsp salt

Directions
If your eggs are not at room temperature, place in a warm water bath.

Place 2 tbsp of butter (chopped into pea sized pieces) in a small bowl with vanilla and salt.  Set aside.

Line a 9 inch round (or whatever size round you baked your cakes in) with saran wrap.  Cut yourself an extra piece to place on top when you are complete.  Set aside.

Whisk milk and 1/4 cup sugar in to a medium saucepan. Set aside.

When eggs are warm, put them in your food processor and process for a few moments.  Add your cornstarch and remaining sugar.  Process until combined.

Now that you have your station ready, place your milk mixture on your stove and heat until boiling over medium head.

Once boiling, turn on your food processor.  Slowly drizzle the boiling milk into the egg mixture, being careful not to scramble the eggs by pouring too fast. Once combined, return mixture to saucepan.

Heat over medium heat until it boils and thickens, whisking constantly. Once it reaches the proper thickness, add the butter mixture and whisk until combined. 

Pour your pastry cream into your prepared pan and top with saran wrap to avoid a film from forming.  Store in the fridge until firm, overnight if possible.

The Ganache and Assembly
First, unwrap your pastry cream exposing the top but leave it in the 9 inch round.  Place the bottom layer of your cake on top of the pastry cream, upside down.  Flip out onto your serving tray, and top with the final cake layer.

Prepare your ganache, use the following recipe: http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/chocolate-ganache/Detail.aspx

Drizzle over your cake slowly, starting in the middle and working your way out in a circular pattern.  Let some of the ganache drip over the edge.  Stop when you reach the desired look- do not feel like you have to use all the ganache.