Red Velvet Cupcakes with Vanilla Bean Cream Cheese Frosting

Hi There! On Saturday, the fam and I went to visit one of my favorite people.  We all went to NYC and hung out for the day.  It had been years since I had been in the city, and boy did I miss it.  It was awesome to watch my guys stare with wide eyes at the tall buildings and ahem, some of the more strange sights New York City has to offer.  We spent the day taking the subway (a treat for the boys, who had never been on a real train), and walking through Central Park.  It was a great day filled with memories I will cherish for years to come.

My Uncle, who we went to visit, loves red velvet cake.  So of course, I took a break from all the kitchen organizing and made some.  In my spice cabinet I had a real vanilla bean just waiting for the perfect dessert to flavor.  It sat patiently while I grabbed my vanilla extract for cookies, and other cupcakes, even while I made lemonade with vanilla flavoring (yum!!).  That little long bean didn't realize I was saving it for the perfect frosting.  You see it's not everyday, I have real vanilla bean.  Not every dessert deserves to be flavored with the aromatic deliciousness that is real vanilla.  I knew I wanted that bean for a frosting.  I wasn't sure if I was going to use it for a buttercream, an Italian buttercream, or a Swiss meringue buttercream.  In the end of course I decided it would be TDF (to die for) in some cream cheese frosting on top of a decadent red velvet cupcake.

I had to do a bit of searching to find the perfect cream cheese frosting that called for real vanilla bean as apposed to an extract.  Now, don't get me wrong, while I am a total frosting snob (no love here greasy canned frosting) I have no qualms with using an extract for flavor.  This frosting, however, was to be a special treat, and that it was.  I found my perfect frosting here.  I only read the recipe for the cupcakes, but it appears, she has some good stuff going on over there.

The red velvet was a little more easy to make since I have made red velvet cake before.  A wonderful red velvet cake with a cheese cake center.. say what?! Check mine out here.  Then go visit recipegirl.com.  This woman has a lot of great cakes, and I will definitely be back to try some more.

These cupcakes... They, are the kind that when a crumb falls down your shirt into your bra... You get that crumb and eat it.  Wait, was that TMI?? Lol, seriously though, these cupcakes were everything you want in a red velvet cake.  The perfect crumble, moist, not overly sweet, with a nice chocolaty flavor, and the frosting, oh my gosh... The frosting!  Perfect, creamy and delicious, the kind that you are actually sad when it's gone.  The fact that you can see the tiny vanilla seeds running throughout just adds to the joy of eating.  Trust me, you want to make, then eat, these cupcakes.

RED VELVET CAKE ALA Recipegirl.com
2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 1/2 cups granulated white sugar
3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder (not Dutch process)
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs, at room temperature
1 1/2 cups vegetable or canola oil
1 cup buttermilk
1/4 cup (two 1-ounce bottles) red food coloring (If you use Gel food color you can use less.)
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 teaspoons white vinegar

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F.  Line cupcake tin with liners.  In a large bowl, whisk together your flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda, and salt.  This is the time to really whisk the crap outta the dry mix.  When you mix it with your wet ingredients, you can't go all mixing cray cray!

At this point, I like to measure out my buttermilk and mix in the vanilla.

In a stand mixer with paddle attachment, or of course a hand mixer, or if you're ol' school using your hand (People did make cake before this things were invented.. right?), mix the butter and oil on medium-high.  Again, I like to whip it, and whip it good!  Add eggs one at a time, beating until each is incorporated.  Scrap down the sides as needed.  Mix in food coloring, and vinegar.  Beat it all really well.

Turn Mixer to low and add dry ingredients in batches of three, alternating with buttermilk(and vanilla).  So dry mix then buttermilk, dry mix then buttermilk, then dry mix.  Scrape down the sides and bottom as needed.

Fill cupcake about 3/4 full. and bake for about 20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.  Place tins on a wire rack to cool for 10 minutes before removing cupcakes.  If you're like me and only have 1 cupcake tin, then remove cupcakes and repeat.  :)

Once cupcakes are completely cooled, frost with the Vanilla Bean Cream Cheese Deliciousness. 

Vanilla Bean Cream Cheese Frosting

8oz (1 package) cream cheese, at room temperature

2 sticks (1/2 cup) unsalted butter room temp (this was a happy mistake, the original recipe calls for 1 stick and I added two... Seriously, when could extra butter be a problem?)
3-4 cups confectioners' sugar (I believe I only added 3)
1 vanilla bean pod, split lengthwise and seeds removed.

You can do this while your cupcakes are cooling.  In a stand mixer with paddle (or with a hand mixer), cream the cream cheese and butter until smooth.

Reduce mixer to low (or you"ll cover your kitchen with sugar) slowly add the confectioners' sugar until its all smooth and creamy.  I like to taste after the additions so I know when to stop adding more.

Add the seeds and mix until well combined.  Frost cupcakes, and devour!!

I'll be back later this week with more kitchen updates!!

Thanks for reading,

Leiah

Linked to:

Time to Sparkle Link Party #26

Chocolate Cake with White Chocolate Buttercream Frosting

As promised... (and kind of late) I am posting the recipe I used for Munchkin's Birthday Cake.  It took a while for me to decide on it.  I've actually never been a huge fan of chocolate (except for brownies... love some brownies) but the Munchkin definitely is into chocolate.  After I decided on chocolate cake I had to scour the web for recipes.  I can create recipes and throw things together when it comes time to cook... but baking is another story.  Anyway I stumbled upon one that I'd actually seen before. Does anyone else watch Barefoot Contessa?  I do when I get a chance.  I remember watching her make this chocolate cake and it made my mouth water even as a non-chocoholic.  So here it is... 


Beatty's Chocolate Cake


Ingredients

• Butter, for greasing the pans
• 1 3/4 cups all purpose flour, plus more for pans
• 2 cups sugar
• 3/4 cups good cocoa powder 
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt 
• 1 cup buttermilk, shaken
• 1/2 cup veggie oil 
• 2 extra-large eggs, at room temperature
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1 cup freshly brewed hot coffee (all I had was instant... and the cake still came out great!)

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Butter two 8-inch x 2-inch round cake pans. Line with parchment paper, then butter and flour the pans.  I actually used two 6-inch pans, and used the left over to make cup cakes.  Just remember to bake seperately because they have different baking times.

Sift the flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder, and salt into the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment and mix on low speed until combined. In another bowl, combine the buttermilk, oil, eggs, and vanilla. With the mixer on low speed, slowly add the wet ingredients to the dry. With mixer still on low, add the coffee and stir just to combine, scraping the bottom of the bowl with a rubber spatula. Pour the batter into the prepared pans and bake for 35 to 40 minutes, until a cake tester comes out clean. Cool in the pans for 30 minutes, then turn them out onto a cooling rack and cool completely.  This recipe is courtessy of foodnetwork.com.  Love them just search for 5 star recipes.. you can't go wrong.

I had a lot to do on the days prior to the party so I actually mixed all my dry ingredients before hand.  I stored 2 batches in seperate freezer bags in my pantry.  I wanted the cakes to be fresh, so the day before I added my wet ingredients and baked away.  It was eazy peazy almost like using boxed cake mix... just 100 times better.

After finding the perfect cake I had to find a good frosting to compliment it.  Now, I love me some cream cheese frosting but I wanted to try something new.  Enter white chocolate buttercream!!!  When searching for a frosting recipe I look for recipes that DO NOT include shortening.  I think it leaves a greasy feeling on my tongue, the main reason I don't like canned frosting.  Anyway... I found this recipe for Whipped White Chocolate Buttercream at Comfortably Domestic.  You need to visit her... 1. because her pictures will make you want to dive head first into the frosting and have your way with it, 2. the frosting came out perfectly delisious.

To decorate I just added food coloring.  I also crumbled animal crackers for the sand (I didn't have any graham crackers and we've been working on a gigantic wholesale tub of them for way too long).  To make the black and white checkered pattern I used black edible paper cut into 1 inch squares.  I found it at Walmart... don't remember how much.  

So there you have it.  I will definately make this cake again.. it recieved rave reviews from all that tasted it!

Munchkin's Disney Cars Birthday Party

Get ready for a photo overload!  I am so excited to share my uum.. Munchkin's party.  All of the hard fun work paid off.  The Munchkin had an awesome time.  I tried to take pics of everything but that didn't work out.  I also plan on doing tutorials for most of the DIY projects I did, so stay tuned.  Alright, enough of the chit chat... on to the party!!

The decorations!

I was trying to not go totally commercial with the decor.  We did purchase some balloons, a scene setter, and a few other items (like plates for the littles).  Mostly though, I attempted to make the decorations, starting with this balloon wreath.

I read some where (forgive me because I don't remember where) that it could be a cute tradition of hanging it on the door of the birthday honoree for the week of their birthday.  Munchkin loved it!!  Tutorial to come!!

I added traffic lights, and tissue puffs around too.  Those puffs are super easy to make and they add fun and color.  The Traffic lights are just spray painted orange juice boxes (tip: just wrap in black paper, it took too many coats of paint to cover them).  I also shopped around the house for Cars things we already owned (like the mini lunchbox).  

What's a Cars party with out Lightning McQueen!?!?! We had Mater too on the other side.

Blurry much?

The Food!

I tried to tie everything to Disney Cars, We of course dinned at Flo's V8 cafe.   

The Menu:

Chick's Chicken Nuggets, 

Mater's Taters, 

Holly's Hot Dogs, 

Mack's Mac n' cheese, 

A Champion Chili Bar with Finn's Fixens'

Chili bars are great for parties because you can make the chili ahead (and freeze), keep it warm in a crock pot and people can customize the way they like - Chili dogs, Chili fries etc... I add toppings like chopped onions, bacon, cheddar cheese, and sour cream (I meant to add chives, but totally forgot).  Yesterday we had chili mac for dinner with... you guessed it, left over chili.

Guest also got to munch on Cozy Cone Motel Munchies.

I made all of the food labels using MS word since we don't have photoshop.  Hind sight... It would have saved tons of time buying everything pre-made and time is money right? (but whats the fun in that?!?).

For the drinks we had Filmore's Organic Fuel (green lemonade), Rusteeze Bumper Oil ( Coke), I also made labels for the water bottles.  The little guests (and some of the grown ones) drank from cone cups.

The Sweets!

What's a party without sweets, and boy oh boy did I go crazy with the sweets.  It's 4 days later and the Munch is still coming down off his high.  There is just so much great inspiration out there, I couldn't help myself.  I encourage anyone party planning to do a google images search and just scan.  I usually don't even go onto the websites... I just look at pictures and get inspiration.

I didn't get pics of everything, but here's the dessert buffet run-down!!

Candy Dipped Marshmallows

White Chocolate Covered Oreo Pops

Traffic Light Rice Krispies and Racing Stix (Chocolate covered pretzels using a race car mold)

Birthday Cake and Cupcakes of course.  I made the everything myself from scratch.  I think I've mentioned before that I was not a big fan of cake with icing... until I started making my own.  There is such a huge difference in taste when you make things from scratch.  (tip: make batches of the dry ingredients before hand, then you just have to add the wet ingredients when your ready).  The cake was chocolate with white chocolate buttercream (recipes to come).  I colored some of the frosting blue for cupcakes, and green to make grass and bushes.  I set the cupcakes up on a Cars Racetrack which doubled as a gift to Munchkin after the party.  Sorry I didn't get a great pic of the cupcake set up... but trust me it was cool.

   I also had tons of red or blue candy and cars fruit snacks. 

There were more than one cupcakes with finger swoops through them by the time guests arrived, Munchkin just couldn't help himself.

I tried my hardest to get a good pic of the completed table, but it was a gray day and nothing I tried worked : (.

The Activities:

Last year I spent a week of late nights and no sleep making this huge cardboard train for Munchkin's Train Party.  I thought for a second of making Cars characters out of cardboard... but decided I'd rather have sleep.  Turns out I ended up staying up until at least 2 the week before the party anyway.  When they arrived they all got to put on VIP Pit Passes with their names (the adults had pit passes too, but not personalized).  

The kids were able to color and get temporary tattoos at Ramone's House of Body Art.

My niece posing for a pic... lol!

I also transformed the reading tent into the cozy cone motel with some orange fabric from Walmart... of course I have no pic!!, and it was so cute... No sewing either!

We also played Tractor Tipping (pics of the tractors taped to empty water bottles) the kids loved it.

Of course this pic was taken before little hands got a hold of the bean bags.

I had a little play area set up, with a Cars rug and all of the Cars toys the boys have.

The Scene setter was 3D, Munchkin tried so hard to get the glasses on himself.

Before leaving the kids took home a goody bag filled with sweets from the dessert buffet, cars crayons, a hot wheels car, stickers, and a cars puzzle, along with their Cone cup.  All in all this party was a huge success.  The kids (especially Munchkin) had a blast!  This is what makes all of the time and effort I put into his parties worth it.  Happy 3rd Birthday Little Man, Mommy Loves you!!

Resources:

The signage for Flo's V8 cafe, Filmore's Organic Fuel, and Ramone's - So Wonderful, So Marvelous

Lot's of Great ideas! - The Jolly Mom and Mad In Craft

My First Fondant Cake

In just under two months my Little Bear is going to be 1 year old.  While I'm very excited that he's growing  up (please read: sleeping better, feeding himself, and becoming more independent). I am also going to miss holding a sweet sleeping bundle, or watching him lay on his back and play with his feet.  While I look forward to him saying Mommy for the first time (and several hundred times per day after that), I will long to hear his small baby coos and babbles.  The uncertainty of whether or not there will be a baby number three makes this just a little bit harder.

On the bright side, birthdays = cake!  Usually I'm not into cake, and opt for cookies or brownies instead. However, on special occassions like birthdays, I love to whip up a delicious cake from scratch along with some tasty scratch icing.  I am slightly new to the scratch cake baking scene.  I've only ever made three varieties: Yellow, Strawberry (Scratch, that means no strawberry jello for color and flavor), and Carrot.  My favorite by far is Carrot cake with to-die-for cream cheese frosting : ).  For Munchkins first birthday I made him a basketball cake

This cake was a combination of a scratch carrot cake and a Duncan Hines carrot cake.  I just didn't have the energy to make both from scratch.  The bottom part was three layers and the basketball was cake baked in a bowl.  I also used canned and homemade cream cheese frosting.

Then for Munchkin's second birthday I made a train cake.  This was a combo cake too... I was up until 3am putting it together but I was very happy with the results.

My husband and I decided not to go so big for Little Bears birthday, 1. because I don't have the energy or want to do a big party. 2. He won't remember anyway and will enjoy a bigger party when he is 2. Even though we are not doing a big shindig, I do want to honor his special day with a special cake (and maybe one for smashing). My husbands birthday is the day before and he has been heavily hinting that he doesn't want to get short changed in the cake department. There goes my idea of one cake two names... Hehehe, oh well.

For my husband's cake I want to make something decadent. I haven't decided on a flavor but he's already had carrot and he really likes red velvet so i'll probably go with that (although it's not my favorite). I was thinking of adding a chocolate ganache between the layers just to kick it up a notch. These are some practice cupcakes I made.  Strawberry cake with chocolate ganache and strawberry buttercream frosting.

Little bear will most likely get a caramel cake or Italian cream cake. I really want to dec it out so I'm going to try my hand at fondant. I've been researching some techniques and recipes and learned you can make fondant with marshmallows. Yesterday, I ran to Walmart and picked up some supplies. I used a box cake to practice making my first fondant cake. Making the fondant wasn't has hard as I thought. It was more difficult trying to keep the boys occupied while I worked. 

If you want to try it, all you need is:

8 ounces mini marshmallows

1 pound confectioners sugar

2 tbsp water

Food coloring or flavored extracts (optional) 

 First melt your marshmallows with water in a microwave safe bowl.  

I only had blue and yellow food coloring left in the house, so I chose to go with a white, blue, and brown look.  The brown is just cocoa powder.  I added my cocoa powder to the liquid marshmallows then began adding the confectioners sugar.  In my research I found it referred to as powdered sugar, pulverized sugar, as well as icing sugar.

Once it gets almost impossible to mix, turn it out onto a heavily powdered work surface and continue adding in the sugar until its not sticky any more.  I found that if you greased the surface then dusted with sugar it didn't stick nearly as much.  Please note, this is a very messy process.

Sorry, I couldn't get this picture to rotate.

Just outside the picture above, Munchkin is standing there repeatedly saying "want taste fonnan".  LOL!!! 

After I thought I had added enough sugar I kneaded it a bit more on a surface greased with crisco.  Then I covered it with plastic wrap and put it in the fridge until later (basically nap time).

Next I rolled it out on some wax paper.  I read that you should use a plastic rolling pin for fondant, but I only have a wooden one.  Being the clever gal that I am (wink wink) I covered my rolling pin with wax paper too.  It was pretty easy to roll out.  Then I picked up the whole thing, fondant and wax paper together and placed it over my cake.  Then just peeled off the wax paper.  I had already given it a good smooth crumb coat.   Trim the extra with a knife or pizza cutter and have fun decorating.

My First Fondant Cake!

I learned a lot making it and if you look closely you can see some little imperfections.  I hope to make one more practice cake before Little Bears birthday.  I'll try and roll the fondant a bit thinner next time.  After dinner I let Munchkin sample the practice cakes.  While he was devouring it, he said

"Mommy, dis is de-wi-shus!!"