Java Monkey Cupcakes

I love chiffon cake and so I wanted to make a cupcake version of them. The batter I made was more than enough for 12 cupcakes so I used the rest for a cake since my family has been begging me to make one.

I made a mocha chiffon and they didn't take very long to cook but the labor to made them made my arm sore.

I had a different idea for the cupcakes. I wanted to mix macapuno (young coconut) in the frosting but I didn't have any. So I wondered what else went well with mocha? Bananas? Mangos? That's all I had so I decided on the bananas.

I cooked the bananas Bananas Foster style and then I incorporated them into the frosting.

Thus... The Java Monkey

Walnut Macarons

Another purchase that I have made at the local Farmer's Market are walnuts. There's an abundance of nuts here in the central valley so it's easy to find huge bags of unshelled nuts for a very very cheap price. I bought one of these huge bags and I'm the only one eating them at home.

I've always wanted to try my luck with the macaron. The Parisian Macaron. Now, I have never had any formal training in baking and pastry so I just go by recipes that I come across, tweak them, add/subtract ingredients to make them my own. Latley it has been hard for me to just go out and run to the store for things that I need and I really wanted to make macarons. I couldn't make them without almonds. But, I did have walnuts...

I wonder...

Yes, I shelled all of them. During my macaron research I learned you can make your own almond powder by processing the almonds with powdered sugar until they are of flour consistancy in a food processor. I don't have one of those so I used a blender and it worked. Maybe I can find one on sale this Friday after Thanksgiving Thursday.

These babies are tricky. Mix them too much, they crack, mix them too little, they crack. If you don't let them set long enough, they crack, but I managed to get them right the first time. They even developed those little feet on the bottom. Success!! Out of walnuts, too!!

I've decided to make these for Thanksgiving. Maybe I'll try making pumpkin or gingerbread macarons. I know now they're not Parisian, they're one of Kell's Kreations!

Walnut macarons with banana cream cheese buttercream.

Packed some up for my boyfriend to take to work. They loved them. They don't believe I made them. haha

Be Mine Cupcakes

I bought 100% cacao chocolate bars and I wanted to try it on some dark dark chocolate cake. What better than to try it on cupcakes? I also went to the Farmers Market and purchased some fresh raspberries. Hmmmm... raspberries and chocolate??? Sounds romantic.

So, here are the cupcakes ready to be frosted with some yummy raspberry buttercream.


I couldn't find a recipe for raspberry buttercream so I had to invent my own. How fun! What I did was puree the raspberries with some water and cornstarch and I put it in a sauce pan to simmer down to a reduction. I should have put the cornstarch later because it thickened quickly and I would have liked the raspberry syrup stronger in taste but it was okay.


I know it's a little bright but this is what the buttercream looked like pre-frosting. I also added some delicious Chambord which intensified the raspberries.

Note: No artificial flavors or colors here!


Mmmmmm... Tell me this doesn't say "Be mine".

Tres Leches cake

We ran out of cupcakes at home so I wanted to make something new. I decided to try my luck on a Tres Leches cake.

So I mixed up a batter of old-fashioned pound cake because I wanted a really dense cake for this. It would suck up more milk this way.

I didn't use a recipe that I already had for the milk mixture but I knew it had milk, evaporated milk and condensed milk. I used 2 cups of regular milk and one can each of the others. I wisked them together, along with a tablespoon of rum.

After the cake cooled I cut a square out to plate it. The I poked holes on the top of the cake to help the milk seep through. I poured about a cup and a half of the milk on to the cake. I made sure it was soaked with the milk.

Garnished with whipped topping, drizzled with my homemade dulce de leche and strawberries. The family loved it. My sister who is allergic eggs didn't want to stop eating it even though it was making her mouth itch. What a soilder...

I'm going to make a cupcake version of this.... It was yummy.

Gold, silver and copper dragees in California

They're nonexistant here in this great state of California.

Aren't they so pretty? They're edible too, you know. But you can't find them here!

I recently went cake decorating supply shopping at a little shop that specializes in cake decorating supplies and I went in there looking specifically for gold dragees (pronounced drah-jays) for my gumpaste flowers. They had "gold" but it looked pearlized but I bought them anyway. You can see them on my Samba blog. I put them on the flowers I made for those cupcakes.

http://kellskreations.blogspot.com/2008/11/heavenly-cupcake.html

So I go online and shopping for them and every website that I come across boldley states that they do not ship to California. All of them , so I do my research and it turns out they are BANNED in California. Where was I when this happened???

I guess some idiot sued the hell out of everyone who used these and the suees ended up just settling with him because it would have cost them more money to defend themselves. This person believed that because the dragees were coated with real silver and gold, consuming them would cause a person to be poisoned by the toxins caused by silver. The problem with this is that there is no recorded incident where this has happened. Yeah, they may chip some teeth but no silver poisoning.

I believe this moron did it for the money. He ruined Christmas and cookies for every Californian! Oh, but I can eat edible gold leafs? Everywhere else in the world besides California can adore these pearls on their cakes, cupcakes, cookies and whatnot but we can't because of the "possibility" of dying from silver.

Tell me, who eats silver and gold in their regular diet? When I travel out of this state I'm buying suitcases of them. What an A-hole, huh?

Samba Cupcake

I decided to make a butter cream frosting out of the DDL (dulce de leche). I wanted to try a different method other than the usual French butter cream method. I decided to do the Italian method.

I know you can't really see it but that is the eggs, egg whites vanilla and salt whipping with the sugar syrup that I heated up. I almost dumped this out because I thought the sugar formed crystals again. I have come across that problem about twice now and it's frustrating because it would be like the frosting would have rock candy in it.

I added about a half cup of the DDL and this is what it looked like. It was so yummy and rich I think I'm going to use the Italian method from now on.

For the cake I decided to do a marble cake. Here is the vanilla cake. I'm going to take half of that mixture and mixed melted dark chocolate in it.

Here's the chocolate on a double boiler.

To save time I just went ahead and poured the chocolate half in to the vanilla and then pour them into the baking cups. Assuming that they would make swirls like marble cakes are supposed to do. Sooo not... it just mixed the two together...

I brushed the tops of the cupcakes with Kahlua. That gave the cupcakes an incredible taste.

Finished! Aren't they pretty?

Marble cake drizzled with Kahlua. Topped with dulce de leche buttercream then sprinkled with cocoa. I added one of my flowers to each cupcake. Aren't they cute??

P.s. this is what happens when you try to put a pan on the rack above or below the middle rack. They cook too fast so they are nasty and dry. They have that broken top where they aren't rounded and springy. They were more like rocks after they cooled. These 8 cuppies went into the trash! This would be my lesson learned for the day.

Dulce de Leche

When I saw the formula for dulce de leche in my baking book I didn't believe that the recipe was that simple so I looked it up online and sure enough it was all the same. I saw another was of making it from condensed milk but I tried it from scratch instead.

Milk, sugar and vanilla are combined in a large sauce pan and heated over medium heat until the sugar melted. Then add the baking soda then reduce the heat to low and have the mixture at a bare simmer. Leave it like this for 2 to 3 hours until the mixture reduces until about a cup is left.

Turned brown like magic! This is halfway there.

I had it carmelize just a little bit longer than what it called for because I like my dolce de leche a little thick.

All done! Dolce de leche is stored in an air-tight container until ready to use. This is the recipe I used...

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/dulce-de-leche-recipe/index.html?rsrc=search

Man, oh, man... always have this stuff stocked. I think it goes great with everything. Like ice cream or dipping fruit in. mmmmmmm...