Liv's First Ever Original-Completely-Made-From-Scratch-Off-the-Top-of-My-Head!

I FINALLY DID IT!!!

Since the very beginning of my baking blog, everyone has been encouraging me to make up my very own recipe to post, write about, and sell. I finally did it!

I LOVE coffee (I literally have to drink a cup every day to stay alive) and hazelnuts are probably my most favorite kind to eat. You will also find me switching it up at Dunkin Donuts with hazelnut iced coffee and then at Starbucks with a hazelnut non-fat, no whipped, no foam hot latte (yup, I'm one of those folks!) 

Why not put the two flavors together into a cupcake? Why not do so during my very first time making homemade, from scratch, not even glancing at another recipe, experience!? 

I knew the basics of a cupcake recipe which made it that much easier to come up with my very own. 

I knew that sour cream, milk, and/or oil make a batter moist. 
I knew that flour thickens batters. Cake flour is even better! 
I knew that baking powder makes things rise.
Eggs are part of every recipe and make the batter smoother.
Butter makes cupcakes fluffier. 
I've never known what salt does to a recipe but I added some anyways!

Knowing all of these facts, I still didn't know how MUCH to add of each ingredient--this was the trickiest part of my journey.

I sat down and wrote out how much of each ingredient I THOUGHT I would need for about six cupcakes. I envisioned recipes in my brain that yield 12 cupcakes and thought about the most common measurements of each. I didn't want to make 12 so I cut everything down to what I thought would yield about 6 cupcakes. 

Here's what I came up with at first:

1/2 cup sifted cake flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/8 tsp salt

1/3 cup softened butter

1/3 cup granulated sugar

1 large egg

1 tbsp full fat sour cream

½ tsp pure coffee extract

Frosting:

¼ cup butter

(No idea how much yet) Powdered Sugar

(No idea how much yet) Hazelnut extract

(No idea how much yet) Milk

And so I began! Below are the directions I wrote out for myself.

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven for 350 F.

2. Line six cupcake cavities with liners of your choice

3. Sift cake flour and then measure it out. Combine the cake flour, baking powder, and salt in a medium sized mixing bowl.

4. In a separate mixing bowl, combine the softened butter and sugar. Cream the two together for about 2 minutes.

5. Add the egg and mix well.

6. Blend in the sour cream and coffee extract. Mix until creamy. 

7. Slowly add the flour mixture and make sure to scrape the sides of the bowl while mixing. Do not over mix as the batter may become "tough"

8. Using a spoon (I like to use an ice cream scooper), fill each cupcake liner 3/4 of the way with batter.

9. Bake for 18-20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of a cupcake comes out clean (or with no wet batter on it)

 
While making the batter, I noticed that it wasn't smooth enough and it would probably not make 6 cupcakes. I immediately realized more flour was needed. I added 1/4 cup sifted cake flour, 1/4 teaspoon baking powder, 1 more tablespoon of sour cream, and also 1 more egg. Surprisingly, the egg made a huge difference; the batter immediately became smoother/creamier. Since I was adding more flour, I had to add a bit more of baking powder to even it out. I got out my ice cream scooper and filled away. It made exactly six cupcakes with a teeny, tiny bit of batter left over! Woohoo go meeee!!!

I ended up baking for 20 minutes (I first put 18 on the timer) and they came out perfect. I let them cool for about 10 minutes and bit into one un-iced cupcake.

What I would change next time: I would only change a few things about my recipe. They could have been a tad more moist--no one likes a dry cupcake! However, I believe this is probably the trickiest part of perfecting a recipe. To do so, I would add maybe one more tablespoon of sour cream as well as about a 1/4 cup of milk. This would add moisture to each. I would also add a 1/4 teaspoon more of coffee extract to capture more of that rich, coffee flavor.

As for the frosting, it came out scrumptious! I made the well-known vanilla butter cream and added some hazelnut extract. I knew I wouldn't have known the exact measurements of powdered sugar, milk, or extract until I actually went to make it. I ended up with the following:

1/2 cup (1 stick) softened butter

2 cups powdered sugar

1/2 plus a dash of hazelnut extract

1 tbsp milk

Making the frosting:

1. Cream butter in a mixing bowl until smooth

2. Slowly add the powdered sugar, mixing well after each addition

3. Blend in the hazelnut extract

4. Slowly add the milk or whipping cream to the frosting until you feel that it’s the right consistency. My test: If the frosting doesn’t move one bit when you tilt the bowl, then it’s ready!

5. Pipe or spread icing onto the cupcakes and decorate as desired

I would probably not change a thing about the frosting. Next time, I may try a different type of butter cream that involves egg whites and regular sugar instead of powdered. I believe it would probably be less rich. Although, the richness of the icing adds A LOT more flavor to the cupcake that isn't too sweet to begin with.  

To make cupcakes fluffier: I may try to whip up the egg whites separate from the yolks and add one more egg white alone to the batter. I've read online that this makes for fluffier, lighter cupcakes!

That's all for now folks--I am very proud of my VERY FIRST attempt at making up my unique, most original, Liv's Bakery "Hazelnut Coffee Lovers" cupcake. This recipe will be tweaked, practiced, and perfected in no time. Stick with me!

Cheers!

How is it that I'm just now making my favorite dessert?!

My favorite dessert has always been cheesecake...go out to dinner and I happen to get dessert...the first thing I look for on the menu is cheesecake. Any kind. Strawberry swirl, red velvet, NY style, birthday-cake-party-in-my-mouth, or whatever kind of cheesecake you can imagine--I love.

It just so happened that my friend's dad's 50th birthday is today and he wanted me to make him a cheesecake. He said his dad LOVES chocolate so what do I choose to make? A chocolate obsession cheesecake--chocolate cheesecake, Oreo crust, chocolate ganache on top, and more Oreo's around the edge and on the rim. Talk about chocolate overload! This would give me a heart attack!! Well...not literally, but I'd definitely go into a food coma and probably not want chocolate for a really long while that's for sure.

Now I know that cheesecake is probably the worst dessert for anyone in all of mankind--does this stop me from ordering it out? No way!! I especially can't resist looking at the book of choices at the Cheesecake Factory. That is absolutely ridiculous! But really, who goes to the Factory and DOESN'T order cheesecake!? Hopefully no one reading this...

Anyways, I have never made a cheesecake before so I wasn't sure how to compare recipes online. I knew ahead of time that it has an out-of-this-world amount of cream cheese plus a generous amount of sugar and probably some milk or something to make it nice and creamy but thin enough to pour into the spring form pan. I ended up being wrong about the milk and a good handful of recipes I looked at had sour cream in them as well. Many recipes I glanced at were very similar so I went with one on a website that I was familiar with already--Joy of Baking. I've used a few of their recipes before and saw that this particular recipe had been tested so I went with this one! Click on the link to see what it's all about.

What I changed a bit: I decided to use Oreo's for the crust and edge of the cake instead of grahams. This was partly because the Mars by my apartment did not have/sell chocolate grahams for some completely odd reason. I think Oreos taste better anyways! This is really all I changed since it was my first time experimenting with baking a cheesecake.

First time for everything! It was my first time baking a full on, 10 inch, cheesecake. It was also my first time using a brand new spring form pan! This pan makes it SO easy to remove the cheesecake. Just pop and pull! I've also never made ganache before. I always thought it was something extremely elegant, fancy, and difficult to make. It literally consists of heavy whipping cream and semi-sweet baking squares. Talk about a piece of cake! First time's a charm!

Hope your dad enjoys this chocolatey delight on his 50th!!

Cheers!

Another Well-Deserved Learning Experience

FINALLY!!!

Reese's is probably one of the most loved chocolate delights in the U.S. You can even follow Reese's on Facebook! For the past 2 months or so, a friend of mine, and also co-worker, has been begging (yes, literally BEGGING) me to make something Reese's inspired. He even posted a link to some sort of Reese's brownie a while back on my FB wall. I have to admit, it looked super delish.

I decided to make a Reese's cupcake and ATTEMPTED to make peanut butter whipped cream (didn't go as planned) to go on top. I'm a huge fan of homemade whipped cream simply because it is SOOOOO easy and it's also light in taste compared to the rich and creamy butter cream that I usually make. Sometimes, I feel that a cupcake, depending if and what is inside of it, is too sweet after adding plain or flavored butter cream on top. Since this chocolate cupcake was going to have a Reese's cup on the inside, I felt that by putting PB butter cream on top at the end was going to be just too much going on. All of the sudden, PB whipped cream came to mind!

I decided to use the chocolate cupcake recipe that is in my Cupcakes cookbook (same recipe I used for my old co-worker's order a week and a half ago) because I never got to sample the finished product. After she told me everyone LOVED the cupcakes at her work cookout, I just had to use this recipe again to try it out. The batter (yes I try the batter EVERY single time I make anything) was delectable when I tried it last time, but a true baker ALWAYS should try the finished product to figure out what he or she should change the next time around. This, I feel, is an extremely HUGE part of learning how to create your own recipes and tweak other excellent recipes to make them unique. Going forward, I plan to always make one extra cupcake to sample no matter what it's for.

I simply added a small Reese's cup in the center of each cupcake (no, not the useless microscopical Reese's mini) and VOILA, the cupcake turned out perfect. After placing the mini Reese's, I added more batter to completely cover the Reese's. This recipe is so unique in that it looks like a scrumptious brownie when they come out of the oven! I don't know if I would change ANYTHING that has to do with this cupcake. The use of unsweetened cocoa powder AND unsweetened baking chocolate squares is such a good choice in this recipe. Definitely a good choice for all of the chocolate lovers out there!

On the top it doesn't look like a normal cupcake that you see every day, but instead it has tiny holes and resembles a brownie. YUM!!!! the smell just fills the air when you uncover them in my cupcake tote (where they are right now).

What I will probably never attempt ever again: I will never try to make PB whipped cream ever again. The consistency was TERRIBLE and it literally looked like traditional hummus after making it. I'm not sure what happened, but I know now that PB does not work in a whipped cream recipe. I only put like 1 1/2 tbsp! There was also something about the taste that wasn't pleasing. Put simply--PB and whipping cream DO NOT go well together :)

Do they have an PB extract!?

I probably should have stuck with the PB butter cream that I was originally going to make. That saying, "stick to your guns," always seems to apply to me. I've made PB butter cream before and next time I make these cupcakes, it's going on top of them!!!

I only made 7 of these cupcakes and I've decided, after both my parents and myself tried one tonight after dinner, I will not ice the rest of them. In fact, I already ditched the whipped cream. I was going to make some PB butter cream tonight but I've decided that the chocolate brownie-ish cupcakes with the mini Reese's inside is good enough on its own! The cake is so tasty and moist and the Reese's makes it 10x better.

Hooray for un-iced cupcakes!!!!!!

Cheers!

Biggest Order So Far!

I had my first semi-large cupcake order yesterday! An old co-worker requested three dozen cupcakes, three different flavors--vanilla on vanilla, chocolate on chocolate, and the good ol' moist red velvet (and yes, the two extras that you see in the picture to the right were gone the morning after making these! Thanks roomies! I don't need the extra pounds).

I decided to use a brand new chocolate cupcake recipe from my new cupcake cook book! I usually find my recipes online and tweak them a tad but I finally resorted to the new book because I wasn't extremely satisfied with the other chocolate cupcake recipe that I've used in the past. Can you believe it, a recipe that says it yields 12-16 medium-sized cupcakes actually yields over 30!!!! Since I was only making  a dozen, I didn't want to reduce the recipe by that much so I chose a new one!

The recipe included unsweetened chocolate cocoa powder PLUS unsweetened baking chocolate squares. Talk about a chocolate-lover's delight! I'm not too too crazy on chocolate, but the batter sure tasted delish! The picture in the cook book matched exactly how the cupcakes turned out. The smell of brownies filled the air as they baked and filled my nostrils when I held the finished product closer to my face. YUM! 

I used the simple vanilla cupcake recipe that I've used in the past for my oreo-filled cupcakes and then the epic, super moist, red velvet recipe, which by the way, I will NEVER change (it's just THAT good).

Ryan wanted the classic pair of chocolate cupcakes and chocolate butter cream, vanilla cupcakes with vanilla butter cream, and cream cheese butter cream atop the red velvet cupcakes. Nothing wrong with the old fashion-liked-by-everyone-on-the-planet matches!

I tried a brand new, made up star technique with the chocolate butter cream using the #22 star tip from Wilton and the finished product was so satisfying that I am sure I will use it again. I used the classic 1M swirl with the vanilla butter cream and then chucked the tip from the pastry bag when I finished off the order with the cream cheese frosting on the red velvet cupcakes. Check out pictures right below!

Thanks Ryan for supporting Liv's Bakery and for all of the other individuals who "like" my page on FB! I'm finally working my way toward opening the bakery with the help of friends and family :)

No Need for Sticks!

Happy Birthday Month to me!!

September brings CAKE POP MONTH! I've only attempted cake pops once before (for a holiday party at our apartment) and they gave me a little bit of trouble back then. I used a favorite red velvet cupcake recipe and my cake pop maker and they turned out great. I decided to use white chocolate chips to cover the pops and then red and gold sprinkles for added holiday decoration. I failed to get a Styrofoam block to stick them up in, so I laid them flat on a plate. This didn't go well as they literally stuck permanently to the plate and were extremely hard to remove for some reason!

In conclusion, they were delicious!

This time around for my sister's Labor Day cookout, I used a very simple vanilla cupcake recipe to make vanilla cake pops and planned on using Wilton's chocolate candy melts to cover the pops. Then of course rainbow sprinkles for fun.

These provided many problems!! First of all, the cupcake recipe I used didn't yield the best results for the cake pops. I have used the recipe before for regular cupcakes and everything was dandy. For some reason, the cake pops in the maker did not rise. They looked more like mushrooms or basically an epic cake pop failure!

Time to improvise! (I've been getting pretty good at this lately!)

I've watched numerous videos of Bakerella making cake pops on YouTube and she doesn't even have a cake pop maker. She uses a different method of baking a boxed cake (of course this term doesn't even exist in my vocabulary), breaking the cake up into little pieces, adding a can of pre-made icing (another yuck!) to the crushed cake, and forming her own balls.

I resorted to this method but instead made my own homemade butter cream (just a tad!) and added this to the crumbled cake pop disaster so that the mixture was pliable and easy to roll into the balls. I froze the mixture for about 30 minutes so that it was easier to roll. This method left me with about 30-35 cake pops!

Then came the other disaster. (These really aren't disasters but instead road blocks that I encourage myself to get through by improvising). The chocolate candy melts didn't melt right at all. It was a thick frosting-like substance which DID NOT make well for dipping.

Mars to the rescue!!!

After already going out once to Mars supermarket to get more powdered sugar for the small amount of butter cream icing that I needed, I went BACK out to get chocolate chips.

I simply melted the chocolate chips, dipped the cake balls, laid them out on parchment paper, and sprinkled with rainbow sprinkles and gold sprinkles that I had laying around my apartment.

I left them on the parchment paper, placed them in the fridge again, and awaited the cook out hour.

P.S.: I didn't use the sticks because there were only 18 of them that came with the cake pop maker and I didn't want to have to worry about people throwing them away by accident (they are plastic and reusable). Therefore, these were CAKE BALLS! and everyone enjoyed them very much :)

After all the trouble I went through and the multiple "disasters" everyone was going back for more!

They were so moist and scrumptious because of the added butter cream (I recommend using the process I used). It was a complete mess dipping/making the cake pops with melted chocolate with my hands but the outcome was extremely desirable.

I highly recommend making cake balls or cake pops for cookouts or occasions where there is a variety of finger foods present in the room. People can easily walk right by, snatch one up, and of course come back for more! I also like the balls better than the pops just because they were easier to arrange many of them nicely on a plate (Styrofoam is really expensive for some reason!)

I'm thinking cake pop skewers are coming next! In the mean time, I am preparing for my next cupcake order (3 dozen) for this Thursday. This means that the next cake pop blog special will not be until the 16th.

See, Shawn wanted more too!!

Happy Baking!