Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Happy Mardi Gras!

So I wanted to make a King Cake for today, but my last bouts with yeast breads have just made me sad. Being a sucker for any "new" named apple, I picked up a bunch of Opal apples last week only to find that they were past their prime and not delicious. This was the perfect opportunity to make Romanian Apple Cake. And of course, to make it King Cake-ish, I drizzled white chocolate dyed to purple, yellow, and green and planted some pecans in place of the baby. We'll see how it actually tastes tonight!

Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Rainbow Chip Frosting and the Quest for Yellow Cake

Happy New Year!

It's been slow on the posting front. This year I want to find a complete set of my goto recipes. I already have one for white cake and chocolate, but I've never tried making yellow cake. The perfect opportunity to try it out came up for my friend's husband's birthday. She requested a yellow cake with funfetti frosting. It almost seemed like we were stuck because her hubby loved the store bought funfetti...and it pains me to buy cake mix and frosting from the grocery store because I like knowing what ingredients are in my desserts. Plus, this was gonna be fun!

Instead I went ahead and made everything from scratch with the disclaimer if it's unacceptable, then I would go and make the store stuff.


I tried a Yellow Cake recipe from my new Cook's Illustrated Cookbook, and I think I'll have to give it one more try to make sure it wasn't user error. The cupcakes came out much too dry for my taste, although they had a nice flavor.


The Rainbow Chip Frosting was the best part of the cupcake. For that I used the Vanilla Buttercream recipe in the Cook's Illustrated Cookbook, as it seemed very close to my favorite buttercream recipe. To that I added a vanilla bean and also the Rainbow Chips - which was just melted down white chocolate mixed with color. Inspired by Not Without Salt's blog. Once the frosting formed, I mixed a good helping of the Rainbow Chips to create the perfect chunkiness.


In the end, the outcome is a pretty fun frosting to add to my goto recipes, and the search for the yellow cake entry continues. There are two more yellow cake recipes in the cookbook that I have yet to try. But I am on my way!