Last weekend I got a hankering to bake. Sometimes when I have a rough week at work, baking is the only thing that restores my sanity. It doesn’t always make me happy (especially when things burn or don’t go right), but it does make my world make sense again and gives me some balance.

I decided to make something I’d never made before and so consulted my copy of “Cupcakes Galore”. I’ve made a lot of cupcakes from this book, but I’d never made the After Eight Cupcakes, so I settled on those.

These are basically chocolate mint cupcakes. The cake itself is a basic chocolate cupcake with a little mint extract added in. The frosting is Mint Buttercream, which I tinted green. I topped it with a dark chocolate ganache.

These were good, though if I make them again, I’m going to amp up the mint flavor. I
felt like it was a little too subtle, when I was going for more of that intense Andes mint flavor.

Hey everyone! I am doing my very first giveaway and wanted to invite you all to participate!

I’m giving away cookbooks to three lucky winners. Two people will receive a copy of “Cake Pops” by the talented Bakerella and one person will receive “Whoopies!” by Susanna Tee.

To enter this contest, all you have to do is “like” The Brooklyn Baker on Facebook! Already like it? Then you’re already entered to win! Want two chances to win? You can get an extra entry by sharing this post on your own Facebook page. Just hit the “Share” button under the post to post it to your own Facebook page.

Contest will end Friday, April 27th at noon EST. Three winners will be selected at random and will be notified Monday, April 30th via Facebook. The winners will also be announced on this blog. The books will be mailed out the following week.

Last week I had another Largehearted Lit event at Word bookstore in Greenpoint. It had been awhile since I made Carrot Cake Cupcakes, so I busted out my trusty copy of “Martha Stewart’s Baking Handbook” and whipped up a batch of her Carrot-Ginger Cupcakes.

This is hands down my favorite Carrot Cake recipe. I omit the raisins (I am of the opinion that raisins do not belong in cupcakes), and what’s left is just fantastic.

I attempted to make a pretty orange and white swirled frosting, but I realized too late that I had run out of large piping bags. When I do swirls, I fill up two small piping bags with different colored frosting and then insert both of them in a much larger piping bag to create a dual piping bag of sorts. I shuffled through the mountain of piping bags I have only to discover that I was out of the large ones. So I tried to wing it and just put the two frostings in a small bag, but it didn’t *quite* work. Ah well. Lessons learned.

I’ll be back at Word on May 22nd for another Largehearted Lit event. My plan is to make Vegan Root Beer Float Cupcakes and non-vegan Creamsicle Cupcakes. Stop on by!

This Easter was a difficult one for me. In February, my husband and I joined Weight Watchers. We’ve had incredible success (I’m down 23 pounds so far!), and while we are able to eat whatever we want as long as we plan for it, it’s sort of frowned upon to eat nothing but dessert and candy, which is pretty much what I eat at Easter.

So this year, I did some research and determined that Angel Food Cake is actually a pretty Weight Watchers-friendly dessert. For those counting Points Plus, Alton Brown’s Angel Food Cake recipe is only 6 points a slice if you cut the cake so that you get 10 slices (which is incredibly easy to do). I even mascerated my strawberries in a little of the free sample of Truvia I recently got to further reduce Points.

This was my first time baking an Angel Food Cake, so not only did I get to try a new recipe, I also got to buy a new toy– a tube pan. Win-win situation!

I was very intimidated by this recipe and was worried that the egg white mixture was NOT going to fluff up. I shouldn’t have worried. Ol’ Trusty the KitchenAid Mixer took care of it. The cake puffed up just like it was supposed to and even released from the tube pan with minimal effort.

The cake was a hit at Easter dinner where at least half of it was polished off after dinner. The strawberries and Truvia lent a perfect amount of sweetness and the cake was light and airy and tasty! I used lemon extract in my cake and the lemon and strawberry flavors were delightful together.

If you’re looking for a lighter dessert, I would definitely recommend this cake and Alton Brown’s recipe. Also, make sure your eggs come to room temperature before you whip them, or it will take an exceptionally long time and you’ll start to think you royally screwed up.

Shauna Sever (of the blog Piece of Cake) brings you a myriad of delicious and delightful marshmallow recipes in her new cookbook “Marshmallow Madness”. The recipes range from classic Vanilla Marshmallows to boozy Margarita Marshmallows to fruity Key Lime Pie Marshmallows (rolled in crushed graham cracker crumbs)!

I set out to try one of the recipes and settled on Root Beer Float Marshmallows.

These marshmallows are made with actual bottled root beer. Root beer is mixed with the gelatin and it’s also added into the sugar/corn syrup mixture, which gets whipped along with the gelatin to within an inch of its life.

Shauna’s recipes are clear, concise and easy to follow. I was skeptical that the liquidy mess I was pouring into the bowl of my KitchenAid mixer would turn into marshmallow, but sure enough, it tripled in volume and became a gooey, sticky, delicious confection. Wary of getting a spatula coated in marshmallow, I simply coated my hands with cooking spray and scooped the marshmallow goo into a greased 8×8 glass pan by hand.

The hardest part of the whole marshmallow-making procedure is waiting six hours for the marshmallow to cure and set up. But set up it does! These marshmallows aren’t anything like those Jet-Puffed ones; they’re light and airy but with a little bit of jiggle. The people who tasted these marshmallows compared their appearance to tofu or flan, but I think that had more to do with the slightly tan color that came from the root beer.

I only had two issues with my marshmallows. The first was that the root beer flavor was just a little too subtle. Shauna writes that root beer extract is optional if you’re using a high-quality root beer. I went with Virgil’s, which is an amazingly flavorful root beer, but the intensity of the flavor just didn’t carry over. When I make these again (and I will make them again), I will definitely add the root beer extract for the added oomph of flavor.

The second problem was that my marshmallows seemed to absorb the powdered sugar and cornstarch coating that they were dusted with. The coating helps to keep the marshmallows from sticking together, but my coating just got absorbed. I’m not sure if I should have dusted them and then laid them all out single file on a baking sheet instead of throwing the in a Tupperware bowl (which is what I did). I will play around with this coating in my next few marshmallow attempts until I get it right.

There are so many wonderful recipes in this book that I can’t wait to try. I’m especially looking at the aforementioned Key Lime Pie marshmallows and the vegan ones for my sister-in-law.

And, just in time for Easter, Shauna has linked a couple of videos on her blog that will teach you how to make your very own Marshmallow Peeps! I’m already committed to bringing an Angel Food Cake to my family’s Easter dinner, but those Peeps were second on my list!

Check it out!

Also, if you’re interested in having some of my baked goods at your event, please contact me and we’ll see what we can work out. I even have a rate sheet now!

Once upon a time, I didn’t drink beer. I was strictly a vodka-and-cranberry girl for a very long time. Then last year, something changed. In New York City, you are surrounded by craft beer. So many craft beers that eventually, you get a little curious and start checking things out. As my husband got more into the world of craft beer, so did I. A trip to the Dogfish Head brewery in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware last year sealed the deal and I became a convert.

Recently, I decided I wanted to start incorporating beer into baked goods. The most traditional thing out there is, of course, beer bread, but I wanted to do something sweet. So I scoured the Internet and found very little. Beer has a unique impact on baked goods owing in part to the yeast and hops and all those other goodies that make beer beer. So I was delighted to find a cupcake recipe that uses Blue Moon.

Blue Moon is owned by Coors, so it is technically not a craft beer. It is, however, much better tasting than a Coors. It is one of my favorite light, easy-drinking beers and it pairs well with a lot of food, particularly ones you eat in the summer. And its light, citrusy taste works especially well in this cupcake. The cupcakes have a great orange flavor with just a hint of wheat.

I’m excited to keep digging up new recipes that incorporate beer into baked goods. If you happen to know of any, please post them in the comments!

Blue Moon Cupcakes
(Adapted from Miss Make)

Makes right around 24 cupcakes, depending on how full you fill your liners

Ingredients
3/4 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 3/4 cup sugar
2 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
2 1/2 TSP baking powder
1/2 TSP salt
3 eggs
1 TSP vanilla
orange food coloring
3/4 tsp grated orange zest
1 cup Blue Moon beer (I used the regular, but feel free to get creative and use the Winter Abbey Ale or Spiced Amber or whatever other seasonal is available)
1/4 cup milk
Orange Buttercream Frosting (recipe follows)

Directions
1. Line 24 cupcake trays with liners and preheat your oven to 375 degrees F.
2. In a medium bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder and salt.
3. In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat the butter on medium speed until light and fluffy. Add the sugar a little at a time and continue to beat until the sugar is completely incorporated.
4. Add the eggs, beating after each.
5. Add the vanilla, food coloring and zest and beat well.
6. Mix the beer and milk in a cup. Add the beer/milk mixture and the flour alternately, ending with the flour.
7. Fill the cupcake liners 2/3 full. Bake for 18 minutes until the cupcakes are golden and a toothpick inserted in the center of one comes out clean.
8. Once the cupcakes have completely cooled, frost each cupcake with the Orange Buttercream. (I frosted mine using an offset spatula to try to create a frothy look to mimic the foam on a glass of beer.)
9. Garnish each cupcake with a small orange slice just before serving, if desired.

Orange Buttercream Frosting
(adapted from Taste of Home)

Ingredients
1 cup butter, softened
4 cups confectioners’ sugar
2 TSP grated orange zest
1 1/2 TSP vanilla extract
4 to 6 TBL orange juice

Directions
In the bowl of a stand mixer, cream the butter until light and fluffy. Add in the confectioners’ sugar a little at a time. Beat in the orange zest and vanilla. Add enough orange juice to achieve your desired consistency. Makes enough to generous frost two dozen cupcakes (with most likely some leftover).

This week, Largehearted Boy celebrates its 10th birthday with a birthday party at Word. The Thursday night event will feature two authors reading birthday-themed stories, a secret music guest and Fauxstess Cupcakes by me!

This event is free and open to the public, so come on out, eat some cupcakes, hear some great stories and music and celebrate Largehearted Boy’s 10th birthday!

First up were goodies that I baked for the Winter Warmer party Rob and I hosted on December 23. We invited a few friends over for holiday beers, cookies and homemade eggnog.

These were vegan gingerbread cookies. This year I saw lots of pictures of using upside down gingerbread men to make reindeer, so I made an attempt. I’m not much a cookie decorator, but I think I got the idea across.

Next up were Eggnog Cupcakes. Since we were making the homemade eggnog, I decided to continue the theme. These were not made with the homemade eggnog though; I just used the boxed Jack Daniels’ brand. These were okay, but I think I would definitely prefer to use the eggnog cupcake with a Cinnamon Rum Frosting.

Next up were cupcakes that I baked for my sister-in-law’s annual holiday party on the 24th in Queens.

These were vegan vanilla cupcakes with vegan vanilla frosting. I mixed up my own colored sugars and then decorated the cupcakes to look like ornaments. I used pretzels to make the hooks.

Finally, I spent about six hours on the 23rd baking five different cookies for cookie boxes to give as presents. This was a marathon baking day, but I think it turned out okay. My boxes didn’t turn out quite as cute as I hoped. If I do them again next year, I’m going to take more time to find materials to line the box, rather than using foil and scrapbooking paper. Ah well, it’s the taste that counts.

The cookie boxes consisted of three non-vegan treats, pictured above. These were Iced Ginger Cookies, Peppermint Twists and Lemon Chewies.

The vegan cookies were traditional sugar cookies and Pinwheels.

And, of course, I had to leave a few out for the Big Man.

I hope everyone had a great holiday season. I’m really looking forward to 2012. Speaking of which, you can sample some goodies at my first event this year– The 10th Birthday Party for Largehearted Boy at Word Bookstore in Greenpoint, Brooklyn on January 26. There will be two authors reading birthday-themed pieces and a special musical guest. I’ll be baking Fauxstess Cupcakes! You can read more information about the event here.

A few weeks ago, Dane over at The Busty Baker wrote a post about Homemade Hot Chocolate Mix and I thought, “Yes.” I had been thinking of something I could make and give my coworkers for the holidays that would last longer than the four bites it takes to demolish a cupcake. Hot chocolate is such a great winter tradition and drinking something that didn’t come out of one of those packets is pretty cool. And homemade peppermint marshmallows? Come on. Perfect.

I made the marshmallows first. It was a lot easier than I thought it would be, although I jumped the gun on them a bit. I should have let them sit out overnight before cutting them into squares, or at least four hours. I made it three. It was 10 p.m. and I couldn’t bear the thought of getting up extra early to deal with it in the a.m., so I made an executive decision and cut them up early. I think they turned out just fine. In the future, I’ll try to wait.

Mixing the hot cocoa mix was also really easy. I added a pinch of cayenne as Danae suggests, although when I tasted the mix sans liquid, I thought for sure I’d added too much because I could really feel the heat. But I’m happy to report that once mixed with a mug of milk, the unpleasantness of the heat was gone and left only a slight tingling sensation on the tongue.

Packing these up in piping bags was a great way to present them. Adding a candy cane ups the festiveness of the gift.

These might just be perennial gifts. Super easy to put together and my coworkers (as well as a few of my husband’s) were really excited to get them.

Tomorrow begins three non-stop days of baking. I’m making Eggnog Cupcakes and Vegan Gingerbread Men tomorrow night for a Winter Warmer party we’re throwing Friday. Friday I’m off work (hooray!) and will be baking five different cookies for cookie box gifts. Saturday I’m baking Vegan Vanilla cupcakes for my sister-in-law’s annual Christmas Eve party as well as Lemon Meringue Cupcakes for our family Christmas Day festivities in New Jersey. Wish me and my kitchen luck!