Sunday, May 2, 2010

Double Chocolate Oreo Cupcakes


My little brother had a soccer game I planned on attending, but had to skip out of it last minute, so I decided to make up for it, by making him cupcakes! I knew he liked chocolate, A LOT of chocolate, so I made a double chocolate cupcake, with oreoes, his favourite. I wouldn't have thought of this if I had a choice, but whatever he likes!
CAUTION: this is a VERY sweet recipe, but I've gotten a good response to this :)
Double Chocolate Oreo Cupcakes
What You'll Need:
1. Duncan Hines Cake Mix (Chocolate)
2. Cupcake liners
3. Milk
4. Oreos
5. Butter
6. 12-tin cupcake pan
7. 1 pie pan (opt)
8. Chocolate Frosting

Let's Begin!
1. Line your pan and grease your pie pan, and then preheat your oven to 350!
2. Prepare your cake mix according to the directions, and substitute the water with milk. I substituted a little of the oil with butter. That's optional! :)
3. When you're done preparing your cake mix, quarter the oreos. :) I added too much into the batter, but the amount you want is entirely up to you!
4. I ended up quartering about a third of the oreos and mixing them into my batter.
Add Image
5. Then spoon in the batter up to about a third of the way up the cupcake tins. (Ice cream scoop portions!)
6. Bake! for 350. Then remove from the oven and let it cool for 40-50min. The baking time should be shorter and rotate the pan for the last 5 minutes of baking. After 20 minutes in the oven pass, check every few minutes or so! :)
7. While they're cooling, mix the frosting with another third of the oreos. While you're at it, take the rest of the oreos and crumble them for a secret surprise in the cupcakes later.

8. Is it cool? Great! Shave off the tops of these suckers now! But keep the tops, :) They're still good to munch on!
9. Take a teaspoon and carefully spoon out a little bit of the cupcake to make room for MORE OREO!
10. Spoon in the crumbled oreos into the nice little space you just made and then seal it off with frosting!

11. Let the frosting set for about 15 minutes and enjoy!
-----EXCESS BATTER GOES INTO THE PIE PAN TO BAKE AND WHATEVER ELSE YOU DO IS UP TO YOU! I ended up making one big version of this preceding recipe. :)

Saturday, May 1, 2010

Mother's Day Cake (PtI)

Mother's Day Cake!
I'm very close with my mother, so I knew she liked cake with fruit in it, or red velvet cake. I figured I'd challenge myself and make some yellow cake! This is my very first time making a legitimate cake so I figured I'd share this experience with you. :) (This isn't the cake I'm presenting her, however, this is just a test cake!)

What You'll Need..
1. 1 Cup of sliced fresh strawberries
2. 1 cup of sliced ripe bananas. (this will end up being around 2 large bananas)
3. Whipping Cream
4. about 2-3 Tbsp of powdered sugar (depending on how sweet you like your whipped cream)
5. 1 Package of Duncan Hines Yellow Cake Mix (or whatever brand you prefer)
6. 2-3 Kiwis (opt)
7. Frosting (opt)

Lets Begin!
1. First prepare the cake mix the way you'd like it. Some people like to add some butter, or substitute the water with milk. I find that substituting doesn't make a significant difference. and Bake! Don't forget to liberally grease your pan! I used a nonstick pan but still oiled it down with some extra virgin olive oil, as always :)
2. Begin slicing your strawberries, and bananas, and prepare your whipped cream!
3. I had a big Kitchen Aid mixer that I set on 2 then as it got thicker, I set it on 3 then eventually to 10 when I began mixing in my powdered sugar.
4. Sift the powdered sugar in when the whipped cream reaches the consistency that you desire. Carefully sift the powdered sugar in batches, so the whipped cream doesn't deflate.
5. Is the cake ready? Take it out!! It shouldn't take long. It baked in about 20-30 minutes for me. :) I did the dishes while waiting! So about half a load of hand-washed dishes should do it! I pulled it out right when it was lovely and moist! I managed to easily slip a knife in and out cleanly.
6. Let it cool, for at least 45 minutes. Make sure it's ENTIRELY cooled before you take it out of the pan. To prevent breaking :)
7. Carefully (make sure you DON'T scratch your pan!) cut the cake in half and then take one slice out :) I wasn't so careful with taking it out because the cake was so delicate, But I thought it was okay because I hid the faults with whipped cream! hehe.
8. Layer on a nice layer of whipped cream.
9. In whatever pattern you'd like, place the strawberries on. I made alternating rows of thinly sliced strawberries and bananas. They were pretty even :) Don't worry about appearance too much in this step, it'll just end up getting covered with another layer of cake :) Hehe, I accidently forgot to alternate rows, hense the messiness, I just covered the errors with some whipped cream, my mother's favourite!
10. Cover this layer with the cake and layer the cake with some whipped cream. Try to be a little neater this time, but the whipped cream is pretty good about being a great concealer to error! Now, pick a pattern, any pattern! If the cake is big enough, maybe you can make a fruit-border! That was my initial idea, but I was pretty spontaneous and went with whatever :)
11. Enjoy! or in my case, Refrigerate! I will enjoy this cake tomorrow! But, I couldn't help but take a little nibble, It was delicious :) The fragrant banana was delicious.