Technique/Terminology Thursday - Filling cupcakes

As you know if you have been following my blog this week, I filled cupcakes for the first time. The technique is actually quite easy and can be done several different ways.

One technique is to place the filling (in this case chocolate pudding) in a decorating bag with a small tip or a plastic bottle with tip which is typically used when working with melted candies. You can actually insert the tip right into the cupcake and fill it this way. I did try one with this method, but I could not tell how much was going in and, in the end, I wanted more filling.

I read online that you can use an apple corer to take a portion out of the middle. I do not own a corer, but I do own a juicer which works the same way.

 

Use a corer to remove a portion of the middle

Next, insert the filling

And, tada! I was not worried about the pudding on the top since so much frosting was being used and easily covered this up.

The technique was even easier than I thought. I really doubt I will go back to making boring old cupcakes every again!

Uprinting 500 Business Card GIVEAWAY!!! *CLOSED**

Uprinting is a company that offers a lot of high quality promotional products. I previously won a set of stickers from the site which I use on my cake boxes to help drive up some business. I can tell you that their products are wonderful and I can't wait to get my hands on some business cards to start promoting my cakes!

Uprinting is offering one of my lucky readers a set of 500 business cards!! 

Here are the details:
500 Business Cards for (1) Winner
Sizes:  2 x 3.5”, 2 x 3”, 2 x 2” (square card) or 1.5 x 3.5” (skinny card)
Paper:  14 pt gloss cardstock, 14 pt matte cardstock or 13 pt recycled uncoated cardstock
Specifications: Full Color Both Sides, Offset Press, 3 Business Day Printing
Shipping: FREE UPS Ground Shipping
Eligibility: Limited to US Residents only 

**Please read the rules**
This is open to US residents only. You must complete the mandated entry before completing optional entries. Each optional entry needs to be added as a separate comment. Comments that do not follow the rules will not count and will be deleted. PLEASE LEAVE ME YOUR EMAIL IN THE COMMENT!

Mandatory entry:  Go to Uprinting Business Cards Online and tell me which design you like the most (click on "Create a Design Online" under the features tab)

Optional entries: Leave an additional comment for each entry
1. Follow my blog (publically)
2. Subscribe to my blog via email and confirm the subscription (2 entries)
3. Grab my button and post a link to your blog (2 entries)
4. Blog about this contest (with a link to my blog) and post a link to your blog (3 entries)
5. Follow me on twitter and tweet about this contest (can be done daily). You must place a link to your tweet.

One winner will be selected on 2/7 via random.org and will be emailed.

I will be provided with a product sample for posting this blog. No other compensation was received.

White Velvet Cake Recipe

White Velvet Cake Recipe
From: cakecentral.com


Ingredients:
1 box white cake mix
1 cup flour
1 cup sugar
1 cup sour cream
1 4oz box white chocolate pudding
1-1/4 cups White Chocolate Mocha coffee creamer, liquid kinds (International Delight)
1/3 cup oil
4 egg whites
1 tsp vanilla

Instructions:
Sift dry ingredients together, mix in wet until combined. Continue to mix on medium speed for 2 minutes. Bake at 325 until toothpick comes out clean.
This recipe does not rise as high as other cakes so make sure you fill your pans 2/3 or a bit more. 

Results: I had not made this recipe before so I was very excited that this one was chosen. I could not find white chocolate pudding mix so I had to do without this ingredient. Even without it, this cake was SO good! It was super moist and the extra ingredients really led to an interesting taste. I have never done anything but bake straight from the box so this was fun to try and I will definitely make this recipe again and again.

I will post a picture of the completed cupcakes on my Wordless Wednesday post and will discuss the cupcake filling technique on Technique/Terminology Thursday. They are turning out so cute so far!

Immaculate Baking Product Review and GIVEAWAY!!! **CLOSED**

The Immaculate Baking Company was founded in the owner's garage in 1995. The goal: "bake great-tasting, all natural treats and inspire the natural artist in all of us". 


There are several things that attracted me to Immaculate Baking Co.
1. Ingredients are all natural!

2. Cookies with a cause: The company supports creativity and the arts by hosting fund raisers, donating art supplies, offering folk art workshops and more.
3. No trans fat!
4. They are responsible for baking the World's Largest Cookie! Check out this link:
http://immaculatebaking.com/company_bigcookie.php

I was so thrilled when the company agreed to let me review their product. They sent me two coupons for free products, but I just could not keep these all to myself. So, I bought one bag of cookie dough to review and the other one will be given away to one of my readers!!!

Here's the scoop:
I chose the Triple Chocolate Cookies to try out. The package contains 24 pieces of dough perfectly formed for baking cookies just the right size. All you have to do is place them on a cookie sheet and bake. 

The directions state to place on an ungreased baking pan, but you need to make sure that you have a pretty good nonstick pan to use. My pan was so-so and I have been using it for some time and I could use a new one. The cookies did stick to the pan more than I would have liked and I should have probably baked them for 1 minute less than I did. Even so, I was pretty happy with the results.
The cookies were a great size. They cooked up thin and were very tasty. The white chocolate chips were really good mixed in with all the regular chocolate.


Rating:
I have been using a 5 star rating system with products that I have been reviewing, but I thought that it would be a lot more fun to have my kids review the edible products. To simplify, they will each give one thumbs up or down.

The results:

Two thumbs up! 

These cookies did not even last 24 hours in my house!

Pros: Very easy to make, no trans fat, all natural ingredients, affordable (retails between $3.75-$4.50 a package), and of course..it tastes great!
Cons: I had to check a few supermarkets until I found one who carried the product, make sure you use a good nonstick baking sheet to prevent sticking

Get it here: You can buy Immaculate Baking Products online of find a store who sells the product:
http://www.immaculatebaking.com

Win it here: I will be giving away one coupon valid for one free Immaculate Refrigerated Dough Product (expires 12/31/10).

**Please read the rules**
This is open to US residents only. You must complete the mandated entry before completing optional entries. Each optional entry needs to be added as a separate comment. Comments that do not follow the rules will not count and will be deleted. PLEASE LEAVE ME YOUR EMAIL IN THE COMMENT!
Mandatory entry: Go to  http://www.immaculatebaking.com/products.php and tell me another product that sounds yummy besides the product reviewed in this post

Optional entries: Leave an additional comment for each entry
1. Follow my blog (publically)
2. Subscribe to my blog via email and confirm the subscription (2 entries)
3. Grab my button and post a link to your blog (2 entries)
4. Blog about this contest (with a link to my blog) and post a link to your blog (3 entries)
5. Follow me on twitter and tweet about this contest (can be done daily). You must place a link to your tweet.

One winner will be selected on 2/3 via random.org and will be emailed.

I was compensated in the form of a coupon. The opinions expressed are 100% mine (and my children's).

Technique/Terminology Thursday - Icing consistency

When using buttercream, different techniques call for different frosting consistencies. You can control for consistency by adding milk/water for thinner consistency or adding powdered sugar to thicken it up.

 Here is a quick reference guide:
Stiff icing: Used for certain flowers such as roses and also for figure piping
Medium icing: Used for most of the borders and for flowers that have flat petals. Can also be used to ice the cake.
Thin icing: Used for writing and making leaves/vines for flowers

Little trick I learned: You can add piping gel to the stiff consistency icing if the icing cracks (i.e. your roses look more like carnations) to help make it more elastic without thinning it too much.

The cupcakes will be....

Delayed.  I was all set to spend all weekend baking and making frosting for the "baby shower", but the baby came early!  So, I will delay the cupcakes for another week because the daddy will be off next week spending time with his baby and we will celebrate when he gets back.

The winning recipe is white velvet with pudding. Because this will be a new recipe, I will post it after I bake the cupcakes so I can also give you a review.

Also, thanks to everyone who voted. Since there were more than 10, I will share my buttercream recipe. I am going to do this tomorrow because I just slipped on the ice and bashed my chin. I have a terrible headache and an achy chin. I promise I will get that recipe posted tomorrow when I am in less pain!

Technique/Terminology Thursday

Getting that nice flat cake:

When I first told my husband that I wanted to start taking cake decorating classes, his first comment was "I don't know...the cakes at the grocery store always look so flat and you can't make them that way at home". He can be such a man. He was right though, I was not sure how to get the cake to lay flat on the top.

So, here is the multiple choice question for the week.

You can achieve a flat top to the cake by:

A. Placing the baked cake upside down and then pressing it really hard until it flattens

B. Using a flower nail while baking

C. Using a cake leveler

D. Jumping up and down by your oven while your cake is baking

Answers: B&C
Admission of the week: I tried A before...it does not work very well.

There are numerous techniques which can be used to make sure that your cake bakes flat. This includes buying bake even strips or inserting flower nails in the cake while baking. I will admit that I have not tried either of these techniques yet.

I use a cake leveler instead. After the cake has been baked and cooled, the leveler is adjusted to the desired height. Then,  using a back and forth motion the thin wire portion is moved across the top of the cake to remove the "bubble". Many do not like this method because it wastes part of the cake. However, with 2 small kids at home it never goes to waste here. It actually works out nice to give them this cut off top for a snack when the cake being made will not be eaten by them. They tend not to feel so cheated and they can also "decorate" the removed portion bubble which can be a fun activity. I can also taste the cake to make sure it tastes good! 

Bakeless Sunday

Although this blog will primarily focus on baking, I would like to use Sundays as a sounding board for other topics of interest. I also hope to host some giveaways in the future and I am currently pleading with some potential sponsors.

So, I would like to hear from those who are reading this blog. What would you like to read about besides baking? Please comment below.

By the way, I wanted to send out a huge THANK YOU to all who have checked out my blog and who are following. I have only had this blog for a week now and I am so thrilled that I have followers and that people are commenting. I just added a site counter half way through the week so from Wednesday on, I have had over 250 visits. THAT IS SO AWESOME! If you are enjoying this so far, please pass the word.

Jamie

Technique/Terminology Thursday

Technique/Terminology Thursday is for my readers who are new to baking/decorating. At one point and time, hearing these terms had me scratching my head in curiosity. However, if you are a pro feel free to email me with helpful terminology/techniques so I can share to others. 


Technique/Terminology of the week: 

Lets do this in the form of a good old fashion multiple choice question:

Dirty ice is (select all that apply):

a. frosting that has been sitting out too long and has collected small amounts of dust

b. a layer of buttercream icing placed underneath fondant frosting

c. otherwise known as crumb-coating

d. a decorating technique which involves creating pornographic pictures on cakes

If you guessed "b" &"c" then you are correct. If you guessed "d", then you may be very disappointed with the remaining content of this post!

Dirty Icing/Crumb Coating is a technique whereby you place a thin layer of icing (most frequently buttercream) on an undecorated cake. On buttercream cakes, this layer will contain crumbs from the cake but will be covered up by the next layer of buttercream so that the outer layer is crumb free.You should let this layer sit for 10-15 minutes, even refrigerate to help set, before applying more buttercream.  Dirty icing is also used with fondant cakes as a first icing layer to help the fondant stick.

New year and new blog

Last year I became addicted to all the cake decorating shows. You know the ones: "Cake Boss", "Ace of Cakes" and "Amazing Wedding Cakes". They make decorating cakes look like a day in the park. So I figured, why the heck not try it out! I took 2 Wilton classes and soon discovered that it is a lot harder than it looks. For all those out there who have hopes of being the next big decorator and are experiencing a reality check, this blog is for you. For all those out there who are expert cake decorators and would love to help me decorate better, this blog is for you too. For all those out there who would like to feel better about yourself because you are so much more talented than I, then heck this blog is for you too!


Just to get everyone up to speed (not sure who everyone is yet sine I have 0 followers, but I will work on it!) I have been experimenting with fondant as well as buttercream. My friends and family are all totally impressed, but I am a perfectionist and go crazy when the cake looks like it came from a novice and not from an expensive bakery. Notice the image to the left. I drives me crazy that I could not get the frosting layered right and you could see the cake color beneath the frosting!

Hopefully by the end of the year I will learn to either create cakes that look like they came from an expensive bakery, or learn to accept that my cakes don't look like they came from an expensive baker and that is ok. I also hope to sell my first cake this year. So, here we go. Wish me luck, and I hope you join me in my new adventure!