My first savory cupcake...and one other

A couple weeks ago, my roommate and I hosted this like beauty/facial thingy party at our house. I don't know. Whatever. BUT! as all parties in our house go, we have good food and drinks.

I contributed cupcakes to this bonanza. I did lemon-raspberry to test out what I was doing for the wedding last weekend. And then I brainstormed in my little mind and came up with something truly amazing. I picked up some Asian pears on my last trip to H-mart; and I knew I wanted to roast them. Also, everyone (I think) knows that walnuts go well with pears. I didn't want to do a regular old cake for them, so I went with a brown sugar pound cake. My original idea was to do a goat cheese and honey frosting, but I thought the goat cheese might throw some people off, and I stuck with a cream cheese and honey frosting that was pretty amazing. These suckers went like hotcakes. Do people still say that anymore??? I think this one is definitely going on the list of fall seasonal cakes, which I've been working on getting completed.

Also, I have a friend from work that has been throwing some ideas for savory-type cakes at me. I'm really not into these so much. I'm cool with scones and muffins and whatnot, but not quite savory cakes. This weekend, after the wedding cake was delivered and I had time to recuperate from that little bit of stress, I busted one of his ideas out. This is a dill cake with smoked salmon cream cheese...I hesitate to say frosting, because it's lacking the key components of butter and sugar, although I did whip some heavy cream into it to make it a bit fluffier.

I really enjoyed the cake part of it, the fresh dill flavor was pretty nice. BUT, I am NOT a fan of smoked salmon, so the combination was a little bit lost on me. The recipient of said cakes did enjoy them though. Will I make them again? Likely not.

Some people find my bad pronunciation charming

Honestly. Ask my roommate. I'm just really white, and from a small town. My Spanish pronunciation is pretty bad. I can say things correctly in my head, but when I try to speak, I just sound like Whitey McCrackerhead. It's something I've come to accept.

Which is why you will most likely not hear me say 'empanada' out loud ever again. But my pronunciation of the word isn't really the point here.

The other day I went with Sean to the grocery store (Cermack Produce) up the block because we were out of 'shit tickets' (use your imagination here). The grocery store also happened to have eggs on sale for $0.99 (probably because most of the cartons had at least one broken egg). Well, the egg sale was enough to draw Sean's interest, and there he was rifling through every container of eggs trying to find one without a broken egg in it.

Boredom got the better of me, and I started looking at the freezer cases. It was then that I found the empanada 'discos' and decided I was going to make some.

So, last night after Luz and I had a 'business meeting' over beer, it was empanada time. Here's the recipe, and for fun, more things I can't pronounce.

Black Bean and Corn Empanadas

1 package Goya 'Discos Grandes', thawed (yeah, I'm not saying that out loud either)
1 large can black beans, mashed (frijoles negros)
1 can corn (maiz)
1 jalapeño, seeded and finely chopped
1/4 c. cilantro, chopped
1/2 c. finely shredded cheddar.

In medium mixing bowl, mix last five ingredients. Place a few tablespoons of the mixture in the middle of each round of dough. Fold over and crimp to seal. In a large skillet, or pot, heat a few inches of oil. Fry each empanada until golden brown, about 2 minutes each side.

The results were nice. The crust was crispy and flaky. The filling had just the right amount of heat from the jalapeño, and there was enough filling leftover for me to make a burrito for lunch.

I've got another package of the dough, and am probably going to try to come up with a dessert filling for them.

Insatiable Cravings for Frito Pie

If anyone has ever been to a county fair, they most likely know what Frito Pie is.

Unfortunatley, no one I know knows what Frito Pie is, and that, my friends, is sad.

It's one of those glorious food items that you should probably only eat at the fair, along with funnel cakes, and hot dogs that are a foot and a half long.

But, I'm short on funds, and Frito Pie is cheap and easy to make. The dish is merely Fritos corn chips (which I will refuse to eat plain), chili (the thick and chunky kind), shredded cheddar, and onions. Since I am an obese woman trapped in the body of a moderately sized woman, I also put sour cream on mine.

I know it's not a lot to look at, but it is pretty filling. Also, if you're broke, you don't complain a lot. Hence, I have eaten this three times in the past week.

Ain't no shame.

The hot dogs have conquered me

I'm thinking that I need to take a long, well-deserved break from my attempts at eating 80 different hot dogs. I managed to get two down about a week and half ago, but it was a struggle. Just the thought of ingesting another one right now makes me feel a bit physically ill. But, someday, I will finish all 80 of them.

For now, these are the last hot dogs in a very LONNNNGGG time:

On the left you have a buffalo wing dog. This is a hot dog cooked in wing sauce, then topped with carrot, and blue cheese. I suppose you could put celery on there if you like celery, but I don't. Whatever.

On the right, you have my take on the Sumo Dog, from Tubby Dogs in Calgary. This dog originally calls for wasabi, Japanese mayo, pickled ginger, and toasted sesame seeds. I switched it up a bit and did wasabi mayo, pickled ginger, and black sesame seeds.

So long hot dogs. Nice knowing you.

Business Is A Boomin'

The baking is going well. I've got two weddings coming up and a couple other orders I need to work on (and ship...to California...). I'm pretty excited about both the weddings. The first one is a giant cupcake cake, with flavors of my suggestions (lemon cake with raspberry buttercream. No fondant! YAY!). I think the other one is going to be a more traditional cake, and my first attempt at something huge. I'm pretty excited, although this one will most likely have fondant, and I've never worked with it before (shh!) I'm fairly confident with my handiwork and my ability to quickly learn.

I think we'll be going over the details of that cake this weekend.

After that, I've got a couple weeks till the second wedding.

Then after THAT, I'll be going back to my creative freedoms, and testing things out in the kitchen. Hopefully they'll be more successful than what is sitting in my fridge right now.

I like whiskey. I like to make house infused whiskeys. I've got an apple/vanilla/cinnamon that I've made a couple times, and is amazing. I took a bottle of it to Christmas dinner at my grandparent's house one time. This was two days before I was being banned from solid food and alcohol for two months (massive jaw surgery) and my lil' broseph had never had whiskey before. We pretty much drank the whole fifth of it, while playing pool, and unwillingly listening to the Bill Cosby record that my grandfather will inevitably put on at every family function.

(intermission: I am trying to find a picture of said whiskey, and I came across an old blog where I was slightly disappointed about a job interview I bombed. It was at a children't boutique. This is effin' hilarious, because, hello, I don't understand why I thought I could tolerate a job with kids, or moreover, their yuppie parents. Praise the lord that I've moved on to the wonderful world of asset management)

Anyway, whiskey infusion #1

Then, I did a second whiskey infusion that was peaches, cloves, and cinnamon. That was was decent, not as good as the apple though. But because it's whiskey, and my friend, I made quick work of it. (Cannot find picture).

Right now, I will not discuss what is in secret infusion #3. I just put it in yesterday, and it needs about 5 days to totally come together. You're supposed to taste it everyday. Day one....was not good.

*crosses fingers*

Luz's Birthday Cake

Or, my first successful attempt at a layer cake. The only other time before this weekend that I made a layer cake was a chocolate mint cake that I made a couple years ago. It was lopsided and the frosting was starting to melt, so I put it in the freezer. That was NOT a genius move. I wound up breaking the handle off a kitchen knife trying to cut it. But, this time i decided to do things right. I asked Luz what kind of cake she wanted for her birthday her only request that the cake be chocolate. I snagged a recipe out of an issue of Bon Appetit.

There was only one slight difference, and that was that I used regular cream cheese instead of mascarpone, because it did not require me making yet another trip to the grocery store. The cake was....delicious. In fact, when I came home inebriated from the bowling alley last night, I ate a cold chunk of it with my bare hands. Let it be known, that by sharing that little fact, I have almost no shame.

A Giant Cupcake Cake.

Good news! I was approached about baking for a wedding. Seems like a mildly daunting task, but I'm pretty awesome and confident with my baking so I'm pretty sure I can handle it. Originally (meaning before today), I thought it was going to be 100 cupcakes and a giant cupcake cake. So I did a practice cake (autumnal theme). I will no longer be doing the giant cupcake cake, but for a first run, I don't think I did too shabby of a job. I also figured out some good tricks with using the Wilton Giant Cupcake pan.

1) First things first, there are some blogs that I read that said you could do this cake with 6 cups of batter. Well, that my friends, is bullshit. You need at least 8. If you're doing this from boxed mixes, you'll need two boxes. You'll use 75% of the batter in the giant pan and you'll have enough batter left to make a dozen cupcakes.

2) To get a cake that looks nice like the one in the above picture, you'll need handy carving skills. You'll need to cut away some of the swirl for the top half to make it look proportionate to the bottom part.

3) And to prevent disasters and increase portability, I found it is best to cut a dome in the bottom part of the swirl to make it fit on top of the bottom cake, like a little hat. You'll need about a cup of a really, really thick basic butter cream to cement the two together.

All up, my butter cream was 1 lb of butter, 2.5 pounds of sugar, and a little bit of milk. (This will also ensure that you've got enough to frost the dozen cupcakes).

The results: (pardon my table, I like movies):

Also, that frosting isn't chocolate, it's food coloring.