Tag Archives: Tasty Treat

Chocolate Cupcakes with Peanut Butter Mousse Filling and Peanut Butter Butter Cream

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I think this title has the record for the number of times “butter” is in a blog title.  I’m totally cool with that.

I’m also cool with this

Peanut Butter and Chocolate is pretty much one of the most amazing combinations on the planet.  My mother would disagree, but I think 90% of America would think these cupcakes are amazing.  Fact.

Chocolate Cupcakes with Peanut Butter Mousse Filling and Peanut Butter Butter Cream

using Hershey’s “Perfectly Chocolate” Chocolate Cake

2 cups sugar
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup  Cocoa Powder
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
1 cup milk (I used almond milk and it was a-okay!)
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup boiling water
2 oz cream cheese, softened
3/4 cup peanut butter
3/4 + 1/4 cup powdered sugar
1/4 cup heavy cream
1 stick of butter, softened
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract (optional)

Pre-heat oven to 350F.  Combine sugar, flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder and salt in a large bowl.  In another bowl, combine eggs, milk, vegetable oil and vanilla.  Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients.  Once it’s just about combine, stir in cup of boiling water.  Pour 1/4 cup batter into about each lined cupcake pan (makes about 30).  Bake 15-18 minutes (depending on your oven) or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Remove cupcakes from cupcake pan immediately and place to cool on a wire rack.  Allow to cool completely.

Make mousse filling.  Using a hand (or stand) mixer, whip heavy cream.  Gradually add in 1/4 cup powdered sugar as it starts to form soft peaks.  Beat until stiff, careful not to overwhip.  In another bowl, beat together cream cheese and 1/4 cup of peanut butter until smooth.  Fold in whipped cream.  Chill for about half an hour (you can put it in the freezer to speed this up).

Next make peanut butter butter cream.  Beat together peanut butter and butter.  Add in powdered sugar (and some vanilla if you’d like) until it reaches a thick enough consistency for frosting, add milk if necessary.  If you’d like you can also add some cream cheese to the frosting.  It turns out great!

Using a sharp pointed knife, cut out a small circle from each cupcake.  Transfer mousse to a ziploc bag and cut off an end to make a sort of piping bag (or put it in a piping bag if you’re fancy pants like that).  Pipe some mousse into each cupcake.  Next frost as desired (pipe or spread).

Keep them in the fridge until ready to serve.

Peanut Butter and Chocolate is a sure-fire crowd please-r.   I took them to an office party.  They were a hit.  Who doesn’t love a delicious chocolate cupcake with a peanut butter surprise?

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Rum Layer Cake with Coconut Custard Filling

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In addition to being obsessed with weddings, I’m also all about birthdays.

Yeah, that’s me… I love birthdays (along with any opportunity to bake a cake).

So…I know cupcakes are all the rage these days, but I have an unnatural love for layer cakes and let’s face it, birthdays merit layer cakes.  There’s something about a fully assembled and frosted layer cake that makes me feel warm and fuzzy inside.

I can understand why people don’t like making them.  Let’s face it, they’re sort of labor intensive, but in my opinion totally worth it, especially for a special friend.

My friend, Rachel, totally deserves a layer cake.  In fact, she got this one.

Rum Cake with Coconut Custard Filling

adapted from Bacardi Rum Cake

For Cake:*

1 box yellow cake mix
1 package instant pudding (4 serving size)
1/2 cup dark rum
1/2 cup water or milk (I used almond milk)
1/2 cup vegetable oil
4 eggs

For Custard:*

1 cup whole milk (I used 3/4 cup nonfat milk and 1/4 cup of cream and it worked fine)
2 egg yolks
1/4 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 tbsp corn starch
1 cup shredded coconut

Cream Cheese Frosting:

1 (8 oz) package cream cheese, softened
1 stick of butter, softened
1 lb powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla
Food coloring (optional)

Make Cake. Preheat oven to 325F.  Grease and flour 2 9-inch round cake pans (you can also put it in 3 pans, bake it for less time).  Cut a piece of parchment paper to line the bottom of the pan.  Pour contents of cake mix and pudding mix into a large bowl. In another bowl mix together milk, rum, eggs and vegetable oil.  Pour wet ingredients into dry and mix until combined.  Pour into the prepared cake pans, bake approximately 25 minutes or until golden brown and cooked in the center.

Remove from oven and set aside to cool.  You can make this a day or two in advance, just make sure you cover it in plastic wrap to keep it from drying out.

Make custard.  Heat milk on low heat in a medium saucepan stirring occasionally to keep it from burning.  In a separate bowl mix together egg yolks, sugar, corn starch and vanilla. Stir in half a cup of the warm milk, then pour the mixture into the saucepan.  Keep stirring over low-medium heat until thick.  Pour into a bowl to cool, cover with plastic wrap.  Refrigerate a few hours until completely cooled.

Make Frosting.  Beat together butter, cream cheese, powdered sugar and vanilla (and food coloring if you choose to use it).

Assemble cake.  Cut off the tops of the cakes so you have a level surface.  Lay down the first layer, then put down a layer of the filling in the center, don’t spread it to the edges, it’ll over flow.  If you only do two layers then place the top layer.   If not, repeat.  Cover in a thin layer for frosting, then chill in the freezer for 15 minutes.  Apply a thicker layer of frosting, decorate, chill again and serve.

*Note: For a taller cake, double the recipe.  I used 1.5 of this recipe (had oven issues and had to throw away one of my 4 layers).
**Note: If you only make a 2 layer cake, half the custard recipe is enough for one layer of filling.

I’m usually opposed to box mix.  I know I’m a total snob, but this was just sooo good, I had to give in and make it.  Honestly, I’ll probably make it again. In fact, I feel like this should be a birthday tradition.

It was a hit at the Birthday Dinner.

Happy Birthday Rachel!

What’s your favorite kind of birthday cake?

Coconut Cream Pie but Better

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I’m not completely sure what the difference is between a pie and a tart, other than the shape of the pan.  For all intents and purposes, what follows is a pie disguised as a tart.

Thus, it is a much fancier (almost French seeming, hey, it’s Bastille Day!) version of coconut cream pie.

Okay, let’s be honest.  I’ve never eaten coconut cream pie.  I don’t think I’ve ever even seen one in person.  That was until I made my version of what I think coconut cream pie should be like.

I have no idea if this is what coconut cream pie should taste like, but here’s my creation.  Karla’s new and improved version with rich chocolate whipped cream for topping.

I’m going to go ahead and call it a winner.

Coconut Cream Pie with Chocolate Whipped Cream

1 package of graham crackers
6 tbsp butter
3 cup finely shredded coconut
1 1/2 cup milk
1 (14oz) can sweetened condensed milk
4 egg yolks
1 tsp vanilla
pinch of salt
1/4 cup corn starch
1 1/2 cup heavy cream
1/4 + 2 tbsp cup powdered sugar
3 tbsp cocoa powder

For the crust:

Crush graham crackers and combine with 1 cup of coconut.  Melt butter and pour over graham cracker mixture, toss to combine.  Press into a pie or tart pan.  Refrigerate.

For Custard Filling:

In a saucepan, combine the milk, sweetened condensed milk, egg yolks, vanilla and salt.  Heat, stirring constantly, until nearly boiling.  Take some of the warm milk mixture and combine in a small bowl with the corn starch, stir until smooth.  Pour in the corn starch mixture and the 2 cups of coconut.  Continue to stir until thick (not too thick though!).  Put in a bowl, cover with plastic wrap.  Lay the plastic wrap directly on the custard.  Refrigerate until completely cooled, like so:

Once your custard is cool, fill the tart crust with the creamy filling.

Then make your whipped topping.

For the topping, sift together the powdered sugar and cocoa powder.  Using a mixer start to whip cream, gradually add in cocoa powder and sugar.  Whip until the cream holds firm peaks.

Lay it on there, or nicely use a piping bag.

Either way, it doesn’t really matter.  Even the worst spreading will be covered up with some divine toasted coconut.  Lay your coconut on a baking sheet or on a piece of foil and stick it in the oven or toaster oven for a few minutes.  Turn it every so often and watch out because it can easily burn.  Allow the toasted coconut to completely cool and sprinkle as much or as little as you’d like onto your beautiful tart!

Serve, enjoy and feel fancy while you eat it.

Bananas Foster Creme Brulee and How I’m Going to Find the Love of My Life

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I’m pretty sure this is how I’m going to get a husband.

One sunny afternoon, I’ll be making this wonderful creation:

I’ll serve it up to that special someone. He’ll take a bite and propose to me right then and there. Simple as that.

Okay, so it probably won’t happen that way, but I can almost guarantee that if you were to feed this to a fella (or lady! Gentlemen, don’t be scared to get in the kitchen!) it would most certainly, at the very least, land you a date.

Worth a shot, right?

Bananas Foster Creme Brulee

6 prepared ramekins of custard for creme brulee
3-4 bananas, sliced
3 tbsp butter
3 tbsp brown sugar
3 tbsp hazelnut liqueur (or rum, optional)
6 tsp white sugar

In a skillet, melt together the butter and brown sugar. Add bananas and turn the heat up to high.

Add the hazelnut liqueur. Shake the pan a little bit then flip each banana. Once the liqueur has reduced (and nearly completely evaporated), turn off the heat.

Arrange bananas over custard.

Sprinkle with a teaspoon or so of white sugar.

Using a kitchen torch, burn the top of the bananas so you get a good caramelized crust.

Serve and wait for a dinner invite/proposal/confession of adoration/etc.

If this doesn’t work… then I’m pretty sure men are crazy, and I’m doomed to be an old maid.

Gelateria del Teatro

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I like weird food.  I pretty much always want to try new weird combinations of things.  Honestly, I think it sorta frustrates my family around the holidays, maybe not so much my sister but definitely the rest of my family.  The probably spend hours wondering: why can’t we just have normal food for Christmas?  Why are there apples in the potatoes au gratin?

But really, who wants to eat boring things?

The same should be true for gelato.  A few years ago, I went to this ice cream place in Berkeley called Sketch (it’s on 4th street in case you’re in the area and want to visit) and had the most amazing fig balsamic ice cream.  I’ve been obsessed with unusual ice cream flavors ever since.

This weekend some friends and I went to a gelato place, Gelateria del Teatro with the promise of unusual flavors. With less than a month left in Italy, it’s time to eat some delicious gelato.

We take our gelato very seriously!

They delivered!  I got three flavors: White Chocolate Basil, Ricotta Fig with Almonds and Orange Sacher (chocolate apricot?).

Oh my, so good.  Totally worth it!  The white chocolate basil tasted like real basil that had been sweetened, not really like white chocolate.  It was pretty delicious and fresh!

Kyla got some crazy flavors too but sadly I don’t remember which ones.  Even more sadly, the pictures of Lis and Nancy turned out wayyyy to dark.

My parents are visiting next week, I can’t wait to go back because I’m dying to try the Raspberry Sage flavor.  Then again, maybe I should stick to traditional flavors with them…

Cena di Domenica

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Let me start by saying that this title might be grammatically incorrect.  Surprisingly, being in Italy has yielded little opportunity to learn Italian.  However, I might leave fluent in French.  Today I spent the majority of the day reading reports in French, who knew I still can read it… but google translate helps… On to Sunday… Domenica!

A new tradition has started.  Well, at least, I hope it’ll catch on.  Inspired by the Biscotti Queen and her family, the grad students and I have decided to start a Sunday Dinner tradition.

My roommate and I both love to cook.  So it sorta works out.  Plus, he’s Sicilian and doesn’t fool around.

Now this wasn’t your average Sunday Dinner.  It started around 3:00pm and ended around 8:00pm, and it was amazing.

It started with an unorthodox, antipasti.  Not meats.  Instead, cream puffs.

Nancy and I love sugar and she stopped at a bakery before arriving.  They were amazing! Some were filled with lemon cream and others with a chocolate cream.

To die for.  So while Nancy and I munched on cream puffs and waited for the others to arrive, Joe started making primo piatto.

Once Lis, Kyla and her friend Giuseppe arrived.  We were ready.

Spaghetti ai Frutti di Mare

Delicious!

After some sitting and chatting, I made secondo piatto.  It ended up being some strange version of saltimbocca. Thinly pounded chicken breast, rolled with prosciutto and sage, cooked in a butter wine sauce.

Not bad.  For contorno, rosemary roasted potatoes.

 

Nancy and Lis both brought dessert.  However, I only remembered to photograph what Nancy brought (other than the cream puffs):

Some sort of delicious crostata! I was pleased.

After dessert and coffee, we were sufficiently full and basically ready for the night to be over.

Next time, I want to make primo and leave the meat making to someone who knows what he’s doing.

Food and the Pope

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This weekend was full of food.  All delicious of course.

Friday night dinner with Nancy and my apartmentmate, Joe.

I had Rigatoni al Agnello

and Artichokes

I ate meat.  It was delicious.  I don’t really feel bad.  I have no intention of turning into a carnivore but I love lamb.  And honestly, when in Rome…

Then the next day, Nancy

Kyla

and I walked around Trastevere.  It was lovely!  Great view!

Along the way we stopped for lunch.

Pomodori e mozzarella

In America we have ketchup and mustard in packets on every table.  In Italy, they have olive oil and balsamic vinegar in packets.

A much better choice if you ask me.

Later that night, we had a gathering at our apartment.

Lots of cheese!  and wine…

Delicious!

Then this morning, Nancy and I headed to the Vatican with the intention of going to the Vatican Museum (since it’s free the last Sunday of every month).

Instead, we hung out with the Pope

There he is!

After some more walking around and lunch, I headed home and took a nap.   I woke up with a sore throat.

Please don’t let me get sick!  My internship needs to start ASAP!

Cakes and Rum Balls

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I left Ithaca where it was a chilly 10F for California, where countless friends and family members had been bragging about the warm weather.

The second I landed, the weather turned rainy and cold.  It’s been raining for 5 days straight.  I have the worst luck.

So since I’ve been stuck at home, I worked on the never ending report! made a cake (among other things).

Okay really I made 2 cakes.  Both were mistakes.  My brother asked me to make a cake for a party he’s going to.  For some reason I thought his party was on Monday December 20th.  Nope, it’s on Thursday December 23rd.

Clearly a cake made on December 19th would be no good by the 23rd.  So instead, I took one to a party, and another was made for family friends.

Chocolate cake filled with chocolate mousse and frosted with raspberry whipped cream.

I didn’t try it, but I can only imagine it’s good.

Facebook wall confirmed.

Great!

Now, you know everyone favorite part of making layer cakes… leveling off the top?

Well I had a lot of leveled off cake tops after making 2 layer cakes.  So instead of stuffing my face, which ordinarily is my favorite thing to do.  I decided to make something exciting.

Chocolate Rum Balls

1 1/2 cups crumbled chocolate cake
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1/2 cup finely chopped walnuts
2 tbsp dark rum
1 tbsp honey
Extra powdered sugar, cocoa powder, or melted chocolate

Combine all ingredients in a bowl.

Any good Guatemalan household has Guatemalan Rum…

Use your hands to form it all into a mass.  Break off pieces and roll into one inch little balls.

Then you can roll them in powdered sugar, cocoa powder or dip them in melted chocolate.  Refrigerate for a few hours and serve!

My brother gave one to my niece; she wasn’t a fan.

Me on the other hand… I’ve eaten about 5 today… Clearly I hated them.

Now I need to figure out what cake to actually make for my brother’s gathering.

In the meantime…

 

Pear Almond Galette

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Last night, I couldn’t sleep.  Around 11pm, after a while of tossing and turning, I decided to just get up and have a glass of wine.  Because really, wine makes life better.

Around midnight, while I sipped on wine and did everything BUT read about the global food system, I decided this was a good time to start baking.  So I made tart dough, since the idea for a pear almond galette had been brewing in my head for a few days.

Galette Dough

adapted from Joy of Baking

1 1/4 cup flour
1/2 tsp sugar
1 tbsp sugar
1 stick butter, cold and cut into pieces
about 1/4 cup ice water

Combine dry ingredients in a bowl.  Using a pastry blender or knives or your fingers, blend butter into flour mixture.  Gradually add in ice water and mix using your hands until you get a ball of dough.  Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for a few hours (I refrigerated over night).

Once the dough has chilled, roll it out to about a 12-13 inch circle.  It doesn’t matter if it’s a perfect circle.

Put the rolled out dough, place it on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper, then put it in the refrigerator while you make almond cream (frangipane).

Almond Cream

adapted from Joy of Baking

1/4 cup sugar
3 tbsp butter, softened
1 egg
1/2 tsp almond extract
1 tbsp flour
1/2 cup almond meal (ground almonds)

Using a hand or stand mixer, cream together butter and sugar.  Next, beat in egg and almond extract until smooth and sorta runny.  Blend it one tbsp flour.  Lastly, add almond flour and continue to blend until smooth.

Take the dough out of the fridge and spread the almond cream onto the dough, leaving a inch or two border all around.

Next, take some pears.  I had some raggedy old ones that were on their last leg…

Peel, core and thinly slice.  I used two but I wish I had used three because they definitely would have fit.

Arrange the sliced pears onto the almond cream part of the galette.

See I could have fit 3 pears… Oh well.  Next fold the edges up over the top.  Trim any excess dough.

Take one tablespoon of melted butter and brush it onto the assembled galette.

Then sprinkle it with sugar.

Bake at 375 for 45-55minutes.  (Mine took about 50 minutes but start checking it around 45).

Allow it to cool.  If it’s 28 degrees outside like it is here, putting it next to the window speeds up the process.

Once the galette has cooled

Sprinkle it with powdered sugar and serve with whipped cream or creme anglaise.

Now I just need to figure out who to feed this to…  Shouldn’t be that hard to find a worth recipient, right?

Orange Chocolate Chip Cookies

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I don’t think I’ve ever met a person with a sweet tooth the size of mine.

I can pretty confidently say that I would almost always choose something sweet over salty, and if I could, I would eat only dessert and never eat a real meal.

Okay maybe I’m exaggerating, but I love sweets.

Regardless, sometimes we all need a break from our dear loves.

Sugar and I are taking a break.  Not for long.  For two weeks, until Thanksgiving.

In the meantime, I bid sugar farewell by making some Orange Chocolate Chip Cookies for my class this past Wednesday.

Orange Chocolate Chip Cookies

adapted from Smitten Kitchen

2 cups flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 cup butter, softened
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar (Note: I used all plain white sugar)
1 tbsp vanilla
1 egg
1 egg yolk
zest of 3 oranges
2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips

Cream together butter and sugars.  Add vanilla, eggs and orange zest.  Add dry ingredients (except chocolate chips).  Mix until combined, fold in chocolate chips.

Chill the dough while you preheat the oven to 350F.  Bake tbsp sized amounts of dough for about 9 minutes or until golden brown on the edges.  Allow to cool and enjoy!

Pretty tasty.  They were gone in about 5 minutes! I say that’s a good sign.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend!