Vampire Cupcakes

My niece turned 13 yesterday.  The nice thing about moving here is that almost all of my husbands family live here.  I love making cakes for family and friends, so I hope that by living here I get to make more for family events!  Back to my niece...  one of her favorite books series is The Vampires Assistant.  So when she found out that the movie was coming out ON her birthday she decided to go to the Saturday matinee with her friends.  My contribution were these Vampire inspired cupcakes!  I haven't read the books myself so I wasn't sure what other characters/themes or direction to go.  So we stuck with simple.    I used my Mixed Berry Coulis for the "blood", it was the perfect texture, although getting it to "drip" right was difficult!  But in the end I enjoyed it.  To make the "teeth" holes without pulling the frosting off I dipped a pointed dowel in cornstarch before poking the holes.  It worked great!

Finally another cake!

This "cake" blog hasn't had a lot of cakes in the last little bit. But I hope you guys don't mind that I've included some of the other foods I've enjoyed making. But back to real reason we're here: CAKES!

This one was a job, which I've been turning down lately because my husband had been living in another town because of work. But he recently got let go (sad) so he's living with us again (happy!). So I was able to take this job when it came along.
A law firm actually hired me to make a cake for a retirement party for a local county judge. They were VERY specific in some of the instructions they had. A large sheet cake with a Ford Explorer on it and Firestone tires. But they didn't care about color, or what I made it out of etc... It seemed the tire was the important part, so I suggested a cute carved, fondant covered tire cake, but nope... Sheet cake. Ugh, I don't even have a sheet cake pan. Oh well!
So I found this image and decided to go for it.
I decided to use fondant and layer it to create a slightly 3D look to this 2D image. The first layer was black, and I airbrushed pearl where the windows would be. Then the red layer (a real pain, I had to do it 3 times before it worked. Also the wheels. Finally the bumpers, grill, lights, handles, explorer plate, etc... And last the Ford logo! I used gold and silver and pearl airbrushing to try to make it more realistic.

It took WAY too long, but in the end I was really happy with it. I ended up using a few doll hairs to make my own tiny paint brush to paint the Firestone wording onto the tires. Also the tiny explorer plate turned out GREAT! The only part I wasn't super happy with was the Ford nameplate. In the end the perfectionist in me was pleased enough. With any cake there is always something I wish I could change, and that is certainly true of this cake. But it actually turned out much better than I originally thought it could/would! So yeah! Happy happy!

Pineapple

A girlfriend of mine decided to start an iron chef dinner party. This was our first month, with the plan of doing one every month. A week before the dinner we were all emailed the secret ingredient, this month, Pineapple! There were 12 couples invited and we each brought 1-2 dishes. Then the winner gets to choose the next secret ingredient and host the next month.
This month was... Pineapple... I don't like pineapple, actually I can't stand pineapple. Not just the taste, but the texture, smell, etc... So this created a challenge for me. I called my sister for some advice and she told be about a pineapple coconut ice cream she'd made, and a pineapple chili she'd seen on a friends, sisters, blog. Since Ice Cream is something I love to make, but is also pretty simple I thought I'd make both. I thought the Ice cream turned out great, but coconut is one of my favorite foods! But the chili was too pineapple-y for me. My husband loved it though and said it was his favorite chili to date!

Here is the recipe, which I doubled. Next time I'll half the meat and add another kind of bean, white or black for another color, since my husband doesn't like a ton of meat.

Pineapple Chili

1 14 oz can crushed pineapple
1 lb Ground Pork
1 15 oz can kidney beans
1 16 oz jar salsa
1 8 oz can tomato sauce
1 Tbsp chili powder

Brown pork in sauce pan on stove. While browning meat, combine drained kidney beans, pineapple, salsa, tomato sauce, and chili powder, in crock pot. Add meat to crock pot once browned.Stir together and turn on low for 7-8 Hours.

The other foods we had were: Shrimp Avocado Salad, Calico Beans, Sweet n Sour Shrimp, Sweet n Sour chicken, Tropical Salad, Teriyaki Flank Steak with Grilled Pineapple, Salad with Pineapple dressing (?), Pineapple salsa, Pineapple Cream Cheese cookies, Pineapple bread, Moroccan Pineapple Pork in Lettuce Leaves, Bacon wrapped pineapple shrimp. It was all great! Every dish was a hit, and almost everything was gone by the end of the night. Good food, great conversation and company, the evening was a hit!

AND the winner was... My Pina Colada Ice Cream! I was shocked that something so simple won, but I have to say it WAS tasty. And homemade Ice cream is amazing, especially if you haven't had it before or often. I added an extra 1/2 tsp of coconut extract and thought it created a better balance.

Pina Colada Ice Cream

1 16 oz unsweetened pineapple chunks drained
1/2 tsp salt
1 C sugar
1 C unsweetened coconut milk
3 Lg egg yolks
1 C heavy cream
1/2 tsp vanilla
Add 1/2 cup toasted sweetened coconut at the end
1/2 tsp coconut flavor (optional)

Place pineapple and salt in food processor, blend until smooth. Combine sugar and coconut milk over low heat; stir until just to a boil. Then slowing pour into the egg yolks while mixing. Pour back into pan and, stirring constantly, heat until slightly thick (don't boil. Pour through a strainer (if desired), cool, then stir in the pineapple, cream and vanilla and refrigerate until cool. Pour into an Ice cream maker and set to manufactures directions, adding coconut during the last 5 mins. Put in freezer for 3-4 hours then serve.
So I get to pick the ingredient for next month, I have an idea, but I can't say anything yet. So stay tuned! Of course any suggestions are welcome! The next dinner is May 9th! I'm SO excited about it. Too bad we're moving and I won't get to participate all year. Although we'll be in Dallas for awhile before the move to Japan so I'll try to come down as many months as I can to keep enjoying this great dinner group! At the end of the year we'll be making a cookbook of all the recipes. I'm really excited for this!

Strawberry Coulis

So the final item on our September Challenge for the month was a fruit Coulis (or dessert sauce). I put this off for a few reasons. I kept forgetting to get fresh fruit, or when I did remember it wasn't fresh. And also because I don't really like fruit. I like the chocolate cakes by themselves and would make the cake, forget the coulis and by the time I remembered the cake was gone! BUT tonight was different. I was determined to make the coulis, and not wait until the last day of the month either. So I made another batch of the Chocolate Nemesis (my 4th this month) and made little cakes to take around the neighbors that had brought us goodies when we first moved in. And I thought, perfect, I'll make some Coulis to go along with the give aways so I don't have 2 Cups of Coulis to eat myself! Of course I knew my Husband (fruit lover) would finish it off for me, and I DO need to be less selfish and make more stuff just for him. Anyway, Here is the recipe...

Coulis
makes 2 Cups

12 oz raspberries (I used Strawberries, chopped, and my friend at My ABC's used blueberries)
1/4 tsp orange zest
1/2 C water
1/4 C lemon juice
1/4 C sugar



In a medium-sized sauce pot over medium heat, combine the berries, orange zest, water, sugar, and lemon juice. Bring to a boil and cook for an additional 8 minutes. Remove from the heat and puree with a blender or handheld mixer. Strain into desired small bowl.

And the results? Magnificent! I loved it. The tang/sour from the lemon juice mixed with the fruit was the perfect combination and compliment for the chocolate cake! In fact it was so good I "licked" my plate clean! Now I'm glad I have leftovers, and will be making it again when it runs out. I think it will be good on my Best Ever Chocolate Ice Cream. And of course my Husband loved it!