Thursday, November 25, 2010

November's Cupcake of the Month: Marshmallow Turkey Cupcakes


As the flames licked the underside of my kitchen cabinets I thought, "This is going to be the most exciting Cupcake of the Month post I have ever written."


The One-Bowl Chocolate Cupcakes which form the bodies of the turkeys are the chocolate equivalent of October's Cupcake of the Month: Yellow Buttermilk Cupcakes. They baked up with beautiful, even, dome tops. They aren't so amazing that you'd eat them without frosting. They're pretty much like a store bought box chocolate cake mix, which isn't a bad thing. I'll probably end up making these cupcakes again and again because they're a safe bet especially for younger pallets.

The assembly instructions state, "Press 5 gummy fish into each cupcake to make tail feathers." This is a lie. Gummy fish pressed into a cupcake will fall over almost instantly. Five gummy fish pressed into one edge of a cupcake will rip that cupcake apart as they fall over almost instantly. The only way to get a gummy fish to stand up on a cupcake and not destroy it is to carefully insert a toothpick into the tail of the gummy fish as shown below.

The full feathered turkeys are pretty huge and constitute a choking hazard. Only Martha Stewart would decorate a cupcake in a way that primarily appeals to an age group that is most likely to suffer injuries from the toothpicks necessary to hold said decorations in place. I left the tail feathers off half of my turkeys, making turkey hens. I also ran out of turkey heads (see discussion of turkey heads below), so the remainder just got chocolate sprinkles.

The recipe in the book and the title of this post uses marshmallows. More specifically, you're supposed to use Kraft Jet-Puffed Toasted Coconut Marshmallows to make the turkey heads. I am more than capable of tracking down food-quality, organic lavender, but I'll be damned if I can find Kraft Jet-Puffed Toasted Coconut Marshmallows. I tried dusting regular marshmallows with cocoa powder, but they were way too big relative to the size of the cupcake. I feel like the ideal proportions for a turkey are a funny little head on a great big bird.

Moreover, the original instructions indicate that the gummy fish head beak could be attached simply by pushing it into the marshmallow. I tried that and the gummy fish head beaks did not stay attached to the marshmallow heads. The only way I could affix the gummy fish head beaks to the marshmallow heads was to score the marshmallow where the beak was to be applied, dip the gummy fish head beak into melted cooled chocolate, and then stick the chocolate coated gummy fish head beak onto the scored area of the marshmallow head. And even after all that, the marshmallow head was just disproportionately huge relative to the cupcake body. So I substituted the elusive Kraft Jet-Puffed Toasted Coconut Marshmallows with Chocolate Peanut Butter Pretzel Nuggets from the bulk candy section of Henry's. I attached the gummy fish head beaks by dipping them in melted cooled chocolate and resting them on the Chocolate Peanut Butter Pretzel Nuggets. I had to balance the candies beak-up to cool, but that was the least of my troubles.

Which gets us back to the fire. Turkey feathers. 12 oz. (4 C) sweetened shredded coconut, . . lightly toasted. Now, I knew that toasting coconut was not something I should try while watching my baby by myself. I knew that. In fact, I planned my day around that very fact. A friend was coming over to watch my baby while I did some tasks around the house and errands. On my list of tasks: toast coconut. And I did. I spread a thin layer of coconut over a cookie sheet and popped it under the broiler, started talking to my friend, and then smelled smoke. "Fire!" I hear you cry. But no. Just charred coconut. So I scrapped that batch and tried again. This time cracking the oven door and ignoring my friend while I watched the coconut like a hawk. As soon as it showed the slightest sign of toastedness I took it out of the oven. The area directly under the broiler was beautifully golden. But when I poured it into my clear bowl, it all looked too white still. But my friend wasn't feeling well, so I bid her adieu and put my coconut away . . . .

Until later that evening, when I thought, "That coconut is just not toasted enough." The baby seemed contented playing on the kitchen floor while I was cleaning up after dinner. So I thought, "I'll just spread some on the toaster oven tray and toast it a little more to see how it turns out." Not heating up the whole oven, so not endangering my baby, right? RIGHT?!? As I depressed the broken toaster lever which never ever pops up like normal toaster levers, I thought "This is the sort of thing that could burn the house to the ground if I forget about it." Then I proceeded to strain raw milk and boil it to make yogurt.

Yes, I make my own yogurt from raw milk that my friend brings me when she's not making cheese with it. Yes, she has a cow share. She milks Guinevere, that's the cow, every Tuesday evening and every other Friday evening. I know, isn't that cool? Don't you want to become an artisanal cheesemaker with your own goat farm? Me too! Yogurt is so easy. It's easy to sort of check on it every once in awhile while you're doing other things, like, say, watching Tina Fey: The Kennedy Center Mark Twain Prize on PBS. Don't you just love Tina Fey?

And that's when I smelled smoke. "Damn!" I thought as I put the baby in the pack 'n' play, flung open the kitchen door, and saw the thick, thick smoke, "I knew I'd forget this coconut in the toaster oven. I bet the coconut is totally charred." Then I turned and saw the toaster oven . . . on fire. Not the coconut inside the toaster oven. No. The entire toaster oven in flames. Knowing this could go from bad to worse quickly, I pulled the power cord out of the outlet and opened the cabinet where the fire extinguisher is . . . still in its unopened box.

Cut to close up of fire extinguisher box.

Cut to close up of my face completely devoid of knowledge of how to operate a fire extinguisher.

Cut to close up of flames licking the bottom of my kitchen cabinet.

Cut to medium shot of me slamming the cabinet shut and running for the big box o' baking soda.

Baking soda saved my life. Or at least my kitchen cabinets. It put out the flames sufficiently that I could use potholders to get the toaster oven closer to the sink. Then I used the detachable faucet sprayer of my fantastic Grohe faucet to spray the inside of the toaster that I couldn't reach with the baking soda . . . at which point the glass front and handle of the toaster oven exploded. It was a minor explosion and without spreading flames, so I was undeterred. Once the sooty water started spreading over the counter and onto the floor I decided the risk of water damage had become equal to or greater than the risk that the toaster would flame up again, so I put the toaster in the sink and continued running water over it while I used all of my dish towels to stem the tide of sooty water. Once I was sure the fire was out (because the toaster was submerged in my sink) and the flood waters were receding, I listened for the cries of my baby. But there were no cries. WTF? I go out to the living room and there she is, giggling away at Tina Fey.

So this Thanksgiving I am especially thankful for Arm & Hammer Baking Soda, Grohe faucets, and Tina Fey.

You're a Turkey Cupcakes adapted from Martha Stewart's Cupcakes: 175 Inspired Ideas for Everyone's Favorite Treat

Technically, the recipe calls for 24 One-Bowl Chocolate Cupcakes, but the recipe for One-Bowl Chocolate Cupcakes only yields 18. I wasn't about to multiply the One-Bowl Chocolate Cupcake recipe by, what, 1 1/3 to get 24 cupcakes. My flock is only 18 turkeys.

Ingredients:

  • 18 One-Bowl Chocolate Cupcakes (see recipe below)
  • Swiss Meringue Buttercream (see recipe in June's Cupcake of the Month: Flock of Sheep Cupcakes)
  • 5 T semi-sweet chocolate chip, melted and cooled
  • 18 turkey-head shaped chocolate candies, such as Chocolate Peanut Butter Pretzel Nuggets from the bulk candy section of Henry's
  • 1 lb. gummy fish
  • Toothpicks
  • 12 oz. (4 C) sweetened shredded coconut, LIGHTLY toasted


Procedure:
1. Using a flexible spatula, fold melted and cooled chocolate into buttercream. Use an offset spatula to spread buttercream over cupcakes in a smooth layer.

2. Cut the heads off of 18 orange gummy fish. Attached the gummy fish head beaks by dipping them in melted cooled chocolate and resting them on the Chocolate Peanut Butter Pretzel Nuggets. Balance the candies beak-up to cool. Press candy heads onto cupcakes.

3. Gently insert toothpicks into the tails of sixty gummy fish. Press 5 gummy fish into each cupcake to make tail feathers. Sprinkle LIGHTLY toasted coconut over cupcakes to cover completely. Decorated cupcakes can be stored up to 1 day at room temperature in airtight containers.

One-Bowl Chocolate Cupcakes adapted from Martha Stewart's Cupcakes: 175 Inspired Ideas for Everyone's Favorite Treat

Ingredients
  • 1 1/2 C all-purpose flour
  • 3/4 C unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder
  • 1 1/2 C sugar
  • 1 1/2 t baking soda
  • 3/4 t baking powder
  • 3/4 t salt
  • 2 large eggs
  • 3/4 C buttermilk
  • 3 T vegetable oil
  • 1 t pure vanilla extract
  • 3/4 C warm water

Procedure
1. Preheat oven to 350. Line standard muffin tins with paper liners. With an electric mixer on medium speed, whisk together flour, cocoa, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Reduce speed to low. Add eggs, buttermilk, oil, vanilla, and water; beat until smooth and combined, scraping down sides of bowl as needed.

2. Divide batter evenly among lined cups, filling each about two-thirds full. Bake, rotating tins halfway through, until a cake tester inserted in centers comes out clean, about 20 minutes. Transfer tins to wire racks to cool 10 minutes. Turn out cupcakes onto racks and let cool completely. Cupcakes can be stored overnight at room temperature, or frozen up to 2 months in airtight containers.

Previous Cupcakes of the Month:
January's Cupcake of the Month: Streusel Cupcakes
February's Cupcake of the Month: Martha's Meyer Lemon Cupcakes
March's Cupcake of the Month: Flourless Chocolate Cupcakes
April's Cupcake of the Month: Tres Leches Cupcakes
May's Cupcake of the Month: Strawberry Cupcakes
June's Cupcake of the Month: Flock of Sheep Cupcakes
July's Cupcake of the Month: Lavender-Iced Brownie Cupcakes
August's Cupcake of the Month: Cookies and Cream Cheesecakes
September's Cupcake of the Month: Devil's Food Cupcakes
October's Cupcake of the Month: Yellow Buttermilk Cupcakes

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Friday, November 19, 2010

CSA Basket 17


This week's basket contained: Lettuce (red leaf and romaine), Broccoli, Chard, Basil, Green Beans, Parsley, Eggplant, Winter Squash, Carrots, Cucumbers, Beets, Apples, Grapes, Celery, Herb Mix (sage, rosemary, and thyme), Yam, Potatoes, Onion, and Grapefruit.

I traded the chard, cucumber, beets, apples, and grapefruit, for a bunch more eggplants, green beans, and grapes. Broccoli, green beans, eggplant, winter squash, carrots, grapes, yam, and potatoes are all going to be baby food. I've got a ton of potatoes and some frozen dark greens, so I think I'm going to make some of Mark Bittman's Green Mashed Potatoes. Basil is going to be pesto.

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Wednesday, November 10, 2010

October's Cupcake of the Month: Yellow Buttermilk Cupcakes


I know, I know, it hasn't been October for awhile now. But in addition to having an overwhelming October I have a good excuse: I have two occasions for which I need to make cupcakes in November. This occasion: my birthday. In the interest of sanity, I kept it simple by choosing Yellow Buttermilk Cupcakes from Martha Stewart's Cupcakes: 175 Inspired Ideas for Everyone's Favorite Treat.

Much like September's Cupcake of the Month: Devil's Food Cupcakes, the cake part of the cupcakes baked up with beautiful, even, dome tops. Unlike the Devil's Food Cupcakes, the Yellow Buttermilk Cupcakes aren't so amazing that you'd eat them without frosting, but that may be an expression of my bias towards chocolate baked goods. The buttermilk flavor isn't noticeable. They're pretty much like a store bought box yellow cake mix. This isn't a bad thing. People spend hours of their lives trying to perfect the homemade yellow cake that tastes like a box cake. But after nine months of interesting cupcake flavors, I'm jaded. Like the preamble to this recipe states, I'll probably end up making these cupcakes again and again because they're a safe bet especially for younger pallets. Also, they'd be a great base for frosting experimentation as they don't impose their flavor too strongly.

The frosting that Martha Stewart's Cupcakes pairs with the Yellow Buttermilk Cupcakes, Fluffy Vanilla Frosting, is as basic as you can get: butter, confectioner's sugar, and vanilla extract. That said, my cake decorating guru/coblogger Rebecca uses something like this instead of Swiss Meringue Buttercream as her go-to decorating frosting as it takes color well and holds up to intense piping. It serves as an excellent base for sprinkles, as shown above. Much like the cupcake, the frosting isn't anything to write home about, but it will certainly not offend a wide range of pallets.

Two quantity caveats: First, the cupcake recipe says it yields 36, but I only squeaked by with 30. Second, the frosting recipe is probably insufficient to frost 36 cupcakes. I'd double or maybe even triple it, just to be safe. I can't tell you for sure how many cupcakes the frosting recipe can cover because our dogs ate most of the cupcakes as they were cooling on the dining room table . . . but I can tell you the frosting recipe will amply cover five cupcakes with plenty left over.

Yellow Buttermilk Cupcakes adapted from Martha Stewart's Cupcakes: 175 Inspired Ideas for Everyone's Favorite Treat

Ingredients

  • 3 C cake flour (not self-rising)
  • 1 1/2 C all-purpose flour
  • 3/4 t baking soda
  • 2 1/4 t baking powder
  • 1 1/2 t salt
  • 1 C plus 2 T (2 1/4 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
  • 2 1/4 C sugar
  • 5 large eggs plus 3 egg yolks, room temperature
  • 2 C buttermilk, room temperature
  • 2 t pure vanilla extract
  • Fluffy Vanilla Frosting (recipe below)
  • Candy sprinkles for decorating (optional)

Procedure
1. Preheat oven to 350. Line standard muffin tins with paper liners. Sift together both flours, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.

2. With an electric mixer on medium-high speed, cream butter and sugar until pale and fluffy. Reduce speed to medium. Add whole eggs, one at a time, beating until each is incorporated, scraping down sides of bowl as needed. Add yolks, and beet until thoroughly combined. Reduce speed to low. Add flour mixture in three batches, alternating with two additions of buttermilk, and beating until combined after each. Beat in vanilla.

3. Divide batter evenly among lined cups, filling each three-quarters full. Bake, rotating tins halfway through, about 20 minutes. Transfer tins to wire racks to cool 10 minutes. Turn out cupcakes onto rack and let cool completely. Cupcakes can be stored overnight at room temperature or frozen up to 2 months in airtight containers.

4. To finish, use a small offset spatula to spread cupcakes with frosting. Refrigerate up to 3 days in airtight containers. Bring to room temperature and decorate with sprinkles before serving.

Fluffy Vanilla Frosting adapted from Martha Stewart's Cupcakes: 175 Inspired Ideas for Everyone's Favorite Treat

Ingredients
  • 1 1/2 C (3 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
  • 1 lb. (4 C) confectioners' sugar, sifted
  • 1/2 t pure vanilla extract

Procedure
1. With an electric mixer, beat butter on medium-high speed until pale and creamy, about 2 minutes.

2. Reduce speed to medium. Add the confectioners' sugar, 1/2 C at a time, beating well after each addition and scraping down sides of bowl as needed; after every two additions, raise speed to high and beat 10 seconds to aerate frosting, then return to medium. This process should take about 5 minutes. Frosting will be very pale and fluffy.

3. Add vanilla and beat until frosting is smooth. If not using immediately, frosting can be refrigerated up to 10 days in an airtight container. Before using, bring to room temperature, and beat on low speed until smooth again, about 5 minutes.

Previous Cupcakes of the Month:
January's Cupcake of the Month: Streusel Cupcakes
February's Cupcake of the Month: Martha's Meyer Lemon Cupcakes
March's Cupcake of the Month: Flourless Chocolate Cupcakes
April's Cupcake of the Month: Tres Leches Cupcakes
May's Cupcake of the Month: Strawberry Cupcakes
June's Cupcake of the Month: Flock of Sheep Cupcakes
July's Cupcake of the Month: Lavender-Iced Brownie Cupcakes
August's Cupcake of the Month: Cookies and Cream Cheesecakes
September's Cupcake of the Month: Devil's Food Cupcakes

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Saturday, November 06, 2010

Meta T-shirt


Wrap your brain around this. On NPR's Planet Money Tuesday Podcast they're doing a series about making a Planet Money t-shirt. They've settled on a design - a QR code containing the story of making the t-shirt - and a color palette - green and gray. Their first installment "explain[s] why ripping off other people's fashion ideas is a good — and, for the moment, perfectly legal — strategy for us to pursue." So what is this t-shirt? If you scan the QR code you will get the link to the Planet Money Tuesday Podcast about stealing other people's fashion ideas. Get it?

I just used that handy free QR Code Generator, plugged in the URL for the podcast, took the resulting .png file into GIMP and changed the black to either gray or green, and then popped it into Zazzle.

Definitely check out the podcast and the links on the page for the podcast. Lots of cool information about the intellectual property issues surrounding fashion.

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Product Review: Ecosmart LED Lightbulbs


I have been struggling with the appropriate light bulbs for the recessed lights in our kitchen since we moved in over two years ago. The previous owners had traditional flood lights installed which heated up the kitchen like McNuggets under a heat lamp. So I switched to CFLs, as I am want to do. But there were two problems. First, the kitchen lights are on a dimmer switch and CFLs, at least all those with which I am familiar, are not dimmable (they just switch from on to off and when the dimmer switch isn't totally on, they buzz at the resonant frequency of my frontal lobe). Second, with six CFLs, the kitchen was as bright as the surface of the sun. So I had put off replacing light bulbs in there until we were literally down to one functioning light bulb. I ventured to Home Depot this week to see if I could find a solution to my lighting conundrum. And I think I did . . . LED light bulbs.

The brand is Ecosmart, which I'm 98% sure is Home Depot's brand. They're made in the U.S.A., which is just lovely. I bought three different bulbs, each with a different watt equivalency: 40, 60, and 75. They look pretty different too. The 40 watt equivalent LED bulb, pictured above, looks the most like a standard light bulb. Actually, it looks more like those bulbs that are supposed to go in bathroom vanity lights. The other two look like medium and large halogen bulbs. But all three fit in my standard sized recessed fixtures.

I thought that the 40 watt equivalent might be too dim for the kitchen. I was wrong. When the dimmer is set to maximum the kitchen is as bright as the surface of the sun, which is totally cool when you're trying to do delicate cooking procedures or cleaning . . . which this totally makes you realize you need to do a lot more frequently and vigorously. I'm guessing they would also be excellent at staving off Seasonal Affective Disorder. But unlike the flood lights, the room temperature does not seem to be affected by the blazing light. More importantly, you can actually use the dimmer switch to make the light significantly less intense, which is nice for when you're just working on your morning bowl of cereal. I am very happy with their dimmability thusfar.

According to the box, these give off light at about 3000K (correlated color temperature), so they right between warm light and bright white light. They certainly don't seem as blue as fluorescents, and I don't think they're as blue as CFLs. They're not as yellow as conventional bulbs, but I kinda like the slightly more daylight accurate nature of non-conventional bulbs anyway. That way your food that looks great in the kitchen still looks great at the backyard barbecue.

Another reason I'm interested in moving toward LEDs from CFLs is I'm kinda wigged out by the mercury in CFLs. LEDs don't contain mercury. So I'm definitely thinking I might change the light bulbs most in danger of being broken, like those in floor lamps, to LEDs from CFLs.

One ginormous caveat: these LED light bulbs are expensive to purchase. The 40 watt equivalent LED bulbs cost $29.97 each. The 60 watt equivalent LED bulbs cost $39.97. The 75 watt equivalent LED bulbs cost $44.97. That said, they claim 50,000 hour lifespans. Based on the manufacturer's calculations the 60 watt equivalent bulb uses $75.00 of electricity over its lifespan while a 60W halogen bulb uses $360 over the sam period resulting in a savings of $285.00 per bulb. I believe that calculation is solely based on kilowatt hour usage, so it doesn't include the cost of replacing the comparable light bulb multiple times. For example, over the 50,000 hour lifespan of this LED light, you would have to replace a CFL at least 3 times. So I think if we ever move out of this house, we're taking these light bulbs with us.

Another caveat: these LED light bulbs interfere with radio communications. We don't get great radio reception here to begin with, but now, when the LED lights are on in the kitchen, the radios throughout the house get even more static. They do not seem to interfere with our baby monitor, cordless phones, or wi-fi.

A little more technical data for you:
The 40 watt equivalent LED bulbs output 450 lumens and use 8 watts of energy. So their lumens per watt is 56, which is apparently some wonderful measure of luminous efficiency at least as good as a CFL. The luminous efficiency of the 75 watt equivalent LED bulb is 47, so if you don't actually need to perform brain surgery, you should probably stick with the 40 watt equivalent LED bulb. The color accuracy for all the LED bulbs I looked at on the Color Rendering Index is 85, which seems to be good as that's out of 100.

Long story short: other than the hefty upfront cost and the static on my radio, I love my new LED light bulbs.

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Friday, November 05, 2010

CSA Basket 16


This week's basket contained: Chard, Winter Squash, Summer Squash, Cucumber, Eggplant, Kale, Parsley, Leeks, Beets, Carrots, Basil, Broccoli, Green Beans, Plums, Red Leaf Lettuce, Apples, Grapes, and Valencia Oranges. I traded the chard, summer squash, cucumbers, and beets for more winter squash, more leeks, a head of garlic, and a bag of grapes.

The winter squash, eggplant, carrots, broccoli, green beans, plums, and grapes are all baby food. The kale is going to get sauteed with some garlic and thrown onto a pizza. The leeks are going to be Alton Brown's leek potato soup. The basil will be pesto.

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