Small Batch Baking - Mini Strawberry Cake

Happy Valentines Week, Sweets!

As Thursday quickly approaches, I wanted to share a treat for two that I tried out this weekend.  Mini-cake recipes are hard to come by, but perfect for Valentines Day when you and your sweetie want to share a little post-dinner bite.

This cake is completely from scratch and gets it's amazing strawberry flavor from a fresh strawberry puree.  It's frosted with a cream cheese meringue frosting which is an amazing pair.  The finished cake does take a little time; I made mine over two days and that worked out well.  The pink/strawberry theme makes it perfect for Valentines Day, but this cake would also be an excellent choice in the summer when strawberries are nice and fresh and in season.

Tastie!  Strawberry cake, strawberry cream filling, cream cheese meringue frosting...yup, this combo works!

I adapted this recipe from one I spotted on Pinterest, from Oven Love Blog.  That recipe makes a whole big cake, and mine makes a mini.  I had some serious trouble with the icing and getting it to come together, but the end result tasted great even though it didn't spread/set as nicely as I would have liked.

If you make one of these mini-cakes this week, tell me about it in the comments below!

Mini Strawberry Cake with Cream Cheese Meringue Buttercream

Need:

• 12 - 14 very ripe strawberries
• 1/8 cup milk (I used almond milk) at room temperature 
• 3 large egg whites at room temperature 
• 1/2 Tbsp vanilla extract 
• 1 1/8 cup flour
• 3/4 cup plus 1/8 cup sugar 
• 2 tsp baking powder 
• 1/2 tsp salt 
• 6 Tbsp unsalted butter (1½ sticks), softened (not melted) 
• Red food coloring (optional) 

Do:

1.  Trim all the strawberries, slice and toss with a teaspoon of sugar, cover and let them sit at room temperature for an hour or two. 
2. Place strawberries in a food processor and puree.
3. Put a little bit more than 1/3 cup of the strawberry puree aside; this will flavor the cake.  The rest can be used for filling or another project.   
4. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and spray an 8' x 8' square pyrex dish with cooking spray.
5. In small bowl, combine puree, milk, egg, vanilla and mix well until blended. 
6. In the bowl of your stand mixer, add flour, sugar, baking powder and salt and mix to combine. Don't forget the sugar!  I did, and didn't realize it until I was just about to pour the batter into the dish!
7. Keep beating at slow speed and add the butter.  Mix until combined and the batter resembles crumbs. 
8. Now, pour in the liquids and beat at medium speed for about 1 minute or until fully blended.
9. Scrape down the sides of the bowl, give the bottom a good scoop, and if you'd like, add a few drops of food coloring to get a pretty red or pink color.  
10. Pour the batter into the pyrex dish and even out the top.  Bake for 30-35 minutes or until until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.  Keep an eye on it, I checked it after 25 minutes, and I *think* I gave it another 10...but you should just watch it after 30 to be safe.  
11. Let the cake cool completely in the dish.  
12. Once cool, cut your cake into 4 equal parts.  
13. Gently remove one part from the pan, top with a little filling (I mixed two heaping spoonfuls of frosting with my leftover strawberry puree) and stack up your other square pieces in the same way.  For my mini cake, I used three layers, and kept the 4th square as a giant tastie :)
14. Once you have your layers filled and stacked, take out a bread knife and channel your inner cake boss.  Gently cut out a triangle from one of the corners to create a heart shape, like so (picture below).
15. Frost and enjoy!

Square cake cut into 4's

Three stacked layers with triangle cut out to form a heart shape

For the frosting, grab the recipe from Oven Love Blog; I followed it exactly to have some leftover frosting.  As I mentioned, I had some trouble getting this to come together the way I think it was supposed to, but the taste with the cake is fabulous and very much worth it!

Berry Pie

Oh, berry pie, you are so good for the soul.

And, girls' night dinners!

My sweet friend Lindsey baked this strawberry-raspberry pie for our girls night dinner tonight.  Shannon conveniently had some leftover homemade strawberry whipped cream in her fridge to dollop on top.  De-lish.  I don't have Lindsey's secret recipe to share but you can check out some similar sounding recipes here...

Simply Delicious - Strawberry Raspberry Pie

Instructables - Triple Berry Pie

Please note - best friends + delicious pork/green bean/grain/salad dinner + red wine + BERRY PIE = heavenly Wednesday night.  

Strawberry Cheesecake Cupcakes

Recently my buddy Christina of All's Fare Food Blog did a post on an amazing looking apple cheesecake she made.  The post has a VERY funny (although probably not funny to her in the moment) story about her baking adventure, I highly recommend checking it out!

So Christina's cheesecake post reminded me that last week I made my first batch of cheesecake cupcakes, and that I really wanted to blog about them!  These cupcakes were super easy and fast to whip up, and went over extremely well!  I brought them to work for a meeting I was leading, and they were gone before I knew it.   The strawberries on top made them seem kind of summery, but I think the switch to fall-centric sweets will be coming soon.

I went with the cheesecake cupcakes because a coworker of mine asked me if I had ever made them, and I had not!  I figured this meeting was an appropriate time to let my work friends be the taste-testers for my first attempt.  Sad thing- the coworker who asked about them missed the meeting!  (Next time, Nancy!)

Anyway, these cuppies are great crowd pleasers, and the product of my southern love, Miss Paula Deen!  Here's my slightly tweaked version of Paula Deen's Easy Cheesecake Cupcakes.  This recipe is enough for 12 cupcakes.  Enjoy!

Need:
-2 8-oz packages of light cream cheese, softened
-1 cup sugar
-1 tsp vanilla extract
-2 eggs
-1.5 graham crackers (3 squares)
-1 cup strawberry jam
-6 fresh strawberries

Do:
1.  Heat oven to 350 degrees and line a cupcake pan with paper liners
2.  Beat cream cheese until fluffy
3.  Add sugar and vanilla, beat well
4.  Beat in eggs, one at a time
5.  Break each of your three graham cracker squares into four small pieces, place one mini square in the bottom of each cupcake cup
6.  Spoon cream cheese mixture ontop of the graham crackers in each cup
7.  Bake for 20 minutes
8.  Let cupcakes cool completely.  When cool, put a spoonful of strawberry jam ontop, and garnish with half a fresh strawberry

Reunion Sheet Cake!

Well folks this cake wraps it up; wraps up the Cake for Every Pan challenge, that is.  Last week I worked on this three-layer half-sheet cake for my parents.  They had a reunion with about 25 of their buddies from the "good ol' days" (read: the '70's!) when they all worked together at Moe Black's hardware store in Waltham, MA.  

Mom gave very little direction on the cake flavors, she wanted it to taste good and for me to do "whatever's easiest."  Dad said he wanted the filling to have a "wow factor."  Easy yet wowwing.... I opted to go with three layers of french vanilla cake, filled with strawberry cream and frosted with almond buttercream.  Apparently a few people wanted the recipe for the strawberry cream filling, sorry guys, that one is a BostonSweetie secret!

The cake decoration was a bit more important to my mom.  She really wanted the store's logo on the cake, and all she had for me to go off of was a small, faded picture, scanned into Facebook and then printed on an old ink jet printer since I couldn't see the picture from my account.  I was having mini panic attacks about that part, as my artistry can sometimes be questionable, but it all worked out in the end.

I figured out a great method to get this done and make it look good!  Lucky for me, the font in the logo was almost identical to the font "Impact."  I typed out the logo in a size that would be appropriate for the cake, and then printed it out on regular old computer paper.  Next, I rolled out some white fondant, placed the printed sheet on top of the fondant, and traced around the letters with a ballpoint pen.  I had to be careful to not pierce the paper and yet still press hard enough to leave an impression on the fondant.  Once the tracing was done, I used edible Wilton markers to color the logo yellow and black.  These things are pretty cool, I bought a pack of bold-tip primary colors.  These are easy to use and very helpful for people like me who's drawing ability doesn't go past the crayons and markers of elementary school! Note...the result of these do look a lot like those crayons/markers of your youth.  You can see "lines," so color evenly!!  I bought mine at Michael's, but you can buy them online at Wilton.com too.

So cake and filling, check.  Logo, check.  I added a textured top to the cake, some yellow buttercream piping and a few 70's inspired fondant flowers, and bam, the end result was pretty great!  Mom and dad loved the cake, and the party was a hit.  Sheet cake?  Great success!

* NOTE:  Wilton did NOT ask me to write about their edible markers; I tried them out for this project and liked how they worked so have decided to include them on my blog on my own accord.  I purchased these for myself and recommend them for anyone looking to achieve that "colored" look.

Chocolate Oreo Cupcakes with Strawberry Fluff Frosting

Today I am happy to share the first post of 4 in my self-made Martha Stewart Cake for Every Pan challenge.  In the September issue of Everyday Food, Martha published four different cake recipes that use four different types of cake pans.  I challenged myself to try all four and blog them, because all four look really tasty!  Here's the lineup:

-8" Round pan: Plum/blueberry upside down cake
-Cupcake pan: Cookie cupcakes with raspberry fluff frosting
-Loaf pan: Almond-grape tea cake
-Sheet pan: Vanilla sheet cake with malted milk chocolate frosting

So, for the first Cake for Every Pan project, I bring to you chocolate oreo cupcakes with strawberry fluff frosting.  I chose these because it is my birthday and I love chocolate, so I thought these would make a great treat for myself! :D  The recipe is very easy and comes together fairly quickly.  The cake is dense, the frosting is smooth and creamy- similar to oreo filling, and the whole treat together is fantastic.  It's like a supercharged sweet- delivering cake, cookies, and FLUFF all in one bite.  These babies are de-lish and I am sure these would be a hit at a dinner party or work event or any place where you want to make sure people like you (haha!)

Lastly, I'm sure many of you have heard about Hurricane Irene which has come up the east coast.  My thoughts and prayers are with all who have been affected by this storm; power outages, blowing debris, flooding, etc. are not fun and I wish people safety and fast and efficient clean-up!  Hubs and I were fortunate to have only seen a small bit of rain and a few strong wind gusts.  We've had our power all day and are comfy, cozy and safe at home.

Let me know how your cookie cupcakes come out, and keep an eye out for the 8" upside down cake I'll be posting about next!  Here is my version of Martha's recipe; I tweaked slightly for the ingredients I had on-hand.

Oreo Cupcakes with Strawberry Fluff Frosting

    

Need:

• 2 sticks of butter, room temperature
• 1/2 cup unsweeted cocoa powder
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 3/4 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 large egg plus 1 large egg yolk
• 1/2 cup buttermilk
• 1/2 tsp vanilla
• 12 oreo cookies 
• 3 tbsp strawberry preserves
• 3 cups Fluff
• 1/3 cup confectioner's sugar

Do:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line your cupcake pan.  The recipe makes ~12...I got 17 cupcakes at the end. 
• Melt 2 tbsp butter, and put it aside to cool. 
• In the bowl of your mixer, whisk together cocoa, flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.  
• In a separate bowl, beat the egg and egg yolk with a fork, and add to the cocoa mixture.
• Also add buttermilk, vanilla, melted butter, and 1/2 cup of hot water to the cocoa mixture.  Use the whisk attachment and whisk until smooth.
• Using a measuring spoon, put 1 tablespoon of batter into each of your cupcake cups.

• Drop an oreo in each cupcake cup- do not press it down

• Using your measuring spoon, put another 1- 1.5 tablespoons of batter on top of each cookie.  The cookies will show through a little bit; it's okay!

• Bake for 15 minutes, and then let cool on a cooling rack.

• For the frosting, mix the remaining butter and strawberry preserves together in your mixer with the paddle attachment until smooth.
• Add the Fluff and confectioner's sguar and beat until fluffy, about three minutes.  Note- as you can see, my frosting came out more white than pink.  If you want a prettier frosting, I'd try adding a couple drops of red food coloring to make the frosting more pinky.
• Pipe or frost cupcakes however you like (Probably a good idea to let the cupcakes cool completely because the frosting is a little runny, you don't want it to melt even more.)

Bakery Review: Vicki Lee's

Do you like cake?

Me too.... see?

I was so excited to eat this cake that I forgot to take a picture of the slice first.  And being out of blogging practice, I didn't even get any good pics of the bakery or other pastries in the shop.  Bad blogger!

So while I can't show you picture of the other delicious treats at Vicki Lee's, I CAN tell you that it is a bakery that you must make a point to visit if you're around the Belmont/Waltham area.

There's lots of seating and the bakery is bright, airy, white, clean and modern.  The case isn't overwhelming- there are a few (GORGEOUS) cakes, cookies, little individual pastries, pies, gallettes, etc.  Everything looks perfect and appetizing, and the service was great.  We had no complaints at all and will definitely be going back.

The cake that I chose is a simple white cake with vanilla buttery buttercream, and filled with fresh strawberries and a thin, thin layer of something tangy, I believe it's a light lemon curd.  I thought this cake was one of the best I've eaten- the cake was so light, spongy, and had a very delicate crumb.  The buttercream was silky smooth, not too sweet, and super complimentary to the fruit and the cake.  Hubs tried it and said it was awesome, not the best he's ever had (obviously, because I didn't make it, haha!) but a "really, really good wedding cake."  I guess it did seem kind of wedding-y, which makes it even more awesome.

Whoever does the cake decorating at Vicki Lee's is ah-maze-ing.  I'm talking meticulous, error-free piping.  It was unreal, super impressive, tv-style cake decorating.

In addition to the sweets, Vicki Lee's also sells breakfast, sandwiches, soups, salads, coffees, etc.  Our trip was quick, so we didn't try any of those items but they looked fresh and yummy.

Vicki Lee's is a must-go, and gets an A+ in our book!

Weeknight Treat - Fast Fruit Tarts!

Ever have one of those nights when you NEED a dessert, yet you dont feel like reallyyyyy baking, and you feel guilty for even thinking about sweets?

That is me, usually at least 3 times a week, HA!  I found a solution, a la my favorite, Martha Stewart - honeyed fruit tarts!

This treat is adapted from her Pies & Tarts book.  It's fast, delicious, and a little bit more healthy than a batch of brownies at least.  I used peaches and strawberries, because those are the fruits we had in our fridge, but this would be delicious with all kinds of fruits - pears, any type of berries, etc.  Also, if you are into specifics, Martha lists them in her recipe.  Me, I just read over the recipe, and eyeballed everything I had, so please excuse the vague recipe below.

Enjoy!

• Chop up about 1 cup of up fruit (I used 4 big strawberries and half of a peach)
• Put it in a bowl, drizzle over some honey (use as much or as little as you like), and squeeze half a lime.  
• If you like zest like we do, zest your lime half and mix that in with the fruits.  Cover with saran wrap and stick in the fridge.
• Take out two squares of frozen puff pastry
• Microwave for 10 seconds to defrost
• Brush with water, milk, egg wash, whatever you fancy
• Sprinkle with sanding sugar
• Bake for ~15-20 minutes, or until golden brown
• When its baked and puffed, pull out the pastry and squish down the center to form a little well
• Let cool enough so that it won't burn your mouth
• Spoon honeyed fruits into the pastry well
• Eat up, buttercup!

Kappa Tuesday - Summer Simple

Ohhh Kappa Tuesdays, how I will miss you!  Shannon is starting a new job so last night was the final edition of Kappa Tuesdays.  We're going to try for occasional Kappa Sundays instead.

To wrap things up, Shannon provided a simple summer dessert of Strawberry Shortcakes!  She whipped the cream herself, chopped up some fresh strawberries and brought nice light shortcake shells.  Delish and perfect for the first full day of summer.  Summer always makes me think STRAWBERRY, I'm so happy that the season of fresh berries is here.  

What are your go-to summer desserts?

Saturday Breakfast - Strawberry Pancakes

After a long, long week, there is nothing better than sitting down at the table and having my sweet husband put this in front of me:

Strawberry pancakes are my favorite.  Especially at this time of year when the strawberries are so fresh.  I've been buying tons lately - they've been on "buy one get one" sale for the last two weeks, I cant resist!

While I was busy baking up a fresh batch of coconut cupcakes for the Bloggers Bake for Hope winner, hubs chopped up a bunch of our fresh berries and whipped these up for our breakfast.  Thank you hubby, and thank you to Scott and Renee who generously donated to the MA Komen for a Cure and won my "Frost Yourself Cupcake Kit!"  It's on it's way to you and should arrive on Monday.  Happy weekend everyone!

Strawberry Banana Galette

My family and friends know me as a chocolate-cake-brownie dessert type gal.  90% of the time I am...nothing makes me happier than chocolate-cake-brownies-one-or-all-three-doesn't-matter-I-LOVE-IT!  Last night was one of the rare days where I was craving dessert of a different type.  I wanted something doughy, sweet, and tart.  Sitting on the couch thinking about what would be the perfect fix, my new Pies & Tarts book by Martha Stewart caught my eye.


Every time I see this book, I smile.  I had mentioned a while back to a coworker that I was looking for it, but had been unsuccessful at finding it in a store.  She happened to see it at Costco a couple weekends ago and picked it up for me!  My new favorite Martha book greeted me at my desk on a Monday morning- best way to start the week ever!

So I'm flipping through Pies & Tarts and thinking man, I don't have the ingredients for any of these things. As I was reading through the freeform section I decided to try a galette, and try putting my own spin on it with fruit I had in the house.  With some strawberries that weren't going to last much longer and bananas that were in the same boat (har har) came my creation- Strawberry Banana Galettes.

Mine looks nothing like Martha's, but it tasted great and definitely hit the spot.  A galette is a simple pate brisee with fruit filling.  It's meant to look a little rough around the edges, and served hot with a nice scoop or two of vanilla ice cream on top, it tastes like a personal open-faced pie. Perfect rainy night treat.

What type of dessert person are you? Chocolatey? Fruity? Or none at all? I noticed I have a fair amount of readers- would love to hear from you!

Strawberry Banana Galettes

Adapted from Martha Stewart's Mini Rhubarb & Raspberry Galette recipe

Need:

-Pate Brisee (make enough for one 9" pie crust, or check out my recipe below)

-All purpose flour for dusting

-1 1/2 cups chopped fresh strawberries

-1 medium chopped banana

-1/8 cup cornstarch

-1 cup granulated sugar

-coarse sanding sugar, for sprinkling

Do: 

- Divide dough evenly into 2 pieces.  Roll out each piece to approximately 7" round, 1/8" thick.  Transfer rounds to a parchment-lined cookie sheet, several inches apart.  If these feel soft at all, REFRIGERATE!  I didn't, and it led to the galette fail that I will show you below.

- In a large bowl, combine strawberries, bananas, cornstarch and sugar.  Toss to coat evenly.

- Split the berry mixture evenly between both rounds.  Leave at least 1" border, I left about 2-3".  Gently fold the edges up around the fruit mixture.  Make sure to leave a hole in the middle.  Gently brush the folds with water and press to connect them.  Refrigerate again about 30 minutes until firm.  Again- I neglected to do this and got a galette fail.  

- Preheat oven to 400 degrees, and brush cold galettes with water, then sprinkle with sanding sugar.  Bake for 30 minutes- crust should be golden brown.  Reduce heat to 375 for about 15 minutes more, until juices are bubbling.  Martha says to let cool completely.  I say, serve hot (and eat carefully!) with a hefty scoop of vanilla ice cream on top.  Get ready for a warm, ooey gooey delicious single-serve bowl fulla pie.  

If you're dying for dessert and decide to skip the refrigeration parts of this recipe, fear not, you will still have a delicious treat!  It will just expand and maybe not be so pretty...

Don't say I didn't warn ya!

Now, if you need a pate brisee recipe, here's Martha's, reworked by moi to make just enough for 2 mini galettes:

Need: 

1 1/4 c. all purpose flour

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp sugar

1 stick cold, unsalted butter cut into small pieces

1/4 cup ice water

Do:

-Whisk together flour, salt and sugar in a large bowl

-Add butter and mix around so all of the butter pieces are coated in flour.

-Quickly cut in butter with a pastry cutter until mixture resembled coarse meal, with larger pieces remaining.

-Drizzle with 1/4 c. ice water and mix together with a fork until mixture starts to come together.  If dough is too dry, add another 1/4 c. ice water.

-Divide dough in half onto two pieces of plastic wrap. Gather each into a ball, wrap loosely in plastic, and then flatten into a disc.

-Refrigerate at least 1 hour for best results.  (I put mine in the freezer for 15 min. and you can see the results above.  Coldness is key!)

Easter Dessert at Grammy's

Happy Easter Sunday! I hope that all who celebrated today enjoyed every minute of it. J and I were fortunate to spend today with my family (minus Mom & Dad who are off on a Caribbean cruise celebrating their 25th anniversary, yay!), and we will have an Easter part two next weekend with his family. After an amazing seafood lunch at the Dolphin in Natick, we all went back to my Grammy's house for dessert. The whole house was festive with lots of Easter and spring-time decorations. I love the vintagey look to the bunny above- so cute!

So, let me walk you through the experience known as "Dessert at Grammy's." One thing to know about me is that being a sweet-lover is a classic trait in my family, and I definitely take after my Grammy's taste for dessert. Maybe it was all of our trips to the Belmont Brigham's for coffee ice cream sodas when I was little, maybe it's just in my blood, it's probably both.

Grammy's main dessert (yes, we have main desserts, and side desserts, no matter the occasion) was home-made strawberry shortcake. Grammy baked the biscuits and prepared the strawberries yesterday, and whipped the cream fresh right before we sat down to eat. These.were.amazing. There is nothing better than a 100% homemade strawberry shortcake on a beautiful spring day. The recipes for all three pieces are very easy- if you're interested in seeing them, just leave me a comment and I'll gladly post.

It can't be dessert time at Grammy's without coffee or tea. Today I had coffee. In a NH mug. This is another "thing" about my family, we all LOVE the White Mountains in New Hampshire. Over the years my parents and grandparents have gathered a rather impressive collection of NH-themed goods. It's probably hard for you to go to either house and find a mug that is from somewhere besides New Hampshire or Maine. It's part of the charm, and the fun, to look at a mug, and then talk about all the fun things we've done or seen at that place.

Surprise birthday cakes are not a traditional part of dessert time at Grammys, but they are ALWAYS welcomed, especially by cake-fanatic, Boston Sweetie! To celebrate Grammy's birthday that was last week, my aunt picked up a birthday/Easter cake from one of their favorite bakeries, Ohlin's, in Belmont. This bakery has been there for "eons" (Grammy term) and is one of their favorites. Grammy loves the donuts the most, especially the glazed ones.

My Aunt's favorite thing from Ohlin's are their "Hermits" - ginger cookie bars with raisins. She said she was eyeballing their quiches this morning, but managed to avoid the temptation and left with just this really cute Easter/Birthday cake. She said it was the only one with chocolate frosting; the rest were all white. Important note: Grammy likes gold cake with chocolate frosting best. Other important note: Me too.

I'm pretty sure this was not my first Ohlin's experience, but it was the first one I was really paying attention to. The cake was REALLY good- light, delicate, almost spongy. The frosting was the best part- rather than a chocolately buttercream, this tasted like the chocolate frosting they put on donuts. It was the perfect amount, perfect texture, perfect all around. I was pretty psyched when Grammy packed up two slices for us to take home with us. Remember how I mentioned side desserts? Grammy also offered ice cream and fresh brownies. I was too busy chowing down to take pictures, sorry!

Dessert at Grammy's today concluded with Easter bags! This was a surprise that really made my day. I've been eyeballing Easter candies at the grocery stores and CVS every time I go in, and I have had a mean hankering for a Lindt Bunny. Grammy and my aunt presented J, my sister and I with bags full of the best of the best - Lindt mini lambs, York Peppermint Patties, CADBURY CREAM EGGS, Hershey chocolate eggs, Junior Mints and scratch tickets! We had so much fun picking through and feeling like kids opening up their Easter baskets.

I know it's hard to believe but after all that, all of our plates looked like this- scraped clean. We love our sweets, what can I say! Did you have an insane Easter dessert? Comment below and tell me what sweets made your day!