A Hello Kitty Birthday

A while back, I filled out the 8 Things meme and listed kid birthday party cupcakes on my list of wishes. Well... somebody paid attention and my wish was fulfilled this week.

My friend Gianna is turning 3 and her mom asked me to whip up some cupcakes for the occasion.

And what did Cutie pic for her 3rd birthday party theme?


Hello Kitty!

In talking with the birthday girl's mom, we decided to do a bunch of cupcakes and one mini cake that Gianna could eat, share, look at, smash, throw, etc. I loved that idea because a mini cake would allow me to write a traditional birthday message - that just seemed necessary, I guess.

So I thought through several decoration options, and I got excited about little white cupcakes with offset bows and a cake with Hello Kitty on it. But... then... I struck that, reversed it, and came up with...


Hello Kitty cupcakes


and one cake with an offset bow.

For the cake, I played it safe and consulted Anne Byrn's Cupcakes from the Cake Mix Doctor again. :) [I want to make an "Anne Byrn is my Homegirl" t-shirt. Have I mentioned that?] Anyway... I made the cake from her White-on-White cupcake recipe.


I made two batches and divided each batch in half. I took the four bowls of batter and dyed them the green, blue, pink, and white of the party decorations.


I dropped the batters in randomly by spoonfulls until the cupcakes were about 2/3 full. Then I lightly swirled the batter in each cup with a toothpick. That little swirl makes the batter look a little less Partridge Family bus and a little more tie-dyed and random.

I did the same thing on a larger scale in the 6" mini layer pans.

Sadly... the cake baked up more pastel than I intended so it was more the idea of the party colors than the actual colors themselves. No big deal really. Technicolor cake is a little bit frightening anyway. :)


Ooops... sorry Kitty.

I'm pleased to report that the cupcakes were a big hit. The cake was soft and a little bit rich and the icing (Wilton method, obvi) was professional bakery delicious.


I'm told the party-goers enjoyed them and that there was no leftover cake beyond the first day.


Most importantly, this birthday girl thinks I "did a good job." :)

Strawberry Lemon Cake!

Thank you for helping me decide what to do for class today. You all ended up choosing the Strawberry Cake + Lemon filling, the cake that came to me in a dream.

I'm serious. It did.


And a dream it is.

I used Anne Byrn's recipe for Strawberry Cake. The cake did not disappoint.

I "filled" the cake using the Wilton method that involves torting a single 8" cake, running a bead of frosting around the outer edge of the bottom layer and then spreading a filling to the frosted bit.


As promised, I used lemon curd. Lovely, lovely lemon curd.

Flavorwise, this cake reminds me of Trix cereal in the best way. Citrus and sweetness to the max! The cake is ultra moist because of all the strawberries and such inside. Adding lemon curd to that just makes the whole thing more like a pudding of sorts. It's fantastic. I think the flavors work really well together.

(My mom didn't love the lemon and for her I left the lemon out of the second 1/2 of the cake that is in the works at present. I think you'll like what I have in store for the decoration on that one.)


So... armed with a frosted cake (sans cake carrier) and legit decorator's tackle box, I went to class this morning to decorate this cake the right way. And you can tell me how I did.


By the way, Happy Monday!

Gingerbread Pear Cupcakes with Lemon Cream Cheese Icing

Disclaimer: I made these cupcakes wearing my pajamas in the wee hours (think 8am) of Sunday morning. I was out late Saturday. It happens. I do think that the grogginess inspired me to do new and interesting things with the camera though.

I made these pear gingerbread cupcakes for an audience of hardworking graduate students. This audience didn't worry me nearly as much as the Strawberry-on-Strawberry audience because I am quite used to feeding these graduate types.

And look how little there is to mess up!


That's not just a few of the ingredients there - that's all of them. I. know.


I did have a bit of fruit work to get out of the way, but as far as fruit goes...


pears aren't too bad.

Then it was just a hop,


skip,


and a jump until I had a Pear Gingerbread Cupcake with Creamy Lemon Icing.


Or... 14 of them to be precise. I sprinkled just a hint of (easter) green sugar on the cuppies to make a nod towards their pear enclosures.

And, I have to be honest with you, I only had a bite of one of these cupcakes. The gingerbread flavor was nice and the texture was fantastic and moist, but I would have to eat a whole cupcake to be able to say more than that.

I do know that they went over so well with the four grads that they happily divided the leftovers and took them home. Success.

And that concludes my three cupcake weekend tribute to The Cake Mix Doctor. Have I persuaded you to buy her cookbook yet? JSYK, it's only $10.17 on Amazon right now. :)

Strawberry-on-Strawberry Mini Cupcakes

I'm changing my name. I really am.

From now on, you can call me Amanda, the Clumsy Baker.

I guess I've just gotten too big for my cupcaking britches. Earlier this week I dropped a bowl of batter. When it came time to make the Strawberry-on-Strawberry cupcakes, I... well... you'll read soon enough.

In the world of first year composition, we are constantly talking about getting students to write for actual audiences. It's one thing to write an essay about American entertainment culture to a teacher who knows just a bit about it, but it's another thing entirely to write that same paper to specialists in the field or to you know... your mom. When the audience is real and will read the paper, the writing is both easier and more difficult.

But you probably just thought you were reading about cupcakes, so I'll get back to it.

I had an audience for the Strawberry-on-Strawberry cupcakes. I was contributing a set of cupcakes to a local women's shelter fundraising Silent Auction and Dessert Party. I had a deadline of Saturday at 4:30, and I had to feed 20-30 people with my cupcakes.

My audience made me nervous. And excited.


To start, I had to finely chop a bunch of strawberries. I don't care to chop fruit. I can't explain it, but I don't really care for fruit chopping or the resulting finger staining.


But I handled it. And when I was done chopping, I threw the rest of the ingredients in the bowl and voila! batter.


However... since I'm too big for my cupcaking britches, I started to doubt The Cake Mix Doctor's recipe sense. (I know, right?!) But I didn't like the liquidity of the batter. Luckily, I left it alone.


And it was fine. Better than fine, actually! This cake was absolutely amazing. It was smooth and I'd even say velvety. The strawberry pieces were fantastic surprises to happen upon in the tiny unassuming cake. The crumb was the stuff of dreams; it might even be the most perfectly textured cake I've met yet.


Cake done, I returned to strawberry chopping.

Ugh.

Then I moved right on to messing up the icing. I didn't take any pictures of the icing making process, but that's probably for the best. All you need to know is that you shouldn't do it the way I did. :)

I made the icing according to the Cake Mix Doctor's recipe but instead of reading ahead, I started changing things on my own. Turns out the icing is a spread and set icing and not, I repeat NOT, I piping icing.

I tried to make it a piping icing by adding just a little bit more powdered sugar. Like two cups more. Who knows that I was thinking.


Look at how cute they are with their flat icing! They're adorable! They don't need piped icing.

But they do need a strawberry garnish. Oy vey, more fruit meets the cutting board.


Now, I had not though of myself as a fancy shmancy cupcaker until I saw sixty cupcakes all lined up with fresh fruit all in a row. It felt very Helena circa Season 4.

Anyway, here is a bite-section. Not because this is a particularly spectacular shot of the cupcake or my hand for that matter, but because the post seems awkwardly truncated without it.


And now, I'm going to give you the recipe as I should have used it and not as I did. Classic do as I say not as I do situation.

Pretty in Pink Strawberry Cupcakes from the Cake Mix Doctor.

1 pkg plain white cake mix
1 pkg strawberry gelatin
1 c finely chopped fresh strawberries
3/4 c milk
3/4 c vegetable oil
4 large eggs
(There is a lot of wet in this batter, no?)

Blend all ingredients 30 seconds at low speed and 2 minutes at medium. Scoop batter into cupcake liners, filling them 3/4 full. (The Cake Dr. says you can expect 22 to 24 cupcakes. I made minis so I got about 80. You know me!)

Bake in 350F oven for 20 - 25 minutes for regular cupcakes. (Minis took about 12 for me.)

Let cool before frosting with...

Strawberry Cream Cheese Frosting from the Cake Mix Doctor

1 pkg (8 oz.) reduced-fat cream cheese, at room temp.
4 tbsp butter, at room temp.
3 to 3 + 1/2 c confectioner's sugar
1/2 c mashed, drained fresh strawberries (I hope to never have to "drain" strawberries ever again.)

Blend cream cheese and butter for thirty seconds. Add 3 c sugar and strawberries and blend on low until incorporated. Increase speed to medium for 1 minute or until fluffy.

Dollop on cupcakes and then spread around with spatula. Place frosted cupcakes in the fridge for 20 minutes to allow icing to set.

(At this point, I added the sliced strawberries and dropped the suckers off.The next time I serve these, I will place the strawberries immediately before serving so they won't drip on the icing. Yet another thing I didn't think about before I did it. :) Oops!)

Well, my own flubs aside, these Strawberry-on-Strawberry cupcakes were absolutely fantastic. And I don't think anyone had any idea that the icing was twice as sweet as it should have been. Ha!

Lemon Curd Cupcakes

You may have recognized the batter on my floor as The Cake Mix Doctor's Lemon Curd cupcake batter. And shame on you if you didn't. Do better next time.

I love the Cake Mix Doctor's Cupcake book. Her recipes start with cake mixes, and for that reason, they are painfully easy to throw together whenever the cupcake mood strikes. OR... whenever cupcakes are demanded but the mood is not striking. :)

This past Thursday was the last reading I hosted for the English Grad Student Association. I don't know when I started making cupcakes for the readings... but I didn't feel like I could let the thing end without one last batch.

The Lemon Curd cupcakes only required me to pick up these three things at the grocery store,


so they won out for Thursday's event.

Can you tell that I very much want to be on a beach?


Sigh. "She said instead of actually doing it." (-quote gakked from one of the readings)

These pictures were taken when I was enjoying the batter making process of the first recipe. Once I dumped the batter and had to go back to the grocery store and start all over, I might have stopped taking pictures. That's understandable, right?

I thought so.

Here are the finished cupcakes.


The cake (the Doctor's recipe) was nice, basic, and lightly lemony.


Usually the Doctor's cakes don't taste anything like a boxed mix, but these actually stuck pretty close the boxed mix crumb and texture. Good, for sure, but not as velvety as I was expecting from the Doctor. For that kind of smoothness, stay tuned for the Strawberry-on-Strawberry cupcakes I'll be posting soon.

As for the icing, I dropped the ball on that. I didn't have time to mess around with cupcakes on Thursday and as I said earlier, the mood was not striking. So when I was at the grocery store, I picked up a tub of lemon icing.

Well... I've spoiled my tasters and they did not love the "stickyness" of the Pillsbury lemon icing. I agree. It wasn't fantastic. But it was a hell of a lot easier on me and my dish-washing hands.

So if you want to bake along at home, here is the Cake Mix Doctor's recipe for Mini Lemon Curd Cupcakes.

1 pkg plain lemon cake mix
1 and 1/3 c water
1/3 c lemon curd
1/3 c vegetable oil
3 lg eggs

Preheat oven to 350F. Place all ingredients in large mixing bowl and blend 30 seconds at low speed and another 2 minutes at medium.

Fill liners 2/3 of the way full (the Doctor says 2tbsp, but I couldn't get that much in my little cuppies.)

Bake cupcakes until they are golden, springy, and/or leave a few crumbs on a tester. The Cake Doctor says 15-20 minutes. In my oven, they were perfect at 12.

The Cake Doctor says you can expect about 48 minis from this recipe. True to form, I got 72. Luckily, my roommate was quite taken with the lemon cuties and together she and I ate the few that didn't fit on my platter.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to step away from the kitchen and do something academic before the weekend is over.