Phish Food Cupcakes

This is my last ice cream cupcake that I have made. So this is marking the end of the annual Ice Cream Cupcake competition by Cupcake Project and Scoopalicious. This is inspired by the wonderful Ben and Jerry's flavor Phish Food. It's one of my boyfriend's favorite ice cream flavors and I love the combination of chocolate, marshmallow, and caramel.

I started out with a chocolate cupcake. I used the Martha Stewart 1 Bowl Chocolate Cupcake Recipe. It's super simple and easy to clean afterward baking.

I topped the cupcakes with some marshmallow fluff to imitate the marshmallow in the ice cream.

I then added some caramel flavored ice cream on top. I would have made my own, but alas, I have no ice cream maker. In addition, I found this place near my house that sells a scoop of ice cream for a dollar and they're also homemade.

I topped the ice cream with some homemade marshmallow fluff frosting. I took some of the extra marshmallow fluff and made Marshmallow Fluff Frosting. It's super delicious!

To recreate the fish that are IN the ice cream. I piped some melted chocolate onto some parchment paper in the shape of fish. When they set, they made the perfect topping to the cupcake.

I had a super fun time making, creating, and eating all these ice cream cupcakes.

ps. feel free to look at my other creations that I didn't end up entering.

Double-Crusted Caramel Pear Pie [sms]

This week's Sweet Melissa Sundays pick, Double-Crusted Caramel Apple Pie, was chosen by Susan of Baking with Susan.

I decided to use pears instead because somehow I still had a whole bunch in the fridge so I thought I would make use of it. But since I didn't have enough pears, I decided to add one apple in there. I also used two premade pie crusts. I knew that I would have no time between making last week's SMS and the MSC and this week's SMS. It just made sense to me.

I made these for an interfamily social at a friend's house on Pi Day. I just made sense to me that I would make a pie for Pi day! At the social, I finally had my first taste of poutine which is like a Canadian version of cheese fries with gravy and cheese on top of French fries. That and mole. I love my friends and the food we always end up having. We just ended up eating most of the night. FUN STUFF!

Sorry for no picture of the pie cut open. I forgot my camera and forgot to make someone take it for me! So it's not the most beautiful pie on the outside, but it was delicious.

Make sure to check out the rest of the SMS bakers on the blogroll.

PS. my spring break started 3 days ago, so I'll be baking lots this week to celebrate the end of the Circle K year and also a break from school! I'm looking for a good, easy cookie recipe. If you have any suggestions, please feel free to leave them in the comments section!

Roasted Walnut Cake with Guava Caramel FAIL [sms]

This week's Sweet Melissa Sundays pick, Roasted Pecan Cake with Caramel Orange Marmalade and Burnt Orange Buttercream, was chosen by Leslie of Lethally Delicious.

This would have been a delicious recipe, if it was actually finished. I had made the cake with walnuts...and not crushed because I have no food processor, so whole chopped pieces of walnuts. The cake turned out fine. Also, I had made the caramel part of the orange marmalade and and splashed some guava juice in it instead.

The frosting is where it went all wrong. Somehow nothing went right. The guava juice wasn't becoming syrupy enough. The sugar was too soft. The butter was too cold. The frosting was just a huge failure, but not only that, the whole job searching thing is hard. I've sent out about 20 resumes, and no responses at all - not even a no thank you. It's getting to me, but I'm still looking for stuff. If anyone knows of something I can in the Bay area, or in the LA area, please let me know. I think that any job right now would be appreciated.

Also during this week, I have decided that I do want to start my own business - a cupcake business. Maybe mini tarts too! Name has yet to be decided, and it'll probably be order only for now. Maybe I'll do a storefront. I'll think about it all during this month! I'll decide before everything's done.

Sorry, Leslie, they just turned out so bad that I just didnt want to photograph them. Hopefully everyone else's faired a lot better than mine!

Make sure to check out the rest of the SMS bakers on the blogroll.

Over-the-Top Brownies

These decadent brownies are somewhat too much. A chocolatey brownie with a drizzle of hot fudge and caramel on top. I was going to melt chocolate and make my own caramel, but I remembered that I still had some from the twix brownies in April. The stuff's still good! I had a piece and it was just sweet, but really satisfying.

Peanut Butter Pie with Chocolate Pie Crust [sms]

This week's Sweet Melissa Sundays pick, Chocolate Pie Crust, was chosen by Donna of L’Amour de Tarte.

We had an opportunity to choose what we wanted for the center and since I had this bookmarked for the longest time to make, I decided to take the chance and make this peanut butter pie. Although it calls for fudge on the bottom, I decided to skip that part because the crust was already chocolate flavored. Because of that, I made half of the fudge layer for the drizzle on top. I also made this into a tart pan, well because it would just be prettier and easier.

I bought it with me to my trip to UCLA this past week and it was a crazy week this week.

Monday, UCSD - Circle K meeting and food.
Tuesday, UCI - Circle K meeting and more food. Chipotle
Wednesday, Avatar 3D with my friend and crepes and starbucks. Gossip and talking haha.
Thursday, UCLA - Circle K meeting and a frat rush party. I ended up taking care of a drunk girl. Ahh oh well - I guess that's the perk of being sober.
Friday, relaxing because it's been a crazy busy week.

Make sure to check out the rest of the SMS bakers on the blogroll.

Chocolate Cream Caramels [sms]

This week's Sweet Melissa Sundays pick, Chocolate Cream Caramels, was chosen by Jeanette of The Whimsical Cupcake.

I was attempting these caramels without a thermometer - I had read up on all the articles I could and watched all the youtube videos. Still, I apparently let it sit on the stove for too long and the caramels were hard. Too hard to even really eat. A failed batch for me; perhaps, I'll get back to it someday and make them successfully!

I do have some resolutions for this new year regarding my life and my blog. I've come a long way since then, but I've got lots more to do this next year!

My New Years Resolutions:
- Bake more often, and with that, post more often. Hopefully it'll be once every two days or so.
- Eat as healthy as possible. More vegetables and less sweets!
- Job searching! Hopefully either I'll find a job or an internship for this summer.
- Sleep by 1, up by 8!
- Pictures, pictures, pictures! Document my everyday life for me and everyone around me.
- Be nicer. I know that I have an attitude sometimes, and I will try to tone that down.
- Relationships. Friendships. Build those.
- Thank the little things in life.


If anyone has any suggestions for the blog, please let me know so I can improve on those for you!

Recipe for the caramels here! Make sure to check out the rest of the SMS bakers on the blogroll.

Caramel Apple Turnover [sms rewind]

I made these recently because I had many more apples than I know what to do with. You will see many more apple recipes soon.

Anyways, this SMS recipe was from ages ago - before I had join the group.

These turnovers were one of the things I had been eyeing since I do enjoy a good turnover. What happened to these turnovers, I have no idea.

First - as I was making the caramel apples - it just didnt turn out caramel-y. It had been okay and I went to do something else, and when I came back like a minute later, they were too far gone. I was lazy, and I just kept them be. They were really sugarly, but it was still good.

Second, for some reason, the puff pastry hates me too. I had left it out to defrost a little since it was too hard to undo without it defrosting a little. I had fallen asleep and so when I got back up, it was too doughy for me to work me. Then back into the freezer it went, but it still wouldnt separate. *sigh* It was just not my recipe I suppose.

Regardless. I had made the turnovers as best I could. The triangles didn't all work out, so I made them into eggroll shaped and some of them opened up and looked like hotdogs.

With the extra ricotta cheese and eggs, I decided to do something different. I had made a sweet omelette. It was quite interesting. I think the sugar and the eggs worked out pretty well together. It's something that I would definitely try again when I have extra sugar and eggs.

Recipe found here!

Turtle Cupcakes

These turtle cupcakes were made for a friend of mine who is leaving for Saipan.

Byebye Hedwig, I'll miss you!

One of his favorite things is turtles so I decided to make him turtle cupcakes - even though they aren't turtles, it's in the name. He also loves the Lakers and Kobe. So in honor of Kobe's old number - 8 - I decided to use the sugar ball thingies that I bought a while ago and use 8 of them. It was a great thing because even if people didn't realize it, I knew it. =]

I'm going to miss him!

As for the recipe - I had it but now I can't find it anymore. SORRY! But I did write down the ingredients for the cupcake part.
Ingredients:
1 egg
2/3 cup of vegetable oil
1 cup of buttermilk
1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
2 cups of flour
1 3/4 cups of sugar
1/2 cup of cocoa
1 teaspoon of salt
1 tablespoon of baking soda
1 cup of hot coffee
Directions:
Preheat oven at 350 degrees. Line cupcake pan with cupcake liners.
Mix the egg, vegetable oil, buttermilk and vanilla extract together.
Combine the flour, sugar, cocoa, salt, and baking soda together in a large bowl.
Stir the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients.
Pour in the hot coffee and stir until fully mixed.
Pour into your cupcake liners and bake for 15 mins or so.

I had used my buttercream from the dobos torte so I didnt have to make anymore. I had cut a v-shape well into my cupcakes to fill it with caramel and pecans. I finished the cupcakes with some sprinkles.

Chocolate Caramel Cookies

Today's a reunion of some sorts. I get to see some of my friends that I havent seen in like 3 weeks! =]

Well we're getting pho and I always seem to bring along with me when I go out and get lunch with friends. This time I decided on a chocolate caramel cookie that Danny - one of them that I was meeting up with - wanted.

It's a really simple recipe which I decided to halve since I didn't have enough ingredients.
Recipe for chocolate caramel cookies
[taken from here]
Ingredients:
1/2 cup butter (no substitutes), softened
1 cup sugar
1 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract [I used two!]
1-1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 cup and 2 tablespoons baking cocoa
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 (13 ounce) package Rolo candies [I found these rolls of Rolo candies at a store, they had approx 24 total in them]

Directions:
In a mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar.
Add the egg and vanilla; mix well.
Combine flour, cocoa and baking soda; add to the creamed mixture and beat just until combined.
Shape dough by tablespoonfuls around each candy.
Bake at 375 degrees F for about 10 minutes or until top is slightly cracked. Cool for 3 minutes; remove to wire racks to cool completely.

Note: you may have to watch the cookies because if they crack too much the caramel will flow out. This happened to me a couple of times.

Even my little brother loved it!

Chocolate Salted-Caramel Cupcakes [msc]

For those of you following my blog, this is my THIRD group that I've joined. I feel like these are the only three I will join until I decide to quit one of them. Both Daring Bakers and MSC are monthly which means I get a whole month to bake items and SMS is weekly meaning that is a bit more restricting time-wise. I am super excited though because it's Martha Stewart AND cupcakes.

This month's choice was chosen by the founder, Betty from EAT MY CUPCAKE. She chose this wonderful Chocolate salted-caramel cupcake. Martha has them as mini cupcakes, but I have no mini cupcake tin or liners so regular cupcakes they are! I decided to make these for the 24-hour service-a-thon as well. My friends are just so spoiled by my various baking things that I happen to make...ALL THE TIME.

I was deciding to half the recipes, but at 12am, I didnt want to go and half everything and I was way to tired to think so I decided to make the full recipe for the cupcakes.

I ended up using kosher salt because I dont even know where to start looking for other things like that.

In the morning, I had made the caramel recipe which was really hard and confusing by the way, but it eventually got finished, and half of the frosting. The original frosting recipe yielded 5 cups and that was WAY TOO MUCH. Half was good. I still ended up with a little bit extra frosting.

They were super yummy and moist. The saltiness factor was an amazing surprise for many so it was nice. I think lots of my friends enjoyed the richness of the cupcake and the nice surprise of caramel in the middle.

The recipe for this month's Cupcake Club is found on pages 148-149 of Martha Stewart's Cupcake book.