Put the Lime in the Coconut and Eat 'em All Up...

I'm going to hear poetry readings Saturday at Paragraph's On Padre Blvd.... one of the events in the Rio Grande Valley International Poetry Festival.  I went last year and really enjoyed the readings.  The teen and I will be on the island anyway getting him a haircut from Sharla at Venus Nails and Spa...and ordering wrist corsages (yes, that is plural) for his dates to Prom (it's a long story for another time - they're going as friends).  Anyway, he's into poetry, because when he hears or reads poetry...he tends to want to put it to music.  I told him I wanted to go over to Paragraphs for their second session, and he said he wouldn't mind joining me.  Sounds like a nice afternoon.

Now, when I go visit Joni and Griff, the most awesome booksellers on the planet, I feel an unremitting urge to take treats with me.  I've been staying out of the kitchen this week due to my abundant baking last week, so I really wasn't prepared nor in a planning state of mind.  I'd been idly catching up on my food magazines this afternoon after finishing work and I recalled I'd seen an interesting and simple cake called a French Yogurt Cake.  I grabbed the Bon Appetit that I'd been perusing and flipped through until I found it.  It was a recipe with lemon...and I had one lemon....and I had Greek yogurt and I had everything else required...pretty basic cake.  It called for a tablespoon of fine lemon zest and I only had one lemon...but I had a lime.  I figured I could add the two together and that would work.  I, of course, wanted petite bites for the bookstore visitors, so I decided I could do mini cupcakes with this batter.  I wasn't sure what to do for a topping - the cake in the magazine was just a loaf cake - no glaze or anything.  Huh, well, I could figure that out later.  It was 7:30 on a Friday night and I wanted to get these baked off so I headed to the kitchen.

Now, I have to tell you, I have not made a cake by hand in quite a while.  I use a stand mixer most all the time!  This recipe, however, called for hand whisking of the wet stuff and folding in of the dry stuff.  It was rather relaxing I must say.

I also substituted 1 teaspoon of vanilla bean paste instead of the 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla extract called for...and my Greek yogurt turned out to be fat free, which I didn't notice until I was throwing the container away and the cupcakes were in the oven.  *Shrug* - nothing to be done about it at this point.  Hoped they'd be okay.

Here's the recipe, slightly modified as described.  The article was written by Andrew Knowlton and he said "it was often the first dessert French children learn to prepare".  It sounds delicious so thanks for sharing that recipe Bon Appetit!

French Yogurt Mini Cupcakes
Adapted from Bon Appetit's French Yogurt Cake
May 2012 Issue, Page 30

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 teaspoon kosher salt

1 cup white granulated sugar
Zest from one lemon and one lime (1 Tbsp approx.)
   using a micro plane for a very fine zest

3/4 cup fat-free Greek yogurt
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste

Method:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
Line mini cupcake pans with paper liners (I got about 32 cupcakes from the recipe)

In a 2 cup mixing cup, measure the flour, baking powder, and kosher salt together.
Whisk until well blended.  Set aside.

In a medium mixing bowl, combine sugar and zest from both lemon and lime.  With fingers of both hands, rub the sugar and zest together until sugar is moist and you can see flecks of zest evenly distributed throughout the sugar.

To the sugar mixture, add Greek yogurt, vegetable oil, eggs, and vanilla bean paste.  Manually whisk to blend.

Fold in dry ingredients just to blend.  The batter will be quite thick.

I used a small cookie dough scoop and loaded one scoop into each cupcake liner.
Bake until top of cupcakes are golden and a tester inserted into center comes out clean.  This took 21-22 minutes for me.  I started checking at 20 minutes and they were almost perfect - and I let them go just a couple minutes longer to get a bit more golden.  The toothpick came out clean. 

While I typed this I found myself singing Put the Lime in the Coconut and thought - HEY, maybe a lemon/lime fluffy frosting (using the juice from the nekkid lemon and lime) and some coconut added in?  Or on top?  I don't know.  I guess you will have figured out the answer to that question when you looked at the blog because I know there will be a photo on top!

I also sampled a hot-out-of-the-oven cupcake.  Oh MY!  These could indeed be eaten plain.  They are not overly citrusy - but I can taste both the lime and the lemon.  These are awesome!!!  I do believe they would have been even more awesome with whole milk yogurt...but these are none to shabby that's for sure.

Here's what I finally did for the frosting...

Lime in the Coconut Frosting

Ingredients:

4 ounces butter, softened
4 ounces cream cheese, softened
1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste
16 ounces powdered sugar (confectioners sugar)
2 tablespoons juice from one lime and one lemon squeezed
   into a bowl over a strainer  - there will be leftover juice.
6 ounces sweetened shredded coconut
1 drop Wilton Leaf Green gel paste

Method:

Beat butter and cream cheese until incorporated and fluffy.  Add vanilla bean paste and mix until incorporated.  Add 1/2 of the powdered sugar, mix well, and add the remaining powdered sugar and mix until you have a lumpy mixture.
Add juice one tablespoon at a time and mix thoroughly after each addition.  Frosting will have smoothed out at this point - if not, add juice a tiny bit at a time until "just right".
Add coconut and whip for 30 seconds on medium high.
I added a drop of leaf green gel paste - to get the "lime" concept obvious to the oblivious :-)
Whip to incorporate color evenly.

I chose to pipe the frosting - but it was not easy with the coconut in the frosting.  It was difficult to get the frosting to exit the tip smoothly from start to finish.  I couldn't get the center point to release because the coconut was stringy in the tip...and I was quite off kilter in my piping as I struggled for even coverage.  If I do this again, I'd probably just frost them with an offset spatula.

I did, of course, have one as a quality control check.  Pretty darn delicious I must say.  The slight tartness of the cream cheese and citrus juices balanced out the sweetness of the confectioner's sugar.  The cupcakes themselves were mildly citrus and it really worked nicely together.

Those cupcakes would also be good with a lemon or lime glaze...guess I'll have to make them again sometime and give that a whirl!

Bon Appetit, Y'all!

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Lighting It Up Blue - in my kitchen!

I really don't have time to post today...but thought I'd share the 250 mini cupcakes I made for after our community's Autism Awareness Walk.  Nothing special - used a cake mix for expediency - fudgy dark chocolate so they would stay moist...and a delicious buttercream that I needed to "crust" so I could cover them for transport to the after-walk event area.  When you have that many, you don't want your frosting sticking to the plastic wrap!  There are 200 in the photo below...the rest are in my kitchen...and you really don't want a picture of that right now!  It looks like something blew up in there!

I made 3 batches of the buttercream frosting and tinted it blue with Americolor's Sky Blue.  Did a simple swirl piping using Wilton tip #1M with a large coupler.  Here's the frosting recipe I ended up with...took a little from the Wilton website and a little from here and a little from there.  This turned out just right and tastes pretty darn good too (albeit very sweet).


Blue Buttercream Frosting

Ingredients:

1 cup salted butter, softened to room temperature
(if you use unsalted, add a pinch of salt to the mix)
8 ounces cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup vegetable shortening
(I use the Crisco sticks - 1/2 stick)
3 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
3 drops Sky Blue Americolor gel paste
2 pounds confectioner's sugar
4-5 tablespoons Half and Half

Method:

You really need a stand mixer for this....if you use a hand mixer, need to halve the batch.

Add butter, cream cheese, and shortening to bowl of a stand mixer.  Using paddle attachment, beat until creamy.  On low speed, add the vanilla extract.  Mix until totally incorporated.

Add 1 pound of confectioner's sugar and beat well.
Add 2 tablespoons Half and Half and beat well
Add second pound of confectioner's sugar and beat well...your mixer might be groaning - so add the rest of the Half and Half.  Mix until well integrated.

Add 3 drops of gel food coloring and mix on medium until combined.  Kick it up to medium high and beat until fluffy.  I used a large piping bag with a large tip - I put half of the batch at a time into the bag so it was manageable for my small hands.  While I was piping, I covered the mixer bowl with a damp cloth so the remaining frosting didn't start crusting before I was ready.  This was very easy to pipe.

So, what's the blue all about?  Autism Speaks, an organization supporting Autism Awareness, has held the Light It Up Blue initiative for 3 years now.  Their web site says it "is a unique global initiative by Autism Speaks to help raise awareness about the growing public health concern that is autism. Iconic landmarks around the world will Light It Up Blue to show their support on April 2, 2012 - World Autism Awareness Day."  We didn't quite make it by April 2nd...but our community did join the initiative by lighting up the Port Isabel Texas lighthouse with some fabulous blue lights.   Isn't it pretty?  Thanks Mayor Vega...we love the effort by you and your city staff...awesome job!

Photo Credit:  Silvia Cesenes

The walk is tomorrow - and I'm a tired little camper...Saturday night I'll be putting my feet up and hoping that I'm looking back on a successful walk with fond memories!

Bon Appetit, Y'all!!!

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Milky Way Frosting

We are stuck at home in the land of Spring Breakers...traffic is horrendous and going out is highly undesirable!  The teen was looking longingly at the few snacks we had left and walked away dejectedly without making a choice.  I've been loading him up on fruits and healthy choices this week and I could tell....he was hankering for a sweet.

I made some box mix yellow cupcakes and thought we'd just eat them plain...until he said "where's the frosting?"  I said, all I have is a can of cream cheese frosting that I bought to make cake pops...you can open that if you want frosting.  He did and we both slathered a cupcake and bit into it...yuck!  I haven't had canned frosting in a lonnnnggg time.  It was awful!  I threw mine in the trash.  He opted for the bare ones and headed to the man cave.  He better enjoy it, tomorrow is house cleaning day and the man cave is getting aired out!

I looked into my baking cabinet to see if anything stirred me.  I saw two Milky Way bars that I'd bought a couple of weeks ago and forgotten.  That brought to mind an old frosting recipe that I've made for a Milky Way Cake...and I remembered it set up really well, and wondered if it would maybe be pipeable (is that a word?).

I had everything I needed, so got to work to find out if it would hold up to piping!

Milky Way Frosting

Ingredients:

2 Milky Way bars (regular size)
1 stick of butter (1/2 cup)
12 ounces powdered sugar
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1-2 tablespoons heavy whipping cream

Method:

Cut up butter and Milky Way bars into tablespoon sized slices and put in a small saucepan over medium heat. 

Stir frequently and vigorously with a heat-resistant spatula, pressing the Milky Way pieces to hurry the melting process - they never get all the way melted I've found....but that's okay.

In the bowl of a stand mixer, with beater attachment, pour in the powdered sugar and give it a few whirls to make sure all the lumps are out...I've never sifted this recipe and didn't today.

Add the melted chocolate and butter mixture and blend until you have a heavily crumbly mess.  Add the vanilla extract and the whipping cream, 1 teaspoon at a time.  Beating on high medium after each addition.  Today it took about 3 or 4 teaspoons of cream.  I pull the beater up and when the shape holds, I know I'm "there".

Prepare a piping bag with a large coupler and large tip and stand it in a tall glass.  Fold the cuff down and fill the bag with the frosting.  I played with a couple of tips - a Wilton 1M and Wilton 4B.  I will say, I'm not the best at piping...but I don't have a lot of opportunity to practice.  We like cupcakes way too much...I'm going to have to visit the neighbors with cupcake gifts again as it is.  If I don't, our butts won't fit out the door come Monday.

This piped really well, but didn't "finish" well - the stars at the end didn't break gracefully, I nearly had to pinch them off. 

So, this might not be the best piping material...but it is quite tasty, albeit very sweet.  I might try a sprinkle of cinnamon in the mix next time. to give it a little warmth...and I am not sure what to do about the refusal to release...maybe have some snippers handy :-)

Whatever the outcome, it was fun to try my hand at topping cupcakes again.  I'll keep trying until I get it eventually!

Bon Appetit, Y'all!!!

SHARED WITH:

My Cupcake Experience...

Whew...what a DAY!  I started with the simple idea that I would use the box of French Vanilla cake mix I've had sitting out on my counter for a couple of weeks...originally to bake Valentine's Day cupcakes...and then to make "something"... I don't know.  I just left the box sitting out for over two weeks and it was time to put it away or use it ... long past time actually :-) 

I thought, since today was TAKS testing (Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills) for the teen, in his most difficult subject, it would be a nice motherly thing to do to have cupcakes waiting for him after school. 

He likes chocolate frosting, knew I could whip that up easily enough.  Soooo, I baked two dozen cupcakes.  I ate two unfrosted ones for my lunch.  Hmmm, no wonder I now have a headache!  It's 4:30 in the afternoon as I'm typing this, and I haven't had anything today besides 3 cups of coffee, a banana, a Diet Coke, and two unfrosted cupcakes.  Sheesh...I need a handful of nuts or something or I'm going to crash and burn! <you won't have noticed the pause, but I have now gotten a ramekin of roasted soy nuts to munch on while I type>

I was looking at Facebook earlier and saw JoyofBaking.com had posted a video for the Chocolate Cupcakes with Chocolate Fudge Frosting...I thought I'd use that recipe for the cupcake frosting.  THEN, my brain wandered (as it is prone to do) down the path of "hmmm, I'd like to be able to make a buttercream rose...wonder if there are any instructions on youtube?" 

So, I moseyed over to youtube and found a ton of tutorials!  I used to play around with a Wilton's cake decorating book in the 80's....but didn't get much further than decorating with a star tip...I've never been great with piping on cakes...but do okay on cookies.  Something about being able to hold it and have a small space to work on.  The point being, I've made plenty of buttercream frosting before.  One of the instructional sites I googled gave a recipe for a "decorating frosting" to make roses and other flowers with, using straight shortening instead of adding butter...they said it was the best thing to use to "learn" with.  So.... I thought....what if I made some of this and took out some to work with for learning to make flowers...and then I could add some melted chocolate to the remains and top the cupcakes with a chocolate buttercream.  The chocolate would improve the straight shortening flavor.  Hmmm, it was a plan!

Another of the websites I found was a tutorial which used a Wilton buttercream frosting recipe at three different consistencies...firm for flowers, medium for leaves, and soft for icing the cake.  I decided to take a cup of the firm and color it yellow in hopes of making some acceptable yellow roses...I am from Texas after all! I'd color some of the "medium consistency" green for leaves (maybe just 1/2 cup) and then the rest would get the chocolate.  I had about 5-6 ounces of milk chocolate chips...so I used them to turn the vanilla buttercream to chocolate frosting...and decided I'd pipe it onto the cupcakes.  My little exercise in meandering towards creativity was getting bigger by the minute.

All said and done...I got the frostings made, separated, colored, chocolated, and got the cupcakes frosted.  Then I grabbed some different sizes of tips - I wanted to try my hand at a rose or two and I wanted to make some little flowers with a tip I'd bought years ago and never used.  So...long story short, the firm frosting supposedly good for learning to make roses was so firm my hands were shaking when I squeezed hard enough to get it out of a #104 tip.  The edges were raggedy and after trying and discarding 4 roses, I gave up and changed out the tip to #226 which has kind of a cross-hatched end.  I gathered that you would squeeze and a small flower would appear.  I was practicing on a silicone baking sheet and that frosting was just too hard.  I finally had luck with tip #106 which was a swirly tip and after trying it a few times I thought that would be great for little flowers on top of the cupcakes.  I did a few then got out my tweezers and some green sugar pearls and dropped one (or more) into the center of the flower.  It was cute for a first attempt.

Next I put a #103 tip on the green frosting bag... there wasn't a lot of it... and piped a few leaves on, or near, the yellow flowers.  Then...I decided to try to use the flower nail again with this frosting and wow, it was so much easier.  By then, however, I had cramping hands from squeezing so hard on the yellow stuff...and my hands were shaking - literally.  I discarded the first 3...actually added them back to the piping bag and tried a couple more.  Maybe I'm not cut out to be a decorator, because my roses suck...but, still, it was my first time.  I ended up with green roses...oh well.  At the end of the day, I had an okay tray of decorated cupcakes...leaving a couple undecorated for the teen in case he turns his nose up at my flowery efforts...and I had a few molded chocolate flip flops so I stuck them on a cupcake too.

The poor green roses look even worse in photo than in real life...yikes!
Oh well - you get to see the good the bad and the ugly here on MY blog

My kitchen looked like something had exploded in it...I usually try to clean up as I go...not so this time...I had a little Attention Deficit going on today and buzzed from one activity to the other without cleaning in between.  Oh, yeah, I also made a batch of sugar cookie dough while the cupcakes were cooling so I can bake with my new cookie cutters tomorrow...or maybe the next day if my hands haven't recovered from squeezing that damn frosting!  Think that much caffeine and lack of protein might have been the ADD culprit.  I'm rarely such a messy baker...I should have taken a photo, but it was too embarrassing.  Cleaning all of those little tips and collars and 3 different batches of stuff in the mixer bowl, and bowls for color mixing and bowls for melting and ....oh my... it was just overwhelming!

It's peaceful now...the dishwasher is quietly doing its thing, the teen is home from school and resting his brain after the TAKS test....and I'm in my favorite spot blogging.  Guess what...when I offered him a cupcake...I got a "no thanks, not hungry".  Well crap.

So, that's my cupcake experience.  If you want to see the video I used to try to learn, go to youtube for the video and note I only watched the first two minutes ... I must say her frosting is MUCH better than mine.  I WILL try this again...especially now that I know what I'm looking for in texture and consistency.  Well, phooey, the frosting recipe was found on a website that I can't find now...it was pretty much (she said) a Wilton recipe...which may be found on a dozen different sites - just Google! 

Well, I'm tired...while I typed, the teen wandered in and grabbed a cupcake (an undecorated chocolate frosted cupcake...do I know my kid or what?)...and is starting to ask about dinner...guess I better step away from the computer.  Quiet time is over!

Bon Appetit, Y'all!!!

UPDATE 3/2/11 AFTER POSTING:

I did some research and realized that I had likely used an older recipe for the buttercream.  The most up-to-date recipe is slightly different than the originals because of the removal of trans fats from most vegetable shortening.  I double checked my shortening; Crisco is all I've ever used.  Sure enough - right on the front "no trans fats".  Well, I guess I feel better now.  Here's a link to the Wilton web site updated buttercream frosting recipe.  I remember, in my younger years, being shocked that shortening was in my frosting...until I talked to a baker friend who said "oh yeah, all the bakeries use shortening".... so I followed along and did the same.  I have not used it in many years (except to fry chicken - cause, it just makes the best fried chicken).  The last package of Crisco sticks I had - I had to throw them away because they expired.  I think that's about the time all the trans fat press was going around.  Anyway, I wanted to post that I found out what was wrong with my frosting and why it was overly stiff (which is an understatement).  Interesting that the addition of melted chocolate smoothed everything out and THAT tasted delicious!  Just proves - chocolate makes everything taste better :-)