White Chocolate Dipped Oreos

I’ve been sort of obsessed with dipping things in chocolate lately. Partly because chocolate is yummy and partly because I think everything looks so much prettier dipped in chocolate and drizzled with more chocolate. These white chocolate dipped Oreos are just that, Oreo cookies dipped in white chocolate… nothing fancy. I made them for the Super Bowl party we went to yesterday along with mini tacos (a stolen recipe from my friend, Ines) and white truffle oil and gruyere macaroni balls which I unfortunately didn’t take photographs of. The two latter dishes had to be assembled onsite and it’s kind of strange to be at a party photographing your food so I opted out. There were a few leftover macaroni balls that we brought home with us so if I get the chance, I’ll photograph them this week just for show. For the dipped Oreos, I recommend double stuffed. Melt your chocolate in a double boiler and dip each cookie using dipping tongs or a fork, shake off any excess chocolate and place on wax or parchment paper. You can either add sprinkles, nuts, etc. while the chocolate is still gooey or you can wait until it’s hardened to add (in this case) milk/dark chocolate drizzles.

While these were tasty, I don’t think I could (or should) eat more than one, the white chocolate is far too sweet for me. Maybe making them with semi-sweet or dark chocolate would be better for my palette. At any rate, enjoy!

Pardon the mess…

I’ve been in the process of redesigning my blog header and I guess blog in general. I use WordPress and I must admit, I’m not all that happy with it’s ease of use (or lack thereof)… sorry WordPress. I’m designing in PS and AI at full res but somehow it looks grainy and low quality when I upload. I’m also still playing with designs, I haven’t come up with anything I like yet. So, in the meantime, you may see a few different headers. I’ll get my act together very soon, promise.

xoxo!

just plain awesome…

http://blogaidforhaiti.blogspot.com/

Ran across this while I was on Tartlette (one of my daily obsessions). I think this is just plain awesome. A group of 27 food bloggers got together and scrambled to publish a book of recipes featured on their blogs (in one month, mind you) with all proceeds going to the Red Cross and Doctors Without Borders to aid in the devastation in Haiti…. love it. Purchasing a copy is a win/win… you’ll get a one of a kind cookbook and give to a worthy cause all at once.

xoxo!

cakepop love

I’ve grown completely smitten with crispy rice pops, cake pops and cake balls. I think they’re definitely the next fad in yummy handheld desserts. You take cake and frosting (in this case Red Velvet and Cream Cheese Frosting), mix them together to form a “dough” and roll that into small golf ball sized balls. Then you stick a lollipop stick in them and dip them in your favorite chocolate (in this case Dark Chocolate and White Chocolate) and decorate with sprinkles or whatever else you can imagine. Friends and family… you can expect some of these from me on Valentines Day. Enjoy!

Cake Pops

Cake Balls

Marshmallow Squares Pops

chocolate+bacon love

Just wanted to share these. I added crispy bacon to my usual chocolate cupcake recipe just for fun… I think I died and went to heaven. I’ll update this post with the recipe very soon… I’m off to meet a friend for drinks before she boards her plane, I just couldn’t wait to post these pics…Have a great weekend!

making whoopie…

…pies, that is. I’m in the process of revamping the {love+cupcakes} menu. Since starting my wedding planning service, onefourthree Events, I’ve began to have a better understanding of what {love+cupcakes} can be. Unintentionally,  I’ve gravitated towards large quantity dessert catering for special events and parties pretty much exclusively and I could not be more happy about that. It seems that my last dozen or so orders have all been for corporate parties and other private events. That being said, I’ve decided to redesign my menu to cater to weddings and other special occasions wholly. Whoopie pies are something I’ve always wanted to include, I’ve made them several times for friends and they always get extra special praise, I think not only because they happen to be delish, but also because they’re so nostalgic.

These soft, uber chocolatey cakes come loaded with a vanilla butter frosting filling. I make them smaller than your average whoopie pie for easy transport from hand to mouth… one thing I’ve learned about dessert catering is that everything must be easy to eat while standing in pretty clothing. Wanna make them, here’s what you’ll need:

Ingredients

Makes about 1 dozen whoopie pies.

Cookie Cakes

1 cup granulated sugar

2 cups flour

1 3/4 cup butter, melted

2 large eggs, room temp

1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa

1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup buttermilk

1 teaspoon vanilla

Filling

1 cup unsalted butter, soft

1-3 cups confectioners sugar

1/4 whole milk

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla

Preheat over to 350 degrees.

In a large bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer, sift all dry ingredients. Add melted butter, buttermilk, vanilla, eggs and mix until just blended together. Using a cookie scoop or tablespoon, drop dough onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. 1-2 inches apart. These cookie cakes will expand and puff up so make sure they have enough space to do their thing. Bake about 10 minutes or until toothpick or tester comes out clean. You should end up with about 2 dozen cookie cakes, you’ll need 2 cakes for each whoopie pie.

For your, frosting, blend butter, milk and vanilla until all lumps are gone. Add sifted confectioners sugar 1/2 cup at a time until you’ve reached your desired sweetness. You may find that the frosting will start to take on a curdled look… no need to fret, just continue mixing, it may take 10+ minutes but you will arrive at a smooth and delicious filling. I use piping bags but you can simply plop a few tablespoons of filling between two cakes and there you have it,  a classic whoopie pie! More whoopie goodness to come!

xoxo!

lemon love

OMG! has it really been almost a month since my last post!!! Shame on me!!! Cupcake orders have slowed a bit since the holidays (thank goodness) but I’ve been unbelievably busy getting my new events planning and design business off the ground. I’m still in the process of designing our website, so there’s not much to see just yet, but my business partner, Melinda, and I already have three weddings lined up in 2010… not to mention our own weddings!!! I get hitched in June and she’ll be a September bride!!! Which leads me to the second reason I’ve had to push this blog aside… I’m getting married in 5 months (actually exactly 5 months from today!) and I’m starting to feel the pressure. I’m a super DIYer plus both my fiance and I are designers so naturally, we want to make/design all of the details of our wedding. I’ve started a little “journal blog” here. Again, haven’t been all that involved with it much yet but I plan on updating and keeping it updated very soon.

Anyhow, today’s cupcake post…. lemonade and strawberry lemonade cupcakes! I think I’ve confessed my love of lemony ANYTHING in at least one of my previous posts. It’s true, me+lemon desserts= bliss. Lemonade and Strawberry Lemonade cupcakes are regulars on the {love+cupcakes} menu but I’ve never posted about them on the blog. I have a lemon tree on my property, so for the most part, all of the lemons that go into my cupcakes come straight from me! I grow all of my fruit and veggies without pesticides or chemicals… they’re all organic. I can see the Meyer Lemon tree outside my window right now and it’s down to about a dozen lemons, which I plan to save for lemon lavender ice cream sandwiches, I’ll post them when I make ‘em. These two cupcakes are some of my favs (but then again, they’re all some of my favs). To make them, here’s what you’ll need:

Makes 1 dozen Lemon Cupcakes

Ingredients:

cupcakes

1 3/4 cup all purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted

1 1/4 cup sugar

2 large eggs

2 1/2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

1 tablespoon finely grated lemon peel

3/4 cup buttermilk

frosting

1 8-ounce package cream cheese, room temperature

1 1/2 cups powdered sugar (you may not need this much or you may want more depending on how sweet you like your frosting. I always mix 1/2 a cup of powdered sugar at a time with all of my frostings… I tend to like less sweet)

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature

1 tablespoon finely lemon lime peel

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 1/2 Tablespoon Strawberry puree for strawberry frosting only

I’m a one bowl type gal… although there are reasons to use multiple, I never have issues using just one bowl for most of my recipes. Start by sifting your dry ingredients into a large bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer, add eggs, melted butter, sugar, lemon juice, lemon peel and buttermilk and mix on low until well mixed. Pour into baking cups and bake at 350 for about 20 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

For the frosting, mix the butter, cream cheese vanilla and lemon zest until creamy. Add powdered sugar 1/2 cup at a time until you’ve reached your desired sweetness. For strawberry cream cheese frosting, fold in the strawberry puree with a spatula. Frost your cupcakes and dig in! These cupcakes are super tart and extremely lemony.

enjoy!

Neighborly Love

I have really great neighbors, Evan and I are really lucky.  We live on a block where everyone knows each other, we get together for BBQ’s, we know each other’s kids (in our case, dog) and we just plain like each other. Every year, I make sure to wish everyone happy holidays with a delicious tray/box/plate of homemade goods. Last year, I whipped up some of Evan’s moms’ famous fudge (aka “mert’s pudge”) and this year, I made a fun array of chocolate dipped treats. I’m not a fan of minty/pepperminty/spice cake type desserts… even around the holidays. I don’t like ginger bread or candy canes, I won’t eat fruitcake or drink eggnog… I’m simply not a traditional holiday dessert gal. I was uber busy the week leading up to Christmas break (which for me began on 12/18) with cupcakes so making treats at home was pushed down to the bottom of my priority list unfortunately. Since time was of the essence, I decided to make chocolate ganache dipped pretzels and Rice Krispies treat pops. I can attempt to give you a recipe but I really sort of winged it. I’ve made ganache a bunch and at this point I can basically tell how I like it  by the color and consistency. A quick chocolate ganache search on google will give you several options but basically you’ll need butter, bittersweet chocolate, and cream. Melt it all together in a saucepan over low heat and voila, you have ganache. After dipping each pretzel, I sprinkled them with toffee chips, slivered almonds, and shaved sweetened coconut. With the Rice Krispies treats, I made them following the recipe on the cereal box with the exception of two things: 1) the original recipe called for 3 tablespoons butter… I used 4 tablespoons. 2) the original recipe calls for 6 cups cereal… I used closer to 4 cups, but again, I eyeball it. I like my Rice Krispies treats to be gooey and overly marshmallowy. I find following the recipe to the letter, makes for a dryer cereal treat. While the krispies are still warm, I put about two spoonfuls into a silicone cake pop mold and stuck a lollipop stick into each one. I then dipped the pops into the chocolate ganache and placed them on a sheet of parchment to harden. Once the pretzels and the pops were cooled enough, I placed each one in cellophane sleeves and packaged them into cute boxes I found at Michael’s. Evan and I walked them over to all of our neighbors, who were all incredibly stoked, and topped the night off with a nice glass of red. These gifts were fun and easy to make.

enjoy!

Happy Holidays from {love+cupcakes}

I made these little guys for several holiday parties over the last week and a half (over 600 to be exact!)

I haven’t had much time to blog lately, I’ve been super busy with holiday cupcake orders and the holidays in general. I’ve stopped taking orders until the new year so I’ll be able to catch you up on what I’ve been doing over the next few days. I am off roaming the woods for the rest of the week. We’re spending the holidays with Evan’s family in Las Cumbres, an isolated mountain-side community above Los Gatos, Ca. It’s heaven! Here’s the view this morning from the deck…

And here’s a picture of me and Diamond Dog. This was her first road trip with us… it also happens to be her first Christmas with us too! She’s been super stoked to get out of the city.

I hope you all have a wonderful Holiday Season filled with love…and cupcakes!

xoxo!

Can I have S’more?

Roasted marshmallows, melted chocolate and graham crackers, a triad of deliciousness… actually, I’ll be dead honest… I’m not a fan of the traditional s’more… blasphemy, I know. I like graham crackers and chocolate and marshmallows but the combo of the three together, not so much. That’s not to say I can’t understand  why s’mores are loved by so many;  they’re nostalgic, sweet, gooey, and they make kids happy on camping trips. I make a s’mores cupcake that even I think is pretty darn good! A layer of graham cracker crust is topped with rich chocolate cake and marshmallow cream frosting. It’s a really decadent and fresh way to enjoy a s’more.

Wanna make them? Here’s what you’ll need…

S’mores Cupcakes (makes about 4 dozen MINI cupcakes)

For the crust:

1 1/4 cup crushed graham cracker (store-bought or whole crushed graham crackers)

1/4 cup melted butter (maybe a bit more depending on how well the graham sticks together)

1/4 cup light brown sugar

For the chocolate cake:

3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (dutch process if possible)

1 1/2 cups cake flour (sifted)

1 1/2 cups granulated sugar

3/4 teaspoon baking powder

1 1/4 teaspoon baking soda

3/4 teaspoon kosher salt

2 large eggs (room temp)

3/4 cup buttermilk (room temp)

3/4 cups warm water (from the tap is fine)

3 tablespoons melted butter

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

For the frosting:

2 containers marshmallow fluff

2 sticks (1 cup) softened butter

1 cup confectioners sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees

In a food processor (I use my hands when I’m too lazy to pull out the old food processor ) mix together crushed graham crackers, melted butter and brown sugar until a loose crust forms. Put 1/2 a tablespoon into each liner and pack down with a wood honey dipper.

In a large bowl (or the bowl of a stand mixer) sift together all DRY ingredients. Add eggs, butter, vanilla, warm water and buttermilk and mix just until all ingredients are well incorporated. Fill a lined cupcake tray with 1 heaping tablespoon (or just about 1/2 filled) of batter per liner. Bake for about 15 minutes. Cool before frosting.

Beat marshmallow fluff, butter, and vanilla until well mixed. Adding 1/4 cup at a time, mix in confectioners sugar to taste. I like my frosting on the less sweet side so I tend to not add all of the sugar but if you want to add more (even more than a cup) that’s all up to you.

Pipe frosting on. If you have a torch, you can brown the top of the marshmallow frosting just a bit or sprinkle with extra graham crackers or in my case, stick a mini Hershey’s chocolate in and call it done!

enjoy!