fauxstess cupcakes: a vegan adventure

This recipe came to me via my friend, Corinne (who also helped in the baking, assembling, and gathering of the strange and sometimes expensive staples of vegan cooking (11 dollars for soymilk powder? say whaa?)), and her vegan cookbook, Vegan with a Vengeance by Isa Chandra Moskowitz. Here is her version:

And here is ours.
Despite the lack of the cute, flowered tablecloth, I think this might be my biggest success to date, especially since the multi-step recipe reminded me a lot of the peppermint cake that started this whole thing.

(one of the weird vegan ingredients...albeit the grosser but cheaper hydrogenated version.)

The cake batter called for an electric mixer, but seemed to come together fine with just Corinne and my combined massive arm strength.

I forgot to take a picture of just this cream portion, which we piped into the center of the cupcakes and which, was definitely the least successful component due to its makeup: crisco, margarine and sugar. The recipe called for superfine sugar and now I totally understand since our regular sugar never really blended properly/ tasted very grainy.
Next, we dipped the cupcakes into a chocolate ganache made with soymilk instead of whipping cream:

Then, we let the faux-cream-stuffed, ganache-dipped cupcakes chill out in the refrigerator (and think about life for a while) while we whipped up the Royal Icing component (using soy milk instead of the $$$ soymilk powder) and then practiced making those famous swirls on a black plate so that by the time we were ready for the real deal, we were old pros:

Of course, then we became complacent and overconfident. Note bottom left cupcake.

Overall though, I will definitely label this under success...and Bill Cosby (why not?).

bon appétempt gone global: the poke cake story

So, my sister-in-law, Andrea, did her very own cake attempt recently, and I just had to include it here. The recipe came to Andrea via Cook's Country TV, and here's their version:See those pokes? That's Jell-O! Apparently in the late sixties, pre-Bill Cosby and the focus on the fact that their product wiggles, Jell-O was struggling to find its marketing voice and so, invented this cake to help bolster their sales. I don't know if it worked or not, but can't you completely see Betty Draper serving this up?

(Sigh, poor Betty. Hang in there!)


And, here, in 2009, is Andrea's version:

Now, I know that Andrea has described her pokes as not as defined as the above Cook's Country version, but given the fact that I just threw away the rest of those soggy, ill-baked heartcakes from last week, I'm going to file this under success (and Bill Cosby).

raspberry lemon heart cakes/ FAMILY valentine's day: a semi-success story?

In their February issue, Bon Appetit planned out a menu for a FAMILY valentine's day. So, I decided to tackle the dessert portion of that menu, Raspberry Lemon Heart Cakes. Here's their picture from the magazine:

And here's my family's version! (NOTE: I don't have any children and am currently living in a separate state/city than my husband/ spent my Valentine's night alone, baking.)

Surprisingly close, right?!!

If only the actual cake would've turned out as similar... I've been mulling over what I think I did wrong and I think part of it was that I pulled it out of the oven too soon. See that weirdness in the center? I should've waited...but it had already been in the oven for 32 mins and their recipe called for 26-28.

Despite having zero children helping me, I still made a nice mess.

Their version looks so light and airy!

Mine were dense and sort of rubbery.

It wasn't a Valentine's completely devoid of my husband, though. Check out the bowl I mixed everything in:

thank you, martha stewart

Martha's version:

my version:

I give the edge to Martha in the above pictures, though I took that picture before making some of my favorites from the whole process.

My pal and fellow cupcake adventurer, Alison, created many of these including both that adorable brown bear and the one previously labeled as Fozzy.

A closer look

My hedgehog goes head to head with Martha's.

Is that a real puppy or just a cupcake version of one?
One with sideswept, 80's hair

ok, this one is just pretty.

And finally: Alison's coup de grâce...I mean, who could top this? Any takers? Martha?

The Orange Polenta Cake: A Success Story

Timeline

8 pm: Though the recipe told me to pre-heat the oven as the first step, I knew myself better and instead, went to the second step--lining my cake pan with parchment paper, which I'd never used before and which was sort of fun, in the Martha-Stewart sense of the word.

8:15 pm: After zesting two oranges (I used cara cara because I think they're prettier), I had to slice them down/ get rid of all the pith. Another first for me.

8:40 pm: I was a little nervous about the caramel sauce since I'd never done that before either and the recipe called for a pastry brush to brush down the sides of the saucepan, but i just used a spoon, which seemed to work fine for me?

8:40-9:30 pm: I really don't recommend grinding almonds without a food processor unless you're A. fine with breaking into a sweat while baking or B. you enjoy manual labor. At first, I put them in a ziploc bag and beat them with a rolling pin, but my right arm started to cramp up on me. So then I started chopping...

MIDNIGHT: So I don't have a picture of the mixing process, but beating sugar and butter without an electric mixer is also tough and when I had finally finished adding the flour mixture, I had made a huge mess, which I probably freaked out about and had to clean/ couldn't even pause to take a picture. Anyway, this cake baked for an hour and I pulled it out promptly at midnight. It smelled delicious...

All I had left was one last, potentially disastrous step: to flip it over...

TA DA!

It doesn't look as golden and glistening as Gourmet's, but I think I needed this post-peppermint cake. And all the self-esteem I gained, I promise, will go straight into tackling another cover recipe. Like maybe this one.

Next up: Gourmet's Orange Polenta Cake

Things that could prove ridiculous:

1. calls for Orange-Flower water...whaaaaa?

2. calls for ground almonds (I have no food processor.)

check the recipe out here.
(image via Gourmet)