I'm so sorry I haven't updated in so long, but it was midterm week and spring break, during which I traveled to the happiest place on earth, Disney World. Now I am back and looking forward to updating all of you regarding my recent cooking adventures.
Sprinkle Cake with Mixed Berry filling and Sour Cream Fudge Frosting
(Makes approximately 16 cupcakes)
As I mentioned in my previous post, my friends in Genetics with me are usually my test subjects for my baked goods. Now they have started to put in requests for cupcakes. To make them all happy, I combined a bunch of requests into a hot mess, and really delicious, cupcake.
CUPCAKES
My friend, John, has challenged me with a Sprinkle cake (Funfetti). I love to make cakes from scratch and Funfetti always comes in a box. John had the gall to ask me to bake him Funfetti. So I made one from scratch. Ha.
2 1/3 cups flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
1/2 cup salted butter, room temperature
3 egg whites
1 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 cup long rainbow sprinkles (my grandmother informed me that these are called jimmies and that the short ones are called sprinkles..the "jimmies" are necessary for this recipe)
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F. Blend the butter and the sugar together until the mixture is smooth and creamy. Add the 3 egg whites, one at a time, while beating; this is the wet mixture. In a separate bowl, mix together the flour, baking powder and salt; this is the dry mixture. Add the dry mixture to the wet mixture slowly. Then add the milk in slowly, all while having the mixture on. Then add the vanilla extract. At this point, I like to scrape the bowl with a rubber spatula and then turn back on the mixture, just to make sure I get all of those delicious ingredients that got stuck to the bottom of your mixing bowl. Add in the sprinkles.
Your mixture should look something like this:
Pour the mixture into a baking tin that is lined with foil cupcake liners. You really should fill this up 3/4 of the way, but I did it like 7/8 of the way because I only wanted to make 12 cupcakes. NOTE: This was a mistake, which I will tell you about in just a moment.
Bake the cupcakes for about 25 minutes, or until the outside is nice and golden and when a toothpick is inserted into the cake, only a few crumbs are seen when the tooth pick is removed.
My cupcakes blew up into monstrous cupcake deliciousness.
To fix this problem, I just cut off the extra bits around the side, which meant that I ate some wonderful cupcake scraps.
MIXED BERRY FILLING
My good friend (and future roommate), Alisa, loves berries. She brings fresh berries into class almost every day. So, I figured that I would make a berry filling for these colorful cupcakes to make it prettier, and even better tasting.
1 bag of frozen mixed berries
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 tablespoon cornstarch
Mush the berries and the sugar up in a bowl with a fork until they look like this:
Then heat this mixture in a small saucepan on medium heat. Mix the cornstarch with water and add this to the berries. Heat until the mixture is thick enough to spoon into a cupcake. You can add more sugar to your taste. I, personally, am not a big sweets person so my fillings and frosting tend to not be on the sweeter side. Your mixture should look like this:
Allow this mixture to cool. Cut some holes into the cupcakes with a pearing knife (you can use any knife, obviously, but I find that this is really easy to use). A lot of people use apple corers to cut holes into the cupcakes. If you have one of these (I don't) then totally use it instead. Fill your cupcakes to just below the top with the berry mixture.
That last cupcake to the right was for my sister, Katie. She doesn't like berries so I filled hers with a vanilla frosting.
SOUR CREAM FUDGE FROSTING
I found this recipe a while ago in Bon Appetit and I made it for a chocolate Valentine's Day cupcake. My friend, Kris, absolutely loves this frosting and I figured that it would be a nice topper to this cupcake that I have already designed.
8 ounces milk chocolate
1/2 stick salted butter
2/3 cup sour cream
4 teaspoons light corn syrup
To melt the chocolate, you will need to make a double-boiler. Heat up a saucepan with a little bit of water in it on high heat. Place a glass or metal bowl on top of the saucepan so that the water does not touch the bowl. Put the chocolate into the bowl and constantly stir the chocolate until it is completely melted. Take the chocolate off of the heat and stir in the butter. Then beat in the sour cream and light corn syrup. Let the mixture cool to room temperature for about an hour. Frost your cupcakes. Mine looked like this:
I covered mine with little ball sprinkles and couldn't wait to eat that bottom left one. It was wonderful. The tangy frosting versus the sweet cake was just a very tasty blend of flavors. My friends really liked them too!
QUESO FRESCO TIKKA MASALA (serves 4)
This vegetarian Indian dish is typically called "Paneer Tikka Masala." I can NEVER find paneer for some reason so I substitute paneer with queso fresco, which is similar but a little more solid. I made this dish yesterday for my friends, Dana and Alisa. Dana is not a huge fan of Indian food, so I thought I would introduce her to Indian food with this very mild dish. They both do not like spicy food so I couldn't make the dish painfully spicy, but if you like spice then I would recommend adding red pepper flakes.
FOR THE CHEESE
1 8 oz. package of queso fresco
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon red chili powder
1 tablespoon grated ginger, with juices
1/2 teaspoon coriander powder
1 tablespoon plain yogurt (I like to use Greek yogurt because it is thicker)
1 tablespoon oil
Cut the queso fresco into bite-sized cubes and place them into a bowl. Mix together the other ingredients in a separate bowl and then pour it over the cheese. Gently toss the cheese until all the cheese is coated with the marinade. Cover the bowl and marinade this mixture in the fridge for about an hour. The cheese should look like this:
FOR THE SAUCE
1/2 cup pureed tomatoes
1 green pepper, chopped
1 tablespoon oil
1/2 teaspoon cumin seeds
2 bay leaves
1 tablespoon coriander powder
1/2 teaspoon paprika
1/4 teaspoon turmeric
1/2 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon cornstarch
1/4 teaspoon garam masala
1/2 teaspoon garlic salt
Blend together the tomato puree and the green pepper. Heat the oil in a large frying pan on medium-high heat. Throw the cheese into the pan until it is browned, which will take about 4 minutes. Remove the cheese and place it in another bowl. Heat more oil in the same pan and then add the cumin seeds until they start cracking. Then add the bay leaves. Add the tomato and green pepper mixture to the pan along with the coriander powder, paprika, and turmeric. Bring this mixture to a simmer and then add the sugar. Dissolve the cornstarch in a teaspoon of water and then add that to the tomato mixture. Then add the cheese to the mixture and cook until the cheese is heated. Take the mixture off of the heat and add the garam masala and garlic salt. It should look like this:
It may look gross, but it was really a very tasty version of Indian food. I would recommend eating this dish with garlic naan, which is what we did.
That's all I have for now! I will be baking more and cooking more today, so hopefully I will have more delicious updates for you in the near future!
Stacey
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