Nibbles & Sips

Fun with food and beverages: recipes and opinions about what, how, and why we eat.

Creative Cupcakes!

Nibbles

Have you noticed how many cupcakeries have sprung up around the country or, even, in your own town? Cupcakes are everywhere and it’s easy to see why.

Cupcakes are:

  • Portable
  • Cute
  • and Perfectly Portioned

Karen Tack & Alan Richardson, creative co-authors of Hello, Cupcake!, have come back for another batch of cute and surprisingly simple designs for a variety of occasions–bringing show-stopping cupcakes to home kitchens.

I was lucky enough to receive a copy of the book for review and to participate in a chat with the authors, hosted by McCormick. What fun!

What's New, Cupcake?

The book is brimming with pictures of both the finished cupcakes and many of the steps it takes to make them, making it easy for the home cook to replicate the fun ideas in the book as well as learn the techniques to improvise their own. The authors jokingly call themselves “lazy decorators” but, as Karen pointed out, lazy for some translates to efficient and smart.

For instance, a lot of the supplies you’ll need are basic kitchen tools. Most of the ingredients, outside of the cupcakes themselves, can be purchased in the candy aisle of your grocery store and take just a little bit of manipulation to turn them into great details.

Even with my background in pastry and cake decorating, I was able to pick up several fun ideas. I’m not sure I would have thought to use lime chewy candy to make broccoli spears the way they did for their Chinese Takeout cupcakes. And the marshmallow flowers are absolutely to die for! Simply snip a marshmallow on the diagonal and dip the cut edge into colored sugars, then arrange them in concentric circles to form the most darling, elegant flowers I’ve seen in a while.

Now, I’ll be honest, not all of the short-cuts and simplifications are my cup of tea. I’m not the biggest fan of Twinkies but there’s nothing to say I can’t substitute my own pound cake mini-loaves. In fact, a lot of the short-cuts can be made more gourmet for those looking for more of a culinary challenge.

And to top things off, I’ve got 2 author-signed copies of What’s New, Cupcake? to offer to you! Since the opportunity came from my connection over at Circle of Food, it’s only fair that I offer the giveaway over there. Head over to this same post over on Circle of Food and leave a comment with your favorite flavor of cupcake to be entered in the drawing. At the end of the month I’ll draw two comments out of a cake-pan for the books and a little something extra from me!

50 Shots of America–Vermont

Sips
Chef JennaBear, Vermont Teddy Bear Co

Chef JennaBear, Vermont Teddy Bear Co

So, what do you think of when you think Vermont?

Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream?

Vermont Teddy Bear Company?

Vermont Maple Syrup?

Or all of the above?

Vermont is the 14th state of the US, the first added to the Union after the original 13 ratified the Constitution. Original fought over by the French and British, the Treaty of Paris settled that issue with government going to Britain only to have the colonies of New York and New Hampshire arguing over certain land grants. This angered certain townsfolk and they basically said, forget this, we’re our own nation. And so they stayed until 1791 when they were accepted into the Union.

Since then they’ve carved out their place in the US economy as the top maple syrup producer, the home of the companies mentioned above as well as IBM and King Arthur Flower, and a leading manufacturer of specialty foods. They also happen to rank first in the country for the number of craft breweries per capita.

Another interesting tidbit? If you happen to be traveling through to to Vermont and plan to purchase alcohol you might have a bit of trouble. See, only those with Vermont licenses or a special Liquor ID can purchase bottles of alcohol! You can still order a drink at a bar, but no package store will sell to you without it!

On to the Drink! I knew I had to do something with the maple syrup, I just didn’t know which direction. Add in the craft beer market and the dairy industry and, tada!

The Short Stack

1 oz Honey Wheat Pale Ale
1/4 oz Butterscotch Schnapps
1/4 oz Maple Syrup

Combine all ingredients over ice and shake like your shushing down one of the many ski slopes in the Green Mountain State. Strain into a cordial glass.

This drink tastes remarkably like a short stack of buttermilk pancakes with maple syrup, only without all that pesky cooking or chewing.

Cake Alternatives

Nibbles

Last week Todd asked what kind of birthday cake I wanted, or even if I wanted one at all considered the amount of cake I’d just dealt with.

Have you ever considered a birthday non-cake for your celebration?

Here’s some ideas we came up with:

  • Cupcakes (good if gourmet, less run of the mill)
  • Cheesecake
  • Ice Cream Cake

Of course, those are still cake-like and, therefore, too close for comfort for some. Plus, we’d recently had cheesecake for Todd’s birthday, last month. One year, though, I decided I wanted an ice cream cake, ordered it, then ended up winning the cake giveaway on the radio that year–what are the odds?

  • Pie (but not a traditional fruit pie–maybe a French silk or a chiffon?)
  • Cobbler
  • Tart
  • Brownies
  • Cookies

. . . and so forth. Of course, there are non-cake alternatives, too. What about a birthday lasagna or celebratory cheese plate? Anniversary quiche?

What we went with was a Strawberry Torte from Fresh Market. Layers of cake, sure, but only a few thin ones, plus custard and strawberry filling and loads of whipped cream (stabilized with something, surprisingly enough) on top.

You know, it reminded me a lot of a Poke ‘n Pour cake Mom used to make for any special occasion when I was a kid. Case in point: my 6th birthday party at school.

My 6th Birthday

My 6th Birthday

In case you’ve never heard of this dessert, before, it’s pretty simple to make. First, bake a box-mix cake of the flavor of your choice in a 9×13 pan. Pyrex was the best choice because it looked nice for serving, though a deep metal pan would also work well. Once it’s out of the oven and had a moment to cool, take the handle of a wooden spoon and poke several holes in the cake.

Second, mix up a box of Jell-o with the hot water but not the cold. Pour the dissolved mix evenly over the cake, making sure some gets into each hole from the previous step.

Next, make a box of Jell-o pudding according to the package directions then combine it with half a tub of Cool Whip. Can you tell that this cake was obviously printed on a package insert, back of a box or in a magazine advertisement? Spread the pudding mixture over the soaked cake, chill until set.

Finally, spread the remaining Cool Whip over the pudding layer before serving.

Our usual combo was yellow cake, strawberry jell-o and vanilla pudding. I still get a craving for one every now and then.

50 Shots of America–Louisiana

Sips

Yes, I know, I’m skipping over 4 states in the whole date-of-statehood-order but I have a really good reason:

First, today is my birthday and if you can’t bend (your own) rules on your birthday, what’s the point?

Second, it’s also Louisiana‘s anniversary of statehood. So happy birthday to both of us!

And, in case you missed the memo, I spent the first 6 years of my life in and around Ponchatoula, LA, before I was rudely dragged to Florida to live out what seems to be the rest of my days. Seriously, all I remember about that trip was laying down in the back seat, as furious as a 6-year-old can be, absolutely insulted that we were moving so far away from all of our family.

Louisiana and me? We go way back. So that’s why I’m bending the rules. I promise I will go back and give the 4 states we just leap-frogged their Friday in the sun and delicious cocktails.

My grandfather on my father’s side was an honest-to-goodness hobo during the war. Long after that he built my grandmother her dream home and it’s the home I remember most from my childhood since we lived there, too, for a while. I’m still a little irked that my uncle sold it out of the family more than a decade ago. My grandfather on my mother’s side was a farmer and grew prize-winning strawberries and assorted veggies. It’s his strawberries I remember best, which he made into strawberry freezer jam and made his own strawberry wine, and the annual Strawberry Festival held every April (and still going strong) in our little town.

And, oh, the daiquiris! Obviously I do not remember these so much from my childhood, at least not directly! Not the classic lime daiquiris,but thick, frosty frozen daiquiris absolutely chock-a-block with strawberries. Oh, so good.

Chocolate Covered Daiquiri

1 medium strawberry, hulled and quartered
1 tsp superfine sugar
3/4 oz light rum
1/2 oz strawberry schnapps
1/2 oz chocolate liqueur

Muddle the strawberry, sugar and rum in a sturdy mixing glass until the berries are thoroughly mashed. Add the schnapps and liqueur and top with plenty of ice. Shake it like a last booze run before the storm comes in and strain it into a chilled cordial glass.

This is not too sweet, not too chocolatey, it’s just enough. And if you have trouble tracking down superfine sugar just buzz some regular granulated sugar in a food processor or spice grinder for a bit.

So much for not cooking!

Nibbles

Well, we figured out exactly what to do with those chicken thighs and artichoke hearts!

First we combined them with most of a bottle of Basil and Balsamic vinaigrette dressing and a heaping tablespoon of minced garlic, squished it all together in a gallon-size freezer bag and let it sit in the fridge about 24 hours. Thankfully a dressing-marinade tends not to be overly acidic (or, at the very least, have enough oil to buffer it) so sitting for a long time doesn’t break down the meat so much that it produces a mealy texture. Blech.

Then, since the weather was nice, we fired up the grill of awesome and popped those suckers on the grill for about half an hour. I was a little iffy on what to do with the artichoke hearts at that point, but Todd (brilliant man!) suggested skewering them: tada! They were a little tricky to keep on but when I figured out that piercing them near the top edge of the leaves and angling it out the base of the choke would work fairly well, we were in business.

Meanwhile, to keep the marinade or not? Now, since it’s been hanging out with raw chicken for a while it has to be boiled for AT LEAST 5 minutes before it’s safe to consume. And, well, if I’m going to boil it at all, I might as well reduce it into a sauce for the finished chicken, mightn’t I?

After an incident in which I was reminded just how much a sauce can grow (i.e. exceed the capacity of the small saucepan it was in) when it’s hit the boiling stage and a quick splash into a bigger pot, it actually reduced perfectly! Love when that happens! As it started to thicken I went ahead and strained out the stray artichoke leaves and garlic and such and it make a beautiful sauce for the grilled items. I’ll probably remember to strain the marinade first next time. Maybe.

To go with it all we whipped up a simple white sauce to cover some steamed cauliflower and topped it off with smoked provolone and just enough time in the oven to get the cheese lightly brown and bubbly.

So much for not cooking this week!

But it was good enough that I didn’t mind. Thursday I picked up a bunch of fresh veggies (bean sprouts, eggplant, green beans, zucchini and yellow squash, matchstick carrots and green onions) on the way home and combined them with the shredded cabbage, coconut milk and green Thai curry paste we already had for a very veggie curry that was even better the next day for lunch. Sweet and spicy and delicious!