Halloween Bleeding Cupcakes

Happy Halloween!!

These gory cupcakes caught my attention in October's Martha Stewart Living, and I just had to make them myself! So I cued up the Top Chef Just Desserts finale and got baking to work.

Sugar work is always impressive to me, but in this recipe the sugar work is so easy and creates a creepy illusion that definitely gets some oooohs and aaaahhhs.

They appear to be bleeding from "glass" shards sticking out of the top, it doesn't get much more chilling than that. I made some for the management group in my apartment building and they were a hit, obviously.

I've been absolutely petrified of bugs as long as I can remember, so creepy crawly cakes and cookies really don't jive well with me. Blood, however, not so much a problem, and these cupcakes drove home the chill factor without making me lose my appetite.

You can use any cupcake recipe, and top them with a cream cheese or butter cream frosting. Martha recommends using strained cherry preserves for the "blood," but I didn't have any and red food coloring (just a couple drops) did the trick just fine. Get it. Trick.

The glass is just caramelized sugar that hasn't been allowed to achieve it's golden caramel color. Poured into a thin sheet, it looks like glass shards when shattered. Too... cute?

Has anyone else created some creepy Halloween desserts, tricks, or treats? Stay safe, and remember kids, don't use real glass! Muahahahaha!

Pizza Obsession and Night Market

In college, my boyfriend, Chris and I were both RAs. Yeah. I know. Fun police. Losers. Whatever, laugh it up. You really can't knock free rent for two years though. You just can't. Or the unofficial license to buy your friends... errrr.. "residents" pizza, ice cream, and snacks in unreasonable quantities.

Right? Now remember how poor you were in college..... and how awesome that sounds now. Or maybe you weren't a poor starving college student, in which case, you should probably stop reading this. Unless you really like pizza. Otherwise you're going to get hung up on the RA thing and the rest of this will go over your head.

So anyways, yeah, free pizza budget. Which brings me back to my story. At a hall program (stop snickering) that Chris was running, he ordered a large quantity of pizzas, as per usual. The security desk attendant (stop snickering...) in the building exclaimed that she was in fact a "PIZZA FREAK" when the delivery came and Chris offered her a slice. Seriously, that's what she said. I can't make this stuff up.

Now, I also really happen to like pizza, perhaps even to a level that rivals even that of the "pizza freak" desk attendant. Sometimes, I get really excited describing my love for pizza. This has of course prompted Chris to start calling me a "pizza freak" sometimes in public places. It's kind of embarrassing, but pizza is SO GOOD. So good. So fine, make fun, but I am a self proclaimed PIZZA FREAK!

Last Thursday, I met some friends at the Chinatown Night Market in Philadelphia to check it out. What a scene. There were people EVERYWHERE. I arrived around 7pm as the market was just getting started, and wandered around before my friends got there, scoping out the scene. Then around 7:20 hoards of people started showing up. Literally, half the population of Philadelphia and all of Chinatown's residents crammed into a 4 block radius to enjoy delicious gourmet food fare. Jose Garce's taco truck, soul food trucks, hot dog trucks, cupcake trucks, and even mobile wood oven pizza trucks lined up and served lines of hundreds of people. When we finally decided to commit to a line, we ended up in Pitruco's line for what had to be 35 minutes, but it was WORTH it.

Check out their facebook page here. I seriously recommend stalking out their location now and proceeding to said location. It was delicious. And I don't think that it was just because I had been standing in line for 35 minutes. That pizza was delicious, and I was totally impressed that it was made in a truck. Pizza freak was pleased.

In Pitruco's honor, I leave you with two pizzas I've made recently that were just delicious combinations of late summer and fall ingredients. Enjoy!

Whole Wheat Prosciutto and Mozzarella Pizza

Crust: Whole wheat

Toppings: Fresh mozzarella, prosciutto, micro greens (after baking)

Portobella Mushroom and Kale Pizza

Crust: Whole wheat

Toppings: Fresh mozzarella, kale greens, sauteed or roasted garlic cloves, portobella mushrooms chopped and lightly tossed in olive oil, caramelized onions, and sauteed or grilled chicken

Both are delicious. I'm not usually for wheat crust, but Trader Joe's makes a really good one! Either of these would be delicious with regular or pesto crust as well! I've not made my own pizza dough, it looks hard. Anyone have any good recipes for that? I've always felt like pizza dough is totally something worth cheating with, and I'm someone who makes my own puff pastry, so what do I know? Thoughts?

Happy eating!

Girls Night In, Game plan: Game Hens

I love to cook with friends. I'm not very good with visual art, and I have a lot of creative type friends. Really, I can't draw, can't paint, and really don't have the patience for learning how to sketch. I love fashion, home decor, and obviously cooking, and this is where my creativeoutlets shine. I can so play those games.

So I love love love cooking with friends. It's awesome to feel that ownership over creation, and the best part is, then you get to eat when you're done. One of my favorite people to cook with, is a friend of mine going on 4 years, Sophie. To date, we have made all kinds of fun things, eaten delicious meals out, and I even took my first and only cooking class with her (knife skills, check it). I can't express how much I love our cooking nights. They always involve a bottle of wine (or two...), experimentation with new flavors, and lots of laughs. It's the best way to eat.


Most recently we started our cooking night at our local Whole Foods, loaded up on cornish game hens, which neither of us had ever cooked before, delicious herbs, citrus, and fennel. Some awesome choices if I do say so myself.

Sophie hates HATES touching raw meat, but is quite the serious foodie. I'm determined to break her of this fear. She's doing pretty well! Look at her go! Finally trusting in the modern technology of antibacterial soap.



And it's great, because all that hard work paid off. Our roasted hens, with fennel, rosemary, thyme, lemon, orange, olive oil and wine were succulent and delicious, coated with a crisp, golden skin. We stuffed the citrus under the skin, a technique I love. It seals the citrus flavor into the chicken, and makes a really pretty impression on the skin as it takes on a golden brown finish and tightens up around the fruit. Impressive for large birds around the holidays!

And of course there was the wine. We're partial to Laurenz and Sophia when we see it... because... well.... get it? Lauren.... Sophie... Laurenz... Sophia.... ahhhh! Yup, we're that cool.

But really, it is a tasty wine. Check it out.

We topped the night off with sweet. A shortcake topped with honey and balsamic poached strawberries and a homemade lavender honey ice cream. Delicious. And of course some moscato for good measure. What are your thoughts on dessert wine? I love it after dinner. It's a great compliment to most desserts, and I've heard that it's supposed to help settle your stomach. Not sure if that's true, but it sounds good to me!

All in all it was another successful night, and I'm looking forward to our next food adventure!

Summer Fades, Squash's Blossom

Whoah time flies. I've been away for over two months while I was moving, starting a new career, and working an intense summer job. I've cooked and eaten plenty of exciting things, but simply haven't had a chance to write about any of it! So many changes have happened, but I'm excited to get back in the kitchen and start experimenting with new delicious late summer flavors - and sharing it all here!

And now is a great time - the late summer months produce a plethora of interesting flavor profiles that are exclusive to the season. One of my favorite late summer blooms that I can't resist - the squash blossom. You can imagine my delight when I noticed the buttery, bright bloom growing around the corner from my new apartment in an abundant basil garden. Even more so when I spotted a small sign that prompted passer buys to help themselves! How nice! I love my new neighbor, whoever they may be. If I find them, I'll certainly make them some cookies. Or a pie. Or maybe even a big hug. This kind of fresh produce is hard to come by in city life - you usually have to wait for a farmers market! Fresh basil and fresh squash blossoms on my stroll home from work. Too wonderful.

I scooped up just a couple and brought them home with me. Carefully, I split them, and removed the stamen (the pollen covered center of the flower - not so great for eating) and plunged the blossoms into some cold water to keep them fresh and clean them off. I wrapped my delicacies in a damp paper towel and rushed to the fridge to decide what I should do with my fresh foraged delicacies before they shriveled up and left me hungry (squash blossoms don't live for long once you pluck them. In the most ideal care conditions, you're looking for maybe 24-48 hours - best case scenario, but more than likely you're going to want to use them in a few hours after picking them up from the market or picking them yourselves).

After gathering some goat cheese, flour, onions, garlic, wine, herbs de provence, I was ready to go. I stuffed the blossoms with just enough goat cheese to fill them, and twisted up the tops to seal them. Then I added just enough wine to my flour and herb mixture to make a thick batter (a little lighter than pancake batter consistency). Heating the chopped onion and garlic in some white truffle oil (olive oil would be fine, I literally just didn't have any on hand! grr!), I dipped the blossoms lightly in the batter and allowed them to saute in the pan until the coating became golden brown.

The result? A perfect after work snack. The nutty squash blossom crisped up, encasing the warm mild soft cheese inside. Mmmmm, I could have eaten a full plate of them for dinner!

Look how enticing that golden brown crust is! And the cheese just stuffed to perfection! Herbs provide just the right amount of earthy flavor!

Of course, I couldn't stop there! I came across an article on squash blossoms in MSL, and I realized that I needed more squash blossoms! Just like that. So this morning as I strolled home - I gathered a few more, and with Martha's inspiration concocted a squash blossom frittata. Mmmmm. Chopped up a few blossoms, onion, garlic, fresh basil, and fresh corn off the cob - put them in the pan to saute, and then added about 8 eggs. Transfer the pan into the oven at 350 degrees F for about 10 minutes. Remove from the oven and place slices of fresh mozzarella to the top of the frittata, and arrange a couple of sliced blossoms on top. Put back in the oven until the cheese is melted and enjoy! Mmmm summer!

Chocolate Ganache Red Velvet Cake

I am always honored when someone asks me to make food for an event. Food, baked goods, whatever. I think it's so important that others can trust you with creating a food memory for a special occasion.

At work, I have a reputation for making treats. I've brought in cookies, candies, homemade jam gifts for the holidays, breads, cupcakes for my student's service learning bake sale (chocolate covered strawberry cupcakes), and really all sorts of baked goods. I love to bring a little joy to my staff members', and I find the easiest way to do that is almost always with food!

Given my reputation, I was recently asked to throw together a cake for a surprise retirement party we are throwing for a colleague. Pretty exciting. While I only had a couple of hours, so I couldn't get too elaborate, I'm proud to say the cake turned out delicious! We haven't eaten it yet, but I always make a couple of cupcake sized cakes from each batter I make, in order to make sure the flavor and texture are right before serving. This red velvet recipe hits the mark. I tend to use Martha Stewart's basic recipe, but add extra cocoa, as I like my red velvet nice and chocolatey (of course!). The cocoa really doesn't seem to dry out the cake, even though I add double (1/2 cup instead of 1/4 cup), and don't really compensate elsewhere.

You can find Martha's recipe here, but I really do recommend my slight alteration. It really deepens the chocolate flavor. :-) Mmmmmm Chocolate. On top, I used a simple ganache (about 1 cup of near boiling cream pour over 8 oz chocolate. Let stand for 10 minutes and mix carefully until smooth and shiny)

Cake decorating is hard. Well, in a time crunch it is. With only a couple of hours, and needing to transport this baby to school with all my other work nonsense, I didn't have much in the way of elaboration here.. so I did some basic white chocolate and dark chocolate piping, accented with some edible sugar pearls. Nothing crazy, but still elegant and appropriate for the staff gathering.

Black and white is an elegant combination in desserts. In the pictures, the pearls around the filled in white chocolate heart really don't jump out, but in person they just exude elegance (make sure you affix these while the chocolate is still melted so they stick). I would say my white balance is a bit off (too heavy on the right hand side), but the asymmetry gives this cake a modern look. I piped the hearts and white chocolate rose bud onto wax paper, and had some difficulty (white chocolate isn't as runny when melted as cocoa chocolate, in my experience). But once a base was established, I melted some dark chocolate for more texture and pipped a whole rose, and some swirl patterns. Once these cooled on the wax paper in the refrigerator, (about 15-20 minutes to be safe) I caaaaaarefully peeled the shapes off the paper and affixed them on the frosted cake. Tadah! Abstract rando cake design!

During the party, I'll try to take some pictures of the cake's inside! Red velvet is always so pretty, I think that's why people love it! It's really not much different from chocolate cake... just.... a beautiful deep red that is elegant and unexpected.

Italian Flag Cookies

Growing up for some time in Staten Island, I grew up surrounded by some really good Italian treats. I mean really good. New York pizza snobs are well know far and wide, but there is no pizza snob like a Staten Island pizza snob. Every where I go, almost no pizza is ever good enough.

Philadelphia is an especially painful pizza city (see below for my plea to Philly pizza makers..) so I'm always looking for something better (suggestions wanted - I've already been disappointed by Lorenzo's).

I just love Pizza. I was in NY recently and of course ran to the first pizza shop I could find, which happened to be Luigi's located in the Upper East Side (1701 1st Ave.) around the corner from my friend's place. Okay, well I didn't actually run, although that probably would have helped with the caloric coma that ensued after. Sooooo good. Here is my advice to the pizza places that continually let me down in my current home city. It may be the city of brotherly love, but I have NO love for the pizza. Please help.

Pizza crust - The crust is usually what makes me the saddest. Crust needs to have a crisp outside that is still soft, warm, and almost chewy to the bite. This greasy "bread" substance you try to pass off as crust makes me want to pop a frozen pizza into the microwave. It'd be way better. And that's a huge insult. Look at this beautiful crust example from Luigi's - there is no oil outside, no greasy residue. Just a deliciously thin crunch surrounding a warm doughy bread.

Cheese - SHOULD NOT TASTE LIKE POWDER! What IS that!? This really isn't hard to get right. It should be stringy, melty, gooey, and delicious! What are you doing wrong? It's not that hard! Mmmmmmmm cheese!

Carefully crafted and selected toppings - If I am offered one more slice of buffalo chicken pizza.... Seriously, is that all you do around here? I was in heaven with this succulent roasted eggplant, ricotta, mozzarella slice. And sauce - tomato sauce shouldn't taste like red sugar. It should taste like tomato.

Yes, I am aware that I am picky. Yes, I am aware that this is AMERICAN pizza, and Italian pizza is a whole different ball game. But I love my pizza, and that is that.

Cookies, pizza, and many other American - Italian goods are often part of my comfort food regime. Surprisingly; however, I never really tried the Italian Flag cookie (also called the Italian Rainbow cookie) until a few years ago at a Thanksgiving dinner with my boyfriend's family and family friends. He raved about them, and told me he looked forward to them year after year, so I tried my first Italian Rainbow cookie, and now I'm not sure how I ever did without. Over the last couple of years I've learned how to make them myself and have (according to Chris) really started to master the craft of the rainbow cookie. They are pretty labor intensive, but so worth it. Not only do they totally look impressive to bring to gatherings or just share with friends, loved ones, and maybe even strangers if you feel generous, but they are absolutely delicious. Also, a whole sheet cuts to serve a ton of cookies, so this is ideal for groups. However, if you're anything like me, you might just keep them for yourself :-)

Italian Rainbow Cookies

You will need some "special" equipment, but it's not that special.

3 - 9x13 cake pans, all the same size preferably (or one that you will reuse)

A power mixer (hand or standing)

Ingredients

8oz tube or can of almond paste

1 cup (2 sticks) room temperature butter

1 cup granulated sugar

2 cups flour

1/4 tsp baking soda

4 eggs, separated

6-10 drops each food coloring (red and green)

1/2 cup raspberry jam

1/2 cup apricot preserves

8 oz dark chocolate chips

First, cream the almond paste, butter, and sugar with an electric hand or standing mixer. Set aside. Whisk baking soda into flour, and then stir mixture about a half a cup at a time to the almond paste mixture.

In another bowl, beat egg whites until soft peaks form and whites nearly triple in size. Fold egg whites in to batter carefully.

Separate the batter into three bowls, dividing evenly, and add red food coloring to one bowl mixing well, green to another, mixing well, and leave the third alone.

Grease your 9x13 pan (or pans) generously and spread the batter inside. It will seem really thin, and it is ok, just make sure you spread as evenly as possible.

When done, cool each cake on a cooling rack, carefully popping it out of your pan. Spread apricot preserves on your red cake and place the yellow cake on top (carefully!). Repeat the step with raspberry jam on the yellow cake, placing your green cake on top. Let compress with a pan on top of the cakes for a few hours (preferably overnight) in the refrigerator. (Sometimes I skip this step, and it's a little sloppier, but if in a rush you can still turn out a nice product).

Finally, melt your chocolate chips (either by double boiling or carefully in the microwave in short intervals, stirring every 15-30 seconds). Spread chocolate on top of your green layer and let harden. Slice the cake into 1 inch x 2 inch pieces, and you're ready to go. Store in an airtight container. I like them cold and refrigerated, but they've kept in a room temperature container for a few days for me as well. SO GOOD!

Engagement Cupcakes

Great news! My roommate got engaged to her boyfriend of 8 years last weekend! So exciting!

I love weddings, and obviously to celebrate, I made cupcakes.

These are just some basic yellow cake with some piped ivory and yellow meringue roses affixed on the top and some sugar pearls for a little glamor. Beautiful, simple, elegant, and a perfect way to congratulate my roommate!

Congrats, Stef! Love you!