More success!

I have made a few new things recently, most notably my chocolate cupcakes that I made yesterday. I filled them with peanut butter ganache and frosted with a light whipped chocolate frosting, the latter two I just sort of made up as I went along.

Here is a link to the chocolate cake recipe I used. I didn't make the frosting, so I cannot vouch for it, but the cake was quite good. I'm not much of a chocolate person, so I thought the chocolate chips were a bit much in combination with the melted baking chocolate, but everyone at work seemed to like it, so I would say it is optional. The consistency was...interesting, a lot lighter and fluffier than my other cupcake attempts, very unique. The recipe made around 32 cupcakes.

After letting them cool I filed them with peanut butter ganache. They make Reeses Chips, and I substituted those for chocolate chips in my aforementioned ganache recipe. It is probably the most delicious thing I have ever tasted. I made the whipped ganache in this instance. It went very well with the cake.

I was going to frost with the ganache as well but I ran out of peanut butter chips, so I made an easy whipped chocolate frosting. I didn't measure anything, but it was about 8 oz of heavy whipping cream, 2 tbsp of sugar, 1/2 a cup of ghiradelli cocoa powder and a couple squirts of hershey syrup. I'm sure there is something a bit more specific out on the vast wealth of information of the internet, but regardless, my mishmash of ingredients turned out quite good, a nice change from the richness of the cupcake and filling.

These were a hit if you are looking for something a bit different. I still need to blog about my margarita cupcakes, note to self.

Yummy Ganache

After my first lengthy mistakes post, I suppose it is time for the successes so far.

Success #1

Chocolate Ganache

It sounds intimidating, and I'm still not entirely sure I can even pronounce it, but it is delicious and so easy to make! I found the recipe at The Joy of Baking, which has been a great resource.

8 oz semi-sweet chocolate (cut into pieces)
3/4 cup heavy whipping cream
2 tbsp unsalted butter

I used Ghiradelli semi-sweet chips, it was great, but I'll try something different next time.

It is very easy. Put the chocolate in a bowl then put the whipping cream and butter in a medium sauce pan on medium heat. Pull from heat as soon as it starts to boil and pour it over the chocolate. Let it sit for five minutes, then stir until smooth. At this point you can pour it over a cake for a glossy finish, which is good, BUT I recommend refrigerating it and then whipping it. You end up with a great mousse-like texture that makes amazing frosting.

My next mission is to try to make a peanut butter ganache using the Reeses peanut butter chips. It could go horribly wrong, or be amazingly delicious. If it works out, I'm gonna make fudgy chocolate cupcakes and use the ganache as filling and/or frosting for an irresistible peanut butter chocolate combo cupcake.

Mistakes 1-4

Mistake #1

Don’t use the Wilton buttercream mix. It is disgusting and no one will like your cake!

Mistake #2

I still haven’t figured out what icing you can use under fondant. I have read buttercream, but it has to be refrigerated, and you can’t refrigerate fondant, which seems like a big issue. And if you do use buttercream, don’t use chocolate, at least not at first.

I thought it would be a nice change variation to use chocolates frosting under the pure white fondant. This was a poor decision for my first foray into the fondant world. I ended up smudging chocolate all over the fondant, which I ended up painting black, but if I hadn’t it would have been quite a disaster. So why is the frosting ending up on top of the fondant? Well, that leads me into…

Mistake #3

I have watched enough Ace of Cakes, so I should know better, but don’t try to fondant a square/rectangular cake, it does not work. Picture a table cloth on a square table, it bunches at the corners and it is basically unfixable. My solution was to cut 1-inch strips of fondant to run across the top in an x formation. (I realize at this point I should have taken pictures, and for all future ventures, there will be pictures, but my battery was dead etc. etc.)

Mistake #4

DON’T PUT GUM PASTE IN THE FRIDGE!
Ok, maybe this should have been common sense, but I really didn’t think a lot about it. I made these adorable margarita cupcakes for Cinco de Mayo (check the next success post for details about those) and I rolled the rim in “salt” (sugar) and swirled the frosting to look like a frozen margarita, it was only missing one thing, limes!

So I made some lime green gum paste, rolled it out, and cut circles. I cut the circles in half and pressed lines into the side. After they dried I painted a darker green “peel” along the outside and painted the lines. They were completely adorable and the final touch I needed before putting the cupcakes in the fridge (whipped cream based frosting) for the night.

I wake up in the morning, and the limes have melted into the frosting. The moisture from the cupcake container, mixed with the refrigeration, left me with droopy green slimy gunk hanging off the side of my otherwise perfect cupcakes. I pulled them out and smoothed the frosting, even replaced a few with some extras I had made, but it really just wasn’t the same.

Why?

I just wanted to blog about my trials and tribulations when it comes to baking and decorating cakes.

I used to make ice cream cakes in high school but I didn’t buy the necessary equipment to decorate from home until recently. So now that I have the means, I am making as many different kinds of things as possible and I have already learned a lot, mostly by making errors and figuring out how to fix them.

So this is like my log of mistakes I’ve already made, recipes I’ve tried (be it to success or failure) and recipes I’ve concocted.

And because linking back is always good, I also have another blog about news and current events, Hardly Relevant