Sugar Cream Cake

Verdict: win

I have yet to make this cake, but one of my co-workers brought it in on Friday for my last day at work. He gave me the recipe, but dumb me left it in my lab coat pocket [along with my handy dandy RP kit compounding sheet that I made :( ]and I can't go back to retrieve it. I'm writing it down now from memory so I don't forget it later. The recipe is so simple, and the cake extremely rich and addictive. Google it if you want to see a picture!

German Chocolate Cupcakes

Verdict: win

This was another sweet idea (pun intended) born from a promise with a co-worker to make German chocolate cake. Cake is difficult to bring into work because you need plates and knives. Cupcakes, on the other hand, are easily portable (liners!) and their individual serving size bypasses the messiness of cutting cake...and they're just so darn cute. Cupcakes > cake in my book.

I looked for German chocolate cupcake recipes, but nothing really stood out to me. I decided to adapt the recipe for German chocolate cake on David Lebovitz's website, which turned out to be incredibly easy to do. The biggest changes was the baking time (as noted below). I also skipped the syrup step, but next time I won't because the cupcakes (in my opinion) could have been slightly more moist. Nevertheless, the general consensus was that the cupcakes turned were great! I've never really cared for German chocolate cake, but these were fantastic and not cloyingly sweet. I loved the contrast of the slightly bitter chocolate icing with the sweet filling over a mild chocolate cake.

This was my first time working with real chocolate in a cake (vs using cocoa powder). It wasn't too hard! I will say that melting chocolate in a microwave WITH water mixed in scared me at first (usually this results in burnt chocolate...), but by zapping it every 10-30 seconds, then checking on it and stirring it, it turned out alright. It did look a little grainy, but once it was mixed into the batter everything looked and tasted fine. And just FMI (for my information), the cupcake tops will look domed in the oven, but they will sink after cooling.

Don't let the length of this recipe scare you (like it did me initially). There looks like there are a lot of ingredients and a lot of steps, but if you "mise en place" method when setting up, it made everything a lot faster and easier to work with. The only other trick is being careful not to over whip the egg whites. I used tips from my trials with making macarons: immediately stop whipping when you can lift the bowl over your head and the whites won't fall down, and very quickly but very gently fold it into the batter. Works like a charm :)

Raspberry Whipped Cream Cupcakes

Verdict: win

You know those strawberry whipped cream cakes found at Chinese bakeries? The ones that are so light that they just melt in your mouth? Where the whipped cream is just teasingly sweet enough, leaving you begging for another bite? MMMMMMMMMMMMMmmmmmmmm... My new favorite is at Golden Delight Bakery in Columbus (their Pandan cake is fantastic too), though Mrs. Wu absolutely makes the best homemade ones.

I wanted to try making a cupcake version...but those strawberry cakes can be ridiculously hard to make. Again, it's the craft of whipping egg whites (since there's no chemical leavening agent in this recipe) that makes this cake recipe fickle. I feel that I've become better at whipping egg whites just the right amount now that I've tackled and conquered macarons, so I felt fairly confident with adapting this online cake recipe into cupcakes.

For the most part, the cupcakes turned out well (tasted better after spending a night in the fridge too). Slightly drier and the cake was more "eggy" than I would've liked, but the whipped cream was lick-off-your-fingers fantastic. I also used raspberries instead of strawberries just because they were in season (and made adorable cupcake toppers).

I'm going to keep my planned changes for the next time I try to make them short and sweet: 1) definitely brush the cakes with syrup to keep them moist, 2) try using cake flour, 3) use paper liners and fill them only 3/5ths to 3/4ths of the way full. I kept this description short, because in the end, I was craving Mrs. Wu's cake more than anything else. I'll have to ask her for her recipe :)

Thick and Chewy Oatmeal Cookies

Verdict: Win

"You bring the milk, and I'll bring the cookies."

I've been asked a few times at work what I like to do for fun. Most recently when I started to describe how I love to cook/bake (no matter how much of a novice I am), it naturally segued into how much I love food, to what food I like, to what food the other person liked, to what we wished we could eat at the moment, to consequent drooling, and finally to the above promise.

And thus the search for the perfect oatmeal cookie began. I've tried a recipe once before, which led to tasty, but rather unexceptional, cookies. Relying on good ol' Cook's Illustrated, I think I found my ideal oatmeal cookie. Fortunately for spacey, sleep-deprived me (first few days of working early shift at 2:30 am took a toll on me...), these cookies were easy to throw together too.

Good oatmeal cookies are usually studded with plump purple raisins, but more often than not the store-bought variety use sad little wrinkled, wanna-be raisins. My experience with them have made me averse to any raisins in general. My co-worker at the other end of the promise didn't care for them either, and instead likes his oatmeal cookies plain! No hate for plain cookies, but I prefer any biscuits with a little pizzazz. I made a few plain cookies, but I adorned the rest with butterscotch chips I had lying around (hint: leftover from making frau brownies). Feel free to substitute with your favorite mix-in (chocolate chips, coconut, nuts, it's up to you!).

Lastly, for extra thick cookies, here's a tip: chill the cookie dough for a few hours in the fridge before baking. Do it. It leads to some satisfyingly handsome cookies.

***7:44 PM 6.24.12
Note to self: after munching on these for a few days, I feel like they're a bit too sweet for my taste. Scale down on the sugar next time.

Cinnamon-Streusel Coffee Cake

Ugh, the little photo skills I had are rusty as well

Verdict: Win

I'm back! With the end of school and moving back home for the summer, I've been happily enjoying my mom's homecooked (delicious) food every day. There's been little need to post any planned "meals of the week" posts, but it's been over a month since I've updated this thing at all...and I've been itching ever since to be in the kitchen. Today I couldn't stand it any longer and decided to start with something simple to get my cooking/baking muscles back in shape: a coffee cake.

As always, King Arthur Flour is reliable for their recipes and their products (I love their line of flour - it's the only flour I use). This coffee cake comes together easily and quickly, but it does require a lot of bowls. In under 2 hours, I had a coffee cake reminiscent of a giant cinnamon sugar donut - and who doesn't love cinnamon sugar donuts?