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 :)