about
about me.
i'm kelly.
26 year old stressbaker.
about-to-graduate grad school.
new england transplant.
eating through philly & the burbs.
baking my way into the hearts of friends.
●
●
●
Tuesday, September 14, 2010 @ 4:56 PM
what to do with leftover egg whites and nutella buttercream...
0 Comments:
Thursday, September 9, 2010 @ 6:30 PM
Cupcakes, inspired by Cupcakes!
If you don't get the reference, I'm not sure we can be friends anymore.
Anyway, so two weekends ago, my summer dream came true when I chased down the elusive Philly Cupcake Truck. I had two cupcakes from Buttercream: one chocolate cupcake with peanut butter buttercream and one banana cupcake with nutella buttercream. When I tried them both, I smiled so much I had to close my eyes as to not distract my senses from the amazing taste I was experiencing. I needed more than a moment. I needed a few minutes.
Even though I told just about everyone I knew (and even people I didn't) about my epic quest, I still couldn't get those cupcakes out of my head. I frequently found myself in a silky buttercream frosting daze and the hum of my kitchenaid haunted my dreams. I was hopeless.... or so I thought.
When I got back from Ireland this summer, I brought back the usual souvenirs--Bailey's, Butler's and brown bread. I also came home with something unexpected: an attitude to conquer all my fears, especially those in baking. My new mantra had me thinking, "If you can dream it, you should bake it" and believe me, I have!
So I set out to replicate the delicate yet pungeantly banana flavored cupcakes I had been mentally savoring for days. I was skeptical that the recipe I was going to try would just turn into dry, dense banana muffins, not resembling my fluffy cupcake dream in the least. But, in lieu of my new take on baking, I fearlessly baked on...
Look at those hunks of banana and those beautiful vanilla bean specks!
While we're on the subject of bananas, I have to say that mashing bananas is not only therapeutic, but it's incredibly transformative. Take ugly, spotted ripe bananas, peel away the skin and watch as these pale, matte, bananas turn golden and shiny and release their sugary sweet flavor with every smash of a fork. I'm always amazed.
Soon after came the moment of truth. My cupcakes were out of the oven, lovely little yellow cakes flecked with a dusting of golden brown.
(It's called buttercream for a reason...)
Silky smooth and super simple to make. Swiss meringue buttercream with 5T Nutella added.
(who am I kidding? More like 7 tbsp, but who's counting?)
et voila! easily the tastiest cupcake I have ever made.
Cupcakes (from Bon Appétit | April 2010 as seen on epicurious.com):
1 1/4 cups all purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 very ripe large bananas, peeled
1/2 cup sour cream
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 large egg
1 large egg yolk
For cupcakes:
Position rack in center of oven and preheat to 350°F. Line 12 standard (1/3-cup) muffin cups with paper liners. Whisk flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in medium bowl to blend. Mash bananas with fork in another medium bowl until smooth. Mix sour cream and vanilla into bananas.
Using electric mixer, beat sugar and butter in large bowl until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add egg and egg yolk and beat until well blended. Add flour mixture in 3 additions alternately with banana-sour cream mixture in 2 additions, beginning and ending with flour mixture and beating just until blended after each addition. Divide batter among prepared muffin cups (generous 1/4 cup for each).
Bake cupcakes until tester inserted into center of each comes out clean, about 20 minutes. Transfer cupcakes to rack and let cool completely.
I would be lying to you if I told you I didn't try one at this point. I had to. The anticipation, the trepidation, the doubt was all too much to suppress during the ten minutes it would take to make the buttercream frosting. Ten minutes would be an eternity! And why bother with buttercream if the cupcakes are sub-par?
I was speechless when I tried the cupcake by itself. I was standing in my kitchen grinning like an idiot at 11:30 on a Thursday night. All those doubts I had? Gone. Even the dream of banana nutella bliss was thrown out of my head with this naked cupcake alone. I couldn't wait to make the frosting.
(It's called buttercream for a reason...)
Silky smooth and super simple to make. Swiss meringue buttercream with 5T Nutella added.
(who am I kidding? More like 7 tbsp, but who's counting?)
et voila! easily the tastiest cupcake I have ever made.
Cupcakes (from Bon Appétit | April 2010 as seen on epicurious.com):
1 1/4 cups all purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 very ripe large bananas, peeled
1/2 cup sour cream
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 large egg
1 large egg yolk
For cupcakes:
Position rack in center of oven and preheat to 350°F. Line 12 standard (1/3-cup) muffin cups with paper liners. Whisk flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in medium bowl to blend. Mash bananas with fork in another medium bowl until smooth. Mix sour cream and vanilla into bananas.
Using electric mixer, beat sugar and butter in large bowl until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add egg and egg yolk and beat until well blended. Add flour mixture in 3 additions alternately with banana-sour cream mixture in 2 additions, beginning and ending with flour mixture and beating just until blended after each addition. Divide batter among prepared muffin cups (generous 1/4 cup for each).
Bake cupcakes until tester inserted into center of each comes out clean, about 20 minutes. Transfer cupcakes to rack and let cool completely.
Nutella Swiss Meringue Buttercream Frosting
(adapted from nutellaforum.com - who knew such a heavenly site existed?)
Ingredients:
4 large egg whites
1 1/4 cups caster sugar
250g butter
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
5 tablespoons Nutella
Directions:
1. Combine the egg whites and sugar into a heatproof bowl and whisk over a saucepan of simmering water until sugar is dissolved and the mixture is as hot as you can get it without the egg whites cooking.
2. With the whisk attachment on your mixer whisk the egg white and sugar mixture on high speed until a stiff meringue is formed and the mix has cooled down to room temperature.
3. Put the paddle attachment on your mixer and with the mixer on a low speed add a tablespoon or two of butter at a time. Once all the butter is incorporated turn the mixer up to medium speed and mix until the mixture is light and fluffy again.
4. Add the vanilla extract, almond essence, and Nutella, and mix on medium speed until the frosting is a good piping texture.
(adapted from nutellaforum.com - who knew such a heavenly site existed?)
Ingredients:
4 large egg whites
1 1/4 cups caster sugar
250g butter
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
5 tablespoons Nutella
Directions:
1. Combine the egg whites and sugar into a heatproof bowl and whisk over a saucepan of simmering water until sugar is dissolved and the mixture is as hot as you can get it without the egg whites cooking.
2. With the whisk attachment on your mixer whisk the egg white and sugar mixture on high speed until a stiff meringue is formed and the mix has cooled down to room temperature.
3. Put the paddle attachment on your mixer and with the mixer on a low speed add a tablespoon or two of butter at a time. Once all the butter is incorporated turn the mixer up to medium speed and mix until the mixture is light and fluffy again.
4. Add the vanilla extract, almond essence, and Nutella, and mix on medium speed until the frosting is a good piping texture.
Labels: banana, cupcakes, nutella
2 Comments:
Nutella frosting! Genius! (Sidenote that your blog always makes me smile. I'm instantly happier than I was five minutes ago, now that I've read about your cupcake creations and ice cream adventures! :D)
By 
Jess, at
September 12, 2010 at 5:05 PM
aww, thanks, Jess! They're a contender for class on Thursday, so we'll see ;)
By kelly, at
September 12, 2010 at 7:56 PM
Saturday, August 28, 2010 @ 8:01 PM
THE PHILLY CUPCAKE TRUCK!!! (finally!)
Just as I was about to move to Pennsylvania from Connecticut, I heard about the New Haven cupcake truck. It offers several decadent flavors, such as salted caramel and hummingbird (pineapple and banana), as well as a variety of toppings like standard sprinkles or edible gold flakes, if you're feeling fancy. They even offer shots of frosting if you'd rather skip the cake altogether (that's my kind of truck!). I was pretty bummed that I didn't have time to check it out before I moved, but after a quick Google search, I realized that Philly had its own cupcake truck, Buttercream.
I'm ashamed to admit that despite my excitement, it took me a year to finally stalk out the cupcake truck. I came close to visiting a few times, but for one reason or another it never happened. A few days ago I took a look at my "Things to do in Philly this summer" list and realized that I only had a few weeks left. So, I made myself a hair appointment at the Aveda Institute (on my list), found out where the truck was parked and was off!
I headed over to Clark Park in University City. I was greeted by an array of vibrant vegetables, jars of jams and jellies and beautiful bouquets of wildflowers at the farmers market that was going on.
I quickly brushed by the stands, on a mission for one thing and one thing only: cupcakes. I had the white van in sight and nothing could deter me from the allure of bright colored sprinkles and the promise of year-anticipated cupcakes.
At $2 a pop, flavors were selling out fast (the truck had only been parked for an hour before they ran out of ganache!), so I settled on two flavors: banana with nutella buttercream and chocolate with peanut butter buttercream.
Let's start with the chocolate cupcake. As you can tell from the photo above, there wasn't much frosting for such a big cupcake. I was worried that the peanut butter frosting wouldn't have a strong flavor and that it would be lost amidst all that chocolate.
The peanut butter flavor was perfect. The buttercream was silky and light. It's no wonder why the Cupcake Lady chose Buttercream as the name of her operation. It was so smooth and perfectly blended... I was surprised at how beautiful the texture was. As for the chocolate cake, it was moist and soft, but a little messy. If it had been a little more moist or maybe a tad denser, it might have stayed together better.
Let's move onto banana.
Banana can be tricky. Too little and it lacks flavor and can be dry and crumby. Too much and the cake will be flavorful but dense or worse--undercooked. This little guy was denser than the average vanilla cupcake, but was too light to be confused with banana bread or even a banana muffin. It had just enough banana and the perfect amount of buttercream. The nutella was delicious on its own (I sneaked a lick), but, despite the amount of it, the hazelnut flavor was so subtle that it played second fiddle to the banana flavor of the cupcake.
I had such a lovely time hanging out in Clark Park today; the sky was brilliantly blue and cloudless and everyone was enjoying cupcakes and the farmers market in the lovely weather. Tracking down the cupcake truck forced me to take a detour from my normal weekend routine--I got to relax and poke around the city by myself at my own pace. I wish I had found the cupcake truck sooner!
Labels: banana, chocolate, cupcakes, nutella, peanut butter
0 Comments:
Tuesday, July 27, 2010 @ 7:54 PM
conquering the crepe
After falling for crepes in Galway, I couldn't wait to get home and try my hand at making them.
Crepes - Adapted from Alton Brown (I halved the recipe and made smaller crepes)
Ingredients
- 2 large eggs
- 3/4 cup milk
- 1/2 cup water
- 1 cup flour
- 3 tablespoons melted butter
- Butter, for coating the pan
Directions
In a blender, combine all of the ingredients and pulse for 10 seconds. Place the crepe batter in the refrigerator for 1 hour. This allows the bubbles to subside so the crepes will be less likely to tear during cooking. The batter will keep for up to 48 hours.
Heat a small non-stick pan. Add butter to coat. Pour 1 ounce of batter into the center of the pan and swirl to spread evenly. Cook for 30 seconds and flip. Cook for another 10 seconds and remove to the cutting board. Lay them out flat so they can cool. Continue until all batter is gone. After they have cooled you can stack them and store in sealable plastic bags in the refrigerator for several days or in the freezer for up to two months. When using frozen crepes, thaw on a rack before gently peeling apart.
Labels: crepes, nutella, strawberries
3 Comments:
GORGEOUS GORGEOUS GORGEOUS......The photos are just lovely. those look delicious.
By 
, at
July 28, 2010 at 11:27 AM
I just made this recipe, and the crepes were delicious!! My parents also enjoyed them, especially my dad since he's diabetic and this is something he can actually eat (he just used berries and an un-sweetened whipped cream). I did destroy the first one, but luckily you gave a fair warning about that, and then it was surprisingly easy. I made mine with nutella and bananas :)
By Megan Farquharson, at
July 30, 2010 at 6:36 PM
em--THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU! Let's have a crepe party and drink Barry's tea.
Megan--I'm so glad you and your family enjoyed the crepes, especially your dad! The first one was kind of intimidating and they make it sound so horrifyingly hard on TV, but it's so simple! Nutella and bananas sounds delicious! I think I'm going to try bananas foster next time. yum.
By kelly, at
August 2, 2010 at 9:13 PM