Yesterday was the 6 month birthday for my blog!! If I had time, I would have baked a half birthday cake. But, since I’ve been busy, I’ll just wish my blog a happy half birthday, and many more half and whole birthdays to come!!
A few weekends ago, we attended a Ghostbusters-themed birthday party for our friend’s son who was turning 4. The invitation warned, “prepared to be slimed!” So I thought it was only appropriate that I make green slime cupcakes for the occasion. They had an AMAZING sculpted cake of Slimer at the party (made by one of the bakers shown on the Food Network) and so my cupcakes ended up going nicely with the theme.
I made lemon cupcakes with traditional piped buttercream. The real challenge was how to make the slime. I needed something tasty, translucent, and slightly gooey so that it wouldn’t just drip everywhere. I found a recipe online (from bakingbites.com) for lime curd, and from the picture it looked perfect. The green color comes from food coloring, so the lime is just a nice complementary flavor.
Well, I tried the lime curd, and it was WAY too strong. I don’t know if it was the fact that I used bottled lime juice, or just that lime is meant to be taken in small doses. Either way, it was not good. I should say that the original recipe called for a small amount of the curd to be placed inside of the cupcake. This probably tastes really good. But for the way that I needed it (a lot of curd on top of the frosting) I think it was just too much lime flavor. So I decided to make the recipe again with lemon juice this time. The result was MUCH better. The slightly sour curd mixed well with the sweet buttercream. The consistency was absolutely perfect.
To get a completely smooth texture, strain the curd through a fine mesh sieve after you take it off the heat. As you can see from the picture, sometimes bits of cooked egg remain in the mixture. So it is best to remove these before putting your curd in the refrigerator.
Cover with plastic wrap, and chill for a few hours before using. To use on cupcakes as I have, gently spoon a small amount of curd on top of the frosting, and let it trickle down. Don’t use too much, or you will end up with a drippy mess! I piped my frosting with a #32 Wilton star tip.
When they give you a reusable tote bag for your purchase! If I hadn’t just gone to see the NASA flyover in the city, this would have been the highlight of my day!
SoNYC (Science Online NYC) is a monthly meeting that I attend, that holds discussions about science communication through social media and other online resources. The May 2nd meeting marked SoNYC’s first birthday, and I made 6 dozen cupcakes for the event!
SoNYC has a very distinctive (and cool) logo that I wanted to be the focal point of the cupcake. I decided to do a red velvet cupcake, with a buttercream frosting, topped with a red poured fondant. Then I piped the logo with white royal icing, and the blue dots with Wilton blue glitter gel.
The cupcakes were a huge hit, and I thought they tasted great! It sort of reminded me of a moon pie, with a hard outside and a nice and fluffy inside. I started making the cupcakes over the weekend for the Wednesday event, and they were still perfectly fresh and soft when served.
Some tips you may find helpful:
Poured fondant can be tricky, so here are some tips I think you will find helpful. They are based on all the mistakes I made during this process
1. Poured fondant is like a thin silk dress: it shows EVERYTHING underneath! Your frosting needs to be smoother than a baby’s butt, so don’t forget to smooth it with a hot knife before dipping!
2. You really need to make sure you don’t overheat the fondant. If you do, it will become thick and gooey, and will not cover the cupcakes smoothly. Once the fondant becomes pouring consistency, immediately remove it from the heat. Once you have mixed in your almond extract and coloring, pour it into a bowl for the cupcake dipping.
3. Patience, patience, patience. After you have dipped the top of your cupcake (just up to where the wrapper begins) hold it upside down and gently shake until no more icing drips off. If you turn the cupcake over prematurely, you will have dripping down the sides.
4. It is best if you never refrigerate the cupcakes once they are dipped. Taking them in and out of the refrigerator will just cause the icing to sweat and possibly drip. You can store them in large foil food containers, since they hold a lot of cupcakes and are very deep.
5. You want your royal icing to be a fairly thin consistency so you can easily write your logo. To get the right consistency, gradually add water and stir. Wait for the poured fondant to dry completely before piping the logo on top. You will want at least 12 hours for the royal icing to dry. So don’t decorate the cupcakes the day of the event! (I didn’t make this mistake, but I noticed that my icing took a while to dry, due to the high water content).
Happy Birthday, SoNYC!
This dessert is a perfect hybrid, with the creamy texture of cheesecake, and the classic caramelized sugar topping of flan. I made it for my brother-in-law’s birthday since he is not a fan of cake (weird, I know). The recipe comes from my favorite book of decadent dessert recipes, Sticky, Chewy, Messy, Gooey: Desserts for the Serious Sweet Tooth.
Not only is it rich and sinful, but it is also completely gluten free!
The caramel covering the inside of the pan.
The strainer removes any lumps.
The flan poured over the caramel.
Inside a roasting pan filled with water so it can steam in the oven.
Consistency of final product: firm at the edges, slightly jiggly in the center.
