Livestream with Pint-Size Baker (Baking Adventure #14)

Hey all!

Thanks so much to those of you who tuned into the impromptu Livestream of this week's baking adventure: Carrot Cake. For those of you who missed it, I have included the live stream below. Just a warning though, it's the ENTIRE Livestream because I can't figure out how to edit and cut parts yet, so have fun!

[BTW, the first video is of actually making the cake and frosting and the second is of frosting/decorating the cake. See below the videos for the final product!]

Watch live streaming video from pintsizebaker at livestream.com

Watch live streaming video from pintsizebaker at livestream.com

Congratulations Carrot Cake:

Baking Adventure #13

Lucky #13?

For this week's baking adventure I wanted to do something creative, something a little challenging if you will. At first I stumbled upon this Better Than Banana Cream Pie Cupcakerecipe. It sounded delicious and definitely a little challenging, but I'm not a huge fan of whipped cream (see frosting portion of recipe) and it didn't quit provide the type of challenge I was looking for. You see, I wanted to learn a new technique. So then I continued researching cupcake recipes while bookmarking the Banana Cream Pie one. I came across one for a Chocolate Chip Cupcake with Chocolate Chip Frosting. This is one I had been eyeing for a few months now, but never actually gave in and made it... Then, it HIT me! One of my dad's favorite flavors of ice cream is Bruster's Banana Chocolate Chip... What if I combined the two recipes and then transformed into my own and made a Banana + Chocolate Chip concoction?!... [Spoken in an English accent] BY GEORGE I THINK I'VE GOT IT! This week's baking adventure then came to life:

BANANA CHOCO CHIP CUPCAKES

I began this recipe just like any other by taking a trip to the grocery and prepping everything before beginning. (This is a great technique so you don't get half way through and realize you screwed up... STAY TUNED, the Pint-Size Baker = minor FAIL on this adventure)

After prepping the ingredients, including mashing two bananas, I began referencing the Better Than Banana Cream Pie Cupcake recipe for the base of my cupcake.

However, I made a few slight changes:

1. Instead of buying light brown sugar, I used the dark brown already on hand.
2. Added 1/4 tsp of banana extract
3. Substituted 1/4 c semi-sweet chocolate chips for walnuts
4. Salted butter instead of unsalted (I have NEVER used unsalted butter.)
5. Halved the recipe entirely... well almost...

Once the dry ingredients and wet ingredients were combined in their respective bowls I began combining 1/3 at a time... then all of a sudden I felt like I got hit in the head with a ton of bricks and an overwhelmed sense of anger and frustration hit me... I had halved every single ingredient up until the eggs and vanilla. UGH! So either I was going to have to dump the 1/3 of dry and wet ingredients combined out and start over OR I was going to have to figure out how to double the rest of the ingredients and make the normal batch. The latter was my first choice until I realized I had only bought enough bananas to make half a batch...

To the trash can we went! But not before taking a sad face picture:

And back to the drawing board with the wet ingredients and adding another 1/3 of dry ingredients back to its bowl. (This is where my mathematical brain came in great handy!) I must confess though that I was a little (read: a lot) irritated at myself for making such a stupid mistake and thank goodness no one else was around to see how upset at myself I was... However, that was when I turned on some good cooking music (country) and went to town. Eventually the bad mood fell by the wayside, and the baking was back in business!

(Note: This is a thicker than normal batter.)

The cupcake pans were lined and batter filled.

While the cupcakes cooled, it was time to start on the frosting.

Otherwise known as: THE CHALLENGE. This frosting was different from my norm in that it was buttercream made from scratch. I referenced this Basic Buttercream recipe as my base and went to town. If anyone has made buttercream before or anyone does it more than once in a lifetime, I commend you! This was NOT an easy feat. Leave it to me to not read how long you actually have to beat the butter and sugar until it becomes the wonder known as buttercream frosting! But boy is it worth it!

Lessons learned from making buttercream frosting:

1. 1980s hand-mixer motors aren't cut out for 30+ minutes of use. Seriously thought it was going to catch fire.
2. Read directions prior to beginning. LUCKILY, I only made half the batch (yes, I remembered to half EVERYTHING this time) so it only took about 25 minutes to get the buttercream frosting just right.

Once the Basic Buttercream Frosting was to the consistency it needed to be, I substituted banana extract for the vanilla and spread on top of the cooled cupcakes. To get a little creative, I made a quick chocolate ganache. (Recipe: melt 1/4 c semi-sweet chocolate chips and 1/4 c heavy whipping cream in the microwave on high for about 30 seconds. Remove and stir until creamy.) Then poured the ganache on top of the frosted cupcakes and VOILA!

There you have it! Banana Choco Chip Cupcakes! Hope you enjoyed this week's installment of the Pint-Size Baking Adventures. Be sure to leave any questions below as this recipe was certainly an experiment!

Baking Adventure #12

This week's baking adventure is true to typical form. It actually occurred on the weekend, wasn't late, AND turned out pretty daggon' good! It has been something I have been wanting to make since 2007 when it first touched the thousands of tastebuds on my tongue.

You see, my mom and I have a "normal" (I use that term loosely) obsession for Food Network, in particular Paula Deen. So for her 50th birthday I surprised her with two tickets to Paula's Show, Paula's Party, and a trip to Savannah, GA. We had a BLAST! The trip included a stay at a haunted Bed & Breakfast called the Marshall House, a day spent at Uncle Bubba's restaurant where the show was filmed (not to mention meeting the handsome Constantine Maroulis and Maureen McCormick, other wise known as Marsha Brady), walking the streets of Savannah in the rain, and a final meal at the Lady & Sons restaurant (Paula Deen and her sons, Jamie and Bobby's place).

We waited in line a little over an hour to make it for the lunch rush. We both ordered the buffet which included fried chicken, mac 'n cheese, cornbread, collard greens, and 3 kinds of desserts. That meal left us beyond full and satisfied. One problem, ever since, I have been craving one of the three desserts, which leads to this week's baking adventure...

Gooey Butter Cake!

If you have ever been to the Lady and Sons restaurant in Savannah, you know what I'm talking about with these things. Even my mom, who doesn't like sweets, LOVED these. Since it had been a few weeks since I had truly baked something scrumptious and had to hit up the grocery anyway, I decided this Pint-Size Baking Blog was WAY PAST DUE for some Gooey Butter Cakes.

Now this recipe holds true to its name, as you will below see when PREPping the ingredients.

I melted the butter in the microwave and combined with the egg and yellow cake mix. [Side note: using cake mix is sac-religious for my baking passion. It was really stifle to swallow my "from scratch" only motto, but boy am I glad I did!] One thing to note with melting the butter, let it cool a little bit before combining with egg, as you might cook the egg on accident.

After the crust mixture is combined, pat the dough into the bottom of the baking dish while making sure it goes up the sides as well. The recipe online doesn't explicitly say to do this, but I HIGHLY recommend in order to keep the filling in its place after baking.

FILLING: The filling is super delicious. I dare you not to lick the bowl after pouring into the crust in the baking dish! ONE CHANGE I did make to this otherwise perfect recipe is to cut the sugar in half. Paula Deen is notorious for super sweet and super buttery dishes. Instead of 16 oz. (One 1 lb. box) of Confectioners Sugar, I used 8 ozs. (half the box) which was PLENTY for this sweet tooth! Next time, I'll probably use 6 tablespoons of butter filling instead of 8.

Once the filling is blended to a smooth texture, pour it into the baking dish and spread evenly.

Then bake at 350 degrees for 40 minutes (The recipe says 40-50 but err on the side of more gooey. You can always bake longer if under-cooked but not vice versa.)

After baking, let cool about 10-15 minutes and serve!

WARNING: Little by little this Gooey Butter Cake will mysteriously disappear when you're not looking!

And there you have it! Sorry I was MIA for so long. I sure did miss you guys (all three of you). Hope you are having a wonderful start to 2010!!! Big things are in store for this year. I can feel it! :-)

<3,

Pint-Size Baker

Baking Adventure #11

Wow, time has absolutely FLOWN! I can't believe it has been three weeks since my last baking blog post. Terribly sorry to leave you all hanging! However, it has been an uber busy past few weeks including a move, a holiday, and taking a chance to go after a dream! There was baking and cooking to be had though!

Below is a little picture slideshow of what I've been up to the past few weeks:

Baking adventure #11 was inspired by a conversation with my best friend who decided to rub it in my face that she made oogey gooey chocolate brownies and they were all of the way in Orlando... aka NO BROWNIES FOR YOU [spoken in the Soup Nazi accent from Seinfeld]. This was just cruel so one night this past week I decided to look up brownie recipes and utilize the ingredients already in my cabinets. After glancing through a few options, I opted to bake a recipe pulled from EatingWell.com by way Delish.com. It looked quite simple AND no trip to the grocery was needed.

After gathering all ingredients and going to town on baking them, I realized my two biggest concerns had been met! The brownies were in fact SUPER EASY to make and I got to remain in the comfort of my own home since it was cold and wet outside. However, there was one concern I forgot to take into consideration: Will the brownies be indulgent enough to satisfy my craving???

These, unfortunately, were not. While they were certainly healthy, smelled delicious, and not over sweet, they were a bit rubbery and "healthy"-tasting. [Insert pouty lip here]

[Please pardon the plating...]

I would not bake these again BUT if you're one of those health-nuts who has a slight sweet tooth, these brownies would be PERFECT for you!

Stay tuned... another baking adventure is coming right up from today!