Halloween Spider Cupcakes

Happy Halloween!
This weekend to celebrate Halloween  we made spider cupcakes with devils food cake and ganache frosting. The recipes were both from Martha Stewart's Cupcakes.

Devil's Food Cupcakes

Ingredients:
3/4 cup unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder
3/4 cup hot water
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 1/4 teaspoons coarse salt (we used sea salt)
1 1/2 cups unsalted butter
2 1/4 cups sugar
4 large eggs
1 tablespoon and 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
1 cup sour cream

Directions:
Recipes typically call for you to preheat the oven before you begin and line the muffin pans then. I usually do this towards when I'm finishing so that I'm not wasting too much energy.

Whisk together hot water and cocoa and set aside (use a small bowl for this). In another bowl, whisk together baking soda, baking powder, salt and flour (use a medium bowl for this).

Melt sugar and butter in a saucepan over medium high heat, stirring to combine. Remove from heat and pour in a bowl (use your largest bowl for this). With an electric mixer, beat until cooled (5 minutes) on medium-low speed. Add eggs, mixing in between until each egg is fully combined. Add vanilla, then cocoa mixture, mixing until combined. Reducing the speed, mix in dry ingredients in two batches, alternating with sour cream and beating until each is combined.

Divide batter into the lined muffin pans evenly, filling each 3/4 full. Bake for about 20 minutes or until tester comes out clean. Transfer to racks to cool.

Ganache Frosting

Ingredients:

1 pound bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped 

2 1/3 cups heavy cream

1/4 cup corn syrup

Place the chocolate in a large heat proof bowl (in our case we didn't have a bowl so we used a rectangular pyrex container). Bring the cream and corn syrup to a simmer over medium high heat. Pour the mixture over chocolate and wait about 5 minutes for the chocolate to melt.

Stir the mixture, beginning in the center. The mixture will slowly start to turn thicker and brown. Continue stirring until the mixture is combined and smooth. It will look something like chocolate syrup. 

Refrigerate and take out to stir every 5 minutes. It will take about 20 minutes for it to reach the desired consistency (you should be able to lift the spoon and small speaks will form or more generally that it holds form rather than looking like pudding).

Finally the decorations were made by first dipping the top of the cupcakes in black sprinkles, silver dragees (or balls as they are sold in bulk barn) were used as eyes and white chocolate button were cut up into little fangs.

DIY Cake Stands...Kinda

So when I found this tutorial that had been posted by http://www.sweetsugarbelle.com on craftgawker I was really inspired to make my own dessert stand. The steps were incredibly simple. All it is is a plate and glass glued together with a silicone sealant and spray painted.

I originally had all the supplies ready to make two stands for around $20. This was on the weekend and we had a quick painting session in the park which all in all made a successful day one for the project.

However today when applying the last coat of paint, as the paint dried it began to crack and completely ruined the small stand leaving me with only my tall stand (and even that was sprayed on the sides and is cracking). Fingers crossed this should be fine for pictures (as long as a don't show any of the lower half stand) but I was really disappointed in the outcome.

So all I've really taken from this project is...Christmas List: white cake stand.

Butterbeer

My first project that I planned to post was supposed to be Halloween cupcakes which was the original plan I had made with my friends. However, last minute we decided to get together and make butterbeer (the hot beverage of wizards). The recipe we ended up choosing (was made mostly by me because I can't stand carbonated drinks) was probably the easiest recipe I'd ever seen. The choice was also made because one of my floormates had made a carbonated butterbeer before and said she gagged instantly as well as because it was easy to get all the ingredients on such short notice.

Hot Butterbeer

Ingredients:
2 1/2 cups of milk
1/2 cup of butterscotch syrup or chips
Whipped topping or whipped cream

Directions:

Heat milk in a small saucepan over medium-high heat. Add butterscotch chips or syrup. Stir until melted. Bring mixture to almost boiling. Pour into mugs. Top with whipped topping or whipped cream. 

(courtesy of harrypotterrecipes.net)

(ironically my friends ended up doing all the work and I just took the pictures)

We ended up making two servings of the recipe which came out to 5 tall glasses and required a milk-run to the corner store which only sold a very strange brand with a castle on the label and a fairytale about immigrant  milk workers.

Despite the very unimpressive recipe (seeing as a five year-old could make this), it was delicious (reallllly sweet but still delicious) and was perfect for Canadian weather.

Every Flavour Blogging

Since moving to university it's been difficult to find time for baking (and by that I mean any time) but when I was home for Thanksgiving I brought up as many of my decorating equipment as I could fit in my bags.
Despite being incredibly busy with school work the primary reason for not being able to bake is that my residence does not have an oven.  Lucky for me though I have a friend off campus with an oven and she is equally eager to start baking.

Fingers crossed that we can make this work despite being poor students and that this blog will be successful and showcase some amazing, edible pieces of art.