Fling into Spring Watercolor Cake

Christos Anesti! Today was Greek Easter (I like to call it Greekster), and oh my god was it good to stuff my face and then sit in the sun! Everyone was just basking in it.... We literally haven't seen it in six months.. so glorious!!

I love Greek Easter because I love food.  Our table consisted of juicy lamb with garlic cloves, grilled chicken, spinach rice, corn, pastitiso (cheesy Greek lasagna), lemon oregano potatoes, Greek-style green beans, Greek sweet bread, salad with kalamata olives and feta, and wine of course!

We cracked eggs and laughed, as usual.. I love seeing my cousins who are like my siblings and reminiscing of our childhoods.. so much fun!

Then, we ate cake! 

Recently I found a blog post that showed how to watercolor fondant to use for cake stripes!  I thought it was really neat looking and so spring-like so I wanted to give it a try! I used gel-based food colors mixed with vodka as paints and just haphazardly painted all over rolled out fondant!  Then it took some measuring and cutting to make the strips which I then attached to the cake with a bit more vodka as glue.  You don't taste the vodka.. it dries odorless and tasteless!

I also created some of my own fondant flowers to add something special to the finished product! A ribbon around the bottom edges tied in all the colors.   This was a strawberry vanilla swirl cake with bourbon vanilla butter cream.

I really love the delicacy of this cake. The watercolor look is so different, and looks complicated even though this cake wasn't too hard to complete.  It definitely took some time though!

Cutting it is always the hardest part!!!! So happy everyone enjoyed it though!

I hope everyone enjoyed this beautiful weekend!! Tomorrow is going to be 70 degrees -- time for skirts and dresses at work! So excited! 

-Elena

Basket of Flowers Cake

The sun was finally out this weekend! It's a pretty big deal... It was also around 45 degrees.. Also a pretty big deal these days..

I had Friday off so it was a nice, relaxing three-day-weekend spent with the windows open, airing out the apartment from it's winter slumber.  It's amazing how having the heat on makes so much more dust accumulate... Spring cleaning felt good! 

Lou and I also took a drive to the NY border on Friday and enjoyed a delicious meal at The White Horse Tavern in New Preston.  I love the New England charm that Western CT has.. Even in the rain, the day was beautiful and the tavern was nice and cozy with a fire roaring and a mix of Jeff Buckley and the Beatles softly playing in the background. I ordered a Shepherds Pie... Yes it was Good Friday... Yes I ate a meat dish.... Yes the waitress gave me a slight look when I ordered it... It was so delicious I am not the least bit concerned ;)

Easter Sunday was an enjoyable day spent with family.  Louis and I always split Easter up, early afternoon with my family and late afternoon with his family.  Which means I ate double dessert.. obviously.. which means I'll be kicking my own butt in the gym today.. OH well, it was worth it!  I ate snickerdoodle cookies, a mini strawberry shortcake tart, heath bar truffle, couple bits of apple pie, a scoop of butter pecan ice cream, and a piece of my "Basket of Flowers" cake. 

No this wasn't the most original cake design, I've seen it done many times.. But I wanted to take my own stab at it! Plus I haven't piped a basket weave in a while so I figured this would be a good time to brush up on that skill! 

This was a gluten free, chocolate and vanilla marble cake, since my Grandmother's friend was joining us for Easter and often can't indulge in any of the sweets due to her gluten sensitivity, but no one could even tell the difference.  I topped the cake with a bourbon vanilla buttercream.. It was quite decadent! 

I did a variety of piped flowers, including romantic roses, standard roses, hydrangeas and leaves.  I just haphazardly placed them all over.. no rhyme or reason.. was just sort of jamming out to HAIM in the kitchen and doing my thing! 

I'm happy with the results! And the cake was devoured :)

This week I am working on a 21st birthday cake which is very exciting! I'll also be doing another cake for Orthodox Easter which is next Sunday with my Greek side of the fam... So basically my week will be work, gym, cakes every single day, but I'm not complaining :)

-Elena

Boozy Irish Car Bomb Cupcakes

I am not Irish.. at all.. 

I did grow up celebrating St. Paddy's however with my best friend Maureen and her very Irish family.  In 6th grade I went to her house after school on St. Patrick's Day, and when I opened the fridge at her house, her Mom had dyed the milk green.. and I remember freaking out, being so confused! What was all this green stuff? Such a funny memory :) 

St. Paddy's was a blast in college.. from what I can remember..... Blarney Blowout at UMass was a religion, back when it was just drunken fun and there weren't cops with bullets and student arrests plastered on the front of Yahoo.com... Happy to see that didn't happen again this year!

I guess I am super off topic here.. What I am trying to say is that St. Patrick's Day has always been a fun one to celebrate! This year we won't be doing any drinking or partying, but I did whip up some of the best cupcakes I've ever made, complete with three kinds of booze... and brought them to work! HA! 

Guinness & Butter

These are Guinness chocolate cupcakes with Irish whiskey ganache filling topped with Bailey's butter cream.. Holy heart attack but SO worth it. Yes I had one for breakfast. Yes I'll be running three miles on the treadmill and doing HEAVY dead lifts tonight... Life's about balance, right? ;)

The best thing about these cupcakes is the balance of flavors. This is not a sugary sweet chocolate cake like you'd have for a birthday cake. The sugar content is much lower, and there is a higher amount of unsweetened cocoa powder for a more muted sugar flavor. The beer just mutes it even more.. The ganache definitely has a bite (I used more unsweetened chocolate) and the whiskey adds a tart flavor.  All is balanced with the butter cream, which is very sweet and creamy! 

These aren't hard to make! Three separate ingredients from scratch can be daunting.. If you are afraid to attempt, just skip out on the ganache and go for regular cupcakes! Still just as tasty! 

 

For the Guinness chocolate cupcakes:

1 stick of butter, room temp

1/2 cup Guinness beer

1 cup granulated sugar

1 cup flour

3/8 tsp baking soda

3/4 cup dutch processed cocoa powder

pinch of salt

1 egg

1/3 cup sour cream

1. Preheat oven to 350.

2. On the stovetop, melt butter and Guinness over medium heat until simmering.

3. Whisk together sugar, flour, baking soda, cocoa powder and salt. 

4. In a seperate bowl, mix egg and sour cream until combined.

5. Once the butter/Guinness mixture is simmering, remove from stove and pour into the egg/sour cream mixture. Mix until combined. 

6. Add the sugar/flour mixture and mix just until combined! Do not over mix!

7. Put into cupcake wrappers and bake for 17 minutes. 

Let cupcakes cool, then dig out little center holes for the ganache filling. 

For the Irish whiskey ganache:

4oz unsweetened dark chocolate

1/3 cup heavy cream

1 tbsp butter

1 tsp Jameson Irish whiskey 

1. Finely chop chocolate into small pieces and place into a heatproof bowl.

2. Heat heavy cream on stove top over medium heat until simmering. Pour simmering cream over chocolate. Let stand for 1 minute.

3. Whisk the chocolate and cream mixture until combined.

4. Add butter and whiskey. Mix again until combined.

5. Let it cool but it must still be warm enough to pipe. Pipe into the centers of the cupcakes. 

For the Bailey's Buttercream:

1/4 cup Bailey's Irish Creme (I used two nips)

2.5 cups of confectioners sugar

1/2 cup butter (1 stick) at room temp

1. In a stand mixer, cream butter until it if white and fluffy, about 5 minutes. 

2. Add in sugar and Bailey's, alternating and mixing in between additions until all is combined. 

3. Whip for 6-8 minutes until soft and creamy. Pipe onto cupcakes.

Finally, DEVOUR! .. for breakfast if you want ;) 

St. Paddys baking is always a favorite of mine!! Here are some pot O' gold cake pops from two years ago.. These were so adorable and fun to present, people loved them!

OH something else fun happened today -- I purchased my own domain! Now you can visit me directly at www.onesweetbiteatatime.com ! Woo Hoo!

-Elena