Cupcake decorating: my slow ascend to pro status

What better way to start off the week than with cupcakes?! (I mean really, who doesn't love a good cupcake?)

I recently invested in a Wilton's decorating set (courtesy of my coworkers' birthday gift to me - thanks guys!)  and decided that the best way to try it out would be, of course, to make cupcakes. I made red velvet cupcakes (which I have to say, were quite good) and butter cream frosting. I know traditionally, you should pair red velvet cupcakes with cream-cheese frosting, but I was just looking for a quick frosting to practice with. I know my cupcakes don't look like anything too fancy (or like these) but I am amazed at what pipping tips can do for decor! They were a bit harder to get used to than I expected (and I haven't posted pictures of all the cupcakes that went wrong), but I think pipping can be quickly mastered with more practice. I added colored, ball sprinkles, chunks of chocolate, and red, edible "confetti" (see below for how that's made) as garnishes.

Let me know if you want the recipes I used - they were pretty full proof and trustworthy!

Hope these little cakes make your Monday a bit happier. :)

Love,
Ellie

Butter cream frosting, pre-color. (I really try to be a clean baker!)

With just 1/2 a teaspoon or so of red food coloring. 

Cupcakes before I attempted to take them out of silicon cups...

And some of the cupcakes after I tried to get them out of the silicone cups. (Side note: those  cups were such a disappointment! Maybe next time I need to pray non-stick in the cup too?)

Cupcakes that made it out of the silicon cups and received successful pipping!

I learned this technique here. All you do is dry out a bit of crumbs from the actual cupcake - that's it!  (And  from the picture above, I clearly had lots of cupcake crumbs to work with.)

I loved attempting to mix the different tips to create various patterns. I'm still  learning!

Cupcake decorating / the best Groupon ever

How was your weekend? The weather is changing very quickly here in Joburg, from summer to autumn, which provided a lovely blend of sun and cool breeze this weekend (and at the moment: a dreary mix of clouds, mist, and cold). And the husband and I went on a date to a new, Thai restaurant (new to us) in Nelson Mandela Square and had such a wonderful time. We needed a catch-up.

Really cool lanterns hanging from the ceiling of Wangthai.

I promised a post on a cupcake decorating class last week and I did not deliver. My apologies. But here it is! :)

Two weekends ago, myself and three friends used a Groupon, purchased long ago, for a cupcake decorating class. The plan was to do a mother-daughter excursion when my mom was in town for our wedding, but things were just too busy. So, I took my mother-in-law along. :) We were all excited about the class but also had no idea what to expect. Well, six cupcakes and almost four hours later, I have to say: this was arguably the best Groupon I have ever bought.

The Johannesburg Culinary & Pastry School is an absolute delight and gives you a true culinary education and experience. The school, owned and run by Kelvin and Jarlyne Joel, provides group courses, couples classes, and exquisite cooking experiences that are fun, practical, and delicious! Our cupcake class, although we reviewed the red-velvet cupcake recipe that was used, focused on decorating. We learned techniques for frosting, sugar details, and chocolate shaping that I can totally do at home! The ingredients aren't exotic or expensive. The techniques take practice, but can be strongly acquired after not much time. Kelvin taught our class - it was an interactive, friendly, and enlightening experience. Also, The JCP School is ANOTHER cool part of town! Who knew downtown Johannesburg was so rapidly chaning?!

Really, I could keep raving, but just look at the pictures or sign up for a class yourself!

Bon appetit!
ef

The JCP School kitchen.

The school also serves cookies and cappuccinos to munch on, while you watch a class or read cooking books.

Nicole and I making red-velvet cupcakes. Kelvin, our chef/instructor, said he first learned of red-velvet cupcakes while working at Hyatt in America. He had never seen them before that; so, he was quite interested to hear what I thought of his recipe - it was great! :) 

Second mom, Michelle, and my mom-in-law, Charmaine.

Kelvin showing us how to create chocolate garnishes. Here, he mixed white and milk chocolate and spread it finely on parchment paper, then left it to harden.

Abstract shapes.

Of course, we had to taste a piece - or two. 

Perfect red-velvet cupcakes!

More chocolate garnishes. Here, Kelvin uses a tool to create squiggles in the chocolate before it dries. Then, when it does dry, you've got chocolate snake-like garnishes. (It's very cool - see cupcake below.)

He also showed us that if you add a certain type of baking "dust", you can add color to your chocolate. Upon letting it dry, you get a matte and a gloss look to the chocolate.

Ok, I don't know what you call this technique, but it's so cool and you end up with the extremely sweet, fishing-line-thin, caramel ball you see at the bottom. 

Three of the cupcakes I decorated. The techniques we learned can give you pretty abstract designs, but I think with more practice, I could create something...well, not so abstract. :)

My cupcakes. :) You must go!!

Roreo velvet cookies

I hope you had good day yesterday - whatever you did, whomever you were with. :)

I had planned to cook husband's favorite meal and have a wonderful evening at home. It was wonderful, but not quite what I had planned. My back has been hurting all week but yesterday it became unbearable. I could hardly walk and even if I didn't move, I could feel pain in my back. (This has been quite frustrating as I can't figure out what I did; although, I'm often lifting and moving things at work, so perhaps I had just done that one-too-many times without using my knees.) So, rather than coming home and quickly getting started on dinner, I came home, took an anti-inflammatory, and then husband (who has a history of back problems) helped me stretch some of my back muscles. I was in tears by the end but it sure did make a difference! So we got Thai take-out and watched Valentine's Day at home. Luckily, I had made these the day before, so we still had something that I had planned on. :)

So today's feature is Oreo-stuffed red velvet crinkle cookies: a fabulous Pinterest find! (I'm so proud of myself for actually making things I find on Pinterest.) Or as my husband decided to call them: Roreo velvet cookies.

Love from the southern hemisphere,
E

Roreo velvet cookies (Renamed by my husband. Original name: Red Velvet Orea-stuffed crinkle cookies. My comments in italics.)

1 cup unsalted butter, softened
2 cups sugar
4 eggs
1/4 cup buttermilk
2 tsp. vanilla
2 tbsp. liquid red food coloring
3 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
24 chocolate sandwich cookies (Oreos)
1 cup confectioners' sugar

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F or 190 degrees C. Cover two baking sheets with parchment paper (or spray with cooking spray).
2. Cream together butter and sugar until fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time. Beat in buttermilk, vanilla and red food coloring. 
3. Sift together all-purpose flour, baking powder, baking soda, cocoa and salt. Add to butter mixture and beat on low until just combined. The dough should be very soft and a little sticky. If it is very sticky then add 1/4 cup more all-purpose flour and stir again (I didn't add more...all seemed good to me). Cover and chill in the freezer until the dough is very cold and easy to handle.
4. Place confectioners' sugar in a bowl and set aside. (Now, I left mine in the fridge over night to save time in the whole baking progress and this seemed to work really well. I made the dough one night and baked the other. The dough was still quite sticky once I started handling it, even after being in the fridge over night.)
5. Using buttered fingers (I used cooking spray) (I used buttered fingers, well hands) scoop out a 3-4 tbsp.-sized piece of dough and press the dough around the sandwich cookie.  Alternate method: flatten dough between the palms of your hands.  Place a cookie on the flattened dough and fold the dough around the cookie. (Butter hands between each dough piece.) (The alternate method is the one I used. I found that the Oreo cookies were not strong enough if I just pressed them into the dough. But I must have used way more than 3-4 tbsp of dough per cookie, because my cookies turned out MASSIVE. See below.)
6. Roll lightly between the palms of your hands to make the cookie-stuffed dough a little more ball-shaped and roll in powdered sugar. Repeat until all the dough and cookies are used. (I also did this over two days because of the little bits of time I was working with. The dough kept fine in the fridge, even over two days.)
7. Place dough balls on a cookie sheet about 3 inches apart.  These cookies will spread, so I suggest placing no more than 5 per cookie sheet.  Tip: re-roll dough balls in powdered sugar just before putting them in the oven.  The crinkled appearance will be more prominent.
8. Bake until cookies are puffed and cracked on top about 14 minutes. Let cool on the pan about 5 minutes (cookies will be soft) then transfer to a wire rack to cool.

The main thing I would do differently if I make these cookies again, is to use a smaller amount of dough per Oreo cookie. With mine, you get a few bites of cookie with no Oreo, before you get to the Oreo. They taste really good though, nonetheless, and look so pretty! My husband loved them. :)

Pre-dry ingredients. That red dye is RED. Watch your clothes. 

Cookies on their way into the oven. 

Right out of the oven. I told you they were huge. Granted I have a really tiny baking sheet and only one at the moment, but they really are BIG.

Happy husband. :)