Adventures in Whoopie Pies: Violet Velvet

I have been meaning to try whoopie pies forever, especially red velvet, and I finally found a recipe that looked like it had all the right elements for a good red velvet cake. It even came highly recommended, from Paula Deen's website. Claimed her cousin Johnnie's whoopie pies were loved all over Atlanta.

Well, golly, y'all, I had to try these!

The first thing you may notice is that these are not red. I was shooting for a violet shade and I think I miiight have overdone it on the food colouring, so they came out quite dark. Oops.

I started out with this recipe, but as I was reading the comments I saw a lot of complaints that the batter was too thin, that the oil - according to Deen's own show, should have been a much smaller amount than what was listed.

So... I reduced the amount of oil I used. We'll see how that pans out.

In any case, I first measured my oil, food colouring, vanilla and vinegar up in a measuring cup and put it aside.

Also, though I didn't get a pic of it, I sifted together my flour, cocoa powder (which I increased to 2 tablespoons because come on you gotta be able to taste it!) and the baking soda together in a bowl and set it aside.

Then I blitzed up the eggs and sugar until they went pale and doubled in volume, like so:

And poured in my much-too-dark coloured oil mixture and mixed until well-blended.

Like so. At this point, I thought I had the colour pretty bang-on! All that was left was to mix in the buttermilk and the dry ingredients in alternating batches, and boom - I had whoopie pie batter!

Now, here the recipe said to 'drop the batter by teaspoons' onto a baking sheet. Teaspoons? You know how tiny those pies would have ended up? This scoop holds about 2 teaspoons of batter, and these still came out really tiny!

So I (mostly) obediently doled out the batter and baked as directed, and was rewarded with these:

Huh, they look pretty okay, actually. Or, they did, until I moved them to the cooling rack and saw that the bottoms were especially crusty... and the cakes themselves were rather dry.

Yeah... Not good eats. So, for the next pan, I reduced the cooking time to compensate. I figured this was because I didn't use the recommended amount of oil.

The second batch came out MUCH better, and I learned that the easiest way to remove these from the pan was with an off-set spatula. I tried with a fork, but it shredded the bottoms.

Nobody likes shredded bottoms.

Time for another, 'Recipe vs Reality' - the recipe claimed this would make 48 cookies, for 24 sandwiches. I see here... 60 cookies. And this wasn't all of them! All told, I had over 6 dozen whoopie pie halves. No, really. I seriously lost count after 72.

Do recall, I made these bigger than the recipe called for. BIGGER. After reducing one of the ingredients. And it made MORE.

Someone messed up transcribing that recipe. Either that, or Paula Deen is lying to us, and I refuse to believe that!

Anyway, once these had cooled a bit, I stuffed them with my favorite cream cheese frosting, and for extra fun, rolled some of them around in non-pareils.

Everything is better with non-pareils.

These went over pretty well with my guests, though I personally wasn't satisfied. They weren't terribly flavorful, were still ever-so-slightly dry, and they weren't nearly purple enough.

I'm not giving up though. I will persevere. One day, I will make the perfect whoopie pies.

...

What is with me and failing with any kind of pie?? These aren't even related to actual pie. What the heck, universe?

Despite their flaws, tho, they were awfully cute. And pretty tasty - especially with a generous amount of cream cheese filling.

And I still ate, like, 7 of them. 7-ish. I don't know, I wasn't counting. It was my birthday, so... yeah. No-one counts servings on birthdays. I think. You shouldn't have to, anyway!

Do you have a favorite whoopie pie recipe? Suggestions on what I could have done better? Drop me an email or leave a comment!

Someday, I will master them, and have perfectly cakey little cookie sandwiches... someday.

Oh well.

Until next time!

Soft Serve Twist Ice Cream Cone Cupcakes

There is something about me you need to understand before we proceed.

I hate summer.

There, I've said it. I know, it makes no sense. Everyone loves summer - a time of fun in the sun, freedom from your studies, and getting to have super-fun mani-pedi dates with all your girlfriends so you can show off your cute nail polish in your brand new, fashionable wedge sandals.

I hate all those things.

Go ahead, judge me. I know, I'm a weirdo. But maybe you'll forgive me by the end of this post, because you know what I do love about summer? The ice cream truck! And the soft-serve ice cream that comes with it. My favourite is choco-vanilla twist with sprinkles...

Of course, this was all a big awkward segue into the fact that I felt like making ice cream cone cupcakes. Yes, those are cake! And guess what? The choco-vanilla twist goes all the way down.

If you know what I mean. Which is of course that the inside is swirled, too. What else could that even mean? Jeez, what were you thinking?

Anyway, to get the interior swirl effect, first prepare a batch each of your favourite white/yellow and chocolate cake batter, or a half-recipe, if you don't want to make 3 dozen of these! If you want my recipes, the chocolate cake is here and the yellow cake is here (uh, just omit the hot chili flakes. Yeah.)

Fill two piping bags with your batters, and tape them together near the tips so you can squeeze both bags at once. I totally got that idea from Bakerella, though I've made this type of cake before by putting 2 batters in the same bag. This was much simpler!

Carefully pipe swirls of batter into your ice cream cones. You'll notice I've stood mine in a cupcake pan for baking. When you pipe these, make sure you get right into the bottom sections so your cakes don't sink during baking.

Whatever you do, don't fill them this much! Leave about a half inch from the inner rim.

Use pie weights - or like I have, dried beans, to fill around the cones. This keeps them upright very well when they're being put into or taken out of the oven.

This picture isn't sideways. You're talking crazy.

Make at least as many mini cupcakes as you've made of the cones. You can swirl them too, if you like.

So, why did I tell you to be careful not to overfill your cones? Well, see, if they're overfilled, and they rise past the rim, they apparently can spill down the sides of the cones and make a big terrible mess.

Like that. Euugh. Luckily, they didn't all spill over, but I think we all learned a valuable lesson. Like I'm always saying, learn from my mistakes! I was able to save many of these. Others... the evidence had to be eradicated.

A dirty job, but some had to do it.

To decorate the cupcakes, once fully cooled, whip up your favourite vanilla and chocolate frostings, and cram them into the same piping bag. (By the way, my vanilla frosting is the same as the chocolate, except you omit the cocoa powder and up the icing sugar by a cup. So easy!) Try to keep them in their own half of the bag for the most part, but it's okay if they blend a bit. After all, a twist cone can be like that, too.

Yes, filling this piping bag was quite messy. But heck, messy is fun!

If your cake extends above the cone's outer rim, use a serrated knife to trim away the excess.

Pipe a little swirl of frosting on your trimmed cone cake.

Unwrap a mini cupcake, invert it, and smoosh it down on the frosting. This is kinda my favourite part. Or maybe I just like the word smoosh.

Smoosh smoosh smoosh!

It was very hard to get pics of the next step, so use the magic of imagination here. What you want to do is hold the cone in your off-hand, and wielding the piping bag in your writing hand, simply pipe a generous swirl of frosting along the outer rim of the cone cake, twisting up around the mini cupcake and culminating in a final swirl on top.

Hmm, what else?

Sprinkles!! Oh, how I love sprinkles. Especially rainbow jimmies. The best.

Mmm... if I have more excuses to make tasty fake-out treats like this, maybe this summer won't be too bad.

Hubby ate one of these on the bus on his way to work. At 10:30 PM. On a cool night. I really wish I could have been there. I hope there were double-takes.

In any case, these are super-fun to make, and messy as heck to eat, and a total party from start to finish. Highly recommended.

Ho boy, Father's Day is coming up fast, isn't it? No idea what I'm gonna do for my Dad this year. If I think of something, I'll let y'all know.

Until next time!

Cupcakes Two Ways - Part Two

Hello again!

We're back with the thrilling conclusion of Cupcakes Two Ways! Our spine-tingling adventure started over here in part one, so be sure you've read that first. There's a lot of character development and drama and such in that first part, and, well, if you go and read this one first it's just going to spoil the whole thing.

So, if you've read part one, you know I'm a great big over-dramatic liar. There's that character development I mentioned.

Oh, and also I baked two kinds of cupcakes, and now it's time to frost and decorate them!

I am sorry this picture is so dark. Sometimes in the passion of baking, I forget where my light source is. Oops.

I am again sort of stealing from Bakerella - so poke this link here for her cream cheese frosting recipe. I only did a half recipe because by the time I was done baking the cupcakes, and my brother came by to visit, 4 un-decorated cupcakes had mysteriously disappeared. (The silver white cake only made 10 cupcakes, by the way, in case you're a stickler for math.)

In any case, I blitzed together the cream cheese and butter, above, then added my vanilla, below.

There's that spoon again! All together now: "D'aaaaaaaw!"

Yes, I'll get over the spoons eventually. Give me time.

Next, sift your icing sugar in a separate bowl to sort out any lumps, and add it bit by bit to your cream cheese mixture, blending all the way.

I must say, I was baffled when I first read this frosting recipe. Never, ever have I made a frosting that didn't include a liquid of any kind. No egg, no water, no milk, just fat, sugar and flavor. Part of me feared it wouldn't turn out well, but a much bigger part of me said to trust Bakerella.

And I'm so glad I did. This frosting, you guys. It is so good!

Next up, decorations! I hit my local bulk foods store and basically brought home anything and everything that I thought even might look decent on Valentine's Day cupcakes.

Clockwise from top left: Wilton sugar pearls, large heart sprinkles, pink sanding sugar, and tiny heart sprinkles. But oh, we're not done.

Clockwise from top left: Cinnamon hearts (oh goodness, my favourite!) sour gummy hearts, Valentine's Day Smarties (the chocolate kind) and regular gummy hearts.

It's fun time.

Friend Shanahan had suggested making a 'cloud' of frosting and popping two heart candies on top, I believe because when you're in love, your heart feels light as air. Or something.

Anyway it looked super cute! Now all I can think of is that Phil Collins song, what was it? "Two hearts, sitting on just one cupcake" or something like that.

But it was still missing something...

Tiny heart sprinkles fix everything.

Now, let me tell you, when I first sat down to sort through my photos for this post, I had over 80 pictures, just for the frosting & decorating step. I think I'm getting a little snap-happy with the camera. I eventually was able to cull all but my very favourite cupcakes to show you. This was very, very difficult to do, they were all so cute!

A simple spiral of cream cheese frosting piped on with a large star tip, with a simple pattern of Smarties over the top. I don't care what day of the year it is, more chocolate = more better!

Just one heart gummy atop a cupcake. It would be lonely if not for all the tiny heart sprinkles. Maybe I went a little sprinkle-happy, too.

On the silver white cake, since I still had quite a bit of frosting left, instead of making a new flavor, I just tinted the existing frosting pink. I do wish I'd had some kind of strawberry extract on hand because that would have been just extra special, but I didn't think of that at the bulk store. Next time.

So uh, there's a cupcake with pink cream cheese frosting and two sour gummy hearts. (See, berry flavor would have gone great with the gummies. Hindsight is 20/20, and all that.)

This one has a thick layer of pink cream cheese frosting with a simple pattern of sugar pearls and white heart sprinkles. I am probably ill-proportionately proud of it, but that's still not as proud as I was of this next one:

Anyone who's a big fan of Amanda over at I am Baker may notice a similarity here to her famous Rose Cake, and I freely admit it certainly took inspiration from her cake, though I hadn't read that post in ages. Reading it over again afterwards did give me some more ideas, though... but I'll be saving those for another day.

It should go without saying, but if you're not already reading I am Baker, Bakerella and Bakingdom, guys, you really should be. Fantastic blogs. Just don't compare mine to them because, well, I tried it and then I got kind of sad.

Know what cheers me up when I get sad?

Looking at pretty cupcakes. Awww, yeah.

I would definitely do this again. I highly recommend the 'buy every candy that looks good and throw it on cupcakes' method of decorating, especially if you have kids who want to help in the kitchen. Would also be super fun at a party, set out your icing and sprinkles and just let people go nuts.

I know they're not the fanciest cupcakes in the world but they were a tonne of fun to make - and even more fun to eat. Now the question is, how am I going to top these for V-Day itself?

You'll just have to keep an eye out for the next post to find out.

Until next time!