Happy Opening Day!

I love Opening Day of baseball season!  To celebrate, I thought I’d share some of my recent baseball-themed cakes with you.  Whatever team you cheer for, enjoy the games and some delicious treats to go along with them!   

Eating my way through Washington, D.C.

I’m back and full of cupcakes!  Last week was Spring Break, and I got to visit my brother in Washington, D.C.!  I had a great week of visiting monuments and museums, watching basketball games, and catching up with friends and family.  I also ate myself silly at some amazing restaurants and did some baking recon around our nation’s capital. 

My brother took me to several delicious restaurants (including the Jose Andres restaurants Jaleo and Zaytinia, for Spanish and Greek tapas respectively – yum!), but my favorite was Brasserie Beck’s.  I actually wanted to take this chef home with me and eat his cooking every day.  I’m generally unfamiliar with Belgian food (except for waffles and chocolate), but I loved everything I ate there, especially the mussels!  There are no words for food like that.  So, so good.    

On the sweeter side of things, I realized shortly after my arrival that Sticky Fingers, the vegan bakery that recently won Cupcake Wars, was located just around the corner from my brother’s apartment!  With a little help (it’s not too hard to find people to share cupcakes with you), I tried all of the winning cupcakes, and they were every bit as beautiful and delicious as they looked on TV. 

From there, I decided that I should test out a few more DC bakeries as well.  On Monday, I went to Warren Brown’s Cake Love and its sister sit-down coffee house, Love Café.  The barista recommended a pumpkin cupcake with cream cheese icing, and she didn’t steer me wrong.  It was a delicious afternoon snack along with my latte.  I received Warren Brown’s cookbook United Cakes of America for Christmas, so it was a fun treat to test out one of his recipes in person!

My next stop on the cupcake tour was a cupcake truck called Curbside Cupcakes.  We split a Black Irish Cream cupcake (it was close to St. Patrick’s Day) and a vanilla cupcake.  The specialty one really took the cake so to speak, but the vanilla wasn’t bad either.  And the customer service was great!  They even posed for a cheesy, touristy picture for me! 

I also tested out the chocolate hazelnut cupcake from Crumbs bakery, which was good but enormous!  My companions munched on a cookies ‘n’ cream cupcake and an Artie Lange – vanilla cake, chocolate cream cheese filling, topped with vanilla cream cheese dipped in chocolate fondant.  Neither of them were complaining. 

The last bakery I tried was Hello, Cupcake!  I had the Princess cupcake (vanilla cake with strawberry frosting) and my cupcake accomplice had another cookies ‘n’ cream.  They were my least favorite on the cupcake tour, but had some cute decorating ideas for their other cupcakes. 

On Saturday morning, we had brunch at Co Co. Sala, which is a whole restaurant based around chocolate.  It was a great culmination to my week of dining indulgence!  We had some fancy, not-quite-cupcake desserts there, but I thought I'd share the pictures anyway. 

It was a great week, and I can’t wait to go back soon.  Believe it or not, there were restaurants and bakeries that I missed! 

Happy Mardi Gras! A King Cake even my gluten-free friends can enjoy!

Today is Mardi Gras, aka Fat Tuesday, a day where everybody is supposed to indulge in all things delicious and guilt-inducing!  The King Cake is the traditional Mardi Gras treat of choice.  It’s a brioche shaped into a ring and stuffed with deliciousness like cinnamon or strawberries and cream cheese, then covered in glaze and sprinkled with purple, green, and gold sugar.  Here's some info on the history of King Cakes:  http://www.mardigrasunmasked.com/LocalColorCustoms/KingCakeHistoryARichTradition.aspx

Unfortunately, one of my family members has to maintain a gluten-free diet and can’t enjoy a traditional King Cake!  Luckily, I recently found a gluten-free cookbook that I’m actually a fan of – The Cake Mix Doctor Bakes Gluten-Free (http://www.amazon.com/Cake-Mix-Doctor-Bakes-Gluten-Free/dp/0761160981/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1299467454&sr=8-1).  I have been a huge fan of Anne Byrn and her Cake Mix Doctor cookbook for many years now, so when she came out with recipes for adapted gluten-free cake mixes, I had to check it out.  (View the website at http://www.cakemixdoctor.com/).  I usually hate (hate, hate, hate) gluten-free recipes, but I figured that Anne probably knew what she was doing, and boy was I right!  I adapted the recipe for her “Kathy’s Cinnamon Breakfast Cake” into a gluten-free version of King Cake.  Alright, fine, it’s more of a coffee cake than a brioche, but it was actually good!  I think the trick is in adding instant pudding mix to the gluten-free cake mix.  Good-bye to mealy, dry gluten-free "cake"; hello to delicious, moist, I-can’t-believe-it’s-gluten-free dessert!  Here’s the recipe:

For the cinnamon streusel

1/3 cup lightly packed light brown sugar

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1/3 cup finely chopped pecans

For the cake

1 Tbsp cinnamon sugar (to make cinnamon sugar, combine ¼ c. sugar and 1 Tbsp cinnamon; save extra sugar for cinnamon toast or to sprinkle on baked apples)

1 pkg vanilla gluten-free cake mix

¼ c vanilla instant pudding mix

1 c milk

½ c vegetable oil

3 large eggs

2 tsp vanilla extract

For the glaze

½ c powdered sugar

1-2 Tbsp milk

Dash of vanilla extract

For decoration

Purple, green, and gold sugar sprinkles

Combine brown sugar, cinnamon, and pecans and set aside.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Grease bundt pan and dust with cinnamon sugar.  Set aside.  In a large bowl, combine cake mix, pudding mix, 1 c milk, oil, eggs, and 2 tsp vanilla.  Beat with electric mixer at low speed for 30 seconds, then beat at medium speed for 2 minutes more.  Pour 1/3 of the batter into the prepared bundt pan.  Add half of the streusel mixture on top of the batter.  Pour half of the remaining cake batter on top of the streusel.  Top with the remaining streusel, then top with the remaining batter.  Bake for 35-40 minutes.  Cool in pan for 10 minutes, then invert cake onto plate.  Cool completely.  In a small bowl, mix the powdered sugar, milk, and vanilla to create glaze.  Pour over the top of the cake.  Sprinkle in sections using purple, green, and gold sugar sprinkles.  Enjoy!

I smell bacon...

So I know I’m about two years late to the chocolate and bacon party, but this is a trend that has intrigued me for sometime now, and I finally decided to give it a shot today.  Many before me have evaluated the pros of cons of meat candy already (check out http://www.seriouseats.com/2009/09/chocolate-and-meat-trend-bacon-vosges-mole.html, http://abclocal.go.com/kabc/story?section=news/food_coach&id=7096731, and http://www.hungrypassport.com/2010/12/in-defense-of-the-bacon-in-the-chocolate-trend/), and the reviews are mixed.  I recently bought a new cookbook called Recipes Every Man Should Know by Susan Russo and Brett Cohen.  The cookbook has an entire chapter devoted to “Beer, Bacon & Bar Food,” which includes a recipe for Bacon Brownies.  This gave me the perfect opportunity to test out the meat and sweets movement.  I am happy to say that my experiment was a huge success.  Now I’m not sure that every combo of bacon and chocolate will turn out delicious, but this one is definitely a winner.  Here’s the recipe for you – I guarantee the bacon- and brownie-lovers in your life will not be disappointed!

Bacon Brownies

30 minutes / 16 brownies

6 bacon strips

1 package store-bought brownie mix

Store-bought caramel sauce, warmed, for serving

Whipped cream for serving

1. Cook bacon in a large skillet over medium-high heat until somewhat crispy.  Drain on a paper-towel-lined plate.  Chop four strips into small pieces, reserving two strips for garnish.
2. Make brownie batter according to package directions and stir in chopped bacon; pour into a greased 8-inch-square baking pan.  For optimal bacon distribution, swirl a spatula through batter.  Bake according to chart on package.
3. To serve, place a brownie on a plate.  Drizzle with warm caramel.  Place a dollop of whipped cream on top and sprinkle with reserved chopped bacon.  Await praise.