Cake Poppin' and Such: Kneading Sass Caters a Peacock Themed Bridal Shower!

What a busy, few weeks it has been! What with the whirlwind of baking for Valentine's Day, new roommates and starting a new job tomorrow (eek!), Kneading Sass is still on my mind all day, everyday! :) It's my pride and joy...and frankly I love sharing all of my culinary adventures (and mishaps!) with you guys!

I recently catered a bridal shower for a friend's sister this past weekend and it was great practice in terms of budgeting time and money, all the while still staying true to making quality dishes. The theme of the shower was peacock, which I loved; the color scheme was so fun to work with. The hostess (aka sister ) did a fantastic job of DIY-ing almost the entire shower; everything from homemade confetti, to a custom banner and right down to stamping the most adorable cards for guests to write some sage advice, for the new bride! All of it was really thoughtfully executed and was totally a labor of love.

I catered the desserts for this event: cake pops and cupcakes, to be specific. The bride loved chocolate, so of course, everything was super rich, decadent and delish!

I was really proud of the cupcakes I made, they turned out perfectly! They were not too sweet and unbelievably moist! I wanted to share my recipe with my fellow sassy cats on here, because this cupcake is not only easy to make, but keeps well, days after baking!

The cake pops were rather tricky and not quite my forte...yet! Make them too large, and they fall off the stick. Tempering (or cooking) chocolate is a real special talent, so of course, there was lots of panic when I burned half a bag of melting chocolate! And of course, dipping them to make them look perfectly round...well that just comes with tons of practice and patience. Thank goodness for sprinkles. :)

A few DIY touches really added to the table setting!

The Cake Pop Bible by Bakerella 

Best way to harden your cake pops...standing them in styrofoam (used it for displaying the cake pops too!)

Buying colored candy melts will seriously make your life 10 times easier! 

All in all, I felt like it was a job well done :) I really enjoyed the theme of this event and having the opportunity to see the overall execution of the party...which was amazing!

I wanted to share some pictures from the event, as well as the recipe I used for the Mocha Cupcakes with White Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting...because it's honestly one of the best cupcake recipes I've made (which means a lot, coming from a cupcake aficionado like me!)

Mocha Cupcakes with White Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting

adapted from Gimme Some Oven

These ingredients made this cupcake super rich and sweet!

Ingredients

• 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 cups sugar
• 3/4 cups cocoa powder
• 2 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 cup buttermilk, shaken
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 2 eggs, at room temperature
• 1 tsp. pure vanilla extract
• 1 cup freshly brewed, hot coffee
• 1 1/2 tsp. instant coffee granules 

For Frosting: 

• 1 package (8 oz.), regular cream cheese
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1 bar, baking white chocolate

Directions (for cupcakes): 

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line 24 muffin tins with paper liners. For smaller cupcakes this recipe makes about 60 little ones!
2. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder, and salt until combined.

3.  In an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine the buttermilk, oil, eggs, and vanilla. With the mixer on low speed, slowly add the dry ingredients to the wet until combined.

4.  Add the 1 1/2 teaspoons of instant coffee granules to the cup of hot coffee and stir to combine. With mixer still on low, add in the coffee/espresso mixture and stir just to combine, scraping the bottom of the bowl with a rubber spatula. The batter will be really runny, but this is totally normal!

5.  Distribute the batter into the prepared muffin tins. Bake for 15-18 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean. For larger cupcakes, leave muffin tins in the oven for 18-22 minutes.

6.  Cool in the pans for 15 minutes, then remove them onto a cooling rack and cool completely, before frosting. 

Directions (for frosting): 

1. In a double broiler, heat chocolate over simmering heat until melted completely. Remove from heat, set aside and let chocolate cool. The chocolate should still be wet and shiny, not hardened! (Then you may have overcooked your chocolate!)
2. Beat cream cheese and butter in a large bowl with an electric mixer until completely combined. Add in vanilla and cooled white chocolate. Mix well.
3. Frost your cupcakes by hand, with a butter knife or pipe them, like I did! I added a chocolate covered espresso bean and shaved some extra white chocolate I had on top of the cupcakes.

Ready to be transported to the party!

Superbowl Series: My Kind of Cupcaking

I know that Cupcakes and Cashmere, a coveted blog in the world of blogging, posted a recipe for macaroni and cheese cupcakes long ago, and since then it has been replicated by many (FYI C&C copied its recipe here!) Well, but isn't imitation the ultimate form of flattery anyways?

Just to set things straight, this isn't you run-of-the-mill Kraft stuff, nor is it made with expensive, hard-to-find cheeses. Let's just say that it certainly wouldn't be sassy macaroni and cheese if there weren't a few ingredients to make it a little spicy and little healthier!

This recipe is pretty much the epitome of me. It's the beautiful marriage of my love for cupcakes, in  the holiest of matrimony's with my undying quest to make the best macaroni and cheese around town. I'd like to say that I'm pretty close, if not right on the dot, with this amazing recipe!

What I love MOST about making macaroni and cheese, in cupcake form (duh!), is that it's much easier to serve and also store (I mean if you even have leftovers!). These cheesy cupcakes are perfect, I mean, seriously, made, for tailgating or game day party...hence I'd like to initiate the mac n cheese cupcake alongside infamous game day hot wings. YES, it stands next to wings at any Superbowl menu. So what's even better about making these into cupcakes rather than serving it individually? Utensils are optional! Because these pups can be devoured at room temperature, not need to fuss about shamelessly scrapping your plate for the last tiny morsel of ooey gooey cheese, you probably had that bite, long ago, when you ate it in cupcake form!

Love that I don't, need to worry about food sitting out at my party and guests complaining of unsavory, tepid food.

Did I mention that I added my BFF of winter vegetables?! Yes, I did add butternut squash to give this mac n cheese and even creamier texture, without adding on the extra cheese...and calories, of course. They boys won't know they are enjoying vegetables on game day (talking as if boys are like little kids!), but really now, people will be guessing how your mac n cheese stayed so, incredibly creamy, after baking it in the oven and letting it sit past halftime.

While you'll want to try and keep the all the focus and positive vibes on the game (Go Niners!), something tells me everyone will be hitting the food table again and again... :)

Note: Because I made these cupcakes healthier, using  whole wheat pasta and butternut squash, the dish is a bit dryer/denser than usual. Therefore, adding a tad more cheese on top (using your judgement here, I'm trusting you don't go overboard!) is advised!

Jalepeno and Butternut Squash Mac N Cheese Cupcakes

Adapted from Food Doodles

Ingredients: 

• 1 box whole wheat, elbow macaroni pasta, cooked to package instructions or until al dente
• 10 oz. of aged sharp cheddar cheese, grated
• 1 cup of butternut squash puree
• 1 cup milk
• 1 Tbl butter
• 1 1/2 Tbl flour (whole wheat works as well!)
• 2 jalepenos, diced and seeds removed (unless you want this to be really hot!)
• 1/2 cup Panko bread crumbs
• Salt and pepper to taste
• 2 tsp olive oil
• Cooking spray

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees, and slicing butternut squash in half, lengthwise. Be sure to chop off the stem first. Using a spoon, remove the seeds. 
2. Place squash in a baking dish filled with 1/2 inches of water (making a water bath here, basically) and place in the oven until it's tender and your knife easily goes through the squash. The squash will be done at this temp in about 30-40 minutes. 
3. While squash is roasting in the oven, chop jalepenos in half and with a spoon, remove seeds, just like you did with the squash, then dice them into small pieces You don't want to be handling these seeds to much because they will sting if you later touch your eyes with your hands (YES! even after washing them several times!) 
4. When squash is finished roasting, carefully transfer to a cutting board as it will be very hot. The squash should be tender enough that you can scrap it right out the skin with a spoon. Lower temperature to 350 degrees for the cupcakes.
5. Once you're done scraping away butternut squash into a bowl, use the back of the spoon to "mash" it into a puree of sorts. Set aside. 

    6.  Start boiling your pasta and once it's done drain and set aside.
    7.  In the same pot as your pasta, add 1 Tbl butter on medium heat. Cook jalepenos and butter until fragrant, about 2-3 minutes. Add your flour and mix well.
    8.  Bump up the heat of your pot to medium high and whisk in your milk with jalepeno, butter and flour mixture. Whisk continuously until the milk mixture begins to thicken. You might need to bump up the heat to a boil so it can get to this point.

    9.  This is when you add your 1 cup of puree, keep the temperature to a boil and whisk until combined. Whisk in grated cheese and change to low heat. Once well combined, set aside cheese and squash sauce off of the stove flame.  

   10.  Add pasta to cheese sauce and mix well with a spoon. 

   11.  In a small bowl mix Panko breadcrumbs, olive oil and salt and pepper. Set aside.

   12.  Spray cupcake tins, liberally, with cooking spray. Spoon in mac and cheese mixture and top with breadcrumbs.

   13.  Place in the oven for about 30 minutes at lowered temperature of 350 degrees.

   14.  Once they are nicely browned, remove them from the oven and let them cool for a few minutes before popping them out of the tin with a butter knife.

   15.  Serve warm or room temperature. This recipe makes 2 dozen (24) macaroni and cheese cupcakes!

Sometimes You've Got To Try S'more

Well Oreo and marshallow sounded like a dream pairing to me, heaven in a cupcake! I was eager to try baking these ooey, gooey, decadent, triple chocolate chip cupcakes, until I realized something terrible had gone wrong. And so I learned a quite a few things about baking with marshmallows (trust me, they are tricky buggers!):

1. Placing a marshmallow in the middle of a cupcake liner makes it pretty difficult to fill the rest of the cupcake with batter. If your batter is thin, consider yourself lucky; if it's on the thicker side, using your fingers is a must.

2. Leave these cupcakes (and perhaps other recipes containing marshmallow) in the over for a tad bit longer, and your marshmallow with evaporate completely! WOMP! (sorry for those few that won't be biting into a s'more surprise!) Luckily, there is a ton of chocolate so you'll get a nice sugar rush still.

3. Expect the marshmallow to overflow a bit, it's not you, it's the marshmallow. Better to undercook these guys than overcook them. Take a look at Batch #2, undercooking actually can lead to a caved in cupcake and some cracking.

Note to self: NEVER buy cupcake liners for Crate & Barrel! They are cheap, cake sticks to the them no matter what, so you must gnaw at your cupcake with your teeth like a barbarian!

I'd like to remake these cupcakes again someday, as they certainly did not turn out the way I expected them too, but the s'more you learn the s'more you know, right?! Yes, I took this s'more thing out of hand, apologies.

Moral of this mishap: Try making these again!

Below a recap, in photos, of the s'more catastrophe, recipe is linked above and here:

Evaporated marshmallow center

Batch #2, a little undercooked, but definitely on to something here!

Caving and cracking, baking is truly a science to be mastered!

Cheap cupcake liners do this.  

See the surprise...

And now you don't! Cupcakes should come out easily, like this one

I'll definitely need to try this recipe again, this time using different liners and adjusting the amount of time they bake in the over (perhaps, also the temperature?)

One day I'll find my baking sweet spot with this one...until then, I'll just have to keep trying!

Is it a cupcake or is it a muffin?

Technically, it can be consumed as both. As promised, I am finally, posting a cupcake recipe here! I've been cooking mostly savory dishes and have been so hungry, that I consume my meal before taking any pictures! This time around, I did some baking back at my parents, trying to utilize their significantly larger kitchen.

I made these cupcakes on Monday, after three straight days of Indian wedding festivities; while some were impressed that I mustered up the strength to bake, after sleeping minimal amounts,  I remind people that baking is like my version of watching Jersey Shore reruns on MTV... it can be mindless, depending on the recipe.

So I tried a recipe from the ever-famous, smitten kitchen, and to be honest I wasn't too impressed with the cupcake itself. It was very moist, yet dense and filling, but the flavor could have been more sweet.  I used less sugar, afraid that the frosting would make the whole cupcake way too sweet. My bad! That's what cooking is all about though, trial and error, trying to strike the right balance.

I did, however, learn a great insider tip on making cream cheese frosting more robust and keep it from becoming a melting mess!

CORNSTARCH! But just the slight amount, depending on the amount of frosting you are making.

Seriously though, this could very well be a delicious and substantial muffin, sans frosting. Tricking people with cupcakes disguised as muffins...just don't tell them I used full fat sour cream!

Summertime Peach Cupcakes with Brown Sugar Frosting

Hope one of them catches the bouquet!

Ingredients: 
Peach Cupcake

• 3 cups flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• pinch of nutmeg
• 3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks or 6 ounces) unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar (I used about 1/2 cup here)
• 3/4 cup dark or light brown sugar, packed (I used dark sugar for this recipe)
• 2 large eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 cups (12 ounces) buttermilk, sour cream or full-fat yogurt (Full fat sour cream, hell yeah!)
• 3 large peaches, peeled, cored, and chopped smallish (Sometimes peaches are easy to peel, if not then peel with a knife)

Brown Sugar Frosting

• 1-1 1/4 cups dark brown sugar
• 3 tablespoons cornstarch
• 1/2 cup powdered sugar
• 1 8-ounce packages of cream cheese, at room temperature
• 1/4 cup (4 tablespoons) unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line 24 muffin cups with paper liners.

Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and nutmeg and set aside. 

Cream the butter and sugars together, beating until fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time adding the vanilla. 

Gently mix in the buttermilk, sour cream or yogurt. 

Stir in the dry ingredients and fold in the peach chunks.

Divide the batter evenly among the prepared cupcake liners. 

Bake for 18 to 22 minutes, or until a tester inserted into the center of cupcakes comes out clean. 

Cool the cupcakes for five minutes in the tin, then turn them out onto a wire rack to cool completely.

For frosting:

In a small bowl, whisk together the brown sugar, cornstarch and powdered sugar. 

In a large bowl, beat the cream cheese and butter until fluffy. 

Add the sugar-cornstarch mixture and vanilla, beat until frosting is smooth and light. My frosting was already pretty sturdy, but if yours is not, chill the bowl in the refrigerator until it thickens back up a bit, about 30 minutes.

Frost cupcakes to the best of your abilities, I used a round tip here, no need to get that fancy though!