I Blog What I Bake

Limelight. Once a dark gritty headonistic nightlife mecca , has reivented itself as Limelight Marketplace. The former, church- turned- nightclub, is now a bright, glittery luxury marketplace relpete with specality soap shops, botique lingere stands, clothing alcoves and, of course, lots of cute little dessert stations. My how times have changed.  Once upon a time, I recall stumbling out the door of Limelight after a very long night of…fun. Today I stumbled out the door practically vibrating from the sugar  extravaganza I just indulged in.

I’d heard about all of the dessert stands that had opened up in their “Sweet Room”, paticularly the Cupcake Stop, and figured reviewing them for the blog would be a brilliant excuse to go on a sugar binge. So, with Matt (I Blog What I Eat) as my accomplice, I attacked the “Sweet Room”.  Below, I have listed my conquests in the order assault.

Disclaimer: All but two pictures were taken with my iPhone. I had my camera, alas cameras are of no use without a battery.

THE CUPCAKE STOP

The Cupcake Stop, which usually is just a truck that drives around Manhattan and parks in different locations everyday, has secured a stationary spot in Limelight. And I am sooo glad they did.  I have had cupcakes from dozens of NYC bakeries, they are trendy little confections after all, and I must say these are among the best.  I ordered a Mexican Chocolate cupake and a  Nutella Crunch.  They both had great consistency and smooth frosting. The Mexican Chocolate was the winner of the two. The Nutella Crunch was good, but didn’t have as much flavor. Honestly, if you try these you will never eat a Magnolia Bakery cupake again. Okay, onto the next…

BUTTERFLY BAKESHOP

Isn’t that a pretty little Red Velvet Cake? I thought so too. That’s why I bought it.  It had really nice flavor and a good cream cheese frosting (maybe a bit too sweet), but the consistency was…well…odd. It was like the cake had been soaked in a simple syrup mixture. Yes, the cake was wet.  I’m not sure what the reasoning was here. Maybe to keep it moist past it’s prime? I was a little suspect. I wouldn’t advise to steer clear of the place, maybe just try a alternate selection. It was pretty. I ate the butterfly.

MARIEBELLE CHOCOLATES

Please forgive my wacky formatting with the images. It’s late and I have had some wine.

Anyway, Mariebelle’s Chocolates. This shop was a little challenging to find, even though you can see it as soon as you walk into the Marketplace (they also have a cart on the first floor). It’s in a space that is sort of between floors. I should add that Limelight Markeplace is a bit of maze and you feel like Alice in Wonderland trying to navigate the place. There are little half staircases that lead to dead ends and various nooks and cranies that can have you very turned around. What made the nightclub version so interesting , can make a shopping trip feel like falling down a rabbit hole. After we found Mariebelle’s, I was excited to try their off-beat artisan chocolates. Of all all the flavors, I selected Saffron and Whiskey. At first I wasn’t so sure about the Saffron chocolate, but it grew on me and I am now determined to use Saffron in one of my recipes. The Whiskey flavor did not dissapoint. It was like taking a chocolate shot of Jack Daniels. I will certainly make a return trip to try flavors like Cardamon, Earl Grey and Passion Fruit. Oh, and a quick note, they serve real food. You can sit down at one of the little tables and order lunch. Cute.

WANNAHAVACOOKIE

Wannahavacookie? More like Wannahavadevildog.  I wouldn’t really classify this as a cookie. Round does not a cookie make.  This is a round Devil Dog. They call it a Whoopie Pie and offer different flavor variations. I choose the Chocolate Mint variety. It’s light, fluffy and had a good mint flavor but it’s just not a cookie. Their website www.wannahavacookie.com does have actual cookies, but Whoopie Pies are their main business.  If you are a fan of Devil Dogs, this is your product.

By this point a was on sugar overload and had to call it a day. There is a Gelato stand I will have to go back and visit and some other food stops, like the cheese shop and bread baker that are a must try. In the next few months the restaurants and wine bars will also be open and that will certainly warrant a return trip. Overall, it was a great trip and I really enjoyed trying all the different offerings. I am still skeptical about the non-food based shops and I am curious to see the sustainability of the marketplace as whole. If you are in the neighborhood (6th Ave & 20th in NYC), I would highly recommend stopping by.  That’s it for now, below are a few pictures I took of the interior.

Thanks for stopping by!!

Aimez-vous le champagne ? Aimez-vous le chocolat ? If so, this is your cupcake baby. Rich dark chocolate cake and light fluffy frosting both spiked with champagne transform an ordinary cupcake into a dessert that is simultaneously indulgent and playful.

The inspiration for the recipe came from a few places. I had seen a few Champagne Cakes and was curious, my friend Leo suggested that I make the cupcakes dark chocolate and the base of the frosting recipe came from Give Me Some Oven. I also played with some decorative frosting . I usually don’t get along well with pastry bags, I need lessons, but I think these turned out pretty well and I didn’t make too much of a mess! Which is surprising, because by the time I got around to frosting the cupcakes I had helped myself to a bit of the champagne. I know, I broke one of my own rules. Don’t drink and bake.  I avoided disaster this time.

My fear was that, once complete, these wouldn’t taste anything like champagne. Admittedly, the cupcakes did not really taste like champagne, but the addition of the champagne made them incredibly light and moist.  The real champagne flavor came in the icing. It has the perfect little punch. SO good. On that note… onto the recipe.

Dark Chocolate Champagne Cupcakes

2 cups white granulated sugar
1 3/4 cups of unbleached all purpose flour
3/4 cups unsweetened dark cocoa powder (I use Hershey’s Special Dark)
1 1/2 teaspoons of baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons of baking soda
1 teaspoon of salt
2 large eggs (room temperature)
1 cup whole milk
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 cup boiling water
1/2 cup champagne (I used a semi-sweet champagne, not brut)

Pink Champagne Frosting

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter
3 1/4 cups confectioners sugar
7 tablespoons of champagne
2 drops pink food coloring
Sugar crystals for decoration (because champagne sparkles!)

Assemble your ingredients, pour yourself a glass of champagne and pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees. What?

Line two cupcake pans with the liners of your choice. I was feeling playful when I made these, so I used black liners with gold swirls. Seemed appropriate. You can buy all kinds of decorative cupcake liners. Looking for an online shop? Go to Bake It Pretty. Fun stuff… some is a little to cutesy for me, but overall they have creative choices.

Sift the flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder and salt together in a lage bowl.

Add the eggs, vanilla, oil and milk and beat until well combined on the medium speed of an electric mixer. Add champagne. Beat on low until completely combined. Next, using a wooden spoon, STIR the boiling water into the batter.  Carefully fill each cupcake liner with the batter. Use just under a 1/4 cup per cupcake. Anything more will produce a mess and your cupcakes will overflow the rim when they bake. Don’t ask how I know this.

Bake for 15 minutes or until a tooth pick inserted into the center comes out clean.

Allow the cupcakes to cool in the pans for about 10 minutes. Carefully pluck each cupcake out of the pan and place them on a baking rack to cool completely.

For the frosting cream together the sugar, butter. Beat in the vanilla. Beat in each tablespoon of champagne one at at at time. Add the two drops of food coloring and beat until the color is even.

You can either frost the cupcakes the old fashioned way, with a knife or small offset spatula, or you can get fancy and do any array of pipping.  Once frosted sprinkle the crystalized sugar over the top.

Last but not least, grab your glass of champagne and enjoy!!

In the mood for something different?

Since returning to the full-time corporate workforce I have had minimal time to actually bake. I get really excited if I am able to bake once a week. So, in lieu of recipes I am going to do occasional posts on baked goods I have tried, kitchen gadgets I find useful and the like.  In the spirit of trying something different, I bring you Dark Chocolate Chevre (goat cheese) Brownies from the Vermont Brownie Company.

At the Vermont Brownie Company all of their brownies are made from scratch using local, natural and preservative free ingredients. I came across these curious little brownies watching Throw-down with Bobby Flay on the Food Network. Personally, I love love love goat cheese and was completely fascinated by the idea of dark chocolate goat cheese brownie. The episode wasn’t even halfway complete and I was already online, credit card in hand, ready to order the brownies. That was until I saw that it cost $23.00 for six brownies ($30.00 total with shipping).

Despite the price, I went ahead and bought the brownies. By this time I wasn’t just curious about the goat cheese brownie, but about why a brownie would cost so much. I figured this would probably be the best brownie I had ever eaten. (You all already know where this is headed, don’t you?)

The brownies arrived on Friday and I was as excited as a 5 year-old on Christmas morning.  Seriously, I was so giddy I was practically skipping. They arrived in very cute packaging and I am a sucker for packaging.

Each brownie is individually wrapped to assure freshness. And the whole thing is wrapped in neat crisp tissue paper and stickers. At this point I was assured, at the very least, that I got $23.00 worth of packaging. After taking a few pictures I tore into one of the brownies.

Let me start by saying this is one HEAVY brownie. I should have weighed one.  Now, there are two schools of thought when it comes to brownies. There are those who love thick fudgy brownies and those who love cakey brownies. I am of the the latter opinion. Maybe that was part of the problem.

Anyway, I bit the brownie expecting some kind of outter body experience.

Well… It wasn’t that these brownies didn’t taste good, they did. They were super rich and super chocolatey. So much so that I didn’t even taste the goat cheese, which was disappointing. I also couldn’t get past the density. I stuck it in the microwave for a few minutes to see what they would taste like warm. It was a slight improvement, but they got too moist. Almost like they were under-baked. I loved the big chunks of dark chocolate and visually these are beautiful brownies, but they just didn’t blow my mind in the taste and consistency department.  I also had no idea why they were so expensive. Yes, I know local farm ingredients can cost more because they are not produced in mass quantities, but $23.00 for six brownies?? I just didn’t get it. But since taste is subjective, I have given the brownies to a few friends who I hope will, in turn, post their feedback in the comments section.

The Vermont Brownie Company has a host of different brownie flavors and I encourage you to check them out for yourself. As for me, I am becoming increasingly wary of the Food Network.

“I can resist anything but temptation” ~Oscar Wilde

COCOA BUTTERMILK CAKE

Recipe taken from Better Homes and Gardens Magazine (www.bhg.com)

• 3/4 cup butter
• 3 eggs
• 2-1/3 cups all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup Dutch-processed unsweetened cocoa powder or unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 3/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1 cup packed brown sugar
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
• 1 1/2 cups buttermilk or sour

COCOA MASCARPONE FROSTING

• 4oz Mascarpone cheese (cream cheese can be substituted)
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter at room temperature
• 1/3 cup cocoa powder
• 2 tablespoons whole milk
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 16oz of confectioners sugar

In a medium mixing bowl, sift together the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, and salt; set aside.

Line 3 8 x 1/2 inch cake pans with parchment paper and light grease and flour the pans.

In a large mixing bowl, beat butter with an electric mixer on medium to high speed for 30 seconds. In a small bowl, combine granulated and brown sugar. Gradually add sugar mixture, about 1/4 cup at a time, beating on medium speed until well combined (3 to 4 minutes). Scrape sides of bowl; continue beating on medium speed for 2 minutes. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in vanilla.

Add flour mixture and buttermilk alternately to butter mixture, beating on low speed just until combined after each addition. Beat on medium to high speed for 20 seconds more.

Spread batter evenly into prepared pans. The batter will be thick and a bit sticky. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes or until a wooden toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool cake layers in pans for 10 minutes on wire rack.

Remove cakes from pans. Remove parchment paper and let cool completely on wire racks.

In a large mixing bowl, beat mascarpone cheese or cream cheese, butter, unsweetened cocoa powder,2 milk and vanilla with an electric mixer on medium to high speed until creamy. Gradually add  16-ounce box powdered sugar (and I mean GRADUALLY, if you add too much at once you will find yourself in a cloud of sugar the second the beaters hit the bowl) beating until smooth. Beat in enough additional milk, 1 teaspoon at a time, to reach spreading consistency. Makes 3 cups. (Basically you want it to look as creamy as at that frosting that comes out of a jar. If it’s too runny add more sugar. If it’s too dry add more milk.)

Assemble the cake a layer at a time. Use just enough frosting to adhere each layer to the next. If you use too much your cake layers are going to go sliding every which way. HOWEVER, if you are a frosting junkie and want oodles of frosting between layers, stick a skewer through the center of the cake. It will act as a support for all the layers until you finish frosting the whole thing and then let it set in the fridge for 15 minutes.

Using an offset spatula frost the rest of the cake. Frosting is a skill. It takes practice. I am working on it.

I added some shaved dark chocolate for a decorative touch. Slice this up an serve. To hell with your diet.

Thanks for reading and check back often! Some changes are coming…