Humming Bird Cupcakes

 Mimi Jr. decided to make these yummy tropical cupcake for her friend's birthday. The recipe for these Hummingbird cupcakes is from Martha Stewart Cupcakes. They were kind of a cross between carrot cake and banana bread, with the chunks of pineapple, crunchy walnuts and dash of cinnamon bringing everything together into a unique but delicious cupcake. They were very moist and flavorful without being too sweet. Unfrosted, they would make a great breakfast muffin, but everything is good with a swirl of cream cheese frosting so we definitely couldn't leave that out for these birthday cupcakes.

The sweet, slightly crispy dried pineapple flower was the perfect decoration for these cupcakes. It adds to the tropical feel of these treats, was easy to make, and tasted good! These were great for an early summer birthday, but would also be fun for a luau themed party or barbecue. We think diced mango would be a fun addition to add some more tropical flavor and texture to these delicious cupcakes.

Humming Bird Cupcakes

via Martha Stewart Cupcakes

Ingredients:
3 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for pan
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
2 cups sugar
3 large eggs
2 cups mashed ripe banana (about 3 large)
1 can (8 ounces) crushed pineapple, drained
1 cup chopped walnuts, or pecans
1 cup unsweetened desiccated coconut
Cream Cheese Frosting - We did  not use Martha's recipe. Our favorite recipe is below.
Dried Pineapple Flowers

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees with rack in center. Line cupcake pan with paper liners; set aside. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt; set aside.
2 .In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat butter, vanilla, and sugar until combined, about 2 minutes. Add eggs one at a time, incorporating each before adding the next. Beat at medium speed until mixture is pale yellow and fluffy, about 3 minutes.
3. In a medium bowl, stir together banana, pineapple, walnuts, and coconut. Add to egg mixture, mixing until combined. Stir in flour mixture.
4. Divide batter evenly among liners, filling about 2/3 full. Bake, rotating pans halfway through, until golden brown and a cake tester inserted in the center comes out clean, 25 to 28 minutes. (ours were done closer to 22 minutes)
5. Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. Once cupcakes have cooled, frost tops of each cupcake. Decorate with dried pineapple flowers, if desired. Serve at room temperature.
printable recipe

Cream Cheese Frosting
via Cooks Illustrated
Ingredients:

1 cup (2 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 pound confectioners' sugar, sifted 
16 ounces cream cheese, cut in to 8 pieces, room temperature
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
Pinch of salt

Directions
1.In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat butter and sugar on medium high speed until fluffy, about 2 minutes.  Add cream cheese, 1 piece at a time, and beat until incorporated.
2.Beat in vanilla and salt.Continue beating until light and fluffy. Refrigerate until ready to use.

printable recipe

Pineapple flowers
Martha Stewart
Directions
1.Preheat oven to 225 degrees. Line two baking sheets with nonstick baking mats or parchment paper.
2.Cut top and bottom off pineapple, and slice off all the skin, but leave pineapple whole. Using a small melon ball-er, remove and discard pineapple "eyes." Using a sharp knife, cut pineapple crosswise into very thin slices. Transfer slices to baking sheets. Bake until tops look dried, about 30 minutes. Flip slices; bake until completely dried, 25 to 30 minutes more. Pinch center of each pineapple slice to shape into a cone, and let cool in a clean egg carton or muffin tin to form flowers. Refrigerate in an airtight container up to 3 days.

Ours took forever to dry in the oven and they had a caramelized edges which were delicious, but made them slightly brown, not as yellow as the pictures in the book. Martha's pineapple flowers were very yellow just like the freshly cut pineapple and I think that could be achieved if you used a food dehydrator instead of the oven.

Enjoy!

Link:Foodie Friday at Designs by Gollum
This Chick Cooks

Busy Bees

You could say that Mimi Jr. and I have been busy as bees making cookies. Mimi Jr. works with a very creative and talented woman, L, who was planning a bee themed birthday party for her six year old daughter, T.  She asked Mimi Jr. if we would help out and make some bee cookies for the party. Never one to turn down an opportunity to make cookies, Mimi Jr. said yes. L sent over some ideas, and based on the pictures she showed us, we created these buzzing bee sugar cookies.

We used our favorite sugar cookie recipe and royal icing to make our cookies. Since we had to make 100 of these, we spread out the work over a few days.

First we searched the internet for a bee that we liked and then used it to make a template for our bees. We printed out a sheet of bees and covered it with a sheet of wax paper that we taped to the kitchen island. Then with royal icing we traced over and flooded the the bees wings. When these were dry, we did the head and body, making sure the colors touched so we could peel them off in one piece. We fit 20 bees on each piece of wax paper, and just moved the printed paper to another space on the island and topped it with more wax paper for each new set of 20. We let these dry completely. When the cookies were baked, we flooded them with a pale yellow color and placed the dried bees on top of the almost dry flood icing. When the flood icing was completely dry we added the final details- we did the eyes and mouth with a food writer, and piped the antena and flight path with royal icing.

This was our first real "cookie order" for someone other than family, and we learned a few things along the way. Wait until your flood is almost dry to attach your detail so the wet icing doesn't make the colors from the bee/detail  bleed, and don't press them down too hard or your flood icing will wrinkle around the detail.

L made this gorgeous bee hive cake and matching cupcakes with toppers that coordinated with the party invitation. For the boys she had worker bee hard hats, and she made some cute flower headbands for the girls. Party favors included a yellow beach pail filled with assorted black and yellow candy and toys. No detail was over looked in her party planning, and her daughter's excited face made everything worth it.

The worker bees and a crown, for the birthday queen

Happy Birthday T, and Thank You L for letting us create the cookies for your bee-autiful party!

Link: Foodie Fridays at Designs by Gollum
         Cast Party  At the Lady Behind the Curtain

Berry Fool

Sometimes the foods with the strangest names are the very best. And this fool is no exception. Fools are a great easy, light and refreshing dessert. They are also easily adaptable and can be made with a variety of fruits and berries. Cook's Illustrated had a recipe for berry fool in their Best-Ever Recipes issue and it fit in perfectly with a recent outdoor grilling dinner party. It's a little different from other fools that I've made because it has gelatin in the berry mixture. I was a little unsure about that, since I definitely did not want berry jello, but it really worked out nicely giving just the right amount of body to the berries and allowing the streaks of puree to remain distinct in the cream.

 When you have perfectly ripe fruit, you can easily decrease the amount of sugar you use to make this a semi healthy summer dessert. We eliminated the sugar entirely from the berry mixture, and loved the fresh, naturally juicy strawberries just by themselves. We are looking forward to trying it with peaches when our crop comes in, and whatever berries we can find at the farmer's markets around town. The recipe below is our take on the berry fool.

Berry Fool
adapted from Cook Illustrated

Berries:
2 1/2  pounds strawberries, hulled
1/2 cup sugar, plus 2 tablespoons
2 teaspoons unflavored gelatin

Cream:
1 cup heavy cream
1/4 cup sour cream
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
2 tablespoons sugar

1. Process half of the berries with 1/2 cup sugar in a food process until mixture is completely smooth. Strain berry puree through a fine mesh strainer. You should have 2 1/2 cups puree. Transfer 1/2 cup of puree to a small bowl and sprinkle the gelatin over the top and stir to incorporate. Let stand 5 minutes .

2. Heat the remaining puree in a sauce pan until it bubbles (4-6 minutes). Remove sauce pan from heat and stir in the gelatin puree, mixing until gelatin is dissolved. Pour into a bowl, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate until cold, about 2 hours.

3. Chop the remaining strawberries into 1/4 inch pieces and toss with 2 tablespoons sugar set aside for 1 hour.  Our berries were sweet, so we did not add the sugar.

4. Whip together, heavy cream, sour cream, vanilla and 2 tablespoons sugar until stiff peaks form. Reserve about 1/3 cup for garnish. To remaining cream, whisk in the 2/3 of chilled berry puree until fully incorporated. Gently fold in remaining puree, leaving thick streaks of puree.

5. Assemble: drain uncooked diced berries to remove juice and divide 2/3 of the berries evenly among 6 individual serving dishes/glasses. Top with the creamy berry mixture, followed by remaining uncooked berries. Top each dish with reserved whipped cream. Chill until serving.

Hamburger Cupcakes

Imagine my surprise when Megan at in words and pictures asked me to do a guest post while she is off in Europe shooting a video on craft photography. My first thought was, she's nuts. But I've know Megan since she was a small girl, and she has a very special place in our hearts, so I knew we could not let her down. Megan is such a talented and creative person. She can put together a perfectly felted peep, then turn around and whip up some mushroom risotto, and just when you think she is done, Megan shows you some amazing gardening ideas. And on top of everything, she writes about it in a way that both makes you laugh and feel like you can do anything she just did! This girl can do it all. Her blog covers food, crafts, gardening, photography and life, so if you want a few details on how to make these fun cupcakes and a chance to meet Megan head on over to in words and pictures.

printable recipes and directions

Link: Foodie Fridays

Monkey Cake

It's no secret that we like to monkey around here at Mimi's Kitchen, so when Mimi Jr. asked me to help her make a monkey cake for a friend, I was happy to assist. It has been many years since I covered a cake in fondant. The cakes always look beautiful, but my family didn't really go for the taste of the fondant so I stuck to buttercreams and ganaches for our family cakes. For this cake, we decide to try marshmallow fondant. It's super simple to make and it really does taste better than the fondant I remember making in the past. This is a really easy cake to make and we thought the fairly simple shape was a good starting point for us to get back into fondant covered cakes.

Marshmallow Fondant

allrecipes.com

Ingredients

1/4 cup butter
1 (16 ounce) package miniature marshmallows
4 tablespoons water
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 pounds confectioners' sugar, divided


Directions
1. Place the butter in a shallow bowl, and set aside.

2. Place the marshmallows in a large microwave-safe bowl, and microwave on High for 30 seconds to 1 minute to start melting the marshmallows. Carefully stir the water and vanilla extract into the hot marshmallows, and stir until the mixture is smooth. Slowly beat in the confectioners' sugar, a cup at a time, until you have a sticky dough. Reserve 1 cup of powdered sugar for kneading. The dough will be very stiff.

3.Rub your hands thoroughly with butter, and begin kneading the sticky dough. As you knead, the dough will become workable and pliable. Turn the dough out onto a working surface dusted with confectioners' sugar and continue kneading until the fondant is smooth and no longer sticky to the touch, 5 to 10 minutes.

4.Form the fondant into a ball, wrap it tightly in plastic wrap, and refrigerate overnight. To use, allow the fondant to come to room temperature, and roll it out onto a flat surface dusted with confectioners' sugar.
  printable recipe

Before we got started, Mimi Jr. sketched out her idea and made a template for the face. She started with an 8 inch chocolate layer cake, then filled and crumb coated it with an espresso buttercream frosting. Color your fondant first, before you start constructing the cake, since the color deepens as it rests. You will need three colors of fondant- tan, dark brown and black. For the dark brown fondant, we used both cocoa powder and brown gel food coloring to get the right color. Be careful with cocoa powder as it does seem to dry out the fondant if you add too much. The tan was colored with a small drop or two of brown gel, and the black was also colored with some gel coloring.

For the ears she made an extra cake layer in an 8 inch square pan, and using a cookie cutter, she cut out four small circles of cake, which she frosted and crumb coated like two mini layer cakes. Using the same cutter she cut out a half circle on the main cake on each side where she wanted the ears to be placed. She then frosted over the cut outs on the main cake and slid the ears into place. The frosting helped to hold everything together. Once it was all frosted and put together, we chilled the cake until every thing was set.

When the caked had firmed up in the fridge, we rolled out the dark chocolate fondant and draped it over the cake smoothing it out and using a pizza cutter to trim around the base of the cake.

Next up was the face and ears in tan fondant. We rolled a thin sheet of the tan fondant and placed the face template on top and cut around it with the tip of a sharp knife. We used the black fondant for the eyes, nose, and mouth. We attached all the pieces on top with a little bit of water.

This was a fun project to do and we liked working with this fondant. It was easy to make and use, and tasted so much better than any other fondant. I know we will definitely be using this again next time we have a fun cake project.

Pomegranates

Ryan at POM Wonderful asked if I would like to try their product. No strings attached. He didn't ask me to write a post about it, he just asked me to enjoy it. And enjoy it we did. We love plain pomegranate juice, so we started by pouring POM and sparkling water over ice to make a really refreshing drink that was fruity but not too sweet. Although delicious as just a juice, we knew there were many more uses for our remaining bottles of POM. 

 Next we made a pomegranate curd. The egg yolks turned the curd a weird color, but it still tasted great. The curd can be used any way you would use a lemon or orange curd, and we turned it into the filling for some pink French Macaroons that I had made. The color combo is not so pretty, but the tangy curd and sweet chewy macaroons were perfect together.

Pomegranate Curd
adapted from Cook's Illustrated

1 cup pomegranate juice, reduced to 1/2 cup
1/2 cup sugar
2 large eggs
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, cold
1 tablespoon heavy cream
1/4 teaspoon vanilla
a pinch of salt

Heat pomegranate juice in in a small pan over medium heat until reduced to 1/2 cup.  In a non reactive sauce pan whisk eggs and sugar until light and lemon colored. Whisking constantly, slowly add the pomegranate reduction to the eggs. Place pan over medium heat and cook, stirring continuously until the mixture is thick and coats the back of a spoon (170 degrees). Remove from heat and stir in cold butter, mix until incorporated; stir in cream, vanilla and salt. Pour curd through a fine mesh strainer into a small bowl. Cover surface directly with plastic wrap and refrigerate until needed.
printable recipe

Then the curd became a white chocolate pomegranate mousse with a pomegranate reduction. We had made this mousse before without the pomegranate and found it a little too sweet from the white chocolate, but the addition of the curd and pomegranate reduction made it just right.

Pomegranate White Chocolate Mousse

adapted from 5 Ingredient Fix

7 ounces white chocolate, very finely chopped

2 large egg yolks

2 tablespoons granulated sugar

1 1/4 cups heavy cream, divided

1/2 cup pomegranate curd

1/2 cup pomegranate juice reduced by to 1/4 cup

Place white chocolate in a glass bowl and set aside. Whisk the egg yolks with the sugar until pale in color.

In a saucepan over medium-low heat, bring 1/4 cup cream to a simmer. While whisking, slowly pour the warm cream into the egg yolk mixture to temper. Pour the creamy mixture back into the pan, return to medium-low heat and stir with a wooden spoon until thickened and it coats the back of the spoon. Pour the hot egg mixture through a fine mesh sieve placed directly over the chopped white chocolate. Let stand a few minutes without disturbing and then stir the chocolate until completely smooth.Stir in the curd.

In another bowl, whip the remaining 1 cup cream until soft peaks form. Fold the half the whipped cream into the chocolate mixture to lighten, and then fold in the remaining whipped cream.

Spoon into serving dishes and refrigerate at least one hour. Drizzle with pomegranate reduction and shaved dark chocolate prior to serving.

printable recipe

Finally we made some pomegranate sorbet. It is so easy to make and perfectly refreshing for the hot weather ahead.

 

Pomegranate Sorbet

a method

Mix 2 cups pomegranate juice and the juice of one lime with simple syrup, to taste. Pour into ice cream machine and process according to manufacturer's directions. If you don't have an ice cream machine, just pour the mixture into a shallow pan and place in the freezer. Stir with a fork, breaking up the ice crystal every 15 minutes until frozen.

A big thank you to Ryan from POM for this great product. We enjoyed it in so many ways, and I have already received requests for pomegranate margaritas from Mr. Mimi and some dark chocolate pomegranate truffles from Mimi Jr., so I can see a few more bottles of POM on the grocery list in the near future so we can continue to explore the possibilities of POM! 

Flower Power

Mimi Jr. and I spent a fun afternoon making these cookies to cheer up Mini Me during mid term exams. We used our favorite white sugar cut out cookie dough and royal icing tinted with neon colors along with a few nonpareils.

These are easy to do, just outline and flood the cookies with the base color, and when dry, pipe on the petals and the center in a contrasting color. These are bright and perfect for spring. I got the inspiration while browsing blogs. I stopped at The Sweet Adventures of Sugarbelle who has a fun post on Easter Eye Candy. I noticed that a lot of decorators were using string work and I thought, what a great way to embellish your cookies. We have always been sprinkle girls at Mimi's kitchen, so this was a new adventure for us, although we couldn't quite get completely away from the sprinkles.

Sugar Cookies

3 c all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 c sugar
2 sticks butter
1 egg
1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
1/2 tsp pure almond extract
1/2 teaspoon salt


Preheat oven to 350.
Combine the flour and baking powder, set aside. Cream the sugar and butter. Add the egg and extracts and mix. Gradually add the flour mixture and beat just until combined, scraping down the bowl, especially the bottom.
Roll onto a floured surface and cut into shapes. Place on parchment lined baking sheets and bake for 10-12 minutes. Let sit a few minutes on the sheet, then transfer to a cooling rack.

printable recipe

    

Spring Cupcakes

This is a fun spring project inspired by Hello Cupcake.  It's perfect for kids- even your little ones can do this with an adult handy to cut the marshmallow. It is an easy project, with simple ingredients. Make and frost your favorite cup cakes, and grab some marshmallows and sprinkles. With a scissor, slice large marshmallows horizontally in five slices and coat the sticky sides in the colored sugar. Place slices, slightly overlapping, around the edge of the cupcake. For the sunflowers, fill the center of the cupcake with dark brown jimmies.

 For the daisies we used Dots, cut in half horizontally and squished flat for the center. You can use any color combination of candies, sugars, and jimmies to make many different spring flowers!

The butterflies were a bit more complicated. They are also from Hello Cupcake and are made with candy melts. 

Draw an antenna and a pair wings on paper, place paper on a baking sheet and cover with baking parchment. Melt candy melts in plastic frosting bottles, or zip lock bags. On your parchment, first outline the wings in one color then fill the center with a contrasting color, rap the pan on a hard surface to smooth the candy melts, and using a tooth pick, drag and swirl some of the edge color with the center color. Let set until hardened.  Assemble your butterflies on top of your frosted cupcakes. Place wings in frosting at angles pipe some candy melt dots between them (or use round candy) for the body and add your antenna.

Sounds easy. It is if...your kitchen is warm enough so the candy melts stay liquid for a few minutes. Our kitchen was very cold the day we made these butterflies, and when the liquid candy melts hit the parchment on the cold cookie sheet they hardened almost immediately, and the whole thing became very frustrating. Our solution: once the wings were piped, we slid the pan in the a warm oven for a minute to soften the candy melts. Then proceed with rapping and swirling. Success!