Strawberries Galore

I know strawberries are out of season now in the U.S., but they still seem to be going strong here in Indonesia.  I think they might have multiple seasons here, in fact.   My understanding is that growing strawberries is relatively new in Indonesia, but people seem to like them a lot.  Strawberry seems like the new hotness as far as flavors go here in Jakarta... 

I got a couple containers of strawberries at the store recently and whipped up two strawberry cakes:

First, Franny's chocolate cake with strawberry buttercream, which I made for a BBQ Tim and I attended.  I figured you can't go wrong with strawberry and chocolate as well as two tried and true recipes. 

As usual, the cake was light and moist, and the frosting was really nice, albeit slightly

 soft in Jakarta's heat:

Second, I made Smitten Kitchen's strawberry summer cake, which was pretty awesome right out of the oven.  Like Deb said, jammy strawberries combined with a slightly crunchy, sugary crust, plus a tender cake below.  Good stuff.  I successfully substituted a third of the flour (1/2 cup) with whole wheat flour and that worked quite well:

Cupcakes for Baby Mamas

More baby mamas = more cupcakes... this time Kate (of turtle fame) is the baby mama being showered, and the cupcakes I baked are yellow cake with chocolate frosting and rainbow sprinkles, and strawberry with strawberry buttercream.The strawberry cupcakes, based on a recipe from the self-proclaimed originator of the cupcake craze, Sprinkles, were amazing. I got the recipe from the Other Martha, and my only comment is that if that's what all of Sprinkles' cupcakes taste like, they earned their glowing reputation. The recipe was super easy and took advantage of some of the local strawberries I picked earlier this summer and froze. I'm not normally a strawberry cupcake person because of the weird fake strawberry flavor I normally think of, but these cupcakes are so moist, with a real strawberry flavor. Plus the frosting has an amazing bright pink color, so no need for artificial food coloring!

The yellow cupcakes were less impressive, sadly... decent, but not as moist and yellow-y as I was hoping. Not enough egg yolks? Not sure where they went wrong. Next time I think I might try the "best birthday cake" from Smitten Kitchen...

Baby Shower Goodies: The Sweet Stuff

Barbara's baby shower was capped off by lots and lots of mini-cupcakes, which were the hit of the party. Joanne says I could sell the cupcakes out of a truck and be the next lobster truck. I don't know about that, but I know these cupcakes were really tasty, and that I got to use my piping set, which was really fun!

One-Bowl Chocolate Cupcakes with Vanilla Buttercream Frosting

I'd made these cupcake and buttercream recipes successfully in the past, so I knew they would be reliable for the party. My prediction proved to be true- Amy threw the cupcakes together with little fanfare, but the fanfare when the party-goers snatched them up was another story.

Carrot Cake Mini-Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting

Molly made this cake for Colleen's birthday and it was so good I begged her for the recipe. I made it exactly as she had- substituting some oil with applesauce- and achieved really good results. Here's the recipe:

Carrot Cake Mini-Cupcakes

4 eggs
¼ cup vegetable oil
1 cup applesauce
2 cups sugar (1 white, 1 brown)
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
2 heaping teaspoons ground cinnamon
3 cups grated carrots

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F
2. Grease and flour a 9 x 13 inch pan or use paper liners in mini-muffin tins
3. In a large bowl, beat together eggs, oil, sugar and vanilla.
4. Mix in flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt and cinnamon
5. Stir in carrots
6. Pour into prepared pan
7. For 9 x 13 cake, bake 40-50 minutes; for mini-cupcakes, bake 10-12 minutes or until toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Cream Cheese Frosting

½ cup butter, softened
8 ounces cream cheese, softened
4 cups confectioners’ sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1. In a medium bowl, combine butter, cream cheese, sugar and vanilla
2. Beat until smooth and creamy

Cupcakes!

Over the past few weeks, my office has had a series of baking contest/fundraisers to benefit the Combined Federal Campaign. A few weeks ago we practiced our Thanksgiving pie-making skillz... I made a banoffee pie that got some raves, but Tony won the big prize (read: bragging rights) for his simple, but delicious key lime pie. I forgot to take photos...

This week was a cupcake contest for which I submitted two entries in a naked grab for the baking title. After consulting with Madison, I decided incorporate booze into one of my cupcakes, figuring that was a good hook with which to catch the judges. Deb from Smitten Kitchen provided the recipe I went with, and even though I skipped her whiskey ganache filling, the Guinness chocolate cupcake and Bailey's Irish Cream frosting was enough to secure the win for me!!

Underestimating the amount of time it takes to make 50 cupcakes (it was midnight by the time I turned the oven off!), I also made these lemon cupcakes with a lemon cream cheese frosting. Pretty delicious! I added more lemon juice and zest to the frosting as well as a little less sugar so I could keep it tart rather than sweet.

Birthday Goodies!

For Chuck's 27th birthday, she got two desserts... one hand-held, relatively mess-free dessert for the keg party, and one melty, delicious ice cream cake for the after-party.

1. One-Bowl Mini Chocolate Cupcakes with Vanilla Buttercream Frosting:
This recipe from the Other Martha is super easy- one bowl, one measuring cup, one measuring spoon. Plus, the cupcakes stay really moist. I had just a little bit less than the required amount of cocoa, so I topped it off with some espresso powder, which I think really complimented the chocolate.
The buttercream frosting is decadent... don't look at the ingredient list, though.

2. Ice Cream Cake with Chocolate Crunchies and Heath Bar:
The ice cream cake I made is loosely based on this recipe, but with chocolate and coffee ice creams, topped with Heath bar crumbles. The chocolate crunchies in the cake are great- I was worried they would get soggy between ice cream layers, but they stayed crunchy!
If you do try making this cake, though, I warn you: beware the leaky springform pan!