I would like to take a moment and update our followers — life has become interrupted for the both of us. For personal reasons, we have not been able to get together lately to bake, however, this does not mean that the challenge is over. Both of us will be traveling for the Easter holiday, and when next week rolls around we will be able to get back on track. Please be patient — I cannot imagine how hard it is to wait for those yummy-looking pictures!! 
Latest Entries »
And on to #3 — Carrot Cake Cupcakes (baked on March 14th, 2010).
Carrot Cupcake from Book
This recipe was much simpler than the previous (chocolate chip); mix all the wet and mix all the dry, and then mix them together. We were quite surprised that there was no butter in this recipe, but there was buttermilk. Shortcut: purchase pre-shredded carrots, it saved a lot of time and effort and worked beautifully. Emma doesn’t really like raisins, so if she were to make these again she would more than likely substitute for some nuts. The icing is a cream cheese frosting that was rather simple, yet delicious — toasted coconut on top really hits the spot. Some of the coconut got a little dark, so keep a close eye on it when toasting in the oven (perhaps toast at a lower temperature than suggested so as to not burn — rather be safe than sorry, even if it takes a little more time).
Finished with Book
Because of the hardness of the chocolate chip cupcake that we baked prior to this, we decided to try using single silicon cups for the second batch to then compare to the silicon sheet that Maci has. This recipe was not the time we should have experimented — these cupcakes were difficult to pop out of the sheet AND the sleeves altogether, we are assuming because of how moist and delicate these are. Pieces of the cupcakes were sticking to the sides and bottom of the molds, even after spraying with PAM Baking spray and circling the molds with a toothpick to loosen them. Some of the cupcakes simply fell apart, so we would suggest using paper liners for these so you don’t have to worry about your cupcakes falling apart and sticking to any mold.
Group Shot
**Martha does say at the beginning of every recipe to use paper cups. Because silicon is a material in baking known for preventing sticking and being easy to clean, we both have silicon baking items that we have been using (the 12-cup cupcake sheet and single silicon cupcake molds). Also, not using paper liners is environmentally friendly … but we may revert to using them for the sake of having better-looking cupcakes that look more like the cupcakes in the book.
Maci’s freezer is becoming packed with cupcakes since she can’t try them now and must wait until Lent is over. Maybe after a few more we’ll get a picture of it.
And now we begin at the beginning of the book with Martha’s first cupcake — Chocolate Chip Cupcakes w/ Dark Chocolate Frosting (baked on March 13th, 2010).
Chocolate Chip from Book
First, we would like to note that it is extremely important to read the recipe all the way through before you start baking. This didn’t cause any irreversible problems for us, but being precise and saving 1 tbsp. of the cake flour to add at the end may make a difference.
This batter is a strange batter — very light and airy like a pancake batter. The cake flour probably contributes to that slightly, along with the large amount of baking soda AND the folding in of stiff-peaked-whipped egg whites (yolks are not used).
Batter
Again, the sides of our cupcakes are slightly different — using the silicon sheets causes an obvious visual difference, but we think that it makes a difference in the texture of the cupcake. You know how sometimes muffins or cupcakes get a hard shell-like layer on top? It was like this all the way around the cupcake. We would strongly recommend that if you are to make these cupcakes to use the paper liners — it may make all the difference in the world. We also didn’t have white nonpareils, so we decorated the cupcakes with sugar pearls.
Finished Product
Unfortunately we both gave up chocolate for Lent, so we are unable to taste both the cupcake and the dark chocolate frosting. Hopefully we’ll get some comments on how the cupcake tastes and what the flavor/texture is like.
Cut in Half
As you can see, the chocolate chips sank to the bottom of the cupcake. Perhaps they were too heavy? We would suggest either throwing the chips in a food processor or using miniature chocolate chips so they don’t settle towards the bottom. Our frosting doesn’t look as dark as the book’s picture either … but after sitting and hardening on the cupcake itself, it has darkened up a little bit.
And so we begin — because the both of us have given up chocolate for Lent (well, Maci gave up baked goods as well, so she’s freezing cupcakes to eat later), we decided NOT to start with the first recipe of the book, which is chocolate chip cupcakes with dark chocolate frosting. Instead, we allowed ourselves to pick one recipe to start the project off with a BANG. So the winner was ….
Tres Leches Cupcakes w/ Whipped Cream and Cinnamon
Tres Leches cupcake from the Cookbook
As you can tell by the pictures (above is the picture from the book, below are our own pictures), they came out looking quite like the picture from the book — the edges are slightly different because we used a silicon cupcake pan instead of using paper wrappers. We took them to work to gather some reviews from our co-workers. Because this blog hasn’t been formally announced, we will post some of the comments below. Hopefully soon our friends and family will follow the blog and comment themselves, but we’ve got to give them a boost.
Our Tres Leches
Whipped Cream & Cinnamon
Comments:
“It’s similar to pound cake & tastes just like Tres Leches. Wouldn’t change a thing — they are perfect.”
–Fellow Baker at Dreyer’s Grand Ice Cream
“They are a little bland — but I am one who prefers a buttercream frosting to whipped cream and cinnamon.”
Funnies:
“How are you not fat?” (directed at both Maci and Emma)
“Ohhh, we don’t eat them.” (said by both Maci and Emma, at the SAME exact time)
–We’re thinking that someone asked us that because they thought they were SO good and wondered why we don’t eat them all.
“Oooohhhh. That’s dense.”
So now we accept a challenge — to bake all the way through the Martha Stewart Cupcake Cookbook (you can find this at your local bookstores, such as Barnes and Noble or Borders, or even at Williams-Sonoma … our favorite). We have been inspired by the movie “Julie and Julia”, with hopes that this will only perfect our baking skills and be of some interest to some of you. We’ll upload pictures and discuss what we could have done better; feel welcome to leave tips along the way if you so wish!
And we will now blog about our roots:
Maci is the Italian chef of the duo — grew up in an Italian family, making the raviolis (yes, stereotypical) . One day she will own an Italian restaurant and maybe name it “DePaoli’s”.
Emma is the baker — there is nothing that she enjoys more than flying flour and melted chocolate. She never strongly considered owning a bakery, but thought it would be a lot of fun.
–
We work for Dreyer’s Grand Ice Cream in California, the largest ice cream factory in the WORLD. Because of the large number of people that work here, we are lucky to have people who will eat our wonderful creations. We have baked out of numerous cookbooks, found hundreds of recipes online … and now have gotten rather good at it. We jokingly created a business card for “M & Em’s Bakery” with some pictures of desserts we had made for our co-workers, and have been asked by a few to bake for them. Perhaps our joke is slowly becoming a reality …
