Is it terrible that I’ve succumbed to guilty pleasures? It’s as if a switch turned off a couple of weeks ago. Instead of waking up early to squeeze in a few minutes of study time, I’ve been hitting the snooze button. Instead of hitting the books on weekend mornings at Starbucks, I’ve been plowing through season 7 of Grey’s Anatomy. I’m already nearly through episode 13. Amazon Prime is the killer of all motivation.

Cool Whip is also a guilty pleasure, not that I’ve had it many times. At the store today, they had both the “sugar free version” and the “regular” version. Without giving it a second thought, I reached for the “regular” version. Figured that I’d choose a heart attack over cancer. At least you’re out in one shot.

My motivation for making this dessert was purely due to the lack of having any motivation to beat eggs or to have to clean off the specks of flour on my camera. Instead, I pulled a Sandra Lee today. Within five minutes, I was in and out of the local Shop-Rite, with Angel Cake and Cool Whip in the backseat and ready to rock.

Angel Food Cake: $2.99
Cool Whip: $1.99
Box of Strawberries: $3.99
Total Cost: ~$9.00
Total Time: ~10 minutes

Clearly, this would be an economist’s favorite recipe. Reducing down on opportunity cost for time with keeping raw costs to a minimum without sacrificing taste.

Hat tip to the lovely Jenna for this recipe. She brought it a couple of weeks back to our weekly Friday dinners at Group. Her trifle was bursting with blues and reds, between the strawberries, blueberries, blackberries, and raspberries she added. Add whatever fruit you want, but I stuck to a classic combination of strawberries and bananas. It must have been good because Glen ate half of it in one sitting and Clare kept reaching for more despite her better judgement.

Satisfyingly delicious

Semi-Homemade Angel Food Cake Strawberry Trifle
Serves 8

Ingredients:
8 oz Cool Whip (1 container)
1 Pint Strawberries
1 Banana
1 Angel Food Cake

Method:

Cut the cake into cubes. The best way of doing this is slicing through the cake horizontally into three slices, once through the middle vertically, and then in once inch increments. See below.

There are two ways of presenting this dessert. If you have a giant clear glass bowl, then you can layer each of the ingredients one by one. First put a generous layer of the Cool Whip, top with a handful of berries and cubes of cake, more Cool Whip, more fruit/cake, repeat until supply is exhausted.

However, if you don’t have a clear bowl (like me) but want to present it the way shown below, you need two bowls- one big and one small. Layer the ingredients into the small bowl as instructed above but save some Cool Whip. Then, take the larger bowl and cover the smaller bowl. Carefully flip the bowls so that the smaller bowl with the trifle is now upside down in the larger bowl. Wiggle the smaller bowl slightly so that the trifle slips out. Top the cake with some Cool Whip and garnish with shaved chocolate. This also works on a large plate too (though it’ll get messy when you scoop it).

You should also check out:

• Chocolate truffle tart
• Almond & walnut danish
• Five minute salty & nutty dark chocolate bark
• O clementine olive oil ice cream
• Chocolate coffee & pumpkin spice cupcakes

I recently stumbled upon Katie Quinn Davies‘s portfolio.  While are a ton of awesome food blogs out there with equally awesome photography, I have yet to find another food blog that can match Katie’s phenomenal eye for styling and photo composition. And unlike many stylists who thrive on perfection (spot-clean edges on plates, clear glasses, etc…), Katie is able to make tiny crumbs and spills look enticing.

I’ve been baking alot lately. I’m not a very good baker, but I’m starting to get better. The whole process is so relaxing. I ended up dedicating this 3-day weekend to improving my baking and food photography. Beats calculating free cash flow. Plus, I figured that if I could become good enough, perhaps I can justify finally buying a Kitchen Aid.

This morning, I ran to Walmart and Home Depot, where I bought some wood panels, poster boards, and paint. The metallic background here is actually black poster-board with a layer of Martha Stewart’s metallic paint. I plan on following up after with a DIY post on how to make these backgrounds.

So what did I learn from hours upon hours of observing Katie Quinn Davies’ food portfolio?

1. If you’re like me where simply looking at photographs isn’t enough to instill inspiration, draw out the photographs that you admire. No joke. Take some colored crayons and briefly sketch/color in everything. This helped me truly understand color composition, food placement, and food props that make the styling a success.
2. Observe the style. I know that I’m not a patient person. I have no desire to wipe plates clean and brush crumbs off the frame. In fact, I prefer to eat as a I shoot, and photographing half eaten food is a great excuse to do that.
3. Textures matter. Even the simplest of Katie’s shots feature a monotone backdrop with a rag to offset the flat texture.
4. Props matter. White square plates don’t work for everything. Not saying that you should spend a small fortune to buy props, but these Mason jars were worth the $3.97 (or so I think…). They come in a 4-pack.
5. That being said, there’s stuff already in your house that you’re probably overlooking that could be used as props- ie brown paper napkins.
6. Cover imperfections with confectioners’ sugar or make it look as if you had purposely made the imperfection.

I think this was a pretty good first attempt. Don’t let these photographs fool you though. I don’t have an offset spatula (those things cost like $8 for a piece of metal!), so the top of the tart wasn’t completely flat. In fact, there were slight ridges from my knife. So, I covered it with some sweet whipped cream and sifted some confectioners’ sugar. Note that I made sure to dust the backdrop too.  Initially I was going to take the tart out of the pan but parts of the tart would have flaked off. Hence, I decided to use a darker backdrop to contrast the white ceramic.

For those of you who are more interested in the tart itself and not the photography behind it, apologies. The tart is rich. Don’t make this if you plan on going on a diet. Several things should alarm you. There’s a ton of butter and a ton of cream. We haven’t even factored in the sugar. I’d caution that while it’s possible to cut back a bit on the cream and butter, the texture will get compromised. Luckily, you can cut back on the confectioners’ sugar within the pastry. Instead of 2/3 cup as recommended below, I used only 1/4 cup.

Remember, the only baking involved in a chocolate truffle tart is the pastry crust so the quality of your chocolate is super important. After you melt the chocolate, whatever you taste is however the tart will taste. Input = bad chocolate; Output = bad tart.

Now remains the hardest part. What am I going to do with all of these chocolate truffle tarts? I can’t eat them all!!

Chocolate Truffle Tart
Baking Illustrated
Serves 12 to 14 (so don’t be a pig!)

Ingredients:

Sweet Tart Pastry

• 1 large egg yolk
• 1 tablespoon heavy cream
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 1/4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour + more for dusting the work surface
• 2/3 cup confectioner’s sugar
• 1 stick of cold unsalted butter (8 tablespoons), cut into 1/2 in cubes (8 tablespoons)

Traditional chocolate truffle tarts typically have a chocolate shell. To make the chocolate shell, substitute 1/4 cup cocoa powder for 1/4 cups of flower.

Dark Chocolate Truffle Filling

• 12 ounces high-quality bittersweet chocolate, chopped (or 2 cups of chocolate chips)
• 1 cup heavy cream
• 3/4 stick of butter (6 tablespoons) at room temperature
• 1 tablespoon cognac (or triple-sec)

Left over chocolate? Don’t fret. HERRO CHOCOLATE COVERED STRAWBERRIES!!

Method:

You should make the filling after the pastry has baked and cooled because the chocolate will solidify when it cools. There is heavy cream in it after all…

Sweet Tart Pastry

You’ll need a food processor for this. If you don’t have one, good luck because it’ll be hard to do by hand. Whisk together the yolk, cream, and vanilla in a bowl. Set aside.

Place the flour, sugar and salt in a food processor and combine briefly. Then, scatter the butter pieces over the flour mixture. Pulse it 15 times in 1 second intervals so that the butter gets cut and incorporated into the flour. The resulting mixture should resemble course meal.  While the machine is running, add in the egg mixture. Process for an additional 12 seconds until everything forms into a dough. Turn the dough onto a sheet of plastic wrap and press into a 6 inch disk. Wrap in plastic and refrigerate at least 1 hour or up to 48 hours.

This was a fail for me. My food processor is super tiny so it couldn’t fit the egg mixture. Instead, I mixed egg mixture into the flour mixture by hand. The dough barely came together and was very dry so I added some more cream (about 3 more tablespoons). Eventually, it finally stuck together. It turned out fine after the baking. Hooray!

Remove from the refrigerator and let it stand at room temperature. Unwrap and roll out between two lightly floured large sheets of parchment paper or plastic wrap to a 13 inch round (this assumes you are using one round tart pan). If the dough is too soft, stick it back into the fridge. Lay the dough into the tart plan and ease the dough into the pan corners by gently lifting the edge with one hand while pressing it into the corners with the other hand. Press the dough against the fluted sides of the pan and run a rolling pin over the top of the tart pan to remove the excess dough. Freeze the dough-lined pan tart for about 30 minutes. (Note that you can actually freeze this for up to 1 month as long as you seal it in a giant zip lock bag!)

When you’re ready to bake, you’ll want to preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Listen up here- this is important. Make sure you have baking beans or else the dough may puff up in the middle. If you don’t have baking beans you can use regular Goya beans. Just line the bottom of the dough-lined tart shell with foil and then pour on the beans. Bake for 30 minutes, rotating halfway through the baking time. Bake until golden brown and set aside to cool.

Dark Chocolate Truffle Filling

No double broiler needed! Instead, we’re going to use the heat from the cream to melt the chocolate. Place the chocolate in a medium bowl and in a small saucepan, heat the cream to a simmer over medium-high heat. Pour the hot cream over the chocolate and set aside for a minute. Using a whisk, slowly stir the chocolate and cream until smooth. Then, slowly stir in the butter until combined. Finally, stir in the cognac (or triple sec).

After the tart shells are cooled, pour the chocolate filing, using an offset spatula to spread the filling to the sides of the tart and smooth the top. Refrigerate until firm, for at least 2 hours and up to 48 hours.

Because the chocolate is so rich, it’s best served with some slightly sweet whipped cream.

You should also check out:

• Semi-homemade angel food cake strawberry trifle
• Almond & walnut danish
• Five minute salty & nutty dark chocolate bark
• O clementine olive oil ice cream
• Chocolate coffee & pumpkin spice cupcakes

Article first published as Chocolate Coffee & Pumpkin Spice Cupcakes on Technorati.

Let me pose to you a question.

Why is it that people are so willing to pay $3 for an overly sweet and dense cupcake at Magnolia yet balk at Bank of America’s new $5 surcharge on dedit cards?

Don’t get me wrong. I’m a BoFa customer and I don’t like it one bit. That’s why I don’t plan on using their debit card (you only get charged if you use it). However, I completely understand their rationale. They recently got slapped with ridiculous regulation that caps fees they can derive from merchants. If you’re not happy about the fee, then I suggest you change banks (but pretty soon most banks will have some sort of similar fee) or you can stash your cash underneath your mattress. They’re not charging you money on your own money; they’re charging you for the convenience of not carrying around cash. You can also write a letter to Messieur Durbin telling him what an idiot he is.

Why am I telling you this? Because I think it’s ridiculous to pay $3 for a cupcake. It’s overpriced and most times, it’s not even that good (don’t get me wrong, sometimes there ARE some pretty darn good cupcakes that are $2.50 and under!) So, I choose to make my own.

A couple of weeks back, I came home to a package on my porch. When I opened it, I got super excited since it had the GODIVA script plastered on the bag. Then, I reached in. It was coffee. I LOVEEEE COFFEE!

Long story short, I wanted to incorporate the Pumpkin Spice flavor into cupcakes! I decided to do this two fold- in the cake part itself (to enhance the chocolate flavor) and then in the frosting.

But first, about the Pumpkin Spice coffee from Godiva…
Honestly, I’m not a big fan. It’s decent but not spectacular. I’m not a big fan of the scent either. However, it actually worked quite well in the recipe.

What I AM a fan of is their Caramel Pecan Bark coffee (a limited edition flavor). I could actually get high off of smelling that. And the taste? It’s delectably caramel-y and sweet. It’s enough to make Mark not want sugar in his coffee. He typically hates coffee because of its bitterness, but didn’t mind this one at all. Overall, this is a great weekend coffee to brew, but it’s not strong enough for my weekday caffeine needs.

Now onto the cupcakes-

I ended up turning the original buttercream frosting into a cream-cheese buttercream frosting simply because I can never get the damn recipe down correctly! It always ends up either too buttery or the consistency is off.  However, I love the consistency that the cream-cheese gives and makes the frosting thick enough to pipe out those gorgeous swirls.

As for the cake itself, make sure you do not omit the sour cream. In my first batch, I had none so I substituted with 1/4 cup of milk. The cupcakes came out decent but where a bit on the dry and dense side. In my second batch, I made sure to get some sour cream and it made all the difference in the world.

Chocolate coffee & pumpkin spice cupcakes
Adapted from Paula Deen
(Makes about 24 cupcakes)

Ingredients:

• 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 cups sugar
• 3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 tablespoon pumpkin spice
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup vegetable oil
• 1 cup strong brewed coffee, cooled
• 3 large eggs
• 1 (8-ounce) container sour cream
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• Coffee Cream Filling, recipe follows
• Coffee Buttercream, recipe follows
• Chocolate covered coffee beans, for garnish, optional

Recipe:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line cupcakes pans with paper liners and set aside.

In a large bowl, whisk flour, sugar, pumpkin spice cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Add oil, coffee, and eggs and beat at medium speed with an electric mixer until smooth. Then, miix in the sour cream and vanilla.

Spoon the batter evenly into prepared cupcakes cups, filling each 2/3 full. Bake until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean, for 16 to 18 minutes. Let them cool in pans on wire rack.

Coffee butter cream-cream cheese frosting

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 2 cups confectioners’ sugar
• 1/4 cup strong brewed coffee
• 8 oz cream cheese (1 package)
• Pumpkin spice for sprinkling

Recipe:

Make sure your butter and cream cheese are at room temperature and softened before you start. In a large bowl, beat the butter at medium speed with an electric mixer until creamy. Then beat in the cream cheese. Gradually add the confectioners’ sugar, beating until smooth, then beat in the coffee.

After piping/frosting, sprinkle with additional pumpkin spice

This post is part of a Foodbuzz Tastemaker program with Godiva Coffee.

You should also check out:

• Semi-homemade angel food cake strawberry trifle
• Chocolate truffle tart
• Almond & walnut danish
• Five minute salty & nutty dark chocolate bark
• O clementine olive oil ice cream

Here are some common reactions to the salted butter caramel ice cream I’ve made for fellow friends:

Angela: Holy crap. What is this?

Jenny: It’s soo good!

Neha: Whoa!!

Me: Holy mackerols

Suki: Mmm…

Stick: This is actually good!

So now that we’ve gotten the ice cream out of the way, it’s time to translate that flavor into a…

C u p c a k e !!!

My Secret Santa had surprised me with a Williams Sonoma Cupcakes book! I was so excited. There were some ridiculous sounding cupcakes in this book like

• Tres Leches
• Tiramisu
• Tangerine
• PB&J
• Mexican Chocolate

And since I got myself that cupcake maker, I figured I’d be able to put the book to good use. But it wasn’t until many weeks later that I finally whipped out the mixer and fired up the machine.

Of course, with my luck this January, these cupcakes didn’t turn out right. It would figure that following two car accidents and a cracked window, some divine force would prevent these cupcakes from coming out right. Yes, my bathroom window cracked as I was lying in bed. I thought someone was coming to burglarize me. I mean seriously, look at my luck. AND THEN, I failed an exam. There world, I announced it- I failed.

Man, I feel better now. Whoo-sa.

Of course, all it takes is a piping bag and some deeelicious salted caramel frosting to amend things.

(Disclaimer: The following three paragraphs below were written in error. Refer to the recipe for more details.)

But to my defense, it wasn’t my fault. The recipe, listed on page 85 of Cupcakes by Shelly Kaldunski, forgot to list the milk in the recipe! I usually always prep everything by leaving all the ingredients on the kitchen counter. The page listed milk in the ingredients list. As I’m whipping out the batter, I clean up along the way, putting things back into the fridge. The batter finishes mixing and lo and behold.

Why is there a gallon of milk on my counter?!

They forgot to include the damn milk in the recipe!!!!

Anyway, I reckon that they meant to add it with the eggs. So these cupcakes, while delicious, didn’t last very well into the next day.

Then, to make it worse, their buttercream frosting totally didn’t come out right! This however, I think was my fault. So I went back to my fail-proof buttercream recipe I got from Magnolia. And viola! Beautifully piped cupcakes! What I like to do is sprinkle some Fleur de Sel onto the finished product. YUM!

Salted Caramel Cupcakes

Adapted from Cupcakes by Shelly Kaldunski

(the amount of sugar listed in the original recipe is obscene)

• 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 3/4 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/2 cup firmly packed dark brown sugar
• 1/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter (room temp)
• 2 large eggs (room temp)
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup whole milk
• Sea salt (preferably Fleur de Sel!)

Recipe:

Preheat your oven to 350F. Line a standard 12 cup cupcake pan with liners.

In a bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt. In another bowl, beat the sugars and butter using an electric mixer. You want them to be light and fluffy, which should take approximately 3 minutes if the mixer is on medium-high speed. Then, add in the eggs  and vanilla until combined. Add in the flour mixture. Wait.

Edit-

Crap, I just realized-  they DID include the milk. I must have skipped it whilst I was en route to my batter making. My bad.

Anyway, add in the flour mixture in 3 batches, alternating with the milk in 2 additions. Beat on low speed until just combined and scrape down the sides of the bowl. Fill the prepared cupcake cups and bake for 20 or so minutes until you can insert a toothpick and it comes out clean.

Salted Caramel Buttercream

Ingredients:

• 1 stick butter
• 3-4 cups confectioner’s sugar
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup heavy cream
• Pinch of sea salt

Recipe:

In a heavy bottomed saucepan, cook the granulated sugar over medium high heat until it begins to melt. That’s right, you’re going to make CARAMEL! Making caramel is a fine art because while you want it to turn into an amber brown, you don’t want it to burn. However, you DO want a hint of that smokey flavor. In other words, burn a bit, but not too much.

Carefully pour the cream in, in a steady stream. The whole thing will bubble and sputter but no fear. Just keep stirring until completely smooth. Set aside to cool a bit.

Now onto the frosting part…

Using a mixer, cream the butter until fluffy and smooth. Add the confectioner’s sugar half a cup at a time. You may not need all 4 cups. The sugar just helps the consistency of the buttercream. Then, when the consistency is the way you want it, add the pinch of sea salt and take a spoonful of the caramel (should be cool by now) and add it into the frosting in dallops. Gently swirl. Fill into piping back. For that swirly effect, just fold the caramel into the frosting once with a rubber spatula and then pipe. The piping tip will take care of the rest.  Garnish with sea salt.

The caramel can be stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 1 week. Bring to room temperature before using.

You should also check out:

• Semi-homemade angel food cake strawberry trifle
• Chocolate truffle tart
• Almond & walnut danish
• Five minute salty & nutty dark chocolate bark
• O clementine olive oil ice cream

1) Bake the graham cracker crust only to drop the whole springboard pan when transferring from one table to another. A bigger no is dropping it all over your fleece and in your slippers.

2) Overbeat the cream cheese. When it’s smooth, it’s done. Stop watching the pretty ribbons form.

3) Attempt a water bath by pouring the water from a boiling pot of water. Note to self, boil the water in a kettle and then pour out the water from the nozzle. If you do the former, you’ll end up doing what we did- pouring the boiling hot water onto the cheesecake.

4) Don’t attempt to spoon the boiling water out of the cheesecake. Just slide it back into the oven, take off your gloves, and lay your palms flat against each other pointing upwards. Then proceed to pray that the water evaporates (it does).

5) Pray that the cheesecake doesn’t crack because that’s what happened to us. Cracking is an understatement; it looked like the parting of the Red Sea in five different areas.

6) Check the temperature at which the cheesecake is suppose to bake at. Don’t assume its at the same temperature that you bake the graham cracker crust at because you’ll overshoot by 50 degrees and end up with burnt edges on the surface of the cheesecake.

The cheesecake was supposed to look like this:

via notsohumblepie.com

Instead, it looked like this…

At least it still tasted good…

Raspberry Swirl Cheesecake
Serves 8-10
From Not So Humble Pie
Adapted from Martha Stewart’s Cupcakes

Ingredients:

Graham Cracker Crust

• 1 cup (5oz) finely ground graham crackers
• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

Topping for Swirl

• 6 ounces (1 1/2 cups) raspberries
• 2 tablespoons sugar

Cheesecake Filling

• 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
• 4 packages (32 ounces total) cream cheese, room temperature
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• pinch salt
• 4 large eggs, room temperature
• Triple Sec liquor (optional)

Recipe:

Preheat the oven to 350° F.

Using a food processor, grind up the graham crackers until they’re powdery-fine. You could also use your hands although this might take awhile. Another option is to seal the crackers up in a zip lock bag and pound them with a mallet. Then, melt butter in the microwave and drizzle over the graham crackers. Mix it with a fork until it clumps up and then spread evenly on the springboard pan. Bake the crust until set, roughly 10 minutes and then allow it to cool on a wire rack.

Reduce your oven’s temperature to 325°F.

Purée the raspberries in a blender and add 2 tablespoons of sugar. You can choose to keep the seeds or strain them. Then, pour into a small sauce pan and bring the mixture to a bare simmer over medium low heat. Let it thicken a bit for 1-2 minutes and set aside to cool.

In a giant bowl, beat the cream cheese on medium speed with an electric mixture until smooth and fluffy (roughly 5 minutes). Reduce the mixer’s speed to low and add the 1 1/2 cups of sugar in a slow steady stream. Beat in the salt and vanilla and then on low speed, beat in the eggs, one at at time. Adding the next after the first has been incorporated. Take care not to over mix as the eggs can trap air in the batter and this leads to all sorts of cheesecake trouble. At this point, we tasted the batter and thought that it could use a bit of some orange liquor, aka Triple Sec.

Once you’ve mixed in the last egg, pour the batter into your prepared crust. Dot the top of the batter with drops of the raspberry sauce and with a knife or wooden skewer, swirl the surface of the batter to create the marbled effect. We used a chopstick which was a bad idea in retrospect because it thinned out all that raspberry. We’ll probably use a knife next time.

Bake in the oven for approximately 60-65 minutes or until the middle stops jiggling. Set on a wire rack to cool for a couple of hours. Then chill in the fridge over night.

You should also check out:

• Semi-homemade angel food cake strawberry trifle
• Chocolate truffle tart
• Almond & walnut danish
• Five minute salty & nutty dark chocolate bark
• O clementine olive oil ice cream