March | 2009 | Cookies and Candids

Archive for March, 2009

Truffles

Published March 30, 2009 Chocolate , Gluten-Free , Truffles , Wheat-Free 2 Comments

I made truffles using some left-over chocolate frosting that I refrigerated until it was hard enough to roll into balls. I then coated the balls in melted dark chocolate, and rolled them in a variety of toppings. They are rolled in the following (in order of appearance):

Toasted Coconut, Cocoa Powder, Pistachio-Cardamom

The truffles got a good reception, but weren’t as rich as traditional truffles typically are; next time I will use a darker chocolate ganache filling for the centers and see if that creates the right flavors.

“He Asked For Chocolate Cake” Cupcakes

Published March 27, 2009 Chocolate , Cupcakes 1 Comment

I had a request for “a very chocolate cupcake” and so I decided to go all out. I made a triple-chocolate cupcake which had a chocolate cake (of course) with a dark chocolate filling, and a heavy chocolate cream frosting on top. They were amazing and rich and even eating just a quarter of one had me maxed out. They definitely paired well with a glass of almond milk, and I think I satisfied that chocolate craving!

Adding the chocolate filling:

Black Bottom Muffins

Published March 27, 2009 Chocolate , Cupcakes , Muffins Leave a Comment

I’ve been wanting to bake Black Bottom Muffins for a long time, but haven’t found quite the right mix of ingredients to make the vegan cream cheese filling taste right or have the correct consistency. I read an article recently about a vegan bakery in Portland and it included a recipe for their Pumpkin Bottom Muffins…I decided to try it, and the filling worked really well! It was a bit lemony, but was actually quite nice (and I can see how the lemon would compliment the pumpkin cake quite well in their version). True to tradition, these “muffins” are more like cupcakes, but for someone like me with a sweet-tooth, I think they could still be eaten for breakfast…

Lemon Bundt Cake with Cashew Icing

Published March 26, 2009 Cakes , Lemon 3 Comments

I made a lovely lemon bundt cake last night, and couldn’t decide how to ice it. Originally I thought I would cut the cake in half horizontally and spread some poppy seed filling in between the layers, and make a lemon glaze to pour over the top. However, the cake didn’t rise as much as I expected, and I didn’t think cutting it in half would work very well. So I re-evaluated, and became inspired by Hannah Kaminski’s Cashew Icing that she put on her own lemon bundt cake. I’m so glad that I decided to use her recipe, because it is thick, rich, and delicious to eat just on it’s own, and wonderful when paired with the summery lemon cake. I also made a sweet lemon sauce that I served with each slice.

Strawberry Lemonade Cupcakes

Published March 22, 2009 Cupcakes , Lemon 3 Comments

Spring is here and what would be a better way to spend a day in the sun than with strawberry lemonade? I found this recipe recently, and was enamored of both the idea and the photograph of the cupcake. I have been waiting impatiently to try it out, and when I finally did, it certainly was worth the wait – the taste was heavenly! The coconut milk in the cupcake really added to the rich flavor and moist texture. I added extra lemon juice and zest to the cake batter, since I wanted a really tangy flavor. I made my own veganized version of a lemon strawberry buttercream, which looked beautiful with the chunks of strawberry and large strips of lemon zest mixed into the pale pink frosting (colored only by strawberry juice!). I also made a strawberry jam from scratch and piped that into the middle of each cupcake.

Adding lemon zest to the cake batter:

Beating the strawberries into the buttercream frosting:

After we piped the strawberry jam into the centers of the cupcakes, they looked like little jelly-donuts! Too cute to pass up taking another picture:

Champagne Cupcakes

Published March 21, 2009 Chocolate , Cocktail-Themed Cupcakes , Cupcakes Leave a Comment

My friends Becca and Tessa had a belated New Year’s Eve party so Julie and I made Champagne Cupcakes! It is also Narooz, the Persian New Year, so it was perfect timing to celebrate. I was inspired by my recent Chocolate Stout Cupcakes and decided to make a champagne flavored cake with champagne frosting. I was originally going to top it off with a small chocolate-covered strawberry but at the last minute we decided to fill the cupcakes with dark chocolate instead. The frosting was amazing and tasted very strongly of champagne, but I still need to figure out a better way to make the cake taste more strongly of champagne, or stout in my other cupcakes.

German Chocolate Cupcakes

Published March 19, 2009 Chocolate , Cupcakes 2 Comments

These were dark chocolate cupcakes (the same cake batter recipe that I used for the Fauxstess Cupcakes) and had a variation of Coconut Pecan Fudge Frosting from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over The World piped on the top. The coconut frosting was very rich without being too sweet (it would have been perfect also as a topper for my Garam Masala Cupcakes), and I added a chocolate filling in the center of the cupcake. Overall it was quite decadent!

German Apple Cake

Published March 19, 2009 Cakes Leave a Comment

I made this cake for a good friend who recently moved into my neighborhood. It was a hearty, yet still delicate cake, which started as a very thick and creamy applesauce batter:

I made a spiral of apples to decorate the top of the cake:

And I sprinkled a cinnamon ginger brown sugar topping over the apples, and it browned during baking quite nicely:

Chocolate Stout Cupcakes

Published March 15, 2009 Chocolate , Cocktail-Themed Cupcakes , Cupcakes 6 Comments

Dark chocolate cupcakes with Double Chocolate Stout in the batter, with a Double Chocolate Stout chocolate cream filling piped in the middle, and cream cheese frosting on top. I really liked how the colors topped each other off, looking just like the foam on a pint of beer. Perfect for Saint Patrick’s Day!