Brown Derby's Grapefruit Cake Cupcakes

The Brown Derby Restaurant of Hollywood is famous for its Grapefruit Cake with grapefruit frosting...served with a giant thin candied wedge of grapefruit! It's a citrus bonanza~ since we squeeze our own fresh grapefruit juice at Sneakers...I have decided to try this famous cake in cupcake form.

I wanted to come up with something a little different for Mardi Gras weekend and I think these will be great, decorated with purple, yellow, and green! I am debating on what I will make for fondant cut-outs this time...maybe stars, although I would like to make tiny crowns and paint them sparkly gold...I only have tonight to make these, so I am a little short on time to do any really great fondant decorations...should have started last night, but was in incredible food coma from L'Amante...Oh yeah. They didn't have any of the squash blossom fritters, which were actually the selling point for me...but we had pate, fritto misto, penne bolognese, roasted quail, truffled mashed potatoes, potato crusted sea bass w/citrus buerre blanc (!), grilled calamari w/raddicchio, gianduja mousse cake, and lastly...BASIL ICE CREAM W/STRAWBERRIES AND BALSAMIC REDUCTION!!! It was possibly the most delicious ice cream I've ever tried...sweet, herby, refreshing, soft, creamy bright! Ah...and lots of wine and cocktails! Primativo was a very nice, complex & slightly smoky red with a deep inhale but a clean finish... leaving the palate free to explore our feast...and I went with Abby and she got just as food-high as I did which is one reason why I just love her! ♥

Amaretto Cupcakes

This morning, after a fun-filled evening of dinner, movies, drinks and driving around (yup, literally all night...that was fun Katie!) I frosted little buttermilk cupcakes for work...last night I made amaretto frosting with a cup of butter, 1/4 cup amaretto, splash of vanilla, and a couple tablespoons of cream. I love making frosting because i usually just wing the recipe and taste along the way...every recipe i've tried has been different and i like ending up with something a little newer and better every time.

The cupcakes are decorated with star and leaf fondant cut-outs painted with food coloring and brushed with luster dust...over the cupcakes i sprinkled a few colored flake sprinkles just to brighten them up. We actually didn't sell a single cupcake today, although it was very slow...I wish I could just give my baked goods away...they are pretty and tasty and make people smile...I mean, who doesn't like a cute cupcake, anyway?

Triple layer Chocolate Mousse

This morning i am putting together ideas for a triple layer chocolate mousse cake for my friend and co-worker, Carol. Her birthday is today so it must be done by this evening...i think what i will do is mix up a buttermilk and brown sugar devils food cake and bake it in two 8" round cake pans...split each cake into two layers and make my now-"famous" chocolate mousse to fill the layers. I have a little left in my roll of acetate paper so I will lay down one layer of cake, wrap it with the acetate and proceed to layer delicious clouds of deep dark espresso and kahlua flavored mousse with moist dense and buttery-rich slivers of chocolate cake...i might just keep it for myself...

To top it all off, I am going to smooth over the top and edges of the cake and spread a thick layer of chocolate-kahlua ganache on top. This whole extravagant thing will be refridgerated to set the ganache and mousse and then i will decorate with some plain vanilla icing...and chocolate covered espresso beans, possibly....it will be befittting a great lady! woohoo! off to chocolate paradise!

Chris is turning 17!

After a very successful Valentine's Day, with sweet little red velvet cupcakes for both Sneakers and the Winter is a Drag Ball, the time has come to turn to my youngest brother Chris' birthday cake! He is going to be 17 this year! I still really think he's only 8...

Initially, i planned on building a skateboard cake, decorated to look like his skateboard, but his description of what he wanted was basically "just something special." I am honestly not sure how the skateboard idea would work out....i haven't really had much experience sculpting cakes...although there's no better time to start. He did request chocolate cake... so i think today I am going to mix up a batch of homemade fondant and make a couple chocolate sheet cakes and see where it takes me! If it doesn't work out so well, I have a few good ideas for a fondant covered two tier cake...more later!

Valentine's Cupcakes

So, I nixed the gold hearts idea and went with pink and red hearts instead. These came out so cute! And with some of the extra batter i made a 6" two layer cake with the same marshmallowey frosting....for my valentine. That's right, i have one!

The pictures on my phone did not come out great but I hope you'll be able to come to Sneakers or the Winter is a Drag Ball if you live nearby!

Still working on finding out why the baking soda/vinegar mix....i'll get back to you!

Love, Victoria

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!

First off: I want to express my love for all of you out there. I don't think we show enough love for each other on regular basis...and no, i'm not a huge fan of valentine's day, except for baking purposes because mostly i feel it exists to make those of us who are single and happy that way feel alone, unfinished and inconsequential. Sorry for the downer shpiel. I am actually in a good mood this morning :)

That is because i am getting my mis en place ready to bake some serious love potion cupcakes after work today...right now i am measuring up flour, baking soda, sugar, cocoa powder, salt, oil, eggs...portioning it all out so that when i get home, i can bake away! The cupcakes are red velvet, which is a deep, moist bright red (thanks to large quantities of red food dye) cake with just a hint of chocolate and the hearty twang of buttermilk. Using oil lends a moist crumb and a lingering freshness, which is great for making cupcakes at work because except for the apple cider/caramel cupcakes, we rarely sell out the first day.

Baking in general is all about science, but this recipe feels particularly like a science experiment because when you add the dry to wet ingredients, the last step is to mix baking soda and 1 tsp vinegar, let it fizz and foam up and then add it to the batter...i am going to go look up what this does exactly and get back to you later when i add the photos...which you won't want to miss.

The cupcakes are going to be topped with a fluffy marshmallow n brown sugar frosting...and crowned to finish with fondant hearts of different sizes and colors. The frosting will be pink and the hearts will be of pink, burgundy and gold...so pretty!

Last night's baking project (I know, i usually don't bake at night, but Chris needed them for his class...) was no-bake cookies. These are the most ridiculously easy and delicious cookies ever. Seriously. If you "can't bake" and you want to make something delicious...try these! I will post recipe later...for now i must begin rolling and cutting fondant hearts...

Cupcake Pictures:

Here are some photos of the cupcakes i made for Ben & Ruby...i threw in 6 chocolate in addition to the vanilla bean...with the same vanilla buttercream. The stars are made of fondant with fondant letters...

the single cupcake has a mini sculpted camera on it! Ruby's individual cupcake had a mini sculpted dog bone...they are so cute! Although the camera is not too realistic :(

Birthday Cupcakes for Ben & Ruby

Sorry about the little facebook-induced hiatus from baking & blogging everyone: facebook is a dangerous tool...highly addictive. For those of you on the network....you know what i mean. And who isn't on facebook nowadays? It's...ok i'll stop...moving on...because I am actually back in the kitchen this morning!!!

I am currently making the decor for two dozen cupcakes that my friend Molly asked me to make for her boyfriend and dog's birthdays, which happen to be a day apart. Ben is into photography and Ruby is into, well rawhide i suppose and doggy bones...so I am making little cameras and dog bones out of fondant for a couple of the cupcakes...the rest have giant stars with slightly smaller sized stars on top with letters spelling out "happy birthday..." I had planned on making a large cake and sculpting a mini Ben & Ruby out of gumpaste, but I found out that actually Ben prefers cupcakes...and they really are more practical anyway...everyone can just take one and no worrying about messy cake cutting (although i really don't mind doing the cutting bit...)

The cupcakes themselves are going to be basic vanilla bean butter cake, rich and moist and simple...topped with vanilla italian meringue buttercream. Molly asked for simple and basic...and I think there is really no beating classic and elegant flavor of vanilla bean...so what the cupcakes "lack" in flavor originality will be made up for in appearance! After work today i will be painting the stars and letters...it's pretty far from my original concept of having miniBen & miniRuby playing on top of a cake but honestly it was much harder to sculpt them than i anticipated...I really need to work on the ratio of good ideas & conceptions vs. the actual physical manifestation of conception...after all, that's what really makes a successful artist (in my opinion)...the ability to conceive an idea and represent it in the physical realm with accuracy and precision....

I will return with more later as the cupcake making continues...the cupcakes won't be baked until late tonight...i want them to be as fresh as possible but there isn't time before work tomorrow when I have to bring them in for Molly to pick up...I will definately get a photo...unfortunately no digital camera yet...will have to make due with cell phone photos...:(