NECAPcakes

Last June, I went into my new school to meet my new set of kids.  Smartly or stupidly, I told them that I liked baking cupcakes and that I would probably bake them some if they were good.  Things I learned/were reinforced from that visit: 

a) middle schooler's remember everything you tell them unless it's related to something upon which they will be assessed, 

2) especially if it's about food, and 

iii) it's silly to make promises like that before you find out whether you're going to be on the 40-student team or the 60-student team.

Not even a month in, they wore me down.  "Remember you told us you would bake us cupcakes?"  "When are you going to bring us cupcakes?"  "How 'bout them cupcakes?"  So, I promised them all NECAPcakes, to be given at the end of NECAP-testing week.  Which, oh right, was also the week progress reports were due and we had 50 parent conferences.  5 dozen cupcakes?  No problem.

I had it all planned out.  Bake the cupcakes Wednesday night after the first set of conferences and frost them after Conference: Part Deux.  You know what happens when you get home after meeting with 25 parents and it's 8:30 pm and you don't have a microwave so you turn the oven on low in order to thaw out your frozen butter so that it's softened but not melted because you can't use melted butter to make swiss buttercream frosting because it just won't whip up like it's supposed to and then you get on your computer and have three e-mails from parents and teammates regarding tomorrow and you decide it's important to answer them and by the time you remember the butter you have a plate of melted butter in your oven?  You throw in the limited amount of powdered sugar and cocoa powder you have, whip it into submission, and hope for the best.  Turns out, it tastes a lot like the frosting version of a Wendy's Frosty!

Whew!  Interesting part: the next day I had a couple of kids walk up and say, "Huh, peanut butter.  Not what I expected."  To which I replied, "Huh, peanut butter.  Not what I put in."  That one still perplexes me.

Fresh Blueberry Pie

Ah, summer.  The season when candy grows on vines and bushes.  Blueberry picking is hands-down one of my favorite lazy, hazy days of summer activities.  I'm generally pretty good about getting more in the bucket than my mouth, generally being the operative word there.  But who can blame me when you've got a bunch of beauties like these plucking around?  Best part (pre-making them into a pie, of course)? They came from within a mile of my apartment.

Obviously, I had to bake something with them.  I found this awesome recipe for Fresh Blueberry Pie, which was particularly great because you only cook up about 1/4 of the berries into a sauce and then pour it over the rest of the berries so they're fresh!  Every bite is like a fresh spoonful of gems just bursting with summer sweetness.  

4 Dozen Cupcakes and a 60th Birthday Cake!

Whewie, was this week a busy one!  Just moved into a new apartment, went camping with a team from the middle school, and had a BBQ with my own team.  Oh yes, and I also had to make over four dozen cupcakes and a gluten-free 60th birthday cake.

So, this is what my Wednesday started out as (following 1 trip to the store to find gluten-free flour and 1 more, different trip to the store to find strawberries and good butter for buttercream).

You've already seen the chocolate chip cookie dough-filled cupcakes before, but after my students heard about them, I think I would've been run out of town if I didn't show up with them.  "You must bring the cupcakes, Ms. Kovaliv."  "Did you remember to make the cupcakes Ms. Kovaliv?"  "I have to talk to you about cupcakes.  [Enter brief anticipatory pause.]  You're bringing them, right?"  Well, I had no choice.  So, I made 53 cupcakes.  This, after another trip to the store, because I needed 7 cups of powdered sugar, and lo and behold, I only had about 2.  Oh, and vanilla.  I'd run out of vanilla.  (3 store trips, thus far.)

Then, when that was all done, I tried my hand at my first ever gluten-free cake.  My dad keeps telling me that I shouldn't "experiment" when I'm baking on a deadline.  But, I haven't learned my lesson, and I had a minor panic attack when my strawberry gluten-free cakes turned out of the pan like this:

Yes.  That's approximately 3/4" high.  Some cake to celebrate a fabulous 60th birthday, eh?  So, store trip number 4 to buy more gluten-free flour mix.  I usually am a little Martha Stewart in my use of store-bought mixes (i.e. I am admittedly unnecessarily snobbish about my desire to make things from scratch), but when it comes to gluten-free, I trust those mixes more than myself.

Hooray!  A much more acceptable cake structure.  Time to frost and decorate!  But no!  I've run out of eggs!  Store trip #5, ladies and gentlemen.

But here it is!  An entirely gluten-free strawberry and vanilla cake with lemon buttercream frosting and a dark chocolate butterfly to top it all off.

Carnival Cupcake Contest!

So, to raise money for the 8th grade trip to Boston, the middle school held a carnival with a fire truck pull, pie-the-teacher-in-the-face, and other fun little games.  They also had a cupcake contest!  I hemmed and hawed about entering, but then felt really guilty for not contributing.  So in the final hour (because really, when else does baking happen?) the night before the contest, I decided I had the ingredients on hand to make french toast cupcakes with maple buttercream frosting!  

Revel in this little bit of heaven!  There's a crumble layer baked right in with the cupcake, and some cinnamon-sugar sprinkled on top of the frosting to add a little pizzazz!  Thanks to Shelby for the adorable gingham wrappers as they totally sealed the deal on these gems.

There were so many fabulous cupcakes at the carnival that day!  Kids and parents alike entered some delightful looking beauties.  It was a day full of sunshine, smiles, and heavy heavy firetrucks (well, apparently only for the "Intern" team... that truck seemed light as a feather watching other teams pull it!).  Now we're that much closer to Boston!

Dungeons and Dragons!!

So, thanks to grad school, my cake-making has been on a long hiatus.  This week, however, I came out of it to make a cake for a teacher from school!  It's her husband's 40th birthday, and when I asked if she had anything in mind for the cake, I got this: "He's really into Dungeons and Dragons."  ...  this is a no-judgement zone, people.

This is the first cake for which I ever had to do RESEARCH!  My students were instrumental in helping me figure it out, and I learned that a) there are dragons in the game, and b) that 20-sided dice are instrumental, downright crucial for the game.  And thus, this, my re-entry to the cake-making world, was born.

The cake was a simple vanilla with a swiss buttercream frosting.  And my GOODNESS does quality butter make a difference!  Mmm mmm MMM!

Happy 2D20, Adam!

Local Blueberry Cheesecake!

One of my closest friends came up to visit me for what was a perfect Vermont summer weekend.  Blue skies and blue berries were the theme on Saturday, and what a delicious theme it was!  We celebrated the fruits of our berry-picking labor with a cheesecake (my first ever!) covered in sweet blueberry topping and garnished with freshly picked pineapple mint from my garden!  Most of the ingredients in the cheesecake were even from Vermont. We could hardly wait for it to finish setting...

A Sweet Watermelon Treat!

The Fourth of July is one of my favorite holidays.  It is a time to celebrate our country and the things that are the most meaningful to us: friends, family, and of course, fireworks.  The days are long and warm and carefree as you can make them!  It is a time to remember those who have made this country a great one, politics aside, from soldiers to farmers to teachers to... bakers.  :)

I was so happy to get to come home for the Amherst 4th of July parade!  "It never rains on the Amherst 4th of July parade!"  I was even more excited to get to go to my good friend's house for an Independence Day Extravaganza!!  It was a great start to my marathon of fireworks, not to mention all of the delicious food they had!  I thought I'd contribute a little something festive myself, and decided upon these, what I must admit are, quite adorable cookies!

Shortbread Watermelon Cookies! Complete with chocolate chip "seeds" and a white chocolate and green sprinkles "rind"!

Adding a little American flare!

Good enough to take a bite out of!  (Though I promise I didn't!)

Sparkling Wine Cupcakes!

For my 25th birthday, I had lots of people say, "I hope you aren't making your own cake!"  But, I didn't see the problem there, because I love making cake!  That, and using friends as guinea pigs for new recipes, like Sparkling Wine Cupcakes!  The frosting was incredibly light and fluffy and delightful, but I need to learn how to fold egg whites into cake batter...the cupcakes were a little dense, but still flavorful.

Photo Credit: Dana!

And, with the help from Joe, my mom sent me some lovely tulips!  It was nice to get to share my birthday with some close friends! :)

St. Patty's Day Cupcakes

Last New Year's, I found a recipe for Irish Car Bomb cupcakes and thought it would be only appropriate to make some for St. Patrick's Day!  These are supposed to have a whiskey ganache in the center, but I didn't have the ingredients, so I just left that out... but you wouldn't know that from the pictures, would you??  They are Guinness chocolate cupcakes and Bailey's Irish Creme frosting.  Little bit of Irish heaven right here.

Happy 2nd Birthday, Brie!

My adorable niece turned 2 on March 10.  To quote the little love, "March 10's my birthday. I be 2!"  Her Mom and Dad asked me if I could make an owl cake, or cupcakes, for her party, and I was so excited!  I had so many ideas, it was hard to pinpoint just one! 

The cupcakes were vanilla cake, recipe from the back of the King Arthur Cake Flour box, which might be my new favorite vanilla cake.  And the frosting was the swiss buttercream with which I have fallen completely in love!

I still don't love the idea of using fondant, since I don't care for its taste, but have tried my hand at melting chocolate.  It's not a universal switch, but it can be pretty useful!  For the idea of the owl cupcake display, I wanted the owls to be elevated above the letters.  I had seen a post on a blog seen on tastespotting.com a while back about making cupcake stands from chocolate, so I thought I would try to make "tree" stands to hold the owls.

 And it worked!  I fell in love with the goofy little free-form owls.

So when the big birthday party came, I set up the display.  I was pretty happy with the fact that the thought I dreamed up actually came together!