Week 15: Mint Chocolate Cake Pops

Just when you thought cupcakes were the cutest most adorable, sometimes saccharine member of the dessert world, someone came up with the idea of cake pops. Tiny little morsels of cake with the frosting already mixed in, covered in coloured chocolate and often adorably decorated, they're almost too cute to eat.

My cousin VP has an odd affinity for making cake from cake mixes. I'm really not sure why, but for some reason she brings up the idea of baking up some Betty Crocker Supermoist every time I visit. Not to say that we don't have fun baking from a box, there was the marble cake fiasco of  2010 when the batter over flowed all over the oven combined with the fact that we forgot to grease the pan. This time around, Nonna did us a favour and baked the cake for us, which means that there was plenty of chocolate cake lying around, just waiting to be enjoyed.

I took some back to school last weekend and already had in mind what I was going to do with it, cake pops of course! I watched a few instructional videos on Youtube and I was set. I made some buttercream frosting from scratch and added in some peppermint extract for good measure.

These were so much fun to make and made for a super cute belated birthday treat for my BFF SP.

Mint Cake Pops

Yield: ~50 pops

• Cake mix, as prepared (I think I had about the equivalent of about 1/3 of the box)
• 1-3/4 cup candy coating wafers
• Food colouring (see note)
• Frosting of your choice (see below for recipe)

1. Crumble cake into a large bowl
2. Mix with frosting and form into balls (I used a level tablespoon to measure)
3. Allow to freeze (at least an hour)
4. Melt candy coating in the microwave
5. Add food colouring if using
6. Using toothpicks or lollipop sticks, dip cake pops into chocolate, allowing extra to drip back into bowl
7. Allow to dry by sticking into a block of styrofoam or box

Note: I only had white chocolate melting wafers on hand and wasn't sure if it was safe to use liquid food colouring with it without the chocolate seizing. Don't worry, it is.

Buttercream frosting

• 1 cup icing sugar
• 1/4 cup butter (softened)
• 3 tablespoons milk
• 2 teaspoons peppermint extract (optional)

1. Mix all ingredients until light and creamy

Per pop:

77 calories | 7.8g sugar | 4.2g fat

Tie-dye Cupcakes

A recent ad campaign for my guilty pleasure, Lilly Pulitzer says: "‎Beige is a bummer! Colorless is characterless! ... Bold colors will make you happy!" I couldn't agree more as our humble little college town is still deciding whether it is cheerful spring yet or cold winter. Unfortunately it's still leaning towards the latter and I was in need of a little color to distract me from the frozen tundra outside.

These served a double purpose as I had two interviews this morning (yes, on a Sunday) for two frosh orientation week leader teams. Part of the interview is where the applicant gets a chance to show their creativity to the interviewers and I baked these up to show the how the team has evolved these past years using team colours. In my book, using frosting and cupcakes to bribe your interviewers is always a good idea. 


I needed a white cake batter to work with and adapted this well received recipe from allrecipes. I was a bit skeptical as some reviewers said it was a little too dense for their liking. To overcome this, make sure you cream the butter, sugar and eggs very very well so that the batter stays nice and airy. Once the flour is added, mix sparingly so the gluten doesn't stick together and make your cupcakes tough and untasty.


Fresh out of the oven, they tasted like those yellow steamed sponge cakes, Mai Lai Go served at Dim Sum restaurants (but my burnt tastebuds could be wrong). By the next morning they had transformed into something a bit more like a sugar cookie.


Be colourful!
CollegeBakerGirl

Week 11: Copycat Cheesecake

 It was my sister's birthday yesterday and I was obviously eager to bake the cake and had asked her a week prior what type of cake she wanted. Red velvet? Chocolate? Over-the-top chocolate fudge oreo caramel peanut butter smorgasbord cheesecake? No. When asked what type of cheesecake she wanted, she said: "The type with cheese". 17-year olds are fickle. 

So began my search for the ultimate plain cheesecake, which is probably oxymoronic. I settled for this recipe from AllYou that claims to be near identical to what they offer at the Cheesecake factory. Although I'll never know how close this is to the factory favourite because given the choice of dozens of sinful creations they sell, the last one I would ever choose to end my dinner with would be plain.

The baking time in the recipe was too long and I ended up with a slightly burnt cheesecake that made my cake look like a giant 'Pastel de nata'. Maybe I should have just called this Cheesecake brulee and pretended it was on purpose. I have reduced the baking time in the recipe below and made a few alterations.

Copycat Cheesecake:
Yield: 1 9"cake, ~16 slices

Crust:

• 1 1/4 cups graham cracker crumbs 
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon 
• 1/4 cup melted margarine 

Filling:

• 3 (8 oz.) packages cream cheese, softened 
• 3/4 cup sugar 
• 1/3 cup sour cream (I used plain yogurt instead)
• 1.5 teaspoons vanilla extract 
• 3 large eggs 

1. Preheat oven to 475°F. Place a large pan (The type you cook your turkey in works well) filled with 1/2 inch water in oven. 
2. Make crust: Mix graham cracker crumbs and cinnamon, then melted margarine. Press crust onto bottom and 1/2 of the way up a 9" springform pan lined with parchment paper. Wrap a large piece of foil around bottom of pan and freeze. 
3. Make filling: Using a mixer, blend cream cheese, sugar, sour cream and vanilla until smooth and creamy.  Whisk eggs in a separate bowl; add to cream cheese mixture. Blend just until eggs are mixed in. 
4. Remove crust from freezer and pour in filling. Carefully place cheesecake into preheated water bath. Bake for 12 minutes; then reduce temperature to 350°F and bake until top of cheesecake turns golden, 40-50 minutes. 
5. Remove cake to a wire rack to cool. 
6. Cover and refrigerate at least 4 hours. (I didn't have time so it probably got 1 hour in the fridge and 15min in the freezer. It was much much better the next day after getting more fridge time)