The Nifty Foodie

I can’t believe that the weather is no longer in the 90s. I have been so used to leaving work, getting in my car and immediately rolling down the windows to escape the sauna. It’s so nice to wear long sleeve shirts, and burn spicy candles when the weather is actually cool. The highest the weather has been lately is the mid 80s. I’m so spoiled by this weather right now…I wish Louisiana was like this for more than a few weeks a year!!

In fact, it was the most perfect night for trick or treating a couple of nights ago. We like to give out candy outside, because just one doorbell will make Millie go batty. It’s just not worth giving her the anxiety, so we dress her up (ha…she’s fine with it as long as it’s not a full sweater or something) and sit outside with the candy. The families in our neighborhood just love Millie, and she loves the attention (unless someone wore a mask…we found out this year that she’s scared of those).

If you follow me on Instagram (username: niftyfoodie), you probably saw this last night. The little hat eventually came off, since she kept trying to eat the string, but she was pretty much the cutest pumpkin in the neighborhood (in my HIGHLY unbiased opinion).

For our coworkers, I usually bake something festive for the day. These cupcakes were what I chose to make: a simple vanilla cake with chocolate buttercream. I had to make a double batch, so I wanted to keep things simple. I ended up throwing some sprinkles in the batter to give it a festive feel, and they were definitely well-received. This cake leans towards the denser side, but the flavor was definitely there. This chocolate buttercream is pretty addictive, too and it couldn’t be simple to make. It comes together in minutes, which could be trouble…I had trouble resisting after having a spoonful, but I promise I did!

Golden Vanilla Cupcakes with Chocolate Buttercream
Source: cupcakes from King Arthur Flour, buttercream from Savory Sweet Life

Ingredients for the cupcakes:

• 2 cups sugar
• 3 1/4 cups all purpose flour
• 2 1/2 tsp. baking powder
• 1 tsp. salt
• 3/4 cup unsalted butter, softened
• 1 1/4 cups milk, at room temperature
• 2 tsp. vanilla extract
• 4 large eggs

Ingredients for the frosting:

• 2 sticks  unsalted butter, softened
• 3 1/2 cups confectioners  sugar, sifted
• 1/2 cup cocoa powder, sifted
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 2 tsp. vanilla extract
• 4 tbsp. heavy cream

Directions:

1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees, and prepare your cupcake tins by placing a lining in each well.
2. In a large bowl, add the sugar, flour, baking powder and salt and then whisk everything together. To that, add the softened butter and beat on low speed in a mixer, until the mixture resembles sand.
3. Mix the milk and vanilla in a small bowl and add that to the butter mixture. Mix everything together on low speed for 30 seconds, and then mix on medium speed for another 30 seconds. Scrape the bowl down.
4. Put the mixer back on low speed and add one egg. Once the egg is added, beat on medium for 30 seconds. Repeat this with the second, third and fourth egg, scraping the bowl down after each addition.
5. After the last egg is added, beat the mixture on medium for another 30 seconds.
6. Scoop the batter into the cupcake liners (about 3/4 of the way full), and then bake the cupcakes for 22-25 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center of a cupcake comes out clean.
7. Once the cupcakes are done, place them on a cooling rack.
8. While the cupcakes are cooling, prepare your buttercream by placing your 2 sticks of butter in the bowl of a mixer and beat the butter for about 2 minutes until fluffy and light.
9. With the mixer on low, add in the confectioners sugar, as well as the cocoa powder and mix well. Add in the salt, extract and cream, and increase the speed to medium. Mix the frosting, scraping the bowl down a couple of times, until the frosting is light and fluffy.
10. When the cupcakes are cool, frost with the buttercream (and add sprinkles, if you’d like). Enjoy!

You may have noticed a little pattern here. Pumpkin, pumpkin and more pumpkin?

Yup.

See, the Fall in Louisiana is short-lived. Pretty soon it’s either going to be in the upper 80s again and before we know it, it’s gonna be stuck in the 30s. So, don’t judge me if I use pumpkin as much as possible in recipes. I promise, I’ll get over pumpkin soon, but for now, I should be purchasing pumpkin in bulk. I’m not tired of it.

My husband asked me to bake something for his office, and who am I to turn down an opportunity to bake? Seriously, send me to a doctor if I refuse to bake. I’ve been wanting to make these whoopie pies for a while now, and of course, this was the perfect excuse to bake these little treats up. I didn’t want to use a cream cheese frosting, since I’m always paranoid about leaving cream cheese out for an extended period of time (I know…super paranoid), so I thought that this salted caramel frosting would serve just fine.

I love when my husband forwards me emails from his coworkers about what I bake for the office. It’s always good to hear when a recipe is good, and this one was GOOD. Pretty darn popular amongst the people in his office, and they are known to be very honest. I’ve never had a complaint, but one time, my husband was sent home with a recipe request haha!

I made these whoopie pies with a mini scoop so there would be more than enough for his office. Making this recipe with a mini scoop makes about 36 complete sandwiches.

Pumpkin Whoopie Pies with Salted Caramel Buttercream
Source: whoopie pies via Culinary Concoctions by Peabody (originally from Baked), buttercream from My Baking Addiction

Ingredients:

• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• 2 tbsp. cinnamon
• 1 tsp. ground ginger
• 1/2 tsp. ground fresh nutmeg
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1 cup dark brown sugar, firmly packed
• 1 cup canola oil
• 3 cups chilled pumpkin puree
• 2 large eggs
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• Salted Caramel Buttercream (for filling)

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line 2 cookie sheets with parchment paper or a silicone mat and set aside.
2. In a large bowl, whisk your dry ingredients (flour, salt, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, ginger and nutmeg) together, until everything is well-mixed.
3. In another bowl, whisk the granulated and dark brown sugars together, and add the canola oil in. Mix the ingredients well. Add the pumpkin puree to the sugar/oil mixture and whisk until everything is well-blended. Add the eggs and vanilla and whisk until everything is incorporated. Whisk the flour mixture into the wet mixture a little at a time, until everything is thoroughly mixed together.
4. To make mini whoopie pies, use a tbsp. sized scoop to drop tbsp. amounts of batter onto the baking sheets, leaving 1 inch between each cookie for spreading.
5. Bake the whoopie pies for 10-12 minutes, until the cookies just start cracking on top and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean (without crumbs). Remove the whoopie pies from the oven, and allow them to cool thoroughly on a rack before assembling.
6. To assemble the cookies, drop a tbsp. of frosting on the bottom side of one whoopie pie, and then press together the flat sides of two whoopie pies. Enjoy!

 

Last week, my whole body got confused. For the first time since last fall, I felt the urge to bake something with pumpkin. The reason? I went out of town to San Diego for a work conference. The minute I stepped off the plane, I had to ask someone if this was real. I mean, c’mon. 70 degrees at 1pm? IN JULY??! No way. Down here, we get maybe 2 days like that, and they’re in the middle of October. I’m completely jealous of y’all who call San Diego home. When I came home, I was instantly reminded with the 105 degree heat index that it is definitely still the summer.

I guess I should embrace it, since it’s here for another month or so. When it comes to baking in the summer, I try to make things that aren’t super rich. I like to stick to using fruit and simple flavors, like this pound cake. While pound cake contains an unreal amount of butter, for some reason, it just works really well with fruits. This pound cake is perfectly moist on the inside, but on the outside, the cake bakes up to a nice, sort of crunchy crust (hard to describe, but I swear…it’s great). And the strawberry coulis (pretty much a fancy name for sauce) that accompanies this cake is just perfectly refreshing and light.

Cream Cheese Pound Cake with Strawberry Coulis
Source: Smitten Kitchen

Ingredients:

For the cake:

• 1 1/2 cups (3 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 1 package (8 ounces) Philadelphia brand cream cheese, at room temperature (the brand is recommended in SK’s post)
• 3 cups sugar
• 6 large eggs
• 1 1/2 tsp. pure vanilla extract plus 1/2 tsp. almond extract
• 3 cups all purpose flour
• 1 tsp. salt

For the coulis:

• 2 cups quartered hulled strawberries (about 12 ounces)
• 1/4 cup water
• 3 tbsp. sugar
• 1 tbsp. fresh lemon juice

Directions:

1. To make the cake, preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Butter and flour a bundt pan very well to prepare it for the cake batter
2. Place the butter and cream cheese in the bowl of a mixer and beat on medium speed for about 2 minutes, until the mixture is smooth. Add the sugar and beat the mixture on high for at least five minutes, until very light and fluffy. Add the eggs in one at a time, beating well after each egg and scraping down the bowl with a spatula regularly. Add the vanilla and almond extracts, as well as the flour and salt. Beat the mixture on low until the mixture is just mixed (be careful not to overbeat).
3. Add the batter to the bundt pan and tap the pan to ensure that the top is even. Bake the cake for 75 minutes, until the cake is golden brown and a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out cleanly.
4. Take the pan out of the oven and allow the cake to cool in the pan on a cooling rack for 20 minutes, then flip the cake out onto a cooling rack, allowing it to completely cool there.
5. To make the coulis (which can be made one day ahead), combine the coulis ingredients in a blender, and puree the mixture until it is very smooth. Optional: press the mixture through a strainer to remove the seeds. Chill the coulis until cold.

“Thank you. What is it?”

“It’s a bundt.”

“Bunn-t?”

“Bundt.”

“Bonn—bonnk??”

Name that movie.

I can’t help it. Anytime I bake or eat a bundt cake, that scene pops in my head. As I was mixing this cake, I had the scene playing on YouTube at the same time. I’m a weirdo. I know.

Bundt cakes, to me, are a bake and pray type of cake. I say pray, because you know that moment where you’re holding a plate against the bundt pan getting ready for the infamous flipping of the pan? Yeah, I totally pray that the sucker comes out in one piece. It’s a huge bummer when you’ve worked so hard to bake a cake and the darn thing just sticks to the bottom of the pan. Of course the solution is to make a trifle, but a perfect, pretty bundt cake is so much more of a baking ego boost.

I wanted to make a fun patriotic cake, and instead of making the red, white and blue cupcakes that I made a couple of years ago, I decided that this would be the perfect time to make a red velvet cake. Red velvet is one of my favorites. I actually think it’s sort of a requirement to love a red velvet cake as a southern gal. This recipe was moist, had the perfect crumb and the icing was a perfect mix between a glaze and a frosting, which was great to just drizzle all over the cake to make the fun patriotic look happen.

Just a note: If you make any red velvet cake, I highly recommend Wilton’s No Taste Red. When making red velvet cake, you usually need a good bit of food coloring to make the cake red, and sometimes regular red dyes can add a bitter after taste to your cake if you add too much.

Red Velvet Bundt Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting
Source: Kiss My Bundt Bakery (via LA Times)

Ingredients:

For the cake:

• 1 1/4 cups vegetable oil
• 1 cup buttermilk
• 2 eggs, room temperature
• 2 tbsp. red food coloring
• 1 tsp. white vinegar
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 2 1/2 cups flour
• 1 3/4 cups sugar
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 3/4 tsp. fine salt
• 1 tbsp. cocoa powder

For the frosting:

• 8 ounces cream cheese, softened
• 4 ounces unsalted butter, softened
• 2 cups powdered sugar (sift after measuring)
• 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
2. To make the cake, in the bowl of a stand mixer, add the oil, buttermilk, eggs, food coloring, vinegar and vanilla. Mix on medium speed using the paddle attachment for about a minute.
3. In another large bowl, sift together the flour, sugar, baking soda, salt and cocoa powder.
4. With the mixer on low, add the dry ingredients 1/2 cup at a time to the wet ingredients. Make sure to do this slowly so that the batter doesn’t develop clumps.
5. Pour the batter into a 10-12 cup bundt cake pan that has been greased and floured (or you can use simple baking spray…just make sure it’s meant for baking, since those contain flour). Bake the cake for about 45 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the cake comes out clean.
6. Allow the cake to cool in the pan for at least 15 minutes. Then, (say a small prayer ha!) invert the pan onto a plate. (If the cake doesn’t feel like it’s going to come out of the pan, just let it cool for an additional 15 minutes.) Allow the cake to cool completely (about an hour) before frosting.
7. To decorate the cake, I ended up just placing the frosting (one color at a time) in a ziploc bag and cutting the tip off. Then, drizzle the frosting over the cake and add sprinkles. Enjoy!

Snickers bars are my diet nemesis. The candy bars are 280 calories each (yep), and I could seriously destroy one in a couple of minutes. Now that I’m calorie counting, 280 calories is a lot when you get under 1600 calories each day, but in my opinion, calories don’t count for one day of the year. Your birthday. I turned 28 on Friday, and since Snickers are my favorite, I decided to make these cupcakes to celebrate. Now, of course, I could buy a cake at a bakery and spend $30+, but heck, where can you find SNICKERS cupcakes? Not any place around here, that’s for sure!

The hardest thing for me was bringing home two bags of mini Snickers to make these bad boys happen. I totally ate about 10-ish mini Snickers that week, so I obviously don’t have any willpower against this candy….at.all. Oh, and when it came time to make these Thursday and cut the candy up for the filling….yeah, totally snuck a few tiny bites. Whoopsie!

I will admit, these cupcakes were more time-consuming than I thought, but it’s worth it to give these a try. Just don’t do it on a weeknight, like I did.

If you’re concerned about me completely killing my diet, I’ll let you know that since I could have totally eaten all 20 of these cupcakes, I ended up giving most of them to H to bring to his coworkers. His coworkers absolutely loved these, and some of these actually wanted to know how much they would be for me to make them. So, I guess they weren’t a flop haha! My opinion? Heaven in a cupcake. Oh yes…if you love Snickers like I do, just make these cupcakes.

Snickers Cupcakes
Source: mildly adapted from Annie’s Eats, cupcakes originally from Martha Stewart, frosting originally from My Baking Addiction

Ingredients:

For the cupcakes:

1/2 cup Dutch-process cocoa powder
1/2 cup hot water
2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 tsp. baking soda
3/4 tsp. baking powder
3/4 tsp. coarse salt
16 tbsp. unsalted butter
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 large eggs plus 1 egg yolk
1 3/4 tsp. vanilla extract
2/3 cup sour cream, at room temperature

For the filling:

1 bag mini Snickers chopped into fourths (I found it easier to do this after the Snickers were in the freezer)
1/4 cup salted butter caramel sauce

For the frosting:

16 tbsp. unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 lb. confectioners’ sugar
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
1/3 cup salted butter caramel sauce
Pinch of coarse salt
2 tbsp. heavy cream

**To garnish the tops, you’ll need 20 mini Snickers.**

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. In a medium bowl, add the flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt and mix together until the ingredients are well-combined. In a smaller bowl, whisk the cocoa powder and hot water together until it’s a smooth liquid.
2. In a saucepan, melt the butter and sugar using medium heat. Once the butter has melted, remove the mixture from the cook top and transfer the mixture to a mixer bowl. Using the paddle attachment on the mixer, beat the butter/sugar mixture on medium-low speed for a few minutes, until the mixture has cooled (you don’t want to cook the eggs when you add them). Add in the eggs and egg yolk, one at a time, beating the mixture well and scraping down the side of the bowl after you add each egg. Add in the vanilla and the cocoa mixture and mix until well-combined. Then, turn the mixer on low and add in the flour mixture in two batches, and alternating with the sour cream. You want to beat the mixture until just combined (don’t overmix).
3. Using a medium cookie scoop, add the batter to your cupcake pans (lined with cupcake liners) until each cup is about 3/4 full. Bake the cupcakes for 18-20 minutes (rotating the cupcake pan once when the cupcakes are halfway done with baking), until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cupcake comes out clean. Allow the cupcakes to cool in the pan for a few minutes, and move them to a wire cooling rack to finish cooling.
4. Once the cupcakes are completely cool, cut a cone shape out of the center of the cupcakes using a paring knife. Using cooled caramel sauce, add 1/3 cup of the caramel sauce to your Snickers pieces and mix until the candy is coated in caramel. Then, add a spoonful of the filling to each cupcake.
5. For the frosting, using a paddle attachment on your mixer, whip the butter on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Scrape down the bowl and add in the confectioners’ sugar with the mixer on low speed, a cup at a time (to avoid a mess), until the mixture smooth and creamy. Add in the caramel sauce (which should be just a tad on the warm side for this), vanilla and salt on low speed, and mix until well-blended. Add in the heavy cream, and mix the frosting on medium speed for a few minutes until fluffy and smooth.
6. To finish the cupcakes, frost the cupcakes to your liking (I used a Wilton 1B tip), drizzle on some caramel sauce, and place a mini Snickers on the center of each cupcake.