Travel Treats: Lawrence, Kansas

Posted on November 8, 2013

A month before our recent wedding, my then-fiancé and I journeyed to Kansas so that he could meet my Maid of Honor (a.k.a. cousin Jenny), who lives in Lawrence. We had great meals at 715 and Free State, but I also had to insist that our group visit a bakery to try the local cupcakes.

Billy Vanilly
914 Massachusetts Avenue
www.billyvanillycupcakes.com

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We chose Billy Vanilly, a bright and colorful bakery with pretty, fun-named cupcakes. They have 25 cupcake flavors on their menu each week, so there should be something to satisfy all cupcake lovers!

Billy Vanilly Cupcakes

We bought the Mint Cookie Crunch, I Love Lemon, and 24 Carrot to sample.

Mint Cookie Crunch

The Mint Cookie Crunch made me think of ice cream. The mint icing was full of crushed Oreos, very tasty. The cake was also chock-full of crunchy cookie.

24 Carrot

I thought the 24 Carrot was not that carroty, but the carrot cake fan among us liked it. She thought some nuts would make it perfect. (I’m anti-nut as far as carrot cake goes, but I do admit it’s not my favorite type of cake. Shocked? I know, sorry. Don’t worry, I will continue to make carrot cupcakes, one of my most requested flavors.)

I love lemon

The I Love Lemon was my favorite. Lemony! It has lemon cake, lemon curd and lemon icing and packs a powerful punch.

Overall, these cupcakes were, to quote my Maid of Honor, “Jewels of Worthiness.”

Click here for more photos from our cupcake tasting!

Billy Vanilly also has a location in Topeka. It is their original bakery and was the first cupcake store in Kansas.

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Coffee Cupcakes

Posted on September 22, 2013

I love coffee and coffee-flavored desserts. I am very likely to choose coffee ice cream, for example, if it is on offer. I made coffee icing that went over well once in my pre-blog days—as I remember, it topped chocolate cupcakes—but I’d never made cupcakes with coffee in the cake itself.

coffee cupcakes

I used coffee to flavor these cupcakes I brought to a double birthday dinner.

Since I had Stumptown‘s Costa Rica Montes de Oro coffee on hand, that is what went into these cupcakes. Luckily, it is a perfect match for baking. Stumptown describes this coffee as having flavors of spiced apple cider, mandarin orange and molasses. Mmmm…

icing coffee cupcakes

I used both brewed coffee and freshly ground beans in the cake and brewed coffee in the icing.

Birthday guest Brett had this to say of dessert:

Aromatic notes of fun and sweetness that melt on the tongue as well as the psyche… The coffee beans offset the sugar in the frosting with just the right amount of savory bitterness and creamy deliciousness.

coffee cupcake

A whole bean was my finishing touch.

[ Posted in Birthdays ] [ Leave a comment ]

Caramel Chocolate Cupcakes

Posted on August 31, 2013

I made some rich chocolate cupcakes topped with a creamy, intense, sugary caramel on a hot summer day. They had to travel to a party in the trunk of a car.

chocolate caramel

And this is what happened to the icing:

melty caramel

So it goes! They were still tasty, even though some of the tops looked like topographic maps.

One of the survivors of this batch—a cupcake unexposed to the elements—featured in a (private) video for a friend’s birthday. I sampled the cupcake while my fiancé danced.

videoscreenshot

 

[ Posted in Stories ] [ 2 Comments ]

Decorating with the Cake Boss

Posted on August 11, 2013
Buddy Valastro Son

Buddy Valastro, with his son, talks about his new easy-to-use decorating tools.

“Who’s afraid of fondant?” asked Buddy. Not me! Well, not anymore…

I recently had the opportunity to spend a morning with Buddy Valastro, some of the Carlo’s Bakery staff, and other food bloggers learning to work with fondant. Our tour and decorating workshop took place at the newest Cake Boss facility, 30,000 square feet in Jersey City’s Lackawanna Center on Grove Street. The space includes offices, kitchens, classrooms (for baking, decorating, cooking classes),  a tv studio and more. It’s impressive! So much baking and decorating going on at once…

Buddy and his team have designed a line of Cake Boss-branded baking and decorating supplies that will be available to the public this fall. (Learn more at www.cakebossbaking.com when it launches!) These products are aimed to be easy for the lay baker to use and include things like fondant cutters and tools, cake turntables for decorating, mixing bowls, and cake pans. The idea is that anyone can decorate a great cake with the right tools. Proving this point was where we amateurs came in.

fondant

We were given fondant, tools, instruction, and a “dirty iced” cake on which to experiment.

First, we rolled out the fondant. We had the help of a machine, but this can be done by hand. Covering the cake was probably the trickiest part, it is hard to get it smooth without tearing the sheet of fondant or leaving bubbles. Finally for this first stage, we trimmed off the edges with a cutting tool (a.k.a. a pizza cutter).

fondant_bow

To make a bow we cut strips of rolled-out fondant with the tools provided and arranged on the cake. A little water and a paint brush worked as “glue.” We also cut circles with cookie/fondant cutters to add dots of various sizes. A trick, the Cake Boss-ers told us, is to steam a fondant-covered cake to easily decorate with pieces of fondant. That day, we didn’t need to use anything. It was humid enough that they’d stick right on.

bluedotcake

It was fun to learn to work with fondant. I don’t know that I am getting into the heavy-duty decorating game, but it’s not a bad skill to have up my sleeve! I still prefer the cake and buttercream beneath the pretty layer. That fondant does keep the cake nice and fresh, though!

finished cake

Ready to eat!

Thank you to Carlo’s Bakery and JS Public Relations. Follow @cakebossbaking to learn more.

[ Posted in Bakeries, Decorating ] [ Leave a comment ]

Strawberry-Blueberry Spiced Cupcakes

Posted on July 16, 2013

I love fresh summer berries! I’ve been getting lots of strawberries and blueberries from my CSA and baking cupcakes was a perfect way to use up some extras. It was also about time to test out my new oven. Yes, renovation of my teeny kitchen is near completion, and the appliances are installed and in working order!

berry_pepper_cupcakes
I puréed the berries rather than leaving them whole (unlike the peaches and blueberries last summer) and mixed them into what was basically vanilla cupcake batter with a little less liquid than normal. I added cinnamon and black pepper for a kick.

baked_berries

I topped them off with a generous dollop of cream cheese icing. I was happy for lots of creamy icing when it came to eating these, as they turned out a little dry. My new oven bakes a little faster than the old, it seems. No complaints from my tasters, though! (Merci, Idlewild classmates!)

berry_inside_cupcakes

[ Posted in Fruit ] [ Leave a comment ]