My Dudu

Hey guys,

It's been almost one year since I started in this baking/blogging world... and I have to reveal a secret now. Why did I start all this? Well, I love baking but I did all of this for something biggert, the most important person in my life: my son! I'm a proud mommy and I love my son so much! I always dreamed about doing his birthday cakes and this year I baked 2 cakes for him (one for his birthday in school and the other one for his family party).
Also for the family party I did all the candies and cupcakes. I was very happy with everything! He really loved his 2 parties! ;)

His cake for school: vanilla cake filled with dulce de leche and with brigadeiro filling! So Good!! 

His cake: the bottom cake is a vanilla cake filled with dulce de leche and the top tier is chocolate cake with brigadeiro filling.

The cake table! we love Elmo!

Carrot mini-cupcake with brigadeiro frosting. 

Dark chocolate cupcake with chocolate buttercream.

Happy baking!!

Miguel's Cupcakes

Hey you guys!!

I had a very special order: to make 100 mini-cupcakes for an 1 year old birthday boy. The theme of the party was puppy! His mom ask me for a delicious cupcake so I baked some chocolate with brigadeiro frosting and some vanilla cupcakes with vanilla buttercream. So yummy!! And to decorate I made some personalized tags with the birthday boy's name and his age!

 Happy Baking!!

Carrot with walnut cupcakes with "brigadeiro" frosting

Hey guys!


Last week I tried a new recipe: Carrot with Walnuts Cupcake.... and oh my... so good!! I loved it! for the frosting I did some semi-sweet "brigadeiro"which is a brazilian traditional candy (looks like a toffee). I promise that I will post the brigadeiro recipe because it is really good to frost cupcakes or even to use as a filling!

Happy Baking!!

Tchau Chicago...

Hey guys!
And so it is.... lol... we are almost leaving Chicago and it's sad because we really wanted to stay but there's nothing we can do, we need to go back. But I wanted to do something for my son like a farewell party in the kids club that he goes to. And he knew what was going on because he gave Shannon (the most sweetest person I have ever know in my lie) a lot of big hugs just like goodbye hugs! I really had to control myself for not to cry... the mommy here was very emotional.
I baked it some dark chocolate cupcakes with chocolate buttercream and t was a hit. The kids loved it!
My next post I'll be back in Brazil.... 

Over there in the right corner I see a tiny hand... yep, my son is about to "attack" the cupcakes... lol...

Happy Baking!!

Cupcake Delicious, NYC e The Sweet Fairy Cake

Hi guys,


So after the Vegas wedding I went to NYC with my family and to met the new Mrs. Cupcake Delicious! We had a blast there, we went to Magnolia Bakery to try their famous cupcakes and also to NY Cakes which is a store for cake decorating! I loved it!!! You can read her post here: http://cupcakedelicious.blogspot.com/2011/01/new-york-new-york.html

@NY Cakes, some shopping spree... :D

@Magnolia Bakery... I really loved the Red Velvet Cupcake!!

Happy Baking!!

"Messy-chic" cupcakes

Hey guys!

For the past weeks I've been testing a new recipe for chocolate buttercream .... and I found one that is absolutely AMAZING! I've never made a buttercream so good (and to be honest I don't care that much for buttercream ...) and my sis Flavia's Delicious Cupcake also tested she loved as well!  The approval was such that we decided that this new flavor of chocolate buttercream will be exclusive flavor from Cupcake Delicious and The Sweet Fairy Cake! :D

To test it with the real cupcake I baked some rich dark chocolate cupcakes and it was so good!! When I was decorating the cups I thought ... a lot of bakeries here  doesn't use tips fo frost the cupcake, they just do with a spatula tanned the result is always so nice.. is a "messy-chic" cupcake… without that aspect more correctly that the tip gives to it. So I did some "messy-chic" ones and more traditional ones…And I thought they were pretty cool... :)

I Hope you enjoy!

The classic one..

The "Messy-chic"...and my lovely Crate and Barrel dessert plate.. :D

This is my apartment view from Chicago... I'm leaving Chicago in a couple of weeks and I already am "homesick"... :( I just wanted to share this marvelous view with y'all.. 

Happy Baking!!

Splenda Chocolate Cupcakes

Hi guys!! Couple weeks ago I tried to bake some cupcakes for a dear friend of mine that have pregnancy diabetes. So I decided to use granulated Splenda insted of the regular sugar. The result was okay. The actual cupcake turn out good (I guess I prefer with the Sugah... hahahaha) but I also tried to substitute the sugar for the Splenda on the Swiss Merengue Buttercream. And that I didn't like it. I mean the consistency was fine but when I added some food coloring to it I don't know what happened but the frosting became kinda bitter... But I'll continue trying to bake the perfect sugar-free cupcake and frosting! Here's the tutorial.

The Swiss Merengue Buttercream I got on the blog: How to Eat a Cupcake: http://www.howtoeatacupcake.net/2008/02/face-your-smbc-fears.html and I jut substitute the sugar for the Splenda...

Splenda Chocolate Cupcakes (adapted from Rose's Heavenly Cakes)

Ingredients

1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon (sifted before measuring) unsweetened cocoa powder

1/2 cup boiling water

2 large eggs at room temperature

3 tablespoons water

1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

1 2/3 cup cake flour or bleached all purpose flour, sifted into the cup and leveled off

1 cup Splenda granulated sugar

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/8 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

12 tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter

1. Preheat oven 20 minutes before baking to 350F

2. Mix the cocoa and the boiling water: in a small bowl, whisk the cocoa and the boiling water until smooth. Cover with plastic wrap to prevent evaporation and cool to room temperature or you can place in the refrigerator to speed the cooling process. Just bring to room temperature before proceeding.

3. In a small bowl, whisk the eggs, the 3 tablespoons water and the vanilla, just until combined.

4. In a stand mixer with the flat beater, add:
 - the flour, 

- Splenda, 

- baking powder, 

-baking soda 

-and salt 

then mix on low speed for 30 seconds. 

5. Add the butter and chocolate mixture and mix on low speed until the dry ingredients are moistened. Raise the speed to medium and beat for 1 1/2 minutes. Scrape down the sides of the bowl.

6. Starting on medium-low gradually add the egg mixture in 2 parts. Beating on medium speed after each addition.

7. Pour the batter into the baking cups and bake for 20-25 minutes. 

Hint: I like to measure the amount of batter to put exactly the same amount in every the baking cups.

Another thing that I noticed is that they broke on the top but the frosting covered it....

I hope you enjoyed!!

Happy Baking!!

Halloween Cupcakes

My Halloween Cupcakes with my Pumpkin for the Jack-o-Lantern

BOOO! Halloween is on Sunday! My son already has his costume for the kids party at the Kids club in the building. To celebrate Halloween I baked diet chocolate cupcakes with diet frosting as well. It was good, but guys to be really honest with you I gotta say: there's no way to replace sugar huh? :P

The witch hat, your legs and shoes I did with modeling fondant. The shoes I made using the idea of this blog: http://chiccookiekits.blogspot.com I'm in love with this blog! There's a lot of tutorials on it! 

My witchy hat! 

Poor witchy... she got "eaten" by the cupcake... the details on the shoes... inspired by the Wizard of Oz

"EEK" 

Boooooo

Happy Halloween!!! 


Happy Baking!!

Go Bananas!!

I need to start this post telling you a secret: I hate bananas! I even hate the banana smell. But I learned to make a banana cupcake that I really liked it! So now I decided to share this recipe with you and this post goes especially for a dear friend of mine which I don't know personally but who has won a piece in my heart, Michele Pazo from Michele Pazo Cake. You guys should visited her blog! She's very talented and she a sweetheart! To visit her blog just click here.

Banana Peanut Cupcake with Milk Chocolate Buttercream (The Chopping Block)

Ingredients

3 large bananas 

1 teaspoon lemon juice

1/2 cup milk 

1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 cups all purpose flour 

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon baking powder

3/4 teaspoon baking soda

1 stick unsalted butter, softened

1/2 cup natural peanut butter 

1 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup sugar 

2 large eggs

1 cup roasted peanuts, chopped

How to make

1. Pre-heat the oven temperature at 350F and prepare cupcake liners in a muffin pan.

2. Mash the bananas well. Add the lemon juice, milk and vanilla. Set aside.

3. Mix flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda with a spatula or a whisk.

4. In mixer, beat butter and peanut butter with the sugars until mixture is smooth and light. Beat in eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.

5. Add alternately dry ingredients and liquids to the butter and peanuts cream. Start by placing the dry ingredients and finish with the dry as well.

6. Fold in 1/2 cup of the chopped peanuts. Reserve left over to decorate cupcakes - if you want, of course ... :)

7. Bake cupcakes for 20-25 minutes. let cool completely to decorate.

Milk Chocolate Buttercream  (The Chopping Block)

Ingredients

4 1/2 ounces milk chocolate 

3/4 cup sugar 

2 tablespoons water

5 egg whites

3 sticks unsalted butter, softened

3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 teaspoon salt

How to make

1. Melt chocolate in double boiler. Remove from heat and let cool.

2. In a small saucepan combine sugar and water. Boil without stirring (!!!) until temperature reaches 240F (yes, you will need a candy thermometer) on a candy thermometer.

3. Meanwhile, in an electric mixer, beat the egg whites until very foamy.

4. Once the sugar is ready, reduce speed and add the hot syrup into the egg whites. Increase speed and beat until it reaches room temperature. This process should take 10-15 minutes.

5. Add the butter one tablespoon at a time and then add the melted chocolate, vanilla and salt. Beat until all ingredients are well incorporated and fluffy.

I hope you enjoy!!

Happy Baking!!

Ah, the Fall....

I simply love Autumn ... Autumn has a different smell, smell of wood, falling leaves, the cold  weather with beautiful blue sky… and I fall in love every day of autumn. Here in Chicago is getting so pretty ... the trees are getting yellow(ish) and some of it are getting red ... love it! And to celebrate the beginning of this wonderful season I made some cupcakes that are (very humble…) WONDERFUL! :) I baked some chocolate cupcakes and made a bittersweet for the frosting. I also decorated my cupcakes with orange fondant butterflies and red fondant tiny leaves (in some of then). I hope you like it!

Happy Baking!!

Red Velvet

Red Velvet Cupcakes that I made in The Cupcake BootCamp @ The Chopping Block

The Red Velvet Cupcake get everybody's attention just because of its color red and its velvety texture. The history of Red Velvet Cake, which was later transformed into cupcake, is marked by myths and legends. A red velvet cake was a signature dessert at the Waldorf-Astoria in New York City during the 1920s. According to a common legend a woman once asked for the recipe for the cake, and was billed a large amount. Indignant, she spread the recipe but the hotel denies this story .... 

Red Velvet Cupcakes (The Chopping Block)

Yields: 12 cupcakes

Ingredients

1/2 teaspoon vinegar

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 stick butter, softened

3 4 cup sugar 

1 teaspoon cocoa powder 

Red Food Coloring (dosing the amount you want)

1/2 cup buttermilk

1 1/4 cup cake flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

How to make

1. Preheat the oven to 350F and prepare cupcake liners in a muffin pan.

2. Mix the vinegar and baking soda and set aside.

3. Beat butter and sugar until the cream is light and fluffy, that's about 5 minutes.

4. Add egg and beat until well incorporated.

5. Make a paste with cocoa powder and food coloring and add to cream butter and sugar (here I did different, I did not make this paste, I put the food coloring directly to the batter until the I see the color I wanted).

6. Add the flour and buttermilk to cream butter and sugar in 3 additions always start and finish with the solid. Add salt.

7. Add the vinegar mixture and the vanilla.

8. Fill cupcake tins until 2/3 of its capacity.

9. Bake for 20-25 minutes and let cool to be able to unmold and cool completely wait to decorate.

Cream cheese Frosting

Yields: 3 cups

Ingredients

1 cup (8oz) cream cheese at room temperature

1/2 cup unsalted butter at room temperature

1 teaspoon vanilla

4 cups powdered sugar (1 lbs)

How to make

1. Beat the cream cheese, vanilla and butter in a large bowl of electric mixer

2. Add the powdered sugar and beat until fluffy.

3. Decorate your cupcakes!

That's it folks!

Happy Baking!

Chocolate Cherry Cupcakes

Yummy!! .... as promised I'm posting the recipe for Chocolate Cherry Cupcake with Chocolate Caramel Ganache.... oh yeah!!.... Guys, this cupcake is so good...

Chocolate Cherry Cupcake (The Chopping Block Chicago)

Yields 12-15 cupcakes

Ingredients

1 1 / 2 cup pitted fresh cherries (you can use the frozen ones too ... just remember to bring them to room temperature)

1 1 / 3 cup all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 / 2 teaspoon baking powder

1 / 2 teaspoon sea salt

1 stick unsalted butter, softened

1 1 / 2 cup light brown sugar

1 / 2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 / 2 teaspoon almond extract

2 eggs at room temperature

2 / 3 cup Water

1 / 3 cup milk

Preparation

1. Preheat the oven at a temperature of 350F. Line a muffin tin with cupcake liners.

2. Roast the cherries on a parchment paper lined tray for 20. Remove from oven and allow to cool, then chop the cherries and set aside.

3. In a medium bowl, combine flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Set aside.

4. In the mixer cream butter and sugar in medium-high speed until mixture is light and fluffy (4-5 minutes).

5. Add the chocolate, extracts and continue beating until combined. Reduce the mixer speed to medium-low and add eggs one at a time.

6. Combine water and milk in a saucepan. Bring to boil and immediately remove from heat.

7. With the mixer on low speed add the flour mixture a ¼ cup at a time and then add the hot liquids very carefully. Mix until smooth.

8. With a spatula add the chopped cherries and gently mix the batter.

9. Pour the batter into cupcake tins and bake for 20-25 minutes.

10. Let the cupcakes cool before frosting.

Caramelized Chocolate Ganache (The Chopping Block Chicago)

Yields approximately 4 cups of ganache.

Ingredients

1 cup sugar

1 / 4 cup of "light corn syrup"

2 tablespoons water

1 1 / 2 cups heavy cream

Pinch of sea salt

3 ounces of dark chocolate or semi bitter chocolate, chopped

4 tablespoons unsalted butter (room temperature)

Preparation

1. In a small saucepan combine the sugar, corn syrup and water. Gently stir until dissolve and place over medium heat. DO NOT STIR! :) Cook until the sugar is caramelized.... (it will take a while, but keep an eye on the sugar! We don't want to burn it...)

2. Remove from heat and carefully whisk in the heavy cream. Return to heat and continue to whisk until mixture is smooth. Remove from heat and whisk in the chocolate, butter and salt.

3. Pour the ganache in a bowl and let cool for at least 30 minutes (tip: you can speed this process leaving the ganache covered with plastic wrap in the fridge)

4.When ready to use, transfer the ganache to a bowl and whip with a mixer lightened in color and a creamy texture.

5. Then just decorate your cupcakes!

You may notice that on my cupcakes I dipped then on the ganache because when I was on class the ganache was still warm and didn't have the consistency to decorate using the piping bag. Hope you liked it!! :D

Happy Baking!