Early Grey Buttercream and Thoughts on Graduating

So I finished college. I haven't officially graduated yet (that's on the 20th), but I had my last day of class yesterday, and I just picked up my cap and gown today. I have to say I'm having mixed feelings about the whole thing. I'm happy and proud to have finished my education, and at a very good school no less, but I'm a little sad that it didn't all turn out how I'd envisioned it would when I was younger. I'm sad that I had to go through a lot of hardships, that I lost friends, that I had to leave my first school. But as my good friend and mother of my incredible god-daughter told me, I went through things that a lot of college-aged kids don't have to, and I came out of it a changed (and I'd like to hope stronger and better) person. The struggles brought me to new friends, strengthened my relationships with old ones, and even took me all the way to Greece, the most magical place I've ever been. And now I get to embark on a new adventure to Boston!

So yes, I did experience some heartache over these past few years that will be with me always, but I also experienced some wonderful things, and all of it has brought me to a new and exciting chapter in my life. Finishing college is certainly something to celebrate, which is why I made chocolate buttermilk cupcakes with earl grey swiss buttercream and salted caramel (recipe) for everyone last night! They were delicious.

I didn't alter anything, but I would alter the cake recipe if I made them again, because they came out a little crispy on the edges and sunken in the middle (the pitfalls of cooking at 6,000 feet). Really any chocolate cake would work with the supremely delicious earl grey swiss buttercream. And the salted caramel is totally optional, but there are few things that it doesn't make better, and the saltiness helps to combat the super sweetness of the frosting. (Another tip for high altitude bakers: make this buttercream in a stand mixer if you can. My arm practically went numb from whipping egg whites with a hand mixer for about a hour.)

Vanilla Cake

mmmmmmm

When my mom's boyfriend said he wanted vanilla cake for his birthday I was initially a little disappointed, I'm ashamed to admit. I have been all into stuff like salted caramel, ganaches, molten chocolate, souffles, etc., and I wanted to do something really fancy. I realized quickly that I was being hard on vanilla. Why can't vanilla be fancy? Somehow the first thing I had pictured was some Betty Crocker vanilla box mix cake (I swear I have nothing against Betty, box mix is easy and delicious, that's why it exists) with can frosting and "Happy Birthday Dan" scrawled illegibly with some of that weird "gel" frosting that stains your mouth forever. But it didn't have to be this way, no it did not. It had to be my way, which was a 3-layer vanilla bean cake with a brown butter vanilla bean buttercream. And it was delicious.

I used this recipe from Sweetapolita altered a bit for the cake. It was pretty easy, and the copious amounts of egg whites ensure that it's quite fluffy. The frosting I sort of made up as I went along, and went something like this:

4 sticks butter
3-4 cups powdered sugar
3 tbsp milk (you can use more or less depending on what consistency you want)
1 vanilla bean, scraped
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup cream cheese (totally optional)

I first browned the butter, which took a while because it was a lot of butter. Once it was a nice nutty brown with those little flecks of deliciousness, I stuck the whole pan in the fridge to harden the butter back up some. One the butter was soft but no longer a liquid, I whipped it up with a mixer and added the rest of the ingredients. You don't need the cream cheese if you want to keep this a traditional buttercream, but I like my frostings a little more tart, so I added it in at the last minute.
Yum! Vanilla cake that was definitely not boring.

frosting in my great-grandmother's apron!

caramel caramel yumyum

I made my very own caramel sauce for the first time ever! And I was especially happy that it worked out on my first try (very unexpected). I used the tutorial at Bakers Royale, which was SO helpful. It has step-by-step carmeling instructions and even a color chart so you know exactly when the caramel is ready. I ended up having to use a bit more cream than the recipe calls for (high altitude funkiness rears its ugly head again?), and I also added several grinds of sea salt to evolve caramel into its hipper, more exciting form: salted caramel. 

I plan to use this delicious magic sugarsauce for my friend's birthday on Tuesday, in a recipe that is currently developing in my head but will most likely be based in a molten chocolate cake. Stay tuned.

Apologies and Strawberry Cake

Hello, all! Yes, it's been a super long time. I'm sorry, ok? Seriously.
So what have I been doing? Going to school mostly, baking and cooking, hanging out with my cat, you know, the usual stuff.

I wanted to share with you all an incredible cake that I made for my little sister's birthday (which was November 2. I get it! It's been a long time!). It's a strawberry cake, because that's her favorite. I searched the internet for a while trying to find the perfect strawberry cake recipe, and ended up choosing this one, by Heather Baird of SprinkleBakes (I love SprinkleBakes)!

I modified it a bit, of course. The recipe calls for strawberry puree, but I just kind of made my own by putting strawberry preserves in the ol' food processor, and adding water a teaspoon at a time until it reached the consistency that I wanted. Since I bake at high altitude where everything is bone dry and crazy it's a little hard for me to suggest modified liquid amounts with any more clarity than just "until you reach a good consistency" or "you'll know when it's the right amount." I fear this is also a habit I've inherited from reading the handwritten Swedish and Finnish recipes translated by my grandmother that say things like "add an appropriate amount of this" or "add as much of this as you think is right" or "keep adding this until it feels like enough." I also left the white chocolate shavings out of the frosting because I really wanted to keep the cake a bit sour, not too sweet. That also explains why I chose this particular cake, the cream cheese frosting, duh!

So Happy Birthday, Mia (several months ago)! 

Check out "Pretty Wolves" by D/Wolves, an awesome band fronted by Joel Williams (who happens to be the little brother of Wavves' Nathan Williams). 

Margaritas!

Summer is the perfect excuse to drink, as my friend Alex calls them, "top shelf margs". And we have been drinking a lot of top shelf margs. Here's my favorite recipe, which is super easy to make, and uses a frozen limeade can to measure everything.

First, gather:
Triple Sec
Tequila
Frozen limeade
Limes
Ice

Put the whole can of frozen limeade into the blender, add a quarter can water, a quarter can triple sec, and a half can tequila. Squeeze in the juice of 1 lime, then toss in some ice. Blend it up! Coat the rim of your cup in lime juice, dip it into kosher salt, and fill with delicious, delicious margarita. Enjoy, ideally, with chips and guac. 

Artist Feature: Hellen Jo

I am really obsessed with Hellen Jo, self-described "asshole living and working in Burbank". She does awesome drawings of badass chicks, among other stuff, and says she's "informed mostly by alternative comics and midcentury as well as modern illustration".

"Bay Area Native", inspired by the Daniel Johnston song, “Devil Town”.

"Pool Skate"

Oh yeah, she also made this Crash & the Boys poster, so really, what more do you want?