Easter Chicks

With Easter just around the corner, I wanted to take a spring-themed treat for my co-workers. Although I was hoping to make these cute lamb cookies, I had to settle for these chick cupcakes since I could not find a lamb cookie cutter. (However, the chick cupcakes were something I'd seen on Pinterest long ago - so I had wanted to make them.

Fortunately, the original online posting actually gave very detailed directions on how to make these (even including the tip numbers used to make the feet, beaks, and wings.) I started with a simple layer of yellow buttercream frosting, which I then dipped in yellow sugar. After adding two chocolate chips for the eyes, I used tip #102 to make the wings. Sadly, the buttercream frosting didn't stick well to the sugar-coated topping. If I was making these cupcakes over again, I would definitely add the wings before coating the cupcake in sugar! After adding the wings, I made some orange frosting and added the beak and feet with tip #2 (though they too had trouble sticking to the sugar.)

Lemon Chiffon Cake

Although I have ventured away from cakes (in favor of cookies and bars), I had to try this recipe when I was flipping through one of my old Betty Crocker cookbooks. Although I have never made a chiffon (or angel food) cake from scratch, it seemed to be a relatively easy process. The only challenging thing was zesting the lemons (since I don't have a zester - and the online recommendation of using a potato peeler didn't work that well.) I look forward to cutting into my cake tomorrow to see if it tastes as good as it looks!

---

Lemon Chiffon Cake

2 c. all-purpose flour or 2¼ c. cake flour

1½ c. sugar

3 t. baking powder

1 t. salt

¾ c. cold water

½ c. vegetable oil

2 t. vanilla

1 T. grated lemon peel

7 large egg yolks (with all-purpose flour) or 5 large egg yolks (with cake flour)

1 c. large egg whites(about 8)

½ t. cream of tartar

Preheat oven to 325°. Mix flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt in a large bowl. Beat in water, oil, vanilla, lemon peel, and egg yolk on low speed until smooth. With clean beaters, beat egg whites and cream of tartar in a large bowl on high speed until stiff peaks form. Gradually mix egg yolk mixture over beaten eggs, folding into the egg whites. Bake in an ungreased 10 in. tube pan for 1 hour and 15 minutes or until top springs back when touched lightly. Let hang upside down for about 2 hours (or until completely cooled.)

Vanilla Glaze

1/3 c. butter

2 c. powdered sugar

1½ t. vanilla

2 to 4 T. hot water

Melt butter. Remove from heat and mix in sugar and vanilla. Add hot water one tablespoon at a time until smooth and consistency of thick syrup. Spoon onto the top of cake, allowing glaze to drip down cake's sides.

Cake #32: Italian Cream Cake

Although not the prettiest cake in town, this Italian Cream Cake is one of the best-tasting cakes one could ever imagine! The recipe creates a 3-layer cake that is stuffed with pecans and coconut and then covered in an ultra-sweet cream cheese icing. This cake is bound to be well-liked; however, I will warn that the extreme richness will allow few to finish their slice!

---

Italian Cream Cake

1 cup Buttermilk

1 tsp. baking soda

5 eggs, separated

2 cups sugar

1 stick butter

½ cup shortening

2 cups flour, sifted

1 tsp. vanilla

1 cup chopped pecans

1 small can coconut

Combine soda and buttermilk and let stand. Before mixing cake, beat separated egg whites until stiff. Set aside. Cream sugar, butter, and shortening. Add egg yolks, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add buttermilk alternately with flour to creamed mixture. Stir in vanilla. Fold in egg whites. Gently stir in pecans and coconut. Back in 3 9-inch greased, floured layer pans at 325 for 25-35 minutes. Frost cake with Cream Cheese Icing when cool.

---

Cream Cheese Icing

8 oz. cream cheese, softened

½ stick butter

1 box powdered sugar

1 tsp. vanilla

1 cup chopped pecans

Beat cheese and margarine until smooth. Add sugar and beat well. Add vanilla and pecans stir well. Frost cake between layers; on top, and on the sides.

Cake #31: Flower Patch Surprise

Last week, my boss celebrated her birthday; unfortunately, with so many coworkers in-and-out of the office, we didn't get a chance to celebrate until today. For some odd reason, we decided that the theme of her party should be opossums (it was based on a joke shared at our last staff meeting.) My coworkers had hoped that I would make a "opossum" cake - but I was unsure how exactly one goes about making a "opossum" cake.

My original plan was to create a garden of cupcakes, and then add a small fondant opossum to one of the cupcakes. After working hours to create the flowers, I didn't really feel that I had time to experiment with fondant modeling; therefore, I scraped the opossum idea and decided to merely make a hilly, flowered meadow.

Cake #30: A Howling Good Cupcake

Although I'm leaving for vacation in a couple days, I still somehow got roped into baking the birthday cake for one of my co-workers. Since I was a little pressed for time, I decided to bake cupcakes so that the bake time would be reduced. Fortunately, the co-worker celebrating her birthday is a big supporter of wolves (she and her husband apparently do a lot of volunteer work trying to preserve the wolf's habitat.)

Anyway, I had been wanting to make these "wolf" cupcakes from Hello, Cupcake for awhile, so I thought this would be the perfect occasion. To make the wolf, I cut a large marshmallow to make the snout and ears. Then, I covered the entire cupcake in chocolate frosting using the leave tip. For a finishing touch, I adding a few M&Ms for the nose and eyes.

Cake #29: "Hot Chocolate" Cake

A couple months ago, a former colleague emailed me a recipe for a cake-in-a-mug, which gave me the idea for these delightful holiday gifts for my current co-workers. The original recipe created an individual serving that could be baked in the microwave. Unfortunately, the resulting cake was far from desirable; the microwaved-cake was extremely dense and ill tasting...in fact, it reminded me of the cake/brownie commonly found in frozen TV dinners.

However, since I liked the mug-cake idea so much, I decided to use the idea - only instead of baking the cake directly in the mugs, I used a traditional cake mix in Wilton's extra-large cupcakes. I, then, merely topped the cupcakes with a generous amount of buttercream; finally, I added a peppermint stick for decoration (I had originally planned to also top these with chocolate sprinkles, but I accidentally forget to add them before I had the mugs wrapped...)

Cake #28: Happy Birthday, Lynne

Since I was somewhat pressed for time this week, I chose this relatively simple design to celebrate a co-workers birthday. The cake was merely frosted in a basic white-buttercream; then, I added various strips of colored-fondant to create the exterior border.

After completing the fondant strips, I completed the look by adding purple-buttercream dots around the top and bottom of the stripes. Finally, I pulled out my best penmanship to add her name as the final touch.