Candy Glass: Perfect for Halloween cupcakes. Or anytime (I guess?)

Every year there is a charity bake sale and raffle at my work to celebrate Halloween.  Just so you know, this is probably my single favorite day of work in the entire calendar year.  OK.  Not probably.  It is *definitely* my favorite day!

I always make things for the bake sale that are a little bit over-the-top because I figure that:

1. Each one can be priced higher and thus make more money
2. People might want to buy something they can't make themselves
3. I make it a challenge and I get to try things out that I would never, ever make for just myself

In the past 5 years I've made all kinds of things, including chocolate cupcakes topped with tiny chocolate "dead" trees looming over a cookie gravestone and a molded chocolate coffin filled with white chocolate skulls.  In other words, I go a little bit crazy.

This year I wanted to make something different than ever before.  Looking around online, I found lots of people with photos of bloody cupcakes stabbed with broken candy glass. Heck, even Martha Stewart had a version.

Note: Tons of people not making these cupcakes also had instructions for the glass.  Weirdly, most of them were for blue glass and they were related to theme parties for either Disney's Frozen or Breaking Bad.  (Pretty much on opposite ends of the entertainment spectrum, huh?)    

I decided in making my cupcakes that a few things were really important, and most of them had to do with the candy glass.  (I'll talk about the cupcake manufacture in another post, promise.)  I wanted my glass to be flavored, not just sugar.  Because plain-sugar flavor isn't that interesting.  I also wanted it to be brown.  Both because it would show up better against the frosting and because clear glass could be from all kinds of things, but brown is probably from some kind of bottle.  It's nice to have a story behind my cupcakes, but nobody says that has to be a classy story, right?

Anyway, candy glass turned out to be pretty easy to make.  The vital part is the candy thermometer...or if you are me, the awesome thermometer-spatula that you got as a gift!

Ingredients

• 1 3/4 cup sugar
• 3/4 cup light corn syrup
• 1/2 cup water
• optional: 1 to 2 tsp. flavoring (I used coffee)
• optional: food coloring

Instructions

1. Spray a 13 x 9 jelly roll or cake pan with PAM spray.  No, like REALLY spray it.  
2. Combine all the ingredients in a sauce pan and heat over a medium-high heat.
       
3. Stir until sugar is dissolved and mixture starts to boil.
   
4. Once the mixture is boiling, stop stirring.
   
5. If you want to color/flavor, add now and the bubbles will work to distribute it without stirring.  (I added about 1 tsp coffee flavor extract at this time and it worked to color as well.)
   
6. As soon as the mixture hits 300 degrees, take the pan off the heat.
     
7. Let it sit for just a few seconds while it stops boiling.  (This probably isn't a great idea, but I added another tsp. of coffee extract at this time and stirred it in.  It foamed up pretty good for a few seconds, but ultimately worked.)
      
8. Pour the mixture out into prepared pan.
   
9. Let candy sit until completely hardened and cooled.  At least a few hours.
   
10. Break up the candy.  I used the metal end of a kitchen spoon, because it was small and I wanted shards.  If you are looking to make smaller pieces of candy, you might want to use a mallet or something with a larger surface area.  

And here are the cupcakes, stabbed with glass but before the "blood" was added.  Yeah, you're right.  They look WAY cooler when they are "bleeding!"

Caramel Apple Sangria: Perfect for a Fall gathering

Whenever I have people over in quantity--I hesitate to call what I do "entertaining"--I like to have a thematically-appropriate alcoholic beverage.  Sometimes that is a recipe for a mixed drink, but this Halloween I did the mixing in advance.  The recipe was pretty popular, so it might go into my go-to rotation.  This would be great for a party, a brunch, or, if you live somewhere that is not super-cold, a fall-time BBQ.    

• 1 bottle of apple cider (I used the spiced apple cider from Trader Joe's)
• 1 bottle of white wine (I used Trader Joe's cheap Pinot Grigio)
• 1 cup Caramel-flavored vodka plus more if you like.  (I'll be honest, I added a couple more "glugs" when I made mine)
• Cut up apples and/or pears

Chill all ingredients, dump them into a serving container, and stir together.  (Personally, I used a cool beverage dispenser with a stand.  The photo on this entry is after many a cup had already been poured!)  Serve cold and/or over ice.

Also, I added some club soda to my cup, to make it a bit more of a refreshing drink and to cut some of the sweetness.

Oreo Cake that (vaguely) looks like a GIANT OREO

This year my sister-in-law Hilary made her own birthday cake with an Oreo theme.  When, just a few days later, my co-workers proposed an all-Oreo celebration, I offered to make the same cake.  (My co-worker Nick always brings Oreos on Tuesday nights and Saturdays, so for his birthday we went all out!)

The cake got good reviews all around, so it is definitely worth making again.  Note: because of the ganache on top you need a really sharp knife to cut it.  You probably don't need the ganache, though.  It would be delicious even without!

Here's the original recipe:
http://allrecipes.com/recipe/136264/chocolate-covered-oreo-cookie-cake/

I added more cookies and couldn't figure out how to make the edges as neat as the photo in the original recipe....so here's my version:

Ingredients

• 1 chocolate cake mix and ingredients it calls for (I used a dark chocolate mix, to look more Oreo-like)
• 1 (8 o) package cream cheese, softened 
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 2 cups Cool Whip, thawed 
• 15+ Oreo Cookies, coarsely crushed (I used 15, but think that even more would work great!)
• 4 oz Semi-Sweet Bakers Chocolate 
• 1/4 cup butter 

Directions:

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees F
2. Prepare two 9-inch pans as directed on mix package.  (Mine said to grease and flour, but I didn't want to risk any white flour on my giant Oreo, so I used a half-and-half mixture of flour and cocoa powder.)
3. Bake cakes as directed on package
4. Cool cakes in pans, then remove from pans
5. Cut one of layers to level it, if needed
6. Beat cream cheese and sugar until blended (I used a whisk, but you definitely could use a mixer)
7. Crush cookies (I just put them in a freezer bag and crushed them.)
8. Gently stir cookie pieces and Cool Whip into cream cheese mixture
9. Assemble cake: Place one layer on bottom, spread "filling," top with other layer
10. Add ganache, if desired: Microwave butter and chocolate until melted and then stir together.  Let cool a few minutes if you want a more spreadable version.  I wanted mine to drizzle down the edges, so I immediately spooned it in the middle and spread in circles outward to get that effect. 
11. Keep cake refrigerated.

Revisting the Magical, Surprise-Inside Bundt Cake: Halloween 2016 edition

In January of this year I posted the instructions for a "surprise" bundt cake: it looks chocolate from the outside, but when you slice into it, it has swirls of color.  This week I made another surprise cake, this time for my annual Halloween gathering.  It was devil's food on the outside, had three colors of vanilla cake in the middle (orange, green, and purple), and was finished off with a chocolate fudge frosting drizzle and orange, green, and purple sprinkles.

The cake was a big hit!  Delicious and pretty....this might be my new go-to, bring-to-everything type of cake!

Brains! Delicious, yummy BRAAAIIIINS!!!! (Strawberry Rice Krispy Treats, shaped like little brains)

Last year for my Halloween gathering I was looking for something "spooky" to serve, foodwise.  I found a kit at Target for strawberry Rice Krispy treat brains.  They were tasty and fun, but the kit only made a small number of treats (like, a sadly small number!) and was a little pricey.  This year, I decided to try to recreate the kit myself.  

Turns out that I not only figured out how to make them, but I  managed to improve upon the taste significantly.  And also, as a bonus upside, the flavoring process is definitely a winner.  So if you are interested in making flavored-but-regularly-shaped treats, Jello is the key ingredient!  

I also had a brainstorm (he, he!  See what I did there?).  If you wanted, I think you could make one large brain instead of many small ones.  Then people could hack off pieces with a big knife.  Let's all be honest: that could be really fun for a party!

Ingredients:

• 7 cups Rice Krispies
• 1/4 cup butter or margarine
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 small (1.5 oz.) package of strawberry Jello 
• 1 package (10.5 oz.) mini marshmallows
• For Optional Decoration: Wilton "blood red" sparkle gel
   

Directions:

1. Measure out cereal in a large bowl
2. Melt butter in a large saucepan/small soup pan
   
3. When butter is melted, add marshmallows
   
   
4. Allow to partially melt (about 30 seconds)
5. Add vanilla
   
6. Stir with whisk
7. Add jello
   
8. Stir with whisk.
    
9. Once marshmallow mixture is smooth, turn off heat
   
10. Add cereal and stir until completely coated
     
11. Turn out onto waxed paper, spread out, and allow to cool to room temp (if you wanted to make regular treats, you would put in a 9x13 inch pan at this point)
    
12. Form into rough ball-shapes (if the mixture is sticking too much to your hands, put a tiny bit of vegetable oil or some Pam spray on your hands)
    
13. Using the dull side of a knife, make a groove down the middle to divide the "hemispheres" of your "brain" Hint: don't use the sharp side ofyour knife.  The sharp side will cut into the cereal and marshmallows, rather than smooshing them out of the way.  (However, be really careful that you don't hurt yourself while improperly using your knife. Real blood on the treats is a bad thing!)
    
14. When completely cool, drizzle red gel down the groove and on the two hemispheres...to add some bloody realism!

Spicy Red Spice Racks

I haven't posted any home improvements for a while, mostly because I haven't done very many.  :(  However, I'm pretty proud of my new spice racks. I officially hung them on August 7th and have been using them long enough to declare that a) They are awesome. and b) They have made my countertops much more organized. 

The reason for the spice racks?  Well, I have kind of a lot of spices and extracts.  Not as many as some people, but more than just the basics.  Which means that the nifty vintage Watkins Spices rack that I bought at an estate sale *definitely* didn't hold everything.  The bottles and jars took up some space, but they also tended to meander around on the counter and every time I wanted to clean the counter, it was really annoying to move them all.  Plus, they were perpetually falling over.  

When I started looking for spice racks, they were all fairly expensive and none of them were what I wanted.  I finally found something workable at Ikea, the Bekvam spice racks. At a mere $3.99 each, they are what I will call "super-cheap."  They are also real wood and can easily be customized.  

        

Like all Ikea things, the spice racks come flat-packed and need assembly.  So, I unpacked the pieces and assembled them.  You don't need any tools; a little wrench thing is included in the packaging.  You do, however, have to figure out one of the standard, slightly confusing Ikea drawings, because there aren't any actual words in the directions.  Luckily, though, this is a spice rack and not a huge piece of furniture!  

After I assembled my two spice racks, I spray painted them (with a glossy red Rustoleum).  It took 3 coats to get a nice, even, shiny red.  Yeah, I should probably have sanded them first, but honestly I didn't think about it at the time.  So....oh, well!

After they were completely dry, I hung them up in my kitchen.  The tricky parts were avoiding my electrical outlet, hanging them individually straight, and hanging both in an even line...all while working right underneath my cabinets and standing on a chair because I have short arms.  As you can see, there is a bit of space between them, but I think they turned out just fine!

Scottish Dundee Cake

So, as I mentioned in an earlier post, I won 2 ribbons for my baking at the MN State Fair this year.  Neither of those ribbons were for my Dundee cake.  The blue ribbon in the photo just demonstrates that my cake was NEAR a blue ribbon winning cake, not a winner itself.

But my Dundee cake is awesome, nonetheless.  Just saying.

The main reason I decided to submit to the ethnic baking category at this year's State Fair is that these Norwegian cake things called Kransekake always seem to win...and they annoyingly always put little Norwegian flags on top.  Like "Look at me!  I'm a Norwegian cake and I'm better than you!"  Living in a state with tons of Scandinavians, it makes some sense that they win.  The cakes are also what I will call "super fancy."  Google them to see a full one....Go ahead, I'll wait.

See?!

There are other countries and ethnic groups who have similarly fancy cakes, but they all have a significant tradition of what I will call "rich people."  The two sides of my family are mostly Irish and Scottish, respectively.  Neither of these Celtic peoples have a tradition of crazy-fancy things in general (well, except for plaid. Plaid is fancy.).  And they both have a well-earned reputation as frugal people who are more humble and practical.

Plus, that Norwegian thing barely counts as a cake.  You don't even slice it.  Gah! What kind of cake isn't slice-able, I ask you?!  (And I answer, a cake that is obviously actually a stack of cookies....oh, well.)

So, basically, I wanted to beat the froo-froo Scandinavian things. At least partially because middle-school me had to defend my Scottish last name because it was called "weird" by all the Scandinvian-named kids in my suburban Twin Cities classroom.  But mostly because it is itself annoying....and not really even a cake.  (Hey, at least I'm honest about my motivations!)

Anyway, Dundee cake is a dessert with hundreds of variations.  Like marmalade, it was first produced on a commercial level by James and Janet Keiller of Dundee, Scotland.  In my research I've seen it made with different types of sugar, with different fruits, in varying sizes, etc.  I've seen people who wrap it tightly and then "feed" it rum, brandy, or whiskey over a period of weeks or months.  I've seen recipes with booze, without booze, with marmalade inside, painted with marmalade outside, etc.  This is my recipe.  It is loosely based off the version in the book A Feast of Scotland by Janet Warren, but I did make a number of changes from hers.

Ingredients
For Cake:

• 2 cups mixed, dried, non-citrus fruit (I used equal parts golden raisins, currants/zante raisins, traditional raisins, dried cherries.)
• Approximately 2 cups whiskey for soaking fruit (Select a sweet variety--not smokey or peaty)
• ½ cup candied peel or dried, sweetened oranges, chopped into small pieces (Yeah, just try to find candied citrus in MN in the summer!  Luckily, right now Trader Joe's sells dried, sweetened orange slices that work nicely)
• Scant ¼ cup roughly ground almonds (I made this by putting raw almonds in a freezer bag, putting the bag between two towels, and beating on it with a mallet. Seriously.) 
• Scant ½ cup almond flour (This stuff is pricey!  If you have a food processor, you can probably make it yourself.  Then again, you might just make almond butter that way.  I'm not sure.)
• 1 cup butter or margarine 
• 1 cup sugar (I used half dark-brown and half white in my practice baking, and all white in my final version.  Mostly because I forgot when I made the final one.  ooops!)
• Grated rind of one large (or two small) lemons
• 3 eggs
• 2 ¼ cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 Tablespoon milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• Raw almonds (at least 45, for decoration on top of cake)

For Milk Glaze:

• 2 ½ Tablespoons sugar
• ¼ cup milk

Directions:

1. The day before making the cake (and at least 2 days before serving cake), soak the fruit:
• Put mixed dried fruit (but not orange pieces) in a container and pour in whiskey so that all fruit is covered.  
• Stir fruit to mix, cover container, and let sit overnight in the refrigerator.
2. Before beginning to make cake, blanch almonds (See previous post for illustrated directions)
3. Grease and line the base and sides of an 8-inch circular cake pan, then grease the lining.
4. Pre-heat oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit.
5. Drain whiskey off fruit, return fruit to container, and then mix in orange pieces, ground almonds, and almond flour  
6. Beat the butter/margarine until soft and creamy
7. Add sugar and lemon rind and beat until light and fluffy
8. In a smaller bowl, beat eggs lightly, then add gradually to the butter/sugar mixture, beating well between additions.
9. In a separate bowl, sift baking powder and flour together.
10. Stir flour mixture, 1 Tbsp. milk, vanilla, and fruit into butter/egg/sugar mixture.
11. Spoon batter into cake pan (it will be very thick), spread batter to sides, and then put a slight hollow in the center.
    
12. Place almonds on the cake surface in a decorative pattern (circles are traditional). Do not press almonds down into batter, but make sure they are touching batter and not just perched on top. 
    
13. Bake at 325 degrees Fahrenheit for 90 minutes and then check with a cake tester or toothpick.  Bake a few more minutes, if necessary, until cake tester comes out clean.
14. While cake is baking, make milk glaze by warming milk and then stirring in sugar until it is dissolved
15. Add milk glaze to cake-top with a brush or a spoon, and bake for 3 to 4 more minutes.  (Almonds will look shiny and the glaze will help keep almonds on top of cake.) 
    
    
    
    
16. Cool cake in pan for at least 15 minutes, then turn out and cool completely on wire rack, removing lining papers.
17. Wrap cake in aluminum foil and let sit at room temperature for at least a day before serving.