Friday Night Dish

Good morning lovelies! I've been thinking of incorporating more blog posts about my culinary adventures beyond cupcakes, to include insights and reviews of restaurants, farmer's markets, and recipes tried at home. Let me know if you want more posts like this, or strictly cupcakes.

Friday night is typically date night for my boyfriend and I. I'm the type of person that will try anything once and I'm always looking for new restaurants. Ithaca, NY is a mecca for foodies in upstate New York. Jared and I have many favorites, some places even recognize us now, but last night we tried a new-to-us restaurant in the Ithaca Commons called Mia. This pan-Asian restaurant was beautiful, had excellent service and the food was amazing. I didn't take pictures of the entire meal because I was way too excited to dive into the food.

For the appetizer we had the special of the night, which was a tuna sashimi with a mango salsa and seaweed salad. For the main course I had the GrawPraw Goong, which the website lists as "stir fried prawns with snow peas, onion, and fresh chili pepper in Lex’s hot Thai basil sauce." It was so so so good! However, it was also so so so hot! As in 3 glasses-of-water hot. I love spicy foods, but this was just too much for me. Knowing what I know now, if I ever order this dish again, I would ask them to tone the spicyness down a notch. Besides the burning, it was extremely tasty. 

For dessert Jared and I both ordered the Dark Chocolate and White Chocolate Mousse. How do I put this without seeming cliched? It was heaven. It was the perfect portion of a white chocolate mousse sandwiched between a chocolate crumb crust and a top layer of dark chocolate mousse. In a word, decadence. On the side of the plate, was a pretty design of caramel sauce. I'm kicking myself now for not taking a picture of it. I have to say too, that this mousse was even better, in my humble opinion and taste buds, than the very well-known and delicious Earl Grey Chocolate Mousse served just down the Commons at Madeline's. 

On the agenda for this weekend is Mocha Cupcakes with Chocolate Ganache for my big sister's birthday dinner tonight!

Keep Calm...

And have a Cupcake! How cute is my new phone cover?!

Peanutbutter Cupcakes

These delightful peanut butter chocolate cupcakes were made for a client, who's husband is obsessed with the classic flavor combination. Please excuse the rather crappy quality of these photos, they were taken in a rush and with poor lighting. Anywho, these bad boys are a dark chocolate cupcake with a mini Reese's peanut butter cup baked on the inside. A light and fluffy peanut butter buttercream frosting is topped off by a halved mini Reese's cup. PS. A little bird told me that the birthday boy ate eleven of the dozen and left only one for his wife. They're that good.

Lemon Raspberry Cupcakes

I made these little darlings for a jewelry party held at my boyfriend's mother's house, and the occasion obviously called for girly cupcakes. The cupcake is a light lemon cupcake, with a raspberry buttercream frosting, topped with these adorable pearl sprinkles.

Bridgette's Birthday Cupcakes

 

For the birthday party of my boyfriend's brother and his brother's girlfriend (who's birthday happen to fall right next to each other's on the calendar), I was asked to create some cupcakes that combined the girly colors of pink and purple with his love of vanilla cupcakes. I have to admit that I cheated and used a boxed white cake mix (oh the horror!), however I completely handmade and dyed the butter cream frosting.

Misadventures of the Red Velvet Cupcake

Confession: I am obsessed with red velvet cupcakes and cream cheese frosting. However some days you win and others, well, you lose. These cupcakes did not turn out according to plan. I'm not sure what happened, I think I over-mixed the batter when it came time to add the dry ingredients and then every single one of the cupcakes fell. Then the cream cheese frosting was too soupy and WOULD NOT HOLD. Oh sorry was I shouting there? I will not be bested by the red velvet! But for now here are some pictures from this past Saturday's misadventures in the making of red velvet cupcake.

Dark Chocolate Cupcakes with Chocolate Buttercream Frosting

Theses cupcakes are so rich and chocolatey, they will sooth even the most manic of choco-holics. The light butter cream chocolate frosting on top is the perfect compliment to the rich dark chocolate cupcake.

1. Whip the unsalted butter and sugar into submission.

2. Add the room temperature egg and combine well.

 3. Beat in the vanilla extract.

4. Next add the buttermilk and blend on low speed and blend well. Beat until mixture smooths out.

5. Sift cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, and flour.

 

Does this only happen to me or does everyone else always get cocoa powder everywhere when baking with it?!

 6. Once the dry ingredients are sifted together, finely chop the bittersweet chocolate and add to the dry mixture.

7. Slowly add the dry mixture to the batter; beat until smooth.

7. Evenly distribute the batter into 12 lined cupcake tins and pop into a 350 degree oven for approx. 18-24 minutes.

For the chocolate butter cream frosting whip together the butter, confectioners sugar, vanilla extract, and cocoa powder and decorate.