My, oh my, I'm so busy!

And I haven't posted for a month. Thought about it . . . hmmm, should I post or watch continue to watch Homeland . . . hmmm. 

That's what happens when you learn how to use your cable box and see what kind of free stuff you can watch. Now, I'm suck into Homeland and I need to make it stop. If only Homeland would make want to exercise at the same time. You know like a combination Homeland and Insanity workout. 

I've been really busy and not with baking stuff. Been working late at my job-job. Thank goodness, I was smart enough to ask if I could work from home Thanksgiving week.  On Monday and Tuesday, I put in 12 hour+ days only stopping when WG came home from the restaurant. But I have been making . . .

"WHAT?" you asked

Lilikoi Tea Cupcakes with Lilikoi Jelly filling and cream cheese frosting

that lilikoi filling peaking out under the frosting

Using stuff that I got and made from Hawaii--Lilikoi tea and Lilikoi Jelly. The jelly looks a bit scary--like an experiment gone bad. A dark almost black color. But don't let that fool you it is soooooo good. {see my post on the making of the lilikoi jelly} Found some frozen passion fruit at my supermarket and will be testing out some lilikoi [now do I really call it lilikoi if I got it from the frozen food section my suburban supermarket?] curd next. Maybe I'll try some lilikoi bars. 

All filled with goodness

So these cupcakes are version of my earl grey cupcakes with orange marmalade filling. The jelly was a little loose so I heated it up and add some cold butter to thicken up. Tested out at work first, it was a thumbs up. Then made a batch for the restaurant.

100 cupcake plus and incredibly busy menapausal woman

It just started a hour ago. Cleaning, organizing and prepping before the real baking start. Have already prepped 2 batches of swiss buttercream [I think I need make another], 2 batches of cream cheese frosting [for sure I need another], lemon curd, raspberry jam, steeped the milk with earl grey tea and measure out 3 batches of dry ingredients. 

I'm still working out what I'm making, this is what I have committed to so far:

• Earl Grey cupcakes with lemon curd filling and cream cheese frosting
• Strawberry cupcakes with strawberry jam filling and strawberry cream cheese frosting
• Blackberry Jam cupcakes with vanilla swiss buttercream
• Red Velvet cupcake with chocolate ganache filling and cream cheese frosting
• Chocolate cupcake with fudgy chocolate frosting [may have a little surprise filling]
• I'm thinking of doing an apple spice cupcake or orange cupcake that probably will be the last batch I'll make

And I'm hoping that I get all of these done so I can whip up a couple of batches of macarons for the restaurant as valentine's promotion. I haven't even promoted that yet as I don't know if I can make it. But if I do, it will be raspberry and meyer lemon macarons. I'm making them smaller than I've testing so I can give out 1 per person or 2 per couple. There will be lots of piping in my future--my arm already hurt.

Okay, off I go to prep some almond flour for my macarons. I have faith that I can do it all. Pictures to come. 

100+ cupcakes Part II

I'm baking up another order for a 100+ cupcakes for a Valentine's function @ my office.  I'm hoping to make up 6 batches, but not sure if I'm making 6 flavors or if I should make a gluten-free version--most people don't like the rice flour version  as texture is too chewy [unless you are crazy for mochi, like me].

This is the menu so far but it will changes as it gets closer

• red velvet with ganache filling and cream cheese frosting
• earl grey with lemon curd filling and cinnamon cream cheese frosting
• blackberry spice with blackberry jam filling and vanilla swiss buttercream
• chocolate with raspberry jam filling and ganache frosting
• vanilla with raspberry jam and ganache frosting
• strawberry with strawberry buttercream

Maybe's

• coconut with coconut buttercream
• carrot with cream cheese frosting
• mocha with ganache filling and  mocha buttercream
• tiramisu with marscapone frosting

The maybe's are ones that I'd like to try and need to test out. The coconut one as I've been itching to try out the recipe. I hope to better prepared as I have at least of year more under my belt of baking in mass quantities. 

Anyone has a favorite or a suggestions. I'll try and get some pictures as I test. February 13th will be a crazy day for me. Here's my last 100+ cupcakes I did.

I haven't posted in over a month

I know, I know. I've been busy, baking every chance I get and I still can't keep up. Cheesecake, cheesecake, cheesecake. aaargh! But this week, I'm hoping to cook up a cheese pumpkin, that I got from the fruit/veggie deliver at the office, to make pumpkin cheesecake and the rest for some pumpkin pancakes. I got the cheese pumpkin because it's suppose be the best to make this out of.

I was also busy baking up some Halloween cupcakes (not my favorite holiday since events of last year) for a friend's son, spiders and ghosts. I didn't realize that black frosting was so hard to make. Thank goodness for the internet. Just touch green to get my black.  I hope the kids enjoy the cupcakes.

Here's some picture of the pumpkins, spiders and ghost. The light orange pumpkin is the cheese pumpkin.

Recipes testing and my broken cake

UPDATE: 9.10.11

I crossed off what I tested.
_____________________

With the long weekend here, I'll have some time [one day] to do some recipe testing. Here's my list of what I want to test:

nutella rice crispie treats

chocolate malted cupcakes

plum crumble or crisp

brownies

mango something

chocolate dobash--like Delite bakery in Hawaii--maybe turn into cupcake

cream puffs

mochi something

macarons

My recipe testing list is so long and always growing. Most likely, I will only get to 2 of them. I also have make up a cheesecake. That extra day isn't enough.

As for my broken cake, I tried making one of my favorites, Sour Cream Apricot Cake for the restaurant. It's a very moist and delicate [not too sweet] bundt cake with chopped dried apricots soaked in some kind of liqueur [I used some Applekorn]. I thought it would be great with dollop of whipped cream. Well, when I filpped it out of the pan [I knew it was going to be bad when I had to shake the pan to death], only the bottom half came out, the top was stuck in the pan. I guess I did a very sucky job and greasing and flouring the pan. 

Oh well, not Oat and the staff at the restaurant can enjoy my broken cake. I tried it, it was delicious. Maybe next week, the customers can enjoy, too.

I'll post some pics of my testing soon.

boxes of cupcakes

Just wanted to show off few more cupcake photos. I got a bit obsessed with the batches [most of my recipes make 18 to 24 cupcakes] and how I was going to get to a 100. Ended up making the last box with raspberry [1/2 batch] and red velvet [1/2 batch to event. 1/2 batch to restaurant and the customer's favorite] to soothe my obsession and putting me over 100.

100+ cupcakes

And yes, I'm crazy and exhausted.

Decided to do this project/job a couple of weeks ago. I thought I could get word out about the restaurant and what an accomplishment to make 100+ cupcakes.

Here's some pics of the cupcakes I wanted to share.

Naked

Frosted

Flavors made: Red Velvet with ganache filling and vanilla cream cheese frosting; Fresh Raspberry with Vanilla buttercream; Chocolate with nutella filling and Chocolate buttercream; Chai Tea with orange marmalade filling and caradomon spice cream cheese frosting; Orange  with passion fruit filling and passion fruit buttercream topped with toffee crunch; White Peach with vanilla cream cheese frosting. 

Hope people enjoy it!