Mini Cocoa Madeleine

I finally got to use my mini madeleine pan! Mini baked things are awesome. I made these one snowy afternoon before heading out for girls night.


The recipe came from a random desserts magazine I picked up around Christmas in line in the supermarket. They're REALLY hard not to eat straight out of the oven, especially because they're so mini, I just want to keep snacking on them by the handfuls. Thankfully the recipe made almost 4 pans worth!

I dusted them with powdered sugar before transporting them to the party, they were pretty darn good.

I wish they had more of the shell definition though. My batter had some rather large bubbles in it, I'll have to google what to do about that... hm...


Until then, please check out the new additions to my flickr baking set AND my new adventures in ice cream set!

Pomegranate Christmas Cake!

The day after Chirstmas I was heading to my moms for a Christmas dinner with the other half of the fam, and I wanted to bring this pomegranate Christmas cake.

Although they were calling for a snow storm in the afternoon, dinner was still on so I woke up early in the morning to get my baking on.

The recipe I used frosted the cake with creamcheese frosting but since most people have a love/hate relationship with creamcheese frosting, I used what I had on hand to make whipped cream frosting.


Here's my notes from delicious:

line pans with parchment! used 7 1/2 inch round pans, baked 25 min. used 3 whole eggs instead of 6 egg whites (sub 1 whole egg for 2 egg whites) tasted fine, not as white. made 5 "pomegranate wells". Would add 2 more next time.

Pomegranate syrup never really "syruped," let simmer extra 10 min. did thicken slightly as it cooled. Just enough for between 2 layers and top layer, and 5 wells.

Frosted with whipped cream frosting. sprinkled with granulated sugar for snow effect but had melted into frosting by the time it was ready to serve, sprinkle right before serving next time.

While mine isn't as pretty as miss sprinkle bakes, it tasted fabulous, would definitely make it again.

Christmas Mini Cupcake Trio

My blog sort of lives in the past, that's not very attractive, but here it's still Christmas apparently! :oD

Dave and I had 3 stops to make on Christmas, so since I'm crazy I baked up 3 different mini cupcakes to cart around to each Christmas party with me! And they all came out incredible!


Mini one: Hot cocoa cupcake
Chocolate cupcake with marshmallow frosting


This site has some amazing cupcakes. No recipes have failed me yet from it! Marshmallow frosting was good, but not as sturdy as I would of hoped. I just didn't see marshmallow cream at the store, so I used the substitution below for marshmallow cream:

For 1 cup marshmallow cream heat 16 large or 160 miniature marshmallows + 2 tsp corn syrup in the top of a double boiler.

Seemed to work out fine? But it never formed hard peaks when I added my whites to the marshmallow cream, perhaps I didn't whip the egg whites enough? I'll try again with more patience.

Mini Two: Gingerbread
Gingerbread cupcake with vanilla buttercream frosting


This was delicious, it might of been my favorite out of the trio. I should of spent more time with the frosting and added more powdered sugar, but had places to go, dammit. I always forget to sprinkle the cupcakes as soon as I frost them! Otherwise the sprinkles just roll off!

Mini Three: Red Velvet Peppermint
Red velvet cupcake with peppermint buttercream frosting


This is the second time I've made these red velvet cupcakes and they turned out great this time around as well. (Here was the first try.) I think they were everyone's favorite out of the trio.