JAMSquared

My first thoughts of circus food are popcorn, pretzels and hot dogs. However, I didn’t want to deal with manning a grill for Jessica’s birthday party, so we ordered pizza from Cici’s instead. Along with the pizza, I had fresh popcorn popped in my new popcorn machine (bought partly for the party and partly for the popcorn fiend inside me), pretzels, peanut-butter filled pretzel nuggets, peanuts in the shell (that may not have even been touched), fruit salad, cherry punch, iced tea and cupcakes. I also had ice cream, but I forgot to get it out of the freezer.

Food Table Midway Through Party

Cherry Punch

This punch was super delicious and I intend to make it again sometime. I doubled the recipe for the party and served it in beverage dispenser. I would not serve this punch again in this kind of serving ware as the pineapple clogged the spigot and unclogging it made for a mess.

Source: Reiman publication insert

Ingredients:

• 1 6-oz. can frozen lemonade concentrate, thawed
• 1 6-oz. can frozen limeade concentrate, thawed
• 1 20-oz. can pineapple chunks, undrained
• 2 cups water
• 2 liters cherry soda, chilled (I used Cherry Crush)
• 2 liters ginger ale, chilled
• lemon and lime slices, optional

Directions:

In a blender, combine the lemonade and limeade concentrates and pineapple; cover and blend until smooth. Pour into a gallon-size container; stir in water. Store in the refrigerator.

To serve, pour the mixture into a punch bowl; add cherry soda and ginger ale. Garnish with lemon and lime slices if desired.

Yield: about 6 quarts

Cupcakes

I made 3 batches of cupcakes: 1 double of the moist chocolate, 1 of the orange applesauce made using a vegan butter substitute and the frosting tinted blue, and 1 double of the orange applesauce omitting the pecans. I made these all the day/evening before the party. Our nephew Dawson helped add the sprinkles on the applesauce cupcakes. I liked both recipes. I preferred the taste of the non-lactose-free version of orange applesauce cupcakes and am extremely thankful I’m not lactose intolerant. I also think the orange applesauce tasted better the day of the party than they did a few days later.

Jessica’s cake was a 4-in. diameter two-layer affair. The bottom layer was the moist chocolate and the top layer was the orange applesauce and it was all frosted with the orange applesauce frosting and covered with colored sprinkles.

Moist Chocolate Cake

Source: The Taste of Home Baking Book

Ingredients:

• 1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 cup sugar
• 3 tablespoons baking cocoa
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 6 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 1 tablespoon white vinegar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup cold water
• confectioner’s sugar

Directions:

In a large mixing bowl, combine the flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda and salt. Using a spoon, make three wells in the dry ingredients. Pour oil into one, vinegar into another and vanilla into the third. Slowly pour water over all. Beat on low speed until thoroughly combined (batter will be thin).

Pour into a greased 8-in. square baking dish. Bake at 350°F for 30-35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack. Dust with confectioner’s sugar. I did dust with confectioner’s sugar, but the next day for the party, the confectioner’s sugar had been absorbed by the cupcakes.

Yield: 9 servings

Orange Applesauce Cupcakes

Source: The Taste of Home Baking Book

Ingredients:

• 6 tablespoons butter, softened
• 1 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 egg
• 1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 teaspoon grated orange peel
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 cup chopped pecans

Frosting Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup butter, softened
• 2 cups confectioner’s sugar
• 1-1/2 teaspoons grated orange peel (I omitted since I had used all my orange peel in the cupcakes)
• 2 to 4 teaspoons orange juice

Directions:

In a mixing bowl, cream the butter and brown sugar until light and fluffy. Add egg; beat well. Beat in the applesauce, vanilla and orange peel. Combine the flour, baking powder, salt and baking soda; add to creamed mixture. Stir in pecans.

Fill paper-lined muffin cups half full. Bake at 350°F for 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool for 10 minutes before removing from pan to a wire rack to cool completely.

For frosting, in a small mixing bowl, beat butter and confectioner’s sugar. Add orange peel and enough orange juice to achieve spreading consistency. Frost cupcakes.

Yield: 1 dozen

Thanks for checking out all the details of Jessica’s Circus 1st Birthday. I hope you may find some of these details useful or inspiring for your next party. Previous posts: Part 1: Decorations, Part 2: The Party and Part 3: Favors and Thank Yous.

It’s been a while since I posted anything food related. That’s not saying I haven’t baked or cooked anything worth blogging about, just that other things are higher on my list of blogging priorities.

My friend Stephanie’s birthday was back in August. We went and celebrated with dinner at BJ’s. Stephanie is lactose intolerant and as such, most places don’t have dessert that is edible for her. So I made cupcakes to bring to dinner. I spent quite a while perusing recipes to find one that was just right. Did you realize that most cake mixes contain dairy? This eliminated a lot of doctored cake mix recipes. Finally, I came across one that sounded perfect. It has a jam center and Stephanie really likes linzer cookies, so how perfect is that.

I started getting out the ingredients and realized that the recipe called for milk. Oh jeez, how did I overlook that? I had hoped not to have to go to the store to make something for Stephanie, but alas that was not meant to be. I thought about looking for a different recipe, but I had my mind set on these jam-filled cupcakes. We went out for another reason and on the way home stopped at the grocery store where I ran in and picked up soy milk.

Stephanie with a Cupcake

Surprise Cupcakes

Source: Quick Cooking March/April 2002

Ingredients:

• 1 cup shortening
• 2 cups sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
• 3-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 5 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1-1/2 cups milk
• 3/4 cup strawberry or grape jelly (I used strawberry)

Directions:

In a mixing bowl, cream shortening and sugar. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in vanilla. Combine the flour, baking powder and salt; add to creamed mixture alternately with milk. Fill 36 greased or paper-lined muffin cups half full. Spoon 1 teaspoon jelly in the center of each.

Bake at 375°F for 16-20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted 1 in. from the edge comes out clean. Cool for 5 minutes; remove from pans to wire racks to cool completely. Decorate as desired.

Yield: 3 dozen

Surprise Cupcakes with Creamy White Icing

To decorate, I whipped up my MIL’s Creamy White Icing. This stuff is to die for. I tinted it blue since Stephanie likes blue and added some sprinkles.

Creamy White Icing

Source: Olivia Moore

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup butter-flavored shortening
• 2-1/2 teaspoons flour
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
• 3 cups confectioner’s sugar

Directions:

In a saucepan over low heat, melt shortening; add flour and salt. Slowly stir in milk. While stirring continuously, bring to a boil and boil for 1 minute. Remove from heat; add vanilla and confectioner’s sugar. Set pan in ice water to thicken while stirring to spreading consistency.

Yield: enough for 3 dozen cupcakes

Surprise Cupcakes with Creamy White Icing

My friend Mona is a big Yelper (is that a word?). She enjoys trying out restaurants and writing reviews of them for Yelp. She has written so many reviews that she is a Yelp elitest and gets to go to special Yelp parties. Not that long ago, she posted this photo on Facebook from her review of Hannah, a neighborhood cafe in San Jose.

Mona's Cupcake at Hannah

I was very inspired by this photo and the idea of raspberry cheesecake cupcakes and came up with following recipe. Now, having never been to Hannah, let alone San Jose, I have no clue if they are anything like Hannah’s, but I think they turned out pretty good. I would like to tweak it a bit (see italics for what I would like to do differently). I would also like to try this again with blackberries. My photo clearly does not make the cupcakes look as delicious as the one Mona tried, but I found them delicious. James wasn’t the biggest fan, but I wasn’t surprised since he doesn’t like raspberries. My parents, who were visiting them, liked them.

Raspberry Cheesecake Cupcakes

Raspberry Cheesecake Cupcakes

Source: me

Cheesecake Ingredients:

• 1 pint raspberries, washed and spun dry (I think two pints would be better, but I only had one)
• 3/4 cup plus 1-1/2 tablespoons sugar, divided (or 3/4 cup plus 2-1/2 tablespoons if using 2 pints of raspberries)
• 18 vanilla wafers
• 2 8-ounce packages cream cheese
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon lemon juice
• 1 to 1-1/2 tablespoons raspberry liqueur

Frosting Ingredients:

• 1 cup heavy whipping cream
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1 to 1-1/2 tablespoons raspberry liqueur
• 1 to 2 teaspoons red food coloring, optional (I had planned to use, but forgot)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350°F.

In small bowl, combine raspberries and 1-1/2 tablespoons sugar; set aside for 30 minutes. (If using 2 pints of raspberries, set aside the choicest 18 raspberries and combine remaining berries with 2-1/2 tablespoons with sugar.) Line muffin pans with paper liners. Place a vanilla wafer, flat side down, in each of the liners.

In mixing bowl, beat cream cheese, remaining sugar, eggs, lemon juice and raspberry liqueur until light and fluffy, approximately 15 minutes. Spoon majority of batter into lined muffin cups. Add 1-2 raspberries per muffin cup (2-3 if using 2 pints), using care to not add any of the excess liquid/syrup from the raspberry bowl. Cover with remaining batter, about 1 tablespoon per muffin cup. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes or until set. (I would suggest not putting both baking pans in the oven at the same time, especially if one pan is dark and one is light like mine.) Remove to wire racks to cool. Refrigerate overnight.

Just prior to serving, whip frosting ingredients until stiff peaks form (I would like to try adding in the ~2 teaspoons of excess liquid/syrup from the raspberry bowl). Pipe onto cupcakes. (Top with reserved 18 choicest berries.)

Yield: 18 cupcakes

About a week and a half ago, I made these delicious Blueberry Cheesecake Cupcakes with Cherry Buttercream Frosting. They were inspired by this delicious recipe and were made for two blogging events. The theme for the Cupcake Hero July blog event was red, white, and blue cupcakes. It was hosted by Nikki and CB; however, I am too late posting for it. Although, I am not too late for Sugar High Friday hosted by Food Blogga and created by The Domestic Goddess. The Sugar High Friday #45 theme was a berry dessert. I am sneaking in just under the wire on this one.

Blueberry Cheesecake Cupcakes

Source: me

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups blueberries, divided
• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
  
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
  
• 1/2 teaspoon plus 1/8 teaspoon salt
  
• 3/4 cup sugar, divided
  
• 1/3 cup vegetable oil
  
• 2 large eggs, divided
  
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 5-6 drops blue food coloring, optional
• 3/4 cup water
  
• 2 3-oz. packages cream cheese, softened

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease or paper-line 16 muffin cups.

Using a blender or food processor, puree 1/2 cup blueberries. Set aside. Combine flour, baking soda, and 1/2 teaspoon salt in small bowl. Beat 1/2 cup sugar, oil, 1 egg, vanilla extract and blue food coloring in large mixing bowl until blended. Beat in pureed blueberries; gradually beat in flour mixture alternately with water (batter will be thin).

Beat cream cheese, 1/4 cup sugar, 1 egg and 1/8 teaspoon salt in small mixer bowl until creamy. Stir in 1 cup blueberries.

Spoon batter into prepared muffin cups, filling 1/2 full. Spoon filling by rounded tablespoon over batter. Spoon remaining batter over filling. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean.

Yield: 16 cupcakes

Before Going in the Oven

Cherry Buttercream Frosting

Source: me

Ingredients:

• 3 cups confectioner’s sugar
• 1/3 cup butter, softened
• 1 to 3 tablespoons marischino cherry juice

Directions:

Mix confectioner’s sugar and butter in medium bowl with spoon or electric mixer on low speed. Stir in 1 tablespoon marischino cherry juice. Gradually beat in enough of remaining marischino cherry juice to make frostinig smooth and spreadable. If frosting is too thick, add more marischono cherry juice, a few drops at a time. If frosting becomes too thin, beat in a small amount of confectioner’s sugar.

Yield: enough for 16 cupcakes