Chocolate Adventure Contest time!

Look! It's THIS time of year again! Sandwich cookies this year!

 

I've already got my thinking cap on. Christmas is the perfect time of year to do cookie experimentation. So exciting!

TGIP Field Trip: The Sweet Tooth Fairy

I'm starting a new occasional feature: Field Trips! I like to visit bakeries to see which ones I like. To see which ones I would visit when I don't feel like (or have time for) baking myself. To get ideas for baking projects. And of course, to eat delicious treats! I might even make a habit of finding bakeries to visit when we go on family vacations. Get an idea of what's going on in the baking world outside my own backyard. And I'll share all my experiences with you in words and (hopefully) beautiful photographs.

First up: The Sweet Tooth Fairy. This company started out (if memory serves) as an online only cupcake business. They have grown rapidly and now have 5 locations. And with good reason. Often, cupcakes don't have the right proportions for my taste. They have too much frosting, the frosting is applied to make the cupcake too tall. You can't actually pick it up, take a bite, and get the right amount of cake and frosting in that bite. That is not at all the case with Sweet Tooth Fairy cupcakes. They are perfectly proportioned. No fork required.

(Cupcakes pictured clockwise from top left: Va-NIE-lla Squared, Root Beer Float, Strawberry Shortcake, Pumpkin Chocolate Chip)

They also have a variety of really wonderful flavors. I've tasted several. In fact, the last time we got cupcakes, Prima, Seconda and I passed our cupcakes to each other so we could taste that many more flavors. Their cupcakes are moist and delicious. Their frostings have a perfect consistency and are not too sweet (with one exception). They also make Cakebites, which the girls and I really like, though mr. doesn't.

(Cakebites pictured: German Chocolate, Double Chocolate Fudge, Fairyfetti, Coconut, Lemon, Red Velvet)

It's like a more dense and moist cake cut into small pieces and dipped in a more glaze-like frosting. Lovely little treats. The bars were kind of unimpressive, but that could be because the one I tasted had been in the bakery box on our counter for a couple of days before I ate it.

Some specifics:

• Red Velvet Cupcake--has a hint of almond in the frosting that I really liked. The Va-NIE-lla Squared cupcake had the same hint. Really lovely.
  

• Root Beer Float Cupcake--when I asked the girl at the counter about it she said it was a root beer cake with a vanilla ice cream frosting. I was sort of mystified at the idea of ice cream flavored frosting, but it was! It had a thicker consistency than most frosting, so it stayed like a little scoop on top of the cupcake, and it tasted like vanilla ICE CREAM.

• Chocolate Peppermint Cupcake--perfect wintertime dessert.

• Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cupcake--I haven't tasted this, but mr. has. A modern conundrum: what is really the difference between a pumpkin muffin and a pumpkin cupcake? He's very clear--theirs is a cupcake, not a muffin.

• Strawberry Shortcake Cupcake--This is the only item that I've tasted that I would say is too sweet. The frosting...if I'm being honest...hurt my teeth.

• Cakebites--My favorites are Egg Nog and Fairyfetti. I have no idea what it is that the Fairyfetti tastes like--ground up fairies? If so, they're delicious! It almost tastes like a sugar cookie--but cake.

(pictured: Cookies n' Cream Bar, Peppermint Chocolate Brownie, Seven Layer Bar)

TGIP Rating--The Sweet Tooth Fairy--Highly Recommended. I would not be ashamed at all to show up at a party with their goodies in my hands, rather than a dessert I baked myself.

ETA 2/7: I tried their "Foxy Bar" on Friday...YUM. Butterscotchy, marshmallowy, deliciousness.

Midweek Projects 3: Watergate Cake--A Prima Project

Feeling nostalgic. Kind of. Remember when recipes were basically just a list of pre-packaged ingredients you could find at any grocery store: one 14.5 oz can of fruit cocktail, one box yellow cake mix, one box vanilla instant pudding, etc.? I appreciate the convenience of these kinds of ingredients. I appreciate the fact that their wide availability revolutionized the way we cook in our homes. I don't particularly like to bake using these kinds of ingredients anymore (with this notable exception). And, god knows, I mercilessly mock people who've made a career out of using these kinds of ingredients. But, BUT, they are great for young kids who are learning to cook. There's less chance of failure or less than desirable results, so it builds confidence in cooking ability while a child is learning techniques such as measuring, cracking eggs, etc. That's how I started out baking: packaged cake mixes, packaged brownie mixes.

My Prima and her friends make up skits to perform for their class at school. They call themselves the Lima Beans. (Keep reading--this does have something to do with baking)


They've gone high-tech since Prima got a Flip video camera for Christmas. They decided they wanted to do a Lima Beans Birthday skit and film it. Naturally, a birthday requires a cake. AND, coincidentally, Prima had found a recipe for a green cake in one of her American Girls cookbooks. This one to be exact:


This American Girl (Julie) is from the 1970's, and the recipes in this book are "70's inspired". The Pistachio Cake recipe is original. From when Jell-O first introduced pistachio pudding.


Which, it needs to be said, doesn't taste anything like pistachio. This cake is sometimes called Watergate Cake, and the reason for that...is the stuff of urban legends. Go here to see some interesting history and original Watergate Cake recipes from the 1970's. I love stuff like that.

For me, it was too sweet, too processed. BUT, Prima did it almost completely by herself (I had to help with frosting the cake--it's harder when you're using a loose, cool whip-y frosting), and she felt great about the result.

It did make me want to come up with a modern version of it. One that actually tastes like pistachios. Of course, there's the Aunt Sassy Cake in BAKED: Explorations, which I fully intend to make this Spring. But I want something that is very light with a (real) whipped cream frosting, and is reminiscent of the Watergate Cake. Perhaps not so...green.


Will add it to the list of projects to do.


P.S. I sing the praises of silicone bakeware. I might have to start amassing my own collection (this one belongs to Prima).

Midweek Kitchen Confessions 19: Why is it...

...that I get teary whenever I read about Julia Child? Maybe because it seems like she is the godmother of the food appreciation movement in this country--a movement that has brought countless joys to my life. Maybe because she had a passionately devoted man by her side, a true partner, an experience that I relate to. Maybe because I've only starting learning about her life recently, years after I used to watch her shows on public television, and I wish I had known more about her then.

Read/listen to this.

And read this as well.


I can't tell you how much I wish for a similar (and similarly lovingly crafted) blue pegboard in my kitchen.

I'm hoping against hope that I get to see this over the weekend.