Sister1's Wedding: Red Velvet Cupcakes and Pumpkin Whoopie Pies

This was such an epic weekend I’m going to split it into multiple posts.

Why you may wonder? Well, Sister1 is married! I have a brother-in-law! She is Mrs. N------!

She and Geoff tied the metaphorical knot at City Hall in San Francisco, and the reception was at our house in Petaluma. (Pictures to come – they are gorgeous!)

For her wedding she had two priorities: cute invitations and good desserts. And I’d say she accomplished both of those objectives to the max.

The food was catered but the desserts were Sister1 at her best. All I had to do was sit back, relax, and eat cupcakes for breakfast, lunch, and dinner for 4 days straight (oh woof! Luckily I did some Petaluma running too!).

Here’s the line-up (I will post recipes throughout this week)

Cupcakes:

Chai Tea Latte

Chocolate w/Chocolate Frosting

Chocolate w/Vanilla Frosting

Chocolate w/Mocha Frosting

Red Velvet

Vanilla Vanilla

Other Stuff:

Pumpkin Whoopie Pies

Dark Fudge Brownies

Coconut Macaroons

Lemon Burst Cookies

Chocolate Chip Cookies

Snickerdoodles

The crowd favorite was the Pumpkin Whoopie Pies. They used the same Brown Eyed Baker recipe I used, but with vanilla buttercream instead of peanut butter.

Geoff is taking the credit for these babies ("I stirred them and scooped them and took them out of the oven!"), and though Sister1 may see it differently, it doesn't really matter because they turned out fantastic!

Here's the recipe again.

Pumpkin Whoopie Pies (from Brown Eyed Baker)

3 cups all-purpose flour


2 tablespoons cinnamon


1 teaspoon baking powder


1 teaspoon baking soda


1 teaspoon salt


1 teaspoon ground ginger


½ teaspoon ground nutmeg


1 cup granulated sugar


1 cup dark brown sugar


1 cup canola or vegetable oil


3 cups chilled pumpkin puree (canned pumpkin)


2 eggs


1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat.

2. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, cinnamon, baking powder, baking soda, salt, ginger and nutmeg. Set aside.

3. In a separate bowl, whisk the granulated sugar, the dark brown sugar, and the oil together. Add the pumpkin puree and whisk to combine thoroughly. Add the eggs and vanilla and whisk until combined.

4. Gradually add the flour mixture to the pumpkin mixture and whisk until completely combined.

5. Use a small cookie scoop or a large spoon to drop a rounded, heaping tablespoon of the dough onto the prepared baking sheets, about 1 inch apart.

6. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes, making sure that the cookies are just starting to crack on top and a toothpick inserted into the center of a cookie comes out clean. The cookies should be firm when touched. Remove from the oven and let the cookies cool completely on a cooling rack.

And to get you started on the cupcakes, here's Sister1's Red Velvet Cupcakes with Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting (from Joy the Baker)

makes one dozen cupcakes, double recipe to make 2 9-inch layer cakes

4 Tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature

3/4 cup sugar

1 egg

3 Tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder

2 1/2 Tablespoons red food coloring

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 cup buttermilk

1 cup plus 2 Tablespoons all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1 1/2 teaspoons distilled white vinegar

In the bowl of a stand mixer fit with a paddle attachment, cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, about three minutes. Turn mixer to high and add the egg. Scrape down the bowl and beat until well incorporated.

In a separate bowl mix together cocoa, vanilla and red food coloring to make a thick paste. Add to the batter, mixing thoroughly until completely combined. You may need to stop the mixer to scrape the bottom of the bowl, making sure that all the batter gets color.

Turn mixer to low and slowly add half of the buttermilk. Add half of the flour and mix until combined. Scrape the bowl and repeat the process with the remaining milk and flour. Beat on high until smooth.

Turn mixer to low and add baking soda and white vinegar. Turn to high and beat a few more minutes.

Spoon batter into a paper lined cupcake baking pan and bake for 20-25 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the center cupcake comes out clean.

Let rest in the pan for 10 minutes, then place them of a cooling rack to cool completely before frosting.

Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting

adapted from Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook

double recipe to frost a 2 layer 9-inch cake

2 1/3 cups powdered sugar, sifted

3 Tablespoons butter, room temperature

4 ounces cream cheese, cold (I used room temperature)

scant 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Beat the powdered sugar, cinnamon, and butter together in the bowl of a stand mixer fit with a paddle attachment. Mix on medium-slow speed until it comes together and is well mixed.

Add the cream cheese all at once and beat on medium to medium-high until incorporated.

Turn the mixer to medium-high and beat for 5 minutes, or until the frosting becomes light and fluffy.

Do not over-beat as the frosting can quickly become runny.

Boston Dessert Week; Oreo Cupcakes

Welcome to Day 4, the last day of the first annual Boston Dessert Week. Take a moment to get sad...ok, now get happy! Because my final dessert post is about Oreo Cupcakes, and they're pretty amazing!!!

These babies were Jess's inspiration, Jess's project, and Jess's great success. I can only claim to have overseen the frosting-making (and by "oversee" I mean I watched closely, and made sure my fingers were in the bowl and my tongue on the eggbeaters...).

The cake is the Hershey's Perfectly Chocolate Chocolate Cake recipe from the Hershey's box, that by now everyone should know is the best chocolate cake recipe out there. Jess also put an Oreo in the bottom of each cupcake. 

And then to top things off, Oreo Frosting - Oh. My. God. So GOOOOOOD!!! We frosted them pre-dessert party (and post-run. Sidenote: I know I said I'd blog about my run - but really it was just a good workout with my old team. Nothing crazy, but everything that is good about college running). Anywho, it took A LOT of willpower for me not to OD on sugar right then and there. 

We started out frosting with a piping bag, but little chunks of Oreo kept clogging the tip...so we did the rest of the cupcakes with a knife.

Hershey's "Perfectly Chocolate" Chocolate Cake

(Source: Hersheys.com) 

Ingredients: 

- 2 cups sugar 

- 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour 

- 3/4 cup HERSHEY'S Cocoa 

- 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder 

- 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda 

- 1 teaspoon salt 

- 2 eggs 

- 1 cup milk 

- 1/2 cup vegetable oil 

- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract 

- 1 cup boiling water 

- 8-10 Oreo cookies, crushed or put through food processor (optional) 

 Directions: 1. Heat oven to 350°F. Grease and flour two 9-inch round baking pans (For cupcakes or other pan sizes, see variations listed below.) 

2. Stir together sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt in large bowl. Add eggs, milk, oil and vanilla; beat on medium speed of mixer 2 minutes. Stir in boiling water (batter will be thin). Pour batter into prepared pans. 

3. Bake 30 to 35 minutes or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes; remove from pans to wire racks. Cool completely.

CUPCAKES: Line muffin cups (2-1/2 inches in diameter) with paper bake cups. Heat oven to 350°F. Fill cups 2/3 full with batter. Bake 22 to 25 minutes. Cool completely. Frost. About 30 cupcakes.

Oreo Buttercream 

Ingredients: 

- 1 cup butter 

- 1 tsp. vanilla extract 

- 2 tbsp. water 

- 1 lb. confectioner's sugar (if you don't have a scale, it's approximately 4 cups) 

- 1 tbsp. meringue powder 

- 12-14 Oreos, finely crushed in food processor 

Directions: 1. In bowl of stand mixer, cream butter, vanilla, and water. 

2. Add confectioner's sugar, meringue powder, and crushed Oreos. Mix until well combined. 

3. At this point, your frosting will be very thick. To top cupcakes, it's better to have medium to thin consistency icing, so you'll have to add more water. I probably added another 2-3 tbsp. to get the desired consistency, but you'll want to add the water little by little to make sure you don't add too much. When it's the right consistency, it should be pretty easy to stir by hand (think about whether you'd be able to easily squeeze it out of a piping bag). If you accidentally make it too thin (runny), add more confectioner's sugar.

Recipe Source: Heather Drive

Boston Dessert Week: Rainbow Cake

Welcome to Day 2 of Boston Dessert Week. Get ready. Get set. 

Ta da! We did it. Just look at our Rainbow Cake!!!

WOW,  impressive right? This cake was a major group effort - I mean, a lot of anxiety went into making this cake as perfect as possible. 

The adventure started about two months ago, when I came across some unreal pictures on this blog. I want that! was all I could think. And my friends, Jess and Erin, felt the same. It immediately became their desktop wallpaper (Erin: "I seriously don't think I can look at this every day - it's killing me!") to tease them every time they opened their computers.

So what would be a good occasion for a project of such magnitude? We pondered this for a bit, and the answer soon came clear: Jess's birthday/Boston Dessert Party!!!

I will admit, along the way I had my doubts about the feasibility of this project. I mean, it's pretty complex. And I don't even like frosting that much, so the actual eating of the cake was not my goal...But now I can say that I have made a rainbow cake, and thoroughly document the adventure. Check. Yeah, that's right, be impressed. 

As far as recommending this recipe - I can't say the cake actually tasted that awesome. The frosting is ridiculously buttery, and the cake gets overpowered. We made the coconut cake, unlike the Whisk Kid recipe, but it didn't taste very coconutty in this context. If you're going for deliciousness, this is not really the cake for you. There are many more yummy recipes out there. 

BUT wow-factor-wise, well, just look at it! Nuf said. 

Here's how it went down:

On Friday night, we made the cake. We didn't use cake flour...which retrospectively, I think was a mistake. 

There is a difference between cake flour and all-purpose flour, and it affects the ratios of your batter. We didn't use a scale to measure out our batter. We just divided it into bowls 1/4 cup at a time (so that they would be as even as possible). We used fancy food coloring, rather than your typical Easter-egg-dying variety, which I think was a good call. 

The Cake:

Southern Coconut Cake
Makes an 8-inch triple layer cake

For the cake:

• 5 large egg whites
• ½ cup of milk
• 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract
• 3 cups of cake flour
• 2 and 1/3 cup sugar
• 4 ½ teaspoons of baking powder
• ½ teaspoon of salt
• 2 sticks of unsalted butter (8oz.) at warm room temperature
• 1 cup unsweetened coconut milk
• 2 ½ cups of sweetened flaked coconut for garnishing cake

Preheat the oven to 350F degrees. Butter the bottoms of three 8-inch round cake pans. Line the bottom of each pan with a parchment circle and butter the circle.

Put the egg whites in a bowl and whisk slightly. Add the ½ cup of milk and the vanilla and whisk to mix thoroughly; set aside.

In a large mixer bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. With the mixer on low, beat dry ingredients well in order to break up any lumps. Add the butter and coconut milk on low speed and beat just to combine. Raise the speed to medium and beat until light and fluffy about 2 minutes.

Add the egg white mixture in 2 or 3 additions, scraping the sides of the bowl after each addition. Divide the batter among the pans.

Because the layers are so thin, they only need to cook for about 15 minutes. Keep an eye on them!

Disaster #1 occurred when we tried to get the cakes out of the pans. Because they're so thin and fragile, they totally split in half. As in, we ran a knife around the edge, tapped the bottom, lifted it up, and huge chunks of cake were stuck to the bottom of the pan! Oh no!!! (If you've ever had this happen, you know the feeling I'm talking about.)

Luckily, I had a GENIUS idea. Like seriously, one of the best ideas I've ever had. Rather than continuing to ruin our cakes as they came out of their pans, and then trying to patch them back together, we started cutting them in half before taking them out of the pans! This enabled us to get a spatula under the most fragile center of the cake, and gently lift them out one half at a time. Then the two pieces could be put back together. When you frost the cake, no one can tell the difference! 

YES! Crisis averted.

We then froze the layers overnight. 

The next day, we made the frosting. It was really really REALLY nerve-wracking. I've told you before that I really try to avoid recipes that involve melting sugar in any way. Also, if you don't have a big mixer this would be really hard. It took a long time to beat...holding a hand mixer for that long would be a major challenge...

This recipe recommends making the frosting in 2 batches, which we did. 

To fill and crumb coat:
9 egg whites
1 ¾ c sugar
4 sticks of butter, room temp
2 tsp lemon extract

To frost:
5 egg whites
1 c sugar
2 sticks butter, room temp
1 tsp lemon extract

Cook the egg whites and sugar in a small saucepan over medium heat, whisking constantly, until the sugar is completely dissolved (test by rubbing some between your fingers. If it's completely smooth, it's done). Pour into another bowl (a stand mixer is preferable) and whip on high speed until room temp. Then, on a medium-slow speed, add the butter, waiting until each piece is completely

 incorporated before adding the next. After all the butter has been added, turn the mixer back to high speed and whip until it has come together, about five minutes. Add the extract, beat briefly and then use.

And a tip: if it curdles (aka, you're beating it for like 10 minutes, and it's not coming together, and then suddenly it starts looking like cottage cheese), 

1. Don't panic

2. Turn on your stove and heat the frosting over medium heat for like 20 seconds.

3. Return to the mixer and beat.

This isn't supposed to happen (meaning, ideally the frosting would come together on its own), but it happened to us both times. 

Also, you could probably half the second batch of frosting - we had a lot left over. The frosting does spread very easily. And because our layers were frozen, it set very nicely. 

But make sure that you serve the cake at room temperature, otherwise the frosting will just feel like you're eating butter. 

Our cake was a masterpiece. Very impressive-looking. So if you decide to make one yourself - good luck! Let me know how it goes!

The Weekend Report: Boston Dessert Week

Basically, my weekend can be summed up in one short sentence: I went to Boston and ate a LOT of dessert. 

But, since telling the short version of a story is not exactly my style...this week is now officially, dun-dun-dun-ta-tummmmm...

Boston Dessert Week! 

(Much like New York Fashion Week - but better) and I will be blogging about all things Boston and dessert-related for the next few days (at least!). 

The only person who may not be happy about Boston Dessert Week is my dad (him: You write about food too much. Why would I want to read about food of no one's going to make it for me? Me: Why wouldn't you??) But rest assured Daddy-o, I will be including some running posts this week as well!

If you think I am obsessed with desserts, you should meet my friends Jess and Erin. These girls are impressive - they put my love of all things sweet to shame. They are frosting queens.

 Cupcake blog-reading literary experts. Is there a tasting event in the city 3 months from now? They will know about it. New cake book coming out? They will be on the pre-ordering list. And most importantly, when their good friend (yours truly) drives 9 hours from DC, they will be there next to me: planning, baking, and enjoying an all-out dessertfest to the max!!!

Here is an excerpt from the invite:

I fancy any occasion for friends to bake me cakes and eat copious amounts of buttercream alongside me. Touch bellies with the birthday girl on Saturday October 24 and dig into dessert until those bellies burst. A show-stopping rainbow layer cake via Erin and Mollie will serve as the centerpiece, but don't worry--there will be more than enough sweet treats to make your teeth hang on for dear life. If you even try and show up without a baked good in tow, get out of my face. The more desserts the merrier! Sign up below with what you plan to bake/buy (if bought, it better be worth my while) and get excited frosting fiends, cupcake cravers and layer cake lushes--it's my 24th birthday!

And let me tell you, we do things right. We've been sending frantic emails since September - selecting the perfect recipes to compliment one anothers' dishes, and ensure that the party's dessert selection is balanced and awesome! (And when I say "balanced," I'm talking about chocolate to frosting to vanilla to ice cream to condiments ratios...nothing even remotely relating to health!) 

As party-time approaches, you can gauge our excitement by our volume. We get louder and louder, more and more high-pitched, as the desserts get closer and closer to ready-for-consumption! (As a general rule, I really hate shrieking girls, but I find that in the presence of 12 different desserts - all destined for my tummy - I truly can't help myself!)

Ohmygod, what if we don't have enough! I hope everyone comes! I hope everyone likes what we made! What if the cake doesn't work! I'm so anxious right now!!!

But obviously, people came. And how could a party centered around dessert-eating not be awesome? I mean really, if no one but me, Jess, and Erin showed up, that would have been enough - we talk at 90mph and eat desserts at a similar pace!

This week I will blog about a different dessert every day. But to give you an idea of what we had (try not to keel over and die with jealousy/thought-induced sugar coma):

- Rainbow cake

- Pumpkin chocolate pie

- Oreo cupcakes

- Rocotta-pear pancakes

- Caramel corn

- Ice cream pie with pretzel crust

- Pecan brownies

- Pumpkin cream cheese condiment

- Oatmeal raisin pumpkin cookie cake

- Rainbow chip cookies

- Graham cracker peanut butter balls

- Pumpkin muffins with cream cheese frosting

If you think you might want to replicate our EXTRAVAGANZA, here are the rules:

- Only invite people who like desserts (last year at a dessert party - haha, yes, we've now had 3! - my roommate kept "joking" 

about bringing a pizza or something like that. 

Um...not funny, get out of my face.)

- Everyone who comes needs to bring something delicious. 

- Just a personal preference/life-rule: no pants, no problems. I recommend leggings and a loose-fitting shirt.

- No limits and no judgement.

- Enjoy!!! 

I  recommend eating something light and salty pre-desserts. Otherwise you run the risk of OD-ing on sugar too early in the evening (ask Erin!). Make sure you check back tomorrow, and the next day, and the next day for more dessert awesomeness!!!