lemon bomb

out of the dark chocolate recesses of winter, the lighter warmer days of spring (as well as a partaay at the tiny raccoon's) inspired us to make these cupcakes of delicious lemony abandon. plus, having reached the pinnacle of our chocolate-baked-good prowess with the ridiculously amazing birthday cake for mona, we wanted to learn how to bake things that didn't include chocolate.

heresy? or just plain delicious?

the batter for these lemon cupcakes is smooth and very thick. it's pretty sweet but it doesn't make you feel like you're going to loose a tooth. the first batch went without a hitch, but for some reason, despite carefully (except for the apple cider vinegar) halving the recipe for the next batch, the batter was initially much much thicker than the first, so we added in some soy milk. we were kind of worried that this would make for a nasty cupcake in the end, but it didn't seem to make much difference except we had to bake them a little longer. when all was said and done, the cupcakes were moist, dense (but not too dense) and had an amazing lemon flavor!

as for the frosting, we didn't have as much powdered sugar as the recipe called for, so we just used what we had (about two cups) and followed the rest of the measurements exactly. this made for a pretty runny frosting at first, which was much more of a "glaze." letting it cool down (putting it in the fridge for 10-15 minutes is a good idea) made it thicker and it spread easier. this frosting recipe includes not just lemon, but cream cheese, and was so fucking yummy that one cupcake-baking-observor actually ate ladels of it.

for a little touch-o-class, we candied ribbons of lemon peel to perch on top of each cupcake. remember, it's really not just about how it tastes, but also how good it looks!

together, lemon cupcake + lemon frosting = amazing. the tiny raccoon ate three of them.

this blog should be renamed...

"kittie and andrew learn to bake, andrew learns how to inadvertantly delete the entire contents of the blog in an attempt to add an animated clickable link while browsing through a proxy server, then andrew learns to re-do everything at a great expense of time." Yeah, folks would quit reading after the kittie and andrew learn to bake bit anyway, so why bother with changing it. Anyway, that's the long and short of why the one of you who occasionally visits (yes, it's kittie or me, whoever's not contributing at the time) has only seen the color and title of the blog for who knows how long-- maybe upwards of 18 hours. So now i am taking the time to copy and paste everything from a google cache of the page, also out of date, leaving plenty of room for additions.

birth of a Mona, birth of a blog

What does one do when their friend's favorite dessert is Soy Delicious Raspberry Á La Mode, but their blog is called "kittie and andrew learn to bake?" Well, as master logicians, we did the logical thing and made this masterwork-- chocolate raspberry insanity cake. The whole thing goes like this: two chocolate cakes held together by a thick layer of organic raspberry fruit spread, slathered in chocolate frosting and encrusted with shaved, 70% cocoa, dark chocolate ribbons. Yes, it is that amazing. And from here on out, just look in the comments section to find the recipes for each new, or at least newly found, culinary spectacle (i hope Guy Debord's ghost isn't judging us). The recipient of this cake told us that not sharing recipes is "fucked* up." With an argument like that, we could not refuse to divulge our secrets.

Also, this cake was more or less the impetus behind our deciding to make blog entries as often as we make delicious desserts. Hopefully there will be many entries in the near future.

*editorial decision by kittie to change "f*&^ed" in the original, to its full fucking glory.

sweet things get a new home

One knows it is Spring in Brooklyn when from the curbs grow pastry pedestals. And like the past several months of peculiar weather, Spring came and went in a flash, leaving behind this one lonely dish, ripe for the picking. Of course, it will be relocated, loved, and taken care of. Look for future appearances by our latest addition.

cupcakes-a-go-go

vegan chocolate cupcakes with orange buttercream frosting also made for thadeaus' 25th birthday party. a crowd favorite, with one partygoer remarking, "those were vegan?"

the cupcakes themselves were pretty simple to make. the orange zest in the vegan buttercream was a spur-of-the-moment addition, but added complexity to the classic flavor combination of chocolate and vanilla.

teutonic decadence

this cake was for thadeaus' 25th birthday party. he likes chocolate. he likes coconut. the result? a legendary vegan german chocolate cake.

we used a recipe that was for a single layer chocolate cake and doubled it. the result however was that each layer was way too tall for a double-layer cake, and although we oiled and dusted each pan with powdered sugar, the cake came out unevenly from the pan.

we decided that making two single-layer cakes made more sense and would feed more people. so we frosted each chocolate layer individually with the most decadent carmelized coconut topping ever and chocolate ganache. the frosting covered the uneven parts of the cake and looked impressive!

this also marked the first time we ever used coconut oil in baking. the oil has a slight coconut flavor which adds something to ordinary chocolate, and has a richness that regular vegetable oil can't match.

stars in your eyes

this is the first thing andrew & i made together. i had never made a successful homemade crust and so i was really excited about how this turned out. we later learned that a good way to keep your crust from falling apart when rolling it out is to put the dough between two pieces of waxed paper.

this vegan pumpkin pie has no tofu, which does not belong in pumpkin pie, or most desserts for that matter. this pie uses cornstarch to hold things together and is heavy on the spices, which brings out the natural sweetness of the pumpkin. the bourbon pecan topping is really rich, with the tiniest hint of orange. without the topping this pie is fucking delicious, and with it? well, you might just see stars in your eyes.

mouth feel

hi. we are learning to bake amazing vegan desserts with even more amazing mouth feel. and they look pretty too.