Friday, October 7, 2011

Fun Friday Last Week

Last Friday, T and I got to take special snack to preschool again!! This time
we had letter S (yes, we got to pick letters so I checked my cute recipes before signing up for a letter).

T with his special snack....


Our Picture...


Martha's Picture...


As you can see, I have a long way to go to be Martha Stewart but I am giving it a shot. A girl has to start some where right?


Here is the recipe if you would like to embrace your Martha side!!! Please note that I cut the recipe in half. I didn't have the pan Martha was talking about so I just used a square pan and cut a small circle out of. I iced the extra cake for us to eat!! Also, I didn't use gel-paste food color, I just used food coloring.

Sunflower Cupcake Cake
Active Time: 1 hour Total Time: 1 hour and 45 minutes
Makes one 5-inch cake and about 75 mini cupcakes (serves 12 to 25)

1 ½ cups all purpose flour, plus more for pan
3 cups cake flour (not self-rising)
2 ¼ teaspoons baking powder
¾ teaspoon baking soda
Course Salt
2 sticks unsalted butter, room temperature, plus more for pan
2 ¼ cups sugar
6 large eggs, room temperature
2 cups low-fat buttermilk, room temperature
1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
Easy Buttercream (recipe follows)
1 tablespoon unsweetened cocoa powder
Gel-paste food coloring (nycake.com)
¾ cups blackberries or blueberries

1. Preheat oven to 350ºF. Sift flours, baking powder, baking soda and
1 ½ teaspoons salt into a bowl.

2. Beat butter and sugar with a mixer on medium-high speed until pale and
fluffy, about 3 minutes. Reduce speed to medium and add eggs, 1 at a time.
Reduce speed to low and gradually add flour mixture, alternating with buttermilk,
beginning and ending with flour. Beat in vanilla.

3. Butter a 5-inch tart pan with a removable bottom, dust with all-purpose
flour and tap out excess. Line mini-muffin tins with mini baking cups (need 75total)

4. Fill tart pan halfway with batter (about ½ cup), then fill each baking cup
halfway with batter (a generous tablespoon each). Bake until tops spring
back when lightly touched, about 12 minutes for the cupcakes and 14 minutes
for the cake. Transfer pans to wire racks and let cake and cupcakes cool completely.

5. Transfer ¼ cup buttercream to a bowl and stir in cocoa powder. Divide remaining
buttercream among 3 bowls and tint each batch a different shade of yellow or orange
with gel-paste food coloring. Frost tops of cupcakes using the 3 colors. Frost
top of cake with chocolate buttercream. Arrange berries over top of cake to cover
and create “seeds.” Arrange cupcakes around cake to create “petals,”
forming a sunflower shape.

Make ahead, unfrosted cake and cupcakes can be stored at room temperature for
up to 3 days.

Easy Buttercream
Total time 10 min., makes 5 cups (enough for 5-inch cake and 75 cupcakes)

4 sticks unsalted butter, room temperature
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
6 cups sifted confectioners’ sugar

Beat butter and vanilla with a mixer on medium-high speed until pale
and fluffy about 2 minutes. Reduce speed to low. Add sugar, 1 cup
at a time, beating well after each addition. Raise speed to high and
beat until well combined 10 to 20 seconds more. Transfer to a bowl
and cover with plastic wrap until ready to use.

From Martha Stewart Living March 2011

We finished off our fun Friday with a bowling night with Daddy (sadly my camera died and I didn't have extra batteries).

1 comment:

Addie Lamberth said...

fun! we should go bowling sometime. libby loves it!