Dulce de Leche - The Aftermath

A bunch of leftover un-frosted cupcakes + dulce de leche = a bangin' dessert with minimal effort.

Yet again, my effort to never throw anything out led me to a new take on bread pudding.  I had some leftover cupcakes, dulce de leche I made yesterday and (still) a whole lot of eggs and milk.  This is what happened:

Dulce de Leche Pudding
Yield: 8 or more servings 

10 cupcakes, sliced in half lengthwise  *This is what I used, but you could just as easily use leftover bread (cinnamon raisin would be really good) or cake crumbs of any kind*
5 eggs
1 cup whole milk
1/4 cup light brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon, plus a little extra
1/2 cup slivered almonds
2 apples, skinned and sliced into slivers
2 cups dulce de leche

Preheat oven to 350 F.  I used a 1 1/2 quart oval casserole dish that measures 10"x7 1/2"x 1 3/4".  Any casserole dish that comes close to this size will work.  Butter the casserole dish and place one layer of cake slices in it.  In a separate bowl mix together eggs, milk, brown sugar and cinnamon.  Pour half the egg mixture on top of the cake and then top with 1/4 cup of almonds.  Repeat this by adding another layer of cake, covering it again with the egg mixture and topping that with the remainder of the almonds.  Top with the apples and then pour 1 cup of the dulce de leche on top, being sure to evenly coat everything.  Sprinkle a little extra cinnamon on top and bake for 25-30 minutes.  Let cool for 5 minutes before serving.

We ate it with a little vanilla ice cream and drizzled the remaining dulce de leche on top.  So delish.

A Smashing Success

The cupcake test run turned out great.  Despite some mixed reviews from people that tried the recipe I thought they came out great.  The verdict on storing them overnight is in - frost them, cover them and put them in the fridge, just let them come to room temperature before serving and all will be well.  I think that frosting them as close to the time they will be served is optimal, but that's not always possible and this method worked out just fine for me. 

I had a pretty busy weekend so in order to have these things ready by Sunday morning I had to plan it out.  I made the frosting on Friday night and then made the cupcakes and frosted them on Saturday night.  I had a slight problem on Friday with the buttercream when I noticed that it started to separate and break.  I had a long day and by the time I finished with it, it was about 11pm and I was mentally and physically done.  I wanted to go to bed and not think about cupcakes anymore, but I became an obsessed woman and did some research about fixing broken buttercream.  I was pushed over the edge by the thought of rushing out late on Saturday night to get store bought (I would never do this!) frosting to replace the shitty one that I made.  I read about a few different methods to fix it and decided on the one that was dubbed as fool proof: beat in some shortening and then whip the hell out of it and it WILL come back together.  Thankfully, it worked like a charm and I would not be seen running in to Shop Rite at midnight in my pajamas (I would also never do this!) on Saturday night buying up all of the Sarah Lee frosting in the joint.  I assure you that this would have been a very last resort for me and not my proudest moment, but if I had run out of time and there was no other solution even I would have to cut some corners.  Being in Shop Rite in pajamas buying store bought frosting would actually be my weakest moment.  Ever, perhaps.

Alas, none of these horrors occurred and I fixed my little problem with relative ease.  I used rose water and vanilla extract to flavor the buttercream and then added a tiny bit of red food coloring to turn it pink.  It came out a beautiful shade of pink and had a really delicate rose flavor.  The cake stands on each table went over well too.  I knew I was collecting those things for a reason.

My little sweetie Josephine looked gorgeous.  I can't wait to share some cupcakes with her when she can actually enjoy them.  In a few years I will have two tiny cooker chefs helping me out in the kitchen.

Cupcake Trial

I'm baking 100 vanilla cupcakes with rose buttercream frosting for my little sweetie Josephine's Christening this weekend so tonight I did a trial  run.  I'm using a recipe from the famed Magnolia Bakery in New York.  You can find the recipe here.  My sister originally asked me to bake a cake, but the first thing that popped into my head was this vision of a long table filled with cupcakes on mismatched cake stands.  So, to make things harder on myself (as always) I'm making a whole bunch of tiny cakes instead of making one big cake.  Somehow, my sister also talked me into letting her wear my favorite green snakeskin heels on Sunday.  I love to torture myself.
 
Turns out my Mom had a great idea:  putting a cake stand with cupcakes in the middle of each table.  It can function both as a dessert and a centerpiece.  I think it will look fab.  I've been collecting cake stands for a little while so I already have quite a few, but I'll be shopping around tomorrow to add 2 more to my collection.  I have a bunch of really cool little ones - but they won't help me here because I need them to fit at least 8 cupcakes.  The small stands I have are so adorable.  They just make me smile.

I wanted to do a test batch of the recipe today because I want to see how they'll keep overnight.  I've been reading a lot of conflicting information online about storing cupcakes so I'm really interested in the outcome of this.  It seems that most people recommend  baking them the day before and then storing them (either in the fridge or at room temp, suggestions vary) wrapped tightly, then frosting them before they are served.  I really want to avoid frosting them in the wee hours of Sunday morning, considering I won't even be able to begin baking until about 7pm Saturday night.  I'll already be up all night so I don't want to wake up at the crack of dawn to frost these things.  Right now I have a few frosted and a few plain, some in the fridge and some tightly wrapped in plastic on the counter.  We'll see what happens. 

While the cupcakes were cooling I watched Moonstruck with my parents and had a glass of wine.  That's a whole other blog post in itself.