Engineered Cupcake: Upcoming Markets

It amazes me everyday just how well Engineered Cupcake has taken off. Baby showers, dinner parties, business meetings, and just last weekend GRID Alternatives' Bay Area Volunteer Appreciation Party. These are just a sample of the events that we've been pleased to have our goodies at.  Some of the popular items as of late include:

• Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars
• Irish Cream Brownies
• Chocolate cupcakes with Strawberry buttercream
• Vanilla Cupcakes with Vanilla Buttercream
• Oatmeal Cookies
• Vegan and Gluten Free Coco-Hazelnut mini cupcakes

This Saturday we will once again be at the BAHM in Berkeley at the Fireside Art Collective, alongside some of our fellow cottage food buisnesses. Last time there were no musicians so perhaps to compensate this time there will be 2. In planning the menu I wanted to focus on goodies that are great for Memorial Day weekend. Whether you'll be chilling at home with a bbq, going a day hike or camping or headed to the beach, these treats are sure to make your holiday sweet! pun so intended.

At long last the menu for this Saturday's Bay Area Homemade Market or as I like to call it "The Saturday Nite BAHM!" It's memorial day weekend and we've got the goodies to make your BBQ, camping trip, or beach trip a truly sweet holiday. 

Irish Cream Brownies ($1 each)- sold out at the April BAHM

Chocolate cupcakes with Strawberry Whipped Buttercream($1 mini $2 regular) - anyone who was at GRID Alternatives volunteer appreciation party knows about these

Strawberry Shortcake Cupcakes(Vegan) 

($3- regular) - fresh strawberries in this fluffy cupcake and coconut cream center and icing

Blueberry Cornmuffin (Gluten Free)

($2 - each)

A fairly traditional offering as Engineered Cupcake will also be at the Oakland Indie Awards on May 30 and I don't want to succumb to baker's fatigue, lol. Still working on the menu but here's a special sneak preview. Oh and we have to sell everything pre-packaged so things will be in half dozens and/or dozens.

• Cappuccino Chip Cookies
• Vegan and Gluten Free Cocoa Hazelnut mini cupcakes
• White cupcakes with Vanilla Buttercream

Still working on the rest of the menu plan.

Hope to see you Saturday at the BAHM!

Lessons of Lavender

I'm in the midst of test baking some new creations for Engineered Cupcake with some new flavour combinations and ideas.  It's funny, I was really worried I'd have trouble coming up with new ideas when I started this business. However my mind has been springing with tons of new ideas, so many my Trello can barely deal.

Whenever I think of Asheville (one of my truly favourite places on this planet), I think of lavender. It's a calming, clean, natural scent and it's everywhere "up in them there hills" so much they had a Lavender festival.  for several years. With lavender I'm learning less truly is more.

This week I've made two batches of lavender brownies 1 vegan and 1 gluten free. This asheville lavender lingers, it's quite potent.  I used lavender sugar and lavender compound butter and overall it came out a bit too sweet and strong. The gluten free was far better than the vegan, must've been all that butter. lol.

You can't tell but these infused with scent of lavender

Still, as one who likes lavender (if you like gin,lemongrass, spring mix salads, and citrus in your chocolate you're probably in that category) I liked these brownies and they're going fast.

I'm looking forward to a test batch of a white cake with this lavender butter for a special recipe I'm making for a baby shower in June. With a lavender blueberry buttercream. That will have to wait however because I'm all booked up for the week with about 8 dozen regular sized and mini cupcakes to make between now and Saturday. And planning menus for the BAHM and Oakland Indie Awards

Cornmeal scones

I know I promised this recipe last week, I got caught up in pre-Easter orders and a baby shower.


Yesterday was Easter in  Orthodox Christianity and it meant a break from fasting. For the past six weeks I've abstained from hard liquor, Dairy, meat, basically any animal products. Admittedly had a few slips mainly due to lack of vegan food being in my presence as my blood sugar descended. Over all I did pretty well and I was ready to celebrate. For dinner I had lamb burgers with bleu cheese, roasted Brussel sprouts, and sweet potato gnocchi seasoned with butter and sage. It was a delicious Easter dinner.  Ironically I wasn't really craving dessert moreso thinking of the morning and my craving for cream scones.  So I set to make the recipe that made convinced I could like a scone. Before I had a cornmeal scone, I thought of scones as big dry semi-sweet biscuit. These have a textural contrast that is amazing.  There also good with fresh blueberries instead of dried cranberries


Ingredients

• 250g self rising flowur
• 50 grams fine cornmeal
• 100 g granulated citrus sugar* 
• 100 grams dried cranberries soaked and drained
• 240 ml half & half cream, milk, or whipping cream
• 1 large egg
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• coarse ground cornmeal (polenta) for topping)

*Citrus Sugar
I usually use 60g of citrus sugar but I was feeling ambitious they turned out a bit too sweet for my personal liking but the general audience seemed to think they were fine.

There are 2 methods I use to make orange sugar. The slow method: rub in 2tsp of zest from citrus fruit ( I used 1 lemon and 1 lime) into sugar keep in a glass for at least 2 days before using. The quicker method is what i used this time. I used my magic bullet (with the cross blade) you could use a food processor.

Procedure

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F (220 degrees C)
2.  place the oven rack in the center of the oven. 
3. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, cornmeal, sugar, 
4.  Add the currants to the flour mixture and stir well.
5.  In a small measuring cup whisk together the cream, egg, and vanilla extract. Add this to the flour mixture and stir just until the dough comes together.
6. With #20 scoop spoon dough onto parchment lined baking sheet or sheet pan. about 1/2" apart
7.  Sprinkle each scone with a bit of coarse ground polenta. 
8. Bake on  for about 15 or until golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. Remove from oven and transfer to a wire rack to cool.

All the pretty flours: Corn

Blueberry Cornmuffins

Cornmeal.  For Engineered Cupcake it just might be the 2nd most used flour, often in gluten free goodies like our Lemon blueberry corn-muffins, which are honestly the best blueberry muffins I've ever had in life.and the fact that this belle occasionally just has to have some cornbread in her life. I
make a corn muffin that in the words of one Southerner: "will make you believe in the Good Lord" I love Southern talk. With all the corn meals and flours there are 3 distinctions: whole grain or degerminated: most cornmeal is degerminated but if it's whole grain it's best to store it in the fridge so the oils don't go rancid. grind: how coarse the grind is and Nixtamalization. Big word ne? It basically means the grain (in this case corn) has been
soaked in an alkaline solution and hulled. This makes it easier to grind, the flavour is improved, and absorbable nutritional value increased. It's a key part of tortilla making. Closer to my own culture, grits are a nixtamilized corn product.


You'll notice that many "cornbread" recipes have about a 5:1 ratio of flour:cornmeal recipe. But because it's more dense and has such a strong flavor it's soundly a cornmuffin.

Cornstarch (Cornflour in the UK) The exception is in British and Australian recipes where the term "cornflour" is used synonymously with the U.S. word cornstarch.Cornstarch is the starch derived from the corn (maize) grain. The starch is obtained from the endosperm of the corn kernel. Corn starch is a popular food ingredient used in thickening sauces or soups, gluten free baking. It's also the anti-caking agent for powdered sugar. In fact you can make your own icing sugar by taking regular sugar about 1 cup and adding 1tbsp of cornstarch. Yes, this is the same starch you can use for your clothes. Personally I use 1/2 cup to 1 quart for my button down shirts and bow ties

American Cornflour A powdery flour made of finely ground cornmeal, NOT to be confused with cornstarch. Corn flour comes in yellow and white and is used for breading and in combination with other flours in baked goods. Corn flour is milled from the whole kernel, while cornstarch is obtained from the endosperm portion of the kernel. Masa Harina is a special corn flour that is the basic ingredient for corn tortillas. White corn flour blends well with other food ingredients and can be blended with wheat flour to reduce gluten for cakes, cookies, pastries and crackers. White corn flour is used as a filler, binder and thickener in cookie, pastry and meat industries.


Cornmeal: not as fine as American cornflour this is what I use in my cornmuffin recipes. Pay attention though as "cornbread mix" is not pure cornmeal but has wheat flour, sugars, etc.

Coarse ground cornmeal: Used for topping muffins, preventing pizzas from sticking. It's a bit too coarse to be the main attraction in most baked goods but it adds a nice textural contrast.


Later this week I'll post one of my favourite cornmeal scone recipes.

BAHM 2!

This Saturday I will be back at the Fireside art collective hangar near Ashby BART in Berkeley for the second Bay Area Homemade market. I'm definitely looking forward to it. Got a whole different set of goodies, well except for one.

It's April and so spring is in the air and I'd thought I'd celebrate appropiately. Here in Norcal there are tons of strawberries at the market, a near constant supplie of lemons and oranges too.  Course I have to keep the chocolate lovers happy too. And I wanted to show a bit more of my traditional side of Engineered Cupcake. Course I went through about 8 menu combinations before deciding on this one:

Lemon Bars
.75 each
Yellow cupcakes with chocolate buttercream
Mini: $1 Fullsize $2

Strawberry cupcakes with white chocolate buttercream
Strawberry chiffon cupcakes with champagne buttercream
Green Tea Chiffon with Lemon buttercream
Mini: 1.25 Fullsize:2.50


Chocolate Walnut muffins (vegan)
Chocolate Orange Cupcakes (Gluten Free)
mini:$1.50 fullsize: $3

... the sad part is that this is still subject to change. I'm really feeling some chocolate chip cookie bars or oatmeal cookie bars with butterscotch drizzle. Yum.

So I guess you'll have to come out to the market to find out!
3192 Adeline Street,
  in Berkeley

Hope to see you there!

yours in icing,

Jasmine
P.S I been kinda giddy this week...it's starting to show ^_^

FE exam: most intimidating exam evar!

<<There it is, a 4lb book, a 200 page "formula sheet", and a scientific calculator. All the materials necessary for preparing for the FE exam.

On Saturday I spent the day in a very large cold room in San Mateo taking. The Fundamentals of Engineering(FE) exam is the test I'm studying for to get my Mechanical Engineer in Training certification.

As so many people have told me, it was the length that really got to me. Well that and waking up at 3am to take 2 buses down to San Mateo.  It requires alot of brainpower though admittedly the practice problems were way harder than most of the test. Some of the questions were just references to formulae and so the whole answer was in the 200pg reference guide. You're not allowed to bring pencils, or take off your wristwatch and put it on the table it has to stay on your wrist or on the floor. You can eat and drink during the exam but they prefer you to drink away from the table whereas if you have something snackable (chips, grapes, small candy, etc.) you can pop that in your mouth and keep it moving. There's a hour lunch break.   The afternoon exam was pretty tricky too but honestly I got to a point where I just wanted to fall asleep. lol.

I entered the building for the test at about 7:15am and left around 6pm. Head, shoulders, back hurting, brain in a constant state of derivation .

Admittedly I'm not a great test taker, well I do okay but I get so nervous. So when I finished my body and soul were done and done.  I'm not quite sure how I made it back to Oakland, only that I did and proceeded to sleep for over 12 hours. I'll find out my results in about 2 months, if I passed hoo-rah. If not I'll get ramped up to take in Sacramento in October with the knowledge of yea, that exam isn't half as hard as it appears to be, but it is difficult and requires strategy.

I truly appreciate everyone for their faith in me and for their patience as much of my life I've neglected preparing for this exam.

So I took the April 2013 EIT exam and what do I have to show for it?
this  pencil. lol

Vegan Strawberry Shortcake (Lenten)

Notice also my new pink glass cake platter ^-^

Yesterday evening I was lounging on my futon after baking. In my new pair of 3" pewter heels, taking bites of tender shortcake, sipping Lenten wine thinking to myself "Life is good".  I was also thinking what a picture this would make, especially with the stacks of engineering books in the background. 
Yes, it's still Lent. I'm Orthodox, go Google it. Normally I'm not the type to talk about religion on my blog but it helps  explain why this omnivore has a soft spot for vegan food.  Being Orthodox Christian, during  Lentwe fast from animal products alcohol (except wine on weekends, lol) and olive oil. This year from March 18th till Easter (May 5th)
The hardest part for me is as always the sweets.  I had been craving good old fashioned strawberry shortcake. I'm not talking angel food cake and CoolWhip, with that obnoxious gel. Tender flaky southern style shortcake, fresh whipped cream and fresh strawberries.
With it being  Great Lent however, buttermilk shortcake is out, so is fresh whipped cream. So I set to fiddle in the kitchen to make Lenten ergo Vegan version and it turned out beautiful.  It was so good that I literally double checked to prove that I in fact did not use a dairy product.


My continental cousin demanded I have some example recipes using the flours from the first "All the pretty flours" post. I mentioned this was a southern style shortcake so can you guess which flour I used? That's right! Self Rising. I was actually out of White Lily so I used GoldMedal instead.

Vegan Strawberry Shortcake

The Shortcake
I used Crisco *ducks* Personally I'd love to use that expensive Spectrum palm shortening but unfortunately it's not in the cards. I've tried using earth balance before and it just was way too soft. This recipe is adapted from Alton Brown's shortcake recipe. 
Ingredients

• 8oz/228g/about 2 cups Self Rising Flour
• 1/4 Coconut Cream
• 1/2 cup unsweetened vanilla almond milk
• 4 tbsp vegetable shortening
• 2 tbsp fine organic cane sugar 
• 4 oz/ about 3/4 fresh strawberries diced

1. Preheat oven to 425F
2. In a large mixing bowl, mix together flour and sugar
3. Using a cold spoon or fingertips, cut in shortening into the flour.  
4. In a separate cup stir together coconut cream and almond milk.
5. Mix milk mixture into flour till almost combined
6. Gently mix in strawberries till just combined
7.  Drop by large spoonfuls onto a baking sheet. Sprinkle with sugar. 
8. Bake for 15 minutes or until brown.
9. Cool and eat with fresh berries and whipped cream (see below)

The Whipped Cream
Some of the more seasoned vegan sweet tooths are familar with whipping coconut cream. Honestly I never could get it as stiff as I like my dairy whipped cream. So I decided to stabilize it. Usually this means adding gelatin but being  being the blasian that I am, I used  kanten powder also known as agar agar powder. A seaweed derived gelatin equivalent. My dad used this to make the best marshmallows I've ever tasted in life. Lavender homemade marshmallows think about that for a second. Yea... I know. AND they're vegan (because 46 is cheap and won't use eggs :P) But that's another post... 

Ingredients

• the remainder of the coconut cream (used Chanoyu brand) that is cold I kept it in my very cold fridge for 2 hours
• 1 tsp kanten powder (also known as agar agar)
• 1 tsbp of very hot water
• vegan powdered sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla bean paste

1. Stir kanten powder into hot water set aside and let cool (I went and made the shortcake)
2. Open can of coconut cream, drain any liquid off, put into a cold metal bowl
3. With a mixer beat cream for 1 minute, add vanilla paste and sugar. beat till combined.
4. Then beat in kanten mixture
5. Fill a pastry bag and chill till ready (at least 2 hours)

Putting it all together

This weekend I stacked shortcake, sliced strawberries, piped on whipped cream, more sliced strawberries, another shortcake, and some ore whipped cream for good measure. Strawberry on the side coz those were awesome.

Today I brought a shortcake and 2 tbsp of whipped cream into work. This time, in a bowl, 1 short cake, 3 sliced strawberries and a spooned dollop of whipped cream. Yum!