Pipe Dream #171: To Create-A-Date – Pastel Cake with Toasted Marshmallow Filling

 

This cake is mostly about the art factor. And the marshmallow factor. The cake is one you’ve seen before. I doubled-timed you with the Eggnog Cake & Pecan Butter Rum Sauce, and made this teeny layer cake on the side. Not on the same day, mind. Freezing cakes is a great party trick. Point of the story, ignore the cake if you like, but don’t ignore the toasted marshmallow filling and the potential that this cake has to be a hit on your next perfect Valentine’s Day. (Heh. Let me explain.)

But first, let me make a cake………….Done.

Then, powdered sugar and butter are combined (standard). But then. Marshmallow creme and toasted marshmallows are added to make the most lovely frosting. A bit texture-ful, but that is why I used it for filling.

I don’t know when it was that I figured out I could use the stove to toast marshmallows. It was in college sometime, and it was revolutionary in my life.

Once filled, I frosted the cake with a standard shortening frosting. I have seen this tinting technique all over the place, and I wanted to try it for myself, so I didn’t go crazy trying some newfangled Italian mess frosting.

To create the layered effect, I split the buttercream into three different bowls and tinted each a little darker than the last. I worked from the top down, but I don’t know if that is the best way to do it. You could try bottoms-up, if you like.

The sprinks were a gift from my sess. Isn’t she thoughtful? They are so cool. Gunmetal gray. Like my nail polish this week. It saved this cake from being too pink and girly.

Ok, now. Ladies, perfect V day cake? Get a layer cake with a little pink on it, but tempered with BA sprinkles. I just found out that the new Die Hard movie is coming out on the 14th. It is such a perfect marketing angle:

“Hey girl, you pick a restaurant, and I’ll choose the movie.” So it’s a win-win, both parties making a compromise, and thus: perfect date created. At least, that is what I think they must be thinking. Die Hard is not the most romantic flick on the earth.

You can have this one for free,

L

Pastel Cake with Toasted Marshmallow Filling

Cake recipe is here.

Outer frosting recipe is here.

Toasted Marshmallow Filling

Adapted from Sweetapolita

9 large white marshmallows
1/2 cup icing sugar, sifted
1 stick (8 tablespoons) butter, at room temperature
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
7 ounces marshmallow creme

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (you can do this after you take the cakes out of the oven). Place marshmallows on cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. Bake marshmallows until puffed and golden, about five minutes. Check them every minute or so, though; we wouldn’t want burnt mallows.
In an electric mixer fitted with paddle attachment, combine butter and icing sugar on low until blended, about 1 minute. Add vanilla and mix on med-high for about 3 minutes.
Add marshmallow cream and toasted marshmallows, and mix on lowest setting for about 1 minute.

To assemble the cake. Split two 6 inch layer cakes in half, making four layers. Fill each layer with 1/3 of the marshmallow frosting, pressing gently. Crumb coat the cake with bakery buttercream, then refrigerate for 30 minutes. Tint the rest of the frosting as desired, then give the frosting a final coat.

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Favorite Shots: Champagne & Backseams

 

These shots look like champagne and backseams and glamour, don’t you think? I can’t get enough. It’s like staring at a fire.

Yes, pleasing,

L

Pipe Dream #135: To Mix All The Paints – Garbage Popcorn

Because I bake as much as I do, I sometimes get overwhelmed with the myriad of delicious flavors and ingredients available to me. Hm. Cinnamon. Love. Marshmallow. Love. Caramel. Love. Fruit. Love. Chocolate. Love.

The list is as broad and deep as the traffic this morning on 100 South. Completely ridiculous.

This recipe is the answer to my state of overwhelmed longing for efrything, all at once.

Just chuck a bunch of yummy things together and amalgamate it with a substance that looks like…

…boiling sewage?

This picture is the baking equivalent of mixing all the paints in your watercolors set. Individually, the shades are great. Together, they just make dull brown. (Or as one pretentious girl in my 7th grade class liked to say, “dun.” She wrote a poem about it. It was as boring as it sounds.)

Luckily, this mixture is neither boring nor unpalatable. In fact, you may have to stop yourself from shoveling handfuls into your mouth before it is all said and done. Don’t feel too awful, though. It might be rainy. Or you might have to sit in traffic tomorrow. Either way, this is popcorn. How bad can it be?

Maybe just this bad.

Guys, this recipe is great. You can feel like a kid in art class again. And then you can eat your work.

Still in traffic, probably,

L

Garbage Popcorn

Inspired by/Adapted from Our Best Bites

6 cups popped popcorn (I made a 1/2 cup of regular kernels on the stovetop)

6 cups rice or corn Chex

1 cup roughly chopped walnuts

1 cup brown sugar

3/4 t cinnamon

1/4 cup corn syrup (or honey)

1/2 cup butter

1/2 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. vanilla

3 ounces semi-sweet chocolate chips

salt, if desired

Line a cookie sheet with foil. Preheat the oven to 250 degrees.

Pop your popcorn using whatever method works best for you. I used a saucepan on the stovetop, but if you want to use microwave popcorn, you go right ahead. I would use a low salt/butter popcorn though. Plenty of that goodness will be added later.

Combine popcorn, nuts and Chex in a large bowl (like, a really big bowl). I just had a thought. You could also add mini marshmallows. Or M&Ms. That would be yummy.

Combine brown sugar and cinnamon in a large, microwave-safe bowl. Chunk the butter on top of it, then drizzle on the corn syrup or honey. Microwave for 30 seconds, and then stir to combine. Now microwave for 2 minutes. Stir. Microwave for an additional 2 minutes until it looks like that bubbly picture above. Do not over-bubble the mixture.

Add the vanilla and baking soda and stir to combine. Immediately pour over the popcorn mixture and stir, stir, stir until everything is thoroughly coated. Spread on a foiled lined cookie sheet.

Bake for 30 minutes in preheated oven, stirring every 10 minutes. Eat a handful. If it is not quite as crunchy as you desire, bake for an additional five minutes. After giving the corn a final stir, melt your chocolate chips in the microwave (30 second intervals, stirring ’til smooth.). Drizzle over the popcorn with a fork and sprinkle with a little salt if you like. I thought it lacked contrast without it.

Let the mixture cool. Once hardened, break it up and consume. This stuff lasts, though, so you could store it for a while, or package it up as little gifties for all of your autumnal and/or garbage-themed parties.

Favorite Shots: These Tired Eyes

Henna is harder than you think. I did this henna design for my sister this summer. It was fun, but at 11 at night after doing a few other designs, I found out there are many parallels between decorating bodies and decorating cakes. When I decorate cakes, I usually get pretty tired. It’s, like, hours of intense concentration, and my body just starts to go into auto-pilot after a while. Particularly my eyes. When I’m decorating, I can’t make my eyes focus, and I  just draw without really paying attention. These wedding cakes? Definitely the case.

Byyyyeeee,

L

Pipe Dream #121: To Forego the Faux Pas

Is it a major faux pas to post pictures of a different country on the 4th of July? I don’t really mind, but I feel like every other blogger in America will be highlighting the virtues of our democratic system. Welp, this will have to do in place of that. I still love fireworks.

Oooh ahhh,

L

Favorite Shots: Bird Is The Word

Oh class.

L

Pipe Dream #107: To Have A Blue Period

I don’t really like Picasso that much. This is probably due to the fact that I am largely ignorant about Picasso and his work. I mean, here are the things I know about Picasso:

I know that he is considered great and that his work was very avant-garde.

I have seen many of his paintings, which are pretty modern. There are a lot of random shapes in them, so that the portraits don’t really look like people.

I think he cut his own ear off.

But most importantly, I know that he had a ‘Blue Period.’ Which came after or before his ‘Pink Period?’

I don’t know. But all of his paintings during the Blue Period were depressing and blue-toned. He was, like, going through depression, and his painting must have been cathartic or something.

Point of the story, these photos are my Blue Period. Which is something of a deception, because I wasn’t really depressed when I took them. And I didn’t have to make them this blue! They just are! Isn’t that neat?

I shot them at twilight, just before it started raining. The whole air felt blue, like I was underwater. Hem, underwater sheep, what an interesting thought.

Anyway, my art knowledge can be credited to Mrs. M, my elementary school art teacher. She had big hoop earrings with safari animals in them and looked like Professor Trewlawney.

Thanks again for reading,

L