Kitchen3N

Recipes and food fun from Apt 3N

Royal Icing

fullsizeoutput_4712
I just started decorating with royal icing after all these years. Why have I been torturing myself all these years with confectioner’s sugar/milk concoctions that thin too easily, and pipe too painfully?!
fullsizeoutput_4718
Since royal icing is made with egg whites (I use meringue powder so I don’t have to deal with leftover egg yolks), it has a lot of structure from the protein. Pipes wonderfully for borders and outlines and thins easily for flooding.
img_8357
I have been a fan of Sana Sodawalla of SugarBase_ for a while now. Her gorgeous marbled cookies, whimsical cakes, and informative videos are something to aspire to. Since I’ve started baking and cake decorating more, I’ve been creating more content tailored to Instagram. I like how the platforms caters to creatives, offering a very visual space to share our content, with lots of real estate for pictures, and just enough for explanatory text.
fullsizeoutput_4713
I’ve created these cookies after watching her technique on marbling sugar cookies. I got the idea for gold splatter after taking a wonderful mommy and me art class I took with a talented local artist on paper collages.
fullsizeoutput_4711
I don’t know if I’ve done justice to Sana’s beautiful cookies, but I hope you try your own version at home. My go to recipe for royal frosting below.

Recipe courtesy of Toba Garrett of ICE.

Ingredients

  • 1/4 cup meringue powder
  • 1/2 cup water
  • 1 pound confectioner’s sugar, sifted
  • 1/2 tsp lemon juice or extract*

Directions

  1. In the bowl of a stand mixer, or in a large bowl using a hand held electric mixer, use the paddle attachment to combine meringue powder and water at low speed until combined. Increase speed to medium and beat until soft peaks form, about 3 minutes.
  2. Reduce the speed to low and start to add the sugar, one cup at a time, until all of the sugar has been added. Turn the mixer off, scrape down the paddle and sides of the bowl and turn mixer back on to a low speed. Add the lemon juice/extract and increase speed to medium high. Beat for 5 to 7 minutes until you reached the desired level of stiffness. Keep well covered until ready to use. Can be piped, or thinned with small of amounts of water at a time to use for flooding. Will keep for 1 day at room temperature, or 3 days, covered in the refrigerator.

*I prefer lemon extract since the lemon flavor is a lot more pronounced.

Cutout Sugar Cookies

img_3224
I’ve learned a lot of things the hard way. Like how filling in eyebrows is not for everyone/every situation. Or that low-rise jeans are super impractical for pretty much every situation, especially picking up your backpack from the ground. Or that frosting should not go on a cake you JUST TOOK OUT OF THE OVEN.
fullsizeoutput_43bf
This extends to cut out sugar cookies. So many ill formed, mutilated cookies from the process of transferring from the rolling out surface to the cookie sheet. WHY OH WHY didn’t someone tell me earlier to just roll them out on a parchment paper and then just remove the scraps from around the shapes?! Would’ve saved so much grief.

So even if you have a great cutout sugar cookie recipe. Even if you already knew to chill the dough before rolling it out. if you take away nothing else from this post, I hope this tip will save you some heartache during this holiday cookie baking season. Happy holidays!!

Recipe from Better Homes & Garden 2010 special issue.

Ingredients

  • 3/4 cup butter at room temperature (that’s 1 1/2 sticks)
  • 1 cup granulated sguar
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 tsp vanilla
  • 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

Directions

  1. In the bowl of your stand mixer, or in a large bowl using a handheld electric mixer, beat butter on medium speed for 30 seconds. Reduce speed and add the sugar, baking powder and salt. When it’s all combined, turn off the mixer, scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl, and turn the mixer on again, this time to low. Add the eggs, one at a time, then the vanilla. Gradually add the flour, stopping the mixer every once in a while to scrape down the sides.
  2. Once the dough has come together, divide in two, place each half on some plastic wrap on a flat surface. Wrap well with the plastic wrap and flatten into disks. Refrigerate for at least 1 hour, preferably 4 hours to let the gluten relax (this makes the cookies tender).
  3. When ready to bake the cookies, preheat the oven to 350 degree F. Roll out parchment paper to the size of your baking sheet. Lightly flour the surface, your hands, and the rolling pin. Roll out the cookie dough from the center, outwards, not back and forth like bread dough. Roll until the dough is 1/4 in thick. Then using your favorite cutters, cut out shapes about 1 in apart. Use a small offset spatula or butterknife to remove the scraps of dough. Save for next batch.
  4. Bake in preheated oven for 7 to 9 minutes. The bottoms should only be very lightly browned. Let cool on sheet for a few minutes before transferring to wire rack to cool completely.

Caramel Cupcakes

IMG_2372 My sweet friend Rabia is expecting her second baby and one of the organizers of her baby shower, another long time friend, Nargis, tapped me to supply the cookies and cupcakes for the event! It was such a treat to experiment with new cupcake recipes, challenge myself with making sugar cookies shaped like books (theme was bring a book for baby), and contribute to such a lovely tablescape (made by Nargis!).IMG_2370Instead of doing the usual chocolate/vanilla selection, I decided to try a caramel cupcake recipe that’s been sitting on my shelf for years. It’s from a magazine from Fine Cooking entitled “Celebration Cakes” (that I think I got from a Lowe’s or Home Depot). If you’ve never worked with caramel, it might be a little tricky to get it right. But a little practice with caramel is so worth it for the world of concoctions you can make. The burnt sugar added some wonderful deep notes to the cupcake. And it came out moist and perfectly tender.IMG_2380 Along with the cupcakes, I made sugar cookies in the shape of books by slightly bending my square cookie cutter to a rhombus shape. And, because everything tastes better with chocolate, I applied a chocolate glaze made out of 10 tbsp butter and 10 oz of semi sweet chocolate chips (melted). I did the outline of the book with a ziploc bag with the tip cut. I filled in the “cover” by applying a dollop of the glaze and smoothing it out with the back of a spoon. I applied the “pages” with a simple powdered sugar/milk concoction. And the lettering – traditional buttercream. IMG_2375For the frosting, I used Ina Garten’s cream cheese frosting from her Flower Cupcakes, tinted in blue and pink. Recipe for the caramel cupcakes from Fine Cooking below. Their suggested pairing is a butterscotch frosting. If you’d like for me to share that recipe, just let me know. Enjoy!

Ingredients

  • 1/3 cup plus 3/4 cup granulated sugar
  • 1 1/3 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
  • 1/2 tsp baking powder
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter at room temperature
  • 2 large eggs at room temperature
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract

Directions

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degree F and line a standard muffin pan with liners.
  2. Put 1/3 cup sugar in a shallow skillet and heat over medium high heat. This takes several minutes so while that goes, bring 1/3 cup of water to boil in a small saucepan. Keep warm. Once the sugar starts to melt, swirl it around every once in a while to help it along. Once it becomes a deep amber color, turn off the heat and carefully pour the water into it. It will sizzle so stand back. The caramel will harden so return to a medium high heat and stir with a wooden spoon to dissolve the caramel.
  3. Spray a glass measuring cup with non stick spray (I don’t know if this step is necessary, but I did so for good measure). Pour enough of the liquid caramel to a 1/2 cup measure. Let cool until warm.
  4. Sift the flour, baking powder, and salt into a small bowl. In your stand mixer, or in a large bowl, beat the butter on medium speed for 30 to 60 seconds. With the mixer running, slowly add the 3/4 cup sugar. Beat for about 1 minutes, scraping down the bowl as necessary. Add eggs, one at a time, beating for 60 seconds after each addition. Scrape down the bowl, add vanilla and continue beating. Switch to low speed and add 1/3 of the dry ingredients. Follow up with 1/2 of the liquid caramel. Add another third of the dry ingredients, second half of the caramel, and finally the last third of the dry ingredients.
  5. Divide the batter evenly. I like to use an ice cream scoop for this. Bake for 18 to 20 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean.
  6. Wait to completely cool before frosting.