Banana cake with chocolate ganache

This year my aunt is hosting Mother's Day.  Instead of showing up with a cake without any warning, I decided to email her ahead of time to offer up some home-baked goods.  I had no idea what I was going to make, but I wanted to ensure that she didn't want me showing up empty handed.  She replied to my email, and not only did she want me to bring something, she had specific requests!  Namely some "carrot cake mini muffins" and a "chocolate-iced banana cake"  (my aunt's two favorites).  This should come as no surprise considering that I made banana cupcakes with chocolate icing for Mother's Day last year, and the year before I made a cute little centerpiece with banana cake-chocolate icing cake balls!  Listen, it is, after all, their day (my mom, my aunts, my grandma...and all the other mothers out there), so they should get the desserts that they want, right?

But not wanting to acquiesce so easily, I decided I'd make a riff on the "chocolate-iced banana cake" request and instead make a banana bundt cake with a chocolate ganache drizzle.  Besides the fact that I'm on a bit of a bundt cake spree lately (there was the red velvet one from when B's brother was visiting, and the daiquiri one, too), I also find them a bit easier to transport since they don't seem as fragile as a regular ole layer cake.

I made the cake exactly as the directions stated, and then just had to adjust the baking time to account for the fact that I was making a bundt cake and not a 9 x 13 cake.

"Best Banana Cake"
From Inside BruCrew Life

Ingredients:

1/2 cup shortening
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
2 cups flour
1/2 cup buttermilk
3 brown bananas, smashed

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350F.
Grease baking pan.

In a large mixing bowl, cream together the shortening and sugar until fluffy.
Add the eggs, salt, and vanilla until creamy.
"Smash" the bananas, or rather mash them.  I found a fork worked fine.
Stir in the bananas.
Sift the flour, cinnamon, and baking soda together and add to the banana mixture, alternating with the buttermilk.

Place the batter into the prepared pan.
Bake at 350F for 45 minutes (for bundt cake).

Let cool completely on a wire rack.
Transfer to a serving plate.
Drizzle with chocolate ganache (recipe follows).

Chocolate Ganache
From Alton Brown
(I quartered the recipe, since I just wanted to glaze the cake with the ganache.  It made just under a cup of ganache...and it was more than enough!  If you want your cake to have more glaze, half the recipe.  I cannot imagine needing the full recipe, which makes 3.5 cups of ganache)

Ingredients (for the full recipe; I quartered it):

16 oz bittersweet chocolate (I used semisweet), chopped fine
16 oz heavy cream

Directions:

Place the chopped chocolate in the bowl of a food processor.

Heat the heavy cream in the microwave for 3-4 minutes on high, or until it just begins to simmer (which is what I did, since I had 1/4 of the cream).  Be careful not to let it boil over.
Pour the cream over the chocolate and let sit for 2 minutes.
Process by pulsing several times until chocolate mixture is smooth.

Use as is for glazing (which is what I did).

*If you wish to make a lighter frosting (which wouldn't work for this cake, but would work if you made it into a flat cake or layer cake), allow it to come to room temperature (about 2 hours).
Once at room temperature, place in the bowl of a stand mixer and whisk on high for 2-3 minutes.

Mini chocolate peanut butter pretzel cupcakes

Today is my dad's birthday!!  (I promised him I wouldn't share his age.)  My dad -- and mom, too -- is the greatest.  My sisters and I went home and the five of us went for dim sum, which is what my dad wanted to do to celebrate.  Dim sum -- if you don't know -- are basically Chinese small plates (often, but by no means always, dumplings) that are passed around the restaurant on carts, and you choose what you want as the cart passes your table.  It's a fun -- and delicious -- experience!

But I digress.  It's my dad's birthday.  Birthdays need to be celebrated (I'm still trying to convince B of this, as he has a big birthday coming up this summer).  Cupcakes (and cakes, or brownies, or pies, or anything baked and topped with a sprinkle) are celebratory.  So my dad got some homemade cupcakes for his birthday.

I wanted to try a new recipe for my dad's birthday, but he isn't a huge lover of sweets (my mom reminded me when I asked about baking cupcakes for his birthday, since she didn't want me to be "insulted" if he didn't eat much of whatever I baked).  When I was rattling off some suggestions, I mentioned these cupcakes, which I had baked before.  She stopped me immediately after by saying "yes, make those.  Your father would love anything peanut butter and chocolate."  And so, with apologies, I am repeating another recipe.  It's a good thing it's a FANTASTIC cupcake.  Although this time I mixed it up a bit, and make some mini cupcakes (full confession?  I got tired of filling those mini cupcake papers after a while, and made some full-sized ones, too, which I ended up bringing home for the celebration).

(Mini) Chocolate Peanut Butter Pretzel Cupcakes
From Robicelli's: A Love Story, with Cupcakes, found here

Cupcakes:

Ingredients:

3/4 cups cocoa powder (I used Dutch press cocoa for super dark, chocolatey cupcakes)

2/3 cups scalding hot coffee

2/3 cups buttermilk

2/3 cups canola oil

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 egg

1 egg yolk

1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

1 1/3 cup all purpose flour

1 3/4 cup sugar

3/4 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350.
Line cupcake pans with 24 liners.

Place cocoa powder in mixer bowl and pour scalding hot coffee over.

Mix on low speed until a thick paste forms and mixture stops steaming- about one minute.Like I said before, mine was not thick nor was it a paste, it was actually quite runny.  The cupcakes turned out perfectly deliciously well.

Turn mixer speed to medium.
In a measuring cup, combine buttermilk, egg, yolk, vanilla, salt and oil, and mix lightly with a fork, ensuring yolks are broken.

Slowly pour into mixer.

Stop mixer and scrape bottom well to loosen any caked on cocoa.

Reattach and turn mixer to medium, letting run one minute.

Stop mixer again.

Sift together dry ingredients and pour into wet mixture.

Mix on low speed until just combined.

Remove bowl and use scrape down the sides of the bowl, ensuring everything is mixed.

Scoop cake batter into prepared pans, filling cups 2/3 of the way.

Bake in the middle of the oven for 20-25 minutes, rotating halfway through (I don't rotate them....shhh, don't tell).  * I baked my mini ones for 10 minutes *

Cupcakes are done when the centers spring back when you touch them.

Remove cupcakes from oven.

Let cool completely. 

Peanut Butter Buttercream:

Ingredients:

3 sticks unsalted butter

1/2 cup natural peanut butter

1 teaspoon kosher salt

1 1/2 cups powdered sugar

1/4 cup heavy cream

Directions:

Cream together the butter, peanut butter, and kosher salt with a mixer set to "high" until light and fluffy.

Add powdered sugar a 1/4 cup at a time, beating well between each addition. 
Add heavy cream. 
Once combined, taste for flavor.  I added more peanut butter -- probably about 1/4+ cups.

Continue to beat on high for an additional minute to incorporate air. 

Classic Chocolate Ganache:

Ingredients:

1/4 cup semisweet chocolate, chopped
1/4 cup cream
pinch of sea salt

Directions:

Place chocolate in a bowl, and shake back and forth until it flattens out on top. 

Heat cream and sea salt in a medium saucepan until it comes to a boil (I forgot the salt.  Oops.  It was fine without it).

Immediately pour hot cream mixture over chocolate, and allow to sit for two minutes to allow chocolate to melt.

Using a heatproof spatula, stir the cream and chocolate together until completely smooth.

Allow to cool slightly before drizzling on cupcakes.

Ganache should not be hot to the touch, but still be liquid.

If it cools completely and becomes solid, microwave on 50% power in 20 second increments, stirring between each, until desired consistency is reached.

Toppings:

3/4 cups roasted peanuts

1 1/2 cup pretzels

Directions: 

Pulse pretzels and peanuts in a food processor until they're coarse crumbs.  (Alternately, place in a strong ziptop bag and repeatedly smack with a rolling pin, a heavy skillet, or anything else your find enjoyable. Place crumbs in a pie dish or baking pan.)

Assembly:

Fill pastry bag fitted with regular tip with peanut butter buttercream, and pipe onto each chocolate cupcake.  Since the icing is sweet, and my dad isn't a lover of very sweet things, I chose not to pile it up on the cupcakes as much as I did last time.  *Also, I couldn't find a regular tip and used another one.  Since the cupcakes are coated in the pretzel-peanut mixture afterwards, it doesn't really matter all that much which tip you use, but if you like the icing super-domed like it was when I made them last time, I'd recommend using the regular tip. *
Put cupcakes into the refrigerator so buttercream hardens- about 20 minutes.  Don't skip this step - my icing was pretty soft otherwise and I'm sure they wouldn't have been nicely domed afterwards.  BUT....don't keep them in for too long, otherwise they'll get hard and the toppings won't stick.

Gently roll the sides of the buttercream in peanut/pretzel mixture. 
Pour a handful over the top and lightly pack on with hand. Do NOT dip them top down into the bowl and press.  The icing isn't THAT hard.  You will flatten out the icing on the top of the cupcakes.  I learned that lesson after cupcake #1, and the rest of them looked perfect (if I do say so myself).
Shake off excess and set aside. 
Drizzle ganache across each cupcake.  I do this by placing them in a few rows on top of papertowels and drizzling both up and down and side to side on each row.

Liddabit Sweets Candy Cookbook

This year, I bought myself a Valentine's Day present. Well, actually two.  The day after Valentine's Day, while B was working, I treated myself to a a bowl of Ramen at Ivan Ramen Slurp Shop at the new (and awesome) Gotham West Market.  Then, I walked into The Brooklyn Kitchen (a cute kitchen-y store with supplies and food...and they even have classes!), and stumbled across some delicious sounding (albeit expensive) chocolate bars from a place called "Liddabit Sweets."  I debated buying one, until I saw the "Liddabit Sweets Candy Cookbook" just next to them, a little further back.  The old adage "Give a man a fish, he'll eat for a day; teach a man to fish, he'll eat for a lifetime," popped into my head.  Why buy ONE candy bar when I could learn how to make them, and a whole bunch of them, at that!

Let me tell you one thing: this cookbook has tons of recipes!  Literally, tons.  On quick count, I counted 70!  They have recipes ranging from homemade nonpareils to marshmallows to caramels to homemade candy bars.  Some of the recipes that I want to try just from skimming the book include, but are most definitely not limited to: salted soft chocolate (similar to a Tootsie Roll), cherry cordials, peanut butter & jelly cups, gumdrops, beer and pretzel caramels, salt water taffy, nougat, marzipan, and about 8 different candy bars...just to name a few!!!

I see a lot of candy in my (and your!) future...

Irish whiskey truffles

Remember those car bomb cupcakes I made last week?  They were drizzled with an Irish whiskey ganache.  I had leftovers (a lot of leftovers), so I just threw -- ok, so I gently placed -- the bowl in the fridge when I was rushing out to meet B for dinner.  It stayed in the fridge overnight, the following day when I went out to Long Island for the party, while I was at the party, and then I spied it when I was putting things in the fridge late that night/early the next morning.

The ganache had been so thin when I made it for the cupcakes that I actually ended adding in some more chocolate, which I had melted in another bowl in the microwave and then mixed in bit by bit until I got the desired a slightly thicker consistency (it was still pretty thin).  When I saw the bowl in the fridge that night, I ran my finger through it to taste it.  Shockingly, it was actually thick -- the consistency that I think of when I think "ganache" and what I have made in the past when making truffles.

So what to do with the leftover Irish whiskey ganache?  Why not make truffles?

All I did with the ganache was scoop it into balls (you can roll them into more rounded balls with your hands, but I personally find it really messy (it melts a little), and I recommend using a little cocoa powder or oil to help out a little.  Every time I've made truffles in the past, I've stopped after about 7-12 since its just an insane mess).  Then, I tossed them in some plain cocoa powder and let them set up in the fridge.  I recommend keeping them in the fridge or even the freezer until ready to serve.

I'm pretty sure that these would be awesome with any liquor.  I'm not a huge fan of Irish whiskey, but since I had the leftovers with the whiskey in them, I kept them as is.  The next time though, I might try some Bailey's (I had to buy a whole bottle in order to make the cupcakes) or Kahlua.  Rum might be good, too.

Irish Whiskey Truffles
Recipe originally from the Robicelli's Cupcake Cookbook, modified slightly and turned into truffles by yours truly (although I'm sure the Robicelli's mentioned it somewhere in their cookbook, and I subconsciously saw it and that's why I had the *brilliant* idea to make truffles).

Ingredients:

1/2 cup chopped semisweet chocolate -- I used a little extra
1/2 cup heavy cream
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 cup Irish whiskey, or any other liquor -- If making this ganache just to make the truffles, I urge you to use less alcohol, probably about 1/8 cup.  For two reasons: (1) when I scooped these into balls, they were still super soft -- like melt-when-your-warm-fingers-touch-them soft -- and I'm convinced its because of the excessive amount of liquor, and (2) when I tasted these they tasted like a shot of whiskey.  I couldn't even taste the chocolate.  Perhaps whiskey is stronger than the other liquors I suggested above.

Chopped chocolate, chopped nuts, and/or cocoa powder to coat

Directions:

Add the cream and salt to a small saucepan and bring to a boil over medium heat.
Place the chocolate in a bowl and pour the hot cream over it.
Let stand for 2 minutes while the chocolate melts.
Add the whiskey and stir with a heat-proof spatula until completely smooth.
Mine was super duper thin, and I ended up adding a little bit of melted chocolate just to thicken it up a bit.

Let the ganache set up in the fridge until firm.  It will take at least a couple of hours.

When firm, scoop into small truffle-sized balls.
Roll into cocoa powder, some chopped chocolate, or some chopped nuts.

Car bomb cupcakes

In October, I made two different cupcakes from the Robicelli's cupcake cookbook - a cannoli-themed one for the blog's second birthday and a chocolate-peanut butter-pretzel one for my friend N's birthday.  I drooled when I read the book; there were so many I wanted to make.  But I held back, since I didn't have anything to bake cupcakes for.  But I've been planning these cupcakes for a while, dating back to October when we were sitting over those chocolate-peanut butter-pretzel cupcakes and discussing a party we had planned for 2 months later.

This past weekend was the third annual party that some friends throw out on Long Island.  It's name has changed a little over the years, but the premise is always the same: wear a funny T-shirt and have a drink-making contest.  So it's only fitting that I make a drink-themed cupcake for the party!

These cupcakes have alcohol in each component: beer in the cupcake, Bailey's in the icing, and Irish whiskey in the ganache drizzle.  Pretty appropriate, no?

Car Bomb Cupcakes
From Robicelli's: A Love Story, with Cupcakes

Ingredients:

Cupcakes:

3/4 cup cocoa powder

2/3 cup Guinness Stout, heated to scalding  

2/3 cup buttermilk 

1/3 cup canola or grapeseed oil 

1 large whole egg

1 large egg yolk

1/2 tsp kosher salt 

1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour

1 3/4 cups sugar

3/4 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda 

Jameson Whiskey Ganache (I used a different brand of single malt Irish Whiskey, even though Jameson is THE whiskey used in the original car bomb drink):

1/2 cup chopped semisweet chocolate
1/2 cup heavy cream
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 cup Jameson whiskey

Bailey's Buttercream:

3 sticks unsalted butter
2 cups powdered sugar
8 oz mascarpone cheese
1/4 cup Bailey's
1/8 tsp guar gum (optional...I opted not.)

Directions:

Make the cupcakes.

Preheat the oven to 350° F.
Line two 12-cup cupcake pans with baking cups.  The recipe said that it made 24 cupcakes, but I only got 22.

Place the cocoa powder in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment and pour the hot Guinness over.
Mix on low speed until a thick paste forms and the mixture stops steaming, about 1 minute.
Combine the buttermilk, canola oil, egg, egg yolk and salt in a large measuring cup and mix with a fork, making sure the yolks are broken.
Increase the mixer speed to medium and slowly pour in the buttermilk mixture.
Stop the mixer and scrape the bottom of the bowl well.
Mix on medium speed for 1 minute more.

Sift together the flour, sugar, baking powder and baking soda.
Stop the mixer and add the flour mixture to the batter.
Mix on low speed until just combined.
Scrape down the sides of the bowl to ensure everything is mixed.

Scoop the batter into the baking cups, filling each two-thirds of the way.
Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, rotating the pans halfway through.
The cupcakes are done when the centers spring back after being touched.

Remove from the oven and let cool completely.

Make the Irish whiskey ganache.

Add the cream and salt to a small saucepan and bring to a boil over medium heat.
Place the chocolate in a bowl and pour the hot cream over it.
Let stand for 2 minutes while the chocolate melts.
Add the whiskey and stir with a heat-proof spatula until completely smooth.
Mine was super duper thin, and I ended up adding a little bit of melted chocolate just to thicken it up a bit.

Make the Bailey's buttercream.

Put the butter (at room temperature), mascarpone, and Bailey's in a stand mixer with the paddle attachment.
Beat on high until fluffy.
Slowly add the powdered sugar, 1/4 cup at a time.
Once all the sugar has been added, increase the speed to high and beat until fluffy.
Although the recipe didn't say it, if your icing is too thick, you can add a little cream at a time until it thins out just a little bit.
Add more Bailey's to taste.

* I found this recipe online later here, and they say to make the icing differently (same amounts of ingredients).  I am enclosing the online version below:

Add the butter and mascarpone to a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment.
Beat at high speed until light and fluffy.
Add the powdered sugar a quarter-cup at a time, beating well after each addition.
Add the Bailey's and beat on high for another minute.
Taste, and add more Baileys 1 teaspoon at a time until boozy enough for you.
If the buttercream begins to separate from adding too much liquid, add the guar gum. *

Assemble the cupcakes:

Place 1 teaspoon of Irish whiskey ganache on top of each cupcake and spread with the back of a spoon to coat the top -- Oops, I totally didn't see this until I went to type up the article.  I only drizzled mine on top.  Oops!
Refrigerate for 15 minutes to harden

Fill a pastry bag fitted with a plain tip with the Bailey's buttercream and pipe onto each cupcake.
Drizzle with additional Single Malt Scotch Ganache.

Chocolate peanut butter pretzel cupcakes

Yeah, in case you were wondering, you read that title correctly.  Chocolate Peanut Butter Pretzel Cupcakes.  Chocolate + peanut butter + pretzels.  In a cupcake. Pretty awesome sounding, right?

A few days ago, I made these awesome cannoli-inspired cupcakes (affectionately named the Dom DeLuise cupcake) for JulieBakes' 2nd birthday.  I found them online on a blog that I subscribe to, mere days before the cookbook they're featured in was launched.  These chocolate peanut butter pretzel cupcakes are by the same bakers/bakery, Robicelli's.  These two cupcakes sounded so awesome (as did another one posted on that same blog, but I'm saving those for another day), that I ended up baking them both in the span of a few days -- and ordering their newly launched cookbook!  Look out for a post about all the awesome recipes featured in it soon (once I receive it, read it, and drool over it).

When I made the Dom DeLuise cupcakes, the recipe said it made 12, but I ended up with 22 regular sized cupcakes and 24 mini cupcakes.  These chocolate peanut butter pretzel cupcakes said that they made 24 regular sized cupcakes, but I ended up with 21 full-sized cupcakes.  I didn't even overfill any of them.  Interesting that the recipes are by the same people but the number of cupcakes would be off on both of them.  Regardless, super awesome cupcakes, so it doesn't really matter to me....and it shouldn't to you, unless you need a specific number of cupcakes.  I needed 12-14 cupcakes, so I ended up with more than enough cupcakes for my need.

 

 

A few notes about these cupcakes:

- I used Dutch press cocoa because I wanted to cupcakes to come out dark and super chocolatey looking.
- The recipe said that the cocoa-coffee mixture was going to be a thick paste.  Mine was actually pretty runny.
- The batter itself is pretty runny.  Don't fret.  It'll bake up nice and pretty anyway.
- Usually when I use coffee in my chocolate cake recipes, you don't taste the coffee at all, it just enhances the chocolate.  I used Starbuck's dark roast coffee, and it was pretty strong, so the cake tasted a little coffee-y.  It got better as the cake cooled.  So if you're a "taste it when it's fresh out of the oven" baker, as I tend to be more often than not, again, don't fret!
- Don't worry if the icing isn't perfectly piped - it'll be covered with crushed peanuts and pretzels, and then drizzled with chocolate ganache, and you won't be able to tell if the swirls aren't perfect.
- For the perfect drizzle - or close to it - I used a squeeze bottle and a back and forth motion.  If you don't have a squeeze bottle, using a fork dipped into the ganache would work well, too.

I feel like it's one of those math problems from elementary school: chocolate + peanut butter + pretzels + peanuts + ganache - concern for calories = one awesome cupcake.  That makes sense, even to the least math savvy person out there.  So does the following statement: Make these cupcakes.  Now.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Pretzel Cupcakes
From Robicelli's: A Love Story, with Cupcakes, found on Food52

Cupcakes:

Ingredients:

3/4 cups cocoa powder (I used Dutch press cocoa for super dark, chocolatey cupcakes)

2/3 cups scalding hot coffee

2/3 cups buttermilk

2/3 cups canola oil

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 egg

1 egg yolk

1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

1 1/3 cup all purpose flour

1 3/4 cup sugar

3/4 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

 

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350.
Line cupcake pans with 24 liners.

 

Place cocoa powder in mixer bowl and pour scalding hot coffee over.

Mix on low speed until a thick paste forms and mixture stops steaming- about one minute. Like I said before, mine was not thick nor was it a paste, it was actually quite runny.  The cupcakes turned out perfectly deliciously well.

 

Turn mixer speed to medium.
In a measuring cup, combine buttermilk, egg, yolk, vanilla, salt and oil, and mix lightly with a fork, ensuring yolks are broken.

Slowly pour into mixer.

 

Stop mixer and scrape bottom well to loosen any caked on cocoa.

Reattach and turn mixer to medium, letting run one minute.

Stop mixer again.

 

Sift together dry ingredients and pour into wet mixture.

Mix on low speed until just combined.

Remove bowl and use scrape down the sides of the bowl, ensuring everything is mixed.

 

Scoop cake batter into prepared pans, filling cups 2/3 of the way.

 

Bake in the middle of the oven for 20-25 minutes, rotating halfway through (I don't rotate them....shhh, don't tell).

Cupcakes are done when the centers spring back when you touch them.

 

Remove cupcakes from oven.

Let cool completely. 

 

Peanut Butter Buttercream:

 

Ingredients:

 

3 sticks unsalted butter

1/2 cup natural peanut butter

1 teaspoon kosher salt

1 1/2 cups powdered sugar

1/4 cup heavy cream

 

Directions:

Cream together the butter, peanut butter, and kosher salt with a mixer set to "high" until light and fluffy.

Add powdered sugar a 1/4 cup at a time, beating well between each addition.
Add heavy cream.
Once combined, taste for flavor.  I added more peanut butter -- probably about 1/4+ cups.

Continue to beat on high for an additional minute to incorporate air.

Classic Chocolate Ganache:

Ingredients:

1/4 cup semisweet chocolate, chopped
1/4 cup cream
pinch of sea salt

Directions:

Place chocolate in a bowl, and shake back and forth until it flattens out on top.

 

Heat cream and sea salt in a medium saucepan until it comes to a boil.

Immediately pour hot cream mixture over chocolate, and allow to sit for two minutes to allow chocolate to melt.

 

Using a heatproof spatula, stir the cream and chocolate together until completely smooth.

 

Allow to cool slightly before drizzling on cupcakes.

Ganache should not be hot to the touch, but still be liquid.

If it cools completely and becomes solid, microwave on 50% power in 20 second increments, stirring between each, until desired consistency is reached.

 

Toppings:

 

3/4 cups roasted peanuts

1 1/2 cup pretzels

 

Directions: Pulse pretzels and peanuts in a food processor until they're coarse crumbs.  (Alternately, place in a strong ziptop bag and repeatedly smack with a rolling pin, a heavy skillet, or anything else your find enjoyable. Place crumbs in a pie dish or baking pan.)

 

Assembly:

Fill pastry bag fitted with regular tip with peanut buttercream, and pipe onto each chocolate cupcake.
Put cupcakes into the refrigerator so buttercream hardens- about 20 minutes.  Don't skip this step - my icing was pretty soft otherwise and I'm sure they wouldn't have been nicely domed afterwards.

Gently roll the sides of the buttercream in peanut/pretzel mixture.
Pour a handful over the top and lightly pack on with hand. Do NOT dip them top down into the bowl and press.  The icing isn't THAT hard.  You will flatten out the icing on the top of the cupcakes.  I learned that lesson after cupcake #1, and the rest of them looked perfect (if I do say so myself).
Shake off excess and set aside.
Drizzle ganache across each cupcake

 

Vanilla macarons

When I baked my mom's birthday cake last week, the recipe called for an egg and an egg yolk (I doubled the recipe, so 2 yolks).  That left me with 2 egg whites.  Great for a breakfast omelette - which, I admit, was the first thought that popped into my mind - or macarons (they call for 3 egg whites, usually).  Of course I tossed the egg whites this morning (I had added a third one to the mug), and then looked at the recipe and found out that it actually calls for 3-5 day old egg whites (mine were 7 days, so in retrospect, tossing them this morning was a good idea).  I had read once, years ago, that room temperature egg whites were best, so I left them sitting out on the counter during the day while I did other things (school work, cleaned, ran errands).

I surprisingly had all the ingredients in the apartment.  That's because there are 5 ingredients in this recipe.  And  because I had leftover almond meal from the last time I made macarons.  You can use blanched almonds -- or you can buy almond meal (mine is from Trader Joe's).  The difference is mostly in appearance -- mine are "flecked" with pieces of almond skin.  If I were making them for an event or if I were to color them (with powdered food coloring only), I'd probably go through the task of grinding my own blanched almonds.  But since I was making macarons just for the sake of making macarons, I went with what I had (and the easy option).

I've made macarons before.  Three times to be exact.  The first time I made Snickers macarons (making delicate French cookies into an American candy bar is kinda sacreligious), then I made pink lemonade macarons (which used pink lemonade mix....sacreligious again, I know), and then chocolate macarons for Passover (less sacreligious).  This time I opted to go with good old fashioned plain macarons.  Although the recipe I used called for the seeds of half a vanilla bean, which I hadn't seen in other recipes.  By the way, these would be great for Passover (which is next month!).

French Macarons
From Tartelette

Ingredients:

100 grams egg whites
25 grams granulated sugar
200 grams confectioners sugar
110 grams ground almonds (or whole almonds)
seeds of half a vanilla bean

Directions:

In a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, whip the egg whites to a foam, gradually add the sugar until you obtain a glossy meringue.
Combine the almonds and powdered sugar in a food processor (I used a whisk) and give them a quick pulse if you use already ground almonds.  If using whole almonds, pulse thoroughly for a minute or so.
Add them to the meringue, along with seeds from the vanilla bean, and start to give quick strokes at first to break up the mass, and then slow down.  Should be no more than 50 strokes.
Mixture is ready when tops of drops flatten out on their own.  If theres still a small beak, fold a few more times.

Fill a pastry bag fitted with a plain tip with the batter and pipe small rounds (1.5 inches in diameter) onto parchement paper lined sheets.
Preheat the even to 280-300F.
Let the macarons sit out for an hour to allow their shells to harden a bit (this is what gives them the little "foot" at the bottom when they bake).
Bake for 15-18 minutes, depending on their size.
Let them cool completely before filling. 

Pipe or spoon some of the filling on one shell and sandwich with another.

White Chocolate Ganache
(Stolen from one of my all time favorite brownie recipes, and quite possibly my mom's favorite brownie ever)

Ingredients:

6 ounces high-quality white chocolate, chopped

5 tablespoons heavy whipping cream

1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon  (optional - I opted for it on some of them)

 

Directions:

 

Place white chocolate in medium microwave-safe bowl.

Bring cream to simmer in small saucepan.

Pour cream over chocolate in bowl.

Let stand 30 seconds, then stir until chocolate is melted and smooth.

If necessary, microwave on low power in 10-second intervals until white chocolate is melted completely.

Chill until ganache is thick but not hard.

 

Fill the macarons.  Let them sit a little while so the ganache is not too soft or runny.  Serve.