Learning from Delicious Failure

“Learning Through Failure: Mom’s cherry covered chocolate cupcakes”

Back in July, I got inspired to create what I call, “DC Cherry Cupcakes.” It’s a white almond cake topped with a fresh cherry almond puree and cherry almond butter cream. 

I took my regular butter cream and used fresh cherry juice as the liquid and used almond and vanilla extract. The result was a delicate rose butter cream, very similar to the color of cherry blossoms. 

I used a star tip to create a rose design on top. This is actually ridiculously easy. If you’d like to try it yourself, start with a large star tip (4 or 5). Fill your pastry bag (or Ziploc, no judgments here) with your favorite frosting, slightly stiff. Hold your bag perpendicular to the cupcake, and start in the center. Squeeze out the frosting in a circular motion until you get to the edge. Voila! That’s it. I kid you not, it’s that easy.

        My friends and family have willingly become my guinea pigs (ironic, since I’m allergic to actual guinea pigs). They loved these cupcakes! I was making a test batch, so I did a few cupcakes without the cherry puree.  
I marked the ones with the puree by drawing with melted chocolate on top. My friend Laura, who’s not crazy about cherries, loved the cherry almond butter cream. Hell, I loved it so much; I spread it on graham crackers! 

My mom liked them, but said, “Not enough chocolate” (I wonder where I get my chocoholism from?).  I agreed that they would be good with more chocolate. I decided I would try chocolate shavings in the butter cream next time. 

        Flash forward to August and my mom’s birthday rolls around. She claimed I didn’t have to bake her anything. “I don’t need a cake!” she said, but I knew the truth. I decide to create, “Mom’s Cherry Covered Chocolate Cupcakes.” I started with our basic chocolate cake recipe. I replaced the unsweetened cocoa powder with Hershey’s Special Dark cocoa powder

and I subbed out 1 ½ teaspoons of the vanilla extract for almond extract. The cake batter, holy balls the cake batter, it was heavenly!

I made cherry puree by pitting about 2 cups fresh cherries, throwing them in a food processor and draining through a sieve. I saved the cherry juice for my butter cream. I added 1 teaspoon of sugar and a healthy splash of Disarrono amaretto.  

I stored this in the fridge while the cupcakes cooled and went to work on the pièce d’ résistance; cherry almond butter cream with dark chocolate shavings. 

I wanted the chocolate and cherry to stand as separate notes, that’s why I chose the chocolate shavings instead of cocoa powder or chocolate extract. I also added a little amaretto, because why the hell not? I topped my cooled cupcakes with the fresh cherry puree.

Next, I intended to decorate the cupcakes like the DC Cherry cupcakes, with the star tips roses.  What I utterly failed to consider, and some of you smarties out there might have guessed, especially if you’ve ever had a chocolate chip Blizzard, is that the chocolate shavings would clog my star tip. 
Not knowing this, I loaded my bag with a #5 star tip and delicious frosting. I’ll admit, at this point, I had sampled some of the amaretto (for quality purposes, of course, I HAD to). 

Imagine my surprise when the first rose turned out like utter crap! I was flummoxed for all of two seconds, and then I remembered my own extensive Blizzard experience and the chocolate clogging the straw.  

Normally, you could just scrape off the frosting and try again, but the puree was already on these cupcakes. I wish I had taken a picture of how effed up these cupcakes were, but my first instinct was to fix it, not photograph it. I did, rather pointlessly, try another large tip before just cutting the end off the bag and doing a basic swirl. 

I blame the Friday night dumbs and the amaretto for not skipping that middle step. Then arrived problem number two: The delicate chocolate shavings that were solid enough to clog my tips were also melting in the bag from the heat of my hands. This turned my delicate rose frosting with dark flecks to a dusty pink frosting with some brown streaks.

I stared at my crappy-looking cupcakes in slight despair. These were not the cupcakes I wanted to present to my mother. It was time to bite the bullet, or cupcake. 

I said a quick prayer that they didn’t taste as bad as they looked. I got out a plate and a cup of milk to go with my cupcake (professional tip- just saying’).  

OH MY F#@*ing CRAP, these were the ultimate ugly duckling cupcakes! The flavors did just what they should; explode on your tongue, do a little dance and party in your mouth. This, IMHO, is an awesome cupcake.  I do recommend storing them in the refrigerator. To quote my mom, the birthday girl, they are “Divine.” My friend Jen texted me, “Hoooolyyyy crap!!!!” and “So good. Possibly even better that is was cold. It was still gooey and delicious”

*Sadly, my mom went to sneak the last cupcake when everyone else in her house was asleep (so she didn’t have to share) only to discover that ants had invaded her container and were eating her cupcake. She did not heed my fridge suggestion. *

Now on to learning from my delicious failure: the next time I make these I will simply do a big only swirl design. These darlings don’t need fancy looking frosting. I should probably chill the frosting in the bag for a few minutes to avoid the chocolate melting. For your viewing displeasure, here are a few of my bad pics. 

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We like making pretty things!

I started my professional training in pretty things this month with a Wilton Cake Decorating Class at Michael's (they offer these all over the country if you, too, would like to learn to make pretty things). This is a fondant class. The other two GingerBuilders have already taken a few Wilton cake decorating classes, but this was my first endeavor. I know we've joked about modesty being our best quality, and this is another fine example. I made the prettiest bow ever!

We got a late start due to the crazy Midwest Winter, so we were playing catch-up. We learned to make a Calla Lily and the bases for a few flowers at the first class.
 I was surprised that after following a few steps, and having a little patience, I made a bow! This happens when we make gingerbread houses, too. We'll be working and working and working non-stop, feeling like we're getting no where. Then, we'll look up, and the house is done (or almost done) and it feels like magic. The bow came together the same way.

I was so proud of my bow I made a chocolate cake to put it on :-)

This was not my prettiest cake ever, but the chocolate buttercream frosting over the devil's food cake was delicious. It's a vicious cycle, baking and creating pretty things, but someone has to do it.

In our next class, we tackled some trickier flowers and added leaves. As our regular readers know, I break stuff. Our pretty flowers start as little balls of gum paste/fondant on a piece of spaghetti. This is all well and good until "someone" keeps breaking the spaghetti.

Never the less, I persevered and created more pretty things! I love making pretty things! I sound like such a girl when I say this. I feel like you all need to watch me swear at the TV during a football game to let you know how un-girly-girl I am.
For your viewing pleasure (I hope!):

Please remember to subscribe to keep up to date on all our fun GingerBuilder adventures. (My Denver Broncos made it to the Super bowl, maybe I will post a video of me swearing at the TV)
Have a wonderful week!
~Megan

The inception- Megan's point of view

The inception, from my point of view, was merely a distraction from the painful events I was experiencing.  Stephanie and Erin called me and they had just finished a gingerbread house. I was immediately jealous and wanted to make one, too. My girls, being as awesome as they are, agreed to make a second house the next day. I was told to bring wine, powdered sugar, and anything else that struck my fancy, candy wise.  I didn’t know what I was getting myself into. I only knew I wanted in.

I was a complete novice and started by doing whatever they told me. At one point, Erin said, “Hold that,” as I held a wall in place. I asked, “How long do I have to hold this?” “Until is stands on its own,” followed by giggles, was the reply. I don’t remember who said it, but I was not amused. I couldn’t reach my glass of wine! I started practicing bows and little details.

The wine started flowing and the ideas right along with it. It was the most fun I had had in a long time.

We loved our first house and decided that our three brains worked really well together.

Stephanie showed us pictures of the gingerbread competition held in her town. Being full of wine, sugar and bravado, we decided we could do something better than any of those houses and agreed to enter a house in the competition the next year. Obviously, some practice was in order. We made a February house and a Halloween house before our first competition house.

We learned to eat some protein and lay off the sugar to avoid the shakes and headaches.  We checked out books from the library and looked online for ideas. Erin consulted candy experts for ideas and we scoured every candy aisle in every store for more ideas. We started a pinterest board, then another and another. It was addictive, in a good way. We couldn’t wait to try out new ideas! But first, the breaking of the first house. It is tradition that the youngest gets to break the house. With us, that would be Stephanie. Enjoy!