Amelia's 1st birthday

A couple of weeks ago, I put together a dessert table for the sweetest little 1 year old, Amelia. The party, held in Tilden park in Berkeley had a farm theme with a decidedly girly twist. I made a smash cake for the birthday girl, chocolate and vanilla cupcakes, brown sugar caramel corn and homemade giant Oreo cookies. Amelia's mom, Lea, an admitted Etsy junkie, provided lots of great elements to decorate the table including personalized cupcake flags, vintage farm animal tags, monogrammed popcorn boxes, and a beautiful hand sewn cake bunting (which was unfortunately a bit too big for the cake, but looked adorable hanging from the crate).

Typically when I put together a dessert table, I have the design mapped out far in advance. In this case, the client was providing the table, linens, candy jars, and some of the props (hello, gorgeous wooden crates), so when I arrived at the event I had to put everything together on the fly. While it was a little nerve-racking (especially because the party was in full swing and there were lots of onlookers), it was a fun challenge and I was really happy with the way it all came together. 

Homemade Fudgesicles

Ok, I'll admit to jumping on the popsicle bandwagon this summer. After pinning yummy popsicle recipes for months, I finally bought these Norpro molds. I love them for their classic shape and use of wooden sticks. I don't know about you, but whenever I've bought molds with reusable plastic holders, they have all disappeared by the time I'm ready to make a second batch.

I think store bought Fudgesicles are pretty delicious, but I'm always up for trying to improve on the original (especially when they are full of artificial ingredients that I can't pronounce!). I started with this recipe and just made a couple of little changes. I had some amazing Valrhona milk chocolate on hand, but you could easily substitute with semi-sweet or dark chocolate. I couldn't have been happier with the results - they were so smooth, rich and super chocolatey - the perfect summer treat!

Homemade Fudgesicles

1/2 cup high-quality milk chocolate
1 1/3 cups granulated sugar
4 tablespoons cornstarch
6 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
5 cups whole milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
16 wooden popsicle sticks
1.  Chop the chocolate into small pieces and melt over a double boiler.
2.  Combine the melted chocolate, sugar, cornstarch, cocoa powder, and milk in a medium saucepan. Cook over medium heat until slightly thickened, approximately 10 minutes. Remove from heat and strain through a fine mesh strainer. Stir in the vanilla.
3. Cool the mixture to room temperature then pour into 16 popsicle molds. Freeze for 1 hour and then insert sticks. Freeze overnight for best results.

To unmold: Have a chilled container ready to put your popsicles in. Fill a bowl with boiling water the depth of the mold. Place the mold in the water and let sit for a couple seconds. Working as quickly as possible, wiggle the sticks and pull out the popsicles. If they seem to be melting too much, refreeze until hard and try again.

Recipe adapted from: The Brown Eyed Baker

A recipe and a giveaway!

I shared my new, favorite recipe for Root Beer Float cupcakes yesterday on Birthday Girl. Now I wanted to share with one lucky reader some essentials to making them: 5 18" striper pastry bags (for making the perfect double swirl), 5 outer pastry bags, and a bottle of yummy root beer extract. Simply leave a comment here and I will choose a winner on Sunday, July 3rd. If you share this giveaway on Facebook or Twitter, leave a comment for an additional entry. The winner will be contacted via email. Open to US residents only.
We have a winner - #3 - Magpie! I'll send you an email - congratulations!


Here's the recipe again in case you missed it!
I found this recipe on Smitten Kitchen and tweaked it a bit, adding more butter, root beer extract and simplifying the method. I thought that root beer extract would be easier to come by but after searching all my local grocery stores, I finally found it at a homebrew/wine making store. There’s a much better selection online and I think I would try this one from Cooks next time.
For the frosting, I wanted to duplicate the vanilla ice cream, but also wanted to make sure that the overall flavor screamed root beer. I settled on making vanilla & root beer variations of my favorite Swiss meringue buttercream recipe and swirled them together. There are a couple of methods to achieve this effect – using 2 bags in one (see a great tutorial here or you can use these very handy striper bags. Whichever technique you use, it is a little tricky to get the frosting to come out evenly, so plan on taking your time and practicing a few swirls before applying to your cupcakes. Making sure your frosting is on the softer side will make the process much easier. Happy swirling!
Ingredients
¾ cup unsalted butter, softened
1 ¼ cups sugar
½ dark brown sugar
2 large eggs
2 tsp root beer extract
1 teaspoon salt
1 ¼ teaspoons baking soda
2 cups all purpose flour
1 cup cocoa powder (Dutch processed)
2 cups root beer (I used Jones and I would recommend using a similar, natural soda)

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350°F.
2. In a mixing bowl, cream together butter and sugars until light and pale.
3. Add in the eggs one at a time and mix until combined
4. Sift together flour, cocoa, salt and baking soda together
5. Stir together root beer & root beer extract
6. Alternately add dry ingredients and root beer to mixing bowl, scraping down after each addition. Start and end with dry ingredients
7. Fill paper-lined muffin tins with batter 2/3 full.
8. Bake at 350° for 20-22 minutes
Root Beer & Vanilla Bean buttercream
Ingredients
1 lb unsalted butter, softened
2 cups sugar
8 egg whites
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
2 tsp root beer extract (or more to taste)

Directions
1. Combine the sugar & egg whites in mixer bowl and whisk together over simmering water until hot to the touch and all of the sugar has melted and is no longer grainy
2. Transfer bowl to mixer stand and whip on high until fluffy & cool – about 10 minutes
3. With the mixer on low, add the softened butter, 1 tablespoon at a time until incorporated. Add in vanilla. Whip until smooth (it may look curdled, but just continue to mix & it will be fine!).
4. Remove ½ of the frosting and add root beer extract to the remaining frosting.