Chocolate overload

I may not end up at any cupcake bakeries during this road trip, but Nick and I did get to stop at a cute little candy store -- and gorge on lots of candy.

The store was called Main Street Sweets and was in Mason, OH.  There were classics like root beer barrels and licorice,  but what caught my attention was all of the chocolate-dipped stuff. Basically, the owner took whatever junk food you could think of and then dipped it in chocolate.  For example: Nutter Butters, Rice Crispy treats, pretzel rods, Oreos, Twinkies, and cookie-dough-on-a-stick.

I ended up buying the chocolate-dipped M&M-covered pretzel rod, the cookie dough (which I expected to be my favorite but, to be blunt, sucked), and the Rice Crispy treat (my surprise favorite). 

At first I thought this store was awesome,  a small-town shop with a local owner.  Then I realized anyone could melt some chocolate and dip store-bought cookies and cakes in them, and she was just taking the easy way out.  I would have prefer some unique, home-made chocolates.  But oh well, she didn't charge that much, and it tasted good enough (if you just want a sugar rush).

If I ever open a candy store, I vow to put some effort into it and create something new.  You can hold me to that.

P.S. - No, your eyes do not fool you.  In that last picture is a jar full of candy ducks.  Adorable.

DIY wedding cupcakes

only 4 of 6 lbs used

The thing that led me to start this blog was preparing to make wedding cupcakes, and now I'm done!  In fact, I was done a week and a half ago.  I'm not sure what my next baking goal will be, but let me tell you a little about the wedding cupcake tower...

So the day before the wedding, my friend Kristine and I decorated all of the cupcakes we'd made the week before and frozen.  We ended up using about 6 lbs of powdered sugar and 1.5 lbs of butter to frost the 90+ cupcakes we made.  About half got simple vanilla buttercream (from the Domino sugar box) and half got chocolate butter frosting.

I piped the frosting onto each one, an then Kristine immediately (to make sure they'd stick on) dusted them with chunky white sugar sprinkles.  The vanilla-frosted ones also got little edible pearls, which she pressed in one by one (you have no idea how patient she is with things like that).

Let me tell you, frosting dozens of cupcakes is time consuming!  I thought it was absurd when I called bakeries in February to ask how much wedding cupcakes cost (the answers I got:  starting at $3.50-$4.00 per cupcake; stand and setup additional!).  But with two of us working on them, this took a good 6 hours, and the cupcakes were already baked!  I guess somebody more experienced would be faster than we were, but really, it's a lot of work.  If you are planning to make your own wedding cupcakes, make sure you have the time!

Despite my prior failure are cake-decorating, I decided to have a small cake on the top tiered of the stand.

I made two 6-inch chocolate cakes (okay I really made 3, but the first one totally fell apart when I tried to get it out of the pan, reminding me what am amateur I really am).

And then I coated it with a thin layer of frosting to seal in the crumbs.  (I wish I had known to do this intuitively or something, but really I just happened to watch a YouTube video a couple of months ago showing how to frost a cake.)

Then I covered the whole messy, frosted thing with fondant (which, admittedly, I bought and did not make.  I figured Wilton knew what to do better than I did) because I didn't think I could get frosting to look very smooth.  And, finally, I make a border around the top and bottom with some Ateco tips (I'd love to tell you which ones, but as I am in the midst of a cross-country move, they are packed away on the roof of the car and I don't have the desire or ability to dig them out.  Some day, if you keep reading, you will know which tips I used.  That day is not today).  And then the florist made a pretty cake topper. And there you have it:  a [sort of] professional[ish]-looking wedding cake!

Besides oodles of cupcakes. we also had Italian cookies and a frightening amount of candy for people to eat.

And after all that planning and practicing, it's over!  I'm not sure what I should work on next.  Continue with cupcakes?  Practice cake-decorating some more?  Branch out and try a different baked good?  I have time to decide though, because right now I'm on the move and have no kitchen.  I do, however, hope to find a couple of good cupcakes along the way.  

Lots and lots and lots of cupcakes

Ugh, I haven't written in weeks! In my defense, in the past two weeks, I have: had my first of two bachelorette parties, packed up my entire apartment, graduated from college, had a bridal shower, and baked 96 cupcakes for my wedding.

All of those cupcakes were baked yesterday, and it wasn't actually that difficult or time consuming to do them all. I'll be honest -- we (Kristine and I) used Pillsbury cake mix. Hey, look, after all my baking over the past few months, I never found a chocolate or vanilla cake recipe I loved. And the box mixes were easier for how many we were making. Don't judge me.

Anyway, the wedding isn't for a week and two days, so we had to freeze the cupcakes and we'll frost them the day before. So to keep them safe and un-freezer-burned, we wrapped each in plastic wrap and then also put them in freezer bags (we attempted to suck the air out with a straw to make them vacuum sealed, but it seeped back in. We ended up lightheaded and with air-filled bags)

I've decided to stick with simple chocolate and vanilla cupcakes and frosting (in each combination). I figured almost everyone will like one of them, and if not, they will not be left out of the sugar indulgence...

...because we have a ridiculous amount of blue and yellow candy. I'm talking 5 pounds of gummy bears, hundreds of those candy sticks, and pounds of candy coated chocolate. We may have gone a little overboard. Maybe. But I think I'm becoming immune to sugar with all that I've been eating. At my first bachelorette party, I had amazing raspberry-blueberry-cheesy crepe things from a place called Duck & Bunny...

...followed by a red velvet cupcake for dessert.

After that I had probably a dozen mini pastries during graduation weekend, and then at my shower we had: chocolate fudge, Hawaiian cake (yellow cake topped with pudding, pineapple, whipped cream, coconut, and walnuts), carrot cheesecake, mini raspberry cheesecakes, and mini Oreo cheesecakes. I tried each and every one of those desserts. To be honest, I feel kind of sick. And there is lots of junk food yet to come...

They do exist!

I have found Happy Hippos!

When I was on my lunch break the other day, I stumbled upon a little gourmet marketplace downtown. As I was paying, I spotted them: Happy Hippos (chocolate instead of hazelnut, but I can adjust). And behind me, MORE KINDER CANDY. Woooooooooooooooooo.

Then I bought a box without asking how much they were. By the time I found out they were $6, I felt too awkward to say I didn't want them. Oops. Anyway, I can't believe that all this time there has been Kinder candy within 15 minutes of me and I didn't know. I'll have to stock up before graduation!

Bring Kinder Candy to the US!

Besides Nutella, I also developed a love for Kinder candy while I was in Italy a couple of summers ago. I guess it originated in Germany, but it at least made it to Italy (and I'm assuming it's all over Europe). I've never seen it in stores here, and, though it's sold on Amazon, I don't particularly want to buy an entire case because it seems absurd to buy $40 of candy at one time, no matter how delicious.

My absolute favorite Kinder candy is Happy Hippos. Yup, that's right. Happy Hippos. Awesome. They come in cocoa- and hazelnut-cream filled (hazelnut is my preferred Hippo). Little delectable wafer hippos staring up at you with those concerned little eyes. Truly genius.I was even fortunate enough to live less than a 10 minute walk from a gelateria that had Happy Hippo gelato, both hazelnut and cocoa. It was a dream come true. If for no other reason, I will go back to Italy just for that gelato.

Kinder also brilliantly created cream-filled chocolate rhinos, Kinder Bueno (chocolate-covered hazelnut-cream-filled wafer), and these little sectioned chocolate bars with white filling. In the U.S., we value our peanuts but completely neglect hazelnuts! Don't get me wrong, I love a good peanut-butter and jelly sandwich or a Reese's, but we need to jump on the hazelnut bandwagon (alright so there's no bandwagon that I know of. But there should be, and we should be on it). And now that I've written this, I have a serious craving for Happy Hippos. Damn. Time to order a case I guess =)

The 4 best days of the year

As a person who a) loves all thing sweet, and b) has very little money, I highly anticipate the day after a holiday. There's nothing like getting candy at a fraction of its original price to bake with (or, in my case, to eat within 6 minutes and never have the chance to bake with).

Yesterday morning, I made a beeline for CVS with a specific mission in mind: find Mini Eggs. I've been eating them nonstop for the past month (just ask the guys at the mini mart down the street), and I was just waiting for the day after Easter so I could stock up.

This day was preceded by much anxiety. I knew that I could get as many Mini Eggs as I wanted leading up to Easter, but at full price. Did I want to risk missing out on several more pounds of unique chocolate coated in that thiiin thin candy coating just for a discount? Yes. And I got some. But they're gone now. Sick, huh?

Unfortunately, there's a long dry spell between now and the next candy-endorsed holiday: Halloween. Then begins the golden period of holiday candy as Halloween is followed by Christmas and the lame-if-not-for-the-candy Valentine's Day. Until then, I guess I'll have to shell out the cash to feel appropriately sick to my stomach each day.

The best fudge ever

I made a bunch of fudge yesterday using a really easy recipe from my cousin's grandmother. I think that the marshmallows are what makes it special (though I'm a vegetarian, I have given in and I eat gelatin. Shhh don't tell). Give it a try:

Creamy Chocolate Fudge

Combine:
2 cups sugar
2/3 cup evaporated milk
16 large marshmallows
1/4 tsp. salt
Cook and stir over medium heat until marshmallows melt. Boil and stir over medium heat for 5 minutes. Remove from heat and add:
1/4 cup butter
1 cup chocolate chips
1 tsp. vanilla
Beat until blended. Spread in 9" square pan (sprayed with cooking spray). Refrigerate until served.

A few tips for getting the fudge to turn out perfectly:
~make sure you use a big enough pan (I used a 4 quart one) because the marshmallows expand as they melt
~ don't skimp on the boiling part. I decided once that about 3.5 minutes was plenty of time. It wasn't
~make sure your chocolate chips are room temperature. I had them refrigerated in the summer and then they didn't melt enough when I added them, so the fudge didn't look smooth.

The fudge was a huge hit at work today. The consistency gives the perfect resistance to your teeth as you bite into it; they just sliiiide through and release a creamy hunk of not-too-sweet chocolate onto your tongue.