DISH: Seitan Piccata at Candle 79. “Most of the time – though not always – we like to eat vegan [...]
Tag: how to
Amuse Bouche: Links for 3/2/12
Girl Scout Candy Bars
They aren’t made with Girl Scouts, promise! Instead, Nestle has come up with a new way to enjoy those Girl Scout cookies we all love so much: By turning them into candy bars. After a picture of a Thin Mint-Nestle Crunch bar turned up on Reddit in late February, the hunt was on — and Nestle has now said “look forward to some very exciting news in June.” Start saving your calories now. [Reddit and Huffington Post]
The McRibster
Speaking of things you can’t eat yet, take a gander at the McRibster, a concoction from Austria’s McDonald’s chain: It’s a deep-fried McRib with bacon, pepper-Jack cheese and spicy sweet chili sauce. So, who’s up for a jaunt to Vienna? [Eater]
Bacon Thing of the Week
Elvis is everywhere! He’s even in your bacon. [I Love Bacon]
Baked Potato Bean Bag Chair (with Butter Pillow)
Sometimes the headline says it all. From what we can tell, this limited-edition Etsy item even seems to have scallions in the potato. Yum, and comfy at the same time. Please also note that B-Fiber & Craft have other delicious-looking soft items, too. [Etsy]
Death Star Cake
What says “happy occasion!” like a replica of Darth Vader’s planet-destroying super-star? Nothing, that’s what. Here’s how you can make your own, and note an even more awesome looking one pictured above. [Boing Boing]
Brownies in shells: An egg-cellent option
Creative cookery requires a little imagination, and a little thinking outside the box. Or perhaps thinking outside the eggshell.
I’ve been stumbling across a number of sites recently that do just this sort of thing: Come up with new and interesting ways to present commonplace foods. My favorite happens to be the brownie-in-an-eggshell concept.
But bakers need to be prepared to put a little more effort in than just pouring the batter into a pan, and your batter will have to be completely free of chunks, for reasons that should become obvious shortly.
Here’s how you do it, courtesy Boing Boing:
- Poke a hole in the shell of a raw egg — use a corkscrew for a sharp, even hole that shouldn’t crack the shell.
- Let the insides of the egg drip out (this will take some time) and gently wash the insides out.
- Let everything dry. Meanwhile, make your brownie mix! (And leave out the chocolate chips.)
- Stand the shell up in a muffin tin, or even in the egg carton it came in from the store.
- Tipple the brownie batter into the hole you’ve created. Tip: Use a piping bag with a narrow nozzle, or a funnel (though it may take a long time).
- Don’t fill the egg the whole way! 2/3 should be sufficient, as your brownie will grow inside the egg.
- Cook as per usual.
This will take some practice; your first batch may simply explode your eggs. Naysayers may bemoan the lack of crispy edges on your final brownies, but the fun of cracking into the eggshell and coming up with cake-tacular chocolate perfection should make up for any grumbling.
If not, take away their brownie!
The writer of the Boing Boing post refers to making Jell-O in eggshells as well — that could be quite amusing if done right, and is probably much easier than brownies, due to the viscosity factor of batter vs. liquid. Chocolate is another option, allowing you to make your own chocolate eggs come Easter.
Finally, always remember food safety: Not every fun container could, or should, come in contact with high heat and food items.
Terra cotta flowerpots must be designed for food use — the ones you may buy at the local Home Depot, for example — are not meant to be combined with consumables, according to the NDSU.
Happy baking, happy cracking, and happy eating!
The Great Cupcake Cake Debate
Who doesn’t like cupcakes? All the great taste of cake without the guilt of eating a whole slice!
That is, until now. With Cupcake Cake pans proliferating in recent years, the question arises, just what kind of fool will buy one?
Hello! Waving over here!
I bought mine a few years ago at Williams-Sonoma. The logic being: Small cupcake good, big cupcake better! (Cookie Monster is my superego.) But while making it was fun, as was beholding the behemoth, there are plenty of drawbacks. Dust that flour off your hands and let’s talk cupcake cakes.
First: Mine was expensive. You probably don’t need one from W-S, though it’s always a treat to wander around that store and think about all the ways you might use orange marmalade or rosemary-infused olive oil. So unless you’re baking for the Queen, spend less.
Next: Use whatever cake recipe you want; don’t be intimidated by the one that comes with the pan. The contents of what you’re about to make work out to roughly two layers of cake, so just prepare as usual. That said, the recipe that came with this one was not particularly wonderful: The cake was extremely dense and not all that moist. So be ready to play around a bit.
Then, once you’ve cooked the whole thing, you may need to smooth off the top and bottom, as they probably won’t cook in a perfect little flat plane. Use a sharp, non-serrated knife for the right flatness of the layers so they can properly sit on one another. Otherwise, the top part could start to tip if it isn’t sitting on a flat surface.
Frost, sprinkle, add a cherry if you so desire, and voila! You have a two-layer, oversized 
cupcake to wow your friends!
Here’s the buyer beware part: I am a cupcake fiend, and I’ve only ever used this thing once. A better tasting cake recipe might woo me back, but for now it sits fairly ignored. Why is that?
I have a theory. Cupcakes are best when they perfectly balance frosting and cake. You want a certain amount of frosting with every bite of cake; too much frosting feels terrible in the mouth, while too little means you’re just eating cake – plain cake! With the giant cupcake cake, the problems are magnified, because it’s frosted like a regular cake, but you have the anticipatory desire of a cupcake. So that’s not working. And then it’s not really even frosted like a slice of cake, because the proportions are off even for typical cake.
That said, I would not discourage anyone from trying it out. You might find the perfect combination and 
recipe, and if so — let us know! Meanwhile, I’ll just have to dream about giant cupcakes, rather than make them.
What’s your favorite cupcake gizmo? Have you used a cupcake cake? Tell us on our Facebook page!
–Randee Dawn
