dairy free chocolate cupcakes with whipped dark chocolate ganache frosting

Last fall we took a road trip to LA to visit with friends, and we stayed with one of my best friends, Reggie. Her daughter Rachel is allergic to dairy but loves baked goods, so I decided to make some dairy free cupcakes for her. I had recently come upon this recipe from Pastry Affair for vegan chocolate cupcakes, and while I was intrigued at how a cupcake with no eggs could rise to be soft and fluffy, I thought it would the perfect cupcake to try out for Rachel!

I ended up making two different chocolate cupcake recipes - the vegan one above, and my usual chocolate cupcake recipe with canola oil instead of butter, and coconut milk instead of regular milk. But I topped both cupcakes with the same vegan chocolate ganache frosting, which uses coconut milk instead of heavy cream.

 

To decorate the cupcakes, I filled a pastry bag with the whipped ganache frosting, and one by one I placed each cupcake on a revolving cake stand and used a a large petal tip #104 to pipe swirling rosettes on the top. (I've used this same ruffle technique to decorate cakes as well and I always love the way they turn out!)

After tasting them, most of us preferred the regular dairy free cupcake (with oil and coconut milk instead of dairy) when compared with the vegan cupcake (no oil or milk at all). The vegan cupcake was just missing a bit of richness that the other cupcake had. But for vegans I think this would be a great alternative, as the cupcake was still fluffy and moist, and full of chocolate flavor!

And now I'll leave you with some pictures from our fun weekend away. :)

yellow ruffle lemon cake filled with lemon whipped cream and fresh blueberries

Speaking of reconnecting with high school friends (which I mentioned in my last post), sometime last summer I also made this yellow ruffle cake for my friend Bernice from high school, who was hosting a baby shower for her sister Tiffany! She wanted to emulate a blueberry cheesecake that was a favorite of her sister's, so we decided on a lemon cake with blueberry whipped cream, similar to this cake. (Although now that I look at the pictures, I totally forgot to make a blueberry whipped cream, and ended up making a whipped cream with fresh blueberries instead! OOPS! I'm so sorry, Bernice!)

Anyway, for the lemon cake I used the vanilla cake recipe in my book, The Hello Kitty Baking Book, and added grated lemon zest to the batter (instead of the extracts). I baked them into two 8-inch cake pans, let them cool, and then cut them in half horizontally (giving me 4 cake layers). Then I filled each layer with fresh whipped cream and fresh blueberries.

For the frosting, Bernice wanted a ruffle cake similar to this one, except we decided to go with buttercream instead of whipped cream since it was going to be a hot day! Since I knew the cake would be covered with ruffles, I only covered the cake with a quick crumb coat of yellow buttercream (recipe also in my book!).

Then I used a disposable pastry bag fitted with a petal tip to pipe the ruffles, starting in the middle of the cake and piping continuous rings towards the outer edge of the cake. (A nice revolving cake stand works great for this! Or, you could use a lazy susan.)

Then I continued piping all the way down the sides of the cake.

Here's a view from the top, isn't it pretty?



I do think that this technique with buttercream gives a slightly different look than when done with whipped cream though, as buttercream gives slightly smoother ruffles while whipped cream gives more textured ruffles. But both effects are still very pretty.

Anyway hopefully the blueberry whipped cream debacle turned out okay. (Sorry again, Bernice!)

Happy baby shower, Tiffany!

coffee and cream ruffle cake

For my best friend Sue's birthday this past March, I wanted to make her a cake flavor that she hadn't tried yet. In the past, I've made her Hello Kitty ice cream cake, Boston cream pie cake, triple chocolate mousse cake, Hello Kitty chocolate mousse cake, and a piped petals chocolate mousse layer cake (for her baby shower). This time I decided to go with something lighter, so I went with a light and fluffy coffee chiffon cake!

After baking four 6-inch layers of coffee chiffon cake, I filled it with freshly whipped cream which I flavored with a paste made of espresso powder and hot water. Then also covered the tops and sides of my cake, and smoothed it out with an offset spatula.

For the decoration, I wanted something girly and frilly, so I chose to pipe continuous swirls of ruffles, as I did with my recent green tea ruffle cake and pink velvet ruffle cake.

I think this is definitely my current favorite way to decorate a cake!

The cake ended up being soft and moist, and reminded both of us of a mocha cake that my mom used to buy for me every year on my birthday, ever since junior high. (Too bad that bakery is no longer around, or else I would gladly continue that tradition!)

To one of the most fun and thoughtful people that I know, Happy Birthday, Sue!

ombre ruffle coffee and cream cake

For my mom's birthday every year, I typically make some sort of coffee flavored cake, since I know that she loves coffee flavored desserts! In the past I've made her a Hello Kitty tiramisu cake, a mocha pocky layer cake, and a tiramisu layer cake. So this year I decided to continue the tradition by making her a coffee chiffon layer cake! (Boy, have I come a long way since my first coffee chiffon cake a few years ago!)

So I baked up three layers of coffee chiffon cake, and filled them with espresso-tinted whipped cream.

Since I wanted to do an ombre effect with piped ruffles along the sides of the cake, I covered the top with regular whipped cream, and the sides with espresso whipped cream. Then using a Wilton #104 petal tip, I piped three rows of ruffles with the espresso whipped cream, and then piped three rows with chocolate whipped cream (I basically just folded in melted and cooled bittersweet chocolate).

To finish it off, I sprinkled a few gold and silver dragees and white sugar pearls along the perimeter of the cake.

I think I could have even gone with a fourth layer of cake, just to give the final cake more height. But I still thought it looked cute.

Here's a quick shot I took (with my camera phone) of the inside of the cake. Love the striped look of the layers!

Happy Happy Birthday, Mom! Hope you enjoyed the cake and dinner party! :)

japanese cheesecake with whipped cream and raspberries

I've been meaning to try making a Japanese cheesecake again, after making this one a few years ago. I remember it being very light and fluffy, yet super flavorful at the same time (think soft fluffy cheesecake instead of a dense rich cheesecake!). So when it was time to make something for my brother's birthday, I thought it would be the perfect cake for him!

What makes this cheesecake so light and fluffy are eggs whites, which are whipped to stiff peaks and then folded in with the rest of the cream cheese batter.

I used this recipe at Diana's Desserts once again, but this time instead of baking it in a 9-inch springform pan I baked it in an 8-inch round cake pan (lined with parchment paper), in a water bath.

Look how tall and fluffy it got!

After letting it cool to room temperature, I let it chill in the fridge overnight. Then the next morning I whipped up some fresh whipped cream, tinted with a bit of vanilla extract and sweetened with a bit of confectioner's sugar, and covered the top and sides of the cake with it.

Then I used a Wilton #104 petal tip to pipe rows of ruffles along the sides of the cake. (My new favorite way to frost a cake, see here and here!)

Then I decorated it with a ring of fresh raspberries (since my brother likes cakes with fresh fruit!)

I loved the color effect - the striking red of the raspberries against the white of the whipped cream. So cute! (Now that I think about it, this combination looks a bit like the Mother's Day cake I made last year ... hmmmm.)

Happy Birthday, Michael! Hope you enjoyed the cake! :)