nom-yum-gnome

[nomyumgnome]

Plants vs Zombies cupcakes

I am kind of obsessed with Plants vs Zombies, I think the game is very fun and very well designed. Since the Alien cupcakes I wanted to experiment a little more with fondant and gum paste. I saw a vegetarian friendly recipe for fondant at allrecipes (I love that site). I found myself with a little extra time and decided to make my favorite plants from the game.

The recipe is great if you are trying to make little characters, but not so good to try to roll it for a big cake. The recipe is very sticky and it melts quickly, but to make the little plants it was just right.

For the leaves, I used the gum paste recipe that I posted before, it hardens fast and it's easy to roll.

I also decided to bake my chocolate cake in flower pots. I cut a paper liner and pasted it to the bottom of the pot with some oil before pouring the chocolate cake, so it wouldn't leak through the hole.

It was pretty easy to bake the cupcakes in flower pots, it did require about 5 extra minutes to bake, but it came out nice and fluffy.

I used melted chocolate to paste all the little details like eyes, eyebrows, leaves etc.

For the Winter Melon below, I used crushed lollipops to give it the ice effect.

I also had to use a few lollipop sticks to make the structure on the flower and catapult pieces stronger.

If you have never worked with fondant or gum paste but you are curious about it, I highly recommend you to do it, it's like playing with play-doh, who doesn't love play-doh??

I hope you liked my nerdy cupcakes.

Thanks for reading my silly blog.

[nomyumgnome]

Alien Cupcakes

My husband's birthday was last week, and we had a little family gathering to celebrate.

Since we are huge nerds and big fans of the Alien movies, I decided to make him some creepy cupcakes.

I saw some egg pod ice cube trays on Amazon and then, the evil site suggested me to buy the Big Chap ones, so what was I supposed to do?

I used a simple chocolate cake and cream cheese frosting recipe since that is what he wanted, but it's more about the decoration really; so you can use anything you want. I even think next time it would be cool to use a "green velvet" recipe or just dye any vanilla cupcake green to make it extra creepy.

When the trays arrived I was super excited since the size was perfect for cupcakes, the only problem is that in my complicated little head, the decorations were going to be a little too simple with just a little egg or a big chap head and nothing else.

I decided to bite the bullet and try to make gumpaste for the first time and make a facehugger. I am not going to lie, that was a bitch to make. It broke like 5 times and I had to keep repairing it and I was about to give up.

I got the recipe for the gumpaste from Wiki answers since I don't use gelatin, so if you are not a vegetarian I recommend using this recipe instead.

I used chocolate to fill the molds and I also used chocolate to paste 2 pieces together to give it a 3D effect. The hands and tail on the xenomorph are also made of gumpaste. I wanted to add some green goo to make it extra gross and since gelatin wasn't an option, I decided to add green vegetable dye to corn syrup and drizzle the cupcakes with it.

I am sorry for the ugly cracks. I am no pro, but I did have a blast making these.

[nomyumgnome]

Sugar Rush Cookies

My husband loooooooves peanut butter....and Cap'n Crunch AND chocolate.

So why not combining all to make the ultimate cookies?

I modified this recipe a little to make it exactly how he wanted them, and they turned out so good that even Toto the dinosaur wanted to eat them!

I hope you all like them.

Ingredients:

1 Stick of butter. (Use REAL butter, not margarine)

1/2 Cup of sugar

1/2 Cup of brown sugar

1/2 Cup + 1 Tablespoon of Peanut butter

1 Egg

1 Cup of flour

1 Tablespoon of Vanilla extract

1/2 Teaspoon of baking soda

1/2 Teaspoon of salt

1 Cup of Cap'n Crunch cereal, crushed + 1/2 Cup of Cap'n Crunch, whole

1/2 Cup of semisweet chocolate chips

Preheat the oven at 350.

Grease a couple of baking sheets.

Beat the butter and sugars, after a couple of minutes add the peanut butter.

When the previous ingredients are well combined, add the egg and vanilla.

If you are using your Stand mixer please make sure to use the hook attachment for the entire process.

In a separate bowl combine the flour, baking soda and salt and little by little add them to the "wet" ingredients mixing well on low speed between each addition.

Now that your dough is ready, you can add the cereal and the chocolate chips. Do not over mix, just combine well. This step could even be done with a spatula.

Scoop the dough into your baking trays (the amount of dough should be about a tablespoon). Bake for 8-10 minutes (depending on your oven) I would say 8 for soft cookies and 10 for firmer texture.

The recipe should make about 2 dozen cookies.

[nomyumgnome]

Tip: If you want to try something different with your pancakes, you should top them with some Nutella and Strawberries instead of syrup. Nutella and pancakes are best friends!

[nomyumgnome]

Tip: Do you have leftover cheesecake at home? Just cut the tops of some strawberries and remove some of the filling with a knife. Cut off the corner of a ziplock bag to pipe your leftover cheesecake into the strawberries. You can dip them in chocolate and top them with cookie crumbs, coconut, nuts or anything you want.

[nomyumgnome]

Vegan Coconut cupcakes

I am not a vegan, but I enjoy cooking vegan recipes from time to time.

I found the recipe for the cupcake part at food.com. You can find it here, but I believe they took it from the book Vegan cupcakes take over the world

1 cup coconut milk (or soy milk)

1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar

1 1/4 cups flour

2 tablespoons cornstarch

3/4 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup margarine

3/4 cup sugar

2 teaspoons vanilla

1/4 teaspoon coconut extract.

Preheat the oven at 350 and prepare your cupcake liners.

Combine the milk and vinegar together and let it sit for a few minutes until curdled.

In a bowl, combine the flour, cornstarch, baking powder, baking soda and salt and whisk together.

Beat the margarine and sugar in a stand mixer until it's fluffy (I use paddle attachment). Add the extracts and alternate the milk mixture and the flour mixture into the bowl.

Fill your cupcakes about 2/3 and bake for about 20 minutes give or take depending on your oven.

The cupcake is not going to be super fluffy, most vegan cupcakes are a little more dense than regular cupcakes, so if this is the first time you make vegan ones, don't feel like you messed up.

Vegan Coconut Buttercream

You can make vegan buttercream 2 different ways, with shortening or with vegan margarine, like Earth Balance.

Margarine is my favorite, but shortening will give you a nice white frosting, margarine will give you a yellow-ish finish.

3 cups of confectioner's sugar

1 cup of Vegan margarine (or shortening, or half shortening and half margarine)

1 teaspoon of coconut extract

1 teaspoon of soy milk (or coconut milk)

Use a hand held or stand mixer to soften the margarine until it's fluffy, then add the sugar and mix on low speed for about 2-3 minutes. Add the rest of the ingredients.

If you feel like the frosting is not firm enough (in case you want to pipe it) you can always use more powder sugar.

After your frosting is complete, I like to take a bowl of shredded coconut and dip the frosted tops on that, to give it some nice texture when you bite into the cupcake.