Chocolate Ombre Cake on bethcakes.com!

New post on bethcakes.com! I made this cake a few weeks ago for my grandfather's birthday. He requests chocolate cake every year, and I tried to come up with something I hadn't done already. You can only make so many chocolate cakes before you run out of ideas, am I right? But my mom suggested different shades of chocolate frosting, and I thought, OMG, ombre! I'm obsessed with ombre, but the tall, 4+ layer ombre cakes I've seen on other blogs and Pinterest have always seemed like a lot of work to me. I mean, they're gorgeous, but I can see myself messing up something like that. This cake was super easy, though. No food coloring involved or anything messy. Just cocoa powder. Check out the whole post for the recipes and instructions!

mini chocolate cream pies

 

New post on bethcakes.com! I originally wrote it for the MyRecipes.com blog, but decided to write some more about it and my new internship on my own blog. So check out both of those posts! If you want the recipes, the link to it is in the MyRecipes.com post.

These pies are so incredibly easy, no bake, and perfect for snacks at parties. The phyllo shells come prepackaged 15 to a pack, so in no time, you could have 30 cute, tiny pies! The filling is chocolate pudding, so you can mix it up and use whichever pudding mix you want. So easy!

Also, if you want to get my new posts from bethcakes.com sent to your email, you can sign up for email updates. You can enter your email address in a little light blue box on the right sidebar!

chocolate peanut butter dirt pudding on bethcakes.com

There's a new post on my new blog! A while back, I made this Dirt recipe, which is really just crushed Oreos and a fluffy cream cheese pudding. In this new post, I've revamped it with chocolate and peanut butter. I thought I knew all of the different versions of Oreos that are out there, but I didn't realize until I made this new version that there are Peanut Butter Creme Filled Oreos! What!? I actually thought, They should make Oreos with peanut butter in the middle. And then I went to the store and there they were. Don't you wish everything worked that way? This recipe is perfect for the summer because it doesn't require you to turn on your oven and heat up your house. It's super easy and everyone will love it! Click on over to bethcakes.com for the recipe!

Firecracker Cupcakes on bethcakes.com

Today I posted my very first post on my new website, bethcakes.com! The website isn't 100% ready yet, but I really wanted to share this 4th of July recipe before the 4th of July actually gets here!

I made some red, white, and blue cupcakes for the 4th of July, and they're covered with patriotic sprinkles and Poprocks! Each bite of these cupcakes is filled with sizzly goodness. For the recipe and instructions, check out the whole post on my new blog!

The Collegiate Baker's Top 5 Recipes (free ebook)

I don't want this post to be all mushy and sad, but this is my last new post on this blog. I have learned so, so many things about baking, cooking, writing, blogging, and photography, and I just want to thank you all for reading along!

I'm excited about all the plans I have for my new blog, and I can't wait to share them all with you! I'm hoping to write about more than just baking. Maybe some cooking, some DIY stuff, and maybe some of my food/recipe poems (maybe. I'm weird about sharing my writing). And more ebooks. :)

As the last offical post on The Collegiate Baker, I thought I'd share my top 5 most popular recipes in a cute, little pdf format.

to download:  So here's how this works. If you click the "Add to Cart" button below, it will take you to a website called E-Junkie. It's going to look like you need to pay for my ebook, but notice the price is set to $0. It may ask for your email address so it can send you a receipt. You won't get any other emails from them, though.   

 I really hope you enjoy this ebook, and thank you to everyone who has read, used, and shared these 5 recipes. You guys are why they're my most popular posts. I hope you enjoy them, as well as all the other recipes here on The Collegiate Baker. There are some good ones, some okay ones, and some super experimental ones. ;D But I have loved sharing them all, and I hope you'll move over to bethcakes.com with me. It's just time for a better website that will let me do more things. More sections to the site, more options, more creativity. Watch out - it's going to be awesome. ;)

And, like I've said before, just to make sure that everyone who reads this blog knows I'm moving, I'll be posting little updates here. When I post a new blog on bethcakes.com, I'll post a picture and a little excerpt on The Collegiate Baker with a link back to BethCakes. That way, everyone can stay caught up!  I know I've said this one billion times, but thank you, thank you, thank you to all my readers! Y'all are the best, and I hope you continue to read my blogs on bethcakes.com! xx Beth PS. bethcakes.com is not 100% ready. I decided to set up a self-hosted website and I'm still working some things out. But when it's ready, you'll know. Trust me. :)

Dark Chocolate Mocha Cupcakes, Falling Skies Cupcakes

The season premiere of one of my favorite tv shows is tomorrow night, and I'm probably a little too excited about it because I made cupcakes.

When I was home from college for Christmas break, there was a week when all my family did was watch Falling Skies. My uncle let my mom borrow his season 1 dvds, and my mom had already recorded season 2 on our dvr. So she was trying to get me to watch it with her, but I'm usually not into things about aliens and apocalypses and all that sci-fi mumbo-jumbo. And two episodes into season 1, we were all completely hooked. Seriously, my family sat down and watched at least two episodes every night until we were out of episodes.

I wasn't sure how to make themed cupcakes for this show because let's face it - aliens are gross. Plus I wasn't even sure how to approach forming a six-legged creature with a funny shaped head that was the right size to fit on top of a cupcake. I started out by just trying to make them look messy. Because I'm pretty sure most alien invasions aren't very tidy. (I'm new to this whole alien thing.) You know, there are always a lot of explosions and debris involved. So after I frosted my cupcakes, I drizzled them with a dark chocolate glaze, and sprinkled them with mini chocolate chips, crushed up chocolate graham crackers (I was going for a "dusty" look), and shiny, silver sprinkles. So we've got dark chocolate cupcakes + dark chocolate mocha frosting + dark chocolate glaze + mini chocolate chips + chocolate graham cracker crumbs + and sprinkles. There's nothing healthy about these cupcakes, y'all. Because (and again, I'm new to this whole alien thing) most alien invasion aren't good for you.

Then I decided to make some little speech bubbles with quotes. I did end up making a few that had aliens on them. The thought of someone eating a cupcake with an earbug or a harness on it freaks me out a little bit, though. I'm pleased with how they turned out from a decorative standpoint, but I'm going to be honest. I didn't plan on those being eaten. The decorations, not the cupcakes. ;)

dark chocolate mocha cupcakes

Dark Chocolate Cupcakes:

makes 12-14 cupcakes

1 cup + two tbsp flour

1/4 cup + two tbsp dark cocoa powder

1 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp baking powder

1 cup sugar

1 egg

1/4 cup oil

1/2 tsp vanilla

1/2 cup strongly brewed coffee

1/2 cup milk

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and line a cupcake tray with paper liners.

2. Brew a strong pot of coffee, at least enough to measure out 3/4 cup. 1/2 cup is for the cupcakes, and the other 1/4 is for the frosting. (To get a strong pot of coffee, I used 3 heaping tablespoons of ground coffee and a little over 1 cup of water.)

3. In one bowl, stir together the dry ingredients: flour, dark cocoa powder, baking soda, and baking powder. Set aside.

4. In a second, medium-sized bowl, combine sugar, egg, oil, and vanilla. Mix well.

5. Add milk, coffee, and the dry ingredients to the sugar mixture. Mix on low at first, and once the ingredients are mostly combined, mix on medium speed until completely combined and there are no lumps.

6. Pour batter into the cupcake liners, about 2/3 full.

7. Bake for 15-20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of a cupcakes comes out clean.

8. Let the cupcakes cool in the pan for five minutes, and then transfer them to a wire rack to cool completely.

Dark Chocolate Mocha Frosting:

1 cup butter, room temp

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/4 cup dutch processed dark cocoa powder

1/4 cup strongly brewed coffee, cooled

2 1/2 cups powdered sugar

1. In a medium sized bowl, or the bowl of a stand mixer, cream butter on medium-high speed until light and smooth. 

2. Add cocoa powder, vanilla, coffee. Mix on low speed until combined.

3. Next, add powdered sugar one cup at a time, mixing on low speed and scraping the sides of the bowl after each addition. Mix for another two minutes.

4. If the frosting is too thick, add coffee one tablespoon at a time until the desired consistency is reached. Do the same if the frosting is too thin, except with 1/2 cup of powdered sugar.

Dark Chocolate Glaze:

1 cup powdered sugar

2 tbsp dutch processed dark cocoa powder

3 tbsp milk

1. Combine powdered sugar, cocoa powder, and milk in a bowl whisk until completely incorporated and smooth. 

2. If the glaze is too thick, add milk one tablespoon at a time until the desire consistency is reached. Do the same if the glaze is too thin, except with powdered sugar. 

3. Use a spoon to drizzle glaze over frosted cupcakes.

*The speech bubbles were made with fondant and edible ink markers.

follow me on Instagram! @collegiatebaker

I have tried my very best not to find out any information about this new season except for what I've seen on the commercials. I really don't like spoilers or finding things out before they happen. I did accidentally-on-purpose read an article when I was looking up pictures of the aliens from this show so I could draw them, and then I wished I hadn't read it. So, I'm looking forward to all the surprises this season. My current thoughts about it are: 

I wonder what ear-bug-Hal will be like? But I don't really care as long as him and Maggie stay together. And Tom and Anne. And Ben could use a girlfriend. Everything bad happens to that kid. And Matt looks like five years older. Unfortunately, Karen is still obnoxious. I feel bad for her sometimes. I'm digging the rebel skitters' new look. It's cool that these new aliens are helping the humans, but they've got to want something in return. What's their motivation? I'm sure there's a history there. Just some thoughts!

Do you have any predictions? Leave me a comment!

EDIT: Usually I don't tweet at celebrities, but I tweeted the link to this post to a few of the actors from this show, and three of them retweeted it! (Maxim Knight - who plays Matt, Seychelle Gabriel - who plays Lourdes, and Mpho Koaho - who plays Anthony) Exciting!

the future of The Collegiate Baker

I'm sorry I haven't posted a blog in what seems like a million years. It's only been a month, but it feels like a million years, right?

Graduation (I'm still a college student until my diploma comes in the mail, right?) + partially moving out of my apartment + vacation in New York + job hunting have been taking up most of my time recently.

If you follow me on Instagram or Twitter, you've probably seen most of these pictures, but I thought I'd share a few of them on the blog anyway!

My aunt and uncle live in New Jersey, so we stayed with them and it was cool to see their whole routine. We rode on trains, the subway, and the five of us even stuffed ourselves into a cab a couple times. We saw Cinderella on Broadway, took a boat ride around the Statue of Liberty, went to Times Square, Rockefeller Center (you know, all that fun touristy stuff), and some of my aunt's and uncle's favorite restaurants. And we went to tons of bakeries. I'm not gonna lie; I don't think I could handle working in a bakery in NYC.

My aunt and uncle are really into estate sales and cleaning up unique and vintage things they find. Recently, I saw some typewriters on my aunt's Etsy shop. When we arrived at my aunt and uncle's house, they had one sitting on their dining room table with a big yellow bow on it for me. AHH! ♥ They mailed it back to me and it arrived today. :)

I could go on and on about New York, but the real purpose of this blog post is to let you know what's happening with the Collegiate Baker. If you've followed this blog at all recently, you know that I'm starting a new one since I'm not really "collegiate" anymore.

I mainly wanted to let you all know that I have two more posts scheduled for the Collegiate Baker. One will be the last new original recipe here on the blog, and the other is another free ebook! After that, all my new posts will be on bethcakes.com. So you can head over there and sign up for email updates and all that now if you want! ;)

I've loved writing, experimenting with recipes, and learning about food, photography, and blogging these past couple of years, and I'm so thankful for those of you who come back week after week and leave the sweetest comments! I definitely would not have been able to keep all of this up without y'all. :) And I would love, love, love for all of you to join me on bethcakes.com. For each new blog I post there, I will post a picture and a link to that post here. I just want to make sure anyone who may happen to stumble across this blog in the future knows that I've moved!

Thank you all for being the most amazing readers!

xx
Beth