AND THEN THERE WERE TWO

When last we "spoke", I was about to embark in a baking frenzy.  Indeed, I was able to make two out of the four recipes: the Twilight Swirl Cookies and the vegan Toasted Coconut Mini-Cupcakes w/Coffee Buttercream Frosting.

THE COOKIES: They tasted good, but didn't turn out exactly how I wanted.  I couldn't figure out how to roll the logs of dough in a smooth and even fashion.  I finally thought, "oh, maybe using the parchment paper will work?"  TIP#1: If you want the dark swirls in the center to come out perfectly, or close to, use the parchment paper to help you roll the dough forward, it will keep things tight, smooth and even.  TIP#2: Don't make things harder for yourself.  While reading a recipe, try not to rush or skim.  In fact, read the recipe through carefully at least twice before starting.  And that was my mistake: I didn't study the recipe, ultimately not realizing the instructions called for using the parchment paper along.  I meant to take pictures of the logs as a HOW NOT TO example but forgot.  The first picture below will show cookies from the logs that were rolled incorrectly, the second picture shows better results.

Notice the broken chocolate lines.

Some of these are better.

Here's an example of what they should look like.  These are called Pinwheel Cookies by La Table de Nana.  But come to think of it, perhaps mine are quite appropriately named Twilight Swirl Cookies (as in the Twilight Zone).


THE CUPCAKES: Although these vegan cupcakes tasted swell, the texture of the cake was crumbly.  In fact when I removed them from the trays, the tops of the cupcakes were actually coming off from the rest of the cupcake body.  I couldn't believe it, here I carefully followed directions because it was my first time baking vengan and still, problems.  I wish I had taken pictures of these too but didn't.  (Don't worry, some photo-flop-opps are coming in my next post, due to a baking attempt earlier today.  What I will call major Lolli-Flops.)  I really like how the vegan frosting tasted, even better than regular frostings I've had.  I'm not a fan of overly sweet frostings.  I usually make a creamcheese/buttercream mix, and I considerably reduce the butter and sugar amounts.  The upside is frosting is light, and many folks who have tasted it love it.  The downside is it doesn't ever seem to stay thick/stiff enough in order to make nice designs with my star tips.  Anyway, the frosting really tasted great, and the cake part too -- except like I said it falls apart when you pick it up.  Something I'll need to figure out when I make them again, because they were totally worth making.

Here I played with the star tip two different ways.

Here they are with toasted shredded coconut.

LESSON #1: Always show up no matter what.  I made a commitment to bring samples of my baking to the woman who owns a food truck at our farmer's market.  Despite my setbacks, I showed up early and delivered a tin with the best of the batch.  I gave her my number and merely said, "just let me know what you think."  You see, this was really about trying to get an honest (hopefully) opinion.  There were no strings attached to this, just simply "what do you think", from someone who's a cook/baker.  LESSON #2: Take risks.  What I made wasn't perfect but I needed to take the risk and say "Hi, I'm here!"  No matter what, it felt good to own my baking space.  Just like this site, no visitors and yet I keep coming back.

This was my complimentary tin.  

Next post: my Lolli-Flops.