Chocolate Covered Orange Madeleines (Go Giants!)

What on earth, you may ask, does an orange and the (2010 World Series Champs, holla) San Francisco Giants have to do with my little baking blog?

Everything, of course.  Because I baked orange madeleines (in flavor and in color) and then dipped them in chocolate ganache.  Orange and Black!  Just like my team's colors. And then I took them with me to our annual tail gating event.  (Bay Bridge Series; Oakland A's vs the SF Giants.  The stadiums are less than 20 miles away from each other and the rivalry gets fierce with so many fans on either side!  It's a summer highlight for me because I love baseball almost as much as I love my awesome friends.)

I'd source the madeleine recipe for you all if I could.  But I seriously got it off the back of my madeleine pan's cardboard wrapping when I first bought it.  

Orange Madeleines
Bake at 350* for 8 minutes. Makes 16. 


2/3 c flour

1/4 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 cup butter, melted and cooled

2 eggs

1/2 teaspoon orange extract

1/2 teaspoon shredded orange peel

1 cup powdered sugar

(optional orange gel food coloring)

Directions:

1. Sift flour and baking powder and set aside.

2. Beat eggs, orange peel and extract on high for 5 minutes.

3.Gradually beat in sugar for another five minutes/until thick.

4. Fold in flour.  Add food coloring if desired.

5. Fold in butter and mix until smooth.

6. Fill your Madeleine pan(s) and bake until edges start to lift.  Remove from pan and let cool on wire racks.

They came out, super orangey.  Yay!

Then the fun part.  Dipping them in chocolate. I used the same recipe for the ganache that I did for my raspberry double-decker cupcakes cuz it's totally delicious. 

By the way, every time that I unwrap a Ghirardelli baking bar and see the gold foil underneath I get excited.  It's like Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory and the golden ticket.  Cuz you win amazing things in your tummy everyyyy time.

Chocolate Ganache

3 oz heavy cream

3 oz good quality dark cocoa chocolate

Directions:

1. Bring heavy cream to a simmer in sauce pan.

2. Pour over chopped chocolate (or chips) in a heat proof bowl and whisk until smooth.

Get your cookies ready!  

Cuz now you just take your cooled cookie and dip half of it in the bowl.  Bonus points if your nails are awesome like mine.  A little smudgey, but awesome.

Place on wax paper or rack and let harden.  Refrigerate if necessary.  

You should note that my bowl is huge because I doubled the recipe you see above.  Like a dumbass. (More like I didn't reduce the original. Bad idea.)  I HAD SO MUCH GANACHE LEFT OVER lololol.  (I ended up using it all though.  I'll show you how next week!)  

Awesome way to show off my love for my team, right?  The flavors were awesome together too.  Orange + Chocolate = Nom. Need to make that into a cupcake at some point.  Maybe when we win the 2012 World Series?  ;)

Let me add just one more little thing though.... Better right?  Gotta rep' them all the way! 

Though I would like to point out that I love themes in general, so I did also make green and yellow drunk gummy bears (rummy gummies!) in honor of the A's.  Yup.  Gummi bears soaking in rum for a week.  Don't you want to tail gate with me?  'Till next year crappy A's stadium!  

xoxo,

Anna

P.S.  Yes, Gigantes is Giants in Spanish. 

Orange Creamsicle Cupcakes

I got new toys! The first and the one i was most excited over was the cupcake corer. :) I bought it especially to make these cupcakes because i decided on being adventurous and fill them with a different kind of frosting then the top. The second was a zester!

I combined a million recipes to come up with one that actually sounded yummy and crossed my fingers and hoped for the best. I just wanted a cupcake that tasted like a creamsicle. And i'm pretty sure that i accomplished that with these!

They are orange/vanilla cake with a marshmallow middle frosting and a orange cream cheese frosting on top. It's like summer. In your mouth.

The recipe for the cake portion i took from here. Except i ended up adding one thing at the end.

Orange Vanilla Cupcakes

Makes 24, bake 15 minutes, Bake at 350*

1 1⁄2 sticks (3⁄4 cup) unsalted butter, softened

1 1⁄2 cups sugar

2 tsp baking powder

2 tsp vanilla extract

4 large eggs

2 1⁄4 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 cup milk

1⁄2 cup orange juice

2 tsp grated orange zest

1 teaspoon orange extract

(optional: orange gel food coloring)

1. Beat butter, sugar, baking powder, vanilla, orange extract, orange juice and zest in a large bowl with mixer on high 3 minutes or until fluffy. (Optional: Add orange food coloring.)

2. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each.

3. On low speed, beat in flour in 3 additions alternately with milk in 2 additions, just until blended, scraping sides of bowl as needed.

This was when i got to play with the zester. Actually i had to youtube how to use a zester. But don't tell anyone. I felt bad for the naked orange afterwards, though.

This recipe says to bake for 22 minutes. But they came out perfect for me at 15 minutes. I actually tinted the batter with orange frosting just a little. The natural color is a light orange, almost yellow. I added just enough to give it a pale orange color instead.

These were for a party. So i had to do this twice... The second time is when i added the extra orange extract. It changed the flavor slightly, but most importantly it made them SMELL SO GOOD. I ate one still hot. Don't judge.

As i said, i had to bake 48 of these babies. That's a lot of cupcakes. Rows of them. I like the cupcake liners too. Light orange.

I actually baked these Friday night and finished at midnight, so i had to finish them the next day. My mom complained that i have invaded her kitchen so i cored and frosted them before the party house instead. I also go to have worker bees help me for once. =p I got all the cupcakes cored and ready for frosting in no time. It's the perfect little hole!

We also kept the middle in a bowl for people to snack on. Drunk people will eat anything.

The middles were filled with a marshmallow frosting so easy to make it's ridiculous. Adapted from here.

Marshmallow Frosting

(Enough to frsot the tops of 24 regular cupcakes, or enough to fill 48 cupcakes)

1 8 0z Marshmallow jar

2 sticks butter

2 cups powdered sugar

It took all of 4 minutes to frost the centers. No lie. Just shoved the frosting in a bag and cut off the tip.

Then i got to make the frosting for the top. I actually made the same frosting twice, and used one in it's natural white color while i tinted the other frosting orange.

I hate butter cream! One day i will mess around until i find one i like, until then i am making cream cheese frosting. I have not had any complaints yet...

Orange Cream Cheese Frosting

Makes enough for generously frosting 24 cupcakes

1 stick butter

1 8oz cream cheese package

3 cups powdered sugar

2 teaspoons orange extract

(Optional: orange gel food coloring)

Why did i make two? Because i wanted them to be swirly! >.< It's more adorable that way, trust me. So i shoveled a zip lock with 1/2 orange and 1/2 white frosting and set to work. (Put the frosting on each side of the bag so that the tip (Wilton 1M) squeezes out both at the same time. It's tricky but it works!)

Since there were helpers in the kitchen, you can actually see me doing something for real this time =p

You can see that piped out, the frosting comes out in two colors! Cool huh? Kind of looks like those soft serve machines.

Once i was done with all 48, i set them up on my trusty cupcake display. But first i had to add a few finishing touches. They're popsicles right? They needed a popsicle stick through them! I also threw some candy oranges around the table.

And if you cut them down the middle you get to see how awesome filled cupcakes look on the inside!

I wish i had saved one now though. Cuz all these pictures made me hungry... do you guys want one too?

xoxo,

Anna