Push It - Push It Good

About a month ago I saw a picture on one of the many Facebook baking sites I follow of push cakes.  I was instantly in love and I knew that I had to try out this new trend.  It turns out the most difficult part was finding the push up containers.  I finally found a site with them available and I ordered 100 which may seem like a lot but now that I know how cute they really are I think I should have ordered more (good thing they are reusable).  Because we are heading to my sister's awesome 2nd of July party on Friday I figured I had the perfect excuse to make a big batch of patriotic push cakes. 

What better cake to make for the 4th of July than red velvet!  And because I can't just do anything simple, I made half red velvet and half blue velvet with a white buttercream to tie it all together.  After many attempts I finally found a red velvet recipe that I like so I started there.

Red (or whatever color you like) Cake
2 1/2 cups flour
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1/4 cup cocoa (less or none if you are making a lighter colored cake)
1 cup applesauce
1/2 cup oil
2 eggs
1 cup heavy cream
1 tsp white vinegar
1 tsp vanilla
2 Tbs red (or any color) food coloring (I use the gel food coloring as it's much stronger but liquid does work too)

Preheat oven to 350.
Sift together dry ingredients.  In a separate bowl whisk together the rest of the ingredients.  Slowly add the dry ingredients to the wet and mix until just combined and batter is smooth.  For this time I scooped the batter into mini cupcake tins but you can use any type of pan for this recipe.  It actually is intended to make three thin 9" rounds or two thick 9" rounds.  For the mini cupcakes, bake for 12 minutes.  For a cake I usually bake for about 22-30 minutes, just until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Here's the red batter (I used AmeriColor super red coloring)

Here's the blue batter (this is a combo of AmeriColor electric blue and navy blue.  A little more teal than I wanted but oh well)

Once I had them baked and cooled, I had to trim the tops off so they would fit into the containers.

The only downfall to the push up containers is that they are hard to display because they are top heavy and just have the small stick on the bottom.  I bought a piece of floral foam and covered it in red and blue tissue paper and set the containers into it so they would stand up on their own.

I set in the red cupcakes and got my frosting ready. 

Snow White Buttercream

4 Tbs meringue powder

2/3 cup water

10 cups powdered sugar

1 1/4 cups shortening

1 Tbs cream of tartar

1 tsp clear vanilla

1/2 tsp almond extract

1/4 tsp butter flavoring

milk or heavy cream

Mix the water and meringue powder in a large mixing bowl until peaks form.  Mix in 4 cups powdered sugar.  Alternately mix in shortening and remaining powdered sugar.  Mix in remaining ingredients, adding just enough milk of cream until desired consistency is achieved.

I wanted to make my frosting a little more fun so I tried out a new technique (sorry I forgot to take pictures of this part).  I turned my piping bag inside out and put some alternating lines of red and blue gel frosting (the kind you can buy in the little tubes at a grocery or craft store) about halfway up the inside of the bag.  Carefully turn the bag right side out and add the white frosting.  I put a large star tip on the piping bag and put a layer of my red, white and blue frosting on top of the red cupcakes.

The lines of gel frosting gives kind of a cool swirl effect to the frosting.  After the red cakes were done, I added a blue cupcake to the top and frosted those as well, then I added some sanding sugar to the top for good measure.

I love how these turned out!  I will definitely be making many push cakes in the future.

Who You Calling Shrimp?

Over the past year we have perfected the art of the shrimp boil.  Getting to this point; however, was really a happy accident.  Last summer Jason and I had a discussion about crawfish and how delicious they are which lead to him telling me that there were crawfish in the river behind our house and traps in our garage.  We took a trip through the weeds that are as tall as me to the river which was much farther from the house than I remembered.  We set the traps and let them sit for a couple days.  In the meantime I found a crawfish boil recipe and bought all the other ingredients and we invited Ryan, Steph and the kids over for our first crawfish boil.  Luckily the recipe called for shrimp too because when we went back to collect the traps that I thought would be chuck full of crawfish, we were very disappointed to see that after three days of soaking we had only trapped six crawfish.  Our first boil was delicious despite the lack of crawfish and it has become something we do year round now.

The best thing about this boil is that it requires less than 20 minutes of prep time and all you have to do while it's cooking is sit outside, drink, socialize and add another bowl of ingredients to the pot once in a while.

Crawfish Boil (adapted from an Emeril recipe on foodnetwork.com)
Stock
3 gallons water
2/3 cup salt
1 Tbs whole peppercorns
2 packages dry crab boil seasoning
1 cup liquid crab boil seasoning (this is hard to find in GB so I have made it without this if I can't find it)
1/4 cup Old Bay seasoning
4 bay leaves

Meat and Veggies
12 baby red potatoes cut in half or quarters depending on their size
5 ears of corn cut in half
2 packages andouille sausage cut in thirds (can use sweet Italian if you want less spice)
3 lemons cut into quarters
2 vidallia onions peeled and quartered
2 heads of garlic peeled and cloves smashed
3 pounds crawfish (if you can get it, I have also used crab or crab legs or lobster claws)
3 pounds shrimp (I use 16/24 size peeled and deveined, but anything will work)
1 pound asparagus
melted butter, cocktail sauce and french bread as accompaniment

Everything in this dish goes in stages; potatoes and corn, sausage, lemon, onion and garlic, crawfish and shrimp and lastly asparagus.  I prep everything by getting it cut if needed and into bowls for each stage so when it comes time to cook I don't have to put forth much effort. 

When it's time to start the boil, add all the stock ingredients to the pot (we use a big turkey fryer pot) and bring it to a boil.  Once the stock boils add the bowl of potatoes and corn and bring the pot back to a boil for five minutes.  Add the next bowl of sausage, lemon, onion and garlic and bring back to a boil for another five minutes.  After the five minutes, turn off the heat and add the shrimp and crawfish (or whatever seafood you are using), cover the pot and let steep for 10 minutes.  Add the asparagus and continue to steep until all vegetables are tender and seafood is cooked through, 5-15 minutes.  Drain the water and dump the food unto a newspaper lined table.  Dig in!

The Unofficial Start of Summer

I know that many mark the start of their summer as Memorial Day Weekend but I think summer truly starts a few days later.  To me summer starts when the farmer's market opens for the season.

I only discovered the awesomeness that is the farmer's market a couple of years ago and I was instantly hooked.  I can't believe that I never went sooner.  I love everything about it.  The sights. The smells.  And of course the tastes.  I enjoy the Saturday markets but Wednesday nights on Broadway are by far my favorites.  I love that it is more of an event than just buying vegetables.  I am taking summer classes this year and will be stuck indoors every Wednesday night starting next week so I decided that I had to check it out tonight since I won't be back until late August. 

I was running errands today so I ended up downtown before the market started so I decided to check out some of the shops on Broadway to kill some time.  I haven't been in these stores in a long time so it was like discovering downtown all over again.  I had to try a truffle at Berensten's Candy (delish) I bought a mini cake at Monzu Bistro because I knew I wouldn't have time to bake tonight, and I spent almost an hour digging through the antique store where I made a great find.  I have been wanting a kitchen scale for a while now and just have a hard time justifying the cost of the ones that we have at Cook's Corner.  I found this great one at the antique store and I had to have it.  It was half the cost of a new one and has so much more character so I can proudly display it instead of hiding it away in a cabinet.

By this time the market had started so I made my rounds to see what else I couldn't resist.  I found some baby red onions, beautiful roma tomatoes and oyster mushrooms to go with the salmon I had taken out for dinner tonight.  Then I found some yummy potato dill bread that was well worth every carb it contained and goat cheese curds that were too interesting to pass up.  And lastly I just can't leave a farmer's market without buying some flowers.  I love fresh cut flowers and since someone never buys them for me I allow myself this little treat every time I am at the market.  Today I found some beautiful yellow and red tulips.

Once I had all my goodies home it was time to start cooking.  I soaked a couple of cedar planks in cold water for about an hour and once the hour was up I started on the rest of the meal.  I chopped up some of my mushrooms, one tomato and the bottom inch or two of the baby red onions.  I put this all in foil with some olive oil, grated garlic and some seasonings and wrapped it up.

I placed four salmon pieces, about 4-6oz each) on the cedar planks and drizzled with oil and balsamic vinegar, a little old bay and some herbs and then added a little of the chopped onion tops.  I also folded the thin part under so the fish would cook more evenly.

I put the planks on the grill and let them go for about ten minutes then I added the veggies to the grill and let this all cook for another 5 to 10 minuted, until the fish was done.  While that was going I whisked up some dressing.  I started with a little grated garlic and some pomegranate balsamic vinegar in a small bowl and added a little horseradish mustard and a few of the onion tops.  Then I whisked in some olive oil and added a little salt and pepper.  When everything was done we headed outside and assembled dinner.  I started with some romaine lettuce and added a little hard boiled egg and some feta and drizzled my dressing over the top.  Then I dished up the salmon and added some of the cooked veggies on top and I finished off the plate with a lightly grilled slice of the potato dill bread I bought at the market.

Here's a close up of the yummy fish.