Sweet Art: Blur for Illustration Friday

This week's Illustration Friday theme is Blur, but as you can see Cuppie's completely focused: on his favorite Britpop records by the band Blur, of course! But certainly he's no Charmless Man: who wouldn't want to spend some time enjoying Coffee & TV with Cuppie?

Praline Solution: Easy Praline Squares From Amarillo

The bad news: this sweet confection looks like a praline bomb went off on a graham cracker minefield.
The good news: the outcome is extremely delicious.

When Cake Gumshoe Chris recently found a book at a secondhand store full of recipes from food writers from throughout the nation, we knew we had to take some of these recipes for a test spin. This recipe comes c/o Beth Whitley Duke, who was at the time of the book's publication the food editor at the Amarillo Globe-News, who introduced the recipe in this way:

Pralines are a traditional Mexican sweet served to take the fire out of a hot Tex-Mex meal. These easy squares use graham crackers as a base for a praline taste without having to make the actual brown sugar candy.

These sweet little squares truly are, as the recipe indicates, easy as can be--with a wonderful return. During the baking, the brown sugar/butter mixture seeps into the cracker, rendering it crunchy on the edges but slightly chewier inside, and the candy-coating gives the walnuts a completely addictive rich, savory-meets-sweet flavor. Adding milk chocolate, like we did, wasn't necessary, but it sure was good.

Oh, and as a note, if you're curious about the addition of cream of tartar (we were!), I looked it up: according to this site,

while it is best known in our kitchens for giving more volume to beaten egg whites...it is also used to produce a creamier texture in sugary desserts such as candy and frosting, because it inhibits the formation of crystals.

So there you go! But on to the goods. Here's the recipe:

Easy Praline Squares
-Makes about 2 dozen cookies -

• Graham crackers
  
• 1 cup firmly packed brown sugar
  
• 10 tablespoons butter
  
• 1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
  
• 1 cup walnuts (original recipe called for finely chopped pecans, but the walnuts were heavenly)
  
• 1 large bar milk chocolate, such as Lindt, coarsely chopped (optional)
  

Procedure

1. Break enough graham crackers into individual rectangles to cover the bottom of a 15x10x1-inch jelly roll pan.
   
2. In a saucepan, bring brown sugar and butter to a boil.
   
3. Add cream of tartar and walnuts (or pecans) to the boiling mixture. Pour over graham crackers and spread as evenly as you can (it's a pretty thick mixture so it's best if you only spread one way rather than going back and forth). Scatter the chocolate on top, if you've chosen to add it.
   
4. Bake in a 325 degree F oven for 10-15 minutes, or until the chocolate has gotten melty and the sugar mixture is lightly bubbling. Remove from the pan while still warm.
   

Mint Condition: Strawberry Raspberry Peppermint Chocolate Frozen Yogurt

CakeSpy Note: This is a guest post from Cake Gumshoe Bonnie, a 25 year old graduate student who finds sanity in the kitchen. If it doesn't turn out the first time, try again, and add some cinnamon; it always spices things up. She's on twitter too! Take it away, Bonnie:

That title reveals it all: I wanted to make frozen yogurt but I had random ingredients and just threw them all together. Maybe a better title would be "Mint Fruit Surprise." No. No one likes to be eating a "surprise" because who knows what is in there. It is better, if you can't in your title, to tell your guests what they are eating. Then there is no picking around in the food and leaving a small pile of ingredients on the side of the plate.

Anyway, this frozen yogurt turned out great. My husband ate tons of it, and finished it off last night. It was a huge hit, and it was so pretty. I also used all organic ingredients, and substitututed the sugar for Agave Nectar, so it was Jillian Michaels-approved. I like to pretend sometimes that she is going to come to my house and check up on me in my workout routines or in my eating habits, and frankly if I was caught eating this one, I think she would not only give me a high five, but would ask for a few scoops herself.


Strawberry-Raspberry Mint Chocolate Frozen Yogurt

Ingredients

• 3 cups of non-fat organic frozen yogurt
  
• 1 cup of strawberry Keifer {You caught me. I ran out of non-fat yogurt, so I used this Strawberry Keifer. Sometimes my best decisions come out of my mistakes. This added texture and TONS of delicious, natural, flavor.}
  
• 1/4 cup of Agave Nectar
  
• 1/2 cup of milk
  
• Raspberries {However many you have. Eat some while you make it, cause why not?}
  
• 1 package of Newman's Own Organic Dark Chocolate Mint cups
  

Procedure

1. Place the yogurt (and Keifer), Agave Nectar, milk, and raspberries into a blender. If you want to have raspberry chunks in your yogurt, then wait on the raspberries. I chose to blend them so that the mint chips were the only thing that stuck out in the yogurt. (Note: Agave Nectar is a sugar substitute that is all natural. You can get it at any Whole Food, Trader Joes, or any store of the like. It is 4 times as sweet as regular white sugar, so you only have to use 25% of what you normally would use.)
   
2. Pour all the ingredients into your ice cream maker and begin the churching process. Make sure that you freeze the bowl to the full amount. I have messed this up, and the ice cream churns, it's just in liquid form. It will freeze later, and taste the same, but if you are serving it right away then you are at a loss. So make sure you follow the directions. Chop the Mint cups into small pieces, you be the judge here. How much do you want in each scoop? Decide this way, and then proceed. (Note: These are seriously so good. I got them at Whole Foods, and was surprised to find that they have milk chocolate, and peanut butter too. My husband is lucky that we had Peppermint in the pantry, otherwise I would have put the peanut butter ones in here. Don't test me, I would have.)
   
3. Like the Pecans in the Carrot Cake Ice Cream, I put the Peppermint pieces in last so that they would not get mashed in the churning process. With any frozen yogurt, the less fat you use, the more icy the yogurt will be. That's ok. Just remember to leave the container out for a few minutes before you scoop it, and shape the scoop on the side of the container so you look like the chef you are! If not, just fake it and cover it in chocolate sauce.
   

Cake Poll: Unusual Cupcake Flavors, and a Chance to Win a $50 Gift Certificate to Sweet Cuppin Cakes!

It's time for a totally sweet giveaway, dudes and dudettes.

Sweet Cuppin Cakes Bakery & Cupcakery Supplies has kindly offered up a $50 gift certificate to one lucky winner! I'm sure you'll have no trouble putting it to good use on cute cupcake and baking accessories: they've got some fantastic cupcake liners, sprinkles and other garnishes, and display items too!

How do you put yourself in the running? It's easy. Just answer the following question:

What is the most unusual cupcake flavor you've ever tasted?

Maple bacon? Chai cardamom? Bananas foster? There are all sorts of unusual cupcake flavor combinations out there--have you sampled any of them? Or if you haven't sampled any unusual flavors, are there any you've wanted to try?

You can enter yourself in the running for a $50 gift certificate to Sweet Cuppin Cakes by entering your response to the above question in the comments section below; you might want to browse their shop in the meantime! The cake poll will close at 12 p.m. PST on Friday, November 13, 2009. Good luck!

Baker's Dozen: A Batch of Sweet Bakery Cupcake Recipe Links!

Want to bake like a pro? Here is a sweet collection of recipes from some of the nation's best cupcake bakeries!

Buttercup Bake Shop in NYC: Carrot Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting

Magnolia Bakery in NYC: Their classic vanilla cupcakes!

Sprinkles Cupcakes in LA (and others): Strawberry cupcakes to dream about.

Sweet Revenge in NYC: The "Pure" Cupcake pairs perfectly with Pinot Noir (via Behind the Burner)

Trophy Cupcakes in Seattle: their legendary Chocolate Graham Cracker cupcakes, as featured on Martha Stewart!

Back in the Day Bakery: this old-fashioned cupcake recipe is super-easy, and was featured on Paula Deen.

Billy's Bakery in NYC: their celebrated chocolate cupcake recipe.

Cupcake Cafe in NYC: these buttery and not-too-sweet cupcakes are an aquired taste...but I've sure acquired the taste.

Auntie Em's in LA: What throwdown? These coconut cupcakes are a keeper.

How Sweet It Is in NYC: Mexican Chocolate-Pudding Filled Cupcakes! Sounds like a fiesta!

Vanilla Bake Shop in Santa Monica, CA: Meyer lemon raspberry cupcakes. Yes!