Cake Byte: The ClaireSquares Mini Debuts!

As you probably know, me n' Mr. CakeSpy are pretty big fans of ClaireSquares, a San Francisco-based baking company which specializes in a sort of stylized take on Millionaire's Shortbread (they're able to ship them too--you can order here). But they've just introduced an adorable (and exceedingly decadent-sounding) new product: a chocolate-covered mini ClaireSquare! Here's the official announcement:

After six months in the test kitchen, our cutest addition to the Clairesquares family has finally arrived.

We created a bite size square made of Irish styled shortbread and caramel, then drenched it in Belgian chocolate.
The first image shows mini squares passing through a curtain of chocolate; the second image shows Clairesquares' Minis passing out of the chocolate enrober cooling tunnel, ready for eating!

Starting on Saturday the 22nd at the San Francisco Street Food Festival, you can sample the sweet treats people have been raving about.

Upcoming Tasting opportunities:

• This Saturday, 11am to 7pm on Folsom Street in front of La Cocina
  
• Saturday 29th, 10am to 1pm Ferry Plaza Farmers Market, La Cocina booth.
  
• Available exclusively at Andronico's Markets starting in September.
  

For more information, visit clairesquares.com or follow them via Twitter!

South African Munchies: Delicious Crunchies

I first discovered Crunchies, a (natch) crunchy South African bar cookie, when CakeSpy Buddy Naomi handed one to me and said "eat this". Of course I was more than happy to oblige. Now, these cookies (made by local catering company On Safari) vaguely resembled granola bars, but one bite made the difference achingly clear. These cookies have a flavor that granola bars could only aspire to: crunchy, salty-sweet, coconutty, and very buttery.

So what's the deal with these cookies?

As one South African blogger reminisced,

Growing up in South Africa, the one cookie-tin constant that every child will remember is crunchies. They were usually one of the first things that your mom let you bake and kept forever in an airtight container, so we all grew up on crunchies. To me, they were distressingly unglamorous....but they certainly were a stalwart of every cookie tin that I remember growing up.

Want to make some crunchies? While On Safari's recipe is proprietary, I did find a crunchie recipe on the Hulett's Sugars (a South African manufacturer of sweeteners) which seems pretty legit.

South African Crunchies

• 310ml (1¼ cups) flour
  
• 310ml (1¼ cups) breakfast oats
  
• 310ml (1¼ cups) coconut
  
• 185ml (¾ cups) Huletts White Sugar
  
• 20ml (4 teaspoons) Huletts Golden Syrup
  
• 125ml (½ cup) butter or brick margarine
  
• 5ml (1 teaspoon) bicarbonate of soda
  
• 45 - 60ml boiling water

1. Combine dry ingredients.
   
2. Melt the Huletts Golden Syrup and butter together. Combine the bicarbonate of soda with the water and add to the butter mixture.
   
3. Mix together with the dry ingredients.
   
4. Press the mixture into a Swiss roll tin (or for a thicker crunchie, bake in a square 20cm x 20cm tin) and bake for 20 minutes at 150ºC. Gently press down the sides if they seem to rise too much.
   
5. When light brown, remove from the oven and cut into squares. Switch off the oven. Return crunchies to the oven, for about 10 minutes to dry out.
   
6. Allow to cool before removing from tin.
   

All That Glitters: Golden Glow Cake With Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting from Cupcake Project

Continuing our monthlong celebration of birthdays and all things sweet, Stef from the amazingly creative site Cupcake Project has sweetly donated some of her sweet birthday memories--as long as a killer recipe for a classic Golden Glow Cake with an amazingly decadent chocolate cream cheese frosting. Here's her story (as well as a picture of her during her early days of caking it up):


I never understood why my friends enjoyed store-bought heavily buttercreamed birthday cakes. But, I don’t think my friends ever understood why I liked my birthday cakes. I was so excited for my mom’s homemade cake, but my friends would barely touch it. Oh well – more for me!

My birthday cake each year was a Golden Glow cake. It’s a somewhat dry yellow cake – not that exciting on its own. However, it was topped with homemade chocolate cream cheese frosting that I loved! To this day, chocolate cream cheese frosting is my favorite frosting.

Sure, I didn’t get professional decorations with cartoon characters, but nothing beats cake from mom! I should also mention that she got the recipe from her mom.

I have no proof that the above picture is from eating Golden Glow, but I wouldn’t be surprised.



Golden Glow Cake with Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting

- CakeSpy note: I made this recipe as cupcakes, and it yielded about 24. While Stef's comment that the cake is somewhat dry is true, the frosting really does "make" this recipe. -

Cake

• 2 1/4 c flour
  
• 3 t baking powder
  
• 1 t salt
  
• 1 1/4 C sugar
  
• 1/2 C butter
  
• 3/4 C milk
  
• 2 T milk
  
• 2 eggs
  
• 1 t vanilla
  

1. Preheat oven to 350 F.
2. Sift flour, baking powder, salt, and sugar.
3. Add butter and ¾ C milk and beat for two minutes.
4. Add remaining milk, eggs, and vanilla and beat for another two minutes.
5. Pour into well greased, lightly floured pan.
6. Bake 25 - 35 min.

Frosting
(CakeSpy note: the frosting in the pictures above looks thinner and glossier than it should; this is because we couldn't resist frosting some of the still-warm cakes and eating immediately)

• 1 8 oz package of cream cheese
  
• 3 T milk
  
• 3 C powdered sugar, sifted
  
• 2 squares (2 oz) of melted unsweetened bakers chocolate

1. Soften cream cheese by adding milk, 1 tablespoon at a time.
2. Add powdered sugar gradually, blending well after each addition.
3. Blend in melted chocolate.

Keep tabs on what's going on in Stef's sweet world on her site or via her Twitter feed!

Sweet Art: (Un) Wrapped for Illustration Friday

Cupcakes are awfully pretty when they're wrapped, but as Cuppie is discovering in what can only be described as a cupcake coming-of-age moment, they're pretty attractive when they're unwrapped, too. Done for this week's Illustration Friday theme of "Wrapped".

CakeSpy Sweetens Up Serious Eats With Pizza Pie!

It's a pie all right, but that's not pizza. It's just dressed up to look like it: this sweet confection is comprised of pie crust heaped with fruit preserves, cheesecake and marzipan "leaves" to resemble a classic Neapolitan pie. Not only is it delicious, but it's fun to watch the reactions as unsuspecting guests bite into a slice.

And this sweet pie also marks CakeSpy's debut on Serious Eats (which, incidentally, is where you can also find the recipe)! Yup--I've joined forces with the premier food blog community on the interweb! You can look out for my contributions on Mondays at 3pm EST.

Looks like the internet just got sweeter!

If you haven't already, bookmark Serious Eats now and visit often!