The Downtown

Last Friday was Valentine's Day. Chris and I made plans to go out for dinner on Saturday night though to avoid the Valentine's crowds. I'm not a big candy/flowers/teddy bear kind of person, but I am a go out for a delicious meal kind of person. Of course we planned on going into downtown Syracuse because that's where all of our favorite restaurants are (including The Mission which is pictured below).

For circumstances beyond our control, we weren't able to get to dinner Saturday night (bummer), so instead we went out during the day for a photo adventure!

It was FREEZING that day! I believe the money tower said 29 degrees...brrrr. Chris and I walked around but our "photo adventure" ended up being us jumping in and out of the car while wiping our runny noses in between. Must be love! These are some of the photos I captured when I managed to put my tissues down.

So my cupcake was inspired by a Valentine's date night. Not to be for me this year, but I know a lot of couples enjoyed their time together in downtown Syracuse for Valentine's Day. And so I give you The Downtown.

love is delicious!

The Downtown is a rasp-beer-y red velvet cake soaked with a raspberry reduction syrup, topped with cream cheese frosting and a fresh raspberry.

there is BEER in this cupcake!

This is a typical red velvet cupcake recipe with 1 special ingredient: raspberry beer! The raspberry really comes through in this cake. And the color was beautiful.

When the cakes came out of the oven, they got bathed in a delicious reduction syrup of raspberry beer and fresh raspberries. I dipped the tops of the cupcakes into the syrup and then brushed more on top! It's so yummy and made the cakes so moist!

dip!

straining the seeds from the syrup

Once the cakes were cooled and the syrup had soaked in, the cakes got dolloped with a big helping of cream cheese frosting. And a fresh raspberry.

cupcakes!!!

The tart flavor of the syrup mixed with the sweet flavors of the cake and cream cheese were a perfect combination!

Now I'm looking forward to the next time that Chris and I can go out for dinner downtown. What's your favorite restaurant in downtown Syracuse?



As per usual, thanks to Sarah Heppell for all of her help. This week Sarah helped me with not only some of the photos you see here, but with designing a business card and setting up my new email as well. Thank you!!!




Email me at:
cupcakes@bakedbykelly.com

The Snow Day

There's been a lot of cold, snowy days this winter, and about a week ago we got hit with a doozy of a snow storm. Being a native of Syracuse, though, I know how to handle it. We are #1 in snow fall in the country, so there's something to be said about that! The snow was so bad that we got a snow day...woo hoo! For me, a snow day means no kids in my program. But on this day, the snow was so bad that we were in a State of Emergency and got mandated to go home at noon.

What would you do with a paid half day off?!

view from my front porch at work

When I got safely home, I started looking for inspiration for my next Syracuse-inspired cupcake. I asked my Baked by Kelly fans what flavors came to mind when they thought of a snow day and my fans answered: hot chocolate with marshmallows. What's more Syracuse than hot chocolate and marshmallows on a snow day?! To get more inspired for my next creation, I spent some time walking around the cabin to take photos of the snowy scape. For those of you who don't know, yes -- I live in a log cabin.

the woods surrounding the cabin

The barren trees, the blistering cold, the snow-covered pines, and that giant icicle...there's no denying that it's winter time in Syracuse folks! I went inside and curled up in front of my fire, and once I warmed up after my snowy adventure, I decided to create The Snow Day cupcake!

The Snow Day is a hot chocolate cupcake with marshmallow buttercream frosting and a sprinkling of cinnamon.

For the chocolate cake, I tried a new recipe. It came out denser than my usual recipe which is softer. Some people like a denser cake though, so it will be a good recipe to keep on hand.

To portion out the batter, I used my new OXO scooper and I was sooo happy with the result! It literally took me 2 minutes to get the batter into the liners. Scoop, drop! Scoop, drop! No mess, no hassle -- it was great! I would definitely recommend this to anyone who bakes cupcakes on a regular basis.

new scooper!

all filled and ready to go

I made a marshmallow buttercream frosting to go on top. I was really impressed with this frosting! The consistency of it was perfect for piping onto my cupcakes and the flavor was so sweet. To finish it off, I sprinkled cinnamon on top.

Thank you to my talented friend Sarah Heppell who took some of these photos for me. She braved the snow and cold to help me along my blogging journey!

Curl up under a blanket with a mug of hot chocolate, and warm up from that cold Syracuse weather!

The Otto

If you live in Syracuse, you know how we feel about our basketball. On February 1st, Syracuse men's basketball made history. Not only did Boeheim and the SU team have their best start in school history (21-0), we beat our long-time "rivals" Duke! Even though we don't have a rivalry with them per say, there seems to be this long-standing fight between the fans of Syracuse and Duke. Who knows where these things come from or why.

The energy in the Dome that night was electric. I spent the majority of the 2 and a half hours (including the overtime!!!) on my feet, and I walked away with a sore throat and stinging hands. But hey, what are fans for?! It was an amazing game to be at, and will surely become a piece of Syracuse history.

A record crowd of 35,466!

This game was so inspiring that I came up with my new cupcake project for the weekend: The Otto. A chocolate orange cupcake with orange frosting and candied orange peels on top. Very orange and very Syracuse.

The Otto cupcake!

I have a go-to chocolate cake recipe that I started with. Then I added orange marmalade (almost a whole jar) which gave it a very orange flavor. It made the cakes moist and sticky. In true SU fashion, I had to rock the orange and blue liners.

The frosting is a basic buttercream frosting, with a few variations. I added a few tablespoons of the orange marmalade (remember, I said I put almost the whole jar into the batter) and orange juice. In retrospect, I probably added too much orange juice. The frosting didn't hold up well unless it was refrigerated. Next time, I will add less orange juice and maybe some milk, to reduce the acidity and add some creaminess. Live and learn!

The candied orange peels were fun to make! My friend Christine and I stripped the peel off the oranges and took as much of the white membrane off as possible. Then I soaked the peels in salt water overnight. The next day I boiled the peels 4 separate times in cold water, draining them in between each time. Then I added sugar and water back into the pan to boil 1 last time. I drained them, cut them into strips with a pizza cutter, and tossed them in sugar. The result was a gummy-like texture and an intense orange flavor.

mmm orange gummy peels

I piped frosting on top of the cakes, and draped the strips of candied orange peels over the top. I was very happy with the end result. It tasted delicious and looked great!

even Otto is a fan of The Otto!

This cupcake is all orange and all Syracuse.

A special thanks to my friend Sarah Heppell for the photos!