The Ithaca

A couple of weeks ago - my friends Tim and Sarah, and Chris and myself - took an overnight trip to Ithaca to see Band of Horses!

We went up Saturday afternoon and started at The Commons. The Ithaca Commons is a go-to place when you make a trip to Ithaca. There's great shopping, restaurants, and people-watching! Chris and Tim bought some records at Angry Moms, while Sarah and I went thrifting at Trader Ks.

After the commons, we headed to the Ithaca Beer Company for lunch and (of course) to taste delicious beer!

Wow, this place was a-maz-ing! All of their food was so tasty and fresh. I would recommend their fry flight, where you get 3 separate dipping sauces. My favorite was the beer ketchup - YUM! We got beer flights so we could sample more than just 1 beer. Chris really enjoyed his :)

before

after

Then we made our way to the Ithaca Ale House to watch the 2nd round of Duke vs. Syracuse. It was so much fun to watch the game with fellow fans in a crowded bar - everyone all riled up and cheering and high-fiving! We all know how that game turned out. Oh well, I was super proud of Jim Boeheim for sticking up for his guys and a bad call by the refs.  The timing was perfect! The game ended and we walked half a block away to the State Theater to see the show!

Here are a few photos that Sarah let me borrow (I forgot to take photos!) that show off from start to finish what our Ithaca trip included:

Ithaca collage!

We left the following day, and I was inspired to make a new cupcake! Here's what I came up with:

The Ithaca

It's a lemon olive oil cake with strawberries and blueberries, topped with cream cheese frosting, and homemade granola.

The olive oil came from a local store in Fayetteville called Olive on Brooklea. My friend Iellan and I went there to taste all that they had to offer, but it was pretty clear right from the beginning that a lemon-flavored oil would be perfect for this cake.

 

I also made the granola with this olive oil. I added it to honey, maple syrup, brown sugar, and various spices to toss over the oats, almonds, pistachios, coconut, pumpkin seeds, and sunflower seeds.
 

close up!

On top of the cake I used my go-to cream cheese frosting and BAM - The Ithaca!

The flavors of this cupcake are fruity and fresh; the contrast in textures is
complex. Every bite is a mouthful of freshness. Ithaca has so much natural beauty to see, like the gorges and waterfalls. With time constraints and weather, however, we weren't able to see any of it. Fortunately for us Ithaca is just over an hour away, so Chris and I have plans to head back for hiking and the farmer's market.

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!

The Westcott

So here's the deal: I want to start a blog about cupcakes and Syracuse. My good friends Sarah and Jenn sat around a table with me tonight to help me start this little venture of mine. So here I am, starting a blog. Who would have thought?!

I want to try a new recipe every week for a year. That comes out to 52 different types of cupcakes. Whoa. That is the charge I’ve given myself and I’m ready for it! I hope you are too :)

I’ve also decided to name my cupcakes after famous things in Syracuse. Even though I live in Baldwinsville (a suburb of Syracuse) it's the city that I identify with. Not to mention, there are so many things here that are special and unique. I feel like it’s my duty to glorify those things in my delicious cupcakes!

My first cake I’m calling The Westcott. It’s a carrot cake filled with coconut and pineapple. Like the Westcott area, it is down-to-earth and full of flavor. The cream cheese frosting appears traditional at first glance, but when you taste it, there is a surprising flavor of ginger that brings the cupcake to a whole new level. To top it off, there are candied pecans on top that give a crunchy, earthy contrast to the moist and sweet combination of cake and frosting.

I looked up recipes and read blogs to gather all of my ideas for this creation. I have pretty standard recipes for both the carrot cake and cream cheese frosting. The addition of pineapple was perfect to add moisture to the cake, and who doesn’t love coconut with pineapple?! The idea to add ginger to the frosting came from a blog which suggested different add-ins for cream cheese frosting. I’ve made candied pecans in the past, but decided to break them apart in my food processor first. This way, there was a bit of pecan in every bite, instead of one whole pecan on top. Voila! The Westcott was born!

Thanks to Sarah Heppell for the photos!