Yesterday was our annual holiday potluck at my office. Think of it now, over 100 people gathering together with tons of food. Tons of chili. (we have a chili contest!) Tons of desserts. Every bit of food looking more delicious then the next. It was just amazing! I didn't feel the need to contribute until late on Monday when I sent the email back to the activities committee. YES. I'll bake something.
But what? Last year what I made failed. It was a side dish- carrots with a maple glaze that didn't glaze so well.
So did I want to enter the world of desserts and make something that would be appropriate for
EVERYONE ELSE but me? Or did I want to make something that no one would suspect would be GF/DF? The end result was the latter.
Hell to the NO was I going to bake something that I wouldn't be able to indulge and enjoy! I had seen a recipe on
Gluten Free Girl that made me drool.
Chocolate cupcakes with a coffee flavored ganache. The pictures were to die for. I had to duplicate it! I followed the recipe exactly only making my adjustments by using margarine for butter, almond milk for regular milk, and soy creamer for the heavy cream in the ganache. I fattened the ganache up with a touch of cornstarch because as heavy as soy creamer is, regular heavy cream is much thicker and richer I find.
I took the cupcakes to work and at around 11 I was in the caf frosting away. To "frost" using ganache you simply warm it up for about 15 seconds so that it has the consistency of a thick syrup. Then spread it around the cupcake top and try not to lick the spoon! As the ganache cools it thickens up to a pretty hard shiny shell. It looks so amazing!
I was complaining to one of my co-workers that it needed something else! I had bought strawberries to top each cupcake with- but they were not that great- no flavor and not all of the strawberries were good. I instantly thought of
white chocolate flakes! Wouldn't that have looked beautiful? Sprinkled on the top of a
shiny coffee chocolate frosting?? Too bad I couldn't run to the store! I practically had my checkbook in hand to send him to the store. He talked me out of it though and said they looked fine the way they were! But I was still a little sad they were so boring!
So the verdict for the cupcakes was
GREAT. They were GONE by 3 pm. I mean I took one home of course, but everyone tried them and everyone agreed. Luscious. Delicious. Amazing. One of the tech guys labeled them, "
a little bit of awesomeness". YUM!
This is one recipe that will be put in my recipe book for certain. They were really amazing. And I bet you could make them normally and they would probably taste just as good!
So for the last couple of days we have had nothing but drenching rain. And my basement is flooded. And this morning when I pulled out of the driveway the trash can and recylcing bucket had been knocked over by the wind. I spent ten minutes in the rain and unbelievable amount of wind to pick all that crap up and get it out of the road. I was totally looking forward to getting to work and heating up my nice oatmeal. I arrived and discovered two things. A.
we had no power. B.
because we have no power in the building there was NO microwave! Gasp!!!! What the heck was I going to do? Eat it cold??!!
Hell to the NO again! The guy who runs our caf cooked my oatmeal in a skillet pan over an open grill flame. The caf is all dark so he has a flashlight sticking out of his mouth while he was warming it up. Too bad my camera was in my purse at my desk!
Sadly my row of desks was designed to go straight to generator power in the event of a power outage. So we can still help customers and ship orders in the event of a power outage (WTF???!!!!) Here I am, waiting for the regular power to come back on. *Sigh*
But what? Last year what I made failed. It was a side dish- carrots with a maple glaze that didn't glaze so well.
So did I want to enter the world of desserts and make something that would be appropriate for EVERYONE ELSE but me? Or did I want to make something that no one would suspect would be GF/DF? The end result was the latter. Hell to the NO was I going to bake something that I wouldn't be able to indulge and enjoy! I had seen a recipe on Gluten Free Girl that made me drool. Chocolate cupcakes with a coffee flavored ganache. The pictures were to die for. I had to duplicate it! I followed the recipe exactly only making my adjustments by using margarine for butter, almond milk for regular milk, and soy creamer for the heavy cream in the ganache. I fattened the ganache up with a touch of cornstarch because as heavy as soy creamer is, regular heavy cream is much thicker and richer I find.
I took the cupcakes to work and at around 11 I was in the caf frosting away. To "frost" using ganache you simply warm it up for about 15 seconds so that it has the consistency of a thick syrup. Then spread it around the cupcake top and try not to lick the spoon! As the ganache cools it thickens up to a pretty hard shiny shell. It looks so amazing!
I was complaining to one of my co-workers that it needed something else! I had bought strawberries to top each cupcake with- but they were not that great- no flavor and not all of the strawberries were good. I instantly thought of white chocolate flakes! Wouldn't that have looked beautiful? Sprinkled on the top of a shiny coffee chocolate frosting?? Too bad I couldn't run to the store! I practically had my checkbook in hand to send him to the store. He talked me out of it though and said they looked fine the way they were! But I was still a little sad they were so boring!
So the verdict for the cupcakes was GREAT. They were GONE by 3 pm. I mean I took one home of course, but everyone tried them and everyone agreed. Luscious. Delicious. Amazing. One of the tech guys labeled them, " a little bit of awesomeness". YUM!
This is one recipe that will be put in my recipe book for certain. They were really amazing. And I bet you could make them normally and they would probably taste just as good!
So for the last couple of days we have had nothing but drenching rain. And my basement is flooded. And this morning when I pulled out of the driveway the trash can and recylcing bucket had been knocked over by the wind. I spent ten minutes in the rain and unbelievable amount of wind to pick all that crap up and get it out of the road. I was totally looking forward to getting to work and heating up my nice oatmeal. I arrived and discovered two things. A. we had no power. B. because we have no power in the building there was NO microwave! Gasp!!!! What the heck was I going to do? Eat it cold??!! Hell to the NO again! The guy who runs our caf cooked my oatmeal in a skillet pan over an open grill flame. The caf is all dark so he has a flashlight sticking out of his mouth while he was warming it up. Too bad my camera was in my purse at my desk!
Sadly my row of desks was designed to go straight to generator power in the event of a power outage. So we can still help customers and ship orders in the event of a power outage (WTF???!!!!) Here I am, waiting for the regular power to come back on. *Sigh*