You Say Party! I Say Dessert!
What happens when you mix a Sergeant in the US Military, with the Toronto Pride Parade, on the 4th July, in a condo located in the Gay Village? You get the makings for one amazing hybrid party, friends! Since Toronto’s Pride Parade happen to fall on the 4th of July, and since everyone’s favourite Texan – happened to be staying at Christine’s condo (located at Yonge and Charles) we couldn’t resist having a Happy Independence / Pride Day party. Of course, not wanting to pass up the opportunity to create some snacks for such an awesomely themed party, I whipped up a few treats perfectly suited for the celebration. So in a Dana Learn’s To Cook extravaganza I present: Rainbow Lemon Cupcakes, Red White and Blue Almond Sugar Cookies (with Lemon Glaze), and of course, Gay Pirate Balls Rainbow Lemon Cupcakes
I’ve been meaning to make rainbow cupcakes for a while. Much like my now infamous cheeseburger cupcakes, I had seen these while perusing the internet and thought they were way too rad to pass up. Knowing that Pride would be the perfect time to bake a batch, so I waited for over a year until I went for it.
Making these cupcakes was beyond simple. I bought a box of no name lemon cake, and mixed it with a can of sprite. Yup, crazy as it sounds, this is actually a well known method for preparing cake – especially for dieters who bake fat free cakes by mixing diet soda with cake mix, in place of eggs and oil. Interestingly enough, many people claim that this is the best way to use cake mix as you wind up with an incredibly moist and fluffy cake. (Dana tip: leave your can of sprite out for a bit so that it gets a little flat and doesn’t fizz too much when you’re mixing) I measured out the batter and divided it into six dishes. I used gel food colouring to dye each batch. I chose gel food colouring as you get bolder colours in comparison to the liquid kind. I then layered each cupcake tin with alternating colours – trying to get in one tablespoon of each. I baked the cupcakes according to the instructions on the package, and once they cooled, topped them with a buttercream frosting (not home made). Justin was pretty adamant that the cupcakes tasted like fruit loops – though I think his perception was a bit skewed by all the fun colours! To be honest, I think one tablespoon per colour was a bit much – I only got about 8 (giant) cupcakes out of the entire package. I was worried that the batter wouldn’t rise due to the Sprite, but quickly learned that soda doesn’t hamper the normal baking process. If you’re going to attempt this – don’t do a full tablespoon per colour, just over half should be fine. Red, White and Blue Almond Sugar Cookies
These sugar cookies were definitely the hit of the party. I mixed together a couple of recipes and added in a few ideas of my own. For the cookies: 2/3 cup butter Using a hand mixer, mix together the butter, cream cheese, and sugar. Once you get that awesome grainy/fluffy consistency, mix in the rest of your wet ingredients. Then add the crushed almonds and stir them in with a wooden spoon. Using the wooden spoon, add the flour – do this gradually as it will get tougher and tougher to mix the flour the stiffer the dough gets. Once the dough forms into a ball, divide it in half and cover it in the fridge for about 30 – 45 minutes. You want your dough cold so that it’s easy to roll. I found that even with a floured surface, if the dough was at room temperature, it was too sticky and difficult to work with. If it’s cold it’s much easier to roll (about 1/8 of a inch thick) and cut into shapes. I lined a baking sheet with parchment paper and baked the cookies for 7 minutes at 375 degrees. Once they were done and cooled, I glazed them. Lemon Glaze 3 – 4 TBSP of icing sugar I learned how to make lemon glaze from Karen not too long ago. Essentially you just mix in lemon juice with confectioners sugar until you get the thick consistency that you like. The point is to do a little at a time. To be honest, 1 tsp of lemon juice is probably too much – it’s a guestimation of how much I used, since this recipe is anything but precise. You really have to eyeball it and use your own discretion – but fortunately it’s super easy to do. Since liquid affects the consistency of the glaze, I opted to using gel dyes (the same ones used in the cupcakes). You don’t need to much to get a bold colour, and they won’t water down your glaze. Just use a tooth pick to add the gel in and your set. After you’ve glazed the cookies, you’ll want to let them set in the fridge for a bit. If I were to change anything about these cookies it would be to add some almond extract to the mix. Just to kick up the nutty flavour a notch. Though, to be honest, they were pretty fantastic as is!. Gay Pirate Balls Perhaps because I have the maturity of an 11 year old boy, while preparing for this insane hybrid party I told Christine that I wanted to make a dessert with the word ‘balls’ in it. Seeing as how one of the most important elements to the success of both Independence Day and Pride parties is a sufficient amount of alcohol, I opted for rum balls. There are probably a million different ways to make rum balls. Whether you use melted chocolate, cocoa, crushed cookie crumbs, dark or light rum, peanut butter, sprinkles, coconut, corn syrup, or cream cheese, it really seems as if the possibilities and variations are endless. So, once again, I combined a couple of recipes based on what I had available and what I thought would would taste good. 2 1/2 cups of chocolate cookie crumbs (I used about 3/4 of a package of Simple Pleasures chocolate cookies, that i crushed in a ziplock bag…I may have stepped on the bag…let’s not talk about that..) One thing I didn’t add, that the majority of rum ball recipes call for, is corn syrup. I didn’t really see a point in purchasing the stuff since it’s not all that great for you, and since I didn’t have any other recipes I would use it for. Furthermore, the corn syrup doesn’t do much in terms of binding either – that’s the rum and cream cheese’s job – so I figured it was a safe bet to leave it out. Rum balls are pretty simple to make – simply mix all your dry ingredients, then add the wet ones. Mix until you get a thick paste. You can add more dry ingredients as you go, especially if you find the mix way too sticky to work with. But don’t dry it out too much, you still want to be able to roll the rum balls and have them hold. If you find the mix too sticky to roll, then just powder your hands with icing sugar. Once the balls are rolled, coat them in sprinkles and chill in the fridge until you’re ready to serve. A quarter cup of rum may be a little strong for some (particularly if you spent your Saturday night taking advantage of the 4am last call), but you can easily substitute it for something else (I bought Nesquick chocolate syrup to use just incase) – or find another recipe that suits your taste a bit better. Like I said, there are tonnes of variations out there, so you’re not limited by your tastebuds whatsoever. All in all the party was a success – complete with beers, hot dogs, friends, and a non stop party outside right outside our window – it was pretty much one of the best ways to spend a Sunday in a city. Comment » Leave a comment |
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