Triple Chocolate Pistachio Praline Cake

Are you ready for this? Can you handle it?

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This is the latest from my kitchen. The Triple Chocolate Pistachio Praline Cake. It's a combination of rich chocolate flavors, notes of mocha, hints of salt, & a delicious, sweet, nutty crunch that join together to do the ultimate happy-dance on your tongue.

A friend at work asked me to make a "birthday cake" for a friend of hers. She & her husband were having the friend & husband over for a birthday dinner so they wanted a dessert. Only, I know this woman well enough to know that a normal "birthday cake" seemed a little out of place. These people are foodies in every sense of the word. They love to experiment with food, they truly appreciate new combinations of flavors & textures, but indulging in any ol' thing that's sweet is not a part of their daily habit. So when I asked to clarify, she really just wanted a delicious, beautiful dessert but it didn't have to be the standard "birthday cake." It just had to be chocolate, as the friends were both super chocoholics. PHEW. I mean, I could do a birthday cake, of course. I just knew this wasn't the time, place, or audience for it. But you know what that means? Time to put the creative baking cap on!! YESSSS.

You remember the layered brownie thing I made back in December? The Chocolate Peanut Butter Brownie Tart? I drew my inspiration from that. It was easy (well, relatively speaking) but elegant, & the individual components were simple but delicious so I thought about turning it into cake form. The brownie tart was great, but quite honestly, the ganache & whipped cream could've used something a bit more porous & delicate to absorb the layers of goo. Enter the cake.

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For the bottom layer of the cake I adapted the recipe for my favorite chocolate cake, a super moist & flavorful Dense Chocolate Loaf Cake from Nigella Lawson's book How to be a Domestic Goddess. I added my own twist to it (of course). For one, you can see that it's clearly not in loaf form. I used a 9.5" springform pan. Secondly, I added ground pistachios. This cake typically falls in the middle b/c it's so dense--WHICH IS OKAY, it's supposed to. But I did add a little something extra to counteract that. Plus, a few extra twists. ;-)

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Time for the ganache & the praline. Instead of a typical chocolate + cream ganache, I upped the flavor profile by adding a strong coffee flavor plus a blend of different types of chocolate for a richer, more flavorful topping. Mocha ganache!! Oh my goodness, it was so tasty. The ganache was poured on top of the cake, while the praline was crunched, smashed, chopped, and crumbled so it could grace the edges of the cake. Truth be told, it could also be a pistachio brittle, but in the end, it's basically a seriously sugar-coated nut so I'm going with praline. Semantics. Go figure.

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Next up! The chocolate whipped cream. This had a much different chocolate flavor b/c the natural flavor of whipped cream is so strong. The chocolate is much lighter in this component. It works out beautifully though, it's balances out the other intense flavors. It's the perfect compliment.

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And here we go! The complete creation. The Triple Chocolate Pistachio Praline cake. The top is garnished w/ chocolate ganache frosting & more pistachio praline crumbles, mixed w/ chopped pistachios.

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One more reason I'm so excited about this cake: it can translate into cupcakes. Quite easily!! Can you imagine it? Perfect little bouncy cupcakes, dipped in mocha ganache with crumbles of pistachio praline & topped with a dollop of chocolate whipped cream? Yeeeaaaahhhhh, doesn't that sound INCREDIBLE??? (that's a rhetorical question, of course it'd be incredible)

Now this makes me think about my Couture Cupcake collection. A select few flavors that up the ante on your average vanilla cupcake + some color of sugary frosting. How do you feel about that?? I'm excited, are you?

Pistachio Praline

What happens when you cook sugar & water, then pour it over chopped pistachios & let it cool?

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You get this! Pistachio praline. I used it for a cake garnish over the weekend, which was a perfect unique way to add a new flavor & interesting texture change. More to come on this in a few days.

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Screw flowers. Valentine's day is for CUPCAKES!

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I have something to confess. Valentine's Day... is one of my favorite holidays. But not b/c I'm a sap. I'm actually not much of a sap at all. You know why I love it? B/c everything's pink. (Yup, it's that easy.) And red & white. AND CUTE. And full of hearts! I flippin' love hearts. You see my logo? Yeah, hearts. Lacey doiley things? Totally appropriate for Valentine's Day. If this was how Arbor Day was celebrated, I'd probably be all about Arbor Day. But turns out, it's Valentine's Day so dang it, I'm gonna embrace it.

Valentine's Day is also a perfect time to promote cupcakes. Everyone's buying random gifty things. It's not like Christmas where you have a list (or I dunno, it may be like that for some people—not me). It's not like a birthday. If you need something, you don't ask for it for Valentine's Day. You just give & get... nice, happy stuff. THUS THE CUPCAKES. They're celebratory, they're cute, they're a delicious treat, & the holiday gives people a reason to order them so really, I couldn't be happier! My Valentine's Day promo is a pretty darn good deal if you ask me. Six cupcakes for $10—you can choose between one of the two flavors offered or mix it up for 3 & 3. This year's flavor options? Red velvet cake with vanilla malt frosting, & strawberry cake with strawberry frosting, then dipped in chocolate.

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This year I had 9 total orders. It's less than last year, but still a good bit of work. Pictured above are the order cards. I had a spark of inspiration one day while perusing the online shop Paper Valise when I saw old-school library cards. Library cards... THAT COULD WORK!! As long as I design my own, that is. But hell, that's not hard! The card could actually have the order on it. I could stamp the date. Mark whether it's pick-up or delivery. Place it in a little pocket on the box, which also gives me a place to put a business card to give people... it's just crazy enough to work! Plus, I get to use that sweet date stamp like SERIOUS old school library style. I feel like I'm back in grade school!

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Below is pretty self-explanatory. It's the naked cakes! Top is red velvet. Bottom is strawberry.

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And here we go. The GOOD stuff. Below are the strawberry cupcakes. They turned out very well, & I was super psyched about how they looked. In my head, everything was going to work. But sometimes what's in your head doesn't match what comes out of your kitchen. That day, luckily, it did. So here you're seeing the strawberry cake, topped with strawberry frosting, dipped in rich chocolate ganache, topped with a very light sprinkling of thin chocolate sprinkles topped with a mint leaf for garnish.

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Next up are the red velvet-vanilla malts! This is one of my personal favorite cupcake combos, if not THE favorite. The pairing is just so classic, but still different b/c quite frankly I'm the only one here doing vanilla malt frosting! And if I'm not the only one, I'll bet you $$ that mine's the best. The light chocolately flavor of the red velvet cake & the creamy, sweet vanilla bite of the malt frosting compliment each other perfectly. SO GOOD. On top is a Whopper malt ball of "strawberry" flavor. I put "strawberry" in quotes because I have a feel it's more the color than the actual flavor that makes them "strawberry."

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The next photo is one of my favorite shots. The image is just so graphic—I really love it. Strawberry on the left, red velvet on the right (duh).

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And here we are! The final packaging. Authentic library card pocket & all. The pockets were purchased from the local United Art & Education. The library order cards were designed by yours truly. When my design world & baking world compliment each other—that makes me a happy camper.

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And there we have it, in somewhat of a nutshell. Now don't you wish you ordered some?? ;-)

Happiness in blog form

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This has nothing to do with food. Well, not exactly. It's candy. Eye candy. Pure, delightful, colorful, thoughtful, happy-making eye candy.

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I found this blog, A Creative Mint, awhile ago but haven't visited it in the past few months until yesterday. I forgot how happy it makes me. All you have to do is sit there and absorb the beautiful images—nothing else. You can find more from Leslie (the blogger) on Decor8 as a regular guest feature called Color Me Pretty. Her blog posts are so visually stunning, they have a calming effect on me during crazy days at work when deadlines are looming closely overhead.

Pretty amazing stuff, right? *sigh* Happy place.

So you guys don't get uber bored...

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This is one of the latest projects to come out of the Sugarlush oven this past weekend. More about them after Valentine's Day! Speaking of which...

If you're in Columbus, have you made your Valentine's Day order yet?? $10 gets you 6 cupcakes. Email me if you want to reserve a box! For more info, go here (or just scroll down to the next blog post).

BE A LUSH on Valentine's Day!

The Valentine's Day Special is back y'all!!!! HOLLA!!!!!! Click on the pic to see it at full-size.

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Click me, s'il vous plait.

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Here's the deal. Like it says, $10 for one box of 6 (that's a half-dozen) cupcakes. There are two flavor combo options:

[1] Strawberry cupcake with strawberry frosting, dipped in chocolate

[2] Red velvet cupcake with vanilla malt frosting

They're both delicious, I promise you. You pick them up on Saturday, February 13 between 2pm-4pm.

Want to order? OF COURSE you do. Send me an email at sugarlushcupcakes@gmail.com. Orders must be made by WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 3rd! You have ONE WEEK FROM TODAY to think about it! I take cash & Paypal. I'll send out Paypal invoices so both of us have a record of your order and payment status, but feel free to pay with cash if you prefer (just let me know if that's how you plan to pay).

Christened Cupcakes

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Okay, so these cupcakes aren't actually christened. Rather, they were for a christening. My friend & loyal customer Katie had a super cute baby back in the fall. Rocco (that's the baby) was just baptized this past weekend and for his celebration, Katie ordered two dozen chocolate cupcakes with various types of frosting. Normally, I'm not sure if I'd go through all that rigamarole for just two dozen cupcakes. But since she's always extremely loyal and supportive, whatever Katie wants Katie gets! Plus, she's always willing to stray from the norm and order different flavors of frosting! I love it!

You ready for the pics? Of course you are. And away we go!

First up, we have a lovely shot of 3 of the 4. The Tiffany Blue dollop is your basic cream cheese frosting with a royal icing topper. In the middle is the classic salted caramel frosting (Katie's willing to stray from the norm EXCEPT for this one. She L-O-V-E-S this one. As do most). Then on the far left we have Cookies n' Cream. It's a vanilla frosting with Oreo cookies mixed in, then it's rolled in even MORE Oreos. Mmmm, Oreos... anyway, moving on...

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Cookies n' cream frosted cupcakes... this is when I start drooling...

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All six cream cheese frosted cupcakes with alternating royal icing toppers.

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And finally, the surprise. Katie got an extra cupcake with her order of 24. Her birthday was a few days earlier so I piped a special cream cheese frosted cake just for her. It's a flower...incase it's not super obvious. So, I received Martha Stewart's Cupcakes for Christmas. It has a lot of great piping ideas and tricks. In the book, there's a gorgeous chrysanthemum flower technique. It looks great, but it's actually quite simple. That is, if you have the right frosting.

This is what I tried. Only, my cream cheese frosting? Yeah, that didn't want to hold the shape. So instead it came out squiggly/ribbon-y. This is when I need to actually do a Swiss Buttercream, but that's a whole other story. But you know... I think it looks kind of carnation-y. I like it!! I was planning on doing a paper leaf & paper flag topper all along b/c 1) I didn't want to color more frosting just for a tiny leaf and 2) it needed to say HAPPY BIRTHDAY! Plus, I think they add character and a personal touch since I'm a graphic designer--this is the kind of little thing I geek out on.

So that's my story. Rocco's baptism cupcakes + Katie's special birthday cupcake. In the meantime, I'll go work on that Swiss Buttercream and flower piping technique.

Be a lush...

Are you a lush? Come on, you know you are. If not, I highly suggest that you become one. Or better yet... become a fan!

Guess who just got a Facebook page! Well, I, as a person, have been on Facebook for quite sometime. I was in college when it all started—I remember the days when it was still "Thefacebook." But as a BUSINESS, my page is fresh out the oven. It's easier to update Facebook rather than the blog, so look there for additional tidbits, current happenings, and process photos. I'll still keep the blog going, of course! But Facebook will be more frequent. I have a small event coming up, so it'd be a good time to show a progress image or two. Or maybe gather ideas on new flavors? Post new promotions? You get the idea.

Plus, the more "fans" I acquire, I can eventually claim a Username, enabling me to shorten the link and be "facebook.com/sugarlushcupcakes" instead of "facebook.com/pages/sugarlush-cupakes/#totalgobbledygook." I'm not going to lie—there are technological benefits to gaining friends. So, if you fan me, that'd be totally awesome.

Thank you guys for your support! I hope to see you there!