Graham Elliott - Chicago, IL

We celebrated our friend Gook's birthday at Graham Elliot months ago.  We happened to go when they were revealing their spring menu, so that just goes to show how long ago this was.  Sorry guys!  

I've always wanted to try Graham Elliott, but I had heard some mixed reviews.  I have to say that I was pleasantly surprised and ended up leaving the place a bigger fan of Graham Elliot than before (if that's even possible).  Everything was so whimsical yet at the same time delicious. 

Harold's Chicken Shack - Chicago, IL

So jumping from one roommate to another, my current roommate Susan's birthday was a few months ago.  We had planned to go out to dinner to celebrate but she came down with a nasty cold.  So what is a girl to do when your friend is too sick to go out.  Make chicken soup?  nope ... even better, get some fried chicken.  One thing that I've learned about living with Susan is that she loves fried chicken.  We are lucky enough to live close to Harold's the Fried Chicken King so I went there to grab a bucket of fried chicken for the birthday girl.  

Pumpkin Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting

I love using pumpkin in the fall, so in lieu of red velvet cupcakes, I made pumpkin cupcakes with cream cheese frosting.  

I used a recipe from Martha and got to baking.

Chocolate Cupcakes with Swiss Meringue Buttercream

My friend Winston makes the cutest cupcakes ever so I asked her for some cupcake recipes. She sent me this recipe for her chocolate cupcakes.

Winston's Chocolate Cupcakes

Ingredients

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

1 2/3 cups sugar

3/4 cup butter or margarine, room temperature

2/3 cup unsweetened baking cocoa

1 1/4 cups water

1 1/4 teaspoons baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 eggs

Heat oven to 350 F. Place paper baking cups in each of 24 regular size muffin cups. In large bowl, beat sugar and butter with an electric mixer on low speed. In a separate bowl, combine the dry ingredients. Add the eggs vanilla and water to the butter and sugar mixture and beat on low speed, scraping the bowl. Add in the dry ingredients and beat for 3 minutes, scraping bowl constantly. Divide batter evenly among muffin cups.

Bake 20 to 25 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes; remove from pan to cooling rack. Cool completely, about 30 minutes.

This resulted in a lot of cupcakes, which I decided to freeze. I covered each one in sara wrap, then foil and then put it in a zip lock bag. Whenever you need a couple cupcakes, just unwrap the cupcakes and defrost at room temperature and they are as good as new.

For the frosting, I opted for a Swiss Meringue Buttercream frosting. I got the recipe from Martha Stewart.

Swiss Meringue Buttercream

Martha Stewart’s Cupcakes

5 large egg whites

1 cup plus 2 T sugar

pinch of salt

1 pound (4 sticks) unsalted butter, cut into tablespoons, room temperature

1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

Combine egg whites, sugar and salt in the heatproof bowl of a standing mixer set over a pan of simmering water. Whisk constantly by hand until mixture is warm to the touch and sugar has dissolved (the mixture should feel completely smooth when rubbed between your fingertips). Attach the bowl to the mixer fitted with the whisk attachment.

Starting on low and gradually increasing to medium-high speed, whisk until stiff (but not dry) peaks form.

Continue mixing until the mixture is fluffy and glossy, and completely cool (test by touching the bottom of the bowl), about 10 minutes.

With mixer on medium-low speed, add the butter a few tablespoons at a time, mixing well after each addition. Once all of the butter has been added, whisk in vanilla. Switch to the paddle attachment, and continue beating on low speed until all air bubbles are eliminated, about 2 minutes.

Scrape down sides of bowl with a flexible spatula, and continue beating until the frosting is completely smooth.

Here are the frosted cupcakes. What I love about this cupcake is that it's not too sweet. It feels like you are eating a chocolate whoopie pie or a ho-ho's.

If you want to save some of the buttercream for future use, transfer it to an airtight container and freeze it for up to 1 month. Before using, bring to room temperature and beat with paddle attachment on low speed until smooth again, about 5 minutes. Trust me it will look like a hot mess when it defrosts and the liquid and solids separate, but beat it enough and it will look like frosting again. =)

More Cupcakes - Chicago, IL

A coworker snagged a Salted Caramel Cupcake from More Cupcakes for me a few days ago. I adore salted caramel, so you could imagine my excitement when I heard about this cupcake flavor.

It looked really pretty with a flat, smooth buttercream frosting and a tiny mound of black fleur de sel on top. I couldn't wait to dig in.

Here's what it looked like inside. It's a vanilla cake, filled with salted caramel in the center and buttercream frosting on top.

I love the flavor in concept, but I didn't like it in this cupcake. The cake itself was a bit dry and crumbly and it didn't help that the salted caramel filling was a bit grainy. The filling was also really sweet, so the whipped buttercream frosting tasted a bit too bland. I felt like I was eating a spoonful of whipped butter, which is not a good thing unless you are eating this with corn bread. Even then, no one wants to eat frosting that tastes like butter, even though we all know that's what it's made out of. =) I know salted caramel is a play on savory and sweet, but this tasted pretty sweet and bland to me.

I was expecting more from More Cupcakes, but I thought my Ron Bennington from Molly's was way better. More Cupcakes has really eclectic flavors like blt, cheddar apple Guinness, blue cheese walnut praline and goat cheese basil, all of which may be worth checking out if I'm ever in that neighborhood.

More Cupcakes

1 E Delaware Pl

(between State St & Wabash Ave)

Chicago, IL 60611

Molly's Cupcakes - Chicago, IL (Lincoln Park)

A few weeks ago, I had lunch plans at Sultan's Market in Lincoln Park to eat falafel sandwiches. I was an hour early so I was going to walk around the neighborhood and explore. It started raining so I decided to take cover and get some tea. Lucky for me there was Molly's Cupcakes nearby.

Here's a card that describes how Molly's Cupcakes came to be. Cute story. I like how Johnny calls himself the Chief Egg Cracker.

They have an array of cupcakes where you can pick the type of cake (chocolate, vanilla, carrot and red velvet) and then pick the type of frosting (vanilla, chocolate, cream cheese, brown butter and french buttercream). You can also add toppings such as m&m's, reese's pieces, brownies, etc. Their specialty cupcakes however are their center filled cupcakes. The ones that caught my eye were Peanut Butter Nutella with peanut butter cake, nutella filling and buttercream nutella frosting and their Strawberry Shortcake with vanilla cake, whole fresh strawberries cooked in brown sugar filling and vanilla buttercream. I couldn't narrow it down, so I had to ask for advice. I asked which cupcake was their most popular and they told me the Ron Bennington. Let me introduce you to Ron.

He's made of chocolate cake, peanut butter filling, chocolate ganache and crushed butterscotch topping. Holy moly, this cake was good. The cake was super moist and that peanut butter filling was lusciously smooth. This cupcake was definitely worth the $3.50 or however much it was.

I think I need to do cupcakes before lunch more often. Sultan's was quite yummy btw, I just forgot to take pictures.