The Cupcakery at the Monte Carlo Resort & Casino in Las Vegas

So when I was in Las Vegas I had to check out at least one cupcake joint. We were staying at the MGM Grand and I saw that there was a cupcake place called The Cupcakery in the Monte Carlo. That Casino wasn’t too far away from where we were going that night so we decided to check it out. You know I’m always down to try out a cupcake. Since it wasn’t Mr. Curly Fry and I taste testing cupcakes, my friend and I only got two. Yes, I was sad about that but my friend isn’t into cupcakes like I am.

I have to say that I wasn’t really all that impressed with the choices of flavors. I thought for “…the best little cupcakes in Vegas!” that they didn’t have enough of a selection. Now, we went on a Monday evening, so maybe they sold out of a lot of flavors? I don’t know. Maybe I should give them the benefit of the doubt? So I guess I wasn’t too bummed to only try two flavors since there really weren’t all that many that I wanted to try.

I’m a huge fan of Peanut Butter…so that’s up first.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cup™
Rich chocolate cake topped with a fluffy peanut butter frosting
and sprinkled with peanuts and mini chocolate kisses

Well where do I start? I was really looking forward to this one and I have to say I was let down. The cake wasn’t moist at all. It had a bit of chocolate flavor but it wasn’t as rich as I was hoping for. It pretty much became a crumbled mess, and I’m definitely not a fan of that. The Peanut Butter frosting was anything but fluffy. It was actually quite hard.  It almost tasted like a cream cheese peanut butter frosting to me… you know cream cheese frostings kind of firm up a bit? I also didn’t think there was quite enough peanut butter in there, but that was the least of my concerns.The biggest disappointment though was that it wasn’t fluffy. Who likes a hard icing? Definitely not me. So I have to say this was a let down.

Chocolate Passion™
Our rich chocolate buttercream frosting paired with
our moist vanilla cake or decadent chocolate cake

My friend picked out this flavor. I was just kind of “eh” on trying it because it’s so basic, but it actually turned out to be better than the Chocolate Peanut Butter Cup one. The soft, vanilla cake was definitely moister than the chocolate cupcake that we had already tried, and it had a much better consistency. The chocolate buttercream wasn’t bad – it tasted more along the lines of the frosting in a jar than true buttercream. It was kind of thick and heavy if you know what I mean. So I really can’t complain about that. It just wasn’t light and fluffy like I was anticipating.

So overall I would have to say that I wouldn’t run back to The Cupcakery for cupcakes on my next trip to Vegas. I’d rather go to Serendipity 3 for a Frrrozen Oreo Hot Chocolate or Jean-Phillippe Patisserie in the Bellagio for some Gelato or other desserts.

Monte Carlo Resort and Casino
3770 Las Vegas Blvd, South
Las Vegas, NV 89109
(702) 730-7777

Viva Las Vegas!

So you may have noticed that I wasn’t around much last week. I was just in Vegas for a little bit of a getaway. I have to say it was so nice to get away, and I had the opportunity to sit at the pool with some cocktails as well as try out some wonderful restaurants. It’s funny though – we decided to go in April because it’s usually not that hot. We wanted to be able to enjoy the pool and be outside without sweating. Well what do you know? It was like 100 degrees almost every day that we were there. No joke. But we still had a blast.

Can’t really complain about this view at dinner…


While drinking this at The Sugar Factory


Stopped in the Bellagio to check out Jean Phillippe Chocolates

All of these desserts looked amazing


I couldn’t leave without trying the Gelato. I got Cappuccino and Oreo (on the bottom)

And you better bet I ate it all

Although I wanted to stick my tongue under the Chocolate Falls

A delicious drink from Trevi in the Caesars Forum Shops


We loved breakfast at Mon Ami Gabi in Paris. Too bad it wasn’t the real Paris.

But the BEST brunch in Vegas is Bouchon. I’m still thinking about it.


This was the best Cheese Danish I’ve ever had in my life.

I’m still dreaming about it. Seriously.


The main part of my breakfast was good too. Lots o’ bacon.


We went to Serendipity 3 for Brunch.


But really only so I could get one of these…


Frrrozen Oreo Hot Chocolate

And it was amazing.

BUT – I didn’t appreciate that the waitress asked me if I wanted Marshmallows (and proceeded to tell me that it’s so much better with them) – and didn’t tell me they cost extra. Seriously lady? At least be up front about it. I wouldn’t mind spending the extra money if I was told about it first, ya know? But for me to find out when I get the bill? That’s shady.


This drink from Wolfgang Puck Cafe in MGM was amazing.

I had that after we went on a Scoot Car Tour of Red Rock Canyon.

We rode around in these…


And we got to see some beautiful sites




Seriously…how beautiful is that?

I highly recommend trying this out. The two leaders were awesome. And we had so much fun!

And driving around in those little cars was so much fun! Can you believe they go like 60 mph?

It was hot that day, but with the breeze in that little car it didn’t feel that hot.

Which is a good thing.

Because it got HOT there.


So we spent a lot of time here:


And the drinks were refreshing


Even at Happy Hour!


You can’t beat $5 Sangria

And we went to Holstein’s at the Cosmopolitan so I could have this:


And let me tell you – I LOVED IT! I’m going to recreate it at home.

It was so good.

I could’ve had one every single day.


Even Freddy Kruger was out!

We got to see Kevin James & Ray Romano. They were funny.

I love Kevin James. The King of Queens is our favorite show!

What are your favorite things to do in Vegas? Any favorite restaurants?

Insomnia Cookies – Center City Philadelphia

A while ago Mr. Curly Fry’s brother told us that we have to try Insomnia Cookies. That they’re really good and that we would love them. So I looked them up and at the time they only had locations in West Philly and one out near Temple. I’m willing to travel distances for cupcakes, but not cookies. So I kind of forgot about them and went on about my business.

Fast forward to yesterday. I saw something on Philly.com about this new Insomnia Cookies store that opened up in Center City. I was intrigued. So I looked up the location and what do you know?! They are located not even a full block from my office. Uh oh. This could get dangerous! So I knew that I’d have to make a pit stop on my way home from work to pick up some cookies. How could I not? As I was walking down the street I could literally start to smell the cookies. So I followed the scent of freshly baked chocolate chip cookies and I ended up in their store!

[Read more...]

Cake Batter Pudding

So I was sitting on my sofa one afternoon trying to think of something to make for dessert for that evening. I wanted to make something easy; I didn’t want to spend all afternoon in the kitchen. I thought about making cupcakes, but I like to set my butter out hours in advance and I hadn’t done that. So my mind immediately went to thinking about cake batter flavored things. So then I thought about Cake Batter Pudding. I hadn’t seen anyone post anything about that before, but I knew it had to be done by someone. So I googled it and came across a post from Mrs. Happy Homemaker. We must’ve been on the same wavelength since she posted this at the beginning of March.

[Read more...]

Homemade Ice Cream Cake

It’s not often that I have spare room in my freezer. So when I noticed that there was a little bit of room, the first thing that came to my mind was that I had to start trying to make Ice Cream Cake! Isn’t that the first thing that would come to your mind too? I didn’t follow any recipes or anything like that. There’s not a whole lot that goes into it. But the most important part of it is the center; the crunchy part! Wouldn’t you agree?

WHAT YOU’LL NEED

  • loaf pan
  • parchment paper
  • off-set spatula
  • half gallon of ice cream (if you are using two flavors, use half of each container)
  • hot fudge sauce
  • oreo cookies

ASSEMBLY

I decided that I was going to make mine in a loaf pan. It doesn’t take up a ton of room in the freezer and I figured it’d be easy to slice. So I started out by lining my loaf pan with some parchment paper. I cut a strip for it to go long ways, and then I cut another piece that would fit the other way. This way it would be easy to take it out of the loaf pan to cut.

I let the base flavor (chocolate) of my ice cream soften a bit before starting on the assembly of my ice cream cake. I wanted it to be easy to work with. I used a medium sized cookie scoop (you could use a regular ice cream scoop if you prefer) and scooped the ice cream out of the ice cream container and placed it in the bottom of the loaf pan. I placed one scoop right next to the other scoop so that they were closely touching. Once I was done that I took an off-set spatula and smoothed it all out so that it was a nice flat surface. You want the ice cream to come almost halfway up the loaf pan, but not quite all the way.

I don’t know about you, but my favorite part of the ice cream cake is the middle! I put some oreo cookies (maybe like 10 cookies?) into my Vitamix and broke up the pieces. I didn’t make it a fine crumb or anything. They were little round pieces of cookie. I tried getting it as close to those Dairy Queen “crunchies” as I could. It’s hard, though. I took half of the cookies and put them on top of your base layer. I pushed them in a bit so that they would stay kind of glue themselves to the bottom ice cream layer.

Next it was time for some hot fudge sauce! I recommend using some amazing homemade hot fudge sauce, and you can find the recipe here. Take some of your hot fudge sauce and drizzle it over the cookie pieces. It would be easiest to use a squeeze bottle, but make sure it can be heated up a bit so that it’s squeezable (recommendation: pancake syrup bottle that can be heated up!). If you can’t use a squeeze bottle then just take a spoon and lightly drizzle it over the cookie pieces. Once you have an even layer of hot fudge on top of the cookies, take the rest of your cookie pieces and place them on top of the fudge sauce. Push down a bit to make sure it sticks to the fudge sauce.

Take your top flavor of ice cream (in my case it was cookies n cream) and scoop the ice cream and place it on top of the cookie mixture (just like how you did it for the base). You want to make sure you cover the entire cake. Once that’s done take your off-set spatula (rinsed off, of course!) and smooth out the top. Do not cover it yet; place in the freeze for about 30 minutes and let it firm up a bit before covering.

After it’s firmed up a bit, cut a piece of parchment paper that fits right on top (so the length of the loaf pan) of the cake. Then take some saran wrap and wrap up the loaf pan and place in the freezer.

I know that Dairy Queen does that whippy icing on top, but I’m not a fan of that so I left it off. But if I were making a round ice cream cake for someone’s birthday I would probably pipe some real buttercream icing around the edges.

TRIAL & ERROR

Now on my first trial run of this ice cream cake when I was making the middle layer, I combined my hot fudge sauce and the oreo crunchies. That didn’t really turn out all that well. When we went to eat the ice cream cake the center was quite hard. So this is when I knew I had to go back to the drawing board to find “the perfect recipe.”  Don’t get me wrong, we ate that ice cream cake! But I knew it needed work.  So then I tried doing the cookie/fudge/cookie layer in between the two flavors of ice cream and that worked out so well. It was not hard and it had the right amount of hot fudge to go with the cookie pieces. I was so pleased with how it came out!

This is probably as close to Dairy Queen’s ice cream cake that I’ll get without buying a cake from them. I’m pretty happy with how it came out. There are so many different flavors you can use! I really want to try cake batter flavored ice cream with the chocolate ice cream.  I also plan on experimenting with middle layers – like perhaps a brownie batter middle layer. How amazing would that be?!

 

Cupcake Monday: Brown Betty Boutique

Every Monday is going to be “Cupcake Monday” for the next 5 weeks.  How bad can that be? I’m all about trying out different cupcake shops and so I’ve been having so much fun doing the taste-testing from all of the different places around the city. Starting on July 4th it will be all about Frozen Yogurt for a month long Frozen Yogurt taste-test. And I’m definitely up for the challenge!

As you know I’ve already reviewed several cupcake establishments in Philadelphia (and the surrounding area) already. You can check out the reviews here…

This week we are going to take a look at Brown Betty Dessert Boutique.  They have 3 locations here in Philadelphia. I got the cupcakes from “Brown Betty Petite” located in Liberty Place which is 1625 Market Street. Their main location is at Liberties Walk which is located at 1030 No. 2nd Street. Their third location is another “Brown Betty Petite” which is located in Rittenhouse Square (269 So. 20th Street).

Brown Betty Boutique was named after their mother/grandmother, Elizabeth Ruth Hinton (friends and family called her Betty or Liz). She was quite the baker and she always had something baked when visitors would come over. According to their web site, most of their cupcakes are named after women in their family. She was known for her high, moist pound cakes back in the day.

So it should come as no surprise that Brown Betty’s cupcakes are made from a pound cake, so it’s not your typical light and fluffy cupcake. But it was still good, none the less. We picked up four flavors to taste-test.

  • Hattie Don’t Play (Chocolate Cake with Chocolate Icing)
  • Sallie’s Sourcream (Vanilla Pound Cake with Vanilla Icing)
  • Sing Little Alice (Chocolate & Vanilla Cake Swirled + Matching Icing)
  • Betty’s Buttermilk (Lemon Pound Cake with Lemon Buttercream)
Hattie Don't Play
 

First up – Hattie Don’t Play – as I’ve said before, Mr. Curly Fry loves chocolate, so I always have to get at least one cupcake that is made of everything chocolate!  This was probably one of our favorite cupcakes out of them all. There was a very good amount of chocolate icing and it had such a nice flavor. We’re not used to such heavy cake, so it was a bit hard to swallow at first. It may be best paired with a good cup of coffee.

Sallie's Sourcream
 

Second up was Sallie’s Sourcream – Don’t let the blue icing fool you. It was still a vanilla buttercream icing. Again, the cake was on the heavier side and it was okay, nothing to write home about. I didn’t really get that much of a vanilla flavor, but it wasn’t bad.  The icing was average as well. I usually like more icing on my cupcake since I’m such an icing lover. And I didn’t get that vanilla punch when I tasted the icing.

Sing Little Alice
 

Next up was Sing Little Alice – I was looking for another cupcake with chocolate icing, and this was the closest I could get. It was a marble cupcake and the icing was chocolate and vanilla swirled. This cupcake seemed very heavy to me and was a bit on the dry side. I love the idea of it, and I do like how they carried that into the icing. It’s probably just the icing lover in me, but I think a little extra icing would help move the cake down your throat a little better.

Betty's Buttermilk
 

Last up was Betty’s Buttermilk - This was the lemon pound cake with lemon buttercream. There was not enough lemon for me. The cake had a very faint lemon flavor to it, and the icing didn’t taste all that lemon-y to me. I really think they need to take the icing up a notch – some lemon zest in the icing as well as more lemon juice.  I was disappointed at the lack of icing on it as well, It was just a very thin spread. When you have such a heavy cake, you need more icing. I really felt jipped!

So as you can see, Hattie Don’t Play was the winner out of the four cupcakes. It had the perfect ratio of cupcake to icing. The icing had the perfect sweetness.  It was definitely worth trying it, even if they do make a different kind of cupcake.

Rhubarb-Raspberry-Strawberry Galette

I got some Rhubarb in my first CSA box this past week so I knew I had to make something with it. I’ve never had it before, but I know that it’s usually paired with Strawberries. I was all set to make a Strawberry Rhubarb Crisp that I saw in the Food Network Magazine, but then I saw an email in my inbox from Fine Cooking. It was a recipe for Rhubarb-Raspberry Galette. I really liked how they were little individual desserts. So I decided to give this recipe a whirl. I had both raspberries and strawberries, so I used some of each. I cut down the amount of rhubarb since I wasn’t sure if I would like it since I’ve never had it. I didn’t want it to ‘ruin’ the recipe.

Rhubarb-Raspberry Galette

For the dough:
10 oz. (2-1/4 cups) all-purpose flour
1 tsp. sugar
1/4 tsp. salt
6 oz. (12 Tbs.) unsalted butter, chilled and cut into small pieces
1/2 cup ice water
For the filling:
1-1/2 lb. rhubarb
1 cup raspberries
3 Tbs. flour
1 to 1-1/4 cups sugar
Melted butter for brushing
Sugar for sprinkling


To make the dough 

Combine the flour, sugar, and salt; cut in the butter until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Add the ice water and toss just until the mixture holds together. Be careful not to overmix. Press the dough into a ball, cover with plastic wrap, and refrigerate at least 30 minutes.

Line a baking sheet with kitchen parchment. On a lightly floured work surface, roll out the chilled dough into a 14-inch circle, about 1/8 inch thick. Transfer the dough to the prepared baking sheet and refrigerate while preparing the filling.

To make the filling

Trim the ends of the rhubarb and, if the stalks are more than 1 inch thick, cut them in half lengthwise. Cut the stalks into 1-inch-long pieces. In a large bowl, gently toss the rhubarb and raspberries with the flour and sugar. Let stand until moist, 5 to 10 minutes.

Heat the oven to 400°F. Remove the dough from the refrigerator and let sit at room temperature until it’s just pliable, about 5 to 10 minutes. Gently spread the fruit in the center of the dough, leaving a 2-inch margin around the edge. Carefully fold the edge of the dough over the fruit, pleating it as you go. Brush the edge of the dough with melted butter and sprinkle with sugar.

Bake until the pastry is golden brown and the fruit is soft and bubbling, 45 to 55 min. Set on a rack to cool slightly.

 


Dough is ready to chill in the refrigerator

Rhubarb, Raspberries & Strawberries

Up close & personal

All lined up ~ waiting to go in the oven

The finished product

My thoughts…

This is an example of how not every recipe that I try works out very well. LOL! Now as you can see mine definitely didn’t turn out looking like the picture on their web site, lol! But I did the best that I could do given the humidity and all of the jazz.  Truth be told, I really dislike making my own dough and rolling it out, etc. I  just don’t like doing it because it seems like something always goes wrong! Looking back, I should have made them a little bigger. I had to put the dough back in the fridge for a bit after cutting out the rounds because it was so warm. I think I also let the fruit mixture sit too long with the flour & sugar because it looked like it had too much juice in it.

These really didn’t turn out all that well. They opened up a bit and the filling came out some. I tasted part of one and I thought that the rhubarb tasted pretty good. I can totally see how those flavors go together.  But I will be honest – we did not eat them. The trash can did. So while it wasn’t a successful recipe for me, at least I got a blog post out of it! :) I still have some rhubarb left that I threw in the freezer for another day. I think I will try to make that Rhubarb Crisp I was talking about earlier. If only I hadn’t changed my mind… ;)

Souper Bowl Sunday with a twist! Week 12

This week’s Souper Bowl Sunday is a little different than your normal soup or stew…it’s FONDUE! Now, I know that it’s not really soup, but it kind of looks like it, no? I absolutely LOVE fondue – it’s one of my favorite meals. Who doesn’t love a big pot of cheese that you dip bread into? This was a great comfort food to nibble on while we watched the Pro Bowl! And don’t forget about Chocolate Fondue for dessert! That recipe is at the bottom.

So I’m going to share my Cheddar Cheese Fondue recipe with you. This recipe can be adapted in many ways – you can use different cheeses, different liquids, etc. You can also add in some extra flavors. I must say that bacon added into this would be wonderful!

In case you were wondering, I use the Cuisinart Fondue Pot – it’s wonderful and I love how it’s electric and I don’t have to mess with little candles/fuel burners/etc. Just plug it in and you’re ready to fondue!

INGREDIENTS:

  • 12 ounces of Cheddar Cheese
  • 1 cup of Beer (I used Amstel Light because that’s all we had in the house, but I’ve used Yuengling, Kirin, Corona and many other beers and they turn out good too!)
  • 3 Tablespoons of Flour
  • 1/2 teaspoon Penzeys Regular Canadian Mustard Powder
  • 3 cloves of Garlic, minced
  • dash of Worcestershire (optional)
  • freshly cracked black pepper
  • cubed bread for dipping – we used a french bread, soft pretzels, and rosemary bread
  • cut up apples, celery, broccoli, cauliflower or other vegetables for dipping (optional)

DIRECTIONS:

What I do is I shred my cheese, and then I put it in a gallon Ziploc bag. I add in the flour and dry ground mustard. Seal the bag and shake it all around to coat the cheese with the flour.

Pour the beer into the fondue pot. Bring to a simmer (I usually put the fondue pot on 5).  Add in the garlic.  I usually let it simmer for a few minutes to get the garlic flavor throughout pot. I reduce the setting to 2 and add in the shredded cheese in small batches. With a whisk or a fork, stir in a figure 8 motion. Once that cheese is melted, add in more and repeat until all of the cheese is incorporated and melted thoroughly.  Add in a dash of Worcestershire and some freshly cracked black pepper. Stir.

To eat, spear dipping foods with fondue forks or small forks. Dip to coat with the cheese, and eat.

Don’t forget about DESSERT! We also love to have Chocolate Fondue! The recipe is very simple!

INGREDIENTS:

  • 12 ounces of milk chocolate (chips or you can roughly chop it from a block of chocolate)
  • 6 ounces of cream
  • Dippers such as strawberries, bananas, pound cake, marshmallows,  rice krispy treats, brownies, etc.

DIRECTIONS:

Warm the cream in the fondue pot (setting 4) until tiny bubbles show and begins to slowly boil. Add in the chocolate and whisk until smooth. I usually keep the setting at about 2 or so after the chocolate is melted to keep it warm.

There are so many different things you can do with chocolate fondue – add in some Bailey’s Irish Cream, Kahlua, Amaretto, or another type of liquor. Flambee a little marshmallow in there and add in some Oreos for a Cookies n Cream fondue. Add in a little bit of caramel and pecans for a Turtle Fondue. Swirl in some crunchy peanut butter (one of my favorites!) The possibilities are endless! Have fun with it!

Our favorite dippers are Rice Krispy Treats and Brownies, so that’s what we use at home.

Final Pastry Class – Week 6

Last Thursday was my final Intermediate Pastry Arts class. The class has been so much fun and I definitely learned a lot. For our last class we made Chocolate Truffles and a Chocolate Raspberry Tart.

We had an assembly line of 4 people going for the truffles. What a mess that can be. Personally I thought we would’ve been fine doing it in pairs, but the Chef wanted us to do in groups of 4 so we did. They weren’t hard to make at all. I want to make some myself, but with different flavors. We just did plain chocolate and then dipped them and coated them.

I’d love to create a Cookies n Cream Truffle. Maybe I’ll work on that this weekend and see if I can come up with a good recipe for that. And if it works out well I’ll make them to take with us on Christmas.

The Chocolate Tart wasn’t difficult either. It was a bit time consuming since we made everything for it.  I love Chocolate and I love Raspberries – but I’m not a huge fan of them together. Don’t get me wrong I ate the Chocolate Raspberry Tart and it was GOOD! But it wasn’t one of those things that I kept eating and eating. One piece was enough for me.

I can’t see myself making this specific tart again, but I’m totally open to making a different flavor. I have some of the dough in my freezer for my next experiment. I’m thinking about making a Chocolate Peanut Butter Tart.  Now that sounds like a winner!

 

Week 5 – Flambé

So last week in class we Flambéed! We started off class by making the batter for the Crepes. We did that first so that we could let it rest for a little bit.  We were allowed to pick a sauce to make – our choices were Raspberry, Strawberry, Chocolate, or Caramel. This sauce was also going to accompany our Bananas Foster, so the sauce had to go with it. I chose Caramel sauce because I love it.

So I made my homemade Caramel sauce and it was just sitting there taunting me. It was time to make the Crepes. Let’s just say that I won’t be a Crepe maker any time in the near future. It takes time to get a handle on it. I wasn’t very good at flipping it. I definitely need some more practice. I was doing better with a spatula! :) But we got a nice pile of Crepes that were ready to be plated. They were awaiting the Bananas Foster!

Next up it was time to make the Bananas Foster. Such a fun experience. I thought my eye brows were going to burn off for a minute, but all was well. The Fire Department wasn’t dispatched to the Restaurant School…this time. ;)

It was out of this world!  I was able to take some of the caramel sauce home to have with vanilla ice cream and it’s amazing. I could eat it by the spoonful!