Wedding Season is here!

Hello Cake lovers!

As we enjoy the last weeks of Summer here at Ady Cakes we start to prepare for our favorite part of the year: Wedding Season! Eeeeeh!!!

September, October and November are our busiest months and we are so excited this particular season.

Fall offers such a beautiful natural color palette to choose from and it seems brides are going back to the classic and more subtle yet stunning trends and we couldn't be more excited!

Here are some of the hottest trends we have this season in our shop:

Frills and ruffles: They add a sense of movement and femininity to wedding cakes and they are a great way to incorporate some of the designs of your wedding dress into the cake.

Damask Pattern: This pattern has made a huge come back in the cake scene, next week three of our wedding cakes are all decorated in this ornate and elegant design, can't wait to show you!

Lace, lace and more lace!: I'm a HUGE fan of lace, it's so romantic and classy.  Lace has been around for centuries and it translates into a timeless cake design.

 

Nature/ Rustic: The country chic and rustic cakes are less traditional than the classic tiered cake but they are perfect for a barn, plantation or outside wedding reception.

Gold, Gray and Navy: Seems that every wedding cake this Fall season gears toward these three colors, forget the all-white wedding cake, these colors truly make a statement.

Swirls of ombré gold tones make this style of cake a true show-stopper, pure elegance and perfect for a ballroom setting.

Gray and Navy are the new Black! Gray or navy combined with a pop of color is an incredibly popular combination these days, while trendy it is still chic.

Cupcakes are in! Cupcakes are still a fabulous option specially when you have large wedding and don't want the hassle of cutting and serving a huge cake or simply because you prefer the 'dessert table' type of display.
If you have a long guest list you can always combine a beautiful classic cake to cut and cupcakes to serve.
Either way, cupcakes are cute and they are not going away any time soon.

I can't wait to submerge myself in the blur that Fall Wedding Season is! bring on the Pumpkin lattes for our late-late-late nights creating these beauties!

For more pictures and ideas check out our website: Adycakes.com
Much love,
Ady

New York City Adventures

A few weeks ago I received an email for an offer to do a live TV segment for Telemundo near New York City, I quickly jumped to the opportunity, 2 days in the Big Apple talking about my favorite thing: Cupcakes! How cool is that?!

The segment was sponsored by Post Cereal after I created the oh-so-delicious Fruity Pebbles cupcakes.

Post Cereal is running a super fun promotional: Team Pebbles (check it out!) and they asked to create another recipe, this time using their Cocoa Pebbles Cereal.

As the we got closer to the date I was informed that 2 other stations: Univision and NY1 Noticias wanted to have me as well, YAY!!! this was an once in a life time opportunity to represent an amazing brand such as Post Cereals AND to share my recipes!

The day before shooting the segments we drove to New Jersey just a few blocks from the Telemundo studios and we settled into our fancy hotel room, and since I was doing 3 TV segments I brought with me every piece of pink of clothing I own, branding is key! ha!

We made great time driving there and it was still early evening so we decided that since we were 10 minutes away from New York City it would've been a shame not to spend some time in the city.

I called my BFF Chef Huascar Aquino, owner of  H Bake shop and fellow Cupcake Wars Winner, and after we met up at his shop we visited this incredible Korean fried chicken restaurant called Hell's Chicken.

Listen: If you haven't had Korean fried chicken, you never had fried chicken, wow! incredible super crunchy juicy fried chicken paired with a variety of hot, mild, sour, gingery and sweet sauces! yum! and I also discovered the most incredible beer, this Schofferhofer Graperfuit Weizen Mix, I don't know much about beer but I love this one! I could drink it like water, but I didn't! it's so light and refreshing! perfect for a hot summer date...with fried chicken! muahahaha!

After our amazing dinner we drove back to the hotel for a few hours of sleep and at the crack of dawn we packed up all our ingredients, cupcakes, tools and utensils and headed to the Telemundo studios.

YAYAY!!! this. is. happening!

 Everybody on set was so incredibly nice and helpful, they DO want you to look and feel great and it was such a fun experience.

The host Odalys Molina was so amazing, she was so sweet and gracious, and carried on the segment like a pro.  It DOES takes a special person to do TV, she has IT!

After a small breakfast break we continued our route chauffeured around (fancy!) by Mr. Gurmeet, such a great help especially when you are packing and unpacking several incredibly heavy boxes. Thank you Mr. G! you rock!!!

Our second stop was the Univision Studios, a couple of miles away, here I met the host Brenda Kessler.
She's gorgeous, talented, fun and TALL.  She not wearing shoes here! ha!

Our final stop was NY1 Noticias, located at the Chelsea Market in downtown Manhattan! Ohhh the big city! I love!

Here I had the pleasure to meet the host Adhelmar Montagne, super cool and friendly! awesome fun!

Finally and before leaving the Big Apple another visit to friend's Huascar's shop to pick up some incredible delicious cupcakes!

This was an exhausting 24hr day: running around, driving through crazy traffic, packing and unpacking, up and down elevators but such an incredibly FUN and rewarding experience.

I'm so happy and thankful I was given this opportunity.

And finally, HERE is a link for the Univision segment (in Spanish, of course), hope you like it!

Much love,
Ady

Real Men Eat Cupcakes-Baking with Beer

“For a quart of Ale is a dish for a king.” ―William Shakespeare.

When you think 'Cupcakes' the last thing that comes to mind is masculine or manly, but you can find a clever way to make this cutesy dessert into an attractive man-pleasing sinfully and delicious sweet treat.


During the month of June,  we feature one of our Cupcake Wars Winner Cupcakes and our number one choice for our male customers: our Chocolate Stout Beer and Salted Caramel Cupcake. Yes, it is as awesome as it sounds. This creation is our moist Chocolate cupcake infused with Extra Stout Beer- you can get the full recipe in my upcoming Recipe Book!


 This time I visited our neighbors Barley Mow Beer; they have a fabulous selection of craft beers (check them out!). They recommended the Southern Tier Double Milk 2X Stout, this beer has a great deep 'roasted' like flavor which perfect for baking!

 

Baking with alcohol can be a bit tricky mostly because if the alcohol level is not high enough the cooking process can bake off all of it and with it the flavor.
For this specific cupcake the main purpose is not necessarily to preserve the alcohol content of the beer but its deep and bitter flavors.

In order to keep as much as the beer taste after baking I normally reduce the beer previous to the baking by boiling it down to about half its volume.

If you would like to make a similar cake or cupcake simply choose your favorite chocolate cupcake recipe and substitute the liquid (ie: milk, water, buttermilk, etc.) for reduced beer.

Super easy, hopefully you will try it soon!

Much Love,
Ady

If life gives you lemons...make lemon cupcakes!

Summer is here! well, not really but the sun shines everyday and it is time for some summery and refreshing recipes.

When the weather is sunny and summery I always crave citrus based recipes, I love lemons and I have several lemon flavor cupcakes in my menu and of course in my upcoming book.

In case you haven't heard: I got a book deal!!! yay! I'm so excited I can barely contain myself! 

The book is being published by Schiffer Publishing and it's hitting the stands on Fall/ Winter of this year, I don't have an exact release date yet but I soon as I know I'll let you all know.

Back to the lemons! My biggest challenge when I started incorporating citrus (lemons, limes, oranges, etc.) into my baking was trying to find a balance of flavor and texture, I started by twisting my base Vanilla Cake recipe and switching all the liquid of my recipe for citrus juice; through trial and error I discovered than by doing so the cake tended to shrink (a lot!), the texture was heavy and dense and the cake was overly sour.

The best balance I found was substituting only half of the liquid the recipe needs for citrus juice and adding some of the zest, this way not only the recipe maintains its original light and fluffy consistency but it is citrusy enough without being too overpowering.

One of my favorite summer Cupcake flavors is our Lemon Blueberry cupcakes, these cuties incorporate seasonal blueberries.

Something you must keep in mind when adding fresh whole fruit into a cake is to FOLD them into to batter by hand AFTER the batter is completely mixed in your stand mixer.  If you mix the fruit with the rest of the batter during the mixing process the fruit will release its juice and the batter will have extra liquid, which might cause the cake or cupcakes to sink in the middle and to bake with a gooey consistency.

Some amazing citrus based recipes I'm including in my book: Margarita, Mojito, Limoncello, Cranberry Orange, Mimosa cupcakes, to name a few. 

Hopefully you'll give it a try, happy baking!

Much love,

Ady

Perfect Spring Time Cupcakes.

Recipe time!!! 

I was hoping to share this recipe a while back but I've been so busy-busy-busy running back and forth between my two shops, making cakes, baking cupcakes, and shoveling snow...which by the way: sick of it!  I'm hoping to not see snow again for a looooong time.   
I've been putting my energy on not only the daily operations of my business but branching out into other projects, one of which I was hoping to unveil back in February but it's a bit behind schedule but I PROMISE you-it will be worth the wait!
Spring is just around the corner and what a better time to whip up some new and exciting recipes!

To give you a little background on these Fruity Pebbles cupcakes, and a teaser on other bigger and better news (more on that later, I promise!), several months back I was contacted by a consumer products PR firm located New York City that represents global brands including Post Cereals and they expressed interest in having me to develop recipes using their clients' products, how cool is that?! I'm so excited!!! CAN'T WAIT to see my recipes on their website! There's MUCH more to come!

For this collaboration I received a pack of goodies that included a box of Fruity Pebbles so I created this fun, colorful, playful and of course DELICIOUS recipe.  I had these cupcakes for breakfast FOR DAYS and we included them in our stores menu for almost a month! Huge hit!   

These cupcakes are incredibly fluffy, light and moist and not too sweet and once baked the Fruity Pebbles cereal remains crunchy. Paired with the Cotton Candy flavored buttercream- these cuppies make your childhood dreams come to life.  I would love for you to try them and let me know how you like them <3 

Much love, Ady
  

Fruity Pebbles Cupcakes

Yields 30 cupcakes 

Cupcakes 

3 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
1 cup milk
¼ cup vegetable oil
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
8 ounces unsalted butter (2 sticks)
1-1/2 cups sugar
5 large eggs
2 cups crushed fruity cereal  

Cotton Candy Icing  

1 lb unsalted butter
2 tablespoon cotton candy syrup
1 tablespoon cotton candy extract
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
¼ teaspoon liquid red food color
½ teaspoon salt
1 lb powdered sugar 

Cupcakes 
Preheat oven to 325 degrees F and line a cupcake pan with 30 regular cupcakes liners. Sift the flour, baking powder and salt into a bowl and set aside. Place cereal in a food processor until is half crushed and add to flour mixture.
Combine milk, oil, vanilla, and almond extract into another bowl and set aside.
In the bowl of an electric stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter and sugar until the mixture is lighter in color and fluffy, about 7 minutes on medium-high speed. Lower the speed to medium and add one egg at a time, scrapping down the sides of the bowl after each addition until fully incorporated, about 2 minutes. Turn the mixer to the lower speed, add the flour mixture and the liquids, alternating between the two, beginning and ending with the flour.

Evenly scooped cupcakes

Fill the 30 regular size cupcake liners 2/3 full with batter and bake for 20-22 minutes, until golden and baked through. Cool cupcakes completely.  

Icing

Whip the butter in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment at medium-high speed until the butter is light and fluffy, about 7 minutes; lower the speed and add syrup, cotton candy, vanilla and almond extracts, food color and salt and beat until fully incorporated; stop the mixer and scrape the side, add the powdered sugar and beat for 3 more minutes. Stop and scrape the sides of the mixer and mix for 5 more minutes at medium-high speed. Put the icing into a pastry bag fitter with a large metal tip.

Perfectly moist and fluffy crumb!

They baked beautifully!

To assemble: Ice the Fruity Pebbles cupcakes with the Cotton Candy icing and rim with
 crushed cereal, enjoy!