Meteor Shower Cakes

Spice cake topped with cream cheese frosting, sprinkles, and an element of surprise

This image was taken in Colorado during the Perseid Meteor Shower. The Perseid Meteor Shower occurs every year in mid August when the Earth passes through the dust cloud of Comet Swift-Tuttle. The comet dust is vaporized as it enters Earth's atmosphere causing a bright streak of light. The Perseids is named such because all of the meteors appear to radiant from the constellation Perseus.

I made these cupcakes to kill time before we went up to the mountains to watch the Perseid Meteor Shower (we didn't leave until about 11:00 pm). There was an average of 142 meteors per hour this year making it a really spectacular show. It was amazing to be up in a dark secluded area in the mountains gazing at the night sky and seeing some brilliant meteors. Everything was so serene... that is until a bat flew into me.

I'm really glad I decided to make these though, the cake was moist and delicious with just the right amount of spice. The tangy cream cheese frosting really balanced out the cake very well. I left a few unfrosted and had one toasted the next morning with coffee, yum. I have a feeling that these cakes would also be fabulous with a streusel topping baked on top.

Spice Cake:
(Makes about 18, recipe adapted from Southern Food)
2 1/2 cups sifted cake flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 cup butter, room temperature
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/4 cups butter milk

Cream Cheese Frosting:
8 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
4 tablespoons butter, room temperature
1 tsp vanilla
3 cups powdered sugar

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a cupcake tin with paper liners.
2. Sift together flour, baking powder, soda, salt, cinnamon, ginger, cloves, and nutmeg in a medium bowl.
3. Cream butter in a large mixing bowl; add sugars, eggs, and vanilla. Beat at high speed for 5 minutes, or until light and fluffy.
4. Add the sifted dry ingredients, alternating with buttermilk, mixing just until smooth.
5. Divide mixture amongst baking cups; smooth surface.
6. Bake for about 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool in pan on rack for 5 minutes then turn out onto a rack to cool completely.

Frosting:
1. Beat cream cheese and butter until creamy.
2. Gradually add powdered sugar then vanilla. If frosting is too thick, add a little milk until desired consistency is reached.

Martian Velvet

Red velvet cake topped with "cream cheese" frosting and red sprinkles

I love Mars and all of the "bad" sci-fi inspired by it (Stranded, Mission to Mars, the list goes on). Named after the Roman god of war because of its blood like color, iron oxide on the surface is responsible for giving Mars its reddish appearance.

Its been a while since I've updated my blog because a lot has been going on recently... I went to Vegas to visit the family and my darling baby, Gizmo. I also moved into a new apartment which was the most annoying and stressful move. Paul & I moved into another apartment in the same building (actually directly next door), sounds easy enough right? Wrong!! We had to move out of our former apartment on the 15th and couldn't move into our new apartment til the 18th so we had to move everything into storage only to move it all back to the same location just a couple of days later. I tried to be very efficient about packing at first then towards the end of the day things got messy (our old couch ended up getting tossed over the balcony, by accident of course)... Well the dust has finally settled and the wi-fi is up and running again which means... Martian Velvet Cupcakes!

These cupcakes were de-lic-ious as well as vegan. I used Tofutti's Better Than Cream Cheese for the frosting. The cakes had a great consistency and were very moist. Best of all, nobody was able to tell that they were vegan!

Vegan Red Velvet Cake:
(makes about 22, slightly adapted from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over The World)
2 c soy milk
2 tsp apple cider vinegar
2 1/2 c flour
4 tbsp cocoa powder
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
2/3 c vegetable oil
4 tsp vanilla extract
2 ounces red food coloring

Better Than Cream Cheese Frosting:
1/2 c Earth Balance, room temperature
1/2 c Tofutti Better Than Cream Cheese, room temperature
2 tsp vanilla extract
4 c powdered sugar

I love these cupcake liners that match the red velvet cakes and my new red kitchen :-)

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line a cupcake pan with baking cups.
2. In a large bowl, mix together vinegar and soy milk, set aside.
3. Sift together flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl.
4. Add vegetable oil, food coloring, and vanilla to soy milk mixture.
5. Combine the wet and dry ingredients and beat until smooth.
6. Evenly distribute batter among baking cups and bake for 20 minutes.
7. Once the cupcakes have cooled completely frost and add a sprinkling of red sprinkles.

Frosting:
Beat the Earth Balance, cream cheese, and vanilla extract until smooth. Add the powdered sugar one cup at a time and beat until fluffy.

Gizmo loves cupcakes