What’s Cookin’ Wednesday – The Extended Edition

The “What’s Cookin’ Wednesday” giveaways were supposed to end last week… but I’m adding one more week. I am SUPER excited about it, and I think you will be, too.

A couple weeks ago, I was invited to take part in a webinar with NYC cupcake chef David Arrick. David, who was formerly a Wall Street attorney, founded Butch Bakery, which specializes in unusual cupcakes – specifically, cupcakes made for men. Take a look:

In addition to not looking like your everyday pink fluffy cupcake, they come in really unique flavors. For example, they’ve got The Campout,which is an ode to s’mores, and the Beer Run, described on their website: “Butch meets buttercream in our chocolate beer cake with beer-infused buttercream topped with crushed pretzels.” Think that’s unique? Check out the Home Run – “This peanut butter cake with banana bavarian cream & crumbled bacon is more fun than getting to third base.” Yes, you read that right – bacon on a cupcake.

They also have a rum and coke cupcake, which they may have thought they made for men, but they really made for me. AND according to David, he’s working on a new margarita cupcake. Really – there are no words to describe my thoughts on that.

Anyway… The point of the webinar was to introduce us to the genius that is Butch Bakery, but also for us to get baking tips from David himself. His biggest tip? Use Breville products!

I was introduced to Breville a while ago, when I was asked to review their blender. I love that thing, so I was excited to see what other small appliances they offer. David showed us how he can make his famous cupcakes using two things – the Breville Stand Mixer and Smart Oven.

Aren’t they pretty?

After we all drooled over these for an hour, David told us that the people at Breville were sending us one of each – and a stand mixer to give away! Needless to say, we were all thrilled. Cortney and I pretty much stalked the UPS guy until they were delivered!

I was intrigued by the Smart Oven. I’ve actually never had a toaster oven. I’m a child of the 80s, we love our microwaves! I really never thought about getting one, but now that I have it, I love it! This model comes with a wire rack, a removable crumb tray, a pizza pan, a baking pan, and a broil rack. It can do just about anything! The LCD display has options for baking, toast, pizza, broil, roast, cookies – you name it. It’s big enough to fit a casserole dish as well! The first time I used it, I could not believe how quickly it preheated. My oven preheats really quickly, but still, the Smart Oven caught me off guard with how fast it was ready. There are so many times that I want to bake a few dinner rolls or something and I hate to use the regular oven, so I am looking forward to having the Smart Oven for things like that.

Now, onto the stand mixer!

I was soooooooooo excited about this, because as my interest in baking has developed over the last year or so, I’ve heard time and time again how wonderful stand mixers are. They are an investment, to be sure, and a lot of people I know got one for a wedding present. However, when I got married, I was too clueless to know I needed one, and I hadn’t been able to pull the trigger on buying one myself. But let me tell you.

This. Thing. Is. Amazing.

I’ve had it for about a week, and I’ve tested it out quite a bit in that time. I made buckeyes first. I have been making buckeyes for a few years, and while they are delicious, a problem I always had is that the peanut butter filling turned out very crumbly – so much so that I couldn’t use a good portion of the last batch I made. Not so with the stand mixer – the mixture was creamy and beautiful and I used every last morsel.

I also made three pumpkin rolls. I love making pumpkin rolls and I love eating them even more, but they are rather time consuming. A couple weeks ago I made three of them, and it took me a solid three hours. This time, using the stand mixer, I shaved a half an hour off the total time AND I managed to do the dishes and clean up the kitchen during that time as well. Honestly, I have no idea why the mixer saved me so much time, but it really did. It also made the cream cheese icing super fluffy and smooth – no butter chunks to be found.

The mixer comes with an assortment of attachments – a regular mixing one, a dough hook, a wisk, and my personal favorite, a scraper.

It scrapes the side of the bowl as you go, and it comes standard with the mixer. How cool is that?

As you can see, I could not be happier with either of these products, and I am thrilled that Breville has given me an opportunity to give a mixer away!

Here’s how to enter!

Required entry: Leave a comment on this post and tell us what you like best about the Smart Oven or the Stand Mixer.

Extra entries:
— Tweet about this contest & leave a comment with a link to your tweet. Here’s an example: “Win a @brevilleusa stand mixer from @momminitup & @jennyitup! http://bit.ly/eX8m9k”
— “Like” Breville on Facebook and tell them Mommin’ It Up sent you, and then leave a comment here telling us you did so.

For more information about all Breville products, check them out on Facebook , Twitter, Flickr and YouTube.

This contest will end at 5:00 p.m. on Tuesday, December 29. Good luck!

p.s. You can also enter to win a Breville stand mixer from our good friend Cortney!