And look! The cupcake makes you happy! Such fantastic luck that I sh--

WTF is this? Ingredients: simple  flour and an egg? Flour. Simple flour. And an egg. That's it? And this is going to make a tasty cupcake that will make me happy?

I have to admit that after my last WoW baking adventure, I was slightly optimistic, yet also a bit leery about these in-game recipes. Certainly there was some magic involved in turning two gooey spider legs into a delicious pie! But folks, I just couldn't bring myself to believe that any kind of Blizzard magic would turn simple flour and an egg into anything tastier than the most boring "bread" anyone's ever tasted.

Because I always give the benefit of the doubt, I decided I'd at least try this "recipe".

Mise En Place

Well, there's not much to it, is there? Simple flour and an egg.

(I actually added a little water to make it a somewhat decent consistency, but don't tell anyone.)

What do you know? It made enough for TWO cupcakes! Maybe this will turn out all right after all...

The Finished Product

I don't know about you, but I don't think this looks much different than it did before I put it in the oven. (In case you're wondering, it was hard as a rock, and I couldn't even bring myself to taste it.) Well, let's see what the final product looks like in-game.

Okay, this looks nothing like that. And on top of that, it's supposed to yield FIVE cupcakes, not two! What a rip-off! I found this whole thing rather unacceptable, friends. So unacceptable, in fact, that I decided to let Blizzard know about it.

Ahhh.... After letting off some steam (even though my message got cut short, god damnit), I decided to make myself a cupcake that was actually tasty.

A Real Tasty Cupcake

And since I'd been looking at, and expecting, a cupcake that looks like the one in the picture, I decided to make mine look like that. Once again, it's a chocolate-looking cake and a berry-looking topping. Well, I deviated a slight bit; hope you don't mind.

Rich Brownie Cupcake with a Red Buttercream Rosette

I used this Best Cocoa Brownies recipe, using my own gluten-free flour mixture as usual, and baked it in mini muffin tins instead of in a brownie pan. I made a pretty typical American buttercream, colored it red, and piped little rosettes on the top.

These are so effing delicious, it's a good thing I made them in miniature size so I can ration them out!

I also made some with a fresh banana buttercream glaze (which doesn't look that pretty, sorry), which you can see here.

My newest endeavor is taking recipes from World of Warcraft and attempting to recreate them in my own kitchen. If you missed my first experiment, go see how my [Delicious Chocolate Cake] turned out. This time around I'll be doing another cake, but with more sinister ingredients: the [Gooey Spider Cake].

Recipe Assessment

Things to note about this recipe:
- It only has one ingredient: gooey spider legs
- Its result looks more like a pie than a cake

Mise en Place

With only one ingredient, this should have been pretty easy to prep. I'll tell you what, folks. I must have killed two dozen spiders (which takes a while for a holy paladin who doesn't do much damage) before I got enough [Gooey Spider Leg] drops to complete this recipe. Luckily, the last one I killed yielded exactly two [Gooey Spider Leg]s.

You'd think that it'd be easy enough to get what I needed after only one spider, since they have eight legs and everything. I guess sometimes they're just not gooey enough. Or something.

On to the Baking

That wasn't so bad! And now, just to bake the cake.

I have to admit, I was a bit skeptical of this recipe, having only one ingredient, but I figured Blizzard wouldn't let me down so I decided to forge on with the baking.

Final Result

Tada! Wow, that was way easier than I thought it would be. This WoW baking is pretty cool!

(If you'd like to learn about an alternate way to make this pie, er I mean, cake... check out this blog.)

In order to bridge the gap between World of Warcraft and my kitchen, I've decided to embark on a new endeavor to make WoW food in real life. That is to say that I will be taking in-game recipes and attempting to recreate them in my own kitchen.

There will, of course, be a certain amount of improvisation on my part, in order to make some of these (unrealistic) recipes work; however, I do intend to stick as closely to the game recipes as possible. As time goes on, I also intend to branch out into recipes from other video games, but in the beginning it will be purely WoW items. If there's one you'd like to suggest, please send me a PM.

Blizzard's Delicious Chocolate Cake

I figured that a good place to start would be with a popular item from Burning Crusade days - the Delicious Chocolate Cake. (Since I am a pastry chef, I intend to stick to the baked goods, but we'll see where things go in the future.)

Recipe Assessment

Things to note about this recipe:

• Simple Flour, not cake flour - this means the cake will be light and fluffy.
• Ice Cold Milk - this means the cake will be rich, especially in ratio to the flour
• Mild Spices - perhaps this could be the chocolate? I'm not sure what to use for this.
• Small Egg - high ratio of eggs-to-flour. This cake will be rich and thick after all.
• Flask of Port - quite a large amount of alcohol, although this could be tasty.
• Mageroyal - this could be lumped into the spices, or add an accent to the chocolate.
• There is no chocolate listed in the ingredients. Interesting.
• There is no sugar listed in the ingredients. Also interesting.
• There are berries in the picture (below) but not in the recipe. Heh.

Image Assessment

The first thing that I noticed is the icon doesn't look anything like a chocolate cake. It looks like white cake with some sort of berry filling and green goo on top. I could decorate it to look like that, but let's see what the item looks like in-game.

So in-game, the actual item looks (or is presumed to look) more like a chocolate cake with some berries on top. I'll shoot for this model because it seems more fitting for the name anyhow.

Kelley's Delicious Chocolate Cake

Now that I'd seen what the original recipe and cake look like, it was time for me to recreate this in my own kitchen. I decided to do this in the style used by Mythbusters. I'd make one cake using the exact recipe from the game (substituting spices/mageroyal as I see fit). Then I'd make another cake using the recipe but expanding it to make it an actual delicious chocolate cake.

Translated WoW Recipe

• 8x Simple Flour = 2 cups flour (assuming 1 part = 1/4 cup)
• 4x Ice Cold Milk = 1 cup milk (assuming 1 part = 2 tbsp)
• 4x Mild Spices = 4 tbsp cocoa (assuming spices = chocolate)
• 8x Small Egg = 4 extra-large eggs (cause who can find small eggs?)
• Flask of Port = 1/2 cup port wine
• 3x Mageroyal =1 tsp lavender (it's a flower, at least!)

I decided to go for the normal (non-French) mixing style and just mix the wet ingredients and then add the dry ingredients. The batter turned out looking pretty good.

I was a bit leery, however, that the recipe called for four eggs, but no leavening of any sort. Would the cake rise?

That's right, folks. The cake came out very flat and very dense.

So dense, in fact, that I decided to use it as a makiwara.

It barely rose, meaning the final cake was about 1.5 inches in thickness. It had barely any flavor (thanks to there being no sugar in the recipe, Blizzard).

So. Almost total fail. Next it was time to try this with some revisions, because by now it was clear that I needed a real delicious chocolate cake.

Kelley's Revised Recipe

• 8x Simple Flour = 1.75 cups flour
• 4x Ice Cold Milk = 1 cup milk
• 4x Mild Spices = .75 cup cocoa, 1 tsp baking powder, 1 tsp salt, 2 tsp baking soda
• 8x Small Egg = 2 extra-large eggs + .5 cup vegetable oil
• Flask of Port = 1/2 cup port wine + 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 3x Mageroyal =1 tsp lavender (it's a flower, at least!)
• MISSING SUGAR = 2 cups sugar

As you can see, I altered the recipe to include some leavening, some sugar, and a slight alteration of wet-to-dry ratio. I also replaced some of the flour with more cocoa. The batter turned out nice and dark, and had a bit more volume than the first recipe.

The cakes rose beautifully, and I had no trouble at all removing them from the rings.

I baked two cakes and cut them both in half in order to stack them. I used three for stacking and the other for tasting. The cake was chocolatey and moist, but the port was a bit... odd. I knew I would need a very tasty frosting in order to even out the flavors. And I was glad that the images showed berries on the cake, too.

The Delicious Chocolate Cake

I decided to use a chocolate fudge frosting to fill between the layers and on the top. I also used sliced strawberries in between the layers, and halved strawberries to garnish the top of the cake.

So, the cake looked pretty, and actually rather WoW-ish. But... would it taste good? I sliced a piece and gave it a taste. The fudge frosting and strawberries were actually pretty perfect for balancing out the flavors. Yay~!

Final Thoughts

Blizzard was on the right track with this recipe, but in actuality, it didn't turn out so well. Hint: if you're going to use the word delicious in the name of your cake, you had better put some sugar in it. I'd also recommend leaving the port wine out, and replacing it with something more tasty, like coffee or maybe even some Kahlúa -- and less of it.

Oh, and by the way -- yes, it's completely gluten-free.

Kim's Creation: Dark Chocolate Cheesecake Bars with Fresh Berries
[no photos! boo.]
Despite the fact that she doesn't like cream cheese, and thus doesn't like cheesecake, Kim made the most delicious chocolate cheesecake I've ever tasted. The crust was crisp and chocolaty, and the cake was made with raspberry yogurt and chocolate, so it had the most wonderful flavor! We all took one bite and were in heaven.

Kelley's Creation: Dark Chocolate Mint Cupcakes with Mint Creme Filling

For the cake and mint creme filling, I used a recipe from my Chocolate and Coffee Bible. Of course, I used my gluten-free flour mixture for the cupcakes, and I have to say that I am very pleased with the results. This is probably the best gluten-free cake I've made so far. It was moist and springy, and had a great consistency all the way through. And the hint of mint was very nice. The mint creme recipe I used from the book wasn't very satisfactory in my opinion. It was basically whipping cream and mint extract (with some green food coloring, which I added). It quickly sunk into the cakes. I think next time I will add a little powdered sugar and maybe a bit of butter to give it some more flavor and consistency. The frosting was a complete experiment. I melted a bar and a half of Ghirardelli 70% chocolate with a stick of butter, then added two cups of powdered sugar and some mint extract. It turned out rich and delicious, although I didn't have enough to cover all 18 cupcakes - I got about 15 of them.

I am also pretty pleased with the way they look. They taste wonderful right out of the refrigerator, since you get that rush of coolness not only from the temperature but also from the mint in the cupcakes. I also nuked one of the non-frosted ones for about 10 seconds and it was delicious warm, too. The mint creme melted into the cake and gave it a nice added moist, minty flavor. Yum!

And the winner is: Kim!
We handed out samples to all of our co-workers and students that were in the office. Although we didn't have an official vote (everyone was preoccupied, preparing for Hurricane Ike), I think the answer was clear. Even I voted for Kim's cheesecake! It was to. die. for. (I mean, really, who can win against cheesecake?!)

My intention was to make a sweet muffin that had celery instead of fruit or nuts. Kim's intention was to make a savory muffin, something you could eat with a meal. We decided to bake our muffins and bring them to work, to see which ones people liked more.

Kelley's Celery Muffins
I tried three different combinations with my muffins. Since these were going to be sweet, I decided to try adding some peanut butter, seeing as peanut butter is often eaten with celery. The first muffin was just a plain, sweet muffin with a coarse celery puree mixed in. The second muffin was the same thing, but with a dollop of peanut butter in the middle. The third muffin had the peanut butter blended into the batter.

After taste-testing all three, the results were surprising. I was sure that the one with the peanut butter mixed in would be the winner, but in fact it was pretty gross. The one with the dollop of peanut butter inside was pretty good, but the dollop was too large and overpowered the muffin a bit. Yes, it turns out that the plain celery muffin was the best. I baked all the rest of the muffins this way, and enjoyed them. I brought a bunch of them over to my parents and they loved them, too! They're gently sweet, with a nice little bit of crunch, and a hint of spice that leaves you curiously pleased. Oh, and they are also gluten free, of course!

Kim's Celery Muffins
Unfortunately, Kim hasn't made her celery muffins yet. Which is a bummer because I was really looking forward to trying them! Boo. :(