Is Pandora’s Holiday station and the decorations in the DUC not putting you in the holiday spirit? Don’t let finals keep you from the festivities! HC has got a perfect way to savor the sweet and make the most of the time you have between “studying.” What if you had a gingerbread cupcake with wine frosting on the tip of your tongue?That’s just one of the many creations that Cupcake Queen and this week’s Campus Cutie senior Jenifer Minkowitz made for her friends. She’s found the art of cupcakery as she mixes and matches different ingredients to give your taste buds rattle. Find more about Jen and learn a thing or two about baking to bring to the table this holiday season.
Hometown:Long Island, New York
Major:Painting. I use oil based paints, but I work a lot with dried plants and flowers.
Minor(s): Entrepreneurship and Philosophy
Campus Involvement:Campus Kitchen. Campus Kitchen is an organization where we salvage leftover food from Trader Joes and Bon Appetite and we prepare it for homeless shelters in St Louis. It started at SLU a few years ago and we’ve taken it on here. We have a lot of AEPis who volunteer but we encourage people to come as they want. We have lots of jobs from shift captain, delivery, cooking and picking up… For more information people should email ckwustl@campuskitchens.org
HC: When did you start baking?
JM: My mom doesn’t like to cook. I had an older brother, but he wasn’t really around so I had to cook for my mom. We have such a sweet tooth, so baking is obviously my favorite, I seriously can’t stop eating batter.(I mean when you’re making Graham Cracker Cupcakes with Chocolate Ganache and Homemade Reeses Topping who wouldn’t eat the batter? *sigh).
HC: What’ve you been baking on campus?
JM: This semester I’ve baked a new batch of mini cupcakes for my friends every week. I did it, because I really want to enter the food industry and I thought this would be a great way to get my hands dirty. I research the batter, the frosting, and the toppings and I make it all from scratch, or try to. I figure out what’s cost efficient and easy. I get a lot of my ingredients from the Village on campus and Schnucks.
HC: Ah your last weeks so what can friends expect next week?
JM: I keep all my flavors a secret, because I want to expand the horizons of my friends’ palates. But if people have severe dislikes of certain flavors or have any allergies I can work around that. But next weeks is going to be a doozy… think fried chicken…..maple syrup… bacon.
HC: Wow! So if you are what you eat, what would you expect to wake up tomorrow as?
JM: Ice cream
HC: In a cup or cone?
JM: From a carton.
HC: If you could use your baking skills to seduce any person famous or not who would it be?
JM: Hmm well before I knew he was gay it would have been Zachary Quinto which means he might like the cupcakes even more… (laughs). No, but I’d change my answer, Ewan McGregor; he’s been the most consistent actor crush.
HC: Any tips for baking the perfect cupcake?
JM: Know how each component of your cupcake tastes. It’s so important to understand the flavors in order for them to harmonize together. So yeah, taste along the way… :)
HC: Any weird ingredients you’ve mixed together and found out they work?
JM: It wasn’t a surprise for me, but pistachios and rose water seemed to be strange for some people. But I’m mean that’s how you make Baklava.
HC: Are you Greek?
JM: Nope, I’m part Iraqi actually.
HC: Have you used any Iraqi spices in your cooking or baking?
JM: I’ve done a lot of cooking with cardamom. It’s an acquired taste and its so strong that it could kill a dish. It’s sometimes in Chai tea or even some chewing gum.
HC: Any ones that you’ve mixed and find out they don’t work?
JM: This last cupcake I had a lot of issues with. I made a banana cupcake with custard and a chocolate covered Maraschino cherry drizzled with chocolate. And it sounded pretty good, you know, like a banana split. But I tried it and it was awful, so I took out the chocolate and added homemade caramel instead.
HC: Where do you get your inspiration for your creations?
JM: Anything. Foods in general. Desserts that can turn into cupcakes like the Tiramisu cupcake I did. I got the idea to bake a different cupcake each week from the internship I did this summer at MilkMade located in Manhattan. It’s an ice cream delivery business with wacky flavors of ice cream that don’t exist in the market, but should, like donuts and coffee and pancakes with syrup. I worked very closely with the owner as an assistant in operations. She didn’t go to culinary school or anything, she went to Business school in Stern and started making ice cream for her friends by request.
HC: Any baking stuff on your holiday list you hope to get from friends and family this year?
JM: I hope so. If they’re good friends they will ;) I would love most things. We don’t have a beater. We are so ill equipped at home. It’s like in order to make a large batch I need to use three bowls. Ooh but what I really want is one of the little torches so I can flambé.
HC: What are some of your favorite restaurants in St. Louis?
JM: The Fountain on Locust St has the best ice cream I’ve had in St Louis and really good soup and good sandwiches. I like Ranoush on the loop because it reminds me of my grandparent’s food and I like Fozzies milkshakes.
HC: Favorite YouTube Video?
JM: I like “My Drunk Kitchen.” It’s a college student in New York who bakes when she’s drunk, and the “Tickling Loris” which is a classic.
HC: Where do you see yourself in ten years?
JM: Owning my own shop in a warmer place. Maybe one of the Carolinas. North Carolina is huge on healthy foods, which is good because I want to provide fresh food, I don’t want to put any crap or preservatives in my food.
Don’t worry, after all that talk of treats, we wouldn’t leave you hanging! Here’s an adapted recipe from our campus cutie herself:
Dark chocolate cupcakewith Salted caramel buttercream
Filled with homemade salted caramel
Caramel and a chocolate covered toffee-walnut candy topping
Here are the sites she found for each ingredient, happy baking and batter eating :)
For the dough
For the garnish
For the frosting
home made toffee