Current Mood: Motivated
Listening To: The Cab- La La
Current Day: STILL HUMP DAY!
Soooooo friends and family...the...final...verdict...
Alivia-1, Martin-2 :(
It's true!! There are really just some people out there that are good at EVERYTHING. Seriously. Although, I'm sort of happy that I'm NOT good at everything. That leaves room for improvement! And I am excited to grow into the baking world. I'm learning so much and as 2012 comes to an end, I am happy to say that my baking blog has treated me well since May. I can't believe it's already been underway for seven months. Craziness!
So anyways, Martin=good at everything. As a co-worker once asked, "Martin, is there anything you're NOT good at!?" I can't think of a damn thing now! HE'S NEVER BAKED IN HIS LIFE! What is that crap? Just kidding...
I'm done venting, I'm not sour at all! Just means I'll have a future employee :)
Round 1 of the bake off=cranberry orange scones
Round 2=pecan pie
Round 3=a cinnamon muffin with another "special" ingredient. Mine happened to be sweet potatoes and his was white chocolate chips/a streusel type topping with oats in it and a glaze.
Fact=everyone in our office is addicted to extremely sweet things *places this in the back of my mind*
I'm completely crazy and FORGOT to take pictures of our final round! Boooooo well go here for my recipe and you will see that they are sort of like mini donuts! I made mine in regular sized cupcake pans and it made about 18.
What I did differently: I boiled a whole sweet potato, mashed it with my hand blender (it says puree, but I don't have my food processor yet!), and added the whole potato to the milk/vanilla mixture which was more than 1/2 cup. I was a little upset that you couldn't really TASTE the sweet potato in the finished product. Although, I have to say that the mashed potato made the muffin EXTREMELY moist which everyone loves.
These moist-cinna-sugar-pop-in-your-mouth muffins were addicting.
Martin chose this recipe. His were more of a coffee cake consistency with a swirly center and streusel-like-crumbly-oat mixture on top. He used large muffin pans and made six.
I have to tell ya, seriously, they were BOTH very good. I think it was hard for people at work to vote because they were pretty different. It just came down to what you like better. Do you like the chewy oat topping and white chocolate surprise? Or do you like moist, donut-like mini muffins covered in cinnamon, nutmeg, sugar deliciousness?
I ended up losing 7-5 this time around. That means I won only the pecan pie challenge...which was well deserved...sorry had to add that in there :) and he won the cranberry orange scone battle and the cinnamon surprise throw down.
All good future employee!
Cheers!
Random Fact of the Day: Brown sugar is made from granulated sugar and molasses. Even though it's cheap enough in the stores to buy, could be a fun project that can be made in bulk.
That. Is. All.
Mini Spicalicious Apple Pies
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Current Mood: Dancey (is that even a word??)
Listening To: Armin Van Buurin ft. Avicci-Drowning
Current Day: HUMP DAY!
Is it normal to spend 3 hours on a dessert for Thanksgiving day??? Apparently mini apple pies take twice as long as a full size pie! When I showed up to my parents house before driving down to Canton to my cousins for dinner, my dad says, "Couldn't you have just made a regular-sized apple pie!?" My answer, "No way! That's so boring."
True Story.
Why bake what every one else bakes for the holidays? Dare to be different! I also figured that these would each be smaller than a slice of apple pie so they would be better for you? Hmmm...think about it....
The 3 hours were SO worth it! Everything was pretty much the same as a regular apple pie except I had to dice the Granny Smith apples (7 of them took me over an hour to slice for SOME unknown reason). I also ended up breaking the dough into 18 individual pieces and THEN rolling each one out into a circle. I fit each one into an ungreased cupcake cavity, filled with the apple mixture (which had LOTS of nutmeg in it or so it seemed), cut little strips to make the lattice, baked for about 40 minutes and BAM! I know I'm not Emeril...I can pretend right?
They were a hit at my cousin's condo! Heat it up a bit and it's the best thing you'll ever try :)
That may be a bit overboard...
Anyways, the recipe is REALLY easy just time consuming and it was well worth the time!
Listening To: Armin Van Buurin ft. Avicci-Drowning
Current Day: HUMP DAY!
HAPPY ALMOST DECEMBER!
Is it normal to spend 3 hours on a dessert for Thanksgiving day??? Apparently mini apple pies take twice as long as a full size pie! When I showed up to my parents house before driving down to Canton to my cousins for dinner, my dad says, "Couldn't you have just made a regular-sized apple pie!?" My answer, "No way! That's so boring."
True Story.
Why bake what every one else bakes for the holidays? Dare to be different! I also figured that these would each be smaller than a slice of apple pie so they would be better for you? Hmmm...think about it....
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| Yummily filling |
They were a hit at my cousin's condo! Heat it up a bit and it's the best thing you'll ever try :)
That may be a bit overboard...
Anyways, the recipe is REALLY easy just time consuming and it was well worth the time!
Round Dos! Pecan Pie
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So Sunday was round two if the BAKE OFF!! I was a tad nervous going in this time around considering the man who has NEVER baked anything in his LIFE won the first round when we made cranberry orange scones. See, I had never baked a scone before (which was definitely fair, no doubt about that) but I wasn't going to be bitter if I lost! And in fact, I wasn't! Beginners luck! I also found out during the first round that looks ain't always the deal breaker!!! Just kidding...your scones still looked like scones! Presentation and glamor comes later on in the baking world. First, you gotta bake tasty treats THEN ya work on perfecting their looks. Anyways...ya got me the first time around! BUT NOT THIS TIME!
Round two of the ultimate bake off involved pecan pies.
Two...sticky...extremely...sweet...pecan pies! I've made a key lime pie...a...pumpkin cheese cake which could have been considered a pie because I didn't have a spring form pan at the time...and...well...that's about it! I'm pretty new to the pie world so this was going to be another challenge. After picking my recipe from Epicurious (everyone should check out this site some day), I actually felt pretty confident as it had a "special" ingredient...orange zest...ya ever heard of such a thing in pecan pie!? Not me...
I think, other than the orange zest, our recipes were both pretty similar. Martin chose a flaky crust and I chose the butter crust that was actually included in my recipe. Flour, butter, salt, and water were the only four ingredients in my crust. I've come to the conclusion that homemade crust isn't really my worst enemy. Just use your hands! Probably better than a food processor anyways! (That's on my Christmas list this year actually) I could actually use a processor for crushing nuts and other things too, so it will be a great asset to Liv's Bakery, no doubt!
Anyways, getting back on track...the crust sat in the fridge for over an hour...maybe two...and it was ready to be rolled out. I was a little nervous at first because when I took it out of the fridge, it was rather stiff. I immediately thought it was going to be tough to roll out but with a little flour and friction, it turned out fab! I always doubt myself when it comes to making enough dough or something of that sort. I always seem to want to make more because it never looks enough! When baking cupcakes, I used to put too little batter in each cupcake liner because I underestimated...I've learned that lesson though! And I now put more...this time it looked like there wasn't going to be enough dough but after rolled and pressed into the 9 inch pie pan...there was a tad left over that I could trim from the edges. Perfecto!
The filling was probably the easiest thing I've ever made in a saucepan on the stove. It took some butter, brown sugar (actually less than the recipe called for), salt, vanilla, orange zest, and light (and a little dark) corn syrup. Melt the butter, whisk in the sugar, remove from the heat and add everything else! You are literally done from there. All you have to do is pour two cups of CHOPPED pecans in the CHILLED pie crust, pour the filling over the nuts, and bake for 55 minutes!
This pie set extremely well and won round two of the ULTIMATE BAKE OFF!! 1-1 baby...tie breaker round it is!!!
Tips for this pie: After taking a look at the recipe, I would make the following recommendations:
- Definitely use chopped pecans...no one wants to break their tooth on huge pecan halves
- The recipe calls for all 3/4 cup of LIGHT corn syrup...I used 1/2 cup light, 1/4 cup dark...it's not as sweet this way and it is just right!
- I used only 1 cup of brown sugar rather than 1 1/4 cup. Again...makes it not as sweet!
- Put foil around the edges of your crust...they don't burn and it comes out fabulous!
- I ended up putting a little extra orange zest which was definitely NOT a bad thing. Adds that little kick ;)
I HIGHLY recommend this recipe. Crust and all. Great job Epicurious!
Random fact of the week: FAT makes treats moist. That is the phrase I live by when baking. How to improve my very own cupcake recipe? IT CAN ALWAYS BE MORE MOIST! Add an extra egg yolk...use full fat sour cream...oil...half and half...use WHATEVER has a good amount of fat and you will be satisfied. Some say use some oil in place of some of the butter that the recipe calls for. I have also found that weighing flour can be a good thing when baking...this ensures that you don't use more flour than the recipe calls for which, in turn, will ensure that your product is not dry :)
Round two of the ultimate bake off involved pecan pies.
Two...sticky...extremely...sweet...pecan pies! I've made a key lime pie...a...pumpkin cheese cake which could have been considered a pie because I didn't have a spring form pan at the time...and...well...that's about it! I'm pretty new to the pie world so this was going to be another challenge. After picking my recipe from Epicurious (everyone should check out this site some day), I actually felt pretty confident as it had a "special" ingredient...orange zest...ya ever heard of such a thing in pecan pie!? Not me...
I think, other than the orange zest, our recipes were both pretty similar. Martin chose a flaky crust and I chose the butter crust that was actually included in my recipe. Flour, butter, salt, and water were the only four ingredients in my crust. I've come to the conclusion that homemade crust isn't really my worst enemy. Just use your hands! Probably better than a food processor anyways! (That's on my Christmas list this year actually) I could actually use a processor for crushing nuts and other things too, so it will be a great asset to Liv's Bakery, no doubt!
Anyways, getting back on track...the crust sat in the fridge for over an hour...maybe two...and it was ready to be rolled out. I was a little nervous at first because when I took it out of the fridge, it was rather stiff. I immediately thought it was going to be tough to roll out but with a little flour and friction, it turned out fab! I always doubt myself when it comes to making enough dough or something of that sort. I always seem to want to make more because it never looks enough! When baking cupcakes, I used to put too little batter in each cupcake liner because I underestimated...I've learned that lesson though! And I now put more...this time it looked like there wasn't going to be enough dough but after rolled and pressed into the 9 inch pie pan...there was a tad left over that I could trim from the edges. Perfecto!
The filling was probably the easiest thing I've ever made in a saucepan on the stove. It took some butter, brown sugar (actually less than the recipe called for), salt, vanilla, orange zest, and light (and a little dark) corn syrup. Melt the butter, whisk in the sugar, remove from the heat and add everything else! You are literally done from there. All you have to do is pour two cups of CHOPPED pecans in the CHILLED pie crust, pour the filling over the nuts, and bake for 55 minutes!
This pie set extremely well and won round two of the ULTIMATE BAKE OFF!! 1-1 baby...tie breaker round it is!!!
Tips for this pie: After taking a look at the recipe, I would make the following recommendations:
- Definitely use chopped pecans...no one wants to break their tooth on huge pecan halves
- The recipe calls for all 3/4 cup of LIGHT corn syrup...I used 1/2 cup light, 1/4 cup dark...it's not as sweet this way and it is just right!
- I used only 1 cup of brown sugar rather than 1 1/4 cup. Again...makes it not as sweet!
- Put foil around the edges of your crust...they don't burn and it comes out fabulous!
- I ended up putting a little extra orange zest which was definitely NOT a bad thing. Adds that little kick ;)
I HIGHLY recommend this recipe. Crust and all. Great job Epicurious!
Random fact of the week: FAT makes treats moist. That is the phrase I live by when baking. How to improve my very own cupcake recipe? IT CAN ALWAYS BE MORE MOIST! Add an extra egg yolk...use full fat sour cream...oil...half and half...use WHATEVER has a good amount of fat and you will be satisfied. Some say use some oil in place of some of the butter that the recipe calls for. I have also found that weighing flour can be a good thing when baking...this ensures that you don't use more flour than the recipe calls for which, in turn, will ensure that your product is not dry :)
CHEERS!
Is the Third Time a Charm!?
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| New ingredients in the mix! |
The first time, it wasn't quite moist enough and I am STILL working on that aspect of the cupcake it seems like. This, for some reason, DOESN'T seem to come so natural to me. I know what makes cupcakes moist--FAT. Anything that has high fat content...egg yolks, sour cream, oil, cream. The first time, I had some sour cream but I don't think I put in enough. The second time around, I used oil instead of sour cream (because I didn't have any at the time). The cupcake is moist, but could be more moist...if that makes sense? EVERYONE is a sucker for a delicious, moist cupcake...so the moister...the better...okay that didn't make sense...and wasn't a word...
Anywho, the second time around I made cupcake minis instead of the six regular sized cupcakes and took them to work. Everyone seemed to love them! I only got positive reviews. Even the lady that doesn't like sweet things ALWAYS eats my desserts when I bring them...how could she say no!? Just playing...But it is always a pleasure to see people who constantly say they don't like sweet things eat your treats...
For some reason, I don't think I really want to use coffee extract anymore. The first two times I made my recipe, I used JUST the extract in the batter. This time, I knew I had to make a change so I used actual coffee grinds and the extract. I also spotted the Nestle cocoa powder in my drawer and decided to throw in some of that because who doesn't like chocolate and coffee together? OH AND with hazelnut added in the mix...can you think of anyone?
There was also some half and half in the fridge so I used that in place of milk (higher fat content!!)
All in all, it is DEFINITELY getting there and it will be perfected the 4th time around...it will, it will, it WILL. This is what baking is all about :)
"Hazelnut Choco-Coffee Lovers" (Yields 6 regular sized cupcakes or 20 minis)
3/4 cup all purpose flour
3/4 tsp. baking powder
1/8 tsp. salt
1 tbsp. cocoa powder
1/4 c. unsalted, softened butter
1/3 c. granulated sugar
1/2 tbsp. coffee grinds (definitely need to use a stronger coffee next time)
3/4 tsp. coffee extract
3 tbsp. half & half
If you want the instructions simply ask me :) Oh and it is always good paired with my hazelnut butter cream.
Fun Fact of the Day: Did you know you can make baking powder by mixing baking soda and cream of tartar? Next time you don't have any...go for it! Mix two parts cream of tartar with one part baking soda. Also, you can NEVER substitute baking soda for baking powder...but you can do vice versa. Basically, baking soda doesn't have enough umph to make things rise.
Ta-Ta!
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| not as pretty as all my others but still delicious and in the works! |
BAKE OFF BABY!
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Have you ever had a bake off with someone who's NEVER baked ANY DESSERT EVER BEFORE IN THEIR LIFE!? I thought this was going to be a piece of cake...however...that was not the case the first round of our bake off!
November was supposed to be cookie month since it's been almost (I think) a full year since I've actually baked cookies! Can you believe it!? This was the ONLY thing I used to bake when I lived at home. But since I've started my baking blog and Liv's Bakery, I've sort of left them out of the picture, unfortunately. I was totally ready to dedicate November to cookies when...all of the sudden...a co-worker had this brilliant conversation starter.
Jason: "Martin, you know how to do everything around here! What DON'T you know how to do!?"
Martin: Silence at first
Alivia: BAKE!
This simple, laid back conversation started a WAAARRRRRR.
Now, there's people that can cook and hate or simply cannot bake and then there's those who love to bake (like myself) but HATE to cook (or just...like myself again...can't cook!). I felt like Martin was going to be the one who was good at cooking/grilling but not so good at baking...I guess I was wrong :(
One cold, blah, Friday night while we were too lazy to actually do anything productive, my lovely roommate Diana, Martin, and I decided to plan our course of action. We made up rules to the bake off and all sorts of things. We decided to choose two types of desserts that I've never made before. We OBVIOUSLY couldn't pick cupcakes as one because we all know who would've won that round! So to be fair, we chose scones & pies. We have decided to go all month with this and, therefore, I had to change my theme for November to THE ULTIMATE BAKE OFF!!!!
We are going to do "best out of three" (skipping the 18th because I will most likely be baking our Thanksgiving dessert in place of that weekend's delight) and the last weekend Diana is going to choose the type of dessert.
Not going to lie, I was actually nervous about making these scones. FYI, we're baking the same desserts but choosing our own recipes. We wanted to tackle cranberry orange scones last Sunday. SCRUMPTIOUS!
First time going on Pinterest to find a recipe served me well, although I did happen to lose. How does that happen when someone has NEVER baked ANYTHING before!? Blasphemy...
We came up with this elaborate scoring plan at first but then decided to go with the simple, vote for your favorite. We took both batches to work, laid 'em out in the break room, and everyone had at it! When I finally got a chance to look at the score sheets after our 2 1/2 hour long meeting, it was already 3-0 :( The final score was 7-3.
I believe the ULTIMATE decision maker was that Martin's were more "moist" even though that's not even how a scone should be! Dryer, Biscuit-ier, not super super sweet, and well-shaped (you liked how I slipped that in there, huh?) are how traditional scones should be. If I drenched mine in 2 rounds of glaze, they would have all tasted the same :)
Just kidddinnngggg...all joking aside, he did a surprisingly well job for his first time baking anything in his life. No peeking, no help, no tips from anyone and they turned out good! Nice job! But just so you know...I'll be bringing it on full force next Sunday with our pecan pies!
Tips for scones: knead the dough for about 1-2 minutes to allow for proper rising, roll dough out to about a 1/2 inch thick, use a pizza cutter to form wedges, and don't worry if they look a little dry...that's how they are supposed to be!
CHEERS!
November was supposed to be cookie month since it's been almost (I think) a full year since I've actually baked cookies! Can you believe it!? This was the ONLY thing I used to bake when I lived at home. But since I've started my baking blog and Liv's Bakery, I've sort of left them out of the picture, unfortunately. I was totally ready to dedicate November to cookies when...all of the sudden...a co-worker had this brilliant conversation starter.
Jason: "Martin, you know how to do everything around here! What DON'T you know how to do!?"
Martin: Silence at first
Alivia: BAKE!
This simple, laid back conversation started a WAAARRRRRR.
Now, there's people that can cook and hate or simply cannot bake and then there's those who love to bake (like myself) but HATE to cook (or just...like myself again...can't cook!). I felt like Martin was going to be the one who was good at cooking/grilling but not so good at baking...I guess I was wrong :(
One cold, blah, Friday night while we were too lazy to actually do anything productive, my lovely roommate Diana, Martin, and I decided to plan our course of action. We made up rules to the bake off and all sorts of things. We decided to choose two types of desserts that I've never made before. We OBVIOUSLY couldn't pick cupcakes as one because we all know who would've won that round! So to be fair, we chose scones & pies. We have decided to go all month with this and, therefore, I had to change my theme for November to THE ULTIMATE BAKE OFF!!!!
We are going to do "best out of three" (skipping the 18th because I will most likely be baking our Thanksgiving dessert in place of that weekend's delight) and the last weekend Diana is going to choose the type of dessert.
Not going to lie, I was actually nervous about making these scones. FYI, we're baking the same desserts but choosing our own recipes. We wanted to tackle cranberry orange scones last Sunday. SCRUMPTIOUS!
First time going on Pinterest to find a recipe served me well, although I did happen to lose. How does that happen when someone has NEVER baked ANYTHING before!? Blasphemy...
We came up with this elaborate scoring plan at first but then decided to go with the simple, vote for your favorite. We took both batches to work, laid 'em out in the break room, and everyone had at it! When I finally got a chance to look at the score sheets after our 2 1/2 hour long meeting, it was already 3-0 :( The final score was 7-3.
I believe the ULTIMATE decision maker was that Martin's were more "moist" even though that's not even how a scone should be! Dryer, Biscuit-ier, not super super sweet, and well-shaped (you liked how I slipped that in there, huh?) are how traditional scones should be. If I drenched mine in 2 rounds of glaze, they would have all tasted the same :)
Just kidddinnngggg...all joking aside, he did a surprisingly well job for his first time baking anything in his life. No peeking, no help, no tips from anyone and they turned out good! Nice job! But just so you know...I'll be bringing it on full force next Sunday with our pecan pies!
Tips for scones: knead the dough for about 1-2 minutes to allow for proper rising, roll dough out to about a 1/2 inch thick, use a pizza cutter to form wedges, and don't worry if they look a little dry...that's how they are supposed to be!
CHEERS!
A Seasonal Fav'
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That's right ya'll, today I made my seasonal fav' PUMPKIN CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES!
It's my roommate's favorite treat that I make and she just couldn't WAIT for me to make them this year. Last year, while preparing for a Christmas party that my roommates and I were having, I decided to make DOUBLE the recipe that I had gotten from Allrecipes.com. That was such a silly idea when I ended up with 100 cookies! It seemed like I baked forever that night and I just couldn't understand WHY I did such a thing. The recipe makes 36 cookies (today it ended up making about 42 or so) so I just don't know why on earth I would double this recipe last year ESPECIALLY when I made another type of cookie!
Anyways...I was going to make half the recipe today, but then my roommate said she wanted to take some to the guy she's seeing because they are just THAT awesome. Trust me, these will be eaten up in NO time in any house. My mom used to make them, and still does, and sometimes she would add raisins instead of chocolate chips which is also good!
The recipe says to ice the cookies when they are cooled, however, I'm not a huge fan of putting icing on top of cookies. I think cookies are too thin to add an extra flavor on top; it simply takes away from the delicious, moist cookie flavor! The only cookie I would ice that brings me back to the good ol' days are the butter cookies that my mom used to ice with a thin, lemon glaze. Boy were those da bomb.com. Mom, can I have that recipe!?
Other than leaving the icing off, I follow the recipe exactly and add almost a full bag of regular sized, semi sweet, chocolate chips. I'm a huge fan of milk chocolate in contrast to semi sweet, but for these cookies, you MUST go with semi sweet.
Once they are baked (they are a little hard to tell because the color stays relatively the same as before they are put in the oven) for 18 minutes, remove them from the oven, let stand for no more than 5 minutes, and immediately place into a container of any sort. Seal tight and they will be moist and chewy for days! DELISH!
It's my roommate's favorite treat that I make and she just couldn't WAIT for me to make them this year. Last year, while preparing for a Christmas party that my roommates and I were having, I decided to make DOUBLE the recipe that I had gotten from Allrecipes.com. That was such a silly idea when I ended up with 100 cookies! It seemed like I baked forever that night and I just couldn't understand WHY I did such a thing. The recipe makes 36 cookies (today it ended up making about 42 or so) so I just don't know why on earth I would double this recipe last year ESPECIALLY when I made another type of cookie!
Anyways...I was going to make half the recipe today, but then my roommate said she wanted to take some to the guy she's seeing because they are just THAT awesome. Trust me, these will be eaten up in NO time in any house. My mom used to make them, and still does, and sometimes she would add raisins instead of chocolate chips which is also good!
The recipe says to ice the cookies when they are cooled, however, I'm not a huge fan of putting icing on top of cookies. I think cookies are too thin to add an extra flavor on top; it simply takes away from the delicious, moist cookie flavor! The only cookie I would ice that brings me back to the good ol' days are the butter cookies that my mom used to ice with a thin, lemon glaze. Boy were those da bomb.com. Mom, can I have that recipe!?
Other than leaving the icing off, I follow the recipe exactly and add almost a full bag of regular sized, semi sweet, chocolate chips. I'm a huge fan of milk chocolate in contrast to semi sweet, but for these cookies, you MUST go with semi sweet.
Once they are baked (they are a little hard to tell because the color stays relatively the same as before they are put in the oven) for 18 minutes, remove them from the oven, let stand for no more than 5 minutes, and immediately place into a container of any sort. Seal tight and they will be moist and chewy for days! DELISH!
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| All the awesome spices prepped before mixing...cinnamon, cloves, and nutmeg! |
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| Before popping in the oven...small dollops flattened just a tad |
Happy Halloween!
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Like I mentioned in the previous post, I was going to make punkinhead cupcakes and creepy, dirty, wormy, cupcakes for work. Next on the menu was pumpkin streusel cupcakes for Dad for his birthday! I was praying on Monday night that our power WAS NOT going to go out that night due to Hurricane Sandy. Thank you Lord, it didn't!
Tuesday night, I set out to make all three treats for Halloween/Dad's Birthday. I had been prepared since the weekend just in case the hurricane kept me inside until Halloween--I had all the ingredients I needed.
For work, I decided to put together some vanilla bean cupcakes with actual beans and vanilla butter cream frosting. Sweet and simple! I used the very basic vanilla cupcake recipe that I've used in the past from www.cooks.com because it only has 8 ingredients! Very easy which makes it VERY easy to put your own twist on it :) I decided to add just one vanilla bean (which adds incredible vanilla flavor along with the 2 tsp. extract) and it made these cupcakes to die for (as one co-worker said after she bit into one). I stuck with the classic vanilla butter cream frosting, used a 1M tip to ice the "wormy" cupcakes, sprinkled crushed chocolate grahams on top, planted a worm in there, and there it was!
If you use this recipe, I highly recommend adding a vanilla bean. Also, don't forget to ALWAYS finish off the mixing with the DRY INGREDIENTS...mix until JUST combined so your finished product doesn't become tough.
And there ya have it...Dirty Vanilla Cupcakes ;)
I used the rest of the butter cream, mixed red and yellow icing color (yeah I know right, they didn't have a freakin' plain orange color!!!), grabbed the spatula, and iced the other half of those babies! The orange was a perfect pumpkin color and was very festive. I was supposed to save some butter cream to color black for punkinhead faces but I forgot--so unfortunately, these punkinheads had no faces...all tastes the same, right!?
The cupcakes were very moist, short and sweet but very tasty. Someone even said that when the carrier was opened, it smelled like vodka...well that's cause of my long lasting, homemade vanilla extract!! Which by the way, is definitely going to last me forever; it is barely below the neck of the wine bottle for gosh sakes. I encourage EVERYONE to make their own extract..seriously...ask me for tips!
Onnnnn to the next treat for the night.
Pumpkin streusel cupcakes made with Truvia with homemade whipped cream and chopped, sugared pecans.
This was one of Liv's Bakery's sort of made up treats minus the actual pumpkin cupcake recipe. I pulled this recipe from my newest cookbook (thanks to my sister!) but instead, substituted Truvia for the sugar. Never have I EVER used "fake" sweetener when baking but I thought I'd try something new! I really think I am getting braver and braver as my baking journey continues...
For those of you who don't know what Truvia is, it's a zero calorie sugar replacement that comes from the Stevia plant. I went online to find the equivalent to sugar and it said for 1/3 cup sugar (which is what the original recipe called for since I was only making 6 cupcakes) to use about 7 packets of Truvia. This was just NOT enough. I ended up adding 4 more packets to get rid of the extreme, bitter taste from the pumpkin puree. I added streusel that I had frozen from the pumpkin muffins and baked! I was a little nervous when they came out a yellow-ish color so I decided to try one and they were pretty tasty with the streusel! It made it sweeter and I just KNEW the homemade whipped cream was going to do the final trick.
Right before dinner at my parents, I whipped up the cream (Mom, thanks for the extra sugar!!), added the toasted, sugared pecans, and everyone loved 'em! My cousin even licked the whipped cream bowl clean.
I HIGHLY recommend using whipped cream if you don't have all the ingredients for butter cream or any other type of icing. It's so simple and adds that lil sunin' sunin' to an already sweet dessert. All it takes is some whipping cream, a little sugar, and a tsp. of vanilla.
I will definitely keep adding streusel to my delicious pumpkin desserts!
Tuesday night, I set out to make all three treats for Halloween/Dad's Birthday. I had been prepared since the weekend just in case the hurricane kept me inside until Halloween--I had all the ingredients I needed.
For work, I decided to put together some vanilla bean cupcakes with actual beans and vanilla butter cream frosting. Sweet and simple! I used the very basic vanilla cupcake recipe that I've used in the past from www.cooks.com because it only has 8 ingredients! Very easy which makes it VERY easy to put your own twist on it :) I decided to add just one vanilla bean (which adds incredible vanilla flavor along with the 2 tsp. extract) and it made these cupcakes to die for (as one co-worker said after she bit into one). I stuck with the classic vanilla butter cream frosting, used a 1M tip to ice the "wormy" cupcakes, sprinkled crushed chocolate grahams on top, planted a worm in there, and there it was!
If you use this recipe, I highly recommend adding a vanilla bean. Also, don't forget to ALWAYS finish off the mixing with the DRY INGREDIENTS...mix until JUST combined so your finished product doesn't become tough.
And there ya have it...Dirty Vanilla Cupcakes ;)
I used the rest of the butter cream, mixed red and yellow icing color (yeah I know right, they didn't have a freakin' plain orange color!!!), grabbed the spatula, and iced the other half of those babies! The orange was a perfect pumpkin color and was very festive. I was supposed to save some butter cream to color black for punkinhead faces but I forgot--so unfortunately, these punkinheads had no faces...all tastes the same, right!?
The cupcakes were very moist, short and sweet but very tasty. Someone even said that when the carrier was opened, it smelled like vodka...well that's cause of my long lasting, homemade vanilla extract!! Which by the way, is definitely going to last me forever; it is barely below the neck of the wine bottle for gosh sakes. I encourage EVERYONE to make their own extract..seriously...ask me for tips!
Onnnnn to the next treat for the night.
Pumpkin streusel cupcakes made with Truvia with homemade whipped cream and chopped, sugared pecans.
This was one of Liv's Bakery's sort of made up treats minus the actual pumpkin cupcake recipe. I pulled this recipe from my newest cookbook (thanks to my sister!) but instead, substituted Truvia for the sugar. Never have I EVER used "fake" sweetener when baking but I thought I'd try something new! I really think I am getting braver and braver as my baking journey continues...
For those of you who don't know what Truvia is, it's a zero calorie sugar replacement that comes from the Stevia plant. I went online to find the equivalent to sugar and it said for 1/3 cup sugar (which is what the original recipe called for since I was only making 6 cupcakes) to use about 7 packets of Truvia. This was just NOT enough. I ended up adding 4 more packets to get rid of the extreme, bitter taste from the pumpkin puree. I added streusel that I had frozen from the pumpkin muffins and baked! I was a little nervous when they came out a yellow-ish color so I decided to try one and they were pretty tasty with the streusel! It made it sweeter and I just KNEW the homemade whipped cream was going to do the final trick.
Right before dinner at my parents, I whipped up the cream (Mom, thanks for the extra sugar!!), added the toasted, sugared pecans, and everyone loved 'em! My cousin even licked the whipped cream bowl clean.
I HIGHLY recommend using whipped cream if you don't have all the ingredients for butter cream or any other type of icing. It's so simple and adds that lil sunin' sunin' to an already sweet dessert. All it takes is some whipping cream, a little sugar, and a tsp. of vanilla.
I will definitely keep adding streusel to my delicious pumpkin desserts!
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| Shawn the Dragon! I'm sure he wanted a cupcake! |
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