For a co-worker's birthday, I made her favorite red velvet cupcakes. I also was excited to finally use my new Ateco tip for the frosting. I think my favorite thinga bout red velvet cupcakes is the cream cheese frosting. This recipe also has a slightly higher amount of cocoa than other recipes, just to give the cupcakes more flavor. Generally, red velvet cupcakes are only supposed to have a slight chocolate flavor, but I like to be more pronounced. Pecan halves are also a nice way to top the cupcakes.
**the pictures don't do the cupcakes justice; you can't see just how red they are!Red Velvet Cupcakes
24 cupcakes
1/2 cup unsalted butter
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 eggs, room temperature
1 cup buttermilk
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
1/4 cup cocoa powder
2 1/4 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 tsp vinegar
1/2 ounce red food coloring paste
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line 2 12-cup muffin tins with paper liners.
Cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs, mixing until well combined.
Sift together the flour, salt, baking soda, and cocoa powder. In another bowl, whisk together the buttermilk, oil, and vanilla extract.
Add the dry ingredients to the butter mix in 3 batches, alternating with half of the wet ingredients. You should start and end with the dry ingredients.
Add in the red food coloring, mixing until it is incorporated.
Spoon the batter into the prepared pans, filling each cup about 2/3 full.
Bake the cupcakes for about 18-20 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
Cream Cheese Frosting
1 8oz package of cream cheese
1 stick of unsalted butter
1/8 tsp of salt
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
3-4 cups confectioner's sugar
Cream together the cream cheese, butter, salt, and vanilla extract.
Beat in the confectioner's sugar, 1 cup at a time, until you reach the desired taste and consistency.
Pipe the frosting onto the cupcakes. Top each cupcake with a pecan half (if desired).
The best breakfast on the go is a freshly baked blueberry muffin. These are made with sour cream, giving it a little extra moistness and tang. There is also a slight hint of lemon, which I think complements the blueberries. Sugar sprinkled on the top also gives an additional bit of sweetness to the muffins.
The recipe I used is a variation of a recipe that I found posted on allrecipes.com
Blueberry Sour Cream Muffins
makes 2 dozen muffins
2 eggs
2/3 cup granulated sugar
2/3 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
1/2 tsp lemon extract
1 cup sour cream
2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
12 oz package of frozen blueberries
**sparkling sugar for the top
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
Cream together the sugar and the butter until light and fluffy. Add in the vanilla extract, lemon extract, and sour cream.
Sift together the flour, salt, and baking soda. Slowly add the flour and the oil to the batter in alternating batches, starting and ending with the flour.
Stir in the frozen blueberries. Be sure to keep the blueberries in the freezer just until adding, because if the berries begin to melt they will leak juice all throughout the batter.
Scoop the batter into muffin tins. Sprinkle the tops generously with sparkling sugar.
Bake the muffins for about 20 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
For a children's birthday party, I decided to make classic vanilla cupcake with a chocolate frosting. They were a huge hit with the kids, as evidenced below:
The last time that I made vanilla cupcakes, I used the Amy Sedaris recipe. While the flavor was good, I wanted a cupcake that was a little less dense, so I decided to try the Magnolia recipe. I got some help from the cupcake blog (www.cupcakeblog.com), where a scaled down version of the Magnolia recipe was posted.
Magnolia's Vanilla Cupcakes
(12 cupcakes)
1/2 cup butter
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
1 1/3 cup flour
1/2 cup milk
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/8 tsp salt
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
Cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs and vanilla extract and mix well.
Sift together the flour, milk, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Alternate adding the flour mixture and the milk to the butter mixture, starting and ending with the flour.
Mix until just combined.
Scoop the batter into a muffin tin lined with paper liners. Bake for about 20 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cupcake comes out clean.
Chocolate Buttercream Frosting
1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
1/4 cup cocoa powder
~3 cups sifted confectioners sugar
Beat the butter, vanilla, and cocoa powder until smooth. Add the confectioners sugar, 1 cup at a time, to the butter mixture and beat until smooth.
*note about buttercream frostings
One of the reasons why I love to use a buttercream frosting is that you don't have to be exact when it comes to the measurements. While I do use a cup measure to add sugar to the butter, I also "taste test" the frosting to see if the taste is right. It's easy to adjust the sugar or other flavoring to create a frosting that is delicious.
While I have been baking for the last several weeks, I had been too busy to update my blog. So, tonight I'm going to try and catch up with all my posts.
Last Christmas, I had made cookie boxes for all my friends. One of the biggest hits were these blondies. The recipe is from Al Roker's holiday cookbook. It makes a moist, decadent bar coookie. I wanted to make them look special, so I cut them out using a biscuit cutter, instead of just cutting them into squares.
Platinum Blondies
3/4 cup + 2 tblsp packed light brown sugar
1 large egg
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted
1 1/2 cups flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/8 tsp salt
1 cup chopped pecans
3/4 cup white chocolate chips
Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Lightly butter an 8-inch square baking pan or line it with parchment paper.
Beat together the sugar and egg until light and fluffy. Add the vanilla and butter to the egg mixture and beat well.
Sift together the flour, baking soda, and salt. Slowly add it to the butter mixture, mixing until just incorporated.
Stir in the chocolate chips and pecans.
Spoon the batter into the prepared pan, and smooth down. Bake for 25-30 minutes, until the top is dry and golden, and a knife inserted into the center comes out with only a few crumbs attached.
Remove and let cool before cutting into squares.
For the past couple of days, I was thinking about how to jazz up a simple vanilla cupcake. Nothing too fancy, but something beyond the regular vanilla or chocolate frosting. Then I thought, strawberries!! It would be a nice, not too sweet topping that wouldn't overpower the delicate vanilla flavor of the cupcake. So tonight I fired up the oven and whipped up a batch of vanilla cupcakes with a strawberry buttercream frosting.
**Unfortunately I ran out of fresh strawberries, but can you imagine how pretty it would have looked with a strawberry quarter and maybe a sprig of mint??
For the cupcakes, I used Amy Sedaris's cupcake recipe. While I like the flavor of the cupcake, it is a little dense. It will make about 18 cupcakes.
1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter (softened)
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 eggs, room temperature
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 1/4 cup milk
Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
Cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add in the eggs and the vanilla to the creamed butter, and continue to mix until the eggs are incorporated. Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl to make sure all the eggs and butter have mixed well.
In another bowl, sift together the flour, salt, and baking powder. Slowly add the flour mix and the milk to the egg and butter mixture in alternating batches, starting and ending with the flour mixture.
Mix the batter just until the last of the flour is incorporated. Be sure to scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl to make sure everything is well mixed.
Fill each muffin tin about 2/3 full of batter. Bake for about 18-20 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
Strawberry Buttercream Frosting
1/4 cup seedless strawberry jam
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 stick unsalted butter, softened
1/8 teaspoon salt
3 1/2 - 4 cups confectioners sugar
In the bowl of the electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together the butter, vanilla, salt, and jam. Once the mixture has been well mixed, add in the confectioner's sugar, one cup at a time. As each cup of sugar becomes fully incorporated, continue to add sugar. You can adjust the amount of sugar that you want to add - more sugar if you want the frosting to have a stiffer consistency (for piping onto cupcakes), or less sugar if you want the frosting to be less stiff (for spreading onto cupcakes with a spatula).
This recipe is actually pretty versatile, because you can adjust the amount of strawberry jam according to taste. It's almost impossible to mess up this frosting!
One of the favorite desserts at home are cream puffs. Usually I tend to make them small and bite sized, but this time I decided to make them nice and big! One misconception that many people have is that making pate a choux (the "puff" of cream puffs) is difficult, but its surprisingly simple. The dough is very versatile and can be used to make not just cream puffs but profiteroles or eclairs. I usually fill my cream puffs with a simple vanilla filling, but you can mix it up by using different flavored fillings, such as chocolate or even mocha!
Here is a trio of cream puffs. For a pretty presentation I placed them in brown mini muffin cups.
A close up of one of the cream puffs. Doesn't it look absolutely yummy?
Recipe for pate a choux
1 cup water
1 stick unsalted butter
1 tablespoon sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup flour
4 eggs
Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. In a small saucepan, combine the water, butter, sugar and salt. Bring the mixture to a boil, making sure that the butter melts completely. Reduce the heat to low, and add the cup of flour. Stir in the flour until it forms a ball of dough that pulls away from the sides of the pan. Continue to cook the dough over the low heat (stirring constantly) until a film forms in the bottom of the pan.
Put the dough into the bowl of an electric mixer. Using the paddle attachment, beat the dough for a couple minutes until it cools a little. Add the eggs, one at a time, and making sure each egg is beaten well into the dough.
Scoop rounded tablespoons of dough onto a cookie sheet about 1 inch apart. For less mess, pipe rounds of dough using a pastry bag with a large star or round tip (or even a ziploc bag with a corner cut off). Bake the puffs for about 20 - 25 minutes, until they are puffed and golden. One way to test to see if they are done is to prick one puff. If it deflates quickly, then the puffs are not baked enough.
When they are done baking, prick the side of each puff and return the sheet back into the oven, with the heat turned OFF. This will help dry out the inside of the puffs.
When the puffs are cooled, fill with either pastry cream or ice cream.
**
Pastry cream recipe (from Martha Stewart's Baking Handbook)
2 cups whole milk
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 vanilla bean, split lengthwise with the seeds scraped
1/8 teaspoon salt
4 large egg yolks
1/4 cup cornstartch
2 tablespoons unsalted butter (cut in small pieces)
In a medium size saucepan, combine the milk, 1/4 cup sugar, vanilla bean and seeds, and salt. Cook over medium heat until the mixture comes to a simmer.
In another bowl, whisk together the egg yolks, cornstarch, and remaining 1/4 cup sugar. While whisking, slowly pour about 1/4 of the hot milk mixture to the egg yolks. Continue to slowly add the hot milk (about 1/2 cup at a time) to the egg yolks until it has all been mixed. Pour the sauce back into the saucepan and cook over medium-high heat while whisking constantly. Cook the cream until it reaches a temperature of 160 degrees F and it has thickened.
Remove the saucepan from heat, remove the vanilla bean, and whisk in the pieces of butter. Continue to whisk for about 5 minutes until the cream cools down. (This can also be done using an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment). Cover the bowl with plastic wrap, pressing the plastic down onto the surface of the cream. Refrigerate the cream until cool.
**
Easy "Pastry Cream"
Sometimes I just want to make a quick, easy filling. I use instant vanilla pudding and heavy whipping cream.
2 cups heavy whipping cream
1 3.4 ounce package of instant vanilla pudding
Using an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, whip the cream at about medium-high speed for about 3-4 minutes. You don't want to make whipped cream so do not beat for too long! Just beat until the cream has lightened and increased in volume. Add the package of vanilla pudding and beat until it has been well mixed into the cream.
Cover the cream with plastic wrap, with the plastic pressed down over the cream. Refrigerate until ready to use.
Hello! Welcome to my new blog! For years, I've always loved to bake and I've decided to chronicle my journey as an enthusiastic home baker. While I like baking anything and everything, I tend to bake cupcakes and cookies more often, simply because they can be so cute and easy to eat. I believe that whatever I bake should not only taste wonderful, but look fabulous as well! With this blog, I want to share my baking journey as well as pictures of some of the things that I've made. Eventually, I also hope to have my own home-based bakery business started too. I hope whoever comes across my little blog will enjoy everything that I post!
