This is going to be rather short

What's chock full of chocolate, has milk's heart throb, and the smallest compact chocolate treat since the Hershey kiss? MISSISSIPPI MUD CUPCAKES! Any chocolate lover, will enjoy these when ever they are happy, sad, angry, joyful, giddy, cold, hot, moody, crazy, silly, tear-making, bouncy, loud, quiet, tall, short....um ya. Anyone will like them. Now for pictures! Sorry that it is so short! If you look at all my other blog entries they are extremely long! These pictures are in absolutely no particular order! I must also give credit to my Sue Chef today. Glenna! Thanks for being awesome and helping me!

The invitations have been sent, the lame bridal shower games have been planned, and the presents have been bought from high-priced retail stores. Yes my sister is getting married!! It's been an extremely hectic and short summer. Boy! Time sure does fly! Anyway, I was asked to bake the delicious desserts that would be featured there. You guessed it, cupcakes.

It seems that we have been slipping into the "Dog Days" of summer as it were. At that means hot, hot and HOT! And of course, when you add a stove, the sun, and the body heat and sweat you are creating because its already hot and your are trying to get two different cupcake batters and frosting's done in a short amount of time it equals nothing other than @&%! (excuse my french). What I will take away from this experience is that 7-minute frosting and heat does not mix. I was rushing with only an hour to get ready for this mystifying experience of nothing other that oohing and ah-ing over a wide array of typical smelling hand soaps that have fru-fru names like; "Apricot Sunshine", "Rainbow Hugging", and "Cat Nip". Wait a minute. Seriously? NO. You do NOT wear Cat Nip on your hands!!!!! No no no! Who was the genius who came up with these horrific names? Even though there was a terrible amount of crap building up, I was the ONLY one who gave a gift that would disappear! Not something that you would pretend to like it then store it away for future re-gifts.


(Somehow this chocolate...

turned into this)

I was making Chocolate White Mountain Cupcakes (again) and Spring Bouquet Cupcakes. And now I know that only a fool like me would bake cupcakes when it was a whopping 98 degrees. Back to 7-minute frosting. You have to move fast. The second the chocolate cupcakes popped out of the oven I would take my koala and Mickey Mouse oven mitts and hold the hot pan in front of the air conditioner for an extremely long amount of time until they were just about warm, then I would plop the frosting on the cupcake and repeat the process again.



But as you can see, the frosting is disappearing? Oh yes. The heat was destroying my masterpiece! Darn sun. But at least my Spring Bouquet are fine...wait. Where are the pictures? I thought I took them...but...maybe...WHERE ARE THEY?! Oops! Unfortunetly you will not be seeing anything Springy or Bouquety that is related to cupcakes. I do not know where the pictures are. All I can tell you is that, I only made 9 instead of 12 because I didn't have enough batter for some reason, and the frosting had a metallic tangy aftertaste. Yuck.

Now fast forward. It was my Best Friend's birthday! And I made Chocolate Mousse Cupcakes. The picture explains it all...


Chocolate Mousse + Chocolate Cupcake =


THISSSS!



Yum yum! Bake on!

Over the river and through the woods to Lake Michigan we go? Part 2

Yes I did make a part 2 of this blog entry only because part 1 was incredibly long. It would take up to much space and you would be bored to death. I don't want anyone to die of boredom ( but that would look funny on a gravestone).

Lemon Meringue Cupcakes. That was the final vote. I was going to make these for some of my neighbors relatives that were stopping by at the cabin, which was an interesting predicament for me. It wasn't meeting relatives and such, oh no. It was the cupcake part.

First of all I was making lemon custard for the first time, and I wanted these to be absolutely perfect, so if I messed up all the parts that make these cupcakes, I would end up in a embarrassed situation. And look like some pre-schooler that made mud pies instead of gourmet cupcakes. Fast forward now at about 6 p.m it was going fine until, I smelled something, 1 out of the 3 things I HATE to smell in the kitchen. Either, spoiled milk, rotten eggs, or smoke. It was definitely the smoke! Yuck! Only a fourth of it was burnt, and I scrubbed my arm off to the lemon crap of the bottom of the pan.

Finally, I got to make the actual cupcake batter. Which I wont go into detail about. Second of all the meringue. Now I know what it was like for people you wanted to make meringue was back the 1500s. And I do NOT want to go down that path again. As you know in the part 1, is that I used a cute, antique electric mixer, well, we couldn't find the second beater, and when we used only one, it made a loud whirring sound and smelled like grease. So I attempted to start whipping the egg whites and cream of tartar. I have never whipped so hard in my baking history. I got it up to the fluffy part, when we found an old a 1950 Kitchen Aid mixer. I have never been so happy to see something covered in black grease before.

Well after a long day here's how they turned out...

Not my best decorating job...for dinner Lasagna, fresh-baked homemade bread, and mixed green salad. And for desert Lemon Meringue Cupcakes. Sticky meringue, tart lemon filling and an unbelievably yummy cupcake batter.

Over the river and through the woods to Michigan City we go? Part 1

Hi again! Sorry I haven't blogged in such a long time! My computer crashed :( but now I'm back (and so is my computer) and ready to blog! I finally, FINALLY got to go to my neighbors cabin in Michigan City for a great week of relaxing and sun which is so conveniently placed in Indiana. Now there was a special request, "You can make cupcakes." Which also translates into, "Make me cupcakes!" Oh yes I most definitely will!

Her family and I decided on ORANGE CHIFFON CUPCAKES WITH ORANGE BUTTER ICING! Just saying it makes me drool. I had NO idea whatsoever on when I was going to make these! So thank you to people who like cupcakes!

Now unfortunately cabins are meant for taking a break from your hectic life, not cooking dinner, sleeping 'till noon, and frying in the sun until you look like a roast chicken (no offense chickens). Which is a bad case when you are baking gourmet cupcakes.

Take for example the many things we had to buy...

1. Cream of tartar. When in the world are they actually going to use this again?!
$3.59
2. Baking powder. They had some, but it was from 1988!
$2.74
3. Cake flour. Um yeah.
$5.24
4. Unsalted butter. There is nothing better than no salt!
$2.29
5. Powdered sugar! I find powdered sugar to be disgusting.
$1.50
6. Cupcake Pans. We bought them at an outlet mall only to find when we got back they had cupcake pans galore!
$9.99
7. An orange. DUH again!
69 cents
Having a great time and delicious cupcakes: Priceless

Things we had to hunt for...

1. Almond and Vanilla Extracts. At this cabin, get this, there are two kitchens, its pretty cool actually. After I couldn't find these downstairs, I went upstairs on an extract hunt, until we found them! They were old, I mean dinosaur old! But if I do remember they don't expire easily.

2. Electric Mixer. Probably the cutest electric mixer ever!

3. Cooling Rack. We used the upstairs oven rack instead.

Now time to bake!



Ingredients at hand! Ready to dive into the next un-tedious task of baking!



Lovely batter! Couldn't resist the sweet orange that beckoned to me. That made me drive my will power to the max.



The meringue was delicious!



Folding the meringue in with a mini spatula! Not that easy, not that easy. :)



It was a very thin batter, so I poured it into a water pitcher so it would be easier to fill the cupcake pan as Elinor Klivans suggested. Brilliant!



They came out perfect. Orange lingered throughout the kitchen and the creamy sweet aroma of puffy cupcakes had us all drooling, again. And we had to wait until dinner to eat them! Which was 30 minutes away! Yeah, we are such suckers when it comes to baked goods.



For some reason we had to have an equivalent amount of air circulate through these cupcakes. So you had to stack the pan on top of two cans, and flip it upside down.

Then the icing. I'm not going to go into detail about this.



After a day of zipping up and down Mount Baldy all day, I'm pretty sure we deserved these...

The result. A fabulous sensation of orange. The cupcake was light and moist and delicious without a doubt!

Fathers Day Whammie!

Two words: Fathers Day. Hear them as they go whooshing past. On this holiday, NO
freak-outs, NO television specials, and ABSOLUTELY NO bouquets of roses. Just a card and some steak. And in this case, cupcakes. And in a cupcakes case: Upside Down Pineapple Cupcakes AND Top-to-Bottom Crumb-cakes (as I like to call them). Probably the most INTERESTING cupcake. I think the last time I had canned pineapple was in FOREVER! This cupcake definitely showed my baking skill, I think.

You start with making an easy Yellow-Mix batter that I have for about the trillionth time now. So I've already starting to not measure accurately with a measuring cup. Which makes me feel like I've climbed Mount Everest. Actually that wouldn't make me feel great. That would make me feel tired and hungry and like an idiot, because now I have to go down. And since going down is the scarier part, now I just want to go home and hide. So now this might not have been a big accomplishment anyway. I split the batter in half. Saving it for the Top-to-Bottom crumb cakes (cupcakes, though I renamed them, cause I like how it just rolled off the tongue) that I would make for Fathers Day breakfast.

I made the crumbs for the crumb-cakes. I tried some, and it was salty and dry and NASTY! And they didn't even look like crumbs! It looked more like a pie crust dust.



Then I assembled the cupcakes. Crumbs, cupcake batter, crumbs. Yum yum.



Then of course they baked and I waited. And they baked. And I waited some more. Until...



Tada! They smelled SO good. The smell of cinnamon floated through the kitchen and I just wanted to eat one, bad! I had to put my will power into full gear. Finally they cooled and I just couldn't wait, so I dusted the cupcakes with powdered sugar as fast as I could, I didn't care what they looked like. But little did I know that the top wasn't fastened on tight enough to the powdered sugar duster, AND IT DUMPED ALL OVER THE CUPCAKE. It looked like a snowball! So now I had to clean up the mess BEFORE I could eat it! Eventually, it came time to eat one. It was like a little mini coffee cake. Yum.



This is how pretty they were! There was a slightly salty/sweet thing going on in this cupcake! The perfect combo! Definitely a favorite! The perfect coffee cupcakes. Tasty crumbs on the bottom and the top (hence the name) and a bit of moist yellow cupcake in the middle.

Now for the finale! (Drum roll please) PINEAPPLE UPSIDE-DOWN CUPCAKES!! Hooray! I was watching Bobby Flay Throw-down at about 1 a.m (I'm such a Food Network junkie) and get this, the challenge was pineapple upside down cake! Both cakes made me want some, especially now that I finally know what it tastes like! You start my making a caramel-like glaze to go on the bottom of the pan. Then you put the pineapple rings on top of the glaze.



I had minimized the cupcake recipe for only 6 extra-large cupcakes. Don't ask why, I just did. Then I added the yellow cupcake batter and popped them in the oven. Unfortunately, I was baking this on the hottest day EVER! And the oven was not helping with this problem.



Did I forget to mention that you don't use cupcake liners? Instead, you use wax paper circles.





The cupcake was perfectly dense and moist. The caramelized pineapple was sweet, sticky, and tender in one bite. And the combination of the two was heaven! Turned out to be a pretty good cupcake day! Yum yum! Bake on!

Busy busy busy

Boy! What a hectic weekend that was now that I look back on it! I have not been around my computer ever since summer vacation started (gee, I wonder why) and I'm trying to update as much as possible. I have just crossed off three recipes! Yes...THREE recipes! I am so excited and happy! Yippee! I guess this mission is going better than I thought it would. Sadly, I was in such a rush that I didn't have time to take lots of pictures (cry cry).

On Friday, June 4th, I made Butter Almond Teacakes. Teacakes are for fancy party clothes, so that you didn't happen to drop a small, bite-sized cake, slathered in frosting and ending up having a big gloppy mess on your expensive dress. This starting glazes and such. And somehow they ending up going to a party. These were for my neighbors farewell party. She is in college, but she had to come home because she had cancer. So after a long year away from college and a year filled with Chemotherapy she is going back to see her friends and graduate somehow. And since I was very busy I had to find the most "Grab the stuff and Throw it in the Bowl" kind of cupcakes. Who would have known that I would have had ALMOND PASTE in my cupboard? Almond paste. Out of EVERYTHING to have in your cupboard, do you think you would have ALMOND PASTE? I hope almond paste doesn't expire easily. OH crap.

Anyway. Expired almond paste or not, they were DELICIOUS! They came out perfectly puffy! They smelled so good! It made me think of rainbows, sunshine, and WAIT A MINUTE! I'm getting off subject. It made me think of a good book and a hug (random) When I got to the party, I tried hiding them for after potluck dinner, but everyone had already spotted them. And then they just started to "disappear".

And the other two recipes were for a Birthday Party! My friend asked if I would make them. I of course said YES! So a scrounged around the cookbook if I could find something fun and that screamed, "EAT ME FOR A BIRTHDAY PARTY!!" So the two Birthday girls agreed on the one that I liked the best. It was Chocolate-covered Brownie Ice-cream cone Cupcakes and Raspberry Ice-cream cone Cupcakes. Yes...in this recipe it uses ICE-CREAM CONES!

So now I know to ALWAYS have a few people around to make these cupcakes. Because in order to have the cones stand up without falling down you have to wrap tin foil around them and have the foil clinging to edges. It was incredibly hard. So since I was in a big time rush (it was 8 pm by now) I grabbed the cupcake pan stuff and scooted out of the kitchen so fast you couldn't believe it. I found a good couple of people doing absolutely NOTHING and I threw it at them and said, "Here, look at the cone example and DO THE REST!" Maybe I'm exaggerating a little bit, but who cares? So everything went on from there. I melted the chocolate. And I cracked the eggs and I sifted the flour, baking powder, and salt. And finally I came out with a beautiful batter, rich with chocolate and loaded with chocolate chips. I felt invincible!

So feeling better that I had completed one recipe I dove straight into the next one. Which was HARD! The kitchen was a disaster! I have never been that dirty all my life! Egg shells covered the bottom of my sink and batter had been sprayed all over the kitchen wall. My mixing bowls drowned in various liquids and whatnot. The raspberry ones were more complex than the chocolate. For this, you had to make a sort-of meringue, that you folded into the the second batter and then folded in the raspberries. It looked so fluffy and perfect. But strangely it was a LOT more batter than that of the chocolate batter. By now I reached into the oven for my Chocolate Brownie Cupcakes. They. Had. Not. Risen. They were thoroughly baked, but not puffed up, like the picture had shown. Disaster! Disaster! Think! Wait a second! I got it! PUT ICE CREAM ON THE TOP WHEN I SERVE THEM! Pure genius!

Alright! Throw the raspberry cupcakes into the oven and time for...Cleanup! A Janitors Mission...um no. Not exactly. But I did have a mound of dishes awaiting to be cleaned. So I quickly did as many dishes as possible, so I could make the raspberry and chocolate topping. Finally, after a never-ending session of cleaning a pile of dishes, not to mention the ones that had been used for dinner I managed to make the raspberry topping. Pulled the cupcakes out of the oven and WOW! They were perfect! They had risen! I poured the toppings on both and put sprinkles on! And wallah! Perfecto! Or so I thought.

IN the raspberry cupcakes, the raspberries were sour almost. As if the sugar from the cupcakes had not sunk into them while baking. And the cones were kinda soggy unlike the chocolate ones. Sigh. Oh well.

On the day of the party for my very amazing friends I was hovering over the cupcakes and the people eating them. I hoped that all my hard work would pay off, by seeing the satisfactory smiles suddenly appear on their faces. Mouthfuls of cupcakes later, I asked, "How were they?" And everybody loved them! I hope. And then the party went on from there. SO a pretty successful weekend that was!

Boston Cream Pie (Cake)

Is there anything more comforting than a comforting pie (or cake)? Nothing. Boston Cream Pie (cake) is delicious so I have heard. I always wondered what it was like. I mean, I have had the Yoplait Boston Cream Pie Yogurt. But then again, that's yogurt. And it was kinda bad. In my last post you might have read that I was being stupid and bought too much whole milk. I had to make this recipe. It called for a lot of whole milk.


First I made the custard. And oh my God. It was like a tiny corner of heaven, in a bowl. It was so...so...um..lovely? No...cus-tard-y? Yes! Ah yes! It was custardy! Is that even a word? I don't think it is. Um. NOW IT IS! *add to dictionary*. I am also known as the Vanilla Queen. I always, ALWAYS get the right amount of vanilla in the recipe with measuring it. It was strange, because it called for flour in the custard...does that sound right?




Then I made the cupcakes. More whole milk. UGH. I bet after this I'm going to have nightmares about giant bottles of whole milk. I haven't whole milk in years! It had actually slipped my mind. And then, there it is, sitting in my fridge. A cute polka dot cow on it...smiling. I can't resist the face! It's funny actually. Whenever I'm at the store to get lunch items or whatnot, I always think, "what do I need for cupcakes?" I always remember what I need, but I always forget the amount! But back to cupcakes! I was under so much pressure NOT to boil the milk and have it scald. Having three extra sets of eyes staring at you make more trouble. It worked out perfectly though. And thank Elinor Klivans that she specifically put that the batter was suppose to be thin. It made it easier to pour into the pan.



Here are the beautiful cupcakes!



The giant cupcake liners actually shrunk around the cupcakes...making it look like a mini cake! I was so happy and felt successful and professional. I went straight on to baking the second batch. But I noticed something weird about the batter. It looked like the original batter, but some oil was swirling around on top. I thought it wouldn't matter, so I baked them anyway. Guess what happened? It was a nightmare! A few cooked all the way through...except the rest didn't! The tops were still gooey and it smelled weird. I put them in for five extra minutes...and then another five minutes and then two minutes. They came out dense and tough. Yuck! I ended up throwing them away! I guess that I'm not professional at all.



The cupcakes in the pan were the cursed ones! I then let them cool, then chill in the fridge. Meanwhile, I made the glaze.



Chocolate perfection. Time to fill the cupcakes! I took the custard out of the fridge that had been in there for about two hours. Oh yes. TWO HOURS! And then the cupcakes. I sliced of a 1/4 inch of the top, then scooped out a piece of cupcake. Then I took a big spoonful of custard and filled the hole. I then put the top on the cupcake and set aside.







And then I scooped glaze over the cupcakes! Here's how they turned out!



And then of course...I ate one!



Yum yum! Bake on! GREAT AMERICAN BAKESALE!