So work is terribly stressful, which leads to baking!
Tonight I made chocolate chip muffins for the morning:
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/3 cup dark brown sugar
1/3 cup sugar
2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2/3 cup milk
1/2 cup butter -- melted and cooled
2 eggs - beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 package (12 oz) chocolate chips
Okay, so maybe I added some extra chocolate chips, and some secret ingredient, but who's counting? Anyway, that yielded some tasty muffins (I may have had chocolate chip muffins and beer for dinner, oops?)
Just an aside, I love how having things in the oven gives me time to clean in the kitchen! I almost always do my baking dishes (plus whatever else is in the sink) while my treats are baking, and today I cleaned the stove top too!
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
Saturday, February 12, 2011
Chocolate Cupcakes, Giant Cupcake, and Muffin Aside...
Saturdays are great days for baking. Yay baking. It's a problem, I know. And I've roped the roomie into my addiction. I'm a horrible person. So after our Saturday morning BSG fix, we found ourselves in the kitchen.
Alright, so I'd already been in the kitchen this morning. I whipped up a quick batch of lemon poppy seed muffins from a cheap mix that was on sale at the grocery store. With a bit of secret ingredient mixed in, I tossed them in the oven while I made coffee. After all, we'd need fuel for the cupcake madness to come. The mix yielded a nice half dozen, and for being so cheap and easy, they were pretty damn tasty.
But really, what matters here is cupcakes. Because who doesn't love cupcakes, right? Anyway, being the lovely sharer of addictions that I am, I had gotten her a Big Top Cupcake pan for the holidays to go with the lovely new stand mixer I knew she was getting. So she was baking with that for the first time. She filled it with funfetti cake mix, and into the oven it went. She made a tasty peanut butter filling for it too... it had peanut butter chips, peanut butter, butter, sugar, and milk. Yummy.
I made some chocolate cupcakes:
2 cups of all-purpose flour
2 cups of brown sugar
2 cups of melted semi-sweet chocolate chips
2 tsp. baking soda
2 large eggs
1 tsp. salt
1 cup of vegetable oil
A generous splash of vanilla extract
1 cup of water
And some secret ingredient
We were having oven issues today. Not everything baked evenly. Though I made about 2 dozen cupcakes, only about a dozen were presentable. So I frosted those with leftover frosting from the Murdercake. Added some sprinkles to make them super cute, and we have hooray cupcakes!
Alright, so I'd already been in the kitchen this morning. I whipped up a quick batch of lemon poppy seed muffins from a cheap mix that was on sale at the grocery store. With a bit of secret ingredient mixed in, I tossed them in the oven while I made coffee. After all, we'd need fuel for the cupcake madness to come. The mix yielded a nice half dozen, and for being so cheap and easy, they were pretty damn tasty.
But really, what matters here is cupcakes. Because who doesn't love cupcakes, right? Anyway, being the lovely sharer of addictions that I am, I had gotten her a Big Top Cupcake pan for the holidays to go with the lovely new stand mixer I knew she was getting. So she was baking with that for the first time. She filled it with funfetti cake mix, and into the oven it went. She made a tasty peanut butter filling for it too... it had peanut butter chips, peanut butter, butter, sugar, and milk. Yummy.
I made some chocolate cupcakes:
2 cups of all-purpose flour
2 cups of brown sugar
2 cups of melted semi-sweet chocolate chips
2 tsp. baking soda
2 large eggs
1 tsp. salt
1 cup of vegetable oil
A generous splash of vanilla extract
1 cup of water
And some secret ingredient
We were having oven issues today. Not everything baked evenly. Though I made about 2 dozen cupcakes, only about a dozen were presentable. So I frosted those with leftover frosting from the Murdercake. Added some sprinkles to make them super cute, and we have hooray cupcakes!
Tuesday, February 8, 2011
Murdercake
So my dear friend's birthday is coming up, and when I asked him what sort of cake he wanted his reply was "murdercake." I pushed for clarification, and didn't get any. I have very special friends. So left to my own devices, this is what he's getting:
I picked up a heart-shaped silicone cake pan for $1 at Target last year, and I've only had a few occasions to use it since. So I made a heart-shaped red velvet cake. I took the cheap and easy route on this one, since it was the middle of the week, and I'm lazy. I started with a boxed yellow cake mix. Followed the directions on the box, and added some secret ingredient and about a quarter cup of sugar. Then I mixed in some chocolate pudding mix and a fair amount of red food coloring. I made two layers of that.
In between and on top, I made some vanilla frosting from scratch. It's a variation on a super easy recipe that my very good friend from high school taught me. It's basically just 1 part shortening, 4 parts powdered sugar and vanilla to taste. That's the frosting on top and between my layers of cake. I also made some red frosting and mixed in the frozen raspberries leftover from my raspberry scones to make the gore!
Alright so this is the first layer:
And this is the cake in progress:
The you just add the murder, and voila... MURDERCAKE!
I picked up a heart-shaped silicone cake pan for $1 at Target last year, and I've only had a few occasions to use it since. So I made a heart-shaped red velvet cake. I took the cheap and easy route on this one, since it was the middle of the week, and I'm lazy. I started with a boxed yellow cake mix. Followed the directions on the box, and added some secret ingredient and about a quarter cup of sugar. Then I mixed in some chocolate pudding mix and a fair amount of red food coloring. I made two layers of that.
In between and on top, I made some vanilla frosting from scratch. It's a variation on a super easy recipe that my very good friend from high school taught me. It's basically just 1 part shortening, 4 parts powdered sugar and vanilla to taste. That's the frosting on top and between my layers of cake. I also made some red frosting and mixed in the frozen raspberries leftover from my raspberry scones to make the gore!
Alright so this is the first layer:
And this is the cake in progress:
The you just add the murder, and voila... MURDERCAKE!
Sunday, February 6, 2011
Peanut Butter Cheesecake
That's right. A straight up heart attack of deliciousness in a pan.
The crust started with a pack of Oreos (well actually store-brand chocolate sandwich cream cookies, but whatever). Crushed those up, minus the handful that made it to my mouth, and added a stick of melted butter. I mixed that all together and pressed it into the pie pan. Yes I realize that I should have a fancy-schmancy spring form pan and make it in a water bath, but I'm baking on a budget here. I work with what I have.
Anyway, the best part is the filling. About a cup of brown sugar, one egg, and one package of cream cheese mixed together. A smidge of the secret ingredient mixed in. Then I took about a cup of Reeses peanut butter chips (which I had never baked with before, but they were on clearance so I couldn't resist) and melted them with a small amount of butter. I stirred that into my cheesecake mixture. It thickened it up a bit more than I expected, but it was still a good texture... and totally delicious. So I spread it into my pan and tossed it in the oven. Mmmmm.
The crust started with a pack of Oreos (well actually store-brand chocolate sandwich cream cookies, but whatever). Crushed those up, minus the handful that made it to my mouth, and added a stick of melted butter. I mixed that all together and pressed it into the pie pan. Yes I realize that I should have a fancy-schmancy spring form pan and make it in a water bath, but I'm baking on a budget here. I work with what I have.
Anyway, the best part is the filling. About a cup of brown sugar, one egg, and one package of cream cheese mixed together. A smidge of the secret ingredient mixed in. Then I took about a cup of Reeses peanut butter chips (which I had never baked with before, but they were on clearance so I couldn't resist) and melted them with a small amount of butter. I stirred that into my cheesecake mixture. It thickened it up a bit more than I expected, but it was still a good texture... and totally delicious. So I spread it into my pan and tossed it in the oven. Mmmmm.
Saturday, February 5, 2011
Raspberry Scones
So this morning I decided to attempt scones for the first time.
For the first batch I followed this recipe for whole wheat raspberry scones. For once, I actually followed the recipe. The only minor adaptation was a pinch of my secret ingredient... which goes in EVERYTHING I bake. And instead of scones, I pretty much ended up with round, flat, scone-like cookies. So fail.
Batch 2 consisted of the leftover dough from batch one. I added a cup of white flour and 1.5 tablespoons on baking powder. The results were slightly more risen than the first round, but still very cookie-like.
For the third batch, I added another tablespoon of baking powder, and maybe a teaspoon on baking soda. They came out basically the same as the second batch, except they were dark purple!
Alright, so batch 4: More white flour, baking powder, baking soda, and more RASPBERRIES! The consistency of the dough seemed a bit more appropriate, and as I watched them bake I began to get hopeful that maybe batch 4 was going to be the batch. As they come out of the oven, I was getting excited. I could barely wait a minute before I pulled one of the tray, broke off a corner, and ran to my room mate. "I think I've achieved scones." A bite later, "You have totally achieve scones." Batch 4 for the win!
For the first batch I followed this recipe for whole wheat raspberry scones. For once, I actually followed the recipe. The only minor adaptation was a pinch of my secret ingredient... which goes in EVERYTHING I bake. And instead of scones, I pretty much ended up with round, flat, scone-like cookies. So fail.
Batch 2 consisted of the leftover dough from batch one. I added a cup of white flour and 1.5 tablespoons on baking powder. The results were slightly more risen than the first round, but still very cookie-like.
For the third batch, I added another tablespoon of baking powder, and maybe a teaspoon on baking soda. They came out basically the same as the second batch, except they were dark purple!
Alright, so batch 4: More white flour, baking powder, baking soda, and more RASPBERRIES! The consistency of the dough seemed a bit more appropriate, and as I watched them bake I began to get hopeful that maybe batch 4 was going to be the batch. As they come out of the oven, I was getting excited. I could barely wait a minute before I pulled one of the tray, broke off a corner, and ran to my room mate. "I think I've achieved scones." A bite later, "You have totally achieve scones." Batch 4 for the win!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
