Tuesday, May 24, 2011
Sour cream cupcakes with cream cheese frosting :)
Last week I decided I would try baking some sour cream cupcakes from the cupcake project. She has a recipe for vanilla and chocolate cupcakes using the same recipe. It's actually pretty convenient. I was able to bake these with out any help. I don't remember why, the girls were probably playing outside or making a mess somewhere. :) Anywho, so the baking process was pretty quick and easy. When they came out of the oven they looked so perfect. Kevin came home right as I was taking them out of the oven and the girls were done running around and immediately we all congregated in the kitchen waiting for the cupcakes to cool down. As they were cooling I started on the cream cheese frosting. I did a regular, a chocolate and a strawberry( spur of the moment). We each tried a cupcake with the different frostings. I personally enjoyed the chocolate cupcake with choc. cream cheese frosting. I still am not sure about the vanilla cupcake. I think it may have been too sour creamy for me. Maybe a little more vanilla extract could cover that up?! Here are some pics of them:
totally don't know how to fix the pictures. Anyway, i can't wait to try this homemade oreos. Right now I've got a butter mochi cake in the oven. I hope it turned out well..i didn't have any whole or coconut milk, so i just used evap. milk. I'll post that up next time....Happy baking! :)
Tuesday, May 17, 2011
Cupcakin'
Last week I decided to try a recipe from iheartcuppycakes . It was just a basic vanilla cupcake. In her blog she used it to make a rainbow cupcake. I figured since the girls were around we would go a little fancy with some swirls. So I divided the batter in thirds and colored 2 of them pink and purple.
I don't know how other moms do their baking or crafting with their kids around...because I have a hell of a time with mine. My girls are super curious and very hands on. Cooking dinner is often a challenge for us. Don't get me wrong, I love the fact that they want to be involved and would rather be cooking/baking then watching t.v. but when i'm trying to get something done in a hurry or have a project that needs to get done for someone it can be a very messy situation. As for these cupcakes it was all fun n messes. Nia wanted to help out and I let her mix the colors for the batter and swirl them in. Here is the recipe for the cupcakes:
INGREDIENTS
For cupcakes
2-1/2 cups AP flour
3 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1-1/2 cup sugar
12 tbsp (1-1/2 sticks) butter, room temperature
2 large egg + 2 egg white, room temperature
2 tsp vanilla extract (I used Lorann butter-vanilla emulsion instead)
1 cup milk (I used half-and-half instead)
food coloring: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple (I used Ateco coloring gel)
garnish (skittles, peeps, sprinkles)
cream cheese frosting (favorite recipe or canned)
[NOTES: You could substitute a white cake mix for the cupcake recipe too but the quantity and consistency of the cupcakes will be slightly different.]
INSTRUCTIONS
To make cupcakes—
Preheat oven to 350F. Line cupcake pan with paper liners.
In a large bowl, sift flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside. In a stand mixer, fitted with flat beater, beat the sugar and butter until well combined, about 2-3 minutes. Add eggs and egg whites, one at a time, beating on low.
Then add vanilla. Gradually add flour mixture in 3 additions, alternating with milk in 2 additions, ending with the flour mixture.
Bake for about 17-20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. Remove from pan and cool completely on a wire cooling rack
Here are some pictures of the process:
They turned out really good. Right out of the oven the girls each had 2, Kevin had 3 and I had... some. LOL! I didn't feel like making frosting so we just used some left over store bought vanilla kind. If i were to make a frosting for this it would definitely be a cream cheese one. :) Well, on to the next i guess...
It will probably be sour cream vanilla & choc. cupcakes from The Cupcake Project. YUMMY!
I don't know how other moms do their baking or crafting with their kids around...because I have a hell of a time with mine. My girls are super curious and very hands on. Cooking dinner is often a challenge for us. Don't get me wrong, I love the fact that they want to be involved and would rather be cooking/baking then watching t.v. but when i'm trying to get something done in a hurry or have a project that needs to get done for someone it can be a very messy situation. As for these cupcakes it was all fun n messes. Nia wanted to help out and I let her mix the colors for the batter and swirl them in. Here is the recipe for the cupcakes:
INGREDIENTS
For cupcakes
2-1/2 cups AP flour
3 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1-1/2 cup sugar
12 tbsp (1-1/2 sticks) butter, room temperature
2 large egg + 2 egg white, room temperature
2 tsp vanilla extract (I used Lorann butter-vanilla emulsion instead)
1 cup milk (I used half-and-half instead)
food coloring: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple (I used Ateco coloring gel)
garnish (skittles, peeps, sprinkles)
cream cheese frosting (favorite recipe or canned)
[NOTES: You could substitute a white cake mix for the cupcake recipe too but the quantity and consistency of the cupcakes will be slightly different.]
INSTRUCTIONS
To make cupcakes—
Preheat oven to 350F. Line cupcake pan with paper liners.
In a large bowl, sift flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside. In a stand mixer, fitted with flat beater, beat the sugar and butter until well combined, about 2-3 minutes. Add eggs and egg whites, one at a time, beating on low.
Then add vanilla. Gradually add flour mixture in 3 additions, alternating with milk in 2 additions, ending with the flour mixture.
Bake for about 17-20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. Remove from pan and cool completely on a wire cooling rack
Here are some pictures of the process:
 |
| all the dry ingredients |
 |
| creaming butter and sugar |
 |
| added eggs and vanilla |
 |
| added dry ingredients |
 |
| added color |
 |
| swirly swirl |
 |
| pretty |
 |
| time to frost and decorate |
 |
| not bad..right? |
 |
| yummy |
 |
They turned out really good. Right out of the oven the girls each had 2, Kevin had 3 and I had... some. LOL! I didn't feel like making frosting so we just used some left over store bought vanilla kind. If i were to make a frosting for this it would definitely be a cream cheese one. :) Well, on to the next i guess...
It will probably be sour cream vanilla & choc. cupcakes from The Cupcake Project. YUMMY!
Monday, May 9, 2011
Claire's Cookies
Not so much...
Apparently, I am not very good at blogging. I already knew this. I think this is the 3rd or 4th blog I've tried. It's just very difficult for me to sit, think and write without getting interrupted. I have a chance right now because Ms. Leia is busy watching a tv show. So here's my 2nd post for this blog.
I haven't been very busy baking lately. The last thing I made were cookies for my friends daughter's 8th bday last week. I didn't even take a picture of them. :( I used a new cookie recipe that had me cream the butter and sugar for 5 minutes and the dough was really fluffy and sticky. Very difficult for me to work with. I think i'll be sticking to my old recipe. I prefer a crisper cookie to a fluffy soft one. Although,everyone who ate them said they were good. I'm still having a hard time with my icing. I use royal icing to decorate the cookies but I'm not sure if it should be thicker. I don't know, I guess I'm going to have to do some trial and error.
It's funny to see everyone on this cake pop craze. Every where i go there are things for cake pops. Everyone is trying to capitalize on it, i guess. They are good and very easy to make. It's pretty amazing to see how one persons idea(Bakerella) has inspired so many people, including myself. I still remember my first cake pop experience 2 years ago. I made the HK cake pops for my sister in laws babyshower in HI. I had it shipped and everything. I guess if i were smarter or more into it back then I would've capitalized on the cake poppin' sooner. I probably would've made a killing since no one really knew about it then. LOL! I'd rather come up with my own idea anyway...haha!Well gtg. Her show is over and we are going outside! :)
I haven't been very busy baking lately. The last thing I made were cookies for my friends daughter's 8th bday last week. I didn't even take a picture of them. :( I used a new cookie recipe that had me cream the butter and sugar for 5 minutes and the dough was really fluffy and sticky. Very difficult for me to work with. I think i'll be sticking to my old recipe. I prefer a crisper cookie to a fluffy soft one. Although,everyone who ate them said they were good. I'm still having a hard time with my icing. I use royal icing to decorate the cookies but I'm not sure if it should be thicker. I don't know, I guess I'm going to have to do some trial and error.
It's funny to see everyone on this cake pop craze. Every where i go there are things for cake pops. Everyone is trying to capitalize on it, i guess. They are good and very easy to make. It's pretty amazing to see how one persons idea(Bakerella) has inspired so many people, including myself. I still remember my first cake pop experience 2 years ago. I made the HK cake pops for my sister in laws babyshower in HI. I had it shipped and everything. I guess if i were smarter or more into it back then I would've capitalized on the cake poppin' sooner. I probably would've made a killing since no one really knew about it then. LOL! I'd rather come up with my own idea anyway...haha!Well gtg. Her show is over and we are going outside! :)
Wednesday, April 27, 2011
Domestic Diva! LOL!
Here I am with a new blog. This time about my adventures in baking and possibly some crafting. I never really had a passion before, I still don't know if I even do, but baking has definitely become something I love to do. It's fun, it's messy and it tastes pretty good. I can stay up for hours decorating cookies, researching recipes, reading food blogs. I get so inspired reading and looking at all the creative and crafty bloggers out there. Hopefully I can stay focused and really create some wonderful things. It's not easy with 2 little girls running around me all day, but they are my inspiration for actually doing this. I hope when they are old enough they can go through these blogs and remember our adventures in baking/crafting together.
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