German Chocolate Cupcakes

This is Augie.

Please disregard the case of Miller Lite in the background. It was left over from a family visit and we've just now taken back the empties. I didn't want to lose the opportunity for this picture by removing it beforehand. It's very hard to get a puppy to hold a pose. So, like I said, this is Augie. He's the newest member of our family. He's a 9-week-old black lab (he was just about 8 weeks old when this picture was taken) and he's been with us just about 2 weeks. Needless to say we've been pretty busy trying to teach this little guy the ropes and make sure Rollins (our almost 3-year-old yellow lab) still knows we love him. Thankfully the boys actually get along really well, which was my biggest worry. Now if I could only get Augie housebroken... all in good time.

So anyway, that handsome little face is the reason it took me so long to make these German Chocolate Cupcakes.

It's difficult to bake while a puppy is running around under your feet. It's even harder to keep track of him to make sure he's not running around in another room doing something he shouldn't be. For those reasons I waited to bake until my hubby and I would both be home so he could keep an eye on the boys while I worked.

This recipe didn't involve much prep beforehand. I left both the butter and the eggs out overnight to get to room temperature. I had also chopped all the chocolate the day before and just put it in a tupperware until I needed it. I was making chocolate frozen yogurt that also required chopped semisweet chocolate so I figured doing all the chopping at once would save me some time in the long run. I love being efficient. On to the cupcakes... I started with melting the chocolate and after the chocolate was melted I let it cool while I buttered and floured the cupcake pans. One of my least favorite things as I've mentioned many times before.

Making the batter wasn't difficult and it didn't take very long to do. The only hiccup I came across when making the cupcakes was what they looked like when they were done, and getting them out of the cupcake pans. I filled the cupcake pans three-quarters full (or what I think is three-quarters full) and baked them for 20 total minutes with a turn halfway through the baking time. When the cupcakes were done they were very flat and wide. They didn't bake up, they baked across, and in my opinion were quite ugly. But then again, I'm a sucker for a nice round cupcake. I can only conclude that I filled the cupcake pans too full, and since I only got 21 cupcakes instead of the 24 I was supposed to get that's probably the case. So, if I were to make them again I wouldn't fill them quite as full.

The other problem I came across was getting the cupcakes out of the pan. For whatever reason, buttering and flouring the cupcake pans didn't work like it normally does. Out of 21 cupcakes, I think only 2 or 3 of them came out cleanly. For the majority of the cupcakes there was at the very least a small portion that stuck to the bottom of the pan making the cupcakes look very ugly and making me very frustrated. The only thing I can think of is that cake flour doesn't work as well as all-purpose flour, or maybe I didn't butter them enough. I used a paper towel to apply the butter instead of just buttering the pans with the stick of butter itself. The butter was too soft and would have made a mess. I always apply Crisco with a paper towel so I figured using the same technique with butter would work just as well. So it was either the butter or the cake flour, something didn't work right.

After the cupcakes had cooled I set them aside in a tupperware until I could get to making the  Coconut-Pecan Frosting. Time and energy have been lacking for me lately so it took me a day or two to get to it. This frosting was a little more involved than a typical frosting but it wasn't that difficult. First order of business was chopping the pecans so they could be roasted. While the pecans roasted and cooled I worked on putting together the rest of the frosting. The recipe said to heat the frosting over medium heat until it thickened to the consistency of sour cream, roughly 10 minutes. I stirred constantly just like it said and at roughly 10 minutes the mixture wasn't that thick, nor was it the consistency of sour cream. So, I let it go another 10 minutes hoping the consistency would change and that I wouldn't ruin the frosting in the process.

The additional 10 minutes didn't make much of a difference. I suppose it was a little thicker, but it still wasn't sour cream consistency. But, at this point the mixture was boiling and I was worried about burning it, so I stopped when I got to 20 minutes of constant stirring and no success. I was hoping that taking it off the heat would also help it to thicken up a little bit... it did. Once I was done cooking the frosting I strained it through a fine sieve into a medium-sized bowl. I have a small sieve so this took a little while since I had to strain it in batches. Eventually I will invest in a larger sieve. When I was done straining the frosting I stirred in the remaining ingredients and let everything cool before I frosted the cupcakes.

While the frosting was cooling I sliced all the cupcakes in half and entertained the pups for a little while. When the frosting had cooled completely I put one tablespoon on the bottom half of the cupcake, placed the top half of the cupcake on that, and then spread some frosting on the top of each cupcake. This was a bit of a messy process as the frosting was quite sticky, but I thought the cupcakes actually turned out looking quite nice. Especially considering what they had looked like when I took them out of the pan. Don't get me wrong, some still looked a little rough, but they were much improved.

As for the taste of the cupcakes once they were frosted, I didn't love them, but I didn't hate them. I'm not a big fan of coconut or pecans, I know I've mentioned that before, so I didn't expect to like the frosting very much. The frosting itself wasn't terrible, and eating it with the cupcakes definitely helped. The cupcakes themselves, without the frosting were very good and I did actually eat more than one with no frosting at all... less calories! But, when completely finished and frosted I didn't get through half a cupcake. They weren't bad, they just didn't suit my fancy.

Be My Valentine Cookies

I know, Valentine's Day was almost a week ago and I'm a little late. But maybe you want to make your sweetheart some "just because I love you cookies" or maybe you just want to make some cutout cookies for no reason in particular. Whatever the case may be, here are the Valentine's Day cookies I made to give out this year. 

I'm a big fan of giving treats as gifts when I can. I love the baking part and I also feel better knowing that whatever I'm giving is going to be eaten and enjoyed rather than sit on a shelf or in a drawer somewhere never to be seen or used. In short, everyone loves food.

To make these cookies I used a cutout cookie recipe that I've been baking with since I was a little girl baking Christmas cookies with my mom and brother. I'm not sure where the recipe came from, but my family has been using it since I can remember. I've never used another recipe for cutout cookies. The recipe can be easily halved or double if necessary. The full recipe usually yields around 5 dozen cookies depending on the size of the cookies you're making. Because I didn't need that many cookies I cut the recipe in half and I got slightly over 3 dozen cookies.

Soft Cutout Cookies

5 c. flour

2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1 c. butter (room temperature)

2 c. sugar

1 tsp vanilla

2 eggs

1 c. milk

Mix butter, sugar, eggs, milk and vanilla. Then add dry ingredients. Chill 1 hour. Roll dough 1/4" thick and cut out cookies. Bake at 350 degrees for 10-12 minutes. Do not over bake so cookies stay soft.

Yes, it's that easy. I highly recommend making sure you chill the batter long enough. It can be a little sticky if you don't. Making sure your rolling pin, hands and cookie-cutting surface are adequately floured will also help.

For the frosting I used the recipe I always use when baking cakes. It's a plain vanilla buttercream. It can also be easily halved or double if necessary. In this case I made the normal recipe and I had just a tiny bit extra which worked out perfectly.

Vanilla Buttercream Frosting

1/2 c. butter (softened)

1 tsp vanilla

1/8 tsp salt

1 (16 oz) package powdered sugar

3-5 Tbsp milk

1. Beat first 3 ingredients at medium speed with electric mixer until creamy.

2. Gradually add powdered sugar alternately with 3 Tbsp milk, 1 Tbsp at a time, beating at low speed until blended and smooth after each addition. Beat in up to 2 Tbsp additional milk for desired consistency.

When making the frosting I usually add in the extra 2 Tbsp of milk just because I like my frosting to be a little creamier and easier to spread. When the frosting was done I separated it into 2 bowls and added food coloring to one of them so I would have pink and white frosting. I also have a ton of sprinkles on hand, people like to give them to me as gifts, so I had several options of sprinkles to use for Valentine's Day. 

After the cookies were frosted and decorated I put them on a cookie sheet and set them in the freezer for a few minutes so the frosting sets. That way when I wrap them up to ship them or personally deliver them they still look good when they arrive. In this case I placed 6 cookies in mini disposable loaf pans which I wrapped in Saran Wrap (to keep the cookies fresh) and then placed in a Valentine's snack bag I got at the dollar store. In hindsight I should have taken a picture of the finished product, but I didn't think of it at the time. I boxed up the packages I was shipping and hand delivered the rest. To quote my neighbor, they were "awesome". Hope your Valentine's Day was a happy one!

Peanut Butter Cupcakes

Forgive me cupcakes for I have sinned. It's been several weeks since I last baked one of you...

Who knew getting married would monopolize so much of my time? And I fear it's only going to get worse from here since we're now 41 days away. Holy crap. I find that when you say it out loud (or read/write it) it really hits home how close it is. I'm not even panicking, at least not yet. We're pretty well organized, unless there's something major that I forgot. We'll see.

While I have been busy with wedding events and preparations and real-life things the past couple weeks this week I'm back! Did you miss me? My goal is to not take another cupcake hiatus until the wedding. I can't promise I won't, but I'm going to try not to.

When I left you last I had made a couple cakes for some birthdays, but my last cupcake adventure from Martha's book were these chocolate chunk cupcakes. The first of three in the cookie cupcake series in the third section of the book. I had high hopes for them, but they were disappointing, mostly because the chunks were so chunky they sunk and didn't make for very good looking cupcakes. I was hoping the second installment in this section, peanut butter cupcakes, would yield better results.

From the onset I wasn't very excited about these cupcakes because in my previous experience with peanut butter cupcakes I didn't enjoy them. The cupcakes were a bit too heavy, dense and peanut buttery for my taste. I feared that I would get the same result from this recipe. I didn't. Phew.

Let's break down the recipe, shall we? It was easy, plain and simple. I did get a bit thrown when it came time to fill the liners. The recipe said to fill the liners with 3 scant tablespoons of batter. I still don't know what that means, but because I was able to successfully make the cupcakes without that knowledge I didn't bother to look it up afterward. I used a tablespoon to fill the liners and filled them roughly three-quarters full. I just eyeballed it. The recipe said I should yield 20 cupcakes. I ran out of batter at 20 cupcakes so I figured my measurements were pretty close to on point.

However, when baking time came and they took longer than the recipe said they should have, I thought I might have made them a little too big. Martha said to bake the cupcakes about 13 minutes with a turn halfway through the baking time. I ended up baking them for 19 minutes. They were good size, but they certainly weren't too big. In fact they were the perfect size for my taste.

I let the cupcakes cool completely and then began work on the frosting (recipe can also be found with the link above). I let the cream cheese and butter get to room temperature while I was baking the cupcakes so it wasn't too difficult to work with. The frosting was also easy to make and didn't take long. Once I was done with that I used my new, small offset spatula that I got at my recent bridal shower (thanks Laney!) to frost the cupcakes. I had quite a bit of frosting left over. Enough that I probably could have frosted 20 more cupcakes. I threw the excess away. Wasteful yes, but also good for my waistline. We're 41 days out people, it's all about the waistline right now.

After all the cupcakes were frosted I put them in the fridge for 10 minutes to set so I could finish them off with my favorite detail of the cupcakes, the criss-cross fork pattern! I just think it looks really cool, like they're peanut butter cookies, but they're actually cupcakes... boo-yah! Even though I put confectioner's sugar on the fork it still stuck a little when I pressed it into the frosting. Most of the cupcakes came out ok, but some lost a little frosting to the fork tines. Perfection is boring. Imperfection is what builds character, and I thought the cupcakes turned out looking really nice.

They also turned out tasting really nice. Relax, stay calm, I ate less than half of a cupcake. Truthfully I almost always only eat half a cupcake when I bake and that's usually the one that I take the pictures of. I am dedicated to shedding for the wedding... most of the time. I was expecting the cupcake to be very heavy, dense and peanut buttery like the peanut butter cupcakes of the past. While these cupcakes were heavy in weight, the texture of the cake was actually quite light and fluffy. I really enjoyed them. The frosting wasn't even too much. I was so pleasantly surprised and it took some willpower to only eat half.

Can You Feel The Love?

Since Valentine's Day is just around the corner I thought it was only appropriate to send out a little love... cake ball style. Originally I had all the intentions of making cake pops, but when it came down to it, I just didn't have the energy. It's much easier to just coat cake balls in chocolate as opposed to putting them on a stick and then coating them with chocolate. Sometimes the chocolate drips, sometimes a ball or 2 can fall off the stick, it's just more of a hassle.

I also had the intentions to send my little Valentine's treasure to a few friends and family. I like to do that for holidays, but it didn't work out either. I'm batting 1,000. Everything started out great, I started working on my treats with plenty of time to complete, package and send them out to get to my recipients by Tuesday. But, then I had to work, and go to the gym (Week 15 of shedding for the wedding complete!), and Rollins had to make an unexpected trip to the vet (don't worry everything is fine) and I didn't have the energy to finish them. You may see lack of energy is a recurring theme. I need more sleep, I know. It's something I'm working on. I ended up finishing my cake balls on Saturday. I set a few aside to take to my future in-laws since we'll be visiting them in a few days, and the remaining balls made an appearance at work this morning. People love treats bright and early on a Sunday morning.

Now, are you wondering how to make these little morsels? I'm sure everyone at this point is familiar with the phenomena that is cake pops (or balls in this case), but in case you aren't I will give you a brief cake ball breakdown.

You will need:

1 box of cake mix

1 can of frosting

2 lbs of meltable chocolate coating (I like Make N' Mold from A.C. Moore)

sticks (if you're making pops)

sprinkles (if you want to get a little fancy and decorate)

wrappers and ties (if you want to package them up)

1. Bake the cake according to the directions on the package and let it cool completely.

2. After the cake has cooled, crumble it into a large mixing bowl. Then mix in frosting (you won't use the entire can, a little more than half will be fine).

3. When the cake and frosting are combined begin rolling into balls, about 1 inch in size. Place them on a cookie sheet covered with wax paper. Then put them in the freezer for 15-20 minutes (it's easier to coat them in chocolate if you do this).

4. While the balls are freezing melt the chocolate according to directions on the package.

5. If you are making balls you can just roll the balls in the chocolate and set them back on the wax paper on the cookie sheet to set. If you're making pops, dip the end of the stick in melted chocolate and then push it into the cake ball. Do this with all the cake balls and return them to the freezer to set. Once they are set, dip them in melted chocolate, tap off excess and stick them in a piece of foam to set. If you want to add sprinkles do it before the chocolate sets.

That's all you need to know... have fun spreading the love!

A Day Late, But Not a Cupcake Short

Yes, I normally post on Sundays, but this Sunday someone threw a monkey wrench in my plan. I worked until 8pm last night and was going to get to blogging when I got home from work, but while still at work I got a text message from Bobby and the conversation went like this...

Bobby: "How much do u love me?"

Me: "I'm marrying you, so I guess that means I love you a whole lot."

Bobby: "Ok well I locked my keys in my car at Fishers."

Me: "So I'm marrying an idiot."

Bobby: "Yes lol... buuut if you drive over my spare set you will get a home-cooked meal by chef Pedrozov."

So clearly you can see what happened. I left work, stopped at home, fed Rollins, got Bobby's keys and drove over to our friend John's house. I did get dinner, but they had all already eaten without me, and I had to reheat my food. It was good, don't get me wrong, and it was nice to not have to cook for myself, but at the very least my beloved fiance could have waited for me. I ate, the Sunday Night Football game was on, so we watched that and I indulged in some leftover Halloween candy the boys still had. Mini Twix are delicious and my downfall. But, today is a new day, and as far as I know Bobby hasn't locked his keys in his car.

Now, to the important part... the cupcakes. Ladies and gentlemen, it's official. The first phase of project cupcake has concluded. The baking of the peanut butter and jelly cupcakes has resulted in the completion of the swirled and sprinkled portion of Martha's cupcake cookbook. 18 cupcakes are in the books (no pun intended), I can't quite believe it either. In honor of this momentous occasion I thought it would be fun to take a walk down memory lane to relive some of the highlights, the low lights, and everything in between.

To get it out of the way... let's start with the "bad" news, and my least favorite (and also ugliest, two for one!), tres leches cupcakes.

The horrible picture speaks for itself. Next time around these bad boys will get less tres leches (and much better lighting) and maybe I'll like them more.

Of course, there always has to be a beauty queen on the bunch, these blueberries-and-cream cupcakes were the best looking in my opinion. But then again, it may just be that I'm partial to purple. My bridesmaids will be wearing that color after all.

Most surprising cupcakes goes to...

... rhubarb cupcakes! I had no idea what to expect with these cupcakes, and I thought for sure I wouldn't like them. I had never worked with or even eaten rhubarb so my expectations were low. Turned out I really liked the taste and thought they were quite pretty as well. Too bad I couldn't convince anyone else that they were delicious. As soon as anyone heard rhubarb they ran. They didn't know what they were missing.

Most likely to never make again goes to...

... date-nut mini cupcakes! It's not that these cupcake weren't good, because they weren't horrible, it's just that if I had to pick one of these to never have again, I wouldn't be sad to miss out on these. We already know I'm not a big fan of nuts in my cupcakes and after making these we also learned that I'm terrified of dates because they look like giant slugs. That's an image I'm not going to be able to get out of my head, and to be honest, when I think of these cupcakes I just see a giant slug in my mind. Not the mental image you want when you're eating something.

Last, but not least, the favorite. This shouldn't be a shocker. The winner is...

... carrot cake cupcakes! Carrot cake is my favorite cake, hands down. I love it. It's my dessert of choice if and when I get dessert at a restaurant. While this recipe is different from the recipe that I use when I make carrot cake it's still just as tasty. And, out of the 18 cupcakes I've made so far, I would pick carrot cake first every time I had to choose.

Hope you enjoyed this little walk down memory lane. It made me want a carrot cake cupcake. What's coming up next? You'll just have to wait and see.

Peanut Butter and Jelly Cupcakes

Peanut butter jelly time, peanut butter jelly time, peanut butter, jelly, peanut butter, jelly, peanut butter, jelly... Family Guy anyone? Or at least I think that's from Family Guy. It's ok, I don't watch it either, but I've heard that somewhere before. First, let me start with the photos. A lovely friend of mine recently purchased for me a portable photo studio as an early birthday gift and these cupcakes were my first guinea pig in trying it out. I think they came out pretty well, especially since it came with no instructions. Practice will surely make perfect, right?

I should also apologize for being a day late with my post. You may or may not be aware of the massive snow storm that came through Connecticut this weekend. We were one of the fortunate ones to not lose power and to not have any significant damage to our home. However, some of our friends lost power and still don't have it back, so we've been taking people in so they have a warm place to sleep and hot water to shower. Needless to say things have been a little busy around the house and my office has been monopolized by house guests. Right now the house is currently empty, except for Rollins who's sleeping on the couch (gotta love a full day of doggy daycare) so I'm trying to make the most of my free time tonight before everyone comes back.

So, moving on to what's featured in my pictures... peanut butter and jelly cupcakes. These cupcakes are the last in the first section of the cookbook so I was excited to make them for many reasons. One, because I feel like I've reached a milestone in my project in the fact that I've completed the first section. Two, Bobby's favorite thing in the whole world is peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Yes, he may be 30 years old, but he could eat peanut butter and jelly sandwiches (or pizza) everyday and be completely happy with that. So, I was excited to see how my peanut butter and jelly sandwich expert would like peanut butter and jelly cupcakes.

Before I started baking I remembered to leave out everything that had to be at room temperature before I started working. I also read through the entire recipe. My first order of business was chopping the peanuts, which is rather difficult considering that peanuts are pretty small (I also ended up using honey roasted because I can't read. But I will swear that when I put them in my shopping cart, the package said dry roasted). But, I did manage to successfully chop the peanuts without successfully chopping off any of my fingers. Hooray. After chopping the peanuts all the hard work was pretty much done.

Similar to these applesauce-spice cupcakes, the batter for these cupcakes was also quite thick so I wasn't able to use my pour-by-Pyrex method for the second week in a row. Very depressing. Again I used a tablespoon and spooned about 1 1/2 tablespoons into each cupcake liner. All the cupcakes came out pretty perfectly and I only yielded 2 less cupcakes than the recipe said I would. Both batches of cupcakes were baked for 22 minutes with a turn halfway through the baking time. They came out perfectly with this amount of baking time. Golden brown, and just the right size.

Time for the frosting, and a new one to make at that! Double win! These cupcakes called for creamy peanut butter frosting, doesn't that sound delicious and fattening? This frosting wasn't too difficult to make (and I got to use my stand mixer) but I did have a moment of panic when I was afraid the heavy cream wasn't going to turn into medium-firm peaks. It took a little longer than normal and I nervously stared at it every few minutes wondering if it was ever going to firm up, and what my back-up plan would be if it didn't. Luckily, my whisk and mixer started doing their thing and I had peaks! I folded the whipped cream into the peanut butter-cream cheese mixture to finish everything off. The frosting wasn't as thick as I thought it would be and it was actually quite spreadable. For the finishing touch each cupcake got a little dollop of strawberry preserves. I went with preserves instead of jelly because I like that preserves have little chunks of strawberry in them.

To be honest, from the start I didn't think I would like these cupcakes. Not because I'm not a fan of peanut butter and jelly, because I am, but because I had a feeling these would be pretty dense and pretty peanut buttery cupcakes... I was right. I think I would have liked them more if the frosting was a little sweeter. I kept tasting it as I was adding each ingredient while making it, waiting for the sweetness to emerge and I got nothing. I didn't try a completed cupcake until I took the pictures and I still had the same issue. I needed more sweetness. I had one bite and didn't eat any more. I hate to say I didn't like a cupcake, because it feels wrong. But, I didn't like these. Luckily for me and my taste buds, there are roughly 50 more cupcakes to make... yes, I counted.

Applesauce-Spice Cupcakes

Finally we have come to a recipe that I've made before. It only took 18 cupcakes to get here (tells you how much I have baked from this cookbook). The first time I made applesauce-spice cupcakes (Martha doesn't have them on her website, she really wants you to buy the cookbook) I didn't include the pecans because as I've mentioned numerous time I'm not a huge fan of nuts. But, as I've also previously mentioned I'm doing my best to follow these recipes to a T in the spirit of my self-assigned project.

There wasn't much prep involved in this recipe, which I knew, and I almost didn't read all the way through it because I had made it before, but I did. And I'm glad I did. Because, I saw that I was supposed to include toasted pecans. Since I hadn't included them the first time I made these cupcakes I forgot that they were supposed to be in the recipe. So, first order of business, toast the pecans. While the pecans were toasting I worked on the rest of the recipe, which was extremely easy. Although I did leave out the butter to get to room temperature, since the weather has started to cool off it was a little hard when I was ready to start the batter. I nuked it in the microwave for 10 seconds and it was good to go (I also remembered to leave the eggs out to get to room temperature, but they were still quite cool as well). Fall is here!

Since the batter was a little thick I didn't employ my pour-by-Pyrex method to fill the cupcake pan. I used a tablespoon instead (I really need to get one of those ice cream scoops that I see the people on Cupcake Wars use) using about 1 1/2 good-size spoonfuls to fill the liners. Not the most perfect method, but almost all the cupcakes turned out to be the same size so I was pretty happy with how they turned out.

Now for the brown sugar cream cheese frosting (no luck on Martha's website for this one either), whew, that's a mouthful. This is the first time I've made a true frosting in awhile. My most recent cupcakes have for the most part been frosted with whipped cream. Very unexciting. I like to get the practice of making different frostings. Yes, I had already made this frosting in the past to go with these cupcakes, but still, it was a nice walk down memory lane. It was a pleasant walk as well since this frosting is very easy to make. I just used a thin icing spatula (I don't even know if that's what they're called, but they look like this) to frost the cupcakes since that's what the cupcakes in the picture from the cookbook looked like they were frosted with. I tried to give the cupcakes a little height so they would make for more interesting pictures. Without using all my frosting for one cupcake I did my best.

As I sometimes do, I took these cupcakes to work with me to share and I received a really nice compliment. It's not uncommon for people to tell me they enjoyed the cupcakes, or they're delicious, things like that, and I of course appreciate everyone's kind words. But, on this particular day I was very flattered. After I had passed out the cupcakes to various coworkers I received an email with the subject line of Thanks. It's pretty rare that anyone emails me to thank me for a cupcake, especially someone I don't really know like this person. In all honesty, I introduced myself and then handed him a cupcake. I digress... within the email he had said that he enjoyed the cupcake. He went on to ask if I'd ever seen Cupcake Wars and that he had recently been a judge on the show that's going to air sometime in January. I am of course familiar with the show, duh, I blog about cupcakes. But he doesn't know that. So anyway, he continued to say that the cupcake I had given him was better than most of the ones he tried on the show. I know, I know, he didn't say it was better than all the cupcakes he tried, but I'll take being better than most. After all, I'm no professional. Part of me wanted to reply and ask him if he could point me in the direction of the Cupcake Wars people, but then I came to my senses and realized I have no business on that show. I would be blown out of the water. So instead, I simply replied thank you for the compliment, that's very nice of you to say, and forwarded the email to my home email address so I'll have it when I'm in the need of a pick-me-up. Dork? You bet.

Ginger and Molasses Cupcakes

I have baked with ginger before, but not fresh ginger. I've baked with the kind of ginger that's dry, comes from a small container and costs about $7 (why are spices so expensive?). Fresh ginger is not ground up and dry, it doesn't come from a small container and doesn't cost $7... unless you buy a lot of it. I will say that due to the amount of work fresh ginger requires I prefer the $7 container, but I was happy to finally try using fresh ginger in a recipe.

When shopping for this recipe fresh ginger was the only thing I needed to buy (hooray!). Though I'm a fresh ginger novice when it comes to baking or cooking with it, I know what it looks like and felt confident I could find it at Stop and Shop and not have to make a bunch of trips to various grocery stores. I was right. Yeah me. The recipe said to buy about 2 6-inch pieces of ginger to yield what I would need. I bought 1 large and 2 small pieces thinking it would equal what I needed. I probably could have weighed it to see if it was the number of ounces the recipe specified, but that would have been a smart decision. Smart decisions are things I don't always make.

When it came to prepping these ginger and molasses cupcakes I started with the ginger. First I peeled all the pieces and tried to remove the "nubs" to make it easier to peel. Then, I minced. I actually looked up the difference between mincing, chopping and dicing (love me some Google) so I would now exactly how small the pieces of ginger were supposed to be. I assumed mincing was the smallest because I didn't think having giant chunks of ginger in these cupcakes would be very good. I was right again. I am on a roll. And, in case you're curious in terms of size of the pieces of whatever you're working with, from smallest to largest it goes minced, chopped, diced. You're welcome. Back to mincing. It was fairly easy to do, some of the pieces of ginger were harder to chop than others, not sure why, but overall it was a pretty painless, though sticky process. In an exciting not normal turn of events my eyes proved to be great measuring cups this time around because I got the perfect amount of ginger that I needed for the recipe. Chances of that ever happening again... 1 in never.

The rest of the recipe was easy, except for one minor hiccup. Before going grocery shopping I checked my molasses supply to make sure I had the 2/3 cup that was necessary. I looked in the cupboard, and the jar looked to have enough molasses. Of course when it came to measuring out the molasses while preparing the batter it turned out that I didn't have enough. Using my perfect measuring-cup eyes I concluded I was a little less than 1/4 cup short. Crap. I was tired and now annoyed, I had already worked all day and I didn't feel like making a trip to the store for one thing. I did think about it for about a minute and then decided that being roughly 1/4 cup short of molasses was not a crisis and couldn't possibly make that much of a difference.

During the baking time I added 2 minutes to the total time since these weren't quite done after 20 minutes. When I poked them with the toothpick after 20 minutes I still had batter on the toothpick and the middles sunk in a little. After a little more time in the oven they were fine. When I tasted them I didn't notice anything missing due to the small amount of molasses that I didn't have. Then again, this was the first time I tasted them so I didn't really have anything to compare them to. Ignorance is bliss!

As many of the cupcakes so far in this project have been, these were topped with whipped cream. I made the whipped cream while the cupcakes were baking since it's so easy and put it in the fridge in a Ziplock bag until I was ready to frost the cupcakes. When it was frosting time I noticed that the whipped cream had become a little liquidy (may or may not be a real word) even though I left it in the fridge. I decided to re-whip it in my stand mixer to get it back to the consistency that I wanted. Worked like a charm and I was proud of my head's-up thinking. I did forget one thing. To garnish the cupcakes with the $7-container ginger before I served them and took their pictures. Next time I'll remember the garnish and I'll have the required amount of molasses... unless I forget.

Date-Nut Mini Cupcakes

Miss me last week? If you did, my deepest apologies. We were in Florida basking in the sun and sand (and also shopping for wedding dresses with mom... we have a winner!). But now we're back, and we're baking.

I don't know much about dates, but I do know they look like giant slugs. I discovered this when opening my recently purchased container of Sunsweet pitted dates. I was going to taste one since I've never had one before to see what they were like, but once I saw what they look like I couldn't make myself do it. To me they just looked like a giant slug or some other type of creepy crawly creature that I couldn't put in my mouth. Even after I chopped them up I couldn't make myself try one. All I could think about was how they looked in their original unchopped form. Not pretty.

I set my expectations low when making these date-nut mini cupcakes (recipe not available on Martha's website) because I didn't know how I felt about dates at the time I first read the recipe, and I'm not a big fan of walnuts. Since those 2 things were the main components of these cupcakes I didn't think they stood a chance. Truthfully I wanted to skip this recipe entirely and move on to the next one for that reason. And, because ground cardamom is $14 for a 2 oz. bottle which just seems utterly ridiculous. While I did briefly contemplate skipping the recipe, I'm not a quitter so I sucked it up, spent $21 on ground cardamom and walnuts and started getting to work.

As has become my practice I "prepped" everything before I started to really get to work. I chopped the slugs... make that dates, toasted the walnuts and turned on the tea kettle to start boiling water. My timing has become quite impeccable if I do say so myself. I have always loved mini cupcakes because they're cute, as are all mini things. But, filling mini cupcakes is not cute, not cute at all. There's no good way to do it. I didn't use my glass Pyrex measuring cup like I normally would because I knew that once I started pouring the batter into the liners I would almost have to immediately stop pouring since mini cupcakes are so small. Which meant that stopping the momentum of the batter would be difficult, the batter would probably overflow and make a mess. I wasn't willing to deal with all of that. So, I used a teaspoon and carried a small measuring cup underneath it to catch any batter that might fall. This wasn't the best method and I still made a mess, but it wasn't the worst method either.

These cupcakes were supposed to be baked for 15 minutes with a turn halfway through the total baking time. I started with 7 minutes, then turned the cupcakes and baked them for 7 more minutes. With the toothpick test I thought a little more baking time was needed so I added 2 more minutes and did that for the remaining 2 batches of cupcakes. In the end each batch was baked for 16 total minutes. The nice thing about making mini cupcakes is that I have 2 mini cupcake pans, so I could have a batch ready to go into the oven as soon as the batch before it was done. Eventually I will invest in a second regular-sized cupcake pan... eventually. Maybe I'll put one of the wedding registry!

For the first time in this project I didn't have to make a frosting/topping for the cupcakes. I almost didn't know what to do with myself. The recipe said to add creme fraiche to these cupcakes. Confession... I have no idea what creme fraiche is and I didn't Google it to find out. I assume it is French and in French it means fresh cream. I could be incorrect. As we learned earlier, I studied Spanish, not French in high school so my vocabulary is limited. Lo siento (I'm sorry in Spanish). I guessed that creme fraiche didn't mean whipped cream, otherwise Martha would have told me to make it. So from the picture in the book I took it to mean something along the lines of a Cool Whip. I'm sure Martha would gasp in disgust if she knew that's what I purchased (lo siento, Martha), but I didn't know what else to do. I taste tested the cupcakes without Cool Whip because I like a "naked" taste test to see how much the frosting/topping helps or hurts a cupcake. The cupcakes sans Cool Whip were good. Turns out slugs (dates) aren't too bad, and I didn't mind the walnuts that much. With a dollop of Cool Whip the cupcakes were slightly more delicious. Though Martha might disagree with me, I find absolutely nothing wrong with Cool Whip. It's delicious, and I could, and have eaten it by the teaspoonfuls. Judge me if your must.

Chocolate Malted In Your Mouth Cupcakes

When I hear, or rather see in this case, the word malted I think of malted milk balls, known to most in the general population as Whoppers. I don't love malted milk balls, but I also don't hate them. They are made of chocolate after all. Therefore when I saw that the next recipe up for baking was chocolate malted cupcakes (Martha has not provided this particular recipe on her website, but if you'd like it let me know) I immediately thought of the previously mentioned candy. That candy is not in these cupcakes. They're almost your standard chocolate cupcake with just a subtle difference. The untrained palette not knowing any better (mine) would think it to be a regular chocolate cupcake with vanilla icing. Not knowing anything about the secret ingredient (shout out to Iron Chef America!)... malted milk powder!

I bet you're asking yourself the same questions I did. What is malted milk powder and where can I find it? I did do some Google research about malted milk powder, but I didn't retain any of the knowledge I gained to share with you. To be truthful, I didn't and still don't care what's in it, I just wanted to know where I could find it. On my weekly trip to the grocery store I carefully scanned the baking aisle to see if I could find it there. No luck. I didn't give up hope, thinking maybe I would find it in the aisle where the sweetened condensed milk and other powdery drink substances live. No luck there either. I probably could have widened my search to other grocery stores, but I wasn't in the mood to go on a malted milk powder mission. As a result of my Googling I knew there was a website where I could order the powder if I couldn't find it at the store. Personally, I find sitting in front of my computer in my sweats a lot more appealing than driving around to a bunch of different stores looking for something I probably won't find anyway.

I ordered the powder from kingarthurflour.com. I had heard of this company before. I've actually used their cake flour in other recipes and some of their products, such as cake flour, are sold in Stop N Shop (my supermarket of choice because it's less than 5 minutes from my house). I knew I liked the products and the company is also based in Vermont (close to where I live in Connecticut) so I knew standard shipping time should only be a couple days and I wouldn't have to wait impatiently for a week or more for it to arrive. The malted milk powder was $7.95 plus shipping for a 16 ounce package, and the total came to $13.95. Being the frugal person that I am I Googled a coupon code for King Arthur Flour and found one that would save me a whopping 10 percent! Score! Kid all you want, 80 cents saved is 80 cents in my pocket that I can spend on something else. The grand total came to $13.15 and my malted milk powder showed up about 2 days later.

The malted milk powder wasn't quite what I expected it to be. I thought it would be more like a flour or confectioner's sugar but it was closer to a cornmeal in consistency and had an interesting odor. It also didn't look great when I mixed it in with the milk and waited for it to dissolve. When I combined the milk-malted milk powder mixture with the dry ingredients that batter was very think, almost sticky, but the addition of the eggs and sour cream thinned it out to more of a consistency that I was expecting and am used to for a cupcake batter.

Martha said to fill the cupcake liners halfway and turn once halfway through the 20-minute baking process. In all the previous recipes that I can remember the cupcake liners were supposed to be filled two-thirds or three-quarters of the way full, so I was assuming the malted milk powder was going to make these cupcakes puff up more than normal therefore I followed the halfway-filling instructions for the first go-round. The baking time was perfect, but the size of the cupcakes was not, at least not by my preferences. I like a rounded cupcake that peaks out above the liner a little, not one that just skims across the top. So, for the remaining two rounds of baking I filled them a little fuller to get the result I wanted. I ended up with 28 cupcakes, just like Martha said I would. But, had I filled the liners a little fuller for the first batch, I probably would have come up with an even 2 dozen.

The fluffy vanilla frosting that I used for the yellow buttermilk cupcakes was as easy to make the second time as it was the first... and just as delicious. I used my mini Pyrex rubber spatula to frost the cupcakes and added some chocolate sprinkles (or jimmies if you prefer) for fun, and because Martha did, and had myself 28 good looking (and tasty) cupcakes. During the entire baking process I was wondering what the cupcakes would taste like. Since I had just made a chocolate cupcake, I was hoping they would be a little different, and not just another chocolate cupcake. In addition to the difference in color, these were a lighter brown, there was a slight difference in taste, which I'm assuming can be attributed to the malted milk powder. These cupcakes were almost creamy, not really in the texture of the cake, but in taste if that makes any sense. Kind of like the after taste (yes, I know that sounds disgusting) of a cream soda. It wasn't bold, but just a subtle little zing. Just enough so that I didn't feel like I made the same cupcakes 2 weeks in a row.

Chocolate Chip

I have flipped through this cookbook many times, contemplating which cupcakes I might like to try. I love chocolate, and chocolate in cute little chip form. But, for some reason I thought Chocolate Chip Cupcakes wouldn't do it for me. Especially a recipe that calls for regular-sized chocolate chips, not mini ones. Using regular-sized chocolate chips in cupcakes just can't be right, can it? I even hesitated in the grocery store when buying the chocolate chips. I was so close to throwing the mini ones in the cart, but told myself that wasn't the point of this project. It's to do things Martha's way and see how I like them the first time around. If I don't like the results then I can make changes next time. So, the mini morsels stayed on the shelf gazing longingly at me as I walked away. They're just so cute!

Chocolate chips in hand and with the rest of my ingredients ready I got to work. Back when I first started my baking hobby I didn't have many "tools of the trade" if you will. I had a hand mixer that quite possibly was older than me. If it wasn't from the 70s it certainly looked like it was. Think that brownish-orange reminiscent of the interior of an old Winnebago, or that brown carpet that everyone seemed to have in their bedroom as a kid. I had my 1970s mixer until a couple of years ago when my mom bought me a new Cuisinart one for Christmas. That bad boy can mix! I'm afraid of what might happen if I ever actually mix anything using the highest setting. All I picture is dough everywhere. I also have a 15-quart stand mixer and it might be the most amazing kitchen appliance I own, and I own a lot of appliances. My parents got it for me for my 24th birthday and I scream-squealed (that's the perfect union of a scream and squeal) when I opened the box. First out of surprise because I never thought I would own such an amazing piece of kitchen equipment, and second because I was so excited to have one.

I took you on that little journey through my kitchen equipment to bring you here. Normally when I bake I use my stand mixer for things like cakes and cupcakes. I prefer the hand mixer for cookies. Don't ask me why, I don't have a good answer, just a preference of mine. However, for this batch of cupcakes I used the hand mixer because Martha said so, and we've already been over my wanting to follow Martha's directions to a T.

The recipe itself is easy to follow, the hardest part was beating the egg whites to get those pesky peaks to form. It's truly exhausting, even when using a mixer. People who try to do it by hand are just overachieving (showoffs!). And, I never quite understand what constitutes a "soft" peak, so I just beat the eggs until my arm starts to hurt from holding up the mixer, and I can see some semblance of a peak. Then into the batter they go! Probably not how Martha would do it, but I'm trying. So, egg whites into batter, chocolate chips into batter, batter into paper-lined tins, tins into oven and we're on our way.

I always start with a little less baking time than a recipe calls for because all ovens are different and you can't reverse what's already been baked. I can always add more time. So, I started with 20 minutes, but I found that just as the recipe states (that Martha knows her stuff) 22 minutes was perfect. The cupcakes will stay a pale color, don't be alarmed if they're not golden, just make sure that toothpick comes out clean! I let the cupcakes cool on a wire rack and then put the cupcakes in an airtight container overnight and worried about icing them the next day. When I have the luxury of time, I like to spread out my baking. Less dishes to do in one day. I like to make a big mess, but I don't enjoy cleaning one up. Some day when I'm rich and famous (ha!) I'll have someone to clean the kitchen for me.

Making icing is one of my least favorite things to do because I find it to be so touchy (there's a better word for this, but my brain just can't find it. It's tired from work). If you do one thing wrong, the whole batch is no good. When I find a recipe for icing that's good and simple I usually stick with it and don't venture to try something new. But, in the spirit of Martha I embraced her Dark Chocolate Frosting that accompanied the Chocolate Chip Cupcake recipe. I was pleasantly surprised with how it turned out, though it was a little thin for my liking so I added a little extra confectioner's sugar... don't tell Martha!

Before the frosting of the cupcakes began I wanted to perform a taste test of the cupcakes sans icing. My goal was to see how much the frosting helped or hurt the cupcake (like it could really hurt). I wanted to know if the cupcake could stand on it's own without icing. Without icing, the cupcake was good. I thought it was a little dense (not a thick dense, more like a jam packed dense, if that makes any sense). Maybe I didn't beat those egg whites enough. Who knows. However, I was pleased that all the chocolate chips didn't sink to the bottom. Baking tip, if you toss the chocolate chips in a little flour before you put them in the batter, it helps them stay afloat. Most importantly, I didn't mind the regular-sized chips.

Normally, I like to use my frosting gun, yes, you read me correctly, frosting gun, to decorate cupcakes. If you don't have one, get one, it's almost as amazing as my stand mixer. But, in the picture from the book, it appeared that Martha just lathered it on. Since my new motto is do as Martha does, I grabbed my knife and spread away! Time for taste test No. 2! Cupcakes with frosting... better than cupcakes without frosting. I can't quite put my tongue on it, but the frosting just completed the cupcake. I suppose that's the point of it. What's your favorite kind of frosting?