Making Strides...My Month of Baking

Whew...October went fast.  It was a whirlwind of baking and I honestly don't even remember everything that i made, besides cinnamon rolls....from scratch.  If you've never made them from scratch, here's a word of warning...they literally take between 3 and 4 hours from start to finish.  You should not start them at 7:00pm on a Sunday and expect to start your week off well slept.  They didn't sell in my bake sale as fast as i expected, so i imagine they weren't as sticky/gooey as they were supposed to be...In any event, we raised a lot of money towards Making Strides Against Breast cancer and The American Cancer Society and it felt good but was rather exhausting to put together delicious baked goods on Mondays and Fridays.  

For Halloween i made a fun new recipe for the pumpkin lovers of the world...Chocolate Pumpkin Cupcakes with Pumpkin Buttercream Frosting!  I got my inspiration and recipes from the i am baker blog, which i love! These were SO very easy to make.  My husband said they weren't quite "pumpkiny" enough.  Next time i will review the recipe for pumpkin pie and add some other spices into the recipe to bring out the pumpkin flavor.

  

Chocolate Pumpkin Cupcakes with Pumpkin Buttercream

If i make them again, i will make more frosting, because i barely had enough for 24 cupcakes and the proportion of frosting didn't look right for the cupcakes.

And a tiny chocolate covered sunflower seed to add an extra hint of fall.

It's almost...you guessed it...Sugar Cookie Season.  But first...Thanksgiving.  i am pretty sure that i will be making these cupcakes again for Thanksgiving and just giving them some extra Pumpkin-Oomph.  

Shiny Happy Chocolate Cupcakes

For a coworker's birthday I made her favorite flavor combo...the ever popular, Chocolate Cupcake with Chocolate Frosting!  I am sad to report that i cheated and used cupcake mix but happy that i tried a new frosting recipe.  I made a chocolate frosting that called for an entire POUND of chocolate chips and promised to have a nice sheen to it.  

 A little abstract...

 Shiny goodness...

So rich my husband could only eat one.

On another note of baked love...the weekend before i made good ol' fashioned Toll House Chocolate Chip Cookies for my grandfather.  It felt awesome to send them off to him since i haven't seen him or my grandmother in (eek) more than 2 years.  

I am currently waiting for dough to rise for Cinnamon Bums that i'm making for a fundraiser at work tomorrow!

Sugar, egg whites and air bubbles...oh my

I should start by saying that although i am extremely disappointed in yesterdays baking adventure, it wasn't really a total bust.  I guess i just set my standards too high this week.  i had been thinking about baking all last week, felt like i was in some sort of funk and needed to use the other side of my brain to get out some creative energy.  I tried a new frosting recipe, courtesy of Martha's Cupcake book.  Swiss Meringue Butter cream.  Far more involved than my regular butter cream, but i didn't back down.  And i think i did it right, took about 30 minutes or so to make, versus my regular butter cream which is about 5.  Texture and consistency were good.  Problem is, i have never had it before and don't actually like the flavor, it's too rich for me.  And of course, even though i followed the last step to remove the air bubbles, there are still bubbles. GAH!  

I am practicing making flower cupcakes for a wedding i am doing in march.  I think i will try these flowers again with a different frosting recipe and different colors.  Not just a sea of pink.  I am actually pretty happy with the way the flowers turned out for my first time.  

I think with a stiffer frosting, these will be really cool, the Meringue Butter cream was too soft i think.  

I also made some mini cakes and thanks to a cake leveler they were level and my first coat of frosting went on ok.  My regular butter cream failed though.  It separated and kept melting and was just a mess.  The flower petals didn't form the way i wanted to, so i wound up just playing with different tips to see what would happen.  Not my best baking day, but i will try again soon.  

Baking Weekend...

Because Sean was in Ocala this weekend, I opted for some uninterrupted baking time.  I've been wanting to make some cookies for some time now and try out some chocolate cupcakes.  I decided on White Chocolate Chip, Cranberry and Macadamia Nut cookies and Chocolate Cupcakes with Peanut Butter Frosting.  

The cookies turned out great!  They are almost as good as the cookies my college roommates Mom used to make for us.  I think hers had some granola and maybe regular chocolate chips in them.  We called them Crack Cookies.  They were fabulous.  The only flaw to these cookies was my own fault, I did not line the cookie sheet with parchment paper, like the recipe suggested and wound up needing to strategically scoop the dough, so that the cranberries weren't on the bottom, because they got all burnt on the first sheet.  Next time, I will use the parchment paper.  

White Chocolate Chip, Cranberry and Macadamia Nut Cookies

I loved the Peanut Butter Frosting I made for Sean's birthday so much that I wanted to try it with Chocolate Cupcakes.  It turned out just as fabulously fluffy as before.  The cupcakes are pretty good, maybe not as moist as I was hoping, but the frosting balances that out.  

Chocolate Cupcakes with Peanut Butter Frosting 

I made SO many cupcakes it is silly.  I decided to double the recipe, because for some reason, I thought one batch would only make 12 cupcakes.  Needless to say, there are 60 cupcakes in my kitchen right now. AND 40 or so cookies.  What was I thinking? 

The verdict is in...

Today, the Lemon and Blueberry Cupcakes with Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting arrived at work and the response was great!  I don't know if the lemon flavor developed overnight, but everyone raved about the flavor and the texture.  I am so very pleased.  I guess I will add these to my list of cupcakes to repeat!

Next flavor combo to tackle...Trail Mix Cupcakes! 

The jury is still out...

Not sure where to begin.  Feeling doubtful about my day of baking and this entry.  There weren't any major catastrophes, the flavor combo just wasn't quite as *pow* as I was expecting. 

Today I baked Blueberry and Lemon Cupcakes with Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting.  I don't know how I feel about them at all.  I am overly critical, I know.  The recipe was originally for a cake but i wanted to do cupcakes.  I think, I should have used less blueberries, or strategically placed blueberries.  I'm not sure.  I will see what happens on Monday when people try them at work.  I had some fun playing with lemon peels for decoration on these.  I also kept inspirational tv on in the background with cooking and/or baking shows on in the background.  

The recipe made about 2 dozen cupcakes.

A little lemon curl and blueberry decoration on top.  I didn't want to distract from the flavor combo with sprinkles or pearls.

Birthday Cupcakes!

This weekend, in honor of Sean's birthday, I made him his own batch of dream cupcakes.  My poor husband is always stuck with the "ugly cookies" or left over scraps of cupcakes and baked goods.  In honor of his birthday I looked up recipes that only he would love and settled on Banana Cupcakes with Peanut Butter Frosting!

The tops browned a little and had just a little crisp to them, which I think added to the combination.

Pre-Frosting

I was a little worried because the bananas were not "very ripe" as the recipe described, but they turned out well. The flavor combo is not one that I would pick, but separately, the cupcakes were light and fluffy and the frosting is just about the most delicious thing EVER! I let it mix extra to make it lighter and what a good decision that was.  Like a peanut butter cloud.  And the best part is how happy Sean is to finally have his own batch of homemade goodies! 

Here they are in all their glory.

I used a fun decorative cupcake liner since the cupcake and the frosting were light brown, not very exciting.  Someday I won't have air bubbles in my frosting. 

I would make this recipe again without a doubt! So easy and very delicious. Next time I might add some chocolate chips into the banana batter or on top of the frosting, but I didn't think about it until I was mid-baking.  

Adventures in Baking - Welcome

This is my first attempt at blogging.  This page will hopefully serve as a post for successful baking attempts on my part.  To start, I should point out that I am not a professional baker and have no formal training.  I am a terrible cook and have been known to burn water.  Baking, at least simple baking, makes sense to me and seems to come naturally. I sort of just fell into it and have been stumbling along for the last few years.  My favorite things to bake and decorate are sugar cookies.  This year I experimented with some new recipes, Shortbread Button Cookies and Lemon Glitter Sandwiches.  

 This is a selection of the sugar cookies that I made this year.  I experimented with Sugar pearls and confetti this year.  

 I just love the snowmen.  Each year I wish I made more of them.

 I am simultaneously working on my photography skills as well. 

I saw this crazy tree statue in a cookie book I have and was anxious and excited to try making one.  I was successful, though I recommend construction of the tree to be done on the site where the cookies will be eaten.  

 These Lemon Glitter sandwiches turned out so light and fluffy.  They just melt in your mouth and were really quite easy to make also. And SO pretty.

 Below are some Vanilla Cupcakes with Buttercream frosting that I made for some coworkers.   

I love the tiny trees! 

One of my goals for 2011 is to bake more and try new recipes and get better about making my cupcake batter from scratch.  It just tastes so much better.  I love making treats for my family and friends.  I think homemade cookies and cupcakes just brighten people's day.