Is this thing on....

Turns out, moving across the country and starting over with your kitchen appliances, tools and gadgets makes cooking and baking tough. But, I've definitely been up to more than I've let on. Here's a little something to tide you over. Unfortunately, I do not recall which vegan chocolate cupcake recipe I used for these cupcakes - I think it may have had avocado in it - and I totally cheated on the frosting. I cough *bought* cough it. I was pressed for time, and I didn't want to risk it.

I made these for a new co-workers birthday, which also coincided with our lab meeting. Yum, brains!!

Clear-Out-The-Cupboard Chocolate Chip Cookies

I can count the days left in this house on one hand (ACK!) which also means, it's my job to use all the food left in the cupboards, or it gets thrown out. I have a full bag of Ghiradelli chocolate chips, and I WILL NOT throw those out. So, tonight I set out to make chocolate chip cookies.

Step 1: check your ingredients!

Flour, yes. White sugar, yes. Butter, yes (well, soy margarine). Baking soda, sort of (if we count the fridge box). Eggs, no. Brown sugar, no. Vanilla, no. Measuring cups and spoons, no. Baking sheet, no.

Step 2: gather substitutes!

Aluminum foil, silken tofu, maple syrup, snack-pac of unsweetened applesauce.

Step 3: go for it!

So, I preheated the oven to 350. I creamed one stick of Willow Run with what I estimated to be about 1/2 cup of white sugar. I was also without a mixing bowl, so this took place in a large tupperware container with a fork. When it was creamy (or, I was tired), I added what I estimated to be 1/4 cup of maple syrup. To me, the maple syrup replaced both the brown sugar and vanilla I was missing. Then I added in applesauce and a little silken tofu, to replace the egg. After combining this well, I added about 1 cup of flour, a tsp of baking soda, and some salt. Can't forget the Ghiradelli chips that started this whole process. At this point I crafted a cookie sheet out of 3 layers of aluminum foil and dropped teaspoon sized cookies onto the foil. I baked them for about 10 minutes, and let them cool slightly.

The result, actually, quite delicious. Good to know, because I have enough ingredients to do this again tomorrow. Who wants cookies?!?!

Added bonus, they are totally vegan!

Top Secret Operation Step 2: Cake Carving and Crumb Coat

After the Vegan Cakes were made and frozen, I need to carve them to the right shape, and put on a crumb coat. In order to keep this Top Secret, I can't reveal yet which shape I carved it to, but let's say the people in this house can tell what it is without being told! I used a template printed from a google image search, and traced it with a knife onto the top layer, and then began slicing away pieces until my two layers resembled the shape I wanted.

Once that was done, it was time to make these cakes decidedly un-vegan with some Buttercream Frosting. I just made a simple buttercream, with butter, shortening, confectioners sugar, and a splash of milk. I put a generous bit between the two layers, and then began a thin "crumb coat" around the whole cake and sides. The point of the crumb coat is to catch all the crumbs from the cake so it won't ruin the look of the finished cake. Once the thin crumb coat is on I put the cake in the fridge for an hour or so, to really let it set.

The rest of the house has been enjoying the cake remains and extra frosting, pretty tasty!

Cake Pops: A tale of triumph over disaster

This all started last Wednesday when I saw something awesome on the internet. Cake Pops. The idea is simple. Bake a cake. Crumble it up. Mix in frosting. Form it into balls. Put it on a stick. Dip it in chocolate. The result, essentially heaven on a stick. My options were clear. Make the Cake Pops.

Luckily, for me, I was invited to a triple birthday bash over the weekend, what a perfect venue for me to unveil these guys. I should have known, anyone who "experiments" in the kitchen knows that trying something new for a particular event is never going to end well. This would be no different.

I baked Martha's Yellow Butter Cake, which may have ended my quest for a good yellow cake recipe. It was pretty tasty. When it was sufficiently cooled I crumbled it up into a bowl, and put that in the fridge. Then I started in on Martha's Strawberry Swiss Meringue Frosting. I've fought with this particular recipe so many times. It sure requires a LOT of mixing. And this time, I nailed it. The frosting was perfect. And delicious.

I started adding the frosting to the cake, and here's where the fails began. I added too much frosting, so it was a little too gooey. I should have stopped, but I didn't really know until I had gone too far. Unaware of the potential disasters lurking in my future, I rolled the cake/frosting mixture into 1 or 1.5 inch round balls. Then I threw them back in the fridge.

I melted the chocolate in the microwave, following the package instructions, and after putting the candy sticks in the cake balls I was ready to dip. No dice. The balls were so gooey, and began to fall apart in the warmed chocolate. When flipped upright to harden, the chocolatey ball of goo just slid off the stick. I tried a few, and each one was worse than before. So I stopped. With only an hour before the party, I "cleaned up" by putting 40 balls of cake and frosting on cookie sheets in my fridge, and ran out the door.

Two days later, I was trying to figure out what to do with the cake balls when I realized they'd firmed up a lot more. So I tried it again. Success. They are not pretty, I have no idea how anyone made them look like little chicks - mine are clearly lumpy blobs. I guess, you have to start somewhere. You can follow the whole process here (note, there are a lack of pictures of the mess, who knew that it would be resolved and warrant documentation). Without further ado, I introduce you to my first Cake Pops!

Our friends are bakers, too!

Here at Broccoli is for Lovers the thing we love second to showcasing our own kitchen creations, is showcasing those of our friends. For the second year in a row, Maureen has decorated an adorable Yo Gabba Gabba cake for her now two-year-old (holy cow, is he two already? I can't believe it!!) son Fitz. What a lucky kid, his mom makes the best birthday cakes around. Happy Birthday, Fitzo!

And over at quasify, Nanio has finally baked up some Gooseberry goodness. In his own words:

my gooseberry tart thing recipe (hashed out with help of my mom & internet strangers)

1) Mix a can of gooseberries, two thirds cup sugar and three tablespoons of flour together, bring a gentle boil. Let that cool. It will set up into a liquidy gel.
2) Make a top/bottom pie crust recipe. Instead of balling in two, make 8 to 12 smaller balls.
3) Mix an 8oz cream cheese (softened) w/ three tablespoons of sugar.
4) Flatten small balls (optionally, with your newly purchased and totally bitchin’ rolling pin), smush a tablespoon or two of cream cheese in the center and cover with a similar amount of the cooled gooseberries.
5) Crimp those bad boys shut and trim excess. We’ll have to pretend like I did this part of the recipe correctly.

6) Bake at 400 for 10-14 minutes.

My not-very-objective opinion is these tasted pretty decent but didn’t turn out to be terribly attractive. I think had I baked them in a mini-cupcake cooking sheet instead of on a flat pan it might have kept the three dimensionality I imagined when I started the project. Next time.

Looks delicious, Nanio!

YJPumpkin YJPie

I spent New Years' in Boston this year, and after ringing in the new decade in the most perfect way I could have imagined, I began a whole list (in my head) of things I wanted to accomplish in twenty-ten. Unbeknownst to me at the time, a mere two days later, I would have made my very first pumpkin pie. A fine accomplishment if you ask me!

Yep, I've never made a pumpkin pie.

I didn't grow up being a pumpkin lover, it wasn't until college that I was introduced to pumpkin bread (thanks to my boyfriends mom and her AMAZING recipe), which quickly became an all time favorite of mine. I've since enjoyed many pumpkin baked goods, muffins, pancakes, ice cream, the list goes on. Still - pumpkin pie is not my thing. It's the texture I think. I don't know. But I've never really loved it, and I've never made one. Until now.

It was a total last minute idea, and started about 45 minutes too late probably, but with the help of Nanio and his newly organized kitchen, we successfully threw together a pumpkin pie! We simply followed the recipe on the back of the Libby's Pumpkin Pie filling can, which included evaporated milk, some eggs, cinnamon, ginger, sugar, and probably a few other things. We used a graham cracker crust, because as I said we were extremely pressed for time.

I think I would have liked to have left it in the oven a little bit longer, but as it was we were leaving at the time we were supposed to be arriving at our friend's house for dinner - extra baking time was not an option.

All in all, I think the little guy turned out quite nicely. Everyone had a piece, and no one seemed to complain!

The big spaghetti bowl in the sky

For those of you who are unfamiliar with the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, might I recommend you read this first.

This is the finished result of the cake I made earlier this month for a friend of mine. I apologize for the delay of posting the conclusion. First, let's discuss the new recipe. I'd try it again, and change something - although I don't know what yet. It tasted alright, but it was a little drier than I'd have wanted. But, it was just the right amount of sweet, not too much really, and it went well with all the sweetness in the frosting.

As for the decorating - why do I always fight with red. I used the gel this time. And still, it was pink. I hate red. I hate it. And why do I always fight with decorator's icing? It was too soft, too runny, you can tell I had trouble with the dots. I was less than impressed with myself.

I made the spaghetti monster out of homemade fondant, which was basically melted marshmallows, and it was fun and pretty easy. I'd recommend it again.

In all, because the spaghetti monster is just so cool, I think it was a success. But, damn the red!! Damn the red!

Gifted

A friend of mine has a birthday coming up, and this can't come at a better time because, 1.) this blog needs something new and 2.) my stress levels have reached a dangerous high that perhaps even baking for others can't overcome. But, try I will. I have a vision, but for top-birthday-secrecy, I will not publish said vision here until it's all done.

Last night was baking night, and let me tell you, I needed it. For this particular cake I was using a brand new (...er, old) recipe. My BirthdayFriend recently lost his grandmother, and when he was home with family after her passing he was thoughtful enough to bring back an old baking cookbook for me. I decided that I would make one of those recipes for this cake! BirthdayFriend requested chocolate, so off I went. I settled on one entitled Sweet Chocolate Cake. (As a side note, this cookbook has some really strange recipes that I'm totally interested to try - a sauerkraut cake?! Really?!) The Sweet Chocolate Cake recipe was interesting because the author noted that she liked using brown sugar. The recipe said it would fill 3 8-inch rounds, which seemed ok because, for the cake in my mind, I needed 2 8-inch rounds and a little something left over. I would need to use my spherical ball cake pan for the left over - as I needed something spherical to add to the cake.

Sweet Chocolate Cake
4 oz. sweet baking chocolate
1/2 cup boiling water
1 cup butter
2 cups white or brown sugar*
4 eggs, separated
1 tsp. vanilla
2 1/2 cups of cake flour, sifted
1 tsp baking soda
1 cup buttermilk**
(all ingredients at room temp, except for the boiling water...which is, of course, boiling)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees, and grease and flour 3 8-inch round pans. Melt the chocolate in the boiling water, and set aside to cool. Cream the butter, and gradually add the sugar. Add in the egg yolks and vanilla, and combine until smooth. Carefully add the cooled chocolate, and mix until well combined. Add in the sifted dry ingredients and the buttermilk in alternating batches, starting and ending with the dry ingredients. Mix thoroughly. Stiffly beat the egg whites and fold into the batter. Pour into pans, about 3/4 full. Bake for 35-40 minutes.

*I used one cup of each, the author was excited about the brown, but I was nervous about 2 cups of it!
**for which I used dried buttermilk (Saco brand, thanks LeahPants!)

I was excited, more than just to be baking again, because I could use something else I was given for Christmas. My mom gave me Wilton Bake Even strips, that make the cakes bake even so you don't have to level them. I have NO IDEA how they work. You first saturate them in water, then you wrap it around the outside of the pan, with the aluminum looking side facing out. You pin it closed, and just bake as normal. I was so excited to try these, it matches the first time I ever used the mechanical pastry bag (and you know how well that turned out!)

It was about here that I got carried away with my new baking gear (see, it HAS been a while since I've baked!!) Also for Christmas, my dad had given me these teeny tiny mini pans. Two tube pans and a springform. Adorable. So with the batter left over from filling my two 8-inch rounds, complete with Bake Even strips, I filled the mini pans from my dad.

It all went into the oven for 30 minutes. And then I realized. The SPHERICAL PAN! I had forgotten. In the glory of using all of my new gifts I had lost sight of the task at hand - BirthdayFriend's cake. So, later this week I will be "sculpting" spherical forms from the mini tube pan cakes!

When the cakes were done I was amazed, they were indeed level. I will not need to trim them - which is fabulous, because I am awful at that part. And, I ate some from the springform pan, it was good. The brown sugar was a good idea, although, I'm not sure I'd have done the full 2 cups.

The cakes are now carefully wrapped and in the freezer, waiting for decorating day!

Disco Ball Cake

I'm SO glad that I'm done making this cake! It was a little stressful, but in the end, I think it came out alright. The disco ball looks a little more like Epcot Center than an actual disco ball, but what are you gonna do? That's thanks in part to my limited cake supply resources. . . had I been able to find silver fondant (rather than the white that I used) it probably would've looked a little more like the real thing.

So fondant -- that was a new experience! It was really easy to work with actually. It's stiffer than cookie dough, but doesn't break apart as easily when you roll it out. It's just sort of hard to roll out until you work with it a bit to get it a little more pliable. It got just a little dry toward the completion of the disco ball so I brushed some clear vanilla extract onto it to get it to soften a little and to also help the silver sprinkles stick better. The recipient really wanted a chocolate cake, so I made the bottom, large cake chocolate and the disco ball yellow chiffon. I filled both of them with chocolate mousse and frosted the outside with a simple buttercream (the recipe on the package of Domino's confectioner's sugar, not my favorite because I think it's really sweet, but it's easy to make and was a request). The pink, orange, and green stripes are also buttercream that I just died (instead of decorator's frosting). I figured that it would've been a lot of decorator's frosting, when the taste of it is artificial-like to me (but good as far as your typical decorator's frosting goes). More importantly though, the buttercream spreads more easily so that was the hands-down winner. Now it's late, my feet hurt, and I want to go to bed, so that's all you get. Oh, and a bird's eye view which I think is kind of neat:

Christmas Baking Madness

I've been pretty busy over the past week or so, and most of my business has involved BAKING, so I figured I'd write about it! Of course we're all busy around this time, trying to find time for holiday cards, gift shopping, seeing your friends and family, etc. On top of this, throw in baking five different kinds of holiday treats, fighting with your dishwasher, breaking your only large microwave-safe mixing bowl, recital time kicking in, and you've got my week. Oh, did I mention the disco ball cake? That's another post. . .

Let me fill you in on the baking because that's probably the most exciting of the above list. Several years ago, Scott and I journeyed to the White Mountains' annual Inn to Inn Christmas Cookie Tour (yes, I said COOKIE TOUR!) We checked in to whichever Inn we were staying at for the weekend, and they gave us a map of all of the other Inns. We went around to each, via car, and it was really fantastic. They were all decked out for the holidays (haha, pun intended). There were Christmas trees, wreaths, Nutcrackers, and of course they also had two or three different signature COOKIES to sample! So my point is, a few of the cookies I've made for the holidays since this memorable trip have been from the little cook book that they give you at the Cookie Tour for FREE. It's nothing fancy on the outside, but it's really all about the little treasures inside. This year I'm making the Peppermint Crunch Cookies (thanks to the Tamworth Inn), Inn at Crystal Lake's Crystal Lake Everythings, and Lavender Flower Inn's Pecan Balls. My own personal additions will include sugar cookies, Jenni's two-bite brownies with my mom's brownie recipe, and my own simple creation of white chocolate bark with sliced almonds and dried cranberries. I'll take a picture once I have a Christmas tin of these assembled for your viewing pleasure! Happy two weeks before Christmas!

Ugly Betty

My mom gave me her very old Betty Crocker cook book maybe a year ago. You know the one, like a big orange binder? Well, I may have taken it from her house. . . with some later permission to do so, but anyway, it had been in my possession for a while now and I hadn't used it, until recently.

Of course I wanted the book because of the cake recipes. Old recipes are usually good ones, right? They're classic. They're the ones you want to keep around for a while and share with others (or maybe not, depending on who your crowd is!) I figured if anyone was going to teach me how to make a great cake it would be Betty Crocker. And in my seemingly endless search for a moist yellow cake recipe, that I was convinced needed oil instead of butter, Betty had my back.

I found a lot of recipes in this great book that called for shortening. I think that's just plain gross, so those recipes were out. I mean, for decorator's frosting or even pie crust that's one thing, but otherwise, that's nasty. I kept looking and found Betty's recipe for Two Egg Chiffon Cake. By definition, I've now learned that a chiffon cake uses oil instead of butter. That's what I was looking for! What was also part of the process was separating the eggs. I whipped the whites to a meringue to be folded in later, which makes the cake light and fluffy. So we have moist. . . light. . . fluffy. . . all good things. I was excited!

After some minor issues whipping up the egg whites (humidity. . . ) the cake came out of the oven and luckily looked perfectly fine. The recipe recommended using a Pineapple Butter Frosting to top it off, so I did. It was just butter, confectioner's sugar, and drained, crushed pineapple. It's pretty hard to drain crushed pineapple completely though, so the liquid left in there is why I didn't need any milk. Other than being sweet, the frosting was really good! With the cake though, the whole thing tasted GREAT! Of course with the pieces of crushed pineapple throughout the frosting, I wasn't able to smooth it over and have it look anything close to even semi-professional. . . so I present you with "Ugly Betty. "

I heart Oat Bran Muffins

I never make muffins, really. Muffins are kind of like cake. You've got your flour, sugar, butter/oil, eggs, etc. Muffins aren't generally healthy -- at all. THESE muffins however are very healthy, and much to my surprise, quite delicious.

I wanted to make some sort of healthy muffin, as I'll be away this week and will need a quick, energy-packed breakfast. This recipe simply came from the back of my package of Oat Bran. And get this, Michelle, NO PROCESSED SUGAR! That's right. So unlike you're typical cake/muffin, these use honey, no flour, oat bran of course, egg whites, salt, baking powder, a very small amount of oil, and optional raisins and nuts (I used both).

If you don't have this brand of oat bran around, let me know, and I can post the recipe. I highly recommend checking them out!

Blueberry Muffins

So I went to my local Farmer's Market this past week with Diane and Lyle. It actually just started this past week too. It was pretty small, but I was able to find some key items. I got some delicious corn on the cob, swiss chard, cucumbers, and BLUEBERRIES! :)

Scott saw the blueberries in the fridge and said, "I like blueberry muffins." I wasn't even planning on making blueberry muffins, but I looked around for a recipe, found one with the ingredients I actually had (who keeps buttermilk in their fridge on a regular basis? I ask you. I certainly don't.) and there you go. And you know what? They were pretty damn good. . . not healthy at ALL, but certainly yummy.

The recipe came from my beloved Martha Stewart Baking Handbook. Jenni, if you decide to make these (because I know you have at least one copy of the cookbook. . .) I highly recommend either waiting until they're completely cooled to take them out of the pan OR taking Martha's advice to grease and flour the pan. I used Baker's Joy instead, which is wonderful as you know, but the muffins were just really delicate and didn't come out of the pan very easily.

Isn't summer fruit just wonderful?!

50th Wedding Anniversary Cakes

Some of you already received the album of these pictures, but I figured I'd make it "official" and put a couple of pictures up on here too.

Apparently the word is starting to spread at my work place about my cake making. . . so someone asked me, a few months back I think, about making two cakes for a joint 50th Wedding Anniversary Party. So of course I was excited. I just needed to know all of the details. I found out it was going to be for about seventy people, and they wanted two cakes, each with two tiers. After consulting many times with Jenni, Cake Art, and the internet, I figured out how big each tier should be, what I should be charging for the cakes, how to support them, what kind of icing to use, how to decorate them, etc.

Each two-tier cake had a white cake and a chocolate chocolate cake. I filled the chocolate cakes with chocolate mousse (yes, Jenni, the recipe from our cake decorating class!) and the white cake with a strawberry swiss meringue buttercream -- I just mixed some strawberry jam into the swiss meringue buttercream that I used on the outside of the cakes to frost them.

The border you see was suppose to be gold instead of purple. I tried REALLY hard to make gold, but it just wasn't working. I couldn't find any Wilton dye in gold. The closest thing I could find was copper, so I bought that. Well, it was very. . . copper-y. It was actually pretty gross. I then noticed that I had "golden yellow," so I tried mixing some of that in with the copper. That didn't work either. I tried it the other way around, starting with the golden yellow, and adding some copper. Nope. I did also have a back-up plan though. . . this gold dust powder stuff. I think it's usually used to "paint" decorations, but something more solid, like fondant or modeling chocolate. It wasn't working so well with the frosting. I mean, it was okay, but not super fabulous enough for a 50th wedding anniversary. So purple it was.

What else is there to say? It was a stressful week, from baking the cakes, freezing them, making batch after batch of frosting, going through more butter than I ever have EVER, figuring out the flowers to go on top, etc. . . and I was working every day! But all in all, I think they came out pretty well. The family kind of raved about them (and luckily didn't care that the border wasn't gold) and I gained more experience from doing it. And that's my story.

Holy Cakes!

I'm having some layout issues, so I apologize if this looks really, really bad.

A while back, I was asked to make a First Holy Communion cake for one of the kids I babysit for. When we got closer to the date, and I was asking the mom what kind of cake and for how many people, another mom over-heard us. She offered up her cross cake pan for me to use (because she made a cross-shaped cake for her daughter two years ago for HER First Holy Communion), and I thought, Hey, that's great! One less pan for me to buy is always a good thing, right? It was then decided that there should be one chocolate cake and one yellow cake, to please everyone who would be attending -- around thirty guests total. Once I saw the cake pan however, I thought two cross cakes would be JUST enough. . . so after consulting with the family, I decided to make an extra chocolate round cake. Who doesn't love chocolate?! I figured if there were left-overs that it wouldn't be a terrible thing at all.

So I took the cross cake pan home, and couldn't help but laugh. . . because I'm way mature like that. I'm about to make a cake. . . in the shape of a cross. . . and someone's going to cut into it. . . and eat it. It was all a little weird. Then Diane came over. She saw the cross cake pan, and proceeded to make the sign of the cross and recite the Lord's Prayer, to the pan. Of course there were margaritas involved, but that's a different show. Oh, and then Nichole came over, saw the unfrosted chocolate cross cake sitting on my porch, and thought it was a little strange too. So maybe I'm not the only crazy one here. (I did the cross on the round cake free-hand. . . not too bad, huh?! I think it's even centered! That was pure luck.)

Cupcake Madness

Cupcake Madness happened two weeks ago, right before my dance recital. I decided to give one of these cupcake boxes to each of my eleven student assistants.

The boxes (how cute are they?) are from the Martha Stewart Collection at Macy's. There were matching cupcake papers and labels too, but I thought that was WAY too matchy, so I just opted for a combination of pastel and silver papers.

The cupcakes, from the top left are chocolate with chocolate buttercream, white with traditional buttercream, chocolate with peanut butter frosting, and white with strawberry butter cream cheese frosting. Yum-o, no?

The more unusual frostings were a little experimental. The peanut butter frosting came from a super cute and informative book that Leah got me for my birthday called Little Cakes from the Whimsical Bakehouse. It was experimental in that I had never made it before. It was good though, so I will post that recipe when it's not nearly 1:30am. . . the strawberry butter cream cheese evolved from one of my favorite recipes for just plain butter cream cheese. I thought, hey, what would happen if I made that and then stirred in some strawberry jelly? Well what happened was this: Scott's favorite frosting ever was born.

So there you go, my cupcakes. Just add some sprinkles, and BAM -- they're ready for gift-giving.

I fought the frosting and. . . I won.

I recently bought a fabulous book. It's called Cake Art, and it was put out by the Culinary Institute of America. These people are serious. I like them. Let's back track though, shall we?

This is a cake I made for my sister-in-law's graduation party. It was my go-to chocolate cake recipe, off of the Hershey's cocoa powder package. The FROSTING however, was one I wanted to test out for the 50th wedding anniversary cakes I'm making in May. Holy crap, it IS May! Well I guess you'll be seeing pictures of those cakes soon too. Anyway, the frosting was swiss meringue buttercream, which from what I've been reading, it a typical frosting used on wedding cakes because it can stay out a room temperature and hold its shape for at least a few hours.

I did try to make swiss meringue buttercream not too long ago. The recipe I used that time however was from Martha Stewart's Baking Handbook -- another terrific book. The woman is totally nuts, but has some great tips, ideas, and recipes (usually. . . ). The frosting (and maybe I didn't beat it long enough) was really thin, and much too sweet for my taste. So I knew when I read the swiss meringue buttercream recipe in Cake Art, with less sugar and more butter, that it would be exactly what I was looking for.

I followed the recipe precisely, as I've fought with frosting in the past and wasn't going to let the frosting win again. . . or at least this time. Let me tell you, it was the perfect spreading consistency and it was creamy with a deliciously light taste. I won.

Cupcakes, take II

Oh wow - I think these are my new favorite cupcakes. I set out to make them as penance for screwing up so many batches of cupcakes last weekend. I first found this recipe in the Rachel Ray magazine I bought while stranded in Houston on my way to Wales in September, and finally, 7 months later, I've made them. The recipe turned out 20 cupcakes, and I ate one right out of the oven - you know, to see if they were any good. I actually made them late last night, and there was no time to frost them before I needed to go to bed. In the morning I decided to freeze a bunch, so there are now 12 unfrosted cupcakes in my freezer (YUM!) and this evening I mixed the frosting and frosted them. Lately I've been choosing to use my giant plastic spatula to spread frosting, it's been really useful! Once frosted and photographed, I ate one. And now - I want another!!

Chocolate Red Wine Cupcakes with Mascarpone Icing

1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder 4 ounces chocolate, broken into pieces 1/2 cup boiling water 2 sticks (8 ounces) butter, at room temperature 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar 4 large eggs 1 1/4 cups flour

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder 1 teaspoon salt 1/2 cup medium- to full-bodied red wine, such as cannonau** Two 8-ounce containers mascarpone cheese, at room temperature 2 cups confectioners' sugar Red grapes, halved, for garnish

1. Preheat the oven to 350º. Line 2 muffin pans with baking liners.
2. In a medium, heatproof bowl, combine the cocoa powder and chocolate pieces. Whisk in the boiling water until the chocolate is melted and the mixture is combined.
3. In a large bowl, cream the butter and granulated sugar. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, until blended. Sift in the flour, baking powder and salt and mix until just combined. Alternating, add the chocolate mixture and wine in batches, mixing well between each addition, until the batter is smooth. Divide among the muffin cups, filling each about three-quarters full. Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, about 20 minutes. Let cool in the pan.
4. Lightly beat the mascarpone, then add the confectioners' sugar and beat until creamy. Remove the cooled cupcakes from the pan, spread each with icing and top with a grape half.

**I used Yellow Tail Shiraz-Cabernet

An Easter Feast for one!

After the weekend from hell, I decided I would indeed cook an Easter dinner. Luckily I found an open grocery store and picked up some essential ingredients, and at about 7pm I began cooking.

Nothing too fancy, I had some steak tips marinaded already. My mom taught me a trick with these - if you buy your meat ahead of time and freeze it, put the meat and marinade in a ziploc bag and freeze it together. The meat will marinade as it thaws, before you cook it - saving you a step! I also had some zucchini and yellow squash, which I just cut up and threw into a pan with some evoo, and then some frozen green beans - talk about fancy. I bought some potatoes, and made mashed potatoes. I tried something new with these, and put in some grated parmesan cheese, and in fact they were delicious. I bought some pillsbury crescent rolls, and ate about 154 of them!

Last, but not least, I made a carrot cake. I blame Mel for making me crave this. It started off as Carrot Cake Cupcakes, but - I don't seem to have any cupcake pans, is this possible?! So it turned into a Carrot Bundt Cake, and I'd say it came out very well. I followed the same recipe as the cupcakes, but I cooked it a little longer - about 15 minutes at 400 degrees and then maybe 35 or 40 at 350 degrees. I wish I'd used less walnuts though, I'm not a huge fan. I used my hand food chopper with the carrots, and of course I prepared my bundt pan with lots of Baker's Joy! I used a little bit less sugar than the recipe called for the frosting, and I think it came out great - there's a ton left over. I'm going to go dig in with a spoon!