birthday treats

it's almost 2 weeks since i last dropped a line here in my blog... I've been busy with stuff that i barely had the time to visit my own site.

a lot of things happened since my last post... i bought me a new toy... i am now a certified owner of a nikon d5000... it wasn't really planned, but, what the heck, i still got one.

i also made red velvet cupcakes again and they turned out pretty well... wanna see??? here they are:

so after baking the entire day followed by one toxic shift, it was time to fly to Puerto Princesa for some birthday weekend R&R... it was an amazing experience, it sure was one memorable birthday.

and like any other story, it must come to an end. it was time to go home, but before that, i had to grab me some cashews from palawan. the following day i thought, i'd put the cashews into use by making some butterscotch treats that i can bring to the office. it was the first time i'll be baking from scratch and not the usual off-the-rack mixes in groceries.

so here's the recipe i used:

BUTTERSCOTCH BARS

Ingredients:

1/2 cup margarine or butter

2 cups brown sugar

2 eggs

1 tsp. vanilla

2 cups all purpose flour

2 tsp. baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 cup shredded coconut (optional)

1 cup chopped nuts (optional)

Procedure:

1. Melt butter over low heat. Remove from heat and add the sugar. Add eggs and vanilla. Make sure eggs are well blended into the sugar.

2. Sift together dry ingredients and add to the brown sugar mixture. Mix gently but thoroughly.

3. Spread on greased 13.5 x 10.5 x 1 inch baking dish. Bake at 350 deg F for about 25 minutes.

Notes:

Careful not to burn the butter during melting.

Make sure to pack the brown sugar firmly into the measuring cup.

how did they turn out? here they are...

blue blue blue

it's my bestie's bday and i decided to surprise him with cupcakes inpired by him... i thought, i'm gonna bake some blue cupcakes since he loves blue, he loves blue so much that even his fb name is blue.

at first, i was thinking, i'd use my red velvet recipe then just change it to blue. but then, i didn't have much resources to fund it since it's that "linggo de peligro" moment. so i turned to my ever reliable friend mr. google and searched for possible cupcake base recipes. then i saw this vanilla cupcake recipe and said to myself, "this will do!"

since i still have some missing ingredients, i went to the supermarket. there, i passed a row of white chocolate chips and i thought of adding them just to give life to the cupcake. so i grabbed me a pack then paid for it.

when i got home, off i went to mr. google again to find a recipe that will include the choc chips but there i cant find any that is plain and simple. so i just decided, i'll just use my vanilla cupcake then add a portion, maybe that would do.

the cupcakes turned out pretty well... it looked weird... it looked cute... here they are:

unfortunately, the cupcakes weren't able to reach him since we both had tight schedules for the day. it didnt go to waste though, my officemate bought it for her heart's delight. ;-)

oh! here's the recipe by the way:

Ingredients

• 2 1/4 cups all purpose flour
• 1 1/3 cups sugar
• 3 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup shortening
• 1 cup milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 2 large eggs
• 1/2 tablespoon food coloring (optional)
• 1/2 cup white chocolate chip minis (optional)

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line cupcake pans with paper liners.

Combine flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt in a large mixing bowl. Add shortening, milk, and vanilla. Beat for 1 minute on medium speed. Scrape side of bowl with a spatula.

Add eggs to the mixture. Beat for 1 minute on medium speed. Scrape bowl again. Beat on high speed for 1 minute 30 seconds until well mixed.

Add food coloring and mix well then add white chocolate.

Spoon cupcake batter into paper liners until 1/2 to 2/3 full.

Bake for 20 to 25 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

Cool 5 minutes in pans then remove and place on wire racks to cool completely.

Once cupcakes are completely cooled, frost with your favorite frosting recipe or decorate as you desire.

chocolate-y tuesday

so what happened to cupcake monday?

well, if you live in the Philippines then you know that it was a non-working holiday yesterday. no work monday means no cupcakes. so i thought.

i guess it's starting to be a new habit in the office. then my peers commented on my fb wall to bring cupcakes today. being the loving officemate that i am, i gave in. but what do i bring? but then again, they asked for chocolate cupcakes, so chocolate it is.

somebody asked for double chocolate. so, i guess that's the direction to go. been browsing for an easy recipe, but apparently, i ended up with a complicated one. it took me 3 hours to finish everything.

so here it is:

Double Fudge Chocolate Cupcake

Ingredients

1/2 cup (125 mL) cocoa, sifted

2/3 cup (150 mL) chopped unsweetened chocolate (about 4 oz/125 g)

1 cup (250 mL) boiling water

1 cup (250 mL) butter

1 cup (250 mL) granulated sugar

1 cup (250 mL) brown sugar

3 eggs

1 tbsp (15 mL) vanilla

2 1/2 cups (625 mL) all-purpose flour

2 tsp (10 mL) baking powder

1 tsp (5 mL) baking soda

1 cup (250 mL) milk

Chocolate icing

3/4 cup (175 mL) butter, cut in small pieces

12 oz (375 g) semisweet or bittersweet chocolate, melted and cooled

1/3 cup (75 mL) cocoa, sifted

1 tbsp (15 mL) vanilla

3 cups (750 mL) icing sugar, sifted

1/2 cup (125 mL) milk, approximately

Preparation

1 Combine the cocoa and unsweetened chocolate in a bowl. Pour boiling water over chocolate and let sit for 2 minutes. Whisk until smooth. Cool.

2 In a large bowl or bowl of electric mixer, cream butter with both sugars until very light. Add eggs one at a time. Beat in vanilla and cooled chocolate mixture.

3 In a separate bowl, combine flour, baking powder and baking soda. Add flour to butter mixture alternately with milk in three or four additions, beginning and ending with flour.

4 Fill 24 well-buttered or paper-lined muffin cups. (Fill muffin cups three quarters full; cupcakes will not rise as much as muffins.) Bake in a preheated 350ºF (180ºC) oven for 20 to 25 minutes, or until a cake tester comes out clean. Cool on a rack before icing.

5 For icing, in a large bowl or food processor, beat butter until light. Beat in cooled melted chocolate, cocoa and vanilla. Beat in icing sugar. Add milk and beat until very cool and creamy. (Add milk if necessary for a creamy texture.) If mixture is too warm and thin to spread, set over a bowl of ice; it should thicken very quickly as you beat with a wooden spoon.

6 Swirl or pipe icing on top of cupcakes.

For more details on this recipe, you can visit

http://www.styleathome.com/food-and-entertaining/recipes/recipe-double-fudge-chocolate-cupcakes/a/20192

How did they turn out? Here they are:

baking these goodies maybe tiring and all, but at the end of the day, it still gives me joy... will there be cupcakes next week? we'll see!

so i cheated.

well, for the passed weeks, i try to bake cupcakes from scratch. "google-ing" is slowly becoming a habit in search for recipes that i can (maybe) use someday.

in the last couple of days, i've been contemplating on making blueberry cupcakes. unfortunately, finding fresh blueberries pose as a challenge. so i thought, bye bye blueberry cupcakes.

and then i decided to just make cookies instead. so off i went to the grocery. as i was getting stuff i need, i walked pass the baking necessities and saw this Betty Crocker Blueberry muffin mix.

since i was so desperate to cook (and eat) blueberry cupcakes, i grabbed a pack and placed in it the shopping basket. i thought, this should do.

when i got home, i immediately fixed everything i bought, had some lunch then rested. after a couple of hours, i'm in front of the cupboard to get the mixing bowl. then i grabbed the package, read the label and then opened it. i poured the contents in the bowl and mixed it with half a cup of water, then, VOILA! my cupcake batter is done.

so to the oven it went and waited for some 15-20 minutes for it to be done. and here they are:

they tasted yummy. only thing though is that they were artificial blueberries. but what can i do, that's all i can have here.

so i cheated. instead of learning the basics for this recipe, i shifted to instant mixes. well, i had to give in to craving sometimes, and that's the price i pay for it. there's always next time though. and oh, i'm making double chocolate cupcakes this week, so, i guess i'm still on track.

it's monday so let's try some carrots

i was not suppose to bake cupcakes this week since i was disheartened with last week's s'mores. i planned on making cathedral windows instead. but it seemed like fate is telling me not to. i went to 3 supermarkets and apparently, all of them didn't have jell-o. if they did, it was the pudding mix. then my best friend told me to stick with the cupcake mondays (as if he was affected by me not baking on mondays).

but what will i make? i remembered an office friend requested some carrot cupcake. i've been 'google-ing' recipes for the passed week and i was missing a couple of spices... with that in mind, off to the spices section i went to grab me some ginger, cinammon and nutmeg, then a bunch of carrots.

i'm never really fond of carrot cakes... or if my memory serves me right, i haven't eaten one ever. but since i'm into trying recipes and figuring which ones i can make, i thought i might as well give it a shot.

here's the one i used for my first ever carrot cupcakes:

For cupcakes

• 4 medium carrots
• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/4 teaspoon grated nutmeg
• 3/4 cup vegetable oil
• 3 large eggs
• 1 cup packed light brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

For icing

• 1 1/4 cups confectioners sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon grated orange zest
• 2 to 3 tablespoons fresh orange juice

Make cupcakes:
Preheat oven to 350°F with rack in middle. Line muffin cups with paper liners.

Coarsely grate enough carrots to measure 2 cups using large teardrop holes of a box grater.

Whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, ginger, and nutmeg in a bowl.

Whisk together oil, eggs, brown sugar, grated carrots, and vanilla in a large bowl, then stir in flour mixture until just combined.

Divide batter among muffin cups and bake until golden and a wooden pick inserted into center of a cupcake comes out clean, 20 to 25 minutes.

Cool in pan on a rack 10 minutes. Remove cupcakes from pan and cool completely on rack, about 1 hour more.

Make icing:
Sift confectioners sugar into a bowl. Whisk in zest and 2 tablespoons juice until smooth. If icing is too thick, add more juice, 1 teaspoon at a time. Dip top of each cupcake into icing, letting excess drip off. Put a carrot curl on top of each and let icing set, about 15 minutes.

Cooks' note: Cupcakes, without Garnish, can be made and iced 1 day ahead, then kept in 1 layer in an airtight container at room temperature.

----------------------------------------------------
Read More http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Carrot-Cupcakes-with-Orange-Icing-240966#ixzz0xPCVevCz

the recipe yields 12 (1/2 cup) muffin cups. but since i'm sticking to the mini-cupcakes, i was able to make 34 pieces (muffin cups were 2/3 filled)

and here's how it went:

and the finished product, TA-DA!!!

it was a pretty good recipe, simple and easy to make. i tasted one after cooling and it turned out better than i expected (or maybe i just don't know how carrot cakes taste like). but this is surely one for the books. i now have my 3rd variant. =)

just another 'cupcake' monday

so.. it's starting to be like 'cupcake' mondays for me...

well, not really... it just so happened that i accidentally made a mistake while working on the red velvet cupcakes. with that said, i had to put the flour mix in a jar and keep it away until i find a recipe that fits it. luckily, i was able to find one.

been browsing google all morning and here's what i stumbled on:

Egg Free Chocolate Cupcakes

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups flour

1 cup granulated sugar

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

1/3 cup cocoa powder

1/2 cup oil

1 cup water

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 tablespoon vinegar

Directions:

Mix all ingredients together until well blended. Place batter in cupcake cups until 3/4 full. Bake at 350F for approximately 20 minutes or until baked through. Frost with your favorite icing.

Apparently, I still had some of the vanilla cream cheese frosting I made last week plus some caramel syrup I had been keeping in the fridge for quite a while. So VOILA!

red velvet

red velvet has and always been my favorite cupcake flavor, especially the one from sonja's in serendra. i'm not sure if it has something to do with its color, or how it looks, or simply its taste. maybe all of them rolled into one.

but never have i thought that i could make them.

i've been browsing google for some time scanning red velvet cupcake recipes and most of them i found either the ingredients or the directions to be intimidating. i cook, i bake... but hell i'm not a professional. i just do them how my heart and mind tells me to.

and then, i found one recipe for red velvet that seems friendly. the ingredients can easily be bought from any grocery and the directions can be understood even by a kid. so off to the printer it went then after a week, into the oven.

i was hesitant on how the cupcakes were going to be like since i haven't made cupcakes in ages... the last time i made a batch didn't really turn out well. but i guess, when you are in the "zone" then most probably, everything will turn out right. i found myself having fun while baking. it's probably me doing stuff that i used to brought out the real me.

anyway, the cupcakes turned out nice. but does it taste nice? hmmm.... i'm not really the best judge of my cooking. for me, everything i make tastes blah. so off to the neighbor i went, and apparently, they loved them. brought some to the office, and that's where the i got the real delight of seeing everyone's smile. apparently, i got everyone's seal of approval. my boss even asked me to make some for her this Christmas (ka-ching!)

thanks to the mccormick website, i might already have a 2nd career because of them.

so let me share the easy-to-make red velvet cupcake recipe to pay it forward.

Makes 30 (1 cupcake) servings.

Prep Time: 20 minutes

Cook Time: 20 minutes

2 1/2 cups flour

1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened

2 cups sugar

4 eggs

1 cup sour cream

1/2 cup milk

1 bottle (1 ounce) McCormick® Red Food Color

2 teaspoons McCormick® Pure Vanilla Extract

Vanilla Cream Cheese Frosting (recipe follows)

DIRECTIONS:

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Mix flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt in medium bowl. Set aside.

2. Beat butter and sugar in large bowl with electric mixer on medium speed 5 minutes or until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs, one at a time. Mix in sour cream, milk, food color and vanilla. Gradually beat in flour mixture on low speed until just blended. Do not overbeat. Spoon batter into 30 paper-lined muffin cups, filling each cup 2/3 full.

3. Bake 20 minutes or until toothpick inserted into cupcake comes out clean. Cool in pans on wire rack 5 minutes. Remove from pans; cool completely. Frost with Vanilla Cream Cheese Frosting.

Vanilla Cream Cheese Frosting: Beat 1 package (8 ounces) cream cheese, softened, 1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter, softened, 2 tablespoons sour cream and 2 teaspoons McCormick® Pure Vanilla Extract in large bowl until light and fluffy. Gradually beat in 1 box (16 ounces) confectioners' sugar until smooth.

apparently, the recipe called for regular-sized cupcakes. but then, the one i got to borrow was a small mold, so it became mini-cupcakes. it wasn't all that bad. they looked cute. and since they were in bite-size pieces, it was easier to eat and even appealing to those calorie-watchers.

how they looked??? here they are...