Category Archives: baked goods

Robot Cupcake Series

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I bought these robot cupcake molds at a kitchen sale at the market this summer. Figured they would get stuck in a drawer forever. But then I started researching the “single cupcake” recipe and suddenly these little silicone cupcake molds were a terrific buy! There is a strange art to making a small batch of cupcakes. Two small cupcakes seem to be the perfect amount for this family. The husband isn’t a cupcake fan, and I’m not terribly interested in baking (and, then, eating) a dozen or more. Also provides you a perfect opportunity to fool around and test some things without wasting a ton of ingredients. So without further ado, the results of this month’s experiemnts.

Test 1 (of 3):

Err … not so much. I used this recipe as a starter. I tried to make chocolate by adding cocoa powder, but it was a total experiment. Since I had coconut milk (or drink, as the carton called it. What was it really? Don’t know, just tossed it in).This one didn’t rise and tasted meh. Kid seemed to think it tasted just fine.

 

Test 2:

Better, but still a bit odd. This time I tried cocoa powder again, and also included some greek yogurt. The yogurt made for a creamier texture and at least the batter rose as expected. But still not the greatest tasting. I might need to do more cocoa and more sugar to get the taste that I’m looking for. Again, kid ate it up. If it looks like a cupcake and smells like a cupckae it must be a cupcake, according to her.

 

Test 3:

Jackpot! I ditched the cocoa powder and went with this recipe. No chocolate, but super vanilla. I went for broken and also made a little cream cheese frosting for the top (what’s a cupcake without frosting?)

These are the recipes I riffed off of. Just because my results weren’t great doen’st mean the recipes as written aren’t successful. One pattern I’ve noticed, and maybe it’s due to the cupcake mods, is that I need to bake them for far longer than the instructions suggest. But constant checking means at least they’re not burnt:

 

When life gives you blueberries …

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… Make Blueberry coffee cake.

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This recipe courtesy of allrecipes.com, New England Blueberry Coffee Cake. I chose it a) because it has ‘New England’ in the title and 2) far less sugar than many of the other muffin and coffee cake and crumble recipes. Should I find myself with many pints of blueberries in the future I will surely make this again. The crumbly topping was a tad more sweet than I like. I can deal with it now and will readjust for next time. The toddler liked and the husband liked and that’s all that really matters.

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Really tasty. I’ve been on an uber sweet kick lately. Terrible for my waistline. But oh so tasty.

P.S. am I the only who noticed that I stopped journaling the day I ran my race? Got to get back on that. But, July, you have been most enjoyable.

Pinkalicious!

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We’ve been reading this book lately, Pinkalicious. It’s about a girl who eats too many pink cupcakes and turns pink. She loves it until she eats one too many then turns red, then needs to eat a lot of green stuff to turn back to normal. I’m not a huge fan of this book. For one, her parents let her eat like a gazillion cupcakes, then she sneaks in more cupcakes, and she snubs the green veggies. Anyway, my toddler is enjoying it meaning we read it a few times a day. Well, all that talk about cupcakes, you’re bound to start craving cupcakes. I debated between baking from scratch and heading to Trophy and decided baking would be a more interesting activity but did opt to get some help from Duncan. We did the frosting ourselves, though. I finally had a good, smooth result for my American buttercream frosting. Room temperature butter, my friends! Simple details.

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We enjoyed it. Lily was eager to dig in and showed a lot of restraint for a 3-year old. At last after dinner we had a cupcake (I had made a lot of minis and a few regular sized ones … L had a mini) … As soon as she finished it she yelled “More More More” (from the book) … Ugh!

But the cupcakes were tasty! Duncan Hines Devil’s Food Cake (because that’s how i roll) with pink buttercream frosting. Some dinosaur sprinkles, too. A nice end to a sort of stressful long weekend.

My favorite mistake

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It was a mistake to make these. Not because they aren’t tasty. Not because the recipe, once the ingredients prepped, was incredibly simple. Because the husband and I enjoyed them so much we finished at least half the batch between ourselves in one night. Not exactly the right decision. Unlike the zucchini muffins, I’ve been requested to take the remaining cookies to work in an effort to get them out of the house. No offense taken on my part. It’s really for the best.

oatmeal raisin cookies w/walnuts via chattycha on flickr

I adapted the recipe from a cookbook I picked up at the SPL Friends of the Library book sale. It is from “American Desserts: The Greatest Sweets on Earth,” which essentially has every “all-American” dessert recipe you can think of. I just love flipping through that thing. Hopefully I learned my lesson about breaking down and baking one of these recipes … it will no doubt become another memorable mistake.

The changes I made were typical, used a whole wheat pastry/AP flour combo and reduced the sugar some. Tips/instructions/secrets that I loved from this recipe: 1) plumping the raisins up through a quick simmer and soak in water; 2) toasting the walnuts; 3) adding maple syrup. The toddler, actually prefers plain raisins than these, I think. Which is fine. More for me!

 

Muffin Success

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I am waiting for the royal wedding to begin. I don’t know if I’ll make it. I have 2+ hours to go. In the meantime, a quick update on my mission to make a great muffin. Whole Grain Zucchini Muffin v.2 was a success. The main differences from version (1) going with an AP/WW combo and leaving out the oat and (2) adding in more than 1/3 c low fat sour cream. They stayed moist and yummy. I brought a bunch in to work to share and the husband was upset when he found out I did that. I count that as a thumbs up. Fortunately I didn’t do anything with them at work (other than eat one myself) so I brought them home the next day for him to enjoy. ANd they still tasted great the next day! And the day after that.

zucchini mini muffins v2 via chattycha on flickr

Another great success … this is the first baking recipe that I can remember where I did it by memory. No consulting  a cookbook for me. Lookit me! It’s just like Top Chef!

Rise ‘n’ shine

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Back to SBD for a short stint, until the next special event (did I mention our wedding anniversary is a mere week away?) Until then, please enjoy this dramatic image of “bad carbs”, brought to you by the Microsoft cafeteria located on the 28th floor of Lincoln Square in Bellevue:

To your left, some weird orange-marbled bread. To your right the danish, the chocolate croissant and peeking out of the corner is the item most likely to be purchased by the husband out of all of these choices, the apple fritter.

For anyone keeping track, the danish (if there is cream cheese present) probably clocks in with the highest number of calories, at around 490. All but the orangey bread will put you in the 400+ calories range. But considering the size of that slice of orange-ish bread up top, it’s probably in at least the mid-300 range, don’t you think? Never mind the question of, how in the world did that get so orange??