Whew!

What a weekend! Starting with Thursday (technically not the weekend, but where the whilrwind began, both literally and figuratively) I went and visited a house that I love (where fun art abounds - it truly is a magic cottage...)

to pick up a friend that I love to go see another friend I love and her new baby...

That visit was cut short by the splitting in half of my old plum tree (which comes down tomorrow)...

New twin babies visited on Friday (so sweet, so pretty)...

And a solo-adult adventure to The Old Spaghetti Factory with four children under 11...

There was a dance competition,

visiting goats,

rabbits, chickens, and ponies at a friend's farm in Salem, home brews

that came to PDX from Seattle (the Rhuby Wit and Wit Gold that Chris and I brewed Mid-May, my first foray into home brewing!)... There were lagers and other beers tried at Gustav's (a flight of 6 beers [they were small.] shared with Mom and Cousin Tom), and 6 dozen cupcakes baked for my sister-in-law's thesis defense (if you bring them cupcakes, do they have to give you the Master's Degree?).

I am all worn out, but I wanted to get some of this up here so I didn't forget what a fun-tastic weekend this has been.

The good, the bad & the ugly.

The Good: My third attempt in the kitchen this evening... Vanilla Chocolate Chip Cupcakes with marshmallow whip frosting and strawberry topper.



The Bad: My second attempt in the kitchen this evening... Hippie Hiker Cookies, Take II.


The Ugly: My first attempt in the kitchen this evening... Hippie Hiker Cookies, Take I.


Suffice it to say, my record of "Most Likely to Never Bake an Edible Cookie" holds. But so does my "Most Likely to Pull a Tasty Cupcake Out of Thin Air."

Sigh. I give up on cookies. They're not nice to me.

Hot Cocoa Cupcakes with Toasted Marshmallows

Missy's baby shower is coming up in a couple of weeks - we have to get the invites out this weekend, and I've been contemplating which cupcakes to make for the shower. I think Stace is making Strawberry Cream Cakes, and I was going to do some sort of variation on Chocolate, and another on Vanilla. I missed the boat last night on making St. Patrick's Day Guinness Cakes... So sad.

Now, it's Wednesday, which means that it is the perfect time to create cupcakes for the guinea pigs who live a couple of houses away. Last week I missed out on their poker game, so I said I'd make some good ones tonight to make it up to them. I realize that these boys eat anything I make, but they are also honest about which ones they like, and which ones bomb. Not all the cupcakes I make have been successful hits!

I was pondering this Hot Cocoa concept for a while. I originally wanted to put the whipped cream in the middle, like a Hostess Cupcake. But I don't have a metal tip for my piping bags, and really, I have no idea how to inject cake with cream. Sooooo, I decided to put the marshmallows in the cupcakes, and top with whipped cream.

The recipe I made this evening was really good - the first batch came out a bit chewier, since I made cheater cakes tonight - with brownie mix and TJ Vanilla Bean cake mix. The second batch was less chewy - I took them out just before they were done, and they turned out much lighter.

I did end up folding the marshmallows in to the batter - which I might not do next time, since the increased sugar content and goo in the cake paper makes it difficult to peel off. I think the next time I will wait until the last 10 minutes and drop the marshmallows on the top to brown.

The whipped cream frosting was also cheater tonight, but only cause I didn't want to make the whole shebang of cream when I didn't know if all the cupcakes would be eaten immediately this evening, or in a little while. The whipping cream has a tendency to drop over time, so I used about a cup of the whipping cream and an equal part of whipped frosting from Betty Crocker to provide a little lasting power.

This recipe was:

1 box fudge brownie mix
1 box Trader Joes vanilla bean cake mix
5 eggs
1/2 c oil
milk to thin (sorry, I didn't measure - I just pour it in til it's right)
about 2 cups mini marshmallows

Preheat oven to 350F

Mix all ingredients together, folding marshmallows in (although next time I will leave them out to just place on top)

Spoon into muffin papers, bake until just barely done (I think this was about 30 minutes. Did I totally space it? I think it was longer than the standard 20 - 22 because of the brownie mix in there), but put them in and watch them until they have that last bit of wet sponge look to the top - when it looks as if that is JUST about to disappear, pull those babies out!

Let cool on a rack, and in the meanwhile, mix 1 cup whipping cream with 2 T of powdered sugar, and 1 T of vanilla extract. Whip in mixer bowl on high until stiff peaks begin to form. Drop 1 cup of Whipped - Whipped Cream frosting into the mix, beat for another few seconds until nice and thick and stiff.

I piped the whipped cream frosting on with a bag, but you could just smooth it on if you wanted. I drizzled fudge over the top, topped with a toasted mini-marshmallow, and OHHHHH goodness, these were delicious.

Cheaterdoodles and Kitchen Sink Cuffins

Yes, I'm speaking English. No, I haven't been drinking. Tonight is Wednesday - baking therapy. Good thing I have neighbors willing to eat the results of my weekly *breakthroughs*, or I'd be ginormous from eating 24 cupcakes over the course of a week.

I was looking forward to baking ever since last night, when I perused the latest Martha Stewart (well, latest for me - it's the February issue with cupcakes on the front). Wow. Cupcake ecstasy in that issue... I stayed up til 12:30 am absorbing the photographs, looking at the frostings, dissecting the recipes... All I could think of was that I wanted to make all of those cupcakes, and I wanted to do it *now*!

Instead, I turned off the light, and had a dream that I used the nasty Pilsbury Sugar Cookie dough with fantastic results by cutting a heart out of the middle of the dough disc, and filling it with raspberry jam. I know there are cookies like these - I've seen them. I've *had* them! They're like those little cookies in the Pepperidge Farm box... What do they call them, stained glass cookies? There's also the Thumbprint cookies, I think, that have the little dent (aha, thumbprint) for the jam on the top...

But that's not what I ended up with this evening.

I mixed up about 1/8 cup (or a few tablespoons?) of cinnamon with about 1/4 cup sugar, added about 1/2 teaspoon each of vanilla, rum, maple and almond extract, and chopped it all in together til it was kind of sandy in consistency... Then I dipped each side of the cookie dough discs in the sugar mix, and baked them in the oven according to the directions (you know, the standard 350F for 10 - 12 minutes?)...

They're delicious! Even I think so - and even though I only ate about 1/2 of a cookie, it's cause I really just can't be bothered with eating cookies. There's no pleasure there for me. Not enough purpose to eating a cookie. But I digress. These were a hit with the fam, and I walked a plate down to the neighbors for poker night. (Which ended up being No-Poker-Cause-We're-Watching-The-Blazers Night, but they were happy none the less.)

So then, I still had about 1/4 cup of the cinnamon sugar mixture left, and decided to make some breakfast muffins for the kids and me. I started with a French Vanilla Cupcake mix, and added a whole bunch of stuff to it. In retrospect, I would not have used the extra sugar in the recipe if I hadn't already had it to use - the muffins would be plenty sweet without it... But they ended up great, and despite all the extra stuff (hazelnuts, cranberries, lingonberry jam, oatmeal, flaxseed meal) they have a really lovely texture and are quite tasty.

This recipe for Cupcake + Muffin + Everything in the cupboard = Kitchen Sink Cuffins yields 24 delicious tasties for breakfast, or if you were doing a brunch, they would hold their own against/with a fluffy cream cheese frosting. That would be delicious. (I list the recipe as if I were making it from the beginning, *not* with the cinnamon sugar from the Cheaterdoodles.)

1 box Bettty Crocker French Vanilla Cupcake Mix
1/4 c cinnamon
1 c oatmeal
2/3 c plain, shelled hazelnuts (ours were from Trader Joes)
1 c dried cranberries (or you could use chopped dried fruit of any sort)
1/4 c flaxseed meal
1/4 tsp each rum, vanilla, almond and maple extracts... or use 1 tsp of vanilla if you only have it
2 eggs
1/3 c lingonberry jam (ours from Ikea)
1/3 c flaxseed oil (only cause I have some in the fridge - it is kind of spendy to cook with - use canola instead)
1 c water

Mix dry ingredients until blended, add wet ingredients and fold together until incorporated.
Spoon into muffin papers, bake at 350F until done through... I didn't really time this, but I'm guessing the finish line will be between 19 and 22 minutes.

Et, Voila. You know what would be really good? A combo like Seville Orange Marmalade and dried apricots in place of the lingonberry jam and cranberries... Or raspberry jam and raspberries/blackberries... Yum. Like I said, this was pretty much whatever I could find in the kitchen, and it turned out delicious!


**** so after a bit of research and some mathematics, I worked out the calorie content, fat grams, and carbs for each of these little suckers. I was sure they'd be out of sight on the calories with all the extra stuff, but lo and behold, they weren't *that* bad!

Kitchen Sink Cuffins: 159 cal, 6 g fat (don't forget, this is mostly from the flaxseed oil and meal, which is tremendous) and 28 g carbs... So I maintain that without the added sugar, and all the fiber, they're not a bad way to get started in the morning!

Are you kidding me?

Six dozen cupcakes, a batch of cookies, one box of brownies, three cans of frosting, numerous tubes of goo, too many sparkles and decorations to count and a roll of purple fondant later...







Cupcake-O-Rama.

I laughed so hard I nearly peed my pants. Sister used the rolling pin without incident... and at one point, she was holding on to the counter for dear life.

We put pink glitter gel frosting on our lips like lipgloss and asked Dad if he would take us to the mall.

It was insane.

But we made the. cutest. cupcakes, EVER.

I dub thee "National Mall O' Cupcakes."

Oh, and let's not forget about the special Unicorn and his/her friend Bass-Ackwards Dino. (I accidentally frosted his bum. Whoops.)


Love was in the air today. And something was in the water.

Guiness Cupcakes

Hey! I'm not crazy, someone posted a Guiness Cupcake recipe (dude, that was at the beginning of my "Baking for Poker Players" time! Remember 'Man Cakes?') Eat Drink or Die is a great website, with lots of uploaded videos for foodies - there's even a whole vegetarian section!

Lip Gloss Cupcakes...

Last night Stacy, Melissa & I made these adorable cupcakes. They were so good, and the girls and I frosted them in between fits of giggles. Too much sugar made us silly. I was worried when I tasted the batter, because it tasted like cheap strawberry lip gloss, but when they were baked, the flavor improved considerably.

Along the lines of other things cupcakes, I discovered this site devoted solely to all things cupcakes. It's really cute, and has links to a million other cupcake sites. Oh, for the love of all things fluffy and cakey.

Next, there is this cupcake supply site, which is really a kick. The opening page is seriously like Barbies for big girls. There's all sorts of papers, and accessories, and super cute aprons and things. (Which reminds me of Toni Collette's character Alice in the new show US of Tara... It's about this woman with multiple personalities, and one of the personalities is named Alice. She's perfectly 1950's, with her little matchy matchy dresses and painted nails, and she bakes lovely cakes and things for the bake sales. She wears aprons, and when I bake cupcakes without provocation, James calls me 'Alice.')

Aprons like the ones I found Etsy make me want to wear pumps, white gloves, matte red lipstick, wave my hair and learn how to make a perfect cocktail! Which then leads me to the cutest idea I saw in Food & Wine this month - Tea Forte makes a lovely pyramid tea infuser, but they also make cocktail infusers! So you place one of these spice pyramids into the cocktail, and you get a fancy little drink! Woo Hoo! I sent the link to my friend Kristina, who owns Paper Caper in Lake Oswego, and I hope that she adds the cocktail infusers to her Tea Forte selection.

Sparkling wine, Cupcakes, Whipped Cream & Strawberries...

We're having a wine and food pairing at my house on Saturday evening for the office folks. Should be good times... I chose the finish wine, because I really want people to try that Discovery Cuvee that I had for Christmas Brunch... It was suggested (obviously) to get some strawberries to go with it, but aside from that I think I'll fix some white vanilla bean cupcakes with whipped cream frosting to go with the sparkling wine and some sliced strawberries. I'm really excited.

In the mean time, in my search for a recipe on the whipped cream frosting, I stumbled across this blog: Jam and Clotted Cream, which is from a girl named Beth in Cornwall, England. She makes lovely cupcakes with nonpareils and icings, and I particularly like the photos of her foods that she posts up.

At any rate, I posted some pictures of the cupcakes with whipped cream and strawberries when I made them. My goal was to make them quite beautiful. They ended up falling (the cupcakes were sad without papers!) and so I was especially pleased that the whipped cream frosting turned out so well.

Whipped Cream:

1 cup heavy whipping cream that is ultra pasteurized

1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1 tablespoon granulated white sugar

For whipped cream: In a large mixing bowl place the whipping cream, vanilla extract, and sugar and stir to combine. Cover and chill the bowl and beaters in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes. When chilled, beat the mixture until stiff peaks form.