Red Velvet Cake

Something festive for Christmas dinner!

New Best Friend?

Mom's kitchen has a new addition--it's pretty safe to say I'll be visiting a lot more frequently now! We've probably been talking about getting a stand mixer for a good five years, and now that it's here, we are all very excited.


Its first project was a *double* batch of gingerbread (more on that soon)--that's TWELVE cups of flour! And it did an absolutely wonderful job. A photo of it in action, and another of the enormous batch of dough:

The two of us will be spending a lot of time together during the next week...

Holiday Train

The weekend I got home, mom and I were invited to help decorate some truly innovative holiday creations! Miriam and her sister Meredith--both good friends of the family--have a yearly tradition of baking elaborate surprises for David's House for the holidays, and this year was certainly no exception. First and foremost, the train!


When we arrived, we found two large trays of Fruity and Coco Pebble treats, which yielded the building blocks of the train. There were also bags and boxes of various candies, which we ended up using as the embellishments. After about three or four hours (I lost track of time!), we had a finished product:

The second project they had planned was the snowmen cupcakes. The cupcakes had been prepared and frosted already, so all that was left to do was to build the snowmen. We ended up developing something like an assembly line for these--my job was to draw the faces! After a while, we had an army of 4 dozen snowmen:

To round out our evening, we assisted in the decorating of some Santa cookies (as part of yet another assembly line!).

Happy Holidays!

Let it Snow!

Happy Holidays!

Earl Grey Cupcakes

With all the studying that happened this week, I was looking for any excuse to take a bake-break. We decided to turn a group study session into a study 'party' by bringing cupcakes. They even got dressed up for the occasion...

These have a very subtle early grey flavor, and the recipe makes a moist, not-too-sweet cake. The batter rises much more than expected, though, so don't fill the cups too generously. I used a vanilla frosting this time, but I think citrus or chocolate might better complement the tea flavoring.

Earl Grey Cupcakes
-2/3 c. whole milk
-2 tea bags (Earl Grey)
-1 1/2 c. flour
-2 t. baking powder
-1 t. salt
-1/2 c. unsalted butter, room temperature
-1 c. sugar
-2 eggs

1. Heat the milk with the tea in a small saucepan. Bring it to a boil, then remove it from heat and allow the tea to steep for about 30 minutes until milk is cool.
2. Combine flour, baking powder, and salt; set aside.
3. Cream together butter, sugar, and eggs.
4. Alternately beat in flour mixture and milk.
5. Spoon batter into cups.
6. Bake at 350* for 22-25 minutes.

(Don't fill them this much!)

All dressed up...

...and ready to go!

Double Chocolate Cranberry Cookies

Back again with a handful of posts! The semester is nearing its end, and finals are in full force. I'm taking a bit of a break from paper-writing now to offer a few more recipes....

I saw the recipe for these in a magazine while at home for Thanksgiving, and they looked too good to pass up. The recipe calls for a full pound of chocolate, so needless to say, they're rich. Next time I make them, I think I'll add in some more cranberries--their tartness contrasted with the sweetness very nicely.

Double Chocolate Cranberry Cookies
-16 oz. bittersweet chocolate, coarsely chopped (I used chocolate chips; they worked well too)
-1 c. flour
-3 T. unsweetened cocoa powder
-1 t. baking powder
-1/2 t. salt
-1/2 c. unsalted butter, room temperature
-3/4 c. sugar
-1/2 c. packed light brown sugar
-2 large eggs
-1 t. vanilla
-1/2 c. dried cranberries

1. Melt 10 oz. of the chocolate over simmering water, or in the microwave on low power. Let it cool slightly.
2. Mix together dry ingredients, set aside.
3. Cream together the butter and sugars. Add in eggs and vanilla. Stir in melted chocolate--make sure it isn't too warm.
4. Add in the flour mixture. Stir in remaining 6 oz. of chocolate and the cranberries.
5. Drop heaping tablespoons onto ungreased baking sheet.
6. Bake at 350* for 15-17 minutes.

(Low-Sugar) Chocolate Chip Cookies

I'm back with more chocolate chips! This is a recipe that mom discovered a few years ago, and it turned out to be a big hit with Gib, so we had these with some regularity. Ordinarily I make the full-sugar variety, but I had a craving for these a few weeks ago--they're a little bit lighter, and the recipe is fantastically simple.

[I'll add in the recipe in a few days; I don't have it handy at the moment.]

Happy Thanksgiving!

Greetings from Vermont! I'm home for the holiday weekend, and the time off has been greatly appreciated. And it has given me some time to address my posting back-log...

For Thanksgiving this year, I decided to give turkey cookies a try. Even though gingerbread is my go-to recipe for the colder seasons, I decided to give a brown sugar & spice cookie recipe a try (in addition). Sugar cookies would rarely be my first choice, but the brown sugar used in these adds a bit of complexity, and the spices make them especially seasonal. I decorated both these and the gingerbread with some royal icing once again--pretty pleased with the results!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Oatmeal Cranberry Chocolate Chip Cookies

During the summer, my mom brought one of these cookies home from work. They're delicious and filling, and with the oats and the cranberries they almost feel healthy! After a few bites, I was determined to find a recipe that would help me recreate them. This is what I ended up with.

Oatmeal Cranberry Chocolate Chip Cookies
-1 1/2 c. flour
-1 t. baking soda
-1/2 t. salt
-1 t. cinnamon
-1 c. softened butter
-3/4 c. sugar
-3/4 c. packed light brown sugar
-2 large eggs
-1 t. vanilla extract
-3 c. oats
-1 1/2 c. dried cranberries
-1 1/4 c. chocolate chips

1. Combine flour, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon in a small bowl.
2. Beat butter, sugars, eggs, and vanilla in large bowl.
3. Add in flour mixture. Stir in oats, cranberries, and chocolate chips.
4. Drop onto ungreased baking sheet.
5. Bake at 350* for 10-12 minutes.

Confetti Cupcakes

With both Renee and Kara in town for the weekend, confetti cake was a must. We threw together a quick batch, and added a bit of cream cheese frosting for good measure--perfect!

Pumpkin Spice Sandwich Cookies

Here's another post that's a week late in coming--but midterms are over! Perhaps I'll bake something to celebrate?

My project for last weekend featured pumpkin again--somehow it seemed fitting for Halloween week. Here I used the same base as I did for the pumpkin chocolate chip cookies (minus the chips). Instead of dropping, I piped the dough into two-inch circles and baked them for 7 minutes. These have a very cakey consistency, which seemed like it might pair quite nicely with cream cheese frosting...

It did. These went over very well with the taste-testers, and I must say, these might be the best thing I've put together in a while--worth a try!

Pausing here to comment on how fantastic the Silpats were with this particular recipe. (No, they aren't paying me to advertise--they're just that amazing!)

Former Favorites: Happy Halloween!

Chocolate shortbread with royal icing (Halloween 2007).

Recipes

I was very excited to learn yesterday that there are actually more than 2 people reading this, and was even more excited about getting a recipe request!

For a couple of weeks I have been considering including the recipes in the entries, so now I officially have a reason to do so. I'll be updating some of the older posts throughout the coming days, so if you happened to be wanting any of those recipes, check in occasionally this week.

Thanks for reading!

---------------------------
[UPDATE]

-Gingerbread and Royal Icing recipes have been added (with a shout-out to the readers in the Schaumburg area!)
-Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins have a recipe now, too.
-Roasted Applesauce has been re-posted!

Gingerbread with Royal Icing

We've been lucky enough to have a wonderful autumn here in New England, so I decided to try a baked tribute to the season. Gingerbread is probably my all-time favorite type of cookie to make (and possibly my favorite to eat), and I think the pairing of the spiced cookie with the subtle lemon flavoring of the royal icing is just wonderful.

This post is happening a whole week after the baking--the photos were forced to stay in my camera while I tackled week two of midterms. One more week of exams left, so hopefully my baking frequency will be a bit better come November...

Royal Icing
-2 large egg whites
-3 1/2 c. sifted confectioners sugar
-juice of 1 lemon (~4 t.)
-2 drops glycerin (optional--it adds a nice shine when the icing dries)
-food coloring (I like to use the gel colors, but the liquid works quite well too)

1. Beat egg whites until stiff but not dry.
2. Add sifted sugar, lemon juice, and glycerin. Beat 1 minute, until smooth. If necessary, add more sugar or water to achieve the desired consistency.
3. Divide into smaller bowls and tint.

Gingerbread Cookies
-6 c. sifted flour
-1 t. baking soda
-1/2 t. baking powder
-1 c. unsalted butter (2 sticks)
-1 c. dark brown sugar
-4 t. ground ginger
-4 t. ground cinnamon
-1 1/2 t. ground cloves
-1 t. ground pepper
-1 1/2 t. salt
-2 large eggs
-1 1/2 c. molasses

1. Sift together flour, baking soda, and baking powder.
2. In large bowl, cream together butter and sugar. Mix in spices. Beat in eggs and molasses.
3. Add flour mixture; mix well. Divide dough into 3-4 parts and wrap in plastic. Refrigerate dough for at least 1 hour.
4. Roll dough on floured surface to ~1/8". Cut as desired. Chill on ungreased baking sheet for 15 minutes.
5. Bake at 350* for 8-10 minutes. Cool completely on wire rack before decorating.

(The Silpats make another appearance--they did an excellent job with this recipe!)

Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins

After a two week hiatus, I'm back in the kitchen. And a busy two weeks it's been--preparing for Blake's visit, a wonderful long weekend, a bit of a head cold, and the beginning of midterms! There were about a half-dozen different recipes I had been planning to try in that period, so now that I have a little bit of free time, I'm hoping to squeeze in as much baking as possible.

First up--and not on the list of planned experimenting--banana chocolate chip muffins. Why? A few very ripe bananas left over, and some new silicone baking cups to try (the Silpats inspired a craze, I suspect)!

Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins
-1 1/2 c. flour
-2/3 c. sugar
-1 1/2 t. baking powder
-1/4 t. salt
-1 c. mashed ripe banana (~2 large bananas)
-1 large egg
-1/2 c. unsalted butter, melted (1 stick)
-1/4 c. milk
-3/4 c. chocolate chips

1. In large bowl, mix flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt.
2. In smaller bowl, mix banana, egg, melted butter, and milk.
3. Stir wet ingredients into flour mixture until combined. Add in chocolate chips.
4. Pour into muffin cups. Bake at 350* for 30 minutes, until golden on top.
(yield: 12-15, depending on size of muffin cups used)

The bananas that I was persuaded to keep...

The new silicone baking cups (yes, red to match the kitchen).

Yet another silicone success!