Pumpkin Time

I love fall. I think it is my favorite season... Winter is a close second though. Why is fall so fantabulous? Well, first of all, it's beautiful. The colors on the trees (especially in the mountains) are enough for me but it gets better. Fall has the best weather. Fall means there is no grass to mow anymore. Fall is almost Thanksgiving and Black Friday time. Fall is Halloween and I loooove dressing up. Fall means crunchy leaves. Candy. Apples. Pears. Warm pies. Cinnamon. And... Pumpkin.

If there is one thing I love more than fall, it's probably pumpkin. I don't really know when this obsession started but it is indeed an obsession now. I love it. I tried to make myself a delicious loaf of pumpkin chocolate chip espresso bread, but alas, as I said in my last post I am no good with the bread baking thing. Who knows what's wrong with me. I quickly overcame this bread obstacle and immediately made around 5 dozen pumpkin oatmeal cookies. They. Are. Amazing.

So thanks to My Baking Addiction I had the perfect recipe to work from.

Pumpkin Oatmeal Cookies Yield: I got 5 dozen small-ish cookies

2 cups all purpose flour
1 ½ cups old-fashioned oats
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
½ teaspoon kosher salt
1 cup (2 sticks) butter; softened
1 cup packed light brown sugar
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup pure pumpkin puree
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup white chocolate chips
1 cup craisins; roughly chopped

1. Preheat oven to 350. Line your baking sheet with parchment paper or lightly spray.
2. Combine all dry ingredients in a bowl. Beat butter and both sugars until light and fluffy. Add pumpkin, egg and vanilla extract. Mix well. Add flour mixture; combine until all ingredients are incorporated. Fold in white chocolate chips and craisins.
3. Drop by rounded tablespoons onto prepared baking sheets. Bake for 12-14 minutes or until cookies are light brown. Cool on baking sheets for a couple minutes. Remove to wire racks to cool completely.

*** For about half my cookies I used white chocolate chips and craisins/raisins. Here's the thing though, I made the other half with butterscotch chips and chopped pecans and they were INCREDIBLE. Seriously. The added fruity taste of craisins is nice, but the butterscotch and nuts just took these cookies to a whole new level.

A Chocolate Cookie Fix

As much as I love cupcakes (which is a LOT), sometimes I just go on a cookie kick. These past couple weeks I have been on full cookie-mode. The best thing about cookies is how easy they are. I mean, you make the batter, you put it on a sheet, you bake it, you eat them! Cookies are also pretty hard to mess up which is a bonus for me because I have discovered recently that I do not have a gift for breads and muffins. The sad thing is, most of the recipes I have stock piled are breads. Because bread is delicious. It just doesn't think much of me...

Anyway! More about breads later. This is all about COOKIES. This first cookie I found the recipe for on Brown Eyed Baker's site. The original recipe comes from Dorie Greenspan and were dubbed "World Peace Cookies" because they are so good if everyone ate them there would be peace. What are these epic cookies you ask? Chocolate Salted Shortbread's. And *bonus* they are easy!

Chocolate Salted Shortbread Cookies
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 stick plus 3 tablespoons butter, at room temp.
2/3 cup light brown sugar
1/4 granulated sugar
1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt, plus extra for sprinkling
1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1. Whisk together the flour, cocoa and baking soda. Beat butter on medium speed until soft and creamy. Add sugars, salt and vanilla. Beat for another 2 minutes more.
2. With the mixer off, add dry ingredients. Turn the mixer on and off low speed (pulse) for a second or two about 5 times so that the flour mixture gets incorporated. Then mix on low speed for about 30 seconds, just until the flour disappears into the dough (the dough will look crumbly).
3. Turn the dough out onto work surface and divide it in two. Shape each half into a 9-inch log. Wrap the logs in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 3 hours. (The dough can be refrigerated up to 3 days)
4. Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 325. Prepare (grease or line with parchment paper) 2 cookie sheets.
5. Using a sharp knife, slice the logs into rounds that are 1/2 in. Leave about 1 inch between the cookies on sheet. Sprinkle a small amount of extra salt on top of each round. Bake the cookies one sheet at a time for 12 minutes. Transfer the baking sheet to a cooling rack and let the cookies rest until they are only just warm. Serve immediately or let them reach room temperature.

Everything Deep Fried!

The North Carolina State Fair is here at last! From October 14th-24th you can buy anything and everything your heart desires in deep fried form. This means twinkies, oreos, peanut butter cups, milkyways, snickers, pickles and cheesecake. Not to mention giant turkey legs, gourmet funnel cakes, ribbon fries, lollipops as big as your face, bbq (I mean it IS North Carolina), philly cheese steaks, popcorn, nachos, gyros, corn dogs, candy apples, hamburgers, foot long hot dogs, lemonade EVERYWHERE, pizza, blooming onions, corn on the cob, cotton candy and so much more. Sound healthy? I think eating two or more of these foods together on the same day is bound to take a few months off your life but that's what the state fair is for!!!

Deep fried twinkie. Surprising delicious.

Deep fried Snickers. If the twinkie was surprisingly delicious, then the snickers was absolutely amazing.

Ribbon fries! There was a mountain of them originally but Steven and I ate most of them before I remembered to take a picture. We were standing in line about to buy our deep fried twinkie right here.

Apparently there is a "flavor burst" cone option... I didn't spend the $5 to figure out what exactly those flavors were.

Candy Land garden!

Vegetable exhibit :) Looking at this made me feel healthier. I think that might be why everyone else is there too. They just had a sausage dog and funnel cake too probably.

You can pick these little cuties up and play with them! It's always been my favorite part of the state fair. Too bad I just realized this year they're labeled as "baby poultry".

An Almond Joyous Anniversary

As of today, Steven and I have been dating for six whole months! We do something every month but for six months I wanted to make him something special. Steven's favorite candy bar is an Almond Joy... so I decided to start searching the internet for an Almond Joy-like cupcake.

I was inspired by this cupcake but I didn't like that the only part of the cupcake that resembled an almond joy was the topping. After much thought, this is what I came up with for the special occasion...





Almond Joy Cupcake (original recipe) Yields 18
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 cup boiling water
2 large eggs
3 tablespoons water
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 - 3/4 teaspoon almond extract
1 1/2 cups cake flour
1 cup granulated sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 sticks butter (3/4 cup)

1. Preheat oven to 350. Mix the cocoa and boiling water until smooth. Set aside to cool.
2. Combine eggs, water (3 tablespoons) and extracts.
3. Sift together flour, sugar, salt, baking powder and baking soda. Mix in cocoa mixture and butter. Beat for one to two minutes until well combined.
4. Add egg mixture in two parts.
5. Fill 18 greased muffin tins 2/3 full with batter. Bake 16 to 20 minutes or until toothpick inserted into center of cupcake comes out clean.

Coconut Filling (inspiration)
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1 tablespoon water
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup butter
1 cup flaked coconut
1 dollop sour cream
1/2 cup of half and half or whole milk (the original calls for whipping cream but I never seem to have any...)

1. Stir cornstarch, 1 tablespoon water and almond extract together in a bowl.
2. Bring milk, butter and sugar to a boil over medium heat. Remove.
3. Add cornstarch. Stir in coconut and sour cream.
4. Cover and chill 8 hours.

* Ahem. This created a nice big mess. This mixture did not firm up at all like I was hoping it would with the cornstarch. I'm preeeetty sure that's because I added too much water to the cornstarch. But I worked with it regardless. It was soupier than I was hoping... but it was delicious.

Chocolate Buttercream (Wilton's)
1/4 cup solid vegetable shortening
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter, room temperature
1/2 + 1/8 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon vanilla (or almond!) extract
2 cups confectioners' sugar 
2 tablespoons milk

1. Cream together shortening and butter. Add cocoa and vanilla. 
2. Gradually add sugar, one cup at a time. Beat well at a medium speed until combined. ten.
3. The icing will look "dry". At this point, add the milk and beat at medium speed until fluffy. 
4. Keep bowl covered with a damp cloth until ready to use. 
  
Chocolate Covered Almonds 
54 whole unsalted almonds (enough to put three on each cupcake)
3/4 cup chocolate chips
3 tablespoons margarine or butter


1. Melt chocolate chips and butter in microwave. If the mixture is not melting quick enough, or is chunky, add more butter and heat again. Stop and stir often.
2. Dunk almonds in chocolate and place on wax paper to dry.
3. Put in refrigerator to finish cooling.
 
NOW!!! That's a lot right? I know. It was. But sooo worth it, trust me. 
 
Like I said. Those Almond Joy cupcakes I saw online were a little lacking but I couldn't quite figure out what to do to make them even better. Then, as I was flipping through Martha Stewart's cupcake book, I realized that these cupcakes needed to be layered! Here is what I did:
 
1. Cut cooled cupcakes in half horizontally.  
2. Spoon almond/coconut filling onto bottom half. (These cupcakes were a little dry so I spooned some of the extra creamy bits of the mixture on the insides of the cupcake so it would absorb it and hopefully become more moist. It worked! Thank goodness for that soupy mixture, right?)
3. Pipe a circle of buttercream on top of the coconut layer and sandwich the cupcake,
4. Pipe more buttercream on top and garnish with chocolate covered almonds.
Voila!

These cupcakes got rave reviews. Steven thinks they're the best things ever. Which is exactly what I was hoping for! I was pretty impressed myself. Maybe I will make them again for seven months... :)


¡Feliz seis meses!

Morning Glory Mini Muffins

Breakfast is the best meal of the day. In my personal opinion, breakfast food is the best food too. Pancakes. Waffles. Muffins. Scones. Pastries. Eggs. Sausage. Grits. Oatmeal. Cereal. Fruit. Toast. Breads. Smoothies (I mean, I think that's a good breakfast food, right?). The list goes on!

It occurred to me that I had yet to bake a breakfast food!!! So naturally I wanted to rectify this situation ASAP and went about making "Morning Glory" muffins (adapted from Earthbound Farms). These muffins are also known as "kitchen sink" muffins... as in "everything-but-the-kitchen-sink" can be put in them. Yum. I used raisins, apples from the farm, carrots from our garden, coconut and nuts.

Morning Glory Mini Muffins (Yields 32 mini muffins)
1 1/4 cup flour
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 tablespoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup shredded sweetened coconut
1/2 cup raisins
1 large apple, peeled and finely chopped
1 cup grated carrots
1/2 cup walnuts
1 large egg
2/3 cup vegetable oil
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1. Preheat oven to 350. Spray muffin tins with non-stick cooking spray and set aside.
2. Mix together flour, brown sugar, cinnamon, salt and baking soda in a large bowl. Add coconut, raisins, apple, nuts and carrots and combine.
3. In a separate bowl, whisk the eggs with the oil and vanilla. Pour mixture into dry ingredients and blend well.
4. Fill each muffin tin almost to the top. Bake 13-16 minutes or until toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean. Let stand for ten minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to finish cooling.
5. Enjoy.

Hooray for breakfast!!!

The Mean Baker and Apple Walnut Cupcakes

This weekend I took a break from school and went home. My dad was out of town but I still got to see my mom and spend some quality time with Steven. Hooray! So we were at his house making granola (amazing) and blackberry lemon tea cakes (I didn't try one but they looked awesome) when I discovered I am not a nice baker.

I am very bossy and rude in the kitchen which is funny because in real life (aka life outside the kitchen) I'm a super nice person. Well, pretty nice. When I'm baking something though... Look out. I need everything to be done just so and measured and added exactly and I need to be the one doing it. I felt bad Saturday because I was so in the zone I didn't even notice until everything was in the oven how I had just completely taken over. Woops.

In conclusion, I work best baking alone. I am going to try and get better though :) Anger-baking management is just what I need. I went home that day and made Steven sorry-I'm-such-a-mean-baker-and-always-take-over apple walnut cupcakes with maple frosting.

Apple Walnut Cupcakes (adapted from Martha Stewart) Yields 18
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 + 1/8 cup of butter (3/4 stick), room temp
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 egg
1/2 cup milk
3/4 teaspoon lemon juice
3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 1/2 cups chopped apples (I used 3 medium sized apples from the orchard at our family farm)
1 cup chopped walnuts

1. Preheat oven to 350. Line muffin tins with paper liners and set aside. Mix together flour, baking soda, nutmeg, salt and cinnamon in a bowl and set aside.
2. Beat butter and sugar until pale and fluffy. Mix in the egg, milk, lemon juice and banilla. Reduce speed and mix in apples and walnuts. Add the flour mixture just until combined.
3. Fill lined cups 2/3 full. This batter is thick so it's difficult to tell how it will spread out in the tins.
4. Bake for 15-18 minutes or tops are a deep golden brown. Let cool on wire racks.

Maple Frosting (inspired by And Then I Do the Dishes)
1/2 stick butter, softened
2 cups confectioners sugar
1/2 cup maple syrup

1. Whisk together ingredients until you find your desired concsistency.
Please note, I suck at making buttercream. My mom pointed out to me this weekend that I am not actually making buttercream. Just icing. It doesn't hold its shape. Luckily, she pulled out her Wilton's Cake Decorating book (okay that would have been useful about a month ago...) with buttercream directions inside. Next time, I will make the most amazing looking buttercream the world has seen. AND it will hold its shape when I pipe it out. YES!

These cupcakes were pretty awesome but the icing was too sweet in my opinion. If I make these again, I honestly wouldn't put anything on top... Except maybe try a crumb top??? Hmm... Interesting...

Fresh Peach Pie

Once again my parents bought more peaches than they knew what to do with. Not that anyone was complaining! We went to the farm for labor day weekend and my mom and I made a peach pie to take to my dad's aunt and uncle's house for dessert.

This pie is so easy and just... amazing. You bake the crust of course, but then you're done with the oven which I love. For my dad's birthday in April my mom uses the same recipe to make a strawberry pie and it is just as awesome as it is with peaches. Just add some ice cream and you will think you've died and gone to heaven. And this coming from someone who doesn't enjoy fruit.

Pie Crust (my mommy's recipe)
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup butter-flavored shortening
4-5 tablespoons cold water

1. Preheat oven to 450. Sift flour and salt together. Next cut in the shortening with a pastry blender until pieces are the size of small peas.
2. Sprinkle one tablespoon of water over part the mixture. Using a fork, gently mix the water into the mixture and push to one side of the bowl. Repeat this process until all the mixture has been moistened.
3. Form into a ball and flatten on a lightly floured surface. Roll out from the center until 1/8 inch thick.
4. To fit the pastry into the pie plate, lightly flour the surface of the your rolled out dough and fold carefully in half. Repeat this step again so that your pastry is in fourths. Then gently place the tip (or point or center fold or whatever you would like to call it) of the pastry in the center of a 9" pie dish. Unfold the pastry and press into place.
5. Next trim the edges that go over the pie dish to within 1/2 to 1 inch of the dish. Fold under and flute the edges. Be sure to prick the sides and bottom of the pastry with a fork or use pie weights if you have them.
6. Bake 10-12 minutes or until golden.

I would just like to say, my first pie crust making adventure was rather impressive until I got to the edge fluting thing... That just did NOT go well at all. This time I made the most beautiful pie crust ever (it's true) and even my mom said it looked good! It was that legit. :)

We had shortening, but it wasn't butter-flavored and it turned out just as well. Personally, though, I think it tastes a little better with that extra buttery something going on, you know?

Fresh Peach Pie
Baked 9" pie shell (recipe above)
several cups fresh sliced peaches (I usually use between 5 and 6 medium sized peaches)
1 cup finely chopped peaches
3/4 cup water
1 cup sugar
2 teaspoons lemon juice
3 tablespoons cornstarch

1. Fill the cooled pie shell full of sliced fruit (until the fruit is level with the top of the crust).
2. In a saucepan, stir together crushed fruit, 1/2 cup water (1/4 at a time), and sugar. Let it come to a boil.
3. Mix together remaining water, cornstarch and lemon juice in a small bowl. Stir in to your saucepan (still boiling) slowly; let thicken.
4. Pour mixture over fruit and let cool for at least 3 hours.

I forgot to mention that my mom want me to save some of the pie shell and make leaves or something pretty for the top. To do this, you just save whatever amount of pastry you trim off the edges of the shell and roll it out again. She usually free hands her leaves, but I used some cookie cutters I found in my grandma's cabinet.  I baked them with the pie shell on a tiny cookie sheet. You have to keep checking these to be sure they don't burn though. Lovely, isn't it?

My Famous Food Injuries

You know that kid in your kindergarten class who would always manage to cut themselves with safety scissors? Yeah. I was that kid. It takes very, very little to cause an injury for me. For instance, I currently have a bruise on both hips from accidentally bumping into my door frame on the way out of my room, a collection of tiny cuts from the X-acto blade I was using in art the other day (I swear I thought I was being more careful than that!), a jammed toe from kicking the lane divide in the pool too many times (Honestly, they need to get rid of those things. Or I need to work on my over aggressive breaststroke... One of the two), and probably even more embarrassing injuries that I am forgetting.

Seriously. I would come home from school and see my mom and say "Maaa I got hurt today...." and before I could even explain how she would just say "Of course you did". I broke my big toe tripping down the stairs on my way to the kitchen for bacon. I am just that kind of person.

So naturally I have lots of kitchen related injuries too! And some odd food injuries you probably wouldn't believe possible. That's the "band-aid" part of this blog. (In case you're wondering, which I'm sure you're not, I always have a handy supply of Hello Kitty band-aids with me.) There will be some funny (for the reader at least) stories about my many, many injuries in this blog to fill the gaps when I cannot bake and post something new and delicious I just created.

Story #1 (and probably just the stupidest thing ever): One time, (I swear this is true) I was eating some Snyder's mini pretzels (possibly the best things ever. I have a bag in my dorm room at all times) in the cafeteria, and next thing I know - I'm bleeding! Okay, I thought, I just cut my hand in art class before I got here! Wrong. I had stabbed myself in the thumb with the edge of a pretzel that was broken. It's one of the weirdest injuries I think I've ever had but the worst part is the salt... Not only was it weird, it burned.

There are at least a hundred (or thousand) more injuries like this in my deep, dark past. I will (probably) only share the food related ones. Lots of interesting things happen when I bake...

Peach Cupcakes with Peach Buttercream

I hate fruit. Really. The texture is just... crunchy and watery and strange. It gets weirder. I love fruit juice, chocolate covered anything, apple pie, making smoothies with raw fruit... But for some reason I just cannot eat fruit by itself. This has always confused my friends and family and it continues to drive my parents crazy. The only fruit I would ever eat (and even then it was only occasional) were oranges. I am happy to say that at some point in the past few years I started eating oranges regularly and began liking pineapples too.

Then... Miracle of miracles! This summer I started eating more fruit. Strawberries, blueberries and peaches have joined the ranks of the select few fruits I will actually consume. I now eat fruit in moderation! Haha. Anyway. I'm getting there. And I will bake with anything. Some of my favorite cupcakes are banana cupcakes with peanut butter frosting and bananas are probably among my least favorite fruits.

So! Like the title says, this post is about peach cupcakes. My parents stopped at the farmer's market and bought an entire bucket full of peaches. Add those to the peaches we picked on the family farm and the fridge was packed. I took it upon myself to use as many peaches as possible in my baking. Sure, I could have made a peach pie (again) or peach cobbler... Peach crisp, peach crumble, peach upside down cake... But I have a special affinity for cupcakes, so peach cupcakes it was!

Sadly, this post will have no pictures. I made these cupcakes less than a week before I started this blog for my mother's birthday. Had I known that I was about to create a blog, I would have taken pictures. But alas! There are none. You will just have to take my word for it that they are delicious. Really. Here is the recipe I used, adapted from Smitten Kitchen.

Peach Cupcakes
Makes roughly 14
1 1/2 cups cake flour
3/4 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
pinch of nutmeg
pinch of cinnamon
6 tablespoons butter, room temp.
1/4 + 1/8 cups sugar
1/4 + 1/8 cups lightly packed brown sugar
1 large eaten, beaten
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract (I always add a little more than it says)
3/4 sour cream
2 medium (or large!) peaches, peeled, cored, and chopped

1. Preheat oven to 350. Line tins with paper liners and set aside. Mix together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, nutmeg and cinnamon.
2. Cream together butter and sugar, beating until fluffy. Add the egg, scraping down the sides of the bowl. Next add the vanilla, and slowly mix in the sour cream. Stir in dry ingredients and gently fold in the peaches.
3. Divide the batter evenly among cupcake tins, about 2/3 full. Bake for 18-22 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean.

Yum. Soo good. But what would peach cupcakes be without peach buttercream to go along with them?? I got this recipe from TasteofHome, but naturally I didn't follow it exactly...

Peach Buttercream
3/4 cup butter, at room temperature
1 1/2 cups confectioner's sugar
1/4 cup peach puree (1-2 peaches)
vanilla extract (to taste)

1. Beat butter until light and fluffy. Add the sugar and beat until well combined. Add peach puree and vanilla and mix until smooth. (You can add food coloring to make the color "peachier" but I didn't. It looked peachy enough to me!)

There you have it. Peach cupcakes. Peach frosting. It doesn't get any better than that!

Cake Mixes and Care Packages

GASP! From a BOX? I know, I know. Not very creative. But I had these boxes of cake mix and brownie mix just sitting neglected in the pantry and I felt bad for them. So what do you do with a box of Duncan Hines Lemon Supreme Cake Mix and a box of Dark Chocolate Brownie Mix when you don't want cake or brownies? I will tell you.

I was going to see one of my best friends at college and I wanted to bake something (of course) before I went to her dorm. My brother goes to the same school so I decided I would bake a couple things and take them both a plate of goodies to share with their roommates.
After a little web surfing I settled on some recipes from the Duncan Hines website itself. Lemon cake mix became lemon bars and chocolate brownie mix became coconut chocolate macaroons. The macaroons were (not surprisingly) very brownie-esque and absolutely delicious. The lemon bars were not light and citrus-y but rather thick. If you're looking for a fluffy, sticky lemon bar then these are not the ones for you.

These recipes are both from http://www.duncanhines.com/ (with some slight changes on my part to the chocolate coconut macaroon recipe).

Lemon Bars
1 box Duncan Hines Moist Deluxe Lemon Supreme Cake Mix
3 eggs
1/3 cup buttered flavored shortening
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 lemon juice (fresh squeezed is best)
2 teaspoons lemon zest
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
confectioners sugar for topping

1. Preheat oven to 350. Combine cake mix, 1 egg and shortening in a mixing bowl. Beat until crumbs form. Save one cup for topping and lightly pat the remaining mixture into an ungreased 13x9 pan.
2. Bake for 15 minutes or until light brown. While it is in the oven, combine last 2 eggs, sugar, lemon juice, lemon peel, baking powder and salt in a bowl. Beat until the mixture is light and fluffy. Pour over the hot crust. Sprinkle the remaining 1 cup of crumb mixture over top and bake 15 more minutes or until lightly browned.
3. Let bars cool in the pan. Sprinkle with confectioners sugar and cut.

Chocolate Coconut Brownie Macaroons with White Chocolate Chips
1 box Duncan Hines Dark Chocolate Brownie Mix
2 cups coconut
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 tablespoons water
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla or coconut extract
1/2 cup white chocolate chips

1. Preheat oven to 350. Spray cookie sheets with nonstick cooking spray. Combine the brownie mix and coconut in a large bowl.
2. Stir in the oil, water, egg and extract with a wooden spoon until all dray ingredients are moistened. This dough is very stiff. I added in the white chocolate chips at this point, but it would probably work better if they are thrown in with the brownie mix and coconut in the first step.
3. Roll dough into one inch balls and place 2 inches apart on cookie sheets. Flatten the cookies slightly.
4. Bake 10-12 minutes or until the edges are set. The center will still be a little soft (and chewy like a brownie. Yum). Let cool for 2-3 minutes and transfer cookies to a rack to cool completely.

Next, I assembled my two care packages! Aka... two paper plates piled with cookies and lemon bars and then carefully covered with plastic wrap. Then I painstakingly finished with personalized post-it note name cards.

The Not-So-Monster Chewy Monster Birthday Cookies

Mom (upon seeing me getting ready to put the cookie sheets in the oven): "Katie, those cookies are HUGE."
Me (laughing slightly): "Yeah, well, they're called monster cookies, Mom."

Being in college makes it hard to get your friends birthday presents. For my best friend, I decided to make her cookies this weekend and freeze them until I mail them to her. (What I think is really going to happen is my mom is going to give them to her parents to take down to her this weekend but! Anyway.)
She likes cookies. A lot. She likes peanut butter. I saw this recipe on http://www.browneyedbaker.com/ and thought I would try it out. I, of course, changed the original recipe a bit due to some lack of ingredients (and patience). My cookies were big, round, chewy and pretty delicious. Once again, Steven and mom were the guinea pigs and they seemed to enjoy them. Here it goes!

Monster Cookies
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup brown sugar
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 teaspoon corn syrup
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 stick melted butter
1 cup creamy peanut butter
2 cups oats
1 cup M&M's (roughly two of those bags you pick up while waiting to check out at the grocery store. You know... the one you always buy and eat in the car on the way home)
1/2 cup Reese's Pieces
1/2 cup chocolate chips

1. Preheat oven to 350. Spray baking sheets. Mix together eggs, sugar, brown sugar, vanilla, corn syrup, salt and baking soda. Stir in peanut butter and eggs (I could NOT get the butter to mix in at first, but just keep going and fold it into the gooey egg/sugar mixture. Be sure to scrape down the sides of the bowl). Stir in flour and oats. Add M&M's, Reese's Pieces, chocolate chips, or any other candy you just want to throw in. Let the dough rest for thirty minutes.
2. Using a large ice cream scoop (that's what I used, at least) drop large globs of cookie dough onto baking sheets. They are supposed to be BIG. Hence the name, Monster Cookies. Flatten them a little with a spoon or spatula or your fingers... whatever is around, really. Bake for about 10 minutes. Mine had to bake a little longer thanks to the weird positioning of the oven racks. Let cool 3 minutes before transfering to racks to cool.
3. I put mine in the freezer. We'll see what my best friend says about them...

PS - Always put a little heart into your baking. What's the point of making things for other people if you don't do it with love?

One of my best friends bought me these measuring cups for my many baking adventures. It was the perfect birthday present. (She got these at Urban Outfitters.)

"Three-Bowl" Chocolate Cupcakes

 My Martha Stewart cupcake book has a recipe for "One-Bowl Chocolate Cupcakes" that sounded so easy I couldn't wait to try it. Unlike some of her recipes, this one did not require simmering various ingredients over the stove or procuring whole vanilla beans (as a baker I should probably figure out where to buy those. And how to use them, come to think of it...) just to bake a batch of cupcakes. So naturally, after seeing how easy it was to follow, I jumped right in.

The description of the cupcakes says in place of vanilla extract, a different extract can be added to change the flavor of your cupcakes. I thought "Well that sounds like fun!" and divided the batter into three separate bowls before adding a different extract to each. The recipe and results follow...

One-Bowl Chocolate Cupcakes (adapted from Martha Stewart's Cupcakes)
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
2 eggs
3/4 cups Dutch-process cocoa powder (more if you want to make simple chocolate buttercream)
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
2/3 cup milk
3/4 teaspoon lemon juice
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
3/4 cup warm water
(1 teaspoon vanilla extract, OR 1 1/2 teaspoon orange extract, peppermint extract, etc)

1. Preheat oven to 350. Line muffin tins with paper liners. Combine all dry ingredients. Add eggs, milk, lemon juice, water, oil and your choice of extract to mix. If you, like me, want to create three different cupcakes from this one recipe, do not add extract but first divide the batter into three (or two or more) bowls.
2. In one bowl, I added almond extract. Because the 1 1/2 teaspoon almond extract is for a full recipe and I had divided my recipe into thirds, I only added 1/2 teaspoon almond extract.
3. To my second bowl of batter I added 1/2 teaspoon orange extract, 1/3 cup of chocolate chips, orange zest and a dash of fresh squeezed orange juice and saved the orange to use for an orange glaze (recipe to follow).
4. Bowl number three gets plain old vanilla extract.
5. Bake until toothpick (it doesn't have to be a toothpick - you could have a legit cake tester) comes out clean. Around 20 minutes.
Yield: 18 scrumptious cupcakes.

After the blueberry pancake fiasco, I swore to follow this recipe exactly. I had gotten to the very end before I realized that the cocoa powder was still sitting on the counter in its measuring cup waiting to be added. I have learned from past experiences that order in which you add ingredients does matter. In this case, I chose to ignore my instincts and just stir the cocoa powder into the now moist batter. Surprisingly, the cupcakes were still very good and moist (or maybe that's not so surprising to you. I mean, it is chocolate for crying out loud. Where can you go wrong?).

I took these to Steven's for dessert and they we a huge success. Especially after the incredible Eggplant Parmesan he and I had whipped up! ;)

My personal favorite? The chocolate/almond cupcakes with cinnamon buttercream.

Chocolate/Orange cupcakes with Orange Glaze
Orange Glaze "Recipe"

1/2-ish teaspoon freshly grated orange zest
2 tablespoons fresh orange juice
1/2 cup confectioners sugar

Whisk together ingredients until smooth. For this recipe, I like it a little more runny than thick. It gets too sweet with too much confectioners sugar and I like the orange flavor to take center stage. Again, it's up to you.

I Was Supposed To Measure That?

I don't like being exact in my measurements when I bake. In fact, I don't really like following the recipes at all and usually end up adding extra ingredients. Sometimes, this goes horribly wrong. Like the other night when I told Steven (boyfriend) I would make us blueberry pancakes for dinner with the fresh blueberries he and his family had picked. I printed out three different recipes and looked at the ingredients... Then I just started throwing things together in the bowl.

What I discovered is that this method only works for the fortunate few who have been blessed with true culinary talent. For the rest of us, it produces flat, chewy pancakes with little flavor and burnt blueberries. In all fairness, they weren't COMPLETELY inedible. Steven made some berry sauce to put on top in place of maple syrup and the pancakes were almost tasty drenched in that delicious mixture. I ate a couple before deciding on Life cereal for dinner. Steven ate the other 12. (Somewhere between pancakes one and five he said I should start a blog and write about my successes and failures in the kitchen. The pancakes were a big hit with him. He said they were "revolutionary". They were something alright.)

My point is, somethings just need to be measured. The only thing (I like to think) I have truly mastered without measuring is my version of buttercream frosting. It's so easy it is hard (even for me!) to mess up. Here is my (general) recipe.

Buttercream (for roughly 12 cupcakes. More is you don't like frosting as much I do!)
1 stick softened butter
1 1/2 - 2 cups confectioners sugar
1-ish teaspoons of vanilla (or other) extract

All you have to do is whisk these three simple ingredients together and you have made a delicious frosting. In place of vanilla extract, you can use orange, peppermint or any other you so choose. I like to add a little cream here and more sugar there, but it's really up to you. Some people pull out the big mixer but I always prefer to use a bowl, a fork and a little manual labor.

The other night I made chocolate buttercream by dumping (literally. It was a mess. No one warned me of the dangers of cocoa powder) in some dutch-processed cocoa powder that I had used in the cupcake mix itself. I also added in a tiny bit of Hershey's chocolate syrup for good measure. It was good, I promise.

 (chocolate/almond cupcakes with cinnamon buttercream)

To top my chocolate/almond cupcakes, I chose to attempt a cinnamon buttercream. All I did here was add some cinnamon to my frosting mixture! It was easy and soo good.

What it comes down to for me is taste - not measurements. You have to keep tasting your creation and make sure you like. Otherwise, there  is no point making it.

The "Sickness" That Started It All...

As a senior in high school, I spent most of my time watching television and putting off homework assignments that did not seem nearly as pressing as they had a year before. I had sent off my college applications and found myself with lots of free time despite several AP courses and unfinished art projects. I had developed a bad case of senioritis, and it wasn't going away anytime soon.

Sometime last September I found myself in the kitchen with a box of cake mix and paper tin liners on the eve of a beloved friends birthday. With a few eggs, oil and water- VOILA!- I had made 24 beautiful yellow cupcakes. The icing too came out of a box (or can? or do you call those plastic things jars?), but that didn't stop the compliments from rolling in the next day as I presented my friend with her 18th birthday present. In the course of the following months, several dozen more cupcakes were baked, as well as a few batches of cookies here and there. By Christmas, I had become a full-fledged baker.

Once my senioritis took serious hold in the spring, the baking began in earnest. Birthdays, an art show opening, graduation party, beach trip... everything seemed to be an occasion to bake and I just couldn't resist the temptation to pull out the muffin tins in times like those. For Christmas I had asked for and received a Martha Stewart cupcake cookbook and flipped through it regularly. For my 18th birthday I got a copy of Cook's Illustrated Baking Illustrated. I looked up recipes online and drooled over the Food Network's "Ace of Cakes" and "Cupcake Wars" (another favorite is TLC's "Cake Boss"). When I arrived at college a few weeks ago, instead of doing homework I would skim baking blogs until it was suggested to me by my boyfriend (who put up with many a long pause in our phone conversations as I trying to determine if I wanted to add a certain blog to my "favorites") that I start my own. Why not?

This blog is not only about my adventures in baking, but my many many mishaps with food as well. As the title suggests, I am not the most graceful person in the world and that will become quickly apparent. I make messes. I make gross looking cupcakes-things. I cook inedible food. I get hurt in the strangest ways (knives are surprisingly hardly ever involved in my kitchen related injuries). I tend to crack eggs all over the counter. I have burnt cupcakes to a crisp. I have cried. I have laughed. Mostly, I've just had fun. Enjoy.