Yummy

I am baking all this week. I didn't have time to do anything for my friends and co-workers at the Union - not even X-mas cards- so I am giving them treats all week as a thank you and Christmas gifts.

Monday was Pumpkin Chocolate Chip cupcakes with Cinnamon Icing. I thought people would be put off by the pumpkin but hey, free home made baked goods. They went like hotcakes.
Today is peppermint brownies with candycane frosting. I had a rough time making them last night so they don't look great but once again, I don't think that anyone will really care what they look like. I also discovered this morning that I did not grease the second pan as well as I did the first one and the brownies did NOT want to come out of the pan. Second time I have made this recipe and so far, everyone has liked it.
I like the frosting for this recipe but not the brownie part. I really want to look for a more cakey type of brownie recipe that pours. This one you have to smoosh into the pan and when it is greased, it makes it really hard to stay in the pan evenly.

More photos to come later. Tonight is cookie night and some banana cupcakes. Banana cupcakes will be for home because you need a brown banana and I only have one, stolen from a friend's apartment that I am house sitting for. She won't mind though. :)

Short and Dirty

- Spoke with Ms. S today - finally! My fault, I have had her name next to "call" on my to do list for several days now.

- First day of training for teaching. Yawn inducing and still no lesson plans for first few classes.

- Had a lovely dinner with Meesh last Thursday. She came to campus to buy her books, we had a lovely chat and dinner at Veggie Delight.

- As I mentioned to Ms. S, I have already received some lovely Birthday gifts, Plet helped me organize the party - doing all that icky call around for prices and locations, Ms. S is staying in Vegas and taking care of business - which is exactly where I want her to be right now (there are other years), my big sis hosted me in Seattle and Ms. B sent me "Vegan with a Vengance" (Book love from far away, I love it!)

- Speaking of Settle, I am still planning on posting but until I do, here are a couple teaser pics:
Tiramsu Cupcakes (Sorry T3, they have coffee and alcohol in them!)

Marble cupcakes with an almost perfect yin-yang shape on the bottom, the dot in the top is actually where a bubble and therefore a hole formed in the cupcake, I haven't done anything to this cupcake other than bake it and peel the wrapper off. And yes, that is my chubby hand holding the cupcake. Nice nails though right?

More to come.

A Tale of Two Cupcakes

Yes, this past weekend I baked cupcakes twice. And since I have been a little lazy on the posting, here are two sets of pictures to drool over.

First, Pineapple Right Side Up cupcakes for my Saturday night dinner party. Single view.

And these are full size cupcakes for a change, not minis as I am want to make. Here is half a dozen.


For future bakings, I think I would like to try a lighter whipped pineapple mousse type topping. As yummy as the pineapple compote on top was, I think I would like a lighter sweet as to not overpower the delicious spicy cupcake below. I also got some critique on the use of the marachino cherries. I was told I should have used a half cherry and I had a couple people pick their's off, which I kinda don't understand, I think they're yummy! My only change with the cherries is I might wash them off a bit so I don't have the red juice drip on my cupcakes like you can see in the picture above.

Cupcakes #2
For work I decided to try my hand at the Chai Latte cupcakes. After several false starts finding out that I was missing ingredient after ingredient, I finally got baking. Mini's at work:(Yes, that is the 'marble' table in the breakroom)

Once again, I had a heck of a time with the recipe. I had to really play with the baking time as they seemed uncooked in the middle and I also feared that they were sticking to the lining. So I sprayed the liners, which then made them rise funny because of the extra 'oil'. The next morning they were fine, the original batch came off the papers with out any problem.

These were not my favorite but they were inhaled at work! Normally there are a few left in the main break room when I am ready to go home and I transfer them to a paper plate and they are gone by the next morning. The cupcakes were gone by 4:00. And I take a seperate container to the Design Factory since it is a seperate building and they rarely come up to the break room. Those cupcakes were gone by three, and I usually have to give them two days to finish and then there are usually a couple still there. Who knew?

Coming up next, an overview of my AZ trip and finally! some of my Mexico trip.

Brooklyn Brownie Cupcakes

My co-workers better feel the love, I had baking problems this time and it is really hard to tell why. I changed to real cupcake liners (mini's from Michael's Crafts) and I followed the recipe's instructions to fill the liners all the way to the top. They turned out looking like this.


I can't serve these. So that was 2 dozen that were donated to the family. Which they appreciated. The next batched turned out like this:



Much better.

Interesting recipe, it calls for 2 tablespoons of Bourbon or whiskey. I used an aged whiskey, made the same year I was born. How is that for showing some love for a good bye party? So, is it a good thing that I have been asked to bake for an event or a bad thing?

Another Batch

So, I will get to my trip and the wedding I attended but in the meantime, enjoy these pictures of Chocolate Cherry Creme Cupcakes.

Before - yer basic chocolate cupcake

After - With Cherry Creme and Buttercream filling, topped with more buttercream, semisweet chocolate shavings and a maraschino cherry.

Minis! for work (over 2 dozen)
I made the large ones for a family dinner last night.

Yummy. And tomorrow I will be baking is Brooklyn Brownie Cupcakes for a co-worker's going away party.

Summer S'mores

Okay, here we have another batch of cupcakes, this time S'more cupcakes. New pictures taken on my new camera.

Topped with Vegan Buttercream, mini semisweet chocolate chips and a mini square of Graham cracker. The others in the background are also sprinkled with graham crumbs.

This will be my last post until 4th of July. I am leaving very early Tuesday morning (4:00 a.m.) and flying out to Mexico with my friend JW and her friend Valeria. Valeria will no doubt be my friend by the time we return. We are going to have a lot of fun and I promise to take a lot of pictures and share them with you all when I return. We will be going all over the place, Cuidad Victoria, San Juan de los Lagos, Guanajuato, Dolores Hidalgo, San Miguel de Allende, Puebla, Veracruz, Poza Rica, and Tampico. I still have several things to get done before I leave and boy, I wish I had taken tomorrow off of work. Course, I also wish that I was getting paid for my vacation time but we all know the old saying, "If wishes were horses, beggars would ride."

Buenas Noche y escribo luego.

Cupcakes

Here is a picture from last weekend. No baking this weekend due to bachlorette party craziness and general feelings of sickness and ickiness.


Sorry about the picture not being framed right, I am shooting blind since I broke the LCD screen on my digital camera.

Oh, they are Red velveteen cupcakes with vegan buttercream frosting. Half have crushed pecans, half without. They went like hotcakes.

Haven't felt like writing anything lately, been going to the gym a lot, so ti-ti.

Ciao...

What I did today

Besides cleaning my room and reading a little,

Vegan Cookie and Cream Cupcakes with Vegan Cookie and Cream Buttercream Frosting. Okay, not really vegan since I used real oreos instead of a vegan style of cookie but what ev'. They are 2 dozen mini cupcakes that I am taking to work.

I'll let you know if people like them there.

The weekend went by way too fast. I'll try to write something real later.