Black Bottoms Up

My friend Aubrey turned 16 last week, and in celebration, I made her black bottom cupcakes. She had never had them, but she loves a. chocolate and b. cream cheese, so I thought I would give her the best of both worlds.
I used to eat them a lot when I was little ( I would order them at Peet's or Starbucks when my mom would get her latte), but I probably haven't had one since I was 8 or so. So when I was making them the entire time I was paranoid that they wouldn't come out right. But then I had one (I always taste before I give them to my friends), and they tasted exactly how I remembered them.
Here is the recipe, which i adapted from Smitten Kitchen:

FILLING:
8 ounces cream cheese, regular or reduced fat, at room temperature
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg, at room temperature
2 ounces bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, coarsely chopped

Beat together the cream cheese, granulated sugar, and egg until smooth. Stir in the chopped chocolate pieces. Set aside.



CUPCAKES:
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
5 tablespoons natural unsweetened cocoa powder (not Dutch-process)
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup water
1/3 cup unflavored vegetable oil
1 tablespoon white vinegar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1. Adjust the rack to the center of the oven and preheat to 350°F. Butter a 12-cup muffin tin, or line the tin with paper muffin cups.
2. In a medium bowl sift together the flour, brown sugar, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt. In a separate bowl, mix together the water, oil, vinegar, and vanilla.
3. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and stir in the wet ingredients, stirring until just smooth. Stir any longer and you will over mix the batter and end up with less-than-tender cupcakes.
4. Divide the batter among the muffin cups. Spoon a few tablespoons of the filling into the center of each cupcake, dividing the filling evenly. This will fill the cups almost completely, which is fine.
5. Bake for 25 minutes, or until the tops are slightly golden brown and the cupcakes feel springy when gently pressed. These moist treats will keep well unrefrigerated for 2 to 3 days if stored in an airtight container. Makes about 12 cupcakes.



Peace. Love. Blackbottoms.

Cookie Cookie Cooooookies!

Kelsey loves cookies. And cookie monster. But now he is veggie monster and I have lost all respect for Sesame Street. And now I am sad. =[
ANYWAYS, I discovered this recipe on Martha Stewart's website (of course!) and decided this is the absolute be-eh-eh-st chocolate chip cookie recipe ever!
I got so many compliments on them, and am definitely adding it to one of my top 10s.
So, without any further ado, here is the recipe:

CHEWY CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES:
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 cup packed light-brown sugar
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
2 large eggs
2 cups (about 12 ounces) semisweet and/or milk chocolate chips



1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a small bowl, whisk together the flour and baking soda; set aside. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine the butter with both sugars; beat on medium speed until light and fluffy. Reduce speed to low; add the salt, vanilla, and eggs. Beat until well mixed, about 1 minute. Add flour mixture; mix until just combined. Stir in the chocolate chips.
2. Drop heaping tablespoon-size balls of dough about 2 inches apart on baking sheets lined with parchment paper.
3. Bake until cookies are golden around the edges, but still soft in the center, 8 to 10 minutes. Remove from oven, and let cool on baking sheet 1 to 2 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack, and let cool completely. Store cookies in an airtight container at room temperature up to 1 week. Makes about 3 dozen.

God I'm sexy. Except JUST KIDDING.


Peace. Love. Coooooookies.

Little FYI

I'm sorry I've been a little MIA recently...I have been sick, then lazy, then super busy, then lazy again. So basically i have very little excuse haha. My baaaad.
Anyway, because I have been slacking, I am backed up on posts so there are about to be a buttload of posts coming your way. Just a little advanced warning.

Peace. Love. Laziness.

Today, i have reached a peak in my baking.
Today, my friend and I not only had a cookie/cupcake day reunion, but we also made RAINBOW EFFING CUPCAKES.

I'm feelin' pretty good about myself right now, not gonna lie.
I thought it was cool when I made homemade funfetti, but gosh this is even cooler!
They taste pretty good, considering the heaps of chemicals the food coloring must have added, but they look even more badass.
we made a whipped cream to top it with, because we didn't want to take away from the epic-ness of the cupcakes. The cupcake recipe is adapted from http://bakingbites.com/, and the whipped cream is from http://www.joyofbaking.com/.

Anyway, without any further ado, I give you... Kelsey and Erica's COSMIC CUPCAKES:



Cosmic Cupcakes (adapted from http://bakingbites.com/ Rainbow Cupcakes with Whipped Cream Topping:

CUPCAKES

2 Cup all purpose flour
3 Tsp. baking powder
1/2 Tsp. salt
1 Cup sugar
4 Large eggs
1 Cup vegetable oil
1 Cup buttermilk
2 Tsp. vanilla extract
red, yellow, green and blue food colorings




1. Preheat oven to 350F. Line cupcake tin with 20 with paper cups.
2. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder and salt.
3. In a large bowl, whisk together sugar, eggs, vegetable oil, buttermilk and vanilla extract. Pour in dry ingredients and stir until just combined.
4. Divide batter evenly into 6 small bowls; each should have a little more than 2/3 cup batter (approx 6 tbsp or so for each).
5. Add about 15 tsp food coloring to each bowl to make red, orange, yellow, green blue and purple batters. Stir well, so no streaks of plain batter remain. Add additional food coloring if necessary.
6. Starting with the purple batter, add a small spoonful to each of the 20 muffin cups (just over 1/2 tbsp in each). Repeat with all remaining colors, working from blue to green to yellow to orange to red, adding each subsequent spoonful on top of the previous color. Do not attempt to spread the layers of color out (as it can cause layers to get combined), but allow them to spread on their own.
7. Bake for about 15 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Cool cupcakes on a wire rack before frosting. Makes about 20.
*Note: We doubled this from the original recipe, and it actually only made about 18. Just sayin'.

WHIPPED CREAM:

1 Cup heavy whipping cream
1/2 Tsp. vanilla extract
1 Tbsp. granulated sugar

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


(Not the best picture of us, but meh, what can you do?)



Basically, even though my parents declared that the cupcakes "look like the fake food that kindergartners play with", Erica and I decided all our friends are going to love them and that the rainbow just makes them extremely kick ass.

I'm super happy right now. YAY! (Okay, maybe I ate too much of the batter when I was baking...)

Happy Sunday y'all.
Peace. Love. Rainbowcupcakes.

Suga Mama

First off, I would just like to announce to the world that I love my mommy and appreciate everything she does. ♥
So happy Mother's Day to all the hot mamma's out there.
Every year for Mother's Day my dad and I (and my sister, when she's around) make my mom her favorite things for breakfast: bacon, eggs, and muffins. My dad is in charge of the bacon (and this year the eggs), and I of course made the muffins. =]
Since we have a great meyer lemon tree in our front yard, and I know how much my mom love's lemon, I decided this year to make her lemon poppyseed muffins with a vanilla glaze. I got the recipe from my favorite cupcake book, Cupcakes! by Elinor Klivans.
Okay, truth. They are actually technically "cupcakes", but hell, I like them, my mom likes them, if we want cupcakes for breakfast, by golly we will have cupcakes for breakfast and call them muffins and there is nothing anyone can do about it!


Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins (Cupcakes)
Adapted from Elinor Klivan's book Cupcakes!


CUPCAKES/MUFFINS

1 Cup ubleached all-purpose flour
1/2 Tsp. baking powder
1/2 Tsp. baking soda
1/4 Tsp. salt
1/2 Stick butter
3/4 Cup sugar
2 Large eggs
1 Tsp. vanilla extract
2 Tsp. grated lemon zest
1 Tbsp. poppy seeds
1/2 Cup buttermilk



1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line muffin tin cups with paper cupcake liners.
2. Sift the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and slat into a medium bowl and set aside.
3. In a large bowl , using an electric mixer on medium speed, beat the butter and sugar until smoothly blended and lightened in color, about 1 minute. Add the eggs one at a time, beating until each is blended and the batter looks creamy, about 1 minute. Mix in the vanilla, lemon zest, and poppy seeds.
4. On a low speed, add half the flour mixture, mixing just to incorporate it. Mix in the buttermilk to blend it. Mix in the remaining flour mixture until it is incorporated and the batter looks smooth.
5. Fill each paper liner about 1/4 full (about 3 1/2 Tbsp). Bake just until the tops feel firm, about 18 minutes.
6. Let cool for about 10 minutes. Ice or don't ice as you please. Makes about 12 cupcakes.

Sugar Glaze (the result of my experimenting)

GLAZE:
2-2 1/4 Cups confectioners sugar
3 Tbsp. milk
1/2 Tsp. vanilla extract

Mix all ingredients together. THATS ALL FOLKS!


Happy Mother's Day again, y'all. I'm about to go spend the day with my mommy, give her soap I bought during my only break at ballet yesterday, and watch the movie Babies. Have fun with your mommies too, yo.

Peace. Love. Muffins.

Blackmothsuperrainbowcupcakes

Although Sundays are really my only real day of "weekend", I still manage to drive myself crazy and overbook myself every single week. But one thing I always try to make time for is baking. Yay! Haha sorry I don't know what that was about.
Anyway, in between chores, and my stupid documentary project, I still was able to bake, which makes things a little better. Today I decided to make homemade funfetti cupcakes with chocolate (courtesy of I♥cuppycakes! ) chip buttercream.
Best decision of my day. They came out fantastically. I love the chocolate chips, and funfetti is just hella legit, so yeah.
Anywaaaaaay, enough of my yacking, here's the recipe yo.

I♥cuppycakes! Homemade Funfetti Cupcakes
Recipe adapted from Cupcakes by Shelly Kaldunski


CUPCAKES

1-1/4 Cups all-purpose flour
1-1/2 Tsp. baking powder
1/4 Tsp. salt
3/4 Cup sugar
6 Tbsp. butter, room temperature
1 Large egg + 1 egg white, room temperature
1 Tsp. vanilla extract
1/2 Cup milk
2 Tbsp. rainbow sprinkles




1. Preheat oven to 350F.
2. Line cupcake pan with paper liners.
3. In a large bowl, sift flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside. In a stand mixer, fitted with flat beater, beat the sugar and butter until well combined, about 2-3 minutes. Add egg and egg white, one at a time, beating on low.
4. Then add vanilla. Gradually add flour mixture in 3 additions, alternating with milk in 2 additions, ending with the flour mixture. Fold in rainbow sprinkles.
5. Fill cupcake liners about 1/2-2/3 full. Bake for about 17-20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. Remove from pan and cool completely on a wire cooling rack before frosting. Makes about 12 cupcakes.


Billy's Vanilla Buttercream Frosting with Chocolate Chips

FROSTING:
1 Cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
6 to 8 Cups confectioners' sugar
1/2 Cup milk
1 Tsp. pure vanilla extract
2 Cups semisweet chocolate chips

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream butter until smooth and creamy, 2 to 3 minutes. With mixer on low speed, add 6 cups sugar, milk, and vanilla; mix until light and fluffy. If necessary, gradually add remaining 2 cups sugar to reach desired consistency. Mix in chocolate chips and frost like nobody's business!



My padre liked them a LOT, which means something, since the man is a sugar nazi.
Mission accomplished. I can sleep tonight.
Peace. Love. Funfetti.

yodalayeeee, yodalayeeeeeee

I don't know about y'all, but for some reason the name "snickerdoodles" reminds me of yodeling. I have yet to figure out why.
The topic of this post? Well, gee whiz! You guessed it! SNICKERDOODLES!
You see, school sucks. End of story. So what do I do to calm down and forget about all of the sheeyit surrounding the torture that is high school? I dance. It helps like nobody's business.
Only problem? Dance can get pretty effing stressful too. So, then I bake.
Baking is never stressful. Its just perfection.
So yesterday I was in the midst of a complete and total mental breakdown, and so i got the urge to bake cookies.
It seemed to work pretty well. I ended up successfully making some pretty tasty snickerdoodles (or Sugar Cinnamon Butter Cookies, according to Mrs. Fields). So tasty, in fact, that my pals REID and SAMARA ate 6 each. Nice, guys.

I only had 2, because I'm normal (just kidding, i love those guys). But anyway, enough of my life's story, here's the recipe.

Mrs. Fields Cinnamon Sugar Butter Cookies (Snickerdoodles)

TOPPING
3 Tbsp. granulated sugar
1 Tbsp. ground cinnamon

COOKIES
2 1/2 Cups all-purpose flour
1/2 Tsp. baking soda
1/4 Tsp. salt
1 Cup (packed) dark brown sugar
1/2 Cup granulated sugar
2 Sticks (1 cup) salted butter, softened
2 Large eggs
2 Tsp. vanilla extract

1. Preheat oven 300 degrees.
2. In a small bowl, combine sugar and cinnamon for topping. Set aside.
3. In a medium bowl, combine flour, soda, and salt. Mix well with a wire whisk and set aside.
4. In a large bowl blend sugars with an electric mixer set at a medium speed. Add the butter and mix to form a grainy paste. Scrape the sides of bowl, then ass the eggs and vanilla. Mix at medium speed until light and fluffy.
5. Add the flour mixture and blend at low speed jut until combined. Do not overmix. Shape dough into 1-inch balls and roll each ball in cinnamon-sugar topping.
6. Place onto ungreased cooking sheets, 2 inches apart. Bake for 18-20 minutes. Immediately transfer cookies with a spatula to a cool, flat surface. Makes about 3 dozen.




Peace. Love. Snickerdoodles.