seemingly productive

Yesterday was indeed a seemly productive day, it was that time of the month--laundry day. So while I was waiting for laundry I, baked red velvet cupcakes! WHEEEEE. Mainly because I had to go into work at 6 p.m. for inventory & promised my co-workers I'd make some/ I had a craving myself. This is a tried & true recipe that I found one day while looking on TasteSpotting, this blogger has such wonderful pictures to go with her fantastic recipes. But the frosting I've been trying to figure out still since plain old vanilla bores me & flat out cream cheese overwhelms the cake. So I just tossed in some ingredients and hoped for the best, thankfully it turned out well, my co-workers enjoyed them.
Also, everytime I finish doing laundry I just wonder... where did I have the room to store these things before? Did I have enough hangers before? No wonder I do laundry once a month, there's no place to put it once it's clean!

Red Velvet Cupcakes
1/4 cup red food coloring
2 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 stick unsalted butter, softened
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 large eggs, at room temperature
2 1/4 cups cake flour
1 cup buttermilk
1 tsp salt
1 tsp apple cider vinegar
1 tsp baking soda

Preheat oven to 350°F (175°C). Grease and lightly flour three 9- x 2-inch round cake pans, then line the bottoms with waxed paper.
In a small bowl, whisk together until well combined the food coloring, cocoa powder, and vanilla. Set aside.

In a large bowl, on the medium speed of an electric mixer, cream the butter and sugar until very fluffy, about 4 to 5 minutes. Add in the eggs one at a time. Add the flour in three parts, alternating with the buttermilk, beating well after each addition. Add in the salt. Beat in the cocoa mixture until thoroughly incorporated. In a small bowl, mix together the vinegar and baking soda. Add to the batter at the end, making sure to mix well.

Divide the batter among the prepared pans. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, or until a cake tester inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean.

Jackie's Vanilla with a hint of Cream Cheese Frosting
1/2 stick softened butter
3 oz. cream cheese (about)
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
4-5 cups powdered sugar (i guess? i don't measure, sorry)
a splash of milk (once again, sorry)

mix the butter & cream cheese for about 3 mins, add in vanilla. Then add in powdered sugar, splash in some milk until you get the consistency you desire.


Sorry for the sad looking pictures, I was lazy & just used my iPhone. But better some, than none?
I use Reynolds foil baking cups, because that way I don't need to use a cupcake pan & get more cupcakes done in a shorter amount of time--efficiency is key. :) Here they are ready to be baked.

Almost ready to be taken to work, just need some foil to cover the top! & yes, I was lazy & just slathered some frosting on top. ha.





Wheee, leftovers for me &... I guess my cousin too. ha.







Taking a bite out of it, after getting home from work at 2 a.m. fun.

cookie monster

On Monday I had nothing better to do than lounge around & die from the heat (until I turned on the AC just for my lonesome). No work, no class, just lounge. So I made cookies. I tired the oft spoken about Blue Chip Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe & it was pretty good. I usually flip flop between the Williams-Sonoma & the flour bag recipe. & lately I've been weighing my options. Last time I tried a recipe from Sugar Plum it was pretty good. I just make different kinds of chocolate chips depending on my mood, either crunchier cookies or cake like ones. Monday was a crunchy cookie day. Here's the recipe, courtesy of my wonderful book, The Great Book of Chocolate by David Lebovitz. It makes me drool every time I flip through.

Blue Chip Chocolate Chip Cookies
1/2 cup (100 grams) granulated sugar
1/2 cup (120 grams) firmly packed brown sugar
8 tablespoons (1 stick) (115 grams) unsalted butter, cold, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups (200 grams) semisweet chocolate chips (I use milk chocolate, I like it sweet)
1 cup (130 grams) walnuts or pecans, toasted & chopped

Adjust the oven rack to the top third of the oven and preheat to 300 degrees F. Line 3 baking sheets with parchment paper.
Beat the sugars and butter together until smooth. Mix in the egg, vanilla, and baking soda.
Stir together the flour and salt, then mix them into the batter. Mix in the chocolate chips and nuts.
Scoop the cookie dough into 2-tablespoon balls and place 8 balls, spaced 4 inches apart, on each of the baking sheets.
Bake for 18 minutes, or until pale golden brown. Remove from oven and cool on a wire rack.

Let me tell you, these are pretty good cookies, at first I was skeptical about them cooking at 300 degrees and for 18 minutes (well, I halved the size of the cookies and cooking time) but that's still a lower temperature than I'm used to. These cookies seem like they're goopy when you take them out but after cooling a bit, they look like store bought cookies. Lovely, I'll make em again sometime. Next thing on my list though, Pumpkin Walnut... CUPCAKES. Yeah, the cookies were such a hit during the holiday season that I'm going to try Williams-Sonoma's cupcake version.

& no, no pictures, I didn't think about it at the time & by now, they're looking less than camera worthy.