Sunday, March 25, 2012
Mad For Plaid
Just a quick post to show off for you some roses I made for a friends fundraiser last night, so she could give them to some sponsors. The theme was "Mad for Plaid" and I had the good fortune of finding several different plaid patterned scrapbook papers. Now I am convinced that these roses look amazing no matter what pattern your paper has.
Why didn't nature come up with plaid roses? Beautiful!
Thursday, March 22, 2012
Chocolate Cupcakes
As promised, here are the cupcakes I made for the beloved husband's birthday this year. They were super yum!
To make some for the special people in your life you will need:
* 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
* 2 cups sugar
* 3/4 cups good cocoa powder
* 2 teaspoons baking soda
* 1 teaspoon baking powder
* 1 teaspoon kosher salt
* 1 cup buttermilk, shaken (if you don't have buttermilk, you can pour 2 tablespoons of vinegar into a liquid cup measure and fill it the rest of the way with milk, let sit 10 minutes)
* 1/2 cup vegetable oil
* 2 extra-large eggs, at room temperature
* 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
* 1 cup freshly brewed hot coffee (if you don't have coffee you can just use 1 cup of boiling water)
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line 2 cupcake pans with liners, or grease well and flour (really though, go with liners).
Sift the flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder, and salt into the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment and mix on low speed until combined. In another bowl, combine the buttermilk, oil, eggs, and vanilla. With the mixer on low speed, slowly add the wet ingredients to the dry. With mixer still on low, add the coffee and stir just to combine, scraping the bottom of the bowl with a rubber spatula. Pour the batter into the prepared pans and bake for 20 to 23 minutes, until a cake tester comes out clean. I made some mini cupcakes as well, and they baked for about 18 minutes.
*Note: this makes a very runny batter, don't be alarmed.
Top them with some of my yummy Peppermint Buttercream and you have a great little snack :)
Tuesday, March 20, 2012
Peppermint Buttercream
Sunday was the husband's birthday. I always let him pick what he would like his birthday treat to be, and this year he decided he wanted chocolate cupcakes. Not just any chocolate cupcakes though, cupcakes with peppermint buttercream frosting. He's very particular like that. Don't worry, the cupcake recipe is coming soon as well, but to tide you over here is the recipe for my Peppermint Buttercream Icing!
Ingredients:
2 sticks unsalted butter, at room temperature
3-4 cups powdered sugar
1/2 teaspoon Vanilla extract
1 teaspoon Peppermint extract
3-5 drops green food coloring (optional)
Start by creaming together your butter and one cup of powdered sugar. Next, add in your flavorings and green food coloring, stir to combine. Now, add more powdered sugar and mix well until you reach your desired spreading consistency. I think I ended up using 3 cups for a very spreadable smooth icing, if filling a cake you may want to add a bit more powdered sugar so it is firmer.
I liked this buttercream so much, I challenged myself to use it to fill some macarons as well! They didn't turn out as well as I wanted them too overall (our rainy weather left my poor macarons a little chewier than they should have been). Don't they look yummy regardless though?
I used the recipe I found at Serious Eats for my macarons. Let me know if you have more success :)
Labels:
birthday,
butter cream,
buttercream,
frosting,
icing,
peppermint,
st.patrick's day
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