cake and pie and the fourth of july

In which I attempt to redeem my baking reputation.

The cookie pie incident of the previous week left me a little… shaken, I suppose. I decided to try my hand at these first. Cupcakes. I can handle that. And brownies. No problem. Though the construction requires a bit more effort than my usual cakes, they seemed simple enough. Despite a little problem of tinting my home made vegan buttercream, they came out looking rather nice, I think. BEHOLD!

This is how it all went down:

While watching the Sox game with the in-laws next door (which we lost, btdubs), and in between cocktails (grapefruit soda and vodka, if you’re curious), I ran home to check on the brownies periodically. I used a boxed mix. Shut up. I so do not lose any baker’s cred for that. I just can’t get my brownies to be gooey and fudgey like the boxed mix ones. I don’t remember which brand I used. Apart from being a little too sweet (and wicked oily), they were pretty decent.

The batter:

Out of the oven:

I used a cookie cutter to cut them in to discs for the patty portion of the cupcakes. I probably should have done this just after they cooled, instead of waiting until the next morning, because they were a little tricky to get out of the pan. I only broke a couple of them, so it wasn’t a complete disaster.

The patties are the bits on the right:

After several cocktails and a Red Sox loss, I decided I probably shouldn’t attempt the cakes before bed, so I waited ’til morning. I whipped up a batch of Golden Vanilla Cupcakes from VCTOTW for the buns. They came out a little flat, but that’s probably because I couldn’t find my measuring spoons and merely estimated the amounts of things. And about half way through I realized I had the oven on the wrong temperature. Oh, and I baked them naked in the pan (no liners) and I think I was a little over zealous with the cooking spray. They were a bit oily on the outside.

I had a little trouble with the fluffy vegan buttercream frosting this time around. I heated up the shortening to soften it (as I keep mine in the fridge) and I didn’t let it cool enough before adding the powdered sugar. The fat kept separating from the rest of the mixture. After alternating chilling and whipping (several times) I managed to get it to hold together well enough. I also had a little trouble with the color.

Adding the red:

No matter how much red I added, I couldn’t get it any darker than this lovely shade of pink. I didn’t want it to taste like vanilla flavored food coloring, so I gave up and decided that pink was now going to be a design feature rather than a failure.

Pink ketchup frosting:

Once the vanilla cakes were cooled, I sliced them in half, placed a brownie patty in between, piped on some pink ketchup frosting, and sprinkled some sesame seeds on top. JeT found these cute, plaid cupcake liners. I flattened them out a bit to hold each of the burger cupcakes.*

They were pretty tasty. Nom.

The cookie pie came out pretty well, too, though I still need to tweak the recipe and cooking time and temp. It was a little too doughy in the center. I was good and wrapped the edges with foil to keep them from burning, and I put it on a baking sheet this time. Once I get the recipe perfected, I shall post it along with some proper photos. Until then, here are a couple of teasers:

Batter up:

Looks better than it tastes:

We had a few friends over and played a little horseshoes, badminton, and sat around the fire chatting. It was a lovely, low-key evening. (Though I didn’t see any fireworks this year. I think I’ll have to remedy that soon.)

I hope you had a lovely Independence Day with plenty of food, friends, and family. And I hope you saw some spectacular fireworks.

*Did you ever see Good Will Hunting edited for TV? The scene where they get Kelly’s (I think) is edited beyond hilarity: Casey Affleck repeatedly says “gimme my fucking sandwich!” which is edited to “gimme my burger sandwich!” over and over and over. So now I have “gimme my burger cupcake!” in my head, with Casey Affleck’s voice. Which is awesome.

Gooey Fudge Frosting

(based on the “Thick Chocolate Fudgey Frostin'” from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over The World, with more vanilla and additional instructions)

1/2 c margarine
1/2 c agave nectar
3-4 tsp. vanilla extract
1/3 c cocoa powder
1/2 c soy milk powder

I glop everything in a bowl and mix with a handmixer until well combined, starting on low, then increasing gradually to high. (The original recipe calls for mixing it in stages, but it’s really unnecessary- just make sure you’re careful not to fling the stuff everywhere by mixing on high before everything’s properly combined.)

The original recipe also notes that you’ll not want to use flavored or granulated soy milk powder, but I find that even the non-granulated, non-flavored powders need to sit for a long time (several hours, or better yet overnight) to really combine. They powder needs to absorb the moisture from the wet ingredients, and then the soy-milkiness will be better combined in the frosting. Do not attempt to top cupcakes with freshly made frosting, or you’ll have a nasty, grainy mess. It’s much tastier and the texture is much better for letting it rest a while.

After mixing, place the covered bowl in the fridge. Before piping or spreading on cupcakes, let it sit out for several minutes to soften. This frosting doesn’t hold up well on a very hot day, as it’s a bit melty, but even at it’s gooiest, its’ still delicious. A crowd favorite, indeed.

Enjoy!

Merry Decemberween!

Merry Decemberween!

I know it’s almost over, but I hope everyone’s December festivities have been super wonderful. We’re down at my folk’s house in MD for the week and having a great time. Christmas was super fun. I love watching the kids open presents. Since there are only two kids in the family at the moment, everyone was putting the pressure on for JeT and I to contribute to the younger population so that there’ll be more kids to watch on Christmas morning. Yeah, probably not anytime soon. Though woo hoo for all the friends who have announced their expected little ones! (You’ve all been busy: there were two baby announcements and one engagement! Hooray!)

I’ve finally uploaded photos from the last couple of months. Geez, we were wicked busy, weren’t we? There are photos from Thanksgiving with friends, the Fancy Schmancy Dancy Birthiversary Party, the Hooray for Repeal Day Party with librarians, the Ugly Sweater Party, snow, birthday, and Christmas. It’s been crazy-fun. There are also pictures of recent crafty projects: felted bags, and a doll of The Dude (from The Big Lebowski). And cupcakes. Yum!

See you all in the New Year!

Done.

Yes, as of Thursday, 12:30 pm I finished the work for my MLIS. Woot! To celebrate, the skies dropped a foot of snow on us. I went to lunch with a fellow graduate, The Spinstah, and another GSLIS student, The Boss Lady. We had lunch and beer at Thornton’s while we watched passers-by stumble in the snow, and drivers sit in the city-wide gridlock.

Walking to the T (and to and fro the restaurant) was a bit of an adventure, because I am wicked smart: I forgot my snow boots at home. I was wearing dress shoes. I might as well have been walking bare foot. By the time we got back to the car (3 1/2 hours later) we had to shovel it out and then drive home on the treacherous roads. We got stuck at one point because the plows cleared (sort of) the main road, but when we turned on to our own road we couldn’t get over the plow pile. Because JeT is awesome, he dug us out (with our emergency shovel, because at least one of us is thinking clearly about winter weather) and we were home very shortly afterwards.

Once I got home it was really weird. I didn’t know what to do with myself. I kept thinking there was something I was supposed to be doing, and I’d get this momentary panic, like “what am I forgetting.” It was kind of funny. Today was wonderful. I woke up at my leisure (7:30, which is wicked late considering we get up at 5 on weekdays) and we watched Saturday Morning Cartoons for hours and hours. I even took a nap. And then made cupcakes. And we’re going to a party later this evening. Hooray for leisure!

I do have to figure out the details of my Christmas shopping list, especially the knitting that I’ve neglected for ages and ages. Shouldn’t be too difficult, considering I’m giving myself a couple of weeks after Christmas to get things done. Some stuff will have to be done before then, as we’re traveling to Maryland to spend Christmas week with my family. It’s going to rule.

I have tons of pictures to upload: from the Birthiversary party onward. Perhaps I’ll do that tomorrow, since, you know, I don’t have any homework to finish. Ever. Rock!

Sugar, yarn, and cars

gnome and dishcloths

So, you know how I make awesome cupcakes, right? Well, I’m constantly outdone (and inspired by) the folks in the Vegan Cupcakes Flickr pool, but nothing there prepared me for this. It’s knitting and cupcakes combined, people! That’s crazy delicious!

Speaking of cupcakes, I never did take photos of my coconut lime cupcakes for M‘s shower, nor the brownie cupcakes (made with whiskey! Cupcakes of my people?) I made for the Spinstah‘s Memorial Day shindig. I didn’t even snag a photo of the pink and lime cupcakes I made for R‘s graduation party. She, however, takes many photos, and I’ll see if I can grab a copy of the evidence of their glory. I still have a couple of spoonfuls of lime frosting left. Mmm, delicious. Oh, and I made her a gnome, too. She named her Wendy. (That’s her in the photo above, pictured with dishcloths made for M’s bridal shower. Dishcloth pattern from Mason-Dixon Knitting.)

Speaking of gnomes, The Yarn Harlot put up the post about the Webstravaganza last Wednesday. Dude. That’s a lot of knitters. Seriously, there were 600 of us. And, yes, the knitting gnome made the blog! I’m glad it got on there with all the other weird things she’s encountered lately. That makes me smile, indeed! Also, if you scroll down to the picture of the hats, the one I donated is near the middle, all the way to the right hand side of the photo. It is black, grey, and yellow. I called it the “mellow bee” hat, but I forgot to photograph it before I left. I was in a hurry, and was busy trying to decide which yarn to bring with me. It was a big decision and took much of my concentration, apparently.

Hey, remember the giant glove? Well it was at Webs, too. I can’t believe I missed out on the chance to get a photo in the gloved chair. I also missed many opportunities to take photos of (or even exchange names with) the people I met there, especially while waiting in line. Aimie (who I chatted with in line) got some great photos from the front row at the Calvin. I (well, my shoulder and “Peanuts” bag) am inadvertently in one of her photos taken while standing in the long line in the warehouse. Oh, and Peta was there with a gaggle of knitters aboard the Yarn Safaris magic bus. It was great to chat with her for a bit, too.

The car’s back in its rightful place in the driveway, which is nice. It’s going to take me a little while to get used to how the new transmission feels. It’s as if the car has had a spine transplant. I’m happy to have it back. It was rather embarrassing to have it in the shop knowing that it was filthy inside. Trash and what not everywhere. You know how your mum always said to wear clean underpants because you never know what’s going to happen? Well, you should always have a clean car for the same reason. I’m sure they’re not giving it another thought (I’m sure they’re quite happy with our money), but I can’t help but feel weird that strangers out there know that we keep a filthy car. I think I’ll got tidy it up before dinner.

Happy Easter!

cherry cupcakes

Behold! Today’s dessert!

We bought a bunch of stuff from Pangea, and I made a batch of vanilla cupcakes, transforming lemon frosting into cherry frosting. They came out pretty good. I couldn’t pipe the frosting on, though, because of all the cherry bits.

Today was pretty fun. I didn’t get enough work done this weekend, but that’s always the case. Nothing I can’t catch up on this week.

Click through to Flickr for more Easter photos. Here’s a fun link: Cat and Girl celebrate Easter. Man, I love this comic.

“Your snack selection is more than disappointing!”

I was playing around with Netvibes.com, setting up a homepage. I’d been meaning to do this for ages now, so I’m finally getting around to configuring modules and whatnot. Something caught my eye in the video search module: “Andy Duncan” in the tags. I had to see what it was. Consider me amused.

How I spent my Saturday night:

  

lemon yellow 

We were going to call people and go out tonight, but decided to bake instead. (Old!)

I finally got around to making something from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World. It’s just your basic golden cupcake with buttercream, but somehow adding lemon extract, lemon zest, and a sprig of mint, and it looks all gourmet! Super simple, though.

The batter and icing were smooth as silk. I couldn’t believe how great they tasted. I was so hopped up on sugar from licking the batter and icing bowls that I didn’t even eat one to see how the finished cake tasted. Cake for breakfast, I say.

I’m still not used to piping frosting, but I’m sure I’ll get the hang of it eventually. This was the best looking one of the bunch, but click through to see more photos of the whole dozen, if you feel so inclined, and I think you do.

I almost never use these plates, and I forgot how awesome they are. Usually, if I remember, I put fresh lemon slices on them at parties for cocktail enhancement. Lemons are so cheery!

(Edit to add: Sunday morning cupcakes = crazy delicious)