Baked goodies!

I have been a busy bee over here baking now that the weather has cooled off.  I don't have a/c and it just gets WAY too hot in the house during the summer.  So now I'm on like overload.  There are just way too many things that I want to bake.  I did have a few orders that I included here for you.  I also made some pumpkin whoopie pies, but can't seem to find the picture.  Those I got from a great little blog I found called  Bake at 350!  I used her recipe for the cookies, and then the America's Test Kitchen recipe for the cream.

A first birthday giant and smash cupcake set.

 We did a clock play date and I made these for a healthy snack.  It's a whole grain English muffin, lowfat cream cheese, pretzels, and raisins. 

 I had some leftover cupcakes, so I decorated them for just the 4 of us.  That is leftover icing, and Necco waffers.

A pool set for my mom's husband for his birthday.  I found this in the book, Hello Cupcake!

Some snickerdoodle cupcakes for my brother's birthday.  These are from good old Martha!

And this was an order for a 4 year old's 50's themed party.  The picture was taken before I pulled the parchment out from under it.  I think it turned out pretty fun.  Got the idea from here.

Cupcake of the Month!- Chocolate Chip Cupcakes

Alright here is the first installment of the Cupcake of the month series! This recipe comes from the Martha Stewart Cupcakes book. My mom's group this month did a boys lunch out, so while the boys were out to lunch, D and I made cupcakes. Boy it is sooooo much easier to bake with the kids when there is just one of them. We had a great time! We made the chocolate chip cupcakes with white butter frosting. The only problem was that we didn't have enough cake flour, and we had to combine regular chocolate chips with butterscotch chips to make the right amount. No worries on either count! I pulled out my America's Test Kitchen baking book for a quick cut on how to "make" cake flour. If you are out, and the recipe calls for it, then you can use: for 1 cup of cake flour - 7/8 cup all-purpose flour with 2 tbsp. cornstarch. It works!

The peanut practicing scooping the batter into the cups.

Watching the egg whites get whipped into place.

Helping to stir in the chocolate chips.

The finished product! Yummy!!!

Okay, and now for the recipes:


Chocolate Chip Cupcakes
3 1/4 cups plus 1 tbsp. cake flour (not self-rising)
4 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
1 tbsp. vanilla extract
1 cup plus 2 tbsp. milk
1/2 cup plus 6 tbsp. unsalted butter, room temp
1 3/4 cups sugar
5 large egg whites, room temp.
2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
Frosting

1. Preheat oven to 350. Line standard muffin tin with paper liners. Whisk together 3 1/4 cups cake flour, baking powder, and salt. Stir the vanilla into the milk to combine.
2. With an electric mixer on medium-high speed, cream butter until smooth. Adding the sugar in a steady stream, beat until pale and fluffy. Reduce speed to low. Add flour mixture in 3 batches, alternating with 2 additions of milk mixture, and beating until just combined after each.
3. In another bowl, with an electric mixer on medium speed, whisk the egg whites until stiff peaks form (do not over mix). Fold 1/3 of the egg whites into the batter to lighten. Gently fold in the remaining whites until just combined. Toss chocolate chips with remaining tbsp. cake flour, and gently fold into batter.
4. Divide batter evenly among lined cups, filling each 3/4 full. Bake, rotating tins halfway through, until a cake tester inserted in centers comes out clean and the tops are springy to the touch, about 22 min. Transfer tins to wire racks to cool completely before removing cupcakes. Cupcakes can be stored overnight at room temp. or frozen up to 2 months in airtight container.
5. To finish, use a small offset spatula to spread cupcakes with frosting. Refrigerate up to 3 days in airtight containers; bring to room temp. and if desired, decorate with sprinkles before serving.


Fluffy Vanilla Frosting:
1 1/2 cups unsalted butter, room temp.
1 pound (4 cups) confectioner's sugar, sifted
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract


1. With an electric mixer, beat butter on medium-high speed until pale and creamy, about 2 min.
2. Reduce speed to medium. Add the confectioner's sugar, 1/2 cups at a time, beating well after each addition and scraping down the sides of bowl as needed; after every two additions, raise speed to high and beat 10 seconds to areate frosting, then return to medium. This process should take about 5 min. Frosting will be very pale, and fluffy.
3. Add vanilla, and beat until frosting is smooth. If not using immediately, frosting can be refrigerated up to 10 days in a airtight container. Before using, bring to room temp, and beat on low speed until smooth again, about 5 min.

Earl Grey Tea Cookies

So Martha Stewart strikes again! Like I said in an earlier post, I have been inspired by the Martha Stewart cup cake, and cookie books and just had to try this recipe out. If for anyone, for my mom. You see, my mom drinks a cup of tea every morning with breakfast, and more times than not I think it's Earl Grey. So when flipping through this cookbook and spotted these, I just knew that I had to make them for her. She LOVES them! I was not so much a fan, but they are pretty tasty. To get the Earl Grey tea for this recipe, I took the kids early one Saturday morning to our local indoor farmer's market. I love it there. There is a booth that sells all kinds of spices, and another across the aisle that sells all kinds of loose tea. There I was able to buy loose decaf Earl Grey. It smells wonderful! And if you noticed the picture above looks way better than pictures in the past, well it's because my dear sweet artistic hubby took it, and is now in charge of all my pictures. So without further ado, here is the recipe.



2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tbsp. finely ground Earl Grey tea leaves (from about 4 bags)
*I ground mine even finer in my coffee grinder.
1/2 tsp. course salt
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temp
1/2 cup confectioner's sugar
1 tbsp. finely grated orange zest


1. Whisk together flour, tea, and salt in a bowl.
2. Put butter, confectioner's sugar, and orange zest in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Mix on medium speed until pale and fluffy, about 3 min. Reduce speed to low; gradually mix in flour mixture until just combined.
3. Divide dough in half. Transfer each half to a piece of parchment paper; shape into logs. Roll in parchment to 1 1/4" in diameter, pressing a ruler along the edge of parchment at each turn to narrow the log and force out air. Transfer the parchment rolls to paper towel tubes; freeze until firm, 1 hour.
4. Preheat oven to 350. Cut logs into 1/4" thick slices. Space 1" apart on cookie sheets lined with parchment paper.
5. Bake cookies, rotating sheets halfway through, until edges are golden, 13-15 min. Let cool on sheets on wire racks. Cookies can be stored in airtight containers at room temp up to 5 days.

And ending.....

I have decided that while I had fun doing the cookie of the week, I am done with it. Instead, I will be doing a cupcake of the month. I have been inspired lately by the Martha Stewart Cupcake book and my friend Heather. Both of them having amazing cupcakes, and I really want to try some of them. So please stay with me. I will occasionally post cookies, or other things that I bake, but I wanted to get back to my family since that was the reason I started this blog. Thanks so much! And if you have any amazing cup cakes recipes that you would like me to make, please feel free to send them my way!

Cookie of the Week!-Pumpkin Cookies with Brown Butter Icing

Can you tell where Adam grabbed a cookie of the plate?

So this week's cookie is from by dear friend Maryjane! No she didn't create this recipe, but she did post it on my facebook page and brought it to my attention. And for that, a big thank you! These are terrific! You really should check out Maryjane's blog too. She does tons of amazing things over there. And I'm really excited to say that next weekend I get to go visit her for the weekend, I will be kid free, and driving a rental car! Hurray for a mini mommy vacation! And now back to the cookies!

These are from Martha Stewart again. I sometimes can't stand the lady, but damn it if she has some great ideas. Here is a link to the recipe, but I will also post it below to make things easier for you.

• FOR THE COOKIES
• 2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 1/4 teaspoons coarse salt
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1 1/4 teaspoons ground ginger
• 3/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
• 2 1/4 cups packed light-brown sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1 1/2 cups canned solid-pack pumpkin (14 ounces)
• 3/4 cup evaporated milk
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• FOR THE ICING
• 4 cups confectioners' sugar, sifted
• 10 tablespoons (1 1/4 sticks) unsalted butter
• 1/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon evaporated milk,
• 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

1. Make cookies: Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, ginger, and nutmeg in a medium bowl; set aside.
2. Put butter and brown sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Mix on medium speed until pale and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Mix in eggs. Reduce speed to low. Add pumpkin, evaporated milk, and vanilla; mix until well blended, about 2 minutes. Add flour mixture; mix until combined.
3. Transfer 1 1/2 cups batter to a pastry bag fitted with a 1/2-inch plain tip (such as Ateco #806). Pipe 1 1/2-inch rounds onto parchment-lined baking sheets, (I used my trusty old ice cream scoop that I use for everything! It worked fantastically!) spacing 1 inch apart. Bake cookies, rotating sheets halfway through, until tops spring back, about 12 minutes. Cool on sheets on wire racks 5 minutes. Transfer cookies to wire racks; let cool completely.
4. Make icing: Put confectioners' sugar in a large bowl; set aside. Melt butter in a small saucepan over medium heat. Cook, swirling pan occasionally, until golden brown, about 3 minutes. Immediately add butter to confectioners' sugar, scraping any browned bits from sides and bottom of pan. Add evaporated milk and vanilla; stir until smooth. Spread about 1 teaspoon icing onto each cookie. If icing stiffens, stir in more evaporated milk, a little at a time. Cookies can be stored in single layers in airtight containers at room temperature up to 3 days.

Cookie of the Week!- Chocolate Caramel Cookie Bars

Again sorry but no pictures. I can tell you that the mom's at the play group REALLY loved these. They are more of a grown up cookie then a kid friendly cookie. They are ooey, and gooey, and taste like a gourmet twix bar. I got this recipe from the November 2009 Martha Stewart Living Magazine. I saw these, and ran out the next day to get the ingredients. You won't be sorry you made these.

For the crust:
4 1/2 ounces (9 tbsp.) unsalted butter, room temperature, plus more for the parchment
1/4 cup packed light brown sugar
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/4 tsp. table salt

For the chocolate caramel:
10 1/2 ounces milk chocolate, chopped (2 cups)
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
1/4 cup water
3 ounces (6 tbsp.) unsalted butter
1 cup heavy cream
1/2 tsp. table salt
1 tbsp. sea salt

1. Preheat oven to 350. Make the crust: Line a 9" square baking pan with parchment, leaving an overhang on all sides; butter parchment, excluding the over hang. Beat butter and brown sugar on medium speed until pale and fluffy, about 3 min. Add flour and table salt, and beat until just combined.

2. Press dough evenly into pan, and bake until lightly golden browned, about 30 min.

3. Make the chocolate caramel: Place the chocolate in a medium bowl. Heat granulated sugar and water in a small saucepan over medium high heat, washing the sides of the pan with a wet pastry brush to prevent sugar crystals from forming, until amber, 10-12 min. Remove from heat. Add butter, cream, and table salt. Bring to a boil, stirring until smooth. Pour over chocolate. Let stand for 2 min. Stir to combine, and let stand until cool, about 10 min.

4. Pour mixture over crust. Refrigerate at least 4 hours, or overnight. Run knife around edges; lift parchment to remove whole bar from pan. Sprinkle with sea salt. Trim edges, and cut into 16 bars. Bars can be refrigerated for up to 3 days.

Mine turned out very gooey, and the crust was very crumbly and not quite like the picture in the magazine but totally worth it.