A Brief Message

Hey everyone

I just wanted to let everyone know that I will be back in the swing of baking next week. As an additional bonus, I'll be doing two recipes next week. Talk about coming back with a bang!


So until then,

Jill

Ps. Keep voting people! Its really great to see that people actually participated in this one this time around.

"Just Keep Beating Them!"

Before I start anything, I want to call attention the left side of the page. Do you see it? That little survey chilling out in the corner? Well, if you do, good for you! If not, shame on you :P. Well, now that you know about it, why not do me a favor and fill it out for me? It will only take a second, that is, unless you cannot read. If that's the case, well....this awkward. But here, let me help direct your attention.
<-------------------------------------------------------
Now no one can complain that they couldn't find it. 

The theme of yesterday's baking was s'mores and I must say, that this was the most challenging recipe to date. This one recipe, one 
recipe that produced 24 cupcakes, took me three plus hours to make. Yes you read that right; three plus hours. I burned through three different CDs on my laptop trying to bake these delectable morsels. In addition to that bombshell, check out how many ingredients were needed to pull of this recipe.

Yea, that's a lot of stuff (and there was more stuff on the table). Not only did I have to make the batter, but this recipe called for a graham cracker bottom and a homemade marshmallow frosting (oh I have a such a rant prepared for this). The graham cracker bottom was the easy part, just toss some graham crackers into a Ziploc bag and crush them into crumbs. While most people would have just used the blunt end of an object or just used their hands, I decided that it would be more efficient (and fun) to smash them with my shoes. So, I performed a bit of River Dance on top of the cookie filled Ziploc bag until it was crushed to perfection. Then I just tossed in some butter and mixed it together and ta-da! Graham cracker bottom!  Once I had lined the bottom of the cupcake pans, I added some semi-sweet dark chocolate chips and popped the pans into the oven for five minutes and let them melt. This actually made everything really convenient for me. Usually I wait to turn the oven on when I am almost ready to throw the pans into bake. However, the oven's at school take forever to heat up, probably because they are electric.

Unfortunately, the graham cracker bit was easy pickings compared to what came next. Oh dear, I wonder where I should start? I think I will start with the batter. In case you haven't read any of my previous posts, I have had issues with the moistness of my cupcake batter. So of course when I saw that I was going to add a cup of boiling water I was certain that this would be the answer to my dry batter problems. Naturally, this observation turned into a nightmare when, after adding the water, the batter turned into a giant chocolate puddle; no joke. Just the idea of pouring the batter into the cupcake pan filled me with dread.

Sadly I stopped taking pictures believing that this was going to turn out to be my first ever baking disaster. Ok. Second. 

Of course, pouring the better did indeed produce a mess, covering the pans with chocolate goop. Looking back on it now, I can say that this is when I made my first mistake. I should have headed the advice of the blogger who posted this recipe and listened when she said fill them up 3/4s full. You can guess that I didn't. Irony came and bit me in the butt with full force when I eagerly peered into the oven to see how the cupcakes were coming along. The things had expanded so much, that I could hardly see any of the metal on the pans; everything was coated in chocolate cupcake batter. To make matters worse, they looked far from done. The required time passed and I did the toothpick test and obviously they came out covered in chocolate batter. Add another three minutes. Still not done. Two more additional minutes and I was getting nervous. They looked unfinished, but I could tell they were beginning to burn. With no choice left, I took them out and let them cool. At the time I thought that that was going to be the worse part. Boy was I wrong.


Have you ever tried to make your own marshmallow frosting? Well, here's a fun fact that I didn't know until after the fact: Egg whites will stiffen eventually if you just keep beating them. However, and this is a big however, if you get so much as a little bit of yolk in the egg whites, noting is going to happen. Nada, zip. Nothing. As I have previously stated, I didn't know this while I was actually trying to make it. Reflecting on it now, I think that perhaps that the egg white/yolk thing wasn't the only thing that led to my oncoming down fall. I needed to heat the egg whites with sugar and cream of tartar in a double boiler until it reached 160 degrees F. Sadly, I don't have a thermometer to check that. Now can you see where things might have started to go wrong?


Well, after mixing it for a good forty-five minutes, I called a co-worker who is almost like a baking confidant of mine, and asked her for her opinion. Insert lesson about egg whites here.

Thinking that I was on the verge of utter defeat, I put a bit of the marshmallow glaze on a few cupcakes and called down Therese to give them a try. She said they were good; though the glazed ones were a bit sweet for her. So here, for your viewing pleasure, my little cupcakes. Yea, that homemade look that they're rocking is optional. If you prefer conventional looking cupcakes, try not to make the same mistakes that I did.


Considering the length of this post, I will post the recipe late today. However, I just want to announce that I am taking a break next week. I will blog about something so don't forget to check in. And here, in case you weren't counting: 14 done, 486 to go.


Until next time,
Jill

Good News!

As of Wednesday, I passed the 10 recipe checkpoint! Not only is this a reason to celebrate, but it is a solid sign of my determination to complete this challenge! I'll admit, I really never thought I'd get this far; I expected the daunting task of buying ingredients nearly every week would scare me off. But I'm still here so lets all cross our fingers and hope that I don't come to my senses any time soon. I can already say that there will be a bunch of disappointed people here at school if I were to abandon my cupcake endeavor. Never mind that my roommates won't have any free sweets to snack on anymore, but all of my co-workers would be extremely upset if didn't continue with my Wednesday cupcake drop-off. And besides,I really enjoy all this baking stuff ;)

I'll admit now that I haven't always been a big fan of caramel. Probably influenced by my 7 years of wearing braces, but caramel has always been that one candy that I could do without. I never found it all that tasty, and usually had to spend half an hour trying to pick the stuff out between my braces. Melted caramel, all warm and gooey, is something that I have only recently discovered to be one of those hidden little delicacies out there. While the recipe called for 'soft' caramel, I could not find any at the local grocery store that fit the bill. So, I decided that the ones pictured above would become soft once I added some heat to the these little beauties. 

And while I'm going on about things that I have never had a fondness for, lets take a moment to talk about coffee. Believe it or not, I am one of the few college students out there who dislikes coffee. Coffee ice cream, no problem, but serious hard-core coffee, I think I'll pass. Perhaps one of the reasons why I have thoroughly enjoyed all the baking I have done is because I get to try new ingredients that I would not normally think of using. Coffee granules, more specifically, espresso granules are seriously underrated. And what a flavor they added! While the cupcakes themselves only have brown sugar in them to act as a sweetener, the coffee granules really provided a nice earthy-undertone. However, coffee granules were not the only interesting ingredient that I used. This time around, I experiments with candied ginger! Though I have never tried ginger before, it combined well with the caramel. I slightly wish now that I had taken a photo of it, but oh well :P

I did on the other hand take a photo of the cupcake liners that I used. I thought the dark brownish red color would go well with the lighter brown color of the cupcakes. Naturally my decision proved to be a good one and the overall presentation of the cupcakes looked awesome!

On  a totally different note, I am aware that this post is coming you, my dear readers, a little later then usual. But fear not, for I have a good reason. This past week I have been putting together a trip to a place called Purgatory Chasm in Sutton MA. With my mind focused on making sure that everyone who asked got a place on the bus, I really didn't have the time to sit down and finish this post. So, to make up for my tardiness, I have decided to post some of the pictures that I took yesterday.

 The classic king-of-the-rock photo. The year before the group I was with all took photos standing right on this crack formation. Actually, a lot of the people in the group that I was in this year followed that tradition and copied me. It was really cool. Overall, Purgatory Chasm is one my favorite Outing Club trips, so it was really cool that I got to be one to plan it this semester!

And the here's the group shot! Isn't this cool! I unfortunately am the one taking the photo but who cares, it still looks awesome!

As always, below is the recipe that I used for the cupcakes. So what does that leave me with? Hmmm. 13 recipes down, 487 left to go. Sweet! And technically I baled cupcakes using brownie mix, but I am not really gonna count that; it seems too much like cheating. Anyway, next week is all about chocolate and I really can't wait!

Until next time,

Jill

Little Caramel Cupcakes adapted from 500 Cupcakes by Fergal Connolly.

1/2 cup (1 stick) sweet butter, softened

3/4 cup packed brown sugar

2 lightly beaten eggs

2 tbsp. instant coffee granules (I used instant espresso)

1 tbsp. boiling water

2 2/3 cups self-rising flour

1/2 cup milk

1/2 cup soft caramels

Preheat the oven to 350. Place 12 paper baking cups in muffin pan.

In a medium bowl, beat the butter and sugar until pale and creamy. Add the eggs slowly. In a small bow, dissolve the coffee in the water. Beat the coffee into the butter mixture. Add the flour and milk, and beat until well combined.

Spoon the mixture into the cups. Push a couple of the caramels into the center of each cupcakes and place them in the oven.

Bake for 20 minutes or whenever they pass the toothpick test. Cool for 5 and then, enjoy!

*Prepare basic recipe, mixing in 4 tablespoons semisweet chocolate chips into the batter after the milk has been added

*Prepare the basic recipe, mixing 3 tablespoons chopped candied ginger into the batter after the milk has been added

*Prepare the basic recipe, substituting 6 1/2 mini Baby Ruth bars for the caramel.

Its coming

Just wait a few a more hours and I promise, my newest post will be up. I have had a very long weekend and have not really had any time to sit down and focus on finishing it up. But I promise, today it will be completed!

C is for Cookie and that is Definetly fine by me!

For those who were anxiously waiting for those photos of my pineapple upside down cupcakes, here are just a few a pictures I took throughout the whole baking process.

If you recall correctly, I mentioned yesterday just how vivid the color of the pineapple and the contrasting cherry color were compared to the gray mini-cupcake pan. As you can clearly see, I was completely spot on about the color. At the same time, the smell of the pineapple combined with butter and brown sugar was absolutely delicious. Not surprising that the taste didn't fail to deliver either :P

As for the final product, look how cute they are! Though I usually turn my nose up at mini cupcakes (come one, there is no way that something that tiny could satisfy one person's sweet tooth) I couldn't deny how tempting they appeared. Of course things got even better when I flipped them over. Now I am not going to lie, this was the part of the recipe that I thought would fail; that the topping would either have burned or the cupcake itself would fall apart if I tried to remove them from the pan. Yet somehow, perfection!


Overall I think I'm going to write this off as another baking success.

But anyway, I'd like to walk away from cupcakes for a few minutes and turn everyone's focus to cookies. Yes cookies, those crumbly little things that always seem to have a place at any kind of function. Why cookies? Well, originally I was supposed to go with a few others on a trek to the Mount Washington. Jumping the gun as I tend to do, I promised my group leader, and friend, Therese, that I would bake cookies. Of course, the next day I realized that I couldn't walk away from my academic responsibilities for another weekend. And yet, I made a promise and I needed to follow through it.

Cue the epic searching music!
I journey to the mythical place that is the internet and sought out a recipe that sounded delicious, interesting, and most importantly, didn't call for a lot of ingredients that I didn't already own. At first I was going to try something a bit more complicated, chocolate hazelnut cookies, but decided that perhaps I should save the wow factor for another time. So I selected something called Monster Cookies! Ever hear of them? Well, I had never heard of them either so don't fret about it.

A combination of oats, chunky peanut butter, peanut M&M, regular M&M, and chocolate chips, these cookies really live up to their name. It didn't help that I accidentally scooped out too much cookie dough for each cookie, meaning that when they reached the oven, the expanded into large sizes, ultimately forming into one giant, misshapen cookie. In total, I made three cookie sheets worth of cookies, twenty-five and all. Of course, the last five cookies came out perfectly shaped. What a surprise.

Does anyone want to hear a fun fact? This was my first time baking cookies by myself! And from the general consensus of everyone who's tasted them, they are the definition of delicious. Ironically,  I thought that I had messed them up when I went to pull them from the oven. Rather then being a solid form, they were mushy, having the consistency of oatmeal. They were brown like the recipe said they'd be, but I had reservations about pulling them from the heat. So, I put them back in for another three minutes. After I pulled them out and let them cool, I cautiously cut them up, half expecting to see that I had burned the bottoms. I hadn't! I had totally just baked the my first solo batch of cookies and they had come out perfectly! Talk about a shock to my system.

Considering my cookie success, I plan on baking some more at another point in time. But for now, let's get back to why we are all here: Cupcakes! As for my next baking endeavor, I am gonna try and bake four different recipes all based off caramel cupcakes with a caramel center. Sound good? Well, I hope so 'cause that's what's I'm baking.

Until next time,
Jill

Monster Cookies

Yield: 26 large cookies

Prep Time: 45 minutes | Bake Time: 10-12 minutes per baking sheet

3 eggs
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup light brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon corn syrup*
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
½ cup (4 ounces, or 1 stick) unsalted butter, melted
1½ cups chunky peanut butter
4½ cups rolled oats
½ cup all-purpose flour
¾ cup chocolate chips
¾ cup Reese’s Pieces
¾ cup M&M’s

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line three baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats. (If you don’t  have three baking sheets, just be sure to cool the ones coming out of the oven before placing more cookie dough on them. If I’m short on sheets I will run them under cold water to cool them down.)
2. In a large mixing bowl, stir together the eggs, both sugars, vanilla extract, corn syrup, baking soda and salt. Then stir in the melted butter and peanut butter, followed by the oats and flour. Lastly, stir in the chocolate chips, Reese’s pieces and M&M’s. Let the dough rest for 30 minutes.
3. Drop the dough by ¼ cupfuls onto baking sheets (if weighing, each ball of dough was approximately 2.7 oz or 77g). Use your fingers to flatten the dough slightly. Baking for 10-12 minutes, or until the cookies are a light golden brown. Cool on a rack and then store in an airtight container at room temperature.


*I accidentally bought corn starch so I just used 1 teaspoon of molasses
*I put them in the fridge to cool over-night so they wouldn't be too gooey. It worked out fine for me, but it's not necessary

Pineapple Sunshine Fun!

Before I begin today's post, I just want to give everyone a warning: There are no photos of the actual baking processes included in today's post. They will be included in my post tomorrow. Yes, I know, how totally unprofessional of me. However, I left my camera behind at my dorm and cannot go back and get. Alas, my librarian might be extremely lax in responsibility, however, even I cannot abandon my post to fetch my camera. On the plus side, I do have some photos on hand to post instead; see, problem solved. So lets get on with this thing!

Though it might be hard to believe, last week, the weather was totally perfect; warm, sunny, low to no wind. Just the absolute definition of perfection. At the same time, last Friday, Saturday, and Sunday was my beloved Outing Club's kick-off series. We started Friday afternoon by bringing a rock wall to Clark's annual activities fair.

While many eager students awaited a chance to climb the wall, I ventured down the fair itself. The place was crazy with activity and student life. All the clubs were out, having a nonsensical blast as tunes that summoned nostalgia floated through the air. Somewhere out there exists a video of me and few other Clarkies dancing to the Cotton Eye Joe. Besides this is my friend Rachel posing with her fellow mustachioed friend. (Here's a hint, she's the one with the black stash).

 And here I am; posing besides the Outing Club's photo display. Doesn't it look awesome!

For part two of Outing Club's crazy weekend, my friend Therese performed an Outing Club first; she took me and bunch of other eager clubbers to the beach! And oh what a perfect day it was! We arrived just at the peak of low tide and over the next few hours, we all watched the tide come in.

It was a great day, especially for me who only went to beach one other time this past summer. The only draw back was that I received a brutal sun burn. Yea, I'll admit now that I can be a bit cocky when it comes to sunscreen. Usually I don't I wear any. Clearly, one can see how that life choice might come back to haunt to me. Lets just say that nearly a week later, I am now sporting a nice tan on my back and torso.

To bring the weekend to a close, the Outing Club took off on our first official hike of the year to Worcester's Boynton/Cascades. Though the cascades weren't cascading, the trip itself was awesome! It felt great to be surrounded in nature once again.

 A great feature of the Boynton/Cascades hike is that its an easy enough hike for even the most beginners of hikers, but at the same, an throw a few surprising curve balls. At the start of the trail, there is this sharp incline that follows alongside where the cascades should be. Interestingly enough, just a week before hand, the waterfall was gushing water. However, just there wasn't a cascade, didn't mean there wasn't any water.

 

Now I am sure you are wondering, just what do all of these pictures have in common with pineapple cupcakes? Well, last Wednesday, I stopped by the school's library just to see if there was chance there was any cookbooks hidden among the shelves. Naturally, the answer was no :( However, one librarian took an interest in my search and offered me her massive collection of cookbooks to search through whenever I need them. It was this kind librarian who produced the perfect recipe; Pineapple Upside-Down Cupcakes. And of course, the day I decided I bake these sweet little treats just so happened to be the day that the rain clouds decided to move in over Worcester. With cold rain pelting the city and washing away the remaining remnants of summer, it was nice to see the brightness of the pineapple and maraschino cherries that were included in the recipe.

In addition to being my first fruit based recipe, I decided to go ahead and break out my newly purchased mini muffin pan. At first I was concerned that the topping and batter would be too much for the small little pan, yet I somehow managed to avoid having an spillovers. Bright and full of deliciousness, these little treats brightened up the otherwise cold and rainy day. Talk about absolute perfection!

Special thanks to Debbie for finding this little gem for me!

Pineapple Upside-Down Cupcakes, by Norma Jean and 

Carol

 Topping:

4 tablespoons butter

7 tablespoons dark brown suar

1/2 crushed pineapple

6 maraschino cherries cut into slices

Cake Batter

1/4 cup butter

1/4 cup sugar

1 egg, separated

1 cup, sifted cake flour

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup pineapple juice

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Melt butter in a saucepan and add brown sugar, Cook over low flames until well blended, then stir in crushed pineapple, reserving juices. Pour about a teaspoon of this topping into the bottom of each greased miniature muffin cup and add a sliver of a red cherry. To prepare batter: Cream the butter, add the sugar, and bear until fluffy. Beat the egg yolk and add. Sift the flour, baking powder, and salt together; add alternatively with the pineapple juice. Add vanilla. Beat the egg white until stiff and fold into batter. Pour this batter over the topping and bake in a preheated 350 oven for 25 minutes, cool, then turn cupcakes carefully onto a cake plate. the pineapple side up.

Yeilds: 2 dozen miniature or 1 dozen regular cupcakes

So this makes 9 recipes, which means, 491 recipes to go! Oh yea, pushing the ten recipe landmark! Whoever thought I'd get this far?

As for what I plan on baking next time, stay tuned for tomorrows post, its gonna be a fun one!

So until next time,

Jill

At Last, that Peanut Butter Recipe (Sorry :P)

Yea, I know, I did something bad. I know I should have posted this a few days ago, but understand, I just started my junior year at Clark. Not only that, but my club responsibilities have just tripled with all the stuff the Outing Club has planned for the first two months of school. As for classes, well, the course load isn't too unbearable, but I know that that's gonna change soon. Everywhere I go, I carry around this little notebook that I just bought on a whim at Border's which ironically has become the notebook, aka, the thing to which my life is now dependent on. Anything and everything is getting written down in this little notebook and if I lost it, I can promise you that chaos would ensue. I can guarantee that this will be one notebook that I won't misplace, a tradition that I have kept up since middle school. I want to add that yesterday was Clark's Community and Engagement Services fair. Considering my impulsive personality, it's only natural that I would be the person who would go to every table and basically sell me and my cupcakes to the visiting organizations. Naturally, I won't be able to participate in many of them considering my lack of transportation and the fact that most of these organizations are too far to get to via walking. However, there was one organization that stood out to me that I knew would be a good fit for what I aspire to accomplish. It's the Boys and Girls Club located right here in Worcester. What's even better is that its one of the few places that my schools escort vans drives too (this is saying a lot since escort only has a .5 mile radius). I plan on emailing the representative that I spoke with yesterday who kindly wrote down the work baker next to my email address. Right now, I'm thinking about dropping cupcakes off at the club once a month. In addition, I would love to host some baking classes since I was assured that the B&G club had a great kitchen. Wouldn't that be cool?

Alright, I'm done distracting from the matter at hand. Once again, sorry for the delay of this post. Seriously. I hope you all enjoy it.

Peanut Butter Cupcakes. Taken from 500 Cupcakes by Fergal Connolly

For cupcakes

1 cup (2 sticks) sweet butter, softened

1 cup superfine sugar 

2 cups self-rising flour

4 eggs

1 cup crunchy peanut butter (I used creamy)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place 18 baking cups in pan. Combine the butter, sugar, flour, and eggs in a large bowl and beat with an electric mixer until smooth, about 2 to 3 minutes. Stir in the peanut butter until well combined. Spoon the batter into the cups. Bake for 20 minutes. Remove pans from the oven and cool for about five minutes.

*For variation, add 1/2 cup of semisweet chocolate chips with the peanut butter*

For frosting

1/2 cup crunchy peanut butter

1/2 cup (1 stick) sweet butter, softened

2 tsp. vanilla extract

2 cups confectioners' sugar; sifted

2 tbsp. milk

To make frosting, combine the peanut butter, butter, and vanilla in a medium bowl. Using an electric mixer beat until light and fluffy, about 1 to 2 minutes. Ad the confectioners' sugar along with the milk, and beat until well combined. Swirl the frosting onto the cooled cupcakes