A Sticky Day and Weekend in the Freezing Whites

"The time has come," the Walrus said, "to talk of many things: of sticky caramel sweets and tarty green apple dreams." 

What do you guys think? Do I possibly have a career as a poet awaiting me somewhere down the road? Anyway, let me say now that is good go be back. This might sound strange, but last week I just felt so empty without having to write a blog post. Originally I was going to write something, most likely about a hiking trip that I had taken with the Outing Club. Sadly :( I was all caught up getting ready for another Outing Club adventure, this time, to the White Mountains. More on that later. Despite the emptiness that I felt inside, I won't deny that it felt good to not have to worry about doing any intense baking last week. I can assure you that my wallet felt relived as well. However, without having to worry about baking any cupcakes I had plenty of time to contemplate my next baking endeavor, Caramel Apple Cupcakes. I want to give a special thanks to everyone who took my little survey seriously and took part in it. One specific co-worker of mine has been waiting two weeks for this recipe. Well, tonight he finally got them and from the feedback that I have gotten, these little beauties were worth the wait.

So what exactly about this recipe was I most excited for? Why the apples of course! I love apples, especially green apple. Basically, any recipe that includes apples is fine by me. Additionally, I really wanted to try another cupcake recipe that incorporated fruit so this one came at the right time. Another big plus to this recipe was that I got to test out my newest kitchen toy, my food processor! Sure, she's a bit load, but she sliced and diced those apples like a dream. What better way to commemorate my food processor's maiden voyage than by testing out its grating capabilities. Another fun fact about this recipe was that I got to try my hand at toasting pecans. Which, by the way, cost me nearly $9.00! Even the store clerk at Big Y felt bad for me; he kept going on about the things food stores -including the one he works for- get away with these days.

As for my roasting skills, well, lets just say if you need a person to roast chestnuts for the winter holidays I am not the person to ask. I guess you could say that I forgot to pull the pecans out at the correct time, hence their darkish, blackish color. Some might call it burned, however, I think the darkness of the pecans adds a nice rustic undertone to the flavor. And once they were sprinkled on top of the caramel frosting/drizzle, you really couldn't tell that they were slightly over-cooked.

What else can I say about this recipe? Hmmm. Well, some might call it cheating however, for this recipe I ended up using cake miz. Please, before you break out the torches and pitchforks hear me out. When I found this recipe, I just decided to take it on face value, not really doing the smart thing, aka, researching to see what other recipes were out there. Today, however, my delayed mental light blub finally went on and I briefly did a google search. Well, as it turns out, making spice cake mix isn't so hard; just your standard batter ingredients with a few extra surprises. Now, technically I should have just made the batter the old fashion way, but  I had already bough the darn cake mix and I intended to use it! And, in my own opinion, the cupcakes came out really good.

 

Yea, they were a bit moist, but that was to be expected with all the apples that I had put into them. For the final touch, I needed to melt the caramels I purchases in a thing of boiling milk. After unwrapping all fifty individually wrapped caramels, I realized that I had left my measuring spoons up stairs. Can you guess what I did then? If you guessed just assess what you think 3 tablespoons look like then you are correct! Unless you have a pretty good eye for these sort of things I don't suggest trying this anytime soon. Despite this minor blunder, one my roommates had the brilliant idea of adding corn starch to the mixture. Well, that definitely did the trick and just like that, I was back on track. Once the caramel had cooled down enough (putting it in the freezer was a great idea ;))I carefully poured it on top of the cupcakes, sprinkled them with the pecans and stepped back. Personally, I think they looked pretty frick'n good, like something you would see at a school bake sale. 

On a totally different note, I went to the White Mountains last weekend. How was it? Cold. Cold and wet. Cold, wet, and slippery. Tag on really pretty and that basically covers the trip. When we got there it was raining, when we woke up it was slightly raining. When we got to the base of Mount. Madison it wasn't raining but little did we know :P

At first, everything was going great. Yea it was a bit foggy but that just made the whole adventure even more cool. As for the temperature, it wasn't that bad at all. considering how much we were moving around, at one point I was down to just one layer. You can't see it that well, but the riv er running under the bridge had the potential of being a really great white water rafting course (if only the water was deeper). In actuality, things didn't start taking a turn for the worse until after we began a descent. Let me say now, I can run a seven minute mile, but that's if the terrain is flat. It took us nearly two and half hours to hike two miles. Trust me, the runner in me was crying loudly. However, when the tail looks like that -----> you can see why it might have taken us so long.Of course, our joy of finally getting past the tree line was incredibly short lived since that was when Mr. Rain Cloud decided to turn on the pressure. Factor in the fact that we were about 2000 feet above sea level  you can understand what I mean when I say that our hiking party was screwed.

The photo above was taken moments after we broke through the tree line

This was taken right before everything went sour. You can tell because I am still wearing just a lightweight windbreaker and a soaking wet bandanna. Perhaps thirty minutes later we would be shivering at 3000 feet in wind, rain and, yes, hail. By that point I was way too cold to take any good photos of the peaks. Yes I peaks because before you reach the top of Mount. Madison, you have to cross twelve mini peaks first. I think our party got past three or four before turning tail and making a run for it. Getting to the top would have been cool , but not worth getting hypothermia over. Though to be honest, by the time we reached the final mile of the trail, I was so cold and wet that I think I suffered from a very slight case of hypothermia. I was soo cold, just like every body else. When we finally reached the bottom of the mountain, everyone agreed that we couldn't stand another minute of New Hampshire and raced back to camp. Literally tossing everything into the van, Therese, our driver, hit the gas pedal and sped out of there. Even with the heater roaring on high, the cold refused to leave my bones; my hair remained wet for hours! And do you want to hear the worst part? So the whole drive back to Worcester, all five hours, we were stuck in rain. We reach the outskirts of Worcester and suddenly, no more rain. It was like the storm decided to just turn around and go back to New Hampshire.

In the long run, I will go back someday to the White Mountains to complete the hike. But for now, my body had developed a natural aversion to rain. As for my cupcakes tomorrow I am going to attempt to make vegan chocolate cupcakes with vegan chocolate mousse. I know my sweet tooth can't wait for that. And in case you haven't been keeping track: 15 done, 485 to go.

Until next time,

Jill

Carmel Apple Cupcakes, recipe taken from Tasteofhome.com

http://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/Caramel-Apple-Cupcakes?ZSHINEL2

Ingredients

• 1 package (18-1/4 ounces) spice cake mix or 1 package (18 ounces) carrot cake mix
• 2 cups chopped peeled tart apples
• 20 caramels
• 3 tablespoons 2% milk
• 1 cup finely chopped pecans, toasted
• 12 Popsicle sticks

Directions

• Prepare cake batter according to package directions; fold in apples.
• Fill 12 greased or paper-lined jumbo muffin cups three-fourths full. Bake at 350° for 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool for 10 minutes before removing from pans to wire racks to cool completely.
• In a small saucepan, cook the caramels and milk over low heat until smooth. Spread over cupcakes. Sprinkle with pecans. Insert a wooden stick into the center of each cupcake. Yield: 1 dozen.

*I used normal sized cupcake pans instead and the recipe made about 22-23 cupcakes. My only advice is to buy at least 45 caramels (depending on how big they are).