oops

So last night I spent 7 hours baking cupcakes.  Today we had treat day at work and I thought since I have not made cupcakes lately, because life has been crazy, I should make some to make up for lost time.  What did I do you ask?  Well, I made three different types of cupcakes from Martha's books.  Yes, three in one night.  Yes, I was a little cupcake crazy that is for sure.  I started with her chocolate chip cookie cupcakes, which were pretty easy to make.  Although, I did think that I made a mistake due to the consistency but people loved them, so they must have been okay.  The second kind I made were the yellow buttermilk cupcakes.  I will tell you that the batter on those were delicious!!!  Never really got a taste of those.  Finally, I made mini chai tea cupcakes. Those were pretty spicy in a sweet kind of way.  The recipe actually asked for pepper, but I just couldn't bring myself to add it in.  Yuck, it just doesn't sound right.  So where does the oops part come in from the title of this email you ask?  I made 3 different types of cupcakes and don't have one picture to show.  Major oops!!! 

way too long

Wow, has it been a long time since I have written anything on this blog.  I promise that I will have more cupcakes and blog posts coming up.  Things have been a little crazy here between going out to Colorado, dealing with an icky cold, and trying to work on homework for my class.  Yup, it has been a little busy so I had to put the Martha project on hold for a bit.  I do however plan on making some cupcakes this weekend.  But until then, when Mark and I were up in Duluth celebrating our one year anniversary we decided to toast our marriage with some wine.  So, which one did we find that I had to get?!  The one called cupcake of course.  I am a big fan of fruity wines like Rieslings, and so we decided to get their Riesling.  Just didn't realize that it was a dry Riesling.  Not a huge fan of it, but it has a cute name!

Martha meets Betty

Well, tonight I made the devil's food cake cupcakes in honor of Halloween.  It took me most of the night when I got home from work, but at least it kept me busy while my husband works a long day today.  So, the cupcakes turned out well, but the frosting that was supposed to go on top of them, a chocolate ganache frosting did not work out so well.  I think my problem was that I didn't chop the chocolate finely enough and I didn't heat up the heavy cream and corn syrup enough so it didn't do what it was suppose to do.  Instead of making another frosting, I got lazy and decided to go to the store and buy Betty Crocker frosting.  So the cupcakes really are Betty meets Martha.  Martha would probably die if she knew I used regular old betty on her cupcakes, but I don't care.  I was tired and I didn't want to make some other extravagant frosting.  I also tried to decorate the cupcakes with little frankenstein heads made from marshmallows, green food spray and black decorating gel, but it made the cupcakes too tall and I couldn't get the lids on the tins.  Oh well.  Until next time.

ooops..

I have forgotten to post on here.  Things have been busy lately with conferences and MEA.  I did make another set of cupcakes, and let me tell you it was not a good experience.  The cupcakes turned out great, but the process just about sent me over the edge.  The cupcakes were brown sugar pound cake and the frosting was supposed to be a brown butter glaze, but I ended making a brown sugar cream cheese frosting because they would keep longer.  During the process, I first broke and egg.  After that, I went to turn on the mixer, and a bunch of the flour mixture flew out and onto the counter everywhere.  Oh, and if that wasn't bad enough, it happened a second time.  Yeah, I was struggling.  Luckily Mark was there and he helped me out.  I didn't get to try one with the frosting,  but all my colleagues really liked them and gobbled them up, so they must have been good.  I also forgot to get a picture of them, but they did kind of look like the pumpkin ones.  I am hoping to get another batch made this weekend, but I am not sure what kind I am making.  Until next time, eat more cupcakes.

pumpkin goodness

Okay, so I am a week late writing about my pumpkin cupcakes.  I made the cupcakes last week, and although they took some time making, they weren't too hard to make.  The recipe made 32, and let me tell you, I was afraid that all of the ingredients were not going to fit into the blender.  It was pretty much filled to the top, and if I would have put anymore in there it would have been a huge mess.  Actually, talking about huge messes, I had Mark take a picture of the messes I make while making cupcakes.  Now, do realize that although I am messy, I do clean everything up right away.  I just have visions of Gordon Ramsay yelling at me, calling me a "donkey" (or something to that affect).  Here is the shot of my mess.  Oh, and PS, the mess by no means is a reflection on the quality of the cupcake, I am overly delicate about that.

Moving along, the cupcakes were absolutely wonderful and tasty.  They were actually my favorite of all the cupcakes I have made thus far.  I am a huge fan of pumpkin.  Everyone that tried them liked them as well.  Now, I had to put cream cheese frosting on them (which, by the way, the recipe makes a ton more than what you actually need) because everyone was excited about that part, but I think the cupcakes would be just fine without.  Actually, I would just put a little bit of frosting on it.  So, overall, I would have to say that these would be 9.75 out of 10 on the delicioso scale (did I mention yet that I turned it to the delicioso scale because my father was giving me a hard time about the yummy scale?!)  Anyway, not sure what cupcakes I am making next.  Something easy because it is a busy week.  Until then!

chocolate peanut butter crap

So, on Tuesday I was so excited because I was making my next set of cupcakes. This time it was going to be chocolate peanut butter cupcakes.  Sounds wonderful, right?!  Well, ended up being wrong, all wrong.  They were gross.  I was so sad because not only did I make a double batch, but I also spent a long time making them because they were more involved than I thought they were going to be.  Although they look okay, when you taste them, they are a mixture of too salty, but too icky sweet, bitter, and a little dry.  Not a good combo in my book, and they had such potential, I mean with a combo like chocolate and peanut butter you wouldn't think you could go wrong.  Mark didn't like them either.  I didn't even want to bring them to work for my official cupcake testers.  Well, hopefully the pumpkin ones I make this weekend are better.

new fun stuff

So, yesterday Mark and I went to the Mall of America for a little while.  While we were there we went into the le gourmet chef store.  We weren't planning on going in there, and honestly, Mark said, "hey maybe we should go in and see if they have samples."  They ALWAYS have samples, so we went in.  What happened next was that I went hog wild in there, not over samples, I actually didn't even eat any.  I did however go hog wild over all the stuff that they sell there.  As you can see above, I purchased a sassy little apron and lots of cute little cupcake wrappers (I had actually purchased some cupcake wrappers earlier in the day and I got more today, but what can I say, I am going to go through a lot of cupcake wrappers!!  I was actually thinking about getting some silicon ones to save money and the planet)  Anyway, I am so excited about my new little purchases and can't wait to wear my new apron.  Stay tuned for my next post about the next cupcakes I make.  I am planning on doing some chocolate peanut butter ones early this week!  Until then!!

chewy chocolate mint brownie cupcakes

So, I decided that I definitely needed to make some sort of chocolate cupcake this time, and I really wanted to use the dutch cocoa.  Once again I decided to pick another one that seemed simple.  These were very simple to do, but messy.  Mark was home when I was making the cupcakes this time, and he gave me some helpful tips and also made me feel good to know that anytime you work with chocolate and cocoa like this it DOES get messy.  I swear there was cocoa all over the darn place.  I also got to use my new tool this time which is my sifter.  Mark said I could just use a mesh strainer, but come on, a sifter is so much fun and Target sells them for 6 bucks.  Pretty inexpensive if you ask me!  Anyway, back to the cupcakes.  These I guarantee are not good for the waistline because my double batch included 16 oz (which is 4 of those big bars) of semisweet chocolate (I used ghiradelli), 2 sticks of butter, and the cup and a half (I think that is how much it was) of the dutch cocoa.  Plus, in the middle you put a peppermint patty.  Pretty much chocolate overload.  So far Mark, my mom, and I have tried them.  They are very good, but VERY chocolately and rich.  I am only able to eat a half at a time. I guess I would give them about an 7.5 on the yummy scale.  Below you can see a picture of them.  Stay tuned for next week's cupcake experience.

streusel cupcakes

So, I decided to make my first set of cupcakes today. Now, you must know that I am not going to go in the order of Martha's book. I look around and pick in different ways. One way is by what I might be in the mood for, another say is if I think the cupcake might work for some celebration coming up, another way is the amount of time I think it is going to take may, or sometimes it might be the ingredients involved, etc. Today it was a mixture of the ingredients involved and how easy I thought it was going to be to make them. These streusel cupcakes had pretty much run of the mill ingredients, plus I didn't think they were going to be that difficult to make, which, they weren't! The only thing I ran into for difficulty was that I didn't read all the directions carefully ahead of time and just started making the cupcake batter first which you would think would be the thing to do. Well, the last step of the cupcake batter was to put the streusel on top before baking. So, I look at how to make the streusel recipe and see that it is supposed to be refrigerated for a half hour before using.  Oops!  No biggie though, I just made it and then put the streusel and the batter in the fridge for a half hour.  The other thing is, that I think that I put too much batter in each cupcake wrapper so it took them longer than the 20 minutes to cook they really muffin topped out.  Oh, and the fact that the recipe was supposed to make 24 and I only ended up with 12 regular sized ones and two monster ones (I must remember to buy another regular sized muffin tin).  Now, the recipe also calls for the baker to make a glaze, but I didn't do that yet because the glaze only lasts for a couple of days, and I want to bring these to work, so I think I will make the glaze on Sunday night.  I know for sure that the cupcakes will disappear right away at school because us teachers are scavengers for food in the workroom.  So, here are the cupcakes without the glaze.  Turned out okay I think.  Oh yeah, and I am going to have a Kari's cupcake yummy scale for each cupcake.  One will be for "yuck, I would never eat or make this cupcake again" and Ten will be for "Oh my gosh, I think I am in cupcake heaven and I never want to leave!"  So, I would say that these are a 6 on the scale.  They were nice, light and very buttery, plus they had streusel, but they probably will not be my absolute favorite.  Anyway, here is the picture below, it is not the best because the lighting was bad and I think the cupcakes would look cuter with the glaze on them.

before getting started

So, Martha, I love you, but why do you have to have so many fancy ingredients in your recipes? I know, I know, it probably makes the cupcakes taste so much better, but do you know how hard it is for some of us to find these ingredients? Or, that when we do find them we have to pay an arm and a leg for them?! Yeah, so the two main ingredients in a lot of the recipes which were hard to find were pastry flour and Dutch cocoa. Just use all purpose flour and regular you cocoa you say? Nope, because most of the recipes ask you to use those in the recipe as well. Plus, my cute chef husband asked his pastry chef about the Dutch cocoa and he said the whole thing about how the flavor would be so much better with that, etc. So, we finally found the ingredients at Byerley's and the Wedge, but of course this little dinky box of Dutch cocoa was 10 bucks and the pastry flour (which can be found in bulk at the Wedge or box at Byerley's is about double the price of regular flour and you don't get nearly as much. Stay tuned, my first set of cupcakes will be made this weekend, just in time to bring in to my school on the first day!

a new project

Okay world, I am taking on a new project here. I do have to say that I may have been inspired by a certain movie dealing with a girl who blogged about cooking her way through a certain famous female chef's cookbook. I thought to myself, hey is a really good idea. Take on something that interests you, or that you think may interest you, and go for the gusto and share it with others. What is my gusto you ask? Cupcakes. First and foremost, I have to say that I LOVE cupcakes, and not just how they taste (which I do have to say is like a little piece of heaven) but also just how cute they are. I mean they are such a happy little dessert! I mean, who can't resist the frosting and sprinkles (or jimmy's as we had discussed at work which is what they are called in certain parts of the country, *cough cough North Dakota cough cough* even though that term is also used as slang for something else, but we aren't going to get into that right now!) Anyway, back to the story, cupcakes. So, a couple weeks back, my wonderful husband Mark wanted to do some research at Barnes & Noble for some of his upcoming menus. I went along, and while he was picking out his cookbooks to look at, I feasted my eyes on, in my opinion, one of the greatest cookbooks ever! Martha Stewart's cupcake cookbook. I couldn't resist it, I was actually drawn too it, and as I flipped through the pages of decadent, fancy little cupcakes I got the idea to take on Martha's cookbook and try to make all the cupcakes in the book. I am going to try to make a cupcake a week and share my experiences them on here as well as sharing the cupcakes with the people I love. I am not the best cook, (but who needs to be when you are married to an amazing and cute chef?!) but I think I bake better than I cook and I would love to learn some new things. An so, it begins, the first cupcake will be made this weekend and we will go from there!