A Summer Summary

I’ve been gone for awhile. As it turns out, finishing up the first year of medical school, planning a wedding, actually getting married, and having some personal time during the last summer of one’s life keeps a girl quite busy!

Tonight, I made some delicious cupcakes for a friend’s birthday. It’s a recipe I’ve been wanting to try for awhile. They are coffee cupcakes…literally. There’s a good deal of coffee in the batter. I topped them off with a confectioner’s sugar-free chocolate frosting. It uses heavy cream instead of butter, which is convenient since I had some extra cream around from making ice cream last week.

I’m sure they will be a hit with coffee lovers such as myself. The boy and I certainly enjoyed it…

Apart from sharing my latest baking adventure with you, I thought I’d do a little photo-tour of the past few months.

It's Beginning to Look A Lot Like Christmas

I am happy to report that after a two month hiatus from posting here I am, in fact, alive and well. I have just emerged from the formaldehyde and phenol-filled clutches of anatomy and I cannot overstate how thrilled I am to be free of it for a few weeks. Today, despite the exam this morning, has been a fantastic day! What better way to celebrate the first anatomy exam than a holiday party? And what better to make for a holiday party than dark chocolate cupcakes with white chocolate peppermint buttercream frosting? To top off the evening I am writing up this post and watching Emma. Perfect.
Speaking of movies, I can’t help but be excited for my traditional (and growing) holiday line up. Before the holiday season is over I need to watch:
Love, Actually  (can’t wait!)
White Christmas (i have loved this movie since childhood)
A Muppet Christmas Carol
Dan in Real Life
While You Were Sleeping (maybe)
Leap Year (ok, this one isn’t related to Christmas, but I just love it. It’s a bit of a guilty pleasure)
Apart from these, I just want to take a moment to highly recommend Tangled. It’s adorable and full of that Disney cheese that kids of my generation were raised on. I loved it. Can’t wait for the DVD.
And now back to your regularly scheduled programming.
These cupcakes were inspired mostly by my desire to make something in the winter holiday vein. The recipe for the frosting comes from Cookie Confession and was inspired by Starbuck’s white chocolate mocha holiday drink.
First off, throw together your favorite chocolate cake recipe. As I said, I was in a rush so I just used the cake recipe on the back of my Hershey’s Dark Chocolate Cocoa Powder….primarily because it was in front of my face. Also, it’s not as complicated as other chocolate cake recipes I’ve made.
While the cupcakes are cooling off, it’s a good time to whip up the frosting.
Take your softened butter and whip it with an electric mixer until it’s nice and creamy.

Next, melt down the white chocolate. I don’t have a double boiler and I think using the stove is a bit of a pain so I used the microwave. I heated the chocolate in 15 second bursts at 50% power, stirring in between. Let the melted white chocolate cool a little before adding it to the butter. Toss in the peppermint extract and stir it all together. Primarily to get the frosting to the desired consistency (and somewhat to adjust the taste or sweetness) add 1-2 cups of powdered sugar incrementally. I think I ended up adding around a cup. I wanted to make my cupcakes red and green so I divided the frosting into two bowls.

Add in the food coloring, stir and start frosting those cupcakes!


I decorated my cupcakes with some sprinkles and candy canes. I had originally intended to break up the candy canes, but I ran out of time before I could smash them to bits. In the process of placing the candy canes on the cupcakes, however, I did manage to drop a candy cane on the floor which promptly broke into several pieces. Note to self: to break candy canes, place them in a bag and throw them to the floor repeatedly. If you’re really cool like my ex-roomies, though,  you will have candy cane decorations that are all broken up for you already (I looked in 4 stores today and couldn’t find it, which was very sad). Despite being in a rush and making more of a mess than usual in my kitchen, the finished project turned out decently. I received only positive feedback at the party so I think they even tasted alright. (Please note, I do not recommend making something for the first time when you are going to give it to people, however, I get so little chance to bake things for myself or others that I like to make new things all the time. Mostly it works out. Perfection is overrated.)


If that doesn’t get you in the holiday spirit then this surely will:




…or maybe not.
Peppermint White Chocolate Buttercream Frosting
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
12 oz. white chocolate, melted and cooled slightly
1-2 cups powdered sugar
1 tsp peppermint extract

Cream the butter. Melt the chocolate either in the microwave or with a double boiler. Let the chocolate cool slightly then add to the butter. Add peppermint extract. Add powdered sugar incrementally and mix until desired consistency and sweetness is achieved.
Hershey’s(c) “Especially Dark” Chocolate Cake
2 c. sugar
1 3/4 c. all-purpose flour
3/4 c. Hershey’s Special Dark Cocoa (or you know…any cocoa)
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1 1/2 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
2 eggs
1 c. milk
1/2 c. vegetable oil
2 tsp. vanilla extract
1 c. boiling water
1. Heat oven to 350 F. Grease and flour two 9-inch pans or prepare cupcake liners.
2. Stir together sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl. Add eggs, milk, oil and vainlla; beat on medium speed of mixer for 2 minutes (I actually stirred then whisked by hand). Stir in boiling water (batter will thin). Pour batter into prepared pans.
3. Bake 30-35 minutes (18-22 min. for cupcakes) or until toothpick/fork inserted in center comes out clean. 

Happy Halloween

It’s Halloween! What’s even more frightening? Tomorrow will be November! I just don’t know how time slips by so quickly.
Things I learned this weekend:
1) I miss Los Angeles.
2) I miss being in marching band an embarrassing amount.
3) I need to learn how to study faster.
In honor of Halloween earlier this week I made these cute chocolate cupcakes with candy corn decorations (I also failed at making buttermilk biscuits, but that’s a story for another time)
The chocolate cake recipe is a little bit more complicated than the standard toss everything in the bowl procedure, but the result is moist, wonderful, chocolate-y cake! The recipe is called “The Best Chocolate Sheet Cake. Ever.”, though I’ve never actually used it to make a chocolate sheet cake. For the frosting, we made cream cheese frosting and dyed it orange with food coloring.
Gather up what you’ll need.

Melt the butter in a saucepan
in a measuring cup, measure out the butter milk, add the beaten eggs, baking soda and vanilla

When the butter has melted, add the cocoa and stir together. Then add in the boiling water

Pour this onto the dry ingredients

(sorry, can’t be bothered to rotate that right now)
Stir the chocolate and flour mixtures together to cool then add in the buttermilk. stir and pour into prepared pan.

Bake for 20 minutes

While those are cooling, whip up some cream cheese frosting. In a bowl combine cream cheese and butter. Then add in powdered sugar until it gets to the right consistency and taste.

Then for the fun part—food coloring! A good orange color has two components: 1) lots of food color and 2) more yellow than red (the box recommends a 2:3 ratio…but just keep adding and mixing until you get the color you want)


Frost, decorate, and refrigerate! These cupcakes need to be stored in the fridge because of the cream cheese frosting which gets really soupy if it warms up.

In the top row, second from the left….that’s a candy corn smiley face! Also, I apologize for getting my toes in the picture. oops!
For the cake:
Ingredients

• 2 cups flour
• 2 cups sugar
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 4 tbsp (heaping) unsweetened Cocoa (I used dark chocolate, but you can use whatever kind you happen to have around/find in the store)
• 1 cup butter
• 1 cup boiling water
• 1/2 cup buttermilk
• 2 whole eggs, beaten
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp vanilla 

Directions

1. In a heat-resistant mixing bowl combine flour, sugar and salt
2. In a saucepan, start melting the butter. At this point it’s a good idea to get 1 cup boiling water ready to go as well
3. While the butter is melting, pour the buttermilk into a measuring cup, beat the eggs and add them to the butter milk. Also add baking soda and vanilla to this.
4. When the butter has melted, add the cocoa. Stir together then add the boiling water. Allow this to boil for 30 seconds, then turn off heat (or if you have an electric stove remove it from the burner).
5. Pour over the dry ingredients and stir lightly to cool
6. Add in the buttermilk and egg mixture and stir it in.
7. Pour into a sheet cake pan/cup cake pan(s) and bake at 350 F for 20 min

Recipe from The Pioneer Woman
For the frosting:
Ingredients

• 6 oz cream cheese, softened (unnecessary if you use spreadable variety)
• 1/2 cup butter or margarine, softened
• 2 tsp vanilla
• min. 2 cups powdered sugar

Beat together the whipped cream, butter and vanilla until light and fluffy. Gradually add in 2 cups of powdered sugar, beating well. Gradually beat in 2.5 -2.75 cups* additional powdered sugar until it reaches spreading consistency. This should frost the top and sides of two 8 or 9 in round layers.
*I only added roughly 2 cups of powdered sugar
From: Better Homes and Gardens New Cook book, 11th ed

Banana Cupcakes with Chocolate Frosting

This week I have another dessert that uses a health alternative to the usual ingredients of baked goods. These banana cupcakes are made using unsweetened applesauce instead of butter or oil. What does one gain in substituting all the butter in a recipe with applesauce? Primarily the benefit is a massive reduction in calories, fat, and cholesterol. A half cup of applesauce contains 6.25% the number of calories in a half cup of butter. Additionally the applesauce contains no fat and cholesterol compared to butter’s 88g and 240mg, respectively. Below is a chart illustrating this comparison.

*%DV is percent daily value based on a 2,000 Calorie diet.
I haven’t put much effort in to using healthy alternatives in my baking before, but it is surprisingly easy. It doesn’t even require going to a specialty food store. If you are interested in substitutes that can be used for an ingredient, whether you are trying to make a recipe healthier or you don’t have an ingredient, a great resource is the Cook’s Thesaurus website.
The recipe I used today comes from an NPR article “Have Your (Less Sinful) Cupcake And Enjoy It, Too” which can be found here.
Here’s what you’ll need

In that plastic bag in the back is some 60% cocoa chocolate to melt down for the frosting. The iPad with recipe instead of a regular paper recipe is optional and not particularly recommended. The bananas could be even more ripe/black if you have any.
With an electric mixer if you’ve got one available, beat eggs and sugar in large bowl until they are “thick and light” (this could take a few minutes).

Mix in the smashed banana, bananas, buttermilk (or homemade sour milk in my case), applesauce, and vanilla.

Add a mixture of flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Mix until just blended.

And that’s it! Load up your cake pan or cupcake pans/tins and pop ‘em in the oven for 18-20 minutes. Make sure they are not sticky on top when you pull them out. Even after you can insert a fork/toothpick and pull it out clean, the tops might still be a little sticky. They’ll come out better if you wait until they aren’t sticky any more. Here’s what slightly sticky looks like:

Here’s what an appropriately baked cupcake should look like:

Let the cupcakes cool off for awhile while you make the frosting. I forgot to take pictures of making the frosting, but here’s the end result.

And that’s it! Go hand ‘em out to your friends or fellow med students, whatever you have on hand.
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Banana Cupcakes with Chocolate Frosting
Cupcake Ingredients:

• 3 eggs
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 1/4 cups smashed, ripe bananas (~ 3 medium bananas)
• 1/3 cup low-fat buttermilk*
• 4 tbsp (1/2 cup) unsweetened applesauce
• 1 tbsp vanilla extract
•  1 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt

Frosting Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup powdered sugar (or confectioner’s sugar, if you must)
• 1 tbsp unsweetened almond milk, plus more if needed (I used regular milk)

• 1/2 cup dark chocolate (60-70% cocoa), finely chopped or dark chocolate chips

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 325 F
2. Using an electric mixer, beat eggs and sugar in a large bowl until thick and light, around 5 minutes.
3. Mix in the smashed bananas, buttermilk, applesauce, and vanilla.
4. Sift flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt over mixture and beat until just blended.
5. Transfer batter to prepared pan, sprayed or with cupcake holders. Fill to 3/4 full.
6. Bake cupcakes until golden brown on top and a toothpick or fork inserted into center comes out clean. Around 18-20 minutes.
7. Let the cupcakes cool.
8. For the frosting**, add sugar and milk to a small saucepan over heat and mix until sugar is dissolved into the milk
9. Slowly stir in chocolate and mix constantly until fully melted.
10. Dip tops of cooled cupcakes into icing, twist and let the icing harden completely (~10 minutes)

* You can make sour milk and use that instead of butter milk. Add 1 tbsp lemon juice or vinegar to measuring cup. Add enough milk to make 1 cup. Stir and let stand 5 minutes.
**We didn’t actually follow these directions for the frosting. We carefully melted the chocolate in a microwavable bowl in the microwave. This involves lots of stopping, stirring and restarting. Then we mixed in the powdered sugar and milk. We used more milk to thin out the frosting. If you accidentally make it too thin, you can thicken it some more either by adding more powdered sugar and melted chocolate or unsweetened cocoa powder.