Strawberry Lemon Cupcakes When you send them out without you

Daughter #1 left the roost for two nights yesterday.  Last year, she did a one night sleepover on campus at our local day camp, which is only a 10 minute walk from our home, and she loved it.  This year, the same day camp takes the slightly older kids on a wilderness camping trip for two nights and three days.  I said good-bye to her Wednesday morning, and I will not be seeing her again until Friday afternoon.

I asked her if she wanted to go, since it would be camping, something she has only done once, and it was done with me nearby.  She was quite keen and eager to go and wouldnt be dissuaded.  I had some doubts, for Daughter #1 is a strange combination of independent and helpless.  She can figure out complex situations and work through difficult emotions and feelings but she cant get her own food in a buffet line.  I wasnt sure how she would fare on a camping trip, so once she told me she wanted to go, I decided to prepare her a bit.

How to Survive Away From Mommy

Step 1.  Learn how to pack your own essentials.
Campers were given a list of things to prepare and since I was extremely busy (I actually was), I told her to take care of it.  I gave her a bag and the list, a few ziploc bags and told her to figure things out.  She did.

Step 2.  Learn how to stuff your own sleeping bag into the appropriate bag.
This job stymied her for a bit because the bag seemed so small compared to the volume of the sleeping bag.  I told her to start slowly and keep on stuffing.  She did it and 8 minutes later, she had stuffed the sleeping bag into the bag and there was the sheen of sweat on her face.

Step 3.  Learn to take inventory and keep track of your things.
We borrowed a very nice sleeping pad from a friend and I basically instructed Daughter #1 that we COULD NOT lose it.  She had to keep track of everything that was hers - her duffel bag, her sleeping bag, her pillow, her sleeping pad.  All of it, she had to keep track of. (I did get a bit crazy with the label maker and label a bunch of stuff, but still.)

Step 4.  Learn how to get your own food.  When its time to eat, no one is going to serve you a perfectly arranged plate of food. (I know that this is partly my fault.)  Think about what a balanced meal is, what mommy would normally put on your plate (protein, starch vegetable) and try and make healthy choices for yourself.

Step 5.  Always go places with another person.  Find a partner to go to the bathroom, to go back to the campsite, to go anywhere.  Do not travel alone.

Daughter #1 survived my intense survival-away-from-mommy crash course without any tears and I breathed a sigh of relief.  Under my breath I thought that it was far easier keeping her under my own room, under my own protection, than sending her out into the wide world without me.

And thats when it struck me.  How much have I been preparing Children for their eventual leaving of the nest?  I had much hesitation about this camping trip, simply because I was worried that she wasnt ready.  Did I prepare her correctly?  Did she have the right emotional tools to deal with being without me?  Was she confident enough to handle herself on her own?  A stream of questions poured in and out of my brain, and I worried, I did not prepare her ENOUGH.

But then again, we never can, can we?  We will never prepare them enough for the outside world.  We never feel we have given them all the perfectly right tools to meet every single sticky situation.  We want to protect them from horrible things, from harsh realities, from sadness, but our desire to do so prevents them from being prepared.

Mostly from this experience, I realized that Im not prepared.  Im not prepared to let her go.  Shes only 8 after all, but two nights, three days is a long time to be without a child.  The house is way too quiet without her presence, and suddenly the days are far too empty and missing action.  The piano is being played only half of the time, there is only 1/3 the amount of fighting that normally happens, and Im even less motivated to cook since there is one fewer mouth to feed.  Id like to keep my family all together for a little longer I think.

With all of my new found free time with one gone, I decided to make these little cupcakes as I ruminated on all the ways I havent prepared Children for the real world.  Thankfully the scent of lemons, strawberry and sugar distracted me from the harsher realities of parenthood and I began to relax in the euphoric smell of sweetness.  These little strawberry lemon cakes can be enjoyed without frosting and the lightest sprinkling of powdered sugar or can get the fully pampered treatment and be topped with a delicious strawberry cream cheese frosting.  Either way, the taste is pure summer, absolute fun, and total yumminess.

Note:  Freeze dried fruit generally come with a pack of silica gel on the inside.  REMOVE this before pulverizing.

Strawberry Lemon Cupcakes
Makes 30 regular cupcakes, 60 mini cupcakes

Lemon Cake
Ingredients
2 cups regular sugar
2 tablespoon lemon zest
1 cup unsalted butter, softened
4 large eggs (taken out of the fridge the same time as the butter)
1¼ cup buttermilk
3 cups all-purpose flour
4 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup diced fresh strawberries

Method
Preheat oven to 350. Line cupcake tins with paper liners.

In a food processor, pulverize together lemon zest and sugar. (Doing so releases the lemon oils.)

In a mixing bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside.

In a mixing bowl with a hand mixer or a stand mixer, blend softened butter and lemon sugar until thoroughly combined. Add eggs, one at a time and beat until well mixed, occasionally scraping down the sides of the bowl to ensure that everything is well blended.

Add half of flour mixture and mix until just combined. and add half of buttermilk and mix until just combined. Scrape down sides of the bowl. Add remaining half of flour mixture, mix until just combined and then add remaining buttermilk. Mix until just combined.again. At this stage, the less you mix the better for your cake. (too much mixing makes for a tough cake.)  Remove mixer blades, and gently fold in strawberries with a spatula.

Divide cake into prepared muffin tins. Bake for mini cupcakes for 20 to 22 minutes, regular cupcakes for 22 to 24 minutes, or until cake springs back when gently pressed with fingertips. Cool for 20 minutes, then remove cake from pans and cool on wire racks until completely cool.

Strawberry Frosting
Ingredients
Makes enough to frost 30 cupcakes

1 cup of butter, slightly softened (room temperature for about 20 minutes)
8 oz of cream cheese (room temperature for 5 minutes)
1.2 oz (34 grams) freeze dried strawberries, pulverized in a mini food processor (but not too far ahead of time, otherwise they will begin to absorb moisture)
5-6 cups of confectioners sugar

In a large mixing bowl with a hand mixer or a stand mixer, mix butter until it is softened and uniform. Add cream cheese and beat together until it is uniform. Add pulverized strawberries. Add 3 cups of sugar to the mixture and mix. 2 more cups of sugar. Mix again until mixture is creamy and spreadable. Add more sugar if necessary, otherwise prepare to frost cupcakes.

You can frost with a knife, or you can using a pastry bag and a 1M Wiltons star tip to make the rosettes. Start in the middle of the cupcake, hold the tip perpendicular to the cupcake (pointing straight down) and swirl outwards.

Printable recipe

inside the cake, before I ate it.

Freeze Dried Strawberries - Trader Joes has these for $3.49 for the pack.  If you cant get there, try Target, Walmart, or Whole Foods


I got these mini cupcake liners (pictured above) at Sur La Table.


I am thinking I will get these since they are so cute for mini cupcakes.

Read More..

Snickerdoodle Cupcakes When the glass is half full

To all the people at BIES and everyone else that came to help out!

Our book fair is a twice a year event, with the opportunity to raise cash funds for our library, so that our wonderful school librarian can purchase books.  Our book fairs make a fair bit of money for our library and its an opportunity that I have where I can talk to kids about books, ask them what they are reading, and essentially berate them into trying something new.  Youd be surprised how many kids and parents come back to find the crazy book fair lady (thats ME) waving her hands wildly and encouraging kids to try something new.  "Enough of Percy Jackson. How about some Newberry Award Winners?"  Yep, thats me.  Crazy book fair lady.

I do love the book fair, and each time it occurs, its a week where Family is completely ignored.  I dont believe I cooked a single meal during the week of the book fair.  I relied on all my frozen soups, all the food I had frozen ahead of time, left Children to their own devices where homework, piano practice, and extra math was concerned and basically lived and breathed the book fair.  I still had to teach my students so I worked around that schedule, but the book fair consumed JAs and my time completely for a week.

The number one problem I HATE dealing with during book fair is the stress over volunteers.  We have a signup sheet, but invariably I end up running around school about a week prior, begging friends, acquaintances, strangers  to volunteer an hour or two of their time. But even with cajoling, begging and threats I have never filled my 78 volunteer slots on the sheet. I think the closest I ever came was about 50 percent filled, and this time the book fair was no different.  I ended up getting my neighbors, the fabulous C family to help out, and this included the father, the mother, daughter and son, who all came out to cashier, watch the door, and run around campus looking for an extra trashcan.  I also had to ask people who were busy with the auction from the weekend before, and even though they had just come off of an intense month of planning their fundraiser, a number of them offered to come and help.  My close friends who saw my stress and desperation willingly gave hours to me and new faces who just wanted to try something new and volunteer also showed up. 

At some point I stopped focusing on the 50 percent of slots that werent filled and became grateful for the 50 percent of slots that were, and the wonderful set up and breakdown crews, and different cashiers that dashed in from full time jobs to give time for an hour.  The people that came to help at our book fair party just rocked it. Sure it wasnt as many as I wanted or needed, but there were new faces this time who were willing to just give their hour.

A huge thanks to people who just came out and helped.  Im grateful.  To my co-chair JA - youre awesome and a huge reason I keep doing the book fair.  I wanted to make something for people who went the extra mile to help out so I experimented with these snickerdoodle cupcakes.  They are super yummy, taste like the cookie with the hints of vanilla and cinnamon, and just satisfy that simple cupcake/cookie craving.

Snickerdoodle Cupcakes

Makes 24 regular size or 48 mini

Snickerdoodle Cake

Ingredients

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature

2 cups sugar

4 large eggs, room temperature

1 vanilla bean, split and seeds scraped out

2 ¾  cups flour

1 ½ teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

½  teaspoon salt

1 cup whole milk

Method

Preheat oven to 350. 

Beat butter until softened. Add sugar and beat until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes.  Add eggs, one at a time, beating until well combined.  Add vanilla bean seeds.  Mix again.

Measure the flour, baking powder, cinnamon and salt into a medium bowl and whisk to combine.

Add about a third of the dry ingredients to the butter and sugar and beat to combine. Add about a half of the milk and beat to combine. Continue adding, alternating between dry and wet and finishing with the dry.

Scoop batter into cupcake cups about 2/3’s full. Bake cupcakes for about 22-25 minutes or until a cake tester comes out clean.  (Minis might take 1 or 2 minutes less)

Snickerdoodle Frosting

Ingredients

1 cup of unsalted butter, softened

1 8oz pack of cream cheese, softened

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

3-4 cups confectioner sugar (I try and use as little as I can, but make sure its pipeable)

Method

Cream butter and cream cheese together on medium speed until texture is uniform. Add cinnamon and mix again.  Add 2 cups of confectioners sugar and beat on low speed until sugar is all incorporated. Add 2 more cups and again mix on low speed until sugar is all incorporated. The key to really creamy frosting is to NOT beat too much air into the frosting but rather, on a medium speed, beat it until it is creamy.

When cupcakes are fully cool, spread frosting with a knife or using a piping bag and tip.  (Wiltons 2D and 1M are both nice ones to make swirls.)

Printable recipe

Sweet rewards.

Vanilla beans should you need them - this is where I get mine.
T

Two great books that I loved to sell at the book fair this year.

Read More..

Blueberry Lime Cupcakes On taking drugs

Ive been suffering these past six weeks with a massive attack of eczema, probably having to do with something that is in the air combined with intense stress.  This eczema has literally led me to scratch wildly at my skin during inappropriate times and caused me to scratch myself up so badly that I have scabs and raw patches all over.  Its not pretty.  The itching gets so frenetic at night that Husband has to shake me awake and tell me to stop.  But I cant.  I have to scratch where it itches.  Its compulsive and its necessary.  I suddenly have a whole lot more sympathy for Son and other babies with eczema as it is just so completely frustrating to live this way.

I knew that if I took antihistamines I would probably find some measure of relief as I was fairly certain it was an allergic reaction.  Only I couldnt take antihistamines because they destroy me.  They literally leave me too groggy to function (all antihistamines, even those touted as being "non-drowsy") and Ive fallen asleep standing up, the effect is so strong.  Husband begged me to take something and my response was, "If I take something I cant do what I have to do and that is be a mother who is on top of everything and a teacher who gets the teaching done."  Antihistamines would cause me to destruct and leave me non-functioning.

I promised Husband however, that once Daughters were on break, Id try taking some, if only at night, if only to help me sleep.  He gave me many exasperated looks not understanding WHY I had to wait six weeks to treat my problem, and my answer?  I can SLEEP IN when Daughters are on break. I dont HAVE to be awake at the crack of down.  I can be conked out in the bed until 8 and not have to dash around so maniacally in the morning.

Even with those crazy reassurances to myself about how the antihistamines were going to be okay, it took a few days before I would allow myself to take it, even once Daughters were on break.  The first day I decided to take them, my desire to scratch myself to death was so strong that I took it mid-afternoon.  It began affecting my teaching so that I taught standing up for two hours, chewing wildly at several pieces of gum that I shoved into my mouth.  Students told me that I was talking more wildly and more animated than usual, and I attributed it to the gum.  Really it was my insane desire to stay awake and not come crashing to the ground.

The next day, I woke up so groggy, but discovered that I was knocked out enough NOT to scratch.  The next evening I took another and slept in a bit the following morning.  It appears that my body does like the antihistamines; I just dont like the way I feel on them.  It also has shown me that I really do need to take better care of myself.  If only cupcakes could cure my ills the way the antihistamines try to, Id be a lot happier.

These are a blueberry lime cupcake - the cake itself is light and fluffy, filled with blueberries (fresh or frozen) and the hint of lime in the cake and sprinkled on top means that these are not your average cupcake.  The color is striking and the flavor is enough to convince me that Im not itchy right now.

Blueberry Lime Cupcakes
Makes 30 regular cupcakes, 60 mini cupcakes

Lemon Cake
Ingredients
2 cups regular sugar
2 tablespoon lemon zest
1 cup unsalted butter, softened
4 large eggs (taken out of the fridge the same time as the butter)
1¼ cup buttermilk
3 cups all-purpose flour
4 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup washed fresh blueberries

Method
Preheat oven to 350. Line cupcake tins with paper liners.

In a food processor, pulverize together lime zest and sugar.  (Doing so releases the lime oils.)

In a mixing bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder and salt.  Set aside.

In a mixing bowl with a hand mixer or a stand mixer, blend softened butter and lime sugar until thoroughly combined.  Add eggs, one at a time and beat until well mixed, occasionally scraping down the sides of the bowl to ensure that everything is well blended.

Add half of flour mixture and mix until just combined. and add half of buttermilk and mix until just combined. Scrape down sides of the bowl.  Add remaining half of flour mixture, mix until just combined and then add remaining buttermilk.  Mix until just combined.again.  At this stage, the less you mix the better for your cake.  (too much mixing makes for a tough cake.)  Remove mixer blades, and gently fold in blueberries with a spatula.

Divide cake into prepared muffin pans.  Bake for mini cupcakes for 20 to 22 minutes, regular cupcakes for 22 to 24 minutes, or until cake springs back when gently pressed with fingertips.  Cool for 20 minutes, then remove cake from pans and cool on wire racks until completely cool.

Blueberry Frosting
Ingredients
Makes enough to frost 30 regular cupcakes, or 60 mini

1 cup of butter, slightly softened (room temperature for about 20 minutes)
8 oz of cream cheese (room temperature for 5 minutes)
1.2 oz (34 grams) freeze dried blueberries, pulverized in a mini food processor (but not too far ahead of time, otherwise they will begin to absorb moisture) ** Freeze dried fruit has a silica gel packet - do not pulverize this!
5-6 cups of confectioners sugar

Lime zest for garnish

In a large mixing bowl with a hand mixer or a stand mixer, mix butter until it is softened and uniform. Add cream cheese and beat together until it is uniform. Add pulverized blueberries. Add 3 cups of sugar to the mixture and mix. Add 2 more cups of sugar. Mix again until mixture is creamy and spreadable. Add more sugar if necessary, otherwise prepare to frost cupcakes.

You can frost with a knife, or you can using a pastry bag and a 1M Wiltons star tip to make the rosettes.  Start in the middle of the cupcake, hold the tip perpendicular to the cupcake (pointing straight down) and swirl outwards.

Garnish with a sprinkling of lime zest.

Printable recipe

If only they made medicines like cupcakes.

Read More..

Yellow Cupcakes with Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting How sweet should life be

I love this quote by Michael Pollan (The Omnivores Dilemma and Food Rules);  he writes,“There is nothing wrong with special occasion foods, as long as every day is not a special occasion...Special occasion foods offer some of the great pleasures of life, so we shouldnt deprive ourselves of them, but the sense of occasion needs to be restored.”

I love being a baker, making cookies, cakes, cupcakes, and sweet treats.  However, I know that I cant make them all the time, nor can I just give them out at whim to any child.  Ive tried hard to model to Children that treats are actually treats, and we celebrate our family birthdays and special occasions with a small treat, but a treat is just that - something special that doesnt happen every single day.

If I ONLY baked for just the family birthdays, Id already bake five times a year.  Add the extended family who lives near us, Im already baking 11 times a year.  That averages out to about once a month.  With just the baking that I do for my family, Children will have access to a sweet treat once a month.  This is a treat that I really enjoy making, because I dont use a boxed cake mix, but try and source high quality, organic (if possible) ingredients, that I put together with my own two hands.

Add the baking that I do when I have guests over, which averages about once a month.  Thats now twice a month Children get a treat.  Add the additional invitation over to someones house where I offer to bring something and they request dessert.  Lets just call that on average, once a month.  Now were at three times a month, Children get a treat.

Thats a lot of treats already, and some with not necessarily the right sense of occasion.  There are invariably birthday parties where cake is served (usually store bought) and goody bags often filled with candy.  The treats, and special occasions keep adding up.  School treats, school occasions, birthday handouts, party handouts quickly add up, and suddenly, what was once or twice a month of treats becomes almost a thrice weekly thing.

Im not anti-treats.  Dont get me wrong.  Im anti-every-day-is-a-treat day.  Im also anti-other-people-giving-my-children treats.  Children get enough of treats, distributed by me, made by me, at home.  I dont offer them processed treats, and I make my own treats for them.  I also dont give out treats to other children, without the express permission of their parents, as their parent has the absolute right to monitor how much their child eats.

Im sure I dont have all the right answers.  I only claim to know what to do for my own kids.  I do know the United States leads the world in obesity, and if that statistic doesnt give you pause, Ill remind you that the burden of taking care of the unhealthy in this country is a collective one that falls on all of our shoulders.  As parents, we really need to revisit what is going into our childrens bodies.  If you ARE going to give a treat, one that is homemade is miles better than what you get in a store, which is why I do like to challenge people to try and make their own homemade cookies and treats.  If you refuse to buy processed packaged treats, and say that you will only make them, youd be surprised at how much money you save and how much fewer treats your children will actually consume.

I made these treats to celebrate a reunion with an old grad school friend and an old teaching colleague, both brilliant thinkers of education reform and thoughtful planners of educations future.  I made us all a lovely dinner, and each of our children got a single mini cupcake; the adults sat, savored our small treat and enjoyed the occasion of friendship.

Yellow Cupcakes with Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting
Makes 24 regular sized cupcakes or 48 mini cupcakes

Yellow Cupcake
Ingredients
1 cup unsalted butter, softened
2 cups superfine sugar, or regular sugar that has been processed in a food processor and made fine
2 large eggs (taken out of the fridge the same time as the butter)
3 large egg yolks
3 cups all-purpose flour
4 teaspoons baking powder
½  teaspoon salt
1 cup whole milk
½ cup sour cream
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Method
Preheat oven to 350.  Line cupcake pans with liners.

In a mixing bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder and salt.  Set aside.  Mix together milk, sour cream, and vanilla extract.  Set aside.

In a mixing bowl, blend softened butter and superfine sugar until thoroughly combined.  Add eggs, one at a time, add egg yolks, one at a time,and beat until well mixed, occasionally scraping down the sides of the bowl to ensure that everything is well blended.

Add half of flour mixture and mix until just combined, and add half milk mixture and mix until just combined. Scrape down sides of the bowl.  Add remaining half of flour mixture, mix until just combined and then add remaining milk mixture.  Mix until just combined.again.  At this stage, the less you mix the better for your cake.  (too much mixing makes for a tough cake.)

Scoop batter into cupcake pan.  Bake for 18-20 minutes (minis) or 22-24 minutes (regular size) until tops spring back up when tapped.

Remove from oven and allow to cool.  Frost with icing once cupcakes are completely cooled.

Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting
Ingredients
½  cup of butter (1 stick), softened
8 oz of cream cheese, softened
3 cups confectioners sugar
¾ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2 tablespoons whole milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Method
In a large mixing bowl, mix butter until it is softened and uniform.  Add cream cheese and beat together until it is uniform.  Add 2 cups of sugar and cocoa powder to the mixture and mix.  Add milk and vanilla extract and mix again.  Add remaining 1 cup of confectioners sugar.   Mix again until mixture is creamy and spreadable.  Add more sugar if necessary, otherwise frost completely cooled cupcakes.

Printable recipe

Read More..

Lemon Cupcakes with Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting Bittersweet

To all the teachers and staff at the PJCC who have been with my family for the past 6 years, I thank you from the bottom of my heart.

Today was my last time preparing food for the teachers luncheon at the preschool where Son and Daughters have all attended for the past 6 years.  As I helped out at the luncheon today, I gave many of the teachers who have been with my family big hugs and held back tears as I almost wanted to lose it - repeatedly.

Different teachers came up and talked about special memories of my kids, with one teacher remembering how much Daughter #2 adored art and was so artistically inclined.  Others remembered Daughter #1s cute smile and inability to speak any English when she first arrived.  (Straight from Korea we stuck her in this school.)  Still others had a warm word to say to me, including, "Just have another baby and you can come back."  Which I actually would consider if I didnt feel my womb protesting.

The time with the teachers was nothing short of bittersweet.  There were were relationships in the room that Ive built up over this time, and so many wonderful teachers and administrators who have touched the lives of my children sincerely and lovingly.  I know that Son and Daughter had experiences here that I wouldnt change for the world.  They have been prepared for the future and watching their development, I have been blessed.

I just want to cry right now.  But I wont.  Ill only say to this wonderful preschool, I wish I could stay forever.

To celebrate (can one celebrate when your heart is breaking?) I made these lemon cupcakes for the teachers and staff to enjoy.

(one of Daughters teachers is retiring after many years at the school, and we decided to do a tiny little recognition of her - Thank You bunting)

Lemon Cupcakes with Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting 
Makes 24 regular cupcakes, 48 mini cupcakes

Lemon Cupcake
Ingredients
2 cups regular sugar
2 tablespoon lemon zest
1 cup unsalted butter, softened
4 large eggs (taken out of the fridge the same time as the butter)
1¼ cup buttermilk
3 cups all-purpose flour
4 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt

Method
Preheat oven to 350.  Line either regular or mini sized cupcake tins.

In a food processor, pulverize together lemon zest and sugar.  (Doing so releases the lemon oils.)  In a mixing bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder and salt.  Set aside.

In a mixing bowl, blend softened butter and lemon sugar until thoroughly combined.  Add eggs, one at a time and beat until well mixed, occasionally scraping down the sides of the bowl to ensure that everything is well blended.

Add half of flour mixture and mix until just combined. and add half of buttermilk and mix until just combined. Scrape down sides of the bowl.  Add remaining half of flour mixture, mix until just combined and then add remaining buttermilk.  Mix until just combined.again.  At this stage, the less you mix the better for your cake.  (too much mixing makes for a tough cake.)

Divide batter into prepared tins.  Bake for 20-24 minutes, or until cake springs back when gently pressed with finger tips.  Cool for 20 minutes, then remove cake from pans and cool on wire racks until completely cool.

Lemon Frosting
Insgredient
1 cup of butter, softened
8 oz of cream cheese, softened
2 tablespoons lemon zest
5-6 cups of confectioners sugar

In a large mixing bowl, mix butter until it is softened and uniform.  Add cream cheese and beat together until it is uniform.  Add 3 cups of sugar to the mixture and mix.  Add lemon zest and 2 more cups of sugar.  Mix again until mixture is creamy and spreadable.  Add more sugar if necessary, otherwise prepare to frost cupcakes.  Use either a pastry bag and a piping tip (I like the Wiltons 1M since the lemon zest sometimes can clog other tips) or spread with a knife.

Printable recipe

Cute cupcake liners - love this brand.

Read More..

Vanilla Ice Cream Cone Cupcakes They grow too quickly

I made these cupcakes for Daughter #2s 8th birthday, and it struck me as I made them, that children grow up so fast.  Children keep begging to be older and most days I wish theyd just stay babies.  The questions, the expectations, and the demands of older children, Im just not equipped to answer.  Even though I work with older students all the time and I know much of what is to come in terms of behavior, puberty, and adolescence, there is something markedly different about having these things happen to your own children.

Im in denial, I think, about how quickly children grow and change.  They grow up more quickly than Id like, and every year when their birthday hits, I think, WAIT!!!  How can he/she already be 4 or 6 or 8 or 10?

This year as #2 hit birthday 8, I did not accept the reality of her growth into 8-hood well.  After all - her clothes are still tiny, her arm span tiny, her feet super tiny - how can this tiny thing already be 8? But she is 8.  All tiny of her, shes a ferocious 8 year old with a mind of her own and a voice that tells me what she wants.

It seems like yesterday that her voice was squeaky, her body small enough to tuck in my arms, and her personality more mellow and trusting. When I mentioned thatI would make her some cupcakes for her birthday, she asked, "Do you think you can do something different instead of just making the same thing again?"  The bigger part of me simply just wanted to say, "You get what you get" but a small part of me said, shes only 8 this one time, and shes only asking for different cupcakes, you can do this.  I said, "Ill try."

I kind of tried.  I took my standby favorite cupcake recipe, and flipped it into these cake ice cream cones, which ended up really changing the experience of eating a cupcake as well as the texture.  They ended up being a huge hit, and newly-8-year old daughter ended up really loving them.  

And that is what matters the most at the end of the day.

Vanilla Ice Cream Cone Cupcakes
Makes 16 cones, or 12 cones plus a couple of regular cupcakes

Cake
Ingredients
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup sugar
2 large eggs, room temperature
½  vanilla bean, seeds scraped out  (The other half will be used in the frosting)
1 ½  cups + 2 tablespoons flour
¾  teaspoons baking powder
¼  teaspoon salt
½  cup milk

Method
Preheat oven to 350.  Lower oven rack so that cones will be centered in the oven, and not too high up in the oven.  In a regular muffin pan, place 12 cake (flat-bottomed) cones.

Beat butter until softened.   Add sugar and beat until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes.  Add eggs, one at a time, beating until well combined.  Add seeds from scraped out vanilla bean.  Mix again.

Measure the flour, baking powder, and salt into a medium bowl and whisk to combine.  Add half of flour mixture to batter and add milk.  Finish with the rest of flour mixture.  Beat until just combined.

Scoop batter into cupcake cups about ¾ inch from the top (a little bit less than ¼ cup of batter). (Overfill and the cupcakes won’t dome but instead spill out the sides.)  Bake cupcakes for about 28 to 33 minutes or until a cake tester comes out clean or the tops spring back.

Vanilla Bean Cream Cheese Frosting
Ingredients
(enough for 16 cupcakes)
½  cup (1 stick)  of unsalted butter, softened
8 oz pack of cream cheese, softened
½ vanilla bean, split open with a knife and vanilla beans scraped out (Amazon.com has 16 beans for $15)
2-3 cups confectioner sugar (I try and use as little as I can, but making sure its pipeable)

Method
Cream butter and cream cheese together on medium speed until texture is uniform. Add 1 cup of confectioners sugar and beat on low speed until sugar is all incorporated. Add 1-2 more cups and again mix on low speed until sugar is all incorporated. Add scraped vanilla beans (get every last bit) and mix on medium speed for 8 minutes, occasionally scraping down sides. The key to really creamy frosting is to NOT beat too much air into the frosting but rather, on a medium speed, beat it until it is creamy.

Pipe frosting on top of cupcakes (1 M or 2D Wilton’s tip) and add sprinkles if desired.   
Printable recipe

Read More..