Lovin' From the Oven

Tie-Dye Cupcakes

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Things have been going quite well lately. Even with my hectic life, I’m able to make the best of it. I won a Forever21 street style contest and will be getting a grab bag worth +$100, I saw Toy Story 3 at midnight, the Lakers win, and my cousin got to go to Club 33 at Disneyland and brought me back a sweet pin (so jealous of her, btw. I’m DYING to go to Club 33!)! Also, I have even BIGGER news that I’ll be revealing in my next post. 🙂 Ohhhh I know, secrets don’t make friends.. but trust me, it’s a good one!

I can’t tell you how many years that Laker game took off of my life. The entire fourth quarter was much too close for comfort and I couldn’t breathe. But sweet victory!! Did anyone else see Ron Artest’s post-game interview, by the way? I couldn’t stop laughing. He’s such a happy camper and deserves to be!

As for Toy Story 3… dare I say that it is the greatest Pixar movie yet!! I was scared, shed some tears, and laughed out loud multiple times. It did everything a movie was supposed to do. Now I need to go to Disneyland to stock up on my Toy Story gear (which I’ll be going tomorrow night with the bf to see the World of Color show). Please excuse my babble in this post, I have a lot of things on my mind to be excited about.

Well, this recipe is the same as the oreo cupcakes, minus the oreos. The frosting is also adapted from the vanilla buttercream that I used on these cupcakes. You can make them any color you want and however swirly you want. They’re fun to make with children!

  • 1 package (18.25 oz) plain white cake mix
  • 1 cup sour cream
  • 1/2 cup vegetable oil
  • 3 large eggs
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • food coloring
  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line muffin tin with 24 paper liners.
  2. Place the cake mix, sour cream, vegetable oil, eggs, and vanilla in a large mixing bowl. Blend with an electric mixer on low speed for 30 seconds. Then, scrape down the sides of the bowl.
  3. Increase the mixer speed to medium and beat 1 1/2 minutes more. Separate cake batter into parts and color each using the food dye.
  4. Put a spoonful of each color into the paper liner until the cup is 3/4 of the way full with batter.
  5. Bake for 18-20 minutes.

Chocolate Buttercream Dream Icing

  • 1 stick salted butter, room temp
  • 1 stick unsalted butter, room temp
  • 1 cup shortening
  • 1 tbsp vanilla extract
  • 2 pounds powdered sugar (about 3 1/2-4 cups)
  • 4-6 tbsp very cold milk
  • about 1/2 cup of dark cocoa powder
  1. Cream butter and shortening. Add vanilla extract and combine well.
  2. Begin adding in the sugar & cocoa and mixing thoroughly after each addition. After all the sugar and cocoa has been added, begin adding the very cold milk.. one tablespoon at a time, combining very well after each addition with the mixer on medium-high to high speed until you reach the desired consistency. You add more or less cocoa powder depending on your taste.

Honey & Crystallized Ginger Cookies

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Recently, I’ve been able to catch up with all of my friends because of my time off and it’s surely starting to feel like summer to me! This eighty degree+ weather makes me want to never work and just BBQ everyday. Well, that wouldn’t be too productive. I’d say the most productive things that I’ve been doing with my time off so far are finding a million additional food blogs to add to my reading list and gaining back the weight I lost from my surgery.

I’ve also been semi-obsessed with magic recently. I know what you’re thinking… “What is she.. in third grade or something?” Truth is, I’ve always been a magic fan. My parents used to buy me fun magician starter kits when I was little, but I can’t say that I ever became any good at it.
Bottom line is that I managed to find myself a person who was a magician AND a foodie! We emailed back and forth a couple times and I just had to share with you all how wonderful he is. His name is Los Angeles Magician Mike Jacobson and even has a blog where he rates french fries. Yes, you read that right.. french fries. Why didn’t I think of that? He has even been a guest on Ellen show before. You can see a bit of him here and here.
I was really inspired reading his story and talking to him because it made me realize that you really can do what you love. It’s refreshing to talk to people that are so happy with life because if you do what you love, you never have to work a day in your life. I will be a baker someday. I will have my own bakery– I will! I will! I will! Whew!
Now off to the cookies– these cookies are definitely different from the rest. They’re unique with their ginger flavor, but I think it’s quite tame, nothing too crazy. The taste might not appeal to all, but that’s just because it’s not your usual chocolate chip, peanut butter, or sugar cookie. I may have may have gone ahead of myself on this one and adapted the recipe from Eat Make Read when I really should have left it as is. By that, I mean subbing some of the white sugar for brown sugar without really thinking about the liquids that were already in it. I did also use honey instead of molasses, but that was something that I think I did right since I’m not a fan of the molasses flavor. Honey and ginger also go together quite naturally. Finally, I rolled some of the cookies in the sugar/cinnamon mix and others in turbinado sugar. Here are my adaptations, minus the subbing sugar part because I think the texture would be better as is:

  • 2 cups flour
  • 2 t baking powder
  • 3/4 T cinnamon
  • 1/2 t salt
  • 3/4 cup butter, softened
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 1 egg
  • 1/4 cup honey
  • 1/4 cup candied ginger, roughly chopped
  • 1/3 cup sugar
  • pinch of cinnamon
  • pinch of ground ginger

  1. Whisk flour, baking powder, cinnamon and salt in a medium bowl.
  2. In a separate bowl, combine the butter, sugar, egg and honey.
  3. Add the wet ingredients to the dry and combine well. Fold in the ginger and chill for at least 30 minutes.
  4. Meanwhile, combine 1/3 cup sugar with a pinch of cinnamon and ground ginger in a small bowl. Preheat oven to 375° and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
  5. Once the dough has chilled, roll the dough into small Tablespoon sized balls and roll in the sugar mixture. Place on baking sheet and bake for 8-10 minutes.

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Alton Brown’s The Chewy

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Hmph, you’d think after being in school for 18 years, you’d know exactly what you want to do with your life. Nope. Halfway into my first year of grad school and I’m already having second thoughts. Is this really worth it? Do I really want to spend this much money in school only to make nothing teaching? I feel like I’m having deja vu. I experienced this in undergrad, being a poli sci major, only to find out halfway through my junior year that I want nothing to do with political science/law. I wish we had time in our lives to sit down and figure this stuff out before we’re forced through school year after year.

I mean, all I want to do is bake. That’s one thing I’m for sure on, but I’m also a realistic person.. baking’s not going to pay for anything. I have to have money if I want to bake.. and I need to work to make money. That leaves us back at square one: going to school -> getting a job -> making money -> being able to pursue baking. Oh how reality sucks, sometimes. Good thing there are cookies to make us all feel better.

I had no AP flour left in the house after my cookie fiesta fundraiser last week, so I googled for a recipe using bread flour. The first thing that came up was Alton Brown’s “The Chewy” and boy, am I glad it did! I know a ton of people have tried it before and it’s always been on my list of things to bake. Now I can finally vouch for the recipe– it’s as good as everyone says it is. The bread flour definitely makes for a chewier & flatter cookie. I mixed half of the cookie dough with Heath bar bits and the other half with mini baking M&Ms (and some extra chocolate chips for added measure). Both were exceptional. 🙂

My notes are in green italics.

Ingredients

  • 2 sticks unsalted butter
  • 2 1/4 cups bread flour
  • 1 teaspoon kosher salt
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/4 cup sugar
  • 1 1/4 cups brown sugar
  • 1 egg
  • 1 egg yolk
  • 2 tablespoons milk
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
  • 2 cups semisweet chocolate chips (I used heath bits and mini M&M’s)

Directions

  1. Heat oven to 375 degrees F.
  2. Melt the butter in a heavy-bottom medium saucepan over low heat (I just softened it and let it melt a bit in the microwave). Sift together the flour, salt, and baking soda and set aside.
  3. Pour the melted butter in the mixer’s work bowl. Add the sugar and brown sugar. Cream the butter and sugars on medium speed. Add the egg, yolk, 2 tablespoons milk and vanilla extract and mix until well combined. Slowly incorporate the flour mixture until thoroughly combined. Stir in the chocolate chips (or whatever your add in is).
  4. Chill the dough (I chilled it overnight), then scoop onto parchment-lined baking sheets, 6 cookies per sheet (I did 8). Bake for 14 minutes (14 minutes?! That’s way too long for soft cookies. I baked mine for no more than 12) or until golden brown, checking the cookies after 5 minutes. Rotate the baking sheet for even browning. Cool completely and store in an airtight container.

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P.S. I’ll be leaving for NY on either Monday night/Tuesday morning, so for all the people that signed up for the cookie mailing list, I’ll be mailing them out on Monday since I’ll be out of town Wednesday. I’m really excited to be going!! Before I forget, does anyone have any recommendations on food places or tourist things that I must visit and do in NYC? You guys helped me so much on my trip to Seattle a couple of months ago and always have the best recommendations. I’d love to hear it all! Thanks in advance!

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