Mom's Birthday Part I

My Mom celebrated a milestone birthday this October and it was absolutely spectacular! She *thought* that I was whipping up a casual Sunday brunch for just her, myself, and my dad but the reality was that we had her family drive (and fly!) in to surprise her, took her to Truluck's for dinner Saturday night, and then had brunch on Sunday. Mom's favorite kind of cake is carrot cake so I borrowed a simple but delicious recipe from a nice woman I work with to make for her. It's moist and delicious and ALWAYS a hit at the office when she brings it in. :)

Every little surprise was so special and fun for my Mom. When our family walked in through the door, she laughed and cried and then ran around like a crazy person trying to get ready for dinner! We had a champagne toast before Dad "suggested" taking pictures outside. Little did she know that he had gotten a stretch Hummer limo to take us all to dinner and back! 

Truluck's is known for their crab claws so we feasted on the remaining claws that they had (seriously, we cleaned out the house!) and then each ordered fish for dinner. I started out with a yummy hothouse tomato salad. My main dish was the miso-glazed seabass and it just melted in my mouth. We topped off dinner by sharing key-lime pie and chocolate cake and then had the limo take us back home where sang Happy Birthday, opened gifts, and went off to digest/sleep off dinner. Absolutely fantastic. :)

Tomato, shaved parmesan, warm bacon, fresh herbs, house ranch dressing

MSC certified South Georgian Chilean seabass, crab fried rice, chilled cucumber slaw

Key-lime pie

Chocolate layer cake, vanilla ice cream cup, strawberries

Ann's Famous Carrot Cake

• 2 cups flour
• 2 cups sugar
• 2 tsp. baking soda
• 1 tsp. salt
• 2 tsp. cinnamon
• 1 cup oil
• 4 eggs
• 4 cups grated carrots (1 lb.)

Mix together flour, sugar, and oil.  Add eggs beating after each addition.  Add cinnamon, salt, and soda.  Add grated carrots and mix.  Pour into 3 8-inch pans that have been greased and floured.  Bake 350 degrees for 35 minutes.  Cool thoroughly before icing.

Cream Cheese Frosting

• 1 8oz bar cream cheese, room temperature
• 1 stick butter (1/2 cup) butter, room temperature
• 1 box 10X confectioner's sugar
• 2 tsp. vanilla

Beat together cream cheese and butter.  Add powdered sugar and mix.  Add vanilla and mix.  Spread on cooled cake.  Refrigerate.

Vanilla Cupcakes

One of the my goals that I've set for myself in the kitchen is to be a confident baker. I've only made from-scratch cupcakes two times total now and I've learned a TON from each little baking session. I've also learned that I am a long way off from accomplishing this goal haha! 

I own Martha Stewart's cupcake book but these were actually pulled off of her website. I wanted a basic vanilla cupcake recipe and these caught my eye. My frosting technique is terrible and I reverted back to spooning the frosting on -- thankfully the flavor was better than the appearance! 

As good as the flavors were, my cupcakes were a little dry for my taste. I'm sure this is due to my inexperience and I would love feedback from any bakers who stumble upon this blog. I highly recommend trying your hand at making these -- sometimes something simple just hits the spot.  :)

Billy's Vanilla-Vanilla Cupcakes

• 1 3/4 cups cake flour, not self-rising
• 1 1/4 cups unbleached all purpose flour
• 2 cups sugar
• 1 Tbs. baking powder
• 3/4 tsp. salt
• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, cut into 1-in cubes
• 4 large eggs
• 1 cup whole milk
• 1 tsp. pure vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.

Line cupcake pans with paper liners; set aside. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine flours, sugar, baking powder, and salt; mix on low speed until combined. Add butter, mixing until just coated with flour. 

In a large glass measuring cup, whisk together eggs, milk, and vanilla. With mixer on medium speed, add wet ingredients in 3 parts, scraping down sides of bowl before each addition; beat until ingredients are incorporated but do not overbeat.

Divide batter evenly among liners, filling about 2/3 full. Bake, rotating pan halfway through, until a cake tester inserted in the center comes out clean, 17 to 20 minutes.

Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. Repeat process with remaining batter. Once cupcakes have cooled, use a small offset spatula to frost tops of each cupcake. Decorate with sprinkles, if desired. Serve at room temperature.

Basic Vanilla Buttercream

• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 6 cups confectioners' sugar
• 1/2 cup whole milk
• 1 tsp. pure vanilla extract

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream butter until smooth and creamy, 2 to 3 minutes.

With mixer on low speed, add 6 cups sugar, milk, and vanilla; mix until light and fluffy. If necessary, gradually add remaining 2 cups sugar to reach desired consistency.

Happy eating! :)




* Recipes found from going to Martha Stewart's website here.

What is it about red velvet cupcakes?

Two things:

1.) I have red hair.

2.) I like eating cupcakes.

Therefore, I think that I am qualified to make a post about red velvet cupcakes. Also, while I'm at it, icing bags are more complicated than they appear to first time time users who don't now read the instructions.

This was my first time ever baking from scratch. From the cake to the frosting, I boldly made the promise to find the best red velvet cupcake recipe I could and bring the cupcakes in for Ana's birthday. Classic example of not thinking before I speak! First time EVER and I'm promising birthday cupcakes to a friend and the entire office will be eating them?! As a side note, we have a woman who regularly bakes from-scratch cakes and brings them in. I'm competing with her legacy?! What was I thinking?! Luckily for me, I didn't completely fail (only a teensy bit), and the hyenas ended up wolfing them down before 8:15am anyway.

*Queues the music*

Enter the red KitchenAid stand mixer.... (yes, those are angels singing!)

I knew exactly where to start. Bakerella is a very gifted baker and blogger extraordinaire. I've been an avid fan of hers forever and I knew that she had the red velvet cake recipe that I was going to use for Ana's birthday cupcakes. Without a ton of ingredients and her stamp of approval, I knew that her recipe was a winner as long as I could execute it.

Baking is science. Unlike cooking, you need exact measurements or else a little bit extra of this or not enough of that and you can pull a lump of goodness knows what from your oven. Execution my friends....execution is key.

Everything was going swimmingly until I realized that my butter was not room temperature. This is the teensy bit of failure that I was alluding to up above. Butter cannot be rushed. Putting it in the microwave (as I did) does not give you the consistency that is required for baking. Lesson learned -- my cupcakes were not as fluffy as I would have hoped/liked! To speed up the process, you can cut your butter into smaller, tablespoon sized chunks for them to become room temperature faster. Remember, you cannot speed up softening your butter by putting it in the microwave! AHHHhhh!!!

OK moving on.

Cupcakes baked and cooling on my bar area, etc. etc., it's time to make the icing! I'm not a particular fan of icing but let me tell you...this frosting was AMAZEBALLOONS. Good thing I live by myself - I was practically spooning that stuff into my mouth it was so good!!! (By the way, if anyone asks me about the frosting spoonage, I'm totally denying it.)

Frosting made, now comes the next tricky part. I was trying to go all fancy-pants mcgee with the frosting application. Normally, I spoon it on from the can but since I was making this stuff "from scratch," I wanted it to be as pretty as possible. I had purchased from Michael's a piping kit that included the plastic bags and metal heads to pipe different frosting designs on cakes/cupcakes/cookies. Guess who didn't read the instructions. Guess who figured out after the fact that the metal heads are applied from the inside, not held on the outside by the baker who then gets frustrated and ends up yelling at cake. THAT'S RIGHT, ME!!!

Not knowing how to move forward after sharing that bit, I'm just going to post another picture and the recipe and then go poor myself a nice glass of  some "wine of shame."

*Cheers!*

Red Velvet Cake

2 1/2 cups all purpose flour

2 cups sugar

1 Tablespoon cocoa

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking soda

2 eggs

1 1/2 cups oil

1 cup buttermilk

1 Tablespoon vinegar

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 oz. red food coloring

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
• Grease and flour two 8 inch cake pans.
• Lightly stir eggs in a medium bowl with a wire whisk. Add remaining liquid ingredients and stir together with whisk until blended. Set aside.
• Place all the dry ingredients in your mixing bowl and stir together really good with another wire whisk.
• Add wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix on medium-high for about a minute or until completely combined.
• Pour into cake pans and then drop the pans on the counter a few times to release any air bubbles.
• Bake for about 30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.
• After about ten minutes, remove from pans and cool completely on a wire rack. I also cover in plastic wrap while the cakes cool.
• Then make the frosting.

Cream Cheese Frosting

8 oz. cream cheese, room temperature

1 cup butter, room temperature

1 teaspoon vanilla

6 cups confectioners’ sugar

• Sift sugar and set aside.
• Beat cream cheese and butter on high until creamy. Add vanilla.
• Then, add the sugar in batches. Scrape down the sides in between each addition.
• And frost away.

*Both cake and frosting recipes are from Bakerella