So a few days ago I went out and got an ice cream scoop. I've been meaning to make just a plain vanilla cupcake batch to experiment with and see if I could make them how I want them to look. And today I did it!
The baby went down for a nap, and when he continued to sleep for longer than 15 minutes, I decided to make some cupcakes. I found a simple vanilla recipe, and got to work. It only produced 10 cupcakes, which was fine because I didn't want too many. After mixing everything JUST so, not over-beating or mixing, I used my handy dandy ice cream scoop to load up my cupcake pan. I set the timer to the minimum suggested baking time, and I didn't open the oven until 1 minute before the timer went off. And voila! Beautifully peaked cupcakes!! They looked amazing and tasted nice and fluffy. I'm not going to frost them because I know my frosting recipe makes WAY more than enough for 10 cupcakes, so it's not worth it. Plus this was just strictly an experiment batch.
So now that I'm happy with my mixing and baking skills, it's time to explore other flavors of cupcakes, along with decorations. My cake decorating class starts on Thursday, and I'm really excited. I got my new cupcake recipe book, Martha Stewart's Cupcakes. Every recipe has a picture, which I love, and so many of the recipes sound easy enough for me to start out with. But then again, Martha Stewart makes everything look so easy.
While baking, I think about my parents. They've recently moved out of state to live with my oldest sibling and his family, so I miss them very much. I haven't been more than 20 minutes away from them my whole life, so this is a big change. While I was mixing ingredients, I noticed that I automatically clean up after myself when I've finished a step. I remembered that this is something I've picked up from my dad. He's a great cook and always taught me it's easier to clean up your mess if you clean while you work. My mom is more of a "I'll clean when I'm done" type, and I'm glad I picked up my dad's habits instead!
My mom gave me her stand-up mixer when she left, and it's become my favorite possession! That thing is amazing!! I can't remember how I baked without it! My husband says he's going to buy me a new one, but as of now, I'm very happy with the one my mom gave me.
So, today is going to be a good day. My cupcakes came out beautiful and I'm finally ready to tackle some new and different recipes!
Saturday, May 7, 2011
Friday, May 6, 2011
New book!
I got a new cupcake book, and I'm pretty excited about testing out some new recipes.
...That is all :D
...That is all :D
Tuesday, May 3, 2011
Upcoming classes
Today I picked up a class schedule out at JoAnn's for cake decorating classes. The price is very reasonable (at least the first one is) so my husband said that I can take them! The first class starts in 2 weeks. It's 4 sessions long and each session is 2 hours long. After the basic cake decorating class I can take a gum paste and fondant class or another advanced decorating class. I'm pretty excited! My husband fully supports me in this and it definitely helps me keep going, especially when I get down on myself. He loved the strawberry cupcakes, btw!
My next batch of cupcakes are going to be basic plain vanilla cupcakes, no frosting. I plan on making the batter from scratch, like always, but I'm going to experiment with the amount in each cup and how to keep them from falling in the middle. What I think I'm doing wrong is opening the oven door when they're in there. I read that the heat has to be just right for them to bake, and not to open the oven door for at least the first 15 minutes of the baking process, which I totally do hahaha. I also get air bubbles in my cupcakes! I'm really hard on myself and I demand perfection in everything that I do, so until I can get these cupcakes to look the way I want, I won't be happy. They taste great, I don't have a problem with that. Just how they come out of the oven.
Well, until next time!
My next batch of cupcakes are going to be basic plain vanilla cupcakes, no frosting. I plan on making the batter from scratch, like always, but I'm going to experiment with the amount in each cup and how to keep them from falling in the middle. What I think I'm doing wrong is opening the oven door when they're in there. I read that the heat has to be just right for them to bake, and not to open the oven door for at least the first 15 minutes of the baking process, which I totally do hahaha. I also get air bubbles in my cupcakes! I'm really hard on myself and I demand perfection in everything that I do, so until I can get these cupcakes to look the way I want, I won't be happy. They taste great, I don't have a problem with that. Just how they come out of the oven.
Well, until next time!
Monday, May 2, 2011
Small victory
So today I attempted to bake strawberry cupcakes. I was gonna make them yesterday, but I didn't have enough sugar, plus the baby was being really fussy. (Not that he was much better today, actually.)
The recipe called for me to "hull" out 2 cups of strawberries. I'd never hulled out a strawberry before, so I ended up looking up a video on youtube on how to do it. After almost slicing my finger off a few times, I got the hang of it. I mixed everything together, the batter came out amazing. It tasted like fresh strawberry ice cream to me. I loaded up my cupcake trays and put them in the oven. I'm still having trouble measuring out that perfect amount of batter in the cups, and it showed. Not only did I not put enough this time around, my cupcakes collapsed in the middle! All the cupcakes I've baked have done this, or I over-fill and they look more like muffins.
I'm irritated with myself. I looked up why they fall in the middle so hopefully next time they won't. Besides that, the frosting came out good. I added a bit of pink food coloring so they're strawberry looking, haha. The cupcakes themselves are ok, not terrible but not great.
I'll get the hang of it soon. Enjoy some pictures!
Sunday, May 1, 2011
The beginning of an adventure
Let me start off by saying that I'm anything but a professional baker. I'm a 21 year old stay at home mom with nothing better to do. While my 4 month old baby naps, I vacuum floors, do laundry, clean the kitchen...and bake.
My mom was always the baker in the family. Whenever someone's birthday rolled around, or a special occasion, she was the go to gal for baked goods. I never really showed an interest in it growing up, though she always tried to get me in the kitchen. I don't know why I didn't want to learn, I just didn't. Maybe because I was too lazy? Or perhaps because growing up I was busy doing other things, like ballet or tap. I regret not learning all the tricks of the trade until recently.
After having my first child and staying home with him all day long while my husband went to work, I couldn't imagine going back out in the work force and have someone else watch my baby. I also quickly got cabin fever and was going slowly insane! So, walking through the aisles of Target with my husband and the baby one night, I saw a cupcake book. I snagged it up and threw it in the basket. A few days later, I went out and got all the basics I needed for a few recipes and tried one out.
My first attempt was chocolate chip cupcakes with a vanilla buttercream frosting. It went...alright. I wanted to make the frosting look pretty, but instead of waiting to add the chocolate chips until after using a frosting bag and tip didn't occur to me until the chips plugged up the bag. But the cupcakes tasted pretty good!
My next attempt was brown sugar pound cupcakes with brown sugar cream cheese frosting. They came out delicious! I've decided those will be my signature cupcakes! My son is a beautiful brown skinned boy, and I call him my brown sugar baby. So I've started calling these cupcakes "Sterling-cakes" after my son.
Next was my horribly dry chocolate cupcakes with peanut butter frosting. They tasted like someone left a reese's cup out in the sun for 100 years. I obviously need to work on that recipe.
When family came in town, I was requested to make my Sterling-cakes, so I made them over at my mom's house to save time. Plus she had more baking utensils than, and I had burnt out the motor of my hand mixer. I was able to follow the suggestions better, such as sifting the flour and such, and my cupcakes came out even better than before! For Easter I made vanilla cupcakes with vanilla buttercream topped with coconut, and carrot cupcakes. These were a huge hit with my family.
My dad commented to me last week "You're becoming quite the little baker!" ...I am? I was just baking because my family asked me too and I had fallen in love with baking cupcakes! But I suppose that I have become a baker! Even my husband (who isn't a fan of sweets) says my cupcakes are great.
After searching for something to do with my life for so long, I lost confidence in myself. Now that I'm actually good at something, I don't believe it when people tell me. So instead of feeling sorry for myself, or beating myself to a bloody pulp over if I'm any good, I'm just going to do it. I love baking cupcakes and I'm going to keep trying new recipes. Who knows where this will go?
So stick around for my Cupcake Adventures! Encouragement is my friend.
My mom was always the baker in the family. Whenever someone's birthday rolled around, or a special occasion, she was the go to gal for baked goods. I never really showed an interest in it growing up, though she always tried to get me in the kitchen. I don't know why I didn't want to learn, I just didn't. Maybe because I was too lazy? Or perhaps because growing up I was busy doing other things, like ballet or tap. I regret not learning all the tricks of the trade until recently.
After having my first child and staying home with him all day long while my husband went to work, I couldn't imagine going back out in the work force and have someone else watch my baby. I also quickly got cabin fever and was going slowly insane! So, walking through the aisles of Target with my husband and the baby one night, I saw a cupcake book. I snagged it up and threw it in the basket. A few days later, I went out and got all the basics I needed for a few recipes and tried one out.
My first attempt was chocolate chip cupcakes with a vanilla buttercream frosting. It went...alright. I wanted to make the frosting look pretty, but instead of waiting to add the chocolate chips until after using a frosting bag and tip didn't occur to me until the chips plugged up the bag. But the cupcakes tasted pretty good!
My next attempt was brown sugar pound cupcakes with brown sugar cream cheese frosting. They came out delicious! I've decided those will be my signature cupcakes! My son is a beautiful brown skinned boy, and I call him my brown sugar baby. So I've started calling these cupcakes "Sterling-cakes" after my son.
Next was my horribly dry chocolate cupcakes with peanut butter frosting. They tasted like someone left a reese's cup out in the sun for 100 years. I obviously need to work on that recipe.
When family came in town, I was requested to make my Sterling-cakes, so I made them over at my mom's house to save time. Plus she had more baking utensils than, and I had burnt out the motor of my hand mixer. I was able to follow the suggestions better, such as sifting the flour and such, and my cupcakes came out even better than before! For Easter I made vanilla cupcakes with vanilla buttercream topped with coconut, and carrot cupcakes. These were a huge hit with my family.
My dad commented to me last week "You're becoming quite the little baker!" ...I am? I was just baking because my family asked me too and I had fallen in love with baking cupcakes! But I suppose that I have become a baker! Even my husband (who isn't a fan of sweets) says my cupcakes are great.
After searching for something to do with my life for so long, I lost confidence in myself. Now that I'm actually good at something, I don't believe it when people tell me. So instead of feeling sorry for myself, or beating myself to a bloody pulp over if I'm any good, I'm just going to do it. I love baking cupcakes and I'm going to keep trying new recipes. Who knows where this will go?
So stick around for my Cupcake Adventures! Encouragement is my friend.
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