Cupcakes, cupcakes, cupcakes

Cupcakes, Cupcakes, Cupcakes!!

If you know me very well, you know that over the last couple of years I have fallen in love with making and decorating cupcakes. My friend Elizabeth started this obsession and it has been fun to have a cupcake buddy. Often one or both of us make cupcakes every week. We even have these cute little containesr especially designed to safely carry a cupcake in your lunch.

This mutual obsession continued to escalate until last Valentine's Day when we made over 400 cupcakes for a fundraiser for the adoption fund at my church. You might think that we wouldn't want to make cupcakes after that for a long time, but both of us made a batch later that week!

Me and Elizabeth, the day of our adventure

This is my friend Julie's blog post about it. Her adoption journey was a big part of our inspiration.
http://crattyfamily.blogspot.com/2012/02/church-cupcake-fundraiser.html

I've made a variety of cupcakes...monsters, picnic theme, valentine's day, camoflauge, Fourth of July, black forest, caramel apple, etc.

Here are some of the pics...

Vanilla, vanilla

My friend Anna's favorite...in fact, it is what she wanted for a baby gift

...for me to bring her cupcakes after Isabel was born.

Fourth of July

This recipe stretched me to try a new technique for icing.

I think I understand it better now and could improve, but they turned out okay.

Kinda cool with three colors, I just would like more control of the colors.

Caramel Apple Cupcakes

from www.yourcupofcake.com 

(one of my favorite dessert blogs)

I was told, "I've never had a cupcake like this. This is the best cupcake I've ever had!"

Picnic Theme

 Picnic theme birthday cupcake cake for Brenna!

Valentine's Day Cupcakes

We made vanilla, chocolate, and red velvet all topped with Vanilla Buttercream.

It took me a long time to start making my own icing. It just seemed like too much unnecessary work. I'll admit it is more work than opening a can, but it is worth it.
Once I made my own...I decided I would never go back. It's a whole new flavor!

If you have a stand mixer, it's much easier. It makes a big difference when making icing.

I'm not going to spill all my cupcakes secrets just yet. But here is the recipe I use the most for icing, which I got from Elizabeth. It was the first one I tried and is still my favorite.

Martha Stewart's Fluffy Vanilla Buttercream

Ingredients

• 4 sticks (1 pound) unsalted butter, softened
• 6 cups sifted confectioners' sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 pinch of salt

Directions

1. Put butter in bowl of an electric mixer. Beat on medium-high speed until pale and creamy, about 2 minutes. Reduce speed to medium; add sugar 1/2 cup at a time, mixing well, about 5 minutes total. Add vanilla and salt. Raise speed to medium-high; beat until smooth, about 1 minute more.

Do you like cupcakes?

Sneak Peak of tomorrow's post...

Caption this!

It's an all edible cupcake cake!

Check out today's post

Check out today's post:

         Tuesday tip for the kitchen

Tuesday's Tip for the Kitchen: Using Butter

Ever have a recipe that needs a softened stick of butter, but you have no time to wait? What do you do?

Tips for using butter:

Learning this method has made my life so much easier for all those times I need a need a stick of butter at room temperature...now!

Secret to softening butter
http://www.mybakingaddiction.com/how-to-bring-butter-and-eggs-to-room-temperature/

Other helpful tips:
Quick tips for using butter

Healthy tips for cooking with butter

How to brown butter without burning it

What tips have you found to help in the kitchen?

Lislestyle: Oven Roasted Chicken

Check out today's post:

Oven roasted Chicken

Oven Roasted Chicken

Oven-roasted Chicken

For a recent Christmas dinner, one of my friends, Linea, brought an oven-roasted chicken. It was delicious! One of the most flavorful chickens I have tasted. The breast meat was so tender and burst with flavors. She sent me the recipe and I tried it today. It was simple to make. It takes very little prep. It has to bake for 1 1/2 hours so you need some time at home, but otherwise it's easy.

It comes from a TLC cooking show:
Oven-roasted Chicken

Lislestyle: The recipe called for two chicken, but I just did one.


One of my favorite tools in the kitchen is my pampered chef chopper. It makes chopping veggies so fast.

Bed of veggies for the chicken. The pan is too big, but it was what I had.
I definitely could put two chickens in here, but I just did one.

My roommate and I love the jar of minced garlic. It's fresh and always ready. We use it almost everyday. When I cooked with my dad growing up he used to say

 if you can't smell you don't have enough...in regards to garlic. 

I usually live by this rule!

To be honest, I didn't know what Marjoram was and I didn't find any fresh. 

Of course, I didn't know what to look for...I didn't see any signs for Marjoram in the fresh produce.

I found this bottle on the spice aisle and it worked fine.

It was around $5.

Butter mixture ready to be put on the bird.

This chicken was the biggest they had and it only cost $5. They were on sale for $.99 a pound.

When I pulled back the skin, to add the butter mixture, this is what I saw.
The white line in the middle I had to cut with my kitchen scissors in order to pull back the skin.

Buttered and ready!

I didn't have the ties they recommended. I was trying to figure out what to do when I saw a large paper clip I have. I used it instead and it was super easy!
I suspect easier than me attempting to tie the birds legs.
In fact, I think this will be my new method.

It's done!

 

Beautiful, isn't it?

One of my other favorite kitchen tools is my electric knife. I got one years ago after using one at a friend's party. It was about $10 at Wal-Mart. I love carving chickens and turkeys! The secret is to cut the legs and wings off at the joints first. Then start at the middle of the breast and follow the bone down to slice it off.

I tried a piece before pouring the juices on it and after. Adding the juices definitely makes a difference.
All the extra flavors really adds to the taste!

Enjoy! I enjoyed this with long grain rice, a salad, and mashed sweet potatoes.

What do you think? Have you ever braved cooking a whole chicken before? 

Upcoming posts this week...

this week

 Oven-roasted Chicken

Tips from the kitchen:
Cooking with Butter

Cupcakes, cupcakes, cupcakes

Peppermint Bark Smores

 Featured ingredient: PESTO