Care Package!

This post is sooo late being posted. The fall semester has started, and with work I'm so busy that I forgot to update! But I digress.

My very dear friend/co-worker Esther fell and hurt her hip! She calls me things like "dear" and "sweetheart" and "precious," and in return I say that she's like my adopted grandmother. As soon as I found out that she was injured (it's going to take 4-6 weeks of physical therapy for her to get all healed up again!) I knew that I had to do something for her.

Esther and her great-granddaughter. She could NOT stop grinning as she held her!

I wound up making her a care package, and then making the 45-minute drive to deliver it in person. When I'd bring treats into work and she saw me, she'd always say hello, then her eyes would go riiiight to the box, to see what I'd brought.
So I picked a few favorites to make her: Cinnamon pinwheels, chocolate chip cookies, and oreo balls!

Note: Someone really needs to teach me how to get pictures to rotate on this blog. For now... lay your head on your shoulder and enjoy the picture!

Butterbeer with Butterscotch Whipped Cream

Harry Potter nerds, rejoice!
For I have discovered, and created from other recipes, butterbeer!

There are so many on the internet that it's hard to decide which one to try. I wound up picking two that sounded interesting, and then smashing them together and creating a delicious beverage!
Now, this is completely family-friendly. You COULD add butterscotch schnapps, but this one uses butterscotch syrup instead. So think of it as belonging to the rootbeer family, not the regularbeer family.

I also reused my whipped cream recipe, but fiddled with it a little. In the HP books, as far as I can remember, the drink naturally foams on its own, but adding foam is just as good! I made it for my friends when they came to visit, and they said it was a perfect dessert drink.
I'm providing two recipes. One for a single or double serving, and one for a large pitcher. The measurements probably don't correspond to eachother, but...whatever. I'm not a math person, so I just went by taste!

Butterbeer Recipe:

• FOR SINGLE SERVING
• 8oz (1 can) cream soda (chilled)
• 1 - 1 1/2 T butterscotch syrup (add less, then add more to taste)
• 1/2 t vanilla
• 1/2 t heavy whipping cream
• FOR MULTIPLE SERVINGS
• 2L cream soda (chilled)
• 1/2 - 3/4 c butterscotch syrup (add less, then add more to taste)
• 2 + 2/3 T vanilla
• 2 T heavy whipping cream

Preparation

• Combine butterscotch syrup, vanilla, and heavy whipping cream in a bowl. Mix well to combine syrup.
• Pour cream soda into a second, large bowl.
• Add mixture to cream soda; stir until combined.
• Note: The more you stir the cream soda, the more quickly it will lose its carbonation. Hence why mixing the three first will provide the best beverage.
• Top with whipped cream and serve. Refrigerate remainder.

Butterscotch Whipped Cream Recipe:

• 1 cup (or 1 pint) heavy whipping cream
• 4 T butterscotch syrup
• 1 T vanilla

Preparation

• Combine ingredients in large mixing bowl (stand mixer if you have it!)
• Beat until the mixture thickens, 5-7 minutes, stopping occasionally to make sure the syrup is integrated and not on the bottom of the bowl.
• Either pour (if still liquidy), or spoon/pipe whipped cream onto the butterbeer.
  

Agave Nectar Cupcakes with Whipped Cream Frosting

Yay healthy!
Yay diabetic-friendly recipe!
Boo tasting like bran muffins.
Yay frosting!
Yay agave nectar!

I made the first experiment in my new kitchen! ...The oven is so small that when I bake cupcakes, I have to bake them one tray (12 cupcakes) at a time. Luckily this recipe is halved, so you can only make 12 cupcakes anyway.

But I decided to make agave cupcakes, with an agave whipped cream frosting!

Agave nectar is the hip new thing on the health market. I don't know all of the specifics yet (whether it's actually better than sugar or not) but the fact that this recipe has no sugar is great!

Agave nectar (or just "agave"-- Ah-GAH-vay, I do believe) is sweet, similar to honey but without that sharpness. It's quite tasty, and probably good on toast, cereal, waffles... really anything that you could put honey in/on, you could use agave!

The cupcake batter came out like oatmeal-- I attribute this to using wheat flour instead of white flour. It also made them quite gritty, and..tasting like a bran muffin. The agave flavor was completely lost in them.

But the frosting! Ohhh my, so delicious! It actually tastes like whipped cream, which you could put on..whatever you put whipped cream on. The only reason I'm even calling it a frosting is because I put it on the cupcakes (which really helped make them taste better!)

Maybe I'll retry this recipe eventually. But for now, just take the whipped cream recipe! Nomnomnom.

It even looked like whipped cream when I piped it. That's how you can tell that it's super tasty.
Agave Nectar Cupcake Recipe

• 2 T light butter
• 1/3 c vegetable oil
• 1 egg
• 1 t vanilla
• 1/2 c agave nectar
• 3/4 c buttermilk
• 1 3/4 c wheat flour
• 1/2 t baking soda
• 1/2 t baking powder

Preparation

• Preheat oven to 325
• Cream together butter, vegetable oil, egg, and vanilla.
• In a small bowl, combine agave nectar with buttermilk. Add to mixture.
• Add in dry ingredients slowly.
• Mix until combined and smooth.
• Prepare a cupcake pan with 12 cupcake papers, and fill each 1/2 full.
• Bake 17-20 minutes.
  

Agave Nectar Whipped Cream Frosting Recipe

• 2 c (1 pint) heavy whipping cream
• 5 T agave nectar
• 1 T vanilla
• Pinch of salt

Preparation

• Put all ingredients in a bowl (if you have a Kitchenaid, use it!).
• Beat until it stiffens-- 5-6 minutes.
• Note: This is where a stand mixer comes in handy, because your wrist will get a workout otherwise!
• Spread, or pipe onto cupcakes.
• Drizzle with agave nectar.

Note: For best results, make the frosting the day you eat the cupcakes, and put them in the fridge so the frosting doesn't melt!

The recipes both came from my friend Nikki! (:

HIATUS!

Guh, I meant to make this post on Thursday.
But I forgot! Because I'm moving, and I've been ridiculously busy/stressed/et cetera so I didn't have the time (or patience!) to bake anything this week.

But tune in next week, for the first treats that will be made in my neeeew kitchen!

(And the kitchen is so small that it's going to be..interesting. It only fuels my desire to one day own a gigantic kitchen-- complete with island.)

Nutella Cupcakes

Here's recipe number two for the day: Nutella cupcakes! And trust me, they are full of chocolate-hazelnutty goodness.

These could be REALLY good, but with the way we made them they were very bland. The recipe says to make the cake mix, then drop a teaspoon of Nutella in and swirl them. This was an epic fail! The Nutella was waaay too thick to swirl.


A better thing to do, in my opinion, is add Nutella to the batter after it's mixed up but before pouring. It comes out to be half a cup of Nutella. (1 tsp x 24 cupcakes = 24 tsp. 48 tsp = 1 cup. So 24 tsp = 1/2 cup. Math!) But since I didn't actually make them this way myself, you should judge for yourself if they're bland, or if they need more.

So! We tested out three different kinds: Cupcake with frosting. Cupcake with a thin Nutella layer, and frosting. Cupcake with thin Nutella layer and no frosting. We wound up deciding that the Nutella layer really made the cupcake better, with or without frosting.


For the frosting, mom whipped up a yummy Nutella buttercream. (I TOLD you it was chocolate-hazelnutty!)

Nutella Cupcake Recipe

• One package yellow cake mix
• 1 1/4 c water
• 1/3 c vegetable oil
• 3 eggs
• 1/2 c Nutella

Preparation

• Preheat oven to 350
• Blend together cake mix, water, oil, and eggs as per box instructions.
• Beat in Nutella.
• Bake for 20-24 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean.

Nutella Buttercream Recipe

• One bag (2 pounds) of powdered sugar
• 11 tbsp (one stick + 3 tsp) butter, softened
• 2 tsp vanilla
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/2 c milk
• 1 cup Nutella, to start

Preparation

• Combine powdered sugar, butter, vanilla, salt, and half of milk.
• Add in Nutella and beat together, adding more milk until you get the consistency you like. Add more Nutella as neccessary.
• Frost/pipe onto cupcakes.

Cookie Dough Cupcakes

Two-for-one experiment today! Mom's been wanting to learn how to pipe frosting, so we figured we'd try a couple of different cupcake recipes.

The first one we tried: Cookie dough cupcakes!
They sound deliiicious. But they and the Nutella cupcakes were both "eh" for me. But I'm posting them anyway!

These involve making chocolate chip cookie dough, rolling it into balls, and freezing them. One of the two of us (hint, not me. ;) decided that they wanted to buy a roll of pre-made cookie dough instead of making it from scratch. It was alright, but personally I think the brown sugar was waaay too understated.
After you mix the batter and put it in the cupcake papers, you drop in one of the frozen cookie balls. Trust me when I say to drop it in and LEAVE IT. I pressed the ball down into the batter (it still sticks out even when it touches the bottom), and as it baked it melted down. All of the cookie was on the bottom, which split the cupcake into this half-cookie, half-cupcake weird thing.

For the frosting, we made a chocolate buttercream.
It was extra thick so mom could test her piping skillz, which really overwhelmed the cupcake itself (which was a little bland anyway). But in general I'd say thinner would be great-- using it as a glaze would be amazing.
Cookie Dough Cupcake Recipe:

Cookie Recipe

• One tube of pre-made chocolate chip cookie dough
• OR
• Cookie recipe here: http://adventureswithmarzipan.blogspot.com/2010/05/cookies-au-creme.html

Preparation

• After getting your dough, roll into balls about the size of a teaspoon. Put in the freezer for one to two hours.

Cupcake Recipe

• One package of yellow cake mix
• 1 1/4 c water
• 1/3 c vegetable oil
• 3 eggs

Preparation

• Preheat oven to 350
• Combine the mix, water, oil, and eggs as per box instructions. (Lazy, right?)
• Line a cupcake tin with 24 cupcake papers.
• Drop a frozen dough ball into each cup, in the center. Do NOT push down.
• Bake for 20-24 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean.

Chocolate Buttercream Recipe (doubled for piping)

• One bag (two pounds) of powdered sugar
• 11 tbsp (one stick + 3 tbsp) butter, softened
• 2 tsp vanilla
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/2 c milk
• 1 1/4 c cocoa

Preparation

• Using a spoon, mix together powdered sugar and cocoa.
• Add in butter, vanilla, salt, and half of milk. Blend together.
• Slowly add milk until getting the consistency you like.
• Frost/pipe onto cooled cupcakes.

Apple Ice Cream Cone Cupcakes with Cinnamon Buttercream

I've wanted to make ice cream cone cupcakes for so long, but I never knew how!
Surprisingly, it was really, really, really easy.

So I made an apple ice cream cone cupcake, with cinnamon buttercream frosting. This frosting will make people bow down to you, because it's SO GOOD. It's SO GOOD in fact, that capital letters are warranted for it!

BUT. I wasn't paying attention (I was watching King Of The Hill with my little bro) so I wound up adding, instead of 1 1/2 cups of grated apple (which the recipe called for), two grated apples. I'm reaaally not sure how much extra apple I added.. but they were delicioso! Actually, I suggest it!

The batter wasn't runny like regular cake batter. It was oddly dry to begin with. Before I added the apple, it looked like fine bread crumbs. After I added the apple and mixed it in it got more liquidy, but with the apple it was more like a heavy muffin mix.
But it smelled so good! And tasted so good! There's no egg in it, so don't feel nervous about sneaking a spoonful of the batter while you're putting it in the pan.

The batter can be used in regular cupcake tins or in the ice cream cones (obviously.) My suggestion, though, is to make 20 instead of 24. Because they don't rise exponentially, this'll let you fill the cups more fully.

As for the cinnamon buttercream, depending on whether you frost it on with a knife or use a piping bag, you'll either need one batch or two (two batches being a full bag of powdered sugar.)
Really, I cannot recommend this frosting enough. It would be good thinned out as a glaze for muffins, or added to waffles, or even as an accent on ice cream. Om nom nom!
Have an enemy? Give them one of these cupcakes. They will never say another bad thing about you.

Apple Cupcakes with Cinnamon Buttercream (in an ice cream cone!) Recipe

• 20 ice cream cones, or 20 cupcake papers
• 1/4 c butter, softened
• 2/3 c sugar
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 c all purpose flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 2 Granny Smith apples, peeled and grated

Preparation

• Preheat oven to 350
• Beat butter until fluffy.
• Add sugar, cinnamon, and vanilla and cream together. (Texture will be weird)
• Combine flour and baking soda, then add slowly to mixture and beat. (Texture will resemble bread crumbs.)
• Add apples, and beat together on a low speed so the apple juice gets into the mixture, but so the grated apples are still visible.
• Bake for 25-30 minutes. (See below for what a finished cupcake will look like inside.)
• Let cool completely.

Cinnamon Buttercream Recipe

• 1 lb (1/2 bag) powdered sugar
• 1/3 c butter, softened
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1/4 c milk

Preparation

• Use a mixing spoon to combine cinnamon and powdered sugar. This will ensure that the cinnamon is fully infused later.
• Add in butter, vanilla, and about half of the milk.
• Blend together until thoroughly mixed, adding more milk if neccessary.
• Note: Don't overdo the milk. You want THICK frosting.
• Note: If you plan to pipe, definitely make the double batch.
• Pipe onto the tops of the cooled cupcakes.
• Then, sit back and enjoy as eeeverybody who sees them fawns over them!

Tip for piping the ice cream cone design:
Start in the middle of the cupcake, and pipe slowly in a spiral until all of the cupcake is covered.
Pipe a second spiral in the center, on top of that.
In the very center, squeeze out one more bit of frosting, then push down and pull up to get the tip!

Center of the cooked cupcake