A baker's inspiration

I've been eyeing a couple of recipes recently that I cannot wait to try. As you can see from two previous posts {here and here}, I really like my Nutella. Nutella tarts seem just the way to go! I also cannot wait to bake Raspberry Lemonade cupcakes and Lemon Blueberry cupcakes before the summer is gone. I think I'm most excited to bake the Raspberry Lemonade cupcakes because it's my favorite flavor of lemonade...now, why not try it in edible, decadent form? 

Is there anything you're craving to bake...or craving in general?

1 // 2 // 3

Superman cupcakes

I baked Superman cupcakes for another one of my friend's birthdays. I bought superman rings from Amazon {here} to decorate the top of the cupcakes. These cupcakes are pretty flexible: you can make it with vanilla or chocolate cupcakes and light blue or dark blue frosting. These are one of the most fun cupcake designs I've ever made. I again used the rosette design (like the Nutella frosting cupcakes) and sprinkled on some edible decor before inserting the Superman rings atop.

SUPERMAN CUPCAKES

the vanilla version, serves 12

Ingredients:

2/3 cup butter (softened)
3/4 cup superfine sugar
1 1/2 cups self-rising flour
3 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Frosting:

2 tablespoons butter

2 tablespoons milk

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

blue food coloring

or just buy blue vanilla frosting from your local grocery store.

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line muffin pan with baking cups.
2. In a large bowl, mix butter ans sugar until light and fluffy. Stir in eggs one at a time. Stir in vanilla and flour. 

3. Bake for 15 minutes. Frost when cool (mix all together until fluffy).

4. Add the superman rings on the top...and enjoy!

Nutella Frosting

So many of my friends have July birthdays, but I guess it's the perfect excuse for me to bake and try new recipes. I started out baking chocolate on chocolate, but what I didn't realize was this frosting design requires a lot more frosting than I had anticipated. Luckily my friend came to the rescue and made Nutella Buttercream Frosting on the spot. It's actually really quite easy. Though we eyeballed all the ingredients, this recipe {here} is more tangible. The bright side of eyeballing is making it more suitable for yourself. We added more water to make both the batter and the frosting more fluffy. I'm a little crazy about Nutella recipes, as you can see from my past blog post on Nutella Cookies.


Happy birthday, Rebecca Bosworth!

Nutella Cookies

I haven't baked cookies for awhile (think, couple of years). In fact, the last time I baked cookies, I used cookie dough and still managed to get unshapely results. So I wasn't too sure whether or not I wanted to try baking cookies from scratch, but I saw this recipe {here} and fell in love. Who doesn't love Nutella? It goes with everything. I can eat it with toast for breakfast or with strawberries for a snack. The best thing about this cookie recipe is that it doesn't require so many ingredients so it's very doable on a college student's budget. 


It bakes a lot faster than cupcakes and tastes just as good! I admit, I was a little skeptical of how it was going to turn out, taste-wise. I thought the Nutella might be overpowering, but these have to be the best homemade cookies. They came out of the oven perfectly shaped and tasted even better than they looked. It was crispy on the outside and soft and chewy on the inside. I couldn't have asked for a better re-experience for baking cookies!


In addition to the recipe, I added mini chocolate chips and raisins to the center of my cookies. They looked too plain without some sort of decor. If you prefer cookie balls, roll the cookie dough into 1 inch balls and stick them into the oven without pressing them flat. To press the dough into perfectly shaped cookies, I used the bottom of a half-pint mason jar, but you can also use the bottom of any glass.

Devil's food

For one of my good friend's birthday, I baked chocolate cupcakes with vanilla and chocolate swirl frosting. I finally decided to invest in frosting tips so cheers to my first try! I'm going to admit that I'm in love with those tips! I'm pretty pleased with my first experience, and it has definitely got me wondering why I hadn't bought them before.


After baking the cupcake batter, I let them cool for about 10 minutes before using a knife to cut out circles in the center of each cupcake. I filled the frosting bag with vanilla and chocolate frosting and pumped it into each hole. To prevent the frosting from melting, I stuck the cupcakes into the refrigerator to keep their shape before giving them to my friend.


To Andy, who has been there for me since the seventh grade, happy birthday!

Strawberry Meringue Cupcakes

I really enjoyed looking at MingMakesCupcakes, but I never had the time to try some of her recipes. I got the chance to bake with Joyce and we chose "cupcake 2." The cupcake itself was easy to make, but the topping was a little tricky...at least it was for us. Lesson learned: the order of the recipe steps are important. For the topping, we mixed the egg whites and sugar together, thus turning the topping mixture into a liquid mess. We attempted it again and gradually poured the sugar into the already beaten egg white mixture. The topping mixture came out thick and smooth, perfect for Joyce's lovely frosting peaks. I know I say this every time, but these cupcakes are delicious! The sweetness comes from the strawberries instead of the frosting. The cupcakes look a lot more complicated than they really are. I will definitely be trying more of the recipes from Ming Makes Cupcakes.

monkey cupcakes

When I first came across Martha Stewart's monkey cupcakes {here}, I deemed it a little hard for me. I danced around the idea for weeks until I randomly spotted this recipe {here}. It appeared extremely doable and though the monkey looks a bit different, I personally thought the latter was cuter. Because monkeys are D's favorite animals, I was determined to make them for our anniversary.

The funniest thing happened as I was making them. I locked myself and my roommate out while the cupcakes were baking. A lot of our friends came by our apartment to attempt to unlock the door, but after two hours, we had to call the locksmith...otherwise, our apartment would have probably burned down. The whole incident was hilarious, but at the same time, it seemed inappropriate to laugh. When we finally got the door unlocked, the apartment smelled of smoke and my cupcakes were completely black and burnt. So, take two...

MONKEY CUPCAKES

Ingredients:
1 box of yellow cake mix (if you want to skip the making of the mixture)
1 can of milk or dark chocolate frosting
1 box of Nilla Wafers
1 box of mini Nilla Wafers
red and black gel icing pens

Directions:
1. follow directions on the cake mix box (or make your own mixture!) and add slices of bananas into the cake mix
2. bake for 30 minutes at 350 degrees and let cupcakes cool for 5 minutes before adding chocolate frosting (make sure frosting is flat)
3. break mini wafers in half and use as ears and use 3/4 of the regular wafers as the mouth area
4. use the red gel icing as the smile and black gel icing as the eyes and nostrils (you'll notice in my pictures that I used oreos for the eyes because Safeway didn't sell black gel icing)

homemade funnel cake

I've always enjoyed eating funnel cakes at carnivals and fairs, but I've never dreamt that one day I would be making it myself! I do have to admit, it's a little repulsive to see all the oil I had to use to deep fry the mixture, but the taste of the funnel cake quickly helped me forget. I used this recipe {here} and added strawberries (next time, I want to try bananas). The funnel cake tasted ten times better just because it was homemade and shared with friends! It definitely brought me back to memories of my hometown's annual carnivals and reminded me of the annual OC Fair. 

cream puffs

I haven't been updating frequently because I haven't had Internet in my apartment. Anyway, I made cream puffs last night and for all the salty and sweet lovers out there, cream puffs are the perfect compromise. It was a great dessert to finish off the night, and it's incredibly easy to make. I found the recipe here. The cream is extremely light and with the shells, it's so perfect. It's the perfect warm/cold mixture for a breezy summer night with the warm shells and chilled cream inside. I'm so glad I was able to bake with one of my roommates and bake something other than cupcakes (though I love it, I'm not much of a sweet person, so I end up making it for people without taking more than two bites). 

Fruit cupcakes

On a perfect summer afternoon, I made cupcakes topped with strawberry frosting and fruits (strawberries and blueberries) with my friend Sharon. It was a good use of leftover baking supplies and a nice, sweet dessert in the middle of the afternoon. Sometimes cupcakes are a bit too decadent for me, but the fruits added the perfect "healthy" ingredient to it. For strawberry lovers, it's perfect: strawberry frosting and real strawberries on top! On another note, I really need to invest in a frosting tip {like the one here}...my frosting design definitely needs work.

Another thing I've realized is that I really love making things (including messes), but I'm not so keen on cleaning up. I'll probably resume more of the baking when I move into the apartment and I should probably learn to use the least amount of materials possible so it'll be easier to clean. It's all a learning process... :)

saturday morning

For the first time in a really long time, I just lied on the couch, watched the Food Network and the Clippers game, and read TIME. It's been a while since I've had a relaxing Saturday. I went to Wal-mart to grab a few baking supplies to try out more cupcake designs before I move back to Berkeley for the summer. It didn't turn out quite neatly as expected, but I learned that I'd rather spoon the frosting than squeeze it from a plastic bag. Making the frosting was also very messy when it came time to squashing all the Oreo cookies into tiny pieces to mix with the vanilla frosting. That was a total disaster, but sticking everything into the refrigerator helped a little bit. 

mama's day

Happy Mother's Day to the strongest and supportive mother. I love you! Thank you for being so supportive and self-sacrificing for all these years. You've always given me the best and saved the best for me. I thank you so much for being there and letting me do all the things I did in high school. You've been the soccer mom, our driver to all our activities, the one who seeks out opportunities for us, and the one who puts us before. Thank you for everything.

Thank you for letting me steal your clothes in high school....'cause now you steal mine! Thank you for letting me choose which car I wanted, supporting my high school class at every car wash, and surprising me at my races. Thank you for being there when I vent for two hours, giving me advice and taking my side. Your heart is so beautiful and I hope, in the future, I could be half the mom you are. You are truly the best!

I decided to try out a cupcake recipe and give them to my mother. Definitely found her sweet tooth:

And my brother bought her some comfy nike walking shoes. I think the cutest part is they match now!