Happy Memorial Day Weekend

So I sort of went on a cooking frenzy today... It was such a pain grocery shopping today being the holiday weekend and all.. but I was so glad when I was finally done... What can I say, I think I'm addicted to stress even on my days off... First I made orzo with parmesan cheese and basil with oven roasted carrots and grilled steak...

Yummy Orzo...

And of course who can forget dessert... I made carrot cake cupcakes with pecans and hazelnut with white chocolate cream cheese frosting...

Diet version... lol

With just the plain frosting

Recipe:

Ingredients

For the Frosting

• 2 ounces white chocolate
• 1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 teaspoon orange extract
• 4 cups confectioners' sugar
• 2 tablespoons heavy cream

For the cupcakes

• 2 eggs, lightly beaten
• 1 1/8 cups white sugar
• 1/3 cup brown sugar
  
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 cups shredded carrots
• 1/2 cup crushed pineapple
• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 1/4 teaspoons baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/2 cup chopped pecans 1/4 chopped hazelnuts
• 1/4 teaspoon hazelnut extract

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Lightly grease 12 muffin cups.
2. In small saucepan, melt white chocolate over low heat. Stir until smooth, and allow to cool to room temperature.
3. In a bowl, beat together the cream cheese and butter until smooth. Mix in white chocolate, 1 teaspoon vanilla, and orange extract. Gradually beat in the confectioners' sugar until the mixture is fluffy. Mix in heavy cream.
4. Beat together the eggs, white sugar, and brown sugar in a bowl, and mix in the oil and vanilla. Fold in carrots and pineapple. In a separate bowl, mix the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, and ginger. Mix flour mixture into the carrot mixture until evenly moist. Fold in nuts. Transfer to the prepared muffin cups.
5. Bake 25 minutes in the preheated oven, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of a muffin comes out clean. Cool completely on wire racks before topping with the icing and sprinkling with chopped pecans.

 

Until next time...

My New Red Velvet Cake...

So I decided to make a few changes to the red velvet cake I usually make since SOMEBODY thinks that the coffee adds a bitter after taste... Supposedly these seem a little better... I also made an orange scented cream cheese frosting...

 

My mini packaging.. Doesn't this look like I cater... NOT!!!! lol

I made cake with the remaining batter...

Yummy Cake...

For the Cake

Ingredients
    3 ⅓ cups cake flour (not self-rising)
    ¾ cup (1 ½ sticks) unsalted butter, softened
    2 ¼ cups sugar
    3 large eggs, at room temperature
    6 tablespoons red food coloring
    3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa
    1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract
    1 ½ teaspoons salt
    1 ½ cups buttermilk
    1 ½ teaspoons cider vinegar
    1 ½ teaspoons baking soda
 

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Grease and lightly flour three muffin tins. Place cupcake papers in the tins.
To make the cake: In a small bowl, sift the cake flour and set aside. In a large bowl, on the medium speed of an electric mixer, cream the butter and sugar until very light and fluffy, about 5 minutes. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.
In a small bowl, whisk together the red food coloring, cocoa, and vanilla. Add to the batter and beat well.
In a measuring cup, stir the salt into the buttermilk. Add to the batter in three parts, alternating with the flour. With each addition, beat until the ingredients are incorporated, but do not overheat.
In a small bowl, stir together the cider vinegar and baking soda. Add to the batter and mix well. Using a rubber spatula, scrape down the batter in the bowl, making sure the ingredients are well blended and the batter is smooth.
Divide the batter among the prepared pans. Bake each tray for 20 minutes, or until a cake tester inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean. Let the cupcakes cool in the pans for 1 hour. Remove from the pans and cool completely on a wire rack.

 

Orange scented Cream Cheese Icing:

1 stick of unsalted butter softened
4 oz of cream cheese softened
2 cups of confectioner's sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon of orange extract
 

Beat butter and cream cheese until combined. Then gradually add in powdered sugar and mix in vanilla and orange extract... Mix until smooth...

 

Until next time...

Saturday off...

Made two cupcake recipes over the weekend for my nephew's birthday party... Chocolate Nutella Cupcakes with Nutella Buttercream and Cream Cheese Marble Frosting and Banana Split Chocolate Chip Sundae Cupcakes...

First the Chocolate Nutella Cupcakes with Nutella Buttercream and Cream Cheese Marble Frosting (Try saying that 10x fast... lol)

Marble swirl with the Nutella Buttercream and Cream Cheese Frosting

This is them with just the Nutella Buttercream Icing

For the Cupcakes:
2/3 cup Nutella
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups cake flour
1 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp salt
3 large eggs
1 1/2 cups sugar
3/4 cup butter, softened
2 1/2 cups buttermilk
Line 3 dozen muffin cups with cupcake liners or grease using non-stick spray. Set aside. Preheat oven to 350F.
Sift together flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Set aside.
In a large bowl, beat the eggs and sugar for 5 minutes, until it is pale and thick. Add in the butter. Mix until combined. Add in the nutella. Now, add in the buttermilk. Beat until well incorporated.
Add the flour mixture in 3 increments and beat until smooth. Divide batter into the cupcake tins. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Do not over-bake. Remove from oven and let cool completely before frosting.

Vanilla Cream Cheese Frosting
8 ounces cream cheese, softened to room temperature
5 tablespoons butter, softened to room temperature
1 pound powdered sugar (about 3 3/4 cups), sifted
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
Cream the butter and cream cheese in the large mixing bowl of a stand mixture. Add the vanilla. Slowly incorporate the powdered sugar as you continue to cream. Scrape down the sides of the bowl. Beat on high speed until fluffy and smooth, adding milk or additional sugar (if needed) to reach desired consistency.

Nutella Buttercream
1/2 C butter, room temperature
1 C Nutella
1 C powdered sugar, sifted
1-2 T milk
Beat butter until smooth. Add Nutella and beat together until thoroughly combined. Slowly add powdered sugar, mixing until combined. Add 1 tablespoon of milk. Add additional milk or powdered sugar as needed to reach desired consistency.

Then next is the Banana Split Chocolate Chip Sundae Cupcakes...

 

For the cupcakes:

1     package (18-1/4 ounces) yellow cake mix, divided

1     cup water
1     cup mashed ripe bananas
3     eggs
1     cup chopped drained maraschino cherries
1‑1/2     cups miniature semisweet chocolate chips, divided

Preheat oven to 350°F. Line 30 standard (2-1/2-inch) muffin pan cups with paper baking cups.
Reserve 2 tablespoons cake mix. Combine remaining cake mix, water, bananas and eggs in large bowl. Beat with electric mixer at low speed about 30 seconds or until moistened. Beat at medium speed 2 minutes. Combine chopped cherries and reserved cake mix in small bowl. Stir chopped cherry mixture and 1 cup chocolate chips into batter.
Spoon batter into prepared muffin cups, filling 2/3 full. Bake 15 to 20 minutes or until toothpick inserted into centers comes out clean. Cool in pans on wire racks 10 minutes. Remove cupcakes to racks; cool completely.

Marshmallow Cream Frosting:

Ingredients

    7 ounces marshmallow cream
    1/2 cup butter softened
    1 teaspoon vanilla
    3 1/2 cups powdered sugar
    1-2 tablespoons milk

Mix all ingredients together until smooth. I beat this for several minutes.

For the hot fudge part I just put 1/2 cup of semisweet chocolate chips and a quarter cup of heavy whipping cream in a double broiler. Cook until completely melted.. Let cool until it's room temperatute and add about half a teaspoon of the mixture on top of the marshmallow icing... Then top with a candied cherry so it looks like an actual sundae...

The final product of the 2 cupcakes combined in the box.. People had a hard time believing that I cooked both of these with my two hands... Kind of feel like I outdid myself.. lol

 

Ok well until next time... Thinking I might make those car bomb cupcakes and banana pudding with nutella buttercream icing for that grill off in June... We will see...

Love Mondays off...

So today I made Blueberry Cupcakes with Blueberry Cream Cheese Icing... Sort of like an early Mothers Day celebration since we can't really celebrate the actual day... My boyfriend came up with the idea...

 

Recipe ---> http://weekofmenus.blogspot.com/2011/04/bluebery-cupcakes-with-blueberry-cream.html

Until next time...

Dinner and dessert... what else?!

So for dinner I made baked salmon with dill and other things I had in my spice cabinet with grilled asparagus and spaghetti with crab imperial sauce...

 

I got the crab imperial recipe from this book I bought Fix it and Enjoy it: 5 Ingredient Recipes 

http://www.amazon.com/Fix-It-Enjoy-It-5-Ingredient-Recipes-Easy--/dp/1561486272/ref=sr_1_4?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1336104609&sr=1-4

And for dessert I made Double Chocolate Almond Cookies courtesy of Ina Garten from Barefoot Contessa.. I have always been a fan of her cooking... Plus I thought I would try something different from cupcakes this time... 

 

Recipe --->  http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ina-garten/kathleen-kings-double-chocolate-almond-cookies-recipe/index.html

On for 3 days and then I am off on Monday and have a 4 hour class on Tuesday which I still count as a day off because I'm not actually working... Hope these 3 days go by quickly

Until next time...