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3/31/2012

BASIC : Vanilla Cupcakes

Hi, there! Like I said, I'm back in my baking shape, so as I've done vanilla cupcakes w/ chocolate frosting I thought I'd share this really basic recipe for pretty much "plain" cupcakes :) My favourite is from joyofbaking.com , ah thanks Stephanie Jaworski! You ALWAYS have those ingredients at home and whenever you feel like baking OR EATING cupcakes it's just great to have that tested recipe. Oh, there's an idea, I could do a series of just those super easy, BASIC, recipes, what you think about that?
Anyways, today vanilla cupcakes are on!  Soo there you go!




  VANILLA CUPCAKES  


Ingredients:


1/2 cup (113 grams) unsalted butter, room temperature
2/3 cup (130 grams) granulated white sugar
3 large eggs
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Zest of 1 large lemon (outer yellow skin)
1 1/2 cups (195 grams) all purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup (60 ml) milk
( of course, you CAN skip lemon zest, but well, it's better with it!)



What to do?


1) Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (177 degrees C) and line 12 muffin cups with paper liners.
2) In the bowl of your electric mixer, or with a hand mixer, beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy
3) Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in the vanilla extract!
4) In a separate bowl whisk together the lemon zest, flour, baking powder, and salt.
5) With the mixer on low speed, alternately add the flour mixture and milk, in three additions, beginning and ending with the flour. Scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed.
6) Evenly fill the muffin cups with the batter
7) Bake for 17-20 minutes, let it cool for a moment and ENJOY!





haha I've baked those a couple of times, and they are delicious every time, really! And here you've got the pictures from the last time :>
Soo now I see you running to your fridge and puttin everything out on the table. Soo good luck and see you next time! :)
xoxo
Annie

3/27/2012

Peanut butter & jelly cupcakes!

Ahh, do you know how amazing it is to bake twice a week again? Feels like I'm living again! So let me tell you about those cupcakes.
So friday - my classes were cut short and my and one of my best friends figured that we could bake something.  And we did, amazing peanut butter cupcakes with peanut butter and frosting and jelly haha loads of peanut butter, huh? I hadn't done them before, 'cause well.. I'm a huge peanut butter fan and I had been thinking about peanut butter cupcakes as a waste of such a goodie (you do put like a half of a jar!). But Maya talked me into trying it and I gotta tell you, it's amazing! It wasn't a waste after all :) Their fascinating salty-sweet taste is something you HAVE TO try! I mean it, if you were scared, just like me, to try them, DO IT!
We've used a really good recipe from foodmess.com :)It's in polish, so I believe I'll translate for y'all!



 PEANUT BUTTER & JELLY CUPCAKES 

Ingredients 

(makes about 18 bigger cupcakes):

cupcake dough:
1 3/4 cup of all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
170g unsalted butter at room temperature
1/2 cup granulated sugar
75g = 2/3 cup peanut butter
3 eggs
1/2 cup half and half cream (12-18%)
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

frosting:170g cream cheese (e.g. Philadelphia)
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup peanut butter
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

+ JELLY - we used my favourite - rasberry

What to do?

1) Preheat the oven to 180'C (355'F) and line cupcake pan with paper liners
2) In a smaller bowl sift together dry ingredients (flour, baking powder and salt).
3) In a bigger bowl combine butter and sugar until nice and fluffy, add peanut butter and mix thoroughly
4) Add eggs, one at a time and mix after each one
5) Add cream and vanilla extract and mix it all until just incorporated
6) Add dry ingerdients in three additions, stiring after each one
7) Fill the cupcake liners about two-thirds full
8) Bake for about 20 minutes or until they are gettin' a nice golden color
9) Leave it to cool and prepare the frosting!
1)Combine cream chees and sugar
2) Add peanut butter, salt, vanilla extract and mix it well (if it's too thick you can add a tiny bit of milk!) 

Put the frosting over cooled cupcakes and decorate it with jelly!
I actually before putting the frosting on, cut wholes in cupcakes and put a little bit of jelly inside of the cupcake, 'cause I liked the cupcakes with more distinct taste of jelly, but if you do not then it's alright to skip it and just enjoy it like it is! 






I think they look adorable and they taste even better! Mmmm amazing! Now you have to try it, no other option.
Guys, I'm loving all the feedback and when you tell me that you've baked "my" cinnamon rolls it just... it's just amazing, so thank youuu! And keep going, baking and getting pleasure from it just like I do :)
Waiting for your thoughts on this peanut butter subject, are you loving it as well? Would you "waste it" like that?
xoxo
Annie




3/22/2012

CINNAMON ROLLS

Hello, I know I was to do this post like 2 days ago, but I was soo tired and I tweeted that I'm really sorry, but school fagged me out. Ugh.. To the point! I baked the cinnamon rolls, though and I wanted to show you a few stages of baking them, share the recipe and a few tips of my own!
So as I said before, the recipe's by Laura Vitale and you can find on her site. There's also a VIDEO of her preparing this, which, I think, is really helpful ;)

here's the recipe



  CINNAMON ROLLS  


Makes 14 to 16 Rolls ( I actually did those 16 + baked the ends, that she simply cuts off! They were cute, like small versions of those "big" ones! )

Ingredients:

Rolls:
  • 1 Package of Dry Yeast
  • ¾ cup of Whole Milk (she emphasizes that it's this 3,2% milk and I did buy and bake with it, so I haven't tried to go around and use my normal skim milk)
  • ¼ cup of Granulated Sugar
  • ¼ cup of Water, warmed up to 115 degrees (it's simply warm water, don't worry about how warm you water actually is. That's what I did, at least)
  • ¼ tsp of Vanilla Extract
  • 1 Egg
  • 1 tsp of Salt
  • ¼ cup of Unsalted Butter, melted (1/4 cup is about 55g)
  • 4 cups of All Purpose Flour
  • ¼ cup of Melted Butter, to brush over the top before baking (don't melt 1/2 cup at once! Because you'll brush over the cinnamon rolls after something like 3h, so butter won't be melted anymore! Unfortunatelly, you have to melt it two times. And remember to leave the rest of butter outside the fridge . According to the recipe you'll need in total 5/6 cup of butter = about 188g, but I didn't need 1/4 cup = 55g to brush over the rolls, I just put a bit, maybe like 20g and it was just enough!)
Filling: 

  • 1/3 cup of Unsalted Butter, at room temperature (about 75g, but I used less)
  • ¼ cup of Granulated Sugar
  • 1 1/2 Tbsp of Ground Cinnamon (you can add of course a but more, if you love cinnamon just like me :) I think i added about 2 tbsp)

What to do?

1) In a small bowl, combine the warm water and 1 tsp of the granulated sugar, sprinkle the yeast over the top and let it sit for about 5 minutes (until it starts to foam up!)

2) In the bowl of a standing mixer fitted with a dough hook (it's great if you have a GOOD mixer with the dough hook - like KitchenAid aaaaah I want it! :< - but the weaker mixers are not doing well with the yeast dough... So what I did is mix it together just a little - because then it just starts to get into my mixer... don't ask - and threw the dough and not incorporated flour out on the table and just pinched the dough with my hands. It wasn't hard to do it, maybe it wasn't as smooth as "a baby's bum" as Laura calls it, but it wasn't a problem), mix the egg, milk, salt, sugar and melted butter. Add 2 cups of the flour and the water, vanilla and yeast mixture, mix until its all incorporated and slowly add about 2 more cups of flour. Turn the speed up to medium and let it mix for about 5 to 7 minutes or until you have a smooth dough.

3) Oil a large bowl with some vegetable oil and set aside. Take the dough out of the mixer and pull it together with your hands to form a ball. Place it in the oiled bowl and oil the top of the dough with a little vegetable oil. Cover with plastic wrap and place it in a warm spot to rise for about 2 hours.

4) In a small bow, mix together the brown sugar, granulated sugar and cinnamon for the filling, set aside.

5) When doubled in size, punch the dough down and roll it out onto a floured surface into a 15x9” rectangle. (take out your baking pan and roll out the dough to be as big as it is) Spread the soft butter over the top and sprinkle evenly over the sugar and cinnamon mixture. Cut into 14 to 16 slices (make sure they are even) and place them cut side down in a well buttered 9x13 baking pan . Cover with plastic wrap and let put them back into a warm spot to rise for another 1 ½ hours.(I put the cut rolls in two baking pans and they were much prettier more ROUND, because they had more space. Actually what I did is I put one baking pan with 8 rolls in a warm place for 2h and second in a frigde to rise during the night. What I found out the next morning when I baked the rolls is that those from the fridge where better than the ones I ate in the evening, more fluffy :) So if you want to have fresh rolls in the morning- because they are the best just after taking out from the oven - put covered in plastic wrap baking pan with unbaked rolls to the fridge for the night - they will rise slowlier there but they will rise :))

it doesn't have to be pretty and perfect!


that's how they rose


6) Meanwhile preheat your oven to 350 degrees. (about 175 degrees of celsius)

7) Once risen, brush them with some melted butter and bake them for about 30 or until golden brown. (Mine were in the oven for about 20 and were just perfect! So be careful, 30 in my oven would burn my beauties!)
8) While the cinnamon rolls cool for a few minutes make the glaze. Mix all the ingredients of the glaze in a bowl except for the milk, once the cream cheese is all mixed, slowly add the milk until you get a runny glaze consistency. Immediately pour the glaze over the cinnamon rolls and enjoy!


straight from the oven!



Obviously, the black brackets are my tips and comments to the steps and the grey text is simlpy Laura Vitale's recipe.

Hope you enjoyed this post and you'll bake them soon! If you do please show me your pictures! Thanks :)
Any sweets you want me to do a review on? Please leave the comments with your ideas!
xoxo
Annie
P.S. yes, i know something's wrong with the font but I can't change it! aaagrrr....

3/18/2012

Dreaming of macaroons

Hi! Really quick today!
I'm soo happy to see all those views of my page. It really does bring a huge smile to my face, so thank you!
My room's looking soo good, so I' ve decided I finally have to bake something and celebrate :) Unfortunately today AGAIN it didn't work out. You may wonder, why the hell am I writing a post when I didn't bake anything.Well, I just wanted to let you know, I am going to bake cinnamon rolls again tomorrow, 'cause my younger brother's been begging me for them, so how can I resist? Really these rolls are amazing and everybody loves them, so be careful, 'cause they won't let you not bake them!
Anyways, mamma mia, I've found a thing that will take my baking to the whole new level (I hope). It's...

MACAROONS!
AAAA I have no idea why I didn't think of them before, but there it is. I SWEAR I'll bake them. Maybe this weekend if I'll finally find some time. God, it's so crazy with all the tests. School is actually really demanding and I have million gazilion tests and quizes in a week... gaah.
 Anyway, have a good night, dream of perfect world of macaroons, cupcakes and pies and b'bye!
xoxo
Anns
P.S. Yes, the cupcakes in the background were made by me! 



3/17/2012

Going green!

Hi! It's St. Patrick's Day, so of course I wanna wish you all everything green! I saw so many beautiful cupcakes and cakes and pies and cookies with green frostings, for example, and I really wanted to bake something like that to celebrate this day properly! Unfortunately, rearranging my room absorbed me deeply and I didn't find time to do this. But look how cute they are!



Aaaah, these are amazing, I should have done something!

You can also find ideas for great toppings in here!

I guess the only thing green I've been eating today like crazy are pears! God, I love those. Anyway, I think a great idea for this green day is also to simply get a box of mint (or pistachio) ice cream OR, if you have more time, put those ice cream ON your e.x. chocolate cupcake! Especially when they're warm aaaaah I so wish I had done that. Yumm!
I gotta go, guys, but I hope you baked something green! Send me your baked green goods, I'd love to see that! Let's end it with green as well... Ce Lo Green :)
I LOVE THIS SONG, gives me such positive energy! That's why I had to add my personal fav!
I hope you liked this post! Comment and let me know wheather these ideas were good and how was your St. Patrick's Day.

xoxo
Annie

3/16/2012

I've become a cinnamon rolls lover!

Hello, sailors!
I'm sorry even to say this again, but yes, I haven't been posting for quite sometime. Forgive me! I'm not saying it's not going to happen again, 'cause well.. it always somehow does. I was really into this blog, but then I got kind of scared that no one is going to read this anyway and what's the point in doing so much when no one is there to support you. But I figured you have to go on with this to gain followers and that's what I've planned to  do. So I'm not going to say anything more about this matter.
Well, guys, my baking's unstoppable! It's just so amazing, there's always so many more types of cupcakes, muffins, cookies and other sweet things to bake that you can never get bored. That's what I love. That's what I need!
About that, I baked cinnamon rolls recently! They were soooo delicious, I hope you can imagine just how great they were! I'm definitely going to bake them again and really I can't wait to do this!
 The recipe was by Laura Vitale, which I find such an amazing person! She's so fun to watch and the recipe mmmm... yum! You'll find her video in HERE
The picture's are kind of blurry, I'm terribly sorry about that... :(




Anyways, I think the recipe was simple enough for such a delicious thing! Of course the shape isn't perfect but it just makes them more lovely and adorable!
I think that's it for today, but tomorrow I'm going to find time to show you some more things that I've made, although I'm redecorating my room! So keep checking in for new posts!
xoxo
Annie