Friday, April 30, 2010

Double Vanilla Cupcakes With Lavender Buttercream Frosting















Cupcakes:
3 cups of flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp salt
12 tbs (3/4) cup of unsalted butter
1 1/2 cup sugar
4 lg eggs
1 1/4 cups milk
2 tsp vanilla ( I didn't measure)

Preheat oven to 350.   In a medium bowl mix dry ingredients throughly.  In a mixing bowl beat sugar and butter until fluffy. Then add eggs 1 at a time.  Then beat in vanilla.  (I did about 1/4 cup of double strength vanilla , you'd do better eye balling it) .  after you've done that beat in dry ingredients slowly.  (a little at a time).  Until thoroughly mixed.  Make sure to scrape the sides in between mixing.  Fill cups half full (batter will be somewhat thick). & Bake for 12 minutes.



Frosting:
I started out making a regular buttercream frosting

you need 1 cup of butter, softened
1 cup of granulated sugar
4 tbs of all purpose flour
1 cup of milk
1 tsp vanilla extract (once again , I used more)
1 tbs crushed lavender
red food coloring
blue food coloring
purple sugar crystals


The first thing I did was, with a mortar and pestle crush the lavender, to be sure all the flavor is released when you put it in the milk.  I poured the milk and then the crushed lavender in a sauce pan and cooked on low for about 15 minutes. until the lavender scent became somewhat strong. (do not overdo the lavender, it will overpower the frosting & the oils will effect how the frosting comes out)  When it is done strain out the lavender, put milk back in the pan and add the flour. keep it on LOW.  It takes a while to thicken, but make sure to keep stiring.While you are waiting on that, in a mixing bowl mix together the sugar and butter until fluffy , then add vanilla mix well , then add the lavender flour mixture.  blend well. (it should be sort of thick & creamy)  I added 3 drops of blue food coloring and 2 red.  I wanted it to be a real faint purple .  Then I sprinkled the top with sugar crystals



DO NOT REFRIGERATE FROSTING! 
I refrigerated the frosting to use the next morning and in the pictures you can see , it made my frosting all discombobulated.   When I first made the frosting it was perfect.  so I dont suggest refrigerating the frosting for more than 5 minutes, depending on how cold the fridge is.  I think once the cupcakes are frosted , n put in the fridge itll be okay but dont refrigerate the frosting by itself, The oils from the butter & lavenders changed the consistency

Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Vacation In The Valley


I've been keeping my Nana company in Pomona since sunday. My Aunt Liz & Aunt Barbara are helping me :).  We've been having a great time! anywho I didnt get to do any actual cooking until today.  I made a White Chocolate Cake with lemon cream filling.  Using my new baking utensils!!  It tasted great but I did have a little trouble.  The cake release that I've heard so much about didn't work as good as I thought it would (I used too little) . the sides of my cake stuck to the pan.  I covered up the mess with Mascarpone frosting.  It was all yummy. The cake came out like a poundcake and the frosting with the fresh lemon & everything was just "mmm".   I would definitely make this cake again.

Saturday, April 24, 2010

Saturday Mornings are the best!

When I used to live with my dad I would wake up early and cook the whole family breakfast EVERY Saturday.  But I don't really do that anymore. Mainly because I'm not hungry in the morning and because I'm the only one who's up around that time but this morning I'm babysitting my nephew so I decided to make us hash browns and strawberry shortcakes!!!    I sliced up strawberries and put them in this sour cream, sugar and cream cheese mixture then spooned it in the biscuit. yum.

One Day = Sooo much!


I have decided to give up on the fondant until.. A) I buy the store bought one or B) I have been properly trained.
I had some cake drama yesterday with laying the fondant over the cake. First it was too little of an amount, then it was too dry (kept cracking).  It was just a big mess & I couldn't even bare to look at it . .so now it is sitting in my sisters fridge til' further notice!! :). I did however, take a trip to Michaels and see a bunch of  cake decorating things,  fondant included so I might give that a shot some time in the future.  Later that day I made monkey bread, which is just like a sticky bun?  but a bunch of balls covered in sugary yummy goodness and you pull it apart.My nephew Kaleb's taste testing for me   & after that I covered some cake balls my sister had made, in white chocolate.   Those came out good and helped me get my mind of the fondant :)  .

Friday, April 23, 2010

:)

I'm sitting here at my sisters house waiting for the cakes to come out the oven and I'm thinking about how supportive my family is.  I am such an indecisive person, I'm constantly changing my mind on what I want to do , who I want to be and when I made the decision to go to culinary school and to plan for a career in baking my family was behind me 100%  My oldest sister is always helping me , giving me new ideas , giving me different blogs to look at and picks up a few supplies here and there when I need them.  , my mom helps me network ,advertises me to her friends and she buys whatever I need so that I never have an issue with being able to make something. My other sister Alyssa, my Aunt and nana . . . theyre all so helpful .  I always get positive and constructive criticism from everyones and I appreciate them soooo much!


Thanks a lot guysss!

Thursday, April 22, 2010

Spring CUPCAKESS!


Today I thought I'd use the leftover cupcakes from yesterday.  Originally I was going to make a Daisy and just a yellow & white striped cake but in the middle of striping the cupcake I thought It would be a good idea to make it a basket.  I went on youtube and looked up fondant flowers and found a video on rosebuds.  to go in the basket... I crumbled up some of the leftover chocolate cake and made it the "soil"
yummmm   , I rushed it a little and didnt do the best  I could.  but I was happy to try something new :)

Wednesday, April 21, 2010

Burgerrrrs :)

I saw this done and I thought I'd give it a shot.  for the hamburger "meat" I used chocolate cake mix (bad idea).  It didnt come out horrible ,but if I would've used a brownie mix like shown on http://www.bakerella.com/ it would have been less curmbs and mess.  For the buns , I just used a simple yellow cake mix and for the (mustard,lettuce,and ketchup)  I used vanilla frosting and added food coloring.  The ketchup took ALL of my red food coloring so maybe gel would be better than liquid?  I'm not sure.  But yea , I'm overall proud of it. !  got to try something newww. :)

Monday, April 19, 2010

Fondant Horror

Okay so today I decided to try and use the Marshmallow Fondant (MMF) that I had made a couple of days prior on a cake. At first everything started out great with help from my little cousin (both first timers),The cakes were cooling and I'm thinking okay so the most time consuming part is over. (naive me) . We let the cakes cool then put the crumb coat on (first layer) sit in the fridge to harden. We figure out that we're running low on frosting and instead of taking things slow as beginners should we decided to do a 2 tier cake! So the frosting barely made it. I was all excited that we had enough to cover the cake. So we get the fondant its a little dry we kneed it and try to get the cracks sort of out the way everything was working out smooth UNTIL we used tooo much powdered sugar as a non-stick. The dough became harder to deal with and it kept crumbling. WHAT A NIGHTMARE!!. Well after all that, its 2:55 am, my cousin is sleep and I'm still up. We had been working on this cake since 4 pm. I finally finished the cake!! & I guess you're wondering how it turned out? It turned out like my first fondant cake that I did exhauted , at 3am. But this will not make me quit! I am determined to get it right. I will post pictures tomorrow ,(or later today) but right now im an inch away from passing out lol . . GOODNIGHT!

Thursday, April 15, 2010













Okay , So I was up until around 2:30 last night making 50 of my SPECIAL Red Velvet Cupcakes. I was constantly adding different ingredients and trying different techniques to make them come out jusssst right. I finally found a couple of ingredients that made the cake more rich and moist and the taste just POP!












I passed them out to several students and teachers and I was completely suprised with the feedback I got. EVERYONE LOVED THEM! I also made my Smothered Apple Pie and two miniature ones. Those were a hit as well.












Now that Ive gotten the R.V recipe down I am thinking about branching off into a German Chocolate cupcake or cake.







I have a great idea for the frosting ;)










Here is my Smothered Apple Pie. :) mm yyummy.
Here are some more of my Special Red Velvets, that is lemon peel you see scattered on the tray. The ones with the orange cream frosting has a light citrus taste. not enough to overpower the small dessert, just enough to add some "oomph!"

Wednesday, April 14, 2010

A housewifes job is NEVER done!



During the last week I have been working on starting my own catering business :).



Bettye's Oven is a spin off, of the term given to women around the 1950s (Bettys) and Bettye is also my Nana's name. It is themed after a 1950s housewife. I chose this because I love how the women were during that era. Cooking ,cleaning, they all had a sense of regal elegance that I admire. My specialty is, what I call, "SPECIAL Red Velvet cupcakes". Everyone has had red velvet with the typical cream cheese frosting, with a lot of trials and experimenting I have come up with a few extra ingredients that gives my cupcake a little more"OOMPH" :).





Task #1 Bake 50 of my "SPECIAL Red Velvet Cupcakes"