Double Chocolate Chip Cookies

With DOTC finally coming soon, I planned on making the last of the cookies that I plan on bringing - the Chocolate Chocolate Chip cookies. NOM NOM NOM! So yummy!
Both the dough and the cookies were perfect!

Ingredients
2 cups of all-purpose flour
3/4 cup of white sugar
3/4 cup of packed brown sugar
1/2 cup of cocoa powder
2 teaspoon of vanilla extract
1 teaspoon of baking soda
1/4 teaspoon of salt
2 cups of semisweet chocolate chips
2 eggs
1 cup of butter, softened

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
Cream sugar and butter together.
Mix in eggs and the vanilla extract.
In a separate bowl, mix together flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt.
Sift the dry ingredients in.
Mix well.
Fold in the chocolate chips, half a cup at a time.
Refrigerate the dough for 1/2 hour at least.
Roll into balls containing approx 1 tablespoon and place onto ungreased cookies sheet.
Bake for ~10 minutes.
Let cool on pan for 5 minutes, and remove to cool on wire racks.

THE DOUGH! SO YUMMY!
THE COOKIES!

THE COOKIES that were cooling!
Stackable and yummy!

Recipe from here! (with a few adjustments)

<3 Nina

Green Tea Cookies

Last of the Green Tea stuff...UNTIL I GET MORE MATCHA POWDER!

anyways, back to this. cookies! I'm bringing them down to socal for this district officer training conference (DOTC) for Circle K. These green tea cookies, and the chocolate chocolate chip cookies that I plan on baking tomorrow.

I found this recipe, but I had adjust the baking temperature and some the amount of some ingredients because it was burning my cookies =( and I wanted more of a green tea and vanilla taste. Also, I ran out of butter, so I subbed 1/4 cup of the butter with veg oil.

Ingredients:

1/2 cup of butter
1/4 cup of vegetable oil
1 cup sugar
2 large eggs
2 teaspoon of vanilla extract
2 3/4 cups of all purpose flour
7 teaspoons of green tea powder (matcha)
1 teaspoon of baking powder
1 teaspoon of baking soda
1/8 teaspoon of salt

Directions:
Beat butter and sugar until creamy.
Beat in eggs and vanilla.
Slowly add in blended dry ingredients.
Mix well to form a soft dough.
Refrigerate for half an hour or longer.
Roll into ball approx containing 1 tablespoons of the dough.
Place onto the cookie sheet and use a fork to make impressions.
Bake at 350 for about 10 minutes.

SO I had followed the recipe and it called for 400 for 10 minutes. and they turned out kinda burnt
then I had put it at 400 for 8 minutes, better, but still a little burnt.
THEN I had an idea, 350! So it was at 350 for a 10 minutes, and they came out perfect!

Recipe from here!
<3 Nina

Kiwanis Cookoff: Strawberry Lemonade Cupcakes

Kiwanis Lemon Cookoff day. More like judging day.
I was going to bake lemon bars. First thought, but I decided to go with something that I know that might appeal to the senses. Strawberry Lemonade. of course, knowing me, in cupcake form. Found them online here, at Annie's Eats, so I claim no ownership to it. =)

For the cake:
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
3/4 tsp. salt
2 tsp. lemon zest (I just zested two lemons, I was too lazy to measure)
12 tbsp. unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 eggs
3/4 cup milk (I used soy milk)
2 cups fresh strawberries, chopped ( I probably chopped up a little more than 2 cups)

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F.
Line muffin pans with paper liners.
In a bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, salt and lemon zest. Stir together with a fork and set aside.
In the bowl of a stand mixer (or with a hand mixer), beat the butter on medium speed until it is light and fluffy.
Add the sugar and beat until well combined.
Beat in the eggs one at a time, scraping down the bowl after each addition.
Add half of the flour mixture to the bowl and beat on low speed until just incorporated.
Add in the milk and mix until smooth.
Add in the remaining flour mixture and mix on low speed until just blended.
Fold in the fresh strawberries with a spatula.
Divide the batter evenly between the paper liners, filling them about 3/4 full. (I just put in about 2 tablespoons full)
Bake about 20 to 25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. (Mine took 23 minutes, but read note below!)
Allow to cool in the pan 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

For the lemonade syrup:
1 cup lemonade concentrate, thawed
3/4 cup confectioners’ sugar

I made my own lemonade concentrate from this recipe but I cut it in half.
Directions:
Whisk together the lemonade concentrate and confectioners’ sugar in a small bowl to make the lemonade syrup.
Poke several holes in the top of each cupcake with a skewer (or I used a toothpick) and pour the syrup over the cupcakes, allowing it to soak in. (I put like 1 teaspoon in, they just wouldnt seep in =( )

Last but not least, the FROSTING!
1 cup fresh strawberries, roughly chopped
12 oz. cream cheese, at room temperature (I used 16)
18 tbsp. unsalted butter, at room temperature (I used 24)
2 2/3 cups confectioners’ sugar, sifted (I just kind of poured it until it looked about right)
3 tsp. lemon juice (I used about 5 tsp of my lemonade concentrate for this part)
1 tsp. vanilla extract (I used a little more than 1 tsp)
Directions:
To make the frosting, puree the strawberries in a food processor or blender.
Strain the puree through a mesh sieve to remove the seeds, and set aside.
Beat the cream cheese and butter in the bowl of an electric mixer on medium speed until smooth and very fluffy, about 5 minutes.
Add the powdered sugar and mix until smooth.
Add the lemon juice and vanilla extract and mix until incorporated.
Mix in strawberry puree, a tablespoon at a time, until you achieve your desired texture and flavor of frosting (I added all of my puree, about 9-10 tablespoons).
Frost cupcakes as desired and garnish with fresh strawberries and lemon slices. (I only had strawberries, I just used those)

But they are really good. I think I liked the cupcake part the best, the frosting was a little to frustrating to me because I didn't feel like cutting my butter and cream cheese, so I kinda over estimated, and I'm never good with powdered sugar, so yes. That's what happened to that. The cupcake part, probably needed a little more time in the oven too. That's about it. Oh, the lemonade syrup thing. Good idea, but I think I either needed more lemon, or something. The cupcake itself was just not LEMONY enough. It was sure strawberryish though.

Using the extra lemons and strawberries, I had made strawberry lemonade to go with it. YUM!
PICTURES! they are my pictures so they arent as good and I forgot to take pictures of the cupcakes that actually WENT to the cookoff. OOPS! oh well, it's okay. You get the idea!


The strawberry lemonade was really heavenly today since it was super hot here in Berkeley. SINCE WHEN IS IT HOT IN NORCAL? I miss my socal weather, but I was not ready for it to be this hot today. I have none of my summer clothes, only all my sweaters. I guess that means shopping!

<3 Nina

Green Tea Cupcakes

YUM!
Green Tea Cupcakes for my friend Brandon and Monica's Birthday!
It was Brandon's Taiko concert. I also owed him a birthday thing. I had a couple extras, and I knew how much Monica loves green tea so I brought to her birthday thing.
So I baked these cupcakes for him. It was really fun to make, not good for my wallet though. Matcha powder, at Berkeley Bowl. For 1.4 oz. Guess how much. 7 something. FML!

Recipe was basically the recipe this blogger followed, but I did not halved the recipes.
They were yummy!

Cupcake (from here with some changes)
Ingredients:
1 1/4 cups self rising flour
1 1/2 cups AP flour
1 cup unsalted butter, softened
2 cups granulated sugar
4 large eggs, at room temperature
1 cup soy milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 tablespoons of matcha powder
Directions:
In a small bowl, add the flours; stir to combine; set aside.
In a large mixing bowl, cream the butter using an electric mixer on medium speed until smooth.
Add the sugar gradually and beat until fluffy.
Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.
Add the dry ingredients in three parts, alternating with the milk and vanilla.
With each addition, beat until the ingredients are incorporated but do not overmix.
Mix in the matcha powder last
Spoon the batter into the cupcake liners, about two tablespoons full.
Bake in a 350° oven for 20-25 minutes.
Cool the cupcakes in the tin for 15 minutes.
Remove cakes from the tins and cool on a wire rack before icing.

Frosting (from here, with little changes as well)
Ingredients:
2 sticks butter
8 ounces or 1 package of Philly cream cheese
2 cups powdered sugar
1 tablespoon of Matcha powder
Directions:
Bring butter to room temperature by letting it sit out for 1 or 2 hours.
Beat butter and cream cheese at medium speed until creamy.
Sift 2 cups of powdered sugar and 1 tablespoon of matcha powder into the butter/cream cheese mixture and beat to combine.
Taste! Add more matcha powdered if needed.
Refridgerate to let it set.

DECORATE!

Pictures!
(by Dmitriy again!)
<3 Nina

Twix Brownies

Normally I'm pretty good about predicting my time needed to bake and make the stuff I need to do.
This time, I was a little off. Actually, a lot off. If I had like half an hour more, it would have been okay. I feel like because I had to do my essay, I started later. Starting later = melting frosting and no time for Dmitriy to take pictures. =(

So these brownies my friend Matt was asking for - since like ages ago. They were basically made the same way as these, but decorated differently.

Basically, brownie mix. and twix. Thats about it.
Well the frosting was this recipe!
Ingredients:
1 C heavy whipping cream
3 tbsp granulated sugar
2 tbsp unsweetened cocoa
1 tsp of vanilla extract
Directions:
Mix together.
Chill for at least 10 mins in the freezer, or 30 mins in the fridge.
Beat mixture until stiff peaks form.
Pictures taken by Dmitriy!

cupcakes.
cake.

NEED I SAY MORE?

Recipe for the frosting here.
<3 Nina

Oreo Cupcakes

So my friend Alex couldn't eat real food, well because he was vegan for Lent. So he hasn't had my baking stuff for the past 40 days. It was really tempting for him, I'm sure. All the different things that I've made, but now since it's past Easter, he can finally eat things with eggs and meat in it. Eggs and butter mostly.
I decided to celebrate him finally eating food by baking him these Oreo Cupcakes. So the in the cupcake, it was a really dense chocolate thing, but I wanted something more light, I chose these chocolate sour cream cupcakes. I actually dont know how they'll taste together. They may not taste good together at all, but I guess we'll see.

The cupcake is from here. I've made these fluffy things before and they were pretty good.

The frosting, though, was something that I found online here with a couple of changes of my own.
Ingredients:
1 3/4 cups heavy whipping cream
3 tablespoons powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 C of Oreo cookie crumbs

Directions:
Combine the whipping cream, powdered sugar, and vanilla extract.
Beat on medium-high speed until the whipped cream holds stiff peaks.
Gently fold in the cookie crumbs with a rubber spatula.
Pipe onto the cupcakes and garnish with Oreo halves.

Enjoy!

<3 Nina
PS pictures by dmitiry again. and that's me in the background in the first picture =)

S'mores Cupcake

So many things to bake, and so little time.
To be time efficient, I decided to bake these cupcakes a day before the baby shower, but then the baby was born today, and the baby shower tomorrow? So no baby shower, but now I'm left with cupcakes.
Oh well, these cupcakes came out amazing though. <3>
I, obviously, was inspired by this.


Cupcake portion:
Ingredients:
1 ½ cups of graham cracker crumbs
½ cup of flour
2 ½ teaspoons of baking powder
½ cup of butter, softened
¾ cup of sugar
2 eggs
2 teaspoon of vanilla
¾ cup of soy milk
12 oz bag of chocolate chips

Directions:
In a small bowl combine the crumbs, flour and baking powder; set aside.
Beat the butter and the sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer until light and fluffy.
Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.
Add the vanilla.
Alternately add flour mixture with milk, beating well after each addition.
Add in chocolate chips and mix well.
Divide the batter into two muffin tins lined with 22 cupcake liners total.
Bake at 350F degrees for 22-25 minutes or until done.
Cool in pans for 5 minutes.
Remove from pans and cool completely on a wire rack.

Frosting:
Ingredients:
1/2 lb. (2 sticks) butter, room temperature
1 cup confectioner's sugar
2 tsp. vanilla
7 oz. tub of marshmallow cream, 2 of them
Directions:
Cream the butter on high until it's light and fluffy.
Add the confectioner's sugar, 1/4 cup at a time, and beat until fluffy each time.
Beat in the vanilla until incorporated.
Then dump in the Fluff and mix it up 'til it's all creamy.
Transfer to pastry bag and pipe onto cupcakes!
Garnish with graham crackers and Hershey's chocolate.
Here are some different ways to do so.
Put them all together!

Recipes from here and here.
<3 Nina

Mini Coffee Cakes

Happy Coffee Cake Day!
So for Coffee Cake Day, guess what? I made Coffee Cake!
Cake Ingredients:
2 C flour
1 C Sugar
3 1/2 tsp (1 tbsp + 1/2 tsp) baking powder
1 1/2 sticks (3/4 C) unsalted butter, melted
1/2 tsp of salt
1 C Milk
2 large eggs, room temperature

Crumb Topping Ingredients:
1 1/2 sticks (3/4 C) salted butter, melted
1/4 C packed dark brown sugar
3/4 C granulated sugar
2 tsp cinnamon
2 C flour

Cinnamon Sugar Ingredients:
1/4 C granulated sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon

Directions:
Preheat oven to 390.
Whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt.
Whisk together butter, milk, and egg in a large bowl.
When combined, whisk in flour mixture until just combined - batter will be lumpy.
Pour batter into the liners of a cupcake pan until ~ 2/3 - 1/2 full. (I put about 2 tblsp in each)
Then for the crumble topping:
Whisk together butter, sugars, cinnamon, and salt until smooth.
Stir in flour with whisk, then stir through with a butter knife to create crumbies.
Add more flour as needed to get a crumby texture.
The crumbs will crisp up and dry out in the oven.
Sprinkle crumbs over top of mini cakes, and LOAD 'EM UP - the crumbs are the best part!
Sprinkle cinnamon sugar (mix together the sugar and cinnamon) over the top of the crumbs and the top of the muffins/cakes.

Bake cake until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean, ~ 20 minutes.
Cool in pan on a wire rack 5 minutes, then remove the cupcakes from the pan and let cool completely on the wire rack.

Glaze:
1 1/2 C powdered sugar
3 tbsp butter, melted
2 tbsp milk

Melt the butter in a saucepan.
When completely melted, add 1 C of powdered sugar. Mix on very low heat.
Add milk and mix.
Add the rest of the powdered sugar and mix until all incorporated.
Spoon on top of the cupcakes and enjoy!

Finished product - pictures taken by my friend Dmitriy!

Recipe from here, here, and here.
<3 Nina