Blackberry Champagne Cupcakes

This is the first post in the series of posts that make GREAT Valentine's Day or romantic desserts. I know my boyfriend just revealed that he doesn't love cupcakes (WHAT HORROR), but I still decided to make these anyways.

Instead of making these for a romantic reason, I made them for a friend's party. I asked her what she wanted and she had mentioned raspberries and champagne. Although it's not the best thing to bake with, I thought I would give it a try. I didn't have fresh raspberries, but I did have fresh blackberries. It's not the same, but it's still amazing! HAPPY BIRTHDAY GAIL!!!

The cupcakes turned out surprisingly very well. Everyone really enjoyed them. I ran into some difficulties with the frosting, but since everyone was drinking, no one noticed! The cupcake was moist, even though I thought it would be quite dense and dry. Delicious new addition to my arsenal. Alcoholic cupcakes are great for birthdays!

Recipe (adapted from Love Cupcake):
Makes about 24 cupcakes
Soaked Blackberries:
1 1/2 cup champagne
2 containers of blackberries (about 70 of them)


1. Place the blackberries in the champagne in a container overnight, or at least 4 hours.


Cupcakes: 
2 3/4 cups flour
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
pinch of salt
1 cup butter, room temperature
2 cups sugar
3 eggs, at room temperature
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup champagne (from soaking the blackberries)


1. Preheat oven to 350F and line muffin tin with cupcake liners.
2. In a small bowl, sift together flour, baking soda and salt. Set aside. In a mixer cream butter and sugar until well mixed and airy. Add eggs one at a time making sure each one is fully incorporated before adding the next. Slowly add in flour mixture. Stir in vanilla and champagne.
3. Fill cupcake liners 1/2 full. Insert one blackberry into each cupcake. Cover with enough batter to cover the berry. Bake for 25 minutes. Allow the cupcakes to cool completely.


Champagne Frosting:
1 cups unsalted butter, at room temperature
2 cups powdered sugar, sifted
1/8 cup champagne


Cream butter until smooth. Slowly add sifted powdered sugar. Mixture will bery thick, keep adding champagne to get the consistency you want. Frost cupcakes and top with a blackberry (soaked ones).

Mint Filled Brownies [MSCC]

A very quick post. I just make these yesterday - 1/3 of the recipe, had to do some math, but it turned out pretty simple. I actually ended up with 5 cupcakes and they made great brownies to eat with ice cream!

Delicious choice! It was simple to get those mini peppermint patties, now I just need to find more uses for them! Boyfriend loved them as a nice addition to our dinner together. Very minty, but the brownie was still soft and fudgy.

PS. Great choice by MSCC and Rebecca!

Mississippi Mud Pie [Club Baked]

Yes, I was going to start baking again, and I have! One of my many New Years Resolutions is to bake (and cook) - at least once a week. This way I'll be improving my skills and providing wonderful treats to my friends in the Bay Area. I'll probably send a couple of cookies on the way to my friends in different countries and states which means I need your addresses and requests!

Anyways, back to this recipe. In the book it describes the Mississippi Mud Pie as a controversy so I decided to wiki it. Apparently on wikipedia, they only have the second version of the pie, with the dense cake and not this version.

This version has a nice cookie base, chocolate in the middle, ice cream, and some fudge on top! It's a nice delicious (and fattening) treat after a great dinner with my boyfriend. I used some Bailey's instead of whiskey, oreos instead of wafers for the base, and well, karamel sutra ice cream instead of coffee. I know it's not the same, but it was delicious regardless. I really enjoyed making this. I used about 1/6 of the recipe and ended up with three little pies in cupcake liners. I made these before I left for a business trip. I was gone for a week to Sacramento so it was great to eat dinner, drink wine, and talk to him. It's those little things in a relationship that really count.

PS. Thanks to Club Baked and Jess for this awesome pick!

Snickerdoodles

Snickerdoodles. It's a fun word to say out loud. After baking a whole bunch for my friends for their holiday parties, I was baked out. But Scott asked me to bake one last thing for his dad. His parents have different ideas of the perfect cookie. His mom loves crunchy cookies - almost burnt; his dad loves the soft chewy type. Scott has the crunchy cookie down. Just bake them for a long time, but soft chewy cookies are a lot harder. You have time it correctly. You want a nice crunchy outer shell, but the inside has to be chewy and delicious.

He asked me to help him out. Since I was going to be stressed out about taking the CPA (Certified Public Accountant) test, I knew that baking was a great stress reliever. I bring them to work and I have a big group of people to eat them without having to force Scott to bring them to work or eat them himself. It's a great deal!

I made half of this recipe twice. So yes, I made a full recipe, but I found the second time I made it, it was much better. This is my second version of the cookie.

Snickerdoodles
(adapted from Joy of Baking)
Ingredients:
Cookie: 
1 3/8 cup of all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon of salt
1 1/2 teaspoon of baking powder
1/2 cup of unsalted butter (1 stick)
3/4 cup of granulated white sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon of pure vanilla (or imitation)
optional: 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon


Cinnamon Sugar:
1/4 cup of granulated white sugar
1 teaspoon of cinnamon (add more if you would like)


Directions:
If you're like me and you don't start baking until you feel like, you won't have room temperature butter. The best way to get it soft is to microwave it. If you put it straight from the refrigerator, you'll have to first put it in for about a minute and a half, and then at half minute intervals. It should be fine around 2 minutes or so. After it's soft, you can add the sugar. Mix until combined (I use a spatula, but you can use an electric mixer). Add the egg and vanilla. MIX IT WELL.


Then add the flour, baking powder, and salt together. I know most places have you mix it in a separate bowl, but really, I don't have the time to wash so many dishes. If you mix it well, it won't really matter...I hope. 


Then make the cinnamon sugar, just mix the sugar and cinnamon together. Shape the dough into a ball. I use a tablespoon to make sure that my cookies are around the same size. I like to place my sugar and cinnamon into a shallow bowl (or a ramekin) so it's easier to roll around. After rolling it in the cinnamon sugar, I place it on parchment paper or a silpat. Then press down until it's about 1/2 inch. Before placing it into the oven, I sprinkle some of the cinnamon sugar on top, generously. 


Heat oven to 400 degrees F and bake for about 10 minutes. After letting it cool on the pan for 5 minutes, it's ready for consumption, or placing into tupperware for someone else to eat. 


ENJOY!

Christmas M&M Cookies

I love this time of year. It's just a great time to bake for your friends and coworkers. I baked a batch of these for Scott and some of my coworkers since they found out that I baked. Great huh?

Well I know that they enjoyed it because I brought about 20 and there weren't any left when I left from work. Scott says that he loves the cookies and that they were his favorite! I'm definitely happy that he enjoyed them. He's never really had any of my baking since I stopped after we started dating. Now he gets to try all of my baking since it's the holiday season.

I really do miss baking guys; I hope everyone still reads and I promise to bake at least once a month!

I found the recipe here, and its a great one. Try it! I baked it for a little longer than the recipe and it still turned out chewy. That's the most important part - chewy, soft cookies.