Cupcakes: May Cooking Assignment, Cassandra S.

      For my monthly cooking assignment, I decided to make vanilla cupcakes. I topped them with homemade butter-cream frosting, sprinkles, and crushed up Hershey kisses.

      To make the batter for these delicious cupcakes, I used the cake mixing method. It was identical to the one we used in class. For example, we had to whisk together the dry ingredients and then combine those with the wet ingredients. I had to mix the ingredients together until they were completely combined. Like the cake recipe we made in class, there was sour cream listed as an ingredient.
     I did notice a couple of mistakes I made. First of all, the recipe called for room temperature butter, but because I'm so impatient I just put it in the microwave to make it similar to room temperature. Another mistake was that the recipe asked for room temperature eggs, but I didn't want to wait for them to warm up. The final mistake I made was that the recipe said to evenly divide the batter among the cupcake liners, which I tried to do, but It wasn't very equal. This caused some of the cupcakes to be overcooked. Overall, the mistakes probably effected the final product in some way, but not enough to impact the taste.
     I didn't intentionally change anything in the recipe, but I was a little skeptical about mixing the sour cream into the batter. I also noticed that the batter was a lot thicker than any cupcakes that I've ever made. I'm guessing that was because I've never made cupcakes from scratch, just from a box. 
     The cupcakes were a pale golden brown. They tasted super sweet, especially because of the butter-cream frosting, which was a huge success! The cupcakes smelled amazing. My kitchen smelled exactly like a bakery; sweet and warm. Overall,  I would definitely make them again. I learned that when a recipe says "evenly divide the batter", you have to make sure you actually follow that rule.

INGREDIENTS:

Vanilla Cupcakes:
1½ cups all-purpose flour
1 cup granulated sugar
1½ teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon table salt
8 tablespoons unsalted butter (1 stick), room temperature
½ cup sour cream
1 large egg , room temperature
2 large egg yolks , room temperature
1½ teaspoons vanilla extract

DIRECTIONS:

1. Adjust oven rack to middle position; heat oven to 350 degrees F. Line standard muffin/cupcake tin with paper or foil liners.

2. Whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt in bowl of standing mixer fitted with paddle attachment. Add butter, sour cream, egg and egg yolks, and vanilla; beat at medium speed until smooth and satiny, about 30 seconds. Scrape down sides of bowl with rubber spatula and mix by hand until smooth and no flour pockets remain.

3. Divide batter evenly among cups of prepared tin. Bake until cupcake tops are pale gold and toothpick or skewer inserted into center comes out clean, 20 to 24 minutes. Remove the cupcakes from tin and transfer to wire rack; cool cupcakes to room temperature before frosting.

Classic Vanilla Butter-cream Frosting

Author: Savory Sweet Life

Recipe type: Dessert

Prep time:  2 mins

Cook time:  3 mins

Total time:  5 mins

Serves: 2.5 cups

 

Classic American Butter-cream frosting. This recipe uses powdered sugar, butter, vanilla and milk. This is a great recipe for decorating and piping on cupcakes and cake.

Ingredients

• 1 cup unsalted butter (2 sticks or ½ pound), softened (but not melted!) Ideal texture should be like ice cream.
• 3-4 cups confectioners (powdered) sugar, SIFTED
• ¼ teaspoon table salt
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• up to 4 tablespoons milk or heavy cream

Instructions

1. Beat butter for a few minutes with a mixer with the paddle attachment on medium speed. Add 3 cups of powdered sugar and turn your mixer on the lowest speed (so the sugar doesn’t blow everywhere) until the sugar has been incorporated with the butter. Increase mixer speed to medium and add vanilla extract, salt, and 2 tablespoons of milk/cream and beat for 3 minutes. If your frosting needs a more stiff consistency, add remaining sugar. If your frosting needs to be thinned out, add remaining milk 1 tablespoons at a time.

Angie Lelyukh
Hour 2

                                                     Homemade Pita Bread

Ingredients for 8 pita breads:

For the sponge mix:

1 pkg dry active yeast (2 1/4 tsp)

1 cup warm water (about 90-100 degrees F.)

1 cup (4.5 oz by weight) all-purpose flour

Then:

1 1/2 tablespoons olive oil

1 3/4 teaspoons salt

1 3/4 to 2 cups all-purpose flour, or until a soft, slightly sticky dough forms (about 8-9 oz by weight)

*Let rise about 2 hours, or until doubled in size. Form 8 small, round loaves, let rise 30 minutes. Roll out and let rest 5 minutes before grilling.

http://foodwishes.blogspot.com/search?q=pita+bread (Directions) 

I have found that I enjoy baking while watching how to make videos and I found a great website -- Foodwishes.com -- that does not include any written directions but only videos with Chef John, At home, I made grilled pita bread because I wanted to try something new and wanted to stuff them with something yummy. Pita bread is a yeast bread therefore, I used the straight dough method. When making the pita bread I realized that the waiting time including fermentation, and bench proofing plus extra waiting time on the side was about 3 hours which more than the typical bread and looking at the recipe I realized that it was because one of the main ingredients that helps yeast grow -- sugar, was absent so I was very tempted to add a tiny addition of sugar to speed up the process. I also got impatient while waiting for the fermentation to take place so I boiled hot water and put in a pan in the bottom of the oven to help create heat which in fact did speed up the process. Also, I was a little afraid that they were going to turn out dry because I felt like I added in too much flour at once in the mixer but in the end they ended up being done well. The only thing I was disappointed with while making the pita bread was at the end they did not seperate like they were suppose to so I had to cut them open. Although they were not gushing with flavor because they are only a floury paste, they were still delicious because they had a pinch of salt to them and the olive oil gave them a nice flavor. On top of that, the texture was perfect, they were crispy/toughish on the outside but when bitting in to them they were warm, soft and fluffy. The ended up looking nothing like pita breads but more like dough that was fried, a pale color with the spots of  brown on the sides (the sides they were grilled on). 

Overall, I though this proccess was very lengthy for only 8 pita breads so If I were to do it again, I would double or even triple the reciepe. 

Sugar Cookies

Sugar Cookies

             For this home baking assignment I decided to make sugar cookies because we have recently been making cookies in class. I found an easy recipe online and tried using skills I learned in class to make them turn out better.

            Making the dough was pretty easy and I remembered the trick of putting the dough in the refrigerator for a while so the dough can become thicker, however, I grew a little impatient and probably should’ve left it in there a while longer. The taste of the final product turned out really sugary although I used the instructed amount. The texture was really crisp edges with a soft center and they turned out chewy. The aroma was so alluring and made the whole house smell of fresh cookies. The appearance of the final product turned out alright, but it could’ve been better. I should’ve left the dough in the fridge longer so they would’ve been thicker. After making the first batch I refrigerated the rest of the dough so the next batch would be thicker. I then took the extra dough and portioned and froze it, like we learned in class, so I can make a fresh batch whenever I would like.

            Using skills I learned in class while making my cookies really took my knowledge of baking cookies to the next level. It also allowed me to identify mistakes I made and allowed me to fix them at the same time.

            

Recipe:

Sugar Cookies

Ingredients-

2 ¾ cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

½ teaspoon baking powder

1 cup butter, softened

1 ½ cups white sugar

1 egg

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions-

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). In a small bowl, stir together flour, baking soda, and baking powder. Set aside.

In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until smooth. Beat in egg and vanilla. Gradually blend in the dry ingredients. Roll rounded teaspoonfuls of dough into balls, and place onto ungreased cookie sheets.

Bake 8 to 10 minutes in the preheated oven, or until golden. Let stand on cookie sheet two minutes before removing to cool on wire racks.

Cherry Scones

Cherry Scones

            For my home baking assignment I was in an unfamiliar kitchen in Florida so due to the ingredients that were already in the kitchen I decided to make scones. I found a recipe for cherry scones and figured that since the first time we made them in class it didn’t go so well, I should try to redeem myself by making them again on my own.
            The final product overall turned out good and I had little obstacles in the process. The taste of the final product was plain, as scones usually are, but with bursts of salivating flavor when you tasted the cherries. The texture was moist in the center but flaky layers on the top, creating the perfect scone. The aroma of the final product was delicious, it smelled like cherries and bread fresh out of the oven. The appearance turned out pretty good, although some scones were bigger than others. While I was mixing the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients, I remembered watching a video in class where they made a hole in the center of the dry ingredients and poured the wet ingredients into the center, so I did it as showed in the video and it worked better than just pouring it in. I also remembered how to fold the cherries into the batter from class, (I think that’s where we went wrong in our group) and was more gentle folding them in, which worked better.

Throughout the course of this assignment, I learned that I can take skills I use in class every day and apply them to my every day life at home. In conclusion, I think that this assignment has been extremely beneficial to my learning because it allowed me to use skills that I learned in class to further extend my horizons.

Recipe:

Cherry Scones

Ingredients-

2 cups all purpose flour

1 Tbsp baking powder

¼ tsp baking soda

¼ tsp table salt

¼ cup sugar

1 large egg, beaten

1 cup buttermilk

¼ cup regular butter, melted

2/3 cup dried cherries, thinly sliced

Directions-

Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Coat a cookie sheet with cooking spray.

In a medium bowl, combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and sugar; mix well and set aside. In another bowl, whisk together egg, buttermilk and melted butter. Stir wet ingredients into dry ingredients until just combined.

Drop 12 equal two-inch mounds of batter on prepared cookie sheet about 1-inch apart. Bake until tops just start to turn golden, about 12 to 15 minutes. Yields 1 scone per serving.

Kit-Kit and m&m double-layered cake

Ingredients

1 cup butter (unsalted)

1 & 1/2 cups white sugar

3 eggs

3/4 cup milk

1 & 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

2 cups cake flour (I used all-purpose flour)

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt
1-2 containers of vanilla frosting (depends on how much is needed)
2 bags of individual Kitkat bars
1 bag of m&ms

Procedure

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2. Grease two 9-inch round cake pans.

3. Sift flour, baking powder, and salt together in a bowl. Set aside.

4. In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.Beat in the eggs one at time and then stir in the vanilla extract. 

5. Pour in milk and mix together with flour mixture just until the batter comes together.

6. Pour half of the batter into each of the 9-inch round pans.

7. Bake for 25-30 mins. 

8. Let cool for 10 to 15 minutes in the pan.
9. Use vanilla frosting to cover the top and sides of one cake, and then stack the other on top of it.
10. Cover the whole double-layered cake in vanilla frosting.
11. Stand Kitkat bars vertically lining the edges around the cake. Cover the top of the cake with m&m's and enjoy.

A traditional birthday in my house usually ends with a delicious ice cream cake celebration from Dairy Queen. However, I decided to make my dad a cake when it was his birthday. I saw this really interesting cake on pinterest and wanted to try to make it. Surprisingly,  it turned out very well for my first time making a homemade cake. I was going to use chocolate frosting because I figured that the cake would be too chocolately and rich for people's desires, so I used vanilla instead. It was still very rich and sugary, but it tasted very delicious and was gone the next day! The recipe called for cake flour, but I had to settle for AP flour. As a result, the cake was very dry instead of moist and delicious and didn't hold together as well as I thought it should have. It was extremely crumbly, but thick at the same time. However, it tasted delicious. The cake was perfect to satisfy a sweet tooth with just a few rich bites of a light and fluffy cake, creamy vanilla frosting, and sweet taste of chocolate and crunchy Kitkats.

Photos for Sweet and Simple Lemon Tart

1 of1

Posted

Add your own photo!

,

Photos

ADVERTISE WITH US

ADVERTISEMENT

Hang tight!

Sweet and Simple Lemon Tart

Makes servings USMetricAdjust Recipe (Help)

1/2 cupbutter, softened

1/4 cupsifted confectioners' sugar

1 cupsifted all-purpose flour

1 cupwhite sugar

2eggs

2 tablespoonsall-purpose flour

3 tablespoonsfresh lemon juice, or more to taste

2 teaspoonsgrated lemon peel

1/4 teaspoonsalt

3 tablespoonsconfectioners' suga

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease an 8x8-inch baking pan.
2. Combine butter with 1/4 cup confectioners' sugar in a bowl until smooth; stir in 1 cup flour. Press dough into prepared baking pan; pierce crust with fork in several places to prevent crust from puffing up during baking.
3. Bake crust in the preheated oven until slightly golden brown, 10 to 15 minutes. Let cool.
4. Whisk white sugar and eggs in a bowl; stir 3 tablespoons flour into mixture and add lemon juice, lemon peel, and salt. Whisk until thoroughly combined. Pour mixture into baked tart crust.
5. Bake until filling is set, 20 to 25 minutes. Let cool and dust with 3 tablespoons confectioners' sugar.

          In class we learned about tarts, when we first began I had no idea what a tart was. After we made mini tartlets I found them quite delicious and decided to make a big tart on my own time at home. To my surprise we already had a full sized tart pan at home. I began the recipe a little after 9 (after work) and ended up finish almost at 11! Speak of time consuming!
           After my tart finally finished baking in the oven, I topped it with raspberries in the center and sprinkled it with powdered sugar, my family was anxiously waiting while watching a movie. I let it cool for 10 mins before I sliced it up and gave each person a slice.
         When I tasted the tart, it was a lot more sour than it was at school (not much of a fan our sour) and it made sense after I thought about it because the tartlets at school were surrounded by dough and there was little filling where as at home, it was a lot of sour filling and not much dough/sweet crust because they were slice. Unfortunately, the crust is my favorite part of a tart or pie so I did not enjoy it as much as I thought I would. Also when I was shopping for the ingredients I only bought one lemon so I could not get enough lemon juice squeezed out and ended up replacing it with the lemon juice that comes in the bottle which may have effected the strong lemon taste of the tart. Lastly, the next morning after it completely cooled it cracked, reading online and looking at other people's blogs online I noticed that many other had the same problem and a few people recommended to add more sugar or bake at a higher temperature.  Overall, if I were to bake at another tart I would make it something other than lemon.

Apple Bread!

• Cooking Spray
• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 3 cups apples - peeled, cored, and chopped
• 1 cup vegetable oil
• 2 cups white sugar
• 3 eggs beaten
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 300 degrees F (150 degrees C). Prepare 2 loaf pans (8 1/2x4 1/2-inch loaf pans) with cooking spray.
2. Mix flour, baking soda, salt, walnuts, and apples in a large bowl. Whisk oil, sugar, eggs, and cinnamon together in a small bowl; add to flour mixture and mix until just moistened. Evenly divide mixture between prepared loaf pans.
3. Bake in preheated oven until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, about 90 minutes. Cool in the pans for 10 minutes before removing to cool completely on a wire rack.

After attempting some homemade banana bread, I decided to spice things up by trying to create a chunky apple bread. As I was creating the recipe, it called for 3 cups of apples. I wasn’t sure what kind of apples so I used fuji apples. Also, I don’t know how much 3 cups of chopped apples is so I only bought 3 apples. I didn’t fully follow the recipe, like how I used yeast in the dough and made it a yeast bread. I prepped the dough as stated, but gave the dough 45 minutes to rise before reshaping. Also, we used a 12x12 pan so it was one giant loaf of bread. As we added the wet with the dry, it created a rich scent of apples. I felt that  the 3 apples was too much because there were mainly chunks in the bread. After some help with my brothers, we went quick making the bread and we were very efficient. We all were divided into different labors like, I would do all the mixing while another brother would do all the chopping, and another brother would mix the dry ingredients. The recipe actually went great and it was fun spending some bonding time with my family and making something common, bread.
Taste:
After tasting the bread, it wasn't what I expected. Throughout the bread, there were little pouches and bites of cinnamon. This just ruined the overall taste of the bread and parts of the bread had either too much cinnamon or none at all. Now lets move onto the apples. I did not enjoy the apples at all, there were chunks of apples in the bread! It was not enjoyable at all because I felt all the juices of the apples sapped out and disappeared. Then these little chunks turned into crunchy flavorless pieces. The bread was rich in flavor though, but each bite was a surprise. After some few investigations, I can conclude that the taste was from the poor mixing I did and that little thing turned the whole bread upside-down... Literally.
Texture:
The Texture of the bread was intriguing. Not letting the bread cool, we lifted it from the pan and onto the cooling rack, letting the bottom disassemble and crumble. The bottom was a soggy mess! The rest of the bread, actually felt like a refined, fresh, and crunchy bread feeling, but the bottom was this soggy mess and a chunk of the bottom fell off right before my eyes. It was a rather mushy texture, and it was not the right feeling.
Appearance:
The appearance of the bread looked great. Five minutes before the end of the baking, we dusted the top with a nice sugar top. It looked fabulous when it came out and even smelled rich. The bread rose and it reached a good consistency when we took it out. The bread looked even to be bread of quality to be sold in stores.
Aroma:
The smell of the rich apples and sweet cinnamon flowed through the room. It was like the smell of summer in the air when you opened that oven door. The flavors of the apples oozed out into the air and the cinnamon made it even nicer.
Conclusion:
To conclude, in the past week I made an Apple bread from Allrecipes.com and altered some of the recipe to what I have. The product turned out great, smelled great, but the taste of the bread told me otherwise. I enjoyed cooking this month with my bros and hope to see you on next month's blog of Culinary Adventures!