Double Birthday Week! Mom's Carrot Cake

This past week, both my mother and brother celebrated their birthdays. My mom turned 60 on Sunday, so I had to make her favorite--carrot cake! I was short on time, but I wanted the cake to have an authentic feel, so I decided to try Duncan Hines' deluxe carrot cake mix. It had a pouch of carrots and raisins to add to the batter!

My mom doesn't like raisins, so I diligently picked all of those pesky raisins out. (so much for saving time, right?) While the cake baked, I worked on a different cream cheese buttercream recipe I had found.

• 2 sticks (1 cup) unsalted butter, room temp
• 8 oz cream cheese, room temp
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 4 cups powdered sugar

1) With a whisk attachment, beat the butter until fluffy (about 5 minutes).

2) Add cream cheese and vanilla and mix on low for a minute or so.

3) Add powdered sugar, one cup at a time, and mix on low to combine after each addition. After all of the sugar is combined, whip the buttercream on high for about a minute or two.

Nice and fluffy!

I chopped up about a cup of walnuts and covered the sides of the cake then I decorated with orange flowers. Then I added the final touch- white chocolate numbers. (beats those number candles!)

My mom loved it!

And the cake was super moist with visible carrot shreds, so it definitely looked scratch-made! One qualm: the cake didn't rise as much as I wanted, so I would use two boxes for a double-layer 8 inch cake.

Banana Cupcakes with Peanut Butter Buttercream

 Hello, all! As you may already know, fall has finally arrived and I am so excited!! Not only is it my favorite season, but it also means everything will be pumpkin-flavored! So there will be many, many pumpkin recipes coming soon!

So I had a banana lying around (OK well, I stole it off of Roger's bunch), and I decided to make just enough cupcakes for that one banana (which is about 9). I found a recipe for banana cupcakes and cut everything in half. This is the whole recipe:

• 1/2 c shortening
•  1 1/2 c sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1c mashed bananas (about 2 bananas)
• 1/4c buttermilk*
• 2c all purpose flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 3/4 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• **1/2 tsp cinnamon and 1/4 tsp nutmeg** (I added this and it's delicious!)

1) Cream shortening and sugar.

2) Add eggs, vanilla, bananas, and buttermilk.
3) Combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Add to the banana mixture.

4) Bake at 350 for 15-20 minutes. Insert a butter knife in order to determine doneness.

They look a bit overfilled, so I'll make 9 next time

Meanwhile, I made a Martha Stewart recipe for peanut butter buttercream (yields one cup-- perfect for this amount of cupcakes!)

• 2/3 c peanut butter
• 8 Tbsp (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
• 3/4 c confectioner's sugar
• fine salt (like popcorn salt)

1) Cream peanut butter and butter on high speed using the paddle attachment.
2) On low speed, mix in the sugar until combined, then beat the mixture on high until fluffy (about 3 minutes).
3) Add salt to taste.

Yum!!

  And when the cupcakes and this buttercream are combined...

... something delicious and magical happens! These are amazing! My Betrothed (who is a huge fan of bananas and peanut butter) loved them! So these recipes are definite keepers! I can't wait to pair these banana cupcakes with other buttercream recipes (cream cheese? salted caramel? Brown butter?). Stay tuned!

Ah, yes. About that pesky asterisk up there...

*I didn't have buttermilk on hand when I was making this recipe, but I did have milk and lemons, so this is a way to make buttermilk for baking: Combine 1/2 cup of milk (I had 2% and it worked fine) and 1 tablespoon of fresh lemon juice. Let sit for 15 minutes, and voila! You have buttermilk!

Cupcakes for Two! (Or one)

My ultimate goal in life is to run my own bakery. To start, I need to come up with intriguing flavor combinations, and I have pages full of ideas! But I don't want to make a huge batch of cupcakes, so I looked up some small-batch baking recipes and found this recipe for just two cupcakes.

• 1 egg white (** I sued about 1/2 to 3/4 because I had large eggs**)
• 2 Tbsp melted butter
• 1/4 c flour
• pinch of salt
• 1 1/2 Tbsp milk
• 2 Tbsp sugar
• 1 tsp (yes, one whole teaspoon!) vanilla extract
• 1/4 heaping tsp baking powder

1) Preheat oven to 350 and place two cupcake liners in the center two cups of a cupcake pan.
2) In a bowl, whisk the egg white and sugar together, until combined.
3) Add vanilla and melted butter and mix well.
4) Add flour, baking powder, and salt. Stir until smooth.
5) Stir in milk then bake for 15-20 minutes (or until a butter knife inserted comes out clean)

I attempted this recipe twice because the first time, my cupcakes came out rubbery and egg-y. Ew. The next time, I did not use all of the egg white. (This is probably due to my use of large-size eggs). I also made sure my baking powder was seriously heaping!

Yaaay! So round and awesome!

Decorate any way you wish!

 This recipe is a perfect idea if you want just enough cupcake to share with someone else or to eat all alone with little guilt! In my case, I would usually eat both. However, Roger (my Beloved) is quite fortunate this evening, for he will be coming home from work to see this:

I felt generous today. :)

Fondant-Free Hobbit Hole Cake!

Ah, yes. The birthday cake for my beloved has been revealed-- it is a Lord of the Rings-inspired hobbit hole cake! I kind of had a choice between Minas Tirith and a hobbit hole, so I went for the hobbit hole! I am not that ambitious just yet, especially after seeing this! So I started with two 8" layers and two 6"
 layers of chocolate cake.

My beloved's favorite flavor combo is chocolate and peanut butter, so I made him some Wilton peanut butter buttercream from scratch.

The recipe is as follows


Peanut Butter Buttercream (makes 3 cups)

• 1/3 cup solid vegetable shortening
• 1/3 cup butter
• 3/4 cup peanut butter
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 4 cups (approx. 1 lb.) confectioners' sugar, sifted
• 4-6 tablespoons milk

After placing my layered 8" rounds onto a corner on the board and cut a notch out of my 6" layers, so they could fit snugly. I saved the piece cut out from the notch and placed it between the 8" and 6" rounds to create a slope.

I slathered (oh, yes, I said "slathered") all of the cake in the peanut butter buttercream then set it in the fridge for about 20 minutes. I had also made a regular vanilla batch of buttercream for coloring purposes, so in the meantime, I mixed a LOT of green for the grass.

I spread a block of white on the "front" of the hobbit hole where the doors and windows will go.

I popped the cake back in the fridge for another 15 minutes or so. I covered the top and back of the hill in green with a grass tip (time-consuming!)...

I traced circles in the front for the door and windows.

I used different colors of icing for the flowers and rock detail.

Overall, my beloved LOVED it! I was excited!

On a sidenote: While I was researching the look of hobbit holes, I came across this. This is a real residence in Wales, and I am officially impressed and inspired.

Welcoming Autumn: Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Buttercream

It's been a bit gloomy outside, so it's perfect weather for staying inside and baking! So what to bake...? I decided to celebrate the arrival of my favorite season with my favorite flavor: PUMPKIN! I love love love fall, and I love the smell of cinnamon, nutmeg, and pumpkin filling the air. I chose a recipe from Lauren Chattman's Cake Keeper Cakes: Pumpkin-Chocolate Chip Pound Cake. Instead of putting the batter into a loaf pan, I put it into two standard cupcake pans. The recipe is as follows...

1 3/4 c unbleached flour (I used bleached but Chattman stated there would be a cleaner flavor with unbleached)
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp ground cloves
pinch nutmeg
1/2 c (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
1 1/4 c sugar
3 large eggs
1 c canned pumpkin puree
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
1/3 c milk
1 c mini semisweet chocolate chips ( I just used normal sized chips)
1 c chopped walnuts (can easily be omitted... or replaced with pecans yum!)

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Place cupcake papers in pans.
2. Combine all dry ingredients in a medium mixing bowl

3. Cream the butter and sugar in a mixing bowl, and mix for about 3 minutes. remember to scrape down the sides!
4. With mixer on medium-low, add the eggs one at a time. Stir in pumpkin puree, vanilla, and milk.

5. Turn the mixer to low, and add the dry ingredients 1/2 cup at a time. Scrape the sides of the bowl after each addition. I waited until there was about a half cup of dry ingredients left, then I added my chocolate chips and walnuts to that. Then I slowly added it into the batter. It's a good way for the chips and nuts to stay suspended in the cake batter while baking and not sink to the bottom!

6. Portion out the batter into 24 cupcakes and place in oven for 20 minutes. Insert a butter knife (not toothpick!) into a couple of different cupcakes to determine if the knife comes out clean (well, clear of batter, but melted chocolate is OK!).

The cupcakes can be stored in a cake keeper for up to 3 days, or wrapped up in the fridge for up to one week.

I figured a pretty delicious flavor combination would be cream cheese. So I found a cream cheese buttercream recipe from Martha Stewart.

1 8-oz package of cream cheese, room temperature
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 lb (about 4-ish cups) of confectioner's sugar
1 tsp pure vanilla extract

1. Cream butter and cream cheese in a mixer for 30 seconds. It calls for the paddle attachment, but I like the whisk. It makes for a much fluffier buttercream.

2. With the mixer on low, slowly add in the confectioner's sugar, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed.
3. Add vanilla, then increase the mixer to medium. Blend until fluffy (about a minute).

There's enough frosting here to cover the 24 cupcakes the way I did with about a cup or so left over.

If you wanted to do a huge swirl on each, you can. I garnished with a sprinkling of pumpkin pie spice, but I think a cool idea could also be toasted walnut pieces. These were super delish, and I'm so proud of meself! *grin!*