Spice Cupcakes

Want to get a copy of the recipe that is commentary free?  Go here.

I have an issue.  With all the baking and cake decorating going on in my kitchen, I’m running out of cupcake and cake recipes to try.  I have 3 new cupcake and cake books and there are a ton of recipes, but most all of them require a specific frosting or glaze to finish them off.  I need to use decorating frosting, so it doesn’t help me at all.

This recipe from Taste of Home wasn’t any different, but I thought I could make the frosting work in my favor.

© You Want Me to Cook?
Spice Cupcakes

I had some issues with the frosting, but I still got them nicely frosted.  I left the walnuts off the top because was going to place flowers on top.  You’ll notice the tunneling.  I did a little research and baking911 said it could be from the oven temperature being too high, under-mixing or extreme over-mixing or too much leavening.  Honestly, I have no idea which one it is, although I’m pretty sure my oven temperature isn’t the problem.

Coconut Rice Custard

For a commentary-free version of this recipe, go here.

Lately, I’ve had a major sweet tooth.  I’m the kind of gal that, when presented with a sweet treat and a savory treat, I’ll go with savory every time.  Now I can’t get enough sweets!

And before anyone wigs out, I’m currently under doctor’s supervision with my blood being drawn every month.  Right now, there isn’t a medical reason for my sweet cravings.

So I’ve been on the hunt for easy desserts that aren’t super-nauseating sweet.  I came upon this Coconut Rice Custard dish and figured: (a) I like coconut flavored sweets, but not coconut – go figure – and (b) I love rice pudding.  This seemed to be the best of both worlds.

Of course, I seemed to ignore the “easy” portion of my criteria.  Custard is not the easiest thing in the world to make.  It needs to be constantly monitored and involves a hot water bath.  These are things I overlooked as I got started.

 

© You Want Me to Cook?
Coconut Rice Custard

The whipped cream isn’t part of the custard.  My custard turned out a little dry, probably because I over cooked it slightly.  However, you can see the rice and the custard is still held together well instead of being hard like a rock.

Maple Carrot Cupcakes

Recipe made/modified June 6, 2012

For a commentary-free and printer-friendly version of it, please click here.

Original recipe from Taste of Home: Cupcake, Muffins and More and also found on their website.

It was time for me to make my second project from Wilton’s lesson manuals, this time from class number 2 - Flowers and Cake Design.  I could have made things a little easier by using a box cake mix, but I decided that I should be testing out cake recipes from scratch if I ever want to do this professionally.  I decided on one of my husband’s favorites, carrot cake, and went with this Maple Carrot Cupcake recipe.

© You Want Me to Cook?
Maple Carrot Cupcakes

Don’t these look delicious?  I didn’t sprinkle on any of the nuts since by this time I was exhausted from making, frosting and decorating the cupcakes from my lesson manual.

My other “complaint” is that my frosting didn’t look like and wasn’t as firm as their frosting was.  I come across this a lot and haven’t yet figured out what I’m doing wrong, especially since I’m following the directions closely.

Pistachio Baklava Tartlets

Recipe modified by You Want Me to Cook? – April 26, 2011

For a commentary-free and printer-friendly version of it, please click here.

Pistachio Baklava Tartlets recipe originally published by Food Network – April 2012.

I love baklava, but do not have the patience to make it.  I keep thinking about the sticky mess the honey/sugar syrup is going to leave in my kitchen.  I’d rather spend the time looking for a baker that makes a good one than scrubbing my kitchen.

Yet when I saw this recipe, I was excited to try it!  It isn’t baklava, but it’s got all the same flavors and gets it close enough.

© You Want Me to Cook?
Pistachio Baklava Tartlets

I may have overcooked my tartlets a little but they still look pretty good.  As good as Food Networks…

What I Made: June 11, 2012

After recuperating over the weekend, I got right back on track with my Meatless Monday.  Not just Meatless, but Vegan too.  I'm still making my way through Vegan Diner by Julie Hasson.

I do have a complaint about the book... not enough pictures.  I know that sounds silly, but when you're making your own protein/meat, it would be really helpful to know what the end result is supposed to look like.

Good recipes though.  Anyway...

I've already tried my hand at making meatless-meat and it tasted really good.  Today, I was going to make some homemade Rough Rider Barbecue Sauce and make Barbecue Ribz.

How did they turn out?

© You Want Me to Cook?
Barbecue Ribz with Rough Rider Barbecue Sauce

They look good, right?  

What I made: June 6, 2012

Today I was like a crazy cooking ninja.  And there was some alcohol involved.  

That may explain why my notes are a little difficult to read today.  Oh well, let's get to the food.

I had a crazy morning and afternoon so my breakfast and lunch dishes had to be rescheduled.  It was time to start dinner, but I was parched so I made myself a Pink Lemonade found in All You's July issue.

© You Want Me to Cook?
Pink Lemonade

What I made: June 4, 2012

Monday's are Vegan days and all my recipes came from Vegan Diner, by Julie Hasson!

Since I was making a sandwich, I decided to tackle making my own hamburger buns.  Why?  Because any vegan bread I've ever bought was dry and icky.  The bread I've made (and I've only made non-yeast breads) has been delicious, so I gave it a try.

It wasn't as hard as I thought and the results... well look for yourself:

© You Want Me to Cook?
Old Fashioned Hamburger Buns

My Wilton Portfolio – Chapter #1

Last week, I finished my final Wilton class.  Four Classes in three months.  Sounds exhausting, but I really had a great time and I’m sad it’s over.

Now I have to figure out what to do with my newly acquired skills.  Truth is, I’ve learned a lot, but I’m by no means an expert at decorating cakes, cupcakes and cookies.  I need practice!  So what I’ve decided to do is bake and decorate my way through the lesson books.

To keep from getting bored with one medium, I’m going to alternate between each of the four class books starting with the first one – Decorating Basics.

My first chapter of this undertaking is found on page 16 of the Decorating Basics book and called Party Partners.  (P.S. You can buy the lesson manuals from Joann's Fabrics without taking the class, so if you want to follow along, but don't want to take the class, jump on-line or head over to the nearest store)  Wilton has a lot of their designs on-line, but unfortunately, there’s no picture available for this one so I’ll give you the quick run-down of what the lesson entails.

• Preparing Roll-Out Cookie and Chocolate Roll-Out Cookie Recipes and cut using a round cookie cutter.
• Decorating the Chocolate Cookies with:
• Snowflake Star
• Spiral of Stars
• Baby Carriage
• Large Star
• Daisy Flower
• Decorating the Plain Roll-Out Cookies with:
• Star Flower
• Blue Star
• Heart
• Number 1

Wilton’s Roll-Out Cookies

Recipe modified by You Want Me to Cook? – May 19, 2012

For a commentary-free and printer-friendly version of it, please click here.

Wilton’s Roll-Out Cookie recipe located on their website.

Since I already used Wilton’s Chocolate Roll-out cookies, I decided to go ahead and make their recipe for the regular roll-out cookie.  I did have a couple of sugar cookie recipes that I have yet to try in my archives, but why mess with a good thing?

© You Want Me to Cook?
Wilton's Roll-Out Cookies

These are your basic cut-out cookie.  Mine are too brown around the edges since I made them larger than normal.  They had to cook a little longer for the center to set and the edges browned first.

I also had the same issue as I did with the chocolate roll-outs – a little uneven on the top and a few bubbles.  They are acceptable for decorating though.

Wilton’s Chocolate Roll-Out Cookies

Recipe modified by You Want Me to Cook? – May 19, 2012

For a commentary-free and printer-friendly version of it, please click here.

Wilton’s Chocolate Roll-Out Cookie recipe located on their website.

As I am baking and decorating my way through my Wilton Class Books, I needed a good cut out cookie recipe.  Actually, I needed a good CHOCOLATE cut-out cookie recipe.  Oddly enough, I didn’t have any in my archive of recipes, so I took the suggestion of the book (Class #1 – Decorating Basics) and went on their website for their cookie recipe.

© You Want Me to Cook?
Chocolate Roll-Out Cookies

They are basic roll-out cookies. 

Yep, kinda boring without any decorating, but I’ll get to that in a future post.

There is no photo of these cookies on their site, so I can only go based on what I see in the book.  Although my cookies aren’t as “smooth” on top – and I wish I could figure out how to do that – they look very similar.

Just take my word for it.  Please?

Frosted Banana Bars

Recipe modified by You Want Me to Cook? – April 24, 2011

For a commentary-free and printer-friendly version of it, please click here.

Frosted Banana Bars recipe originally published by Cooking.com via e-mail – April 16, 2012.

My husband LOVES sweets, but he would probably kill someone for anything with cream cheese frosting on it.  I LOVE banana bread and happen to enjoy a schmear of cream cheese of it with my coffee in the morning.  When I found this recipe I knew it was going to be a big hit.

© You Want Me to Cook?
Frosted Banana Bars

This picture doesn’t really convey the soft cake with the fluffy frosting.  All I can do is try to explain it… the cake is firm enough to allow your fork to pass through it like butter without crumbling apart.  The frosting?  Well it is the perfect combination of creamy, tart and sweet.  I honestly could have eaten it alone.

Lemon Layer Cake

Recipe modified by You Want Me to Cook? – March 13, 2012

For a commentary-free and printer-friendly version of it, please click here.

Lemon Layer Cake with Lemon Cream Frosting recipe originally published in Gourmet - January 2001.

One of the things about the cake decorating class that I was anticipating was getting to bake a lot.  We don’t keep too many sweets around here because my husband is like Cookie Monster… before he got all healthy and stuff.

Seriously, what is so bad about occasionally indulging in cookies?  It isn’t like I am overweight because Cookie Monster told me to eat sweets.  Also, I think most kids realize that he doesn’t eat most of the cookies anyway because he’s shoving them in so fast, they crumble and fall out.  At least I noticed that and wondered why he didn’t just slow down so he didn’t have to cram so many into his mouth.

Okay, Sesame Street rant over…

So I have a ton of cake recipes that I’ve never made because they are layer cakes and I have issues making layer cakes.  They never fit together nicely for me and I couldn’t frost them to save my life.  Now that is all over and done with since I’ve been taught how!  Yippee!!!!!

I’ve been sitting on this recipe for over 10 years.  It was time.

© You Want Me to Cook?
Lemon Layer Cake

It is light and fluffy with a lovely layer of lemon curd between the layers.  Don’t worry… I’m going to write a separate post regarding my second class and my first attempt at frosting and decorating a cake.  Just enjoy the splendor that is my yummy cake right now.

My First Cake Decorating Class

If you ever have checked out my “About This Blog and Me” page, you know that I’ve pretty much taught myself how to cook.  Experimentation has been my friend… as is the number to the closest and fastest pizza joint.

The only "training" I've had was when I took a 2 hour class on Knife Skills from Sur la Table.  During this class, I cut myself three times.   

I’m not kidding.  My mother-in-law is my witness. 

That being said, my chopping and slicing skills have greatly improved and the number of times I have cut myself since I can be counted on one hand.  One of those times I cut myself intentionally when I looked at the serrated knife I bought and said, “This doesn’t look very sharp.  Is it?” and then pulled the blade over my index finger.

I never said I was smart.

Individual Banana Puddings

Recipe modified by You Want Me to Cook? – August 25, 2011

For a commentary-free and printer-friendly version of it, please click here.

Individual Banana Puddings recipe originally published in All You – April 2011.

I’ll be honest, I often pick recipes based on what I want to eat.  That’s not to say that I don’t take my husband’s taste into account – I know what he likes and doesn’t like and wouldn’t force him to eat something he would hate – but for the most part I’m the one who sets the menu for the week.

This recipe is all about him though.

He LOVES banana pudding and can even whip up a quickie batch using instant pudding and Cool Whip.  I enjoy making pudding from scratch so when I saw this recipe, I knew he would love it.

© You Want Me to Cook?
Individual Banana Puddings

First I need to state the obvious… it isn’t an individual pudding serving.  I really wanted to try the recipe, but don’t own ramekins.  I know.  THE HORROR!  I found a serving dish that would accommodate the amount of pudding, bananas and cookies and made it as a dessert dish.  This picture is of an individual serving.  My pudding looks thicker and seems to be more banana and cookie than “puddingish”.

Slow-Cooked Praline Apple Crisp

Recipe modified by You Want Me to Cook? – April 14, 2011

For a commentary-free and printer-friendly version of it, please click here.

Recipe originally published by Pillsbury via e-mail on Thursday, September 25, 2008.

I love using my slow cooker, but only when I’m at home.  Here is some of my reasoning:

• I hate having food cooking while I’m not at home.  Having 3 dogs, I am terrified of something burning or an appliance catching fire when I’m not there to get my furry babies out of my house.
• One of the best parts of cooking is the smell.  I love going upstairs to get something and coming back down to an intoxicating aroma of my dinner cooking.
• I’m afraid of losing track of time.  I very easily can turn running a simple errand into a several hour excursion.  When I cook, I need to be focused and that includes alarms being set.

But like I said, I do enjoy using my slow cooker.  It gives me the ability to throw something in for dinner and do housework or work on the blog.  
 

When I found this recipe for a slow cooker dessert, I jumped right on it. My husband loves apples and apple crisp, so it was perfect for us.

© You Want Me to Cook?
Slow-Cooked Praline Apple Crisp

This looks really good, but it probably would look “prettier” if I had ice cream or whipped topping on it.  It’s interesting because the ingredient listing says “ice cream optional” but the directions say to “serve it with ice cream.”  There’s no optional about it.  I’m not sure why I didn’t do it, other than to save money and calories/fat/cholesterol.

Praline Pumpkin Dessert

Recipe modified by You Want Me to Cook? – March 17, 2011

For a commentary-free and printer-friendly version of it, please click here.

Recipe originally published by Betty Crocker on Monday, November 17, 2008 via e-mail

I don’t always eat healthy food.  In fact, I’d say that I only eat healthy about 50% of the time.  I guess I’m confessing all of this to you because I have a stockpile of desserts just like this one.  Sometimes I try to slim them down a little and sometimes I don’t.

This is one of those times that I don’t (well for the most part).

I was attracted to this recipe because I LOVE pumpkin desserts and a pumpkin crumble was impossible for me to pass up.  It also didn’t seem like a lot of work, so I was sold.

© You Want Me to Cook?
Praline Pumpkin Dessert

It doesn’t look bad.  In fact, if you didn’t have another picture to compare it to, you’d think it looked great.  My problem is that it has the appearance of pecan pie instead of pumpkin.  Also, my square doesn’t have the same amount of height as the one from Betty Crocker.  I don’t know if I did something wrong or if Betty’s square was altered in some way.

Chocolate Chip-Pretzel Blondies

Recipe modified by You Want Me to Cook? - February 22, 2011

For a commentary-free and printer-friendly version of it, please click here.

Recipe originally published in All You, January 2011.

I enjoy baking, but it tends to be last on my cooking list.  If I run out of time, there are plenty of bakeries I can visit to satisfy my sweet tooth.  Also, my husband is a sweet-fiend.  If I bake something, I literally have to hide it from him or he’ll eat the entire dish.

On occasion, I’ll stumble across a great bar cookie recipe.  These tend to get pushed up on the cooking list since it is mix, pour and bake.  I have to admit that the peanut butter/pretzel/chocolate chip combo was very appealing and I was excited to make these.

My finished product:

© You Want Me to Cook?
Chocolate Chip-Pretzel Blondies

One task I have yet to master is having my bar cookies lay flat and not overcook on the edges.  I know there’s a trick to it… I just don’t know what it is.  They still looked good enough to eat though.

Butterscotch Coconut Bars

Recipe modified by You Want Me to Cook? on February 11, 2011

For a commentary-free and printer-friendly version of it, please click here.

Recipe originally published in Taste of Home, Holiday Collection 2008.

There are two things I’ve never enjoyed eating – pineapple and coconut.  This posed quite the issue when we moved to Hawaii, so I had to branch out a little.  I still can’t stand pineapple, but I grew to enjoy coconut a little.  One thing I DO like, is butterscotch, so when I stumbled upon this recipe, I figured it was worth a try.

My finished product: © You Want Me to Cook? Butterscotch Coconut Squares

Picture published with recipe: © Taste of Home

Not bad, right?  My tasty little morsels stacked up quite nicely against those of Taste of Home.  I do have one complaint.  The recipe said that you are supposed to get 78 1-inch square pieces.  Now, I’ll do the math a little later, but I have to ask you – do those look like 1” squares to you?  I don’t think so.  In fact, MY squares are not 1” and they look much smaller than theirs.

Yummy Chocolate Cake

Recipe modified by Gretchen Wilson – February 3, 2011 and finished on February 5, 2011

For a commentary-free and printer-friendly version of it, please click here.

Recipe originally published in Taste of Home daily e-zine on Thursday, September 11, 2008

Taste of Home has “field editors” which are basically people like me who write recipes, send them in, and then get paid a small amount for their submissions.  I guess they can also claim they’re “published” but that’s neither here nor there.  When you read their e-zines or magazine, usually the chef will write a little blurb, either about who likes it, why they came up with it, how it is a family tradition, etc…  So this recipe’s blurb was about how the baker and her husband are trying to eat lighter but still wanted sweet treats to enjoy now and again.  That’s sounds like me, so I decided it was time to give this one a try.

My finished product: © You Want Me to Cook?

Picture published with recipe: © Taste of Home

I made my cake in a different size pan (I’ll explain in detail later) so not only is it a little thicker, the frosting is also thicker.  I didn’t use chocolate curls because (a) I didn’t have the equipment to make them and (b) I didn’t feel like making them.

The Great Cupcake Disaster of 2011

About 3 months ago, my husband bought me a wonderful book called “Hello, Cupcake”.  It is a delightful quasi-cookbook that gives you many creative ideas on decorating cupcakes.  Note, I am not talking about the dreaded cupcake cake – a confection consisting of cupcakes that are made to look like a “cake” by slathering a horrifying amount of frosting on top.  No, this is taking a single cupcake and decorating it as a dog or an elf.  It gives a few recipes to get you started and shows you how to turn candy/frosting/cake into designs worthy of charging people to make.

I’ve read this book over and over and finally decided to try my first design.  It was meant to be a Valentine’s Day design, but life got in the way and I didn’t get around to making it until March.  I selected Box of Chocolates which are mini-cupcakes designed to look like candies.

© Hello, Cupcake

Looks adorable, doesn’t it?  So I bought a ridiculous amount of candy and everything I needed to make the cupcakes, frosting and decorate.  Unfortunately, I couldn’t find a decent size chocolate box, so I bought a Valentine’s Day decorated see-through box.  I figured it was a win-win.

The whole process will be detailed in a future post – I’m running about a month ahead of what I’m making – but I wanted to share the unfortunate account of what happened this day, March 3, 2011.