Marble Cupcakes July 22nd 2010

I went back to baking cupcakes... I looked through my recipe books and decided to make Marble cupcakes because I did not want to make frosting. First I mixed the flour, baking powder, and salt and put aside. Then I combined the heavy cream and milk.

As always.. I had to cream together the butter and sugar. ( FYI do not microwave the butter because you forgot to leave it out... Just remove it from the fridge like 30mins to an hour before.)

I then added the eggs one by one.

Meanwhile I boiled water to make the chocolate batter. I then added the flour mix into the butter/sugar. I did this by adding 1/3 of the flour mix and then adding half the milk mix. I did this until it was all gone.

Once it was all combined I took out 1 cup of the batter and added the cocoa powder along with the boiling water until mixed. I then alternated the between batters starting with the vanilla mix and then the chocolate mix. I filled the cups up until it was 3/4 fill. Using a knife I made a figure-eight motion to make swirls.

I baked for about 20 minutes.

Once it was completely cool I added powder sugar on top.

It tasted pretty good but I think I would add brown sugar to the chocolate mix to take away the tart taste to it. YUM!

Brazo de Reina

So I decided to make brazo de reina... which is a Chilean traditional dessert.... My aunt makes it and it always tastes delicious.... I looked online for different recipes and made it... I wish my aunt was at my house to show me how she makes it! But let me tell you what I did

The first thing I needed to do is carmelize the Condensed Milk ( Dulce de leche)... I looked online to see how people did it... My mom use to always just put the can into boiling water but apparently the can could explode and I really didn't want that to happen... So can either microwave it... put it in the oven.. or put it in a double boiler... I didn't want to microwave it because it seemed like a lot of work... so I decided to make my own double boiler by using two pots and a cooling rack.. haha I know I am crazy..

So I put two cans of condensed milk in the top pot and it was suppose to take like 1 and half hour to two... WRONG! it was on the stove for like 3 hours and I decided to put it in the oven... needless to say I dont think I cooked it for as long as I should have.. There must be another way to do this... maybe the can trick is the best idea... If you have any suggestions please leave me comments.. because I will attempt to do this again!!!

Mean while I made the actual cake... I first beated eggs until it was very bubbly... little by little I add salt ( 1/2 a teaspoon) and 3/4 teaspoon of baking soda... Then I slowly added 3/4 cup of sugar... and beated it until it was a light yellow... takes a long time!

Then I added the flour.. I slowly folded it into the egg... its hard because you do not want to disturb the air in he egg... so do it slowly!

Once I was done with that I lined a cookie sheet with parchement paper and poured the batter into the the cookie sheet...

I baked it in the oven for like 7 minutes... ( 400 degrees)

Once it was done.. somewhat golden.. I would make sure that you keep an eye on it because the recipe told me 13 minutes and it was done in 7 minutes! yikes

I let it cool for like 5 minutes ... in the meantime I grabbed a towel and layed it on the counter with confectionist sugar... I carefully put the cake on to that... and rolled it up with the towel.. I put it in the fridge for about 10 minutes took it out and put it on the cooling rack until it was fully cool...


Once fully cooled I unrolled it and added the Dulce de leche... (which I now know needed more time! ) I spread it out... and then rolled it up again ( not with the towel) then as a finish touch I added the confectionist sugar on top.. It tasted good but I still need a lot of practice with this recipe! If you have made this before please leave comments in how to make this better!!!

Peanut butter chocolate chip cookies!

So I began looking for a cookie recipe for our fourth of July camping trip and I decided to make Peanut butter chocolate chip cookies. There are so many recipes for this online!!! So I combined some recipes and tried to make it my own! Little did I know it was going to be an amazing recipe!

First I mixed up the butter, peanut butter, and brown sugar until it was fluffy. Then I added two eggs... one at a time. Then I added the regular sugar, vanilla extract, baking soda, and light corn syrup. I then added the flour to the mix.


Once that was combined I added chocolate chips.

Then I used a spoon to put it on the baking sheet.

I preheated the oven to 375 degrees and baked the cookies for 12-13 minutes. I've already made one more time since the first time I baked this. They were a hit both times! Let me know if you want some!

Mocha Cupcakes

Yesterday I decided to try a new recipe from the Martha Stewart book I have. It looked really good so I decided to try it. The first thing I did was the mix cocoa and flour and set it aside.

Then I used a hand mixer ( medium speed) to mix a butter ( that was a at room temperature) until it was creamy. Once that was ready I added light brown sugar and 2 eggs. I mixed it until it was fluffy. I then added vanilla extract, salt, and baking soda.

Once everything was blended together I added the flour mix at low speed. I didn't add it all at once. I put a third first. Once it was blended I added the part of the Sour Cream. Then continue alternating between the flour and sour cream. Once if was all completely blended I put them mix into tins.

Then I baked the cupcakes for 22 minutes in the oven.

Once I was able to stick a cake tester inside the cupcakes and only a few crumbs came out I took them out of the oven.

They looked so yummy! But I was not done yet! I had to make the frosting that was suppose to take 7 minutes! Unfortunately I do not have standing electric mixer so it took longer because I had to whisk with my hand. The first thing I had to do was mix sugar, water, and light corn syrup in a small pot and let it boil until it reached 230 degrees. Make sure you use a candy thermometer.

While that was boiling I had to whisk six egg whites by hand until I could see small peaks. Hector helped whisk because my arm was getting tired! Once the sugar mix was done I added that slowly to the egg white. Then I had to wait until it was completely cool. Did I mention I do have a standing electric mixer! Well while it was cooling I had to continue to whisk, which took another 7-10 minutes. It was not too fun! I had to wait until it was completely cool and stiff. In the end I added the frosting with a spoon onto the cupcakes. For decoration purpose I added a bean of espresso bean on top. Yum! I would definitely recommend making these cupcakes! Hopefully you have a standing electric mixer!

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip

While my brother was here last week I decided to make some oatmeal chocolate chip cookies. I used a baking book I received for my bridal shower. The cookies were very different from previous ones I've made. They had Cocoa powder which I had not used for this recipe. They were not as sweet as before but they were mighty tasty!