“Those look like perfect swirly turds!”

Ok, so I’m not the queen of decorating as my brother and his friend lovingly pointed out to me. My dad turned 44 today, so to celebrate I made him French Toast cupcakes. No disasters with the buttercream this time, but I tried to do some fancy piping, and well…it’s easy to tell what’s mine and what my mom decorated. They smell a bit like Cinnamon Toast Crunch, the maple is really apparent. I’m afraid they’ll be too sweet, but nothing a cup of coffee won’t tone down. Speaking of coffee, I got a new job at Starbucks, which is funny because I’m so into independant businesses and yet everywhere I’ve worked has been a big corporation. Goes with living in the suburbs I guess. I’m excited about learning how to make fancy coffee, just in case I decide to give the greenlight to this coffee shop idea I got turning in my head.

French Toast Cupcakes (From Bake and Destroy)

* 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
* 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
* 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
* 1/4 tsp salt
* 1 cup sugar
* 1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted and then cooled
* 2 eggs
* 1 tsp maple extract
* 1/2 cup milk

Then you:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line baking pan with paper liners.
2. Mix together flour, baking powder, cinnamon and salt in a small bowl.
3. In a large bowl, whisk together butter, sugar and eggs until smooth. Make sure the butter is cool or you’ll have scrambled eggs.
4. Whisk in maple extract and then alternate between whisking in flour mixture and milk. Make three additions of flour mix and two of milk. Beat until smooth.
5. Scoop batter into prepared pan and bake 20-25 minutes until golden brown and tops spring back when lightly touched.
6. Cool the cupcakes on a rack for 10 minutes, then remove from pan and cool completely.

I used Maple Buttercream, but cream cheese icing would work on these as well.

• 2 cups confectioner’s sugar
• 3/4 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
• 2 Tbs pure maple syrup
• 1/2 tsp maple-flavored extract
• pinch salt

Then you:
Mix everything with an electric mixer. Eat it up.

Here, There, and Everywhere

Things have been so hectic I’ve barely had time to do any of the projects I set out to finish this month. I found this fantastic website called Burdastyle.com. They have a bunch of free patterns for sewing, with a few that only cost around one to two dollars. Sewing I think is one of those things that everyone should have a basic knowledge of, because you never know when it will come in handy. I was a terrible home ec student, in fact I was a consistent D the entire time I took it. I don’t think I even finished my final project. Recently I’ve noticed a trend in trift shopping being cool, resulting in eager hipsters going to the local thrift stores and grabbing up all the good pieces then turning around and selling them on ebay for 40-50 dollars a piece. Now that my little secret is out, it’s time to turn to a new way to get unique clothes on the cheap. Which brings me back to sewing. At the moment I don’t have the time to devote to a dress, let alone sit down and breathe. This weekend I’m making French Toast cupcakes for my dad’s birthday, so I’ll post how that turns out. In the meantime, amuse yourselves with this: Questionable Content

Turning your parent’s kitchen into a war zone, and other ways to spend a Thursday afternoon

I am so in love with Bake & Destroy. If you ever have the time, check it out. Her cupcakes are amazing, and she created a zombie cookbook. You can’t get more awesome. Today I had the afternoon to myself, so I decided to try out the chocolate buttermilk cupcakes with espresso buttercream. The end result is a fucking orgasm in your mouth, but let me tell you, making buttercream is not easy at all. Ok, it might be easy if you’re one of those people who pay attention to directions…but if you’re like me and just dumped everything into the bowel before reading the recipe…it turns into a fun experience. The butter wasn’t quite room temperature, close enough but still a little cold. That was my first mistake. The second mistake was putting everything together at the same time. You were supposed to mix the powdered sugar, butter, and vanilla in one bowel, and the coffee stuff in another, then blend them together. Needless to say when I turned the mixer on I got a face full of powdered sugar and a beater full of butter.

After a long and painstaking effort, I got it all together. The instant coffee didn’t dissolve completely, but it makes for pretty flecks in the buttercream, and doesn’t taste bad at all. People eat chocolate covered espresso beans, so I assumed it wouldn’t be a big deal. My favorite detail about this cupcake are the toppers. I found them courtesy of, again, Bake & Destroy. What sold me is the fact that Tenorikuma is a tiny little red panda who makes coffee. Two favorites in one, plus I’m a sucker for cute Japanese characters. A word of caution about the cake itself: it is quite moist and delicate, so handle with care! I almost broke a couple just taking them out of the pan.

 Next project is French Toast cupcakes for my dad’s birthday, then Red Hot Bettie Paige cupcakes for Bill.

Popping Pusses into Pies

First entries are always a bore. It’s always “Hi welcome and here’s a little about my blog.” This isn’t going to be much different. I’m not much of a cook, but being unemployed for three months brought out domestic urges I didn’t know I had. During this time I found out I’m a fucking fantastic baker. A friend of mine told me it would be fun to create a blog detailing my adventures in baking and diy. So…here it is.