Magnolia Bakery Cupcakes

Yesterday was my friend, Aimee's birthday. Her husband had a party planned for her, however decided not to do it about a week ago, so I am not sure what the plans are now. Anyhow, she is on the worship team with my husband. I decided I would make cupcakes and take them to practice tonight for everyone(and mainly for her). I looked for a recipe, not really knowing what her favorite was, so decided I would try something I wanted to eat. I have seen this recipe for the Magnolia Bakery's cupakes. I have never been there before, so I have nothing to compare these to. They were very good, my only complaint was some of the edges instead of rising decided to spread out the sides of my muffin pan resulting in a few misshaped cupcakes, any solutions, anyone??? I added 1 tsp of lemon zest, which gave it a nice subtle lemon flavor. Also added the flour in with the dry ingredients as the recipe did not specify, so I made a somewhat educated guess. I chose a basic Buttercream Frosting for the icing. I am glad I am one of those people who only has to make a mistake once. I had my sugar ready to go and broke an egg in the batter(big mistake!). One whiff and I knew that bird was rotten. With lots of gagging(thanks to pregnancy and a generally weak stomach in normal circumstances) my husband came in and cleaned the mess up for me. So... I started over. Waiting for butter to soften is worse than watching a pot try to boil. So from now on, I break my eggs in a separate bowl, then add. Other than that, I was quite proud, as was my husband as I have a tendency to overbeat cakes and form the gluten in the flour, resulting in dry tough cake(still not used to a KitchenAid, I guess). Anyhow, this was not the case with these, very tender, moist, and crumbly. Well, Happy Birthday, Aimee, you better appreciate these!!!

Birthday Cake Cupcakes from The Magnolia Bakery Cookbook

1 cup unsalted butter -- (2 sticks) room temperature
2 cups sugar
4 large eggs -- room temperature
2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
Preheat oven to 350º. Beat butter on high until soft, about 30 seconds. Add sugar. Beat on medium-high until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes.Add eggs one at a time, beat for 30 seconds between each.Whisk together flour, baking powder, and baking soda in a bowl. Measure out milk and vanilla together. Add about a fourth of the flour to the butter/sugar mixture and beat to combine. Add about one third the milk/vanilla mixture and beat until combined.Repeat above, alternating flour and milk and ending with the flour mixture. Scoop into cupcake papers about half to three-quarters full (depending on whether you want flat or domed cupcakes). Bake for 22-25 minutes until a cake tester comes out clean.
Yields: 24 cupcakes

Chicken Pot Pie

This was dinner the other night. An old standby recipe and the ultimate comfort food for me. I forgot to take a picture of the inside and it since has been long gone, sorry! One of my favorite things to make although quite time consuming since you have to make the crust, etc. I told my husband I remember begging my mom to make this growing up and she would make this strange concoction of chicken with cream of chicken soup and bisquick on top, not the same thing as to me the veggies make the dish. My only gripe about this meal is I never know what to serve on the side since it seems to include all food groups in one, so I usually just add some random veggie or starch.

Chicken Pot Pie

Pie crust, enough for a double crust
2 c. frozen peas and carrots
1/3 c. margarine
1/3 c. flour
1/3 c. onion, chopped
salt and pepper, to taste
1 3/4 c. chicken broth
3/4 c. milk
3 c. cooked chicken, bite sized pieces

Preheat oven to 425º. Rinse peas and carrots in cold water to thaw slightly. In saucepan, melt butter over medium heat. Whisk in flour, onion, salt and pepper. Cook, stirring constantly, until bubbly. Whisk in broth and milk and heat to boiling. Cook until thickened, should take about a minute. Stir in chicken and peas; remove from heat. Roll two thirds of the pie crust into 12 in. square. Place in a 9 in. square pan. Pour chicken mixture into crust. Roll remaining crust into square, place over chicken. Tuck pie crust and flute, cut slits in top to allow steam out. Bake 30 minutes or until golden brown and bubbly.

Vegetable Lasagna

Last nite I made this for dinner. It was very good, just as filling as lasagna with meat. My husband enjoyed it thoroughly and my 2 yr old daughter ate it with little complaint. Which is a big accomplishment as lately she has turned her nose at anything green resembling lettuce. I added some quickly sauteed shredded yellow squash and carrot to the recipe to fill it out more and some grated mozzarella(about 3-4 cups). Next time I think I'll add some fresh basil instead of dried and something else(whatever hits me) to the sauce as it needed a bit more flavor.


Fresh Spinach Lasagna
18 lasagna noodles
2 bunches fresh spinach -- washed and well drained
2 Tbsp olive oil
1 med onion chopped
2 garlic cloves minced
1 can tomato sauce -- (8 oz)
1 can tomato paste -- (6 oz)
1 cup chicken broth
1 tsp honey
3/4 tsp dried basil crushed
3/4 tsp dried oregano crushed
salt and pepper -- to taste
2 cups ricotta cheese
1 cups parmesan cheese grated
Cook lasagna noodles in boiling salted water until just tender but stillfirm. Drain and set aside. Place spinach in steamer over medium heat and cook briefly to wilt. Drain well and set aside. Preheat oven to 350F. Heat oil in medium skillet over medium-high heat. Add onion and saute until softened. Add garlic and saute a few minutes more. Stir in tomato sauce and paste, water, honey, basil, oregano and salt and pepper. Simmer 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. Lay 6 noodles on the bottom of a 9x13-inch baking dish. Spread 1/3 of spinach(at this point I added a layer of squash and carrots), ricotta(at this point I added mozzarella), and 1/3 of the sauce evenly over noodles. Repeat layers two more times ending with sauce. Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese, then cover and bake until heated throughand cheeses are melted, about 25 to 30 minutes.

Apple Pie

This apple pie was made a few months ago and I just happened to have the picture on my hard drive, so I figured I'd add it to my blog. It was made from a recipe in Martha Stewart's Baking Handbook. I can usually do pies really well, however my husband was not crazy about this one. Mainly because the filling was not thick and gooey like most pie fillings. Upon reviewing the recipe, I realized I forgot to put the flour in with the apples. I am not crazy about the layout of the book(at least the way this recipe was formatted) as the flour was separate from the ingredients for the filling and I just overlooked it in my hurry to just get it in the oven, plus an aching back from standing on tile for a few hours. Maybe I'll try it again sometime, maybe not. Other than that, it was good, so it was my mistake.

Red Velvet Cupcakes

So, in an attempt to better my baking I decided to try my hand at cupcakes. I found this recipe for Red Velvet cupcakes and decided to give it a try, they didn't turn out quite as red as I had hoped they would, but tasted fine. The last few times I have made cake from scratch it was dry and unedible, this was better, but there is still room for lots(and lots) of improvement. I frosted them with Cream Cheese icing as I am a firm believer that cream cheese makes anything better.