Alles Gute zum Geburtstag! (to me!): Streusel Cupcakes

I turned twenty-three a few weeks ago.  I decided to open the restaurant in order to get out and drink a large margarita.  Why in the world would this ever be a good idea, you ask? It wasn’t.  I had forgotten my birthday was the weekend after a Tuesday Valentine's Day.  I had forgotten that it was February break in the Capital area. I had forgotten I WOULD NEVER GET OUT. But I made myself some breakfast cupcakes so that I could enjoy the cupcakes on my birthday.

Although I’m not German, these were delicious! The base was soft and moist, the top was crunchy and sweet and crumbly.  And if I had waited for the glaze to dry to take the picture, it would have been white and beautiful.  

They were messy in the pan because I didn’t give a butt at all.  My dad had come to visit for his and my birthday, so I had very little time. No one seemed to mind that they were messy.

 I was also given a donut to start the day from Lisa. With a candle. What a lovely human being.

And then some people from work made me a beautiful old-lady cake. It’s the thought that counts and I love them all.

And then Bomber’s gave me a free margarita! YUM! My sister even came out to celebrate with me.  She’s a champ because she woke up six hours later to save lives.

Also, I missed the week after my birthday for a party in MA.  These week’s cupcakes will be posted eventually.  J

Through the Candy Cane Forest: Marble Cupcakes!

This week I swirled and twirled and gumdropped (??) my cupcakes to marble the insides like a statue. I mixed the yellow batter with the chocolate batter and baked to perfection! I feel like an evil, mad genius Buddy the Elf!  (This paragraph makes very little sense...buuuut, cupcakes!)

I altered my cupcakes.  Many changes (just two).  The important things were making more and making frosting. I doubled the recipe.  It yielded only 16! How can a recipe only make 16?! I mean, I eat one (minus the amount of batter I eat which is approximately more than one…), leave two for sister and brother-in-law, possibly for more people that are in my house.  I would only bring 12 to work? Psht. So, I made 32.

 And even though Martha said, “Dust with powdered sugar and you’ll be fine.”

I disagreed.  I wanted frosting.  So I made Swiss Meringue Buttercream frosting. 

I did not, however, allow for the frosting to get as stiff as I’d like (that’s what she said). So, it looks a little runny.  Maybe if it was a birthday of someone I really liked I would have dyed it their favorite color.  And worked a little harder.  Maybe I should have saved the cupcakes for another week, but I wanted to make something I liked.  So I did.

A few problems (just one really).  Unsweetened Dutch-processed cocoa is pretty bitter.  But I can deal if it’s going to be so delicious! 

Two Worlds Collide: Mint-filled Brownie Cupcakes

Brownies are my friends.  They come from a box normally for me.  I like to add some love in the form of vanilla extract and possibly some chocolate chips.  I don’t like walnuts.  Brownies have been made for me not from a box, and they were the most delicious brownies ever.  Brought to me by one of the cutest girls I have ever met: Victoria.  Quite an appr-pro name for the victory she had over brownies everywhere. 

York Peppermint Patties are also my friends.  They come from my father quite frequently.  They taste like love.  They are dark chocolate and I always thought I hated it.  They have a mint paste that is white and not green.  They come in the shape of snowflakes sometimes.  They are small or large.  They are delicious.

Sometimes I don’t like my friends to meet.  I’m afraid I’m different people when I’m with one friend.  I sometimes think I like different things with different friends.   Sometimes I’m afraid that they’ll like each other so much that they’ll forget about me.  Sometimes I’m afraid I give them false hopes of how awesome they are.  Sometimes I think that it just won’t work.

But Martha told me that this one would be okay.  Brownies and York Peppermint Patties can meet.  She said, “Let them go and there will be good.”  Dang, was there good. 

The cupcakes were moist and delicious and minty in the middle.  Everyone asked me how I did it.  Bet said it was magic.  And you know what?  The cupcakes were magic.  They were chocolatey, minty magic.  So. Good.  Well done, Martha. 

Also, February is the month of birth for many of my loved ones!  So… I tried to make birthday hats.  They sort of looked cute?  Lisa went home to put it on Muffins, the cat. 

These are a few of my favorite things: Chocolate and Peanut Butter Cupcakes

There are something that are just plain wonderful.

·         January days that you can hang your sheets out and have clean sheets that smell like childhood.

·         Weekends where your dad shows you how hard it will be to find a man to marry.

·         Having milk to put into you black tea, especially when you thought you were out of it.

·         Having a friend bring in a delicious, wonderful cupcake on a Saturday.

·         Having a real meal for the first time in at least two weeks.

·         Warm apple crisp with your favorite vanilla ice cream. Again.

·         Chocolate mixed with peanut butter.

Sometimes all of these things can go wrong.  In order: it can be a real winter, you have to work when your dad comes up, the milk’s bad, the cupcake is bad, you hate the company you’re with, you don’t have ice cream, and you don’t read the recipe.  Now, on this list, the only thing that went wrong was the chocolate and peanut butter cupcakes. 

I failed Martha.  I did not listen.  First, I doubled the recipe.  I think this would have been fine to do.  Proportions worked out fine.  But then I neglected to read what she wrote! I did two tablespoons of chocolate batter with one tablespoon of peanut butter.  Then, a little more than halfway through, I read the directions thoroughly.  I made 9 of the 24 correctly.  They came out beautiful.  BUT! They also came out a little burnt.  How can I fail you twice, Martha?!  I’m so sorry. 

On a good note, all of the cupcakes were eaten.  I also brought in frosting.  Store-bought, so I couldn’t add it myself for my co-workers.  A lot of people didn’t add it anyway.  They were better with a glass of milk. 

I have to try them again.  Probably just one portion of them for the next round.  Make them correctly.  Swirl them more.  Make sure to not burn them.  Although I can’t deny the good ones came out lookin’ gooooood.

A Quick Fix for a Tired Baker: Oreo Cheesecake Cupcakes

I don’t know if my endeavor to make friends through cupcakes has been successful, but I do know that I have been successful in my endeavor to make friends.  This is why I chose a cupcake I clearly knew I would not enjoy. 

I’ve said before that I do not enjoy cream cheese. At all. Bagels? Toasted with butter. Cream cheese frosting cupcakes? I can do without. Cheesecake? No thanks. (Unless it’s a variation of cheesecake with mascarpone instead of cream cheese, which I have yet to try.)

Alas, my serving life, which Steve Dublanica has brought to my attention, is a different species from those of you who work 9-5 jobs or even slightly irregular jobs.  My job brought me to my knees in front of a margarita Friday night.  I had declared to myself that I would head home after work and go straight to bed.   The midnight showing Thursday night and being at the gym until 1AM on Tuesday and Wednesday had crawled into my heart and slowed me down.  I wanted to sleep. 

I worked at 10:30 at my first restaurant.  Came home.  Took a nap.  Went to work at 6 o’clock.  Thought to myself, “When did I sign up for a night job?”  Worked.  Steadily became more miserable.  Felt anxiety clutching my heart.  Desperately desired a margarita with a large dose of tequila in it.  Somehow got caught up with a miserable friend who needed time with people who love her.  

I was not sleeping in my bed at 5AM Saturday morning; I was on a very squishy couch with too much beer in my belly and not enough food. 

As you can imagine, I hadn’t bought my cupcake ingredients.  When I first started my project, I didn’t have friends to go out with, so I bought my ingredients after my $100 Friday nights and went to bed before 2AM and baked cupcakes after I had set an alarm to wake up.  This was not one of those mornings. 

I googled Martha’s Oreo Cheesecake Cupcakes before I slid all over the road.  It was a bad, snowy, unplowed kind of morning.  Got into Shop Rite with a morning breath that could kill a small dog, bought some sushi, frozen pizza, cream cheese, sour cream, and Oreos.  What did that cashier think I was doing?

I got home, opened all the cream cheese to try to warm it up to room temperature, ate my sushi, and started rifling through Martha’s book.  I opened the frozen pizza, popped it in the toaster oven, and started on my newest adventure.  It calls for 42 Oreos.  I only had 39.  I was NOT about to have an extra box of Oreos around my house.  I eat them enough at work.  I found some extra mini Oreos in my draw.  “Hm, what is the difference?” I thought to myself.  NOTHING is the answer. 

Surely, no one thought I'd make piles of sentry Oreos to watch as a massacred their fellow Oreo companions.  I chopped up the nine that would not be used for the crusts and a few baby Oreos to make up for the "missing" three.  

Mix-mix, chop-chop, spin-spin, bake-bake, snack-snack, shower-shower, fa-la-la. 

Started my birthday pins for two of the cheesecakes.  Took a nap.  AHHH! Did not finish them as I wished I could, but they were still cute.  Only one person called me out on using medical tape. 

My brother-in-law said I couldn’t take them to work, but I left six at home.  Don’t feel bad for him.

They brightened one of my fellow server’s day immediately.  I was happy with what they achieved. Since you can't eat them, here's a picture that might brighten your day: 

This is what you get when you don't unload your luggage from a week-long work trip with your clothes still in it.  Nice job, bro. Bella (aka Slutface) will find a way into a small space.  

I was deliriously tired on my way home after a rather busy, rather long night. I got home, ate some pizza, got a drunk call, got into bed, and fell asleep until this afternoon. 

Newest adventure on Day-One-of-Two off?  Joy the Baker’s Whole Wheat Garlic Knots for an employee appreciation day! Back to the restaurant on my day off! 

Sinfully Delicious Devil's Food Cupcakes

Many questions asked this week.

Why do all the good toppings of the salad hide on the bottom?

Why do people judge that I hate salad dressing?

Why are avocados on sale for $1 this week?

How in the world are there “hungry seasons” in other countries when the US is obese?

Why is chocolate soooo delicious? Sinfully so?

I have discovered the answer without a doubt to the last question.  Because it is the Devil’s Cake.  Devil’s Food Cupcakes to be exact.

This is what I’ve made.  It had sour cream in it.  It is still delicious. They were a bit boring though, so I color coded them. 

Again, the frosting was a bit bitter and I didn’t allow it enough time to set.  Sometimes hours just sneak by you without you even noticing, don’t they?  I did, however, bring them in and they got gobbled up.  My sister and I believed them to be a little too dry, but the batter was delish.  Wasn’t gunna fight it when it got all over my hands and there was a cupcake worth of frosting left in my scoop.  Oops.  I do not condone eating raw egg, my Sonja would be proud, but man, do I understand it. 

A fun fact in this experience so far: mistakes happen.  A wise mandrill (or creepy little monkey) once said, "you can either run from it, or... learn from it."  I hit one of these cupcakes with my oven mitt on and the other one I dropped in the frosting.  That one stayed at home to be eaten.  So, be more careful while moving the cooking cupcakes and hold on a little harder.  

Also, I made a special one for Kayla who took her birthday weekend off.  It’s one of the options Martha says to use, so I employed it.  Adorable. Happy birthday, Miss Kayla.

 

Also, if you noticed, these are not going up weekly.  I am lazy and busy and work two jobs.  Last Saturday, I didn't even get to make anything because we went home to visit my sick grandmother, my very pregnant older sister, my little nieces, and my parents.  Lots of things to do.  I did, however, make a delicious apple crisp from Joy the Baker a while ago.  Here is an unattractive picture of said apple crisp with Stewart's Philly Bean Vanilla ice cream.  

Beer and Cake: Stout Cupcakes for the New Year

I know it’s late, but Happy New Year’s! What are your resolutions this year?

Mine include:

§  Stop gossiping

§  Don’t die in the triathlon; by extension, go to the gym more than half the days of the month

§  Budget my money and SAVE

§  Stay organized

§  Keep the 18 Rules from Dalai Lama in mind every day

This is a bowl of home-brewed Milk (Coffee) Stout by my brother-in-law.  I suppose many people’s resolutions (including my sister and brother-in-law) is to stop drinking or lower alcohol intake in the next year.  So, I suppose this is a fitting choice.  I created Stout Cupcakes with Martha this weekend. 

Again, my desire to be plain has overpowered my enjoyment of these cupcakes.  I had a hard time with the stout glaze, which had way more sugar than I could understand.  And they smelled like spices instead of sweet.  Oh, the problems of being simple.

I believe they were a success though because I didn’t have to bring any home.  I even took a bottle cap and wrote Happy Birthday on it.  It was pretty cute.  Boys don’t really care about that stuff, though.  Or any hidden messages from a wanna-be friend. But since it's still January of a New Year, I tell you the same: