Early Grey Cupcakes

I've been dreaming up a new concept in cupcake baking for a while. I haven't seen it much out there, but that doesn't mean it doesn't exist. It just means I don't spend enough time trolling on the internet. They are cupcakes baked right into teacups. And of course they would have to be tea flavoured to make it really authentic. I chose Earl Grey because all other teas pale in comparison and I didn't want to make a wussy cupcake. Then I added some honey-lemon buttercream to top it off:

Earl Grey Cupcakes (from Surprised by Joy)

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, at room temperature
1 cup of sugar
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups of flour
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 cup milk
1 1/2 Earl Grey teabags, cut open and leaves emptied

1. Beat the butter until creamy. Slowly, while still beating, add the sugar and beat until fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, beating in between each addition.
2. Mix the dry ingredients together.
3. Add the flour to the butter mixture in three additions, alternating with the milk. (I always use soy milk or almond milk and it turns out just fine)
4. Fill your tea cups to about the 2/3 line. Bake for 15 - 20 minutes.

Honey-Lemon Buttercream (Tart to Heart)
*I just want to preface this by saying that I found this recipe to be ridiculously sweet and it overpowered the delicate flavour of the Earl Grey. Next time I may just do a lemon glaze and call it a day. You decide.

1 1/2 sticks (3/4 cup) unsalted butter, softened
6 Tbsp honey
1/4 tsp lemon zest
1/4 tsp vanilla
1/4 tsp salt
3 cups powdered sugar, sifted
1. Cream butter, honey, lemon zest, vanilla and salt until combined.
2. Add the icing sugar one cup at a time, tasting between each addition. In order to get it to a good piping consistency you have to add in all three cups.
3. Pipe, dollop, and glob away to your heart's content.

Champagne Cupcakes with Strawberry Champagne Buttercream

I recently found out that one of B's distant cousins had gotten engaged and that him and his family were throwing a celebratory picnic. I already knew I was going to be bringing cupcakes, but what kind was a different story. The part of my mind that hasn't been fried by five years of university and substance abuse (haha, only partially joking...now I'm sad) came up with the brilliant idea of doing champagne cupcakes. I thought, heck, don't people use that shit to make toasts or something? I wouldn't know, it's too classy. At any rate, the hamster began to run on it's rusty ol' wheel:

Champagne Cupcakes:
- 1 box of yellow cake mix - you can use the "good" quality stuff, but I used the PC brand and it was a-okay. (good is in quotations because how good can box cake mix really be? NOT. Until Martha Stewart starts designing the stuff)
- 1 c. champagne

1. Now follow the directions on the box, but instead of using milk like they suggest, use the champagne. That is all. Bake according to directions. It's really that simple.

Strawberry Buttercream:
- 1 c. butter or margarine
- 1/2 c. pureed strawberries (or, as I sometimes call them, strawbies!)
- 2 c. icing sugar

1. Cream you butter or partially hydrogenated butter like spreadable product thing.
2. Add the powdered sugar one cup at a time, tasting between for sweetness and texture. Add more or less accordingly. Remember, this can change based on climate.
3. Add the strawbie puree and beat until combined.

Champagne Buttercream:
- 1 c. butter or margarine
- 1/2 c. champagne
- 2 c. icing sugar.

1. Same as above for the other buttercream, but with champagne.
Bonus: There is enough champagne left over to help the maker finish the product. Well done. Now stop crying and wipe that buttercream off of your face, drunko.

To pipe, fill one side of your pastry bag with the strawberry buttercream, and one side with the champagne buttercream. The champagne stuff will be a little bit softer than the strawberry stuff, so perhaps avoid using the Wilton 1M tip and just use the open end of the pastry bag? It worked okay for me, but resulted in a sloppy finish. Either that or it was the champagne...

Peanut Butter Cookies

I love peanut butter cookies but I somehow, inevitably overcook them every time. I pull them out, they look terribly undercooked so I put them back in and in a matter of two minutes, blamo - hokey pucks that may have once resembled cookies. Somehow I did not totally destroy these ones. I'm going to chalk it up to the recipe, and me following the instructions regardless of what they looked like when they came out. Thanks 52 Kitchen Adventures.

The Glorious Recipe:

1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 cup peanut butter, room temperature
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
1 large egg, at room temperature
1 tablespoon milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt

1. Preheat oven to 350F.
2. Cream butter and peanut butter. Add sugars and beat until dissolved. Add eggs, then milk and vanilla. (I used almond milk and margarine, of course).
3. Whisk together the remaining ingredients. Stir into the wet ingredients, mixing until combined.
4. This is the point at which you could (theoretically) add chocolate chips. I wanted the chocolate to be present in a little more of an nontraditional form, so I used it to decorate the cookies.
5. Drop spoonfuls onto a greased baking sheet. Use a fork to make the criss-cross pattern on top. Tip: dip the fork into water before using it each time - it prevents it from sticking to the cookie and pulling at the top, thusly destroying your design.
6. Bake for 10 - 12 minutes. I found 12 minutes to be just the right amount. They did look quite under baked when I pulled them out but I let them cool and they hardened up just fine. They freeze well too.
7. As you can see, I decided to finish these beauts by dipping them in dark chocolate and then rainbow coated chocolate sprinkles. Do whatever you like with them when you're done! Well, maybe stick to slapping some sort of edible dip product on them and eating them, but whatever floats your boat...

Vegan Tahini Brownies

Since giving up meat and dairy entirely (again!) I've started thinking about my food a lot more creatively. The title of these should really be Tahini Rum Orange Brownies, but that sounds weird and clunky. I found this recipes at weheartfood. Here they be.

 

1 Bar of cooking chocolate, such as 60 or 70% bittersweet, 100 g
1/2 cup, plus one tablespoon of tahini
1 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1 heaping tsp baking powder
1 cup powdered sugar
2/3 cup combination of rum and orange juice

1. Oven at 350 F.
2. Melt the chocolate in a double boiler. Or, like I do, just carefully in a regular pot. Careful being the operative word. Once the chocolate is melted add the powdered sugar.
3. Mix the tahini, rum and orange juice together. I used Captain Morgan's Spiced Rum which complemented the dark chocolate and tahini really well. Then add this to the chocolate mixture.
4. Mix the dry ingredients together and add to the wet ingredients.
5. Line an 8" baking sheet with parchment paper and spread the brownie batter evenly in the pan.
6. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes until crispy outside and gooey inside.

When eating these, keep in mind that they are vegan. Also, in spite of this, the texture is amazing.
For fun you can add chopped walnuts or chocolate chips to the batter at the last step. I chose walnuts. Enjoy.

Vegan Tacos

I was feeling quite lazy the other day when I whipped these little guys up. They are definitely nothing special, aside from the fact that they're made with chickpeas instead of ground meat. I'm sharing this because people don't often think to make their tacos with anything other than ground beef or fake ground beef. Legumes are such a great idea! All you have to do is get some taco seasoning (always check the ingredients label first, of course), your favorite toppings, maybe some soy cheese and chickpeas. Cook the chickpeas with the taco seasoning in place of the ground beef and you get these:

Sweet Pea and Garlic Soup

 I found the most amazing, flavorful and simple recipe on Food~Fitness~FreshAir the other day. As soon as I saw it I knew I had to try it out. I didn't even feel the need to adjust it and make my own Frankenstein version as I normally do with most foods. The best thing about this recipe? It's so simple it practically makes itself! Oh, and it's VEGAN! Hoorah. Here she be:

Sweet Pea and Garlic Soup
1/4 cup sliced garlic (10-15 cloves)
-4 cups peas
-2 cups low-sodium vegetable broth
-1/2 tsp. salt
-1/4 tsp. pepper
-2 Tbsp. chives, finely chopped
2 Tbsp. extra virgin olive oil

1. Saute minced garlic in olive oil until garlic is nice and brown. Add peas, salt, pepper and broth. Simmer for about 20 minutes, or until peas are tender. Remove from heat.
2. Put one cup aside and puree the rest however you please. I used a blender and in my infinite wisdom and patience I tried to do it all in one batch. Yes, it did look like Regan was in my kitchen when I was through. So, foo', don't do it all in one batch if you're using a blender.
3. Add puree and whole peas together back in the pan. Serve however your sassy little ass wants. This is your world. (thanks Bob Ross)

Anniversary Pancakes

So, yes I am a bad blogger. But whatever. Behold these tasty morsels of delicious deliciousness. It was my and B's anniversary and I thought to myself, what do I do well that B also really likes. You perverts, the answer is cook food! So, on Sunday so I got up early and made these babies:

Banana pancakes with a scoop of vanilla ice cream, candied pecans, and peaches poached in ice wine. Now, I don't really have a recipe for this, as I kinda just threw it together, groggily, in the morning. I believe the pancakes go something like:

1 1/2 cups of flour
1 tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
2/3 cup sugar
2 mashed bananas
1 egg
1 cup of milk (or soy milk, like I had on hand)
Mix the dry ingredients together and then add the wet ingredients. Cook away to your heart's content. I find that the best time to flip your pancakes is when the edges start to look cook and bubbles form in the center.

Peaches:
1 1/2 cups frozen peaches (fresh would have been preferable, if they had any)
2 tbsp ice wine
Pinch of cinnamon
Throw these two things in a pot and reduce until the liquid in the pot has reached the consistency of a syrup. You don't need to add anything else because there is so much sugar in the ice wine that it will thicken on it's own.

Pecans:
1 cup pecan halves
2 tbsp brown sugar
I actually had no idea how to candy nuts so I also just tossed them in a pan together and stirred them until the sugar had melted and coated the nuts nicely. You do have to watch them though, as they can burn quite easily due to the sugar.

Now, just throw it all together and blamo. Bliss. In your mouth.