29 October 2010

Happy Halloween from Roxannosaurus

Well I have to admit that these cupcakes are made from a box.

Sorry.

But that's not the point!  The point is the cuteness!  I made that pretty orange frosting (recipe to follow), and the sprinkles were a gift from my wonderful mother.  I literally received an envelope full of sprinkles.  And I was most pleased.

The muffins cups and skull-toppers are from Sur La Table.  I couldn't resist getting them.  Here is the problem with Portland: at one intersection, three of the four corners have stores where I spend horrible amounts of money: Powell's books, Anthropology, and Sur La Table.  If I have to go buy something at one of those stores, I will inevitably end up shopping at all of them.  It is a serious problem because I have no money.

So naturally a few weeks ago, when I needed to pick up a book from Powell's, I ended up actually buying three books, and well as some oven mitts shaped like cats, a spatula, and these adorable Halloween cupcake decorations.  Actually not as bad as it could have been.

So I made these cupcakes for my residents, and they were pretty well-received.  Here's the amazing delicious recipe I used for the icing:

1 cup unsalted butter, softened
3 cups powdered sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
1-2 tbsp. heavy whipping cream

Beat the butter and sugar on low speed until well blended, then beat on medium speed for another three minutes.  Add vanilla and cream and beat on medium for another minute.

Happy Halloween, all!

06 October 2010

More from Magnolia: Double Chocolate Chip Heath Bar Cookies

Today was the last day before our four-day Fall Break, and I had only one class.  To celebrate I made these deliciously evil cookies, adapted from the Magnolia Bakery cookbook.  But before I tell you about these cookies, let me introduce you to my workspace here at school:




So here's the kitchen in my dorm.  Keep in mind that this is the "good" kitchen on my floor.  The one on the other side of the hall is basically made up of a closet with a sink in it and an alcove containing a small refrigerator with a microwave on top of it.

Maybe that picture didn't really illustrate how narrow the space is, so:



Oh yeah.  The width of the room is approximately that of a door (or, one human and one trash can).  Did I mention that this kitchen is shared by sixteen people?


If I'm in there baking cookies and Corey needs to come in and heat up some taquitos, I have to glue myself to the wall to let him get to the microwave.  There's barely even room for my disgruntled cat timer!
No fancy gadgets, no counter space, and other people's dishes everywhere.  It's quite the challenge.  But we make it work!

Now, on to the recipe...

The recipe calls for pecans, but man, do I not like pecans.  So instead of pecans, I put in EXTRA chocolate chips.  If you are weird and you don't hate pecans, you should put in 1 1/2 c. pecans instead of 1 1/2 c. milk chocolate chips.

2 1/4 c. flour
2/3 c. unsweetened cocoa powder (I used 1/3 c. regular cocoa powder and 1/3 c. black onyx cocoa powder)
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
1 1/3 c. (2 2/3 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
2/3 c. packed brown sugar
2 large eggs
3 tbsp. milk
1 tbsp. vanilla extract
1 1/2 c. MILK CHOCOLATE CHIPS (not damn pecans)
1/2 c. white chocolate chips
4 coarsely chopped Heath Bars or similar

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Combine flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt in a bowl; set aside.

In a large bowl, cream the butter and sugars.  Beat in eggs.  Beat in milk and vanilla.  Beat in flour mixture and mix thoroughly.  Stir in the chocolate chips and Heath Bars (oh, fine, add the pecans too).

Drop in teaspoon-sized balls onto ungreased cookie sheet; bake 10-12 minutes.



Here's an extreme close up of a cookie with a very shallow depth of field.  Isn't it a freaking delicious-looking cookie?  Because it's freaking delicious.  I think I ate at least one from every batch I made, and I made about six batches.  Yikes.

Make some cookies now!

03 October 2010

Magnolia Bakery's Sour Cream Breakfast Buns

I am back at school now, and have been baking up a storm.  My favorite new cookbook is one from Magnolia Bakery, which my mother sneaked into my luggage before I left home.  Magnolia is a New York favorite, and they recently opened a location in Los Angeles as well (sadly I didn't get a chance to visit this summer, but I sure will over winter break!)

So far I've made two types of cupcakes, some corn muffins, and these breakfast buns from the cookbook.  All were delicious, but these really made me go "MMMmmmmmmm."  The sour cream makes them light and fluffy, and the cinnamon sugar on top melts into the batter and it is just the best ever.  So here's the recipe:


Ingredients:
3 c. flour
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1 1/2 tsp. baking soda
3/4 c. unsalted butter, softened
1 1/2 c. sugar
3 large eggs (room temperature)
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
1 1/2 c. sour cream

Topping:
1 1/3 c. packed light brown sugar
2 c. pecans (okay so I didn't put the pecans in.  I'm allowed to do my own thing okay?)
2 tsp. cinnamon

Preheat oven to 350 degrees; grease a muffin tin (the recipe calls for "large" muffin cups, but I suspect you could use regular muffin cups.  The baking times might be a bit different though.)

In a bowl combine (or "sift," if you're into that) flour, baking powder and baking soda.  Set aside.

In a large bowl cream the butter and sugar on low speed for about 3 minutes, or until fluffy (I like to time it with the length of a song--this time it was, unfortunately, Britney Spears).  Add the eggs, one at a time, beating after each addition.  Beat in the vanilla.  Add the dry ingredients and mix until just combined.  Mix in the sour cream.  Spoon the batter into muffin cups.

Here's the tricky part.  The recipe didn't say how much batter to put in the muffin cups, so I experimented.  The first batch I filled almost to the top of the tins.  They came out HUGE.  I'd recommend filling the tins only about half way up.

Mix the ingredients for the topping and sprinkle it generously over the batter.

Bake 20-25 minutes, or until a tester comes out clean.

Don't they look incredible?  I love my mommy for getting me this cookbook, and I'm betting the other kids on my hall do too. 
Om nom nom nom nom.