Happy Administrative Assistant's Day!

Lorrie wanted to do something for the admin assistant in her area at work, which meant I was baking something. Her job was to find a decoration for the top. She was hoping to find some of the Peeps chicks somewhere but what she came home with was even better. She found these marshmallow ice cream cone candies with pink, yellow, and white "ice cream" colors. I think they turned out pretty good.

The cupcake used the same yellow cake recipe I used for the Easter Bunny cupcakes. I've made this enough now that I'm comfortable with the recipe and what I need to do for them to turn out good. The frosting came from a can which I then colored yellow and pink. I had gotten marshmallow fluff too in case we had different candies but didn't use it. I think the white nonpareils just gave it a nice touch.

There were well-received and tasted really good. Lorrie has already mentioned she wants to do these again.

Trouble Free Cake Mix

I was in TJ Maxx the other day looking for some cupcake decorations and I saw this pan:


It caught my eye because I've almost purchased pans that allow you to make the cookies-on-a-stick and this was something along those lines. This was unique because of the shape and it showed other cookies beyond sugar cookies. The picture above is the back of the box. It shows three recipes: crispy rice treats, a protein bar, and trouble free cake mix. Nevermind the whole concept of a protein bar on a stick (you know, for those fussy, hard to please, scrawny children), I'm looking for a good trouble free cake mix recipe. So I go for a closer look and see this:



"1 Box cake mix - any flavor"  Well, there ya go. I wish I would have seen this pan sooner, I could have saved all that money on cookbooks...



Sorry about the photos. They were taken on my camera phone while the store's staff was giving me a variety of looks from puzzlement to annoyance.

Cherry Spelt Muffins

The final item in our Easter baskets were these cherry spelt muffins. My whole "trying to make something healthy" mania was in full swing here. I had purchased the spelt flour a little while ago to try it so somehow I thought giving an experimental muffin as a gift was a good idea. The cherry idea came from Sam Adams Cherry Wheat beer. Yep, I made a muffin based on a beer. In fact, it was a beer that sorely disappointed me so I made a muffin based on a beer I didn't like. Yep, that should have told me how this would go.

The first batch I made went like this: Only used half of a cup of cherries and soaked them in the Kirschwasser alone. Didn't like that flavor overall so I added the tart cherry juice. I wanted to use honey for this recipe but instead of measuring out 1/2 cup I measured 1 cup and didn't notice until I had mixed it with the eggs so I had to start over at that point and oops, out of honey so I'm using brown sugar instead. Mix it up and bake it. Cool them off and have a bite...of the half of the muffin not permanently attached to the muffin paper. And you really only tasted the spelt. *sigh* I couldn't use these as a gift.

So while I was waiting for the cupcakes to cool, I tried again. This time I doubled the amount of cherries and added a little vanilla and also used some of the cherry juice in the batter. The batter itself was really light. It was good to not use the paper lining the second time because having the crust around the muffin gave it more structure and gave it a little tooth versus the airy center.

But again taste was an issue. If you had a muffin with a number of cherries in it then it was just as I imagined, cherry complimenting the spelt flavors. If you didn't get enough cherries, it was a decent dinner roll.

I liked them but I think there are better ways to implent this. First, it was a light, wet batter which I think would work well for pancakes, especially the stuffed varieties. Baking these without the papers reminded me of the stuffed pancakes using a pan like this.Instead of adding the cherries, use jam in the center. But if I was to stick to muffins, I would probably go more to the savory ingredients. When I worked at the Deli, we had a bacon and cheese muffin that I think would work well using spelt.

Cherry Spelt Muffins

Makes about 12 muffins

2 1/4 cups spelt flour
1 Tbls. baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup wheat bran
1/4 cup (packed) light brown sugar
3 large eggs
1 1/4 cup buttermilk
2 tsp. vanilla
1 cup dried cherries
2 Tbls. Kirschwasser
2 Tbls. tart cherry juice

Preheat the oven to 425° F.

Soak the cherries in the Kirschwasser and tart cherry juice for up to an hour before using. Do not get rid of the liquid when you are done soaking the cherries.

Combine the eggs, vanilla, and buttermilk in a bowl, mix well, and set aside.

In a large bowl, combine the dry ingredients (all the remaining ingredients except the cherries) and whisk to combine. Now add in the cherries and give a quick stir to cover with the flour mixture. Finally, add the wet ingredients to the flour mixture and stir until everything is just mixed. Don't over mix.

Spoon the mixture into greased muffin cups. Fill each to the top and mound slightly in the center if possible.

Bake for 16-20 minutes. About halfway through, rotate the pan 180°. The muffins are done when a cake tester comes out clean and they spring back when pressed lightly. Remove from the oven, let cool in the pan for about 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool.

Healthier Blackberry Oat Muffins

The second baked good in the Easter basket was a version of my blackberry oat muffins. My mother had commented on how they sounded good the first time I made them so I included them this time, but with a little twist. This recipe I tried reducing the oil and sugar a little bit. I like the original batch I did but I wanted to see if I couldn't reduce some of the ingredients I thought might have used a little too much of. Well, that and I wanted to switch this to use buttermilk instead of whole milk.

I thought these muffins were pretty good. Seemed very similar to the first batch. My parents loved them and we got compliments from Lorrie's cousin.

I did try this batch again later and they didn't turn out. Basically they were overmixed and then overbaked so be careful of both (besides being bad for muffins in general overmixing made this recipe purple from the blackberries, which then meant it really didn't brown until it was way past done). I knew better but went ahead and did it anyway.



Blackberry Oat Muffins
differences from the original recipe are highlighted

Makes about 12 muffins

3 1/2 cups (11 3/8 oz) oat flour
1 cup (3 1/2 oz) instant oats
1 Tbls. baking powder
1 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. salt
2/3 cup (4 3/4 oz) sugar
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 cup buttermilk
2 large eggs
1 cup roughly chopped blackberries

Preheat the oven to 425° F.

Combine the eggs, oil, and milk in a bowl, mix well, and set aside.

In a large bowl, combine the dry ingredients (all the remaining ingredients except the blackberries) and whisk to combine. Now add in the blackberries and give a quick stir to cover with the flour mixture. Finally, add the wet ingredients to the flour mixture and stir until everything is just mixed. Don't over mix.

Spoon the mixture into greased or paper-lined muffin cups. Fill each to the top and mound slightly in the center if possible.

Bake for 16-20 minutes. About halfway through, rotate the pan 180°. The muffins are done when a cake tester comes out clean and they spring back when pressed lightly. Remove from the oven, let cool in the pan for about 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool.

Easter Bunny Cupcakes

If you came to my site on Easter (or scrolled down a bit I guess), you were greeted by a picture of the finished army of these cupcakes. This was the first part of the Easter baskets Lorrie and I created. Originally, I hadn't planned on doing these. As Easter approached I assumed I'd be doing cut-outs again in rabbit and egg shapes. I changed my plans when I decided to try to do some things with less sugar but I still wanted a couple things in the basket that still were pure, unadulterated sugared-up treats.

I used a yellow cake recipe for the cupcake base. Lorrie and my uncle can't have chocolate so that's always in the back of my mind and something I plan for. I've used this recipe before for cupcakes and I know it tastes good. Going forward though I think I will look for something else. This recipe tastes good and is easy enough to make but still it is much more dense than I would prefer. I think I can do better.

I spent a lot of time trying to think of how to decorate these. I had the idea to do an Easter basket theme right away but it was trying to figure out the execution of it that took a while. My first thought was the Peeps chicks, but when I saw the packages and the actual size of each chick, I knew there wouldn't be room for anything else. It had to be the bunnies. I liked the malted milk robin eggs over any of the jelly bean options at the store and they stayed in the theme well as the decorated eggs in the basket. The grass was something I didn't expect to find or use. I used green-dyed coconut last year for the grass and wasn't going to give it a second thought this year until I found this new candy grass right next to the Peeps at Target. Made from potato starch and corn starch, the grass really didn't have much flavor but worked as an alternative to the coconut. Plus, I hate coconut so I was really going to try anything else. I think I spent the longest time brainstorming on how to stick all this on the cupcakes. I didn't want strong flavored frostings and some just don't hold well. In the end, I used marshmallow creme as the frosting. This worked really well. A little dab on the bottom of the Peeps bunny held it in place, for the most part. The marshmallow creme as frosting actually worked very well and was rather easy to put on and spread. Much easier than some of the frostings/glazes I've used in the past. Some did dribble down the sides and it did melt slightly in the sun but really, frosting makes a mess too.


Yellow Cake
from page 352 of the The King Arthur Flour Baker's Companion: The All-Purpose Baking Cookbook

Makes 12 cupcakes

12 Tbls. (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter
1 3/4 cups (12 1/4 oz) sugar
3/4 tsp. salt
2 1/2 tsp. baking powder
2 tsp. vanilla extract
4 large eggs plus 2 yolks
2 3/4 cups (11 1/2 oz) unbleached, all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups milk, buttermilk, or yogurt (I used buttermilk)

Preheat the oven to 350° F.

In a large bowl, cream together the sugar, butter, salt, baking powder, and vanilla until the batter is fluffy. This should take at least five minutes. Also, make sure your butter and eggs are at room temperature. This is a requirement for making a butter cake.

Add the eggs and yolks one at a time. Beat thoroughly before adding the next. Then slowly fold in a third of the flour, then half of the milk, then another third of the flour, the remaining milk, and then the last of the flour. Only stir until mixed. Overmixing will reduce the volume of air trapped in the butter and sugar.

Pour into your greased or paper-lined cake pans or cupcake pans. Cooking times vary by shape but the cupcakes took about twenty-five to thirty minutes and rotate the pan 180° about twelve minutes in. Cool in the pan for about five minutes for cupcakes and ten minutes for a cake and place on a wire rack to cool completely.

Easter Baskets

Lorrie likes to bring little baskets of gifts when we visit family and of course, I enjoy baking something for it. Easter is definitely one of those times. Last year's baskets were collections of sugar cookie cut-outs in Easter themed shapes. Rabbits with green-dyed coconut for grass, Easter bunnies with licorice whiskers and candy eyes, robin eggs, etc. (I took pictures but only one turned out.) But my dad is diabetic and a dozen sugar cookie makes me feel like a bit of an enabler.

So this year, I tried some different things in the baskets. A couple of 'Easter basket' cupcakes, a version of the Blackberry Oat muffins, and something new, a Cherry Spelt muffin. A couple of sweet things but a little more healthy and a lot less sugary. Other things in the basket to round it out were a small stuffed animal and a Peeps candy container filled with sugar-free jelly beans.

Happy Easter

from the Peeps bunny army!

March 2007 Just Baking Round-Up

My "Look, I post somewhere else" round-up of posts I did as editor at Just Baking in March.

Mar. 2 - A Good Breakfast - Repackaged version of my Northwoods Bran Muffin post for a new audience.

Mar. 6 - Quinoa - Brief overview of Quinoa and its uses.

Mar. 14 - Something Different - Date bars. Hmmm, sounds familiar.

Mar. 15 - Help for the Beginning Baker (and Cook) - It's just amazing on what you can get free at Cook's Illustrated Online.

Mar. 28 - In The News - The latest buzz - pizza can be healthy.

Mar. 29 - Baking is Learning - I express my surprise at how well this recipe worked.

Mar. 30 - A Phenomenon Reexamined - The news about how to make healthier pizza made me think of another news event.

I had a very busy month.


*Update* - As Just Baking no longer exists, I have removed the actual links but left the post names as a source for ideas