Vanilla cupcakes with cream cheese frosting

Yes, I made more cupcakes.  Am I going to eat them all? Heck ya.  And yes, the chocolate is droopy in the pictures.  Everything melts in the Texas summer, even with the A/C dying just to keep the temperature under 85 in the apartment.

Recipe:

Vanilla Cupcake (makes 12) I only ended up with enough batter to fill 10, and my measurements are strange because I didn’t want to make 30+

3/4 stick (6 tbsp) unsalted butter, melted
3/4 cup + 2tbsp sugar
1 egg
1stp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp salt
1 1/4 tsp baking powder No baking powder, so I substituted 1/4 tsp baking soda and 1/2 tsp lime juice.  FYI, baking soda is 4x as strong as baking powder and needs something acidic to react with to make the cake rise.  Baking powder is just baking soda mixed with cream of tartar.  I didn’t have any tartar, so used lime juice instead.
1 1/4 cups flour
1/2 cup + 2 tbsp milk

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.  Mix all the ingredients together and do not overbeat or you’re going to have very dense cupcake, scoop into cupcake papers, and bake for 16-20 minutes.  Pull them out and let them cool before frosting

Cream cheese frosting

I sort of eyeballed and mixed random things together because I didn’t want an entire batch and had an “ohhhhh I should add some of this” moment, hence the almond and the cinnamon.  I was so close to grabbing the nutmeg, mint, and sprinkles, then reminded myself it would be overload and probably taste nasty.

4 oz cream cheese, softened
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp almond extract
3 tbsp vegetable shortening ie. Crisco; Butter works fine as well, but I was out
1 cup powdered sugar I think I ended up adding about 2 cups
Dash of however much cinnamon you like, around 1 tsp

Cream the butter/shortening and cream cheese together.  Add in everything else, and keep dumping powdered sugar until you get the consistency you want.  I accidentally made it too thick and added a bit of milk to smooth it out.

Chocolate filigree

Melt about 1/4 cup of Nestle chocolate morsel things in the microwave.  Lay out wax paper on a cutting board.  Spoon the chocolate into a parchment bag, snip off the very tip, and pipe whatever decorations you want.  Let it sit in the freezer for about 15 min and they should peel right off the wax paper.

7:21 AM

All nighter almost accomplished.  I figure once every few weeks to hardcore cram for 2+ tests won’t kill me that much.  Since caffeine quit working on me ages ago, my new staple is

http://www.pixiemate.com/

It’s so amazingly delicious (mate chai is my fav because it’s all spicey with cinnamon, cardamom, etc.) and chock full of antioxidants.  Not one of those energy drinks filled with a ton of chemicals.  Just a spin off of green tea for lack of a better comparison.  You basically mix half tea half milk over ice.  The tea is organic and follows sustainable agriculture guidelines.

You can find it in the tea section of whole foods or central market for around $5 a box.  Pricey, but it’s concentrate and mixes over a gallon-ish of yumminess.  I think they sell it in tea bags as well, but I haven’t tried (too lazy to actually brew and I like drinking the stuff cold).

Off to my Ecology exam now…

wallaby

Want some “CREAMY AUSTRALIAN STYLE” yogurt?

Thought this was worthy of an “LOL” moment. Even my kangaroo clock in the background approves. Didn’t intentionally get it in the shot, but it’s a nice coincidence I think. As far as yogurt goes, it’s pretty damn good, which it should be for the price. Organic yogurt is pricey regardless if it’s Australian, British, Mexican, Greek, etc. And the wallaby brand was actually created by two Californians who went down under a grand total of once and decided that constituted a full on aussie yogurt experience. I’m so bored of studying anatomy that I actually googled that. Yeah…

Apple cupcakes with cinnamon frosting and caramel

Only a few days left until school starts again for the summer session so squeezing in as much time wasting activities as possible. Made these cupcakes from scratch, which meant a few things had to be fiddled with. Very yummy, except the butter had a funny taste from absorbing all the refrigerator smells and sort of showed through in the frosting. Recipe is below, as requested from someone who drools over all the pictures of baked goods on my Flickr and wants to copy.

For apple cupcake
Adapted from I<3cuppycakes

1 cup applesauce
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup sugar
1 teaspoon ginger
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs
1/2 cup oil
1/4 cup apple juice
1 teaspoon vanilla

Mix, pour in cupcake sleeves, bake for 16 minutes at 350 F

Cinnamon Frosting
1 stick butter, room temp and beaten
3 3/4 cup confectioners sugar
3-4 Tablespoons milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 Tablespoon ground cinnamon

Mix, add food coloring, and spread/pipe

Caramel Drizzle
1/2 cup heavy cream
4oz caramel candies

Mix in saucepan and heat until melted, cool in refrigerator. Pour in plastic bag, snip off the tip of a corner and drizzle over frosting

Sushi

Amy and I were bored, seems like a perpetual thing. Anyways, we had the crazy idea to go make sushi. Spent a good afternoon chasing down ingredients, finding sushi grade raw fish which apparently Texas has interesting laws for, and finally making the stuff. Was amazing, $25 got us a LOT of sushi, with plenty of extra ingredients we can use next time. Much better than the overpriced stuff at the student union that’s been sitting out for several days.

Some chardonnay to go with it, and wasabi and soy sauce

Massive block of chocolate Matt bought when he was here, but ended up getting shoved in the back of the fridge. No worries, we found it, waited half an hour for it to melt, then dipped a whole carton of strawberries.

All while watching P.S. I Love You. Very sweet movie, probably in my top list of sappy emotional flicks. Lots of moments to relate to personally. Falling in love with a foreign guy (with a sexy accent) at a young age, which is a cause for bitterness with family, the emotional rollercoaster that goes with being apart (although my situation is nowhere near as devastating/definitive).

Cupcakes

Smashed my final this morning, felt pretty damn good about it. Came home, studied for another five hours straight for the one tomorrow. Decided to do a little procrastinating and bake some cupcakes, because if I’m going to be up until the crack of dawn, I need my sugar fix.

Jess + Amy + Boredom =

Amy attempted to write our names. “Amy” worked fine, until I warned her squeezing in seven letters for “Jessica” wouldn’t work too well.

I’ve uploaded pictures, written this thing, I suppose I should go back to reading about Listeria monocytogenes.

101 and fondue

16. Finally get my epic flying mount on World of Warcraft (yes, I know, you’re shaking your heads)

Done, thanks to Mr. Thornmisfor sending me ridiculous amounts of gold even though he doesn’t play anymore.

Also ordered my nifty Moo cards, which shipped all the way from the UK, and apparently went through the Deutsche Post. International mail is always awesome. On the back it’s got my name, phone number, email, and other contact information. Not bad for free

Very belated post, but we went to the Melting Pot for Xuan’s birthday last week. Very yummy, although those girls are crazy. Cheese dipped in batter then fried…that’s a heart attack waiting to happen. Very yummy chocolate fondue, very yummy cake. Our waiter was a foreign guy who had a french accent, which was highly entertaining.

Now for final exams….

Lakeside

1. Create at least 1 HDR shot a week, because they’re so awesome looking

Apparently I need an insanely high grade on my test on Thursday. I’ve been camping out at Mozart’s now that the weather is beautiful outside. Generally very quiet and relaxing, especially on the bottom deck. However, every once in awhile an obnoxious group of people sits at the table right next to mine. There are 3-4 other people working or studying down there, but this group completely ignores us and start chatting and laughing, much to the chagrin of everyone trying to concentrate. It’s midday, the entire cafe is empty and there are plenty of other spots to sit at, so learn to be considerate and move.

Another annoyance…the people passing by on boats, with the stereo blasting Fergie and 50 cent. I’m glad you are outside, having fun and partaking in a healthy recreational activity, but is there really a need to turn the volume up so high? We can hear you loud and clear from several hundred feet on the other side of the lake.

Minor complaints, only a small fraction of the time I’m there.

Easily spent six hours there today. Free wifi, wall plugin for my laptop, a good strong coffee and amazing cheesecake, plus a great view…not a bad deal I think. Knocked out 40 pages of textbook reading, which may not sound like much, but when there is no filler or fluff and every detail and diagram must be committed to memory, that’s a hell of a lot to get through in one sitting.

Sushi and 101

39. Get off the bus one stop earlier and walk the rest of way home everyday, unless it’s raining, I have time constraints, or I’m sick

54. Find all my furniture for the condo for less than $20 a piece on Craigslist (treasure hunt!)

So far so good. I found that I actually get home faster if I get off the stop before if the bus is packed or lots of people need to jump on. The fresh air is pretty nice, we’ll see how it goes when the heat kicks in.

I got a nightstand of Craigslist for free practically, minus gas expenses and a $2 touchup marker from Lowe’s. Now I just need a bed, dresser, and desk, all of which I can’t really get until the end of summer anyways.

I went to Kenichi, a fancy sushi restaurant downtown for Tian’s 20th birthday. Expensive, but pretty food. Apparently it’s a hip place to go because both the restaurant and the bar were packed with young executives and scene goers.

Hanging out in Mary and Lucy’s room, waiting for everyone to get there. We were still half an hour late for our reservation. Oops.

Sushi roll, called “Aleutian Island” on the menu and cost $10

The birthday girl cutting the cheesecake that took an unfortunate tumble in the car. It was still delicious though