Cupcakes for my friend

Today was my friend Michelle's birthday and I surprised her by bringing mini versions of my marshmallow cupcakes to choir rehearsal. It was so much fun to love on my friend. She gets crazy about cooking like I do about baking. She has great ideas about creative and healthy cooking. I am ashamed to say that I have yet to tap into that awesomeness but I sense a collaboration in our future.

Michelle, you are a dear friend, a great mom, and a loving wife. I am so thankful for you. I love that we can talk all evening (much to your husband's chagrin. We get through practice eventually, right?!) about anything and everything from clothes to God's grace to baby food and back to what it means to be a Godly wife. The deep stuff, the simple stuff, and everything in between. Thank you for your friendship, your encouragement, and your wisdom. I can't wait to cook and bake with you! Happy birthday!

Baking Craze

Last week I was on a baking spree. And. I. Loved. It. I got to try several new recipes (one was for strawberry sorbet, which wasn't really baking but it turned out amazing and I can't wait to add shortbread cookies!). I think I was most excited about keeping my kitchen clean every night but by Friday that momentum was lost. Oh well.

One of the recipes I finally tried was Martha Stewart's Banana Bread. This was my first attempt at banana bread. It turned out great. I feel like banana bread is a key recipe in any home baker's arsenal. It is a great option for when you leave bananas too long and you don't want to throw them out.

The recipe I used was really easy to follow and the bread smelled amazing while baking in the oven. I liked that the banana flavor wasn't overpowering but still present.  I made sure that the bananas were really well mashed; I didn't want any banana chunks in my bread. There really isn't anything wrong with that, I just don't prefer it. I took a bit to work and it was gone super fast!

Next time I want to try adding either chocolate chips or a cream cheese frosting. Ryan drizzled chocolate syrup over his slice which was really yummy. But I also like the idea of adding a creamy frosting on top. It's fun to daydream about how to change recipes to make them something special.

I had great feedback from my taste testing of the Toasted Marshmallow Cupcakes that I knew exactly what I wanted to do for the baby shower. I added just little bit more cocoa powder, maybe less than a tablespoon. I also added 2/3 cups chocolate chips. I might be able to add a bit more next time but my goal was to make the cupcake nice and chocolately, not chunky. The marshmallow topping was easier the second time around. I also added pieces of cinnamon graham crackers as decoration. And by chance I found blue cupcake liners while grocery shopping and they were perfect for a baby boy shower.

Now that I have the cake part more to my liking I really want to experiment with a marshmallow frosting. There are a few recipes out there that I want to try. The trick will be getting a kitchen torch so I can toast the edges. Anyone who knows me will be quite concerned and let me just say right now: Yes, there is a fire extinguisher in the kitchen and yes I will read the directions thoroughly before attempting any baking with a kitchen torch.

It was a great week of baking and I have so much more that I am planning for the blog. Stay tuned for some great baking interviews and advice from some of the amazing women in my life.

Happy Baking!

Trial runs = success!

I don't always have the time to do trial runs. I often find myself either just experimenting for fun whenever I have an open schedule or rushing to complete something in time for wherever I'm going (like when I didn't have time to complete the lemon bars before a bridal shower. See my adventure here.).

Well, this Saturday I get to celebrate the coming of a special baby boy and his beautiful mother. I was honored with the request to make a dessert. I researched online for various recipes and spent several lunch breaks absorbed in cupcake and baby shower websites. I had thought of doing something with blue frosting but the idea of everyone walking around with blue mouths wasn't very appetizing. I finally decided on toasted marshmallow cupcakes from Martha Stewart. What boy doesn't love s'mores! (Ok, even though he's not here yet I figured we could honor his "boyness" by having these s'mores cupcakes) I had everything but the marshmallows in my pantry so I figured it would be an easy recipe to try!

I was so excited when I went home last night that I decided to do a trial run for the first time. I cleaned the kitchen and got dinner ready. I was so surprised to find myself energized for an evening of baking. The ingredients were easy to mix and the instructions easy to follow. The only tricky part was to make sure the marshmallows stayed on the cupcakes when I put them back in the oven to broil the tops. Once I got that figured out it was a cinch! The cupcakes turned out beautifully.

I brought the cupcakes to work for a taste test and they got rave reviews. I think I have some adjustments to make for Saturday but all in all I am very happy with the results. I can't wait to experiment more with this recipe and have something special like this in my repertoire.

Happy Baking!