Brownies

In the mood to bake a simple, easy, quick, classic crowd-pleasing dessert using ingredients you most likely already have in your pantry? This one's for you.

These will be sure to disappear fast at work tomorrow...


Brownies (adapted from TD's Brownies III)

• 4 eggs
• 1 cup oil
• 2 cups flour
• 2 cups sugar
• 1/2 cup cocoa powder
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp salt

1. Preheat oven to 350 F. In a large bowl, beat together eggs and oil with a whisk until blended.
2. Combine remaining ingredients. Add to the egg mixture and mix well (but don't over-mix!)
3. Spread batter in a greased 9" x 13" pan. Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

(Pssst... In the midst of making these brownies, I realized I only had one cup of white sugar left. I substituted the second cup with light brown sugar, and they turned out just fine.)

Simple as that.

Cheers,

L

Cupcakes with Strawberry Frosting

At work, the word "meeting" usually makes people groan, but when they involve a smorgasbord of delicious lunch and dessert, as they often do at my workplace... my eyes light up. We have a lunch meeting this Monday, and I eagerly volunteered to provide a homemade dessert. Lately, I haven't so much as stepped foot in my kitchen other than to whip up a PB&J for lunch or heat up a quick dinner. This was a perfect opportunity for me to get back in the game.

This winter has been particularly crummy (and I'm not just referring to the weather), and I wanted to make something that evoked sunshine. These cupcakes just seem to scream spring. This morning started out dreary and gray, and as the hours spent in my kitchen wore on, the sun came out and the sky is now as blue as can be. A day like today... just me, my sunlit kitchen, and powdered sugar all over the place... was long overdue.

I've made this strawberry frosting a couple times before with fantastic results. I tell everyone it tastes like strawberry ice cream. I love, love, love it. It just makes me smile. This time I paired it with a basic vanilla cake. I'd love to pair it with a chocolate cake or brownies sometime.

And might I add... my blog's header is a huge photo of a cupcake. It's about time I wrote a cupcake post.

Strawberry Frosting (adapted from Sprinkles)
makes enough for 12 cupcakes (I doubled the recipe for 24 cupcakes... seven cups of sugar! ahhhhhhh!)

• 1/2 cup fresh strawberries, coarsely chopped
• 1 cup unsalted butter, just barely cool but still firm
• pinch of salt
• 3 1/2 cups confectioners' sugar
• 1/2 tsp vanilla

1. Process the strawberries in a food processor until a smooth puree forms.
2. In a large bowl, beat together the butter and salt on medium speed until light and fluffy.
3. Lower the speed on your mixer. Gradually add the sugar and mix well.
4. Add the vanilla and 3 tbsp of the strawberry puree. Mix well. You can mix just until blended for a dense frosting, or you can keep going and incorporate more air for a fluffier frosting. It's up to you. I went fluffy this time.

Note: I added a lot of extra strawberry puree this time around because the berry flavor wasn't strong enough. I think it's probably because they're not in season yet. Just add however much strawberry fits your taste.

Butter...butter...and more butter.

Glorious buttercream...

Glorious buttercream after the addition of strawberries.

Darn right I licked the beaters!

This is how you get popular at work. Just kidding. Kinda.

How did you spend your Sunday?

Cheers,

L

P.S. My poor little hand mixer. It's an off-brand, sorta chintzy mixer I got for like 7 bucks at Kmart about 4 years ago. I thought it (not to mention my arm) would die today, with the amount of frosting I made. But it was the little engine that could! Still, it made me yearn for one of these beauties.

Pumpkin Loaf

Consider this a continuation of last night's pumpkin post. As mentioned previously, I've been craving a good pumpkin quick bread. After conducting extensive scientific research in order to locate the perfect recipe, I decided on smittenkitchen's pumpkin muffin recipe. With my own tweaks, of course. I obviously changed it to a loaf recipe, omitted the cinnamon sugar topping, and because I refuse to spend money on "pumpkin pie spice" when I already have all the individual ingredients on my spice rack, I changed -- and increased -- the spices. I like my autumn cakes/muffins with lots of spices, but not to the point of overkill.

As a habitual over-mixer of muffin/quick bread batters, I really liked Deb's advice in her post:

A large wire whisk, when mixing by hand, really allows you to incorporate all of the drying ingredients quickly without mashing them up too much. It’s made it much harder to overdo it, despite my better efforts.

I found this to be totally true. Despite my efforts to gently fold in the flour, I've always unintentionally over-mixed my muffins and quick breads, leaving them to fall flat (literally) or become a giant sinkhole. This whisk thing sure does the trick!

Pumpkin Loaf
adapted from smittenkitchen.com

• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 cup pure pumpkin puree
• 1/3 cup vegetable oil
• 2 eggs
• 1/4 tsp nutmeg
• 1/4 tsp cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp allspice
• 1/4 tsp ground cloves
• 1/4 tsp ground ginger
• 1 1/4 cups sugar
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour a 9"x5" loaf pan or baking dish.
2. Whisk together the pumpkin, oil, eggs, spices, sugar, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl until smooth and thoroughly combined.
3. Whisk in the flour and baking powder just until combined. Pour the batter into your loaf pan/baking dish, and bake until golden brown and a knife inserted in the center comes out clean, about 1 hour.

That last picture is the most flattering photo I could take of the finished product. I had a minor disaster while turning the loaf out of the pan -- things were not pretty (including the string of swear words that came out of my mouth in the process). But, although it doesn't look pretty, it is darn tasty, and that's all that matters. :)

Cheers,
L

First Baking Post!: Lemon Sunshine Cookies

The view from my back patio today.

 The weather could not be more perfect today.  Low humidity, mid-70s, plenty of sunshine, and just enough wind.  I have nearly all the windows open and there is a wonderful [sneeze-inducing] breeze drifting through the house.  On a day like this, I can't NOT bake something.  Plus, I can't believe I haven't done a baking post, since I am such an avid baker.  So, it just fits!

This recipe was described on Allrecipes as "THE cookie for the lemon lover."  I love all things lemony.  I think I take after my mom in that regard.  Lemons just remind me of sunshine, and on such a sunshiney day, a lemon cookie sounded perfect.

Lemon Sunshine Cookies (I renamed -- and tweaked just a little -- Juanita's Lucious Lemon Snaps. Thank you for the great recipe!)

• 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup white sugar
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/8 tsp salt
• 1 tbsp lemon zest
• 1/4 cup plus 2 tbsp vegetable oil
• 1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

1. Preheat oven to 350 and grease cookie sheets.
2. In a medium bowl, mix together first 5 ingredients.  Form a well in the center.  Pour the last 3 ingredients into the well.
3. Stir together to form a dough.  Drop by rounded teaspoonfuls onto a cookie sheet, 2 inches apart.
4. Bake for 7 minutes.  Edges will be slightly golden brown.  Makes 24 cookies.

I love the little bits of lemon zest in the dough.

Fresh out of the oven.

Just amusing myself.  Thanks Angela for the cute plate set ;)

These are seriously really good.  I would describe them as a lemony sugar cookie.  They have just enough lemon flavor, a delicate crunch, and a slightly soft middle.  They would be SO perfect with a cup of tea.

Cheers,
L