classy cupcakes

I’m a few days late for daring bakers, I realize. But that’s a-ok because I’m back to spoil you with yet another cupcake recipe, hooray!The important part: The February 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Aparna of My Diverse Kitchen and Deeba of Passionate About Baking. They chose Tiramisu as the challenge for the month. Their challenge recipe is based on recipes from The Washington Post, Cordon Bleu at Home and Baking Obsession.The not-quite-as-important part: I went back to Martha for this tiramisu recipe since quite honestly my meager baking supplies and money really inhibited this sort of decadent dessert. I wanted to modify it then, so I could actually do the challenge instead of crapping out (a new resolution if you will). And I love cupcakes. And reading Martha Stewarts Cupcakes. When I saw these… Let’s just say that I was beyond exciting. I made little ladyfinger cookies as an accompaniment to the mini cupcakes and they all seemed to get good reviews even through various mishaps so... You should try them. As soon as you locate some mascarpone cheese (one of my new favorites to be sure).
Be warned – these cupcakes were enough to make me break my good-eating streak so bake with caution! They are a very adult desert – not too sweet and a bit delicate with the subtle layers of airy vanilla cake, bittersweet coffee glazing, light whipped cream/mascarpone frosting, and the slightest touch of dark chocolate dusting on top. Glorious! The dark chocolate ladyfingers completed the dainty tea-party mood and let me just say that they were perfect dipped in the frosting, coffee, left over ladyfinger batter… Yeah I broke my good eating habits pretty hard with these.


If you’re wondering why the ladyfingers look weird… Well it’s because my little hand-mixer can’t get stiff peaks if it’s life depended on it! That fact is basically the worst and I shudder to try to make more egg/meringue-y desserts. Which is sad, because they’re all so delightfully airy. In any case, if you want ladyfingers to be like little soft cookies, then follow my “special” method and get your mix up to soft peaks. I suggest you do the regular way anyway to make up for my failures.
Keep calm & carry on – make these cupcakes and feel classy if only until you realize you’ve eaten 15.

Tiramisu Cupcakes
Adapted from Martha Stewart Cupcakes

Ingredients
Makes 18 regular cupcakes, lots of little ones.
• 1 1/4 cups cake flour (not self-rising), sifted
• 3/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon coarse salt
• 1/4 cup milk
• 3 tbsp vanilla
• 4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, melted
• 3 large whole eggs plus 3 egg yolks, room temperature
• 1 cup sugar
• Coffee-Marsala Syrup
• Mascarpone Frosting
• Unsweetened cocoa powder, for dusting

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Line standard muffin tins with paper liners. Sift together cake flour, baking powder, and salt. Mix milk and vanilla and melted butter and let stand 15 minutes.
2. With an electric mixer on medium speed, whisk together whole eggs, yolks, and sugar. Set mixing bowl over a pan of simmering water, and whisk by hand until sugar is dissolved and mixture is warm, about 6 minutes. Remove bowl from heat. With an electric mixer on high speed, whisk until mixture is fluffy, pale yellow, and thick enough to hold a ribbon on the surface for several seconds when whisk is lifted.
3. Gently but thoroughly fold flour mixture into the egg mixture in three batches; stir 1/2 cup batter into the strained milk mixture to thicken, then fold milk mixture into the remaining batter until just combined.
4. Divide batter evenly among lined cups, filling each three-quarters full. Bake, rotating tins halfway through, until centers are completely set and edges are light golden brown, about 20 minutes (about 10 minutes for mini cupcakes). Transfer tins to wire racks to cool completely before removing cupcakes.
5. To finish, brush tops of cupcakes evenly with coffee syrup; repeat until all syrup has been used. Martha’s serious about using all the syrup. Those little cupcakes will soak that stuff up no problem just go at it. Allow cupcakes to absorb liquid 30 minutes. Dollop frosting onto cupcakes; refrigerate up to overnight in airtight containers. Dust generously with cocoa powder just before serving.

Simple Coffee Syrup
(adapted from Martha Stewart’s Coffee-Marsala Syrup)

Ingredients
Makes enough for 18 cupcakes. (or a lot of mini cupcakes)
• 1/3 cup plus 3 tablespoons freshly brewed very strong coffee (or espresso)
• 1/4 cup sugar

Directions
1. Stir together coffee & and sugar until sugar is dissolved. Let cool. Paint over cupcakes.

Mascarpone Frosting
- From Martha Stewart Cupcakes

Ingredients
Makes about 2 cups.
• 1 cup heavy cream
• 8 ounces mascarpone cheese, room temperature
• 1/2 cup confectioners' sugar, sifted

Directions
1. With an electric mixer on medium speed, whisk heavy cream until stiff peaks form (be careful not to overbeat, or cream will be grainy). In another bowl, whisk together mascarpone and confectioners' sugar until smooth. Gently fold whipped cream into mascarpone mixture until completely incorporated. Use immediately.

Chocolate Ladyfingers and Cake Rounds

Ingredients
Makes lots of little ladyfingers
• 2/3 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder, plus more for dusting
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 7 large egg whites
• 2/3 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar
• 6 large egg yolks

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Sift flour, cocoa powder, and salt into a small bowl.
2. Whisk whites with a mixer on medium-high speed until soft peaks form. Gradually add 2/3 cup sugar, whisking until stiff, shiny peaks form, about 5 minutes. Whisk yolks with remaining 2 tablespoons sugar in a medium bowl until thick and pale, about 3 minutes. Fold yolk mixture into whites, then fold in flour mixture in 2 additions.
3.Line 2 baking sheets with parchment. Draw lots of little 2" circles, then flip parchment over. Spoon batter into a pastry bag fitted with a 1/2-inch round tip. Starting in the center of each circle, pipe a spiral, leaving a 1-inch border around inside edge of circle. Bake until springy to the touch, 15 to 18 minutes. Transfer parchment with rounds to a wire rack, and let cool. Use immediately.

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Oh, Canada

Bet you didn’t see this post coming, eh? (Ouch sorry). It’s my somewhat triumphant return to the world of Daring Bakers and it’s with a deliciously simple Nanaimo Bar recipe from the land of maple trees, snow, and hockey (which incidentally sounds exactly like Cornell). It comes highly recommended by all who ate it (namely everyone in my studio). It was so good and so “architecturally inspirational” that my studio professor took one bit and then ordered us all to sketch the now-mangled Canadian dessert. Don’t expect any posts of my less than spectacular art skills, but you should expect plenty of happy faces for whoever you make them for.

The January 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Lauren of Celiac Teen. Lauren chose Gluten-Free Graham Wafers and Nanaimo Bars as the challenge for the month. The sources she based her recipe on are 101 Cookbooks and www.nanaimo.ca.

Now upon reading my recipe, you may notice that there is no gluten-free component. That is on purpose. It’s not that I’m hating on anyone who can’t eat gluten, it’s really because of a major time and money crunch that doing the graham cracker thing would have delayed this post to the point of extinction. That, and one of my dear friends was recently diagnosed with a nasty allergy to gluten and everything else tasty so I’ve already tried my hand at gluten-alternative flours with dense results. That’s potentially for another post, once I’ve figured out the logistics. Someday. Please visit lots of other Daring Bakers for their gluten-free-graham adventures, yay!


This recipe is easy. No baking involved, actually. I managed to pull it off with a hot pot, a bowl, a spatula, and one 8x8 baking pan. And it was delightful.


Nanaimo Bars

Bottom Layer
½ cup unsalted butter at room temperature
¼ cup sugar
5 tbsp cocoa powder (I used dark cocoa with delicious results)
1 egg, beaten
1 ¼ cups graham cracker crumbs (use the gluten free graham cracker recipe here if you’d like)
½ cup finely chopped walnuts
1 cup coconut

Directions
Combine the butter, sugar and cocoa powder in a double boiler and heat until melted. Slowly drizzle the hot mixture into the beaten egg, whisking constantly until thickened. This is important as other recipes may suggest that you add the beaten egg to the mixture – I prefer this way to make doubly sure that my egg doesn’t cook. Chocolate scrambled eggs do not a good Nanaimo bar make. Stir in the graham cracker crumbs, almonds, and coconut. Press the mixture firmly into an ungreased 8″ x 8″ baking pan. It will make a lovely “architectural composite material” when cut according to my professor so really press the heck out of that sucker, it packs down pretty well.

Middle Layer
½ cup unsalted butter at room temperature
3 tbsp whipping cream
2 tbsp vanilla pudding powder
2 cups icing sugar
Directions
Cream together the butter, cream, vanilla pudding powder and icing sugar until light. Spread over bottom layer.
Top Layer
4 oz semi-sweet chocolate
2 tbsp unsalted butter

Directions
Melt the chocolate and butter in a double boiler over low heat. Once it’s melted take it off the heat and just let it chill on the counter while you do dishes and steal bits of the delicious pudding-buttercream middle layer, the cooling took a while for me. Once cool but still liquid, pour over middle layer and chill in refrigerator until set, about an hour.
Cut into squares using a knife dipped in hot water. I just cut it with a knife and it turned out fine, but a suggestion I saw for easier (and neater) pieces was to dip the pan very briefly in hot water and then turn out onto a plate. Flip over using a second plate and cut into squares.

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Cupcake War: Vegan Edition

Aaaand I’m back to blogging, with a somewhat triumphant return! Before I get any further into my recent baking exploits, I have to apologize to those of you who have visited rite of cake over the past few (many) months and have been greeted with a stagnating apology post from a million years ago. It was never my intention to let RoC fester for so long and I’m sorry that this blog and any of its readers have been treated like abandoned children while I was caught up in real life drama that I wish never happened. Suffice to say, last semester was stressful beyond all belief both in the complete lack of sleep and plenty of issues that were very hurtful and still confusing to this day, so forgive me in not wanting to spread the personal parts any more than I have to. In short, I’m sorry and I have plenty of recipes lined up and ready to go – thank you for your support (especially Jill, who is such a sweetheart, yay!).

And on to the fun part, the part that I’ve been missing all of these months! The story behind the “Cupcake War” actually ties into my job as a Resident Adviser, in which I’m responsible for 50 freshman girls and creating programs/activities for a dormitory of 400+ girls. This is one of those activities – a sort of coke/pepsi challenge, cupcake style.


Basically I made a batch of 100 mini vegan chocolate cupcakes and 100 regular (Martha Stewart) chocolate cupcakes (both with the standard already vegan Wilton buttercream frosting) and challenged people see if a) they could tell the difference and b) which cupcake they liked best. They had to vote on which cupcake was better without knowing which was the vegan cupcake and then once they decided I would tell them which was which and tally their vote on a giant poster. This was accompanied by informational posters about the pros/cons of veganism and all that jazz to provide an educational activity (aka doing my job).

Fun stuff, right? What was interesting was that most people actually preferred the vegan cupcakes to the regular cupcakes and many people said that they liked both cupcakes evenly. It was a neat experiment and all the girls who participated loved it, so expect some more variations on the Cupcake War and enjoy the recipe below. I’ve only posted the frosting recipe and the vegan cupcake recipe, if you’re interested in some non-vegan cupcakes then go to Martha’s recipe here. Ps sorry about no process pictures, I was baking at night and completely forgot about my camera... Oh well.

Basic (Vegan) Chocolate Cupcake Recipe

Makes: 12 cupcakes, or a lot of mini ones

From: Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World, by Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero

INGREDIENTS

-1 cup soy milk (I suggest chocolate soy milk)
- 1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar (I used regular vinegar with success)
- 3/4 cup granulated sugar
- 1/3 cup canola oil
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/2 teaspoon almond extract, chocolate extract, or more vanilla extract (I went with more vanilla)
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 1/3 cup cocoa powder, Dutch-processed or regular (I used dark chocolate, though I think I would have preferred regular cocoa powder so that the cupcakes were a little less dense)
- 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon salt

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 350°F and line a muffin pan with paper or foil liners.
2. Whisk together the soy milk and vinegar in a large bowl, and set aside for a few minutes to curdle.
3. Add the sugar, oil, vanilla extract, and other extract, if using, to the soy milk mixture and beat until foamy.
4. In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Add in two batches to wet ingredients and beat until no large lumps remain (a few tiny lumps are OK, it will look weird. I was worried, but really you don’t have to be, these are delightful).
5. Pour into liners, filling 3/4 of the way. Bake 18 to 20 minutes (closer to 10 minutes if making mini-cupcakes), until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Transfer to a cooling rack and let cool completely before frosting (but feel free to eat them warm without frosting because they’re super tasty then too). It’s not enough to convince me to become vegan (I love dairy and sushi far too much), but it’s always good to have a cupcake to appease almost any crowd.

Buttercream Icing

Source: Wilton
Ingredients:
•1/2 cup solid vegetable shortening
•1/2 cup (1 stick) butter or (vegan) margarine softened
•1 teaspoon clear vanilla extract
•4 cups sifted confectioners' sugar (approximately 1 lb.)
•2 tablespoons (soy) milk
Makes: About 3 cups of icing.

instructions
(Medium Consistency)
In large bowl, cream shortening and butter with electric mixer. Add vanilla. Gradually add sugar, one cup at a time, beating well on medium speed. Scrape sides and bottom of bowl often. When all sugar has been mixed in, icing will appear dry. Add milk and beat at medium speed until light and fluffy. Keep bowl covered with a damp cloth until ready to use.
For best results, keep icing bowl in refrigerator when not in use. Refrigerated in an airtight container, this icing can be stored 2 weeks. Rewhip before using.

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Quick Update, No Cute Title :(

Hey everyone, I just wanted to issue a formal apology for my complete lack of existence... Without going into too much detail, life has sort of derailed for me and will hopefully be back on track within the month, so don't panic (yet)!

Things to look forward to:
Cupcake of the Month Club
Once upon a Monday with Martha
Lots of baked goods
Daring Bakers (of course)
IronCupcake:Earth (whenever it starts up again)
and... maybe even a Wilton Cake Decorating Feature :)

**titles subject to change, don't get too attached to them.

In any case I'll be back soon. Thank you so much for your time & patience!

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A Charming Couple

…Better late than never? The July Daring Bakers’ Challenge was due to post… Oh three days ago. But that’s ok because the cookies are here and ready to go! First off:

The July Daring Bakers' challenge was hosted by Nicole at Sweet Tooth. She chose Chocolate Covered Marshmallow Cookies and Milan Cookies from pastry chef Gale Gand of the Food Network.
Secondly… I call these charming cookies because… Well they’re just that. Charming. I wouldn’t call them gorgeous – they aren’t the sort of showstopper cookies you’d want to serve at a party. But they are tasty, and they have that sort of homeliness that would be very comforting and lovely on a bake sale table. Or in my stomach.This Daring Bakers’ Month I decided to do something different by trying to follow the recipe exactly, without trying anything fancy or messing up. That way if people don’t like it they can’t blame me I can easily go back to the recipe and try to figure out what went wrong. And things went wrong with this. Not huge things, just little things I wasn’t expecting. The Milano cookies were tasty except I felt that there was way too much lemon extract in the actual cookies and then the added orange zest I felt was overkill on the citrus. And I love citrus as much as I love sugar and blue skies. If I were going to try this recipe again, I would probably lesson both the vanilla and the lemon extract because the batter was super alcoholic… As a college student I’m usually all for that but personally it just didn’t work for me in these cookies. That being said, they are much tastier on Day 2, perhaps because the flavors have melded a little better, or perhaps because I like them better frozen. Either way they’ll be eaten pretty quickly.
The mallow recipe itself left a lot to be desired for me. The cookie recipe was fine, the cookies are tasty and biscuit-y, though perhaps a little more crunch would be nicer. The marshmallow recipe, although fun to make in that reminiscent s’mores flavor sort of way, didn’t make nearly enough marshmallow to top the cookies – as you can see from the pictures, there’s a little squirt of marshmallow on my cookies in an attempt to spread it around as much as possible, but it didn’t work. I have plain chocolate covered biscuit cookies. It was a little disappointing.My biggest bone to pick is with the chocolate covering – I don’t know about other Daring Bakers out there, but I used the vegetable oil as suggested in the recipe and the chocolate absolutely refuses to harden or even solidify so these cookies are like the stink bombs of cookies – they get chocolate everywhere and it takes way too much time and energy to try to get all the sticky chocolate off of every surface in the kitchen. Or your hands. Or your clothes. Or your hair. It’s out of control. I froze them for 3 hours to no avail so I’m guessing there’s something up with the vegetable oil. Next time I would try melting wax with the chocolate to give it that chocolate-covered candy feel. The chocolate recipe also didn’t make enough chocolate – I almost had to triple the original chocolate recipe to adequately cover all of my cookies. Frustrating, but all in all still tasty as long as you’re wearing clothes you don’t care about.It was a fun challenge regardless of all the “hardships” encountered – and since I followed the recipe basically to a T, feel free to try it out by following the Daring Bakers link here.

Ps. Please vote for my cupcake at IronCupcake:Earth! Thanks!

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IronCupcake:Earth - Herb Cupcakes

Surprise! I’m now officially an IronCupcake:Earth Challenger, so in addition to the monthly installments of Daring Bakers, I get to indulge in my cupcake-love once a month too. I like to call it my “Cupcake of the Month Club.” You might not know this, but it’s also sort of a Miss International Cupcake popularity contest, complete with prizes (click read more to see how super cute they are) – isn’t this fun already? So if you happen to wander past here and say golly, that cupcake looks like a purebred winner to me, then feel free to gleefully click your way to IronCupcake:Earth and vote for me in the right hand column. Yay!

But enough about flashy prizes and winning stuff and voting. What I really want to talk about is my hybrid cupcake creation that I whipped up the other night on a dazed whim – the awkwardly named “Chocolate Orange Rosemary Cupcakes with Chocolate Buttercream” (CORCCB for short?). When presented with the challenge to include herbs in my cupcakes I thought about the daring bakers spinach monstrosity and cried a little on the inside I was a little wary. As much as I like spice and pizazz in my lunches and dinners, cupcakes are my little sugar fix that I could always count on as being deliciously different than whatever main course I just ate. In some ways this still is the case. In other ways… Not so much.

I initially thought lavender because I liked the idea of purple in a cupcake – very cute. But then again lavender is a bit reminiscent of pepper and of the lavender recipes I saw, they either didn’t really interest me or they used some lavender-infused sugar. I wasn’t interested in that sort of time commitment. While googling as many herb combinations as I could find, I stumbled on to a few sites that mentioned that rosemary just plain jives with citrus. Well I jive with citrus too. Like oranges, for example. Do you know what else jives with citrus? Chocolate. Oh yes.




My theme was decided. When you look at the cupcake pictures, think orange-chocolate truffles. Only with little bits of rosemary chopped in. That is the essence of my cupcake creation. The rosemary, I found, didn’t add a different flavor like I was expecting – it was more of an added “tonal quality” to the little symphony of cupcake batter I was whipping up. It didn’t compete with the orange but rather added a bit of mellow, natural texture to it and enhanced the orange in a lovely way. So far so good.

The only issue was that after I got the cupcakes baked I A) oops - dropped a pan of them on the floor and b) they were super-orangey. Almost out of control in their orange flavor. My original plan for this recipe included an orange chocolate frosting to really make the flavor combinations pop, but the orange flavor was already exploding from every pore of the cupcake so I decided to go with a simple chocolate buttercream to temper the orange flavor just a tad. It worked, but I wish I had more frosting because the orange flavor can still be a bit overpowering when you don’t get enough frosting in a bite. I would have liked to cut down on the orange zest and extract just a tad to let the chocolate and rosemary shine through more, but I really think that these cupcakes would make excellent miniature cupcakes. That way the orange flavor would be controlled by small portions and a heftier dollop of frosting.
All in all not my favorite cupcake concoction but not one that I’d scrap entirely. I think it just needs a bit more finagling to get it just right. My family is certainly eating them without a problem. Maybe you will too 

Chocolate Orange Rosemary Cupcakes w/ Chocolate Buttercream
Print Me!
**Note: My first printable recipe! More to follow, so get excited!

Chocolate Cupcakes
Modified from Cupcake Bakeshop
24 regular cupcakes / 350 degree oven

INGREDIENTS
1 cup of 61% cocao
3 sticks butter
2-1/4 cups sugar
8 eggs
1-1/4 cup flour
1/4 cup cocoa powder, unsweetened
1-1/2 tsp baking powder
pinch of salt
4 tsp finely chopped rosemary
2 tbsp orange zest (I suggest reducing this to 1 tbsp)
½ tsp orange extract (I suggest reducing this to ¼ tsp)

DIRECTIONS
1.chop chocolate and transfer into the bowl of a standing mixer.
2.add butter to the chocolate and place the bowl over a pan of simmering water. stir until chocolate melts and butter is combined.
3.remove from heat and stir in sugar. let mixture cool for 10 minutes.
4.beat in an electric mixer for 3 minutes.
5.add one egg at a time, mixing for 30 seconds between each
6.sift the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, and a pinch of salt into the mixture and mix until blended.
7.scoop into cupcake cups and bake at 350 F for 25 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

CHOCOLATE BUTTERCREAM FROSTING
MODIFIED FROM CUPCAKE BAKESHOP
enough to lightly frost 24 cupcakes

INGREDIENTS
1 stick butter
1/2 cup cocoa
4 cups confectioner’s sugar
~1/4 cup milk (The original recipe called for ¼ c., I used probably close to ½ c. to get the taste/texture I wanted – Play around on this one)
2 tsp vanilla

DIRECTIONS
1.Beat butter on high for about 30 seconds until soft.
2.Add cocoa and 1 cup of sugar and beat until incorporated
3.Add half of the milk, vanilla, and the remainder of sugar and beat until incorporated.
4.Continue to add milk until you get to the consistency you want.

Our ETSY PRIZE-PACK is from artists:
• INSANEJELLYFISH
• CIRCLEMONKEY
• Sweet Cuppin' Cakes Cupcakery
• CAKESPY

Our corporate prize providers include:
- HEAD CHEFS by FIESTA PRODUCTS
- HELLO CUPCAKE by Karen Tack and Alan Richardson
- JESSIE STEELE APRONS
- TASTE OF HOME books
- A t-shirt from UPWITHCUPCAKES.COM
- Iron Cupcake:Earth is sponsored in part by 1-800-Flowers

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Confessions of a LEED AP... And Snickerdoodle Cupcakes!

Thanks for everyone’s words of encouragement on the DB challenge post with the LEED AP test – apparently I passed (although during the test I would have told you that I was going to fail for sure) so now and forever I’m a LEED Accredited Professional. Ooh, it makes me want to make business cards or change my email signature or something. :)

So yes. I’ve had a few days of blissful freedom, and though I wish the Chicago weather would cooperate and just be sunny for once this summer, life is good and my summer has officially begun. Officially officially this time. And what that means is another fun recipe/post for all of you to read, yay!
To be honest, I made these cupcakes a while ago when the bf and I had a random cupcake craving. Okay, so I had a cupcake craving and he just smiled and went with it. It’s nice to know that he’s used to my little oddities now, haha. While I wanted to try out Martha’s gorgeous lemon curd cupcake recipe (it’s like her cupcake poster child all over the cupcake portion of her website, check it out and drool!), we were both pretty tired so we tried to find a simplistic recipe and found a snickerdoodle cupcake recipe… I was intrigued. While they turned out tasty, they weren’t what I was looking for in a snickerdoodle cupcake… I personally felt like the cupcake itself wasn’t moist enough (I’m a big fan of moist and flavorful over light and airy cupcakes myself), and the frosting was ok with this cupcake… I might have liked it more if it was more of a filling inside of the cupcake instead of slathered on top. But then again I was very heavy handed with the frosting so that could have affected the outcome… I’m obsessed with a high frosting to cupcake ratio. So obsessed that I’ve been known to rip off the bottom half of the cupcake so the frosting ratio is 50/50… Don’t worry I’ve already been told by countless others that this habit of mine is pretty special. Yeah.

Anyway here is the recipe (from Martha’s new Cupcake book/website), feel free to try it out and let me know what you think – should cupcakes be considered snickerdoodle-flavored just on account of having cinnamon sugar involved? Do you think my frosting to cupcake ratio was overboard and overwhelmed the delicate cupcakes?
And get excited for more blogging, hooray!

Snickerdoodle Cupcakes, Martha Stewart Cupcakes
Makes ~ 28
Ingredients
• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 cups cake flour (not self- rising), sifted
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon, plus 1/2 teaspoon for dusting
• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1 3/4 cups sugar, plus 2 tablespoons for dusting
• 4 large eggs, room temperature
• 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
• 1 1/4 cups milk
• Seven-Minute Frosting

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line standard muffin tins with paper liners. Sift together both flours, baking powder, salt, and 1 tablespoon cinnamon.
2. With an electric mixer on medium-high speed, cream butter and sugar until pale and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating until each is incorporated, scraping down sides of bowl as needed. Beat in vanilla. Reduce speed to low. Add flour mixture in three batches, alternating with two additions of milk, and beating until combined after each.
3. Divide batter evenly among lined cups, filling each three-quarters full. Bake, rotating tins halfway through, until a cake tester inserted in centers comes out clean, about 20 minutes. Transfer tins to wire racks to cool completely before removing cupcakes. Cupcakes can be stored up to 2 days at room temperature, or frozen up to 2 months, in airtight containers.
4. To finish, combine remaining 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon and 2 tablespoons sugar. Using a pastry bag fitted with a large plain tip (Ateco No. 809 or Wilton No. 1A), pipe frosting on each cupcake: Hold bag over cupcake with tip just above top, and squeeze to create a dome of frosting, then release pressure and pull up to form a peak. Using a small, fine sieve, dust peaks with cinnamon-sugar. Cupcakes are best eaten the day they are frosted; keep at room temperature until ready to serve.

Seven-Minute Frosting
"Martha Stewart's Cupcakes."
Ingredients
•1 1/2 cups plus 2 tablespoons sugar
•2/3 cup water
•2 tablespoons light corn syrup
•6 large egg whites, room temperature

Directions
1.Combine 1 1/2 cups sugar with the water and corn syrup in a small saucepan; clip a candy thermometer to side of pan. Bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until sugar dissolves. Continue boiling, without stirring, until syrup reaches 230 degrees.
2.Meanwhile, in the bowl of a standing electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, whisk egg whites on medium-high speed until soft peaks form. With mixer running, add remaining 2 tablespoons sugar, beating to combine.
3.As soon as sugar syrup reaches 230 degrees, remove from heat. With mixer on medium-low speed, pour syrup down side of bowl in a slow, steady stream. Raise speed to medium-high; whisk until mixture is completely cool (test by touching the bottom of the bowl) and stiff (but not dry) peaks form, about 7 minutes. Use immediately.

Note - this was an interesting/fun way to make 7-minute frosting, mostly because I kind of guesstimated the temperature/did whatever I wanted. Don't throw the extra frosting in the oven and try to make meringue-y stuff... It doesn't work. Just trust me on that.

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Key Lime Bakewell Tart-ing? Pud-art? Tar-dding?

To tart – start I mean (ha) – I thought everyone should know that:

The June Daring Bakers' challenge was hosted by Jasmine of Confessions of a Cardamom Addict and Annemarie of Ambrosia and Nectar. They chose a Traditional (UK) Bakewell Tart... er... pudding that was inspired by a rich baking history dating back to the 1800's in England.

The version we were dared to make is a combination of the pudding/tart: a sweet almond-flavored shortcrust pastry, frangipane and jam (or in my case, key lime curd). That being said, this post is being written in total procrastination in-between 6 hour study sessions in the library.
No, I’m not at school right now. Though you’d be hard-pressed to tell the difference… The truth is, I’ve been missing from the face of the earth (in blogging terms anyway) thanks to my friends over at the US Green Building Council. I won’t go into much detail because nobody finds this interesting but architects/designers/civil engineers, but I’m racing against the clock to take a giant professional test known as LEED which allows me to coordinate/design nationally-recognized sustainable buildings and have a fancy title like “LEED Accredited Professional” next to my name. That and being a LEED AP at the tender age of 18 has got to be some sort of high-five worthy record… Or at the very least get me some sort of legit internship next summer (if I pass). For those of you who do know LEED, I’m sorry for dumbing that down for you. In any case, I’m taking the test now as opposed to later because the USGBC (see above) is changing the format of the test to make it harder and more expensive ($450!!!) to pass after June 30th.
So I’m taking the test at 11am June 30th. This is the part where I try to not hyperventilate. I thought about skipping this month’s DB challenge but then figured that taking a baking break in between the hours of studying might just keep whatever’s left of my sanity intact. Besides, Bakewell tarts/puddings/tar-ddings are British and I love anything British so I couldn’t pass it up. And here we are.
Last month was the strudel and it was fine, not my favorite, but fine. I’ve been crossing my fingers for something cake-y or pie-y or cupcake-y… Something simplistic and satisfying that my stress makes me crave like crazy these days. I didn’t get that, and that’s ok. Traditionally these suckers have a jam layer beneath the frangipane but I just wasn’t in the mood for jam as I’m having too much fun eating huge piles of fruit raw to go through the trouble of processing them into jam. And even though I was craving chocolate chip cookie dough (recall alert! Oh no!), I went with one of my other summer staples: key limes.

I love key limes.
I’m not a huge fruit-pie person, but key lime pie (cheesecake, tart, bar, cookie, you name it) is the one thing I can’t live without. It goes hand in hand with my addiction to citrus, but key limes are on a whole other playing field. They’re tangy, refreshing, have lovely yellow-green (maybe even chartreuse) coloring, taste amazing with whipped cream and graham crackers… I want some right now. And I wanted some when I was thinking of what to put in my pud-art too. So naturally I found a key lime curd recipe (compliments of Martha, what a dear) and decided to really go all out with the key lime flavor by adding key lime buttercream frosting to the top (hats off to Southern Living on that one). That and sprinkles.




Fun fact of the day: this is the first time I’ve used a scale in baking (aka haven’t converted all the measurements into cups, etc). It was exciting.

Bakewell Tart…er…pudding (little tartlettes style)
Makes one 23cm (9” tart)
Prep time: less than 10 minutes (plus time for the individual elements)
Resting time: 15 minutes
Baking time: 30 minutes
Equipment: 23cm (9”) tart pan or pie tin (preferably with ridged edges), rolling pin, I used little muffin tins.

One quantity sweet shortcrust pastry (recipe follows)
flour
(1cup (8 US fl. oz)) jam or curd, warmed for spreadability
One quantity frangipane (recipe follows)

Assembling the tart

Place the chilled dough disc on a lightly floured surface. If it's overly cold, you will need to let it become acclimatised for about 15 minutes before you roll it out. Flour the rolling pin and roll the pastry to 5mm (1/4”) thickness, by rolling in one direction only (start from the centre and roll away from you), and turning the disc a quarter turn after each roll. When the pastry is to the desired size and thickness, transfer it to the tart pan, press in and trim the excess dough. Patch any holes, fissures or tears with trimmed bits. Chill in the freezer for 15 minutes.

Preheat oven to 400F.
Remove shell from freezer, spread as even a layer as you can of jam onto the pastry base. Top with frangipane, spreading to cover the entire surface of the tart. Smooth the top and pop into the oven for 30 minutes. The finished tart will have a golden crust and the frangipane will be tanned, poofy and a bit spongy-looking. Remove from the oven and cool on the counter. Serve warm, with crème fraîche, whipped cream or custard sauce if you wish.
When you slice into the tart, the almond paste will be firm, but slightly squidgy and the crust should be crisp but not tough.

Sweet shortcrust pastry
Prep time: 15-20 minutes
Resting time: 30 minutes (minimum)

225g (8oz) all purpose flour
30g (1oz) sugar
2.5ml (½ tsp) salt
110g (4oz) unsalted butter, cold (frozen is better)
2 (2) egg yolks
2.5ml (½ tsp) vanilla extract (optional)
15-30ml (1-2 Tbsp) cold water

Sift together flour, sugar and salt. Grate butter into the flour mixture, using the large hole-side of a box grater. Using your finger tips only, and working very quickly, rub the fat into the flour until the mixture resembles bread crumbs. Set aside.
Lightly beat the egg yolks with the almond extract (if using) and quickly mix into the flour mixture. Keep mixing while dribbling in the water, only adding enough to form a cohesive and slightly sticky dough. Form the dough into a disc, wrap in cling and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes

Frangipane (now with coconut!)
Prep time: 10-15 minutes

Ingredients
(4.5oz) unsalted butter, softened
(4.5oz) icing sugar
(3) eggs
(½ tsp) almond extract
(4.5oz) ground almonds
(1oz) all purpose flour
Optional : 1/3 cup shredded coconut, unsweetened (sorry, no weighing out when I’m guessing on this)

Cream butter and sugar together for about a minute or until the mixture is primrose in colour and very fluffy. Scrape down the side of the bowl and add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. The batter may appear to curdle. In the words of Douglas Adams: Don’t panic. Really. It’ll be fine. After all three are in, pour in the almond extract and mix for about another 30 seconds and scrape down the sides again. With the beaters on, spoon in the ground nuts and the flour. Mix well. The mixture will be soft, keep its slightly curdled look (mostly from the almonds) and retain its pallid yellow color.

Key Lime Curd – Martha stewart
Makes 3/4 cup (note: for the tart I doubled this and then only put in 4tbsp of butter… Do what you want)
•1/2 cup sugar
•2 large eggs
•2 tablespoons grated key-lime zest, plus 1/4 cup freshly squeezed key-line juice (6 limes)
•4 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into small pieces

Directions
1.Combine sugar, eggs, lime zest, and juice in a medium nonreactive saucepan, and set over medium-low heat. Cook, whisking constantly, until mixture begins to thicken and holds the mark of the whisk, 10 to 12 minutes.
2.Remove pan from heat, and whisk in butter, a piece at a time, until well combined. Strain mixture through a sieve into a glass bowl. Lay plastic directly on surface to prevent a skin from forming. Chill 3 hours or overnight to set the curd.


Key Lime Buttercream Frosting
Southern Living, MARCH 2009
Prep: 10 min.
Yield: Makes about 5 ½ cups, I cut it in half for the tartlettes and I still came out with too much frosting... it is tasty by itself

Ingredients
•1 cup butter, softened
•3 teaspoons Key lime zest
•2 teaspoons vanilla extract
•1/4 teaspoon salt
•2 (16-oz.) package powdered sugar (so 32 oz total)
•6 tablespoons Key lime juice
•2 to 4 Tbsp. milk

Preparation
1. Beat first 4 ingredients at medium speed with an electric mixer until creamy.
2. Gradually add powdered sugar alternately with Key lime juice, 1 Tbsp. at a time, and 1 Tbsp. milk, beating at low speed until blended and smooth after each addition. Beat in up to 1 Tbsp. additional milk for desired consistency.

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This Is Not Your Usual Toaster Strudel...

It's actually just a strudel... A strawberry strudel! Think homemade poptart crossed with an appel strudel minus the apples plus a lot of Daring Bakers goodness. That and powdered sugar. And ahem,

The May Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Linda of make life sweeter! and Courtney of Coco Cooks. They chose Apple Strudel from the recipe book Kaffeehaus: Exquisite Desserts from the Classic Cafés of Vienna, Budapest and Prague by Rick Rodgers.

Yay! I hope all of you are feeling well because I'm really excited to be back here on the blogging dealy. It's been too long... Long enough for me to have turned into a sophomore in college. Yikes. And now I'm home... and after two weeks I'm almost ready to go back. There's this odd sort of feeling like I don't belong in my family's home anymore - I'm ready to be out if only I had the money.

But I don't have any money (which is why I wake up at 6am every morning to go to work) and living at home this summer means loads more baking and blogging than I could ever hope to accomplish scraping by in a dingy apartment elsewhere.

I know you're here for the baking, so I won't keep you waiting any longer. For some reason when I read this challenege back at the start of the month I had this image in my head that strudel was a cobbler of sorts. I quickly found out otherwise as soon as I saw completed challenge posts with pictures of flakey fruit-filled (or meat/cheese/etc filled) logs popping up all over the place. Good thing I like surprises.


In any case, within 48 hours of getting back to the midwest I had this strawberry concoction in my head and soon on my countertop. I had to take advantage of actually having a kitchen after all. I found the recipe to be rather straight forward but since I don't like apples in my baked goods (gasp!) I veered off into the jungle of fruit desserts and made one up on the fly. I thought it was pretty tasty for a fruit dessert, not my favorite, but recipes with room for improvement are always fun too. Something that wasn't fun: trying to make a warm flakey strudel look decent on camera. Seriously these things are not photogenic. I think I'm too OCD for photographing this dessert - it hurt a little on the inside. But I hope you like it as much as my mother said she did...

Prep Time
Total: 2 hours 15 minutes – 3 hours 30 minutes
It's worth it.
15-20 min to make dough
30-90 min to let dough rest/to prepare the filling
20-30 min to roll out and stretch dough
10 min to fill and roll dough
30 min to bake
30 min to cool
Strawberry Strudel
Ingredients
2 quarts of fresh strawberries (plus another to eat while you bake obviously)
ground cinnamon to taste
2 teaspoons vanilla
1/2 c. sugar
1 stick butter, melted, divided
1/3 c. fresh bread crumbs
strudel dough (recipe below)

Instructions:
1. Wash and cut up your strawberries into quarters, add sugar and vanilla.
2. Heat 3 tablespoons of the butter in a large skillet over medium-high. Add the breadcrumbs and cook whilst stirring until golden and toasted. This will take about 3 minutes. Let it cool completely.
3. Put the rack in the upper third of the oven and preheat the oven to 400°F. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper. Make the strudel dough as described below.
4. Spread about 3 tablespoons of the remaining melted butter over the dough using your hands. It'll be nice and warm - enjoy it :)
5. Sprinkle the buttered dough with the bread crumbs. I discovered too late that you don't have to use all the breadcrumbs and you don't have to coat the dough. It's better if you just give it a light sprinkling because a heavy hand will give you a strudel like you see in the picture - totally separated layers. Weak sauce.
6. Pour the strawberry mixture in a line on the dough and sprinkle with cinammon as you see fit. It tastes good I promise.
7. Fold the short end of the dough onto the filling and keep on rolling. You might want help... Then transfer the strudel to the prepared baking sheet by lifting it. Curve it into a horseshoe to fit. Tuck the ends under the strudel. Brush the top with the remaining melted butter.
8. Bake the strudel for about 30 minutes or until it is deep golden brown. Cool for at least 30 minutes before slicing. Use a serrated knife and serve either warm or at room temperature. It is best on the day it is baked.

Strudel Dough
from “Kaffeehaus – Exquisite Desserts from the Classic Cafés of Vienna, Budapest and Prague” by Rick Rodgers
Ingredients
1 1/3 cups (200 g) unbleached flour
1/8 teaspoon salt
7 tablespoons (105 ml) water, plus more if needed
2 tablespoons (30 ml) vegetable oil, plus additional for coating the dough
1/2 teaspoon cider vinegar (or any vinegar really... It's a 1/2 tsp for crying out loud)

1. Combine the flour and salt in a stand-mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Mix the water, oil and vinegar in a measuring cup. Add the water/oil mixture to the flour with the mixer on low speed. You will get a soft dough. Make sure it is not too dry, add a little more water if necessary.
2. Take the dough out of the mixer. Knead until you get a soft dough ball with a somewhat rough surface.
3. Continue kneading by hand on an unfloured work surface. Knead for about 2 minutes. Pick up the dough and throw it down hard onto your working surface occasionally. The bf had a ton of fun chucking the dough around while I did dishes and I'm sure you'll have fun too.
4. Shape the dough into a ball and transfer it to a plate. Oil the top of the dough ball lightly. Cover the ball tightly with plastic wrap. Allow to stand for 30-90 minutes (longer is better).
5. Here are the directions that were given to me: It would be best if you have a work area that you can walk around on all sides like a 36 inch (90 cm) round table or a work surface of 23 x 38 inches (60 x 100 cm). Cover your working area with table cloth, dust it with flour and rub it into the fabric. Put your dough ball in the middle and roll it out as much as you can.Pick the dough up by holding it by an edge. This way the weight of the dough and gravity can help stretching it as it hangs. Using the back of your hands to gently stretch and pull the dough. You can use your forearms to support it.
6. Still the directions that were given: The dough will become too large to hold. Put it on your work surface. Leave the thicker edge of the dough to hang over the edge of the table. Place your hands underneath the dough and stretch and pull the dough thinner using the backs of your hands. Stretch and pull the dough until it's about 2 feet (60 cm) wide and 3 feet (90 cm) long, it will be tissue-thin by this time. Cut away the thick dough around the edges with scissors. The dough is now ready to be filled.
5. & 6. What I did: pull at the sucker till it was thin and glorious. I wasn't too technical about it since the only thing I could walk around to pull the dough was a kitchen stool...

P.S. A few small holes in the dough is not a problem since the dough will be rolled, making the holes pretty much invisible. Besides who cares what it looks like as long as it's tasty, right?

I'm a hypocrit...

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Make It Work - Chocolate Peppermint Patty Cheesecake Style

Please note that… (Drum roll)…. The April 2009 challenge is hosted by Jenny from Jenny Bakes. She has chosen Abbey's Infamous Cheesecake as the challenge. Yay!
It’s that time of month again… Well, the good time of the month when you can count on a regular update from me thanks to the amazing-ness that is Daring Bakers! April’s recipe was a new take on the traditional cheesecake – all we had to do was take the cheesecake recipe and make it lovely. After a stroll through the aisle of Bear Nasties (Cornell’s convenient store. The name is awful I know), I found my inspiration – peppermint patties. Who doesn’t have a thing for mint and chocolate? It’s decadent and refreshing all at once and I haven’t come into contact with a concoction that doesn’t melt in my mouth. As Martha would say, that’s a good thing.

What turned out to be not such a good thing was the serious lack of materials and preparedness thanks to yours truly. You see, I procrastinate. And assumed I would make the cheesecake in the free time I don’t actually have. Usually it works out somehow, but for the past week and a half I’ve been mostly a nauseous zombie in class wishing I was a nauseous lump in bed. It’s weeks like those that I’m glad I have engineering friends because they’re robots and apparently don’t sleep either. In any case, it was a party all night long. Literally.


But back to the baking. The bit about sleep deprivation is important because I never went to the grocery store to get ingredients for the cheesecake challenge… Yeah… Ultimately my friend Charles (the unofficial and seriously skilled baking buddy at school) and I did some crazy improvisation on this recipe because it was a last minute, gosh let’s make cheesecake (!) moment. So I’m giving you the Cornell student’s modified version below, complete with crystal light powder mix and chocolate milk instead of heavy cream. Note that the recipe below is 1/3 of the original recipe only because Bear Nasties was mean to me and only had one 8 oz container of cream cheese. Read on. I’m sure you’ll get a good laugh out of it.

Daring Bakers April 2009 - Cheesecake Centerpiece
Abbey's Infamous Cheesecake (a la Brie)

makes about 12 muffin-sized cheesecakes
Modified Crust Ingredients
1 cup crushed oreos
1/3 stick butter, melted
1 tsp. vanilla extract (extra vanilla = an extra good time)
About 12 peppermint patties (more for garnish… and then even more for snacking on)

Seriously Modified Cheesecake Indgredients
8 oz cream cheese, room temperature
1/3 cup sugar
1 large egg
1/3 cup heavy cream/chocolate milk mixture
Cocoa powder to taste
1/4 tsp powdered crystal light (the kind that makes 2 quarts)
1 tsp. vanilla extract (or the innards of a vanilla bean)
No liqueur for college students (on such short notice anyway haha)

DIRECTIONS
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Begin to boil a large pot of water for the water bath.
2. Mix together the crust ingredients and press into your greased muffin tins. You can press the crust just into the bottom, or up the sides of the pan too - baker's choice. Put a peppermint patty in each muffin cup on top of the crust, preferably in the middle. I suppose you could crush up the patty if you wanted, I liked having the little surprise in there. Set crust aside. I would suggest using those silicon baking cups if you have them in the muffin tin… I was having issues getting the cheesecake-ettes out.
3. Combine cream cheese and sugar in the bowl of a stand-mixer (or in a large bowl if using a hand-mixer… or just mixing by hand… you know how it goes) and cream together until smooth. Add eggs and fully incorporate it. Make sure to scrape down the bowl. Add heavy cream/chocolate milk, vanilla, lemon juice, and cocoa powder and blend until smooth and creamy.
4. Pour batter into prepared crust and tap the pan on the counter a few times to bring all air bubbles to the surface. Place muffin tins in your cake pan full of water. Don’t mess up and put them under water.
5. Bake 20 to 35 minutes, until still a little jiggly. You don't want it to be completely firm at this stage. Close the oven door, turn the heat off, and let rest in the cooling oven for one hour. This lets the cake finish cooking and cool down gently enough so that it won't crack on the top. After one hour, remove cheesecake from oven and lift carefully out of water bath. Let it finish cooling on the counter, and then cover and put in the fridge to chill. Once fully chilled, it is ready to serve. I dumped mine out upside down and then garnished just because I liked the look of it better. But hey, do whatever makes you happy.

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A Spinach "Surprise"

I’m going to be honest… As much as I’d like to think I’m a goddess at all things culinary, cooking in general makes me a little nervous. Baking is easy – how can sugar go wrong? With baking it’s a lot easier to make cookies or cupcakes look lovely by adding pretty colors or a fun dollop of frosting or a spray of sprinkles. A piece of meat or a pile of potatoes… They’re just very bare and it’s easy to appreciate them when you eat them but when it comes to photographing them or even just looking at them, it’s less inspiring than some other sugary confection. That would be the reason I’m in Daring Bakers as opposed to Iron Chef. Not that I'll ever be on that show anyway…
Then the Daring Bakers March Challenge turned out to be lasagna. Make your own pasta. And white sauce. And meat sauce. Cue intimidation. And now cue failure. Because, as you can see from the pasta above, this is in no way, shape, or form lasagna. Oops. I really think my pasta is the best of both worlds - it's a cute shape like sugar cookies and it's healthy for you in that neat Popeye way. Regardless, I followed the basic instructions of making my own spinach pasta and sauce and the result ended up surprisingly satisfying, here's my first feeble attempt at home made pasta for your viewing pleasure.

I’m convinced that the recipe provided is perfectly good and I’m just bad at life. I don't know what went wrong - it went from pile of flour to lumpy mess (so far so good, when you read the directions), but never went past the lumpy mess. I kneaded for about a half hour before giving up and winging the rest of the recipe by adding more water and shaping/testing as I went. The sauce was simple enough and came together and for that I'm forever grateful. If you want to make the legit lasagna then please visit my links and I’m sure you can find the recipe – or feel free to email me and I can send the real recipe right over. But from here on out it’s going to be spinach pasta hearts. My initial failure turned into heart-shaped pieces of goodness for my parent’s impromptu anniversary dinner while I was home over spring break. After a lot of trial and error, it’s surprisingly tasty. That, paired with either the béchamel sauce or a simple tomato sauce (my personal preference), fresh greens with a homemade citrus vinagrette, and a sense of humor, equalled a dinner I'm actually sort of proud of. Sort of.

The March 2009 challenge is hosted by Mary of Beans and Caviar, Melinda of Melbourne Larder and Enza of Io Da Grande. They have chosen Lasagne of Emilia-Romagna from The Splendid Table by Lynne Rossetto Kasper as the challenge.

Spinach Egg Pasta (Pasta Verde)
**Modified from The Splendid Table: Recipes from Emilia-Romagna, the Heartland of Northern Italian Food by Lynne Rossetto Kasper (published by William Morrow and Company Inc., 1992).
Preparation: 45 minutes
Makes enough for 6 to 8 first course servings or 4 to 6 main course servings

Ingredients
2 jumbo eggs
6 ounces frozen chopped spinach, defrosted and squeezed dry

3 1/2 cups all purpose unbleached flour

Equipment
A roomy work surface
A rolling pin
Plastic wrap to cover rolled-out pasta waiting to be filled
A cookie cutter of your desired shape

Directions
1. Mound the flour in the center of your work surface and make a well in the middle. Add the eggs and spinach.

2. Use a wooden spoon to beat together the eggs and spinach. Then gradually start incorporating shallow scrapings of flour from the sides of the well into the liquid. As you work more and more flour into the liquid, the well’s sides may collapse. Use a pastry scraper to keep the liquids from running off and to incorporate the last bits of flour into the dough. Don’t worry if it looks like a hopelessly rough and messy lump.

3. With the aid of the scraper to scoop up unruly pieces, start kneading the dough. Once it becomes a cohesive mass, use the scraper to remove any bits of hard flour on the work surface – these will make the dough lumpy. My dough never became a cohesive mass until I gradually started adding water during the kneading. If you want to attempt to follow my example/your dough sucks at life, i added about a 1/4 cup of water by the end of my kneading adventure.

4. Knead the dough for about 3 minutes. My dough's consistency ended up very thick and heavy and not very sticky. Continue kneading about 10 minutes.

5. After you feel as though you've reached a point of exasperation or you feel that you can work with the dough somewhat easily, divide the dough into manageable chunks and begin rolling them out no thicker than 1/4". Cut with your lovely cookie cutter, making sure to wrap up the bits you aren't working with so that the dough won't dry out.

6. Bring salted water to boil over stovetop, add your pasta, cook until al dente (about 10 minutes), drain, and enjoy your fun little pasta shapes. Add sprinkles and a dollop of - ha, just kidding.

Lynne’s Bechamel
From The Splendid Table: Recipes from Emilia-Romagna, the Heartland of Northern Italian Food by Lynne Rossetto Kasper (published by William Morrow and Company Inc., 1992).
Preparation Time: 15 minutes

Ingredients
4 tablespoons unsalted butter
4 tablespoons all purpose unbleached (plain) flour
2 2/3 cups milk
Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
Freshly grated nutmeg to taste

Directions
1. Using a medium-sized saucepan, melt the butter over low to medium heat.

2. Sift over the flour, whisk until smooth, and then stir (without stopping) for about 3 minutes.

3. Whisk in the milk a little at a time and keep the mixture smooth.

4. Bring to a slow simmer, and stir 3 to 4 minutes, or until the sauce thickens. Cook, stirring, for about 5 minutes, until the sauce thickens. Season with salt, pepper, and a hint of nutmeg.

5. Eat, and be merry.

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Dark Chocolate Goodness

Wow, where did the time go? All of a sudden it's almost April, spring break is over, and I'm in the home stretch of my freshman year of college... Yikes. And yikes for this post being so overdue. I don't really have an excuse for that - life is crazy, sure, but the older I get the more I realize that life will be crazy now and forever. Amen. (Yes, that was a Catholic joke/reference. I'm Irish... forgive me). Now I just have to get to a point where I can manage the frenzy enough to buckle down and get my stuff together. Bear with me, at times I can be a slow learner, especially when it comes to time management. In any case, seeing these cookies a month later makes me want to make them and eat them all over again. Tasty isn't enought to describe them - they're rich, decadent, and everything you need when the economy is (still?) failing, tuition is increasing at a scary rate, and financial aid gets cut. Actually, I think I'll go make them right now...

In other news, this post-spring break era of the semester means that I baked cupcakes gallore and the Daring Bakers March Challenge is coming up! So get excited! But onto the good stuff:

Dark-Chocolate Cookies

Modified from Martha Stewart's Cookies "Milk Chocolate Cookies"

Yield: 3 dozen

Ingredients

1 c. all purpose flour

1/2 c. unsweetened cocoa powder

1/2 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. salt

8 ounces good-quality dark chocolate (I used Chirardelli's 70% bittersweet cocoa chips), 4 oz. coarsely chopped, 4 oz. cut into 1/4" chunks

1/2 c. unsalted butter

1 1/2 c. sugar

2 large eggs

2 tsp. pure vanilla extract

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 325°F. Whisk together flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt in a bowl

2. Melt 4 oz. coarsely chopped chocolate with the butter in a small heatproof bwol set over a pan of simmering water; let cool slightly. I used the microwave but I wouldn't suggest this method as I like the added control of the simmering pan of water.

3. Put chocolate mixture, sugar, eggs, and vanilla in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Mix on medium speed until combined. Reduce speed to low; gradually mix in flour mixture. Fold in chocolate chunks. If hand mixing, I suggest tag-teaming the mixture on this one. It's more fun and less pain that way.

4. Roll dough into 1" balls, drop dough onto parchment paper-lined baking sheets, 2 inches apart. Bake until cookies are flat and surfaces crack, about 15 minutes (cookies should be soft). Let cool on parchment on wire racks. Cookies can be stored between layers of parchment in airtight containers at room temperature up to 3 days. Technically. Unofficially according to the Bf and me, these cookies are good any time. Seriously. They're super tasty. Go make them.

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