Red Velvet Cake

I've known my best friend, Kristin, since kindergarten. We have so much in common, one of them I'd say developed separately at the same time. While both of us were at our separate colleges we met up once during break and realized that both of us loved to collect recipes and so on, and that both of us followed baking blogs. So we've baked together a few times since.

This was one of those such times...our mutual friend Rachel had her birthday in April, and since we didn't get to celebrate with her and I know that Rachel LOVES red velvet cake, Kristin and I decided to get together and bake her a red velvet cake and surprise her with it. This is a great recipe, though I used 9-inch pans instead of 8-inch, and didn't completely let it cool before frosting it...so the cake kind of sunk in the middle. It's great being able to bake with Kristin and I look forward to doing it again soon! The cake, seriously, was delicious. I've tried red velvet only once before but hadn't thought it was anything special. This recipe is incredibly moist and the frosting is absolutely perfect. Kristin and I should definitely open up our own bakery when we're old and retired together haha.

Red Velvet Cake
Recipe from bakerella

2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
2 cups sugar
1 Tablespoon cocoa
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups oil
1 cup buttermilk
1 Tablespoon vinegar
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 oz. red food coloring

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Grease and flour two 8 inch cake pans.

Lightly stir eggs in a medium bowl with a wire whisk. Add remaining liquid ingredients and stir together with whisk until blended. Set aside.

Place all the dry ingredients in your mixing bowl and stir together really good with another wire whisk.

Add wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix on medium-high for about a minute or until completely combined.

Pour into cake pans and then drop the pans on the counter a few times to release any air bubbles.

Bake for about 30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.

After about ten minutes, remove from pans and cool completely on a wire rack. I also cover in plastic wrap while the cakes cool.

Then make the frosting.



Cream Cheese Frosting
Recipe from bakerella

8 oz. cream cheese, room temperature
1 cup butter, room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla
6 cups confectioners’ sugar

Sift sugar and set aside.

Beat cream cheese and butter on high until creamy. Add vanilla.

Then, add the sugar in batches. Scrape down the sides in between each addition.

And frost away.

Chocolate Cupcakes with Cookie Dough Frosting and a Failed Experiment

They look normal, right?
But look how much it sticks! And look at the holes in that cake!! The flavor was okay but it stuck completely to the wrapper and tasted like sponge cake. I guess I have a long way before I can start making recipes from scratch...but it might have been just because I overbaked it. I baked these cupcakes for 20 minutes, but I next time I'll try around 17 (with other changes to the recipe, and changes to the preparation like putting the jam closer to the top...and the sprinkles were okay as a failure-cupcake, but if I am gonna work on this longer, I don't want them!).

Surprisingly, after refridgerating these for a while and re-trying them, the wrapper came off completely...which was good, but the cake was a little too dense, so I probably DID overbake them.

Anyway, on to the main part of this post. I wanted to bake something for my mom to take to work, and I also wanted to try and find out exactly what made the Pinkabella Cookie-Dough Cupcakes the "best cupcake ever" (according to my brother). For the Chocolate Cupcake recipe, I used Ghiradelli's Grand Fudge Cake recipe again that I used for Steven's Panda Cake. For making it into cupcakes I baked them in a cupcake tin for 17 minutes. They came out soft but were definitely baked. That came out to about 18 cupcakes.



For the frosting, I didn't have as many mini chocolate chips as the recipe called for, and had to chop up a few larger ones.
Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Frosting
Recipe from jamieanne

1 1/4 cups flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1/4 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup mini chocolate chips

In a bowl mix together flour, baking soda and salt. In another bowl blend together the butter and sugars. Once fully blended, add the milk and vanilla. Then, gradually add the flour mixture to the wet mixture; stir well. Complete by folding in chocolate chips.


I didn't try them, but my brother said they were pretty good:
Still, nothing compared to Pinkabella's cupcakes:

I would definitely make sure I have lots of mini chocolate-chips on hand next time, or well, put about half a cup instead of a whole cup in there.

Apricot-Lemon Chicken and Lemon Orzo

So I've cooked before. I've made fried rice for a crowd, prepared spaghetti pie with herb biscuits for my family, heated up some frozen food on the side. But because my mom was gone last week and she's normally the one to do all the cooking, I decided that I'd make a REAL meal for me, my dad, and my brother to take her place.

Well, real-er than what I've done before, I guess. The recipe I used called for chicken breasts but all I could find in our freezer were tenders made of breasts? Or something like that, anyway, I didn't feel like going out to buy more, so I just stuck with those and it was fine. Unfortunately I burned them a little and there didn't seem to be enough sauce, but now I know! I've actually cooked chicken on my own! Woohoo!

Apricot-Lemon Chicken
Recipe from Cooking Light

1 tsp curry powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper
4 (6-ounce) skinless, boneless chicken breast halves
Cooking spray
1/3 cup apricot spread (such as Polaner All Fruit)
2 tbsp fresh lemon juice
2 tbsp water
2 tsp grated lemon rind

Combine first 3 ingredients in a small bowl; rub mixture over chicken.

Place a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Coat pan with cooking spray. Cook chicken 6 minutes on each side or until done. Remove chicken from pan, and keep warm.

Add apricot spread, lemon juice, and 2 tablespoons water to pan, stirring until smooth. Cook over medium heat 1 minute. Spoon sauce over chicken; sprinkle with lemon rind.


Lemon Orzo
Recipe from Cooking Light

Cooking spray
1/2 cup prechopped onion
1 cup uncooked orzo (rice-shaped pasta)
1 cup fat-free, less-sodium chicken broth
1/2 cup dry white wine (I used water)
1/4 tsp dried thyme
2 tbsp chopped fresh chives
2 tbsp fresh lemon juice

Heat a medium saucepan over medium-high heat. Coat pan with cooking spray. Add onion to pan; sauté 3 minutes. Stir in pasta, broth, wine, and thyme; bring to a boil. Cover, reduce heat, and simmer 15 minutes or until liquid is absorbed and pasta is al dente. Stir in chopped chives and lemon juice. Keep warm.

Homemade Hot Chocolate

And now, the final installment to my Mother's Day breakfast! This one's the most self-explanatory I guess, so it has the least pictures (especially since all the pictures of the final product turned out blurry).

This was very, very rich. I think the whipped cream is pretty much necessary because it's such a rich, bittersweet chocolate. The whipped cream was delicious, though.

Whipped Cream

1 cup Heavy Whipping Cream
2 tbsp Sugar
1/4 tsp Vanilla

Whip cream in a medium bowl with a handmixer or whisk attachment until thick.

Add sugar and vanilla, and beat until stiff.




Hot Chocolate

2 cups milk (I used 1%. The thicker the milk, the thicker the hot chocolate, but 1% works great)
4 ounces 60% chocolate
1 1/2 tsp powdered sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla
pinch of salt

Chop chocolate into small pieces that can easily dissolve in liquid.

Place milk in a small pot on low heat, and bring to a low simmer, whisking once in a while so that it doesn't stick to the bottom of the pan.

Once the milk is simmering, add the vanilla, powdered sugar, salt, and chocolate, and whisk until the chocolate has melted.

Heat for at least another 4 minutes, stirring constantly. Makes 2 cups.

Mini Quiches

Here's the second installment to my mom's belated Mother's Day breakfast! I did end up buying a frozen pie crust instead of making my own for this, and it made it unbelievably easy.

These tasted pretty good but I think I should have made sure there were more veggies and meat in each quiche. I put a tablespoon of cheddar and a tablespoon of broccoli mixed with turkey in half, and bacon in the other (I used about 2 strips of bacon, and cut up a large slice of deli turkey). I only put a few shakes of pepper and salt in there too and probably should have put more in. Also, when pouring 1/4 cup of the egg mixture into each muffin cup, I ran out, so I would put less in.

Mini Quiche
Recipe from Amber's Delectable Delights

1 roll refrigerated pie crust
6 eggs
1/3 cup half and half
3 cloves minced garlic
salt and pepper to taste
Filling ingredients of your choice (meat, cheese, veggies, herbs)

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Spray the wells of 12 muffin cups with non-stick cooking spray and set aside.

Whisk together the eggs, half and half, garlic, salt and pepper and set aside.

Unroll the pie dough and cut out twelve 3" circles. You will have to smash all the scraps together and roll them out to get the last few circles cut out, but you will have enough dough. Place one dough circle into the bottom of each muffin cup.

Prepare filling ingredients and place ~2 tablespoons of filling per muffin cup.
Pour a scant 1/4 cup of the egg mixture over the filling ingredients in each muffin cup.
Bake in preheated oven for 20-25 minutes. Remove from muffin cups and let cool a few minutes before serving.

Chocolate Brioche

Since I was at college for Mother's Day, I could only send her a card for the actual day. Last year what I did was make Father's Day brunch for the both of them, but this year I wanted to bake more and make a breakfast that was much more specialized to my mom's tastes since she likes different things from my dad, so I separated the two (though still made the breakfast for both of my parents, with extras for my brothers and me).

One of the things my mom loves are chocolate croissants. I didn't exactly feel like I could make those, so I found a great Chocolate Brioche recipe. It was my first time making a yeast bread and it was extremely successful and relatively easy! It just took a lot of time and patience. I also made my mom mini quiches, because she likes quiche, and homemade hot chocolate with homemade whipped cream, which she also likes. And I cut up some watermelon. My mom isn't a big breakfast person, but I really wanted to pick the things that I know she likes!

I did all the mixing for this recipe by hand, and forgot the egg wash, but definitely didn't need it as the brioche looked and tasted beautiful. It was a very sticky dough but chilling it overnight definitely made it easier to work with. The result was a very light and buttery bread--absolutely amazing.



Chocolate Brioche
Recipe adapted from Sari

Ingredients
1/3 cup warm milk
1/3 cup warm water
10 g dry active yeast
3 1/2 cups unbleached flour
2 tsp salt
3 large eggs
1/4 cup sugar
1 cup + 5 tbsp butter, cut into small cubes, softened
150g dark chocolate, broken into pieces
1 egg, beaten with 1 tbsp water, for egg wash (I left this out)

In a large bowl mix warm water, warm milk, 1 teaspoon of sugar and yeast. Stir until yeast dissolves and let proof for 10 minutes.
Add flour and salt and mix with a wooden spoon until flour is moistened. Beat in eggs, adding one egg at a time, making sure each egg is well incorporated before adding another one.

Add sugar and keep kneading dough until it comes together. Now comes the tricky part. Mix in butter, adding only one or two cubes at a time, kneading well until each cube is incorporated before adding another cube. This can takes about 10 minutes before all butter is fully incorporated. Dough is fully kneaded when it pulls away form sides of your bowl.
Transfer the dough into a clean bowl, cover with a plastic wrap and let it rise at room temperature for 1 hours or until double in size. Lift up dough around edges and allow it to deflate.

Refrigerate the dough for 2 hours. Punch the dough down to deflate it every 30 minutes until it stops rising. Cover bowl with a plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight.

When you are ready to make brioche, butter a muffin pan or brioche tins you want to use.

Take the dough out of the refrigerator and scrape it out on a floured surface. Divide dough into 12 equal pieces. Roll each piece between your palms to form a ball. Flatten each ball of dough and put several pieces of chocolate in the middle of each one. Roll up into a ball shape and place in the pan.

Cover the pan loosely with a plastic wrap and let rise for two hours at room temperature.

Brush each ball with egg wash and bake in the preheated oven to 350 degrees F for 20 - 25 minutes until golden brown.

Allow brioche to cool for a couple of minutes in the pan and then transfer onto the cooling rack.

Bacon-Cheddar Scones

I made these once last year for Father's Day brunch. My older brother wasn't home, and my mom has been telling me for ages to make them for him. Because CJ graduated, he moved out pretty much offcially yesterday...so I made these scones Saturday.

I don't know what I did this time, but they were a little harder to work with than I remember. These are very crumbly, and I remember that from last year, but it seemed like it was even harder this time to mix all of the dry ingredients together. I baked these scones about 1.5 inches tall instead of just half an inch tall as the recipe specifies, but they were browned and were well baked on the inside without any extra time in the oven, and they still turned out perfectly. I'd probably make these more often except they take a long time to mix, and they're really bad for you...but so worth it!

Bacon-Cheddar Scones
Recipe from The Pastry Queen
Found on The Biscuit Pusher

3 cups all purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper
1/2 cup (1 stick) chilled, unsalted butter, cut into small cubes
1 1/2 cups grated cheddar cheese
4 green onions, thinly sliced
10 slices of bacon, cooked and chopped into 1 inch pieces
3/4 to 1 1/2 cups well-shaken buttermilk
1 large egg
2 tablespoons water

Preheat the oven to 400. Using a mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, combine the flour, baking powder, salt and black pepper in a large bowl on low speed. With the mixer running, gradually add the cubes of butter until the mixture is crumbly and studded with flour-butter bits about the size of small peas. Add the grated cheese and mix until blended. (This can also be done by hand: using a pastry blender or two knives to cut in the butter until the mixture looks like small peas)

Add the green onions, bacon and 3/4 cup of the buttermilk to the flour and cheese mixture. Mix by hand just until all the ingredients are incorporated. If the dough is too dry to hold together, use the remaining buttermilk, adding 1 tablespoon at a time, until the dough is pliable and can be formed into a ball. Stir as lightly and as little as possible to ensure a light-textured scone. Remove the dough from the bowl and place it on a lightly floured surface. Pat the dough into a circle about 8 inches wide and 1/2 inch thick. Cut the dough into 8 to 10 equal wedges.

Whisk the egg and water in a small mixing bowl. Brush each wedge with the egg wash. Place the scones on an ungreased baking sheet and bake for 18 to 20 minutes, or until golden brown and no longer sticky in the middle.