Another Great Cupcake

So friends, let me first say baking at sea level is so nice! And, being in my mom's kitchen didn't hurt either. She had just about everything I needed, including a food processor (go Magic Bullet & Susie!)

I liked this cupcake. It was a little dry. I probs over baked them, but the recipe really didn't have much liquid either.

Skinning hazelnuts. Really?

Lesson learned. It wasn't too hard. Some of the skin wouldn't come off. I gave up on the s and used them anyways.

The Magic Bullet is a great food processor :)

I should've made a Marg after.

Thank you sea level for cupcakes that turn out great without altering the recipe.

So pretty.

Cast of characters for chocolate butter cream frosting.

The frosting may looking like poop but it is awesome. And super easy to make. 

Jenny warned me that it would make a TON of frosting. 

We had picked up some fresh plan city strawberries on the beach and the frosting was great with them. 

What a fun idea Jenny had with making all these cupcakes. Thanks Jenny for letting me help out. One of my goals for the next year is to make one baked good from scratch [or with my bare hands as my niece would say :)] a month. I am not a great baker but practice makes better, right? So if you get a baked good form me and it's not great.... don't tell me. Just smile!

It is the last day of 2011. Enjoy folks! 2012, bring it on! This is supposed to be my lucky year because I will turn 27 on the 27th of July. 

J

Cupcakes

My friend Jenny started a blog as she baked through (and blogged about) Martha Stewart's Cupcake cookbook. Check it out at Give Cupcakes. Earlier this fall she asked for helping getting through all the recipes. She has done a great job and I was a little nervous to offer help. Let's be honest y'all I am NOT a baker and the first recipe I did definitely proved that.

This recipe is Lavender-Iced Brownie Cupcakes.  And I learned my high-altitude lesson when my entire first batch fell. They still tasted great but looked pathetic!

My cast of characters. (Not complete).

Chocolate & Butter. Yum. I had never tasted baker's unsweetened chocolate before. I tried some after this was melted. GROSS! I will never make that mistake again.

That sad fallen cupcakes of round I.

Sunken middles :( The great part was it held the lavender icing in a nice little pool.

I called one of my baker friends for advice for the second round. 1 more egg, less sugar and less baking powder. 

Round II looked awesome!

The icing was really easy. 

You can't really tell but the frosting had a nice lavender color thanks to food color.

I brought them over to play Dominoes with some coworkers. 

Wine, Mexican train and fun friends. It was a lovely snowy night!

So, lesson learned on baking in the altitude. Which won't really help for my next recipe that I will be making this week. I am in FL for Christmas! My 8 year old niece and I will be attempting Almond Hazelnut Cupcakes. I will hopefully get a few more pictures since I will have a great little helper.

And, I have a new found love for cooking/baking with Lavender. It is such a great taste.

Well friends, off to enjoy the sunshine & the beach. I'll be back this week with another cupcake recipe.

J