Pancake Cupcakes

You know that moment in life when two things come together and become something that could have only have come from the heavens? I have done that such thing.

Okay, maybe not, but it's definitely something that people in heaven should be eating. Two words. Pancake Cupcakes. And what better to top a pancake cupcake with than whipped cream and syrup. And how, you ask, did I come up with such a thing? Morning brain, that's how. If you've lived a sheltered life and don't know what morning brain is, well, I'll tell you. Morning brain is when you first wake up and everything you think about doesn't really make sense yet because you're still partially asleep. My morning brain said, "I'm hungry for pancakes" then she said, "but I really want a cupcake" then she had a revelation, "PANCAKE CUPCAKES!"

True story, bro.

Doesn't that just look delightful? It looks that way because it is. Seriously. Fabulous. Delightful. Wonderful. Pancake Cupcakes.

The Wonderful World of Cinnamon

A cinnamon bun a day keeps the doctor away. No? Are you sure? Cause I ate like, three today..

Joy the Baker, who, if you haven't noticed, I love, has this recipe for amazing cinnamon buns. I know this because I made them this morning and they were delicious. Now, you might be wondering why I talk so much about Joy the Baker, the simple answer is, she's wonderful! But wait, there's more. My Mom gave me her cookbook for Christmas this year, so I'm trying out all the recipes I can. And in turn, sharing them with you. You are just soooo darn welcome.

Anyway, cinnamon buns. These things are very time consuming. You got five hours of nothing to do, then you should make these. Not kidding. Close to five hours. You have to let dough rise and if you live practically in a basement the dough will take about forever longer than it would if you lived anywhere else. Seriously though, mine took like, three hours to double in size. And yes, that basement comment was about my apartment, we live partially underground; our bedroom windows are level with the lawn.

However long it takes for your dough to rise, these things are worth it! I'm telling you, soo worth it you'll wonder how you lived this long without making them before. Here's the link for the cinnamon buns, directly from Joy the Baker herself. Now, there's one MAJOR difference between this recipe and the one in her book. The one in her book doesn't have cream cheese in it. I matched up the recipes, if you want to make the ones I made there is no cream cheese and there is 3 tablespoons of maple syrup. The link I gave you has only 2 tablespoons. Either way, I'm sure they'll turn out wonderfully.

 This one log makes eight larger-than-life cinnamon buns. Oh, and before I forget, spray the pan, spray the pan, and please spray the pan. I forgot.. I was oh so excited about cinnamon buns I forgot to spray the pan. And man, did some of these stick like crazy.

Mmmm. Look how delicious.

Sadly, they do not have the icing on them. I didn't have any powdered sugar or buttermilk. But, still delectable without.

Cinnabon ain't got nothin' on me!

And now, a few words about our good friend Cinnabon..

I'm Not a Slacker

I promise I'm not. Really. Things have been crazy as of late.

I had a job interview (which I rocked) and got hired. We rearranged our living room, I substituted in the cafeteria at my old high school for a couple days, and had our annual Christmas party at my Aunt's. And then, my car died in the middle of an intersection, with cars coming from behind. Luckily my high school Spanish and science teachers happened to be walking by and helped push my car out of the way. So, here's to you, my dear June, my once wonderful beautiful car, you shall be missed. Rest in peace JuneBug.

As for food related news, I honestly can't say I have too much to talk about. Because of all the craziness my kitchen time has been limited. Although I am happy to report, my baking should be picking up again within a few days. I've been brainstorming some ideas about mini pies and cookies. Hopefully my kitchen will be filled with deliciousness again soon.

My Dad also may have gotten me a great opportunity. A man my Dad does some work for has a shop and he has been trying to get more customers; so he sets up a little coffee stand outside his shop doors hoping to draw them inside. My Dad said that he wanted to know if I would be interested in selling some baked goods at his little coffee stand. I'm hoping that I can take advantage of this opportunity, but we'll have to see with my work schedule.

So, to leave you with something I find amazing and slightly hilarious: my great-grandma, Grandma Mincarelli, could have been Julia Child in her later years. Here's my proof.

Julia Child, this picture appeared on the cover of her book, Baking with Julia, which is fabulous. I would highly recommend it.

Grandma Mincarelli and I at my 2nd birthday party.

I know it's not a dead match, but come on, they could have been related.

Anyway, more to come soon. Let's hope nothing else goes amiss so my baking can commence.

Sunday Brunch

Brunch is wonderful. Brunch allows you to sleep in and still have breakfast; brunch doesn't judge your pajamas or your Hello Kitty slippers.

I was on iwastesomuchtime.com or maybe slowrobot.com, I'm not sure which one it was, but either way I saw these crazy good looking toast, egg, and bacon things last night. However, it was just a picture, so this morning I accepted the challenge and figured out how to put them together, what temperature would be best for baking them, and how long to leave them in the oven. Challenge not only accepted, but challenge accomplished.

 So simple and so filling. First, take your trusty cupcake pan and grease the bottom and sides with butter. Make sure to only grease the ones you'll be using, no point in wasting butter! Then, take whatever bread you like best for your toast, make sure it's fresh! Fold the piece of bread gently into a cupcake pan. Fresh bread is better because it's more flexible, if it is even the slightest bit stale when you're folding it into the cupcake pan it'll break or rip. Next, crack the egg into the little bread cup you just created and place half a strip of bacon on top.

See the one all the way in the back? That was the first one I did. I put the bacon in first and then when I cracked the egg on top egg whites overflowed onto my counter. With the bacon on the bottom there wasn't enough room for the egg whites; lesson learned. But, by all means, if you have a bigger cupcake pan, or managed to fit your bread in better than I did, go for the bacon on the bottom.

I'll admit, they aren't the tastiest looking things, but they are delicious. The butter that you used to grease the pan gives the bread a nice golden color, like the outside of a perfectly made grilled cheese. And the bacon is nice and tender (I don't like my bacon really crispy) and what I love about baking it is that there is minimal grease from the bacon. It feels a lot more healthy when you're eating it.

I set my oven at 350F and they baked for about 25 minutes to a half hour. I would recommend to keep checking them, you don't want to over cook the eggs or burn the toast.

A friendly tip, and this happened with two of the breakfast cups I made this morning: the bottom of the bread broke a little bit so some of the egg got through and it stuck to the bottom of the pan a little bit. Instead of sliding right out of the pan, the bottom ended up breaking. In such cases, a fork will most certainly help you in your breakfast endeavor. But, whether or not they stick to the pan, they're an amazing way to start the day off right.

Cookies, Flatbread, and Presents, Oh My!

This post, yeah, about it, it's kinda almost maybe about a week late? Maybe? But forgive me, this holiday season has me in lazy-mode. But, here's me filling you in.

Because of a previous post about how much my hand-mixer hates me, my lovely Mama gave me her standing mixer. Yay! Like almost everything else I own she'll soon get a name, once I find one worth her beauty.

On the eve or Christmas Eve I was baking like a mad woman all day. And I mean all day. I made sugar, molasses, peanut butter, and gingerbread cookies. Then proceeded to decorate the sugar cookies; all for a Christmas Eve party.

On top of this I also made this wonderful Navajo Flatbread I got from one of Jamie Oliver's books. If you've never heard of him, he's a wonderful British chef whose take on food makes me wanna cook everything and anything I can get my hands on. I hold myself back though, don't worry. But really, should should check him out: http://www.jamieoliver.com/ He has a wide range of recipes, and if you get a chance to read one of his books do it! He doesn't just give you the recipes, he talks about how they came into being and the experience he's had with it. It's wonderful.

Also, Christmas day and the Saturday after I made out like a bandit on baking related things. My wonderful Mama and Papa got me a chef coat. * gasps loudly * Seriously, it's amazing. I feel professional, even though I'm not..yet..I hope. Among that I received Joy the Baker's cookbook, adorable cupcake/cake stencils, a giant timer (that sounds like an old-fashioned phone when it goes off), a book about Julia Child and her love of cats and cooking, silicone guards for my oven racks (no burning myself anymore!), and this amazing pan that I can make mini pies in, among other many amazing things. But wait! There's more! Saturday we went to my boyfriend's mom's house for their family Christmas, and let me tell you, I feel loved. I got four, count 'em, one, two, three, four, FOUR different books all related to baking. The two I'm most excited about: Baking with the Cake Boss * more loud gasps *, and this amazing book called Easy Cake Decorating. From flipping through it I've gathered that it teaches about working with fondant, making icing flowers, and many other amazing things. Oh, I'm not done. On top of the four books I received recipe boxes, cupcake wrappers, all sorts of icing decorating tools (bottles that fold in like an accordion for easy-no-mess decorating, many decorating tips, etc.), cupcake pans and cake pans. And, oh my! That really isn't it. But, no need to bore you with everything, cause, it's a lot! I told you, bandit.

Among non-baking related gifts I got a wonderful new pea-coat, a beautiful scarf, a little water well, and some seriously cool ornaments, for next year of course.

Since I've received a total of five new books that have amazing recipes in them and considered my third Christmas is next weekend, I'll be making some goodies and sharing them with you!

As a parting gift I leave you with a darling picture of our adorable kittens. You're welcome.

Saturday

Oooooh, that's why I'm easy, easy like Sunday morning..
No, Lionel, no, Saturday.

Anyway, Saturday I went over my my Mom's house to bake. Because baking is wonderful and so is my Mom. In the spirit of Christmas we decided to make reindeer cookies. Adorable reindeer cookies. See..

Notice the blob of a cookie with an M&M in it? That is the result of leftover dough.

These cookies are soooo simple and soooo adorable.

To make these cookies use your favorite sugar cookie recipe, no point in me telling you which to use. For the shape of the reindeer head we used a cookie cutter in the shape of a bell. Turn the bell upside down when you decorate, so that the clapper (part inside the bell that makes that lovely noise) can be used as the nose. Then add M&Ms for the eyes and nose, pretzels for the ears. Presto!

Ideally, you should add these in before you bake them, so that they bake right in and you don't have to use icing. However, my Mom and I didn't remember that point until the last tray, that only had six cookies on it (the tray shown in the picture). So, we stuck everything else on with icing. Simple solution for simple cookies!

While visiting at my parent's I gotta play with the wonderful animals they have.
This is Dio. Look how cute.

This is Alice cat. (By the way, Dio was named after the one and only Ronnie James Dio, and Alice after the infamous Alice Cooper) This was the best out of five pictures, she wouldn't sit still for anything.

And this is my Sasha girl. Who seemed very sad that Mom was putting all the cookies away.

And after the baking and decorating my Dad took me on a hike in the woods to find a Christmas tree. That is now decorating and sitting in my living room.

Ignore the lights slightly dangling at the bottom, one word explanation: kittens.

Although the holiday season has already started: Have a wonderful holiday season (regardless of what holiday you celebrate)! And, more posts to come within the following days!

Today Sucked

And what do you do when the day sucks? You bake, of course.

You bake the thing that makes you happy. Birthday's are filled with cake and cupcakes. Cupcakes make us happy on those days. I baked cupcakes. See my line of thinking?

Vanilla cupcakes with vanilla buttercream frosting, to be precise. Today, this is what made me happy.

Baking is therapeutic; at least for me it is. My bad day left me shaky and frustrated, then my hand mixer made me more frustrated. The slowest speed on my mixer was toooooo fast for the cupcake batter, so I had to do it by hand. Which, turns out, is very relaxing. Before I realized it, I was smiling and having a grand ole time. No, really. Therapeutic. Say it with me.. ther-a-peuuuu-tic. Isn't that nice?

Before I was born my parents painted my bedroom a very nice green color, it was very pastel-y. And it stayed that color all the way up until I moved out; now it's a peach color. But anyway, my point: I love pastel colors because of that room. So, these cupcakes were topped with a nice pastel-y blue. As pastel-y as I could get it. You know food coloring..

Sadly, this picture doesn't do the color the justice I hoped it would.

And yes, pastel-y is a word..now..

These cupcakes were very good, fabulous even. To the point where I wish I could take credit, but I can't. So, giving credit where credit is due..Joy the Baker, everybody! http://joythebaker.com/2009/07/twelve-frosted-cupcakes-just-one-stick-of-butter-promise/

If you have yet to read her blog, DO IT NOW! I'm telling you, she's amazing. She's a very down-to-earth, classy chick. And though we have not met, I love her. I do. She's just below Julia Child but just above Nikki Sixx. Don't judge me..

Here ya go..the final product. Notice the green sprinkles? Sprinkles make this world a better place. It's a fact. A proven fact.

Goodbye bad day.. I wish, for anyone reading this, that you had a much better day and just let me say that..you're wonderful.<3