Lime Coconut Cupcakes
Posted on December 8, 2009
Now that it’s winter, I think it’s about time I made something that makes me feel all warm and cozy inside. Lime-Coconut Cupcakes! Ok, so they remind me of summer, but that’s the way I like it. They still make me feel warm and cozy, but only because I’m dreaming of 80 degree weather.
Don’t they look yummy?
Ok, confession: I LOVE limes.
Love ‘em. I don’t think I like them enough to actually just eat one like an orange or something. I mean, I could try. I’ll get back to you on that. Anyway, I love the taste of limes. The smell of them is like heaven to me. So, about a year ago, I decided to get crazy and experiment with them and make some cupcakes. They were so oh-em-gee delicious I think I ate the whole batch. I’ve been craving them again, so I decided to make them again and provide all of you with the recipe. Aren’t I sweet?
Here is your cast of characters:
Of course I use box cake mix and tubs of frosting, don’t you? I could make them from scratch, but, who has time for that? Oh…and add another lime to that picture. Because I said so.
I don’t know if any of the other cake mixes have this option, but Todd bought me Pillsbury and I noticed they have a “healthier” version you can make, with no egg yolks. I did it that way, but you can make yours however the heck you want to. I figure, if I’m going to eat the whole batch, I might as well slim down the calories.
Ok, first things first. Zest both of your limes.
“How did she…” It’s called trick photography. Plus, I’m just awesome, so that comes in handy.
Next, mix your cake according to the box. Cut your freshly zested (and delicious smelling) limes in half.
I could just take a bite out of that. So yummy!
Juice your limes. I use my hands, but you can use a juicer. Tip though: If you decide, like me, to use your hands, please make sure you don’t have a cut on your hands. It does hurt. Like hell.
Put the juice into the cake batter and mix well.
Pour the batter into the cupcake cups- about 2/3 full.
“How did she…” It’s called an equally awesome husband.
Oh, by the way. Notice the state of my cupcake pan? This is my way of publicly asking for a stoneware cupcake pan for Christmas. Actually, any kind of stoneware baking pan is great. I’m not picky.
Bake your cupcakes at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. The box probably says 18-22 minutes, but I added the extra minutes because of the juice.
Next up: Frosting!
Take your tub of frosting and dump it into a bowl. Well, it works best if you take the frosting out of the tub first.
Add some coconut, I used about a half a cup. Whatever your taste buds like.
Throw your lime zest into the bowl as well.
Seriously, can you smell that? Yum.
Mix everything up with a mixer, nice and fluffy.
Frost your cupcakes! I have a handy dandy frosting doo-hickey that I got from Pampered Chef. I love it! Speaking of Pampered Chef, they have stoneware. Just saying.
And you’re done!
Just look at that gorgeousness. Mouth watering. Ok, ok, take a bite.
See? Told you. Oh-em-gee delicious.
Enjoy!
Oh! I should note, the last time I made these, I put the lime zest into the cupcake batter and the lime juice into the frosting. Both are equally delicious (actually, I think the juice in the frosting makes my lime cravings settle a bit more) but if you just put the zest into the cupcake batter, not the juice, the time to bake goes back down to 18-22 minutes.
Resume enjoyment.
Making Baby Food
Posted on August 12, 2009
So, this morning, I made about 50 meals in two hours. And I spent less than $14.
Well, yes they were for a half pint chub-a-lub, but still. I made Ava’s baby food and it worked out so well, that I decided to make Lily’s too. It’s so easy, and it’s 100% REAL food, and it saves me a fortune! I honestly don’t know why more people don’t do it. I understand maybe time is a factor. But really, I spent two hours in the kitchen. Two hours and I have enough for almost a month. Not bad at all. And you all know I don’t have time. At all. And check out the price comparison! Can’t beat that!
So when I was doing this for Ava, I came across this book.
Fantastic book! Anything you want to know about making baby food, it’s in there. It’s really the only resource I used.
I especially like this section.
Pretty much anything you can think of to feed your baby (fruits and veggies) is in there. And they detail the nutrient value, what age the baby should be, how to cook it for baby, how to freeze it, etc. So if you have a left over mango that you want to mash up and give to your 7 month old, but you’re not sure how old he should be to eat mangos, just look it up!
There ya go. Love it. I recommend it to everyone!
So this morning I baked some butternut squash.
*sniff* That one didn’t turn out like I wanted. Next time I’ll bake it in water with the meat down.
While I was baking that, I boiled some sweet potatoes.
While those were doin’ their thing, I mashed up some bananas and poured it into an ice cube tray.
Label, label, label. You have no idea how much this stuff starts to look alike when it’s frozen.
Then I peeled a couple peaches and stuck those into the food processor.
Into the ice cube tray!
I microwaved some carrots too. Oh, this little pot thing is the best ever. Pampered Chef. Just sayin.
Peeled and pureed some pears.
All in the freezer! These will all keep for two months. But my little girl could eat them all in a day. Probably. Little chunker.
And she just sits there and jumps the whole time I’m cooking. Well most of the time.
Besides fruits and veggies, I’ve also started to make homemade rice cereal for her. Seriously easy. I take a bunch of brown rice, put it in a blender and blend it into powder. It takes 2 minutes in the blender. I usually just take that and store it into a container for easy access. When I want to make a batch of rice, I boil a cup of water.
Scoop out 1/4 cup of the powder.
Drop it in the water and wisk wisk wisk like mad for about a minute.
Then you let it cook on low for 10 minutes. You have to get in there and wisk it good every couple minutes.
Easy! Then I just add a tablespoon of this into her breakfast every morning. This morning it was rice, a cube of bananas and a cube of peaches.
Stick that into the microwave for about 30 seconds and you’re done!
Lets have a taste test.
Well Miss Expert, what do you think!?
Success!
I love making baby food!!
My Spaghetti and Meatballs
Posted on August 4, 2009
The funniest thing about this post is the fact that when I was younger, my least favorite food was spaghetti. Hated it. With a passion. Later, I figured it out that I’m not a huge fan of spaghetti without meat. And please don’t put huge chunks of green pepper in the sauce. It doesn’t make me happy. But big hunks of meat? Yep, I’m game.
So, thanks to my friend Becky for telling me about America’s Test Kitchen and thank you Melaina for calling me and having me look up this recipe for you.
Cast of Characters:
Onion Mixture
1/4 cup olive oil
3 onions , chopped fine
8 garlic cloves, minced
1 tablespoon dried oregano
3/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
Sauce
1 (6-ounce) can tomato paste
1 cup dry red wine
1 cup water
4 (28-ounce) cans crushed tomatoes
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1/4 cup fresh basil leaf
Salt
1 – 2 teaspoons sugar , as needed
Meatballs
4 slices hearty white sandwich bread
3/4 cup milk
1/2 pound sweet Italian sausage , casings removed
1 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1/2 cup chopped fresh parsley leaves
2 large eggs
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
2 1/2 pounds ground beef chuck (80 percent lean)
Tip: This usually takes me about 2-2 1/2 hours to make from start to finish. Just an fyi.
Ok first, you’re going to want to take your onions (I use sweet yellow onions) and chop them up really fine. I use my food processor so I’m not crying all in my food, but do whatever works for you.
Heat the olive oil in a large dutch oven over medium-high heat until shimmering. Cook your onions in a (large) dutch oven until they are golden, about 10-15 minutes.
Then take your 8 cloves of garlic and mince that up. Or, just use the jarred minced garlic. But…if you do, please don’t be like me and mistake the portion size. A 1/2 tsp of minced garlic= one clove. NOT a 1/2 Tbsp. 24 cloves of garlic is a lot of garlic. Just a tip.
Add the garlic, dried oregano and red pepper flakes to the onions.
Cook the onion mixture for another 30 seconds, or until fragrant.
Transfer half of onion mixture to large bowl and set aside.
On to the sauce. Add tomato paste to remaining onion mixture in pot and cook until fragrant, about 1 minute.
Add wine and cook until slightly thickened, about 2 minutes.
Stir in water and tomatoes.
Simmer over low heat until sauce is no longer watery, about 60 minutes.
On to the meatballs! Tip: Start making these about a half hour into your sauce simmering session. Oh! And don’t forget your pasta. I always get to the end of making this sauce before I remember the spaghetti! Mommy brain…
Adjust oven rack to upper-middle position and heat oven to 475 degrees. Grab that bowl of your reserved onion mixture.
Add the milk and bread to it.
I actually use wheat bread now, so, if you’d rather, you can do so yourself.
Mash the bread and milk in bowl with the onion mixture until smooth.
Yes. I use a pastry cutter. What? It works.
Add the Italian sausage (I use sweet Italian sausage with basil), cheese, eggs, parsley, garlic and salt, and mash to combine.
Once combined, add the beef (I use ground turkey- it tastes fantastic and its good for you!).
This is the part where, if you have any, you should take off your rings. I forget this part a lot. Or, I’ll leave them on the counter and lose them. But my mother in law got me this cute little candle holder a while ago and she told me to use it for my rings when I’m cooking. So, I do! Cute, huh? No more mushy or lost rings!
Anyhoo, back to the food. Knead the meat mixture with your hands until well combined.
Form mixture into 1 1/2-inch meatballs (I usually get about 30 meatballs).
Place them on a rimmed baking sheet, and bake until well browned, about 20 minutes.
While those are baking, go back to your sauce. It should be done simmering now. Stir in the cheese and basil and adjust the seasonings with salt and sugar.
Let that simmer for the rest of the time your meatballs are in the oven.
Once they’re done, take out your meatballs and add them to the sauce. Let them simmer in there for another 15 minutes.
Serve over pasta and enjoy fall in love.
Now, of course you can tweak this to your taste. Take out the wine if you must, Amy. Add mushrooms, or (God forbid) green peppers if you’d like. But just be aware that this recipe is for a HUGE amount. The recipe says it serves 8, but I made this for my family camping trip and it served 9 adults, 6 kids and one teenage boy. Plus seconds. What I usually end up doing is making the whole batch, and then seperating meals for my family into containers and freezing them. I usually end up with about 8 meals. I guess it all depends on the family size and taste, really.
Anyway, enjoy! And let me know if you try this and what you think!
Baking in a Tutu
Posted on August 4, 2009
Promise me you didn’t click on this to see me baking in a tutu. If you did, I have something for you that is MUCH cuter.
Ava loves to bake with me. Cooking is ok, but baking- well that usually involves sugar and sweets and licking batter off the spoons. I can see her fascination.
But, it makes it even more fun if you bake in your tutu! Who knew?
She loves to pour everything into the bowl. I’ll even let her crack the eggs. She hasn’t yet mastered cracking open the eggs. Egg shells are a common ingredient in her cooking, but I’m sure she’ll get there eventually.
And, surprisingly (or not), this is her favorite part. She loves getting her hands dirty.
And yes, messes usually ensue. Some people think I’m crazy for letting her do it, but honestly, I think she just might be cleaner than me in the kitchen. And really, if you don’t make a mess while you’re cooking, how much fun are you really having?
Oh wait. I lied. THIS is her favorite part. Yea, mine too.
Now, we could just dig in to these delicious peanut butter oatmeal cookies, but we won’t. They have a much better future in store. Well…before they get in my belly that is.
I know what you’re thinking. You’re thinking “Wait…what’s this? What are you doing to those perfectly good, perfectly normal peanut butter oatmeal cookies?!” Oh, just wait.
Mmmhmmm. Oh yea. Oatmeal Peanut Butter Sandwich Cookies. With Peanut Butter Mollasses Filling. Yum. I Wonder How Many More Words I Can Capitalize Into This Recipe Title?
Yep. And they taste just as divine as they look. You’ll find these and many other amazing recipes at an awesome blog called Rookie Cookie. Love this blog!!
Fantastic job Tutu Baking Princess!!
The Great Cupcake! Slightly easier than cupcake pops.
Posted on June 16, 2009
While I was searching Williams-Sonoma for 1.25″ cookie cutters for my cupcake pops, and trying to figure out how to make a large cupcake for Ava’s cake, I came across this bit of awesomeness.
The Great Cupcake Pan. Oooh yea. Totally cute and much easier to make than the cupcake pops. Of course, the fact that I made BOTH the cupcake pops and the cupcake cake makes things a little hectic, but whatever. I think Jen from Cakewrecks just might like this cupcake cake. Cuz it’s so much cuter than cupcakes in the shape of Chewbacca.
See? Cake in the shape of a cupcake!! Ingenious.
Preheat your oven to 350°. Then make some cake batter. You can of course go all out and make the recipe on the label from scratch, but I’m impatient. But if you do go box cake, you will need two boxes. You use about a box and a half of mix. I used Betty Crocker Super Moist Double Chocolate Cake. So, mix up your cake batter.
Make sure you grease your pan too. I always forget this step. Easiest way I found to do this with the cake mold is to brush the butter right on there.
Then flour & coat.
Then pour your batter into the mold. I think you can make each cake separately if you are afraid of overcooking, but I’m impatient. So I did both. Fill the cups up to about a half inch from the top.
Then bake. I baked it for about 70 minutes at 350°. I started at 50 minutes and then kept checking it, and it ended up being 70 minutes. Or an hour and ten minutes if you’re picky.
You’ll probably get little puffs at the top, just run your knife along the pan to cut them off so they’re level.
While they’re cooling, make your frosting. Again, I didn’t go from scratch, but I did take white frosting and tint it pink. I usually run tubbed frosting through the mixer anyway just to fluff it up a bit. It makes it easier to work with.
After they’re cool, just turn the pan over onto some wax paper. The cakes should come out super easy. I suppose you could frost the bottom, but I chose to leave it bare- that’s what a cupcake looks like anyway. And…I’m impatient. So, I just frosted the top. Oh, by the way, I used two tubs of frosting. You’ll have left over, but…who complains about leftover frosting?
Add a layer of frosting on the bottom half as well. It will act as a tasty adhesive for the two layers. You could of course make a filling if you wanted. I didn’t. Impatient, remember?
Now assemble your cupcake cake.
Add some sprinkles, and Voila! The Great Cupcake. Yum. You can probably add a cherry on top or something, but I had the #4 for Ava’s birthday. Cute, huh?
Don’t want to buy the mold? Come on over and bake it here at my house! Seriously, I don’t need a reason to have cake.
I heart cupcake pops.
Posted on June 10, 2009
And I heart Bakerella. I believe she is the one who came up with these wonderful little confections, and for that I love her even more. After falling in love with her site, I decided to make cupcake pops for Ava’s birthday party this year. I made a batch a couple weeks ago just to try them out, and they went over pretty well. I sent a bunch of them off to Todd’s station and they were gone the next day. The rest of them Lily ate. She did. She likes them.
So, I decided to be insane and make another batch for Ava’s 4th birthday party. For those of you who have kids, you are giggling right now. Hey, I thought I had time. I thought it wouldn’t be a big deal. It’s just cake dipped in chocolate. How hard could it be? Well, Ava was about 15-20 minutes late to her own party. BUT, the cupcake pops were done! And they were cute! And delicious. (Oh, and I made a cupcake cake too. But not the kind you’re thinking of. A cool one. One that I’m pretty sure even Jen from Cakewrecks would like.)
Anyway, long story short (it never is with me), I decided to do my own version of blogging Bakerella style and give you the visual step by step process of making these awesome do-hickeys. Now, I’m a n00b. If you would rather get the directions straight from the source herself, I totally understand. This is just my attempt at being awesome like she is.
Warning: If you so not have time on your hands, don’t expect these to be done in one day. It took me 2 days. Well, like 24 hours. Trust me.
You will need:
1 13X9 baked cake (from a box cake mix or from scratch … any flavor)
1 can cream cheese frosting (or about 2 cups equivalent from scratch)
1 flower shaped cookie cutter (1.25″ wide X .75″ tall)
1 package chocolate bark
1 package pink candy melts or white chocolate bark
bowls for dipping
wax paper
aluminum foil
lollipop sticks
sprinkles, m&ms or something similar for top of cupcake
small plastic treat bags and ribbon to package the Cupcake Pops
candy cups and truffle boxes to individually package the Cupcake Bites
styrofoam block
Ok, first step, bake a cake. Doesn’t matter what flavor. I chose to make Betty Crocker Super Moist Double Chocolate Cake. Yum. I don’t even think it matters what size, but I chose to make a regular 13×9 cake.
Then, take your beautiful cake and crumble it up. I used a food processor to make a finer texture.
Add one tub of cream cheese frosting. Mix it in thoroughly.
Doesn’t that look like really thick frosting? So good…
This is where it gets messy. Roll the mixture into balls, about 1.5 inches and place them onto wax paper. You’re going to need to rinse and dry your hands a bunch of times, just fyi.
Now, you can either put them in the fridge for a few hours to chill, or if you are short on time, stick them in the freezer for about 15-20 min. I put them in the freezer a few times; basically they get a little mushy to work with, so you want to keep them firm so it’s a little easier. You should get about 48-50 little balls. (It should be noted, you can stop here and NOT make these guys into cupcake shapes. If you’re short on time, or sane, you can go right to the chocolate dipping part. I am not sane.)
When you’re ready to dive in again, take them out of the freezer and roll them into an oblong shape.
Doesn’t that look tasty? Oh c’mon, you know it looks like a turd. Hold on, they look cuter soon.
You want to get a 1.25 inch round/flower/fluted cookie cutter. There are a few different kinds out there. Wilton makes these, and I used the flower one for the last batch, but they were a little big. They also make these, but I couldn’t find them in stores. I went to Williams-Sonoma and found this little guy. Perfect.
Take your yummy oblong shape and put it into the cookie cutter. Shape the mixture into the cookie cutter mold leaving a little cupcake puff on top.
Place it right side up on the wax paper and continue until they are all cupcakes. This took a while because I had to keep freezing them because they were getting a little melt-in-your-hand.
Melt your chocolate bark until smooth. Take each cupcake and dip the bottom half into the bark. Turn it upside down and let the bark drip down. You want to make sure you cover the whole bottom half, but don’t have so much bark that it drips onto the top too much.
Place the cupcake upside down onto the wax paper. Take a lolipop stick, dip the end into a little bit of chocolate bark and stick it into the bottom of the cupcake. Make sure you do not do what I did- I dipped all of the cupcakes into the bark and then went back to put in the lolipop sticks. Yea, no. Do it right away, otherwise the bark hardens and then you have to get out shish kabob skewers and drill holes into the bottoms of all of your cupcakes and pray they don’t break. Ok? Ok.
Now melt your chocolate candy melts. I used pink, you can use any color you want, or even white if you wish. Dip the top of your cupcake into the chocolate. I turned them to the side and twirled, letting the access drip off. I kind of made a little peak at the top.
Take your sprinkles and decorate your cupcake. (Again immediately, not after they are all hard.) The less messy way to do this is to hold the cupcake sideways over the bowl, twirl it, and sprinkle the tops.
Stick an m&m or a larger sprinkle in the center of the top, stick the pops into a syrofoam block, and voila! Adorable.
I covered them with candy wrappers and tied them closed with pink ribbon. Well…the party guests tied them closed. I didn’t have time. (Thank you!! And thank you Melaina for helping me dip them and sprinkle them! If it weren’t for you, we would have been an hour late. Or not had any cupcake pops at all. And that would have been a shame.)
See? Everyone hearts cupcake pops.
P.S. I got most of the stuff at Joann Fabrics and Jewel, and then the cookie cutter at Williams-Sonoma. Bakerella has a whole list of links for where to find the stuff in her cupcake pop post. She also has a whole slew of ways you can make cake pops. Take your pick! Enjoy!
