Cheese on a Stick

Hey guys! Having a great weekend?! I am! We had to go to the mall in Salinas today to hit up a couple stores that are not in Monterey. Sooooo, while there, I HAD to get a cheese on a stick! (the bright side of driving to Salinas) LOOOOVE those! Keep an eye out in the future, I will attempt to make the batter and create my own CHEESE ON A STICK!. But for now....a little poll.

Here's what went down. I was eating my Cheese on a Stick and I went to dip it in ketchup. Hubband, (not a typo, I call him that) with a mortified look on his face says "what the hell are you doing?!"  "Um, dipping it in ketchup, of course." He then proceeds to "gag" and states "I think I just threw up, that's like dipping your grilled cheese in ketchup!" To which I replied... "um, yeah. I do that too"  Of course,  more "gagging" happened. He thinks I am crazy and that no one puts ketchup on their grilled cheese OR their cheese on a stick! I disagree. (I think I may actually be wrong this time) So. Let us find out, shall we!?

Look on the right side of the home page and there will be a poll! "Do you dip grilled cheese or cheese on a stick in ketchup?" Obviously, my answer is yes. But I will not answer the poll, I don't want to mess up the findings! So go ahead, let me know! Also, don't be afraid to comment on why or why not you dip stuff  in ketchup! 

Keep your eye out later, I am making banana bread! (If I don't get distracted) YUMMY!

Have a great day! Grumpy Baking!

B

Chocolate cake and Vanilla Swiss Buttercream

RECIPE TIME! Plus more L.A. Pics!

Chocolate cake/cupcakes

3 cups flour
3 cups sugar
1 1/2 cups unsweetened cocoa powder
3 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp cinnamon
3/4 tsp salt
3 sticks butter at room temp
1 1/2 cups buttermilk (buttermilk makes cakes awesome...just sayin)
3 eggs
1 1/2 cups brewed coffee, cooled to room temperature

Preheat to 350 (or 325 and bake a little longer)

In large bowl, mix flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda, cinnamon and salt. Blend for 30 seconds on low until just blended.

Add butter and buttermilk and blend until moistened, then blend on medium until light and fluffy...2-3 minutes (honestly, I didn't do the extra mixing with my first batch of cupcakes and they turned out better, trial and error, decide for yourself. When I made these as actual cakes, I did the whipping and they turned out great! ) Whisk eggs and coffee together in separate little bowl, add to batter in 3 additions, scraping side of bowl and beating until blended.

Pour batter in cupcake tins to 3/4 full. bake at 350 for 16+ min (ish). Or in round or square 8in cake pans for  34-40 min. Remember, climate and ovens vary! You will need to keep a close eye on ANYTHING new you are baking! Once you have adjusted according to your oven and climate, you should be good to go!

BUTTERCREAM! I love this stuff. Just pass me a spoon...or one of those straw spoon things that comes with a slurpee.

I doubled this, and it piped 58 cupcakes.

1 cup sugar (granulated. NOT powdered)
4 eggs whites
3 sticks plus 2 TBS UNSALTED butter.
1 tsp vanilla (Or...play with it and try whatever flavoring you like! This is pretty much a base, you can make it whatever flavor you like...citrus? coffee? peppermint? I love french vanilla the best though...classic)
food coloring (if desired)

OK! INSTRUCTIONS! 

In a double boiler, mix sugar and egg whites over medium heat until sugar dissolves ( it wont be too hot to touch and test throughout whisking) using a whisk and whisking regularly.

Once dissolved, transfer to stand mixer or large mixing  bowl and mix/whip the egg mixture until doubled in volume and peaks form.

Add the butter, one stick at a time, fully incorporating after each addition. Add your flavor! Now.....whip the shit out of it! Seriously, you may need to whip for 5-15 min! 
Ok, now do not panic if... it curdles (the shock of butter that is too cold can do this) KEEP WHIPPING, it will come together when you think all is lost (buttercream can be saved)
Do not panic if...it gets runny (if the butter was a little too warm...damn temperamental recipes!). If it gets too runny/soupy, place the bowl in the fridge for 15-20 min, the whip it again until smooth! (this may need to be repeated several times, i had to put some back in the fridge twice a couple weeks ago.Not a happy camper)

Soooo, back to whipping...whip whip whip! (add food coloring if you want) It'll be pretty and smooth and white and have a silky feel. Peaks should be forming. Now you can pipe it on, or spread it on, or turn the cupcakes upside down and dip them! HOORAY! You have kick ass buttercream and cupcakes! 

I hope these are DELICIOUS for you! Now...A couple pics from chinatown L.A. We HAD to go. Husband loves this place.

there are little "pots" to try to get your coins in. Each one is different. Wealth, prosperity, luck, peace, etc.

Husband got both wealth and prosperity.

I missed.

I love Rush Hour!

Until next time! Grumpy baking!

Happy birthday, Wyatt!

I don't like kids. OK, I like SOME kids. My precious punkins, I adore! All my nieces and nephews are pretty damn fabulous.  My cousins all have awesome kids, and I have even allowed myself to remain friends, with my friends who have had kids (or are about to have kids!). I have friends who have kids that I have not met yet, but I am pretty sure I will like them too! (congratulations on making the list) But as a general rule...I just don't get it. I don't swoon over babies (or puppies for that matter, but, that's another day). I often find the sound of children laughing, a bit (lot) annoying, and God forbid, they start screaming (from what I have seen, for no good reason) or screeching!  They are messy, snotty, loud, and they run around stores like bats outta hell! ( I blame bad parenting on much of this) I yell at them for this, and have, on more than one occasion been VEEEERRRY tempted to trip a child. Sorry, but...yes. So, if you are a stranger to me, a friend of a friend, acquaintance...whatever,  and you want to show off your kid to me, I can pretty much assure you, I will be less than impressed. Don't be mad. I warned you.

This being said, husband and I went to L.A. this weekend to attend my nephew Wyatt's 3rd birthday and to provide the baked goods for his partay! (recipes and pics later in the post). Wyatt is a very precious boy, he is definitely on my list of "kids I can tolerate". (OK, he is on the "LOVE" list) so I was pretty excited to about going to L.A. to see him and my sister Karin! Plus, I got to bake! However, I knew going to this party there would be a lot of "other kids" there. "Other kids" being strange(er) kids (I am a huge advocate for "stranger danger", my version is just reversed). 

Most of the kids at the party were tolerable. They didn't come near me, which is always a plus. One little girl did come over to me and I was so confused as to why she came up to say hello to me that I just stared at her in confusion while asking husband out of the corner of my mouth, "honey, what does she want?, I don't know what to say to her".  He kinda took it from there. I wont lie, she was actually pretty cute. She was a quiet child, and that appealed to me.

Other children just ripped toys out of each others hands, pulled decorations off of the cakes, and refused to share..while screaming. Do they understand "sharing" at ages 3-5? I assumed so. I honestly could be wrong, obviously I am not a mother (yet). I just enjoy being the outsider that is telling you that you are obviously not doing it (parenting) correctly. I have no doubt, that when the time comes for me to have a kid, I will eat my words...but until then.....

Ok, So we were up til 2am baking these cupcakes and the grassy mound "grave digger" cake for Wyatt! Exhausting, but fun, and the little man is worth it! 

These are the cupcakes! Chocolate with vanilla butter cream! The cake was too dark for the liners, so the damn colors didn't show up. That was disappointing, but we went with it.

These next pictures SHOULD also have me in them, in tears! AHHH! The neighbors oven was a tad hot I think, plus, it was 102 degrees that day, it affected some batches and I was raging pretty hard, (husband stops talking to me when I rage, it's not a nice quality...apparently) we just snacked on these disasters while we prettied up the others!

Party pics!

GRAVE DIGGER!! Wyatt's FAVORITE!

This is where the rest of the "disaster cupcakes" made it!

                                     

He likes them!!! 

OK, so there you have it! Wyatt got a ton of monster trucks, which are, of course, the COOLEST thing EVER! Right!? 3 year olds dig em! We had a great time, seeing Karin and Wyatt and partying with the little dude! It was balls hot the whole time we were there, but we survived, and I would do it again! 

OK, I am going to do another quick post, with the chocolate cake recipe and the SUPER YUMMY Buttercream!  Until next time! Grumpy baking!!

B

Sour Cream

First blog post! HOORAY! I was going to put it off, but then I had sour cream for dinner and felt motivated! It put me in a great mood. So for my first official blog post, I will keep things nice! Besides, believe it or not, nothing made me too angry today! Progress? Doubt it.

Ahhhhhhh, sour cream. loved by many...hated by more (apparently, it has too many calories?? I dunno). But, me? Oh not hated by me at all! I mean, who am I kidding, I love sour cream so much! I put it on anything I can, and to be honest, I only put it on other food items, because the looks I get (from husband) when I eat it out of the container by the spoonful are quite disapproving. I wonder what people in restaurants would think? Not that I would care, but....HUSBAND! He thinks it is going to kill me! I mean, I just had enchiladas, and you couldn't see the actual enchilada. If you are lactose intolerant, or have a dairy allergy, I AM SO SORRY!

On to some baking tips!

Sour cream and baking! YES YOU CAN! I am sure that a great many of you already know that you can bake delicious cakes and cupcakes...and more, with good ol sour cream! But for those of you that don't know...now you know.  There are even recipes out there for "old fashioned sour cream cake". I have not made any of these, but it is definitely on my list, so keep an eye out!

Sticking with the cake theme here, you can modify boxed cake mix by adding sour cream and make the cake a bit more dense and moist (pudding mix can also be used, but that is another post, another day). I recommend this method for those people who (like my sister Mandi! Lil shout out for ya there) might want some cupcakes for their (AHHHH!) kids, but either don't have the time (Mandi), patience (Mandi. I think baking might be the ONE thing she DOESN'T have patience for), or...honestly, skills of baking cakes and treats from scratch (Mandi). Just a little modification to the boxed cake mix can do wonders! It wont taste quite as "boxed cake mixy". Try it! I will include an easy recipe at the bottom of this post! Let me know how it goes!

Now that I type this, I think that dear sister might need some baking lessons when I come to visit! Although, from what I understand, she has improved quite a bit and can make a mean cookie! You're welcome.

Okay, here it is. Easy cake mix modified! Now, I have a modification that I use, it is in my recipe book, and that book has disappeared! This is a catastrophe and I will be finding it...like NOW. I usually do not use cake mix, but I wont lie, I have it in my pantry and if I am too tired from bitching at and about people, I will modify a cake mix, whip up some swiss meringue buttercream and call it good! Oh yeah, back to the recipe. I got this from foodtv.com, I will post my recipe from my little book, just as soon as I find it!


Until next time! Grumpy Baking!


1 (18 1/4 ounce) package yellow cake mix
1 cup sour cream
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1/4 cup water
1/4 cup sugar
4 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Directions:

1
Preheat oven to 350° and lightly grease and flour a 13x9 pan.
2
Combine all ingredients in large mixing bowl and blend on low speed of mixer for 1 minute.
3
Scrape down sides with spatula.
4
Increase mixer speed to medium and beat an additional 2 minutes.
5
Pour batter into prepared pan.
6
Bake for 30 to 35 minutes or until golden brown and tests done when a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
7
Cool on a wire rack and frost as desired

If you try this, let me know what you think!

B

P.S.
This weekend, husband and I are driving to Los Angeles for my nephew Wyatt's 3rd birthday party! I am helping with the cupcakes, so be on the lookout for that! There will be tons of kids there, so I have no doubt there will be plenty to rant about! Be ready!