Moving and not baking.

So, I will soon be moving south to Texas. In order to avoid the last minute packing scramble, I've started ahead of time. However, this translates to most of my bake-wear being packed up already. I am, in fact, going to do as little baking and cooking as I can possibly get away with. If I am forced to make food at home, it may very well be limited to sandwiches. What this translates to is, I will most likely not be posting anything baking related until I get my kitchen set up, which will be August 3rd at the earliest, but please do not hold your breath for that date, as I will also be unpacking an entire apartment as well. For now, I will say until next time, when I again pick up the baking spree, only in a slightly different climate.

Drizzled honey cupcakes

Yesterday while I was at a bookstore selling some of the many novels I need to get rid of before moving 2 states away, I wandered into the Cooking section. I know, does that really surprise you? I didn't think so. While I was there, I found this book. One of the many great recipes in the book is one called drizzled honey cupcakes.

And oh my goodness, these are good. Also, an added bonus is they are very easy to make. I might have to make more, because I'm not sure I can bring myself to share. Yeah, that good.


Yield: 12 cupcakes


Ingredients:
generous 1/2 cup self-rising white flour
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
pinch of ground cloves
pinch of grated nutmeg
6 tbsp butter, softened
scant 1/2 cup superfine/caster sugar
1 tbsp honey
finely grated rind of 1 orange
2 eggs
3/4 cup minced walnut


Topping:
1/4 cup minced walnut
1/2 tsp cinnamon
2 1/2 tbsp honey
juice of 1 orange
allspice
brown sugar

1. Heat oven to 375* and put 12 paper baking cups in a muffin pan.

2. Sift the flour, cinnamon, cloves, and nutmeg together into a bowl. Put the butter and sugar in a separate bowl and beat together until light and fluffy. Beat in the honey and orange rind, then gradually add the eggs, beating well after each addition. Mix in the flour mixture, a little at a time. Fold in walnuts, then spoon the batter into the paper cups, about 1/2 full.

3. Bake the cupcakes for 20 minutes, or until well risen and golden brown. Transfer to a wire rack and let cool.

4. To make the topping, mix together the walnuts and cinnamon {I also added a dash of allspice and about a 1/2 tsp of brown sugar}. Put the honey and orange juice in a pan and heat gently, stirring, until combined {I added a dash of allspice and a small amount of brown sugar to this mixture as well}.

5. When the cupcakes have almost cooled, prick the tops all over with a fork and then drizzle with the warm honey mixture. Sprinkle the walnut mixture over the top of each cupcake and serve, warm or cold.

So, go raid you cupboards, then go to the store and get what you need and make these. Now. 

This instant.

Because, seriously, I'm not sharing.

Coffee Cupcakes!

I'm going to let you all in on a little secret. Before this weekend, I can't remember making cupcakes... ever. I've made muffins, and I've made cakes, but I haven't made cupcakes. After the apple pie fiasco on Saturday, I decided to bake something else and I'm sure glad I did.

I made chocolate cupcakes with a coffee butter cream frosting, referenced on this blog. (Note: I tripled the recipe to make enough for the cupcakes, and mixed in, a teaspoon at a time, more cream to get the consistency I wanted).


As I'm a newbie at making cupcakes, I most likely under filled the paper cups, but I would rather have a bunch of smaller cupcakes than a few, overflowing, ones.

While the naked cupcakes were resting, I made the frosting and then transfered it into a gallon size plastic bag and stuck it in the fridge for 10-15 minutes to cool off. Once it was cool, I reinforced a corner with tape and snipped off a small corner (keep it small, you can always cut more to make the opening larger, it is rather difficult to then make the opening smaller). With the make-shift pastry bag, I piped the frosting onto the cupcakes and prepared to enjoy the chocolate coffee goodness.

And oh did I enjoy them.

I hope everyone had a great holiday weekend!

The apple pie that didn't.

Yesterday I made an apple pie. I was so excited to make this. I just purchased a food processor and really wanted to give making a pie crust in it a shot. The crust was a snap to make. I got the recipe for the crust and the apple pie filling online on the food tv site from the well know southern chef.


However, the pie didn't turn out well, at all. The filling had no flavor and cooking it according to directions the crust was doughy and the filling runny. It called to bake it for 45 minutes at 450*. The oven I used was notorious for having the temperature off, so I set the timer for 35 minutes to check on it. At 35 minutes the entire outside crust and most of the top was over cooked (the oven isn't that off) but after taking it out and letting it rest for about 30 minutes, the inside was very runny, no flavor and the bottom of the crust wasn't fully baked.


This was disappointing. I put a lot of effort into this pie. I peeled, cored and sliced 7 apples. I rolled out the pie crust, top and bottom, for a 9 inch pie. And in the end, it was awful.


Of course, this means tomorrow afternoon, before the festivities, I will be baking something else, which hopefully will turn out much better and I'll post all about it.


I hope you all have better luck with pies, but this was my first one in years and now I'm leery of making another one. I'm sure I'll give it a try again, with a different recipe, but for now I'll stick with cakes, cookies and bars.