I'm getting old!!

Today is my birthday, and my awesome boyfriend spent 3 hours baking a cake for me! Now I'm the girl who reminds everyone my birthday is coming up. I also believe in a "Birthday Week". That means I get to call the shots all week! Sucks for everyone else, but awesome for me!

By the way if you live in Atlanta you need to check out Grindhouse Killer Burgers. They have some great cheap food and play horror movies on the wall! My type of place! I've been planning to eat there for about a month, and it was so worth it.

Anyway, I was so proud of my boyfriend for baking i thought i would share it! He usually isn't the best at baking, but this cake rocked! He even did decorative piping on the cake, which look better than what i could have done. It is a cookies and cream cake, which the recipe is posted on my blog. 

St. Pattys Day Bread

So i thought i would do something a little different for St. Patrick's day. I didn't want to bake something green or something with Guinness in it. I don't mind eating green beer baked goods, but that's so expected. I've been watching Good Eats a lot lately and it inspired me to find out history about a country or food of that country. So long story short, i found out (from old Irish cook books) that they grow mostly strawberries and raspberries. Now if your from Ireland and that's a lie, I'm sorry.

Anyway, i made strawberry bread! Now at first i wasn't so sure about strawberry bread. Strawberries tend to get mushy and gross when cooked, but it turned out amazing! I love fruit in my bread, apples, raisins...This bread is prefect for breakfast or covered in whipped cream as a "light" dessert. It's also great toasted or crisped up on a griddle.

In the recipe it called for 2 cups of strawberries, fresh or frozen, but to me it wasn't enough. i would bump it up to 2 1/2 or 3 cups.

Strawberry Bread

• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon
• 2 cups sugar
• 4 eggs
• 1 1/4 cups of vegetable oil
• 2 cups strawberries
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease 2, 9x5x3 loaf pans ( i used 1, 12x5x2 1/2 loaf pan) Mix all dry ingredients together, then add eggs, oil, and vanilla. Mix until incorporated, then fold in strawberries.
Divide batter into pans if using 2. Bake for 1 hour or until top is golden brown. Let it cool in the loaf pan of 10 minutes then flip out.

Blueberry Puffs

I saw this recipe in a old Kraft magazine, the small amount of ingredients appealed to me. Plus I bought some ramekins 4 months ago that needed to be broken in.
Now I'm all about homemade, but it was nice to take a break and buy croissants. This recipe is the easiest thing ever, so if your a beginner this is perfect! I was pretty happy with the taste of these "puffs", the blueberries just burst in your mouth. My boyfriend ate 2 before they even cooled down. I could even eat these for breakfast, but then again I could eat cake for breakfast.

Now this recipe called for 10 ramekins 1/2 cup in size. My ramekins were about a 1 cup, so i only used 5.

Blueberry Puffs

• 1 pack of large croissants
• 1 1/2 cup blueberries, fresh or frozen
• 1 package (8oz) cream cheese
• 2/3 cup of sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 1/4 cups milk

Place croissants evenly in ramekins, sprinkle blueberries on top. Beat cream cheese til smooth, then add sugar, eggs, vanilla. Slowly add in milk. pour over croissants and blueberries, i filled it almost to the top. Let stand for 20 minutes.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and bake 20 to 25 minutes.

Vegan Vanilla Cupcake

I've been wanting to try a vegan recipe for a long time. Instead of experimenting, i wanted to try a well known one first. This recipe is from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over The World. The cupcake had a nice flavor, but seemed heavier than a regular (egg and butter) cupcake. These recipe would be great if you don't have eggs but need something sweet. I just put a simple Vegan Vanilla Frosting on it.

Vegan Vanilla Cupcake

• 1 cup soy milk (i used vanilla flavored)
• 1 tsp. apple cider vinegar
• 1 1/4 cups all purpose flour
• 2 tbsp. cornstarch
• 3/4 tsp. baking powder
• 1/2 baking soda
• 1/4 tsp salt (increase salt to 1/2 tsp. if using oil instead or margarine)
• 1/2 cup non-hydrogenated margarine, room temperature, or 1/3 cup canola oil (I used Earth Balance, I found it at some Walmarts and Trader Joe's.
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 2 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1/4 tsp. almond extract or more vanilla extract

 Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line muffin pan with cupcake liners. Whisk the soy milk and vinegar in a measuring cup and set aside for a few minutes to get curdled. ( mine just looked extra foamy)

If using margarine- Sift the flour, cornstarch, baking powder, baking soda and salt into a large bowl and mix. In a separate bowl use a mixer to cream margarine and sugar together for about 2 minutes until light and fluffy. Beat in vanilla extract and other extract, if using, then alternate beating in the soy milk mixture and dry ingredients, stopping to scrape the sides of the bowl a few times.

If using oil- Beat together the soy milk mixture, oil, sugar, vanilla, and other extracts if using, in a large bowl. Sift in the flour, cornstarch, baking powder, baking soda, and salt, and mix until no large clumps remain.

Fill cupcakes liners 2/3 of the way and bake for 20-22 minutes. Transfer to cooling rack, let cool before frosting. Yields about 12 cupcakes.

Vegan Vanilla Frosting

• 1/2 cup non-hydrogenated shorting
• 1/2 cup non-hydrogenated margarine (I used Earth Balance)
• 3 1/2 cups powdered sugar
• 1 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1/4 cup soy milk (I used vanilla flavored again)

 Beat the shortening and margarine together until well combined and fluffy. Add the sugar and beat about 3 minutes. Add vanilla and soy milk and beat for another 5-7 minutes or until fluffy.

Strawberry Cupcake

If you haven't heard Georgia has been covered in snow for the past 4 days. I have been stuck in my house doing nothing. Why didn't i post on here? I didn't have sugar, vanilla, or butter. Not much can be made without those..Once the snow melted to the point we could drive, the first place i went was to the grocery store. Now most of you know about Nutella, but for those sheltered folks, Nutella is the most amazing peanut chocolate concoction. Now I've seen Nutella, but i don't care much for peanut butter. The reason why i never bothered to buy it. I have bought many chocolate peanut butters but none worth buying again. I'm the person when they make a peanut butter & jelly sandwich its mostly jelly. Anyway, I bought it, and i freaking love it! So much so my sandwich is now equal if not more Nutella than jelly.
While eating my strawberry jelly and Nutella sandwich, i thought this would be an awesome cupcake! So here it is, strawberry cupcake with Nutella icing!!

Strawberry Cupcake

• 1 1/2 cup of all purpose flour
• 1 tsp of baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 4 oz or 1 stick of unsalted butter
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 large egg
• 2 large egg whites
• 1/4 cup whole milk
• 1/3 cup chopped up strawberries ( i used frozen)
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

 Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix all the dry ingredients together (flour, baking powder, and salt) and set aside. Cream butter until fluffy, gradually add the sugar until incorporated. Add the whole and egg whites slowly, mix until blended. Add half of the dry ingredients and mix until almost incorporated then add the rest and mix until blended. Pour into baking cups and place in the oven for about 20-25 minutes. Makes about 12 cupcakes.

At this time this is my favorite strawberry cupcake recipe from Sprinkles..but its not enough strawberry tasting for my likes. I'm on a mission to find/make a better one.

Nutella Frosting

• 1/2 cup Nutella
• 3-5 tbsp of whole milk or heavy cream
• 3 cups of confectioners sugar
• 1 tsp of vanilla
• 1 stick of butter

Cream butter until fluffy. Add Nutella and vanilla, mix until blended. Then add confectioners sugar mix until incorporated. Add a tablespoon or 2 of milk at time until smooth.

My frosting came out runny, i added milk like a crazy person, but still had a lovely taste to it. Don't do what i did! Slowly add your milk!