Cupcakes!

I have been really interested in making cupcakes lately. Everyone knows I have always loved cake, so it is no surprise. I have been partly inspired recently by the new muffin pan that I got from the wedding, and also by this baker’s blog site that is pretty much dedicated to making cupcakes. So here are the cupcakes I have made so far, and there will be more to come!

Bridesmaid Luncheon Cupcakes

These were cupcakes that my sister Steph & I baked together for the bridesmaid luncheon the day before the wedding. They were very yummy, although we made them from a box. They were moist, light and fluffy. Really yummy. And she found these really cute ring decorations for the cupcakes!

Baby Shower Cupcakes

Steph wanted the same cupcakes for her baby shower, so we bought the same box. However, I decided to include egg yolks in it, not totally sure why now. But she wasn’t happy about that. They weren’t as light and fluffy as the previous ones, but honestly they were still really yummy. And this time I used an icing tool and made cute little swirls. And Steph, again, managed to find adorable little blue baby pins to go on the cupcakes.

Honey Almond Cupcakes

These cupcakes were truly a success. I was in the mood to make an almond flavored cupcake, but I couldn’t find a recipe for one online (just recipes for almond flavored icing). I wanted a light and fluffy cupcake, so I found a recipe for a light white cupcake, and then I added some chopped almonds with some almond extract. I also drizzled in some honey to the mix because it is said to make the cupcake moist. They were so delicious. Had a distinct almond flavor and were very light and moist. It was just what I wanted. Then I topped it off with a buttercream icing. I did add a little almond extract and honey to the icing, but not much because I wanted it to match, not overpower. I will definitely make these again!

The mix!

The icing - so yummy!

Fresh out of the oven!

I used my new icing decorator tool and some of them turned out great!

They cupcakes go great with milk!

You can see the bits of almond on the inside.

Lemon Raspberry Cupcakes

I wish I could say the same for these, but these cupcakes weren’t as successful. I started to get the ingredients out for the cupcakes, and I discovered that I was almost out of flour. So I did what you should not do, and drove to the store without checking to make sure I had the rest of the ingredients on my list. As it turns out, I got back and discovered that I didn’t have any eggs. But I did have two egg yolks that I had saved from when I needed only 2 egg whites. I didn’t want to get back out, so I just made do without it. I was again wanting a light tasting cupcake, so I used a cake flour rather than regular flour. Then I also used the egg yolks rather than whole eggs. And I put in some lemon juice. Then I also thought that I would try out using Splenda rather than sugar because we have been eating so much sugar with all these cupcakes lately. All in all, I am not sure what to say about them. They are…interesting. I say so because they don’t taste bad, they just aren’t great. Joel likes them since they are made with spelnda, so I am letting him be in charge of eating them, haha. But I did learn something from this cupcake attempt. If you look at the pictures, you notice that the cupcake after it is baked looks exactly like it did when I put it in the oven. This is probably due to the cake flour and egg yolks. I guess since cake flour had less protein, then that is why it didn’t rise at all. They didn’t change shape, they just baked into a cooked cupcake. So I ended up with dense, but light (due to the splenda) cupcakes. This gave me ideas for cookies that I could make using the cake flour. They would taste really good if I would have used regular sugar. I will try those out sometime soon hopefully.

Lemon Raspberry Ginger Cupcakes

I knew the biggest reason that the previous lemon cupcakes didn’t turn out was mainly because of not having the right ingredients and making too many substitutions from the recipe. I like to get things right, so I tried again. This time they worked out almost perfectly. The cupcake was perfect. I used juice and zest from a lemon this time in addition to the lemon juice that I have. It had a stronger lemon taste than the previous ones did. In the previous ones, I thought the lemon wasn’t very noticeable. I also added some shredded ginger root to the mix since I bought a ginger root. These cupcakes were good.

Icing Troubles

The raspberry icing has given me so much trouble. I have made three attempts at raspberry buttercream icing, and all three have failed. Luckily one is edible, but the other two are still sitting in the fridge waiting for me to figure out a way to salvage them. The first icing I made, I simply took powdered sugar, lemon juice and raspberries. I should have left it like that. But I didn’t. I guess I wanted something creamier instead of a glaze, even though the glaze was great honestly.

So after eating a cupcake with the glaze on it, I decided to turn it into buttercream. Little did I know then, that you have to cream the butter and sugar first, you can’t cream a raspberry glaze with butter. So I ended up with a separated raspberry butter mess. I then wanted to try again, but I was out of powdered sugar. Oh the frustration.

So I just found a recipe online that didn’t ask for powdered sugar. You are supposed to heat flour and sugar and milk on the stove and mix it with butter. I don’t know how that recipe is supposed to work, because I tried it, and it came out the same as the raspberry mess, it was just a separated mess. I ended up folding that mess into whipped cream. That tasted good that day, it was a whipped sugary vanilla cream, so I liked it. But once in the fridge, it has separated somehow and tastes grainy and not good.

Then I got some powdered sugar, and mixed it with butter and it was going just like it should. Then I got to the step of adding raspberries, and I ran into trouble once more. I am using real raspberries and it seems like they just don’t mix well with buttercream. This is the only icing that is edible, and it is ok, but it doesn’t spread very well and doesn’t have a great consistency. It just tastes good. I guess I am either never going to make raspberry buttercream icing, or I am going to use a syrup or jelly for the taste, not real raspberries.

Striving For Dinner

Even though my website it still called The Red Plate, Joel made this up as a joke, and I loved it, so temporarily my page will be called Striving For Dinner!

Mexican Food

My next few posts will be in groups. This group is Mexican foods. Upcoming groups for future posts include: cupcakes, caramelized onions, and chicken. Keep checking in!

Cheese Quesadillas With Refried Bean Mixture

It seems that every time I try to make quesadillas, I get carried away and make them really full. This in turn makes a big mess when I need to flip it over to cook on the other side. I have found some ways of making this process easier, but the easiest of all is to take all the things I like to put inside the quesadilla, and put it in the beans that go on the side. This new way is so simple: only cheese inside the tortilla, no mess, easy to flip, and a bowl of refried beans, olives, onions, garlic, green pepper, salsa and tomatoes on the side. Then with every bite you take, you just scoop it into the bean mixture. I thought this was ingenious. Joel & my mom seem to think otherwise. So for those of you who prefer to have the quesadilla the normal way, then go ahead and deal with the mess or create some technique that takes energy and skill. Whereas I will enjoy the simplicity of throwing it all together in one bowl! (I am sensing a likeness to my dad here!)

Restaurant Quality Mexican Food

This dish I am proud of, not so much for the originality, but for the production of it. Doesn’t it look like a dinner platter from a restaurant? As seen in the post above, I generally prefer all my fixins to be in one place, to make it easier. But I was going for the more aesthetic quality here. Additionally, I wanted to surprise Joel with something that looked good, and he prefers things more separated like this. It does make the different flavors more distinguishable. But in my opinion, it also allows you to leave certain things out, like how Joel didn’t touch his salsa. But if it were mixed into the beans, then he wouldn’t have had the chance to miss it!

Tostadas

Most Mexican foods that I make are pretty easy, probably because I don’t make my own tortillas or anything. I just mostly throw beans, cheese, onion and olives together, with a variety of other things. So I guess there isn’t much to say here, but that I am still cooking anything!

White Cheese Enchiladas

These were really good and definitely a different Mexican dish for me to prepare. The book I go it out of had this meal under the “make ahead meal” section. So I made two batches at once, and Joel & I ate one batch now, while my family got to have the other batch later when they visited. The first time we ate it, Joel & I really enjoyed them. The tortillas were soft, but not soggy. I was expecting them to be crispy, but they weren’t. And the inside was a white cheese, which tasted pretty good. I hadn’t tasted an enchilada like it, so I think we enjoyed it.

However, the batch my family got wasn’t as good because as it defrosted and then cooked in the oven, it got all soggy from the ice that melted. This basically ruined it. We still ate them all, but the family wasn’t as impressed with it. So I would recommend to eat these once prepared, rather than to freeze them. And if you do freeze ahead, then find a way to remove the ice first before it turns into water and sogs the tortillas.

Chocolate Mousse Cup Cake Sucess - sorta!

My family was coming in town two weeks ago, and I wanted to make cupcakes that they would like. So I chose a chocolately recipe knowing that they like chocolate. When I finished the cupcake batter, I was skeptical, because it looked too light and airy. Almost like I would expect the icing to be. (see the picture, doesn’t it look like icing?) But I had to keep in mind that I was making mousse cupcakes.

So when I first got them out of the oven, they looked great. See the nice picture? But then when I tried to touch them, they totally fell apart. I ruined the first one by trying to take it out immediately. So I thought they would hold if I just let them totally cool off. But after they were totally cool, they still totally fell apart when I took them out.

What to do? My family is on their way and my husband will be home as well and all are looking forward to these so called yummy cupcakes that I have been talking about for 3 days. I had to think quick. I wish now that I would have taken pictures to show how badly they looked, but at that time, I wanted to cover them up, not document them! I decided to try to make a cake out of them. So I put them in a messy circle and took 4 broken but somewhat round ones and I put them on a different plate. I iced them with the chocolate frosting and put them in the refrigerator to stiffen. Then I continued to make the whipped filling. My plan at that time was to make some filling, and save some of the chocolate frosting for covering the sides once I put the top on. So it would be a dark chocolate outside with a light chocolate inside and that icing would stiffen and serve two purposes, one to cover my mess and two to hold it together. But as I was making the whipped frosting I guess I lost track of the plan and I poured the whole thing into the whipped mix. Which meant that I now turned all my frosting into the “middle.” At that point, I had to change plans yet again and make the cake a light brown whipped frosting with a richer, stiffer frosting in the middle. So I iced the whole bottom part, and made it as smooth looking as I could. Then I removed the cooled iced top part and placed it in top. That wasn’t very easy! I placed it in the freezer because I recall chocolate mousse tasting very yummy frozen, and the recipe did say to serve cold.

In the end, even though it didn’t look that professional, it did taste wonderful. It had a really strong and rich chocolatey flavor. The cupcakes were definitely light tasting and were good cold. I think I might have been able to keep the cupcakes in tact if I were to have cooked them with regular cupcake holders, and if I would have put them straight in the freezer to not only cool, but harden. Regardless, Joel and Tori both couldn’t seem to get enough of them. Tori and I ate a huge chunk of it the first night, and Joel ate a bunch while I was gone, so all in all the “cake” lasted about 4 days. So based on those standards, I can call it a success. Hey, you have to learn to be creative and flexible!

Ham & Turkey Rolls

I can see this as being a breakfast or lunch dish, or even better a brunch dish! I made this one for my family when they came to visit and my sister Tori especially loved them. She really liked the taste of the turkey and ham warmed up, she said it tasted like bacon. It is a great meal for those who don't always like onions and garlic. (Which most everything I cook has that in there!!) My older sister Steph should enjoy these, since she particularly has an aversion to what I would consider flavorful foods full of onions, garlic and a million spices. It sticks to fairly classic ingredients: biscuits (any kind you like, I chose buttermilk), cream cheese, cheddar cheese, ham or turkey (or bacon). When I feel like spicing it up, I might add spinach, onions, garlic and chicken to it. That might taste good. But that is for another day...

Mediterranean Couscous with Chickpeas

Couscous is fairly new to me, and I have only had it made in one dish. A side really, my friend Claire in Pittsburgh made it for us as a snack to being to class. I loved it then. And now I love it even more with this dish I found in a recipe book. I really enjoyed this one because the couscous tasted so wonderful hot, and it was made with chicken broth rather than water, so it just soaked up all the flavor!



It basically includes couscous, chicken broth, chick peas, garlic, onion, tomatoes and raisins. I am sure you could mix it up more by adding different things to it. One especially unique thing about it was the raisins. I have never had hot raisins before, and certainly never in a dinner dish. They plumped up nicely and tasted great! Its different than what I am used to eating, and I welcomed it!

Cook Anything!

Welcome to my cooking website. I consider myself to have really begun the process of learning to cook sometime within the past year, which makes me a novice cook. My first goal right now is to learn to cook. I have a few recipe books and I have just been cooking as many new and fun things as possible. After I get a little more comfortable with cooking, and run out of new recipes, then I will focus on more specific cooking goals. For example, I plan to learn to make my own breads, wraps, tortillas and possibly pastas. I also will want to focus on cooking for pregnancy when I get pregnant. And soon I might change my attention to lighter or healthier dishes because cooking all this good food is beginning to reveal itself via my stomach! I do always have an interest in cooking with organic foods, clean, fresh, no hormones, etc… however, I don’t have a ton of money and do have a hint of that “it won’t kill me” attitude. Perhaps one day, when my living circumstances make it more of a realistic option I will be able to go more that route. Until then, there are plenty of wonderful, cheap and healthful things that I am enjoying! So in the future, check in for what kind of cooking goals I am working on, but for now, I am simply focused on cooking anything!

Dinner: Chicken Spaghetti

This is a modified version of the chicken spaghetti my mom would make. The sauce is a combination of chicken, Rotell (diced tomatoes with green chilies), cream of mushroom, white onion and garlic. It is fairly easy and very tasty.

Lunch: Cilantro Soup

As most of my dishes are, this one is a modified version of a recipe I got from a Betty Crocker cookbook. It was called White Chili. I named mine Cilantro Soup! It is wonderfully healthy, cool tasting, but warm, and refreshing. It is truly delicious. You should really cook this one now!

Normally I don’t take the time out to write the recipe for each one. I let you request it from me so I don’t write them if I don’t have to. But you have to try this soup! So here is the recipe:

1tbs butter

1 large onion

3-4 cloves garlic, finely chopped (I love garlic, so use less if you don’t love it like I do)

½ cup Rotell (diced tomatoes and green chilies)

3 cups chicken broth

¼ cup fresh cilantro, chopped

2 tbs lime juice

1 tsp cumin

½ tsp dried oregano leaves

¼ tsp cayenne pepper

¼ tsp salt

1 can (11oz) corn, drained

1 can (15oz) great northern beans, drained

1 can (15oz) butter beans, drained

2 cups cooked chopped chicken breast

1. In a 4-quart pot, heat butter over medium heat. Cook onions and garlic about 4 to 6 minutes, stirring occasionally, until onions are tender.
2. Stir in remaining ingredients except chicken. Heat to boiling, then reduce heat. Simmer uncovered for 20 minutes. Stir in chicken. Simmer 5 minutes or until chicken is hot.

Side: Garlic Bread & Salad

Did I mention that I really like garlic?! I heated the garlic in butter and then put them on the French bread to broil for about a minute. They were wonderful to me, although my mom and husband preferred a little less garlic. You can always just use powdered garlic in place of fresh cloves.

As for the salad, the classic iceberg plus romaine lettuce with tomatoes, green peppers and avocados make a light side. Salads are always such a great way of adding more nutrients to a meal.

Dessert: Butterscotch Banana Muffins

I was given a cupcake recipe card deck at one of my wedding showers that has a plethora of yummy cupcake ideas. I made these and my whole family loved them. They seem to me to have more of a muffin than a cupcake feel because they feel denser with a light frosting. Since they are mostly all sugar, I consider them a dessert. The banana makes the muffins really moist and the butterscotch bits are tasty. The frosting is also unique to me, I hadn’t tasted an icing like it.