Chocolate Cupcakes

 
I wanted to make some chocolate cupcakes for the company I was expecting.  It turns out I have cousins from Ghana!  How cool is that?  I have a chocolate cake recipe I am thinking of making but it seemed a little rich for kids and I was expecting about 14, plus 6 adults.  A cake would be hard to cut for that many people.  Plus cupcakes are easier for little hands to deal with.

I looked at a lot of recipes, but ended up at the Hershey Chocolate site.  Who would know chocolate better than Hershey? The recipe says it makes 30 cupcakes, but I just overfilled 24 paper cupcake liners and it worked for me.

Chocolate Cupcakes

2 cups sugar
1 3/4 cups flour
3/4 cup cocoa powder, HERSHEY'S, of course
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
1 cup milk
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup boiling water

Heat oven to 350.  Line 2 muffin pans with paper liners.  This recipe will also make sheet cake and layer cakes.  Check the Hershey site for baking times for them.

 
 
I use a KitchenAid stand mixer.  Dump...I mean gently place...the flour, sugar, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt in the mixing bowl.  Mix at low speed until well mixed.

 

Add the eggs, milk, oil  and vanilla.  Mix until all the flour is moist.  You may have to stop and scrape down the sides.

While you are mixing put the 1 cup of water in the microwave for two minutes.  When it dings you will have mixed the batter long enough.  With the mixer on slow, add the boiling water to the batter.  It is going to get very thin and you are going to think you did something wrong.  I don't know what the boiling water does, but I saw it on other recipes, so just go with it!

Because I overfilled the cups, the tops tried very hard to stick to the top of the muffin tin.  So I suggest you spray it with Pam before you fill the paper cups.

I use a ice cream scoop to fill the cups.  It hold about 1/2 cup and it a good way to get a mostly even amount in each cup.  Like I said, I came back and over filled them to use up the batter and to have big cupcakes.


 
When I filled the cups, I held the tin up and close to the mixing bowl.  I let the scoop drip in the outside cup and then moved it to the inside cup to fill it.  This made MOST of the drips fall into the paper cupcake liners.  Before I put the pan in the oven I carefully wiped the drips between the cups with a damp cloth.

Both pans did not fit in my oven on the same shelf.  I baked for 15 minutes with one on the top shelf and one on the bottom shelf.  I switched them around and baked for 15 minutes more.  After 30 minutes I tested one cupcake in each pan.  The toothpick came out clean, so I took them out to cool.  If it comes out covered in batter, cook for 5 more minutes.

Let them cool for 10 minutes, then remove to a wire rack.  This is where I noticed that I should have sprayed the top of the muffin pan with Pam.  They stuck a bit and I had to be careful to remove them with out tearing the tops off.

Chocolate Frosting

We never had frosted cakes when I was little.  I don't know if this is because my parents didn't believe in too much sugar or because my mom couldn't be bothered.  I think it was a bit of both.  Mom says nothing lasted long enough to be frosted, but I know we never ate between meals and she is just try to justify her unreasonable behavior!!  So FROST these cupcakes and this is how!

Whew!  It seems that not frosting cupcakes for children can lead to life long emotional issues!

1/2 cup melted butter (1 stick)
2/3 cup Hershey's cocoa
(yes, it is still their recipe)
3 cups powdered sugar
1/3 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla

I washed the mixing bowl and switched from the paddle to the whip attachment.  Remember to wait until the cupcakes are completely cool or the frosting will melt and slide off.

 

Scrape the melted butter into the mixing bowl.  Add the cocoa and stir.  Then add one cup of sugar and part of the milk until all of it is mixed in.  If it is too thick to spread well, add a bit more milk.  Only a a teaspoon at a time.  It is easy to over add.  If it is too thin, add more sugar. 

Stir in the vanilla.

I took a Wilton class a long time ago.  I get obsessive and bought a lot of the tips and made flowers and fondant and lots of cakes.  Our old computer died and ate all the glorious pictures, so you will just have to trust me.  Then I had no more children at home to eat my experiments, so I rarely make cakes.  This means I am not very good, but enthusiastic!


You can just take a knife or a spatula and spread on the frosting.

 

 I filled a frosting bag and tried different tips.  I finally settled on some swirled around and some spritzed through a serrated tip.  Neither of them were particularly beautiful, but on the other hand I was feeding chocolate to children, so how picky can they be?

 

Soft Pumpkin Cookies

We have company coming tomorrow and they will be bringing a bunch of kids.  This means I will have some guinea pigs...I mean taste testers!  It also means I won't end up with a bunch of cookies that I will have to eat all by myself.  These are kids who are super polite, so they might not actually tell me what they think, but the littlest ones might leave cookie halves behind and that will be my clue.  I'll come back to this post and let you know if this is a fail!

Once again I am making a kid friendly food that uses squash.  It is not a trend.  I like healthy food as much as the next person, but it is not a calling. Next I am going to make chocolate cupcakes and unless you consider cocoa beans a vegetable, they will be decadent and not at all healthy!

 

Soft Pumpkin Cookies

2 cups flour
2 teaspoons cinnamon
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ginger
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon cloves
3/4 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup butter (1 stick) softened
1 15 oz. can pumpkin
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla

Preheat oven to 350.  Get out cookie sheets and line with parchment or use Silpats.

 

In a large bowl, place the flour and the next six ingredients.  Stir them around with a fork to mix well. 

 

I used a micro plane to grind the nutmeg, so the amount I used is approximate.

 

Put the softened butter in a stand mixer.  I use a KitchenAid.  My butter was not soft enough, so I put it in the microwave for 5 seconds.  Using the paddle, whip it until the butter is all spread out.  Then add the 2 sugars.  Stir until well blended.

 

Add the egg and the vanilla and keep mixing.  Add the pumpkin puree. 


 
When everything is incorporated, add the flour mixture one cup at a time.  Be sure to start slowly with each addition or you will be wearing the flour.

I have three sizes of scoops.  The large one is for filling cupcakes.  The small one is for little cookies.  I used the medium one for these cookies.  I thought the little one would make the cookie less soft...more cooked surface and less interior area.  I wanted soft, cake-like cookies.

  

Place the cookies, which will be soft and airy, on the lined cookie sheets and bake for 12 to 14 minutes.  I combined several recipes and they suggested 10 to 12 minutes.  This was not long enough for mine.  They were still a wee bit raw in the middle.  Use a toothpick to test and see if they are done.  If the toothpick comes out clean, they are ready.  Don't overcook as the whole soft cookie thing will become a hard hockey puck.  Test each batch.  Mine were best at 13 minutes.  If your cookies will be small, start testing at 10 minutes.

These get over soft when not eaten the first day.  I just put them back on a cookie sheet for 5 minutes at 350.  I put about 2 dozen on each cookie sheet because they didn't spread out at all.  They were still soft and delicious.

Trail Clearing

In a perfect world I would win the lottery.  I have a lot of plans for that money.  I rarely BUY a ticket, so the chances are slim that I will win, but it doesn't stop me from planning on how to spend it.  I contemplate spending it mostly when doing things I don't like to do. 

This brings me to our morning activity.  Trail clearing.  We have a trail up into our woods.  It is a beautiful drive.  In places it is so thick with trees you can't see the sky.  On the slope at the beginning of the trail, it is a narrow path with a steep drop off.

 

 You can look across the canyon?  hollow? to the house. 


 
The trees are constantly attempting to encroach on the road and we have to muscle them back.

Lee filled the bed of the Mule with tools and I drove.  The plan was for him to cut while standing in the bed for extra height.  In reality we would both hop out and cut some and then move to the next spot. It is easier to cut baby trees than wait for them to get big and then cut them, so I did the little guys and Lee cut the bigger branches.  Let's face it. He is stronger than I am.

 

This branch has some berries that I can't identify.  If they were edible, I would probably try to make more jam!

 

Having Lee cut over my head can be problematic.  Hearing "Heads Up!"  AFTER being hit in the head by a branch is not particularly helpful.  So I had to do my share of trimming, if only in self defense.

 

This is my artsy shot of Lee in the rear view mirror.  I don't think Spielberg has to worry.

 

Farther in the woods we found a bunch of dead trees and branches.  Some had blown down years ago and some were more recent.  We really should get up there with the truck and a bunch of chain saws.  Today we just cut and dragged the branches off the road so that the tractor could get up there.  Later Lee will drive up with the bush hog and chop up any small branches and cut the grass all at the same time.  Love me some bush hog.

When a person works outside and in the woods you have know that you will encounter a myriad of insects.  Even if you spray yourself with OFF! they will drop on your head and crawl on your very person.  I kept thinking of the song from The Wizard Of Oz.  You know the one.  Spiders and Chiggers and Ticks, Oh MY!  There will be a bath in my future.

This is why I want the lottery money.  I want to go through the woods and cut all the little trees that are encroaching on the big trees.  I would love to manage the woods so that they are lush, but not overcrowded.  I would like to remove most of the dead wood.  You have to keep some for the wildlife.

 

I would love to build trails and meadows in the woods.  At the very top of the hill and the very corner of our property is a great flat area.  It has huge trees.  Another lottery expenditure would be a professionally built tree house.


 
 And if we had this non-existent lottery money I would hire a full time grounds keeper.  Can you imagine how gorgeous this place would be then?

In the meantime, I am open to volunteers to clear the land.  You could learn to drive a tractor, just like you wanted to do as  a child in your sandbox with your Tonka trucks.  You can have all the wood you cut and I will keep you well supplied with baked goods. It would be like an eco-tourism vacation.  Any takers???

Lemon Lavender Cookies

 

I have a wonderful lavender plant and I wanted to bake something from it.  I know I have a lavender cookie and a lavender bread recipe.  I can't find either one.  When I told a friend what I was thinking of making, she made a face.  The thought of eating something made of lavender made her think of the times her mother washed her mouth out with soap.  Who uses lavender soap to punish kids?  Anyway, the point is I made them and FORCED her to eat one.  She said the lavender was mild and they didn't remind her of soap or punishments.  That sounds like damning with faint praise, but I like them and this will have to do until I organize my recipes.  Oh, and this uses dried lavender so I really do have to find the fresh recipe version.

Lemon Lavender Cookies

3/4 cup sugar
2 Tablespoon lemon zest
2 Tablespoon lemon juice
2 teaspoon dried lavender flowers
1 3/4 cup flour
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 sticks butter, cold, cut into cubes
1 egg yolk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla

 

I usually use my KitchenAid stand mixer.  This recipe called for a food processor and it makes sense.  The dried lavender flowers are rather large and the processor makes them way smaller and less noticeable. I looked for my mortar and pestle.  I thought I could smash up the dried lavender flowers and THEN use the stand mixer, but I don't remember where I put it 5 years ago when we moved here, so I got out the huge heavy food processor and it worked great.

I have some dried lavender flowers from a tea shop that I sometimes use for baking.  I don't see why you can't dry your own.  Wash them and hang them upside down in bunches to dry.  Then take off the flowers, she said, having never done it herself.  Or go online and order yourself some.  You can make cookies and bread with it...and sachets!

 
 
Put the dried flowers, the sugar and the zest in the processor.  I didn't get 2 full Tablespoons from my pretty big lemon. 

 

So it will probably take two lemons to get the full amount of zest.  I got 2 Tablespoons juice from the one lemon.  I only had one and it was fine.  But you can never have too much lemon zest!  Run it until the sugar looks damp.  This took about 30 seconds.  When you take the top off, you will really smell the lemon and the lavender.

Add the flour, baking powder and salt.  Mix it by using the pulse option about 10 times.

 

When it is all mixed, cut the butter up.  Leave it in the fridge until you are ready to cut it, so it stays cold.  Cut the stick in half lengthwise and then each one of those in  half. 

 

Cut it into small chunks and scatter it over the flour/sugar mixture. Pulse it about 15 times for one second.



In a measuring cup, stir the yolk, lemon juice and the vanilla with a fork.  With the processor running drizzle the liquid into the dough.  Here is when I remind you to remove the cylinder that is blocking the hole.  I didn't do it, so I know it is possible you might forget, also.

 

Continue processing until the dough forms a ball.  Place a piece of cling wrap on the counter and dump the dough and any unincorporated bits on top.  Form the dough into a cylinder about 12 inches long.  Roll it tightly with the cling wrap like a burrito.  Bring the ends in first and square up the ends with the palm of your hand or a spatula.  Bring the cling up and fold it over the log. Make everything tight and continue to roll until it is a nice solid log.  Try to get it as round as you can.  The cookies will end up being whatever shape this log is.  Place it in the refrigerator for 2 hours.

 

Preheat the oven to 375.  I use silpats, but parchment paper is fine to line the cookie sheets.

Unroll the cookie dough.  Slice it into 1/4 inch rounds with a sharp knife, just like you used to do with the store bought dough from the store!


 
  Place them about 1 inch apart and bake for 10 to 12 minutes. 

 

My 10 minutes were a little light and my 12 were too dark.,  It should just start to brown on the edges.

 

Cool on the cookie sheets for at least 2 minutes and remove to a wire rack to finish cooling.

Patching Holes

We still can't decide what to do with the truck bed.  By we, I mean Lee.  It is his project and I go along with whatever he wants.  We went to Home Depot and bought some stuff to fill the worst of the cracks in the wood.  If I wanted to fill ALL the cracks, I would need to buy a gallon of the wood filler. 

 

This time I decided to put my phone in a Ziploc bag.  The last time I worked out there it got covered in dust.  That can't be good for it.  I don't like going places without it.  Not because I am so important that I can't be out of contact, but just in case of emergency.

 

I decided to fill the biggest holes and the places where I thought something might catch if you were to slide an object into the truck.  When it dries I will sand it and then we will have a better idea of how it will look.  Lee is still thinking of maybe staining it and a polyurethane coating.  It would be the cheapest option.


 
While I did that Lee was grinding the rust and paint off the metals rails that fit around the bed. Oooh, sparks!   He will spray them with a rust inhibitor and then paint.   More decisions...yellow, green, black?

 

I am not looking forward to the basement project for this reason.  The myriad of decisions.  Wall color, cabinets, faucets are just a start.  Do I want white or ivory outlets and switches?  What kind of doors?  Oh, maybe not those.  Too pricey.  Like I said, not looking forward to it.

My Contribution To Truck Rebuilding

Lee had been rebuilding a 1953 (or is it 54?  He has told me a thousand times and I can't remember) GMC one ton flatbed pick up truck.  He had the engine rebuilt and has been putting everything new and rebuilt together.  He drove it this week for the first time.  He just drove it far enough to take it out of one bay of the garage to the one with the lift.  Then he used the lift to remove the flatbed part.

This is where I come in.  I don't do car stuff.  That is Lee's area of expertise.  Before we were married I had a car, a truck, a motorcycle and a sailboat.  I could change the oil and the spark plugs and that was about it.  Then we got married and I happily turned over the vehicle maintenance to Lee.  Wood and paint are apparently MY area of expertise.

 

The wood on the bed is in seriously bad condition.  The idea was to sand it down and put a few coats of polyurethane on to protect it.  After a few hours with the belt sander we realized that the wood is not going to look good even with a shiny coat of poly.

 

Now the plan is to fill the checks and splits and coat the whole thing.  I am hoping to find some truck bedliner in a spray can.  We don't want to spend much more money on this thing.  We have probably put more money into it than we will ever be able to get back.  If we thought we could get our money back, the thing to do would be to buy all new oak boards and then use the polyurethane on that. 
 

 
These trucks aren't old enough or rare enough to demand high dollars.  But this is a real cool truck and we are using a lot of John Deere parts and colors.  There are a lot of farmers around here and John Deere is king.  I figure a farmer can have a truck to match his tractors and it will be useful besides.  A win win!

In the meantime, after we get it painted, it will be fun to drive it to a few of the cruise nights held locally. Buchanan has several Cruise In nights  If nothing else, we will have a useful truck until a "green" enthusiast buys it off of us.

Words With Friends

I had never heard of the game Words With Friends until Alec Baldwin got into aviation difficulties while playing it.  Then my friend from work told me it is just like Scrabble except you play on a wireless device.   She can let the game know she is ready to go and it hooks her up with random strangers.  She was a little concerned about being cyber stalked by serial killers so she invited me to play.

I didn't have a smart phone but I did have my trusty Nook!  I bought the app and we were off.

I don't know how smart phones work with this game, but my Nook has to be in a wi-fi location for me to play.  That shouldn't be a problem.  We have wi-fi!  But unless I constantly (and obsessively) wake it up and check, I don't know when my friend has taken a turn.  Now, unlike me, she works for a living.  She has to be at certain places at certain times.  She can't be playing around with her phone.  But she has lunch and maybe she played then.  So now I drag the Nook around with me and turn it on, check, and go about my business.  Off and on ALL day. 

If the wi-fi is too far from my Nook it won't upload her move, then I think she hasn't played.  Our wi-fi modem is upstairs in our office.  Our bedroom is at the other end of the house on the main floor.  Sometimes I have wi-fi there and sometimes I don't.   So periodically,  I hop up and walk to the hallway and stand there staring at the Nook to see if she has taken a turn or to send my latest word. 

Lee would ask, "Where are you going?"  "Here,"  I would reply.  Now he no longer asks. 

Sometimes I can get just enough of a signal if I hold the Nook towards the doorway.  Strangely I think I might "catch" more of the signal if I wave it around.  So I reach across Lee and wiggle it.  Lots of times he would think I was handing him something and reach for it.  Now he doesn't.  I wonder if he would take it and wave it at the door?  So far I haven't had the nerve to ask.

I am not sure why I am so anxious about losing games with friends.  I think it has something to do with playing games with my brother when we were kids.  He would have to win, even if he had to cheat.  Then he would laugh maniacally at my humiliation.  Gee, that was fun.

I am also a little concerned with playing random strangers assigned to me by a giant computer in the sky.  Remember Hal in 2001? "Open the door, Hal."   Or how about Matthew Broderick in WarGames.  "How about a game of Global Thermonuclear War?"

Yes, I realize I am dating myself.  No, wait, I saw them on Netflix.  That's it.  I just watched those ancient movies on my DVD player.    ;-)