It's not a perfect photo.  I don't have the most fantastic of cameras right now.  But here it is, my lazy ass lemon cupcake.  That's the name.

Here we go:


1 yellow cake mix box.
3 eggs
1 1/3 cup oil
2 tablespoon lemon rind
2 tablespoons lemon extract
1 tablespoon Penzey's baking spice.

Mix.  Bake in cupcake liners for 15-22 minutes until solid looking and firm.  Not ill golden brown.

Take some creamy supreme strawberry frosting, stir in a splash of lemon extract.  smear on the finished cupcakes and sprinkle with yellow sugar sprinkles.  Serve on the table where the summer sausage and cheese cubes are being served and then down some beverage and eat one.

come on 2012.  it's time, right?

obligatory NYE title

well, it's finally happened,  2011 has finally decided to pack it's crap up and get the heck out of town.  I've been after it to leave since May, but it didn't listen.  It stuck around to make life hard to bear for about 6 more months before it finally gave up.  In so many ways, 2011 was like a terrible boyfriend, and I'm not ever going to say I'm glad to see it go.  It was one of those years where I have trouble looking back of the mountainous crappy moments to even see where there were good times.  And there were good times, but I have a slight tendancy to see the scars, instead of the obvious healing.  And as long as I ackowledge that, I'm good.

So, while I thought for a while about my sister's excellent suggestion of how to bid this year goodbye in a manner that would communicate my general displeasure with the happenings that it brought, I decided the best thing to do is just be happy it's finally over and things can only get better from here.  Seriously.

Also, I don't want to slight 2012.  I wouldn't want 2012 to have any reason to be mad at me.  So, I did procure the traditional summer sausage, cheese, crackers and some champange.  And I imagine that I will sit around with my delightful family chowing down and watching movies, though not on netflix, because the xBox is still broken.  I'm going to have to get up out of bed at some point today and rent a redbox movie.

Anyway, I was thinking about champange cupcakes.  I contemplated making them for tonight's hurrah.  But they seem so complicated.  Just getting the cork out of a bottle of champange pretty much takes me a while.  So I think, instead, I'm going to make my absolute favorite flavor combo, a lemon creme cupcake with strawberry icing.

I really enjoy how I like to telescope my culinary ambitions via a post before the photo post.

I'm going to be very clear here, I'm not making anything from scratch.  I'm going to use a box cake and a can of frosting.  However, I don't have lemon cake, so i'm going to doctor a box cake with lemon extract and lemon peel.

And I'd like for the record, to state, that food is only as good as the ingredients you use, and so I try to stick exclusively to Penzeys spices.  In fact, I won't even look at McCormick or any of those others.  I'm completely spoiled.  There is a vast difference in quality, freshness and flavor.  I cannot recommend them enough.

Also, they have spice blends that are fantastic and EXCELLENT recipe helpers.  I used the Sunny Parisian blend and two cups of red wine to make the most delicious chicken the other night.

Anyway, I would shill for them till I was blue in the face, but I really ought to get off my ever-expanding ass to go and bake, so I feel like I sent this crappy year off with a sweet reminder of what it missed out on by treating me so shabbily.

I will tell you this, friends and followers (all 5 of you), 2012 is gong to rock prodigiously


My sister just reminded me that the  recommendation for a New Year's Celebration (highlight with your mouse to read. Not for those easily offended) was more of a joint planning.  As in, she started with one part, I added some grossness to it, and then we both laughed so hard at the idea, we almost drove off the road.

( Write 2011 on a piece of toilet paper.  Use the marked  toilet paper to wipe your hiney , and then flush it down the toilet.)

Homemade Christmas gifts

This year, due to financial strain, all Christmas gifts were made.  I've included a few pictures here to show what I did.

I'm Sorry Dave, I can't do that.

So, today I recieved devestating news.  to prove how melodramatic I can be, I'm going to tell you what happened.  The xBox just went all red ring of death on us.

But, instead of wanting to punch something, or kick puppies, I googled xBox themed red ring of death cake photos..  So I've obviously grown as a person and my Culinary Therapy is working.  That or it's just the red ringed icing on a cake of epic craptasm that is the past 6 months of my life and I'm just too beaten down by the tidal waves of Job-like trials I feel I've faced to get the energy to move too far.

But I don't intend to dwell.  Anyway, check out these iced whoopie pies from Tabbykat Tabasko's flickr stream.



f


So, now, I'm back off to finish my novel.  Which is a constant work in progress, but progressing much faster, and likely to be done quicker now that i have to save up for xBox repairs instead of playing plants vs. zombies for hours on end.

Oh!  I hope you guys are having lovely holidays of whatever you celebrate.  Unless it's that made up holiday.  I don't condone it.

"This Borders on Fabulous."

So, the cupcakes came out.  I baked them for around 25 minutes per batch.  They have a crispy top, like a brownie does.  And a super moist cake.

I couldn't figure out what kind of frosting would properly adorn the cake without overpowering the egg nog flavor.  So, I decided to make an egg nog topping. 

By the way, the recipe is 1 box cake mix and two cups egg nog.  I used Devil's Food.

For the topping, I took a cup of eggnog, a splash of milk, a dollop of whip cream and about a cup of powder sugar.  Enough powder sugar to make a proper frosting would have been far too sweet, as it was, this was still a smidge sweeter than I'd have really liked. 

I put the ingredients into the Magic Bullet and whipped the shit out of them for about 4 minutes.

I ended up with a liquid the consistency of the froth on the top of steamed milk. 

I took a bit of the top off with a grapefruit spoon and I poured the glaze in. 

I served it to the family.

The brother, an egg nog afficianado, said it was "good."  Then he went with "Not Bad."  But too sweet for him.

The sister, a chocolate addict, said it was "okay."

But my mom, who loves desserts, said it "bordered on fabulous" and i had to share the recipe.

And, the greatest compliment of all, my grandmother, who generally sneaks the majority of her food to the cats, ate the entire thing without letting them near it.

So, please enjoy if you'd like.


Cake:
1 Box Devil's Food Cake Mix
2 cups eggnog
Mix, scoop into liners, bake for about 25 minutes. There is minimal rising.


Glaze:
1 cup eggnog
1 cup powder sugar
splash of milk
dollop of whipped cream
Put in high speed blender and blend for about 4 minutes till the consistency of froth on steamed milk.

Put cupcake in a bowl, spoon glaze on top to taste.  Enjoy while cupcake is still mildly warm and glaze is cold.

Egg Nog Cupcakes

After the experience I had with cake mix cookies, I began to wonder what other things can you do with cake mixes?  I googled it.  apparently, you can make cupcakes with a can of soda and a box of cake mix.  No eggs or oil needed.  I began to think about this.  Something in the soda, an acid thing, helps be the binding agent.

So it occured to me, what if I used eggnog?  It has eggs.  And milk.  And stuff you make cakes with?   Thus, In the oven right now, a devil's food eggnog batch of cupcakes.  It might be a disaster, it might be delicious, but considering the vast amount of cake mixes I ended up with (I bought some, then my grandmother thought I'd like some, so there's a good 18 mixes here) it's not going to hurt to try.  Now to come up with a good frosting/glaze...

An attitude of Gratitude.

This week was our "Teacher Appreciation Luncheon" at work.  Twice a year, at Christmas time and the end of the academic year, the administration asks parents to bring in food items for a luncheon in our honor.  So we gather during our lunch hour and we eat food someone else paid for and prepared.

The Wonder of a Cake Mix

So, recently, my mom bought a book called "Cake Mix Recipes" from Taste of Home.  My mom knows my dirty caking secret lies in cake mixes.  i do not bake from scratch very often.  She also pretty much fell in love with one of the pictures in the book.  And everything in the book has one ingredient in common.  You guessed it, the cake mix.

Now, I'm not so plebian as to use just any cake mix.  I have standards, people.  Paula Dean.  And the Decadent line of Duncan Hines.  And anything that says Moist, but nothing with pudding.  I hate pudding cakes, they taste raw to me.

So, I have, on hand, 15 cake mixes.  A few boxes of lemon bars and some Cranberry orange muffins.

So, we pulled them out along with the book and I discovered something great.  Every cake mix cookie is basically a cake mix, 1/2 cup of oil or butter and 2 eggs.  You can then add in what you want.  Peanut Butter Chips, Toffee Bits, Lemon peel, almond extract, whatever your heart desires.

I share this information, because I'm not a scratch baker.  And I want everyone to know the joy that is 15 minute deliciously good cookies.

And, sure, a good number of you "Domestic goddesses" probably already know this, but I'm chronicling my own journey into the world of confections.  So, bear with me.

We've made peanut butter chocolate cookies, lemon crisps, almond sandies, brickle cookies, peppermint candy cookies, chocolate chunk cookies... I even made my first batch of rice krispie treats with those jet-puffed pumpkin pie flavored marshmellows.  I made cake balls and peppermint bark...

And we're not done.

this year things have been slim.  lots of reasons why we're looking at a skimpy Christmas.  So, we're baking our hearts into gifts to give to people.  Which is pretty awesome.  I mean, I'm all about homemade gifts.

And also, my mother was telling me at work, they got a Christmas card from a Vendor that said "In honor of our customers this Christmas, we've granted a Make-A-Wish."  Which to me is the best present ever.  Toys and things wax and wane, but changing someone's life?  Much cooler.

So, I'm off to do more cooking.  I'll try to get photos taken today, too.


-robyn

The most powerful phrase I've ever seen

This is one of those blog posts that has very little to do with cake and a lot to do with life. 

My Awesome Tip of the Day

Because I talk mistakes, too...

I have the perfect way to extract those sticky cakes, the ones that defy any baker's secret or butter to cling tightly to the pan.  This won't work for Bundts, sorry.

WAY NUMBER ONE,
using a small, flexible cake spatula (I use a Wilton), carefully slip the spatula between the pan and the cake around the side, then, slowly insert it under the cake and EVER SO SLOWLY work clockwise, loosening the cake.

WAY NUMBER TWO:
use the spatula or a flat knife to separate the sides from the pan.  Then get a VERY long piece of waxed dental floss.  put it around the diameter of the cake, then press it down to the bottom of the pan with the knife/spatula.  cross the ends where they meet, then, EVER SO SLOWLY, begin to draw the ends together.  I like to think I am garroting the cake for being so stubborn, but in less violent terms, there are similar ways of cutting clay blocks.  If you're lucky, you'll get the cake out with minimal damage than can be cosmetically
 repaired with crumb coating!

You are welcome!

On another note, I've noticed FireFox automatically disables the ads on my site.  The ads enable me to spend time in the kitchen.  If you wouldn't mind, just allow my site to show you some only very mildly irritating text ads that are supposed to be related to my content.  That would be awesome.  Thank you.  (And if you click them once in a while, that would be EVEN BETTER.)