She's Ba-ack. w/Funfetti Cupcakes

Hello! I know I've been MIA lately but it's only because I was having the time of my life in Europe. I spent about two weeks touring London and Munich and drinking copious amounts of delicious German beer at Oktoberfest! Jealous? I know you are!

I promise I'll post soon on the trip as I took TONS of photos and also sampled a good share of sweets. For now, I need to catch up on some older stuff. Let's start with Funfetti Cupcakes. Now these little cupcakes have the ability to make even the most miserable, unhappy person crack a smile. They take you back to the good ol' days when you were happy to have artificially colored candy in your cake and frosting. This was my favorite cake for some time (well next to the Baskin Robbins' Mint Chip Ice Cream Pie - YUM!) but I really did love Funfetti Cake. I'm a regular reader of I Heart Cuppycakes. Her blog is super cute and she has lots of great cupcake recipes. I found the Taste the Rainbow recipe on her site and now she's brought Funfetti back into my life. It was my boss' birthday recently so I baked these for our office. Here's a pic of what they looked like before I iced them. So cute!!

And here's the finished product.

Funfetti Cupcakes

I found the recipe on I Heart Cuppycakes

She cited Cupcakes by Shelly Kaldunski

For funfetti cupcakes
1-1/4 cups AP flour
1-1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
3/4 cup sugar
6 tbsp butter, room temperature
1 large egg + 1 egg white, room temperature
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup milk
2 tbsp rainbow sprinkles

For vanilla buttercream
2 sticks butter
7 cups powdered sugar, sifted
~1/4 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla

Preheat oven to 350F. Line cupcake pan with paper liners.

In a large bowl, sift flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside. In a stand mixer, fitted with a paddle attachment, cream together butter and sugar until well combined, about 2-3 minutes. Add egg and egg white, one at a time, beating on low. Add vanilla. Gradually add flour mixture in 3 additions, alternating with milk in 2 additions, ending with the flour mixture. Fold in rainbow sprinkles. Fill cupcake liners about 1/2-2/3 full. Bake for about 17-20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. Remove from pan and cool completely on a wire cooling rack before frosting.

For the buttercream In a stand mixer, fitted with flat beater, beat butter until creamy, about 2-3 minutes. Add 5 cups of sifted powdered sugar, a little milk, and vanilla, beat until combined. Add more powdered sugar until you get to the consistency you want. If it thickens up too much, add a tiny more milk.

Garnish with more rainbow sprinkles. Makes about 12 cupcakes.

Prost!

I'm off to Germany to celebrate Oktoberfest!! No new posts for a couple weeks.

Auf Wiedersehen!

Team Ed Cupcakes

I don't know if you've figured this out about me yet, but I play softball. Adult non-competitive, slow-pitch softball. I've been playing my whole life. Well, I used to play a more competitive fast-pitch game when I was younger, but as soon as I turned 18, I entered into this whole new world of recreational sports.

My dad has a team, 5 O'clock Somewhere, and we've been together for about 4 years now. And I have so much to say about this team that I'm going to have to leave it to a separate blog post. A couple years ago, my friend Emily and I decided to branch off of 5 O'clock and form our own younger team with some of our friends from high school and college. We named ourselves Team Ed (E for Emily + D for Deanna = Ed, get it?) Our team has gone through many changes over the past few seasons but it's been a lot of fun and I've learned so much about what it takes to manage a softball team. Seriously, I want to put that on my resume because it's not easy at all.

We had our final regular season game last week. It was a victory and surprisingly got us a spot in the playoffs this week. I'll be out of town so I can't contribute, but I hope you all can send some positive "victory" vibes in the direction of Team Ed on Wednesday night. For last week's game, I baked cupcakes in our team color - Kelly Green. The swirly effect in the frosting comes from filling the pastry bag with 1/2 green frosting and 1/2 white frosting. Squeeze it back into a bowl until the desired coloring starts coming out. I will include the recipe in tomorrow's post as I baked cupcakes for two separate occasions last week.

Coconut Macaroons

I LOVE coconut macaroons. They are one of my favorites. I always check for them when I'm sampling the wares of a new bakery. I like the kind that are 1/2 dipped in chocolate. I'll have to try that next time. This week, for my softball team, I attempted my first batch. I chose Ina Garten's recipe because you should know by now how I Feel About Ina. The recipe is easy with minimal ingredients. They come out perfect - sweet, soft, and chewy.

I read some of the reviews and many people complained about the batter being a little runny around the base when you take them out of the oven. I found that all you have to do is leave them in for a few more minutes and the bottom will harden up. Don't be afraid of the coconut getting brown - that's supposed to happen. Also, the recipe calls for 2 extra-large egg whites. I only had large eggs so I used 3 large egg whites which worked just fine. These will stick to the cookie sheet. Use either a Siplat Mat or a generously greased cookie sheet.

Coconut Macaroons

from Ina Garten

14 oz sweetened shredded coconut

1 can (14 oz) sweetened condensed milk

1 tsp vanilla

2 extra-large egg whites, at room temperature

1/4 tsp salt

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F.

Combine the coconut, condensed milk, and vanilla in a large bowl. Whip the egg whites and salt on high speed in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment until they make medium-firm peaks. Carefully fold the egg whites into the coconut mixture.

Drop the batter onto sheet pans lined with parchment paper using 2 teaspoons. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, until golden brown. Cool and serve.

Chocolate Chip Blondies

Wow! I'm really getting behind on this thing. Here's a refresher as to why. I am now going to post about what I baked for my softball team LAST WEEK! I've already played in this week's game and baked something else, but let's not get ahead of ourselves and just focus on the one-week-old recipe for now.

I've gotten in the habit of trying to find recipes where I don't need to buy any extra ingredients. Times are tough, money is tight, this baking habit is breaking the bank. Fortunately, I had everything I needed for these blondies. (I've started buying butter, vanilla extract, and chocolate chips in bulk at Costco) They were very good. I was afraid that I had over-baked them because they were difficult to cut. But once I got a decent sized square out of the pan, they were chewy and addicting. I took the left-overs with me to work and they were gone before lunch.

Blondies with Chocolate Chips and Walnuts

from MarthaStewart.com

8 Tbs (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened

1/2 cup packed light-brown sugar

1/3 cup granulated sugar

1 large egg

1 tsp pure vanilla extract

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 tsp salt

1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

1 cup chopped walnuts

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Brush a 9-inch square baking pan with butter; line pan with a piece of parchment paper, leaving a 2-inch overhang on two sides. Butter paper.

In the bowl of a standing mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat butter and sugars until smooth. Stir in egg and vanilla. Add flour and salt; mix just until moistened (do not overmix). Fold in 1/2 cup each chocolate chips and walnuts. Transfer batter to prepared pan; smooth top. Sprinkle with remaining chocolate chips and walnuts.

Bake until top is golden brown and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, about 20 minutes. Set pan on a wire rack, and let cool completely. Using parchment overhang, lift cake from pan and transfer to a cutting board; cut into 16 squares.