Show us your secret ingredient.

Ooh! I have something for this!!

100_9159

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I know that you were just dying to see how the frosting went on those cupcakes and I can't bear to disappoint, so...

Step one_sugar sifting

Yarsh...I find sifting sugar (and flour!) highly tedious and boring. Especially because, with this frosting, all the sugar is dissolved into hot milk, so siftage seems a little superfluous.

Step two_meelllllttttinnng

And, if you're really excellent, like me, you can add twice as much butter as is necessary! Jeezy pete, I really need to pay more attention. Tasted good, though!

Step three_mixation

This picture has 3 of my favourite things, ever in it: chocolate frosting (mmmm!), the KitchenAid, and a container of Morton Salt. Now, before you think I'm some kind of freak for luuurving salt, let me explain. 'Tisn't the product inside that I love, it's the packaging...if you don't know what I'm talking about, check it out the next time you're in the supermarket. It is rather pretty, especially for salt.

Step four_frost

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Step one

Oh wow. I just realised that I left the double-e in and didn't notice. Good job, Charlotte. I noticed when I was typing it, but I guess I didn't delete it. I do know how to spell "ingredients," just so you know.

Step two

Gosh, I sure do love our KitchenAid. I'm not kidding with you. It's from 1948, my mom's mom's. It is so nice-looking (as you'll see in the next picture), sturdy, and works like a charm. In fact, when I grow up, I'm going to have a whole array of KitchenAids in different colours (because they are always so tantalizing in catalogues for Williams-Sonoma and Sur Le Table), with that one as the crowning jewel.

Step three

I seriously am awful at this step; I am always slopping the batter all over and over-filling and this time I even dumped out a pan by mistake (luckily only two cups were filled). I would have used my silicone baking cups, but these are for a bake sale and so I shan't use anything I want returned.

Step four

Look at those puppies go. Vrooom vroom! Haha, yes, I did just use "vrooom vroom" as the sound of cupcakes baking. Our oven is all wonky, so we have to have a separate thermometer inside to measure the actual temperature in there; the built-in one can't be trusted. Usually it is all over the place and an epic pain to deal with, but this time it was all lovely and nice and the correct temperature!

Step four point five

This step is optional, hence the number 4.5, which is rather awkward to type when you are using the full word for one of the numbers. Since I haven't really anything to say here, I'll mention that my post from baking cupcakes in July is entitled "Patty-Cake, Patty-Cake," which is the same title as the post I made earlier this evening. Huh. I guess we can tell the patterns my mind takes.

Step five

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OK.

I'm going to go bake some cupcakes.

I'll take pictures.

I am so full of baked goods right now.

It's insane.

I'm thinking of buying this book tomorrow:

Skinny Bitch

Kim Barnouin

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Mmmmmm

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I'm sure that I've mentioned the existence of Cookie Day before, but I'll go over the basic concept again for ya. Every Thursday in Trigonometry class, someone brings in cookies to share. Of course, for the last two weeks it was brownies (brought by Julia...but, in fact, baked by Hanna and myself) and doughnuts (brought by the teacher, baked by Safeway), but this time I volunteered and made some pretty much badazz chocolate chip cookies. Everyone loved them, which was awesome, but expected. I mean, who doesn't like chocolate chip cookies? I ate about 7 of them over the course of the day, which was delicious, but gave me a rather horrid feeling in the stomachular area.

The recipe I used is, though slightly modified, out of a children's book called "Let's Visit A Chocolate Factory" by Catherine O'Neill that I read many, many times in my elementary school library. It was all about how chocolate is made, from cacao beans to the bars that you buy on the shelves, and at the end was a recipe for chocolate chip cookies that I typed up the last time I borrowed it (a few years back, obviously). The book came out in 1988 and is apparently obscenely out of print, as no one has it for sale. Finding out the title was actually not that difficult, you just have to do the right google search. You should see if your local public library has it, as it is quite a fun read! There is also companion book, "Let's Visit a Spaghetti Factory" by Melinda Corey which is quite good as well, and has a recipe for pasta salad in the back!!

Anyway, here's the cookie recipe! You should try it out, as the results are super-tasty. (Sorry I didn't get pics, I'll try to next time!)

Chocolate Chip Cookies

Preheat oven to 375° F.

1. Soften:
    1/2 cup butter or margarine

2. Add gradually:
    6 tablespoons brown sugar
    6 tablespoons white sugar

3. Beat in:
    1 egg
    1/2 teaspoon

4. Sift and stir in:
    1 cup and 2 tablespoons sifted flour
    1/2 teaspoon salt
    1/2 teaspoon baking soda

5. Stir in:
    1/2 cup chocolate chips

Drop the batter from a rounded Tablespoon onto a greased cookie sheet.
Bake for about 10 minutes.

Makes 1 doz large cookies (6 per large baking sheet).

+ + +

I usually make a double batch, just because 12 cookies aren't really that much...that's what I did this week, and it yielded about...26 large cookies. Of course, if you want more cookies you can always make 'em smaller, but who wants a small cookie? The original recipe called for 1/2 cup of nuts, as well, but I don't like those so I left 'em out. Adding more chocolate chips definitely helps to compensate.

Enjoy 'em if you bake 'em! Does anyone else have any tasty cookie (or other baked good) recipes to share? To-day I'm going to be making cupcakes, because my school is having a bake-sale/car wash tomorrow. It should be super-fun, but I'm going to be working, so I shan't be able to actually help out. It's a bummer, but I usually helped out at them last year, etc, even when I didn't actually go to that school!

Tasting the frosting already,
Charlotte

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Tea Wafers!

I went to my bestfriend Hanna's house yesterday (and today...and will tomorrow) to work on this mailing job that we have, unfortch the materials were not there so we were at a bit of a loss of what to do! After cleaning out her bathroom drawer (OMGross) we decide to make cookies! Much perusing of Joy of Cooking followed, retching at the super-gnarlz recipes included, until we found the recipe of our dreams...Tea wafers! Many hijinks (including getting the spatula stuck in the beaters) followed, to the tunes of the Talking Heads' "Stop Making Sense" record. It was pretty much awesome, and you oughta click on the picture above for the collection!

Though we were a tad skeptical, the wafers turned out positively scrumptious and they sustained us all the way through Ratatouille (yes, my second viewing! I love that movie.). In fact, we still have several...heck, the recipe said it made one hundred.

Dear golly I love to bake...even though I usually end up eating about 3974 pounds of dough which, combined with the 2399 pounds of finished product that I eat, keep me feeling rather full and a bit queasy for many an hour (day?) afterwards.

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