Victory Never Tasted So Sweet

This past weekend was the kickball tournament for Corporate Challenge. Good news, guys - Fossil took gold for the third year in a row! The last two games were hard fought, we came out of it bruised and battered but on top.

The team!

Winning gold gave me a good excuse to make some victory cupcakes for the team and try out two new recipes. On the menu? Maple buttermilk pancake and bacon cupcakes and churro cupcakes. Overall, I'm happy with the outcome of these two. There are some tweaks I'll make the next time I whip these up, but figured they're good enough to share as is.

The sweet beginnings of the batters

The finished product! Left to Right: Maple Buttermilk Pancake - Churrrrrrro

Let's start with the maple pancake and bacon cupcakes. The flavor was alllll there. The sweetness from the maple and brown sugar, along with the saltiness of the bacon and the crunch of the pecans? Too good to say no to. Here's the recipe I followed via The Extraordinary Art of Cake. I've added some notes at the end of the recipe.

Maple Buttermilk Pancake Cupcakes

INGREDIENTS:

2 1/2 cups flour

2 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

3/4 teaspoon ground ginger

1 stick or 1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened

1/2 cup light-brown sugar

2 large eggs

1 1/4 cups maple syrup

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1/2 cup buttermilk

1/2 cup walnuts or pecans, finely chopped

DIRECTIONS:

Preheat your oven 350 degrees F.

Sift the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and ginger together. Set aside.

Then beat the butter and sugar on medium speed in a large bowl until they are fluffy. (Your butter must be soft!) Add in eggs, syrup and vanilla. Mix until blended.

Then mix in the flour mixture alternating with the buttermilk. Do about one-third of the flour and then one-third of the buttermilk, and so on.

Add the nuts if using.

Fill muffin or cupcake tins, either lined or buttered, according to your preference.

Cook for approximately 20 minutes or until your tester comes out clean. I use a steak knife.

Cool totally and then ice with Maple-Butter Frosting.

Makes about 18 cupcakes.

Maple-Butter Frosting Recipe

INGREDIENTS:

1 cup of softened, unsalted butter

3 ounces of cream cheese, also softened

2/3 cup of dark-brown sugar (I use golden)

1/4 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup of maple syrup

3/4 teaspoon of vanilla extract

1 cup of confectioners' (icing) sugar

DIRECTIONS:

Beat the softened butter, cream cheese, brown sugar and salt in a medium-sized bowl until fluffy. Once again, it is critical that your ingredients be softened.

While you keep beating, add both the maple syrup and the vanilla.

Slowly add the confectioners' sugar and gradually increase the speed to high. Continue beating until the icing is fluffy.

Chill the maple-butter frosting for one hour before using.

**MY NOTES:

• I kept the pecans out of the batter and instead mixed that with the chopped bacon to top the cupcakes
• My butter got too soft when I was making the frosting so it didn't hold up as well, once I added in the maple syrup it turned into more of a glaze. I will play more with this frosting and make an update when I'm 100% happy with it

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Now for the churro cupackes! I LOVE churros - and that's an understatement. Anywhere churros are sold, I need at least one two.But really, I'm a sucker for anything covered in cinnamon and sugar. When I saw these on Pinterest I knew I had to make them. Here's the recipe I followed courtesy of The Novice Chef. I made some notes at the end of the recipe.

Churro Cupcakes with Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting

Yields 18 cupcakes

Recipe note: When it says to only fill your cupcake tins half way, I mean it. These cupcakes do not make a dome on top. Instead they are flat. If they rise over the tin, they are not pretty!

INGREDIENTS

For the cupcakes
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 (1 stick) cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup milk

For the frosting
4 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
2 cups confectioners’ sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon cinnamon

DIRECTIONS

To make the cupcakes:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line a muffin pan with cupcake liners; set aside.

In a medium bowl, combine the flour, cinnamon, baking powder, and salt; set aside.

In a large bowl, or the bowl of a standing mixer, cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, until just combined then stir in the vanilla and oil. Sprinkle 1/3 of the flour mixture over the butter mixture and gently stir in until barely combined. Add half of the milk, mixing until just combined. Repeat these steps with the remaining flour mixture and milk, ending with the flour. Do not over mix.

Fill each cupcake tin with 2 tablespoons of batter, or until the cupcake tin is filled half way. Bake the cupcakes for 14 to 16 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out with one or two crumbs clinging to it. Allow the cupcakes to cool completely before frosting.

To make the frosting:

Cream the butter and cream cheese together in a large bowl. Add the sugar, one cup at a time, beating well between each addition. Stir in the cinnamon until thoroughly combined. Then stir in the vanilla. Beat the mixture well, until light and fluffy.

Pipe onto cupcakes, sprinkle with a little cinnamon sugar and top with a drizzle of Dulce De Leche if desired.

**MY NOTES:

• She noted that the cupcakes bake flat, but I sifted my dry ingredients together and they domed up just fine
• When the cupcakes come out of the oven, wait about a minute or two and sprinkle a cinnamon-sugar mixture on top. This replicates the deliciousness of the cinnamon-sugar on the churrrrrrro
• I didn't follow the exact measurements of the cinnamon in the frosting, I wanted more of a cinnamon flavor so I kept adding cinnamon till I was happy with the flavor
• I piped the frosting with a 1M Wilton frosting tip and then drizzled some dulce de leche on top

Hope you enjoy these as much as I do! They were a hit at work. I'll be sure to post my updates with the changes I make next time! 

Happy baking everyone!

...and I'm Back!

Well, it looks as if it's been just over a year since my last post. Apologies. I will be making better efforts going forward.

Timeout - HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY MOMZ! :) What a wonderful lady, I'm so thankful/lucky/grateful to be blessed with such a great mom who loves me for who I am and supports me in what I do. I wish I were able to celebrate with her, alas, I am here...in Texas. But I love her dearly and hope this is her best birthday yet.

Seester, me and mom! (Yes I got hitched!)

Ok. Time in.

This may be a lengthy post - don't say I didn't warn you. I haven't baked in a while, as you may have noticed. Though a couple months ago, I made these cute thannngs. Thank you Instagram for making my pictures look 'cool' while the fancy schmancy camera is on hiatus, guess we all need a break sometimes.

Whipped up some Strawberry, Reese's, Cookies 'n Cream, and Pink Lemonade cupcakes for an order. Felt good to get back to baking. I've been getting the itch as of late, I'm sure I'll be making a post of some baked goods shortly! Fall needs to hurry on up cause I have a craving for all things pumpkin.

In the mean time, I've been cooking up a storm! My kitchen hates me cause I'm always in there making a mess of it, cleaning it, and going right back in and messing it up. But I say a messy kitchen is a happy kitchen! I'm not the only one who thinks that, I have proof via this sign that I saw at the Dallas Farmer's Market...

Such wisdom

I try to cook our dinners at home a majority of the days in the week. This allows us to save money and I can control sodium/sugar/fat and all that. What I make may not be the healthiest thing, but at the same time, it's not unhealthy either. I feel I find the happy medium and gear towards healthy 90% of the time I'm cooking. I watch the amount of salt I put in - I use other things for flavor, such as spices and other aromatics. I feel like I've become good at making healthy meals for Spencer and I without going to the extreme. Portion control? That's a work in progress and another story.

So I feel that this blog will slowly become a hybrid of my baking and cooking adventures. :)

When I plan out our menu for the week, I like to go off of leftovers from previous nights or whatever I know I have on hand. I feel like this week has been one of my most successful uses of leftovers.

What's been cooked this week?

Enchiladas Verde filled with carnitas

Brisket melts with potato patties

Pineapple fried rice

Curried sweet potato/potato soup with brisket and rib meat

What did it all come from?

• Sunday we stuffed ourselves silly at Spencer's parents' house. His mom sent us home with a bag of ribs, cheesy-garlic-mashed-potatoes, corn off the cob
• Brisket from a trip to Hard Eight BBQ in Coppell to see my cousin off before she flew back home to the Bay
• Brown rice and quinoa that I had in the freezer from the week prior. Also on hand in the freezer - carnitas, grilled chicken, and mashed sweet potatoes.

I freeze whatever leftovers I think are worth saving if we're not going to finish it in the next day or two - veggies, meat, broth - anything. Heck, I've even thrown chicken bones from a rotisserie chicken I bought and celery leaves, onion skins/scrap, and carrot scraps in the freezer to save for when I make a stock.

I'll make posts about each of the above in the near future. But I'll share the quick recipe for the potato patties. They're great to make and use up any leftover mashed potatoes (hello Thanksgiving leftovers!).

Potato Patties

Ingredients:

• Leftover mashed potatoes
• Shredded cheese/parmesan
• 1 egg, lightly beaten (if you plan to make a lot, may want to use two eggs or just add some milk or water to the egg wash)
• Panko bread crumbs
• Flour
• Salt
• Whatever seasoning you'd like to put in the panko/flour mixture (spices, herbs, etc)

If there's no cheese in your taters, go ahead and add some shredded cheese. The mashed potatoes I had made had a good creamy, garlic, cheesy flavor to it so I didn't feel the need to add anything else to it.

Combine the panko and flour - season as you wish.

I used approximately heaping tablespoonfuls of the potatoes and formed them into patties. Make them as thin as you can without them falling apart.

Then I brushed one side with the egg wash, put that side down into the panko mixture. Bushed the other side and kinda pushed the coating onto the other side. Patted it down to make sure it really sticks to to the patty.

Then pan fry them in a heated skillet (med to med-high) til they're golden and crispy! 

Serve as a side or as a snack or app! 

Note:

I was thinking about baking these but decided not to. If I do, I'll use regular bread crumbs because I feel those bake better than panko does.

That's about all I've got for now - happy eating everyone!

Lazy Bunz

Long weekends call for a nice, not so healthy breakfast. I have no real reason for it, but I just think it does, and this morning I think I found my new favorite, go-to pancake recipe. I just have to share it with all of you. This is definitely a keeper.

That being said, people love pancakes. And people also love cinnamon buns. But if you eat one of each in one sitting, you may be under fire of a number of judging eyes. Not me because I'm 90% sure, I'll be right there with you. :) But friends, I have found the solution! CINNAMON BUN PANCAKES!! Yes. You read that right, cinnamon bun pancakes. This recipe is quite possibly the perfect hybrid of the two. Fluffy like a pancake should be, yet the perfect spice that a cinnamon bun would have. And the cherry on top is a rendition of the vanilla icing that you would find on a cinnamon bun - a maple-butter icing/glaze.

These were freaking delicious. I'm fairly certain the words "Oh my God" came out of my mouth when I tried a little piece of the first pancake that came off the griddle. I ate my fair share of these, as you can see below. Had Spencer not judged me, I may or may not have licked my plate clean.

The recipe was originally submitted on the Pioneer Woman's Tasty Kitchen Blog by sapeylissy. I don't know her, but I love her. And I love the Pioneer Woman even more for adding the maple-butter icing. I made 1 or 2 tweaks here and there and they came through. I sifted the dry ingredients together and used buttermilk instead of regular whole milk.

Try out this recipe and I hope you love it as much as we do!!

Cinnamon Bun Pancakes

• 1-½ cup All-purpose Flour
• 3 Tablespoons White Sugar
• ½ teaspoons Salt
• 4 teaspoons Baking Powder
• 1 Tablespoon Cinnamon
• 2 whole Eggs Beaten
• 1 cup Milk
• 2 Tablespoons Corn Syrup
• ¼ cups Butter, Melted
• 1 Tablespoon Vanilla

1. In medium bowl, combine flour, sugar, salt, baking powder and cinnamon with a whisk. Whisk well to make sure everything is combined.
2. In separate large bowl, beat together eggs, milk, corn syurp, butter and vanilla. Stir in flour mixture.
3. Heat a lightly oiled griddle or frying pan over medium/low heat. Pour about 1/4 cup batter onto griddle. Brown on both sides.
4. Serve warm with maple-butter icing drizzled over the top. Makes 12 pancakes.

Maple-Butter IcingIf you remotely like syrup - double up on this recipe

• 1 cup powdered sugar
• ¼ cups melted butter
• Dash of salt
• 1 Tbl. maple syrup
• ¼ cup milk

Whisk all ingredients together until smooth, adding the milk slowly.  Add enough milk for desired consistency (I liked to keep mine on the thicker side - more of a syrup consistency). 

One Stick, Two Stick

I've been meaning to write up new posts since the beginning of the month. Obviously, time has gotten away from me. From trips, to family in town, to working non-stop, to saying unwanted good-byes to a good friend...where did the month of August go?? Who knows, but onward to September!

In the mean time, I'll fill you in on my newest undertaking, pie pops and cake pops! 

First we'll start with pie pops. How cute are these!!!

When I saw them on Bakerella, I just HAD to make them. There were no if's, ands, or buts about it. For my first attempt, I just used store bought pie crust and cherry pie filling. I did take note of what Bakerella had to say in her post about these - she wanted more filling. I decided to chop up the cherries in hopes I could get more filling in the pop. A valiant effort, I must say. Next time I make these cute buggers, I'll go up a size in my cookie cutter so I can get more filling inside and still chop up the cherries. I'll even try them with pecan pie filling. Mmmmm...I can taste them now. This may be a Sunday to-do if I'm bored. 

They're simple to make and quite self explanatory. Once I got into the groove of things, I got them together fairly quickly. As suggested, the best way to seal these pops was by using a piece of the lollipop stick. All you have to do is cut, stick, fill and seal! Bake for about 12 minutes and voila...pie pops!

Now, I've done cake balls before, so cake pops weren't totally new for me. I may even like making them better than cake balls because I think it's easier to get a smoother and more even coating. The flavor of the day was mocha! I made these for my good friend Kortney, who was moving out to California last week. She loves my mocha cupcakes, so mocha cake pops were an obvious choice! I have to send her off properly, right?

I had recently bought Bakerella's "Cake Pops" book, and appreciate all the tips she provided:

• Adding in some Crisco when melting the candy coating - this allows for a thinner consistency that's easier to work with
• When dipping, tap the wrist holding the cake pop in order to cleanly drip off any excess coating

For this batch, I used dark cocoa candy coating and white vanilla candy coating. Since Kortney's slightly obsessed with sprinkles, it was a given these were going to take a dive in those! I used small candy bags to cover them and tied them off with purple ribbon. In a linen covered box filled with purple paper grass, I laid the pops nicely, alternating directions so they weren't too piled on top of each other. I tied off the box with a good amount of purple tulle as a reminder of our tutu obsession, and called it a day!

I'm very happy with the outcome of these and can't wait to make more, in different types of shapes, of course! I will be sure to keep you all posted on my cake pops progress. :)

Happy baking!

Can't Stand the Heat

July has been a month of hot, hot, HOT. Consecutive days of triple digit heat? Oi vey. And the weather man just said if something with the air pressure doesn't happen, this heat will stick around well through August. The Texas summer may finally be getting the best of me. I don't hate the heat per se, but when baking, we're frenemies. The humidity just deflates my frostings!

But on a happy note, July has also been a month of many birthdays in my group of friends, so I figured this would be a perfect time to try out some new recipes. I like to bake, they like to eat, it's a win win for everyone!

The flavors I tried out were strawberry margarita, pancakes & bacon, Reese's and cookies n' creme.

Overall, I'd say it was a success, but I'll definitely be making some tweaks to the recipes I used. Which isn't too surprising...whenever I try something new the first time around I'll make it verbatim, see how it goes, make my changes from there and make the recipe my own.

Cookies n' creme - Specially made for my friend Kristin! I've made this before, but tried out a new batter recipe I found from Brown Eyed Baker. Pretty pleased with the outcome, I threw in some pieces of Oreos this time around and was glad I did. It just added to the cookies n' creme flavor.

Strawberry margarita - verrrry interesting. Hint of a margarita but definitely a cupcake! They turned out a little dry for me, but the boozy glaze that the recipe called for helped to moisten them up. These will be perfected.

Reese's - Spencer's new favorite cupcake. Enough said.

Pancakes with maple frosting and BACON! - My one FAIL of the night. I was so disheartened about these mainly because I was so excited to try them. The frosting just smelled so maple-y. Mmmm. But the cupcakes didn't turn out as fluffy as I'd liked. I need to work on my batter. One day it will come and I will show you the finished product! Many were skeptical about this, but come on...bacon! Reminds me of this video. Bacon is bad for you, they say? Nay, I say! Bacon is good for me!

I'm going to end on a high. Happy baking everyone!
Don't forget to like my Facebook page Cakes.by.Anna. :)

Don't Feed the Models...

Totally not related to cakes, but still an adventure. As many of you know, Spencer and I are engaged! Eight and a half years in the making, the big day is May 18, 2012. We're very excited about this next step in our lives.

We had been trying to take our engagement pictures since April, but things kept getting in the way...thunderstorms, sunburned faces from tailgating, facial hair trimming mishaps...I seriously thought Spencer was trying to sabotage our photo sessions whenever one of these came up.

Well, a couple weekends ago, we were able to have a successful session. It was a lot of fun and I couldn't be happier with the way they came out! Our lovely photographer is a co-worker and friend, Miss Audra Stroud. She's amazing and great to work with! Please check out her work at audrastroud.com. If you're in the DFW area and in need of a photographer - definitely consider her.

We started off bright and early at 6:30 AM over at White Rock Lake - which just so happened to be where Spencer proposed. After we headed over to Deep Ellum to take some pictures with the brightly colored walls and murals.

Here's a peek at the pictures Audra edited. Enjoy!

Can Somebody Say "Cabin Fever"??

Weather can make you do some crazy things...in my case, a week straight of being confined in my apartment due to illness and snow/ice days (in Texas of all places) has caused me to start this blog!

Aside from working from home all week, I spent many hours of the day reading over some of my favorite food blogs (The Pioneer Woman and Burnt Lumpia) and discovering new ones (Let Me Eat Cake and My Baking Addiction). All this time looking at food gave me an insane itch to get back in the kitchen and bake my life away. Side note, I had taken a bit of a hiatus from baking/cake decorating due to a new position at work and trips back home and abroad. Wanting to get back into it, I thought to myself, "Why not blog about the cakes I do?" to supplement my "Cakes.by.Anna" side biz I have going.

So here I am...

Since I don't have any cake orders in the near future, I'll leave you with some "memories" from Snowmaggedon 2011 in North Texas:

A view from our balcony, got about 6 inches overnight. It looks very pretty out - so serene. But it can go away now, I'm ready to join the world again.

This has nothing to do with cake, but who cares? It's still food. Today, I believe I made my best batch of Bolognese sauce. You should know this about me - aside from baking, I love to cook. I just love food in general, tasting new flavors and re-creating them at home. I'm getting distracted again, apologies. Back to the Bolognese!

I went off this recipe from Better Homes & Garden which is actually called "Spaghetti with Best-Bolognese Sauce Ever" - at least you know it holds truth! The depth of flavor is so great, the sauce is thick and hearty deliciousness.

I should add that this sauce caused quite the argument in our household today. I gave Spencer a taste and he gave it a big thumbs up. I make him up a plate when it's all done, he takes a bite, sets down his fork and walks over to me with a stern look on his face.

I knew what I was caught -- I tried to pull a fast one on him, giving him whole wheat pasta. Yep, this was the argument. Over pasta! It went so far where I had to vow to never buy whole wheat pasta EVER again. And I mean EVER. He may even have me add it to my wedding vows...whenever that day comes. ;)

So give it a try and let me know if you love it as much as me. Enjoy!

Ingredients

• 1-1/2 lbs. 85 percent lean ground beef chuck (I did a combination of ground chuck and ground pork)
• 1 large onion, chopped (1 cup)
• 2 medium carrots, chopped (1 cup)
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 cup half-and-half or milk
• 1 cup chicken broth (I did a mixture of chicken broth and red wine)
• 1 Tbsp. white wine vinegar (I chose to omit this)
• 1 28-oz. can crushed tomatoes
• 1 6-oz. can tomato paste
• 2 tsp. Italian seasoning, crushed (In addition I added some dried basil, parsley and oregano)
• 1 tsp. ground black pepper
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1 14- to 16-oz. pkg. dried whole wheat, multigrain or regular spaghetti
• Grated Parmesan, Romano, or Asiago cheese (optional)
• Fresh oregano (optional)

• directions

  1. In 12-inch skillet brown ground beef, onion, carrot, and garlic until meat is no longer pink, stirring occasionally. Drain off fat.

  2. Add half-and-half. Bring to boiling. Reduce heat; simmer, uncovered, 5 minutes or until half-and-half is nearly evaporated. Stir in broth, then vinegar. Return to boiling. Reduce heat; simmer, uncovered, 15 minutes or until liquid is nearly evaporated. Stir in crushed tomatoes, tomato paste, seasoning, pepper, and salt. Bring to boiling. Reduce heat; simmer, uncovered, 5 minutes or until thickened.

  3. Meanwhile, cook spaghetti, with 1 tablespoon salt added to water, according to package directions Drain. Serve spaghetti with sauce. Sprinkle with cheese and oregano. Makes 8 servings.