Playing with fire....

Ok, it's getting late and it's a weeknight, so I will make this a quick post! Summer is here and I have been noticing a lot BBQ/grilling inspired food products at the grocery store lately, one of them is S'mores! There are s'mores ice cream, s'mores cookies and even a s'mores making kits! I love S'mores, I mean what is there not to like, it's chocolate, marshmallows and cookies are wrapped into one.

I decided to whip up a batch of  s'mores inspired cupcakes for a coworker farewell party one night, and here is what I did:

S'mores Cupcakes (Trial and Error)

2 cups graham cracker crumbs
1/3 cup sugar
5 tablespoons butter
1 box of Swiss chocolate cake mix
3/4 cups of semi-sweet chocolate chips
Melted chocolate (Semi-sweet chocolate blocks/chips melted in the microwave)
Jumbo Marshmallows

I have never made these before and didn't really follow any recipes, all of them were trail and error. Since I was too lazy to make a real marshmallow topping (ie. using egg white, etc) and decide to just use the marshmallows I already had, I had to be creative.

Preheat oven to 375F. Mix the graham cracker crumbs, sugar and butter together, press the mixture into the bottom of the muffin liner. Bake for 15 minutes, keep an eye on this, it burns very easily (Sigh, which is what  did).

Prepare the cake mix as per package instruction, mix the semi-sweet chocolate chips into the mixture. Pour cake mix into the muffin pan and bake as directed.

After the cupcakes are cooled down, this is the fun decorating part.

Option #1: Scoop out a little piece of the cupcake top, and drizzle melted chocolate into the hole, place a jumbo marshmallow on top, slightly burn the top of the marshmallow with a blowtorch (or use a ghetto lighter like me, since I don't have a blowtorch and would LOVE to have one..hint hint HUBBY!). This option makes a really cute cupcake, but the marshmallow cools down very fast and doesn't really have that melted gooey taste...but it's still good if you stick it into the microwave for 15 seconds before serving.






Option #2: Melt some of the marshmallow in the microwave, dip the cupcake into the mixture, and place them under the oven broiler to brown the top. This is fast and easy, super gooey, but it burns really quickly and the final product doesn't look that great.

Option #3: Exactly same as option#2, but instead of placing them under the broiler, I torched each cupcake with my ghetto lighter (at least it's the kind of light with a long tube piece, not the ones you put in your pocket). This is my favorite one, it was warm, gooey and looks good, but it took forever since I didn't have the proper equipment.

 The next time I make these, I will continue to use the cake mix, which saves a lot of time, but will definitely spend time to make a real marshmallow topping and invest in a blow torch! But nonetheless, it was a pretty decent cupcake!

No food wasted!

My "thought process" for the week's menu usually starts with going through my cookbooks, cooking magazines or food blogs on the weekend, but sometimes, I start by opening the fridge and try to make something out of all the odd things I have. This week, I was able to turn in some of my son's "leftovers" into something yummy!

Plain yogurt was on sale a few weeks ago, so I stocked up, but Tyler couldn't finish it all, so I was stuck with half a tub of yogurt.  I was determined to find a recipe to use up the yogurt, and decided to do a version of this recipe from Bon appetite magazine. I didn't have any Aleppo pepper (don't even know what that is), so I used red pepper flakes (which is a stable in our house) instead. Tyler's Balkan style yogurt is pretty thick, so it worked really well as a marinate, and instead of making chicken skewers, I used chicken legs and baked them in the over instead. The end result was really juicy, I marinated them over night, and the yogurt really kept the chicken super moist. I would've liked the chicken to be a bit more spicy, but it works out since Tyler was able to enjoy it as well. Next time, I would slather the chicken with more of the marinade before baking them, the sauce was really tasty. This would be a perfect summer BBQ recipe!

Tyler's yogurt marinated spicy chicken legs

• 2 teaspoons dried red pepper flakes plus 2 teaspoons  paprika
• 1 cup plain yogurt, I used Balkan style
• 3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
• 2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
• 2 tablespoons tomato paste
• 2 teaspoons coarse kosher salt
• 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 6 garlic cloves, peeled, flattened
• 1 thinly sliced lemon into rounds
• around 15 chicken legs

 

1.Place the red pepper flakes and paprika in large bowl and stir in 2 tablespoons warm water and let stand until paste forms, about 5 minutes. Add yogurt, olive oil, red wine vinegar, tomato paste, 2 teaspoons coarse salt, and 1 teaspoon black pepper to spice mixture in bowl; whisk to blend. Stir in garlic and lemon slices, then chicken. Cover and chill overnight.

2. Place the chicken legs, with slight coat of marinade in baking pan, and bake at 375F for around 20 - 25 min. Pierce the meat with knife tip, if the juice runs clear, the chicken is done.

Another thing I stocked up on last week was strawberries! I couldn't resist, I love strawberry season...but Tyler is on a total strawberry strike, so I had to come up with a way to use up all the strawberries. Since we are going to have a few playdates this weekend, I decided to bake some cupcakes to share with my fellow mommies!

This recipe  for strawberry cupcake was super easy and the great thing is that I already had all the ingredients in the pantry. I am usually a chocolate kinda girl, but I think this recipe has totally converted me.  I still love chocolate, but this strawberry cupcake is light, not-too-sweet, fluffy and perfect as a mid-afternoon morning, midnight, eating one right now snack! The cupcake is great on it's own, but is divine with the icing. This icing recipe is surprisingly simple, and is adapted from the famous Sprinkles bakery.

Martha Stewart's Strawberry Cupcake

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for pans
• 1 1/2 cups cake flour (not self-rising)
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1 3/4 cups sugar
• 4 large eggs
• 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
• 1 1/4 cups milk
•  1 1/2 cup small diced strawberries

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line 2 1/2 standard 12-cup cupcake pans with paper liners; set aside.
   
2. Into a medium bowl, sift together flours, baking powder, and salt; set aside.
   
3. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, 3 to 4 minutes, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed. Beat in eggs, one at a time, and then beat in vanilla. With the mixer on low speed, add the flour mixture in three parts, alternating with the milk and beginning and ending with the flour; beat until combined after each addition. Fold in strawberries.
   
4. Divide the batter evenly among the prepared cups so that each is about two-thirds full, about 2 ounces each. Bake, rotating the pans halfway through, until the cupcakes are golden brown and a cake tester inserted in the centers comes out clean, about 20 minutes. Transfer pans to a wire rack to cool for 5 minutes. Remove cupcakes from pan and cool completely on wire racks. 
    
   Sprinkles' Strawberry icing (Adapted)
   • 1/2 cup strawberries
   • 1/2 cup of butter
   • 1/2 cup of vegetable shortening
   • Pinch of coarse salt
   • 3 1/2 cups confectioners' sugar, sifted
   • 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

   Directions

   1.  Place strawberries in the bowl of a small food processor; process until pureed. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat together butter and salt on medium speed until light and fluffy. Reduce mixer speed and slowly add confectioners' sugar; beat until well combined. Add vanilla and 3 tablespoons strawberry puree (save any remaining strawberry puree for another use); mix until just blended.
      

Spring is here (it better be!!)

One of the great things with having the year off with Tyler was being about to reconnect with old friends and meeting other new mommies.  This weekend, we were invited to a baby shower for one of the mommies we hung out with last year, it was as great party/playdate, great food and great company. It seemed like all the mommies were either pregnant with their second baby, or already had two kids! I wonder when hubby and I will be ready to do it all over again, all I know is at this very moment, we are really enjoying life with just the 3 of us.

Anyways, to celebrate the upcoming arrival of their baby girl, I decided to make some super girly, and perfect for spring flower cupcakes! I was actually a bit nervous about making these, since I really haven't decorated much with buttercream lately.  All of my "creations" lately have been done with fondant, which is in my opinion, a bit easier.  Buttercream icing is harder to work with because if the consistency is wrong, it can look like a real mess.  So I dig up my old Wilton cake decorating books and went to work.  I think the end results weren't bad, some of the flowers didn't really turn out the way I was hoping for (like the pink and orange rose...yuck), but I hope everyone enjoyed them! 

I can't wait for spring to arrive, can't wait to kick start the gardening season!!!!