Vanilla cupcakes.

It's birthday season in my building. Three birthdays in three days. I've had a lot of baking to do...which I totally love. But with baking comes dishes...which I don't so totally love. That's why I adore this recipe for vanilla cupcakes. Only one bowl needed. Glory, hallelujah. Let's do this.

One Bowl Vanilla Cupcakes

slightly adapted from here

Ingredients:

2 cups flour

1 1/2 cup sugar

2 1/2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

1/2 cup butter (softened but not melty)

3/4 cup milk

1 tbsp vanilla 

2 eggs

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175ish C). Line a muffin tin with paper cups. Preferably pretty ones. I recommend polka dots...even if they're going to boys. Because, why not?

Cast of characters.

Mix together the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt in a large bowl.

Add the butter (it's best if you cut it up into smaller pieces first), milk, vanilla and eggs. I ran out of vanilla --tragedy!-- at like 3/4 tbsp, so I topped it up with almond extract and it worked great. Beat on medium speed until blended. The batter was a little too thick for my liking, so I added a little more milk. But you don't want it so thin that it's easily pourable.

Nerd moment: Isn't it amazing what a little heat can do?
There's probably a good metaphor for life in there somewhere...

Bake for about 18-20 minutes. Do a toothpick test (or dry spaghetti, if that's all you've got) a little beforehand. You don't want to over bake these babies, or they'll turn out pretty dry. 

Remove from pans to cool completely before frosting. 

I used a stiff buttercream recipe that holds up well when piped. But these little darlings work well with pretty much any kind of frosting out there, so just pick your favorite and get decorating!

And there you have it! A simple vanilla cupcake recipe that tastes great and leaves you with only one bowl (plus measuring cups, spoons, and other utensils, but whatever) to clean up afterward. Lovely.

Enjoy!

  

Chocolate. Everywhere.

This year, my birthday and Easter were only a few days apart, and most of the gifts I received shared a common theme: chocolate. 

I've now got an impressive amount of chocolate in my life. Girl Scout cookies, Oreos, Cadbury Flake bars, a giant chocolate egg, a personalized chocolate champagne bottle (the girls said they'd planned to get me the teddy bear, but it wasn't enough chocolate...aren't they the best?), and a big bag of Nestle semi-sweet chocolate chips -- but those are for baking, not eating -- you name it, I've probably got it here somewhere. 

The giant egg and the Flake bars were courtesy of Hannah's fam. I think they felt sorry for me since I don't get to be home over the Easter holidays. Gotta love orphan points.

I'm totally not above sympathy chocolate.

I'm trying to have some self control, but being stuck inside working on essays all day keeps me within an arm's reach pretty much all the time.

Not that I'm complaining, mind you...

 

Twentyfour.

 

 

 I'm twenty-four. Why does that seem so much older than 23?

But it's okay. Because I got to eat cake for breakfast, and my room smells like flowers. 

 

Special delivery.

When I heard the buzzer this morning, I did not want to get up to answer the door. I had pretty much decided not to, but them something in me said, "Stop being lazy. Go check."

And, boy, am I glad I did.

The nice postman handed me a parcel that was actually for me! Hannah's usually the one who gets mail, so this was a big deal. And inside? Well it was an even bigger deal.

Remember when I told y'all how I feel about cookbooks? How I hadn't ever considered buying one till I saw that Joy from Joy the Baker wrote one? Well guess what...

It's an early birthday present from my momma (she obviously loves me)! And it's gorgeous, filled with pretty photography and recipes that look ah-mazing. Plus, I totally trust this girl -- I've used so many of her recipes, and they've all turned out wonderfully. (I actually just made her browned butter strawberry banana bread the other day, but I'll tell you about that later.) 

Anyway, here's a sneak peak at what's inside:

Isn't it fantastic? I'm so excited. There's only one problem: What should I bake first??

 

Uncle Abe.

Today is my uncle's birthday.

(Thanks for the reminder, mom.)

Okay, so he's my great, great, great, great, great uncle. My mom's mom's dad's mom's uncle. I think I got that right, anyway. He was born Feb. 12, 1809, which means he'd be 203 years old today.

His name was Abraham Lincoln. You know, that bearded guy on the $5 bill and the penny.

We're pretty proud of him.

So happy birthday to you, dear ol' Uncle Abe.

Birthday baking.

It's birthday season at my building -- also known as baking season. And you know I love it.
Since people know I like to bake, I've had several requests.

Fiona wanted a giant chocolate chip cookie.

Easy enough.

Lisa wanted Funfetti with buttercream icing.

A bit more time intensive.

The funny (slash frustrating) thing about baking in the UK is that they do measurements completely differently. As in you can't buy a "stick" of butter, and everything is in grams, so I'm constantly having to consult Google for conversions.

But that's neither here nor there. What you want is recipes. So without further ado:

Giant Chocolate Chip Cookie

Ingredients

1/2 cup butter

1/4 cup sugar

1/3 cup brown sugar

1 egg

1/2 tsp vanilla

1 cup plus 2 tbsp flour

1 tsp salt

1 tsp cream of tartar

1 tsp baking soda

1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

(Note: I never measure chocolate chips, and I can't find semi-sweet here,

so I used a mix of milk and dark chocolate.)

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (or 175ish C).

Beat butter and sugars till fluffy. Add egg and vanilla and beat to combine.

Mix flour, salt, cream of tartar and baking soda in a separate bowl. Combine dry ingredients with butter mixture until well blended.

Stir in chocolate chips. Eat (at least) one handful of chocolate chips. Spread dough in a 9 inch round pan lined with parchment paper.

Bake for about 20 minutes, or until golden brown.

Funfetti Cake (from scratch)

 

I'd only ever made Funfetti from a box, but it's basically just a white cake with sprinkles in the batter. Nothing too difficult. 

Ingredients
12 tbsp butter
2 eggs

2 egg whites
  2 tsp vanilla

2 1/2 cups flour
  3 tsp baking powder
1/2 salt
  1 1/2 cup sugar
1 cup milk
1 bottle of sprinkles

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 F (175ish C). Line two 9 inch round pans with buttered parchment paper. 

 Beat butter and sugar together. 

Add eggs and egg whites, beating on a slow speed until just combined. Add vanilla.

Sift together the dry ingredients. 

Gradually add the dry mixture into the butter mixture, alternating with the milk.

Add the sprinkles. I didn't measure. I just used about a (smallish) bottle. 

Pour the batter into pans and bake about 30-35 minutes, until the edges are light brown and a toothpick comes out clean (if you don't have a toothpick, dry spaghetti works well).

Allow to cool completely before frosting.

For the vanilla buttercream, I used this recipe. If you want the frosting to be white, make sure to use clear vanilla flavoring.

Then decorate to your little heart's content!