Are you the next Cupcake Hero?

A few months ago Laurie decided she was going on Cupcake Hero vacation for the summer.  Shortly after L made that decision I had CB up my butt talking me into co-hosting with her (Look CB I can exaggerate too :P).  Of course I said yes, who wouldn’t want to get the first look at all the millions of amazing cupcake entries we’re going to get … ya millions we want the whole world submitting entries.

We thought long and hard about what we wanted our ingredient to be.  We wanted something that was fun and tied into July somehow.  In the end we settled on the perfect theme if I do say so myself.

So, this month we bring you Cupcake Hero, the Red, White and Blue edition…

Theme: red, white AND blue
> All cup-ticipants must incorporate red, white AND blue into their cupcake entry.
> One ingredient per color. (Don’t be a smarta$$ and just use food color for alle3 colors. Seriously? L-A-M-E!)
> Get creative!

If you want to participate, email Me and CB your cupcakery by July 31st before 12mid EST with the following info:

* Name
* Link to your Cupcake Hero entry
* Picture of your cupcakery (250 width is preferred) and/or permission to use image off your blog.

Any questions? Feel free to leave a comment or email me.

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TWD: Apple Cheddar Scones

This week I got to do something so much more fun than just regular old baking for TWD, I got to bake with my favorite beech CB. Yes folks, that’s right, CB was in Boston hanging out with me ALL weekend. Now I’m sitting here having panic attacks because she’s gone, but at least we had fun while she was here.

I think we took at least 5 times longer than we should have to make our little scones and scone village. Between trying to get pictures of butter dropping and attacking our hubbies with flour things definitely went slower than normal, but dizzam we had so much more fun than usual! I just wish we could do it every week. There are a bazillion pictures …

We had some trouble finding dried apples so we ended up with these dried apple chip things.

We tried everything in the book to get butter drop pictures

Finally I just did it all myself and it worked … one time and one time only. It wasn’t perfect but it was good enough

It’s fun to squish butter together

Drip drop Drip drop … that’s how the wet ingredients roll

Pretty Little Apple Chips

Bombs aCheeseeeeeeeeeeee

Plopping the dough in the mini cuppy pans

put em in the oven for CB and Meeeeeeeeeeeee

My Hubby

CB and T

The End

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TWD: Mixed Berry Cobbler

Yummy yummy yummy I’ve got cobbler in my tummy hehe.

As usual I didn’t fully read the recipe before getting down to cooking.  So, when it was time to bake I finally saw that little line that said go easy on the strawberries.  Rut roh, I have a few bags of frozen berries in my freeze that have been chilling there for way too long and I was planning on using one bag of mixed berries and a bag plus whatever else I needed of frozen strawberries.  Apparently, that wasn’t going to be a good idea, so I halved the recipe and just used my mixed berries.

After hearing word that some people thought the cobbler was a little bland I decided to dumb half my jar of cinnamon into the dough.  Ok, that’s not really true, it was more like a heaping tablespoon which I immediately thought was way too much for half the dough.  In the end though it proved to be a great choice.  I also didn’t halve the sugar and just put in what the full recipe called for.  All in all two great choices because not only did it smell delicious while I was waiting for the bubbles that never came, but it was mighty tasty too especially when I threw some Haggen-dazs into the mix.   G proclaimed it a success while I was still taking pictures and I have to agree!

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TWD: La Palette’s Strawberry Tart

I seriously almost peed my pants when I read this recipe.  CB can you guess why?  The whole add a splash of kirsch thing totally made me laugh.  See, almost a year ago now, I started to teach CB to cook over the internet on the other side of the country.  She was a self proclaimed microwave cook and she could barely cook pasta.  That’s pretty close right CB?  Whenever CB had questions she would throw them at me.  Then one day she comes at me with “what’s kirsch?”  Luckily, google is my friend because I didn’t have a clue.  I’m more of a basics type girl, you know, sugar, flour, chocolate, vanilla, things I can pronounce I keep around.  If I can’t pronounce it, I probably don’t have it.  I’m not big on exotic ingredients.  I’ll stick with my simple plain jane supplies.  So, when I read the “splash of kirsch a drop of fraise or framboise eau-de-vie or a spoonful of creme de cassis”  I was dying laughing, these ingredients are not my plain jane style and I certainly didn’t have a “splash” of them lying around.   Needless to say they were left out.

This was such a nice easy recipe.  Make the dough (thanks G for losing both my mini prep AND my pastry cutter) then top with jam, strawberries and some cool whip.  Shut it, it’s what I had.

Ok, I’m officially in a bad mood because I took the cutest pics of my two mini tarts (cut the dough in half) and apparently my CF card wasn’t in my camera and my $1000 camera didn’t have the decency to let me know that I was snapping away and seeing the cutest pics on the screen and it wasn’t even saving them anywhere.  What a POS.  Ok it’s not, but ya, my pics are now leftover pieces of G and I’s tarts.  Dammit they were so cute together.  These are still cute, but I’m sitting here like a 5 year old who just dropped her ice cream and can’t get a new one.

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Thumb Tacks … beyond not food related

I’m being forced to post these hopefully the food police don’t come and hunt me down.

Last week I saw a post and full tutorial on How About Orange and thought they were adorable. Then I saw ADORABLE ones from etsy on Jess’s blog. I’m already spending too much on randomness at etsy and really couldn’t justify spending more especially $16 for 24 of these little guys even though as it turns out that’s not really that bad of a price because the buttons are $1.99 (I got bigger ones so I only got five you get more of the smaller ones) plus fabric. I went to Jo-Ann’s Fabric after work, got buttons you can cover, popped out the button hooks, covered them with some cute fabric, crazy glued tacks to the back and volia adorable little tacks that you just want to eat up. Ok not really, eating tacks would HURT like a mother, but they are pretty cute aren’t they?

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My Not so Pretty Herb Garden

When I was younger I inherited my mom’s black thumb. We can grow weeds like it’s no ones business, but things you really want ehh not so much.

This year I decided to throw caution to the wind and just go for it. I decided to start slow and plant a bunch of herbs. My dear friend LT informed me that “I could beat the crap out of them” and they would still survive. Sweet, just my kind of thing.

Similar to how I treat most new things I try, I decided to do it on a whim and have no F’ing clue what I’m doing. While most people get a book, read up on things or ask for help, I prefer to wing it. That’s just my style. If I kill them, I’ll plant more. On a very food related note, I think this is why yeast never scared me. I just decide to try something and go for it without a care in the world.

From left to right:

Back row: curled parsley, chives, flat parsley, cat nip, spearmint, cilantro.

Front row: sweet basil, oregano, lemon thyme, purple basil and rosemary

More will be planted. I “planted” - don’t ask - some strawberries I ordered yesterday, but I know I fucked those up big time and there is no chance I will have strawberries this summer unless some kind of miracle takes place in my yard. And after the week long success of my herbs (squeal I know they’ve lasted a whole week can you believe it?) I’ve decided to go in on a joint venture with my downstairs neighbor. She kinda has a clue so she’s going to guide me in my veggie cultivation and I’m sure Kevin, our streets very own green thumb, will definitely be around to help. Veggie planting starts this weekend and I’m giddy!

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TWD: French Chocolate Brownies

It’s brownie week here at Crazy Delicious Food! Actually, it’s not, I made the brownie cookies a few weeks ago and just finally got around to uploading them. When I finally did get them uploaded yesterday I was craving me some brownies and lucky me, this week TWD was all about brownies. W00t

Before I tell you how delish these brownies are let me first tell you about my dishes I make brownies in. I strongly believe that brownies MUST be eaten with ice cream. There are no if ands or buts about it, a warm brownie with vanilla ice cream is pure and total heaven. The problem with cutting off a square of brownie and dumping ice cream on top is that you lose ice cream and that’s just not right on any level. So, I randomly found these adorable little oven safe dishes that are perfect for brownies and I have used them every time I’ve made brownies since that first wonderful time. They hold all the ice cream in and are the perfect single size servings. I think everyone should run out and buy something similar.

Now that my PSA is over, ya these brownies are fab. They kinda remind me of the fudge gateau (that I just happened to pick for TWD), but I made them so long ago they could be a little different than I remember. Who knows, what I do know is that I love these brownies and plan to force G to eat the whole pan so I don’t. My one recommendation is don’t try them with blackberry ice cream. It sounded like a good combo, but I was mistaken (I’m never wrong).

Recipe after the break

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Shockolate

Finally! Someone has figured out a way to cure my husband of his chocolate addiction. Wanna know how?

Why, it would be this delightful little gizmo called the Shockolate. It’s perfect. You put chocolate in. Set the timer for up to 24 hours and if you try to sneak in you get shocked hahaha. Oh I could have way too much fun with this. The only problem. It seems to only be in Europe. If they end up in the US sign me up for one. At a mere $15 it’s way too much fun to pass up!

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Brownie Cookies

These cookies totally bring me back to my Sesame Street days. I want to start singing the C is for cookie song and adding in some B is for brownie part. Lucky for all of you I’m simply not creative enough to come up with anything good so you are only left to deal with having “C is for cookie …” stuck on replay in your head all day. Sorry hehe

I think the best way to describe these cookies is to let you know that of the 10-15 I made not one was left an hour after they came out of the oven. Granted G aka the chocoholic eats a lot of all chocolate goodies, he definitely went overboard with these babies and I didn’t help the situation. These are some truly addictive cookies and I’m already craving more!

Brownie Cookies adapted from King Arthur Flour

8 ounces bittersweet or semisweet chocolate*
3 tablespoons (1 1/2 ounces) butter
1 cup (7 1/4 ounces) sugar
3 large eggs
1 teaspoon espresso powder
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup (4 1/4 ounces) King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup (6 ounces) chocolate chips, optional

*You may use regular chocolate chips (1 1/3 cups = 8 ounces), but we prefer the flavor of bittersweet chips, or any of our bittersweet chocolates. If you’re using bar chocolate (as opposed to chips), chop it into irregular 1/2 to 3/4-inch chunks.

In a double boiler, or in the microwave, gently melt together the chocolate and butter. To avoid heating the chocolate too much and possibly burning it, the best method is to heat till the butter is melted and the chocolate has partially melted, then remove from the heat. Stir till all the chocolate melts.

In a separate bowl, beat together the sugar and eggs till they’re thoroughly combined. Add the hot melted chocolate, then stir in the remaining ingredients, including the chocolate chips, if you’re using them. Refrigerate the batter-like dough for 1 hour, to make it easier to handle.

Preheat the oven to 325°F. Lightly grease (or line with parchment) two baking sheets, three if you have them.

Drop the cookie dough by tablespoonfuls (about the size of a small ping pong ball) onto the prepared baking sheets. A tablespoon cookie scoop makes this task extremely simple. Leave about 2″ between the dough balls, as they’ll spread as they bake.

Bake the cookies for 11 to 12 minutes, until their tops are shiny and cracked. They won’t crack until the very end, so keep a close eye on them; when they’re cracked all the way across the top surface, they’re just about done. The point is, you want these baked all the way through, but just barely; additional baking will make them crisp rather than chewy. Remove the cookies from the oven, and top each with a kiss-shaped chocolate, a nonpareil, or a bittersweet chocolate wafer, if desired. Wait 5 minutes, then transfer them to a rack to cool. Yield: about 26 cookies without chips, 30 cookies with chips.

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TWD Rewind: Pound Cake

Ok I know I promised I would get this up last night, but I couldn’t even get to my blog so there was really no way for that to happen.  There was also a slight additional delay because um well I kinda sorta needed to find a pretty theme that looks better than the ugly blue one.

My poor pictures have been chillin live a villan in my photobucket account just waiting to be posted and now, at long last, they’re HERE!

I have a confession to make and it’s really embarrassing.  I mean like really bad, I want to crawl under a rock and die bad.  I’ve never had pound cake.  Eeek I know.   I’ve had a lot of cake that made me gain a few pounds, but for some reason I don’t think that counts.

I really liked the pound cake.  Like some other person who made it this week said, it was a teeny bit on the dry side, but the flavor was good and that matters most.  I kinda doubt I’ll make it again though.  See, I can make a vanilla cake and the cook time is about 30 minutes.  This was like 70 minutes and I think I prefer vanilla cake without frosting.   That and it’s pure torture to have to smell delicious baked goodies in the oven for over an hour. It’s just plain evil

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