Red Velvet Afternoon

Happy Monday! I hope you had a nice weekend. I sure did. We had gorgeous weather, perfect for bubble-blowing and flip-flop-buying. We are now back to typical spring weather in the northeast but the lovely weather we had this weekend is enough to remind us that warm weather will be here soon.

This weekend also brought the release of New Moon on DVD and if you are a Twilight junkie like me, that is certainly worth celebrating. I did so in style, with my gorgeous friend Maria, by perfecting Red Velvet cupcakes. Actually, that's a gross exaggeration. We do not get the credit for this particular version of perfection. We made an excellent batch of cupcakes by following (almost exactly) a recipe perfected by many outstanding bakers before us. Here is the photo evidence:

This recipe was easy. That's a primary factor for me in successful baking ventures. Many of the red velvet recipes I have tried required a lot of separate mixing of ingredients and careful blending but this one worked like a charm just by throwing everything in the mixer and letting it go. Well, mixing the wet stuff first and then adding all the dry and mixing - no separate bowls. They cupcakes are tasty and not dry at all. And the frosting - can you go wrong with sugar, butter, and cream cheese? I don't think so.

I got this recipe from my neighbor, who got it from The Cupcake Project, and prior to the cupcake project it went through all sorts of revisions.

2 1/2 c. cake flour (we used all-purpose and it was fine)

1 1/2 c. sugar

1 tsp baking soda

1 tbs cocoa powder

1 tsp salt

2 eggs

1 1/2 c. vegetable oil

1 c. buttermilk

2 tbs red coloring

1 tsp vanilla

1 tsp white vinegar

Mix the wet ingredients together and add the dry. For real, that's all we did. Then bake at 350 for 20 min, but start checking on them at 15 in case your oven is different. You don't want to overbake them.

Frosting:

8 oz cream cheese

1/4 c. butter

3 c. powdered sugar

Mix like well. Slather on the cupcakes. Eat your heart out.

Rainy Day Baking

Is there anything than baking on a rainy day? No. Well, maybe. Okay, I suppose if I really think about it there are a lot of things that are better than baking on a rainy day, so I will revise and say that one of my favorite things to do is bake on a rainy today.
Today we made these. They are Chocolate Snowquakes, from Country Living. The recipe was first (or so I think) in their Christmas magazine 6 years ago but now it appears in the Country Living Merry & Bright book.
They are so very good. In fact, they are Annika's favorites and she always asks to make them. They are so good. Did I say that already?

Recipe:
1 stick unsalted butter
3/4 c. dark brown sugar
1/4 c. sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
3/4 c. dutch process cocoa
1 1/4 c. flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1 c. milk chocolate chips, optional
Cream together the sugars and butter until fluffy. Beat in the eggs and vanilla. Add the dry ingredients until combined. Add the chips, if desired. Roll the dough into 1 inch balls (I use a small cookie scoop and skip the hand-rolling) and roll the balls in powdered sugar. Bake at 350 for 9 minutes. Eat and repeat.

Everyday Cards

One of my true crafting loves is card-making. And yet, I'm terrible at sending cards. "How can that be?" I have often asked myself. I don't have an answer right now. It's more of a rhetorical question. I suspect one possible reason is that I never have a card handy because I don't have a stash of good everyday cards. You could argue that I should be able to dash into the craft room and make one at a moment's notice. Yes, you could argue that. And you wouldn't be wrong, but you wouldn't exactly be right either, again for reasons I am yet to understand. But I decided to start building a ready stash of everyday cards in an attempt to better myself at the art of card sending, which is different than card making. A few of my results are shown here.

These cards are all made using Stampin' Up! stamps, inks, and papers and some Memory Box stamps and papers too. And because I'm a glitter fanatic, I embellish almost every card with Stickles (by Ranger) and a Gelly Roll Stardust pen (by Sakura).

The next step is overcoming my inability to put cards in the mail and send them. I'm working on it.