Muffins: Cranberry and Zucchini

When I find myself with some extra down time at home, I also find myself overcome with the urge to bake something. Imagine that!

It was a lazy weekend morning, I felt like baking and I had a zucchini that needed to be eaten before it reached the end of its time as a solid vegetable. I also had cranberries stashed away in the freezer that were just begging to come be a part of something. Happily enough I also had a recipe bookmarked in Martha Stewart's baking that called for zucchini. Logical conclusion: I baked!

Muffins from scratch are just so easy I don't know why people bother to make them from a box. It's just one more dirty bowl and a few more steps of measuring for home-baked, from-scratch goodness! You don't even need a hand beater. I'd make these again, and I want to try them with whole wheat.

These are best they day you pull them from the oven, but I froze many of them in baggies for later. Just pull them from the freezer, nuke them for 45 seconds in the microwave and you have yourself a nice toasty muffin any time.

Cranberry Zucchini Muffins
adapted from Martha Stewart's Baking Handbook

(I always use more vanilla than it calls for unless the chemistry dearly relies on it. I also thought it was rather skimpy on the cranberries, so I doubled the amount. My variation made made 12 muffins.)

1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
1 cup finely grated zucchini
1 cup cranberries (fresh or frozen)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Grease a 12-cup muffin pan.

In medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and salt.

In a large bowl, whisk together the eggs, sugar, oil and vanilla. Stir in the zucchini. Add the flour mixture and stir to combine. Be careful not to overmix. Fold in the cranberries, a rubber spatula is best for this. Pour into greased muffin pan cups.

Bake 25 minutes, or until muffins are golden and a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. Be sure to rotate the pan halfway through. Transfer pan to wire rack and let cool for 10 minutes. Flip the muffins onto their sides in their cups and cool.

Chocolate Cake with Chocolate Coconut Frosting

Our internet has returned! And without further adieu, I give you the amazing recipe fabulous enough to make those chocolate cupcakes and cakes that I've raved about.

One-Bowl Chocolate Cupcakes
from Martha Stewart
(Note: I am listing my frosting recipe instead of what was suggested)

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/4 cups cocoa powder
2 1/2 cups sugar
2 1/2 tsp baking soda
1 1/4 tsp baking powder
1 1/4 tsp salt
2 eggs plus 1 egg yolk
1 1/4 cups milk
1/2 cup plus 2 tbsp vegetable oil
1 1/4 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/4 cups warm water

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Coat two 8x2 inch round cake pans with nonstick cooking spray. Line bottoms with parchment paper; spray parchment. Set aside.

In the bowl of an electric mixer, sift together flour, cocoa, sugar, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Add eggs and yolk, the milk, oil, vanilla, and warm water. Beat on low speed until smooth and combined, about 3 minutes. Scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed.

Divide batter evenly between the prepared pans. Bake, rotating pans halfway through, until a cake tester inserted in the center comes out clean, about 45 minutes. (Mine were done by 40.)

Transfer pans to a wire rack to cool for 30 minutes. Invert cakes onto the rack and peel off parchment. Reinvert cakes, and let them cool completely, top sides up.

Using a serrated knife, trim the tops of the cake layers to make level. Place one layer on cake plate and spread the filling on top. Place the other layer on top and spread entire cake with remaining frosting, swirling to cover completely.

For the frosting, I was trying to get away from the butter-ness from the previous batch and so I was just adding stuff until it seemed about right. So measurements are not exact.

Dark Chocolate Frosting
adapted from Martha Stewart

12 oz good quality semisweet chocolate, finely chopped
5 tbsp cocoa powder
6 tbsp boiling water
3 sticks (1 1/2 cups) unsalted butter, room temperature
1/2 package of cream cheese, chilled
2 cups (or so, to taste) powdered sugar
1.5 tbsp rum
splash of milk
pinch of salt

Place chocolate in double burner over simmering water and stir until completely melted. Remove from water and let cool to room temperature on countertop. Meanwhile, combine cocoa powder and boiling water in a small bowl and stir until the cocoa is dissolved.

Beat butter, cream cheese, confectioner's sugar and salt on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, 3 to 4 minutes. Add melted chocolate, rum and milk. Beat on low until combined, 1 to 2 minutes. Beat in cocoa mixture.

For the inside frosting, take two cups of frosting and stir together with 2 tbsp raspberry jam, 4 tsp granulated sugar, 3/4 cup coconut

Here is a hasty shot (with flash, ack) before it disappeared on the break room table. I got really great feedback from everyone. Notably, the cake was sweet but not too sweet. Moist, but not too moist. And everyone seemed to really love the light creaminess of the frosting. This cake was amazing! The coconut gave it hint of German Chocolate and it was fabulous. The way the sweet coconutty filling soaked into the cake was probably my favorite part. Had I written this two weeks ago while it was still fresh in my mind, I would have undoubtedly gushed about it much more.

No internet, no blog

Oh the horror! The internet has been down at home so I have been unable to post. It's amazing how strange living in a disconnected house feels.... Hopefully we'll be up and running soon.

Snow in Tucson

A storm swept in and left us with snow on the mountains! This is the view from my office window an hour ago during a brief break in the clouds. (I am not thrilled about the buildings they put in across the street, blocking my view. Grrr.)

It rained all morning and then at some point there was snow mixed in with the rain. My antics of delight around the office were met with raised eyebrows. Guess I'm more of a "desert rat" than everyone else here. Or just more easily excitable. That's probably the case.

One Bowl Chocolate Cupcakes with Chocolate Frosting

My teethmarks in frosting!

These cupcakes were AMAZING. Well, I thought so anyway. My adoring love for this recipe began way back when I read "one bowl" in the title on the page of the cookbook. Well, perhaps that's just what caught my attention initally. To be fair, it really began when the pans had gone in the oven and I got to lick the bowl. Oh. My. Goodness. The batter was indescribably amazing! The flavor (and texture) embodied some fond aspect of my childhood days as it threw me into gleeful nostalgia. With batter this promising, I just hoped the cake could be as good. The bowl (and spatula and beaters) were licked absolutely clean before they even hit the sink.

A short interjection here, I had some difficulties pouring the batter into the cupcake pan slots. The bowl was heavy and awkward to hold and it didn't want to cooperate or pour evenly so the first two pans were pretty much a huge mess. (Moral: it's worth it to take your time pouring.) I managed to pour plenty of batter underneath the cupcake liners which ended up in cupcakes that would not leave their pan. This resulted in quite the struggle! They became squashed, oddly shaped cupcakes and I tore many of them, but that wasn't all bad since it gave me plenty of rejects to devour.



And devour I did! The tops of the cupcakes were the most magnificent. Dense, rich, almost gooey in their solid state, they were everything I felt I could want in a cake. Just look at that texture! Oh, they were fabulous. Over the course of a few days I must have eaten eight. Yikes! Usually I'm not too big on cake (I prefer the frosting and leave the cake most of the time) so it's testament to these little guys.

The frosting wasn't as amazing as the cake itself. I felt like it was too thick with the "butter" ness to it. Sometimes I felt like it wouldn't have required too much imagination to believe that I was actually taking a bite out of a stick of chocolate butter. Not too appetizing, is it? Or maybe I ate too much of it and grew tired.


You can see how the cupcake valiantly retained the form of the wrapper, but got smooshed formless by my attempts to remove them from the pan. You can also see a hint of that shiny top that I adored.

Notes: Most of the cupcakes came out uuuugly. I took the pictures two days later (the night of I was rushing to make cupcakes before running off to attend AJ's going away sushi dinner). This means I only had the reject of the rejects left to photograph. Seriously, as a whole they were comically misshapen. Leaning this way and that. Fortunately my tastebuds are blind.

P.S. I used the recipe again for a cake and will post it in a few days.

Vanilla Cupcakes

I just love birthdays, what a perfect excuse to bake. We usually do bagels at work for birthdays, but this time it was the birthday of the planner and nobody planned anything! So I jumped at the chance to try this cupcake recipe I'd been eyeballing for a while. The recipe claims to be "as good as a box mix" and was deemed worthy by another blogger. With all of these rave reviews, I was just itching to see just how lovely they were. And they are!

I got great reviews from these and I would make them again in a heartbeat. They were so moist and fantastic even though I don't think I did a terribly good job grinding the sugar and I did not use cake flour. I love a forgiving recipe!

Oatmeal Whole Wheat Pancakes

As a treat to myself on lazy weekend mornings, I like to sleep in and then make pancakes. Being a whole wheat and oatmeal fanatic, you can guess what I like to have my pancakes contain. Over the years, I've made different types of pancakes (I used to make whole wheat flaxseed pancakes with chocolate chips all the time), but I never really found an oatmeal pancake that was exactly what I wanted. I have really enjoyed some recipes, but I really tend to prefer thin, crepe-like pancakes.

So, through trial and error (and last week it was mostly error! I couldn't seem to get pumpkin to work right with it.) I have a recipe that I am pretty happy with. The pancakes themselves aren't terribly exciting, but I serve them with agave nectar and unsweetened applesauce. I love it when things have only one ingreditent. Applesauce that says: Apples. Or, for peanut butter: Peanuts.


Oatmeal Whole Wheat Pancakes

1 egg
1 1/4 cup milk
2 tbsp oil
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup whole grain oats
1 tsp sugar
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup water

If desired, add banana chunks or chocolate chips.

Whisk together and drop by slightly less than 1/4 cup measure on a 375 degree griddle. Flip when bubbles have stopped forming and top is still slightly shiny. Serve with a drizzle of agave nectar and unsweetened applesauce. Sometimes I sprinkle powdered sugar for presentation. Yum!

Chocolate Zucchini Muffins and Hand-Me-Down Kitchen Appliances

In my never ending search for the perfect zucchini recipe, I decided to try zucchini cupcakes. Only, I was too lazy to frost them so they became zucchini muffins. As per usual, I used whole wheat flour. There was something rough about the texture that I didn't enjoy. I'm begining to wonder if this particular bag of whole wheat flour is what's offending me. Now that I think about it, every time I've used that bag I haven't been thrilled.

The muffins themselves were decent (I ate three), and coworkers and friends ate them quickly, but due to the texture I don't think I'd make these again. Or perhaps I will... with a new bag of whole wheat flour. Or maybe just half whole wheat flour. If I do, and find that they are decent, I'll post the recipe. Right now, I just don't think it's worth repeating.




This recipe gave me a shot at playing with my new toy. I inherited an old stand mixer that's older than I am. Apparently my dad bought it for my mom when they started dating. (Hmmm... where's the boy who will buy me mine, I wonder?) My excitement quickly dissapated when I discovered the reason this thing had been collecting dust in the back depths of a kitchen cupboard--it was broken. Thankfully my dad bolted the thing back together for me (and it will never come apart again, even though it's supposed to) and I was on my way.

It may look cool and retro, but its charm wore off quickly when I realized how poorly it did its job. The beaters wobble horribly, the bowl doesn't turn nor do the beaters actually circulate batter and it doesn't turn off once it's been on for more than a minute! Turning it off requires literally pulling the plug. That, and the motor smells like old, overworked motor. So much for my new dream machine. Guess I'll still be saving up for a new Kitchen Aid.

California Roll Craving

My brother, who is kitchenless in his dorm, comes over from time to time to cook up a storm and stock his fridge for the week. Last night he made an interesting array of fajitas, ratatouille and orange chicken. Quite the interesting endeavor indeed. The fajitas turned out well, the ratatouille came out rather amusing and.... well, just to say, don't use sugar free orange marmalade to make your orange chicken. You have been warned. There is no photographic proof of any of his food as my camera and I were forcefully shooed away.


My menu for the evening was considerably shorter. I made california rolls. If I make them for a group of people, they never seem to go far enough. When it's just me, though, (plus one brother who steals them from the plate nearly as fast as I can make them) they make for several meals. What a treat for the next few days! I use Alton Brown's sushi rice recipe (extra heavy on the rice wine vinegar), a package of dried nori sheets, a package of leg style imitation crab, a cucumber and an avacado. Rolling it all together is pretty straight forward and is much easier if you have the special rolling mat.



My brother also bought the makings for chocolate covered strawberries, so I helped him out and made those as well. As with most tasty foods, it probably effectively went something like one for the plate, one for me. One for the plate, one for me....

Mini Chocolate Eclairs

Yikes! As the title suggests I made mini chocolate eclairs. I made them two weeks ago. Then I got behind on downloading my pictures from my camera. And then I got sick. The illness of great misery sucked an entire week from my life. I still don't feel very well, but finally feel coherent enough to post about what I made two weeks ago.

To make a long story short, these little guys came out absolutely fabulous even though the recipe I used was to make full sized eclairs. I was able to make great use of the dessert decorator I got for Christmas. Not only did it squeeze out perfect little logs, but it made squirting the filling into the little pastries that much more fun. Fresh out of the oven and filled with the custard, I didn't even think these tasty little devils needed the chocolate. That's testament to how great they were. I must have eaten twenty that night!

Once I could eat no more, I bagged them up and stuck them in the freezer. Pulling them out later and eating them while frozen was delightful. Needless to say, between brothers and roommates and friends and coworkers (and myself!) they had a very very short shelf life. I would make these again in a heartbeat.

After making this recipe from "Butter Sugar Flour Eggs" I'm dying of curiosity to try others from the book. I must get my hands on it. And now back to napping off the sickness....