Monday, August 31, 2009

Late Night Baking


It is an odd tendency of mine given to me by my father to bake desserts in the very late evening. As such, tonight I decided to make chocolate chip cupcakes (at midnight), the recipe of which can be found in Cupcakes! by Elinor Klivans, given to me by my sister for my birthday this year. I'm not entirely sure it's legal for me to post the recipe or a tutorial on how to make them, but I will gladly post some pictures I took while baking.



Although I've only made one recipe from this book, I think it's lovely so far. The instructions are easy to follow and the recipes go from very easy to difficult. These chocolate chip cupcakes were in the beginning of the book, but I plan to work my way through to the end of it. On a related note, I should probably look into purchasing an exercise book of similar quality.



I couldn't find any cupcake liners that were more decorative. How unfortunate.



Although the recipe called for light brown sugar, I accidentally bought dark brown sugar. I think I was just so excited to bake cupcakes with brown sugar that I bought the brown-est sugar I could find. Mmm.



This is the batter before I put the chocolate chips in it.



Compared to my other baking adventures, I made much less of a mess this time. Normally after I make anything, it looks like the kitchen exploded.



This is the glaze that goes on top of the cupcakes. It was easier to make than I thought and it's as delicious as it looks.



The finished product minus the glaze.



This was, by far, the most fun I've ever had decorating cupcakes. To get the abstract stripey texture, I dipped a fork in the glaze and flung it back and forth over the pan. It was so simple and they turned out so pretty.



I tried one immediately after they were cool enough to eat and they are heavenly. The only problem was that the top of the cupcakes stuck to the liner, but I think that was just because they hadn't really finished cooling. I officially this late night baking adventure a success!

Today, I also worked on sewing some more. I'm currently trying to come up with a pattern for a simple clutch. I don't consider myself a beginner when it comes to baking, but sewing is almost entirely new to me. The only experience I've had is what I've learned the past few months from the alterations department where I work and the six weeks of home economics I had to take in seventh grade. I've made two little purses so far, but I'll save the tutorial for when I start to use my sewing machine more often than my seam ripper.

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