White Wedding Cupcakes

To be fair, I wanted to show that I have tried other cake recipes. This one was billed on Pinterest as "the best cupcake/cake batter recipe ever." (Pin here.) Worth a try, right? I decided to test it out back in the fall before my son's birthday, just in case it really was better than my scratch butter cake recipe. They're supposed to be white (i.e. no egg yolks), but I made the mistake of trying to separate my eggs over the mixing bowl, so one egg yolk did slip in accidentally. I don't think it affected things much, though.



These were pretty good. We certainly ate them all. It's a doctored cake mix recipe, which I don't mind, but my scratch butter cake is better, as are my own "cake mix additives" (I'll post them sometime later). I don't care for the tang of the sour cream. It became less pronounced over the first 2-3 days, then started to reassert itself near the end. (I realize most folks don't have cake hanging around for a week, but it took that long for us to eat them all! It makes a ton.) If you like that kind of tank in your cakes, you might like these. Like I said, not bad, but I have two other recipes I prefer, so I probably won't make these again. That's not a reflection on the recipe, just my personal tastes.

White Wedding Cupcakes
Source: RecipeGirl.com

Ingredients:

• 1 (18.25 ounce) box white cake mix (recommend Duncan Hines)
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 cup granulated white sugar
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/3 cups water
• 2 Tablespoons vegetable or canola oil
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup sour cream
• 4 large egg whites

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 325°F. Place cupcake liners in cupcake pans (you'll need approx. 36).
• In a large bowl, whisk together cake mix, flour, sugar and salt. Add remaining ingredients and beat with hand mixer for 2 minutes, or until well blended.
• Use ice cream scoop to fill prepared cupcake tins- fill about 3/4 full. Bake about 18 minutes, or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool completely, then frost as desired.

Yellow Butter Cake with Creamy Vanilla Frosting from Betty Crocker - Family Favorite

My son had been asking "are we having cake?" for weeks, so as a Valentine's Day treat, I made cupcakes. My sister-in-law J gave me this recipe. She used it to make our niece's second birthday cake, and I was blown away. It is so very good! Soft, fluffy, great texture, and not too sweet. And it is nearly as easy to make as a box cake mix. Ten years ago, I never would have thought I'd be making cakes from scratch, but this one is both easy and excellent. I've used it for the last 3 years for our son's birthday cake, and everyone raves about it.



I will admit that this cake is better after sitting for a day. If you try one warm out of the oven, you might find them just a touch dry. Letting them sit (covered, but not sealed air tight) and absorb some moisture out of the air will improve them, so bake your cake a day before frosting it if you can. I've never made the citrus variation, but I thought I would list the instructions anyway. And when the cupcake instructions say "fill half full," they mean it! Much more and they will overflow. (Ask me how I know.)

I don't have a photo, but I have also included J's basic buttercream recipe at the bottom. It has the best balance of sugar to butter to vanilla to salt (yes, salt!) that I have found.

Yellow Butter Cake
Source: Betty Crocker

Ingredients:

• 2.5 cups all purpose flour
• 2.5 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2/3 cup butter or margarine
• 1-3/4 cups sugar
• 1-1/2 teaspoons vanilla
• 2 eggs
• 1-1/4 cups milk
• (see below for creamy vanilla frosting)

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 375.
• Grease and lightly flour two 8x1-1/2 inch or 9x1-1/2 inch round baking pans or grease one 13x9x2 inch baking pan; set pan(s) aside. Combine flour, baking powder, and salt; set aside.
• In a large mixing bowl, beat butter or margarine with an electric mixer on medium to high speed for 30 seconds. Add sugar and vanilla; beat till well combined. Add eggs, one at a time, beating 1 minute after each. Add dry mixture and milk alternately to butter mixture, beginning and ending with dry, beating on low speed after each addition just until combined. Pour batter into the prepared pan(s).
• Bake in a 375 oven for 30-35 minutes or till a wooden toothpick comes out clean. Cool layer cakes in pans on wire racks for 10 minutes. Remove layer cakes from pans. Cool thoroughly on racks. Or, place 13x9 inch cake in pan on a wire rack; cool thoroughly. Frost with desired frosting. (See frosting recipe below.) Serves 12.

Notes:

• For Citrus Yellow Cake: Prepare as above, except stir 2 teaspoons finely shredded orange peel or lemon peel into the batter.
• For Yellow Cupcakes: Grease and lightly flour 2-1/2 inch muffin cups or line with paper baking cups. Prepare cake as above. Fill each cup half full. Bake in a 375 oven for 18-20 minutes or till a wooden toothpick inserted in center of a cupcake comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack. Makes 30 cupcakes.

Creamy Vanilla Frosting
Source: Betty Crocker

Ingredients:

• 3 cups powdered sugar
• 1/3 cup butter, softened
• dash of salt (or use salted butter)
• 1-1/2 teaspoons vanilla
• 2 tablespoons milk, divided (plus more as needed)

Directions:

• Mix powdered sugar, butter, and salt. Stir in vanilla and one tablespoon of milk. Beat until smooth. Add more milk as needed, 1 teaspoon at a time. I find 1-2 tablespoons is usually enough, but more may be added to achieve desired consistency.

Turtle Pretzels from Recipe Zaar

These fall into my favorite recipe category: Easy But Awesome! I already love chocolate covered pretzels. Toss in caramel and pecans, and how could this possibly be bad? Answer: it can't! They really do taste just like a turtle candy, but with the added extra salty crunch of the pretzel. They are simply wonderful. You can make as many or as few as you like, which is why I didn't include amounts/numbers below. The hardest part is unwrapping all the candies. Enjoy!

Turtle Pretzels
Source: slightly adapted from Recipe Zaar Recipe #107408 (now Food.com)

Ingredients:

• grid-style small pretzels
• bag of Rolo chocolate-covered caramel candies, unwrapped
• pecan halves
• (you should have equal numbers of pretzels, candies, and pecans)

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 250°F
• Place pretzels in a single layer on a parchment lined cookie sheet (as few or as many as you like).
• Put one Rolo on each pretzel, as centered as possible.
• Put the Rolo/pretzels in the oven until the Rolos soften and start to melt (about 4 minutes for me). Note: Rolos will retain their shape, even when soft enough for the next step.
• Remove from the oven and push one pecan half down in the middle of each Rolo.
• Let cool. (I had to put them in the refrigerator to get them to set properly.)
• Remove from the parchment and store in an air tight container. (I keep mine in the fridge.)
• Best if removed from refrigerator a few minutes before serving to warm up slightly.

Erin's Notes: original recipe called for mini-twists

Cocoa Brownies from Alton Brown

I absolutely love brownies, but I quit making them for years because I just couldn't get them right, not even from a box! They were either completely underdone goo, or they were bricks. Many recipes these days call for melted chocolate/baking squares, which I am not likely to have on hand unless I am planning ahead for a recipe. Unfortunately for me, brownies tend to fall under "spur of the moment" things for me, so that didn't' really work either. But when I saw Alton Brown had a cocoa based brownie recipe, I decided to give it a try. So glad I did!

Cocoa Brownies
Source: Alton Brown, FoodNetwork.com

Ingredients:

• Soft butter, for greasing the pan
• Flour, for dusting the buttered pan
• 4 large eggs
• 1 cup sugar, sifted
• 1 cup brown sugar, sifted
• 8 ounces melted butter
• 11/4 cups cocoa, sifted
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup flour, sifted
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

Instructions:

• Preheat the oven to 300 degrees F. Butter and flour an 8-inch square pan.
• In a mixer fitted with a whisk attachment, beat the eggs at medium speed until fluffy and light yellow. Add both sugars. Add remaining ingredients, and mix to combine.
• Pour the batter into a greased and floured 8-inch square pan and bake for 45 minutes. Check for doneness with the tried-and-true toothpick method: a toothpick inserted into the center of the pan should come out clean. When it's done, remove to a rack to cool. Resist the temptation to cut into it until it's mostly cool.

My Notes: These are very very yummy, but mine don't look like Alton Brown's did on the show. They have a crunchy top instead of a shiny crackled top. Mine also take more like an hour (or more) to cook instead of 45 minutes. The episode also shows him using a parchment sling instead of buttering and flouring the pan. I've made them both ways, and both work fine. Again, these are not complaints, just observations.

Verdict: Love these brownies! And I love that they use cocoa, which I am much more likely to have on hand, instead of melted chocolate.