Vanilla Vanilla

So there was a big party coming up at my friends house.  I make cupcakes for parties from time to time, and up until now they had been from a box.   Ive really been meaning to make some from scratch, and my new mixer was a perfect excuse.

So I did some online research.  I was looking for the best cupcake recipe of all time.  I found a recipe that was featured on Martha Stewart at one point in time.  The recipe is for
Billy's Vanilla Vanilla Cupcakes from Billy Reece of Billy's Bakery in New York City.

Makes about 30 cupcakes (it actually does make 30, do not over fill the cupcake sleeves)

• 1 3/4 cups cake flour, not self-rising
• 1 1/4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
• 2 cups sugar
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, cut into 1-inch cubes
• 4 large eggs
• 1 cup whole milk
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Directions:

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.  

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine flours, sugar, baking powder, and salt; mix on low speed until combined. 

Add butter one pat at a time, mixing until just coated with flour.

 

In a separate bowl whisk together eggs, milk, and vanilla. 

With mixer on medium speed, add wet ingredients in 3 parts, scraping down sides of bowl before each addition; beat until ingredients are incorporated but do not overbeat. 

Fill cupcake liners to about 2/3 full. (I use a piping bag to get the right amount and make less of a mess)

Bake 17 to 20 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean (or until they look like this!)

 The Icing:  Billy's Vanilla Buttercream Frosting

• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 6 to 8 cups confectioners' sugar
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract 

Directions:

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream butter until smooth and creamy (2 to 3 minutes)

With mixer on low speed, add 6 cups sugar, milk, and vanilla; mix until light and fluffy. If necessary, gradually add remaining 2 cups sugar to reach desired consistency.

Decorate with a swirl of icing and colored sprinkles.

On Baking Time:  I cooked them for just 17 min and they looked a bit undercooked, but the next day the undercooked ones were by far the best.  Very moist and dense.  If you cook them too long the batter will get a bit brown and crunchy on the top, it might even bake over a bit and stick to the cupcake pan.  My cupcakes didnt puff up much to form a round top, they were much more flat than I was expecting.

On the Icing:  I like to decorate with the icing and it was much too runny to get any substantial decorating done with only 6 cups of sugar.  I tried adding extra sugar, but to get it to the consistency I wanted I would have had to have added an extra 4 cups! That seems a bit extreme to me.  I might have to look for a new icing recipe.

On Taste: They taste a bit like a sugar cookie turned into a cupcake, with icing.

On Consistency:  If you eat them right away they are very light and airy.  My favorite ones were the undercooked ones a day later, they were much more dense, yet still very moist. 

I did however get many rave reviews from all of my friends, and my family couldn't stop eating the icing.  They took it by the spoon full out of my fridge.  Everyone of course liked the cupcakes better with sprinkles.

Everything is better with sprinkles!

Life Pre KitchenAid

So before I bought the KitchenAid I wasn't very motivated to bake much from scratch.  Most things I made were from a box.

Ive always been interested in baking, and decorating so I decided to buy a piping bag to decorate my straight from the box cupcakes. I saw some nice ones in Williams Sonoma, but as usual I figured that I could find them cheaper online. So I went to my go to online shopping spot, Amazon.  I browsed around and decided to go with the Ateco 14-Piece Cake Decorating Set.  It had 12 tips which I figured would be good a good starter set.

Now that I bought the KitchenAid I have been baking everything from scratch, but here are some of my decorating feats from my from the box/can days.


My Grandma bought me some mini cupcake tins for xmas so I decided to try them out with regular box chocolate cake mix.  I decorated them with melted chocolate and vanilla frosting. (These 4 pictures courtesy of a wonderful photographer, my roommate Andrew)

This is a cake I made for my friend Ryan after he got a promotion.  It was a white cake box mix.  I made marshmallow fondant and tinted it blue, and attempted to tint the frosting a darker blue but it didnt work out as well as planned.  This was my first attempt working with fondant.  I made the marshmallow fondant with a recipe I found on About.com.  For my first attempt I think it turned out okay, but I would go with a different shade icing next time.

Lastly, these are some cupcakes I made for a party.  I used white icing from a can, and tinted it with food coloring.  I used various tips from the Ateco Decorating set. 

 

It was a cold and rainy day...

It was a cold and rainy day.  After two days of anxiously waiting, I arrived home from work to find the mixer on my front stoop, well kind of.


I guess I could thank the delivery man, because he placed the mixer off to the side of my stoop which lies behind a tree in my yard, so no one knew it was there.  However the particular location that he placed it happened to be right outside the protection of the stoop, thus the box was a sopping mess when I got there.


I was scared to pick it up because I didnt want to tear the cardboard box.  I didnt know at this point if I was going to keep the mixer because I didnt even know if it worked yet.  I had every intention of keeping the box as much in tact as possible just in case my bargain purchase happened to be a dud.


As I mentioned before, there was supposedly some box damage.  Amazon wasn't lying there was a clear hole in the side of the box that had been taped up.  When I noticed this I was a bit nervous that it might not work...


I carried it upstairs to my kitchen, and excitedly opened the box.  You know those moments in movies when people open treasure chests and its like beams of sun come out and hit them in the face?  I kinda feel like I was living that moment when I opened the box.  I pulled out all of the attachments, attached the flat beater and plugged it in.  This was the moment of truth...

I moved the switch to stir, and the blade started spinning around in the bowl!  How exciting!  It was pretty late and I hadnt planned on cooking anything that night, so I placed the mixer on my counter and took a few pictures (of course!).   I kept having this undeniable urge to pet my new mixer.  If you ever get a brand new KitchenAid mixer, im sure you will have the same feeling too!  It is soo prettty!


Its my new toy, my new baby.  Now I just have to figure out what to make first.

hmmm... party this weekend, maybe ill make cupcakes!

How I came to buy a KitchenAid Mixer

It all started one day when I was trying to buy stools for my kitchen.  I was about to have a party the weekend coming up and really wanted people to be able to sit in my kitchen.  I had been out looking at furniture stores and didn't find anything I liked in my price range.  My kitchen cabinets are white, so I really wanted white stools to match.  I decided to turn to online shopping instead, since I usually have good luck finding great deals online.

The first place I looked was Amazon.  They have amazing customer service, and a great return policy, and I have Prime, so everything ships to me within 2 days, which I love.  I searched and searched and finally found a great set of stools at a great price: Winsome Bar Stools in White

Now at the time it was $36 for 2 stools, which I thought was an amazing deal.  With the party coming up I figured I would order the stools and if I liked them, I would order a second set that would get there just in time for the party. The stools came on Wednesday and they were perfect, just the right size, matched the kitchen perfectly, so I log back into Amazon to order a second set.

Amazon has this thing where sometimes they change the prices on the items that they are selling, one day something could be $10 and the next it could be $30.  Either way you are usually still getting it for much less than anywhere else.  

So now I am back on Amazon, and I click to find the stools that I ordered and low and behold the price has now risen significantly to $65 for the two stools, about a 100% increase in the price.  I was pretty upset as you can imagine!  I looked around to make sure I was on the right page, maybe I had accidentally clicked on another set of the stools, but no, I had been right, they had just jacked up the price so I couldn't get my stools at a good price for the party.

Then I noticed that there was a "Used: from $35" link on the page.  I clicked on it and it took me to Amazon Warehouse Deals. Now I am an avid Amazon Shopper (I even Love and always recommend Endless which is owned by Amazon for shoes because of the free overnight shipping!!!) and I had never seen or even heard about Warehouse Deals.  Apparently how it works is that sometimes people order things and open the box and decide they don't want them.  Or sometimes there is box damage so Amazon can't sell their products at full price.  Either way they post them on their Warehouse Deals, and sometimes you can find some great stuff at good prices.

So I click on the Used: for $35 link and it takes me to Warehouse Deals.  The condition is listed as Used -- Like New and the description reads: "Factory Sealed Box with Box Damage"  So I think to myself, okay I can get these stools at the price I want, but there might be some box damage.  At least I know they are covered by Amazons 30 day return policy, so if something is wrong I can always email Amazon and return the Stools.  So I order the stools and they are set to arrive the day before the party.

Friday rolls around and the box shows upon my front doorstep. Same box as the other two stools, but with a clear, and very large I might add, hole in the box.  It looks like someone had an accident with a fork lift, and ran right into the box.  But its only in one spot, so I figure the stools might still be okay.  I open up the box and pull the first stool out.  It is in PERFECT condition, GREAT!  So then I pull out the second stool.  The leg is clearly broken right at one of the rungs, and it is clearly not usable.  :-(

So I was a bit upset that it was broken, but I really only needed 3 barstools, and I know Amazon has a great return policy, so I decided to email them right away.  This is what I wrote:

"I understand that the only way to deal with this shipment is to return it for a refund.  Since one of the stools in the shipment is unusable due to it being broken during shipment, would it be possible to only return the one broken stool and receive a refund for half of the shipment?  The other stool will never be able to be used by anyone that you might try to sell it to, thus this is win win for both parties.  Please advise. Thanks!"


Amazon responded to my email about 9 hours later with the following:


"Hello, I'm sorry for the problem you experienced with this shipment.   As you prefer to keep one of the items which you've recently received through Warehouse Deals, in exchange for a discount.  I've requested a refund of $18.00 to your credit card. There is no need of returning the broken item. Thanks for your patience. We look forward to seeing you again soon. "


So now I am super excited, because I have 3 bar stools that I want, and I got all three of them for a great deal.  I decide that I want to try to use Warehouse deals more often.

A few days later I get this idea in my head to look at KitchenAid mixers.  I had just made a cake for a friend who got a promotion, and had just made cupcakes for the party, and decided maybe its time to look into getting one.  I go online, and of course the mixers are so expensive, no wonder people always put them on their wedding registries!!  Its weird I feel like all girls have this desire in their hearts to one day have this mixer, I know I did.  I was looking at the 5 quart Artisan Mixer that comes in a billion colors.  Can I say that the Red ones are absolutely beautiful.  I kind of wish my kitchen was red just so I can get one.  On KitchenAids Website the mixers are about $300.  Seems a bit steep for me, I figure I can find it cheaper elsewhere.  I decide to log on to Warehouse Deals to see if they have one on there at a discounted price.

Once on Warehouse Deals I type KitchenAid Mixer into the search.  There is one of the 5-quart Artisan Mixers on the Site, and it just so happens to be White, to match my kitchen!!!  This seems to be too good to be true.  The description was "Used -- Like New, Factory Sealed Box with Box Damage."  Just like my stools!!  The price: $188.  I think about it for a while.  What if the mixer doesn't work?  Its Amazon, I know I can return it and I have 30 days to decide.  So I order the mixer and wait patiently for 2 days for it to arrive in the mail.

2 Days is such a long time!!!