Vanilla Cupcakes with a Lime Alternative

This weekend I checked out The Cupcake Diaries from the library. It's written by the owners of Georgetown Cupcake in Washington, DC. I was not a fan of the cupcakes in the store - I was more of a Baked and Wired girl - but they had a chocolate cupcake recipe that I've always liked making (just the cake, not the frosting), so I was curious about some of their other cupcakes.

I tried the basic vanilla.
2 1/2 cups of flour (I went a little shy on the flour, it was more like 2 1/3 cup)
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
8T unsalted butter at room temp
1 3/4 cups sugar (also went a little shy on this)
2 eggs at room temperature
2 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
seeds for 1 vanilla bean (I had half on hand so I used it, and then added an extra 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla)
1 3/4 c milk (the recipe called for whole, but I used 2%) at room temperature

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees
2. Sift together the dry ingredients and set aside in bowl or on wax/parchment paper.
3. In another bowl, cream together the butter and sugar. (I beat the sugar on it's own for a minute or two before adding in the sugar). When it's light and fluffy, add the eggs in one at a time.
4. Add the vanilla extract and vanilla bean seeds to the milk.
5. Add a third of the dry ingredients into the wet sugar/butter/egg mixture. Wait until it's incorporated,  then add in a third of the milk mixture until it is incorporated. Repeat 2 more times.

6. Scoop the batter into a lined cupcake tray. You can use an ice cream scoop for consistency, but I aimed for 2/3 full.
7. Bake for 16-18 minutes. Every one's oven is different, mine took the full 18, almost 19 mins. But start checking at 15 mins. It's ready when a toothpick comes out cleanly.

8. Let the cupcakes cool on wire racks.  I was able to make 18 cupcakes from this batter.

I decided to go with the Vanilla Cream-Cheese Frosting. 

4 T unsalted butter, room temperature

4 cups confectioner's sugar. (not surprisingly I went shy on that because I don't like overly sweet frosting. It was more like 3 2/3 to 3 3/4 cup).

1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

6 oz. room temp cream cheese

Put all the ingredients in a mixing bowl and, using a stand mixer or hand held mixer, mix away until it is to the consistency of your liking. I went long and it got it really nice and smooth.

I did split the frosting. Half I kept vanilla, but with the other half I added in the zest and juice of 1 lime. (If i had and extra half lying around I would have added that) to make a lime cream cheese frosting. I did add a little extra powdered sugar here to  to help absorb some of the juice.

The vanilla cupcakes I decorated with sugar sprinkles and the lime I kept plain, but you could see the zest of the lime in the frosting, which I think was quite nice.

All in all, it was a good cupcake. 

Best Valentines Ever...

You have to have lived in DC to get some of these valentines, but some of these are really funny!

Chocolate Molten Cake

I had a chocolate craving and found a quick, easy recipe for Chocolate Molten Cake. It's a Chuck Hughes recipe. I picked it mainly because it was fast and didn't require too many ingredients. You start with melting 6 ounces of dark chocolate (I used a mix of semisweet and milk chocolate because it was what I had on hand) and a stick of butter (1/2 cup). While it's melting, mix 3 room temperature eggs with a 1/3 cup of sugar.  You want it to thicken up and get a nice pale yellow color. Once that happens you want to mix the chocolate mixture into the eggs. Temper the eggs by putting in a little bit of the chocolate mixture into the eggs and sugar and stir. The chocolate mixture will be warm and you don't want the eggs to scramble at all.  Then mix in all of the chocolate into the eggs.  Butter 4 ramakins or molds. Divide the mixture into the ramakins and put into a preheated 400F oven for 9-12 mins. It should still be gooey in the center. Let it set and then eat!

Learning How to Make Bulgogi and Kimchi

During my recent trip to Seoul, I signed up to take a beginning Korean cooking class at O'ngo . They offer classes in English, as well as other languages. The day I was there, there was a class in English and one in Japanese.

It was fun. I've been given Korean cookbooks by my Mom in the past, but never really opened. I'm not as good of a cook as my parents. I always get good food when I go home.

Bulgogi is fairly easily. But kimchi is harder. Or at least, I always thought. I have memories from when I was a young kid of my grandmother and parents making large batches of it.




My Dad said he could teach me how to make kimchi. I would like to know how they made it. It would be nice to know my grandmother's kimchi recipe.

I did not taste the kimchi that I made. We ate the instructors. It needed to sit for a day. I left Seoul the day after I took the class. But my Mom and my Aunt Youngmee's family had it. They said it was good - but they are family, they'd kind of have to.

After the class, the guy that helps run the place took us on a food tour of a local market. That was a lot of fun.

Apparently, a lot of restaurants frequent this market. They have all the necessities, including large tubs of red pepper paste. My favorite was the home-made tofu. They were stamped with Korean words. It was very different looking from tofu that comes out of a box.

I had visited another market. It was an outdoor market that had food stalls running up the middle. I grabbed lunch there. It was very crowded, with people huddled around certain stalls. Lining the sides were various restaurants or stalls selling spices, meats, fish, vegetables - you get the picture.  It was very different from the supermarkets, where there are ribbons on the fruit that is sold.

Still, at least these markets were something I could wrap my head around. There's one other way of shopping in Seoul. It's a spin of ordering on the web and having it delivered. You didn't need to go online, per se. In one of the subway stations there were photographs of store shelves - everything from detergent to toilet paper and vegetables to milk. While you're waiting, and you realize you need something, you can scan it with your smart phone. From there it will be delivered to your home. (You do need an account I imagine.). It was a hoot!