My Christmas Present

Long time no see, huh? I've been so busy with school and work! Now I'm on break though, so I had some time to organize my life. I finally opened my Christmas gift from my boyfriend and mom: an awesome KitchenAid stand mixer!

I had so much fun playing around with it this afternoon. My plan was to make red velvet cupcakes, but turns out I have really crappy food coloring gel at home, and it's time I go buy something better... So these just turned out to be your average chocolate cupcakes. I also did not do so well with piping the frosting. I'm a little rusty! However, they still turned out delicious. I took pictures of everything and I'm going to share the recipe with you here.

Chocolate Cupcake recipe: (makes 20-22 cupcakes)

1/2 cup softened butter

1 1/2 cups sugar

2 eggs

1 cup buttermilk

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 1/2 tsp baking soda

1 T distilled white vinegar

2 cups all-purpose flour

1/3 cup cocoa powder

1 tsp salt

1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F. Also, make your life easier and get your muffin pans ready.

2. In your mixer, beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.

3. Mix in the eggs, buttermilk and vanilla extract.

4. Stir in the baking soda and vinegar.

5. Combine the flour, cocoa powder and salt. Stir into the batter just until blended.

6. Scoop the batter into the prepared cups, dividing evenly.

7. Bake in the preheated oven 20-25 minutes. Until toothpick comes out clean.

Vanilla Buttercream Frosting recipe: (makes enough for 12-15 cupcakes)

1 cup softened butter

3 cups confectioners' sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

2-3 T heavy cream

1. Cream the butter until it is light and fluffy.

2. Gradually add the sugar. Do it slowly so that it doesn't go everywhere.

3. Add the vanilla extract.

4. Add the heavy cream. Do it till it reaches a texture that is to your liking.

5. Pipe away, baby! (Try and do a better job than my boyfriend and I did!)

Last but not least, have fun with them and enjoy! These were supposed to be festive NY Giants cupcakes -- we made it to the playoffs and have won our first game, sending Atlanta home! They were supposed to be red velvet, and the frosting was supposed to be blue... However, nothing turned out as expect. At least they were delicious, and that's all that really matters in the end.

Next weekend my best friend is coming over and we are baking some more! I'm going to record everything and post it here later on... It's great to be back!

XOXO,

Marge