Showing posts with label valentine's day. Show all posts
Showing posts with label valentine's day. Show all posts

Saturday, February 11, 2012

Happy Hearts!

It's that time again - time for pink, purple, red, and a celebration of all that is sweet! To jump start the week of love, I decided to spend Saturday afternoon catching up on girlie shows and baking a Valentine's Day treat to surprise my favorite med student after his weekend hospital shift.

I saw this recipe for Chai Tea cupcakes on Allrecipes.com a while back, but it seemed like a lot work; however, since my Dr. Adorable loves Chai so much, I thought Valentine's Day would be the perfect excuse to truck through it.

One thing I always do when consulting All Recipes is read the reviews to see how people have improved the recipe. In this case, I was very glad I did, as I found the advice to be... well... delicious! See the appended recipe below:
  • 1 cup milk
  • 2 black tea bags
  • 2 chai tea bags
  • 1/2 cup plain yogurt (REMOVED)
  • 3/4 cup white sugar (used 1 cup instead)
  • 1/4 cup canola oil (vegetable oil because I didn't have canola)
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract (added 1 extra tsp!)
  • 1 cup all-purpose flour
  • 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking powder (extra 1/2 tsp, per the reviews)
  • 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon (added more to taste)
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
  • 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves (used extra cinnamon/nutmeg because I didn't have cloves)
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1 pinch ground black pepper
  • 2 eggs (ADDED)
The review said to keep added flour until the mix became less watery. Well, I didn't have any regular white flour, so I was forced to use buckwheat flour. I thought this could have been a potential taste-disaster, but the result was just that the cupcakes turned out more muffin-y in texture. I tasted the batter and decided to add in dashes of more of the above spices listed above.

But what really made them was the ICING! Also an All Recipe's pick, I took the liberty of modifying this recipe too. Whenever possible, I change out water for milk because I think it makes everything more fluffy and flavorful. It also seemed to call for a lot of liquid, so I took out the extra milk it suggests. Thank goodness I did because it would be been wayyy too watery and not dense enough to work with. Recipe below:
  • 2 chai tea bags
  • 1/4 cup boiling water (MILK instead)
  • 1 cup unsalted butter or margarine, softened
  • 8 cups confectioners' sugar
  • 1/2 cup cold milk (REMOVED)
Overall, I think this was a success, and I would definitely do it again but likely with normal flour... because who wants healthy when cupcakes and Valentine's Day are involved?!

Sunday, February 13, 2011

Nothing Says 'I Love You' like a Cupcake!

Happy Valentine's Eve! Time to shower your counter tops in candy hearts and sprinkles! You may be sitting in your kitchen pondering the meaning of pink icing, chocolate covered strawberries, and all things savory... what to bake? What to bake?...

Well, I have some ideas to make your Valentine's Day sweeter - whether it's for a loved one, a co-worker, a community-in-need, or just your own hungry tummy!

Check out my favorite online picks:


A little icing goes a long way!


It's a candy heart garden! Quick and easy.


I LOVE this idea! But I'm thinking
pink and purple hearts... in chocolate cake!



How about an ooey gooey center!

Happy baking for a holiday that just invites sharing love through sugary goodness!