Sprinkles Cupcakes

I've only been to California once, and I wasn't into baking yet. I didn't even know of places that sold only cupcakes (I didn't know it then, but those were dark times). Needless to say, I've never been to a Sprinkles Cupcakes shop. The first time I heard of them was from seeing their gourmet cupcake mix in a kitchen store. I didn't buy it the first time, but when I saw it in Williams Sonoma last week, I knew I wanted to try it. What would be the difference from this mix and a pillsbury one? (Besides price, of course). Let me tell you one thing,this is way beyond your boxed funfetti. The ingredients, like madagascar vanilla, take the plain old vanilla cupcake to a whole new level. Theres even a recipe for a real buttercream on the back, not just an ad for a fake icing spread like there would be from supermarket brands.

The results were nothing short of delicious.

They even came with the brands signature dots for decorating

Sure, $14 isn't easy to spend on a batch of 12 cupcakes (Especially since you still have to add 3 eggs, butter and milk to the recipe). But I think its worth it, just to try. Next time I'm in California, I will be sure to check out Sprinkles!

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Cinnamini Buns

Cinnamini Buns!

I was in the supermarket yesterday and I passed by all of those premade cookies, muffins, cakes and pastries in the bakery section. I usually just walk by without a glance since I don't believe in any baked goods that weren't made in either

a) a loving home

or

b) a professional bakery

but I saw a box with these adorable mini cinnamon buns and as a lover of all things mini, I couldn't help myself from wanting them. They looked so precious! For some reason, it took me a few minutes to think of baking them myself. I've always been a little intimidated of making cinnamon buns. I'm not sure why, but they seem much more complicated to me than they actually are. Mabye it's from seeing even Bakerella have a little trouble with cinnamon buns, but whatever the case they ended up being one of the simplest yet rewarding things I've ever baked.

I googled "mini cinnamon buns recipe" and saw a few variations. I decided to use pre made dough from pillsbury, so most of the recipes were self explainatory. I might try this with a homemade dough someday, but I like to cut corners when I can. Here's how you do it:

Cinnamini Buns with Glaze

makes 12 buns

1 package Pillsbury recipe creations dough

Cinnamon & Sugar Mixture*

1. Preheat oven to 350 and grease a mini muffin pan

2. Remove dough from package and flatten on a floured surface

3. Sprinkle Cinnamon & Sugar Mixture on the side of the dough facing up

4. Roll dough and cut into 12 pieces and place in mini muffin pan

5. Cook for 10-12 minutes

* Sorry I didn't have exact measurements, just be very generous with your cinnamon and sugar.

Glaze

1/2 cup confectioners sugar

1 tbsp milk

Combine sugar and milk in a bowl until it well mixed. Use a spoon or fork to dip in glaze and drizzle on buns.

The this recipe is so easy it would be difficult to mess it up! You could make a few batches in less than an hour and easily impress some family and friends. Now aren't you glad you didn't buy those supermarket buns?

Happy Baking!

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Snickerdoodle Cookies

There are some some duos that are just meant to be together. Peanut butter and jelly, milk and cookies, and one of my personal favorites, cinnamon and sugar. Thats one of the reasons why I love these snickerdoodle cookies. Want another reason? Theyre moist and buttery. Another reason? They're fool proof. Now I'm sure you don't need any more reasons to make these!

I found this recipe from Eat Me, Delicious which was adapted from Marthas Holiday Cookies 2005.

2 3/4 cups all purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 large eggs

2 tablespoons sugar
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1. Preheat oven to 350

2. Mix butter with sugar using an electric mixer until fluffy, around 3 minutes. Mix in eggs.

3. In a seperate bowl, combine flour, salt and baking powder and gradually add into butter mixture.

4. Stir together sugar and ground cinnamon on a plate (I used a mix of brown sugar and white sugar). Roll dough into 1.5 inch balls (Btw, the cookies don't spread much) and roll in the cinnamon sugar mixture.

5. Place dough 3 inches apart on a cookie sheet lined with non stick foil or parchment paper. Bake for 12-15 mins depending on your oven (12 mins was perfect for my cookies).

*I left out the yeild because they were eaten so fast I couldn't count how many there were! If I had to guess, I would say around 36.

Keep on baking!

- Erin

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s'mores cookies

S'mores

definition:

a dessert, made at a campfire, consisting of a toasted marshmallow and a piece of chocolate inbetween two graham crackers.

in other words? an the irresistable combination of melted chocolate, gooey marshmallow and crispy graham crackers. so good my dog had a hard time controlling himself which makes me wish chocolate wasn't toxic for him (and how unhappy I would be if it was for me too). only way to make it better? add in the word cookie, of course. this recipe is from Lovin in the Oven (how cute is that name!?), who adapted it from Baked Perfection, who adapted it from "Make and Bake".

S'mores cookies

• 1 3/4 cups all purpose flour
• 1 cup graham cracker crumbs
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 3/4 cup brown sugar
• 2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 eggs
• 2 cups miniature chocolate chips
• 1 1/2 cups mini marshmallows
• 2 Hershey bars, chopped

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

In a medium bowl combine the flour, graham cracker crumbs, baking soda, salt, and dash of cinnamon. In a second larger bowl beat together the butter, sugar, brown sugar and vanilla extract until creamy. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Slowly beat in the flour mixture until smooth. Stir in the chocolate chips. Drop by rounded tablespoon onto ungreased cookie sheet.

Bake for 8 minutes, and remove from the oven. Push 3 to 4 marshmallows and a few pieces of hershey bar into each cookies. Return to the oven and bake an additional 3-4 minutes until fully cooked. Cool cookies on a wire rack.

Makes approximately 4 dozen cookies.

Here they are, cooling down

I also tried them without the additional marshmallows and chocolate chips and they make a great traditional chocolate chip cookie.

yum

Happy Baking!

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baking background...

Why hello there!

I'm a 17 year old baker who has been inspired to start her own blog. Inspired by what, you might ask?

The patisseries I drooled over the last time I was in France...

my first maccaron (which also happened to be the best.. so far at least!)

Blogs like Bakerella, Cakespy, Our Best Bites, Brown Eyed Baker, cupcake takes the cake, baked perfection, I could just keep going on and on and on!

bakerella, queen of the cake pops

Some of Cakespy's delicious artwork

The Cupcake book like Hello, Cupcake! which is never ending with creative cupcake ideas. If you've got an occasion, they've got a cupcake.

as well as the cupcake bakeries that are becoming popular worldwide. crumbs, being my favorite.

And mainly, the thing that inspires me the most is the reaction you get when someone tries whatever you baked. Impressed, delighted or whatever reaction they have, it makes it all worthwhile. As cheesy as this may sound, the satisfaction of a job well done really is the best reward (At least for baking it is).

So to make a disclaimer, I am not, nor will I ever be Martha Stewart. I also was not raised by Paula Deen, infact quite the opposite. My Mom hardly ever baked and when she did it wasn't from scratch, she didn't really see the point in it. Some people see me as an impressive baker but I still see myself as an ameteur (Again, I'm only 17. Give me a break!) . I made this blog to track my progress and mabye (possibly) inspire other bakers. Just mabye.

I am also interested in fashion, music, movies and more so I will write about those things as well. (My whole life doesn't revolve around food, even though this blog might make you think so!)

Thanks for reading. Until next post, my name is Erin and I am Baking History. (Get it??)

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