Take me out to the ball game

I have many friends who are Cubs fans. I also have many friends who are White Sox fans. Despite what you might think after this post, fear not - I am a fan of neither team. (I only grew up a Mets fan because I wanted to be just like my brother when I was little!) :)

Laurie Ryan and Nathan are both HUGE Cubs fans, and their birthdays sandwich August 16th. The creation: "Cub-cakes". I enjoy this name very much. :)
I got the inspiration by searching on google images! Some people are ridiculouslycreative.

If you're curious for the recipe, I just followed Paula Deen's red velvet recipe. Note: I halved the cream cheese frosting recipe and still had leftover! Also, the cupcakes were a bit greasy...

24 Red Velvet Cupcakes
2.5 C flour
1.5 C sugar
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 tsp cocoa powder
1.5 C vegetable oil
1 C buttermilk (or mix together 1 C milk and 1 T of vinegar)
2 large eggs
2 T red food coloring
1 tsp vinegar
1 tsp vanilla extract

Cream Cheese Frosting:
8 oz cream cheese, softened
1 stick (1/2 C) butter, softened
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 C powdered sugar

Directions:
1) Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.
2) Sift together flour, sugar, baking soda, salt, and cocoa powder.
3) Mix together vegetable oil, buttermilk, food coloring, vinegar, and vanilla extract.
4) Combine wet and dry ingredients. Please watch as Laurie demonstrates:

5) Line a muffin tin with paper liners and bake in the oven for 20 minutes.
6) While the cupcakes are baking, cream the butter and cream cheese together. Add in the vanilla and gradually add the powdered sugar (sifted is better!).
7) For the baseballs: frost cupcakes in a dome-like fashion. Use a toothpick to drag the lines in your frosting. I used a size 2 tip to create the stitches in red:

8) For the cubcakes: I used Wilton's Buttercream Frosting recipe for the red and blue colors. Frost the cupcakes in a flatter fashion. Draw the blue circle (I used a size 4 tip), the "C" (12 tip), and "ubs" (2 tip).

9) Despite what team you enjoy, I assure you that these cubcakes are still delightful. :)

Baby, baby!

When do you start feeling less like a wannabe pastry chef rather and more like an actual pastry chef? I had a moment on Friday that made me feel more like the latter.

One of my friends who saw my pastries on facebook actually came over to my house to learn how to decorate cupcakes for a baby shower. Do you realize that it combines my love of teaching with my love of baking??

We made brownies from scratch (you'll have to ask Tammy for the recipe, I personally recommend the box version), yellow cake from the box, and of course, wilton buttercream frosting:

My favorite were the brownie rattles. Tammy looked online and found the directions. Here's how you do it:

1) Bake brownie mix as directed in a greased muffin pan (no liners).

2) Poke a small hole with a toothpick. 3) Insert a lollipop stick into the hole (you won't believe how much easier it is when you use the toothpick first).

4) Tie an adorable bow around the lollipop stick.5) Stick a gumdrop (hehe, we used spice drops) on the bottom of the rattle. 6) Decorate as desired! This is the fun part!
Please note how much easier it is to take pictures when there is someone else! :)

**Special thanks to Tammy bringing such fun ideas and being up for decorating til 1am, and Charles for the cakelet pan!!**

It's time for key lime.

By the end of this post, you will learn how I made:

But of course, like everything else in my life, this cupcake has a story.

Awhile back, my darling friends threw me a Disney-themed birthday party. It was like a pop-up video of Disney-filled fun facts (which Ritu so lovingly printed in the DISNEY font, see below).

It was at that moment when I learned that Walt Disney's favorite dessert was Key Lime Pie. Did you know that was my favorite dessert too (and Harry's and Ellen's)??? Perhaps there is a deeper connection here.

In any case, Hannah and Nathan took it upon themselves to surprise me with the sweetest birthday surprise ever: Key Lime Cupcakes. It was so perfect, because this was the year when school actually started ON my birthday. Imagine: "Hi I'm Ms. Horng, and I will be your math teacher....hey it's my birthday!" Um...not as fun as it sounds, until you get a special delivery of cupcakes!

So when limes were on sale at the grocery store, I took it upon myself to try their recipe. I used the recipe Hannah and Nathan adapted from Cake Batter and Crumbs.

Note: I would have added more photos, but I live by myself and realized that taking photos of myself baking requires more than two hands!

24 White Chocolate Key Lime Cupcakes
2 1/3 C all purpose flour
1 T baking powder
3/4 t salt
1 1/2 C sugar
1/2 C shortening
2 eggs
1 C milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 T sour cream
1 package instant white chocolate pudding mix
2 T fresh lime juice (1-2 small limes)
1 T lime zest

Key Lime Cream Filling and Topping
28 oz (2 cans) sweetened condensed milk
2/3 C lime juice (about 4-5 small limes)
1/2 C graham cracker crumbs (or vanilla wafers if you want it to be sweeter)
Whipped Cream (if desired)
1-2 limes, sliced for decoration

Directions:
1) Sift together flour, baking powder, salt, sugar, and instant pudding.
2) Cut up the shortening and mix it into the dry ingredients until fine crumbs are formed.
3) Add eggs, milk, sour cream, and vanilla extract.
4) Fold in the lime zest and lime juice.
5) Bake for 20 minutes at 350 degrees. Let the cupcakes cool before filling them.
6) Cut out a hole for your cream filling. I use a wilton 4B tip to cut out the middle; Hannah and Nathan used an apple corer. Either way, it works!

7) Fill 'er up!
8) Top with whipped cream, or graham cracker or lime slice. Enjoy!