I am sorry for the long absence.  My family took a long weekend trip to Walla Walla to visit some friends.  And it always seems to take a few days to recover and get back in the swing of things.  We had a relaxing time–and when I say relaxing, I mean just sitting around, chatting, and eatinig food.  (Which was what we all needed!)  Matthew spent most of his time doing this:

Even Eric joined in for a bit.

We also spent time at the park, where Matthew learned how to go through a tunnel.  (His sideways hat just tells you how hip and cool he is.  We tried to fix it, but he liked it that way.  What do parents know about style anyway.)

I made these cupcakes quite some time ago, and thought that I’d share them with you while I recover from all the delicious food I ate.  I call these cupcakes Sinful because they are just that good, but really, they’re just a chocolate cake with chocolate buttercream.  Mmmm…Who can resist chocolate?  I know I can’t.

I like to top these cupcakes with chopped chocolate.  You can shave a bar of chocolate, make chocolate curls, or just chop chocolate chips, which is what I do most of the time.  Even alone, these cupcakes are bound to satisfy any chocolate craving.  And you definitely can never have enough chocolate.  Enjoy! xoxo

Sinful Cupcakes

printable recipe

Makes 12 cupcakes

Cupcake Batter

1 stick unsalted butter, room temperature

1 ¼ c sugar 2 eggs, room temperature

¾ cup flour

1 t baking powder

¼ t salt

½ cup unsweetened cocoa powder

½ cup milk (NOT non-fat)

1¼ t vanilla

1 T ground espresso

Preheat oven to 350.  Line cupcake tin with paper liners.

Beat the butter with an electric mixer until it is soft and pale, then add sugar. Beat about 3 minutes.  Add the eggs, one at a time, (make sure the yolk is dissolved before adding the next egg), beating until they are well combined.

In a separate bowl, combine the dry ingredients and whisk them to incorporate them.  In a tall measuring cup, combine the milk and vanilla.  Add 1/3 of the dry ingredients to the butter and sugar, and beat it just to combine. Add ½ of the liquids (milk & vanilla).  Scrape down the bowl and beat to combine. Continue adding the dry and wet ingredients alternately, making sure you START and END with the DRY.

Fill muffin tins 2/3s of the way and bake for about 20-22 minutes, or until tops are golden and toothpick inserted comes out clean. Allow to cool, then frost.

 Chocolate Buttercream

4 T (½ stick) unsalted butter, softened

¼ cup unsweetened cocoa powder

2 cups powdered sugar

3 Tablespoons milk (plus a few Tablespoons to adjust consistency)

1 teaspoon vanilla

Dash of ground espresso

shaved chocolate or chopped chocolate chips

Combine the cocoa powder and powdered sugar in a bowl and whisk to combine.  Beat butter on medium speed in a mixer with a paddle attachment until pale and creamy.  On low speed, add half of the dry ingredients, followed directly by the milk.  Mix until the dry ingredients are incorporated fully.  Add the vanilla and the rest of the dry ingredients.  If it seems too thick, add a little more milk until desired consistency is achieved.  Beat on medium speed for about 2-3 minutes before spreading or piping on cooled cupcakes.  Sprinkle with shaved chocolate or chopped chocolate chips.

My name is Holly and I am a recipe hoarder.  It started out innocently enough with just collecting cookbooks.  Then it grew to tearing recipes out of magazines.  And then it spilled over to the internet.  I would watch Food Network instead of studying for exams, make desserts instead of sleeping, and spend a lot of money on ingredients I had never heard of and only used once.  Then, about five years ago, I realized that I had amassed so many recipes that I felt like it was beginning to take over my kitchen.

It was at that point that I realized something had to give.  Did I actually try at least 1/3 of the recipes in the 30+ cookbooks I had?  When was the last time I looked through the numerous manila folders where I stashed all the magazine and internet recipes?  And then it hit me.  I had to do something.  It started with going through the cookbooks and deciding what to really keep, and what to give away.  (And the cookbooks that I never even opened were re-gifted.)  So after years of tinkering, I have come up with an organizing system that works for me.  And for those of you who are recipe hoarders as well, hopefully this will help you too.

My secret? I use binders, (many, in fact–and I have one solely dedicated to desserts), and manila folders.

For the recipes that I love and use (whether it be consistently, or just a few times), I put in a binder.  They are organized by subject and placed in sheet protectors.  I use Post-Its for tabs.

I like using sheet protectors because that way, if I spill food on it while cooking or baking, I can just wipe it off with a damp cloth and move on.  No harm done.  In the binders I’ve also included tips and tricks.  I especially like using information from the magazine Cooks Illustrated.  Like the piece here on beef cuts.  This is stored in the beginning of my “Beef” section.

I also store recipes from friends and family, written on small recipe cards.

For recipes that I haven’t tried yet, they go in a manila folder.  Again, organized by subject.  The manila folders currently sit on top of my microwave, so I see it every day.  I do this for two reasons.  One, so that I see it and it’s accessible.  And two, so that I see it and make sure that I get rid of some recipes from time to time.

Every month or so, I go through these folders and get rid of recipes.  For every one recipe I keep, I get rid of one.  That way, I don’t have a large stack, which was my original problem.

For the cookbooks on the counter, these are books where I’ve used at least 1/3 of the recipes.  (Well, that’s the case in most of the books.  Some are just good as a reference.)  And my absolute favorite recipes, the ones I make all the time, have turned into a little cookbook of its own.  And out of all the books and binders I have, this one gets used the most.  If you’d like to learn how to make one like this, the tutorial is here.

I hope that by sharing my tips for organizing recipes it will inspire you to do the same.  I’m may still be a bit of a hoarder, but at least I’m an organized hoarder.  And I’d be curious, as I always like to improve my system, if you have one in place.  If so, I’d love to hear about it! Enjoy. xoxo

Roses are one of my favorite flowers.  In the late spring, one of my favorite things to do is walk around the Rose Garden in downtown Portland.  It’s amazing all the variety of colors and shapes in this one, rather large, garden.  I also like to see which ones are the oldest, (next to the bush there is a plaque with the name, variety, and year it was planted), and it amazes me that the gardeners can keep a few 100-year-old rose bushes alive.  I wish I had that kind of patience with a shrub.  I’m lucky if I can remember to water my indoor plants.  (In in my school classroom, forget about it.  I have fake plants instead.)

That’s why I stick to buttercream roses.  They are a lot less maintenance, and, of course, they’re edible, which in my eyes, makes it that much better.   To make buttercream roses, you’ll need 3 piping bags, red food coloring, and a 1M tip.  And since the flavor is vanilla, use real vanilla extract.  It’s the star of the show, so let the real, intense flavor shine through.  (I love Neilson-Massey Madagascar Bourbon Vanilla.  It makes the biggest difference!) If you think you’re frosting won’t be white enough, you can tint it white, but I like to just leave it the way it is.  To see a visual tutorial on getting the two-tone coloring, click here.

Basically, to make these, instead of piping the frosting from the outside in, you go in a circle from the inside out.  Take your piping tip and start at the center of your cupcake, and as you squeeze out the frosting, go in a circle, (in either direction), until you reach the edge.  And that’s it!  You’re done.  I get requests for these vanilla cupcakes all the time.  They are moist, tender, and full of subtle vanilla flavor.  I’d eat all twelve if I didn’t have a conscience.  You know, it’d be mean not to share with my spouse or friends.  After all, it is almost Valentine’s Day.  Enjoy!  xoxo

Rose Cupcakes

printable recipe

Makes 12 vanilla cupcakes

1 ½ t baking powder

1 c cake flour

½ cup flour

1 cup sugar

¼ t salt

½ c (1 stick) unsalted butter, cut into pieces, at room temperature

2 eggs

½ c milk

2 t pure vanilla extract

Pre-heat oven to 350, and line muffin tin with cupcake liners.

Using a stand mixer with a paddle attachment, pour dry ingredients into the bowl and mix on low for 2-3 minutes, until well combined. Add the cubed softened butter, and mix on low speed until the butter is well-coated and pieces are small and crumb-like, about 20-30 seconds. Add eggs, one at a time, until combined. (The egg yolk is dissolved.) Slowly add the milk and vanilla—scrape down bowl to get all ingredients combined.

Fill cupcake liners (in tins) about 2/3 full, and bake 17-20 minutes, or until tops are golden brown and toothpick inserted into the center of the cupcakes comes out clean. Take cupcakes out of muffin tin and transfer to a cooling rack.

Cool before frosting.

Vanilla Buttercream

enough to frost 12 cupcakes

¾ c (1 ½ sticks) unsalted butter, room temp

2 cups powdered sugar, sifted

1 ½ t pure vanilla extract

red food coloring (preferably Americolor brand)

1M piping tip

3 piping bags

Beat butter with a mixer on medium-high speed until pale and creamy, about 2 minutes. Reduce speed to medium. Add sugar, ½ cup at a time, beating for 2 minutes after each addition. Add vanilla and beat until buttercream is smooth.

Transfer the frosting into two bowls, making sure there are equal amounts of frosting in each bowl.  Tint one of the frostings deep red.  Place white frosting in one piping bag, and the red frosting in another.  Using the third piping bag, cut off the end and screw on the coupler and tip.  Cut off the end of the filled piping bags and place inside the third bag.  Going from the middle of the cupcake to the edge, pipe frosting in a circle.

Store any leftovers in an air-tight container up to 3 days.

Today is my husband’s birthday.  And it’s not just any birthday, it’s his 30th birthday.  And just like any milestone birthday, this one is complete with pomp and circumstance, as well as a dose of anxiety, deep contemplation, and a little bit of sadness.  Eric’s new goal, now that he’s in his 30s, is to run a 100-mile race.  You know, ’cause that’s something not every person can do.  Apparently that isn’t hard enough though, so to make it more challenging, it has to be run in 24 hours.  (He’s been researching this for hours, and I cannot tell you how excited he was to find a race like this in our area.)  I told him that it’s a great goal and all, but maybe he should just run the marathon again and beat his last year’s time.

To help Eric ring in the 30s, we had a party last Saturday night, full of good friends and great food.  I made some lemon poppy-seed cupcakes with raspberry preserve filling, banana pudding, orange-cream cheese dip, and slushie punch.  Along with some chips and salsa–you know, to balance out all the sweet stuff.

I was first introduced to banana pudding when my sister, who now lives in North Carolina, made some on a visit home.  I couldn’t believe what I was missing!  And because there are bananas in it, I like to think of it as a healthy dessert.  That’s why I end up eating more, haha.  Normally our family serves it in a 9 x 13″ pan, but since it was a party, I made it in a trifle bowl, and had two layers instead of one.  It looked a little fancier.  Some people serve this dessert with a layer of bananas first, before chilling it, but I cut up the bananas when I’m ready to serve the dessert, because I hate them when they get all brown and mushy.  But you can do either way, whatever suits your fancy.

Whenever I make this dessert, I never have any leftovers, which is kind-of a bummer, as this is in my top-10 favorite desserts.   But sharing is caring, right?  So happy birthday Eric!  I hope that this year is a great one, and like Napoleon Dynamite says, may all your wildest dreams come true!  Enjoy! xoxo

P.S.  If you want to sound official, you have to pronounce this dessert right.  Those from the South don’t pronounce pudding like we do in the Northwest.  They pronounce it puddin, like Pudd’nhead Wilson. (Mark Twain–sorry, I’m an English teacher.  I just had to put that in there.)  The g is silent.

Southern Banana Pudding

printable recipe

1 box Nila wafers

6-8 bananas, sliced

2 1/2 cups milk (not non-fat)

1 (5-oz.) box instant French vanilla pudding (or vanilla)

1 (8-oz.) package cream cheese, softened

1 (14-oz.) can sweetened condensed milk

1 (12-oz.) container Cool Whip

Line the bottom of a 9×13-inch baking dish with Nila wafers.

Using a mixer, mix the milk and pudding for about 2 minutes.

Using a handheld mixer, combine the cream cheese and condensed milk together and mix until smooth.  Fold the whipped topping into the cream cheese mixture.  Add the cream cheese mixture to the pudding mixture and stir until well blended.  Pour the mixture over the cookies and cover.  Refrigerate at least 3 hours before serving.

To serve, slice bananas into the bottom of a bowl and scoop out pudding mixture and place on top of bananas.

Recipe Source: My dear baby sister Noelle

There are many times where I imagine what my 18-month-old son is saying.  Like when he’s walking around with his favorite car in his hand, saying, “Da dumm sweum shuew dadadum.”  And I respond, “Why, yes, your car can go really fast.”  Or when he asks a question, (which is easy to tell, because the inflection in his voice goes up at the end of his sentence and he looks at me expectantly), and I say, “Of course Daddy can give you another piggy-back ride.  As soon as he gets home.”

Today we went over to my friend’s house.  Both our boys are less than a week apart and it’s fun to see them grow and play together.  Today, Matthew got the opportunity to play with a pint-size kitchen.  He had a lot of fun sautéing vegetables and washing dishes, while talking all about it.  (Secretly, I want him to be a famous chef when he grows up.)

But no matter how many veggies, fruit, yogurt, or Cheerios he eats, his favorite food, by far, are sweets.  (It’s hard to blame him; it’s in his genes.)  While lying on the floor, desperately trying to eat a donut, he says something in a faint voice.  I interpret it to mean, “Mom, these plastic donuts are no substitution for the real thing.”

And he’s right.  There is no substitution for the real thing.  There’s something about homemade cookies–it evokes warm memories of childhood, and that deliciously sweet smell coming from the oven can not be compared.  These sugar cookies are made with lots of butter and sugar, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.  (If you want to see what recipe I use for the cookies and the royal icing, click here.)  I made these Valentine cookies for the blog winner, (congrats again Kathy!), and for a friend whose husband died of cancer not too long ago.  Cookies comfort too.

I made some conversation hearts. (They were my favorite as a kid!)

And some lace cookies.

(And some more lace cookies.  They’re addicting to make!  This lace cookie is with some swirl hearts and lines cookies.)

Lastly, some heart swirls.

I hope these cookies give you some inspiration for your own Valentine cookie-making adventures.  Soon, I’ll show you how to make the swirl hearts.  In the meantime, feel free to drool over the cookie candy.  Enjoy! xoxo