dessert log


it is a universally acknowledged truth that a college student in possession of a kitchen must be in want of baked goods.
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Icing Flower Cake Mix Cupcakes Tips: · Using the shortening in the frosting helped a lot! It was smoother and didn’t have ragged edges until late in the frosting. It was also less flat and melty, although I still froze the flowers as a precaution. · After refilling the bag with the icing, you might want to drip another line of food coloring down the bag so that the edge color stays strong. · When using the cake mix, it is really important to mix until just combined! Don’t use a spatula because it will trap so many air bubbles in the batter. Chopsticks are probably the best choice. If air bubbles are mixed in, the batter will deflate a bit after baking (although the cupcakes will be nice and airy), and it’ll look pretty deformed on the top.
Emoticon Lemon Cake Mix Cookies Cookie Ingredients: (makes ~33) · 1 box cake mix · 2 large eggs · ½ cup vegetable oil · 1 cup water Frosting Ingredients: (frosts 12) · 1 cup powdered sugar · 2 tsp milk · 2 tsp light corn syrup · ¼ tsp vanilla extract · Food coloring Cookie Instructions: 1. Mix ingredients. 2. Chill dough. 3. Bake at 350 F for 8 minutes. Frosting Instructions: 1. Add milk to a tall container, then sift in powdered sugar and stir until smooth. 2. Beat in corn syrup and extract. 3. Add additional milk by ½ tsp until reaches desired consistency. 4. Stir in a few drops of food coloring if you want. Tips: · For the cookies, it is worth chilling and dough and the greased baking sheet in the freezer. The dough will be easier to work with, and the cookies will spread less. · Make sure to go light on the corn syrup, or the frosting will end up too plastic-looking. · It’s probably worth fitting a piping tip to the bag, since with just the bag, the frosting started to come out kind of wonky after a while. · The frosting dries fairly quickly, so if adding sprinkles or anything, make sure to do it right after icing the cookie.
Icing Flower Brownies
Icing Flower Cupcakes Cupcake Ingredients: (makes 12 cupcakes) · 1 2/3 cup all-purpose flour · ½ tsp baking powder · ¼ tsp baking soda · ½ tsp salt · 1 cup granulated sugar · 1 stick butter, melted · 1 large egg · ¼ cup yogurt · ¾ cup milk · 2 tsp vanilla extract Frosting Ingredients: · 2 cups powdered sugar · Pinch of salt · 4 tbsp butter, softened (1/2 stick) · 1 tbsp shortening · 2-3 tbsp heavy cream · ¼ tsp vanilla extract · Food coloring · Icing flower nail · Petal tip · Disposable piping bag Cupcake Instructions: 1. Dissolve sugar in melted butter. Mixture will still be gritty and hot, so chill in refrigerator to prevent it from cooking the egg. 2. In a separate bowl, mix together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. 3. Stir egg, yogurt, milk, and vanilla into wet ingredients. 4. Sift dry ingredients into wet ingredients and mix until just combined and no lumps remain. 5. Grease 12 cupcake pan and divide batter among cups. 6. Bake for 20 minutes at 350 F. 7. Let cool completely before frosting. Icing Flower Instructions: 1. Cream the softened butter and shortening. 2. Mix in the vanilla extract. 3. Combine with the powdered sugar and salt. 4. Add the cream a tablespoon at a time until it is the desired consistency. It should be smooth, but stiff enough that lifting the spatula creates a peak. 5. Mix in food coloring to part of the frosting if desired. 6. To make flowers tipped with colorful edges, set up the frosting bag with a petal tip, hold it horizontal, and drip a line of food coloring down the seam of the bag. 7. Spoon the frosting into the bag, trying to get it as close to the tip as possible. Be careful to only let the frosting touch the food coloring minimally. 8. Fill the bag about 1/3 of the way full to make it easier to handle with one hand. 9. Pipe a tall cone onto the icing nail, to serve as the base of the flower. 10. Pipe petals around the base, continuously making petals end-to-end. 11. When finished, chill in freezer until stiff enough to remove with a knife or kitchen scissors. Tips: · Shortening for the frosting probably helps a lot with keeping the shape of the flowers at room temperature. Using butter, the frosting would heat up too much while holding the piping bag, and the petals would droop, resulting in very flat flowers. · Given a better frosting, it seems important to start with a tall base. That way, you can build off of that and get more height to the flower. · I didn’t drip a thick enough stream of food coloring down the seam of the piping bag, so only the first flowers came out with enough color around the edges. · For some reason, the edges of each flower came out kind of raggedy. Perhaps it was from the frosting texture, since I ran out of powdered sugar and had to blend granulated to use. · The frosting recipe made far too much frosting for me. I used probably less than half total, since I only made a small flower on each of 12 cupcakes (plus all of the frosting I used in practice). · Before piping each flower, chill the piping bag in the fridge for a few minutes to keep it at a good consistency. If it gets too cold and the frosting won’t come out, focus on warming up the metal tip with your fingers first. · I put one cupcake into the freezer, and after piping each flower, I inserted the piping nail into the cupcake to chill. That makes it significantly easier to remove and keep its shape when sliding a knife under the flower to lift. · Flatten the top of the cupcake a little if needed before placing the flower on. After transplanting the chilled flower onto the cupcake, give it a little while to thaw and adhere onto the cupcake. One of mine accidentally fell off when I picked up the cupcake. · You must store the cupcakes in the fridge.
Glazed Apple Cookies Cookie Ingredients: · 1 stick butter, softened · 1 1/3 cups brown sugar · 1 egg · 2 cups all-purpose flour · 1 tsp baking soda · ½ tsp salt · 1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon · 1 cup diced apples · 1/4 cup milk Glaze Igredients: · 1 cup powdered sugar · 1 tbsp butter · ½ tsp vanilla extract · 2 ½ tbsp. heavy cream Instructions: 1. Peel and dice apple. 2. Cream together butter and brown sugar until light and fluffy. 3. Beat in egg and milk and mix thoroughly. 4. In a separate bowl, stir together flour, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon. 5. Add diced apple to dry ingredients. 6. Sift dry ingredients into wet. 7. Form cookies on greased baking sheet and bake at 375 F for 8 minutes. 8. While cookies are baking, make glaze. 9. Cream softened butter very well first, then add in vanilla and mix. 10. Sift in powdered sugar and blend together. 11. Add in heavy cream until glaze is at desired consistency. 12. Pipe glaze across cookies while still slightly warm. —— Batch one: (forgot milk) Batch two: (milk added) Tips: · The glaze will be thinner the warmer the cookies are. · I accidentally made a first batch of cookies without adding milk to the batter, and they came out okay. Perhaps lessen the amount of milk added to the batter, since it changes the final appearance and adds in little bubbles to the dough. · You can try sprinkling a bit of cinnamon onto the glaze for aesthetic purposes.
Pastry Puff Apple Tart Ingredients: · 2 sheets puff pastry, cut into halves · 3 whole apples, halved and sliced thinly · 1 cup brown sugar · Pinch of salt · Optional topping: powdered sugar and cinnamon Instructions: 1. Spray a baking sheet with nonstick spray. 2. Defrost the pastry sheets on the sheet for about 20 minutes. Cut each in half when soft enough to unfold (you may want to place one sheet back in the fridge, since only one will fit on the baking sheet at a time). 3. Meanwhile, slice up the apple, using a corer if possible. 4. Dry the apples a little. 5. Put in a large mixing bowl and sprinkle with lemon juice if available. 6. Mix the salt in with the brown sugar, add to the bowl, and stir the apples with a spoon until evenly coated. 7. Arrange apple slices on pastry rectangles in a straight line, overlapping as you go. 8. Bake at 415 for 20 minutes until pastry is puffed and golden brown. 9. Use a spatula to remove from tray immediately, let cool, and sprinkle with powdered sugar and cinnamon if desired. Tips: · Use a serrated knife for slicing the apples, and try to make it as thin as possible. · Cutting the apples into nice looking slices is more difficult without a corer. I cut the entire apple in half, then sliced it thin with the core still in. Once I had all the slices, I then cut out the centers. Probably how I would do it next time, instead of trying to get a circle like the corer, is to just make two cuts like a triangle. That makes it easier to slice a whole stack than making a circular cut. If you leave the core in though, you have to rewash all the slices since it’s a little dirtier. · To make it easier to eat, something to try might be cutting the tops of each slice just a little, so perforate the skin. Otherwise, each slice tends to come off completely in a bite. · Crush up any chunks of brown sugar before mixing with the apples. · Be careful not to break the thin slices while mixing the apples with the sugar. · Eating this is super messy because of how the pastry flakes, so just be careful.
Chocolate Cupcakes with Nutella Frosting Cupcake Ingredients: (makes 14 cupcakes) · 1 cup water · ½ cup unsweetened cocoa powder · 1 1/3 cups all-purpose flur · 2 tsp baking powder · ¼ tsp salt · ½ cup unsalted butter, softened · 1 cup sugar · 2 large eggs · 2 tsp vanilla extract Frosting Ingredients: · 1 stick unsalted butter, softened · 1 cup powdered sugar · 1/3 cup Nutella · 1 Tbsp heavy cream · 1 tsp vanilla extract · Pinch of salt Instructions: 1. Measure out cocoa powder into a bowl. 2. Boil the water in a small saucepan and pour into the cocoa powder. 3. Mix until smooth, then cool to room temperature in refrigerator. 4. Cream softened butter and sugar until light and fluffy. 5. Add the eggs and vanilla extract, then mix together. 6. In a separate large bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt. 7. Sift dry ingredients into wet and beat until just combined. 8. Add cooled cocoa mixture and stir until smooth. 9. Grease the muffin cups, and fill each ¾ of the way with batter. 10. Bake at 375F for 15 minutes until an inserted chopstick comes out clean. 11. To make frosting, first beat softened butter until uniformly smooth and creamy. 12. Add powdered sugar and continue to beat. 13. Add Nutella and beat. 14. Add heavy cream and vanilla, stir together with rubber spatula until uniform. 15. To thicken, add more powdered sugar. To thin, add more heavy cream. 16. Taste the frosting and add salt to lessen the sweetness. 17. Frost cooled cupcakes. Tips: · The cocoa powder was still pretty warm, so I put it in the freezer for a little bit. · Don’t cover with aluminum foil… because the cupcake tops will rise up past it and get super derped up. · The added salt to both the cupcakes and frosting is important to prevent it from being overly sweet. · Make sure the cupcakes are cooled before frosting, or the frosting will melt. · Piping is not really necessary for these. Just spread it on uniformly and swirl. · I decorated them with white chocolate shavings (used a peeler on a white chocolate bar).
Funfetti Cheesecake Cookie Cups Cookie Cup Ingredients: (makes 24 cups) · ¾ stick butter, softened · ¾ cup brown sugar · ¼ cup sugar · 1 large egg · 2 tsp vanilla extract · 2 cups all-purpose flour · 2 tsp cornstarch · 1 tsp baking soda · ½ tsp salt · 1 ¼ cup chocolate chips Funfetti Cheesecake Ingredients: · 16 ounces cream cheese (two 8 oz packages), softened to room temperature · ½ cup sugar · 1 large egg · ¾ tsp vanilla extract · ½ heaping cup sprinkles Instructions: 1. Cream the softened butter and sugars together until fluffy. 2. Mix in egg and vanilla. 3. In a separate bowl, combine flour, cornstarch, baking soda, and salt. 4. Slowly sift the dry ingredients into the wet. 5. Mix in the chocolate chips. 6. Stir until just combined. 7. Press 1.5 tbsp of dough into each greased muffin cup. 8. Bake at 350 F for 7 minutes. 9. While the cookie cups are baking, beat the cream cheese, sugar, egg, and vanilla together until completely smooth. 10. Stir in the sprinkles. 11. Drop 1 heaping tablespoon of cheesecake batter into each cookie cup, spreading it to cover the entire cookie. 12. Bake for another 15 minutes, covering the cookie cups with a sheet of aluminum foil. Tips: · Covering the cookie cups with a sheet of aluminum foil keeps the color of the cheesecake layer looking nice. · Try beating the cream cheese smooth before mixing into the other ingredients. It will probably help ensure that it gets smooth. · Make sure not to mix in the sprinkles before the rest of the batter is smooth. Mixing the sprinkles around too much causes the color to bleed.
Peanut Butter Cookie Cups with Nutella and Marshmallow Ingredients: · ½ cup sugar · ½ cup brown sugar · 1 stick butter, softened · ½ cup creamy peanut butter · 1 egg · 1 ¼ cup flour · ¾ tsp baking soda · ½ tsp baking powder · ¼ tsp salt · Nutella (roughly half a jar) · Marshmallows Instructions: 1. Cream the butter and sugars together until fluffy. 2. Add in peanut butter and egg, mix well. 3. Sift flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt in a separate bowl, then add to the wet ingredients. 4. Put dough in a Ziploc bag or plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight, or at least a couple of hours. 5. When dough has been chilled long enough, grease a 12-cup muffin tin. 6. Make balls of dough that are roughly the size of a ping-pong ball, and flatten out into 2.5-3 inch diameter discs. 7. Press the discs into the pan, with the discs going about halfway up the sides of each cup. 8. Place the pan into the freezer for 10 minutes or so, while preheating the oven. 9. Bake at 375 for 10 minutes. 10. Cool cookie cups, then remove from pan and fill with nutella. 11. Place marshmallows vertically into the nutella, and bake at 275 F for 3-4 minutes to melt the marshmallows a bit. 12. Press down marshmallows with a fork to flatten. Tips: · There was extra dough after I finished filling the 12-cup pan, so I used it to make mini cups in a mini muffin pan. This is also a good size to eat. It actually took almost the same amount of bake time. · I would like to try making this with large marshmallows like in the original recipe, just for aesthetic purposes. · Although they came out of the oven looking a little dark, the texture was perfect after 10 minutes.
Peanut Butter Special K Bars Ingredients: · 1 cup white sugar · 1 1/3 cups peanut butter · 1 cup white corn syrup · 5 cups high protein crisp rice and wheat cereal · 2 tsp vanilla extract Instructions: 1. Measure out cereal into a separate bowl and set aside. 2. Measure out peanut butter and set aside. 3. Prepare greased (or lined with wax paper) pan to put mixture into later. 4. Measure out sugar, corn syrup, and vanilla into large pan. 5. Heat on medium, stirring until fully uniform and easy to stir. 6. Add in peanut butter, and mix until fully incorporated. 7. Once all blended, mix in cereal and stir/flip to distribute evenly. 8. Scoop mixture into pan and pat down evenly. 9. Place in refrigerator to cool for at least half an hour. Tips: · If the cereal flakes are too large, you might want to try crushing them in the bag a little before pouring them in. · Melting slowly on the stove is probably better than microwaving, like the recipe link suggests. · It ended up being very sweet, so perhaps less sugar would be better. · Could also try a different type of cereal.
Apple Blondies Ingredients: (for a doubled batch in 9”x13” pan) · 2 medium apples, diced · 2 sticks butter, softened · 2 cups white sugar · 2 eggs · 2 tsp vanilla · 1 cup chopped walnuts · 2 cups all-purpose flour · ½ tsp salt · 1 tsp baking powder · ½ tsp baking soda · 2 tsp ground cinnamon · 1 tbsp butter, melted (?) · 2 Tbsp white sugar (?) · ½ tsp cinnamon (?) Instructions: 1. Dice apples into small chunks and set aside. 2. Chop up nuts into small pieces. 3. Cream softened butter, sugar, egg, and vanilla together in large bowl. 4. In a separate bowl, sift the flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda, and cinnamon together. 5. Dump apples and walnuts into dry ingredients. 6. Stir dry ingredients into wet, and mix until just blended. 7. Grease 9”x13” baking pan and spread batter evenly into pan. 8. Bake at 350 F for about 45 minutes. Tips: · The top should be crispy, but the inside will be pretty moist. You can probably use the toothpick test, but the way I did it, I just took out a chunk from the corner and tested the consistency. If it’s too wet, leave it in longer. · This makes a very moist dessert, even with the amount of apple decreased from the original recipe. The sides and top are crispy when they come out of the oven, but they get softer after a day from all the moisture. That’s not a problem for me though. :D
Pinwheel Swirl Sugar Cookies Ingredients: · 1 pouch Betty Crocker sugar cookie mix · 1 stick of butter · 1 egg · Food coloring Instructions: 1. Mix the sugar cookie dough according to the directions. 2. Divide dough into parts, and dye with food coloring as desired. 3. Chill cookies in the fridge for at least half an hour. 4. Make a grape-sized ball out of each color dough, then quickly roll them all into a larger ball. 5. Place each large ball back in fridge when finished. 6. Prepare cutting board with flour, or cover with wax paper. 7. Roll out each large ball into a log. 8. Twist the log into stripes by rolling the two ends in opposite directions on the cutting board. 9. Coil into a spiral cookie and place back in fridge. 10. Bake on greased sheet at 350 F for 7 minutes. Tips: · Try to underbake so it doesn’t get too golden. · The dough was really soft and sticky after mixing, so the refrigeration is necessary! · When I made the spirals, I rolled the dough into large logs and smushed them together (I listed another method in the instructions above, hopefully it works better). They blurred though, since they were really sticky. · Perhaps try with a homemade dough, for a different consistency? · The dough when warm can break very easily. Keep them in fridge whenever not immediately working on them. Roll on board with log pointing towards you, and move palm over it left to right with little applied force. · Watch out for necking, and cut log if it’s getting too long. · The thinner the log, the prettier the final cookie will look though.
Oreo Brownies Ingredients: (for 9 x 13” pan) · 2 pouches Ghirardelli brownie mix · 2/3 cup vegetable oil · 2/3 cup water · 2/3 package of oreos Instructions: 1. Grease a 9 x 13” pan. 2. Mix the brownie ingredients together in a large bowl. 3. Pour a thin layer of brownie batter (preferably without chocolate chips) to cover the bottom of the pan. 4. Break the oreos. 5. Place the half with the crème on the brownie layer, crème-side up. 6. Pour the rest of the brownie mix into the pan evenly. 7. Take the remaining half of the oreos and break up into pieces over the batter. 8. Bake at 325 F for 50 minutes. Tips: · Let cool before cutting. Make sure to use a spatula to go around the edges. · Break the oreo up into pieces of various sizes. Press them down into the batter a little so that they set into the batter.
Apple Pie Muffins Muffin Ingredients: (makes 12 large muffins) · 2 ¼ cups all-purpose flour · 1 tsp baking soda · ½ tsp salt · 1 egg · 1 cup buttermilk (or 1 cup peach yogurt) · ½ cup butter, melted · 1 tsp vanilla extract · 1 ½ cups packed brown sugar · 2 cups diced apples Topping Ingredients: · ½ cup packed brown sugar · 1/3 cup all-purpose flour · 1 tsp ground cinnamon · 2 tbsp butter, melted Instructions: 1. Grease a 12 cup muffin tin. 2. In a medium bowl, stir together 2 ¼ cups flour, baking soda, and salt. 3. In a large bowl, mix together egg, buttermilk/yogurt, ½ cup melted butter, vanilla, and 1 ½ cups brown sugar until sugar is all dissolved. 4. Sprinkle the diced apple into the dry ingredients and coat slightly. 5. Sift dry ingredients and apple into wet, and stir until just blended. 6. Spoon into muffin cups, filling to the brim. 7. Melt the butter for the topping, mix dry ingredients in a separate bowl. 8. Sprinkle some of the topping onto the muffin tops, followed by drizzling with a little butter. 9. Sprinkle more topping into the butter, and repeat until muffins are fully coated. 10. Bake for 25 minutes at 375 F, until tops of muffins spring back when lightly pressed. Tips: · This didn’t happen, but if the butter is really hot, wait for it to cool a little before adding to the egg. I was worried it would cook part of it. · The topping ingredients makes far too much. I would at least half what is suggested for the dry ingredients, and sprinkle on top of the muffins liberally. · I actually didn’t add the butter to the topping initially and just sprinkled the dry ingredients on. It stays completely dry while baking though, so in the middle, I took the muffins out and drizzled the butter on, then added more topping.
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