Friday, January 27, 2012

I am such a slacker!

Wow.
So I suck.
Sorry, it's taken me FOREVER to post again. Hope everyone had a great christmas and new years? I did! No, I didn't get my stand mixer D: But, I did get a baby cakes maker from my mom, and it came with this great little recipe book :]

Also, I started a new job a couple of weeks ago. I finally decided I was sick of being broke and having to ask jeremy to pay for my things, so I work at Pizza Hut now, which is actually a lot of fun :]

Speaking of Jeremy...
We're finally getting married :D So between work, cleaning, and planning for this wedding... I haven't had much time to bake. Although, I baked my ass off at christmas :]

So with that being said, I don't have any new recipes to post again. Don't look at me like that, I'm sorry!

BUT I'll leave you with some extra tips to make your baking extra delicious...

1. If you're using a box cake mix (especially chocolate) and wanna keep it moist and spruce up the flavor::
-The BEST chocolate mix is Duncan Hines Dark Chocolate Fudge- can't go wrong with that.
-Wanna add a little extra oompf? Throw a couple of tablespoons of chocolate frosting (I use Pillsbury chocolate fudge) in the microwave and then pour it into the batter, make sure you mix the batter really well when you put it in.
-The frosting added will make the batter SUPER thick, so you wont get as many cupcakes out of it, but it still makes a decent cake.

2. When using ANY box mixed cake mix, be SURE to mix the ingredients for the time on the box. I know a lot of the time, we get lazy and if it looks mixed enough, we stop. DON'T. Mixing it the right way for the right amount of time makes a HUGE difference.

3. I get a lot of compliments on my frostings. That's definitely one thing I can bang out pretty well. Want some advice?
- DON'T use the crisco-butter ratio for butter cream. Especially if it's hot out. The butter will melt, and the criso will stay, so it causes your frosting to separate.
- Instead, try using Light Corn Syrup. 2 sticks of butter, a tablespoon of milk, 1 tsp of vanilla, and 4 cups of powdered sugar.
Mix the butter, vanilla and milk until creamy. Scrape the bowl, add powdered sugar, mix until JUST mixed, then scrape the bowl again and keep mixing. Once it's all combined, add a tablespoon or two of corn syrup. It'll help thin it out and bind it together, keeping it from separating.
- Don't be afraid to play around with frosting. Add some different flavorings, try piping some cool designs or try changing the thickness around. Frostings can be very forgiving and usually it's what makes the cake so good!

4. I know I've mentioned this before, but if you're using a yellow cake mix, Add a drop or two of butterscotch oil. It really brings out the flavor of the cake, but be careful not to add too much!

5. Another mix you can play with? White cake.
-Instead of using eggs and oil, try using a can of your favorite soda.
-Try different extracts- Peppermint, almond, and banana all work well. (especially with chocolate frosting.)
-Add fun little sprinkles to the mix!

6. Making chocolate chip cookies?
-I've found that using the mini chocolate chips (bittersweet) are the BEST! You get chocolate in every bite!
-Instead of using tons of brown sugar, try using a little molasses and half the brown sugar. This will give your cookies a warmer and chewier taste.
-Add all sorts of chips, not just chocolate! Heath bar, peanut butter, and white chocolate work really well with the bitter sweet chips.

7. Don't be afraid to experiment a little! Sometimes you find the best recipes by tweaking and playing with the base line of the one you have!

8. Find a guinea pig! Find someone who will be honest with you about your goodies, and feed them every time you make something new. They'll tell you whether or not it's good. Then, try to figure out how to fix it or make it better!

Hopefully some of this will help you on your baking endeavors! :]

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