Tag baking

Basic AF Bread

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Preheat oven to 175 (unless its nice and warm in your house)

Ingredients

  • 2 cups warm water
  • 1 1/2 Tablespoons instant (because I’m impatient) active dry yeast
  • 2/3 cup of sugar
  • 1 1/2 Tablespoons of salt
  • 1/4 cup oil (I use canola)
  • 6 cups All-Purpose Flour

Put your warm water in your mixer (or your bowl if you don’t have a stand mixer) add your yeast and your sugar and let sit for about 5 min.

Once your water/yeast mixture is all foamy, add your salt and oil and mix.

Add your flour one cup at a time, making sure to incorporate in between additions.

Then mix until the dough is smooth.

Oil a large mixing bowl and then scrape your dough out into your oiled bowl and toss around to coat it. Cover with a damp kitchen towel and place in your preheated (to 175 and then turned off) oven and let rise for an hour.

After an hour, your dough should have roughly doubled. Punch down its hopes and dreams and then divide into two greased loaf pans. Cover your loaf pans with your damp kitchen towel and let rise again for another hour.

Preheat oven to 350F

Once your loaves have risen, bake for 30 minutes.

That’s it. You’re done. Pop those bad boys out of your pans and let them cool completely. You can leave them out overnight to cool, if like me, you started doing this process in the evening and now you’re so damn tired the thought of staying up another hour makes you want to take a nap on the floor.. Where was I? After they’re cooled, you can simply wrap them in tin foil. Or whatever your preferred method of bread- keeping is.

Victoria Sandwich

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I’ll preface this recipe with the apology that I do not have a recipe for the jam. While mine turned out excellent it was also trial and error and of course, I did not write it down.

Preheat oven to 350F

Ingredients Needed:

Cake

  • 2 1/4 cup butter – softened
  • 1 1/2 cup sugar
  • 6 eggs
  • 2 1/4 cup flour
  • 2 tsp vanilla
  • 2 tsp baking powder
  • 6 tablespoons milk

Buttercream

  • 1/2 cup butter – softened
  • 1/2 cup powdered sugar
  • 1/2 tsp vanilla

Store-bought or homemade raspberry jam

Start by creaming together the butter and sugar and gradually add your eggs. This is a pretty no-frills recipe so no need to separate everything out. Just add your flour, baking powder, vanilla, and milk next and mix until everything is fully incorporated.

Make sure you grease 2 – 8 inch round cake pans thoroughly and cut out a circle of parchment paper for the bottom of the pan

Evenly split the batter between the 2 pans and bake for 25 minutes, but depending on your oven, it may take up to 30. (Make sure that a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean or at least mostly clean with few crumbs.)

Let your cakes cool in the pan for about 10 minutes and then run a butter knife around the edges before turning them out of the pan. They should come out nice and clean, as long as you weren’t stingy on the greasing step 🙂

For the buttercream, simply mix your softened butter, powdered sugar, and vanilla until smooth. This recipe doesn’t make a lot, nor is this a super sweet buttercream. Its honestly perfect for this cake because you don’t want to overload it with diabeetus inducing sweetness.

When you’re ready to assemble your cake, choose the smoothest looking one for the top layer. This doesn’t matter a whole lot since you’re going to hide your sins with a dusting of powdered sugar, but humor me.

For the bottom layer, if you wish to, you may take a serrated knife and level off the top before adding your buttercream and jam. *also, then you get yummy little cake scraps that no one needs to know about but you*

When I assembled mine, I had planned to pipe on the buttercream so I put the jam on first and it was a bit of a mess. So, learn from my mistakes: put the buttercream down first. Then spread your jam on top of that and place your top layer of cake on top of all that delicious filling.

If you wish to do so, like I did 😉 you may put a stencil on top of your cake before sifting the powdered sugar over it. Totally optional, but also a total missed opportunity if you don’t 🙂

This is a super simple and easy to make cake and SUPER yummy. I mean, with so much damn butter, it better be!

I made this cake for my favorite (now former) co-worker. Thanks for believing in me and always eating my creations – no matter how lackluster they may turn out!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FWTY1hTpW-E

Caramel Apple Cupcakes

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Ingredients Needed

Preheat oven to 350 F

Cupcakes

  • 1 1/2 Cups All-Purpose Flour
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • 1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1/2 cup melted butter
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 4 eggs
  • 1 tsp vanilla
  • 3/4 cup buttermilk
  • mix about 1/2 tsp of sugar with 1/4 tsp of cinnamon and set aside

Filling

  • 1 med green apple (or any other tart apple)
  • 1/4 cup brown sugar
  • 1/2 small lemon
  • 1/8 tsp cinnamon
  • 1/2 tsp corn starch

Buttercream

  • 1 cup butter softened
  • 2 cup powdered sugar
  • 2 tsp cream
  • 1/2 – 2/3 cup caramel + extra for drizzle

I’ve always hated when I’m trying to find a recipe and have to scroll and scroll and scroll to find it. So, there ya go! Right up top 🙂

  • Start by whisking your flour, baking powder, cinnamon and salt together – set aside
  • Beat butter and sugar until creamed
  • add eggs one at a time, making sure they’re incorporated before adding the next
  • add vanilla
  • Alternate adding flour mixture and buttermilk (should take roughly 3 installments)

Don’t overmix. Fill your lined cupcake tray about 2/3 full. Sprinkle the cinnamon/sugar mixture over your unbaked cupcakes

Bake for 15-20 min (check around 12 min)

While your cupcakes are baking, start by dicing up your peeled and cored apple

  • In a pan, combine diced apple, brown sugar, and lemon juice ( you may adjust sugar and lemon amounts by taste)
  • when apples start to get soft, use a potato masher to squish them down to an almost applesauce consistency( think chunky applesauce)
  • add cornstarch to thicken

Bring to a boil and simmer for 15 min

The buttercream is just a basic buttercream recipe. No frills.

  • Cream together butter and powdered sugar
  • add cream
  • Slowly add caramel and taste as you go

You can use homemade or store bought caramel sauce. I personally just used store bought because we had it in the house and what else was I going to use it for?

For the drizzle, I used roughly 1/4 cup of the caramel sauce and added salt to taste. Heat it in the microwave for 10-15 second bursts so that the salt will melt. Put as much or as little on top of the cupcakes as you like. You can also omit this step completely if you prefer.

Thats it! If you make this, let me know how it goes 🙂

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bKRSwaz7J4E&t=31s