the week of lists

19 Jul

I’ve been having a bit of a harder time getting back into writing regular blog posts than I had anticipated.  I’ve gotten over the apprehension that was keeping me from blogging regularly for the past year, and I really want to write now. I have many things in my mind that I want to put on these electronic pages, but I’m having a hard time finding my voice again, I think.  That and I have about a million things floating around in my mind that I need to get sorted into some sort of cohesive mix. To help with that, I’m declaring this week the week of lists.

Red Velvet Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting

16 Jul

As promised, here is the recipe I used for the Red Velvet cupcakes in jars for my Random Act of Cupcakes.  This recipe is based on a recipe from the Joy of Baking.  The first time I made a red velvet cake it was for my friends wedding cake.   The recipe I used was amazing!  Sadly over the years I lost it. I remember that specific recipe because it called for lard, and I remember being completely grossed out by that.  I swapped the lard out for shortening, and it was amazing.

I started using the Joy of Baking recipe back in 2007 but I found that it didn’t taste quite as good as the one  from before so I switched it up a tiny bit to resemble that old recipe.  Now I find it tastes just like my memory of that old one recipe.

Red Velvet Cupcakes

2 1/2 cups cake flour
1/2 tsp salt
2 tbsp Dutch-processed cocoa powder
1/2 cup shortening
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup buttermilk
red food coloring (I find the paste or gel works best. You have to use a lot)
1 tsp white distilled vinegar
1 tsp baking soda

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) and place rack in center of oven.

In a mixing bowl sift together the flour, salt, and cocoa powder. Set aside.

In bowl of your electric mixer, or with a hand mixer, beat the shortening until soft (about 1-2 minutes). Add the sugar and beat until light and fluffy (about 2-3 minutes). Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Scrape down the sides of the bowl. Add the vanilla extract and beat until combined.

In a measuring cup whisk the buttermilk with the red food coloring. With the mixer on low speed, alternately add the flour mixture and buttermilk to the butter mixture, in three additions, beginning and ending with the flour.

In a small cup combine the vinegar and baking soda. Allow the mixture to fizz and then quickly fold into the cake batter.

Working quickly, scoop the batter into lined cupcake tins.

Bake for 20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cakes comes out clean.
Remove from the pans and allow to cool on a wire rack for 10 minutes.

Cream Cheese Frosting

2 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup butter, softened
2 cups sifted confectioners’ sugar (plus more depending on the thickness and consistency you are looking for)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

In a mixing bowl, cream together the cream cheese and butter.

Add the vanilla, then gradually beat in the icing sugar.

Voila!

Random Act of Cupcakes

16 Jul

I woke up yesterday morning and declared it Cupcake Thursday; but instead of just going out and treating myself to a cupcake I thought it would be more fun to treat others to some.  So, I took to twitter and asked if anyone was interested in having cupcakes.  Within seconds I had replies!  I decided to pick the first two people who responded (Corey Tamas and Dana aka Wankergirl).

I’m pretty sure they both thought I was kidding – I mean, cupcakes delivered absolutely free, with no strings attached just because some crazy twitter chick wanted to do something nice.  meh. works for me.

So how does a grrl bake up a batch of cupcakes to send to her favourite tweeps? Remember the cupcakes in little jars I made and sent to my dad to surprise him last Father’s Day? That’s how!

This time I made red velvet with cream cheese frosting.
(I will post the recipe this afternoon.)

I packed them up and shipped them out this morning.

and now I wait. I hope they like them :)

I think we should start a Random Act of Cupcakes movement!  Send someone cupcakes and make them smile!

moshing

13 Jul

We arrive at the Sound Academy amidst a throng of baby doll dresses and fishnet stockings; we make our way past the most gay men I have ever seen in one place at the same time (who knew Courtney was so big with the gay boys!?), and we proceed to the VIP line where we are – get this – ID-ed.  We move on to the stairs, get our bracelets and make our way up to the balcony.  As I look down at the floor below I feel my heart sink as I see an opening about 5 people back from front-row-centre. I look over at Joni and say “You realize there’s no way in hell I’m staying up here, don’t you.”

She takes a gulp of her wine as, I am certain, she is flashing back to 1995 – memories of herself screaming at me to kill the Hole (or she will kill me) run through her head.  “I think I need another one of these first”, she moans, as she heads back to the bar.

A few minutes later we’re standing on the club floor surrounded by what I can only describe as a motley crew of teenage whores.  I love it.

We stand, chat, fight off people trying to force their way past us for a better spot, all while a young band from Ireland tries to get the crowd pumped for the show that is about to begin. There is no need – the crowd is rife with anticipation. You can hear people wonder aloud whether Courtney will show, if she will be out of it, will she be on a tirade, will it be a good show…   It’s funny how everyone wonders the same thing.

Anticipation builds until the band finally takes to the stage.  Courtney wales out the lyrics of Pretty on the Inside, then kicks it in to a heavy version of Sympathy for the Devil.  She transitions into Miss World and I see two young girls in white baby doll dresses and plastic tiaras singing along to the words in front of us.  I lean over to Joni and scream “you realize we have tattoos older than some of these people, right?” She nods and looks at her feet.

Before she gets a chance to raise her head I am jumping on the shoulders of the guy in front of me and headed for the mosh pit.  Old habits die hard.

Saturday night

13 Jul

After 16 years of waiting I finally got to see Hole (er, Courtney Love) live in concert on Saturday night. It was better than I ever imagined it could be.

My friend and I had VIP tickets at the Sound Academy. BTW: If you ever get a chance to check out a show there you should. It is a fantastic venue for live music.

Here we are hanging out after the show.  I am very sweaty and my heavy eyeliner is smudged… just like it should be after a Hole show.

Not Your Mama’s Coleslaw

13 Jul

I came up with this coleslaw last summer when I was looking for something really pretty to include in a cookbook that I was working on.

I had a head of red cabbage in the fridge, and threw it together with a mishmash of other goodies I had lying around, and what I came up with has turned out to be my absolute favourite thing to serve with my world famous El Bandito Chili Rubbed Ribs.  It’s definitely not the coleslaw I grew up with.

Not Your Mama’s Coleslaw

1 small head red cabbage, very thinly sliced
2 large carrots, peeled and julienne or shredded
1 small green pepper, chopped into small cubes
1 can mandarin oranges, drained (but reserving juice)
2 green onions, chopped
1 cup chopped, fresh parsley
1/2 cup dried cranberries
1/2 cup raisins
1/4 cup sunflower or pumpkin seeds
1/4 cup sliced almonds
1/4 cup olive oil
1/2 cup white wine vinegar
1 clove garlic, crushed (optional)
Salt & pepper

Add cabbage, carrots, green pepper, mandarin orange segments, onions, parsley, cranberries, raisins, seeds and almonds to a large bowl.

In a small bowl or large measuring cup mix the oil, vinegar (garlic if you are using it) and reserved mandarin orange syrup. Stir well.

Pour over the salad and season with salt and pepper. Toss to ensure the dressing is evenly distributed.

channeling my rage

9 Jul

I have tickets to see Courtney Love in Toronto this weekend, and I fully plan to channel 16 years of pent-up rage into every second of that show.  When I emerge I imagine I will be a sweaty, bruised, and completely content pile of satisfied mush.

a new home

27 Jun

After three years at on wordpress.com – well, three years including my little bloggy hiatus – I am finally moving over to a hosted site.  There’s just more flexibility with a hosted site, and I have some pretty cool opportunities coming up so it was definitely the way to go.  I have so many things to post – recipes, DIY projects that I’ve been working on, travel adventures, life with an uber allergic pet, and soooo much more!  It’s a pretty exciting time for me right now, and I want to share it everyone! Most of all, I miss the interaction with other bloggers.

I will keep my posts up here for the time being for those who get here via google searches for “marshmallow frosting” and “Nivea challenge” (I still get dozens of visits from those searches daily…crazy!)

If you subscribe to A Grrl’s Wrrld, please update your bookmarks.  If you don’t, you should!!
A Grrl’s Wrrld can now be found here.

Lemon Burst! Cupcakes

26 Jun

the lovely sassyredhead answered my cry for lawnmower a few weeks back, and offered to trade it to me in exchange for a batch of cupcakes.  Now how could I resist that trade?!  We chatted for a bit, and she decided on lemon cupcakes.  I’ve been wanting to make some lemony cupcakes for a while so it was perfect.

The recipe I used was based on a Kraft lemon cream cheese cupcake, but I added a lemon curd filling.  The recipe says it makes 24 cupcakes, but I would like to know how on earth that is possible.  I got 14.
Here is my slightly modified recipe:

Lemon Burst! Cupcakes

1 pkg. (2-layer size) white cake mix
1 pkg. (3.4 oz.) lemon flavour instant pudding
1 cup water
4 egg whites
2 tbsp. oil
prepared lemon curd
1, 8 oz pkg cream cheese, softened
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter, softened
2 Tbsp. lemon juice or 1 tsp pure lemon extract
1 pkg. (16 oz.) powdered sugar

Preheat oven to 350ºF.

Beat the first 5 ingredients in large bowl with mixer on low speed until moistened. Beat on medium speed 2 min. Spoon into 24 paper-lined muffin cups.

Bake for 21 to 24 min. or until toothpick inserted in centers comes out clean. Remove from pans and allow cupcakes to cool.

Filling:
Fill a frosting bag (equipped with a round tip) with lemon curd.  Insert the decorating tip deep into the top of the cupcake and squeeze the curd into the centre of the cupcake.  I found that I got more filling in there when I swirled the tip around inside the cupcake a bit. Gently pull the tip out as the curd fills the cupcake.  Continue this until you have filled all of the cupcakes.

As the cupcakes are cooling

Frosting:
Beat cream cheese, butter and juice with mixer until well blended. Gradually add sugar, beating on low speed after each addition until well blended. Fill a frosting bag with the icing and pipe it on the cupcakes.

Lessons learned:
I used lemon extract instead of lemon juice because I wanted to have a really nice strong lemon flavour.  What I hadn’t counted on was that the extract being a bit oil-based, played havoc with the frosting, and made it a bit runnier than I would have liked.  This resulted in me adding even more icing sugar than I would have wanted to.  The frosting tasted really really sweet.  In the future I will definitely use the lemon juice instead.  Lucky for me, the sweet icing still went really well with the cupcake.

The cupcakes that I made for sassyredhead were decorated with blue, yellow and white frosting.  For myself I opted for simple white with a lemon slice candy. I ate 2 or them myself, and gave the remaining 6 to Roz! Hope she likes them :)

These cupcakes are definitely worth making.  Very, very delicious!

Random Photo Friday

25 Jun

renoGRRL.

The bathroom pipes exploded, which gave me the perfect excuse to completely destroy the avocado green.  This weekend I will be doing renos on this house – fortunately on a much smaller scale.

June 2004

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