Margarita Cupcakes

I wish I could take credit for these, but I can't. I can however say that they were delicious!! And people loved them. I decorated mine with a lime slice and green sugar on the rim. Unfortunately, I didn't take a picture at the time but will be making them again soon so I'll do it them. In the meantime, enjoy the recipe from Good Things Catered.

Apricot Upside-Down Cake

Summer fruit is my all-time favorite! My grandmother used to have an enormous apricot tree that gave the best-tasting apricots. Every year she would make jam, and my dad would make pie. A coworker of mine has some extra apricots, and I said I would make something if he brought them in. So, this is my version of a Better Homes and Garden Pineapple Upside Down Cake, using apricots. It was delicious-definitely a crowd-pleaser!
**The apricot recipe is enough for 2 upside-down cakes. You will need to double the cake recipe below if you want to make 2 cakes.

Apricots:
This was not a real recipe, but something I made remembering what apricot pie filling kind of tasted like. So this is what I came up with to use on the bottom of the cakes instead of canned apricots. I used about 2 pounds of apricots for this recipe, eye-balling how much I would need to cover 2 9-inch cake pans. If you only make one cake, you would obviously need fewer apricots. However, you could always save the rest of the cooked fruit for other things, like topping ice cream or cottage cheese.

1. Heat a large sauce pan over medium-high heat and add a couple pats of butter to melt. Chop the apricots into bite-size pieces and add to the pan.

2. Add a few tablespoons of brown sugar to the apricots, a couple dashes of ground cinnamon and some nutmeg or allspice. I like using fresh ground nutmeg because it smells so good and its fun to use the micro-planer (which will be featured on its own post one day).

3. Let the apricots simmer and cook away for about 10 minutes until they are soft.

4. Turn off the heat and let them cool a bit before adding them to the cake pan. To help them cool and drain, I poured them into a strainer over a bowl. Save some of the juice for the cake mixture.

Cake:
The parts that are in italics are the pieces of the recipe that I altered from the original. The rest of the recipe is taken from the Pineapple Upside-Down Cake recipe from the Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook 75th Anniversary Edition, page 164. Some things have been left out of the original as well.

Oven: 350*F
Bake : 30 min
Makes: 1 9-inch cake or 8 servings

2 tbsp butter
1/3 c packed brown sugar
1 tbsp water
1 1/3 c all purpose flour
2/3 c granulated sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1/8 salt
1/3 c milk
1/3 c juice from the apricots cooked beforehand
1/4 c butter, softened
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla


1. Melt the 2 tbsp butter in a 9-inch cake pan. Stir in the brown sugar and 1 tbsp water. Add in enough cooked apricots to cover the entire bottom of the pan. Set pan aside.

2. In a medium mixing bowl, stir together flour, granulated sugar, baking powder, and salt. Add milk, juice, 1/4 c butter, egg, and vanilla. Whisk together to combine or mix with an electric mixer. Spoon batter over fruit in the prepared pan so it is evenly distributed over the fruit.

3. Bake at 350* for 30-35 minutes or until a wooden toothpick inserted near center comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack for 5 minutes. Loosen cake from pan; invert (turn upside down) onto a plate or serving platter.

Yummy Cinnamon Rolls

My friend Tobie and I share a love of baking. So we decided to try our hands at cinnamon rolls. She got inspiration from a great website called The Pioneer Woman. Tobie used the recipe for her cinnamon roll dough and then we added our own twist to it. We had to limit our creations to just 3 flavors of cinnamon rolls, reserving our other fantabulous ideas for when we open a bakery, after we win the lottery of course.

So Tobie made the dough the night before and then it looked like this in the morning.


Then we made our game plan. Three kinds of rolls: Brown sugar & Cinnamon, Apple Butter & Cinnamon and Apricot-Orange Almond. Really, the possibilities are endless, but like I said we had to limit ourselves. The dough we used was a very light dough, not too chewy either. It had a great texture to it. My favorite were the Apricot-Orange rolls, they weren't too sweet yet had a lot of flavor.

Basic Method for Cinnamon Rolls:
1. Melt some butter in a saucepan on low heat. We ended up using about 1 stick for all 3 kinds. Grease some pans to put the rolls with melted butter- round cake pans work nicely. Sprinkle flour on a smooth surface for rolling the dough. Don't forget to dust the rolling pin too, to prevent sticking.

2. Separate the dough into sections, we did 3 since we were doing 3 fillings. This makes it easier to roll. You will want to roll the dough into a rough rectangle shape until its about 1/4 inch thick.

3. Brush on melted butter all over the rectangle.
4. Add the filling evenly, trying to cover the entire surface. The one pictured is the Brown Sugar and Cinnamon.

5. Next start on one of the long ends, and roll the dough into one log.

6. Using a sharp knife and a sawing motion, cut the dough into 3/4 to 1 inch thick pieces. We started by trimming the funny ends off and then started to cut nice-looking pieces. The funny end-bits became our tasters. Place rolls into the pans, about 1/2 to 1 inch apart since the dough will rise a bit.

7. Let the rolls sit 20 to 30 minutes to rise, then bake at 400 degrees until light golden brown, about 15 to 18 minutes.


And now the fun part....the fillings!!!

#1 Brown Sugar and Cinnamon
Mix together about 3/4 cup brown sugar and 2tbsp ground cinnamon. Add a pinch of ground nutmeg or allspice (or both) and combine.

#2 Apple Butter and Cinnamon
Apple butter can be found in the jelly/jam section of the grocery store-or use any flavor spread you want. Spread the apple butter first on the dough. Then use the leftover brown sugar mix from the first batch and sprinkle it on top of the apple butter.


#3 Apricot-Orange Almond
I had an apricot-orange jam from Trader Joe's that we used to spread on the dough first. Then we took some toasted almonds and chopped them up and sprinkled them on top of the jam. Yummy!

Cookie-Off

At my work, a few of us decided it was time for a bake off, or actually a cookie-off. We decided to make chocolate chip cookies, with a spin if you choose. Three of us entered, myself, Dee and Janice. Dee did come out the winner, but all three recipes were worth sharing, all having different tastes. So here are all three-happy baking and decide for yourself which is the best. (Recipes are in order of the photo from left to right.)



Recipe #1 Dinah's Kitchen
I use the classic Nestle Toll House Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe. It is less sweet, more salt than the others, and I only use semi-sweet chips, my personal favorite.

* 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
* 1 teaspoon baking soda
* 1 teaspoon salt
* 1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
* 3/4 cup granulated sugar
* 3/4 cup packed brown sugar
* 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
* 2 large eggs
* 2 cups (12-oz. pkg.) NESTLÉ® TOLL HOUSE® Semi-Sweet Chocolate Morsels
* 1 cup chopped nuts

PREHEAT oven to 375° F.

COMBINE flour, baking soda and salt in small bowl. Beat butter, granulated sugar, brown sugar and vanilla extract in large mixer bowl until creamy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Gradually beat in flour mixture. Stir in morsels and nuts. Drop by rounded tablespoon onto ungreased baking sheets.

BAKE for 9 to 11 minutes or until golden brown. Cool on baking sheets for 2 minutes; remove to wire racks to cool completely.



Recipe #2 Janice's Kitchen
This was her first time ever to bake cookies!! And they were great, a bit sweeter than mine, but similar. She got the recipe from ask.com and Google.

* 1 cup softened butter
* 1 cup sugar
* 1 cup brown sugar
* 2 eggs
* 1 tsp. vanilla extract
* 2 cups flour
* ½ tsp salt
* 1 tsp baking powder
* 1 tsp baking soda
* 2 cups chocolate chips

Mix together butter, sugar, brown sugar. Add vanilla and eggs. Mix in flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda. Mix in chocolate chips. Drop 1” balls on ungreased cookie sheets, two inches apart, and bake at 375 for 7-9 minutes,




Recipe #3 Dee's Kitchen
She takes the cake for the most creative additions. Lots of ingredients, but it results in a sweeter cookie with lots of surprises.

* 2 2/3 cups flour
* 1 cup butter
* 1 cup brown sugar (packed)
* ¾ cup granulated sugar
* ¼ cup powdered sugar
* 1 tsp baking soda
* 2 eggs
* 2 tsp vanilla
* ¼ tsp rum extract
* ¼ cup oatmeal
* 2 Tbsp shredded coconut
* ½ cup chopped walnuts
* 1 bag milk chocolate chips
* ¼ bag of white chips
* 2 Tbsp milk

Sift the flour, granulated sugar, powdered sugar, and baking soda together. Mix the brown sugar, eggs, vanilla, rum, milk, and butter all together then slowly added the rest of the ingredients. Bake them at 350 degrees for 8-10min until the edges turn slight brown.