Apple Bran Muffins

Unfortunately this will be my last baking adventure for a while. I have enjoyed this project very much because it allowed me to bake every few weeks without having to come up with a reason why. I enjoy baking but don't get to do it very often due to school. This last recipe was inspired by my dad. He wanted me to make him some bran muffins for a quick breakfast food. 

Buttermilk substitutes

These muffins were fairly easy to make although I did have to make a few substitutions. The original ingredients were to have "bran muffin mix and buttermilk" (Byrn 233). When I went to the store, I

could only find oat bran muffin mix so I substituted that for the bran mix. The other substitution I made was making acidified milk to substitute for butter milk "one tablespoon lemon juice to a liquid measuring cup, and add enough milk until it measures 1 cup. Stir, and let sit for five minutes before using." (epicurious.com). I opted to make the acidified milk instead of buying buttermilk because I did not need more than about 2 cups of the buttermilk since I decided to double the recipe.

Ingredients

As I mentioned I had doubled this recipe since the original said it only made "6-7 muffins" (Byrn 233). I doubled this recipe thinking it would give me 12-14 muffins but instead got 28 muffins! I was really surprised since that was close to triple of the original recipe. As I was looking back at my cookbook I found why this might have happened, I had used two boxes of muffin mix which totaled to about 28 ounces of muffin mix. In order to stick with the double recipe I would have only needed one box since the original recipe only called for one seven ounce box of muffin mix.

Finished product! They were so good I would sometimes eat them for snack

Question: What is your favorite breakfast food?

Byrn, Anne. Cupcakes from the Cake Mix Doctor. New York, Workman Pub., 2005. 

Stockwell, Anna. "The Best Buttermilk Substitutes." Epicurious, Conde Nast, 27 Feb. 2015, 

     www.epicurious.com/ingredients/substitute-buttermilk-baking-article.

Cookies n' Cream Cupcakes

I remembered my mom baking these for my birthday when I was in elementary school, and I also remembered loving them because they were so delicious and creamy. I was really excited when I found this recipe in this cookbook.

Cupcake batter

While I was making these cupcakes I discovered just how hard it is to split an Oreo cookie. According to the cookbook you were supposed to "Count out 12 Oreos and separate the top and bottom wafers. Make sure each has some of the icing on it" (Byrn, page 136). I found it very difficult to get half of the creamy filling on each wafer half. While attempting this I ended up breaking several of the wafer halves because I was trying to put the icing on the half. In the end I swapped out the broken wafers for whole ones since I knew that I had to crush Oreos later on. My solution to getting the cream on each wafer was to spread the cream with a knife on the empty half.

Frosting the cupcakes

Buttercream frosting ingredients

This time when I made these cupcakes I waited a day before frosting them. I did this in part because it was late when I finished baking them but also because I didn't want to clean the mixing bowl that night so I could make the frosting. I didn't want to wait for the cupcakes to cool off before placing them in a container to insure that they stayed moist so I looked to Anne Byrn for advice. She suggests "If you are not going to frost the cupcakes within an hour, drape a clean, light kitchen towel (linen and cotton are best) over the cupcakes so they don't dry out" (Byrn, page 14). Draping the towel over the top of the cupcakes worked really well because they were still really moist the next day when I frosted them. After I had finished frosting the cupcakes I started putting the crushed Oreos on top of the cupcakes.

Finished product!

The cupcakes turned out great! I was especially excited that these turned out so well because I brought some to school to celebrate my friend's birthday. My friends loved them so much one of them asked me to bring them another one the day after! Another friend liked the cupcake I gave her so much she asked me to give her the recipe. I am so glad that all of my friends and family loved these cupcakes just as much as I did.

Question: What kind of topping do you like on your cupcake? What would you have done to keep your cupcakes moist? 

Lemon Butter Muffins

I got the inspiration for these muffins because I was bored one day over break and decided I wanted to bake. I didn't want to have to ask my parents to take me to the store so that I could get ingredients, so I was flipping through my cookbook to find a recipe that I had all of the ingredients for at home. I found this lemon butter muffin recipe and looked at the ingredients, I had everything except for the lemon zest that it called for. I tried to find a different recipe but couldn't find anything that beat out the lemon muffins. Since I didn't have the lemon zest, I decided that I would go to the Internet and do a quick Google search to see if there were any substitutes I could use. According to the Better Homes and Gardens website I could substitute 2 Tablespoons of lemon juice for 1 teaspoon of lemon extract.

I really wanted to do these muffins because my brother likes sour food such as warheads or lemons. Since he loves sour food so much I'm really happy with how these came out because they were tart. Everyone in my family loved the muffins and told me how delicious they were. The author was definitely right when in her description she wrote, "I prefer the pucker-up quality of a double the dose of lemon." (Byrn, 246).

My muffins glazed and ready to be eaten!

I think the one thing that would have made these better is if I had used real lemon zest instead of the lemon juice substitute. Not only would the zest have made the muffins more tart in my opinion, but it also would have made for less work. The book says "Add the egg, milk, 3 tablespoons lemon juice, and 1 teaspoon lemon zest" (Byrn, 247). This was hard to mix together because of the added liquid, I totally though just looking at my batter that this recipe was going to be a flop. Things started looking up after I added the flour. The dough looked significantly less like liquid. When they came out of the oven they were perfectly done. I was really shocked since I thought that I would be blogging a fail. Overall these muffins turned out really well considering I did it all without much previous planning.

My question for you is:

Do you like tart/sour food? If you made these muffins and had no lemon zest what would you have done?

Byrn, Anne. Cupcakes from the Cake Mix Doctor. New York, Workman Pub., 2005.  

Red Velvet Cupcakes

This break I had some time to bake, and so I decided I was going to make myself some birthday cupcakes! So, I started flipping through my book looking for a recipe that I wanted to make and share with my friends.

While I was making these red velvet cupcakes, I discovered that sometimes you need more than one mixing bowl ready. I had to hand wash my mixing bowl and several other items while the cupcakes baked in the oven so that I could start making my cream cheese frosting. I also learned that sometimes it's better to have leftover batter, because I accidentally filled a few of my cupcakes too full and they overflowed a little in the oven while baking. I'm glad that my mom has always told me to put muffins, cookies, cupcakes, etc. in for 1-2 minutes less than what the directions say. When I put these cupcakes into the oven the book says "Bake the cupcakes until they spring back when lightly pressed with your finger, 16-20 minutes." (Byrn) but because I listened to my mom I put them in for 15 minutes instead and they came out perfectly done with just 15 minutes.

My cupcakes all frosted and done

I followed the original recipe exactly, not substituting or changing anything like I did with my blueberry banana muffins. The only thing I did differently from the book was that I didn't put a chocolate bow on top because I ran out of time. I was really impressed with how good and moist these cupcakes were. If I did this again I would like to try putting the chocolate bows on top of the cupcakes. I think that the cupcakes looked nice without the bows, but it would make them look more ready for the holidays and different from regular cupcakes. The book also suggested "If you don't want to pipe out 24 bows, you can easily pipe out Christmas trees, Stars of David, or other holiday symbols...You can also keep the frosting white and sprinkle it with some white sugar sprinkles to give it a snowy effect" (Byrn). I think these are cool suggestions that I would try next time I make these cupcakes.

My question to you is: what decoration would you put on cupcakes to make them look holiday ready?

Byrn, Anne. Cupcakes from the Cake Mix Doctor. New York, Workman Pub., 2005.  

Blueberry Banana Muffins

My name is Alyssa Weber and I choose to work on baking cupcakes for my IRP this quarter using the book Cupcakes! From the Cake Mix Doctor by Anne Byrn. Before I started looking at the book I really only knew how to make basic cupcakes.

Cover of the book I am using

While I was making these muffins I had some struggles and some successes. Some of the successes I had were the muffins coming out perfectly in terms of being under or over done, the muffins were also very moist. The muffins were fairly easy to make which I was happy about since it was my first time making muffins and it was on a school night. However, I did face some struggles, I had to put my muffins in for more time then they needed according to the cookbook it would take "20-23 minutes to bake" (Byrn) but it took closer to 30 minutes to bake.

My Blueberry Banana Muffins

According to the original recipe, I was supposed to put a pecan topping on my cupcakes. I don't like very many nuts so I decided to change the topping. On the previous page there was a recipe for blueberry yogurt streusel muffins. Since the two muffins were very similar, I thought that I would try to alter the original recipe and put the streusel topping on my muffins instead of leaving them plain or using the pecan topping. I was really proud of how these muffins turned out because not only did they look really tasty but they filled my whole house with a heavenly scent as they were baking and cooling. I even took some muffins to school and gave some to my friends and teachers. When I went to visit my cousins I took some muffins and took the advice of Anne Byrn "I froze the leftover muffins and reheated them a week later for a hurried breakfast" (Byrn). They were a big hit with everyone I shared them with. One of my teachers absolutely loved it, and my cousin loved them so much that she asked me before I left if she and her husband could keep some because she liked them so much!

I told how I changed my muffin recipe because I don't like nuts, how would you suggest changing a recipe if there's an ingredient you don't like? Are there any foods you don't like?

Byrn, Anne. Cupcakes from the Cake Mix Doctor. New York, Workman Pub., 2005.