Vanilla Cupcakes

I've been on the hunt for a decent vanilla cake or cupcake recipe for a while now, and I've finally found one I like. It's light and fluffy and tastes like butter and vanilla. I really like it. I made these for my friend's birthday the other day. I topped them with chocolate icing and white sprinkles... so it makes it hard to tell from the picture that they are vanilla cupcakes.

2 1/4 cups flour
3 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup milk
1 1/3 cups sugar
1 tsp vanilla (or more)
2 eggs
1/2 cup butter

Preheat oven to 350. Prepare 24 muffin cups.

Mix together the flour, baking powder and salt. Add the milk, vanilla and butter and beat well at medium speed for at least one minute. Add the eggs and beat again at medium speed for at least three more minutes, scraping the bowl as you go.

Fill muffin cups about 2/3rds full. Bake 20-25 minutes.

Adventure Time Cookies!

A couple weeks ago it was my boyfriend's birthday. I really wanted to make him a cake, but he lives about 8 hours away during the school year and cakes don't mail very well. So, I made him cookies instead!

 

Adventure Time Cookies! It's one of his favourite shows, so I figured he'd enjoy them. I made them with my sugar cookie dough and then decorated with royal icing, because it would ship better than buttercream. They actually held up really well to the shipping process. 

That's what they looked like when he found them! Of course then he told me that they were way too nice... and he can't bring himself to eat them. Except for the purple one, who is his least favourite. And he also ate the few non-Adventure Time ones that I squeezed into the box.

 

Then my roommates and I  ate the rest...

Disney Princess Cake

This is pretty much one of the funnest cakes I've ever made. It was for my friend who I've made two birthday cakes for before, Shamu and Jedi Mickey, and this year she was having a Disney Princess Tea Party birthday.

So, I decided to make the most insanely girly, Disney princess-y cake I possible could.

 With Darth Vader thrown in for good measure...

 Pretty much this was just a standard cake, made two tiered (which was all the birthday girl could say as she stared at it when it was brought out), and then covered in Pink Icing, Princesses, Darth Vader and a whole bunch of edible glitter!

I had so much fun working on this cake and I just love how it turned out!

Seahawks Birthday Cake

One of my uncles has his birthday on Christmas Eve. We were visiting him and my grandma for Christmas this year and so I made him a cake with his favourite NFL team on it!

Enchiladas

Just for clarification... in my house we call these burritos. However, I have since been informed that they should really be called enchiladas. I still tend to call them burritos, but for this post I will attempt to refer to them properly.

Enchiladas

1 recipe taco meat
1 (medium sized) can of tomato sauce (or enchilada sauce if you prefer, although this is hard to find here in Canada)
1 can refried beans
2 cups grated cheddar cheese
8 soft tortilla shells

Preheat oven to 350. In a 9x13 pan, spread out half of the tomato sauce. Prepare taco meat. With the stove still on a low setting, stir the refried beans into the taco meat until melted. Stir in 1 1/2 cups of grated cheese, until mostly melted. One at a time, take a taco shell, add 1/8th of the meat mixture, then fold at both ends and roll. Place rolled taco in pan. Repeat for all tacos until meat mixture is used up. Spread the rest of the tomato sauce on top of the enchiladas. Top with remaining cheese. Bake 20-25 minutes until cheese is melted and tomato sauce is bubbly.

Serve with sour cream and salsa!

Note: Usually I use tomato sauce, however for the picture above I was using green enchilada sauce. I really like green enchilada sauce but it is difficult to find in Canada.

Veggie Tales Christmas Cake

I made this cake yesterday for a Christmas party with a bunch of my friends. It also happened to be the day before the birthday of a friend of mine who loves Veggie Tales. So I incorporated the two into one cake.

Caramel Corn (and Broccoli Cauliflower Casserole)

This year for my church's annual Christmas banquet I was in charge of food organization again. It was a full turkey dinner, with potatoes, yams, corn and lots and lots of dessert! For dessert we had lots of different snacks, most of which I have posted recipes for already, including Turtles and Peanut Butter and Chocolate Cups. However, one of the things I have not posted the recipe for is my Caramel Corn!

1 cup butter
1 cups brown sugar
1/2 cup corn syrup
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 cup popcorn
1 cup nuts (optional, I prefer pecans)

Pop the popcorn. Preheat the oven to 250. Grease a very large cookie sheet, or two smaller cookie sheets. In a saucepan, melt butter. Stir in brown sugar and corn syrup until dissolved. Bring to a boil, without stirring. Remove from heat and add vanilla and baking soda. Stir gradually into popcorn (and nuts). Toss together, covering all the popcorn and nuts.

Bake for 1 hour, turning every 15 minutes.


I also made a Broccoli Cauliflower Casserole, which was also quite popular.

3 cups Broccoli and Cauliflower (half and half, or ratios as you like)
1 cup grated cheddar cheese
2 tbsp finely chopped onion
1 egg
1/2 cup mayonnaise

Cook (steam) broccoli and cauliflower. Preheat oven to 350. Mix with onion, egg, mayonnaise and half of the cheese. Spread in a shallow casserole dish and sprinkle with the rest of the cheese. Bake for 20 minutes.