A Culinary Adventure

One day I wish to own a bakery of my own, and I thought this food blog would be a great way to keep myself motivated and try new recipes! So join me as I embark on a journey through the world of baking!

[8bitcupcake-blog]

Huckleberry (or Blueberry) Muffins

So earlier this summer I went up to Washington and picked huckleberries! I wondered for a while what to make with them, and then decided that muffins would be divine. You can use blueberries instead of huckleberries though, because I know they aren't available everywhere, and they're more expensive when they are. 

So here's what you'll need:

1/2 cup butter

3/4 cups sugar

1 egg

3/4 cup milk

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 3/4 cups sifted flour

2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup huckleberries or blueberries 

1 tablespoon flour

Makes about 15 muffins!

Some of my berries were a little sour, so I put them in a bowl and sprinkled a bit of vanilla sugar over them, then let them sit in the fridge for about twenty minutes. 

So first, cream the butter and sugar together. Then mix in the egg, milk and vanilla. Set aside.

Combine the baking powder, salt and 1 3/4 cups of flour. Add to the butter mixture and stir until just moistened. 

Toss the berries with the remaining tablespoon of flour to coat, and then fold them into the batter. 

Fill the prepared muffin cups 2/3 of the way, and bake at 400 degrees for 15 minutes. 

Yum!

[8bitcupcake-blog]

Brown Sugar Heath Bit Cookies

I made these cookies thinking they would be butterscotch flavored, but they didn't REALLY taste like butterscotch. Maybe a little. They're still really tasty, though. 

Here's what you'll need:

1/2 cup butter

3/4 cup packed brown sugar (I didn't have dark brown, maybe that's why they weren't very butterscotchy?)

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1 egg

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

6 oz Heath Bits

Beat the butter and sugar until smooth and creamy. Add the sugar and baking soda, and beat the mixture until combined. Make sure to keep the sides of your bowl clean with a spatula! Beat in the egg and vanilla until combined. Beat in as much flour as you can with the electric mixer, and then stir in the remaining flour. Stir in the Heath bits, and that's it!

Drop by teaspoons 2 inches apart on an ungreased sheet and bake at 375 degrees for 8-10 minutes. 

[8bitcupcake-blog]

Puppy Chow/Muddy Buddies

I haven't made anything in so long, and I really do apologize! I'll have my oven up and running next week, hopefully. But in the mean time, let's make puppy chow! If you're from Oregon. If you didn't grow up here, you might call it muddy buddies. I don't really think this is worth having on a blog because I think everyone knows how to make it already??? But oh well, I haven't made anything else recently, so here you go!

4 1/2 cups Chex cereal

1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips

1/4 cup peanut butter

1/8 cup (2 tablespoons) butter or margarine 

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

3/4 cups powdered sugar

I halved the recipe because it's huge, but this is more than enough I think. Unless you're having a party, then you might want to double this. 

Put the Chex in a large bowl for later use. Melt the chocolate chips, peanut butter and butter in the microwave for one minute, stir and then another 30 seconds. Stir until smooth.Pour the mixture over the Chex, and mix it up until the cereal is coated. Put it in a bag or container (don't do this in the beginning because it can melt, or damage the integrity of the plastic), add the powdered sugar and shake until covered, making sure there's not any loose sugar. Then set it in the fridge and let it cool before indulging your sweet tooth!

I don't have any pictures because I wasn't thinking about putting it up here, but it really is a delicious treat.

[8bitcupcake-blog]

My oven isn't working and I don't know what is wrong with it and I haven't baked in so long... But my mom who is a wonder with that sort of thing is coming over to check it out sometime next week so that's great. 

[8bitcupcake-blog]

Don't have any cake flour?

For every cup of cake flour required in a recipe, you can use one cup minus two tablespoons of all-purpose flour. So one and a half cups of cake flour could be replaced with 1 and 1/4 cup and one tablespoon of all-purpose flour! (there are four tablespoons in 1/4 cup.)

The more you know!

[8bitcupcake-blog]

Buttermilk Substitution

Buttermilk is an ingredient I rarely have on hand. It's easy to substitute, though! Just add one tablespoon of vinegar to a one cup measuring cup, fill it the rest of the way with milk, and let it sit five minutes. Then you've got yourself the equivalent of buttermilk! That's what I used in my red velvet cake and honey cupcakes. 

[8bitcupcake-blog]

I'm Sorry I Was Gone!!!

I've been very busy lately, and I wasn't home for the past few days, so I'm sorry I've been missing. But I'm back, and I've flooded your dashboards with recipes that I sincerely hope you'll all enjoy! Kisses for all of my lovely followers! u3u 

[8bitcupcake-blog]

Confetti Frosting

So my step-mom wanted confetti frosting on her birthday cake. So what? 

I decided to make it from scratch, so I tried a new vanilla frosting recipe, and just added sprinkles to it. It turned out pretty tasty, though I don't think I'll put it on a red velvet cake again. Chocolate, vanilla, white, yellow, honey... pretty much anything but red velvet. But still, it was yummy.

So here it is:

1 cup butter, room temperature

3-4 cups powdered sugar

1/4 cup heavy cream

1 teaspoon vanilla

salt, to taste

Beat the butter three minutes, or until smooth. 

Add the sugar, cream and vanilla. Beat another three minutes. Add salt if too sweet, and as much powdered sugar as you need to meet your desired consistency. 

That's it! Frosting is really pretty simple once you get used to it. (Don't be as messy as me though, clean the sides of your bowl!)

[8bitcupcake-blog]

Red Velvet Cake

So here's a story. I forgot it was Saturday yesterday. I thought it was Friday until 2:30, when my step-mom called me up and asked me if we were still coming over for her birthday. I freaked out a little, but I played it cool. Okay not really, I was like "holy cow today's Saturday?!?! Sure we'll be over!" And then I had to rush to make the cake I had promised her so that it would be finished and frosted by the time my boyfriend and our room mate, who's also my best friend/surrogate brother came home. Which would be around four. So, good luck with that. We ended up leaving around five-thirty, because the cake hadn't cooled down enough to frost. 

Anyway, I got frustrated a few times because I was in a hurry, but the cake still ended up really swell, and my step-mom, who's a pretty harsh critic, raved about it. So here it is, my first attempt at a red velvet cake:

1/2 cup shortening

1/4 cup + 2 tablespoons vegetable oil

2 eggs

1 1/2 cup sugar

2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder

2 1/2 cups cake flour 

1 teaspoon salt

1 cup buttermilk

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 1/2 teaspoon baking soda - Make sure your baking soda does not have ANY clumps! Sift it if you need to, this is VERY important!

1 teaspoon vinegar

The recipe called for two whole ounces of red food coloring! I didn't really care if my cake was RED red, but I did add a few drops (around five or six), because I wasn't sure how red it would turn out naturally. The food coloring is entirely optional, since it won't actually change the flavor of the cake... unless you use two ounces, in which case your cake might taste a bit synthetic. Next time I might omit it completely.

Grease two 9-inch round baking pans and preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Cream together the shortening, oil, eggs, sugar, cocoa powder and any food coloring you might want to use. 

Sift the flour and salt together into a bowl. Add this to the batter with the buttermilk in three additions, beating well between each. Add the vanilla and mix until combined.

Fold in the vinegar and baking soda, and get it into the prepared pans as quick as you can! The reaction between the ingredients, namely the vinegar and baking soda, is very sensitive and needs to get into the oven as quick as possible.

Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. 

Fresh out of the oven! 

I put them on the cooling rack before I should have because I was in a hurry... they ended up sticking on there and I had to be very careful about getting them off. Haha. 

Again, I was in a hurry so I didn't do anything fancy. Also, the frosting was melting out of the center by the time we got there. I never thought I would curse the weather for being so nice! 

A slice of heaven. It really was a good cake, very moist. Maybe not as red as some would prefer, but I thought it was a gorgeous wine color. My step-mom asked us to take home half of what was left, and even that's a compliment. They rarely eat baked goods over there. 

[8bitcupcake-blog]

White Chocolate Ganache

I wanted to make a cake for my boyfriend's gluten-free niece, and attempted a flourless chocolate cake. And I was out of eggs, so I tried using flax seed as a substitute, which usually works... But this time it did not, so I was stuck with a bunch of unused white chocolate ganache. This did turn out well, so I thought I'd share the recipe with you guys! 

It's simple, one cup (8 oz) chopped chocolate to every one cup heavy cream. I used 1/2 cup of each, since I was making a small cake.

You can use any kind of chocolate you'd like: dark semi-sweet or milk. But I chose white. And because white chocolate isn't as firm as the other kinds (it doesn't actually have any chocolate in it, it's mostly cream), I used a little less than half a cup of heavy cream. 

I did add about half a teaspoon of natural rum flavoring, though. (the rum flavor I have is pretty strong)

First, shave your chocolate into easily melted pieces. I literally shaved them, which is easy enough to do with white chocolate, since it's pretty soft. 

Next, put the chocolate into a double boiler and heat it until it's just melted. It can have some chunks in it still, that's okay. 

I don't have a double boiler, so I set my 6x3-inch baking pan in a pot of boiling water. It works just as well. Okay, maybe not JUST as well, but it works! 

While you're melting the chocolate, bring the cream to JUST a boil, then reduce heat a bit and stir constantly anywhere from thirty seconds to a minute. You just want to scald it a bit, don't burn it! 

Pour the cream over the chocolate, and whisk the mixture until it's smooth. Let the ganache cool to room temperature, and it's done! Pour it over whatever you desire! If you want to use it later, you can put it in the fridge and heat it up again, or whip it while it's cold to make a yummy frosting!

(I poured the milk into the pan with the melted chocolate in it because I didn't want to dirty another bowl, and figured I'd use it right away anyhow. -_-')

[8bitcupcake-blog]

Honey Frosting

To go with the Honey Vanilla Cupcakes, I made a delightful honey frosting!

Ingredients: 

3/4 stick (6 Tablespoons) butter, room temperature 

2 ounces cream cheese, softened

1 1/2 cups powdered sugar

1 1/2 Tablespoons honey

Beat the butter and cream cheese until well combined and smooth. Gradually add the powdered sugar and mix well. Add the honey and beat until frosting holds together, and is your desired consistency. 

Here it is on the cupcakes!

I was in a bit of a rush because the guys wanted to eat them, and the recipe only makes six cupcakes. Haha.

[8bitcupcake-blog]

Honey Vanilla Cupcakes

Honey is one of nature's perfect flavors, pure and simple. I adore honey. I put gallons of it in my tea and coffee alone. Okay, that's an overstatement, probably a teaspoon - tablespoon max. But it's lovely, so I decided it was a good flavor for cupcakes. However, I was so excited with this idea that I forgot to take pictures of most of the process. Sorry!

Here's what you'll need for six cupcakes: 

1 stick (1/2 cup) butter, room temperature

3/4 cup sugar

2 eggs

1 1/2 cup flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup buttermilk

1/4 cup honey

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Seeds of 1 vanilla bean (If you want to make honey cupcakes without so much vanilla, omit the bean and use 1 teaspoon vanilla extract instead of 1/2 teaspoon. They'll be just as tasty, only less vanilla!)

Sift together the dry ingredients (flour salt and baking powder), and set aside. 

Mix together the honey, vanilla and buttermilk in a separate bowl, and set aside.

Cream together the butter and sugar, then add the eggs, beating well after each. 

Alternately add the dry and wet ingredients to the butter mixture, for a total of three additions each. 

The batter will be a bit runny.

Prepare your cupcake pans and fill 2/3 full with batter. Bake at 350 degrees for 18-20 minutes. 

And there you have it! The perfect treat for summer!

[8bitcupcake-blog]

You have such a lovely blog!!<3

Aah, thank you so much! u3u

[8bitcupcake-blog]

I tried to make hot chocolate last night but it just... turned into... goop...  -rolls into the corner and dies- 

I guess I'll try again tonight... but cocoa instead, because I don't have any chocolate left. 

[bakeddd]

raspberry-white chocolate cookies

click here for recipe

[8bitcupcake-blog]

Holy cow how can anything be so good?!?! Got to try making these!

[8bitcupcake-blog]

Banana Streusel Snack Cake

I love banana and I adore a good streusel. Who doesn't? So when the two are combined, it's heavenly. The cake in the recipe I'm about to share is pretty much banana bread, but a little different than the recipe I use when I want bread. It's not as sweet as the banana cake I make, either. It's much different than that recipe, better for snacking and much more suited to a streusel. I'll give you guys both of those recipes when I get around to making them, but this time: Banana Streusel snack cake.

I know that I said the brownie recipe was perfect for tea or coffee... but this one takes the cake, pun intended. 

Now, we'll start off making the streusel and set that aside until the batter is done:

6 tablespoons flour

6 tablespoons packed light brown sugar (Dark is fine, too.)

3 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened (It's okay if you've only got salted.)

1 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

In a medium bowl, mix together the ingredients with your hands or a fork until the mixture is crumbly. And that's it for the streusel!

Now for the cake:

Lightly coat a 9x5x3-inch loaf pan with butter, cooking spray, oil or other edible non-stick substance of your choosing, and then coat it lightly with flour, tapping out the excess. Set that aside. Unfortunately, I only had an 8.5x4.5x3 at my disposal, and it had to cook longer. This caused the streusel to burn a tiny bit on one side. It still tastes great, but is a bit harder to bite into. I would really, really suggest using the right size pan. 

Center a rack in the oven like always, and preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. I think I've said this before, but I always wait to preheat the oven until after I'm at least halfway through making the batter, because it saves electricity (I care about the environment and my wallet), but I only bake when I've got a bunch of time on my hands. Most people do not have that luxury, so if you need the oven to be done the moment you finish the batter, go ahead and preheat now! 

2 cups flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt (unless you're using salted butter)

1 cup mashed ripe bananas (2 medium or 3 small usually, but measure it out!)

3 tablespoons milk (recipe calls for whole, I always have 2% and things turn out fine)

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 cup unsalted butter (or salted if you omitted the salt, but I really do prefer unsalted.)

1 cup sugar

1 large egg, lightly beaten

Sift together the flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt; set aside. Put the mashed bananas in a medium bowl and stir in the milk and vanilla. Set that aside, also. 

Mmm, banana goo.

Now, recipes always tell you to "Beat the butter and sugar until fluffy", or a variety of that anyway. But that's not really possible, is it? You've got to beat the butter until it's a bit creamy first, or you're going to have a hard time. How is sugar supposed to mix well with a block of butter??? It doesn't, that's how.

So, beat the butter a bit and THEN add the sugar and beat until it's light and fluffy. Much easier. Add the egg and beat that in until it's completely incorporated.

DELICIOUS. (Actually, it's pretty gross but I love the taste at this stage.)

Add the banana mixture and beat until combined.

(How the heck is this going to turn into a batter? It's just banana goop soup! Heh heh... I'm probably not as clever as I think I am.)

Then gradually add the flour mixture a bit at a time, beating each addition until it's just incorporated. 

Wowee! A beautiful cake/bread batter! (Sorry for the lack of photo quality.)

Now spoon the batter into your prepared pan and smooth the surface with the spatula, wooden spoon, or whatever else you were using to clean the sides of the bowl during mixing. (Because you should ALWAYS be cleaning the sides of the bowl, or else you'll have less batter and one of the key ingredients could get skewed, and it might turn out funny.) 

Sprinkle the streusel evenly over the top of the batter. I did take pictured of the batter in the pan, and then with the streusel, but they turned out horribly. And if you've seen the quality of picture I'm willing to use on here, you know they had to be REALLY BAD if I refused to use them.

Bake the snack cake at 350 for 40-50 minutes. When it's done, stick a toothpick or a metal knife in it, and if it comes out clean of batter, you're good to go! Let it cool a bit so you don't burn yourself, and then have at it!

[8bitcupcake-blog]

Cake-Like Brownies

Brownies are delicious. We all know this, right? And while all my friends like fudge brownies, I like them to be cakey. Not that I don't adore fudge brownies, that's not it at all. I just like a nice, soft chocolate treat every now and then. 

So here goes, a cake-like brownie recipe I've been using forever and ever:

1 1/4 cups sugar

3/4 cup butter or margarine (or any combination of the two)

1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

2 eggs

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla

1 1/2 cups flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1 cup milk

The recipe originally calls for a cup of walnuts or pecans, but since I don't like them I always leave them out. Instead, I sprinkled some mint baking chips on half of the brownies. (my boyfriend doesn't like mint)

You will need a greased 14x10 or 13x9 baking pan. 

In a small pan, melt the butter. Then add the sugar and cocoa powder and stir until everything's dissolved and completely combined. 

I'm a really messy cook. -_-' 

Anyways. Remove from heat and transfer to a mixing bowl. Add the eggs and vanilla, and with a whisk or wooden spoon beat lightly until just combined. 

Combine the flour, baking soda and baking powder in a seperate bowl. Add the flour mixture and milk alternately to the chocolate mixture, beating after each addition. Stir in nuts, baking chips, or whatever else you might want to add. 

Pour the batter into your prepared pan and bake at 350 degrees for about 20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out free of batter. Cool for an hour or so, and enjoy! Or do as I do and eat them right out of the oven, burn the top of your mouth and then desperately drink some cold milk. 

This is a terrible picture, and I've stuck it with a knife a bunch of times to see if it they were done (I'm out of toothpicks), but that's it! A delicious treat that's perfect with your tea or coffee.