Thursday, December 15, 2011

The Wonderful World of Blogs

When I'm looking for a specific recipe or just something new to try, I check a few blogs before I search the Internet. I figured I would put my favorites here, so it will make it easier to find them. I'll add more as I discover them.

Zoom Yummy
A wonderful, inspiring blog. Not only does this woman cook, she also does crafts/knitting.

Confessions of a Cook Book Queen
If you are looking for an amazing holiday treat or just something sweet and pretty, she's your gal. Her desserts are as creative as they are yummy.

Sprinkle Bakes
This is another lady that makes beautiful desserts. I might make her Sparkling Champagne Cupcakes for NYE.

Bake it in a cake
This site is totally dedicated to a dessert being baked into another desert. It's just awesome!

How sweet It Is
She has great savory and sweet recipes on her blog.

 Kevin & Amanda
This is a new blog I just stumbled upon. They have a little of everything mixed in with their recipes.

Baking with Basil
This was one of the first blogs I ever read. Her desserts are amazing. My favorite is the Lemon Cupcakes with Blueberry Frosting. She also has a nice link to many other blogs. Link to other blogs. 

Cake Spy
This blog writes about bakeries and baking experiences. They also have a long list of wonderful recipes to try.

Bakingdom
She has recipes for dog treats!

Cupcake Projects
Cupcakes!!!





Tuesday, December 13, 2011

The Hunt for The Best Chocolate Cupcake Recipe.

I love baking elaborate, decadent desserts. And thanks to wonderful food blogs and Allrecipes, I have had success with most of what I have made. I have done recipes from scratch and using box mixes. I've made baked goods, cold desserts, and no-bake desserts.  I love sweets! Over the years I have made chocolate pudding pies, cookie dough truffles,  honey bun bundt cakes, cherry cheesecakes, fruit pizza, brownies, drop cookies, and lemon cupcakes with a blueberry frosting. And then it dawned on me, I've never made a vanilla or chocolate cake or cupcake. How strange? In my attempt to make amazing desserts, I missed out on the most basic of all, the chocolate or vanilla cupcake. I tend to set weekly food goals, and this week I was to find a simple and tasty chocolate cupcake recipe.

How hard could it be? It's one of the most basic of recipes. Wow, was I wrong! It was not easy at all! I first checked my trusty Allrecipes site and could not find a recipe from scratch  that was rated over four stars. I rarely make anything from that site that is under a five star rating so off to Google for a search. After looking through a few of the search pages, I was still disappointed with most of what I found.  Some of the well rated chocolate cupcakes were made with brewed coffee, which did not appeal to me. I finally after much searching found a blog recipe that I liked and was simple enough that it wouldn't take much time to try out. Then I started to read the reviews, and many of the reviewers had complained of the cupcakes caving in and flattening.  I knew there were several types of cocoa powders and decided to do some research and found this:  Types of cocoa powder. The recipe didn't specify what type of cocoa powder to use but had baking powder as an ingredient. From what I read at Joy of Baking is that with baking powder, you use  Dutch-Processed powder not natural unsweetened cocoapowder. After my research, I had lost all faith in the recipe and started a new search.

I decided to search on Food Network. There has to be something I like on their site because they do run a whole network based on food! But it STILL was not easy to find a simple non-coffee as an ingredient chocolate cupcake recipe. I had to look through pages and pages of recipes! Finally, I found a simple chocolate cupcake recipe: Chocolate Cupcakes After all that searching this was it; I'm done. This IS the recipe I will try. I didn't want to use my expensive cocoa for a test recipe and hadn't even heard of Scharffen Berger, so I used a basic natural cocoa powder. And what a great decision! The cupcakes had a wonderful chocolate flavor, great texture, and a moist taste. After the success of this recipe, I will consider buying the Scharffen Berger to try next time I make these cupcakes.

It might have taken me several hours of research, but it was definitely worth it. Since it is a weeknight and this was just a test recipe, I used canned frosting. But next time I will try the frosting that goes with the recipe. I really like this recipe, but I might try a couple other chocolate cupcake recipes for comparison. But I think next week I will try to find a good vanilla cupcake recipe. Let's hope it is easier than finding a chocolate cupcake recipe.