Category: Baking

Cream Cheese Frosting

Carrie1 Comment

A favorite cupcake of mine is the red velvet cupcake.  We also feature them at my bakery, The Bread and Cheese Cupboard.  By the way, I am proud to announce that we were recognized as Best of the Shore in South Jersey Magazine for best breakfast.  Let’s get back to the topic of this post.  A red velvet cupcake is traditionally topped with cream cheese frosting.  Here’s a good recipe for this delicious, creamy frosting.  It is also great on carrot or pumpkin spice cupcakes as well.  The possibilities are endless!

Cream Cheese Frosting

1 package cream cheese (8oz.), 1 stick unsalted butter (softened), 1 box powdered sugar (16oz.), 2-3 tablespoons milk, 1 tsp vanilla extract

1. Combine cream cheese and butter in bowl using a hand mixer until light and fluffy.

2. Gradually add powdered sugar and 2 tbsp of milk and beat until smooth.  Add the vanilla extract.  Add more milk if you think the frosting is too thick.

Bananas Over Bananas

Sadie3 Comments

Before our regularly scheduled post today, major shout out is in order.  Carrie’s bakery (The Bread and Cheese Cupboard in Stone Harbor, NJ), was highlighted by South Jersey Magazine in a Best Of article about the Jersey Shore.  If you’re in the Stone Harbor area this summer, the bakery is a required field trip for coffee and morning treats for the fam.  She also has a ton of cheese (obvi), and gourmet packaged food like chip dips, snacks, spreads, the list goes on…  Ok now, back to bananas:

The opportunity to bake with bananas is contingent on poor planning.  I rarely get extra bananas at the grocery store, so I never have really ripe bananas that are only good for banana bread.  This week, I bought extra bananas so I could wait for the extras to get too ripe to eat. And then I made banana bread.  I forget where I got this recipe, but I think it’s a good one.

Banana Chocolate Chip Bread

Yields 2 8 x 4 loaves, or 4 mini loaves

Ingredients

  • 2 1/4 cup AP flour
  • 1 tsp baking soda
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1/2 tsp cinnamon
  • 1 stick unsalted butter
  • 3/4 cup sugar
  • 2 large eggs
  • 1 1/4 cup mashed ripe bananas (about 3)
  • 2/3 cup plain yogurt
  • 8 oz chocolate chips
  • 1 cup walnuts (chopped and toasted)

Method

  1. Preheat over to 375.  Prepare loaf pans with non-stick spray and/or parchment.
  2. Cream together butter and sugar.  Add eggs, banana, yogurt, and vanilla.
  3. Add flour and the rest of the dry ingredients.  Fold in chocolate chips and nuts.
  4. Portion the batter evenly into prepared loaf pans of choice.
  5. Bake 35-40 minutes for mini-loaf pans.  Longer for larger loaves, until tester comes out clean.

I’m curious, do you prefer the mini loaves or an 8 x 4?

I go back and forth between the two.  Mini loaves if I’m giving them to friends, larger loaves if I’m making it for a breakfast crowd at home.  My pet peeve, however, is when recipes just say “loaf pan” and they don’t specify the size: 8 x 4, 9 x 5, mini?  Godspeed…

Double Trouble

Sadie1 Comment

What do you know about Hartford, Connecticut?  My answer is: not much.  Which is interesting because that is where I am spending the summer.  I got a great summer internship in Hartford, so I had the fun task of finding a place to live for 10 weeks.  I hate apartment hunting, I seem to do it too often.  This is my 6th apartment since college, which doesn’t sound like a whole lot, but I had my five year college reunion this year.  That means I average less than a year in each apartment (not to mention a few stretches at the parents house between places).  At this point I can move with the best of them.

Pack the apartment? easy.

Cancel my utilities and start the new utilities?  no problem.

Deal with the cabel guy(s)? with pleasure.

Forward my mail? duh.

Change addresses for everything important? no sweat.

Hand over the old keys and get the new keys? ok.

Corral my brothers to do the heavy lifting and UHaul driving?  I’m going to need back up:

Dark Chocolate Cookies with Espresso

From Martha

Yields about 2 dozen (maybe less)

Ingredients

  • 1 cup flour
  • 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa
  • 1/2 tsp baking powder
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1 stick unsalted butter
  • 1 1/2 cup sugar
  • 2 eggs at room temp
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1 Tbs espresso powder
  • 8 oz bittersweet chocolate (4 oz to melt, and 4 oz to chop)

Method

  1. Preheat oven to 350.
  2. Sift together dry ingredients (flour, cocoa, baking powder, salt), and set aside.
  3. Cream together butter and sugar with an electric mixer.  Add eggs and vanilla.
  4. Add espresso powder to melted chocolate and combine with wet mixture.  Make sure the chocolate is not too warm because it will cook the eggs.  Combine slowly and keep mixing to avoid this problem.  Slowly add in dry mixture.  Finally, fold in chopped chocolate.
  5. Spoon dough onto parchment lined cookie sheets.  Bake at 350 for about 15 minutes. Remove cookies and allow to cool.

I’ve concluded that there is no such thing as an “easy move,” and my brothers will be in bad mood reguardless of the baked goods provided.  But these are certainly a step in the right direction and a much needed shot of sugar/chocolate/energy, during a long day of moving.

Do you have any good tricks or advice to make a move easier?