Posts tagged Martha Stewart
that's what she baked.
Adventures (and misadventures) in the kitchen from a novice baker.
Belated Valentine’s Day Post, Or: I’m sorry I’m not sorry
Warning… things are about to get cute.
For Valentine’s Day, because of our schedule’s, Tyler and I opted to do take-out. There is a short period of time between when Tyler gets home from work and I get too sleepy to function (aka, my bedtime) so it seemed like the best option to celebrate love-day. We decided upon sushi, and I offered to cover dessert. The last issue of Martha Stewart Living had a bunch of chocolate cake recipes, and I was excited to try one.
Tyler requested a chocolate cake, rich in flavor. The “fudgy brownie cake” recipe seemed about right. It involved no layers, or frosting, so I was a little skeptical, but I was trusting in Martha. When I bake something for the first time, I am always nervous. I surprisingly have yet to make brownies from scratch, or a flour-less cake (this one actually called for 3 tablespoons of flour), so I was in unfamiliar territories. I was making up my own chocolate substitutions since I didn’t have the kinds that were called for in the recipe and I wasn’t sure what “done” looked like. Regardless, I think I made the right call.
In the magazine, they suggest dusting the cake with cocoa powder, but I decided I wanted to try making a stencil and dusting some sort of image with confectionary sugar. A nice contrast on the dark cake. I was going to go with a simple heart, or our initials or something… but I decided to challenge myself.
Drawing in stencil form makes your brain have to think in a different way, lines have to connect, the eye has to create contours that aren’t there, sometimes you just have to suggest the idea of an image. I’m making it sound more complicated… I ended of drawing a mushroom and a cupcake. (For obvious reasons, on Instagram, our house is geotagged as “mushrooms and cupcakes.”) I thought I was brilliant.
I was really proud of myself because it actually worked. I bumped the stencil while lifting it, so that’s why you see some extra dots of confectionary sugar, but no big deal. I was so excited to share it with Tyler that I didn’t care if the cake was good anymore. Which it was, it was delicious and dense and sliced so clean you could eat it without utensils. All things worth noting, I guess. And also great compliment to sushi.
About that… I HAD to take a picture.
Cinnamon Oatmeal Pancakes (also a sneak peak at my new kitchen thus far)
Yesterday, Tyler and I were supposed to wake up early to do a 5K but it was pouring cats and dogs so we decided to forefit. Since I was already so awake so early on a Saturday morn, I decided to make pancakes. I approximately followed a recipe found on Martha Stewart, but played a lot with the ingredients and I don’t have a food processor (yet) so the texture was different. I’ve never had an oat-based pancake before (at least not that I can recall), and am glad I found another use for oatmeal. They weren’t super sweet, but tasted great with confectionary sugar and syrup or jelly (even though I halved the recipe, there was still enough to try lots of different toppings).
If you can’t figure it out, the first picture has my computer resting on a music stand. We picked it up for free on the side of the street a while back, and thought it would be great to use as a recipe stand in our new kitchen. It worked out super for me! The move is going well. We’re officially both out of our old places and all of our belongings are in the new place. We just have a lot of sorting and decorating left to do.
A Bath and A Book… er, Magazine
I talked about this once before. My weekly (really, bi-weekly) practice of taking a bath and reading to no sound but the piggy kitchen timer.
I left work early today because I got sick. I haven’t missed school all year because of sickness, until today, but something is not settled in my tummy and my body is not very happy right now. When I got home I slept for a couple of hours and took a bath and showered and now I’m back in bed. I am wearing my floral stretchies, drinking Pocari Sweat* and thinking about eating bread.
Most of my reading is done on my Kindle, but I don’t dare take that in the bath, so with the exception of Confessions of a French Baker, I often read Martha Stewart Living. I subscribe to minimal blogs, rarely read newspapers or fashion magazines, barely keep up with TV shows I like, but I subscribe to Martha Stewart Living and read it from cover to cover, every month.
(not the current, but a recent issue)
I like crafts, and baking (obviously) and organization, and entertaining and design. It’s kind of a guilty pleasure, but not really because I’m not ashamed. This month’s issue has a whole bunch of stuff on berries, I’m pretty excited.
*Pocari Sweat is a Japanese sports drink that often comes in powder and I often choose it over Gatorade to get back what I lost.
Pumpkin Pecan Chocolate Chip cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting
These (very delayed) birthday cupcakes were made for co-workers last week. Originally, I wanted to make cupcakes for, or close to people’s actual birthdays, but timing and life often doesn’t work out like that. I asked for preferences and both of the teachers said they like almost everything I’ve made, but are partial to cream cheese frosting. I didn’t want to have to go food shopping so I decided to work with what I had in my cabinet. While pumpkin season has passed, I thought I’d use the can now, instead of waiting again for the fall to come. I had toasted pecans from these pies and some chocolate chips hanging around so I thought they’d be great to mix in the pumpkin batter (a Martha Stewart recipe) topped with a creamy cream cheese frosting (also, Martha). I didn’t turn my Kitchen Aid on at all and mixed everything but the frosting, with a whisk and my muscles.
I was not happy with the fact that I under-filled the cupcake liners, but nobody complained. Whenever I think I know how much to fill, I have a different recipe and it has a different weight and consistency, etc. That’s what’s happening right? I’m not too too worried about it. However, under-filling did give me the opportunity to make some babycakes, which gave me the ability to taste the cakes and share with more friends.
Sunday pancake fest (from 1 week ago). I was happy to find a use for the rest of the buttermilk before it went bad. Usually I have to toss it because I buy it for cupycakes but don’t need a lot of it. I was going to write more, but now I don’t feel like it.
As always, Martha does it! (used was her buttermilk pancake recipe), but be aware, the recipe is way too large for 2 bellies.
Chocolate Gingerbread Bars at the party.
This is the 3rd or 4th Martha Stewart recipe I have tried with great results. She has gained my trust.
I had a potluck to go to this weekend with some of my school buddies.
I originally was thinking about making cupcakes but knew I actually had to go home home to Western Mass before I trekked back to the Boston area. Long story short, I wanted to make something that didn’t need much decoration and would sit well in the back of my car and wanted to make a holiday-ish thing so I found another gingerbread related recipe on Martha Stewart’s website.
Pictured above is the loaf soon after it came out of the oven and then ready to be transported. I was impatient so I didn’t wait for it to cool down COMPLETELY so the bars aren’t sliced as nicely as they should be. But who cares? They taste the same.
Autumn Cupycakes!
Tomorrow is a friend at work’s birthday and she had a special request for PUMPKIN CUPCAKES. I found a recipe I think is good on Martha Stewart’s website. The cream cheese frosting, (which I made for the very first time) is from a cupcake recipe book I got at Christmas Tree Shops a while back.
Picture to follow. I am using both tiers of my cupcake transporter so it’s very exciting!
Martha Stewart’s Cupcakes: 175 Inspired Ideas for Everyone’s Favorite Treat
I saw this book and REALLY wanted to buy it. But I didn’t.
I think you can find most of the recipes on her website here.
