WU #2 Week of December 11th

So I guess weekly updates are going to be on Monday just so I can have a Sunday experience to write about. So my week consisted of stress and tears due to the fact that my midterms are actually on WEDNESDAY! Well they start on Wednesday, I have Calculus on Wednesday, English and Psychology on Thursday, and Government on Friday. This past week another than stress has been boring. I keep trying to get more hours at work because, even though I don't have to pay bills, I do pay for my own gas and food. So getting $16 every two weeks is really difficult. I also went to visit the University of Houston, and let me tell you, I am in love. I can see myself being a student there. I am very excited to attend that school, and hopefully be in the honor's college. I can't think of anything else interesting that happened.

Favorite YouTube Video!

Thank you,
Maranda M.

Hot Chocolate Cupcakes!

These cupcakes were as delicious as they sounded. It would have been best to drink them with milk or water, anything other than soda. But other than that, I am very pleased with the way my cupcakes turned out! I have a few comments about the cupcake and the frosting recipe but to be honest, it could have all been mistakes on my part but I'm going to say them anyways just in case you guys want to try and make them. 1) The cupcake recipe made more than enough, it said it made 24 cupcakes and I ended up getting 36 out of them. 2) Not all of the cupcakes rose the way I wanted them to, someone of the comments on the page said they sunk in the middle, I didn't really get much sinkage but there was some. 3) The frosting was thin, and it made more than 24 cupcakes worth of it. The picture on the website shows a lot of frosting but I didn't use too much because too much frosting kills the point in my opinion. Well that's all the comments I have right now. If I think of anymore, I'll just make another post about it. So here's the recipe!

Hot Chocolate Cupcakes: WEBSITE!

Ingredients for the cupcakes:

• 6 oz. (3/4 cup) unsalted bytter
• 3 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup canola oil
• 4-1/4 oz. bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped
• 3 cups granulated sugar
• 3/4 cup natural unsweetened cocoa powder
• 3 large eggs, at room temp
• 3/4 cup buttermilk, at room temp
• 2 Tbs. pure vanilla extract
• 2-1/2 tsp. baking soda
• 1/2 tsp. kosher salt

Ingredients for the frosting:

• 1-1/2 cups sugar
• 2 Tbs. light corn syrup
• 6 large egg whites
• 1 tsp. pure vanilla extract

Directions for the cupcakes:

1. Heat the oven to 350 degrees F. Place cupcake liners into cupcakes pans.
2. In a large, heavy saucepan, combine the butter, oil, chopped chocolate, and 1 cup water. Heat over medium heat until melted and fully combined.
3. In a large bowl, whisk the flour sugar, and cocoa powder. Put the hot chocolate mixture into the sugar mixture and whisk until combines.
4. Whisk in the eggs, one at a time (making sure to keep whisking- you don't want the eggs to scramble), then whisk in the buttermilk, vanilla, baking soda, and salt. Fill each cupcake liner about 3/4 full.
5. Bake cupcakes for 17-22 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean when inserted in the center. Cool on racks for 10 minutes.

Directions for the frosting:

1. In the heatproof bowl of an electric mixer set over a saucepan of simmering water, combine sugar, corn syrup, ¼ cup water, and egg whites. Cook over medium heat, stirring frequently, until mixture registers 160 degrees on an instant-read thermometer, about 2 minutes.
2. Attach bowl to a mixer fitted with the whisk attachment. Beat mixture on high speed until glossy and voluminous, about 5 minutes. Beat in vanilla. Use immediately. After frosting, use a handheld kitchen torch to lightly toast the top of the frosting if desired.

And here's the picture of the cupcakes that I made.

The straw is not edible, and because I didn't have a kitchen torch I had to use a lighter. Normal lighters probably wouldn't work but I had a heavy duty lighter and it took me about 30 minutes for 36 cupcakes. But all in all I loved these cupcakes and I would totally make them again using a different tip for the frosting and maybe with an actual kitchen torch.

Favorite YouTube Video!

So and FYI about the favorite YouTube video, I'm really trying not to repeat videos so I apologize now if somewhere along the line I do, I am also trying not to use too many of the same type/ same channel but I honestly only watch a few of the same videos so I'll try to spice it up a bit more but I spent 10 minutes a blog post looking for a video. Please leave comments about videos I should watch and I'll watch them, I promise.

Anyways thanks for stopping by,

Maranda M.

Pictures!

So I didn't post pictures because I hadn't frosted them yet but I just frosted them! 

This picture is also on my instagram @_merwanda_ so please check it out and give it a like!

Favorite YouTube Video!!

Thank you for checking it out,

Maranda M. 💖

Pumpkin Ginger Spiced Cupcakes!

I made these cupcakes for the third time this year and let me tell you, they just keep getting better and better! I keep mixing up the frosting recipe so I'll write down what I did for this batch and below that I'll do the other frosting I've done. This cupcake recipe I got from AllRecipes.com. I'll go ahead and copy and paste the recipe below and the link to the website.

Ingredients:  WEBSITE

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 (3.4 ounce) package instant butterscotch pudding mix
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 Tablespoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1/3 cup finely chopped crystallized ginger (I don't actually use this in my recipe mostly because I couldn't find any in the store)
• 1 cup butter, room temperature
• 1 cup white sugar
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 4 eggs, room temperature
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 (15 ounce) can pumpkin puree

Directions:

1. Preheat an oven to 350 degrees(175 degrees C). Grease 24 muffin cups, or line with paper muffin liners. Whist together the flour, pudding mix, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, ground ginger, allspice, cloves, and crystallized ginger in a bowl; set aside.
2. Beat the butter, white sugar, and brown sugar with an electric mixer in a large bowl until light and fluffy. The mixture should be noticeably lighter in color. Add the eggs one at a time, allowing each egg to blend into the butter mixture before adding the next. Beat in the vanilla and pumpkin puree with the last egg. Stir in the flour mixture, mixing until just incorporated. Pour the batter into the prepared muffin cups.
3. Bake in the preheated oven until golden and the tops spring back when lightly pressed, about 20 minutes. Cool in the pans for 10 minutes before removing to cool completely on a wire rack.

Now for the cream cheese frosting!

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup butter,softened
• 8 ounces cream cheese
• 4 cups confectioners' sugar
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Directions:

1. Beat softened butter and cream cheese until well blended.
2. Add powdered sugar and vanilla. Beat until creamy.

Now for the cinnamon buttercream frosting!

Ingredients:  WEBSITE

• 1 pound (4 cups) of powdered sugar
• 1 cup butter (I used unsalted butter)
• 2-3 teaspoons of vanilla
• 1-2 tablespoons of milk
• 1 teaspoon of ground cinnamon

Directions:

1. Mix the powdered sugar and softened butter together. Then add 2-3 teaspoons of vanilla. Start your mixer on a low speed then once everything is mixed together put the mixer on a medium speed
2.  Add 1 tablespoon of milk. Check the consistency and add more if needed. Always check the frosting before adding cinnamon.
3. Finally add the teaspoon of cinnamon. Mix on low until it's incorporated. Taste the frosting then frost the cupcakes.

So those are the recipes I used today actually. These are perfect for thanksgiving or Christmas. Very fall like, and very delicious. I won't be linking the cream cheese frosting because I used my Nana's recipe!

Now for the Favorite YouTube Video!

Favorite YouTube Video!!

Thank you for stopping by! Please leave a comment if you tried out these cupcakes!

Love you,

-Maranda M.

WU #1 Week of December 4th

Christmas is just around the corner and I'm already doing my first Weekly Update a day late! Oh well. As long as it gets done. So this past week has been an interesting week. I had a busy day Saturday which sucked and I don't really want to get into it other than I disappointed some people, which I do every week so I'm not that surprised. Also as I am typing this my space bar doesn't want to work and I'm going to rip it off here shortly. I also realized that I am an awful typer on my laptop but on my desktop it's no problem, I don't really know why. Since I just posted my first post a few days ago there isn't much to say so I'll just get to my favorite YouTube video.

Favorite YouTube Video!!

With love,
Maranda M.