Tuesday, November 25, 2014

Cinnamon Rolls...yumm!!!

Sometimes I wonder, is there anything better than warm cinnamon rolls? The delicious smell, the topping still dripping down the sides, the swirls of haze still escaping the warm rolls.....heaven!

I don't know why, but I tend to make cinnamon rolls at night with the thought in mind "well, I can eat some for breakfast the next day, yay!", and then my family sees them and that thought is history, because for some reason, they eat nothing faster than still-warm cinnamon rolls.

I love making them, not only because - let's face it, they're some of the best things one can bake- but also because they're so easy! I think my original recipe is from the Betty Crocker cookbook and I've just changed a few things around. For example, I basically double the amount of filling because..well..that's the best part, isn't it? I also omit the nuts, plain sugar and cinnamon for me please! The topping is just some vanilla extract, powdered sugar and milk...yummy!!!














What's your favorite baking smell?

xoxo

Laura

Monday, November 24, 2014

Red Velvet Cupcakes


I know, Red Velvet is more of a Valentines Day thing. But the thing with red velvet is that I've been trying to get them right for ages now. And when I say ages I mean I've tested so many recipes that sometimes I can't even remember which one tasted best.
I've tried dying them red with red beets (juice and puree -> yes, two different batches), I've tried the regular food coloring from the stores, food coloring from a superstore.....you get the idea.

But alas....none of them ever turned out the way I wanted them to (pout here). So I decided I needed something better, and "got out the big guns" (haha). I read up on the "Wilton food colors" online, read through all of the comments on amazon and decided to give them a try.

What can I say, I wish I'd ordered them ages ago. That wouldn't only have saved me time and effort, but probably also around two pounds which I gained while eating all of the other (non-red) velvet cupcakes (because even though they weren't pretty they were all pretty darned good).
To get back to the point, the Wilton Food Colors are perfect. They are in form of a gel, which means that if you want to color your frosting you won't have to worry about it becoming runny and they are so strong that the tip of a tooth pick is usually enough to dye the entire dough the desired color.
I have to admit, I have been itching to try out all of the colors (they even have black --> how cool is that!?), but haven't gotten around to trying all of them yet. Rest assured, when I do, I will definitely let you know ;)

Back to the red velvet cupcakes though: here they are, with a delicous cream cheese frosting and as red as can be :)











Have a great start of the week! 

xoxo

Laura