Stacey Makes It

I think that the buttercream turned out kind of heavy, so I would probably add more half & half and powdered sugar and beat it a bit longer next time. Cupcake Ingredients 5.5 oz flour 1 tsp baking powder 1/2 tsp salt 1/2 stick butter, melted 45 ml (by weight) sunflower oil 6.1 oz granulated sugar 2 eggs 1.5 tsp vanilla extract 3/4 cup buttermilk Buttercream Ingredients 1/2 stick butter  1/4 cup brown sugar 2 tbs half & half  1.5 sticks butter 1-2 cups of powdered sugar 2-3 tbs half & half Chocolate sprinkles (optional)  Preheat oven to 350F. Whisk all the wet ingredients together. Add the dry ingredients and stir gently until just incorporated (don't overmix or it will build up too much gluten).  Pour batter into cupcake tins lined with cupcake liners (about 3/4 to 4/5 full).  Bake for 15-20 minutes rotating once at the halfway point. When cake springs back from the middle of the cupcake, it's done....

My son (currently 2 years old) loves pancakes.  Protein, not so much.  I tried to get a bit more protein in his carbs. Ingredients  (organic, if possible) 3/4 cup whole wheat flour 1 teaspoon baking powder 2 tablespoons sugar 1/4 teaspoon salt 3 eggs 1 cup cottage cheese 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 2 tbs milk butter, oil or oil spray Mix dry ingredients. Mix wet ingredients and then fold into dry ingredients mixing as little as possible (keeps the pancakes tender). Heat a pan and grease with butter. My son likes small pancakes (so I use about 1-2 teaspoons at a time), but you can make full size pancakes if you wish. It usually takes a minute or two before you can turn them over, or you can look for small bubbles at the edges of the pancakes before flipping. Remove when golden brown. If you want to substitute white flour, you'll have to add more flour (maybe 3-4 extra tablespoons) unless you like thin pancakes. Also, I usually make a b...

I wanted to make something special for a little family get-together that my parents were having for July 4th, so I came up with this: Stacey's Lemon Waffle Cookie Ingredients 1/2 c unsalted butter, organic (1 stick) 1/4 c granulated sugar, organic 1/4 tsp sea salt 1 tsp vanilla 2 tsp lemon juice 2 eggs, organic 1c unbleached white flour, organic 1/4 tsp baking powder 1 tbs whole milk, organic 1/4c turbinado sugar, organic Stacey's Lemon Vanilla Frosting Ingredients 2 tbs unsalted butter, organic 1 cup powdered sugar (maybe more) 1 tbs whole milk, organic 1 1/2 tsp vanilla bean paste 1 tbs lemon juice + citric acid powder Pinch salt For the waffles: Melt the butter until soft.  Mix with the granulated sugar, sea salt, eggs, lemon juice, and vanilla.  Then mix in the flour and baking powder.  Once combined, add the milk.  Mixture should be thick.  Begin heating the waffle iron.  I'm pretty sure I have an older version of  this one ...

I wanted to make something non-chocolate for the holidays. Yes, I know, there's white chocolate in there, but white chocolate isn't really  chocolate, right?  It has cocoa butter in it, but no chocolate solids, so I figure that's fine for someone not wanting chocolate. Stacey's Nutty Cookie Ingredients 1 c (2 sticks) unsalted butter, organic 1 c brown sugar, organic 1 c white sugar, organic 1/4 c peanut butter, organic 2 tbs sunflower seed butter (found this at Trader Joe's) 1 tbs Vanilla Bean Paste 2 c almond meal/flour 2 c unbleached white flour, organic 1 tsp salt 1/2 tsp baking soda 1/4 tsp baking powder cookie sheet(s) Stacey's Nutty Lemon Filling Ingredients 6 oz Guittard white chocolate couverture (you could probably use white chocolate chips or any white chocolate block) 2 oz heavy cream, organic 1 tsp  Vanilla Bean Paste 1 oz freshly squeezed lemon juice 1 tsp citric acid, powdered First I made the filling since it needs to sit ...

Okay, so I didn't expect this to come out so delicious.  I've made a version using low-fat milk, but a co-worker of mine is vegan and recently had dental surgery so I thought this would be a good time to make another entry. It's (almost) vegan because I forgot some vegans don't eat honey.  You can substitute all the sugar / honey for agave nectar or maple sugar or whatever other sugar you want to use. Stacey's (Almost) Vegan Rice Pudding Ingredients 1c coconut milk, organic 2c flax seed milk 2c water 1c short grain rice 2 tsp coconut oil, organic 1/4tsp salt 1/2 tsp cardamom 2 tsp vanilla 3 tbs granulated sugar, organic 3 tbs honey I used this rice if you were curious. Rinse the rice a couple times in a 4 qt stockpot.  Then pour in all the other ingredients.  Originally this recipe was for 1/2 cup of rice and had less liquids, but I ended up putting a whole cup of rice and had to re-adjust.  Here's what it looks like with too much rice, ha...

I don't know why it took me so long to make this - tapioca pudding is one of my favorite things.  Perhaps I was intimidated by all of it's creamy, chewy, goopy grandeur.  Oh well, better late than never. :) Stacey's Tapioca Pudding Ingredients: 3/4c water, cold 1/3c small tapioca pearls 2c whole milk, organic 1/4 tsp sea salt 1 tsp vanilla bean paste 1/3c sugar, organic 2 eggs, lightly beaten, organic First I hydrated the pearls by letting them soak in the water for 20-30 minutes in a pot.  Then I added the milk, vanilla, and salt and brought it to boiling over low heat for about 15 minutes or until the pearls seemed somewhat clear.  I beat the sugar and eggs together with a fork and then tempered the eggs by pouring in about a cup of the tapioca pearl milk mixture, stirring constantly with the fork. Then, I added the egg mixture back to the pot with the rest of the tapioca milk mixture and stirred continuously over low flame with a silicone scraper unti...

I've been making a few rice puddings, but this is the first one that came out the way I wanted to eat it.  I know it doesn't really seem like a rice pudding (if you want it to be thick and more pudding-y, use some sort of glutinous rice like sushi rice as a replacement in this recipe - that works really well for super thick rice puddings). This recipe is actually sort of soupy. Stacey's Brown Rice Pudding Ingredients: 1/2c short grain brown rice, organic 2c whole milk, organic 1c water 1/2 tsp cardamom 2 tsp vanilla bean paste 1/4 tsp salt 1/4c peanuts (optional) 1/4c golden raisins (optional) 4-qt stockpot with tight fitting lid Put all the ingredients except for the peanuts and raisins into the stockpot and bring it to a boil with the lid off.  Once it comes to a boil, put the lid on and let it simmer over low heat for 50 minutes.  If you're going to put in the raisins and peanuts, you can do it now.  Put the lid back on and continue to let simmer an...

Yes, I know, it's been too long.  But, every year football season happens (although this year wasn't so certain), and every year for the past four years my life gets sucked away doing work for fantasy football apps.  And yes, I also know I'm stealing many a sports nut's dream job and whining pathetically about it. So, now, my return to blogging with my first successful upside down cake! Without further ado... Stacey's Peachy Plum Upside-Down Cake Ingredients: 1 1/4c sugar, organic 1c unbleached white flour, organic 1c whole wheat flour, organic 1/4c cornstarch 1/4c canola oil, organic 1/4c butter, salted, organic (1/2 a stick) 1c whole milk, organic 1/4c water 1 tbs vanilla bean paste 2 eggs, organic 1/4c lemon juice Bottoming (since it's not really "topping?"): 1/2c dark brown sugar, organic 6 tbs butter 1 yellow peach 4 small plums 1 8x8" glass baking dish 1 loaf pan (I always end up making enough batter so I can leave...

Okay, my first attempt at red velvet cake without using food coloring failed.  It ended up just looking like a light chocolate cake.  It tasted pretty good though.  More varied flavors than a regular chocolate cake since I tried to use some berries to bring out more red.  I forgot... berries tend to turn brown when you cook them. Stacey's Brown Velvet Cake Ingredients: The Light Chocolate Cake 2 1/3c unbleached white flour, organic 1/4c cornstarch 1.5c sugar, organic 1 tsp salt 1 tsp baking powder 1 tsp baking soda 1/4c Scharffen Berger cocoa powder 1/2c canola oil, organic 2 eggs, organic 1 1/2c buttermilk, heated with cooked beets 1c pureed strawberries and raspberries (frozen, thawed) 1 tsp white vinegar 2 - 9" round cake pans, lined with parchment paper The Maple Cream Cheese Frosting 2 packages cream cheese, organic 2 sticks butter, salted, organic 1 tbs vanilla bean paste 1/3c maple syrup 4c confectioners sugar First, the cake. ...

Marshmallows have a special place in my heart because my boyfriend and I made these together on our third date.  He's a chemist and I remember commenting on how precise he was with measuring everything.  Nothing sexier than a guy who can cook... and who wants to help make candy. :) Unfortunately, he's on a business trip this week, so I made a half batch by myself from my favorite book, Chocolates & Confections .   And in doing a search I see they have an At Home version !!! Wow.  If only they had this when I started trying to make candy in 2008.  Oh well, the harder path only makes you stronger... right? Anywho... Stacey's Half Batch Vanilla Marshmallow Ingredients : 0.8 oz gelatin (powdered) 4 oz water (for hydration) 12 oz sugar, organic 6 oz glucose syrup 2 oz local honey 2 oz invert sugar 3 oz water 2 tsp vanilla bean paste Parchment paper 9"x9" cake pan Canola oil, organic 1:1 ratio powdered sugar to cornstarch I've found tha...

I love black bottom cupcakes and I had some artisan cream cheese from Costco laying around.  But, I thought I'd try something different, since I'd been making so many chocolate things. Stacey's Lemon Vanilla White Bottom Cupcakes Ingredients : Batter 1c white unbleached flour, organic 1/2c whole wheat flour, organic 1c sugar, organic 2 tbs cornstarch 1.5 tsp baking powder 1/2 tsp salt 1/2c canola oil, organic 1/2c sour cream, organic 2 eggs, organic 1 egg yolk, organic 1.5 tsp vanilla bean paste 1/4c coconut milk beverage (original) Zest and juice from 1 med size lemon (approx 2 tbs juice + 2 tsp zest) Filling 8 oz cream cheese 1 tbs sour cream, organic 1/4c sugar, organic 1.5 tsp vanilla bean paste Pinch of salt 1 egg white  Zest and juice from 1 med size lemon (approx 2 tbs juice + 2 tsp zest) Preheat oven to 400F.  Line a cupcake pan with cupcake liners. I mixed the dry ingredients for the batter, and then stirred in all the wet ingredie...