Baking Blogger?

Reasons why I am not a baker. Let me rephrase that to why I am not a good baker.

1. To be a good baker you must have a perfectionist outlook. Baking is an exact science. No eyeballing, no a little of this a little of that. NOPE. Baked goods must be conducted perfectly according to the recipe that an ancient wizard discovered in the year 14 A.D.

2. You must allow for the time it takes to make the treats beautiful. This means you have to tend to each cookie/cupcake/donut with personalized TLC. You cannot be in a rush (I am ALWAYS rushing trying to finish whatever I am doing in between baby's naps or playtime.) No one will buy your goods at a bake sale if they look like mine.

3. You have to have a nicely manicured kitchen with all of the bells and whistles. I have a Cuisinart mixer and that's about it. Every time I bake I end up using a butter knife to frost, a salad bowl to mix, and a cheese platter to display my treats. It's shameful and I should be arrested. Some day I dream of becoming the Cleaver mom, but not today!

Just because I am not a good baker doesn't mean I don't try. There was a time when I made Banana cream pies for my family members on their birthdays. One came out salty as the ocean and another came out soupy. All because of one tiny mistake in the wizardly recipe. Needless to say no one requests my pies anymore for their birthday!

HOWEVER, I do have a raaaaaging sweet tooth. Yesterday I required a Sprinkles red velvet cupcake or die. Well, the only Sprinkles bakery is in Beverly Hills (that I know about). So, I decided to look up the recipe and try and bake the cupcakes my self. After much research, I came across a website where a woman had the same craving as me and she took it upon herself to recreate the recipe. After 12 attempts she stated that she had indeed replicated the recipe and I took her word as gold. After all, we do have a lot in common (cupcake cravings) so I went at it and baked me some cupcakes!

So they aren't beautiful. Something happened when making the frosting, it didn't lighten up quite right. Maybe my ingredients weren't cold enough? I don't know, but let me just say, they were DELISH! Almost exactly like the real thing! And a whole heck of a lot cheaper than Sprinkles. I posted the recipe below.

This little bouncing bundle of joy is why I could not designate my full attention to the cupcakes. She is too stinking cute!

Kelly’s Copycat Sprinkles Red Velvet Cupcake Recipe

Makes 24 large, or 30 medium cupcakes

• 2 1/4 cups flour (I use all-purpose)
• 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup butter, softened
• 2 1/4 cups sugar
• 4 eggs
• 1 cup sour cream
• 1/2 cup buttermilk (or milk with 2 teaspoons lemon juice)
• 1 ounce red food coloring** (okay, that is a lot of red food coloring!) It doesn’t change the taste, so I only use 1 teaspoon unless the red color is really important to me.
• 4 teaspoons Pure Vanilla Extract

Cream Cheese Frosting (This has been revised to show the cream cheese and butter cold, resulting in a less runny frosting.) If you want the piled high frosting, like the picture, make 1 1/2 the recipe of frosting and pipe it on with a piping bag or ziploc bag (do not try to spread it with a knife).

• 1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, cold
• 1/4 cup butter, cold
• 2 tablespoons sour cream
• 2 teaspoons Pure Vanilla Extract
• 16 ounces confectioners’ sugar

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Mix flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt in medium bowl. Set aside.
2. Beat butter and sugar in large bowl with electric mixer on medium speed 5 minutes or until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs, one at a time. Mix in sour cream, milk, food color and vanilla. Gradually beat in flour mixture on low speed until just blended. Do not overbeat. Spoon batter into 24 paper-lined muffin cups, filling each cup 2/3 full.
3. Bake 18 to 22 minutes or until toothpick inserted into cupcake comes out clean. Gently remove from oven (these are super-moist, and will collapse if you aren’t careful). Cool in pans on wire rack at least 5 minutes. Remove from pans; cool completely. Frost with Cream Cheese Frosting. (Do not frost until totally cooled, or the frosting will slide off!)
4. Vanilla Cream Cheese Frosting: With a high powered mixer (stand up mixer if you have one) beat cold cream cheese, butter, sour cream and Pure Vanilla Extract in large bowl until light and fluffy. Scrape bowl, and beat again. Gradually beat in confectioners’ sugar until smooth. Once smooth, turn beaters to high (I use my Kitchenaid) and whip on high for 5 minutes, until very fluffy. I am frequently asked how I get the piled high frosting. I do this with a piping bag, or a Ziploc bag with a 1 inch hole cut out of the corner will work perfectly. I always pipe the frosting on, instead of spreading it with a knife. That is how I get the tall pile of frosting. IF you do want the tall pile, I recommend doing 1 1/2 the recipe for frosting, to make sure you have enough.
5. Frost the cupcakes generously, and serve at room temperature! If you make these, I hope you will drop me a comment and let me know how they turned out!
6. In response to the comments who have had trouble with the frosting…These are the exact proportions I use. I do not add more sugar, or it will be very sweet, but it is important that the cream cheese and sour cream are cold. If the frosting is too runny, I recommend putting the frosting in the refrigerator for 20 minutes before piping it on. Also, your cupcakes MUST be totally cooled. The frosting may seem a little too moist at first, but if you can get it to form a pile, and leave the cupcake uncovered for 1 hour or so, it will form a slightly dry crust (not a bad crust, I promise), so it won’t seem so gooey.