Coloring The City

Last weekend, I ran the Hampton’s Half Marathon with some friends, CJ, Nicole, Caitlin and Shannon. Here we are pre-race at 7 AM looking  oh-so-excited to run 13.1 (actually 13.2 right, Ceej?) miles.

This was a pretty tough since I failed to learn my lesson again from the last half marathon I ran and didn’t do any long training runs for this race. Apparently, the jump between a 6 mile run and 13 is a pretty big one.

All in all, we had a lot of fun running (or something?) but we were soooo happy when it was over!

We spent the rest of the weekend lounging at CJ’s family’s gorgeous summer house, and eating lots of yummy food…but more importantly: cupcakes. Lots of yummy cupcakes. Some of you may say cupcakes aren’t the best post-race meal. To that I would say A. you’re on the wrong blog and B. you’re completely wrong.  Basically, you burn about 40,000 calories, give or take a few, running 13 miles. Eating pumpkin cupcakes with cinnamon cream cheese frosting to replenish the calories is smart because:

1. Pumpkin is a vegetable…even if it comes from a can

2. Sugar grows on a plant so by definition, its also a vegetable.

3. Cream cheese and butter = Dairy for strong bones

4. Ginger is a great source of Fiber, Vitamin B6, Iron, Magnesium, Potassium, Selenium, Vitamin E and Manganese. Cinnamon makes you skinny.

5. This is all totally irrelevant because Sunday was Shannon’s birthday and everyone knows that cupcake calories don’t count on all birthday weekends.

So all in all – the cupcakes were a huge hit. Obviously, Martha has yet to fail me with her cupcaking skills.

Martha’s Pumpkin Cupcakes

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp ground ginger
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
• 1/4 tsp ground allspice
• 1 cup packed light-brown sugar
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
• 4 large eggs
• 1 can (15 ounces) pumpkin puree

Preheat the oven to 350 and line two 12 cup cupcake tins. In a medium bowl whisk together all of the dry ingredients – flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg and allspice; set aside.

In a large bowl or the bowl of a standing mixer with the paddle attachment, combine the brown sugar, granulated sugar, butter and eggs. add dry ingredients and mix until smooth. Add the pumpkin and mix until just combined.

Fill the cupcake liners about half way and bake for 20 to 25 minutes. Transfer to wire rack to cool.

Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting

• 1 package (8 ounces) of cream cheese
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter
• 4 cups confectioners sugar
• 1 tbsp cinnamon

Combine butter and cream cheese in a bowl and gradually beat in the powdered sugar, then add cinnamon. Pipe on to completely cooled pumpkin cupcakes and sprinkle with cinnamon or large crystal sugar.

And since no post is a GREAT post without a cute puppy picture: Duke who is clearly giving Boo a run for his money.

PS – Thank you BUTTER LANE for making me the Butter Lane blogger of the week! I’m officially going on a salted caramel cupcake diet this weekend.

I did something I promised myself I would never do this weekend. I saw Scream 4. I’m not good with scary movies. When my room gets too dark at night, I have flash backs to when I saw the original version of The Exorcist 10 years ago… then I have to turn on all the lights and cry myself back to sleep. Just thinking about it gives me the chills.

I knew going into the movie that Scream 4 was more comical than scary…but I’m so embarrassed to say that I was really scared. Which led to stress eating. By the time the movie took a turn for the BEST and started to resemble what I thought had to be Scary Movie 5, I was too chocolate hung over to enjoy it. What a roller coaster of emotions THAT experience was, which I fully blame on the weather. Thunder storms make me do crazy things. Like 1. agree to see Scream 4 and 2. pack a snack and a water bottle to bring to the movie…apparently I’m 7 years old. If only my Mom had packed it for me.

Other than the movie, the rain kind of prevented any other fun activities this weekend. Except baking. Nothing can stop that. Nothing. So I channeled all of my energy into breakfast.

Saturday was healthy. Bulgar with a little bit of honey, which I LOOOVE. It’s basically the same as rice, a 1:2 ratio grain to water, except I usually use milk to make bulgar for breakfast because it is so much creamier, like oatmeal. So yummy.

Things got a little crazy on Sunday morning with a request for doughnuts from my roommate’s BF. I guess he recently discovered VooDoo Doughnuts. I think his exact request was “Make a doughnut with rainbow sprinkles, fruity pebbles and frosting…deep fried.” Ummmm…no. We settled on cinnamon rolls.

But before we get into the recipe, let me introduce you to my roommates boyfriend. You know, just so you can put a face to the name.

World, meet James. James, meet World. His favorite song is What Da Hook Gon Be. Let’s just say Murphy Lee ain’t got nothing on this.

Buttermilk Cinnamon Rolls with Cream Cheese Frosting

• 1 (.25 oz) package of dry yeast
• 1/8 cup warm water
• 3/4 cups buttermilk
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil
• 2 1/4 cups self-rising flour
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 cup melted butter
• 3/4 cups brown sugar
• 1 tsp cinnamon

Cream Cheese Frosting

• 3 oz cream cheese
• 4 tbsp unsalted butter
• 1 1/2 cups confectioners sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

Mix the yeast with the water and let sit for 10 minutes until creamy. Heat the buttermilk in the microwave for 1 minute, until warm. Add the warm buttermilk and the oil to the yeast and mix throughly. combine the flour, salt and baking soda in a separate bowl, then add to the wet mixture one cup at a time. Mix until solid dough starts to form. Remove the dough from the bowl and knead by hand, or attach the hook attachment to a standing mixture and mix for 5-7 minutes. Cover the bowl and let the dough rise for 10 minutes.

While the dough is rising, mix the melted butter, brown sugar and cinnamon together. Set aside. Roll out the dough on a lightly floured surface into a regtangle shape, then brush the cinnamon sugar mixture onto the dough. Roll the dough tightly and cut into 1 inch rounds. Place in a 11 x 17 baking dish. Let rise for 30 minutes. Preheat oven to 400. Bake for 20-22 minutes.

When you remove the cinnamon rolls from the oven, let them sit to cool for 20 minutes. While they cool, make the cream cheese frosting. Mix together the cream cheese and butter, slowly add the powdered sugar and vanilla and mix until consistency is thick and smooth. Spread evenly and liberally over the cinnamon rolls and serve.

This was the very first time that I’ve used the hook attachment on my mixture. To be honest, I’ve always wondered what it was for. Now I know…and it made kneading the dough much, much easier!

I hope you all had a equally breakfast filled weekend and you’re looking forward to the week to come! I’m excited to put in my last 2 days at my current job then take a few days off to explore Washington D.C. with my mom before I start my new job next week!

After careful deliberation and many, many batches of cupcakes, I’ve decided that banana cupcakes are on my top 5 list. My top 5 list of best things in the world. I’ve made them several different ways, but I think this recipe was my favorite. If you have ever been to Butterlane, you would agree with me that a banana cupcake with honey-cinnamon frosting is unbeatable. I would even put it above their vanilla cake with caramel icing, which I think is saying a lot.

This recipe came from none other than Martha Stewart, of course. She and I are totally on the same wave length when it comes to Butterlane. I can just picture the two of us strolling down 7th St, all 6 thousand of her French Bulldogs in tow, gushing over the banana honey-cinnamon mini cakes of joy. Oh, to dream.

Banana Cupcakes with Honey-Cinnamon Frosting

From Martha Stewart

(makes 12-16)

• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour (spooned and leveled)
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted
• 1 1/2 cups mashed bananas (about 4 ripe bananas), plus 1 whole banana, for garnish (optional)
• 2 large eggs
• 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract

Pre-heat oven to 350. In a large bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients: flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Create a well in the middle of the flour mixture and add the melted butter, mashed bananas, eggs and vanilla. Mix until well combined. Filled lined cupcake tins and bake for 15-20 minutes or until cupcakes are golden brown on top.

Honey-Cinnamon frosting

• 2 1/2 cups confectioners sugar
• 2 sticks butter
• 1 tbsp milk
• 2 tbsp honey
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon

With an electric mixer, mix the sugar, milk, and butter until smooth. Add more milk if the frosting is too thick. Add the honey and cinnamon and beat until combined. Pipe onto completely cool cupcakes and garnish with a drizzle of honey.

This cupcake marks a whole bunch of first for me. This was the first time I used cake flour instead of substituting with regular bleached flour. I definitely recommend following the recipe exactly by using cake flour. It made the cake much fluffier and not so dense. This was also the first time I have successfully made meringue frosting! I know, this might not seem like a accomplishment, but after 2 or 3 failed attempts, I was so excited when this batch finally turned out right! Which led to excessive amounts of frosting consumption and then an awful stomach ache…I just never learn.

After I frosted them, I sprinkled some iridescent white crystal sprinkles (Zac Young from Just Desserts would be proud ;)) and some cinnamon and pawned them off on my roommates since I was still suffering from a frosting OD.

Here is the recipe from Martha Stewart.com

And the Meringue Frosting

This recipe makes about 24-28 cupcakes so if you don’t need that many just divide it in half.

Cake:

Mix Dry ingredients in a bowl. Then mix the sugar, butter, eggs and vanilla in a mixer. Next alternate adding the flour mixture and the milk in thirds. Pour into lined cupcake tin and bake at 350 for 10-15 minutes

Frosting:

Combine sugar, water and corn syrup in a small sauce pan. Attach a candy thermometer on the side. Heat on medium and stir until sugar dissolves and liquid starts to boil. Keep on heat without stirring until candy thermometer reads 230 degrees.

In the mean time, put the 6 eggs whites into a mixer and beat on medium speed with the whisk attachment. Continue to beat until the eggs are white and start to form peaks, then add the remaining 2 tablespoons of sugar and beat until blended.

When the candy thermometer reads 230, slowly pour the liquid down the side of the bowl into the egg whites while the mixer is on medium speed. Switch the speed to medium-high and beat the mixture until it is completely cool (test my touching the sides of the bowl) and peaks begin to form, this should take about 7 to 8 minutes. Then frost and serve!