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| living room plant situation now that the cold weather has arrived / pizza at Fellini's in ATL / my cake decorating obsession is growing / sleepy Vienna / before / and after / happy hook is happy / gingerbread cupcakes!!! / holiday cards are laaaaaaate / my new apron / mysterious DIY project / quilts on my knees are also the bee's knees |
As you can tell by the pictures, my life lately has revolved around baking...delicious, sticky, weight inducing (hey, I have to taste my product and I also love to eat...so sue me!), time consuming baking of goods. I've learned so much in the last few weeks including a few things on what not to do when making a cake as well as realizing just how freaking small my kitchen actually is. Gah, it's tiny! Still, I made my first requested cake (buttermilk dark chocolate with cream cheese icing) and a surprise choice of gingerbread cupcakes, both for a dear friend's holiday gatherings. I was beyond thrilled when she asked me to create some goodies because I'm obsessed! My head is continually filled with new ideas and my fridge is full of enough butter to make Paula Deen swoon with joy.
Oh, and I'm still 98% vegan but I do have to sample things that aren't in order to ensure that everything is tasting the way it's supposed to taste...which means, yes, I'm ingesting dairy and eggs. Since that's the case, anything that I make in my home for sale or gifts is made with only local and/or cage-free/hormone-free/humaneaspossible milk, cream and eggs. I feel that I'm striking a good balance between providing a good product, fulfilling the wishes of the consumer and trying to keep my own ethics in line.
- 1/2 cup of softened butter
- 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
- 2 eggs, room temperature
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/2 tsp cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp all spice seasoning
- 1/2 tsp powdered ginger
- 1/2 tsp ground clove
- 1/4 cup heavy cream
- splash of cold coffee
Separate dry and wet ingredients, mix each separately and then combine. Spoon into well greased muffin tins or cups until they are 1/2 - 3/4 full. Bake at 400 degrees for 12-15 minutes. Let cool slightly, remove from pan and then cool completely. Cover with icing or brush of butter/margarine.
Icing:
- 8 oz cream cheese, softened
- 4 oz softened butter
- 2 1/2 - 3 cups confectioner sugar
- 1/4 cup heavy cream
- teensy tiny pinch of cinnamon
Enjoy!
If you'd like to make them vegan then simply sub margarine (or applesauce in muffin only) for butter, leave out cream cheese in icing, use an egg substitute product and sub soy/hemp/almond milk for heavy cream. Just be sure to check the consistency since it's supposed to be fairly thick!
Before I go I'd like to thank all of those who guest posted this past week or so! Revisit them here, here, here, here and here. I'll (hopefully) have other guest posting opportunities in the coming months so if you're interested then shoot me an email at gritsandmoxie[at]gmail[dot]com.
What's coming up on the blog in the new year, you might ask? Well, I'm finally going to talk about my decision regarding veganism, share some goals for the year, share my thoughts on some of the difficulties in blogging, get the Brew Review up and running, host some book talks, and maybe doing some baking/decorating tutorials. Sound ok so far?
Well, off to work again! Happy Saturday to you all...
