Filed under: Baking, Photography by ramune

Lykke Li – I’m Good, I’m Gone

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Although I cannot claim to have made these apple cider doughnuts, I can claim to have taken these photos and consumed these tasty treats.

A week or so ago Smitten Kitchen posted a recipe for Apple Cider Doughnuts, and I think everyone I talked to about the recipe either wanted to make them or they just wanted to eat the resulting product. While in NYC this Friday night, my mother made these doughnuts. They were pretty good, although a little dense . . . the recipe might need some perfecting.

Filed under: Baking, taste by ramune

Delicious goodness in dough form

Holy lateness, I can’t believe I have let almost a month go without an update. I will try to catch up on the missing posts this week. Hopefully you will forgive me once I tell you about the best cookies I’ve ever made. If I could send them to you via the interweb tubes I would, but I think it might get messy and possibly ruin my computer (I think I read somewhere that gooey chocolate chips and dough do not mix well with electronics).

A while ago Smitten Kitchen had a recipe for the perfect chocolate chip cookies and I could not wait to bake them. I am a big fan of baking chocolate chip cookies (and the batter . . . oh the batter!) and I must say, these were by far the best I have ever baked. I think the secret is the melted butter. I could be wrong, but just look at that dough! It’s so smooth and velvety. To “show” you how good they are, I had 18 cookies on a plate and in a matter of minutes there were only two (it helps that my aunt and five cousins were visiting from Chicago). Smitten Kitchen has never led me (or anyone I know for that matter) astray, and I am so glad that she posted this delicious goodness.

Mmmm . . . I might bake some more tonight for my enamels class tomorrow (I like to feed them).

Filed under: Baking, Collaboration, taste by ramune

This past weekend I was in Chicago (for oral surgery and to see my family) and made cupcakes at my aunt’s house. I wish I had set up the camera to take photos of the process as it was quite unique. I am used to baking by mixing the wet ingredients and then adding in the dry. This recipe started out with the dry and then I had to add butter (a bit messy) and then the liquids. Either way, the cupcakes came out fantastic! When it came time to decorating them my aunt made the frosting and then we decided to add some color. Three of my cousins, one of their friends and I all contributed to the decorating as you can see below.

Collection of Buttercream Frosted Cupcakes

One of my decorated cupcakes

Detail of the buttery buttercream frosting

My cousin/goddaughter cleaning up the leftover cupcake dough (one of my favorite pastimes!)

Filed under: Baking, Collaboration, Friends, taste by ramune

My friend Elisabeth got married a few months back and for her wedding shower I gave her a cookbook called Cupcakes! and a muffin pan. Because the cookbook looked so good (yes I judge a cookbook by it’s cover and the pictures in it) I bought myself one as well. We had talked about getting together to bake cupcakes and finally did so this past weekend. After flipping through a number of pages of delicious looking (and sounding) cupcakes we narrowed it down to the Mississippi Mud cupcakes.

While I was at Fresh World buying the Oreos for the crusty bit, I picked up a few Asian snacks for Elisabeth and Ben (her husband). If you have a Fresh World near you and haven’t been yet, I suggest you check it out, it is a cultural experience. Fresh World is half regular grocery store, half Chinese/Korean/Indian/Hispanic grocery store (I won’t say world market because there is a lot missing from that list). I have seen a few stranger things there than I saw when I lived in China. Some of my favorites are “American Coffee” (Japanese version, in a can), pig uterus (among other strange animal parts), and the aisle full of Asian candies and snacks. I picked up some tasty chocolate/cookie goods for Elisabeth and “Fried Chicken Snack” for Ben . . . mmm. The greatest part about “Fried Chicken Snack” is that when you look at the ingredients there is nothing chicken about it.

That was a bit of a tangent, but I thought I would share. I am currently without a tripod and the lighting was not fantastic so I didn’t get quite as many good shots.

Crushed Oreo cookie crumbs makeup the bottom of the cupcake

3 oz. of semi-sweet chocolate in Elisabeth’s great measuring cups ready to be melted

Chocolate sour cream batter on top of crushed Oreo cookies and a few chocolate chips

Mississippi Mud Cupcakes! They are not the most photogenic but they sure pack a sugary chocolaty punch!

Bonus: Elisabeth with the Fried Chicken Snack pack

Filed under: Baking, Favorites, Holiday, Process, taste by ramune

Although I am not particularly religious, Easter is a big deal to me and my family. We have a load of Lithuanian traditions that I love. Two of my favorites are how we decorate our Easter eggs (that’s Project #22) and making Grybai, Lithuanian mushroom cookies. When I say mushroom cookies I mean they look like mushrooms . . . there are no actual mushrooms in the recipe.

This past weekend I baked the Grybai with my mother’s help and today I finished them off by frosting them. I documented the process and posted a bundle of photos in an Easter album on my Flickr site. Below are just a handful. You may notice my supervisor in a few shots (hint: frosting the stems).

Mixing up the dough

Rolling out the stems

Making the caps

Frosting the stems and dipping them in poppyseeds

The final product . . .

Filed under: Baking, taste by ramune