Kitchen Inferno

August at my latitude is unreal. Living without central air at my latitude is also unreal. Baking in the summer teeters on suicidal.
A couple weeks ago I made a lemon cake as a send-off treat for someone I worked with. It nearly killed me. Having the oven on raises the temperature in my kitchen to around 90 degrees Fahrenheit! Why not just crack a window, you ask? Because all the windows in my lovely abode have been painted shut. Not by me, I'll have you know!
So where am I going with all this whining? I'll tell you: the joys of a microwave mug cake.
I love being able to have a single-serve dessert without the fuss of baking. If you're new at microwave 'baking,' give it a shot. I trust I don't have to tell you how much better these are than storebought. And no p.h.o.!
This recipe is my go-to when I'm craving a melty chocolate treat. I love it because it calls for pantry staples and doesn't even require an egg! There are many, many more microwave cake recipes out there. My only advice? Try them all!

Brownie-in-a-Mug
4 Tbl flour
4 Tbl sugar
2 Tbl cocoa
dash salt
2 Tbl vegetable oil
2 Tbl water



In a large coffee mug, mix flour, sugar, cocoa and salt using a fork. Add oil and water and mix to combine. Pay attention to the bottom of the mug--make sure you get all the flour mixed in. Microwave for about one minute. Brownie should still look wet in the middle. Do not overcook this, let it be gooey and glorious!
Enjoy experimenting with mug cakes--don't let the heat get you down!

Until next time!



Mini Cakes

Here we go! Mini-baking—my new favorite food experiment. How perfect is this: the ability to have a homemade treat without filling your kitchen with a pile of cupcakes or feeling forced to settle for a store bought monstrosity.


A few years ago, I received a stack of tiny cake pans for Christmas. They’re so stinkin’ cute! If you happen to be lucky (or, like me, spoiled!) enough to have mini cake pans, feel free to break them out for this recipe. If not, never fear! Simply remove the labels from two 14.5 ounce cans and wash them well. Voila! A recycled mini cake pan!

Mini Chocolate Cake (makes 2 cakes-in-a-can, or one 2-layer mini-cake)

1/4 cup milk
1 ½ tablespoons pasteurized egg product (such as Egg Beaters)
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 cup + 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/3 cup + 1 tablespoon sugar
3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
1/8 teaspoon baking powder
1/8 teaspoon baking soda
1/8 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened

Preheat oven to 350˚F.

Spray the insides of two clean 14.5-ounce cans with nonstick spray. Trace the bottoms of the cans onto parchment paper, then cut out the circles and line the bottoms of the greased cans. Line the sides of the cans with 10”x4.5” strips of parchment paper. Set aside. Alternately, butter the bottoms and sides of two mini cake pans and line the bottoms with rounds of parchment paper.

In a small bowl, whisk together milk, egg, and vanilla.

Place a wire-mesh sieve over the bowl of a stand mixer. Sift flour, sugar, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, and salt into bowl. If you’re not working with a stand mixer, sift dry ingredients into a medium mixing bowl.

Add butter and half of milk mixture; beat at low speed until dry ingredients are moistened. Again, if you’re not using a stand mixer, use a handheld-mixer for this part—see the tip at the end. Increase speed to medium and beat until batter has lightened and increased in volume, about 45 seconds. Scrape down sides of bowl.

Add remaining milk mixture, and beat until well blended, about 20 more seconds.

Scrape batter into cans or pans. Bake until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean, about 20 minutes for mini-pan cakes and 30 minutes for can-cakes. Cool 15 minutes on wire rack. Loosen edges of cakes from pans using a small sharp knife; invert cans and remove cakes. Discard parchment paper and allow to cool completely before frosting. Cut in half crosswise; frost between layers and on tops and sides of cakes.

A little visual tip:

The cake in the foreground was created with a mixer, the cake in the background was beat by hand. The choice is yours. Although after leveling them in order to frost, the uglier background cake did yield more cake scraps to munch on…

The following recipe yields enough frosting to frost one 2-layer mini-cake

Small-Batch Chocolate Frosting

2 tablespoons butter
1/2 cup + 2 tablespoons powdered sugar
1/4 teaspoon vanilla
1 ounce bittersweet chocolate, melted (you can substitute a dark chocolate candy bar for bittersweet baking chocolate if you’re determined to save a few pennies—just make sure it’s P.H.O.-free!)
1/2 tablespoon milk

Cream the butter with an electric mixer, and then pour in vanilla. Add powdered sugar gradually with the mixer on low speed. Beat in the melted chocolate. Slowly add milk, about a teaspoon at a time, with mixer on low speed, until the frosting is spreadable.

Until next time!

Homemade Dunkaroos

Remember Dunkaroos? Those little packs of kangaroo-shaped cookies, complete with a cup of icing for dipping? A perfect idea for lunchboxes, but they were so artificial. Needless to say, those little devils were full of p.h.o. and all sorts of preservatives. Who wants that in their lunch?

So without further ado, I present a recipe so simple, it's almost cheating.
Homemade Dunkaroos
1 c butter, softened
3/4 c sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
2 1/4 c flour, sifted
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp baking powder

Meez

To make your Dunkaroos, you'll need a cookie press. This one used to be my Grandmother's--thank you Gmom! The beauty of using a press is two fold: 1) All of your cookies will be uniform 2) You get to choose the shape--keepin' things interesting!
Onto the cooking...

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Cream the butter and sugar

Beat in the egg and vanilla

Sift all of the dry ingredients together

Then gradually blend the dry ingredients into the wet

Choose an insert--this one's a Scottie--and fill your cookie press

Camels! I made a few butterflies, too!

Space the cookies a couple inches apart on an ungreased, nonstick cookie pan. Bake 10-12 minutes, turning the pan once.

And now, what good are these little beauties without the icing? I don't know about you, but when I was a kid, and found a pack of Dunkaroos in my lunchbox, I felt obligated to stick my finger in the container and dig out all the icing. The homemade version is no different. Dunkaroos just aren't Dunkaroos without the icing. Since most recipes yield enough to frost whole cakes, and because my lunchbox doesn't need 3 cups of icing, I scaled it down.

I started with 2 Tbl of softened butter

Creamed the mess out of it

Added a scant cup of powdered sugar and stirred to combine 

Did someone say chocolate?

Then I added cocoa powder, half a teaspoon at a time, until it looked tasty, and poured in a tiny bit of milk

Just the right amount!

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The perfect lunchtime dessert!

Why I should never talk on the phone while baking!

Until next time!