Blueberry Cake

                                                          Blueberry Cake

Now this is an al-time favorite of mine. You can make this at any point whether it be for pleasure, family event/gathering, or even a party.

I would have made the mixture into cupcakes but since that would have taken longer, I decided to make it into a cake. The recipe came from a website that I found as I was looking for a recipe for dinner. I saved the page and remembered it a few days ago. Since I had also made the brownies for my mom and brother, I had decided to make a something for my dad when he goes to work. I decided on doing the blueberry mixture recipe.

Recipe:

- blueberries (frozen)
- 1 cup of water
- 1/3 cup of butter
- 3 eggs
- cake mix

First of all you preheat the oven to 325 degrees if you have a dark pan. if you have a light pan then you preheat it to 350 degrees. You grease the pan so it wont stick to it. You put the cake mix, water , butter, and eggs into a mixing bowl and mix all of it together. You put the blueberries in a bowl and heat them for around 25-30 seconds. After you heat the blueberries and the mix is done you add the blueberries to the mixture. Be very careful because you don't want your cake mix to turn blue/purple.

After you're done, then you put it in the oven for about 30 minutes. Now be careful because you don't want your cake to stick to the pan. Wait for around 10 minutes so it cools. After its finished cooling off, put it on a pretty table center and let your family or guests start to enjoy it.

Now here are some questions I hope you van answer:
What would have been better to use, frozen blueberries or fresh blueberries? Would the cake have turned out differently?


Sources: 
"Betty Crocker Supermoist Cake Mix, Butter Recipe Yellow, 15.25 oz." Walmart,
     www.walmart.com/ip/
     Betty-Crocker-Supermoist-Cake-Mix-Butter-Recipe-Yellow-15-25-oz/20511486.
     Accessed 29 Jan. 2018.
"Cake Mix Blueberry Muffins Recipe." Six Sisters' Stuff, 14 Mar. 2012,
     www.sixsistersstuff.com/recipe/2012/03/cake-mix-blueberry-muffins-recipe/.
     Accessed 29 Jan. 2018.

Brownies

                                                                     Brownies

Everyone knows that making brownies is an easy thing to do. Whether it be for a party or just to enjoy them at home. We all pretty much know how to make brownies. I'm here to gonna give the recipe for the brownies, and how to make them.

Recipe:
- 3 eggs (And/or egg whites or egg substitution)
-1/3 cup of oil
-1/4 cup of water
-brownie mix

Now see first of all we preheat the oven to 325 degree. While we let the oven start to heat up, we start to put all the ingredients into a bowl mixer. After the ingredients are all mixed together and leave a smooth texture to the mixture.

You put it in the oven for around 30 minutes. Now be careful and don't let the brownies stick to the bottom of your pan.

Now I know this blog may seem less interesting but it's to help anyone incase they want to do something like this. Maybe for the fun of it, you can even add some type of color to the brownies. Add sprinkles of frosting to it to make it sweeter.

Now a good question I have is whether or not I should have used the egg white. what type of texture would it have given me? Would it have turned out differently?

Leave a response below in the comments:
Would have using the egg whites been better? What would it have done?

Sources: 
"Betty Crocker® Brownie Mix Fudge Family Size 18.3 oz Box." Walmart,
     www.walmart.com/ip/Betty-Crocker-Brownie-Mix-Fudge-Family-Size-18-3-oz-Box/
     10311382. Accessed 29 Jan. 2018.

Making Macaron Filling

The next step after baking the macaron crusts (view last post) is to make the filling to go in between, completing the macaron. This filling can be anything from sweet cream cheese to tangy raspberry filling and countless other flavors. For my macarons, I decided to make vanilla-flavored butter cream to go with the vanilla flavored macaron crusts that I had made previously.

Vanilla-Flavored Butter Cream Filling

Ingredients:

• 7 tablespoons (100 grams) unsalted butter
• 3 tablespoons (40 milliliters) water
• 3 tablespoons (40 grams) granulated sugar
• 1 egg
• Vanilla extract

Steps:

To start off, I cut the butter into 2 inch pieces and heated them up in the microwave for 10 seconds, continuing until the butter was soft enough to stick my finger to press into (Ogita, 42). Once this was done, I stirred the butter until it became "smooth and creamy like mayonnaise" (Ogita, 42) which helped to indicate when to stop stirring the butter and move on to the next step. 

After stirring the butter, I put water and granulated sugar into a heat-resistant container and stirred. The next step was to heat the mixture in the microwave for about 5 minutes, until the sugar was completely dissolved. This step was actually very difficult because the sugar kept burning and turning the whole mixture black when it was actually supposed to look clear and syrupy. 

The black mixture would have then turned solid and cling to the container as it cooled, which was a nuisance to clean out afterwards. I had to repeat this step over and over, being careful not to burn the sugar in the microwave. I eventually got the mixture syrup-ish without burning it, which was enough for me at that point.

In another bowl, I added the problematic syrup into a bowl with a beaten egg, mixing until the mixture becomes white and heavy. After doing so, I added the butter from the first step and beat it until the butter was well mixed. Ogita pointed out that "While beating the butter and syrup, bubbles may appear that seem to separate the butter from the syrup. You may think you have made a mistake but just continue beating until the butter becomes creamy" (Ogita, 43). This helped to reassure that I wasn't doing anything wrong when the mixture looked questionable, so I was grateful for the pointer.

 After the butter and syrup mixture has become creamy, I added a few drops of vanilla extract, stirring well. After this was done, the filling was complete and I spread the cream into the crusts I had made previously to complete the macarons!

 Although the finished product looks a little ugly and boring compared to the colorful cute macarons you see at bakeries, they tasted just fine (and maybe a little burnt). In my lack of baking experience, if the macarons are edible then it's a success! Hisako Ogita taught me that with more practice, you'll be able to make macarons with no trouble at all.

Q: What is the biggest mistake you've made while baking? 

Ogita, Hisako. I Macarons. San Francisco: Chronicle, 2009. Print.

Milkshakes: Not as easy as they seem

I am in no way a chef, baker, or any other sort of person that prepares or makes food. So I thought I would ease my way into the culinary world using Better Homes and Gardens New Cook Book by Jennifer Darling...it was a mess. Since I am about as inexperienced as they come I decided to start easy with a milkshake. Well I learned even the simplest of tasks can easily become a disaster. Although the result was good and tasty the process wasn't very simple. First, I made the mistake of not asking how to use a blender so I took the container part of the blender off wrong. Of course I had failed to realize this until I had already put my pint of chocolate ice cream and 1/2 cup of milk into it. It almost immediately started spilling out the bottom leaving me in utter confusion. Eventually I got it under control, after losing all the milk and melted part of the ice cream to the floor and counter.

I then turned on the blender and put it on stir and stopped every once in a while to stir it (29). Once I thought it was smooth I poured it into some cool milkshake cups, but I still hadn't fixed my spilling issue completely so it got all over me and counters again. It was revenge of the milkshake and I wasn't expecting it. I then ignored the directions when they said "Serve immediately"(29). Going with the trend of me screwing it up it was a little milkier than when it had first been poured. I think that from this experience I have learned that I'm not yet a master of the blender or basic skills in the kitchen. 

As I venture into my next baking and easy food making adventure is their any tips or advice you would like to share with me?

Recipe:

• 1 pint of ice cream
• 1/2 or 3/4 cup of milk

1. Place ice cream and milk in a blender container
2. Cover and blend till smooth
3. Serve immediately

Darling, Jennifer. Better Homes and Gardens New Cook Book. Des Moines, IA: Meredith, 1989. Print.

Vanilla wafer mini chessecakes

To my fellow bloggers,

Over the course of this project I will be trying out some of Philadelphia cream chesses best loved recipes. The first recipe I decided to give a shot was Vanilla wafer mini cheesecakes, I decided to pick this recipe because this recipe was simple and easy and allowed me to put my own little creative spin on it. Part of the directions said " Bake in preheated oven for 20 minuets or until set. Cool completely, then top with cherry pie filling. cover and refrigerate until ready to serve" but... I'm not one for fruity fillings so I decided to add my own fun little topping I decided to add a few chocolate chips on top of the cheesecakes.

Ingredients:

- 24 vanilla wafer cookies

- 3 (8 ounce) packages of cream cheese, softened

- 1 cup white sugar

- 3 eggs

- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

- 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

To begin making the mini cheesecakes you put the cream cheese and sugar in the mixing bowl and beat until it becomes smooth then beat in eggs one at a time until completely mixed, then add in the ground nutmeg and vanilla extract. Then blend all completely.

(This is the mixture when completely mixed)

The next step is to place the vanilla wafers in the bottom of cupcake papers

(These are the vanilla wafers in the bottom of the cupcake pans)

The next step is to scoop the batter on top of the vanilla wafers, to make this step easier I was taught to use a mini ice cream scoop and put two scoops of batter on the vanilla wafers. Then with the extras I added batter to the cheesecakes I thought could have used some extra batter. Last I added a few chocolate chips on top of the cheesecakes (I only did a few because my mom wanted regular cheesecakes)

(These are the cheesecakes once completely filled)

I noticed that on all the cheesecakes the cupcake wrappers kind of bent into the cheesecakes when I put the batter into the cupcake wrappers I'm not entirely sure why that happens. The next step is to place them in the oven for 20 minuets or until completely set up. When the timer goes off let the cheesecakes cool completely and then place them in the fridge until you're ready to serve them.

     

(These are the cheesecakes baked and cooled)

In my opinion these cheesecakes were just as good as normal sized cheesecakes but half the work! I would recommend this recipe to any of you guys! My favorite were adding the chocolate chips on top!

• Does anyone know why the cupcake wrappers bent into the batter?

• What topping would you put on to these cheesecakes if you were to make them?