BakeBakeBake

My bakes from the past few weeks.

Meatballs, Cookies and Cupcakes!



this recipe is from one of my favourite sites, The Pioneer Woman. i've had it bookmarked forever, but only got around making it last week.



no pictures of the meatball making process (nobody really wants to see raw, minced beef right?) but in a nutshell;
*mix all the ingredients and shape into balls
*freeze the balls for 5 minutes before this next step.

i got 42 very generously sized meatballs out of all that.

*coat each ball in some flour and brown (not cook) in heated canola oil for about 1 minute
*place browned meatballs in a baking dish, preheat oven to 350°f/180°c





*make the sauce

*like the meatballs, just mix the ingredients together in a small bowl. (easy right?)
*pour the sauce over the meatballs and then bake for 45mins






mmmmmmmmmm. the smell, oh the smell!





if you can believe it, the taste was even better than the smell.

i made a meatball sub (bun+cheese+meatballs+sauce+broiled in hot oven for 5-10mins).

this was super easy and super delish, thus i foresee myself making again and again!
i might replace half of the beef for chicken though, just to spice things up.
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made these one lazy sunday last month. i can't remember which foodblog i got this recipe from, i just seached for Chocolate Chip Cookies on Tastespotting and chose the prettiest looking one (lol). no pictures of the cookie-making process either, sorry!



*cream butter, both sugars until light and fluffy
*beat in the egg, vanilla and salt until well mixed
*sift in the flour and cream of tartar
*dissolve the baking soda and hot water, add to mixture
*stir in the chocolate chips and refrigerate cookie dough for at least an hour
*preheat oven to 350°f/180°c, bake cookies for 8-10mins
*let fully cool on rack before eating



perfectly pale & chewy cookies!

i really liked the texture of these cookies but i would replace the semi-sweet chocolate chips for milk chocolate ones the next time.







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been wanting to try something new so i settled on red velvet cupcakes. found a recipe on Tastespotting (see my pattern?) and made them last saturday for my family and friends.



*preheat oven to 350°f/180°c
basically there's 4 components to the red cupcake batter;

->the creamed butter, sugar, eggs, vanilla, cocoa powder & food colouring (beat & add in this order)
->the sifted cake flour, baking powder, salt
->the vinegar & baking soda
->the buttermilk


*beat in 1/3 of the dry ingredients into the creamed batter, followed by 1/2 of the buttermilk and repeat the step (dry-wet-dry-wet-dry)
*add the vinegar & baking soda

the final batter should look like this!
a note, i did not have 2oz of red food colouring on hand so instead i used ½oz bottles of Wilton's icing colors in No-Taste Red, Pink & Burgundy. so yup, i only used 1½oz of food colouring.


*fill cupcake liner 2/3 full, bake for 20-22mins

the recipe makes 24 but i only got 22 cupcakes. also, loving the fact that the batter matches my potpourri!





ah, the inevitable result of working with food colouring

not pictured; the red sideburn i got from scratching my cheek right before washing my hands




frost the cooled cupcakes with your favourite cream cheese frosting!

i dotted mine with red m&ms.





verdict?

the cupcakes were yummy enough but they weren't so mindblowing that i would make them again. if there's anything you should know (or have noticed from all my previous posts) about me is that i very much prefer one-bowl recipes!