love. love. love.

i had the best intentions for valentine's day and this blog of mine. i was going to make all sorts of awesome valentine's cookies and cupcakes and post them here for inspiration...

but then my computer charger broke.

and my mom and sister came into town.

and my cousin got married.

and i got a sick boyfriend.

so i had to settle for a 3 day late picture of a cookie i made last year. maybe i'll get it right next time. [am i the only one that says that a lot?]

it only took 22 valentine's days for me to snag a valentine of my own. [really, this was my first february 14th with a valentine]. even being sick and practically immobile he managed to make it wonderful. more details on that later.

i hope you all had a lovely day as well. 

what did you do to celebrate?

xoxo.

jana

pumpkin cupcakes.

[yes. this is my picture. i'm working on my food styling/photography skills - what do you think?]

fall is my favorite season. maybe it's because i love all things pumpkin.

the other night, my roommate and i decided to have a little bake-fest [she's my sous chef/cooking prodigy - i love it]. 

we googled 'pumpkin cupcakes', and martha stewart's recipe was the first to pop up. let me just tell you, martha does not disappoint.

there wasn't a frosting recipe, so i took the liberty of using a cream cheese frosting recipe that i now have memorized. excellent choice on my part, if i do say so myself.

[the recipe makes about 20 cupcakes. i had to make another batch so i could take some pictures].

martha stewart's pumpkin cupcakes

2 c. flour

1 t. baking soda

1 t. baking powder

1 t. coarse salt

1 t. ground cinnamon

1 t. ground ginger

1/4 t. nutmeg

1/4 t. ground allspice

1 c. packed brown sugar

1 c. sugar

1 c. (2 sticks) butter, melted and cooled

4 large eggs, lightly beaten

1 can (15 oz) pumpkin puree

directions:

1. preheat oven to 350 degrees. line cupcake pans with paper liners. set aside. in a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and allspice. set aside. [don't worry if you don't have all the right spices. we didn't have allspice, so i just doubled the amount of nutmeg].

2. separately, whisk together, brown sugar, granulated sugar, butter, and eggs. add dry ingredients, and whisk until smooth. [i apparently can't read recipes, and just softened my butter instead of melting it - it still worked great]. whisk in pumpkin puree. [the recipe calls for 15 oz. of pumpkin puree, which is actually half of of the cans of pumpkin you find at most stores].

3. divide batter evenly among liners, filling each about halfway to 3/4 full. bake approximately 20 minutes, until toothpick comes out clean. [in my oven it was almost exactly 20 minutes].

cream cheese frosting

1/2 c. butter, softened

1 pkg. (8 oz.) cream cheese, softened

1 t. vanilla

3 1/2 c. powdered sugar

directions:

cream butter and cream cheese together until smooth. add vanilla. then add powdered sugar. it will be too thick to use regular beaters after you add the powdered sugar, just fyi. hope you have a kitchenaid. or you don't mind using your muscles. i pipe my frosting out of a re-usable featherweight piping bag i purchased at michael's. and this recipe makes exactly the right amount needed to frost one batch of these cupcakes.

enjoy!

xoxo.

jana

ps. i weighed less the day after i made these. they're magic cupcakes.

sugar cookies.

as promised...

the most fantastic sugar cookies on the face of this earth.

you may have seen these before on my blog here or here. so i figured it was due time to share the recipe [the cookies in these other posts actually look better than the pumpkins. just sayin].

also, as promised, where they came from: a good church friend from california taught us how to make these when i was in high school - and i will love her forever.

deb child's sugar cookies

2 c. butter

1 1/2 c. sugar

4 egg yolks

2 t. vanilla

4 1/2 c. flour

icing

2 lb. bag of powdered sugar

3 T. powdered meringue

1 t. clear vanilla

1 t. butter flavoring

1/2 t. almond flavoring (optional)

for cookies:

first, cream butter and sugar. then, add egg yolks and vanilla. add flour to mixture gradually. the  dough will roll out best if it has been chilled for a few hours. roll out cookie dough to 1/4-1/2 inch thick, and cut into desired shapes. place cookies on a buttered cookie sheet or a cookie sheet covered with parchment paper. bake at 350 for 10-12 minutes.

icing:

mix ingredients. [seriously, that's about it]. Add water to the mixture incredible slowly, until the icing is at the proper consistency for piping through a bag - but it should still be pretty thick. then, feel free to add some color.

and here are some tips.

it's preferable not to do everything at once. when i try to finish these up all in one day, i start to go crazy and the icing job shows it. maybe make up the cookie dough one day and bake and frost them the next. or cook them with a helper - it makes life a lot easier.

i roll my cookies out thick - like 1/2 inch thick - before cutting the dough into desired shapes. they taste better that way.

watch your oven to figure out the exact cooking time. i take my cookies out when they just barely start thinking they want to look the least bit golden on the edges. they'll be softer and more awesome and last longer.

and here's the biggest tip of all - icing. it looks hard, right? wrong. use a piping bag to frost an outline on your cookie - i frost all of my outlines at once. then, thin the remaining icing with water [it doesn't take very much]. use this thin icing with a spoon to fill the inside of the cookies that have already been outlined - that's how the frosting gets so smooth. and if you have any piping icing left, use it for further cookie decoration.

let the icing dry overnight. trust me. then wrap them up, or serve them at a party and impress all your friends.

happy baking!

xoxo.

jana

if i'm a terrible instruction giver, please feel free to tell me and ask questions :)

speaking of german chocolate cake.

i did have some for breakfast today.

it didn't turn out quite as well as it usually does.

i almost cried.

at least it was very photogenic.

today i may have eaten nothing but banana cake

with cream cheese frosting.

ok, i had a real lunch. but other than that, it was only banana cake.

try the recipe, and you will understand. don't even worry if you're not a huge banana fan, you will love it anyway. my mom sent it to me - she found online after i told her i needed a banana cake recipe. and i'm going to share it with the blog world because i love you.

cake ingredients:

1 1/2 c. bananas, mashed, ripe

2 t. lemon juice

3 c. flour

1 1/2 t. baking soda

1/4 t. salt

3/4 c. butter, softened

2 1/8 c. sugar

3 large eggs

2 t. vanilla

1 1/2 c. buttermilk

frosting:

1/2 c. butter, softened

1 (8 oz.) package cream cheese

1 t. vanilla

3 1/2 c. powdered sugar

directions:

1. you should probably start with a clean kitchen. why? because it will end up looking like this, or worse.

so the cleaner you start with, the better.

2. realize that this recipe requires baking with faith. mostly because it's really weird and kind of intense, and you have no idea why you're mixing things the way it says to mix them. but have faith that following the recipe will bring you happiness, and you will be fine.

3. preheat the oven to 275.

4. in a small bowl, mixed mashed banana with lemon juice.

5. in a medium bowl, mix flour baking soda and salt.

6. in a large bowl, cream 3/4 butter and sugar until light and fluffy.

[i have no idea why it's 2 1/8 c. sugar. really, an 1/8 cup? i've never seen that before, ever. but just do it]

7. beat in eggs, one at a time, then stir in vanilla.

[want to know why you beat in the eggs one at a time? yeah, me too. it's a mystery. at least to me, anyway]

8. beat in the flour mixture alternately with the buttermilk

[i didn't use buttermilk, i just added a little lemon juice to regular milk since i already had lemons on hand. and don't ask why you add them in alternately because i have no idea. just have faith, remember?]

9. stir in banana mixture.

10. taste it. because it's awesome, and the chances of getting salmonella from raw eggs is incredibly rare if you only have a spoonful. or even a few spoonfuls. trust me, i looked it up.

10. butter and flour a 9x13 pan. or 3 9-inch round pans if you want to be cool like me.

11. pour batter into prepared pan, or pans. if you go with the 9x13, bake in preheated oven for 1 hour or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. the 9-inch cakes baked for 45 minutes even in my oven. the toothpick rule still applies. and here is a picture of them baking in the oven in case you wanted to know how it's supposed to look.

12. remove from oven and place directly in freezer for 45 minutes. 

[ooh ooh, i actually know why you do this one! it makes the cake moist and fabulous!]

13. WARNING: there is only one teeny tiny hiccup with the recipe, and it really only matters if you decided to walk on the wild side and make a 3-layer cake. the cakes don't necessarily come out of the pan super easily, even if you butter and flour the pan like mad. after i took them out of the freezer, i actually used the other side of a spoon to slide under the cake to separate it from the pan. it kind of seems like the cake may fall apart, but if you're really careful it will come out of the pans in mostly one piece. and you cover it in frosting so it really doesn't matter how it looks.

14. for the frosting, cream the butter and cream cheese until smooth.

[again, if went the 3-separate cake route. you may want to double or 1 and a half the frosting recipe so you don't have to worry about spreading it too thin]

15. beat in vanilla.

16. add powdered sugar and beat on low speed until combined, then on high speed until frosting is smooth

17. spread on cooled cake. don't even bother making it look pretty. ok, you can make it look pretty if you're making it for a party. but if you're planning on cutting a piece out 2 seconds after it's done being frosted - like me - you won't have the patience to make the frosting perfect.

18. eat at least a piece, probably two though. i personally like it without ice cream.

19. after you're satisfied, go to an awesome church conference with your favorite roomie.

[i love camera timers]

20. the next morning, make sure you have a piece for breakfast.

21. and maybe just leave a fork next to the cake so you can take a bite whenever you feel so inclined. which might be every time you walk past the kitchen. i would never do that, but my friend does. ok fine. it's me, not my friend.

22. when you realize you've eaten nothing but cake all day, go play a game of kickball for family home evening with your ward, and tell some people to come over and have a piece before you finish the other half of the cake off yourself.

23. don't hate me if you do finish the other half off yourself.

24. please tell me if you try the recipe - i can't wait to hear how much you love it!

the end.

they threw me a going away party at work...

and i brought the pie. actually, i brought two pies, and this is what i came home with. hooray for quitting my full-time job to go back to school next month!

i had every intention of having a fabulous apple pie photo shoot, but it was a little out of the question when i woke up at 5:30 in the morning to get them all baked up before i left for work. shout out to my brother for pulling them out of the oven for me - thanks doug! i even wanted to post a step-by-step kind of deal with my mom's fabulous recipe, but that didn't work out either. maybe if you ask me real nice i'll do it anyway :)

mmm. i wish i would have hidden a piece to have for breakfast...

xoxo.

jana

better late than never.

right?

i know valentine's day was last week, but i couldn't resist making my favorite cookies anyway.

in case you were wondering, a batch and a half makes about this many

this slightly made me want to be a food stylist. it's a real job, i swear. i'm just pretty sure they're not in very high demand. but if you hear of any job openings for martha stewart, feel free to let me know :)

[i really hope i'm not the only person that thinks these pictures are cool].

the end.

p.s. if you would like some cookies, please let me know - otherwise i may just eat the entire batch and a half by myself.

on the sixth day of christmas...

i may or may not have had one of these for breakfast.

and a few more for lunch.