Posts Tagged "Sprinkles"
In the Kitchen: Strawberry cupcakes
I’ve developed a small reputation of being quite the baker. Obviously I’m not much of a baker. I know real bakers. I’m but a novice but I do enjoy myself. That said, contrary to my friends’ beliefs, not everything I make comes out looking utterly fantastic.
Or fit for public consumption.
Case in point: the cupcakes I made for Spanish Club. Oh boy. Where to start? Since the theme was “Red, White or Pink” I decided to make Red Velvet cupcakes. Except I couldn’t decide on a recipe and I wasn’t sure if I wanted to just buy a box mix [mainly because I couldn’t remember which box mix I used the last time that netted a dry cake]. I hemmed and hawed until I stumbled upon a strawberry cupcake recipe purported to be the one used at Sprinkles Cupcakes. We all know how much I dig Sprinkles. So I decided this was the one to make.
And it was pretty easy. Puree some frozen strawberries, which actually works better if they’re thawed but hey, a little orange juice helped make that process go easier, mix the batter, pop them in the oven and then bing, bang, boom, like magic – strawberry cupcakes.
Except not.
There was a very slight pinkish color to them and when I pulled the wrapper away, the cake broke apart, and not in a good way, which was obviously because they were fresh out the oven and needed time to set. However I was still skeptical because it didn’t look like it baked all the way through so I popped them back into the oven for a few more minutes.
In the mean time, I worked on the frosting. This was my very first attempt at make frosting since I always just buy a tub and call it a day. But I was determined to give it a go for the complete package. It came together easily enough and tasted pretty good to boot. I popped it into the fridge to keep cold because I was not feeling confident at all about the cupcakes.
And they did not turn out well. They had a rubbery consistency, which I think resulted from me over beating the batter. I was very disappointed to say the least but instead of sulking over it too long, I hightailed it out to the grocery store to buy strawberry cake mix and cheesecake flavored pudding mix instead. I added some of the strawberry puree into the batter and they baked up perfectly.
Then I frosted one of the new cupcakes with the frosting and wouldn’t you know it, I didn’t like it. At all. Sigh. So I had to pick up a tub of frosting on my way up to Jacki’s house and finish the cupcakes there [of course not without a shot of vanilla extract to bump up the flavor of the frosting]. I was kicking myself for not buying a tub while I was at the store picking up the cake mix. Oh well.
But in the end they turned out delicious even though not exactly quite to plan. I’m so glad I thought of the back up plan because I was seriously bummed things didn’t turn out, though that’s the risk whenever you try a new recipe. Speaking of which, I don’t think I’ll be trying that recipe again. Turns out Tami had trouble with a strawberry cupcake too. So see, even real bakers have issues too.
And yeah, I totally bit the look from Sprinkles. But don’t they look fabulous? The buttons are made of royal icing. Totally doable!
You mean Patagonia isn’t just a brand of jacket?
Am I the only person who still, from time to time, tries to freeze time by touching my index fingers together? I can’t be. There’s got to be someone else who does this. I know that I’ll never be able to stop time but it’s fun to try every once and again, just like we all did after watching that show.
And yes, I did try that yesterday just for kicks.
Okay, can I say how utterly disappointed I am that HWSNBN is potentially in line to return to the Yankees? I mean, what? After all the posturing…for nothing? He better start producing like, all the time. Even when he sleeps. For all that money [while not near the appalling $350 million floor Boras talked up] he needs to be able to heal the sick and walk on water. For real because if he doesn’t then it’s gonna be another rough go round in the Bronx for him.
And that’s without dealing with me. I was prepared to let him leave and start the “healing process” for the both of us; I’d get over him and he’d move on and regain that killer instinct he once had [not to say that he’ll be made completely impotent at the bat if he stays in New York – I know he has it in him, it’ll just be harder]. But if he insists on staying then Godspeed.
I’m amended my original plan. The gingerbread roll will be made the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. The office will most likely close early so I’ll be home with plenty of time to make it. Besides, I would like Lindsey to try it too even though she’s being mean to me right now and refuses to bring home Sprinkles cupcakes for me [or even make crepes while she’s here]. Plus I will be having lunch with Kayli on Saturday so that cuts my baking time. I can bust out the fudge no problem since I plan on getting to the hospital early in the morning [provided I wake up early].
My favorite show started again last night. That’s right folks, Project Runway is back. I completely forgot about it when I got home and just ate, showered and went straight to bed so if you caught it, don’t tell me what happened because I plan on watching it sometime this weekend. I adore Heidi Klum and Tim Gunn but I’m most excited about the bitchy twins, Michael Kors and Nina Garcia. Oh how I love their unabashed comments, even when I think they’re too harsh. They’re fabulous! I was amused to see Santino on The World’s Smartest Model [a.k.a. Lola’s favorite show]. I didn’t watch the episode but I did stop to see what he would do…and for the five minutes I did watch, not much but probably think he got stuck with the two biggest boobs in the world.
With the writer’s strike showing no signs of ending, I’ll be taking the opportunity to catch up on my reruns. I’m sad that the Office only has like, 1 more episode in the can before they’re forced to run reruns [or so I’ve heard] but that means that I’ll be able to catch up on Ugly Betty, which runs during my NBC block. I don’t have Tivo and I can’t remember to make it back to the ABC website to watch the show online [which is great because there’s hardly any commercials! So it only takes, like 40 some odd minutes to get through an entire show]. So I’ll be able to keep myself amused until this all plays out. Maybe I’ll Netflix the Gilmore Girls and catch up on the last few seasons! Or I can figure out more flavors. I’ve got my personal entertainment covered fairly well. Plus, I always have Cartoon Network. All of those shows are reruns anyway so no interference from the strike.
Read MoreUCLA: Sunday’s getaway
Unlike Saturday, the weather was awesome and stayed awesome the duration of my trip. My getaway day started slowly. I took my time getting ready, aiming for a 11:30 am departure from my hotel to head to Pink’s for lunch. Except I was ready by 9 and starving so I called Pink’s to find out when they opened and lo and behold [because it was obvious I was meant to eat at Pink’s] they were opening at 9:30. Well, by a quarter to 10 I was checked out of the hotel and on my way to Pink’s for a very delicious breakfast of chili cheese dogs. Didn’t you know that chili cheese dogs are the breakfast of champions?
Since I came so insanely early, there was no line whatsoever. Everyone who I told [i.e. Bubba and my parents] that I was going there warned me about the lines. Not that I worried, remember, I waited in line for cupcakes.
I helped myself to a chili cheese dog and pink lemonade and took a seat in the back patio area.
And enjoyed my breakfast.
It was good. I would have waited in line for it good.
I called my mom after I ate and she asked me if I had any more cupcakes since my dad was pretty much whining over not getting any. I didn’t but decided that I would assume the role of Cupcake Fairy again and surprise them and made another stop at Sprinkles. I promptly referred to them as my “contraband” and watched them like a hawk. For no real reason other than I could.
After picking up “the stuff”, I drove back towards Westwood in hopes of Diddy Riese being open, alas they were not and I would not be having cookies. I was really bummed. So I had to find an alternate activity to tide me over before I went to the airport. My parents, on multiple times over the weekend, informed me that I could take Santa Monica Boulevard all the way to, gasp, SANTA MONICA! Shocking, I know. So off I went.
Read MoreUCLA: Saturday Move-In
When we last saw our chipper heroine, she was packing away the linguini carbonara. And onto today’s exciting chapter!
This was our chariot for the weekend, a Chevy Cobalt. It was a pretty nice car where the doors automatically locked when you put the car into gear and unlocked when you parked it and had one of those handy keychain openers but the best thing was that it had HEATED FRONT SEATS! Yes it did and once I figured that out [while on the 405 and pressing random buttons saying, “I wonder what this does…”] we were so freaking happy. They really did help soothe my muscles and my lower back. I had it on all weekend.
Look at all the buttons!
Our hotel is across the street from a Mormon Temple. Remember people, not every Mormon lives in Salt Lake City and not everyone who lives in Salt Lake is Mormon. That’ll be on the GMAT so take notes.
So after bumming around in the morning and even having time to flat iron my hair, we headed out to Sprinkles to pick up cupcakes and assume our roles as the Cupcake Fairies. It didn’t take too long to find parking [thankfully since I’ve heard parking can be a bit of a pain in that area] and off we went to stand in a short line for cupcakes.
The store’s really tiny but there are plenty of daily cupcakes to choose from. I picked up an assorted half-dozen: red velvet, strawberry, vanilla, dark chocolate, a black and white, and a peanut butter and chocolate while Lindsey picked two vanilla, dark chocolate and red velvets. Lindsey helped herself to a vanilla as soon as we got to the car and it was like biting into heaven. It was sooo good and the cake was moist.
These were Lindsey’s…
And these were mine…
And then we were off to campus!
Once on campus, we wandered around to kill time before Lindsey had to move in. First, I was attacked by a Bruin, or an adolescent bear.
Then we took refuge in Ackerman from the Bruin and the rain and bought a cool Paul Frank umbrella that was barely adequate for the both of us but did the job. Though I did have to say goodbye to my awesomely straight hair.
Then we happened upon the cutest puppy ever. His owner was trying to walk him but he wasn’t listening to any of the commands and came directly to us. I wanted to take him home.
This is Janss Steps. Lindsey said it was a bit to climb up but I found that I bounded up it with no problem…needless to say, I was tempted to air box and lift my arms up in triumph once I did make it to the top.
Legend has it that you’re supposed to avoid the sixth step or else you’ll add two additional quarters to your stay here. I was ready to step on it but didn’t out of solidarity with Linds.
LAX stands for “this little piggy…”
This was a really fun weekend. I’ll go ahead and recount every excruciating detail here now and then do a separate “photo essay” later. After I sort through all 200 of my pictures because I can’t put them all on my Flickr since I don’t have a Pro account yet. And besides, no one wants to go through 150 pictures of buildings anyways…especially since I don’t really remember which buildings they were anymore.
But they were all very pretty. And bricky.
Anywho, so I almost teared up a bit when I saw Lindsey sitting on her bed with her suitcase packed. It was a sad moment but I pulled myself together and we went out in search of a new video game, which I didn’t end up finding until we were in Oakland at the last possible store. We ran a couple of errands and ate lunch at Tacos Jalisco before heading to the airport to sit and wait for our plane.
So we did end up finding two seats together near the front but for some reason, the woman in the row decided to sit in the aisle seat and buckle herself in…and then had the nerve to give us the stink eye for having the audacity to ask if we could take the other two seats. I mean, it’s a full flight and you’re sitting on the aisle…why the heck do you BUCKLE YOURSELF IN?
Anyway, the plane trip was quick but we were met with a bit of a drizzle in Los Angeles. Rain? Really? I was disappointed in Los Angeles. Very. After a long wait for my one bag [I always lose at the “claim your luggage” game] and the Avis rental shuttle, we were off to tackle the behemoth that is I-405. We had plans on hitting up Sprinkles upon arrival but that was thwarted by our 10-mile trip that took us an hour and a half. For I kid you not. It didn’t help that it was raining too. Pity. But all night we were hit up by phone calls from both parents always within minutes of each other to see where we were. We later found out that they were in different rooms [we reserved 2 rooms, one for me and Lindsey and the other for the parents and eventually the nephew]. But we made it in one piece and went out to track down some food and found out where Pinkberry was. Our dinner came compliments of Pastagetti on Westwood. Mine was really tasty [linguini carbonara…I want some more].
We then proceeded to crack up about my “orange carbonated drink.” I had developed a taste for Aranciata and picked up a bottle with my dinner and when my mom asked me what it was, I dropped the long and involved version instead of just saying an orange soda. This led Lindsey to laugh at me which I then pointed out that the label did in fact say, “sparkling orange beverage” so I was kind of close. Needless to say we were the only ones laughing.
Saturday was the busy insane day. My parents left for breakfast before we even got up and opted to meet us on campus. After putzing around the room for a bit, we finally got our butts into gear and got ready…to go to Sprinkles. Yup. First stop of the day was for cupcakes, which were conveniently right, down the street in Beverly Hills [everything was right down the street from our hotel, including the campus]. They opened at 9 and we were there by 11. I think. It was early but there was still a line. But they were divine. The cake isn’t that sweet but it’s moist and when you eat both the frosting and the cake it’s fantastic if not a bit too sweet…I ended up wiping off half the frosting on my strawberry cupcake and it was perfect. I planned on buying Lindsey’s roommates and Cousin Tobit cupcakes as a welcome gift. Though my excitement was diminished a bit when the nephew refused the cupcake too but hey, that’s his loss.
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