Showing posts with label 4th of July. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 4th of July. Show all posts

Saturday, July 2, 2011

Patriotic Red Velvet Cupcakes

I love fourth of July. It's probably one of my favorite holidays and I think it's terribly underrated compared to christmas and new years and thanksgiving. But I feel this way because my family always always has the best barbeques/pool parties for 4th of July. The kids swim in the backyard pool until their skin turn charcoal, while my uncle grills delicious meat of all kinds. Usually my mom makes fruit smoothies and someone else brings the fireworks. It's seriously the highlight of my summer.
I started contributing my own baked goods last year to the family parties. I made Edible Eagles last year. This year I made patriotic cupcakes to celebrate the independence of our very country. Woo!
After mixing all the ingredients I came up with this...mixture of bubbles and dye even after having mixed it for 5 minutes.. I freaked out momentarily, assuming I had added too much of something (probably oil) but my friend Grace saved the day by beating it with a whisk with strong, solid movements. It turned out beautifully:
(My dad said it looked like tomato sauce. I should've added more food coloring but I ran out!)

The recipe was vague on how much sugar to add, so I added as much as I thought was necessary. (Around 1.5 cups?)

Red Velvet Cupcakes by Sweet Tooth
CUPCAKES:
2-1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cocoa
1-1/2 cups sugar
2 eggs
1-1/2 cups canola oil
1 tsp vinegar
1 tsp red gel food coloring dissolved in 6 tbsp water (or 1 1 oz bottle)
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup buttermilk

FROSTING:
1/2 cup butter
1 (8oz) package cream cheese
1 box confectioners sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla

- Preheat oven to 350 degrees and prepare muffin tins with 24 liners
- Mix the flour, baking soda, and cocoa in one bowl, sugar and eggs in another, and oil, vinegar, food coloring, vanilla, and buttermilk in yet another.
- Add the oil mixture to the egg mixture and beat until well combined
- Add the flour mixture in small intervals, mixing well witah each addition
- Fill 24 liners up with batter 3/4 of the way full
- Bake for 25 minutes and let completely cool before frosting
- For the frosting, cream together the butter and cream cheese and add the sugar in small intervals until well mixed.
- Mix in the vanilla and frost the cupcakes!

Monday, July 5, 2010

Edible Eagles: 4th of July!



I know it's been awhile since my last post, but I haven't had much time since I started chem class class two weeks ago. Since it was a three-day weekend for everyone (4-day for me) I decided to create something special for Independence Day! I found this recipe for marshmallow edible eagles on noblepig. Making these was sooo simple, I was able to make around 30 eagles and served it at my family party!

With the help of my seester! :)


The original recipe calls for pre-made chocolate cookies for the base of the eagle, but since we had Oreos laying around the house we decided to hand-dip them in semi-sweet chocolate! Then we dipped the marshmallows in melted white chocolate!

Cover in coconut!
I thought the coconut portrayed feathers really well.



Cashews for the beaks...



My little cousins enjoyed eating these, although the adults were a little intimidated by the sweetness factor. If you're opting for a healthier dessert, these probably shouldn't be your top choice. But if you're looking for chocolatey-coconuty-sweet treats, these are your best option. And I gave them plus points for being cute. :)