Owls, official animal of hipsters worldwide

So owls are cliche anymore. I don't really care- I love them and they are my favorite. Like cuddling.
I've been wanting to make owl cupcakes for oh... about 2 years now. and today is my sweet baby girls 3rd birthday and since she has been celebrating this glorious event since last weekend she has had every sort of birthday treat imaginable. I had to do something different and BETTER for her to take to her nursery school class.

Therefore, I'm bringing the big guns. Mini owl cupcakes. Because they are smaller, just like my Moochie, they are automatically cuter. Thus, they will trump everything done thus far. Even the stupid cake Mr. Papers had someone else make for her birthday party yesterday.... hmph...

I was short on time so this is quite possibly the easiest treat to date (except maybe the Dump Cake). Check it:


One box cake mix. Whatever flavor floats your boat- and all the necessary ingredients to make said cake.
One tub of frosting- or two if you want to do two different flavors/colors
Mini Oreo cookies
Candy Corn, Mini Chocolate Chips, M & M's, orange candy gummies***** we will talk about the candies at the end****

First you will need to bake mini cupcakes w/ said box cake mix. Follow directions on the box, cool. If you want to be a perfectionist you can bake a cake from scratch (like my delightful chocolate cake) and you can use brown cupcake liners.
I baked cupcakes last weekend and had a ton left over, so I froze them, thawed them and used them today. So sue me. They are also in mismatched cupcake liners- not at all halloween or fall themed. Again, I suck at life.

So, if you baked from scratch or GASP used the box mix, let those babies cool while you



Mini oreos by nature are not as 'clean' as full size oreos. so they are a bit more 'dusty' on the creme filling. But, 3 year olds are eating these. They could give a rats behind. I'm in a HURRY here and working with what I have. You want to break them in half so the cream is on one side and then the "clean" side you will want to slice in half because these will be used later for further face decorating... See:

You frost the cupcake, then add the eyeballs, then the pupils (mini chocolate chips), then the beak- which can be either an orange M &M or a candy corn, then add the 1/2'd oreo as eyebrows/ears/feathers. Not sure what they are, but they are cute.


Here are a few variations:


Moochie's favorite colors are pink and purple (and lately orange) so, I made some pink owls as well. This is where I got slightly fancy



Pink frosting, pink heart sprinkles, oreo eyeballs, mini chocolate chip pupils, yellow m&m beaks

Super fancy, no?
Here they are in all their IN YOUR FACE glory ready to be half eaten by unimpressed 3 year olds


**Notes on the candy... The candy corn, I felt, was too big for a beak. And someone commented that they made them look like muppets, not really owls. And I obviously didn't use a single orange gummy thing. Because I would have had to manipulate the candy- i.e. cut it into the right shape, possibly use a rolling pin, etc etc. I was short on time. The M&M's worked best, looked the cutest (in my opinion) and kids all love M &M's. But I did have to sort through a bag of the candy to get only yellow and orange. SO, you could just buy reese's pieces and save yourself even more time.

Chocolate cake. better than a handshake, not as good as .. you know

Full disclosure- I'm not usually a chocolate cake fan. Hands down I go for 'yellow' cake with milk chocolate frosting. Nothing fancy, I want something that reminds me of being 6 and the pure joy of eating cake my mom made.

But, we are changing the dessert menu at work and I knew we needed some ridiculous chocolate to make the cut. SO I started playing around with a chocolate cake, because girls LOVE chocolate.
I put a variation of this cake up on special last week and guess who came in and had a slice? Chris Tucker ;) He loved it so much he asked me out for a drink after. that's another story!

SO-
Here is what you need for the cake:


This is a very straight forward cake, but there are few things you MUST do to get the cake right.
First, put all the dry ingredients into a bowl- flour, sugar, cocoa powder, salt, baking powder and baking soda


mix them together to combine
then, add the vanilla and the SOFTENED butter. NOT melted. not cold. soft, room temp butter. It should look like this:

turn on the mixer and while it is coming together, you HAVE to do this:

Butter and coat two 8 or 9 inch cake pans with COCOA powder. because we are making chocolate cake- you don't want a coating of white flour on the outside of the rich brown cake. it will look gray and gross. We are frosting them anyhow- but trust me.
Now we add the liquids- 2 eggs and some water. Mix for THREE MINUTES. set a timer. THREE minutes. You want the batter to look like this:

It is thick, but you do not want to overmix. This will make the cake way too dense/tough and it won't rise nice and fluffy. You want fluffy and airy.



Pour evenly between the two pans and put in a 350 degree oven for 35-40 minutes (this depends on what size pan you use. Smaller pan = longer bake time. Unless you make cupcakes. duh.

Now. The frosting. This frosting is the one that tastes and comes closest to your favorite Betty Crocker chocolate frosting from the tub. It is f'ing awesome. Here is what you need:


mix the regular sugar and cocoa powder in a pot. then add everything else BESIDES the powdered sugar and vanilla

mix with a spatula and try to smooth out the lumps while you turn the heat up on the stove top because you want to bring all of this goodness to a boil for about THREE minutes. stir continuously. you do NOT want to scorch the cocoa.



after three minutes- take off the burner and put anywhere else to cool for THIRTY minutes, at least. if you can and have room- go ahead and put it in the fridge. you can do this if you are in a hurry too.

this will coincide nicely with the timer going off indicating your cakes should be done. you know how to tell if a cake is done, right? ok good. well mine wasn't done after 35 minutes. so, i let them go for about 5 more minutes but I kept checking because this cake goes from not done to crispy in as little as 2 minutes.
you want it to look like this:


let them cool in the pans for TEN minutes. set a timer. TEN minutes. they need to cool a bit in the pan or they won't come away cleanly. BUT, if you leave them in too long, they will overcook and dry out. both things are bad. so SET.A.TIMER
and in the mean time you can keep futzing with the frosting mix because you want it to cool enough to look like this:

you want to be able to divide it like the red sea and see the bottom of the pot. you should be able to touch the bottom of the pan and it be cool.

alright turn the cakes out on a wire cooling rack and let them cool for at least an hour.

now pour the frosting mix into the mixer and start whipping it up. we want to incorporate as much air as possible so it will get light and fluffy. while the whisk is going, you can start pouring in the powdered sugar and the vanilla. and keep whipping! you want it to get thicker from the powdered sugar, but still whip up enough to frost the cake so it doesn't look like just a ganache.

see how the whisk is leaving marks in the frosting? it's getting thick enough!

so- i had some time left for the cake to cool and i started chatting on the phone and after an hour I was like- ooooops gotta torte and frost the cake. So I forgot to take pictures of that step but basically, I cut each layer in half and put frosting in between each layer. Then frosted the outside and it looks like this:



and then because I need the "triple" in the "triple chocolate" I added chocolate chips on top. you can add anything at this point- white chocolate shavings, or shavings from any candy bar, chocolate sprinkles- whatever makes your heart happy.


ta da! and now put it in the fridge and let it set up. and then the next morning wake up and give it to a friend, like me :)
FYI- i didn't eat ANY of this cake while baking, decorating or even after it was set up. I was fasting for a blood test.
talk about torture.
it might have been more torturous for my friend that was watching me decorate it and couldn't eat it either. zing!

So, if you are inclined- here is the recipe:
Chocolate Cake
2 1/4 c all purpose flour
1 2/3 c sugar
3/4 c softened butter
2/3 c cocoa powder
1 1/4 c water
1/4 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 tsp baking powder
2 eggs

Chocolate Frosting
1 c sucrose
1/2 cocoa powder
1/2 c WHOLE milk (or heavy cream or half and half)
4 tbsp. butter
2 tbsp. corn syrup
pinch of salt
1 1/2 c powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla

Take aways- the timer is your friend w/ this cake. USE IT.
also, this cake tastes amazing with a raspberry sauce, or just a tall glass of milk.

It's officially fall...

I love fall. Hands down, favorite season. First off because it brings the month of October. the best month of the year and not just because my birthday is in October (oh, on Thursday- did I mention that?).
Um, college football and HALLOWEEN are in October. yessssss

Also you can finally put on sweaters w/ jeans and sneakers and hide your belly again (thank you baby jesus), AND you can make delicious stick to your bones fall food.

like chili and cornbread.

So. way back in February an acquaintance- now friend :)- mentioned something about making bomb chili. I asked for the recipe and received an email with directions. It took 8 months, but I finally did it justice. It took some visual inspiration though, I saw what it looked like in their kitchen first today and Moochie & #1 were like, can we make chili too? You bet your ass we can. We went to the grocery store to get....



(ground meat, various beans, tomato sauce, tomato paste, celery, onion, jalapeno, tomato, green pepper, green chili, white pepper (?), cumin, regular pepper, chili powder) and FYI, you really do need a big ass pot. This exact term was used in the directions. This is no lie. biggest pot you have. use it.

*please note- I altered the recipe I received just slightly. Mainly, I did this:

Instead of using 2 lbs of ground beef, I used one pound of ground veal and one pound of ground sirloin. i'm fancy.

and the recipe also called for Frostbite. Back in February I was like- really? c'mon. do you REALLY use this? but today, I saw first hand that yes, indeed Frostbite is used.
I do not have Frostbite. Nor does my local grocery store. But you know what I do have? Sriracha. If you don't already have some, GO BUY IT NOW.

I had to get my mise ready so I chop chop chopped away while the kids waited not so patiently (we were going on a halloween treasure hunt around the block. i know, i told you I was fancy). And then we did some pop'ing and dropping. i.e. i opened what felt like 100 cans and let the kids dump them in the big ass pot.

Recipe called for 2 cans pinto and 2 cans kidney beans. I went off recipe and used 1 of each: pinto, black, cannelini, kidney. and then we put everything else in the pot except for:


meat, onions and green pepper
i let the onions get translucent and the meat cooked about half way. because then we just dumped THAT into the b.a.p. too.
and then we let it simmer away for about an hour while we went on our treasure hunt.
....
we come home and the house smells amazing. the kids aren't impressed and they want corn dogs instead. and butter noodles. shocking.
i sway them only slightly by telling them we are going to make fancy cupcakes. little did they know....

these ingredients would be making cornbread muffins. i'm mean, i know.
so we have cornmeal, bread flour, eggs, whipping cream, salt, baking powder, sugar, shortening and a can of sweet summer corn which I forgot to include. i was hiding it from the kids.
pretty much you just cream the shortening, then add liquids, then dry ingredients and last corn or whatever at the end (i envision bacon as a stellar addition) My friend said that vanilla is a good thing to add. huh.. never would have thought. and I love vanilla. maybe next time...
so, the mix is lumpy. i just plopped it in the muffin cups after letting the kids go nuts w/ the Pam.

15 minutes in the oven at 450.

kids are eating their corndogs and i'm salivating over the chili.
no lie as soon as the timer went off I served myself a bowl so it could cool down and waited TEN torturous minutes while the muffins cooled so I could turn them out w/o breaking them.
i even put Plugra butter on them. i know, i'm disgusting. it was worth it

Here is the recipe...

1 med. onion - diced
1 large green pepper - diced
1 jalapeno pepper - diced - keep seeds in
1/2 cup green chiles - diced (1/2 cup = 4 oz, which is exactly how a can is sold. woot!)
1/4 cup diced celery
2lbs ground beef (any ground meat would do I suppose. I was looking for lean, so you know veal and sirloin worked)
2 med. tomatoes, chopped (I suppose you could use a can here too)
2 29oz cans of tomato sauce
2 15 oz cans kidney beans
2 15 oz cans pinto beans
1 12 oz can tomato paste
4 tablespoons chili powder (I use http://www.penzeys.com/cgi-bin/penzeys/p-penzeyschilihot.html)
8-10 drops of Frostbite (http://cajohns.com/vmchk/Hot-Sauces/Frostbite-White-Hot-Sauce.html) *i used sriracha instead
2 teaspoons cumin powder
2 teaspoons black pepper
1 teaspoon white pepper (I just used more black pepper)
1 tablespoon salt
2 cups water

1. brown beef - crumble to pea-sized pieces
2. add diced onions and green pepper to beef while cooking
3. mix all other ingredients in big ass pot.
4. drain beef/onion/pepper and combine into pot.
5. simmer for 3 hours - stirring frequently.

i biffed on the stirring frequently as I left the house for an hour. oops... but i stirred even more frequently upon my arrival. whatever, it was fine. :)

My adventures in staging, Day 1

I have to explain what staging is. Pronounced "stah-ghing" it is when a cook or chef works briefly, for free, in another chef's kitchen to learn and be exposed to new techniques and cuisines (thank you Wikipidea).

A stage normally is used to see how a new chef/cook/student can adapt to the kitchen environment they are placed in. When a chef/cook/student is seeking an internship or job, often the stage is the next step after the interview. It can be a one day affair, take the place of a 'job' and become an internship, or it can be like a once-a-week type thing. It is pretty much a French way of saying "job shadow".

Staging is a mandatory part of my curriculum at school. I thought it was brilliant, and in fact I tried to do this while still in Michigan before I started school, but being that not many people had heard of this term, they were like- dude, no way. I had an arsenal of retorts- primarily that it was free labor.
SO you can imagine my elation that so many places in Chicago welcome stages with open arms and in fact contact the school seeking out students to come in. Why? I'd like to think it's only because of our stellar reputation. But lets be honest. It's because they have long ago realized IT'S FREE LABOR. and, a great way to interview students before you actually need to hire someone. It's kind of like scouting.

I did quite a bit of staging. So, I'm going to just highlight a few of my experiences- mostly the ones that had the most impact on me. Lets start with my very first one because to me, it is the best story....

Alright. Because I was truly a go-getter upon my arrival here, I started to search for stages before I even moved here. seriously. I had a list of bakeries I wanted to visit and introduce myself. I was that irritating girl in class that was smugly making appointments with different head pastry chefs during breaks. so... yeah, I signed up for my first stage at a bake/cake shop in a trendy neighborhood in Chicago- let's just call it "hipster central". My hope was that I could get in the cake design area and make a job out of it while living in here. Lets just say, it didn't go that way.

I hightail it there a week later literally as soon as I get out of my first full day in the kitchen at school (as in my first time in uniform using my chefs knife in the classroom kitchen). It was BLAZING hot and humid. Up to this point, I had only been in one bakery kitchen and that was back in Michigan. I knew this would be different, but wow was I NOT prepared for HOW different.

Upon my arrival, I quickly changed into my uniform and began to sweat like a farm animal within minutes. Being in a full production kitchen that has been baking cake, pastry, bread ALL DAY will never be a comfortable- temperature wise. I timidly ask to speak to the chef that was in charge of me for the day. Here he comes in full Chef uniform and hat, introduces himself and says ok- why don't you get started on this white chocolate ganache. He hands me a recipe that is written in grams. ok... I knew that I would be working w/ grams instead of cups/spoons so it wasn't that odd. however, I had NEVER used a kitchen scale until that morning in class. It's ok, I'll wing it. No big deal. I start to look around to try and get my bearings. I notice that the majority of the women are speaking Spanish, so I wasn't sure what to do. I can speak Spanish well enough, but not really versed in cooking/baking terminology in Spanish. "excuse me? Perdon? puedes ayudarme encontrar el chocolate? Chocolate blanco? Please? Por favor?" This woman looks at me and points to the general direction of bins of different chocolate. Open your eyes idiot... Sheepishly I smile and start looking for bowls/containers/etc to get my mise en place ready. I move from one area to the next, trying to gather what ingredients I could find 'quickly' (quickly being completely relative) and re-read the recipe for the 100th time.

Mr. Chef has been watching me out of the corner of his eye and then comes over and looks me up an down. He says, "ok Sandra (i was a dork wearing my school name tag) why don't you first start by blooming the gelatin, then worry about the chocolate and other ingredients". I stared at him w/ saucers for eyes and said "sure..ok, great idea". He stared right back at me and said "Have you ever bloomed gelatin before?" I continue to stare blankly at him and begin racking my brain. obviously, the 'racking' was going to do me no good because I had never done it before. BUT- had I heard of this term before?? hm... bloom gelatin... bloom gelatin.. all I kept thinking about was making freaking Jell-O but that wasn't what we were talking about here. This was for a white chocolate ganache. WTH?
So, I say no- but I can figure it out! At this point he realized what he had on his hands. Someone w/ ZERO kitchen experience. He quickly pulled an established intern away from what they were doing and said- "Sandra, this is _______. He will be helping you today."

I was determined to make up for my lack of knowledge by being the best direction follower ever and not leaving until everyone else left. Truthfully, I don't remember much else of what I did that day. I obviously made the ganache (oh, and almost burned ALL of the white chocolate), I dipped some eclairs in chocolate... helped scale some pistachio something or other... cut chocolate 'biscuit' for some petit four, and after 9pm, changed and got on the train to my apartment. I was exhausted and sweaty, and was like- sweet baby Jesus can I actually do this? Did I make the biggest mistake of my life?? As this fear creeped in, my eyes filled with the tears I had been holding back all afternoon and I stared out the window of the train and watched the city speed by.

Thankfully- it gets better. But that's for another night. And, yes. Now I know how to bloom gelatin. ;)

Announcement to the world!

I'm going to get straight to the point.
I am in love.

Not a crush or a summer fling that turned into a fall romance. Full on, 100% head over heels LOVE. As in, I'm a goner. And I don't know what to do

It began slowly. When we first met I thought, wow I could really fall fast and hard here, but I'm going to take it slow. Enjoy each day as it comes and you know, soak it in and not lose myself in this one.

But it seemed that around every bend there was something else to fall for. And speaking honestly, this was completely unlike anything that had ever happened to me before. I would wake up excited and stay up late to steal extra moments together. I would walk down streets as if I was gliding on air...

I was taught so many new things and taken to so many new places. I was seeing my surroundings with new baby eyes and I wanted more, more and more.

To say I was treated kindly is an understatement. To say that I was wooed just doesn't do this justice.
Beautiful can't come close to describing their magnificence.

I've not once been let down, I've always been shown a good time, I'm constantly laughing and smiling and I've never felt so free to be myself.

Basically, I have fallen hook, line and sinker for the beautiful city of Chicago.



And as I'm closing in on my last month here I'm wondering how in the world can I break up with the best city in the Midwest? How am I going to pack up my apartment while listening to the sounds of the Brown line zooming past, listening to the city traffic and babble of my neighbors and not sob the entire time?



Because it's not just the city I'm breaking up with, it's the signal that my time at French Pastry School has come to an end. Just typing that gets me choked up.

I look back and think- wow I could have documented what happened better. But the thing is- it was MINE. All mine. Something I shared w/ my constant companion only and I'm fine with that. I have pictures of what I did and the books to remind me of what recipes we completed. But what happened on my day-to-day basis is just in my head and heart. And I'm ok with that.

So what have I done in the past six months? I wonder if I can come up with one sentence...
Lets see..

School,


Stage, Eat EAT EAT,

Laugh- A LOT, made new friends,


Pie Competition,


got really really sick for a really long time, got to know myself a LOT better.

oh and I did find a job.
(SCREAMS! I did! More on that later)

but through it ALL, I was always missing two rays of light. My Moochie and my #1. Their phone calls and iChats were my highlights and having them here in this beautiful city was a gift I will never be thankful enough for. To take pleasure WITH them in all the small things was so humbling. Like just walking down a city street, going for runs on the lake and splashing in fountains, riding the train and being a city dweller, even if just for a brief moment. Those were my most favorite weekends


I do have one thing I do want to recap, although not in this post. That is my staging experience during school. I was reflecting back on them individually and truly laughing out loud at what happened at each one. I learned so much and from the first to the last one to date, I can see how much I've grown as a baby pastry COOK because my dear friends one thing I found out is that going to six months of pastry school does NOT make you a pastry chef.

But man oh man am I SO proud to call myself a pastry cook

Yes, I'm still alive...

Have to say right off the bat- I'm not at my laptop so I don't have pictures at the ready. But believe me when I say that there are a few. well, a lot. OK, a TON. I realize I'm just teasing you w/ this info, but seriously go to my Facebook fan page and check SOME of them out there:

Sweet Sandy B
(duh)

I have been in school now for a little over a month and actually in the kitchen for a month exactly. How can I begin to describe this... It's intense. So much harder and focused than I could have ever imagined. This is all compounded by the fact that the first medium we started with was chocolate. I'm deathly afraid of chocolate. The thought of tempering sends chills up my spine- akin to buttering the bundt pan properly... and tempering eggs... and so many other things. which is why school is great for me.
Do I know how to temper chocolate perfectly now? Let's just say I TRY. and we also have a chocolate machine in the kitchen that offers up perfectly tempered chocolate on demand. It's a luxury for sure and one that most commercial kitchens won't have. But they also most likely won't ask you to table chocolate to temper it. Did I lose you there? I had no idea what tabling chocolate was either until I started class. Imagine a large marble countertop that is cool to the touch. now imagine pouring warm (NOT tempered) chocolate onto the countertop and spreading it about with an offset spatula making beautiful clean lines of chocolate to cool it down to a TEMPERED state.

The first time I attempted tabling chocolate I made the biggest mess. It was catastrophe and I looked like a child that had just got done playing in a mud pit. I was beyond embarassed and how come the chef made it look so easy and beautiful and I looked like a hot mess. chocolate was EVERYWHERE. the table, the floor, my tools, my uniform, hair and face. yup.

Please believe me when I say it did get better. And we learned so much about chocolate it still makes my mind swim. And I learned that I am NOT going to be a chocolatier. That's just not in the cards for me. I did make a kick butt chocolate sculpture though.
Then, we moved on to sugar.... and sugar showpieces more specifically. It's working with molten hot lava sugar and pulling/blowing it into different designs/flowers/birds... whatever, really. And, kind of honestly (and because I really needed it after the chocolate mishaps) I think I'm kind of good at it. And I liked it a LOT more than I imagined I would.
The problem is, how does that at all play into my future goal of opening a bake shop? When will I do a sugar showpiece? I don't know... but the cake portion and cake decorating portion of class is not for some time.. so for now I just wait anxiously for ICE CREAM AND SORBETS!!!! Which starts in one full week. I can't even stand it, i'm so excited

But first... exams.

How come I didn't know we had EXAMS? Why didn't I expect this though? We have exams to demonstrate we 'know what we were taught'. not entirely written, it's pretty much practical. without help from the Chef or our tablemate. O.M.G...

to say I'm nervous is an understatement. To say I feel prepared is a complete lie.
Wish me luck, exams start Tuesday. ah!

First Day of School! First Day of School!

It's 5 a.m... I haven't woken up at 5 a.m. for a "day's work" since I quit the O.J (office job, not the juice)
Woke up this morning with visions of this guy... and his voice prompting me to wake up...



Saw him in concert right before I made the move to Chicago. This is Brian Aubert of Silversun Pickups... and The Royal We was running through my dreams ALL night for some reason.

SO- point being- I was so giddy excited last night I couldn't sleep. My stomach was in knots of anticipation. FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL! I was like a child the night before Disneyland, anxiously looking at the clock every few minutes during the night not wanting to sleep through my alarm. Like "memo" in Finding Nemo (Moochie can't say Nemo for some reason) who wakes up his father screaming "FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL! FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL!" I was giddy to get up and get going this morning...
and proceeded to forget everything I kept telling myself not to forget (um, can you say notebook and pen?? water? COFFEE??)

School didn't disappoint. There are about 70 of us starting this 6 month adventure together and I think everyone was a little nervous, giddy, scared and was probably not their 'true' self. Truthfully I didn't meet that many people. I was trying to diligently pay attention and not call attention to the fact that I wasn't prepared. But all morning I was anxiously waiting a phone call interview for a scholarship. Once that was out of the way, my mind was a little more at ease. And then I got my Chefs Uniform.

OK... stop the train here. I haven't been this excited to get an article of clothing before. No, it wasn't designer and it wasn't a new Marc Jacobs purse. But I felt like a med student in a coat ceremony. This was (excuse me mom when you read this next line) more exciting than putting on my 4k wedding dress... This plain cotton coat represented so much to me. It was like a vow I was making to myself, and my kids too. A vow to pursue this dream with all that I have. To make me, my kids and my school proud. It represented all of the work I had been doing up to this point to get HERE. All the sacrifice I will be making the next six months and the battle armor I will be wearing day in and out to get me through the 'stages', volunteer jobs and hopefully amazing meet and greets w/ a ton of chefs in this wonderful city of Chicago.

enough sap. The hands down truth is I had a kick ass day. So many people were wishing me well yesterday, I was bursting with love. I was walking on a high and to top today off- I found out I DID get that scholarship. :) Um, can you say THREE FOR THREE! It just legitimizes what I'm doing here and I'm happy other people are able to see my passion and drive and are putting money behind MY dream. Thank you THANK you to the Hiller Scholarship program and the French Pastry school for making today as amazing as could be.

and to end it all, took a long run on the lake shore listening to Fall Out Boy and Skyped the kiddo's. I miss them so much I ache. So I look at my too long chefs pants (going to get hemmed TOMORROW!) and Chefs Jacket and know I'm doing this for us. My boot camp for the rest of my life.

After much ado- individual Raspberry Cobblers

I've been holding out, I know I know.
After Top Chef was over and Kelly won (Angelo was in the worst team for the elimination challenge- yes! but his team won the quick fire. again. ugh. oh, and Jacqueline was eliminated- ho hum) I was about to start working on this recipe. Then remembered that I didn't have to work the next day and could just do it in the morning and eat these for breakfast! I happily went to bed, and dreamt wonderful stay-at-home-ex-wife dreams. :)

So, Thursday a.m. as the kids were eating their pancakes I set to work on these little bits of magic.

**I must warn you first- this recipe was a FAIL in the beauty department, but tasted amazing. I will comment at the end on how to possibly make these successful when you make them because I have yet to bake them again. I've been busy!**

You will need:

2 cups milk
2 cups self rising flour
2 cups sugar
2 sticks melted butter
2 cups fresh raspberries
1 tsp vanilla
extra sugar for sprinkling

oven should be at 350.

First, combine flour and sugar, then whisk in the milk (because I like my desserts extra rich, I went with heavy whipping cream... yah. i'm fat like that)



then, whisk in the melted butter and the vanilla (I always say the more vanilla the better, so I put in 2 tsps instead of just the one)





and this is what it looks like all combined:


Now you will grease the muffin tins- whichever way you want to grease.flour. this recipe will fill 24 cups. I tried to overfill the cups and got about 18 cups filled. this was a HUGE mistake. DON'T do this.


Fill each muffin tin with ONLY 1/4 cup batter. DO NOT OVERFILL (this picture is of OVERFILLED CUPS. this is BAD)

Then, sprinkle raspberries into each cup, and then sprinkle w/ sugar.



Put in the oven for 45 minutes-50 minutes until they are golden brown and crisp around the edges. Let them cool slightly, then invert onto a cooling rack. I don't have a picture of this because i made a GIANT mess of the muffins. I overfilled and the batter went EVERYWHERE. Nothing to invert on a cooling rack. But this is what I salvaged:

Which, you can serve warm w/ something sweet- like ice cream or fresh whipped cream. yum...

Now, this doesn't look pretty and not at ALL what the recipe picture looked like. The idea is that these will still look a little rustic, the raspberries would sink to the bottom and after inverting you would get this beautiful pineapple upside down cake type thing going on.

SO I just scooped out the batter and put them into cute ramekins and will warm them up and serve w/ the whipped cream.




These are my thoughts for next time
2 sticks of butter is just way too much. My lips were seriously coated with butter fat when I took a bite. Don't get me wrong, I love butter. But this was just too much. maybe 1.5 sticks of melted butter.
Also, I always have a hard time w/ self rising flour. Make sure you use fresh flour. That still didn't help me this time, but I like to think that if I filled the cups with ONLY 1/4 cup of batter, this would have solved the problem. We will see next time.

try it out and if you have better results, let me know! I need to go buy more raspberries and give it a go this weekend.