40 Blocks for A Cupcake??

Yes, I trekked 40+ blocks for 4 cupcakes to exact. Recently on a business trip to NYC one of the places that was a MUST eat while I was there was the famous Magnolia Bakery. Every cupcake guru has heard of this mecca for cupcake foodies. If we had actually mapped out each location, planned our route through the city accordingly our feet would be thanking us right now, but I think we got the true NYC experience hoofing it as much as we did. I got 1 Red Velvet, 1 Japan Relief  (Chocolate cupcake with 1 red raspberry in the middle of Vanilla frosting), 1 Vanilla with Chocolate frosting and 1 Chocolate with Vanilla frosting. I bought all those different kinds, but only ended up eating about 1 and half because I realized that my throat was starting to swell and my eyes got super itchy and scratchy. Food allergy be damned, I had to try ONE. So what was the final verdict on the cupcakes? Were they worth the walk? Yes.

The experience was worth it, visiting the bakery was worth it (especially in Greenwich Village), seeing people in their baking element was worth it. Now the cupcakes were good, but not what I was expecting. The frosting was light, fluffy more on the whipped cream side than the buttery side like I am used to. The cake in the cupcake was dry, but reading over the Magnolia Bakery pamphlet they explicitly state that the goodies they make are to be consumed as soon as they come out of the oven - so to be fair the cupcakes I got could have been siting in the window for a few hours. I got lots of inspiration from the bakery. I was lucky enough to have walked in while they were in the process of frosting a batch of cupcakes and picked up a new frosting technique. I loved the vintage aprons they were selling right there in the store and I'm seriously considering picking up sewing again just so I can make one of my own. I wish I could have eaten more of the cupcakes I purchased to get a good solid take on them all, but I wasn't gonna push it. Another bonus for the bakery - they were open until 11:30 p.m.! Awesome for late night munchies.

I had time last night to whip up a new batch of Vegan cupcakes that I could devour without worry. I tried out the Strawberry Tallcakes from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World by Isa Chandra Moskowitz & Terry Hope Romero. These amazing cupcakes feature the Golden Vanilla Cupcake recipe, Vanilla Butter Cream frosting and my own take on their strawberry toping. I sliced up 1 1/2 cups of strawberries, and mixed them with a few spoonfuls of strawberry preserves. The topping came out a little runny, so next time I won't prep it before I make the cupcakes. Still these cupcakes were de-lish! These are perfect for the spring/summer limbo we're in right now. 

Vegan Virgin No More

Before I got the amazing cook book Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World by Isa Chandra Moskowitz & Terry Hope Romero, I found my first vegan cupcake recipe like everyone else, on the web. These yummy delicious creations are Chocolate Banana Cupcakes with Peanut Butter Frosting. I added the chocolate sprinkles for a little flair. These baby's are what turned me into a believer of Vegan cupcakes. I am now taking a firm stance that they taste better than your average ones made with butter, milk & eggs. I made these just last week and was able to fool one of my unsuspecting co-workers who had no idea they were Vegan - muahahahaha!! My evil plan is unfolding perfectly...*Ahem* Anyway I say that statement with a disclaimer - if made correctly, they most definitely are better than average cupcakes. Let's not even discuss my first attempt at Vegan cupcakes... Another attribute of these yummy treats of awesomeness is that they are more satisfying. Yes that's right, they're like a sucker punch right in your sweet tooth. One is all you need.

Chocolate Banana Cupcakes

Ingredients
3/4 cup sugar
5 Tbsp non-hydrogenized vegan butter, softened
1 tsp vanilla
1 banana, mushed well
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 unsweetened cocoa
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup soy milk

Directions
Preheat oven to 350.

Combine first three ingredients in a large bowl, mix well. Add banana, stirring well to combine. Lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cup and level with a knife. Combine flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt, stirring well with a whisk. Add flour mixture to sugar mixture alternately with 1/2 cup soymilk, beginning and ending with flour mixture; mix after each addition.

Spoon the batter into 12 muffin cups lined with paper liners. Bake for 20 minutes or until cupcakes spring back easily when touched lightly in the center. Allow to cool, and frost if desired. Peanut butter frosting highly recommended, or just spread with a little pb when serving.

Peanut Butter Fudge Frosting

2 cups powdered sugar
1/4 cup plain soy milk
1/4 cup dairy-free margarine
1/2 cup peanut butter (or other nut butter)
1 teaspoon vanilla
dash of salt

My New Direction & Mourning the Loss of Cheese

So due to some recent health issue's I'm having to extract certain yummy things from my diet - mostly ooey, gooey cheese, whole eggs, cheese, peanuts, cheese, soy, cheese, wheat - did I mention cheese?? Another big one was milk - what the hell am I supposed to eat my brownies with?? Water? Almond Milk? That's blasphemous. The list was rather daunting after I looked it over. I never really noticed how what I ate effected my body, my sleep patterns (lack thereof), my moods, ect... I can sometimes tend to be a bit obsessive about things if I let myself, but I didn't want to drive myself crazy wondering if what I am about to stuff in my face had any of the 14+ plus things that I might have a food allergy to. Bottom line I just want to feel normal again, be healthy and BE HAPPY! So if limiting or completely eliminating things from my diet will supposedly help me do that, then alright...I'll do it...if I gotta.

One of the things that I miss dearly - besides cheese - are brownies, cookies, cupcakes, ya know the good stuff. Luckily the Vegan movement has hit the baked goods area pretty hard and I've been able to find some simple recipes for things that don't involve wheat or dairy AND are pretty dang tasty. I'd like to state that NO I am not 100% Vegan, it just helps that Vegan recipes are very "food allergy friendly". I still eat meat, because come on - how am I supposed to get any protein if I can't have soy, peanuts, eggs??? I can't survive on beans alone, and nobody should - for an obvious reason! The only meat that I've been told to stay away from is Pork, but somehow I can have Ham??....I don't get how the food allergy thing works, but OK.

I will say that once you've cut something out of your diet and you try to gradually introduce the item back in - or in my case have a moment of weakness and indulge a little, you finally understand what the heck the Doc was talking about. My husband made brownies the other night that had wheat, milk and whole eggs in them and I thought "Just a nibble, just a few bites, I've been good!" Boy do I regret it!! Talk about an almost instantaneous reaction, my stomach violently rejected it. I'll certainly think twice again, before giving into a moment of weakness, no matter how tempting that brownie maybe.

In my search for Vegan friendly recipes, I requested Vegan Cupcakes Take Over The World by Isa Chandra Moskowitz & Terry Hope Romero for Mother's Day. It's arrived so now it's time to get down to some cupcake making business. Don't worry I will be blogging my adventure's into the wonderful world of Vegan Cupcake Goodness and hopefully convince you that they're not so bad after all.

New Year, New Beginnings!

2011 has already been a new year full of new beginngings! Not only is it the start of a new season, the URGE has found a new home base of operations in a warehouse in Simpsonville. Huge and spacious the possibilities are endless. We've already started cleaning it out and prepping it for practice. Below is a copy of our league wishlist for the warehouse, if you have any of the stuff listed below and would be willing to donate or sell cheap hit us up on facebook or just send me an email directly.
Items needed: Please feel free to donate these to Tha Urge or contact me if selling real cheap!




Cleaning items (squeegees, mop & bucket, brooms, trash cans)
Padding (Mattress, Foam)

Derby gear (old skates, wheels, pads, helmets)

......Furniture (Couch, chair, tables)

I started derbalife in October of last year and saw amazing personal results. No I didn't lose a crazy amount of weight, that wasn't my goal - my goal was to stop feeling like such a zombie. I wanted to kick ass at our final bout against our hometown rivals in November. I built lean muscle, cranked up my endurance, skated faster and hit harder - plus I got abs out of no where!!

The hard work paid off and we won. It was the most satisfying bout I ever skated in. I had the energy to focus on what I needed to do (kill the jammer - see above), the endurance to keep on trucking and the "oomf" behind the hits. Whatever your health goals are Derbalife can help you acheive them. I believe in Derbalife because I've experienced Derbalife and because I am so happy with what it's done for me I've signed up to become a Derbalife Coach!! So if you're interested in skating faster, hitting harder and looking hotter in your hot pants check out http://www.derbalife.com/ or message me directly so you can be one of my first guinea pigs!!

Gingerbread Cookies

I was asked to bake some ginger bread cookies again this year. I found a wonderful recipe from Sweet Paul, another super-awesome food blogger that I adore. I refrigerated the dough, and then split it in half. I planned to use cookie cutters on all the dough, but flouring and re-flouring the surface actually dried out the dough more than people liked. The first batch consistency reminded me of animal crackers, good to some and just too dry for others - even dunked in hot cocoa. When it came time to bake the second batch I thickly sliced the dough and they came out much better. I toped them off with white sugar crystals, which added just the right amount of sugar. See the link to the recipe below!

http://www.sweetpaulmag-digital.com/sweetpaulmag/holiday2010#pg36

First Creation

Ta-da! The very first creation from my brand spankin' new KitchenAid stand mixer. I got one heck of a deal on it. Of course, I had to venture out into the dreaded Black Friday abysmal pre-dawn to get it. It was worth it. A huge thanks goes out to my folks for helping me snag it! My dad has a killer employee discount at Belks, plus they were having a sale on them and oh, did I mention we had a coupon??




Anyway I couldn't wait until Christmas to open the thing. I HAD to make something asap. I found this heavenly Chocolate Raspberry cupcake recipe from Annies-Eats. An amazing food blog that I now stalk frequently for inspiration. The recipe did tell you to turn the raspberries into truffles and that little tidbit went horribly wrong - chocolate ganach everywhere. I blame the fact that in our January move I lost all my snazzy frosting tips and bags. I will attempt this again, hopefully with amazing results. See recipe below. Oh I'd like to point out that there are two versions of this recipe and I believe that I chose the easier of the two. I took these into work with me to test out on my un-assuming co-workers, who are hands down the best guinea pigs in the world. My husband just tells me everything I make is "alright".



Chocolate Raspberry Truffle Cupcakes


Ingredients:


For the cupcakes:

9 tbsp. unsweetened cocoa powder

1 1/2 cups cake flour

1/2 tsp. salt

1 tsp. baking soda

1/4 tsp. baking powder

8 tbsp. unsalted butter, at room temperature

1 1/2 cups granulated sugar

2 large eggs, at room temperature

1/2 cup strong coffee (or water)

1/2 cup whole or low-fat milk



For the filling:

Seedless raspberry jam



For the raspberry truffles:

2 pints fresh raspberries

5 oz. semisweet or bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped

1/4 cup seedless raspberry jam

1/3 cup heavy cream



For the frosting:

16 tbsp. unsalted butter, at room temperature

6 cups powdered sugar

1/2 cup seedless raspberry jam

Pink icing color (optional)



Directions:

To make the cupcakes, preheat the oven to 350° F. Line two cupcake pans with paper liners. In a small bowl sift together the cocoa powder, cake flour, salt, baking soda, and baking powder. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter and sugar on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes. Mix in the eggs one at a time, scraping down the sides of the bowl between additions.

In a liquid measuring cup, combine the coffee and milk. Add half of the dry ingredients to the mixer and mix on low speed just until incorporated. Stir in the coffee-milk mixture and mix until combined. Add in the remaining dry ingredients, again mixing just until incorporated. Divide the batter evenly between the cupcake liners, filling the cups about 3/4 full. Bake for 20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Once the cupcakes have cooled completely, heat some raspberry jam just enough to allow for easy stirring and smooth texture (I do about 20-30 seconds). Transfer the jam to a pastry bag fitted with a large plain tip, poke into each cupcake and pipe a small amount inside.

To make the raspberry truffles, rinse fresh raspberries and transfer to a baking sheet lined with paper towels. Gently shake the berries around to remove excess water. Place the chocolate and jam in a small heatproof bowl. Bring the cream to a boil in a small saucepan. Remove from the heat and pour over the chocolate and jam. Let stand for about 3 minutes. Whisk together gently until smooth. If any unmelted lumps remain, microwave a few seconds and whisk again. Let the ganache cool a bit until it has thickened slightly (enough to be piped through a pastry bag). Once it has reached the right consistency, transfer the ganache to a pastry bag and pipe into the center of the clean raspberries. Refrigerate at least 15 minutes to set.

To make the frosting, place the butter and jam in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Cream on medium-high speed until well incorporated, about 2 minutes. Sift in the powdered sugar and mix until smooth. Tint with icing color as desired.

To finish the cupcakes, frost with the raspberry jam buttercream and top with a few of the raspberry truffles.



ENJOY!

2010 Recap & Beyond

This year was a crazy derby filled year for me. I gave up the stripes for my team's jersey and took my place on the track where I knew I belonged with my teammates. Derby bonds were forged and new courses were chartered for some. The URGE definately experienced their share of low points, but certainly enjoyed some major high points this year. All in all the URGE closed out their 2010 first season with a 4-4 record. Not too shabby for our first official bouting year. I sincerely hope that my league will take heed of several lessons learned this season and go on to make 2011 an even greater year for derby in the Upstate. 

Now, where do you start after months of no blogging? Fresh, of course. Hopefully I gave enough light to the back story of grassroots roller derby getting it's foot hold in the Upstate with the Reedy River Roller Girls. I plan to recap the bouts, the ups and downs of our 2010 season the best I can - especially the recap on our final bout of 2010, it's the stuff TV movies are made of, while also chronicling my new adventure's and side projects as well. 

Happy Holidays from the derby world.