the happs in my life.

Well, I am still looking for job. I have faith that God will provide.

Meanwhile, I have had lots of time to do some baking. I am finding that it helps me to relieve some stress and keep me distracted.

I am going to have two recipes that I have baked recently, and a little too often (unfortunately. this means that I have had to add some extra running to keep up with the baking.)

One recipe is for chocolate chip cookies and the other is for Red Velvet cupcakes.

Now, I do not claim to be fabulous baker, but I believe that I can hold my own. And I don't like when people put up pictures of food then don't put up the recipes. So I'll put up the recipe. If you do not like my additions, then you do not have to use them. I will add notes/disclaimers to each step as to what I found to work for my preference for cookies or through some experimentation.

Chocolate Chip Cookies are my fave comfort food. My recipe is literally the one found on the back of the chocolate chip package, but with a little twist.

Ingredients

2 1/4 cups flour

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

3/4 sugar

3/4 packed brown sugar

2 sticks butter, room temperature

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla

1 tsp almond flavor (this is my addition)

1/2 tsp butter flavor (my addition)

1 package chocolate chips

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees 

       Note: My oven is a gas oven, so it burns a little hotter. I prefer my cookies to be gooey, so I preheat my oven to 350. Do what you would prefer.

2. Sift flour, salt, and baking soda together in a separate bowl. 

        Note: for the the longest time I would skip this step because I was being lazy. However, since I have done this I can tell a different consistency in my baked cookies. They are smoother and bake nicely.

3. Mix together butter, sugar, brown sugar, vanilla, almond flavor, and butter flavor until creamy.

          Note: I always forget to take the butter out early so that it is at room temperature. I always melt my butter. Now I have done some experimenting and reading up on some foodie blogs and know that room temperature butter will produce better baked cookies, while melted butter will make the cookies very gooey and little doughy. I happen to prefer my cookies like this so I am ok with melting my butter. If you like crisper cookies be sure to have room temperature butter.

          Note: Most recipes only call for vanilla, however, I love the flavor of almond and butter. I think it gives the cookies a little something extra when baked. If you would prefer to just use the vanilla then I understand.

4. Add eggs (one at a time).

          Note: I don't really have anything to say here.

5. Add in flour mixture a little at a time.

          Note: Over mixing at this step will make the cookies have a fluffy texture, this, too, will make the cookies bake up crisper.

6. Mix in the chocolate chips.

          Note: I love chocolate, thus naturally i will want to add the entire bag. If you do not like that much chocolate in your cookies then add the amount that you would prefer.

7. Scoop cookies onto the cookie sheet with a regular spoon. 

         Note: If you have a cookie scoop you can use that, I don't have one of those so I just use a spoon. It does the trick.

8. Bake cookies for 9-11 minutes

         Note: As I have mentioned many times before, I like my cookies gooey. So I only bake the cookies for 9ish minutes, sometimes a little less. Basically, I just keep an eye on the cookies until I see what I like.

9. Enjoy your efforts :)

Red Velvet Cupcakes

Ingredients

1 package Red Velvet cake mix

Buttermilk (instead of water)

Eggs

Butter (instead of vegetable oil)

Instructions

Follow the instructions on the back of the box, except instead of using water, use buttermilk and instead of vegetable oil use butter. Sorry I don't have the exact amounts needed of each because I don't have a cake mix box in the house at the moment.

      Note: If you over mix the ingredients the texture of the batter will become too airy, thus when the cupcakes are baked they will be too fluffy and crumble to the touch. I unfortunately have experienced this

      Note: Just substituting buttermilk and butter will make the cupcakes taste more like a homemade cake instead of a box cake. However, nothing beats a homemade cake.

I iced these cupcakes with a cream cheese frosting that I found in a cookbook somewhere. I don't have it on hand, but if you google Cream Cheese frosting, you'll find one instantly. Just so you know making your own frosting is super easy. 

If you have any questions just email me or get a hold of me. 

Have a great day!!