Family Tradition All Mixed Up

When I moved in with my dad and my mom, they made EVERY attempt at making me feel welcome in my new home, and made EVERY attempt at making me feel loved after all of the events life had thrown at me. I guess I should explain a little...  When I refer to my mom, I am usually referring to my step-mom, but she is, and has always been more than a "step-mom." She's loved me as any other mother would love her child.  So deep down she's always been my mom. My birth mother passed away from leukemia when I was 10 years old. It was very traumatic time, and my parents tried their hardest to surround me with love and happiness.

My parents and their close friends used to get together all of the time, and still do. One of the dishes that used to be made at almost every get together was called "green stuff" in our family. It wasn't until later that I found out it was actually called Watergate Salad. Whether you call it green stuff or Watergate Salad, this stuff is AMAZING! Traditionally, it is made with pistachio pudding, Cool-Whip, crushed pineapple, and marshmallows. It is creamy, not too sweet, and fluffy. Yum...

For the 4th of July, I made cupcakes to take to our get together, as I do most any family function, but I forgot to even plan for anything since my husband had just gotten out of the hospital. So I opened up my pantry, and started looking at what I had.  I came up with these beauties!

They were SO yummy! But I guess that you would really like to know what they are, huh? These cupcakes are a vanilla cake with a pineapple pistachio filling, topped with a white chocolate Swiss Meringue Buttercream. I know it sounds really kind of complicated, but they are anything but complicated.

I adapted a vanilla bean cupcake recipe since I didn't have any vanilla beans (they're actually kind of difficult to find here in Tennessee). The recipe is below. Just one tip I have for these cupcakes... Add all of your ingredients together and mix at once. They are a little bit fragile, and will become dry and tough if you alternate wet and dry ingredients.

While they are baking, go ahead and mix the filling. Okay, so I have a confession... I come from a long line of "that looks good/that tastes right" cookers. So I don't normally measure most things. It makes it a little bit difficult to replicate a recipe sometimes. So please keep in mind the measurements are approximate, and you may need to add a little more. The filling consists of one small package of pistachio pudding mix, pineapple juice, and small amount of milk to make it creamy. It should look similar to the picture below.

After your cupcakes are done baking and have cooled, you will pipe this mixture into each cupcake. To do this, I put my filling into my piping bag fitted with a rounded tip. You don't have to remove any of the cupcake, and you just insert the tip into the top of the cupcake and squeeze. Be careful not to put too much into the cupcake because it will cause it to break the cake walls and tops, and will ooze out the sides of the cupcake. You can reinsert the tip into the same hole, and add more until it starts to come back out the top hole ever so slightly. Your cupcakes should have an appearance of being full, like this:

The Swiss Meringue Buttercream can be a very tricky icing, but it is more than worth the time and effort that you will put into it. You can make the buttercream with a hand mixer, BUT it is so much easier if you make it with a stand mixer. You need a saucepan, preferably heavy but a light one will work too if you watch it carefully. The buttercream icing requires butter, egg whites (I used pasteurized egg whites because I'm funny about using raw eggs), sugar, vanilla, and white chocolate. To start, you'll need to place the egg whites and sugar into the saucepan, and cook over medium to medium high heat, depending on your stove. You will cook the egg whites only until the sugar has dissolved, and you'll want to continuously stir the mixture. You can tell the sugar is dissolved by sticking your fingers in the mixture, remove, and rub fingers together. If it is still gritty, it is not done yet. When it is dissolved, it will be smooth and silky feeling.  Remove from heat, and pour into mixer (or other large bowl). Next, you'll beat the egg whites on high for about 12 minutes, or until the egg whites have become room temperature. At this point, the egg whites will have become the consistency of marshmallow fluff. Begin adding the butter, a tablespoon at a time, and mixing until each tablespoon of butter is fully incorporated. After all of the butter has been added, the buttercream will be light, fluffy, and will look like clouds. If it is soupy, you can put the bowl into the refrigerator to chill. It will allow the butter to firm up, and you can resume beating. After you have gotten the cloud consistency, add your vanilla and melted white chocolate, and mix well. As I said previously, it can be tricky, but it is so sinfully yummy and light, you'll probably never make another type of icing ever again! I get requests for this icing all the time!

Pipe your icing onto your cupcakes and decorate to your heart's content! Happy baking!!!

Vanilla Cupcake
1/4 tsp salt
1 1/4 tsp baking powder
1 1/4 cups flour
6 tbsp butter, room temp
3/4 cup sugar
2 eggs, room temp
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup milk, microwaved for 20 seconds

Preheat oven at 350 degrees. Cream together butter and sugar, add egg, and mix until fluffy. Add all wet and dry ingredients at once, and mix until just incorporated. Bake at 350 degrees for 12-15 minutes.

Pineapple Pistachio Filling
1 small pkg Pistachio Pudding
1/4 cup pineapple juice
1/4 cup milk

Mix all ingredients together. Mixture should be creamy and thick.

White Chocolate Swiss Meringue Buttercream
1 cup sugar
5 egg whites
16 tbsp (2 sticks)  unsalted butter, softened slightly and sliced
1/4 cup white chocolate, melted and cooled

Today is the beginning!

Hello and welcome to my blog! My name is Amanda, and my hopes are to have my own bakery one day.  For now, I am going to blog about my home creations, and begin to work on the foundation of my home-based business. I love to cook, plain and simple. More than I love to cook, I love to bake! Breads, cakes, cupcakes, pastries...  Love it! I love that you can give someone a cupcake, and it actually means something, because not only did you put time and effort into it, if you cook from the heart, you've put your love into it. So...  Come and take a journey with me in my creations!

I have always loved to bake, but never thought I really had the time for it - something about working 40+ hours a week, taking 12 hours a semester, and having a toddler just doesn't leave much time.  I started getting the creative urge when it was time for my daughter's birthday. I set out on Pinterest to find the cake to make for my "sweet girl" and came up with Whisk-Kid's rainbow cake. It was fantastic! I had lots of fun making her cake, and the rainbow cake went perfectly with the Sesame Street theme. Then, my sister and I started cooking on one day for two weeks worth of food. All of a sudden I had lots (ha! that's an understatement with a two year old) some spare time around the house to use that creative energy since I'm off from school right now. Here we are about to start school again, just about a month left to start the new semester, and I've been baking up a storm! My sister, a fellow lover of baked goods, and I have been making baked goods on our cooking day.  I have also replaced store-bought bread with homemade bread. In fact, I just took some sourdough sandwich bread out of the oven.  The smell of homemade bread is teeming out of my kitchen, permeating every room in my tiny house...  Ahhh...

Since I'm pretty new to baking sourdough, I've used The Kitchn's recipe verbatum, and it turned out fantastic. I could have stood to knead it a little bit longer, but I chock that up to inexperience still.  So how about some bread, shall we?  I got the recipe from The Kitchn. Below are the ingredients AND The Kitchn's instructions. Please visit their page for other great recipes!

Beginner Sourdough Loaf
Makes 2 loaves
2 cups (16 ounces) water
1 1/2 teaspoons yeast
2 cups (16 ounces) sourdough starter
4-5 cups (20-25 ounces) flour
1 1/2 Tablespoon sea salt (or table salt)
1 cup extra flour, as needed

In a large mixing bowl, combine the water with the yeast and let sit 1-2 minutes until the yeast is completely dissolved. Add the sourdough and stir to combine.

Add 4-5 cups of flour to the liquids, one cup at a time and mixing completely between each cup. When the dough becomes too stiff to stir, turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface to knead (see left).

Knead for a minute or two just to bring the dough together into a ball. Sprinkle the dough with some of the remaining flour and let sit for 5 minutes. During this time, enzymes will begin to break the starches into sugar and relax the gluten strands, making it easier for you to knead.

After 5 minutes, flatten the dough with the palm of your hand and sprinkle on half of the salt. Fold the dough in half, flatten again, and sprinkling on the rest of the salt. Fold in half and knead the dough for 10 minutes. If the dough becomes so gummy that it's sticking to the board or your hands, add a tablespoon or two of the extra flour. A bench scraper can help unstick the dough at this stage!
Let the dough sit for another 5 minutes and then knead for a final 10 minutes. The dough is ready if it springs back when you poke it with your finger (see below).

(Note: All the kneading can be done with a standing mixer, but we suggest kneading by hand a few times so you know how the dough feels at each stage. In a mixer, use a dough hook and knead at medium speed for about 12 minutes total, taking breaks to let the dough rest as described.)

Clean out your mixing bowl and lightly coat it with oil. Set your dough in the bowl and turn it a few times to coat it with oil. Cover with a damp cloth or plastic wrap and let sit in a warm place like the top of a fridge for 2 hours. Unlike a typical yeast dough, this dough will only rise to about a quarter of its size (see below).

Divide the dough into two equal portions, loosely shape them into balls, and let them rest for 20 minutes to relax the gluten. Meanwhile grease two loaf pans with nonstick spray, butter, or other grease.

Shape the dough into loaves by slightly flattening each ball and shaping them into rough rectangles. Fold the rectangles in three like a business letter and pinch the seam closed. Flatten slightly and fold the dough in half one more time, pinching the seam again. (This extra fold helps give the dough a smooth, taut surface.)

Place loaves in the pans seam-side down and let rise for 1 1/2 to 2 hours, until the dough has just crested the top of the pan (see below).

When the loaves have been rising for one hour, preheat the oven to 450-degrees Fahrenheit. Place an oven-safe pan (like a broiler pan) in the very bottom of the oven.

When the loaves are ready, bring two cups of water to a boil. Using a sharp serrated knife, slash the tops of the loaves in three or four places about 1/2 inch deep. Slide the loaves into the oven and pour the boiling water into the pan. Close the door immediately to trap in the steam.

Bake for 10 minutes and then rotate the loaves in the oven for even baking. When the loaves begin to show color, decrease the heat to 400-degrees Fahrenheit.

Continue baking for a total of 25-30 minutes. Loaves are done when they are deeply golden and brown, when they sound hollow if you thump the bottoms with a finger, and when a thermometer registers an internal temperature of 190-degrees Fahrenheit.

Allow to cool completely before slicing and savoring!