Adventures in Cooking: Babycakes Cupcakes

It's no surprise that Ashley and I love cupcakes...So when my best friend Emily gave me this cupcake book a few years ago we were elated! This is a book from a bakery here in NYC. All the recipes are vegan, gluten free, and mostly sugar free. Healthy cupcakes? Complete heaven! Here I am sharing a recipe for vanilla cupcakes that are absolutely delish!

Ingredients:

2 cups Garbanzo-Fava Bean Flour

1 cup potato starch

1/2 cup arrowroot

1 tablespoon plus 1 1/2 teaspoons Baking Powder

1/2 teaspoon Baking Soda

1 teaspoon xanthan gum

2 teaspoons of salt

2/3 cup of coconut oil

1 1/3 cups of agave nectar

3/4 Applesauce

3 tablespoons Vanilla Extract

Grated zest of 1 lemon

1 cup of hot water

Whisk together the dry ingredients...Then add all of the rest! That simple!

Pour 1/3 cup batter into each prepared cup

Bake at 325 for 22 minutes!

 So delicious!

Until Next Time!

XOXO

Shelby

Salted Chocolate Chip Cookies

I've been craving the salted oat cookie from Milk & Cookies bakery ever since our cupcake tour a few weeks ago. So this past weekend I decided to try to make something similar. I combined two recipes so I could get what I was going for. I ended up with what I'm calling a salted chocolate chip cookie.

 

The ingredients were all standard baking ingredients with the exception of corn starch which was new to me. One of the recipes I was basing this on noted that the addition of corn starch helps the cookies bake soft and fluffy.

 The other tip I saw and tried was chilling the dough for 30 minutes before baking. The cookies will spread less in the oven and bake thicker when the dough is chilled.

 After the dough was chilled I rolled it into balls and sprinkled a little course salt on top which gives the cookie a great salty/sweet combo. The cookies turned out so yummy!

Salted Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe

Ingredients:

1. Two sticks of butter
2. 3/4 cup of brown sugar
3. 1/4 cup white granulated sugar
4. 1 egg
5. 3 teaspoons of vanilla extract
6. 2 cups all purpose flour
7. 2 teaspoons of cornstarch
8. 1 teaspoon of baking soda
9. 1/2 teaspoon of salt (then extra for topping)
10. 1 bag of chocolate chips

Instructions:

1. In a large bowl using a mixer cream the butter and sugars together on medium speed until fluffy and light in color. 
2. Mix in egg and vanilla. Scrape down the sides as needed. 
3. On low speed, mix in flour, cornstarch, baking soda and salt. 
4. Stir in chocolate chips.
5. Dough will be thick and sticky. Chill for at least 30 minutes 
6. Pre-heat oven to 350F
7. Roll dough into golf ball size balls and place on a greased cookie sheet. 
8. Dip the top of the ball into course sea salt.
9. Bake for 8-9 minutes, until barely golden brown around the edges. Do NOT bake them longer than 10 minutes. 
10.  Remove and let cool for 3 minutes on the cookie sheet then transfer to cooling rack. 

I'm always looking for the perfect cookie recipes. Please share your favorites in the comments along with any baking tips that work for you.

Until next time

XOXO

Ashley

Cupcakes

It's no secret that Shelby and I love cupcakes. We own so many cupcake books and love experimenting with different kinds. We have a system now- Shelby does the cake and I do the frosting. Shelby got me a Sprinkles cupcake mix for Christmas last year and I never got around to baking it. We decided today was the perfect day. 

 

 

 They turned out great and taste yummy to! I love that the mix even comes with the famous Sprinkles dots. What's your favorite kind of cupcake?

Until next time

XOXO

Ashley