Connecticut Wedding Photographer : Alissa Dinneen Photography

Happy 4th of July: Red Velvet Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting

Happy 4th everyone! Today I baked my (well they're Paula Deen's, click on the words to get recipe) red velvet cupcakes with cream cheese frosting. For an added all American touch I placed a blueberry on top--they're red, white, and blue! I have to admit they came out wonderfully! I've made them several times, so I've got it down by now. The cupcakes are a HIT! They're really easy to make, just a little time consuming since they don't come from a box.

Here are a few of my pointers in baking these cupcakes--because I am a novice baker, these tips are for starters like myself;

1. Don't pre-sift the flour. I did this the first time I made the cupcakes. Sift once.
2. Be sure to only fill the 2/3's of the way, otherwise you'll have muffin tops.
3. At the twenty minute mark in the oven, stick a toothpick in there, if it comes out clean, they're done. I take them out of the muffin pans so they don't bake anymore and place them on a wire rack.
4. Frost when they're cool! The cream cheese will melt otherwise.
5. Today I put the frosting in the fridge while they were cooling, and when the cupcakes were cool enough to frost I took the frosting out. The frosting gets really soft, and I think it's easiest to start cool, by the time  you've frosted 24 cupcakes it is softened up.  
6. The cupcake papers with the foil work best because there is a lot of oil in the batter, keeps hands cleaner in the end.   
7. Flat spatula that has an angle works best to frost the cupcakes, I found one at Walmart. If you don't have one the back of a spoon works well to--thanks to my friend Jennie I know this now. 
8. Don't be shy with the cream cheese frosting, I always have left over frosting. You maybe able to get away with making two batches of cupcakes to every batch of frosting OR you can cut the recipe in half. 
9. A smallish ice cream scooper works really well in getting the batter into the cupcake papers. 

Here's a video that I watched before I made them, DIFFERENT RECIPE, good tips though.

 The pics below are from a couple months ago--I don't have any pics of the blueberries on top--trust me it's super cute.

Baking with Alissa: Pizza

I learned how to make this dough in seventh grade at Northeast Middle School, King Arthur's Flour did a demonstration to the entire seventh grade class. I've been using this dough recipe to make pizza ever since.

Pizza Dough Recipe

Alissa's Notes on Making the Dough:
*If the dough is really sticky when you're mixing it, add a little more flour until is smoother. This is why the directions say five to six cups of flour.
*After you kneed the dough (but before you let it sit to rise), make sure you clean the bowl and use either non-stick spray or olive oil so that when it's done rising, it's not sticking to the bowl (easier clean-up).
*If you like thicker pizza, you don't have to cut it into four pieces like the recipe states. You can use the extra dough to make yummy braided bread (cut the remaining dough into three pieces and braid). I've also made stromboli with the extra dough.

My toppings:
Your favorite shredded cheese
Peeled Plum Tomatoes
Olive Oil
Salt & Pepper
Basil

Toppings Instructions: After prepping the dough on baking sheet, I do the toppings in the following order;
1. Cheese the pizza
2. Cut the peeled plum tomatoes and spread evenly across pizza
3. Drizzle olive oil on the pizza
4. Add salt and pepper
5. Sprinkle a little bit of basil

Baking Carolyn (and Brad's) Cookies with Alissa: Chocolate Almond Cookies

Baking with Alissa is a new section in my blog. I thought it would be fun to share a completely different side of me, maybe tap into my domestic side--or see if I have one. I've always liked to bake, and I'm much better at baking then cooking. It maybe that math major precision that allows me to enjoy baking. We'll see.

Today I'm sharing with you Carolyn and Brad's Cookies (Carolyn's Cookies for short). Carolyn and Brad are one of my wedding clients from April 2007 (Happy One Year!!). They both went up to the White Mountain Cooking School at Snowvillage Inn in Hew Hampshire to learn some new cooking tricks, and this is where Brad popped the question. They both learned how to make chocolate cookies while they were there, which turned into their inspiration to their wedding theme, chocolate (and pink). Carolyn baked these cookies as a favor to her guests, and they were super yummy! I've wanted to attempt to make the cookies for a year now, and thought it was a great way to kick off my baking blog section.

Ingredients
1 cup flour
1/2 TSP Baking soda
1/2 TSP salt
1TB Cocoa powder
1 Stick softened butter
1 Cup granulated sugar
1 TSP Vanilla
1 Egg
1 1/2 Squares melted, unsweetened chocolate
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup chopped almonds

Diretions
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees
2. Sift together flour, baking soda, salt, cocoa powder
3. Separately, beat butter with sugar
4. To butter/sugar mixture, add vanilla, egg, melted chocolate
5. Add dry mixture
5. Add chocolate chips and almonds
6. Bake for 10-12 minutes (mine actually about 14 minutes)

Alissa's Verdict: Very easy to make. As I noted, it took me a little longer to bake the cookies than the directions called for, I just checked on them until I thought there were done. My cookies weren't nearly as good as Carolyn's, not even close.

Here are some pics that I took while baking, and some pics from the cookies at the wedding--including Jeff eating them.