Fresh Strawberry Cupcakes - Valentine's Day Cupcake

These are my first strawberry cupcakes.
The original recipe has a Swiss Meringue Buttercream frosting.
I made several mistakes when I made this frosting.
I don't know why I failed making buttercream frosting.
But redeemed myself with the wrapping.
How does it look?  Not bad?

Ingredients

1 + 1/2 c   all purpose flour

1/4 c       cake flour

1 + 1/2 t   baking powder

1/2 t       salt

1/2 c       unsalted butter (room temperature)

1 c         sugar

2           eggs

3/4 t       vanilla extract

1/2 c       milk

1 c         chopped strawberries

            strawberries for garnish

Directions

Preheat oven to 350, line a 12 cupcake pan with paper liners, set aside.

In a large bowl, mix together flours, baking powder and salt, set aside.

With an electric mixer on medium-high speed cream together the sugar, butter and vanilla until fluffy about 3 minutes.

Add the eggs one at a time and beat.

Add milk.

Reduce the mixer speed to low, add the flour mixture in two batches.

Use a rubber spatula to gently fold in the chopped strawberries.

Fill each cup 3/4 full.

Bake for 25-30 minutes and cool for 15 minutes.

Do you want to decorate the cupcake?

Spread or pipe the buttercream frosting on each cupcake.

I recommend Martha Stewart's Strawberry Meringue Buttercream.

Enjoy~

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Outback Steakhouse Toowoomba Pasta Copycat

I have never eaten toowoomba pasta at Outback Steakhouse but this recipe is good.

Probably my favorite recipe.
Make Toowoomba Pasta at HOME!


Ingredients
Servings 2-3
12 ounces fusilli
10-12 shrimp 
3-4 button mushrooms,sliced
1 1/2c heavy cream 
1/2c milk
minced garlic, to taste
1T soy sauce 
1T chopped green onions 
salt 
black pepper 
chili powder, to taste
crushed red pepper, to taste
1T ketchup 
parmesan cheese, to taste

Directions
Mix heavy cream with soy sauce.
Add chopped green onions and black pepper and set aside at room temperature for 1 hour or more.
Stir-fry minced garlic, shrimp and mushrooms.
Boil fusilli as directed.
Mix shrimp mixture with ketchup, chili powder,crushed red pepper, black pepper and salt.
Bring cream sauce to a boil, add shrimp mixture and parmesan cheese.
Toss fusilli with cream sauce.

Deeeeeeelicious :)


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Chewy Chocolate Ginger - Martha Stewart's Molasses Cookies

Martha Stewart is an American business magnate, writer and television personality. She has written a lot of bestselling books.

Sometimes I watched her TV show on cooking, decorating and living. It was so interesting!
I often bought or borrowed her cookbooks at book stores or the library. 
I also found some recipes on her website.

This recipe comes from MarthaStewart.com
- Chewy Chocolate Ginger-Molasses Cookies


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Belgian Mussels with White Wine

 
I had  a simple New Year's Eve Party with my husband.
We bought fresh mussels from the fish market in DC.
Sometimes, I buy a pack of frozen mussels at the grocery store. They are not too bad.
But, fresh mussels from the fish market are better than frozen. It was too fresh for words!
Making Belgian Mussels is very simple and delicious.
And it was hard to keep warm while waiting for the rest of dinner to finish, but still good.

Ingredients
2 pound mussels, scrubbed clean under running water
1/2 cup dry white wine
1/4 cup minced onions
1T butter
1T minced garlic
A pinch of salt, pepper
water
fresh herb

Directions
To clean the mussels, put them in a large bowl with 2 quarts of water and 2T salt  and soak for 2 hours, until the mussels disgorge any sand. If they are dirty, scrub with a brush.
In a pot, heat butter and add garlic then onion. 
Add white wine and mussels, stir well. Cover the pot and cook for 8-10 minutes, until the mussels open.
Sprinkle with fresh herbs!

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Butter & Earl Grey Tea Cookies

I bookmarked this recipe a long time ago. But I didn't have a food processor, so I didn't try it.

Fortunately, I have a NINJA Blender. It enabled me to make icebox cookies. Wow! 

So,,,,

I baked buttery cookies. 

And it was my HAPPY Christmas Gift for my teacher and friends.  :)

I wrapped it with a craft box, transparent vinyl, handmade label and accessories for Christmas.

It was so cute and fancy.

Some people asked me, "Where did you buy the craft box?"

I got it from Korea-I went shopping at a baking accessories store when I visited Korea. The name of the store was Namdaemun Market (South Gate Market-It's one of the big markets in SEOUL, KOREA) and Korean online stores.

Let's make an Icebox Butter Cookie!

Ingredients

Flour  1+1/2 cup

Raw Cane Sugar  1/2 cup (I reduced 20%)

Unsalted Butter 8 Tbsp

Himalayan Pink Salt 1/4 tsp

Yolk 2

Vanilla 1 tsp

Twinings Earl Grey Tea 2/3 tea bag

Directions

In a food processor, beat flour, sugar, salt and butter until they break into small pieces.

Add the egg(yolks) and vanilla extract and beat them until they are well incorporated.

If you want an earl grey tea cookie, put the tea powder(Twinings Earl Grey Tea) into food processor.

Place dough on a large piece of parchment or wax paper and make a log shape.

Put it in the refrigerator for three hours or in the freezer for 1-2 hours to chill.

Slice dough into 1/4" pieces and bake at 350 for 12 minutes.

If you want to sprinkle sugar on the cookies, brush egg white on the sliced cookie dough and sprinkle with raw sugar and bake!!

Enjoy buttery cookies~

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