I started baking sweets a few weeks ago. For week one I made simple sugar cookies, they turned out pretty well. For week two, I made chocolate chip cookies, those turned out ok; I think I made three mistakes: I think the butter was too warm, I should have chilled the dough and I feel I used too big of a scoop; 1 1/2 of a tablespoon instead of 1 table spoon size.
Today it was plain white cherry flavored cup cakes; I made everything from scratch following
this recipe. I would advise if you are making cupcakes to set the time for 20 minutes, not 30-40. I also made my own buttercream frosting following the recipe I found in my cookbook. Each batch yields about 12-17 cupcakes.
They turned out great! I added 1 teaspoon of cherry extract to the batter after it was already thoroughly mixed, then mixed it for a good minute more. Here is a good piece of advice:
use cake flour, not all purpose flour, it makes a WORLD of difference! Also, making your own frosting makes it seem like it gourmet instead of the oily stuff that comes in a plastic can. I added 8 drops of red food coloring to the frosting to give it nice pink hue; I am taking twelve and Kara is taking twelve to our co-workers. I like to do this because they are brutally honest with my creations, and I appreciate that.
I would also like to mention I have been making bread with my bread maker for the past 6 weeks;
I found a perfect recipe for bread maker sourdough bread, and now I keep a container of sourdough starter in my refrigerator.
If you do follow the recipe, I advise to set it two the 2 pound loaf size and medium crust color. Also, while it is in the beginning mix, I add one teaspoon of warm water.