Today is probably the only day in history you will see Dorie Greenspan and Martha Stewart in the same place, at the same time.
Ba dum bump.
Thank you, I’ll be here all night. And fear not, I won’t be quitting my day job anytime soon.
It’s a double post day – you get Café Volcano Cookies for this weeks Tuesdays With Dorie, and Gingerbread Cupcakes for the Martha Stewart’s Cupcakes Club.
First up – Café Volcano Cookies.
How many ways can you say “fail”? As I was mixing the egg whites, sugar, and toasted almonds together, I kept saying to myself, “This isn’t going to work. But I should trust Dorie. But this isn’t going to work. But Dorie knows her stuff – trust her”.
Well, it was either user error (that would be me), or these really are supposed to look like this:
Somehow, I doubt it. And I’m sure a quick run around blogland will confirm my suspicions. Interestingly enough, though, they did taste good. Super crispy, with a pleasant coffee punch. Thanks to Macduff for an unusual pick – I’m quite curious to see what they are actually supposed to look like. Although I don’t see myself rushing to make them again.
Coming next week – a very small chocolate cheesecake. really small. really.
Next on today’s list:
Gingerbread Cupcakes from the Martha Stewart Cupcakes book.
Before I even get started, did anyone notice the lack of leavening in the recipe? No baking soda, no baking powder – nothing. Or does my book have a typographical error that seems to be suspiciously missing from the other books?
Hmmm. Even without any leavening, these still turned out quite nicely. I successfully scaled down the recipe to yield 2 cupcakes – one for me, and one for Sabrina. I frosted them with plain vanilla butter cream, and passed on the optional cookie cutouts. I’d done enough cutouts that day to last me a loooooong time.
However, I did find gingerbread men sprinkles in my stash ‘o sprinkles, does that count instead?
All joking aside, I really liked these. They weren’t overly spiced, and even without any leavening they had a surprisingly light texture.
Thanks to Kayte for a terrific holiday pick. Next month (holy moly, it’ll be in January!) we’re making coconut cupcakes!
Sometimes you feel like a nut, sometimes you don’t…………
how funny! i blogged about the same thing…absence of chemicals?!? next time, i’d take a gambel and add bp/bs/salt. i bet we’d get a proper rise then! yours are lovely, still.
By: candice on December 15, 2009
at 7:59 am
Its snowing on your blog!! How cute is that?!! I loved these cupcakes. So glad you enjoyed them too! I skipped out on Dorie this week. I’m not the biggest nut fan so I was afraid they would go to waste.
By: Lauryn on December 15, 2009
at 8:46 am
I’m surprised you made the nutty volcano cookies. But they look a lot like mine. Interesting and okay, but too crunchy for me and they fall apart and make a mess. Drives me nuts when one of the boys eats one.
The cupcakes look yummy. I am not usually, but so lovin’ ginger goodies this year.
By: Katrina on December 15, 2009
at 9:56 am
Love your sprinkles!
I definitely liked the way these cupcakes came out nice and light and not too strong.
By: Megan on December 15, 2009
at 10:34 am
Your cookies look totally different than mine, which never flattened and didn’t change appearance much during baking. It’s too bad there wasn’t a photo in the book, because everyone’s cookies look completely different!
By: Judy on December 15, 2009
at 10:39 am
Yes, those gingerbread sprinkles count because I used them, too! Matt said mine looked like men who had fallen in the snow and were getting ready to do snow angels…this is why I am so not into doing anything creative around here: no appreciative audience whatsoever in a house full of guys. Yours look great. I did wonder about that leavening also, but ours tasted great, so I figure that was good enough. I think those volcano cookies are supposed to look like that…mine looked like that, too…the guys inhaled them, they were gone in a flash. Don’t you just love crunchy crispy things? I haven’t had lunch…maybe I need to go get some crunchy crispy chicken from the colonel! Love your entries.
By: Kayte on December 15, 2009
at 10:57 am
Both the cookies and the cupcakes look fantastic. And I thought your joke was funny. But I may have a few screws loose so I’m not sure how much that says. I can’t believe you scaled down the recipe that much! I would have just sucked it up and eaten two dozen cupcakes.
By: Joanne on December 15, 2009
at 11:00 am
I’d completely forgotten my panic at finding no leavening in the cupcake recipe. You’re right, everything was fine in the end.
Both recipes look fine. And your gingerbreadmen are so cute!
By: Clivia on December 15, 2009
at 11:11 am
I wonder what happened to the volcano cookies? Good to hear that they’re edible though. The cupcakes look really cute with the tiny gingerbread men!
By: Jill on December 15, 2009
at 12:53 pm
Your cupcake looks great! I like the way you decorated it. And I think your cookies look fine, flat–but fine.
By: Wendy on December 15, 2009
at 2:29 pm
Well, mine were flat as well. Yours is the first other blog I have looked at it. I am guessing there have to be more flat ones, right? Right!
By: Kelly D on December 15, 2009
at 2:49 pm
How cute are those sprinkles?!? They kill me! I wonder if your cookies needed another minute in the oven? They do look delicious!
By: Leslie on December 15, 2009
at 3:30 pm
Those sprinkles are SO CUTE! Perhaps you kept the cupcakes in for just the right amount of time. People have been having trouble with getting it light and fluffy rather than dense.
By: Nina on December 15, 2009
at 4:07 pm
It seems that every cookie looks differently from the rest. I have been reading a number of blogs and I doubt we would recognize them as coming from the same blog.
I have to learn how to cut cupcakes down to two.
http://sweetsav.blogspot.com
By: chayacomfycook on December 15, 2009
at 4:12 pm
I wonder if you didn’t have enough nuts in your volcano cookies. Ah well. Love the cupcakes!
By: Jules on December 15, 2009
at 4:32 pm
Your cookies look delicious, but I love the cupcakes~~
By: Michele on December 15, 2009
at 5:08 pm
OMG! those sprinkles are SO incredibly cute!!! LOVE IT!
And i love that snowflakes fly across your blog! Coolest thing EVER.
By: judy on December 15, 2009
at 6:22 pm
I had the same reaction as you did while making the volcano cookies. And I still think that my cookies take the ugly prize. They certainly are tasty though, and I don’t feel half as guilty as I probably should while I’m munching on them.
I love the gingerbread sprinkles on your cupcakes! They’re adorable.
By: Jessica on December 15, 2009
at 6:48 pm
It’s totally not just your cookbook! When my cupcakes came out a little short and firm, I checked my cookbook, thinking I’d forgotten an ingredient, but I think it’s was Martha’s bad this time! I love those gingerbread man sprinkles, they’re so darn cute!
By: Elizabeth a.k.a. Type A Mommy on December 15, 2009
at 7:12 pm
Megan, my cookies did not rise at all either; I think any height I had was due to the nuts.
The cupcakes look awesome! You must have amazing math skills to scale down to two cupcakes!
By: Margot on December 15, 2009
at 7:58 pm
yep, this is one recipe where a picture in the book would have been really helpful. I still don’t know if mine look right.
The gingerbread cupcakes sound yummy!
By: Jacque on December 15, 2009
at 9:17 pm
Wait until you make your way over to my blog and see my volcano cookies. You are going to feel so much better about yours
Way to go on scaling the MSC recipe back to only make 2 cupcakes! I made 4 and I thought I was doing well! I did notice the lack of leavening too so I was glad these turned out well. Love your little gingerbread sprinkles!
By: Tracey on December 15, 2009
at 9:20 pm
Those sprinkles are adorable! I love the idea of gingerbread cupcakes!
By: Joy on December 15, 2009
at 10:13 pm
I’m sorry that the cookies didn’t turn out that well for you. I wasn’t too sure about the taste or texture of these, I didn’t make them.
Those gingerbread cupcakes look DIVINE-and those sprinkles are precious!
By: juju73 on December 16, 2009
at 3:32 am
All’s well that ends well! Sounds yummy. Man, you must be some kind of scaling genius to calculate to 2 cupcakes!
By: Natashya on December 16, 2009
at 5:26 am
Egg whites, almonds, and sugar don’t add up right to me either, but gingerbread cupcakes do! They sound perfect for this time of year or to leave out for santa on xmas eve.
I was so excited to receive my box of goodies on Monday. I loved those little clear baggies that you packed the cookies in. My husband took that to mean that one package was one serving : D I watched him sit down with a glass of milk and polish off an entire bag of cookies! Although I don’t blame him because they were so good that it was hard to stop eating them. My ornament has found it’s home right on the front of my tree. Merry Christmas!
By: Kim on December 16, 2009
at 6:29 am
Yep these cookies were a strange creation all right..mine hit the trash last night…my family will not eat them and I think there way to sweet…
By: Michelle on December 16, 2009
at 6:34 am
I thought the lack of leavening was weird as well. I was worried it was a typo, but left the recipe as is and the turned out ok. Love the sprinkles!
By: Annette on December 16, 2009
at 7:31 am
I love your sprinkles! So cute! I was also curious about the lack of leavening. Glad that you liked them!
By: Lori on December 16, 2009
at 8:04 am
i’m sooooo glad i wasn’t the only one that noticed the lack of leavening. after i popped them in the oven i FREAKED (silently of course, don’t want to scare the neighbors) thinking i left out the baking soda and rushed to re-read only to find the absence of said leavening. whew, disaster averted!
cute cuppies!!
By: Jeannette on December 16, 2009
at 8:35 am
I love the gingerbread sprinkles. =) Glad that the cupcakes turned out ok in spite of your worries. I didn’t make the volcano cookies, so no idea what they’re supposed to look like. But tasting good is the most important thing, right?
By: Di on December 17, 2009
at 9:51 am
I don’t know how you can scale back a cupcake recipe down to 2? Amazing.
I have the same sprinkles and used them on the redemption gingerbread cupcakes.
Thanks so much for baking along with us this month and Happy Holidays!
By: Sugar B on December 19, 2009
at 10:57 pm