NEW PAGE!!!!!!!

I know that I have a ton of new pages but this is one that I'm very excited about.  I do a lot of testing recipes that I have made up, and I can't make a post every time I want to test something.  So I made a page where I can put pictures and explanations of the recipes that I try out.  My first post on that page is of my raspberry lemonade cupcakes.  Here is a picture, more info on the page.

Go onto the page for more information!

Fondant!

Back Story:

I went to a friend of mine's birthday party, where we decorated cupcakes.  She had some store bought fondant there to decorate with.  It started me thinking that I should make some fondant.  I got on allrecipes and got a recipe (how surprising).  I made it and wanted to share my creations!

What is Fondant?

Fondant is sort of like an edible play-dough that you can put onto cakes, cupcakes, and cookies.

The Cupcakes

I got a box of cupcake mix as a party favor from my friend's birthday party (yes the same one as in the back story).  The point of making cupcakes was to put fondant on them, so I used the mix.

3 fondant roses.

One small fondant rose.

Another fondant rose, this one isn't as good.

It's suppose to be a coke bottle.  I was running out of ideas.

A tree.  Sorta.

A fondant bow.

A spoon.

Another fondant bow.

A simple fondant flower.

A leaf, you can't really see it but it was pretty.

This is my fondant tea set.  There is a tea pot (the most popular) a milk bowl, sugar bowl, and three tea cups.  I think that they were super cute.

A SUPER Easy Way To Clean A Blender

Background Babble

Recently I have been using the blender a lot.  I got a recipe for a chocolate mousse that uses a blender to melt the chocolate, which is super cool.  Also I have been making shakes and such.  I always tried to stay away from using the blender because the hardest part was cleaning it, the blades on the bottom could cut you and you didn't really know when you were finished.  So one time I was using the blender and I realized there was a super easy way to clean it.  I'm not sure if this will work in all cases, and you might want to add some soap, but this works pretty well for me!

The Actual Instructions

Okay, now that I have babbled a bit I'll tell you how to clean it, it's really easy.

1. Take your messy blender over to a sink
2. Fill the blender with water
3. Put the cap on and blend
4. Pour out the water 
5. Repeat until you think it's clean

How simple was that?! Bet you want to pull out your blender right now to make something and see if this actually works!  It's so helpful, and for me at least, it makes me feel way better about using the blender.

The Blog May Be Changing

Warning: Not Instructive In Any Way

So recently I have been doing some non-cupcake cooking.  Who am I kidding, A LOT of non-cupcake cooking, and to add onto that I haven't made cupcakes in a couple of months.  I am thinking of changing the blog from cupcake only to all cooking.  I guess that would sort of change things for the blog... or not.  Okay so I guess I'll make a pro and con list.

Pro

• I'd be able to make recipes/posts about a larger variety of topics
• Possibly more people would want to view
• I don't have to stick with making cupcakes forever 
• Not many people are reading anyway, so they wouldn't really know about the switch

Con

• I have already made the blog about cupcakes
• My Youtube username is "CupcakeManiacForLife"
• My logo is a cupcake
• The blog URL is BAKING with Lauren

I really don't know what to do, because my interest in cupcakes is fading, and I want to open up to other things, but I have already decided on cupcakes!

My Sour Cream Obsession

I am in love with sour cream.  I know that sound super weird to some people who don't like it, but I think they don't like it because it's called "sour cream".  It's creamy and thick and delicious.  They should rename it "the best cream ever" but since it's already in a ton of recipes I don't think they could really do that.

So my love for sour cream came from a not so random place; cupcakes.  You might have notice (or probably not noticed) that both my basic vanilla cupcake recipe, and basic chocolate cupcake recipe contain sour cream.  I also made a cookie recipe at my friends house (if you are reading this, hi!) that had sour cream in it, and it gave the cookies a unique and delicious flavor.  So I started to have sour cream with other things, starting with the standard potato.  Then my family started to eat steak with twice baked potatoes a lot for dinner, and I got into making the perfect bite.  The perfect bite: steak on the fork, then a smear of potato on the upper side of the fork, a dip of sour cream and then a sprinkle of salt.  It is the most delicious thing ever.

I also love the sour cream website.  Okay translation; the Hood website is fantastic, they have tons of recipes that are actually pretty good, and it's... pretty.

Also sour cream goes great with chocolate, I haven't tried it, but I probably will at some point, mix melted chocolate and sour cream!

You may say that I just love it because it's a dairy product and dairy is the greatest thing ever, but there is something different about sour cream, something interesting about the pure white, thick, tangy cream that people don't love to eat, most likely because no one wants to eat something that has been labelled "sour."

I <3 sour cream!

20 Minute Chicken Soup (No Noodles)

I have been trying to find a recipe for a quick chicken soup that I can make in 10-30 minutes, real quick, for lunch.  I didn't want to add noodles because I wanted it to be quick, but every recipe I looked at had noodles!  So I decided to make my own recipe!  I just sorta made it up as I went along so here is the recipe, but I dunno how it's gonna be.  I like to use baby carrots when making soup, because it's easier to cut them into tiny pieces.  This is a really basic soup and I recommend this for any beginning soup maker.

Ingredients:

• 3 Tbsp vegetable oil
• 1/3 cup chopped onions
• 1/3 cup chopped celery
• 1/3 cup chopped carrots
• like 1/6 cup flour (I have no idea how much I used, I just threw some in)
• like 1 1/2 cups chicken broth
• 1/3 cup cooked chopped chicken
• various spices such as pepper, salt, thyme or celery seed

Directions

• Saute the onion, celery, and carrot in the oil for about 5 minutes or until the onions are translucent.
• Add flour and cook 3-5 minutes.
• Add chicken stock, cover and simmer for 5 minutes.
• Add the chicken and spices, cook for about 1 more minute, or until the chicken is hot.
• Serve

Note: this makes about 2-3 cups of soup, around 2 servings, perfect for making quick for lunch, but if you want to make it for a group of people I would double the recipe.

Chicken Pot Pie

I made a really good chicken pot pie from a recipe on allrecipes.com, it was really good. Here's a picture.

Next time, I would have simmered the gravy a little longer, and cut the chicken into smaller pieces, but for a first time making it, it was super good.