my kitchen: baby shower cupcakes with cream cheese frosting

When I made cinnamon rolls for the first time a few months ago, I made cream cheese frosting for the first time and fell in love. Cream cheese frosting from scratch definitely tastes so much better than the canned variety, as it's not as artificially sweet and you can adjust the cream cheese amount to taste. 

So when we were having a baby shower for my friend, I wanted to make some carrot cake cupcakes and of course with that flavor, you gotta have cream cheese frosting.

I kept it simple, frosting half of them in white and using a blue Wilton gel to write on top, and the other half I dipped in blue sanding sugar and piped more white frosting on top from a ziploc bag with a tiny hole cut out. I've seen a few recipes using less butter and adding honey, so I'm going to have to give that a try next time! Congrats again to my friends J and M!

EASY CREAM CHEESE FROSTING

INGREDIENTS

1/2 cup of butter (1 stick), room temperature     (I used 1/3 cup)
8 oz of Philly cream cheese (1 package)
2-3 cups of powdered sugar                               (I used 2 cups)
1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
pinch of salt

METHOD
1. With an electric mixer, mix the butter and cream cheese together, about 3 minutes on medium speed until very smooth. Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl to ensure even mixing. (I actually forgot to do this first and just dumped everything together. It was still ok. I also mashed/chopped up the cream cheese a bit to make it easier to stir and warmed up the butter in the microwave. I also eyeballed the butter since I didn't have it by the "stick" in Taipei, and I think I had less than 1 stick, so I'm guessing 1/3 cup. Many recipes call for the whole stick, but I like the cream cheese flavor over the butter flavor.)

2 Add the vanilla extract and mix. Slowly add the powdered sugar. Keep adding until you get to desired sweetness and thickness. (I added 1 cup and it definitely wasn't sweet enough. I thought with 2 cups it was good. Some might add another 1/2-1 cup of powdered sugar if you prefer it sweeter)

3 Either spread on with a blunt knife or spatula, or spoon into a piping bag to decorate your cake or cupcake. (And enjoy!)

my kitchen: banana nutella cornbread waffles

I've been addicted to making my waffles with Trader Joe's Cornbread mix lately after discovering it makes the perfect crispy waffle. So today I decided to warm up some nutella in the microwave to drizzle on top with sliced bananas and it was decadent. It's surprising what you can put in the waffle maker- blueberry muffin mix, chocolate chip cookie mix- it makes all the sides nice and crispy for those of us who like eating the muffin tops- and cooks up a lot faster too!

And after making a few waffles, there's enough batter to put in the oven for cornbread.

Or add in some regular waffle batter to extend the cornmeal and put in the fridge for another morning.

I'm sure any cornbread mix would work, but I love the sweetness and texture of Trader Joes enough to bring boxes back. Haven't spotted cornbread mix of any brand in Taipei- has anyone found it in Taipei?

my kitchen/snapshot: almost cobb salad

I love cobb salad, but it's seems like a tough salad to find done right in Taipei. I had good luck at Gordon Biersch with their seafood version, but this week I had many of the ingredients on hand to make one at home- tomatoes, ham, cucumbers, avocado, hard boiled egg, cheese, romaine.

Almost all the ingredients- next time I need to buy and crumble up some bacon and blue cheese.