Creamy Penne with Spinach and Sun-Dried Tomatoes

     I think it's fitting for this blog to have a preponderance of sweet recipes. After all, that is my specialty. Still, I do have to expand my repertoire of dinner recipes, and todays is definitely a winner! I made it without meat, but chicken would certainly be a great addition.  Pasta is easy because the possibilities are endless. You can just keep trying different combinations of ingredients and odds are, most of them will work and a few will be extra special. So this is my latest experiment. It combines two of my favorite things: mascarpone and sun-dried tomatoes. In fact, I love mascarpone so much, I sometimes buy a tub of it just to dip cinnamon animal crackers in. Yes, I still eat kid food, but at least I try to add a level of sophistication. Anyway, this recipe is fast and easy yet still a little bit fancy, which is why I love it.

INGREDIENTS:
1 1lb box of penne pasta
juice and zest of a lemon
2 cloves of garlic
a pinch of red pepper flakes
1/2 cup chopped sun-dried tomatoes
1 bag of spinach
16oz mascarpone, softened
salt, pepper, olive oil, and parmesan cheese

DIRECTIONS:
1. Boil the pasta.
2. Chop the garlic and tomatoes. If you're using tomatoes jarred in olive oil, use that as your cooking oil.

3. Heat a little olive oil in a large pan and cook the spinach with the cover on until it wilts. Then add the tomatoes, garlic, lemon, and seasonings. Add the mascarpone last, and stir until it's completely melted and mixed.

4. Drain the pasta and add it to the sauce pan. Gently stir until all the noodles are coated with sauce. Sprinkle some parmesan on top and serve.

Come to think of it, some sliced mushrooms would also be good in this. Just put your own spin on it. Enjoy, and stay tuned for the upcoming Thanksgiving recipes!

Caramel Apple Ice Cream Tartes

     Because this recipe includes a type of pie crust, I was originally going to post this for Pie Monday, but then I decided that that would be too loose of a definition for pie. So it's something different, but wonderful. It's like taking all the delicious qualities of ice cream and pie and merging them to create a super hybrid dessert. The original recipe takes a good chunk of time to prepare because of all the different components, but that just means that in the end, you'll be even more proud of your work. Being the cookaholic and overachiever that I am, I decided to double this recipe and make it for all of my housemates for a Wednesday dinner, and of course that meant getting started early. On Tuesday at 10 p.m.
     But honestly, I don't mind the long hours in the kitchen at all. Considering my other option, a mountain of homework, it's really where I'd rather be. Instead of pouring over books about theoretical and mildly interesting but useless subjects, I'd rather be creating something that'll make someone happy.  I love to cook, both for the satisfaction of taking a bunch of mostly inedible single ingredients (butter, sugar, flour) and manipulating them into something delicious that'll bring joy to others. Every recipe is like a magical transformation. Corny, but true. The other reason I enjoy the process as much as the result is because when I'm in the kitchen, it's like the rest of the world doesn't exist. I can take a break from the stress of the day, focus on a single task with a tangible result, and enjoy the quiet time to myself. In school, so much of what I do seems to have no point, but cooking is one thing that always does If you don't do your homework, the world won't end, but you've go to eat.
     This realization of my true passion has made me think lately, that maybe graduate school and the academic life isn't for me. Sure, I know how to write research papers, but if doing it is like pulling teeth every time and I'd rather flee to the kitchen, maybe that means something. So I told my academic advisor that I was starting to think about a culinary career, and she actually didn't laugh at me, so that's a start. Instead, she recommended that I read celebrity chef Anthony Bourdain's books, in which he uses his charming cynicism to discourage 99% of people from going down that road. But because of that other 1% (and because he may or may not be my old man crush) I decided to read it. And I couldn't put it down. Just based on the fact that there was at least one F-word on every page, I knew after the first chapter that I was gonna love it. It's hilarious, so check it out!

Now that I got all the tangents out of the way, it's time for dessert!

INGREDIENTS: (makes 6 individual tart shells)
1 3/4 cup flour
1 1/2 sticks of cold butter, cubed
2/3 cup powdered sugar

2 tablespoons butter
2 Granny Smith apples, peeled and diced
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup toasted chopped pecans

1/2 stick of butter
1/2 cup brown sugar

2 pints of vanilla ice cream, softened (To go the extra mile and make your own, click here and just skip the cookie dough.)

DIRECTIONS:
1. Preheat oven to 350 and spray the bottom and sides of your little tart pans.
2. Toast the pecans on a cookie sheet for 10 minutes.

3. Use either a pastry cutter or a food processor to combine the butter, flour, and powdered sugar for the crust. It's ready when the pieces of butter are the size of little pebbles. Yo may have to add a tiny splash of cold water.

 4. Take a few tablespoons of dough and press it around the bottom and up the sides of each pan. Unlike a real pie crust, a tart crust is not rolled out first.

5. Bake the crusts at 350 for about 30 minutes, The let them cool in the pans before removing them very carefully. When you do, the edges should remain intact.

6. Chop the apples, melt 2 tablespoons of butter in a frying pan, and cook the apples and pecans over medium heat. After a few minutes, add the cinnamon and brown sugar and continue to cook until caramelized, about 7 minutes. Cool completely.

7. When the apples are cool and the ice cream is softened, put the ice cream in a large tupperware container and use an ice cream scoop to mix in the apples. Smooth out the top and re-freeze for at least 2 hours.

8. (Optional) If you have extra pie dough, use your hands to work it together like a traditional pie crust and roll it out in between two pieces of plastic wrap. Find a small cookie cutter to cut out little shapes to use for decoration. Bake them at 350 for about 7 minutes.

9. When you're ready to serve, make sure you let the ice cream sit out to soften again, so you get perfect scoops. Plop 2 small scoops in the middle of each crust and stick a cookie or 2 in the top.

10. To make the caramel, melt the butter and brown sugar in a pot over medium heat and stir until bubbly. You may have seen this sentence before. It's my all-purpose caramel sauce recipe. Watch the transformation:

11. Finish each tart with a drizzle of caramel and enjoy!

My goal is to have my last catch-up post done before noon, so come back for an easy but elegant dinner  idea!

Quickie: Sweet and Savory Pumpkin Seeds

     I'm gonna venture to guess that everybody loved digging through pumpkin innards to collect the seeds when they were kids. It was probably my favorite part of Halloween, what I consider to be a generally overrated holiday. Evil isn't really supposed to be fun kiddos. But I digress. Anyway, I haven't eaten pumpkin seeds since I was about 8 and until recently, it hadn't even occurred to me that you can season them with other things besides salt. So when my roommate told me she puts cinnamon sugar on them, I was immediately interested. You don't have to tell me twice to put sugar on things. And since we just happened to have a giant bag of rosemary in our kitchen, I was also inspired to try a different savory version. Because you also don't have to tell me twice to make everything taste like a Christmas tree. Since I only had a tiny baking pumpkin, I only made a small amount of seeds, half sweet and half savory. However, these recipes are completely eyeballed and can be made in any quantity. They're more of spice combination suggestions than actual recipes.

INGREDIENTS:
pumpkin seeds, rinsed and dried

and either a dash of:
olive oil
salt
garlic powder
dried rosemary

or a dash of:
cinnamon
nutmeg
granulated sugar

DIRECTIONS:
1. Preheat the oven to 300 and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
2. Toss the pumpkin seeds in either combination of ingredients. Use olive oil sparingly, just to make the rosemary stick. For the sweet ones, the sugar will melt a little and make them stick together in delightful little bunches.

3. Bake at 300 for about 35 minutes and enjoy!

Come back tomorrow for 2 more recipes, one dinner and one more dessert!

Hundred Layer Cake (Baumkuchen)

     On a recent trip to Disney World, I came across a window display in an Epcot shop that I just had to share here on Spoonful of Zucker. Even as a little kid, I was that nerd who liked Epcot the best, and now that I can fully appreciate the authenticity of it all, it's even more fascinating. That trip got me thinking that it was time to post another German recipe, and as I was brainstorming what to make, it dawned on me that although I've made it half a dozen times, I still haven't posted the famous Baumkuchen.

     One thing I've learned since I started cooking is that inspiration for new recipes can come from anywhere. I first saw the Baumkuchen when I was a senior in high school visiting my college for the first time. It was pictured in a newspaper clipping posted on a bulletin board in the foreign language department. Baumkuchen is German for "tree cake," and the authentic ones actually do look like trees. I probably shouldn't post a picture of a professionally made one on here because that's probably illegal, but a true Baumkuchen is made in a special rotating oven to make it look like the many layers of cake create vertical stripes. However, when you look at the top of the cake, the layers appear to go in circles so that they look like the rings inside a log. Google it, it's cool.
     Unfortunately, I don't have the fancy equipment required to get this exact effect, and on top of that, I've taken a lot of liberties with this recipe to make it my own. Traditionally, it's supposed to be an almond cake, but since I don't like almond flavored things, I decided to make the layers chocolate and vanilla. This gives it some more visual appeal, but because of the changes, I usually call this the Hundred Layer Cake. In reality, the most layers I've ever gotten out of it is 17, but theoretically, you could just keep multiplying the recipe and get as many layers that the tallest pan you can find will fit. This is a tricky, time-consuming recipe, but it's an attention-grabber. The cake looks like it should be dense and dry, but instead, it's incredibly light and even velvety, if you can describe a cake as such.
     So this is the kind of cake you make when you want to impress someone. In my case, it was my professor, whom we had invited to dinner in our dorm and with whom I had already shared my albeit tentative plans for culinary school. I had to prove that I'm not just all about quick and easy college food, that I have some pretty cool tricks up my sleeve, and this is one of the best ones I've got.

INGREDIENTS:
1/3 cup semisweet chocolate chips
1 stick of butter, softened
7 eggs, separated
1 teaspoon vanilla
3/4 cup sugar
1 tablespoon cornstarch
2/3 cup flour
about 1 cup of milk

For ganache:
1/2 cup chocolate chips
1/4 cup heavy cream
toasted sliced almonds (optional)

DIRECTIONS:
1. Preheat the broiler. This cake is not baked. Instead, each paper-thin layer is broiled. Grease, flour, and line the bottom of a springform pan with parchment paper. I recommend a 9inch pan, but a smaller, taller one may be easier to handle and will give you more layers with the same amount of batter.
2. Melt the chocolate chips for the cake in the microwave or a double boiler and cool completely.
3. Carefully separate the eggs. Whip the whites to soft peaks in a pre-chilled metal bowl with an electric mixer. Add a splash of lemon juice if they don't want to whip.

4. In a separate bowl, beat the butter, sugar, eggs, and vanilla.

5. Beat the flour and cornstarch into the yolk batter in batches. When it's combined, use a rubber spatula to gently fold in the egg whites.

6. Now grab another bowl and divide the batter equally in two portions. It's very important that you have the same amount in each. Stir the melted chocolate into one of the bowls, so you now have chocolate and vanilla batters.
7. The last step before assembling the cake is probably the most important. You have to thin out both batters to somewhere between the consistency of pancake and crêpe batter so that it will spread itself out to cover the entire pan. To do this, gradually add milk to each bowl until the batter is just runny enough to do this, but not completely liquid. In my experience, it usually takes about 1/2 cup of milk in each bowl.
8. The goal is to get each layer as thin as possible but even and not transparent. Because the melted chocolate makes it slightly thicker, the chocolate batter makes a better base layer. The base layer is the trickiest. Plop a few tablespoons of chocolate batter into the bottom of the pan, and tilt and turn it until it spreads itself out evenly. Pay special attention to covering the edges, and if you're using parchment paper, make sure it doesn't shift. When you're confident in this layer, broil it on high for about 1 minute.

Everyone's broiler is different, so the only way to be safe is to watch it like a hawk. 5 extra seconds and it's burnt, but 5 seconds too little, and the still squishy center will shift and mess up the next layer. You can tell when a layer is done just by looking at it, but if small spots do get a little overdone, you can probably get away with it if you just move on. This layer is a little toasty in some spots, but overall pretty good:

9. Now take a few tablespoons of vanilla batter and do the same thing, right on top of the cooked chocolate layer. For some reason, vanilla tends to cook faster.

It seems hard now, but by the 4th layer, you'll have the hang of it.
10. Continue alternating layers until you run out of either batter or space in the pan. Keep count so you can brag about it later! If you run out of one color batter before the other, bake the extra separately, but don't attempt to use it up by making thicker layers of one color. Broil each layer for the same amount of time. Don't worry, the bottom layers will not continue to cook too much.
11. Let the cake cool completely. Then run a knife around the edge and remove the side of the pan. This is the moment of truth, to see if the many ayers are visible from the side. But don't be nervous, I've never had it not turn out right, even on my first attempt. Invert the cake onto a serving platter and remove parchment paper.
12. To make the ganache, melt the rest of the chocolate chips over a double boiler (not in the microwave this time). Then, whisk in the cream and gently heat and stir until completely smooth.

13. Use the back of a spoon to spread the ganache on top of the cake. Let it drip over parts of the edge if it wants to.

14. You can serve this like this, or add toasted almond slices all over the top. Alternatively, you could frost this with chocolate buttercream, as I did last time I made it. Both are delicious. It's time to slice in, and finally get to the surprise center.

Whoops...that picture is from back when I used to make the first layer vanilla. Still, you've got to admit that's pretty cool!

Chocolate Tres Leches Cake

     One day as I was surfing Pinterest, I came across this genius idea. I didn't click on it because the title alone was enough to inspire me to take my original tres leches recipe and make a chocolate variation. Although I still prefer the original version plain, with no frosting or anything, I decided to top this one with some fresh chocolate whipped cream. So I guess that makes this one four milks, but it is essentially the same recipe and technique as the original.

INGREDIENTS:
The cake:
1 cup flour5 eggs, separated3/4 cup sugar1/3 cup 2% milk1 teaspoon vanilla1 teaspoon baking powder
6 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder

The leches:1 14oz can sweetened condensed milk1 12oz can evaporated milk1/4 cup 2% milk

Chocolate whipped cream:
1 cup whipping cream
1 tablespoon granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder

DIRECTIONS:
1. Preheat oven to 350 and butter and flour a 9in. springform pan.
2. Put the bowl of an electric mixer in the fridge to chill. Then carefully separate the eggs. Whip the egg whites with 1/4 cup of the sugar using the whisk attachment in the cold bowl until they reach the consistency of whipped cream.
3. Transfer the egg whites to another bowl. put the yolks in the original bowl and beat them with the remaining 1/2 cup sugar, 1/3 cup milk, vanilla, flour, and baking powder.
4. Gently fold in the egg whites, but don't over mix.

5. Gently stir in the cocoa powder just until the color is consistent. 
6.Then pour batter into pan and bake for 35-40 minutes.

7.Remove the cake from the pan, and let it cool on a rack for 1 hour. Then, take a fork, and poke A LOT of holes all over the surface. This is how the leches will absorb.

8. In a small saucepan, heat the condensed milk, evaporated milk, and the other 1/4 cup of 2%. Just warm it gently, don't boil it. Then, cool it in the fridge for 20 minutes. Since the cake is served cold, the only reason you need to heat the milks is so that you'll be able to mix them together well.

9. Using a ladle, spoon the milk mixture over the cake. Give each spoonful enough time to absorb before adding another. You'll be surprised by how much the cake will absorb. You will probably use most of the milk, but if the cake seems to stop absorbing it, (i.e. if milk starts to pool in the middle for longer than usual) then don't add more. Be sure to pour enough milk around the edges of the cake, and not just in the middle.

Some of the milk will run off the sides, so be sure to do this over a deep enough dish. It's important to pour the milk slowly and gradually to give it time to absorb. Try to maximize absorption and minimize runoff. When you're done, carefully move the cake to a clean serving platter.
10. To make the whipped cream, start with a chilled metal bowl. In it, use an electric mixer to whip the cream, sugar, and vanilla. Depending on your mixer, this can take longer than you think, so be patient, whip the heck out of it, and don't give up. When the consistency is right, stir in the cocoa by hand.
11. Liberally spread the whipped cream over the cake and chill the whole thing in the fridge for at least a couple of hours before serving.

This last crummy iphone picture doesn't do it justice, but I know you'll love it!

Old-Fashioned Banana Cake

     It's time for another family favorite! This banana cake is another one of the very first things my mom  and grandma taught me to bake. When I was little, I remember that my mom would never throw away overripe bananas because she wanted to save them for this recipe, and by the time she got to making it, we had collected so many that she had to quadruple the recipe. So there were days when I'd eat this cake first as breakfast and then as a dessert after every other meal. The classic version of it is baked in a 13x9 pan and simply sprinkled with powdered sugar on top, but over the years, I've added my own spins to it. First of all, I switched out the sour cream for plain Greek yogurt. Also, you could add in extra things like chopped nuts. Sometimes, I bake this as a rectangular cake, but sometimes I bake it as banana bread in loaf pans or split it into 2 round 8inch pans and build a double-decker with this cream cheese frosting. Today, I decided to bake it in round tart pans to get a fancy edge.

INGREDIENTS:
2/3 cup butter, softened
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 eggs
1 cup sour cream or plain Greek yogurt
1 tablespoon baking soda
1 1/2 cups flour
1 tablespoon vanilla
2 very ripe bananas, mashed
pinch of salt
powdered sugar for the top

DIRECTIONS:
1. Preheat the oven to 350 and grease and flour your pan(s).
2. Use an electric mixer to blend the butter and sugar. Then add the eggs, yogurt, bananas, and vanilla.
3. Mix in the baking soda and salt, then gradually add the flour and beat until smooth.

4. Pour into prepared pan(s) and bake until a toothpick in the center comes out clean. The baking time can vary greatly depending on the size and shape of pan you use. A 13x9 takes about 40 minutes. Watch it closely because the top browns quickly but the middle takes more time.
5. Let the cake cool before frosting or sprinkling with powdered sugar.

This one really is a favorite of friends and family. Enjoy, and next up is something chocolaty!

Tuesdays With Julia: French Crêpes

     I, like many home chefs, often look to Julia Child for help when certain recipes continually give me trouble. In fact, I'm such a food nerd that I once attempted to read Mastering the Art of French Cooking from cover to cover. I only made it through the soups before realizing that that probably wasn't the best use of my time, but still, I read enough to know that she's a very trustworthy source. All summer, I toyed with the idea of doing a tuesdays with Julia series, something akin to Pie Monday, but that idea somehow got put on the back burner. But today, I'm finally making it happen!
     One of my most embarrassing culinary shortcomings had until this week, been my inability to properly make a French crêpe. It was essential for me to master this skill, particularly because I'm not a pancake person. American pancakes are rich, filling, syrup sponges that in my opinion, are not a great way to start the day. Crêpes, however, are not only more enjoyable to eat, but also more sophisticated and worldly, not to mention endlessly versatile. But every time I tried to make them, I somehow ended up with a pile of mush. A month or so ago, I tried out my new crêpe maker for the first time and unfortunately decided to use the recipe included in the instruction manual. This was the result:

Yep...nailed it.

     Obviously, I needed to go back to the drawing board on this one, so I suddenly got an idea that should have come to me much sooner: Consult Julia. When it comes to French recipes, I can always count on her. So using her recipe, which works for both sweet and savory crêpes, I went back to basics and used a plain old small frying pan to get a much improved result. You can put pretty much anything you want in a crêpe. One time one of my housemates ate one with Nutella and sliced ham, but that's another story. Anyway, today I decided to branch out from my usual Nutella, banana, strawberry trifecta and make caramel apple walnut crêpes instead. So I have to credit Julia for the crêpes themselves, but the apple filling is an original.

INGREDIENTS:
1 cup flour
2/3 cup cold milk
2/3 cup cold water
3 tablespoons melted butter
3 eggs
1/4 teaspoon salt

For filling:
2 small apples of your favorite variety
as many chopped walnuts as you want
2 teaspoons granulated sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
optional whipped cream
optional powdered sugar

For caramel sauce:
1/2 stick of butter
1/2 cup brown sugar

Note: I got six small/regular sized crêpes out of this recipe, which was about 2-3 servings, but or course this depends on the size of your pan. If this is your first time making them, I recommend smaller ones because they're easier to flip without breaking.

1. In a medium bowl, whisk all of the wet ingredients into the flour. Make sure there are no lumps. Refrigerate the batter for at least 30 minutes. (This is important.)

2. While you wait, finely chop your apples and walnuts. I usually prefer Granny Smith, but today, all we had were Galas, which don't taste terrific but sure are pretty.

3. In a medium nonstick frying pan, cook the apples and nuts, sprinkled with cinnamon and sugar to caramelize them. This should only take about 5 minutes over medium heat. Set aside.

4. To cook the crêpes, spray a small frying pan with Pam and preheat it, plot a few tablespoons of batter into it, and turn the pan until the batter spreads out into a circle. You want to use just enough batter to evenly coat the bottom of the pan, but crêpes should always be as thin as possible. That's why a really runny batter is essential.

5. Cook them over medium heat for about 1 minute per side. The first few of mine could have been browned a little more, but I was too afraid of burning them. Try to get them a little bit browned on both sides, but don't let them cook to a crisp. They are ready to flip when you can easily run a spatula around the edge. And you are allowed to flip them more than once if necessary.

6. Once you're done cooking the crêpes, make the caramel sauce by melting the butter and brown sugar in a small saucepan over medium heat until it gets bubbly.
7. Assemble the crêpes by spreading a little caramel sauce and a line of the apple mixture on one side. Then just roll it up, and finish off the plate with more of the apple mixture and/or caramel and/or whipped cream and/or powdered sugar.

Enjoy, and stay tuned for today's dessert extravaganza!

Easy Breaded Chicken Drumsticks

     Legend has it that this was the first grown-up food I ever ate as a baby. My parents took me to the doctor for a check-up and asked him what they could start feeding me and he told them to "Give her a chicken leg." And so that's what they did. I even have the picture of my itty bitty self sitting in my high chair while gleefully chomping away. To be honest, I doubt that that particular chicken leg was made with this recipe, but nevertheless, I have some very early memories of this recipe, or more accurately, memories of washing the stray breadcrumbs off of my face. These days, I usually eat them with a fork and knife, but as a kid, eating off the bone like an animal was the fun part. I'm not sure if it was my grandma who made the recipe up or someone else, but I always considered it one of the four things my dad can cook well. It's one of my favorite comfort foods, and it's the single easiest chicken recipe that I know. With only 3 ingredients and about 3 minutes of effort, anyone can make it. The original recipe is for drumsticks, but if you're not a dark meat person, you're missing out, but you can do it with any part of the chicken you want.

INGREDIENTS:
There are no exact quantities for this. Just buy a bottle of Italian dressing, a can of regular breadcrumbs, and however many chicken legs you need.

DIRECTIONS:
1. Find a large tupperware container or a couple of big ziplock bags, put the chicken inside, and cover it in italian dressing. It's best to let it marinate for at least a few hours, but if you don't have time, you can bread them right away.

2. After the chicken has marinated, preheat the oven to 375 and spray a glass baking dish.

3. Pour some breadcrumbs into another smaller tupperware container or onto a plate and roll each drumstick in them to coat it evenly. Just eyeball the amount of breadcrumbs. Star with a little bit and get more if you need to.
4. Bake at 375 for 45 minutes to 1 hour until the temperature reaches 165.

The best thing about this chicken is the way it smells while baking. They say that smell is the most powerful sense of recall, and this recipe definitely smells like my childhood, as so many of my favorites do. Enjoy, and stay tuned for somewhere between 8 and 12 more recipes this week! Yeah...I've got some catching up to do!

Apple Spice Cupcakes with Salted Caramel Buttercream (The Infamous Apple Bake-Off)

     So let me preface this by admitting that I made this recipe in September. There are several reasons why I haven't posted it until now, the simplest being that my semester got stressful and I lacked either the time or the energy to post. Still, I somehow was able to post other recipes in October, conveniently skipping this one. I just didn't want to bring back the bad memories associated with it. Don't get me wrong, I love this recipe. It tastes wonderful, and under normal circumstances, it's really not difficult to make. However, on that particular September day, my circumstances were more challenging.
      I don't usually consider myself a joiner. For better or for worse, I just don't usually get involved in events that require school spirit. But this year, my housemates decided to enter the homecoming contest, to try and win some kind of spirit stick-like prize. In the beginning, I thought it would be fun. There were various events throughout the week, and to my surprise, the ones I attended actually were fun. So when I, the house "celebrity chef" was elected to take charge of the apple bake-off, I was pretty excited. And then I found out that I needed to make 150 samples.
     I know there are a bunch of people who would not be phased by this challenge. Professional caterers, bakers, and any past contestant on one of the many cupcake-themed reality shows would think this event was a piece of cake (corny pun fully intended.) But this was my first large scale culinary undertaking, and naturally, I made some rookie mistakes. If I had had more time, money, and help, It would have been more fun, but in my attempt at pinch my pennies, I ended up not having enough, and thus stopping in the middle to double the recipe again. But after getting apple peels all over the kitchen, after running through classes in progress in my flour-covered apron and no shoes, and after begging several of my roommates for help (Vielen Dank!), I survived
Note: In order to get 150 samples in the most painless way possible, I didn't make these as cupcakes, but as 3 big sheet cakes. The directions are for regular cupcakes.

 So here's the original recipe, meant to make about 12 cupcakes, depending on the size.

INGREDIENTS:
2 Granny Smith apples, peeled and finely chopped
1 stick of melted butter
1/3 cup sugar
2/3 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
1/3 cup milk
1 1/2 cups flour
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
pinch of salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

For frosting:
2 sticks of butter, softened and divided
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1/2 cup brown sugar
about 5 cups powdered sugar, but you just eyeball that part

DIRECTIONS:
1. Preheat the oven to 350 and line the cupcake pan.
2. In a large bowl, mix the melted butter into the sugar and brown sugar. Then, whisk in the eggs, milk, and vanilla.

3. In a separate bowl, mix together all of the remaining dry ingredients for the cake. Then, use a whisk or an electric mixer to slowly add the dry ingredients into the wet.
4. Peel and chop the apples now. You don't want to do this too early, or they'll start turning brown. Obviously, you won't have this many.

4. Fold the apple pieces into the batter, and evenly fill the cupcake pan.

5. Bake cupcakes for 22-25 minutes, depending on the size. Check for doneness with a toothpick.

6. While the cupcakes cool, make the frosting. Make the caramel first by melting 1/2 stick of butter with the brown sugar and salt in a small saucepan over medium heat. Stir it constantly, be patient, and let it come to a rapid boil for about a minute. Then, promptly remove from the heat and let it cool completely to room temperature.
7. In another bowl, use an electric mixer to beat 1 cup of powdered sugar at a time into the rest of the butter. After 2 cups of sugar, add the cooled caramel. Then, continue to add powdered sugar until the consistency is right. It's not an exact measurement, and it will be very sweet, but just remember to keep your cake to frosting ratio in check. I, unlike most people, prefer more cake and less frosting, especially for this recipe.
8. I used a pastry bag to frost my little cake squares, so that's what I'll recommend for cupcakes, but the faster, more rustic way works too.

I don't think that those actually added up to 150, but luckily, no one noticed. Because the event turned out to be more of a popularity contest than a culinary showdown, I didn't win, but considering that the competition included groups who I'm pretty sure just microwaved packets of apple instant oatmeal, I wasn't too disappointed. I went home knowing that this cake was the best tasting dessert in that room, and that satisfaction is better than winning.