JENN McKINLAY: I mentioned last week that I was working on FONDANT FUMBLE (two NFL players buy a Fairy Tale Cupcake franchise and mayhem and murder ensue, natch) and I was reviewing my methods of murder. Now, of course, I'm in research mode and looking at cupcakes with a football themes. OMG, y'all, look at some of these brilliant cupcakes!
Nutter Butter Football Cupcakes
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| https://bakedbroiledandbasted.com/nutter-butter-football-cupcakes/ |
Chocolate Cupcakes with Reeses Peanut Butter Egg Footballs
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| https://www.momlovesbaking.com/easy-superbowl-football-cupcakes/ |
Chocolate Football Cupcakes with Coconut Grass and a Truffle Football (Vegan, dairy free, whole grain)
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| https://www.texanerin.com/chocolate-football-cupcakes/ |
Yes, writing this series is a real hardship. LOL. While these pictures and recipes do inspire, I'll be creating my own recipe for the cupcakes cobbled out of a little bit of this and a little bit of that.
I have my own chocolate cupcake recipe that I like to use, but I am loving the green coconut, so that's a possible add. As for the football, the Nutter Butter ball is genius, so I might be tweaking that as well. I am definitely not someone who follows recipes exactly. I look at them more as guidelines to jumpstart my own creations.
How about you, Reds and Readers? Do you follow recipes exactly or do you look at them more as suggestions?
Those are amazing cupcakes, Jenn!
ReplyDeleteAs for following the directions for a recipe, it really depends on what it is a recipe for . . . if it’s baking, I’m more likely to give it a tweak . . . .
Same!
DeleteGood choice on the Nutter Butter football. Would love to read your favorite chocolate cupcake recipe!
ReplyDeleteWhen baking sweets, I generally don't improvise except in flavorings. Add espresso powder to that chocolate cake or peppermint flavoring to that Christmas brownie? Done. With my bread and muffins, I often swap in whole wheat flour but keep measurements the same. For savory cooking, I improvise constantly. Even when I'm following a new recipe, I make substitutions and revisions.
Oh, I like those additions, Edith!
DeleteWhen baking I intend to follow the instructions but tend add ingredients like nuts or chocolate chips.
ReplyDeleteExcellent choices.
DeleteI love the green coconut and the little footballs in the last pictures. I don't really bake many sweets. I used to make cheesecake before my husband had to watch his cholesterol, though I still made it for Xmas and Thanksgiving gatherings. I had a great recipe, but I did modify it a little with less sugar, lo-fat cream cheese, etc.
ReplyDeleteI've always been an "a little bit of this, some of that," sort of cook, taking liberties with recipes. But when I started out cooking Indian food after marriage, I was rigid about the recipes given to me by a couple of sisters-in-law, afraid to alter the one little tiny thing. And then we went to India and I met more of his relatives. He's from a large family, and they would invite us to dinner and cook some of those same recipes — with variations! Everyone did it "their way." So after that, I relaxed and cooked it with variations that suited Rajan and myself. (More this, less that, etc.) You can imagine how happy it made me when I was told by those who visited us that my food was very "authentic."
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DeleteI love that you've "made it" with the cuisine, Elizabeth. How wonderful to learn from your husband's relatives!
Deletewhat fun Elizabeth! How lucky that you're able to travel to India and see relatives and eat their food!
DeleteI loved traveling to India while we could. But life intervened: Rajan had always had a bad reaction to the Malaria medicine we both needed to take for the trips. (He had been away for so long, he no longer had resistence.) I didn't have much trouble, just a few itches. But he had hive-like rashes So we both switched. The new medicine was even worse for him - huge welts above the skin and maybe under the skin. Apparently he can't take quinine - and this new medicine was exactly what they give you if you DO get malaria. His doctor brother told him, "You can't take malaria medicine." So we stopped making the trip and rely now on FB and Skype. I do miss them all, though. They are lovely people.
DeleteThat is high prose, indeed, ELizabeth.
DeleteJenn, the story sounds like fun. How far along are you? When will this book come out? The cupcake photos look delicious. You'll have a good time creating your own versions.
ReplyDeleteI tweak almost every recipe that I make. Of course, I didn't do that in the beginning but I know enough about what we like to be able to get good results cooking and baking. Also, when you have allergies or even sensitivity to certain ingredients, and a recipe sounds good to you, you learn how to work around.
I am most proud of being able to adapt regular baking recipes to create cookies and muffins for my youngest grandson whose food allergies are off the charts.
He's lucky to have you trying Judy!
DeleteFood allergies have changed the game, for sure. How wonderful that you can still bake for the grands
DeleteThe book sounds great and I too love the coconut green grass!
ReplyDeleteThanks, Lucy! I'm in the thick of it now. So fun!
DeleteJENN: Those football cupcakes look very cute. I had to look up Nutter Butter. I have never seen those cookies in Canada.
ReplyDeleteI tweak most savoury recipes to suit my needs. As for baking, I tend to follow the recipe and only change optional items such as toppings.
No Nutter Butters? That's okay, you have my fave - Vrootman's wafer cookies. So good!
DeleteGenerally I follow the recipe, more or less, at least the first time I make whatever. Then I write notes and make adjustments for the next time. Or I will jot down a suggestion I have thought of. Sometimes my "suggestions" work and other times, not so much.
ReplyDeleteIt is trial and error.
DeleteThe football cupcakes are adorable! For baking, I usually follow the recipe. Sometimes I add an ingredient or two.
ReplyDeleteYes, it's like personalizing it.
DeleteLike Grace, I don't know what Nutter Butter is (will look it up) and like Edith I improvise only with savoury cooking. The premise of your new book sounds fantastic, Jenn. I can only imagine the chaos that unfolds...
ReplyDeleteAh, ok. Nutter Butter cookies. Got it.
DeleteChaos is a good word for it. LOL.
DeleteI am a follow the recipe exactly person. My husband is a use it as a guideline person. I probably have more failures!
ReplyDeleteI have made green coconut as a nest for jelly beans and also on the tray surrounding both bunny and lamb cakes. It would be a nice switch up from green frosting for the football cupcakes.
Sounds like another great addition to your cupcake series!
Thank you, Brenda!
DeleteBeing from a make-do household, as a child I started learning how to tweak & replace ingredients from my grandmother. In fact, I turned my lists into a whole book: Substituting Ingredients. (Available on Amazon, in case you're interested. )
ReplyDeleteAmazing, Becky! I love substitutions, especially when you realize you're out of something you need.
DeleteHere I sit with a piece of toast for breakfast, Jenn, and you throw chocolate cupcake photos at me! Thanks! :-)
ReplyDeleteThe green coconut, for sure, and the nutter butter footballs are inspired! I think I'd do a peanut butter center for those chocolate cupcakes with nutter butter footballs. So yeah, I'm a tweak the recipe--baking or savory--as I go.
LOL, Flora. Sorry not sorry.
DeleteThose are fun, Jenn, it's like a Pinterest page here today. You do have SUCH a tedious job. LOL
ReplyDeleteI'm always tweaking recipes, especially during the pandemic, when I cooked like mad but often didn't have all the exact ingredients in recipes. And I routinely swap venison for beef. Quiche is another one; swap filling add-ins, based on what's in the house.
One of my favorite recipes, that I've been making (gulp) nearly 50 years, is for microwave brownies that take ten minutes, tops. From the cookbook that came with my first microwave in 1976. I've swapped out the flours, and changed the cup of nuts (which I've used walnuts or pecans for) to an additional cup of chips, a cup of coconut, a cup of cacao nuts, etc. Changed the vanilla to orange flavoring, almond extract, peppermint extract (Christmas), even walnut extract. Sprinkled crushed candy canes on top, or candied orange peel. I've even omitted the chips and made bourbon balls from the same recipe. It's my go-to when I need a quick something to take.
That's brilliant, Karen!
DeleteKaren in Ohio. ......recipe please??
DeleteYou are completely hilarious, Jenn! Your imagination is beyond description! Love, love, love this idea, and the cupcakes are so funny.
ReplyDeleteI am not much of a baker, but when it comes to recipes, I tend to search for the different variations of the same dish – – – and then take the bits that seem to work, and create a new recipe altogether. The key is knowing why things work, the chemistry of it, you know? And once you know that, you can do whatever you want.
I cannot wait to read this hilarious novel. Although right now, around here, we are focused on basketball, of course.
Go Celtics!
DeleteI'm actually in MA right now with the fam - GO CELTICS! Game 7 is going to be a nail biter.
DeleteAwesome, Jenn!
DeleteI don't have a preference (as we don't have a local NBA team) but watched the tail end of the Celtics game. Wow, just wow! Talk about making every second count!! haha. I love watching basketball and games like that are the reason why. So exciting.
DeleteThese all look so yummy! And whenever chocolate is involved, count me in!
ReplyDeleteWhen I try a new recipe, I follow it exactly. After that, I usually experiment. If the finished product is especially delicious I must then remember what I did so I can do it again!
DebRo
That makes sense, DebRo. Get it right the first time and then play.
DeleteOnce I know a recipe, I have no problem tweaking. One of the biggest tweaks, for savory recipes, is to make smaller. I'm tried of dead food in the refrigerator because I get tired of eating the same thing for more than three days in a row. I'd freeze some but usually forget about it until unrecognizable.
ReplyDeleteJENN: If I was Samantha Stephens or Serena, I would twitch my nose and take these yummy cupcakes!
ReplyDeleteDepends on the recipe, If the recipe uses Nut Milk and Gluten Free Flour, then I am sure I will follow the recipe.
If the recipe uses Dairy and Wheat, then I modify the recipe, which I do most of the time. It is always fun for me to tweak recipes and find out what works and what does not work.
On another note, Perfect title and the story that goes with the title. Fumble makes me think of Football. I look forward to reading FONDANT FUMBLE! And I finished reading SUMMER READING. Loved it! And I plan to read it again on the First Day of the Summer!
Diana
Football players and cupcakes. I love it! I think they'll need some tiny Gatorade buckets and players doing their touchdown dances for additional decorations.
ReplyDeleteBack in the early 70s N.O. Saints player Danny Abramowicz opened a deli near us in Metairie. Off season he'd be in there happily waiting on customers and slicing meat. Sometimes other team members would come in to help out.
Pat D, how cool is that! What a way to bring the team and the community together.
ReplyDeleteI remember when Jr. Seau with the SD Chargers had the hottest restaurant bar in town! He was much loved in our town.
Jenn, I really love all those cupcakes. The last football actually looks real. Like a real mini football!
Oh they look SO delicious. I'll be happy to taste test :)
ReplyDeleteI look at any recipe as a starting point. After that, I wing it all the way.
I will follow the recipe the first time as a trial and then tweak. My baking recipes are divided between family recipes and ones that I’ve developed over the years. A lot of mix & match and different additions or flavors happen in my kitchen.
ReplyDeleteLooking forward to the book even though I dislike football ( it’s a holdover from high school).
I'm not confident enough to play around with a recipe. These definitely look delicious.
ReplyDeleteWhat scrumptious looking cupcakes! And good to know the book's coming along. Learning to cook alongside my mom and gram, I was taught to respect the recipe the first time through, then make changes in subsequent sessions. Decades ago, Mom and I laughed at a story where a woman complained that her dish came out completely different than the picture in the magazine article. When asked if she'd made any changes, she replied that she couldn't afford butter so used margerine; didn't have pecans so substituted raisins, etc.
ReplyDeleteOne of my current delights is reading the comments on recipes published in the NYT Cooking column. Hilarious!! They often run along the lines of, "I made this exactly as written, except for using X instead of Y. I also added Z. What a terrible recipe, I won't be making this again." Are people really that clueless? Apparently so. :) ~Lynda