Patrick and Logan

Saturday morning we received the horrible, unbelievable news that late Friday night there was a fire at my cousins Lindsay and Tom's house in Roanoke.  The entire house was destroyed and my cousins's two beautiful boys, Patrick, 10, and Logan, 5, were lost in the fire when the second story collapsed.  Friends of the family who were staying the night all made it out with smoke inhalation and minor burns, and Lindsay and Tom made it out too with smoke inhalation.  They were all driven to Winston-Salem to the hospital there, near where my aunt lives, and spent the night under watch.

Lindsay and Tom lost everything, not only, but most importantly their two boys, but their house, pets, cars, everything.  Lindsay's business was in that house too.  Two fundraising campaigns have been set up to help them get back on their feet, if not emotionally then at least financially.  YouCaring and GoFundMe, which has the best picture of Patrick and Logan.  Your thoughts and prayers are also greatly needed to help Tom, Lindsay and the entire family through this tough time.

Patrick was quiet at times, a very pensive kid sometimes, very curious and smart, highly energetic.  He taught me how to kneeboard last summer at the Lake.  I remember visiting after he was just born while I was in college and Lindsay and I went to make a plate with his footprints on it.  Five years later we did the same thing with Logan.  Those plates hung on the wall in their kitchen.  Logan was a wild child, incredibly bright and always trying to keep up with Patrick, leading to many adventures.  I love those boys!  They were taken to be angels too soon.

It's just unthinkable.  You never expect something to happen to your family, even though you hear about it happening on the news, but sometimes it does.  There is no reason to explain something like this.  Sometimes burdens we have to carry have no reason, we just have to carry them.

Lemon Cupcakes with Strawberry Frosting

When your friend loves lemon cake and strawberry cake, you've got to make cupcakes like that for her bridal shower!

Lemon Cupcakes (adapted from Southern Living)

1 cup vegan butter (like Earth Balance), softened

2 cups granulated sugar

4 large eggs, separated

3 cups cake flour (you can make your own if you don't have it on hand)

1 tablespoon baking powder

1/8 teaspoon table salt

1 cup soymilk

1 heaping tablespoon lemon zest

2.5 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

Shortening or cupcake liners

Preheat oven to 350

In a large bowl beat the vegan butter just like normal butter at medium speed until creamy with a mixer, add sugar gradually and beat until fluffy.  Be patient.  Separate the eggs, add the yolks to the batter one at a time, blending each one in.  Put the whites together in a second large bowl for later.

Mix the flour with baking powder and salt in a medium bowl.  Add a scoop of the flour, then a bit of milk, alternating and blend in on low speed.  Then mix in the lemon zest and lemon juice, I add more than the original recipe for more lemon cake flavor.  

Back to that large bowl of egg whites, clean your mixer, then whip them until firm peaks form.  Add a scoop of the egg whites to the batter and stir in.  Add the rest of the egg whites and then fold into the batter.  I didn't know how to fold in egg whites, so here's a helpful page from the Kitchn or a video to watch how.

Put cupcake liners in the pan then add a scoop of batter to each.  I used a 1/4 cup measure a little less full and it filled them perfectly - only fill each liner 1/2 to 2/3 of the way...lesson learned, these rise like crazy.  Don't worry about smoothing the tops, that happens naturally during baking, but definitely don't drop it down like I did because you want air (the whole reason of adding whipped egg whites).  Bake for 18-20 minutes.  Let cool and make the frosting.

When the cupcakes are cool, use a small knife to core the center about 2/3 of the way down in each cupcake.  Pipe strawberry jam into the center of the cupcake and then use the cored remains to add a bit of cupcake back on top to make frosting easier.

I got the original Strawberry frosting recipe from BethCakes and modified it to be dairy free, which took a couple of attempts.

Attempt One with creamed Earth Balance didn't work.  I creamed the Earth Balance, just like for the cake, then added 2 tbs of strawberry jam like it says, then the puree which I left the solids in and it didn't fully mix together as well as it should have.  There might have been too much puree as I added about a 1/2 cup because I wanted more of a strawberry flavor.  Adding the 2 cups of powdered sugar didn't help.  It looked like this:

That's not going to spread well on top as frosting.  To the trash.

Attempt Two worked much better.  I grabbed the crisco shortening as I know my FMIL (a fantastic baker) uses that to make things dairy free for me sometimes, but to my dismay didn't have a full cup, only about 3/4 of a cup.  So I added that to the bowl (it hadn't been fully cleaned out so there was still lots of strawberry from attempt 1), was in a rush for time to get to the bridal shower these were for, so I threw in enough powdered sugar until it turned into a pink frosting and went with it.

That will work as frosting.

Iced half the cupcakes quickly, cut some strawberry slices to top them with, ran to the grocery store for some store bought icing for the rest as I was super late at that point and headed to the shower.  Luckily, they were a rave.  However, I forgot to take pics in the rush.

Lesson learned: have more crisco on hand and start adding liquids to frostings in small small batches.

Four Things

These are always fun to do, and interesting to find year later...

Four names I go by:
1. Christina
2. Ms. V
3. Ms. Vandenbergh
4. Steiner or Nina *by certain family members

Four things I hate:
1. Disrespect
2. Not taking responsibility for self
3. Cleaning
4. Traffic

Four places I have worked:
1. U-Rec at JMU
2. Science Park Rec Association
3. FCPS
4. College Board/ETS

Four things I love to watch
1. Downton Abbey
2. Jane the Virgin
3. Top Chef
4. Chopped

Four places I have been:
1. Puerto Rico
2. Scotland
3. Iceland
4. Ireland

Four things I am looking forward to:
1. The future with my fiance, soon to be husband
2. Seeing students improve on skills
3. Traveling
4. Spring Break

Four things I love to eat:
1. Mom's Ruby Red Corned Beef
2. Thai Peanut Stir-fry
3. Anything chocolate (dairy-free)
4. Strawberries

Four favorite drinks (not water):
1. Coffee
2. Hot tea with milk
3. A good stout
4. Lemonade in the summer

1-2-3-4 Lemon Cake

A friend made her husband a lemon cake for his birthday that looked fantastic back in December, but of course it was made with real butter (as it should be for anyone's birthday, although I do really appreciate when people have some dessert for me at a party, even if it's just fruit!).  It looked delicious so of course I had to get the recipe and see if I could adapt it, and our department monthly birthday celebration sounded like the right time!

The original recipe is from Smitten Kitchen for the Lemon Layer Cake.  Here's my adapted dairy-free version:

1-2-3-4 Cake
Adapted from several sources: this cake is a classic

This cake gets its name from its proportion of ingredients: 1 cup butter and milk, 2 cups sugar, 3 cups of flour and 4 eggs, and from cupcakes to layers cakes, as a basic, white cake, it does not fail.

Yield: 3 9-inch layers (for the purpose of this cake) or 24 cupcakes or 2 9x9 pans(good to know, eh?)

1 cup (2 sticks) Earth Balance "butter", at room temperature
2 cups sugar
4 eggs
3 cups + 1-2 teaspoons sifted self-rising flour*
1 cup almond or soy milk
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

2-3 tablespoons lemon juice

1 teaspoon lemon zest

Preheat oven to 350°F. Oil & flour the pans.  (Recipes always forget to write in that step!)  Using an electric mixer, cream butter until fluffy. It takes a bit longer, but Earth Balance will actually cream.  :-) Add sugar and continue to cream well for 6 to 8 minutes. Add eggs 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Add flour and DF milk alternately to creamed mixture, beginning and ending with flour. Add vanilla, lemon juice and zest and continue to beat until just mixed. 

Divide batter equally among prepared pans. Level batter in each pan by holding pan 3 or 4-inches above counter, then dropping flat onto counter. Do this several times to release air bubbles and assure a level cake. I only had one 9x9 pan, oops (guess what I got for Christmas! 9-inch round pans!) so I baked the layers one at a time and the batter stood well on the counter between baking.

Bake for 25 to 30 minutes or until a tester or toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean (start checking at 15 minutes if you are making cupcakes).

* Self-rising flour has both salt and baking powder in it, but you can make your own at home with the following formula: 1 cup self-rising flour = 1 cup all-purpose flour, minus 2 teaspoons + 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder + 1/2 teaspoon salt.

Lemon Curd
Adapted from The Joy of Cooking

From the Joy of Cooking: This makes a sensation filling for sponge rolls or an Angel Food Cake. You can also marble it into a cheesecake.

8 egg yolks
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) Earth Balance "butter"
3 lemons, zest grated and juiced

Place the ingredients in the double boiler over boiling water. Don’t let top pan touch the water. Cook and stir until mixture begins to gel or thicken ever-so-slightly. Remove from heat and allow to cool. Cover and refrigerate it to thicken.

Place layer one on a plate, spread the top with lemon curd and place the second and/or top layer, then another layer of lemon curd.  I then finished it with a layer of classic white vanilla icing from Duncan Hines due to time, but could have made an icing now that I know Earth balance works pretty well for icing.

It was delicious, well enjoyed at work, and the extras were happily brought home to be enjoyed for the next few days.  It was possibly even better a few days later!  (Classic.  Forgot to take a final picture.  I'll just have to make it again!)

SAG Awards Apple-Cherry Crisp

I'm heading over to my neighbor's to watch the SAG awards tonight and after getting a delivery of apples from my CSA last week and finding a bag of dried cherries that need to be used up, I googled for some apple-cherry crisp recipes and settled on this one from Epicurious. I followed the ingredients list, even finding crystalized ginger!

For topping
1 1/4 cups old-fashioned or quick oats
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons (packed) dark brown sugar
3/4 cup all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon (pumpkin pie spice makes a great substitution)
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature - for DF: use same amount Earth Balance spread
3/4 cup almonds, lightly toasted, chopped
1/2 cup chopped crystallized ginger

For Filling
4 pounds Granny Smith or Pippin apples, peeled, cored, sliced
1 1/2 cups dried tart cherries
1/3 cup sugar (Epicurious suggests 1/2 c. but that seems like it would be too sweet)
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1 tablespoon all purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon (or the pumpkin pie spice here too)

Make filling:
Preheat oven to 375°F. Combine apples, cherries, sugar, lemon juice, flour and ground cinnamon in large bowl. Mix to blend well. Pour into the 9x13 pan.

Make topping:
Mix oats, brown sugar, flour, cinnamon and salt in large bowl. Add butter and rub in until coarse crumbs form. Mix in almonds and ginger. (Topping can be prepared 1 day ahead. Cover and refrigerate.) 

 
Adding the butter is best done with your hands, or two knives chopping it up into pea size balls if you don't want to get your hands that dirty.

Cover the top of the 9x13 pan with topping and bake for 45 minutes. It might take longer depending on your oven as the original recipe says to make in small ramekins and bake for 40 mins in those.

Serve with vanilla ice cream.

Apple Oatmeal Muffins

What to do when you have way too many apples to eat before they go bad and have to bring something to our department breakfast, I mean meeting, tomorrow morning?  You google "apple muffins" then realize that you have lots of oats too and change the search to "apple oatmeal muffins."  First recipe to pop up was this Apple-Oatmeal Recipe from Martha Stewart, so I decided to adapt it to dairy-free.

I made the first dozen, then worried it wouldn't be enough for the department so I made a second dozen, and in true daughter-of-a-scientist fashion, made some changes to the second batch to see how things work.

Dozen One

1/2 cup all-purpose flour

1 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup normal oats (old-fashioned, not quick)
2 1/4 teaspoons baking powder - accidentally put in 1 tablespoon and 1/4 teaspoon, realized my error and scooped a bit out
1 teaspoon coarse salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon (she says 1/2, I like more spice usually, thus I also added a dash of cloves and nutmeg)
3/4 cup sugar
2 large eggs
1 stick Earth Balance "butter", melted and cooled (Google says 1 stick is 1/2 cup so that's what I put in)
1/2 cup almond milk
1 hard apple, peeled and cut into 1/4-inch dice (1 1/4 cups)

Mix according to her directions and then bake for 20 mins at 350.  I did accidentally stir the dry into the wet instead of the wet into the dry - hope that doesn't matter!

Dozen Two

1 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup oats
2 1/4 teaspoons baking powder - did it right this time
1 teaspoon coarse salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon (same additions as above)
3/4 cup sugar
2 large eggs
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup almond milk
1 hard apple, peeled and cut into 1/4-inch dice (1 1/4 cups)

handful of raisins

Same mixing and same baking.

I then looked up substituting oil for butter and found that it's not equal like I assumed.  According to New Health Guide, you use 10 tablespoons of canola oil for 1 cup of butter, so I should have used 5 tablespoons of oil per their suggestions, but I used more like 8 tbsp with my conversion so I added about 1/4 cup extra oats.  On the other hand, Livestrong says "For every 1/4 cup butter, use 4 tablespoons vegetable oil or 3 tablespoons olive oil."  Still off in my calculations.

The taste test...

Both are pretty light on the inside.  Dozen 2 rose a bit more and was more moist, which is how I like muffins better, so in my book, that's the winning recipe!  We'll see how they fare tomorrow.