Allison Cafe

Introducing our newest Guest Writer, Genna! Genna is a talented graphic designer, marketer, artist and super-mom. She is also a fellow Flagler College alumni. Despite all of Genna’s amazing gifts, she is admittedly not an avid baker. As you would expect of an artist, she takes greater pleasure in decorating a cupcake than she does in baking one. Nothing wrong with that! I hope you enjoy Genna’s recent adventure in cupcake making, and maybe even take inspiration from her creative cupcake decor. Enjoy!

A Cupcake Quest

Last weekend I experienced my annual “Gotta make my husband’s homemade birthday cake” dilema. This request is bestowed upon me and usually includes which specific recipe I am supposed to make. Past years were carrot cake with avocado frosting, tres leches and some other anti-Betty Crocker ideas. This year my husband graciously asked for kid friendly cupcakes since we were going to celebrate at a bowling alley. Phew – it could be worse! I immediately looked to Allison Cafe to see what’s been tested in the kitchen by my friend.

Kid friendly requirements in MY book is: No nuts and lots of sprinkles. I don’t care about quantity of sugar or fat. If it looks cool, they love it. My kid is crazy anyway with or without sugar.

The recipe that seemed to fit the bill was Allison’s “Chocolate Cupcakes with Creamy White Frosting“. What I didn’t like about it was that it asked for things that I didn’t have in my pantry (buttermilk & coconut extract). Did I forget to mention I’m super lazy and dislike cooking in general? In retrospect, I should have just made this recipe because no matter what recipe I picked to make from scratch would seem to me annoyingly difficult and ask for items I’d have to go purchase.

So, I went off to see what Martha Stewart suggested. I love to decorate items, but not to cook them! So after looking at 30 beauty shots of decorated cupcakes – I knew I was going to make baseball cupcakes for my Red Sox fan of a husband. I came to the final conclusion of Red Velvet cake with cream cheese frosting. I noticed on the Food Network website that Paula Deen has the same recipe and did a side by side comparison. They were ALMOST identical with variations of some important chemical combinations such as: baking soda, vinegar and cocoa powder. I regularly watch Alton Brown’s Good Eats Show (a favorite show of my husband’s) and knew that these are very important components that shouldn’t be played with. But I didn’t care. I ended up taking the average of both recipes and figured if these are horrible – well I hate cooking anyway!! With some tips from other cookers in the comments pages, I also took their advice into account. My husband should know better than to make me do this without Betty!

As I was cooking, my first mistake was in making the buttermilk. They didn’t have any in the grocery store, so I was forced to make it myself. Buttermilk can be made at home by combining milk and vinegar (about 1 cup of milk to 1 tsp of vinegar; and don’t forget to set the milk and vinegar aside so they can mix for 5 minutes before adding to batter). I had some fancy Vermont apple vinegar in reaching distance. And I had a gallon of white vinegar upstairs in the laundry room by the bleach. You can only guess which I chose to use. My husband informed me that the white version has more acid which is needed to make the buttermilk. So I sprinkled some in after he went and got it. The mistake I learned, was to not pour liquid in a measuring cup over the item your going to add it to. Because when it spills over you have no idea how much went in! Let that be a lesson for you… By the way, I’m not convinced the apple vs white vinegar made a difference.

In the end, I realized my cooking style is more like Paula Deen’s. She just gives you a list and says mix. She also uses items you can find in the grocery store, but more importantly in the quantities that you can buy it in. I don’t like left-overs of an item which Martha was trying to sell me. Martha was also too nitty gritty about what order to mix things in, and asked for a specific gel-paste food coloring not found easily. I didn’t know I had more of a Southern style of cooking rather than a New England style!

Here are the two links for the recipe’s I mixed:

Martha’s Red Velvet Cupcakes

Paula’s Red Velvet Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting

So how did my concoction taste?

Everyone loved them and were impressed I made them from scratch. The Paula Deen frosting was superb. The cake was on the greasy side like reviewers had mentioned. I had even decreased the amount of oil and it didn’t make a big enough difference. But, I was glad I used foil lined paper cups because nobody else noticed the greasy papers!

Good luck to you fellow bakers and non-bakers out there! And don’t take advice from me – take it from Allison.

- Genna Drazen

The talented Genna Drazen

Genna Drazen is a talented graphic designer, marketer, artist and super-mom. She is also a fellow Flagler College alumni. Genna resides in Maryland with her beautiful family.

We are thrilled to have our second guest writer. My talented sister and nutrition expert, Lindsay. Enjoy her first post at Allison Cafe:

Put down your morning cup of coffee, there is a better way to get the energy you need!

Metabolism is all of the physical and chemical changes taking place in the body. Certain foods have potential energy that can be metabolized in a way that allows us to obtain energy. We call this potential energy calories.

Get energy and prevent heart disease with red grapes, blueberries and strawberries

Energy is required for your body to do various types of work including everything from sleeping to running a marathon.Your personal metabolic rate is the amount of energy that is used over a period of time. In other words, it is also the amount of calories from food that are required for all of your daily activities.

So how many calories do you need in a day? This is defined as your “Total Energy Expenditure.” About 65% of the calories you consume each day are used for “Resting Metabolic Activities” which are activities like (more…)

It has been awhile since Hayley has shared her thoughts with you, today we have a few words from our favorite puppy:

My human has been on the computer all day. So, with nothing to do I have been helping as best I can, by sleeping on the futon in her office. This is so boring! Oh, wait, she just looked over and said something about a WALK, and do I want a CARROT? Yes, Yes, Yes, Please! Ohhh, I love carrots. They are so crunchy and sweet. She says the vitamin A in them will help my eyes, and that we need to supplement my dog food with veggies every once in a while. Whatever. Just keep them coming mom, delicious!

Tasty and healthy treats, carrots!

A few words about dog nutrition to support Hayley’s great contribution today. Just like with a human diet, a dog’s diet should be comprised of a variety of healthy, age appropriate foods; but all in moderation. It is a great idea to supplement your pet’s diet with raw veggies in small quantities. Carrots are a great substitute for dog chews or other cookies. I usually give Hayley no more than 1 baby carrot per day, usually every other day. She loves them, and the hard texture is great for combating plaque build up on her teeth.

There are some veggies and human food items which are harmful to dogs and should never be shared with them: chocolate, onion, garlic, raisins, grapes, green parts of tomato plants, potato peels, rhubarb leaves, broccoli and pits or stones from many common fruits. When in doubt about introducing any new food item to your pet, especially puppies, always check with your vet.

Today we are fortunate enough to have our first guest writer, my sister and talented baker Summer. Enjoy!:

Baking can be so rewarding when it goes well, or so frustrating when a slaved-over dish turns out to be anything less than scrumptious. I sometimes take the gamble of using baking as an outlet to manage stress. Today, it worked.

Carrot Cake Take Me a Away!

The last couple of weeks have been choc-full of new experiences and predicaments providing my husband and myself with loads of knowledge and memories. We recently adopted a stray dog we found wandering the streets. As if that wasn’t enough of a challenge, we took in another dog that circumstantially ended up in our home. (more…)

A few words from Hayley today:

I have been eating the same exact food for a whole year, Iams Smart Puppy. Imagine eating the same meal everyday for a year. Now imagine one day as you march to your dinner bowl you are welcomed with a new smell and to your happiness there is a new food in it!

My humans finally gave me something new to eat. Now (more…)