Catch and Release Cupcakes

So, you have all your cupcakes baked, iced and ready to go. But how do you go? Here is what I did to make my cupcakes transportable--without buying and expensive cupcake holder. Lay a piece of ribbon on top of the cupcake pan and drop the frosted cupcakes on top. When ready to serve, gently tug the end of the ribbon and it lifts the cake out of the pan!

Favorite Butter-Cream Frosting (thank you Colette Peters!)

1 cup butter (sweet cream unsalted)
2 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup milk
2 pounds powdered sugar

Cream butter until very light in color and fluffy. Add milk and vanilla. Add powdered sugar and mix until fluffy.

Impromptu Cookies (AKA Dang it! Cookies

Today I am having an impromptu swimming party for some of my teenage friends from church. I decided to bake Choc-Chip Oatmeal Cookies. I creamed the butter and sugars, added the vanilla and went to the fridge to grab the eggs and remembered I had left them in the car last night and were now in my true love's work (in the fridge, but still!!!). I remembered a little trick I read in Colleen Patrick-Goudreau's Joy of Vegan Baking, and grabbed the ground flax seeds. When it came time to add the oatmeal, I measured a cup and ... Well, that was it. All the oatmeal in the house--one cup. Dang it! I did however find a box of crispy rice cereal. This is what I ended up with and they are surprisingly good--really crisp and chewy!

Impromptu Cookies

2 Tbls ground flax seed
6 Tbls water

1 cup butter
1 cup white sugar
1 cup brown sugar
2 tsp real vanilla
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt (less if using salted butter)
2 cups + 2 Tbls flour
1 cup oatmeal
2 cups crisp rice cereal
1 1/2 cups semi sweet chocolate chips
1 cup white chocolate chips
1 cup dried cranberries
1 cup toasted walnuts (optional if feeding a crowd)

In blender of food processor blend flax and water until thick and creamy. Set aside.
Cream butter
Add sugars and cream until light and fluffy. Cream in vanilla and flax seed mixture. (I cheat here and add my baking powder, soda and salt--but don't tell your baking friends if you do this, for some reason they think it all needs to be added in with the flour! Just be sure it doesn't have hard lumps!) Mix in flour. Fold in cereal, chips, cranberries and nuts.
Drop into cookie sheet about 2 inches apart. Bake for about 8-9 minutes at 375. Let cool on pan briefly then remove to a cooling rack.

Tips:
I received one of technologies greatest inventions ever!-for my birthday this year. A miniature ice cream scoop designed to regulate the size of your cookie dough. Thank you JE!!!
I am practicing making cute little balls of dough of uniform size. Who knew!