Happy Birthday Katie!

This post contains:
I. Happy birthday wishes for my roommate Katie!
II. Highlights of an Inland Empire hockey game - that have nothing to do with hockey.
III/IV. German Chocolate Chip Muffin/Cupcakes and Chocolate Raspberry Jam Cupcakes


I. HAPPY BIRTHDAY!! You're 23!
Katie and I have been friends since sophomore year of high school.

Summer 2005 - High School graduation trip to Disneyland. So young and fresh-faced. 

Little did I know, we'd independently chosen the same college. We didn't even live in the same dorm, but that gave us both a chance to meet a lot more people, and we had some great times. After lots of time together in the Chemistry and Biology departments (she also has a degree in math - girl is crazy) we were both applying to medical school our senior year.

Although we both a had a choice...again we independently chose the same medical school. And so now 9 years later, here we are becoming doctors. She's a generous, loyal, fierce friend. And obviously she's super pretty. I'm certain I wouldn't get along without her. 

And sometimes we still go to Disneyland. 

Happy Birthday!

II. Birthday Hockey

For her birthday, Katie decided it would be fun to go to a hockey game. Although I had never been to a hockey game, of course the chance to let out some rage through heckling and do something new sounded great. So last night found a big group of us in Ontario watching the Ontario Reign play the Idaho Steelheads. Although they didn't exactly put in a stellar performance, we had a blast, and my throat is really sore this morning from all the shouting. 

Highlights:

1. The Kung Fu cam and Dueling Banjo cam...like a kiss cam, but way better. 

2. The coaches wrestled on the ice...in sumo costumes. 

3. The blimp that floated over the audience dropping coupons. 

4. The kids behind us shouting, "Fight! Fight! Fight!" every time 2 players got close to each other.

5. Katie shouting, "Fight! Fight! Fight!" ... all the time. 

6. At one point, you could win a spray tan. And free wings from Hooters. And a night at an airport hotel. Keep it classy Ontario. 

7. The mascots are a Dragon and a Knight. Obviously this = awesome. 

Suffice it to say, it was a great experience:

Can you spot the birthday girl? Hint: She's a princess. Every day, but especially today. 

III and IV: Birthday Cupcake Dessert

After the game we assembled at our house for a little birthday dessert. Katie's favorite is German Chocolate, but some people are very anti-coconut, so I incorporated her other favorite - pink - into a raspberry one. Katie made a good effort with the candles, but it took a couple tries to get all of them. There were 23, and we made it rather difficult by spacing it out on a cupcake tree:

Ready.

Set.

GO!

Good try. Catch your breath. 

Winner!

Chocolate Chip Muffin/Cupcakes

These are from the Post Punk Kitchen, I just left out the coffee: find the details here.

I doubled the recipe and it made 16 full size and 36 mini ones.

I've made it replacing the yogurt with applesauce, a flax egg or Ener-G egg replacer, and they all work. I actually think the applesauce one was best, but I also had white mocha coffee powder in that one, so it's hard to say what made it so great. 

This is a muffin recipe, so it's a little more coarse than a cupcake recipe, but at the moment I don't have a go-to chocolate cupcake recipe, and I was already experimenting with my toppings, so I went with a trusty base, but I'll be working on a cupcake recipe soon. 

For both types of cupcakes, the first step is taking out some of the center. 

For the German Chocolate ones, the purpose is just to increase the frosting:cupcake ratio, you won't replace what you take out. 

For the raspberry, we're going to fill it with a dab of jam and then replace the cut-out portion. 

So what works best for scooping out some middle without splitting your whole cake and making the paper go all wonky? The wide base of a metal frosting tip. I forget where on the internets I read this, but whoever said it was brilliant. 

Gather tools:

Push it into the middle of a cupcake:

For the full-size I used 2 overlapping scoops, while the mini ones just need one. 

And you get out a nice little chunk. I just used a butter knife to scrape each one onto a scrap plate. 

Save the scraps for replacing if you're doing raspberry. Or eat them. I won't say which of these actually happened in my kitchen. 

Next, make some frosting.

Vegan Coconut Pecan Frosting (for German Chocolate)

I used this recipe exactly. DO spread it on while it's warm because it hardens up nicely in the fridge. Be careful though, I burnt my finger a couple times trying to spread it on too early.

Ingredients in a pot. 

Pot on the stove. Stir stir stir (12 mins). 

Frost!

Raspberry-Filled with Raspberry Frosting

For this one, I based it on this recipe. However, I added about a 1/4 cup raspberry jam. I actually think it could have used a little more sugar, but I'll work on perfecting it. 

To do the filling, I just used straight seedless raspberry jam, a dab in each hollow, then replaced the top from the scrap plate.

After filling, I put my frosting in a plastic bag, cut off the corner, and piped it on in a liberal and voluminous fashion. 

I refrigerated them about 6 hours, but that was just because of when we'd be available to eat them. I would give them maybe half an hour at least though, the frostings both taste better chilled. 

And that's birthday dessert!

Katie, Happy Birthday!