Boston Cream Pie Cupcakes..mmmm

As previously stated, I love the February edition of the Martha Stewart magazine! It has a whole spread on cupcakes! I posted about the coconut cupcakes before, and I made the pistachio raspberry ones too. I am making good headway into my quest to conquer all the cupcake recipes in the magazine! My mom has been itching for one of the Boston Cream Pie Cupcakes since we opened up the magazine in Costco! These cupcakes are really, quite good, especially the next day. Once the ganache has set it really makes them better I think. I think I could eat the entire batch of 18 if I were left unattended with them. So delicious! I made the cream and warmed the milk with a vanilla bean, but that was the only change I made. I will absolutely be making these cupcakes again and again. They are really showstoppers! You can find the recipe in the February Martha Stewart Living magazine, or online here!

Give this one a TRY!

Addendum 2/16:

After dreaming about my last boston cream pie cupcake ALL DAY at work, I just finished it. It was truly divine! Super cool news: I got accepted onto TASTESPOTTING!! It's my first submission, and I'm totally stoked! Woohoo! Please check out my photographical masterpiece!! (hahaha) You can search Boston Cream Pie cupcake to find it....I'm so excited! I called my mom and told her! Woohoo! Hooray for tastespotting!

Assorted Culinary Adventures!

I've gathered a bunch of delicious experiences, but haven't had a minute to put them online, so here are two together. Mexican chocolate truffle and red velvet cake. Yummy! They were all really stellar recipes, and I will definitely make the cakes again. My random non-food photo is a frozen lake that my brother threw a big rock on. The crack pattern was so cool looking I just had to share!

1. Mexican Chocolate Truffle. No, I didn't make this one, I bought it, but it was so beautiful I had to photograph. Look at the size of this thing! I ate it over a few days because it was so big and so rich that I couldn't eat it all in one sitting! I don't remember the name of the chocolatier, but I'll come back in a few and post it. 2. Red Velvet Cake with cream cheese frosting. My brother saw the movie "Welcome Home Roscoe Jenkins" recently, and in one crucial scene, Roscoe eats a "delicious looking piece of Red Velvet Cake" says my brother, with his childhood love. He requested I try it out for him so he can eat some. He doesn't even really like cake. My brother is the absolute most PICKY person in the entire world! It wasn't until the past few years that my now 23 year old brother ate plain iceberg lettuce! He doesn't eat peaches or tomatoes, the thought of eating either of those things makes vomit spontaneously, and don't let there be a hidden tomato or peach in something, he won't be able to eat until the next day. Anyways, I was skeptical about him actually liking the cake, but i figured whatever, just go for it. I looked on Tastespotters and I saw a recipe from Pinch My Salt that she describes as her husband's family hand me down recipe. I looked it over and decided it looked great, so I gave it a whirl. I made the cream cheese icing to go with it, a necessity. Cream cheese icing is the ONLY way to go, Southern or not! I love the way the outside of the cake looks so pure...and then BAM, a burst of color! The only substitutions I made were: 1. I only used 1oz of red food coloring... I think that was plenty. 2. I also used the Special Dark cocoa instead of the regular. I think it added a little stronger flavor and definitely helped with the deep rich color. 3. I added a tsp of vanilla. I put vanilla in virtually all of my baked goods. As far as tips go, definitely beware what you wear that day. Red got EVERYWHERE! Also watch the oven closely, One minute my cake was not ready, the next it was slightly overdone. Other than that, just follow the recipe as written, and it will turn out PERFECT!

It's hiding a deep, dark secret...
BAM! So red its almost bleeding!

I highly recommend this red velvet recipe. I've tried a few in the past and been dissapointed. This one is the best one I've tried so far! Delish!

I've been tagged!

A little while ago I was tagged by fellow Daring Baker Jessica of Coffee and a Cookie to come up with 7 random interesting facts about myself.... hmmm... Rest of the rules at the bottom:

7 random factoids about me:
1. My blog, Chubb, was named after the pet name for the bf's and my "winter hibernation stores" if you will. We joke around and laugh at our chubby spots, affectionately calling it the Chubb. When we eat something fatty or unhealthy its called "chubbing out." Fatty food filled parties are called "chubb-fests" and going to the gym is called "anti-chubb." Although I look healthy, I'm a fat kid at heart, and I've got some Chubb to prove it!

2. In approximately 98 (plus or minus a few) days, I will be an official, real life doctor. Weird, scary and awesomely exciting, all at the same time. The thing is doctor training is long and complicated, so after this year I still have to do internship (1st year of residency), residency and possibly a fellowship before I'm let loose on the streets with my stethoscope, or in my case, slit lamp. I'll be an Ophthalmology Resident in the near future.

3. Part of my anti-Chubb is sports. I play on a ridiculous number of them: Volleyball (coed and womens), Basketball (women's year round), 2 hand touch Football (coed), Dodgeball, and whatever intramurals are offered at that time of the year for school. At any given time I'm on 4 or 5 sports teams. Some people ask how I can do it..My only explanation is: I do it for the cupcakes! Just kidding, but that certainly helps offset my cupcake consumption. It's a great way to exercise, I've always participated in sports throughout my entire life, and its a fun social time. My teammates are also my friends!

4. Speaking of cupcakes, they are my absolute favorite thing in the world! I love a cupcake. Something about them is inherently uplifting. Their petite size, detailed icing and lovely wrappers make them the perfect treat. No utensils needed. Simply the sight of a cupcake can put me into a better mood! Who doesn't love a good cupcake! I bought the most recent Martha Stewart magazine off of straight impulse-the cover is cupcakes. It has 15 different cupcake recipes. I'm determined to try all 15 in the near future. So far I've made 2 (and they were delicious!) I want to work on beautifying my cupcakes as well, so I bought some reading material, but please feel free to leave favorites.

5. Another favorite- the color PINK! Pink makes anything better. A pink cupcake?? HEAVEN. I'm not a real girly girl either. Judging by my sports calendar you'd think I was a total jock and tomboy, but I got a pair of knee length pink adidas socks that are going to become part of my Thursday dodgeball/volleyball/basketball routine. Pink and Sparkly is all it takes to make it special for me!

6. I am an Amazon...I'm 6 feet tall. You can't really tell it by the few pictures of myself on this thing, but I'm a pretty tall glass of water. I have a friend that's got me beat by an inch or two, and we refer to ourselves as the "Wall of Woman."

7. After all this Medicine stuff works out I'd love to go to culinary school and open my own restaurant/bakery. Even a part time internship would be awesome! I LOVE to bake... I guess that was obvious, but I'd love to have my own place some day. I guess we'll have to see how the cookie crumbles!

So this is my first one of these...I'm just gonna follow the rules!
Here are the rules:1. Link the person that tagged you and post the rules.
2. Share 7 random or weird facts about yourself.
3. Tag 7 people at the end and link to their sites.
4. Let each person know about the tag in the comment section of their site.

So Here's my list of tagged people...Sorry, I don't know the etiquette of these things...
1. Doctoring, Dancing and Delectables
2. Lauren of I'll Eat You
3. Diana of Pashunfroot
4. Elra of Elra's Baking
5. Lauren of I'll Eat You

Crabcake Medley

This is a random post about my evenings culinary adventure. I had a little left over crab from crab and shrimp omelets this weekend and I decided, hey why not make a crabcake! I looked up a recipe quickly on epicurious.com, just to get an idea of what goes in them, since I've never made them before. I have no idea how much I put of each ingredient, but here's my list:
Lump crab, jalapeno, garlic chili sauce mayo, onion, egg, old bay, salt, pepper and crushed wheat thins (I didnt have any breadcrumbs). They came out really runny, and didn't set well, probably too much mayo. They fell apart while I was cooking them, so I didnt even photograph them, but boy were they TASTY!

Last night I made Mexican chocolate cupcakes and a cinnamon buttercream (icing recipe on tastespotting). The cake I just invented by using my go-to chocolate cake mix on the back of the hersheys cocoa. I used the dark chocolate cocoa, added cinnamon, allspice, pepper, a touch of salt and ground cloves. Also very tasty! I'll add a photo in a bit!