Everyone that knows me or reads my blog knows I am a huge fan of baking and cooking. I’m usually pretty good about following recipes… unless I’m missing ingredients like those amazing peanut butter cupcakes I made several months ago.

Today is my younger brother’s birthday bash and my contribution is biscuits. I made them for Thanksgiving and they were a huge hit. Well, I was under the impression that I had plenty of ingredients. I started off doubling the dry items in the KitchenAid and when I went to grab my single stick of butter, I realized my mistake. All my years of baking and today I totally forgot that it takes 2 sticks to equal 1 cup. Dammit. (I was tripling the recipe and thus needed a full cup.)

So I started Googling and crossing my fingers that oil was an acceptable substitute. As is, I was already using butter instead of shortening (lard/Crisco) and they were perfect. Turns out that, yes, oil is a perfectly acceptable substitute in biscuits, but I had to modify the other wet items.

Which I did. And they were totally delicious! Perfect, slightly dense, and super yummy. Although next time, I’m adding some baking soda as well bc they resemble little rocks and aren’t big and fluffy.

Without further ado… the recipe with my modifications in green:

J.P.’s Big Daddy Biscuits from AllRecipes.com
Prep Time: 30 Min (not even 15 minutes by my watch)
Cook Time: 15 Min (see below)
Ready In: 45 Min
Servings: 6 huge biscuits (or 10-12 small biscuits)

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon white sugar
• 1/3 cup shortening (or unsalted butter or 1/3 cup vegetable oil)
• 1 cup milk (if using oil, max out at 2/3 cup)

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F (220 degrees C).
2. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt, and sugar.
3. Cut in the shortening until the mixture resembles coarse meal. (I dumped the oil straight in and used the paddle attachment until it resembled coarse meal.)
4. Gradually stir in milk until dough pulls away from the side of the bowl. (This took less than the full amount. With the dough hook attachment, I drizzle in about half and then slowly added the rest every 30 seconds or so.)
5. Turn out onto a floured surface, and knead 15 to 20 times. (Or leave in the KitchenAid and keep using the dough hook for about another minute until it forms a ball.)
6. Pat or roll dough out to 1 inch thick. Cut biscuits with a large cutter or juice glass dipped in flour. Repeat until all dough is used. Brush off the excess flour, and place biscuits onto an ungreased baking sheet. (I pull off roughly equal sizes chunks, roll into little balls and place with all sides touching in a baking dish lined with parchment paper.)
7. Bake for 13 to 15 minutes in the preheated oven, or until edges begin to brown. (For my oven this takes about 18 minutes, then I turn the oven off and let it sit for another 5-6 minutes.)

I have been wanting to make cupcakes since St. Patrick’s Day. Last night, I finally made them. Over the years, I’ve learned that cakes and cupcakes need to be fully cooled before icing so it doesn’t crumble. Anyhow, the cupcakes turned out delicious. The batter was a bit thick – perfect for spooning out without getting everywhere. Also, note to self, make sure to do an ingredients inventory before starting to make anything.

Tonight when I went to mix up a batch of my favorite buttercream icing, I made the horrible discovery of having only 1 cup of confectioners’ sugar instead of 2-3 cups. Um, major oops there. It was time to get creative. I mean really creative as we didn’t even have milk. What can I say, it’s been a while since we did a full grocery shopping trip.

Without further ado, I give you my recipes…

Cupcakes (from Cupcakes by Susanna Tee)
I doubled the recipe from the book as it only called for 12 cupcakes.
+ 1 cup (2 sticks) soft margarine (or butter)
+ 1 cup white sugar
+ 4 eggs
+ 1-1/2 cup white flour
+ Small amount of flavor extracts (lemon, vanilla, orange, etc)

Preheat oven to 350*. Put paper baking cups into cupcake tins. Recipe should yield 24, but it only made 20.

Dump everything except the extract into a bowl and mix until smooth. I was looking for a unique flavor, so I added both vanilla and orange extracts to taste.

The batter will be thick. Spoon it into the tins about half full. They will rise during baking.

Bake for 15-20 minutes until the tops are golden brown – my oven required 25 minutes. Transfer to cooling racks and allow to cool completely.

************ 
Peanut Butter Oatmeal Icing (aka holy crap I have no ingredients!)

+ 8 tbsp unsalted butter at room temperature
+ 1 cup confectioners’ sugar
+ 3 heaping spoonfuls creamy peanut butter (or to taste)
+ 1/2 cup rolled oats
+ Pinch of salt

Seriously, this was a totally made up, throw everything into the bowl and cross my fingers recipe. I started by mixing the butter and sugar together and it made a glaze.

Nope, didn’t like it.

Next I added 1 spoonful at a time of peanut butter (total 3) until I got to a decent flavor. It was decadently creamy and fluffy, but it was still missing something.

Hmm what else could I add?

iSpy a container of rolled oats; the raw kind that you mix with water and sugar and cook on the stove. Add enough to make the desired consistency. In my case it was 1/2 cup of rolled oats.

The salt was to give it a bit more flavor.

Refrigerate the icing before you ice the cupcakes just for a little bit of extra thickness not fully achieved by the oats. Dollop on the cupcakes and enjoy!

Oh yeah, these babies are totally going into work tomorrow. There are still 16 left and we don’t want them in the house. I know, I’m strange. I love baking, but neither of us really eat sweets.