But see – we kid you not! See how tiny our kitchen is. It ends after the oven. Leaving that tiny bit of counter space for baking.

Fortunately, there’s a shelf so we can put all our stuff on. (Look at us reppin’ the Wegman’s brand).

But anyway… on this adventure, it was Stephanie’s roommate – our awesome friend Liz – birthday, so we made a dark chocolate cake as per request. And oh, let me tell you, it was some kickass cake. We had cake-haters tell us it was amazing. Definitely a recipe I’m keeping around.

Dark Chocolate Cake (adapted from AllRecipes.com)

• 2 cups boiling water (we creative college kids used an electric tea kettle).
• 1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 2 3/4 all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup butter, softened
• 2 1/4 cups white sugar
• 4 eggs
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1. Preheat (the small, ghetto oven) to 350 degrees. Grease 3, 9-inch round cake pans (we’re poor, and used the vegetable oil we cook with). In a medium bowl, combine the boiling water and cocoa powder until smooth, and let it sit until cool.
2. In a separate bowl, sift together flour, baking soda, baking powder (don’t mix the two… like I almost did) and salt.
3. In yet (another) large bowl, cream butter and sugar together until well combined. Beat in eggs one at a time, and then the vanilla. Add the flour mixture alternatively with the cocoa mixture.
4. Divide the batter evenly between the 3 pans. Bake for 25 – 3o minutes – allow to cool. (For cooling – I wanted to clear out of the kitchen, and wanted to work at my desk, so I had three cakes sitting on my bed for a while. It was rather odd.

“Buttercream” Frosting (or at least a good attempt – as taken from the Wegman’s brand bag of confectioner’s sugar)

• 3 cups confectioner’s sugar
• 1/3 cup butter
• 1-1/2 teaspoon of vanilla (Steph and I are vanilla fiends, and put in more… whatever is to your taste)
• 1 to 2 tablespoon milk

1. Mix powdered sugar and butter in medium bowl. Stir in vanilla and milk.
2. Beat until smooth and spreadable.

Of course, play around and adjust the ingredients to your thickness liking… personally, I like my frosting thicker.

Alright – hopefully we’ll find time to bake or cook again soon!

To accommodate for this, fortunately, the dorm Steph and I are living in has… two kitchens! Two, very, very, very small kitchens with equipment in much need of updating. We can’t fit three people in our kitchen, so when Steph and I went to make cupcakes this past weekend, our very lovely assistant Liz had to sit in the hallway.

So have it, it was a friend of our’s birthday, and we decided to make him confetti cupcakes from scratch! This first, involved a trip to Wegmans to gather our basic cooking supplies – and to anyone who is not familiar with a Wegmans, it’s basically like if a Whole Foods and your local awesome shopping store had a child (with Jesus) – it would be Wegmans. It’s that kind of awesome. It’s a form of entertainment, basically, for us – well, especially since we’re such culinary dorks (amateurs, yes, but still).

For the confetti part, however, we have used Fruit Loops. And why buy a box of Fruit Loops when you can just steal it from the dining hall, of course? So, if you’re a college kid – definitely steal as much from your dining hall. There should be no remorse. You pay a shitload as it is, it’s cool.

And as for the baking… fortunately, even with the tight room, it was not that unbearably hot, however, it was still cramped. We were first rather bright (Read: stupid) and put the butter and sugar in a bowl too small, that when we went to use the hand mixer that Steph’s mom bought her, the batter went flying eveeeerywhere out of the bowl. Fun!

However, despite other complications (somehow, the oven got turned from 350 to 450 degrees, because someone (okay, it was probably me) leaned on its ghettoness), they were made and delicious! And the frosting came out just as well, though I personally wished it was a bit thicker. Oh well! Maybe for next time.

Yellow Confetti Cupcakes recipe (taken and adapted from this one at All Recipes):

• 1 cup salted butter
• 2 cups white sugar
• 4 eggs
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 3 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 3/4 cups milk (we used 1% because we’re a bunch of chicks)
• About a cup of crushed Fruit Loops (whatever you want/can steal, really)

1. Preheat (your possibly ghetto) oven to 350 degrees. Either line your cupcake pan with liners, or if you’re one of those rare people – grease the pan.
2. Beat together sugar and butter. Beat in eggs and vanilla.
3. In a separate bowl, combine flour, baking powder, and salt. Add to creamed mixture alternately with milk. Beat well with handmixer. Add in crushed fruit loops, and mix for just a few seconds. Scoop batter into cupcake pan.
4. Bake for 15-20 minutes, or until cake tests done. Let them cool before frosting. Also make sure nobody hits the oven temperature up or they might burn.

Chocolate frosting recipe (also from All Recipes):

• 1 1/2 squares of unsweetened baker’s chocolate
• 1/4 cup butter
• 1 1/2 cups of powdered sugar
• 1 egg white
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1. Melt chocolate and butter in a sauce pan (pretty much anyone you have) and stir, to make sure it doesn’t burn.
2. Mix in powdered sugar. Beat in egg white and vanilla.

That’s it for now! Next post, is yet again another birthday – we seem to be in a rush of birthdays before we can get to some actual food.