Babycakes Friday: Blondies

This entry was posted on September 23, 2011 and tagged , . Bookmark the permalink. 40 Comments

I’ve learned a lesson.

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When you are trying to bake blondies at 10pm, and Babycakes tells you to use evaporated cane sugar, do it. Even though it’s more expensive than regular sugar. Even though it will take an extra trip to the (specialty) grocery store. If you want your Babycakes blondies to turn out, do what the book tells you for heavens sake.

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Like most of my baking misadventures, these taste wonderful. What you don’t know, however, is that they are supposed to be little miniature two-bite brownies, not cupcake-like treats. (But really, who cares?)

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What you also don’t know is that I had an enormous pile of crumbs sitting on my kitchen counter last night after I dug each little blondie out of it’s tiny muffin tin (sans these adorable cupcake wrappers from Janetha).

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However, they taste good. Really, really good. I can only imagine how awesome they’d be if I actually followed the recipe.

Another sweet Babycakes…

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The next Sharapova?

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This is a post in a series I’m doing called Babycakes Friday. Each week I review a recipe out of the Babycakes Cookbook. I have no affiliation with the company, I just really like healthy, vegan treats.

40 thoughts on “Babycakes Friday: Blondies”

  8. After reading a little about evaporated cane sugar, I’m not sure that it contributes anything to a recipe. A few miniscule increases in nutrients and perhaps a slight increase in a flavor.
    But no need to go out of the house at 10pm to find the stuff. Just use regular granulated sugar
    But, heck, it’s all about your Babycakes anyway. Thanks

    Reply

      • It’s just a less processed form of white sugar. Shouldn’t change the recipe at all! 🙂 However, if a recipe calls for sucanat [evaporated sugar cane juice – juice that has been dried and broken apart into granules – medium brown in color and smells like caramel] that can affect the recipe because it will soak up a bit more liquid than regular sugar. Not a huge difference, but if you sub regular sugar for sucanat you may want to slightly decrease the liquid.

      • Thank you!! I wonder what the heck I did wrong, then. It didn’t call for sucanat (I’ve used that before) – just evaporated cane juice. Those little monkeys had to be baked WAY longer than the recipe said. I added more flour. I tried so many things just for two measly little blondies. Altitude, maybe?

      • Too funny. I was actually just reading reviews on the Babycakes cookbook and there are some completely horrible reviews, saying that a lot of the recipes didn’t turn out at all. Altitude might have been part of the problem. When I bake, I always up the temp by 15-25* and for every 1tsp of baking powder, I lower it by 1/8-1/4t. For ever 1c of sugar, you can actually decrease by 0-2T and for every 1c of Liquid, you add 2-4T. I’ve also seen, for every 1c of flour you add 1T [but I don’t see this adjustment everywhere. I think it was something about the altitude creating more air pockets, so a little more flour helps with that…can’t remember exactly though!]. I don’t always follow all of those rules, like when making breads + cupcakes, but I do always follow the oven temp and baking powder changes and typically add a tad bit more liquid because it’s so dry out here. With increasing the oven temp, your cooking time should actually be slightly lower. I think when it comes to things like cookies, it would be a little more finicky. Breads and cupcakes should have a little room for error, so it’s weird these didn’t turn out.

        The whole altitude thing is that, the thinner air makes the baked goods rise faster, which makes the exterior of the baked good cook more quickly than the inside. So, your baked good will rise and look “done” but be gooey in the center. That is why the temperature is raised, and baking powder is lowered. 🙂 Hope that helps a bit!

        I found this link to be the easiest to understand – http://allrecipes.com/HowTo/high-altitude-cake-baking/detail.aspx

        🙂

      • Oh my goodness, you are officially my go-to baking scientist. Thank you! I may print this comment out and tape it to my kitchen cabinets.

        Also, I’ve had a little trouble getting some of the Babycakes recipes to work – but I always just blamed it on my incompetence. Glad I’m not alone!

  9. I love making brownies/blondies in cupcake tins!

    To reduce the crumbage I spray the tins with canola and put the batter directly into the pan… I think the cupcake wrappers… while incredibly cute… make so many crumbs when you tear them off.

    They look scrumptious but not as scrumptious as YOUR sweet babycake! 😀

    Reply

  19. Oh man, I have had those cookies at their bakery. They are off the hook! If i didn’t know better I would swear there was butter in them.

    Reply

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