Getting up to Speed on the Apple Trees

Hi Everyone,

A lot has happened this week, and I guess it's shaken me a bit. Boston Marathon tragedy, and a personal loss that happened just before that.

So, to just write a little, and to maybe bring a little sunshine into my life, I figured I'd write a bit more about the thing (outside of lab and knitting) that I'm really excited about. I decided I'd fully update you on my apple trees. Now, I meant to water and take photos of them yesterday but I kind of sat down and didn't get back up until I went to bed. So, I'll take care of them today, and get those pictures to you the next time I post about them.

The one in the middle dies, the one on the right is my "eldest"

The one on the left is my "youngest"

These pictures above were taken about 10 days after planting. They are growing so fast!!
Below, these were taken at about 17 days after planting.

The one on the right continues to be the tallest. The one in the middle has died at this point.

My little guy on the left is starting to grow well!

And, here are some pictures of them when they were about a month old (on April 10th):

Eldest on the right: Unamed
Middle child on the left: Mary

Shorty on the left: Unnamed
Middle child on the right: Herbert

Herbert, one of my "middle" sized ones, was moved to my sister's lab, and will be hers to keep and raise, so you will no longer see pictures of him (unless I go over to her lab to take them). Mary, I brought home with me a week ago (some of her leaves actually wilted from too much heat in the car, but she is recuperating), and she will be returned to me today, so the next pictures will only include the other two (shorty & tall one. Thinking about naming shorty shorty).

Anyway, their stalks have turned a reddish color, and they are poking well above the tops of their cups now. I can't wait till I deem them ready to be moved to their larger pots!

Have a nice day. It's raining outside here, and I particularly like it. So, sorry for the rain haters who don't.

~Sarah

Carrot Cake Cupcakes

Hey,

I've done quite a bit of cooking, knitting, planting, and growing since when I was last posting (February), and I'm going to try to cover most of it. Which is good because my life is about to get as crazy as my laundry pile (which is pretty crazy, but I'll do laundry tomorrow...I promise).

Anyway, I hadn't gotten around to making something tasty for my friend's birthday, so I wanted to make her carrot cake (which she previously told me she liked). I wanted an excuse to make her carrot cake cupcakes, OK?

She had her lit review (like a test to show that you paid attention in classes/research and that you are competent to apply for candidacy as a chem graduate student). And I wanted to make her something to celebrating her passing! Obviously I knew she was going to pass, she works really hard and she is smart!

OK, onto the carrot! Note: If you go to the link in the sentence below, she has a video demonstrating how to make these if you want! I just made my own few changes.

Joy of Baking is a website I am particularly fond of. And that is where I got THIS recipe from. I used the cupcake and frosting recipe- and both are delicious!

Firstly, I had some carrots that were getting a little old (they were still fine, but I wanted to use all of them because I was afraid they wouldn't get used if I left any and would rot away...)

So by the time I finished grating them, well, I had about 3 cups.

I know my grater is cool, say what!! ;)

So much carrot! So what did I do? Actually it's simple! I added an extra egg, and a scosh more applesauce. If you've made cakes/cupcakes before, you know the kind of consistency you want, if not. Let's see, you want a good proportion of dry to wet ingredients so that the consistency is not to runny or two thick.

Really thick gets you cookies (which you can mold in your hands) or bread (very thick and sticky- depends on the type of bread your making if you can mold it or not).

Really thin is like the Hershey's chocolate cake or pudding. Ah, well, I'm sure there are other examples, but I can't think of any. Hershey's chocolate cake and similar recipes are almost unusually runny for a cake batter (makes a baker nervous!).

So you want something that is easy to run a spoon through, but not so runny that it slops all over the place, more like it steadily flows from a spoon instead of quickly running off a spoon if you turn it over.

Folding carrots into "wet" ingredients

OK, I also added extra vanilla (1 tsp total), and 1tsp of some orange extract I had (I've found that some like to bake pineapple into their carrot cake, so I wanted some extra tang- figured the flavors would all match). The last changes, my applesauce was just regular applesauce you feed your kids or whatever (so, not unsweetened, but had sweetness), and no walnuts. My sister doesn't like nuts so I removed them because she always eats some of what I make.

I made only two changes to the frosting. I added 1 tsp of the orange extract. Additionally, for appearance purposes, I added a bit yellow and red food coloring to give a hint of orangeyness!

Mixing together to frosting- It's a really sticky one!

My sister also came up with an idea to use some leftover white chocolate we had in the cupboard.

Color and pipe out carrot shapes on wax paper and freeze!

I stuck the frosting I made into a bag and cut off the corner (fairly large hole- mind, it's better to cut a smaller hole than you'll think you want, you can always make it larger). I piped it in a spiral pattern onto the cupcakes, and then topped them with the above-mentioned chocolate carrots.

Yay! Note: I probably won't be able to keep posting every day, but I will try 2x a week! And should have more on the apple trees for you tomorrow! I'm excited to catch you up so that you can see where they are at currently!

Have a nice weekend!

~Sarah

Grow Your Own Apple Trees!!

Hey Everyone,

So, I want to let you in on a project I started in February this year (2013). I was eating an apple, and I thought, "I should grow an apple tree!"

No, really! That's how it all started....

The basics I was able to garner from Google searching (everyone can do it, even YOU!).

Humor aside, you set the apple seeds in a paper towel, moisten the paper towel, place in a plastic bag (which I zipped up halfway to allow for fresh air- well, fresh fridge air), and stick it in the fridge. I kept checking about every 3 days and was rather dismayed to see no change (Ha! it takes 4-6 weeks to see a change!)

What can I say? I was excited. So then I forgot about them, and pulled them out of the fridge about 5 weeks after I initially put them in to check on them (it had been 2-3 weeks since I last looked at them). They had sprouted!! Pictures!

 I had initially placed 6 apple seeds in, 5 sprouted! ^^

So, I prepared their "pots"

 Yes...those are paper cups... I filled them between 1/2 and 3/4 with some soil I bought previously (I'll edit in the name here later, I'm not home right now).

 Following that, I decided that I wanted them to still be definitely reached by sunlight, and lots of it. There is only one good spot in my place right now for sun (which is also why I chose paper cups for now, because they can fit on the window sill). So, I cut out a rectangle of cup, and you can see below!

 Ready for planting!

 I dug small holes in each cup, threw a seed in, and covered it with some dirt. I buried them all about 1 inch deep and watered each with 1 and 1/2 tablespoons of fresh tap water. And then, I waited! Approximately four days later, I watered each cup again with 2 tbsp water (and have subsequently watered each this much every 3-4 days for a month now).

And this is what I saw:

This one was the most proactive of the five!

These show the slowest grower (left) and one of the ones in the middle (right)

Overall, I did start with five, however, one will die (you'll see in the next post), so I'll still say some about that one, but focus on the other four that are prospering.


I planted these guys on March 10th, and these last couple pictures were taken March 14th, so I've got a lot to update you on! You'll be amazed to see the pictures I post tomorrow! Once I've caught up, I'll post every week (I check on them every 3-4 days, but it's easier to see the changes over a week right now!), and as they get larger and grow more slowly, I'll probably post less often.

Have a nice day!

Sarah 

Easter Bunny Cake

Hey!

Sorry it's been awhile by the way. On another note, I made a second page that let's you know more about me on the right ------>

Not a whole lot, just some things, and what I post about for new people. I think I may make a few more pages to help sort out the different things I post about (food, crafts, apples), but I don't know. What do you think? Is that just wasting time that I could use to write another post or do my homework and grading? :)

OK! Today I want to tell you about the cake I made for this past Easter! My family celebrates Easter every year together (and that's why I love holidays the most- they're like free time to spend with family!)

It's completely original, too! But I honestly don't mind if you make it and sell it or whatever. :) Here is what I did:

Easter= eggs- which are given out by the Easter Bunny, so I decided I'd make a cake that represents the head of the Easter bunny! (I've never actually seen her, but I tried my best). I have a soon-to-be-sister-in-law who is not big on chocolate cake, so my sister and I decided that the ears would be yellow cake and the head would be chocolate. It would be two layers, too.


Aww, I just realized I don't think I have pictures of the cake making- just the final product! Oh, well, it's not hard. Originally I was going to bake two round yellow cakes (in a 9" round pan), and then cut two ears out of each. However, at the grocery store we saw these foil pans that would be perfect for bunny ears, so we bought a few. I made up a generic yellow cake from scratch (just search around the internet, and you can find one you like!). The only thing was, it came out more like pound cake than good, soft, fluffy yellow cake! So it wasn't a tremendous hit :(, well, the ears at least.

I found a chocolate cake recipe that was very similar to the Hershey's Chocolate cake recipe, so I made that. (If you have never tried the Hershey chocolate cake recipe, you are kind of crazy to me.) The batter is very thin (after the addition of the hot water, and the cake comes out so moist and rich. It's amazing! The recipe made two 9" round cakes!

I placed the chocolate down, and positioned the ears as I pleased. Then I smeared on some delicious butter cream frosting, added the second layer, and did a crumb coat (smear on frosting as you please, despite crumbs coming off the cake and mixing with the frosting. I...don't have the butter cream frosting. I know....I absolutely fail as a food blogger. But if you really must have the recipe, I can get it for you, I made it with my mom, so she has the recipe. Anyway, it came out really sugary sweet, but you could cut down the sugar possibly. (Oh, yeah. And I played around piping the frosting!) Without further ado, the final product!!

Ooops! That's not it! :) So, I've never microwaved a peep before, and I kept hearing/seeing (the wonders of social media) how others have often done this. I don't know if I microwaved it too long or what because it didn't taste that good to me. But maybe I will try roasting one next...

Ah, I forgot to mention two things. I cut out some of the white cake in the middle of the ear so that it looked like it was going in a little bit. With what I cut out, I piled it to make the nose! And, the eyes were Reece's peanut butter eggs - something that I always see around Easter at the local grocer. 

Maybe this will give you inspiration for next Easter, or the next holiday or celebration you have! 

PS. I'll be posting about apples soon! Today or tomorrow, I hope!

Sarah