red velvet cupcake recipe

joanne is a cooking fiend! she MADE this recipe and i would like to share it with the world:

makes 36 cupcakes / 350 degree oven

3-3/4 cups cake flour (or you can use 3-1/4 cups and 3-1/2 tablespoons of Softasilk. It’s a type of flour for baking. It’s really fine and I think you get a better texture. It’s more expensive (about $3.50 for to make this recipe) so it’s up to you.)
1/2 cups cocoa
1-1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
3/8 teaspoon salt
1-1/2 cups buttermilk
1-1/2 teaspoons vinegar
1-1/2 teaspoons vanilla
1/2 ounce red food coloring paste
2-1/4 cups sugar
3/4 cups butter (this brings better flavor) or you can use 2-1/4 cups of oil (this makes e cake more moist instead of dense)
3 eggs

· Preheat oven to 350°F

· Sift flour unless you’re using the softasilk, then you don’t need to sift

· Sift cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder into the bowl

· Whisk your buttermilk, vinegar, vanilla, and food coloring in a small bowl to blend

· Beat the sugar and better in a large bowl until it’s nice and fluffly about 3-4 minutes

· Add each egg while beating in between each egg

· Add the buttermilk mixture

· Beat in the rest of the dry ingredients

· Add the cupcakes into your cupcake tins

· Bake for 20 minutes at 350 degrees

Vanilla Bean Cream Cheese Frosting :) YUMMM-O (this recipe made a lot more than I needed. I think you can 1/2 or 2/3 the recipe to cover the cupcakes.)

· 16 ounces of cream cheese (1 package)

· 1 stick of butter ( you can add two sticks, I normally use 1 to make myself feel better)

· 5 cups of powdered sugar

· Seeds of 1 vanilla bean

· 1-1/3 teaspoon vanilla extract

Remember to add the cream cheese frosting AFTER it’s been completely cooled! Ok enjoy! :)

monday in berkeley

tonight i went with ziwei to watch kenny and vicky perform at blake's (a bar 4 blocks from my apt, on telegraph). it was open mic night. we got cosmos (even tho it's a dingy bar). we watched crazy guitarists.

i feel so cool.

i hope kenny records an album someday. then i can listen to him all the time :)

Berkeley's Farmers' Markets

It's strange that I can't find a list of Berkel
ey's Farmers Markets through Google. Maybe no one has ever made a complete list. No, that's crazy...I guess Google's algorithm missed it. Here goes:

• Center & MLK
  Saturday 10am-3pm
  

• Derby & MLK
  Tuesday 2pm-6pm
  

• Shattuck & Rose (organic)
  Thursday 3pm-7pm
  

• Ashby & Adeline/MLK (flea market)
  Saturday & Sunday 7am-7pm
  
  
• Clarmont & Cavour (DMV parking lot)
  Sunday 9am-1pm
  
  
• The Local, on campus in front of MLK (co-founded by Michelle! holla!)
  Wednesday 11am-3pm
  

Michelle, Dani did I miss any?

for carol's staff support newsletter

I went to Urbana 06 as a junior just entering my business major. In the Business as Missions track, I learned about this thing called "microfinance", which provides financial services to low-income populations so that they can pursue entrepreneurship and work their way out of poverty. I was floored! This was the first time I saw business acumen, social justice, and Jesus combined; three of my passions co-existing. The more I researched, the more I found that this was a sustainable, established business segment, but very few students had even heard about it. For my last semester at Cal I simply wanted to share the concept of microfinance with undergrads (and as a 6-unit senior, I knew I'd have way too much time on my hands!). Facilitating a class on my own worried me, but I found an unexpected wave of support from Intervarsity. Staff encouraged and prayed with me, and an alum connected me with nearly all of the speakers I booked for the course. This semester is almost over and I'm happy to say several students are interested in continuing this course next fall! I'm not exactly sure how God has or will use this class. But 57 undergraduates are walking away knowing more about poverty, and more importantly, that there is something that can be done about it.

an email to an incoming freshie

Hi Grace,

It was nice meeting you too! I hope you had fun at Cal Day. Here's some general advice:

• Balance your semester with both business prereq's and general breadth requirements. I suggest two business prereq's (BA 10, Econ, Stat, etc.) and two classes of whatever you are interested in.
• When you are scheduling, don't take classes just because people say, "It's an easy class!" I took some of those and totally regretted it. You are better off taking classes that you are really interested in and care to learn about.
  
• Get involved with something. Anything! Use your first semester or so to explore the heck out of Berkeley and see what you like. It's all very exciting and overwheleming, but don't be afraid to just checked stuff out. By the end of Spring semester you'll want to settle down on one or two organizations/events/activities.
• Think about why you want to be a business major. Make sure that your reason is genuine and real. Who knows, you might end loving something like Public Policy and end up not wanting to be a business major!
  

Some non-academic advice:

• Even though you'll be involved in something, don't let that limit you. Have friends that are outside of those things to keep yourself balanced and sane.
  
• Check out cool stuff on campus like Zellerbach, Superb, Poetry Slam, etc.
• Don't get a boyfriend your first semester (if you don't already have one)! People who get into a relationship that early in college never learn to have any friends other than their boy. You think I'm kidding right? haha, I'm totally serious!
• Challenge yourself! Berkeley is really cool if you start exploring.
  

If you have any specific questions, I'm happy to answer them! Hope this helps!

Sarah

The Bucket Incident

i recently took golf lessons because HBSA sponsored a discounted rate at Tilden in the gorgeous hills of Berkeley. i suck at it, but i like golf. it forces you to relax when you are tense, but can still frustrate you when things don't go right. if you don't work at constantly, you lose it all.

hmm, that could be an analogy to something in life, but whatever. i'm too busy thinking about my swing to make some deep analogy.

golf has had a strange reputation--dorky and too-cool-for-school at the same time; old and young; exciting and boring. here is the dorky side--i will call this story The Bucket Incident:

at the driving range, there's a machine that dispenses the golf balls. it's very simple, see, all you do is stick your pre-paid card in and push the button to pick a small, medium, or large bucket, and the golf balls automatically spit out. so what's missing? oh yea, you have to put a basket under the spout. TOO BAD i pushed the button BEFORE placing a basket there. white golf balls start SPEWING out of there like there's no tomorrow and the balls start bouncing and rolling everywhere! i'm thinking, "ROUND?! why do golf balls need to be ROUND?!" i frantically and futilely try to catch some with my tiny, 12-year-0ld-sized hands before grabbing the basket and putting it under the spout. the basket successfully caught the last 2 balls. out of 60. awesome. so i start chasing down these round monsters that won't stop rolling everywhere. this old korean man starts helping me scoop some of the balls that rolled onto his mat. i keep saying, "i'm so sorry, thank you, i'm so sorry, thank you." he just says in that familiar accent, "it happens." i say awkwardly, "at least i didn't pick the large bucket! heh...heh...uh..." i take my approximately 60 balls and go to the very end of the driving range, far away from that evil machine.

what a noob.

On gambling

This past weekend was Viva Las Vegas Baby! But this post will be dedicated to a lesson learned about the thrill and lure of gambling away your money.

Chiraag, our dear, reckless and often drunk and stupid friend, was up $300! Amazing! But 30 minutes later, it's all gone. 20 minutes later, he's down $200. 10 minutes later, he's down another $100. 15 minutes later, it's time for dinner and he stops answering his phone. 5 minutes later, we find him and force him to play his last hand, which he loses. Kicking and screaming, we peel the boy away from the table and throw him into a cab. "The boy doesn't know when to stop!" we all said.

So on the way out to go back home after a very long weekend, I remember that I told Jeremy I'd put $20 on Black 9 or something like that. So we find a table and I put $20 down, lose $20. Crap. Ok, let's make it back! Put $10 down on black, lose $10. Crap. then $5, and yay! made another $5! so another $10, lose $10. Crap. "Katie, can I borrow $20?" Crap! "Katie, can I borrow more?" Lose another $10. CRAP! "We have to catch our flight! TIME TO GO!" "OK. Let's go!" and then thinking, "well that was not fun..."

LESSON LEARNED. I saw a glimpse of what Chiraag felt- a lose of control and a need to get it back. Gambling is very fun and thrilling, but it has some strange power to make you a nervous twit that is hoping for a big break that spends too much money. So here are my guidelines: you need to 1) set a hard limit and never borrow more, and 2) have fun. The second fun turns into panic is the second you stop.

Live consciously. Live responsibly. Live well.

This last year has been a whirlwind of social enterprise, corporate social responsibility, and social impact. Can you live a lifestyle that is sustainable, responsible, and beneficial without breaking the bank? ABSOLUTELY. Some companies, organizations, and tools to get you started:

Textbooks: Better World Books
Shoes: Toms shoes
Gifts: Banyan Paper
Banking: New Resource Bank
Investing: MicroPlace
Travel: Voluntourism
Camping: Evergreen Lodge
Office supplies (for offices and businesses only): Give Something Back
Groceries: local farmers markets - Berkeley & SF
Job hunting: Idealist.org
and more: BCorp

Saving the world one consumer at a time.

Vegas was...

• expensive, but only a few dollars over my budget :)
• 17 people in a sweet suite
  
• hilarious
• food babies
• girl bonding over bras, dresses, make-up, hair, eyelashes, lotion, and NOT deodorant!
  
• bonding in the kitchenette
• bonding in the jacuzzi
• relaxing at the lazy river
• cab rides
• stupid bouncers
• nice bouncers
• PURE
  
• helen being such a flirt ;)
  
• LCs, Red-headed sluts, B52s
• generic Cheerios, Ramen, EasyMac
  
• interrogating Jo's boy Raymond (sorry dude!)
• only seeing Clay and Margaret as they walk by
• 6 people falling asleep on a sofa bed
• realizing that touch is our group's mutual love language and i can platonically link arms, hold hands, sleep next to, walk arm in arm, and dance with you guys--girls AND guys
  
• $60 Escalade ride because Chiraag had the wrong shoes
• tiring from walking around
• Beverly from Italy

Vegas was...

• a lot of should-a's, could-a's, and would-a's and...
  
• frustrating at times, but...
  
• still fun and...
• something i wouldn't have missed for the world.

WHERE'S GARWIN?!???

IVCCF

Erina wrote an article on our structure

ok go, a million ways

in the background it goes, "one zero zero zero zero zero zero CREUL!" hahaha

the original
the attempt...we messed up in the beginning