Father's Office can S a million D's [Culver City]

Because Vivian and I are on opposite coasts most of the time, we don't get to share meals very often. (We do however keep each other updated on our current and upcoming meals to a potentially weird extent.) When Vivian came home for a couple of weeks in June, we were finally able to meet up and share a meal at Father's Office. Unfortunately, that meal was balls.

Frankly, we don't get it. Aside from the overly caramelized onions, the burger was bland. Not only was the patty conspicuously non-beefy, the texture was mushy and unappealing. For us, burgers are all about the beef, and no magical combination of toppings could make up for FO's bland, mushy patty.

Combine a mediocre burger with an unnecessarily adversarial seating situation and a pretentious attitude about condiments, and you get an extremely flattering picture capturing our delight at the experience and a gchat convo full of righteous anger. Check it out after the jump for Vivian's take and for our hourlong fight for a table, won in the end by awkwardness.

in which even cupcakes are awkward

I'm starting grad school next week, and living off my stipend means the focus of my posts will shift from eating out to cooking. It should be apparent from this post, though, that you shouldn't expect expert creations captured by some fancy SLR. I mean, just look at these cupcakes.

If those aren't the saddest, most awkward looking cupcakes you have ever seen, then you are lying.

Luckily, they tasted alright. I made them pretty soon after finding them over on Proceed with Caution, because, are you kidding me? S'mores cupcakes? How is that not the greatest idea on the planet?

I did halve the recipe and did all of the math in my head, because as we all know baking and imprecision go hand in hand. I believe this is why they turned out good, but not as epic as I had hoped. The icing, awesomely made of marshmallow creme, butter, and sugar, didn't hold too well but tasted great. If I make these again, I will add more (dark?) chocolate chips to the graham crust and be more precise with the batter measurements.

S'mores Cupcakes

Source: Domestic Pursuits via Proceed with Caution

Yields 30 cupcakes

For the graham crust:
1/4 cup sugar
1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs (from about 20 squares)
1/3 cup unsalted butter, melted
1/2 - 1 cup bittersweet chocolate chips

For the cupcakes:
2 cups sugar
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup Hershey's cocoa
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
2 eggs
1 cup milk
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup boiling water

1. Heat oven to 350°F. Grease muffin cups or line with paper liners.
2. Combine 1/4 cup sugar,graham cracker crumbs and melted butter in a small bowl. Spoon 1 tablespoon of graham cracker mix into the bottom of each muffin cup. Press crumbs firmly, using the bottom of a small glass. Save the remaining mixture for topping. Top graham cracker mix with several bittersweet chocolate chips.
3. Bake graham mixture for about five minutes, or until the edges are golden brown. Remove from oven and set aside.
4. Stir together sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt in medium bowl.
5. In a large bowl, combine eggs, milk, oil and vanilla. Stir until well blended.
6. Add flour mixture to large bowl and beat on medium speed of mixer 2 minutes. Stir in boiling water (batter will be thin). Pour batter into prepared pans. Fill prepared muffin cups 3/4 full with batter (about 1/4 cup). Sprinkle batter with small amount of remaining graham cracker mixture.
7. Bake 22 to 25 minutes. Cool completely, then frost.

Marshmallow Buttercream Frosting
Source: Hello, Cupcake! via Heather Drive / Proceed with Caution

Ingredients:
- 1 container (16 oz.) Marshmallow Fluff

(I used Jet Puffed Marshmallow Creme instead since Fluff wasn't available)
- 3 sticks unsalted butter, softened and cut into 1-inch pieces
- 1 tsp. vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup confectioner's sugar, plus additional sugar, if necessary

Directions:
1. Spoon the Marshmallow Fluff into a large bowl. Beat with an electric mixer on low.

2. Gradually add the butter pieces, beating well after each addition, until smooth.

3. Add the vanilla extract and the confectioner's sugar. Scrape the bowl well to incorporate. Add more confectioner's sugar, if necessary, to adjust the texture.