Chocolate Grasshopper

If you ever end up with a bottle of Creme de Menthe and you have no idea what to do with it, don't give it to me, I've got my own. I got it a few months back because it looked funky and I had "possibilities" floating through my head as I browsed the liquor aisle. It was only much later that I remembered that I don't really like mint all that much. I do however love the color combination. Cream, chocolate and green look awesome together and were therefore the inspiration for this chocolate mint cupcake. It came out pretty gosh darn good so here it is.

My very first Pink Eleoink

My friend's roommate loves pink elephants, so for her birthday, my friend ordered a chocolate chocolate chocolate with chocolate pink elephant cake. I wanted it to be smooth and pretty, so I surrendered and decided to use fondant (I like frosting more, but nothing gives a cake that smooth finish like fondant). There are no parts that are fondant alone and every extremity has cake underneath it...which is probably why his trunk is a bit short and also why I call him my Pink Eleoink. He came out delicious (my sister kept snatching away pieces of cake as I was carving it) and cute to boot. I might even start doing more experiments with fondant :)

Lemony Mist

Okay, so the title is a bit too fanciful, but I'm sleepy and I just finished making 60 pretty little lemon cupcakes for my friend's "camping event" which I won't be able to make it to due to waaay too many other family obligations. Since these are iced and not frosted, they will survive being out of the fridge for as long as they'll need to, which was the goal all along. Since the icing is so sweet, I made the cupcakes a little less so to balance out and they came out very moist and dense, so I'm happy and I hope that my friends like them too. As for me, I'm taking Sunday "off" and declaring a non-baking craft day, it's getting a bit too hot to bake. Hmm...I might go make some lemonade :)

Vacation and From Wedding to the Pitter Patter of Little Cupcakes

I'm sorry that it's been a while since the last post, but I finally took a much-needed vacation. I drove through Ireland in two weeks and I've come back with a sense of calm and ideas for future baking experiments (can you say chocolate stout cake? Mmmmm.)


One of my friends and co-workers has asked me to make cupcakes for her upcoming wedding, which also happens to be on my birthday. The colors of the wedding are pink and blue, just like for a baby shower, and although she denies any association between the two, the fact that she's also pregnant is making me think otherwise. She has decided on lemon-blueberry and chocolate-strawberry cupcakes with maybe a small cake of undecided flavor on top. I did a trial run this weekend and I'm glad I did. The cupcakes came out great, but the lemon-raspberry need a bit more of a lemon kick. I'm almost out of the organic lemon oil my dad found somewhere for me. A little bit goes a long way and it is a wonderful way to add a bit of lemon flavor without needing to modify the basic recipe too much. I must find some right away.

Coffee Cakes Galore

I have never before attempted a coffee cake, believing that if it has no frosting it's just not worth it, but a few days ago one of my friends recommended me for an order for a whole bunch of different coffee cakes for one of her co-workers. I did some research and found what I thought were the best of the best and got to work. There were some setbacks (one of them just didn't want to come out of the pretty pan I baked it in, but my co-workers didn't mind the crumbly mess the next day and declared that I can bring my "failures" to them any time I want) but all in all they came out very pretty. Unfortunately, I didn't get to taste any of them, which kinda got me worried, so today I woke up a tiny bit too early (for a saturday morning at least) and baked two of them, one for a party later this evening and another for an early father's day picnic this afternoon. I packed everything up, grabbed a box of my somewhat failed attempt at french macaroons (the feet didn't form like they should have, so I'll have to try that recipe again) and took off to the picnic. All in all I think the coffee cake came out pretty well. It was moist and very tasty, but what the kids at the picnic loved best were the tiny little macaroons that they kept stealing from the box. By the time the adults decided to find out what all the fuss is about the box was almost empty.