Sep
19
The morning after…
Filed Under not my food but still good, personal
Don’t judge! This is what happens the morning after a birthday. Just me, myself, and some hot pink (red) velvet cake and coffee.
Picture taken, quite appropriately, with my new toy! thanks JT!!!
Sep
19
Awesome! Oh! Yeah!
Filed Under Uncategorized
FREE CRACK MOCHAS!
Jul
15
Whenever I bake, and especially if I am trying a new recipe, I am pleasantly surprised that the end result is edible/delicious. But that isn’t the point of this post. I enjoy making cupcakes because they are already portioned and diminutively adorable (thus satisfying the twelve-year-old-sanrio-and-all-things-cutesy-loving Asian girl secretly lurking inside me). Another reason that cupcakes are awesome? I get to use my soft blue sky cupcake courier, gifted to me last Christmas by roomie extraordinaire and her resident canadian.
So returning to the topic at hand, the most recent iteration of small-sugar-flour-fat was chocolate cupcakes with peanut butter frosting sprinkled with cocoa nibs, and lime cupcakes with lime frosting topped with coconut. I used this recipe for the chocolate cupcakes, but replaced the oil with a melted and cooled stick of butter (for additional richness and flavor), and used water instead of coffee. For the lime cupcakes, I combined several recipes and came up with my own version.
Zesty Lime Cupcakes with Equally Zesty Lime Frosting
Cupcake Ingredients
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 eggs, also at room temperature
1/2 cup milk
all the zest from 2 large limes (zest before juicing!)
all the juice you can extract from the aforementioned 2 limes
Sift together:
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
Cupcake Methodology
- Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.
- In a small bowl combine the lime zest with the cup of sugar and mash the zest into the sugar with a fork to extract as much of the flavor as possible.
- In a larger bowl beat the stick of butter until it is pale, light, and fluffy, either with a wooden spoon (low tech), or beater/mixer (higher tech).
- Add the fluffy lime zest/sugar into the butter and beat for a few minutes until the sugar and butter are creamy and well incorporated.
- Stir the milk and lime juice together in the bowl that you used for the lime zest/sugar (this is to save using another bowl!), and set aside.
- Mix in the eggs, one at a time, and beat until combined, add the vanilla extract after the eggs.
- Stir in about a quarter of the sifted flour and leavenings into the butter mixture. Then, add a third or so of the lime juice and milk into the batter. Repeat, ending with the flour. I think this is called the dry/wet/dry method of cakery, or something but who is being technical anyway, we want to eat cake!
- Try to resist “testing” batter, fail miserably, and guiltily scoop the remaining batter into a lined standard sized muffin tin. You should get about 12, and be able to fill the cups 3/4 or so full.
- Bake for 20-25 minutes, depending on your oven. I recommend you check after 20 minutes. You can tell that the cupcakes are ready when they are golden brown, spring back when lightly touched, and yield zero crumbs when a toothpick is poked into their middles.
- Cool completely on a wire rack before frosting.
Frosting Ingredients
1/2 cup trans-fat free shortening
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) of butter, room temperature
1 cup sifted powdered sugar
zest and juice of one large lime
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
dash of salt
2-3 drops green food coloring
Frosting Methodology
- Cream together the shortening and softened butter until light and fluffy.
- Add the remaining ingredients and beat until frosting reaches the desired consistency of luscious and creamy.
- Frost cooled cupcakes, decide they look naked and sprinkle with sweetened shredded coconut.
Minor Rant
Wow this post is really long. If you’re still reading, bravo! My minor rant is about super sweet frostings, and the usual suspect is the traditional American buttercream. I’ve found that a lot of recipes call for an entire pound of powdered sugar. This makes the buttercream WAY WAY WAY to sweet, and very stiff/crusty from all the sugar. I understand that sometimes, you need stability in your icing. But why use all that sugar? It is possible to have structural stability without having to feel like your teeth are going to rot out of your head at first bite.
Some suggestions:
- chocolate ganache frosting (melt chopped chocolate with cream, let cool and whip to deliciousness)
- swiss meringue buttercream
- lightly sweetened freshly whipped cream stabilized with gelatin
End rant.
May
14
Food for thought
Filed Under rambling
I try to buy organic and/or locally grown produce, if only because it tastes better. However, it does get expensive. Here is a handy dandy guide to which fruits and vegetables have the highest loads of pesticides, and the ones you can get away without buying organic.
Oh and there has been a ton of baking lately…but I’ve gotten far too lazy to post. So there is a huge backlog of photos and recipes. I’ll try to post more regularly this summer!
Apr
29
This is completely unrelated to food, but I got season tickets for football! Despite the (ahem) extenuating circumstances, I figured it was worthwhile if only to keep the streak alive–1999 and counting baby! Yeah so I’m old…
Feb
22
Happy Places
Filed Under rambling
Two of my happy places:
tacky but wonderful
sports + food...what more could I want!
*well, maybe a basketball team that doesn’t crush my hopes and dreams, you know, just leeetle things, oh and a thesis, finished and brilliant, wrapped in a blue and gold bow (of course)!
**don’t mind me, crazy + tired = more rambling
Dec
22
So. Very. Tired.
Filed Under Uncategorized
Is it possible to fall asleep while standing up? I think I can…
Nov
20
My Belated Birthday Post: Dinner at À Côté
Filed Under not my food but still good, personal, too much of a good thing
Here are some food pictures from my birthday dinner at À Côté in September. It’s one of my favorite restaurants. So go check it out!
I know, I know it’s been OVER TWO MONTHS! Whatever, I’m a total bum for being so tardy. At least I acknowledge it? I blame my old age…haha….sigh.
Dinner, as you can see by the pictures, was DELICIOUS!!! Just looking at these pictures makes my tummy growl. Special thanks to dinner companion and co-photographer J!
Heirloom Tomato Salad, with Feta
Pomme Frites with Aioli
Mussels with Pernod from the Wood Oven
Oh my goodness this pasta dish was tasty! It had succulent, perfectly cooked shrimp and smoky-sweet roasted red peppers. I think the pasta (linguine?) was made in-house as well.
Flatbread with Figs and Fontina (maybe not, but you know how much I love alliteration!)
We had to take these pictures by stealth. Because a) the flash disturbs the ambience and b) we felt like bums. Such are the trials and tribulations I deal with for you, dear 5 or 6 faithful readers of this humble blog.
Nov
18
I really enjoy the holidays because I have a go-to excuse to do very nice things for my family and friends. As you know by now, I love baking and cooking in general. This year I think I am going to try to make most of my gifts. There are lots of toffee, caramel, cookie, and (gulp!) apple and pumpkin butter recipes that I want to make from scratch and wrap in pretty packaging.
I’m a bit apprehensive about the apple and pumpkin butter part because I’ve never canned anything before. But it can’t be too hard right?
We’ll see.
*DISCLAIMER: I may just say screw it all and buy gifts, you never know 
Nov
16
Ridiculous
Filed Under rambling
I bought a bag of lemons (insert a when life gives you lemons joke here), and ever since Sunday I’ve been obsessed with lemon curd. The ingredients for lemon curd are fairly straightforward: lemon zest and juice, egg yolks, sugar, and butter. What is the problem? Well, I don’t have the white sugar that is necessary for the curd. But guess what, I have almost every other sugar under the sun: light and dark brown, pastel pink sanding sugar, confectioners sugar, homemade vanilla sugar, powdered honey, liquid honey, molasses, maple syrup, and corn syrup.
So yeah, I’m ridiculous.
