Confessions of a Blogger

I've never been a good journal writer. In fact, I think growing up I had about 5 diaries, all of which probably only had about 1-3 entries total. It's not that I don't like writing (well, perhaps that's not entirely true) I just find it difficult to keep up with, and have trouble finding the motivation to write for any length of time. This would probably explain why I decided to become a designer. I'd much rather spend hours fussing over a the perfect color or font than sentence structure and adjectives. As such, regularly keeping up with this blog has been a stretch for me (though, a good stretch) and while I love cooking, I don't always feel like writing about it.

OK, now that I've confessed my blogging sins I can get on with this random post. I've never been a big Valentine's Day fan, however, I have always been have a fan of sweets. I will generally choose something sugary over salty any day of the week. As Valentine's Day is all about the sweets, I'm pretty excited. Mostly to try out these two recipes:

Photo via Milk & Honey

Strawberry Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting (from a newly discovered food blog, Milk and Honey)

and..

Photo Via Comfy Belly

Very Berry Sorbet

Do those recipes not look absolutely gorgeous AND delicious?


Other random note of the day. I just started listening to Molly Wizenberg's (of the award-winning blog, Orangette) new podcast, Spilled Milk. There are only 3 episodes, but so far, I've really enjoyed listening to them. The podcast is casual and unpretentious, and sounds like two friends just laughing, experimenting and having fun in the kitchen. Made me remember why I wanted to start a food blog with Raven in the first place.

The Cupcake That Takes 1st Place

I'm lucky to live with a boyfriend who works near Trophy Cupcakes, and today I was lucky to taste one of their newer seasonal flavors: a candied yam with marshmallow cupcake.

The sticky-soft, lightly toasted marshmallow frosting made Trophy's s'mores cupcake my original favorite, even if the rich chocolate + graham cracker cake was a bit overwhelming. This new combination beats everything, in my humble opinion: the divine frosting paired with a cupcake flavor that's sweet but not cloying -- like a slightly over-sugared muffin or breakfasty quick bread. 

So even though I haven't loved that ubiquitous sugar-drenched sweet potato thanksgiving favorite since I was very young, candied yam with marshmallow now has a place in my heart -- in the form of a cupcake. 

Victoria Cupakes

Feeling a bit indecisive about what to make for our first posting, I decided to start with something simple and almost always a winner amongst even the pickiest of eaters: the cupcake. Having just received a living room full of wedding presents, I chose the recipe out of one of my newly acquired cookbooks - Cupcake Heaven. Not quite wanting to say goodbye to summer, I selected a recipe worthy of an outdoor picnic or BBQ, with fresh strawberries and homemade whip cream. They are almost more strawberry shortcake-esque than cupcake. Now if I only could have braved the rain this morning and got fresh strawberries from the Ballard farmer's market...sigh...QFC will have to do.

This is only the first recipe I've made from this book, so I can't really vouch for it's yumminess yet. Most of the recipes look pretty tasty, or at least have interesting presentations.

The recipe is extremely straightforward:

Ingredients

• 1 stick of unsalted butter (room temperature)
• 1/2 cup of granulated sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup self-rising flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

To Decorate

• 2 Tablespoons strawberry Jam (I like Bonne Maman)
• 3/4 cup heavy cream (add some vanilla extract if you are using a whip cream maker to sweeten the mixture)
  
• 8 oz strawberries, thickly sliced
• confectioners' sugar for dusting

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Beat the butter and sugar together until pale and fluffy, then beat in the eggs, one at a time. Combine the flour and baking powder and sift into the mixture. Fold in, then stir in the vanilla extract.

Spoon the mixture into the paper liners and bake in the preheated oven for about 17 minutes until risen and golden and a skewer inserted into the center comes out clean. Transfer to a wire rack to cool.

To decorate, using a serrated knife, carefully slice the top off each cupcake, down to the level of the paper liner. Spread each cupcake with about 1/2 teaspoon jelly.

Whip the cream and spoon on top of the jelly-covered cupcakes, then top with slices of strawberries. Replace the top of each cupcake and dust with confectioners' sugar.

Notes: Next time I would double the batter recipe as the cupcakes did not rise high enough to cup the tops off nicely. I would recommend making these cupcakes for an outdoor picnic or BBQ where you know they will be eaten right away. I anticipate these will end up a soggy mess of whip cream by tomorrow afternoon.

Makes 12

One of my favorite kitchen tools is my whip cream maker. Though sort of pricey, I think it's worth it as I'm sort of a snob about store bought whip cream and don't really enjoy standing around for 10-15 minutes whipping my cream into stiff peaks.

I generally use 1 pint of heavy whipping cream and add about 1-2 teaspoons of vanilla extract for a little sweetness. The whip cream only lasts about about 1 week, so make sure and thoroughly clean the container after it's expired.