Cupcakes for a Big Boy

I thought it should be noted that my sweet, my love, my little Mr. Henry Pickles turned two this weekend. I don't have much to say on the matter -- I was alone with the kids over the weekend, which was tough, and I do admit that there were times when I was ready to send him off to live in the zoo. But generally, he is such a lovely little light. The world's biggest smiles, sloppiest kisses, longest eyelashes, deepest belly laughs, softest skin, splashiest baths, and most rebel-ist rebel yell all come from this tiny little boy. He is a peach, a treasure, and definitely made of snips and snails and puppy dog tails. xoxoxo

Oh, and check out more info on the cupcakes a the other blog. Henry's verdict was: "Rillly rilly gooooood!"

Weekend Thrift (and Cupcakes)

I haven't been thrifting for a while -- summer gets so busy and I'm usually with Aaron on the weekend and he generally frowns at the idea of bringing any additional objects of any sort into our home (understandably, really). So, it's been a while. But I've recently picked up a few things:

Above, some teacups in the Federal Glass Golden Glory pattern. These match some soup bowls that I picked up earlier this spring, which is the only reason I got them, as I try to keep my teacup collecting at a minimum. $2 at a garage sale.


Next, some really cute glasses. I don't know why, but I'm a little obsessed with really tiny glasses of the '60s/'70s vintage -- I don't even know what one would use such tiny glasses for (juice?). My grandma used to have a lot of glasses in this style, which might be why I love them so much. Anyway, I thought these could come in handy at Christmas. $10 at a small town junk store (for 8 glasses).


And, some Fire King ramekins, which I actually kind of need, because we've been living in a ramekin free zone in our house. No ramekins! How would I make tiny souffles? Anyway, $5 for six at a garage sale.

Someone commented a while back, asking where I found most of my weekend thrift items, so I'll try to include that info for the curious. She also asked how I go about finding good garage sales, which I know can be hard. The answer is, I don't really know. I try to just go about my business and stop when I see a garage sale sign and hope the fates smile on me. Sometimes I actively go driving around looking for them, and I generally try to stick to older neighbourhoods where the sales will be more likely to have vintage stuff rather than kids toys. I generally avoid the "professional" sales, because they price gouge, but you can find good stuff too, even if you have to pay a bit more. Oh, and Aaron and I have an understanding that if it says "estate sale" on the sign we have to stop, no matter what.


Finally, I made some more cupcakes from the Martha book and we finally have a cupcake that was a total hit. They don't look like much, but these are the Chocolate Mint cupcakes, which are basically individual brownies with a York Peppermint Patty baked in the middle. Genius.

Corks and Cupcakes

I actually made this a little while ago, but we finally put it up. It's not much -- just a plain corkboard covered with some fabric I picked up from Sew Mama Sew. Our new kitchen has a stainless steel fridge in it, which looks awesome, but is not magnetic. Which not only means that our magnetic letters have no home, but there's no place to put invitations, Ruby art, or little pictures. We have one spot on our kitchen wall that isn't taken up by window or cabinets, so up the corkboard went.

I didn't do anything too fancy -- no criss-crossing ribbons or trim. I just tacked down the fabric with some spray adhesive and then stapled the fabric to the back of the cork. Easy peasy. There are a few bubbles and I'm not convinced the fabric is really well adhered to the cork, but it'll have stuff stuck to it most of the time (especially with Ruby's art camp starting up this week), so it doesn't matter too much. And if the fabric comes off, we'll either stick it back on or switch it up.


And... I think I'm going to have to change the name of this blog to Elizaboothy and Cupcakes. I tried another recipe from the Cupcakes book and, again, am slightly disappointed. I did the Chocolate Peanut Butter cupcakes and aside from the fact that I popped some of the peanut butter topping into my mouth while it was still scalding hot (and I believe, destroyed a filling that will now result in root canal), I wasn't thrilled. The peanut butter filling/topping boiled over in the oven, creating a mess and some weird craters in the cakes. Also, the filling was pretty delicious warm, but the cakes weren't nearly as good at room temp. I am determined to make a great cupcake from this book though, so I'm going to keep trying. Mayhaps something plainer with a really good buttercream. That always does the trick.

Canadacakes

Remember back in November when I made Obama cupcakes to celebrate the U.S. election? Well, I figured it was only fair that I make some cupcakes to celebrate my own country. Tomorrow is July 1 (a.k.a. Canada Day), and I was immediately drawn to the Maple Cupcakes from the Martha Stewart Cupcakes book. What better to bring to a Canada Day family picnic?

Martha's version has marzipan maple leaves on them, which make them even more Canada-y, but I quickly realized that I had neither the time or patience to a) seek out marzipan and maple leaf cookie cutters b) actually make the leaves. So, the patriotism is in the flavour, not the display.

For the cupcakes themselves, I used table syrup with 15 per cent real maple, rather than two cups of real maple syrup, though I did use two cups of the real stuff for the frosting. I love my extended family, but really, I am not spending $30 on maple syrup for cupcakes. We're in a recession, people. As a result, the cupcakes kind of smell (and taste) like pancakes or that sandwich you can get at Denny's where the bread is pre-soaked in syrup. Kind of weird, and not as Canadian as I would have liked.

Also, I'm a little freaked out about the icing -- I've never made a real buttercream with raw eggs before. You do have to dump in mega-hot boiling syrup, so I'm reasonably sure that the eggs are cooked, but still, I get nervous around the raw egg thing. But, a chef friend has assured me that all will be fine, so I'm going with it.

I did eat one cupcake for the purpose of testing, and despite the pancake-ness of the cake, the super fluffy eggy icing (which has a consistency sitting somewhere between mayo and marshmallow) is pretty awesome. I still haven't found a cupcake that has blown me away from this book, but I'm getting there.

Review: Martha Stewart's Cupcakes

Okay, it will come as a surprise to absolutely no one, that I shed a little tear of excitement when I caught wind of Martha Stewart's Cupcakes book. Her Cookies book is probably the most used cookbook on my shelf -- it's design is a work of genius and the recipes are beyond delicious. Cupcakes sticks to the same basic formula -- big pictures, one recipe per page, and a smart breakdown of sections. I have yet to try any recipes, but I think it's a reasonable assumption that they're all going to be amazing. I don't always trust the MS people on entrees (Everyday Cooking has steered me wrong plenty of times), but when it comes to baked goods, they're pretty consistent.

So. Cupcakes don't take to this particular book form ask well as cookies do, but this book is still pretty awesome. Since there's only so much you can do with a cupcake (unlike cookies, which can take many forms, these are all essentially tiny cakes in cups, right? So, the latter sections in the book, the special occasion cupcakes, are basically just decorating variations (which I can't really be bothered with), but there are still more cupcake varieties in here than I could ever dream up.

The recipes start off with your classic cake with buttercream frosting jobs (why mess with perfection?), but the MS team get really creative from there. There are loads of non-frosted cupcakes for those of us who don't want to get fussy, plus some really fun filled and layered cakes for those of us who do. I'm particularly interested in things like Tiramisu Cupcakes, Sticky Toffee Pudding Cupcakes, Stout Cupcakes, and Peanut Butter-Filled Chocolate Cupcakes. Oh, and Mint-Filled Brownie Cupcakes. And Lemon Meringue Cupcakes. And Chocolate Salted-Caramel Mini Cupcakes.

So, you get the point. I can't see myself jumping in to this the same way I did with cookies, because how many cupcakes can a girl eat (especially when, like me, she's trying to lose a few pounds)? Plus they are a bit of a pain to make, compared to cookies at least. But you can expect to see a few cakes on these pages soon. Mmmm.

Obamacakes!!!

Okay, if you're seeing this blog for the first time, I'm sure you'd assume that I'm a) American and b) a person with too much time on my hands. Well, you'd be wrong on both counts. But, for some reason I, and a lot of other Canadians, are as excited about this day as only the most politically-obsessed of Americans are. While I don't subscribe to the "America is the centre of the universe" view, I do, obviously feel that when things have the potential to be really good down there, that goodness will spread around the world.

We're going to a CNN watching party tonight and I made these delicious Obamacakes. In fact, I've started referring to Aaron as "Obamacakes" as a term of affection. I think I'm going crazy. I'm glad this is all going to be over in just a few short hours (four hours and 43 minutes, according to CNN).