Showing posts with label baking. Show all posts
Showing posts with label baking. Show all posts
Sunday, April 8, 2012
lemon cupcakes with blueberry buttercream frosting
The weather around here the past couple of weeks has been totally delicious. I love the cold winter temperatures, and the boots and pea coats that come along with it, but after a few months of freezing cold the 60s & sunny has been a welcome change of pace. The shift in weather and temperatures brings a nice change in food preferences along with it (I really can find a way to relate everything back to food). I go from craving pasta with heavy sauces, soups, and hot drinks to wanting light salads, fresh crunchy vegetables and nice iced coffees. As far as dessert goes I become obsessed with basically anything fresh & bright, like peaches and lemons and berries. So when thinking about what I was going to bake for Easter this year, it didn't take much time to settle on the flavor combo that I wanted. A few weeks ago one of my favorite people in the world, Mandie, made a delicious Blueberry Lemon Tea Cake and from the moment I ate three slices of it I have not been able to get the flavor combination out of my mind. Lemon and blueberry it was! The hardest part was deciding what form the flavors would take...a layer cake, a bundt cake, scones?
Saturday, March 17, 2012
scones.
Happy St. Patrick's Day! I'm half Irish but aside from the Irish Soda Bread that my mom made this morning, I won't be doing much of the "traditional" celebrating. I have, however, spend a good amount of time outside today celebrating this beautiful weather. So I did celebrate something...just not what the rest of the country is celebrating. But eating some bread outside in sunny 70 degree weather? Sounds like a good day to me.
I've been home on Spring Break this past week, but it's ending soon (wah) and I'll be back at school tomorrow night. I've mentioned my love of baking here previously, and I especially love baking in my kitchen at home. It's just, obviously, a lot more spacious than the one at my apartment, has better light, better appliances, a better setup, and just a better everything! So when I do go home I usually take advantage of it and bake quite a lot. This spring break I did not really bake much though, I was a little too preoccupied with something else (fyi there will be a post about these little books in the near future, as they have consumed my thoughts and taken over my life since the minute I read the first sentence of the first book).
I woke up yesterday morning really wanting to use a pastry cutter - do you have cravings of using certain baking tools? No? It's not normal? Okay, just wanted to see. After thinking about it for about 2 seconds I decided I wanted to make scones, and before my feet even hit the floor I had a recipe for Brown Sugar Chocolate Chip Scones that I knew I was going to make. That's not an exaggeration, by the way, I literally opened my eyes, thought of a pastry cutter, grabbed my phone and Googled chocolate chip scone recipes. I found one, then got up and started my day. The correct way to start a morning, if you ask me...
These Brown Sugar Chocolate Chip Scones came from Evil Shenanigans. It was my first time making scones, which is absolutely ridiculous and something I can't believe is true. I love scones. They are one of my favorite foods to eat so the fact that I had never made them before yesterday is an embarrassment. They were super easy but completely delicious. I loved that they used buttermilk and not heavy cream, because I always have buttermilk but heavy cream is not a pantry staple of mine. The only thing I did differently was swapping out regular size chocolate chips for mini ones. In scones, and most other pastries actually, I much prefer little bites of chocolate that melt into the scone as opposed to normal size chocolate chips that seem like an add on. But, it's just a personal preference of mine!
There's an 87% chance I'm going to be making another batch of these in an hour or two while listening to the stunning soundtrack for The Hunger Games. This is for two reasons - 1) I honestly can't get enough of the soundtrack, it's perfect. And 2) The following picture is the amount of scones that are left in this house...
It's unacceptable, it's a problem, and it needs to be addressed & fixed. Good thing I'm up to the challenge
xx Meg
PS. Read The Hunger Games Triology, please & thank you.
I've been home on Spring Break this past week, but it's ending soon (wah) and I'll be back at school tomorrow night. I've mentioned my love of baking here previously, and I especially love baking in my kitchen at home. It's just, obviously, a lot more spacious than the one at my apartment, has better light, better appliances, a better setup, and just a better everything! So when I do go home I usually take advantage of it and bake quite a lot. This spring break I did not really bake much though, I was a little too preoccupied with something else (fyi there will be a post about these little books in the near future, as they have consumed my thoughts and taken over my life since the minute I read the first sentence of the first book).
I woke up yesterday morning really wanting to use a pastry cutter - do you have cravings of using certain baking tools? No? It's not normal? Okay, just wanted to see. After thinking about it for about 2 seconds I decided I wanted to make scones, and before my feet even hit the floor I had a recipe for Brown Sugar Chocolate Chip Scones that I knew I was going to make. That's not an exaggeration, by the way, I literally opened my eyes, thought of a pastry cutter, grabbed my phone and Googled chocolate chip scone recipes. I found one, then got up and started my day. The correct way to start a morning, if you ask me...
These Brown Sugar Chocolate Chip Scones came from Evil Shenanigans. It was my first time making scones, which is absolutely ridiculous and something I can't believe is true. I love scones. They are one of my favorite foods to eat so the fact that I had never made them before yesterday is an embarrassment. They were super easy but completely delicious. I loved that they used buttermilk and not heavy cream, because I always have buttermilk but heavy cream is not a pantry staple of mine. The only thing I did differently was swapping out regular size chocolate chips for mini ones. In scones, and most other pastries actually, I much prefer little bites of chocolate that melt into the scone as opposed to normal size chocolate chips that seem like an add on. But, it's just a personal preference of mine!
There's an 87% chance I'm going to be making another batch of these in an hour or two while listening to the stunning soundtrack for The Hunger Games. This is for two reasons - 1) I honestly can't get enough of the soundtrack, it's perfect. And 2) The following picture is the amount of scones that are left in this house...
It's unacceptable, it's a problem, and it needs to be addressed & fixed. Good thing I'm up to the challenge
xx Meg
PS. Read The Hunger Games Triology, please & thank you.
Tuesday, February 14, 2012
pink heart cake.
Happy Cougar Town is back day! ...I mean, Happy Pink Day! ...I mean, Happy Valentine's Day! No but, seriously, Cougar Town is back today (after an excruciating nine month hiatus) at 8:30 EST/PST on ABC. Please, please watch! I don't want to lose this show. I promise it's a good & hilarious show that has nothing to do with it's title.
It's also Valentine's Day, and I have a little something I'd like to share. At the beginning of this year we lost my Grandpa (horrible way to start out 2012) and since his passing my Grammy has been understandably depressed. They were together for over 50 years, had 4 kids, and numerous grandchildren. All of the sudden, her husband is gone, and she's alone in the house. My family is lucky enough to live within an hour of where she does, so we've all been making many visits to her - not to mention phone calls - to ensure that she does not feel alone. The first holiday she has had to spend without him is today, Valentine's Day, and I wanted to make sure that she did not feel alone because she certainly is not. She has a lot of love surrounding her from all of us. It was a terrible tragedy but it is true that a heartbreak like that brings a family closer together, there is something magical about how we all rallied around her and showered her with so much love.
It's also Valentine's Day, and I have a little something I'd like to share. At the beginning of this year we lost my Grandpa (horrible way to start out 2012) and since his passing my Grammy has been understandably depressed. They were together for over 50 years, had 4 kids, and numerous grandchildren. All of the sudden, her husband is gone, and she's alone in the house. My family is lucky enough to live within an hour of where she does, so we've all been making many visits to her - not to mention phone calls - to ensure that she does not feel alone. The first holiday she has had to spend without him is today, Valentine's Day, and I wanted to make sure that she did not feel alone because she certainly is not. She has a lot of love surrounding her from all of us. It was a terrible tragedy but it is true that a heartbreak like that brings a family closer together, there is something magical about how we all rallied around her and showered her with so much love.
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