thanks for all of your cupcake-related support as i've baked six cupcakes for the sweetest kitchen's mystery box challenge and managed to enter five of them in the competition on time. of those five, four received enough of your votes to be entered into the random draw. though i never won that draw, i've learned a lot, made some stunning messes, and eaten far too much batter over the last eight months.
click to make this bigger!
so, thanks for voting for me! i hope to keep the hobby alive and invite you to come up with your own challenges for me in the months ahead!
to be honest, it took me a while to decide which way to go on this. i thought about creating a volcano or using word play (something about phys. ed.)... but none of that really motivated me. finally, i found the answer: booze.
in life, booze is so rarely the answer. in my baking, however, it's becoming more common! pina colada muffins, mojito cupcakes, and eggnog fudge... oh, my! even though - and perhaps because - i don't drink very often, i find playing off cocktails to be a wonderful creative outlet.
i have to say, though, that i took things up a notch with these champagne and citrus cupcakes, inspired by the mimosa-esque buck's fizz! the staple of fancy brunches and afternoon weddings, the mimosa evokes light, lightheadedness, and joy.
and, if i do say so myself, so do my mimosa in the sun cupcakes!
let me walk you through the process:
the lemon cake base was infused with champagne and a touch of freshly-squeezed orange juice.
post-bake, champagne syrup was drizzled over the still-warm cupcakes and allowed to soak in.
the following day, after marinating, a champagne frosting was applied along with a twist of orange peel as garnish.
these tasty, refreshing desserts now only awaited the final touch: sugar bubbles representing the effervescent celebration that champagne has come to connote.
my participation in these challenges has pushed me to work on my technique, rather than rely on my puns. it has introduced me to piping technique, filigree, creative ingredients (jell-o!), unexpected flavour combinations (chocolate and cheese, anyone!), and - this month - sugar work.
so, while those i live with won't necessarily miss the sticky fridge handle and the whir of the handheld blender, i'll miss these little adventures, jamieanne. thanks for inspiring me to come up with my own!
The winner of June’s Mystery Box Cupcake Challenge will receive prizes from:
for this month's mystery box cupcake challenge, i honour the one-hundred and thirty-seventh birthday of robert frost, whose poetry has inspired and haunted me. it even made its way into my high school yearbook write-up.
whose cakes these are i think i know. his bakery's in the village though; he will not see me stopping here to watch his cakes fill up with snow.
my filigree must think it queer to stop without some fondant near, between the trees and frosted cake, the darkest chocolate of the year.
he gives his fragile limbs a shake and some of them begin to break the only other sound's the sweep of easy mint and sugar flake.
the cupcake's lovely, dark, and deep, but i have promises to keep, and miles to go before i sleep. and miles to go before i sleep.
the winner of march’s mystery box cupcake challenge will receive prizes from:
this week, i have logged 235 minutes of exercise: 60 minutes of advanced step, 20 minutes of jane fonda, 20 minutes of taebo, 45 minutes of body sculpt, 45 minutes of beginner step, and 45 minutes of kickboxing (which i just tried for the first time today!).
so.
a friend of mine playfully alluded to my initiation onto "the hot team," and asked me, "where do you get your motivation?" this isn't an easy question. i mean, i'm a fairly lazy person and, like most people, i run on inertia. there are days and weeks when working out is the bane of my existence. but i've learned that it really is easier to be on your game than to try to catch up when you've fallen behind. to my mind, this is the realization that opens the door to self-discipline in all areas of my life, particularly in academics, relationships, and health. rather than cutting corners, thinking that it's ok to cheat a little, i need to realize that those cheats add up: in all-night writing/cramming sessions, in blow-ups or loneliness because we haven't communicated along the way, in scale-induced guilt, indigestion, or premature exhaustion during a demanding workout. molehills can clump up into mountains if you neglect them too long. take the more expedient route: do it now.
a second crucial realization came in the classroom. i prepare students for a standardized test that i don't administer or set the parameters for. unfortunately, when i finish up the content portion of class early, my students usually take off. they choose not to take advantage of the ten or twenty or even thirty minutes we have left by asking questions or going over homework. they behave as if their potential for growth and test's difficulty are both limited by my agenda for our session. but they're not. there's a gap between where my students are and where they need to be to succeed, and taking full advantage of their resources is the best way for my students to close that gap.
so, that's where i get my motivation: knowing that it's easier to do it now - even if it feels harder - and that i have tools at my disposal to help me. some of them are obvious: a fabulous instructor at my gym, friends who also work out there, sparkpeople.com (where i track my food and exercise religiously and learn more about healthy living), and parents who are also trying to get healthier right now. some are more subtle, but just as essential: how strong i feel when i'm practicing roundhouse kicks and uppercuts, how amazing home-roasted red peppers taste, how affordable produce is, and how much happier i am when i'm hydrated. those things all motivate me. and they're not all.
ween is one of idris' favourite bands, and since they have an album called "chocolate and cheese," i couldn't resist paying tribute to them this month. (i know i've honoured him in cupcake form before, but he's my boyfriend and it's valentine's day and... shut up, i like him, ok?)
ahem.
so, manouri is a semi-soft sheep and goat cheese with a mild flavour and notes of citrus. i crumbled it as finely as i could before folding it into a basic chocolate cake batter. the cupcakes baked up so very moist, and delicious. the manouri taste was quite mild, though, so i knew i'd need to add more somehow.
that's why i whipped some cheese up with heavy cream, rolled it into a log, and froze it for a while. then i sliced it into rounds and balanced those on top of the milk chocolate frosting. then, because self-control is not my forte, i added another dollop of chocolate frosting.
while i'm a novice at piping chocolate, i managed to create two filigree replicas of the ween logo and tossed - ok, held my breath and gingerly placed - those on the cupcakes as well.
the result is a creamy, chocolaty, and... well, smiley.
when the time comes, if you like these cupcakes you should vote for them! the winner of february’s mystery box cupcake challenge will receive prizes from:
more than ten months ago, i listed some of the things i would register for, were i in a position to solicit gifts. well, here's some news: you can buy kitchen stuff yourself! you don't have to wait to get engaged and ask other people to buy it for you! here's some of the progress i've made:
gadgets and tools:
- oil mister - got one in our secret santa random exchange! how lucky am i? so lucky!
- mandoline - bought one last spring and have only suffered one mini-amputation so far!
- good spatulas - bought one yesterday! it's cranberry-coloured!
appliances:
- rice cooker - got one in july for sushi making! have also made mamaliga and quinoa in there.
- i said that if i had a food processor and an immersion blender i wouldn't need a blender qua blender, but then one day at steven and chris they gave all of us kitchenaid blenders! it's not yet clear if this will be mine in the long run, 'cause i'm definitely leaving it here when i go off to law school. but let me just say: i love this thing!
now that i know i'm moving, buying stuff is a bit different. i'm trying to figure out what will be important to take with me. which clothes? which of my elephants? which books? which household things? it's a little early to make decisions, but certainly not too early for my impending move to affect my shopping. my boyfriend lives a very "spartan" life - his words - and took his time to settle into his new place. i put art up on his walls when i came to visit more than a month in. his couch came after i left, and bookshelves later still. i admire how careful he is about investing in his home, but the place was so much warmer once i put some pictures on the wall! maybe there's a happy medium there - a way to achieve practical nesting.
first off, thanks to all those who voted for my juicy watermelon cupcakes! while my entry received the most votes, that only got me as far as the random draw, which i did not win. the winner's cardamom and pistachio cupcakes look amazing, however, and she's a victoria girl living in vancouver!
second off, i've been thinking about gym class.
it seems to me that there are a few things this respite from the drudgery of coursework slash kafkaesque nightmare is supposed to accomplish. playing sports teaches you team work and organization. it improves your coordination and cardiovascular health. it trains you to be an accomplished enough liar to convince your classmates that you wanted to be picked last and your teacher that you just menstruate really damn often. how else will younguns develop perseverance, strategy, and the strength to survive public humiliation?
when i was in junior high school, once a year a self-defense instructor would come and work with all the gym classes. i remember that this was the only time during the year when i woke up every morning in pain. i wasn't accustomed to using my muscles. indeed, most of gym class was about cardiovascular work. when we did runs, my lungs hurt and i thought my heart would explode, but my legs were all "aw, come ON! we can do better than this!" my muscles weren't challenged at all - except during those two weeks per year.
being active is so important. and it's fun! and in high school i often found myself wishing that phys.ed. was still mandatory. but i can't help feeling that there was something wrong with the way it was taught. weight training is something you can only really start transitioning into in your mid-teens, but i wish my gym teachers had said to me, "it's not just about how many times you can skip in a minute. it's not just about how far you can hit a baseball (if you manage to hit it). it's about being at home in your body and using it well."
i wish i had been taught to be strong, and not just told that i wasn't fast enough.
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this is an entry into sweetest kitchen's december mystery box challenge!
please please please please please please please please vote for me!
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when this month's mystery box challenge came up - "a cupcake for someone special" - the first thought that popped into my head was "didn't i just do this last month?!" i quickly realized that there were plenty of lovely brunette, blonde, and black-haired people in my life, and that surely one of them could inspire a delectable dessert. in fact, one of my favourite people on the planet doesn't have a whole lot of red hair - just the occasional natural highlight. she has been my little sissy for twenty-eight years and three months, and, for the most part, we've both enjoyed that immensely.
within minutes a stroke of brilliance befell me!
or maybe i just read my sister's blog. in the canon of our family history, alongside "the ugly picture," stories of my breaking christmas ornaments, and our obnoxious habit of quoting "singin' in the rain" to one another, this photo of slightly/aubergine devouring watermelon and clinging to maimuța holds a very special place.
the only question left was "can i really make a watermelon cupcake?!" cupcakes are creamy, buttery packages of sweetness and comfort and warmth - even when served at room temp! how can a cupcake taste refreshing and juicy and, well, watermelony? the answer came with a jiggle: watermelon jell-o! i prepared the jell-o juice and used it in place of milk! the first batch came out tasting great, but lacking that cheerful and intense pink that we've all come to expect from watermelon. so in went some food colouring, and the second batch was perfect!
rather than icing, i mixed tinted whipped cream with watermelon jello-o juice for the frosting, and sprinkled on green decorative sugar to create watermelon stripes.
paired with a delicious watermelon and cucumber rum cocktail, this juicy cupcake injected sunshine into one of the longest days of the year!
dodi dodi, i love you and your watermelon munching face! say "hi" to maimuța for me!
today i am turkeying and gobbling. this is about the tenth turkey i've ever prepared, and it's always a bit of an adventure. i love the whole process, with the possible exception of the stress over whether the bird will be thawed out in time.
i love dicing apples.
i love mincing celery.
i love plumping raisins.
i love watching the stuffing swell.
i love whipping up butter and sage.
i love using my digital meat thermometer.
i love peeling back the tin foil.
i love wearing an apron.
i love eating the final product.
i love remembering all the thanksgivings, christmases, and easters past for which i made turkey, and thinking of the friends who sat around that feast with me!
i still don't know how to carve the turkey or make a gravy i'm really happy with, but... yay! it's turkey day!
i think i'm going to put on "white christmas" while i wrap a couple of gifts and wait to unveil my masterpiece!
when i lived in calgary, i occasionally followed a vegan or vegetarian diet. the food buzz project blog competition has reminded me of this and made me miss the city through one of this challenge's competitors: angela of "oh she glows" review the coup, a vegetarian restaurant on 17th ave!
pick five things that you want to achieve this month. they can be related or quite distinct, serious or fun, permanent or temporary. but they should be concrete.
my five things for december are:
1) lose five more pounds.
2) complete the december cupcake challenge with time to spare.
3) read a novel not written by agatha christie.
4) blog twice a week.
5) talk to new people at the holiday parties i'm attending.
after watching with interest for quite some time, i've taken myself off the bench (and dared a few friends to join me) by participating in the sweetest kitchen's mystery box cupcake challenge! this month's featured ingredient is... ginger!
to be honest, i was very tempted to recreate my ginger-matcha sushi cake from birthday 2009. it was delicious, innovative, and fun to look at. besides, the wasabi icing blew my mind! but as i wandered around bulk barn, looking for cupcake-sized sushi ingredients, i was conscience-striken. the whole point of this was to try something new!
so i thought about ginger. and then i thought of gingers! having decided that my cupcakes would be an edible tribute to redheads both real and fictional, the perfect ingredient with which to pair the ginger instantly sprang to mind: carrots!
i scoured the underworld of the internets, bravely seeking a carrot-based cupcake that would defy expectations of carrot-cakey-ness! to no avail! in the end, i had to resort to adapting and tweaking to make these cupcakes masterpieces!
get these dry things: - 2 cups all-purpose flour OR 2 1/4 cup cake flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp cinnamon
- 1 tsp crushed cloves (ask your mom to mortar & pestle these for you. she's prolly tops!)
get these wet things: - 2 large eggs, room temperature
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 1 1/3 cups sugar
- 1 cup melted butter
- 1 large carrot, chopped, steamed, and then pureed with 1/4 cup buttermilk
la piece de resistance: ginger chunks in cane sugar syrup chopped up into minichunks!
do this: - preheat oven to 350
- combine dry ingredients and whisk
- in another bowl, combine wet ingredients and whisk
- pour the wet combo into the dry combo (i'm still not sure why) and stir ten times
- toss in ginger chunks and stir a few more times - fill cupcake liners 2/3 of the way up
- bake for 20-25 minutes, turning halfway through
- cool
- frost!
- decorate!!
- serve!!!
here i am with my favourite ginger:
and that was my tribute not only the delicious and versatile ingredient that is the ginger root, but also to the carrot-haired among us, from conan to ariel, from archie to anne of green gables, from my older sister to my younger brother-in-law, from pippi longstocking to my boyfriend.
if you like what you see, please vote for my entry in the sweetest kitchen's contest!
the winner of november’s mystery box cupcake challenge will receive prizes from:
in addition to being awesome in countless ways that matter to me, idris is awesome in ways that are relevant to and have come to the attention of a mathematics department at a university in the mid-atlantic. i bought him the flowers to celebrate the long-awaited job offer - they're tiger lilies, 'cause he's a fan of cats. so much a fan is he that he just happened to be wearing the tiger beer shirt at the time!
this is my boyfriend and a delicious trio of chocolate desserts we shared just before we took turns crying a little.
he's been waiting for a career opportunity like this one for a long time, but the mid-atlantic is a bit farther away from me than we're used to. so, that's tough... but it's only tough because he's special. and having someone special is very, very good.
welcome to my 500th post! this milestone will be commemorated with a nod to the main genres of blogpost we have seen here at "can you hear the sound of laughter..."
the mundane (yet somehow bizarre):
i was just stung by a bee in my basement. at just after midnight. while i was trying to iron my shirt. on my left ring toe. no - i wasn't trying to iron my shirt on my toe... that's just where the bee stung me. this probably means i'm in for a feverish dream.
the momentous:
today i graduate for the fourth time in my life, and officially add the letters "m.a." to the end of my name - instead of just the beginning. there's an awful lot of hard work buried in those two little letters! finishing things is so good!
the miraculous:
michelle and idris are joining my parents in the audience at the convocation ceremony, and all four of them are making significant sacrifices to be there. i am loved, and i know it.
the mmmm:
there will be caramel crunch cake and champagne when we come home tonight! yum and sigh.
from way across the ocean, my little sissy asked me why i was smiling. in response, i offer this partial list of my reasons for glee:
- haircuts
- sushi
- defenses and convocations
- job postings and auditions
- pub trivia successes
- a mom who takes care of me when i sacrifice part of my finger to the mandolin* gods
- a boyfriend who listens and is teaching me when to stop talking
- friends who have big! changes! going on in their lives
- the impending return of little sissy and her husband!
- seeing nyc for the first time soon
- big sissy's wedding in june!
- cats
- diet coke
- phone calls with michelle
- apples and peanut butter
- a pink sweater
- dibs
oooh... dibs! see ya!
* the vegetable slicer, not the musical instrument
what do you get when you combine eight types of cola with two nerds? a homemade cola taste test, patterned after the pepsi challenge!
idris and i are both loyal fans of coca-cola products: he's committed to the classic variety, while i have a mild addiction to diet coke. but would these preferences hold true in a double-blind taste test?!
we acquired a bottle or can of each of the following: pepsi, diet pepsi, diet caffeine-free pepsi, cocacola, diet coke, coke zero, compliments cola, and life brand diet cola.
using eight identical glasses and twice as many post-its, we achieved this:
i numbered the glasses and then, in private, wrote down which type of cola each number represented. i then left the area while idris rearranged the glasses and labeled them with letters. he also kept his code-key to himself.
in order to ensure that the test results were untainted, we did the taste-testing separately.
as we sipped from each of the glasses we tried to answer the following questionnaire:
a) which was your favourite?
b) which was your least favourite?
c) which was sweetest?
d) which tasted most like chemicals?
e) which ones were diet/zero? (5)
f) which one was caffeine-free?
g) which ones were coca-cola products? (3)
h) which ones were pepsi products? (3)
i) which ones were store brand? (2)
our answers were all over the map. we both correctly identified three of the five diet drinks, and i picked out the diet caffeine-free pepsi. diet pepsi fooled idris, while coke zero fooled me!
(i also knew which one was the store-brand cola, but that was a cheat: it was purchased last and was noticeably warmer than the others. by the time idris drank, the difference in temperature was probably negligible.)
while neither of us did a bang-up job of figuring out which drink was which, we did eventually each choose a favourite. the results, after this drumroll....
idris chose coke and i chose diet coke!
tada! sweet vindication!
word to the wise: if you want to recreate this, i'd suggest sticking with fewer options. the tastes are actually quite similar from cola to cola, so eight is, well, more than enough.
also, if you can swing this, buy cans and keep them all in the fridge for 24 hours before embarking on this adventure. that way, you can't cheat and when you're done you won't be swimming in quite so much pop you never intend to drink.
plans for the future: this might be worth repeating with other combinations. for instance, i arranged a quick follow-up test with just the colas, and idris was then able to distinguish between the coca-cola, the pepsi, and the store brand cola. you could also do one with kosher coke and regular, the former of which uses cane sugar while the latter uses high fructose corn syrup. or coke, diet coke, and coke zero. but, i repeat: the fewer samples, the better read you'll get on the differences between them.
warning: for better and for worse, this is not manchu wok's sticky, breaded, and deep-fried orange chicken!
i made a ridiculously delicious chicken dish last night and it's definitely worth sharing, particularly if you're trying to address these two key concerns:
1) will the chicken be cooked through? will it be dry?
i love preparing chicken in a slowcooker because i rarely have to worry about this.
2) will this hurt my stomach?
i live with people who can't handle a lot of "tasty" things: heat, exotic spices, onions, or excessively acidic ingredients can irritate the stomach or me hard to digest. it's been a challenge for me to find ways to make things that are healthy and tasty for them.
to solve this problem, we often rely on my favourite cut of chicken: the thighs. not only are they tasty but in this recipe they release a lot of moisture as they cook. in other words, they provide a delectable base for their own sauce. and, even though this dish has orange juice in it, the acid doesn't seem to survive the cooking process.
so, without further ado, i present a meal that feels bland to the tummy but yummy to the tongue!
the stuff:
- chicken thighs - boneless, skinless
- orange juice
- orange marmalade + sesame oil
- soy sauce + your favourite spice combo (i used garlic & herbs)
- flour + butter
the steps:
1) combine marmalade and sesame oil and slather onto the chicken.
2) place the meat into your slowcooker and add orange juice about two-thirds of the the way up the meat.
3) add a splash of soy sauce and a healthy pinch of your spices, then turn the slowcooker on high.
4) around the 2 hour mark, turn the slowcooker to low.
5) make a roux out of equal parts butter and flour. add liquid from the slowcooker to the roux, one ladle-full at a time, and combine well.
6) return thickened juices to the slowcooker and stir.
7) at this point i also added (frozen and defrosted) asparagus to the chicken, but you can use another vegetable (carrots would nice, i think!) or skip this entirely. if you're using fresh produce, think about adding it around the 1.5 hour mark so it has time to soften and soak up the juices. (let's call that step 3b.)
orangeyness is a very subjective thing, and you should figure out how much tang works for you. without too much figuring, the sauce came out sweet but not cloying and the chicken was hearty when served alongside some roasted zucchini and orange peppers (drizzled with sesame oil).
