I was sad when it was announced that Iron Cupcake: Earth was no more. It was a significant factor in my getting seriously interested in pastry, leading me to experiment with recipes and learn how to make a real buttercream. It was on hiatus for a while as its fate was being determined, and I really missed the challenge and fun of making creative cupcakes at home.
Like a tasty flower.
Oh hey. It’s been like a month. I promised things were going to change, didn’t I?
…Well, they’re not. At least not in the way I promised. See, I just don’t have the energy, or honestly, the interest to be as hardcore into blogging as I was a year ago. Priorities change. So instead of stressing myself out over (and just plain forgetting) all the neato stuff I was going to do (which other bloggers are doing better anyway) I decided to think about what it was that I missed about blogging. And I do miss a lot! I decided that I missed sharing things when they went 100% right, and that I missed making up cupcakes. The latter will be addressed in one of the, uh, at least two other entries planned for this month. The former, however, is right below this sentence!
Not actually cherries :O
Currently, I’m sitting here in a pool of sweat, consuming as much icy deliciousness as I can. Sorbet, iced tea, iced coffee, you know. What’s that you say? It’s hot where you are, too? And you’re afraid that the ice cream you want so badly to cool you off will melt on the trip home?
Quite elegant.
Well, if you’re like me and are lucky enough to have a store right downstairs that sells frozen passion fruit pulp, you can rush down and get all the ingredients to make this passion fruit ice cream within a few minutes, churn it and be enjoying a flavorful frozen treat in an hour or two. It’s an interesting recipe in that it uses the whole egg as opposed to just the yolks – I think it makes the texture a bit fluffier. I changed it up a little by using half-and-half, which also lightened the recipe somewhat. It’s incredibly simple and something I will be making again, though quite possibly with cacao nibs in it next time. Yum!
Have a little more time on your hands and a hankering for something classic? Want something to do idly while watching a TV show? Then maybe this other recipe can help you out…
Bet you never thought of making THIS at home.
This is going to be a rather unusual post, one of those rare, non-sugary things that I come up with every once in a great while. Not only that, but it’s flat-out healthy, and came together out of a particularly successful spring trip to the Greenmarket.
Ooh, springy!
Though I’m a lot busier than I used to be, I still happily take special requests from friends. A couple months ago an old friend told me she wanted Margarita cookies for her birthday in May. So I made some!
It's like a one-cookie party!
I’d had a really yummy idea swimming around in my brain for a while, and like all swimmy ideas it changed and evolved over time, even getting so far as to be hypothetically written out in my notebook, along with recipes for accompanying elements. Also like many swimmy ideas, it sat fairly dormant until I came across something that caused a final change, very different to what I had been previously imagining.
It looks so exotic!
The April 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Esther of The Lilac Kitchen. She challenged everyone to make a traditional British pudding using, if possible, a very traditional British ingredient: suet.
Golden, pretty and rhubarby!
I wasn’t terribly excited about this challenge at first, and didn’t bother with the whole suet thing, choosing instead to substitute butter (of course). But once I got the idea to use rhubarb, just about the only local-ish source of pastry inspiration that’s in season at the moment, I started to get a little more interested in it. And in spite of the tempting steamed rhubarb pie concept, I decided to go with a much easier sponge pudding.
Hi! Remember me?
No?
…Reeeeally?
Maybe this will jog your memory.
Helloooo, wonderful ice cream.
As much as I enjoy participating in the Daring Bakers, I do run into the same problem fairly frequently – I make some component for the challenge dessert and end up with much too much of whatever it is. This time, it was grapefruit marmalade.
I thought this cake would make a pretty, rustic-ish loaf. I was right.
Luckily, I only had to wonder what I was going to do with all that marmalade for just a couple of days, because the very fabulous Alejandra posted a perfect solution – marmalade cake!
The 2010 March Daring Baker’s challenge was hosted by Jennifer of Chocolate Shavings. She chose Orange Tian as the challenge for this month, a dessert based on a recipe from Alain Ducasse’s Cooking School in Paris.
Because changing the fruit on top just wasn't enough.
