Cupcakes!

A friend recently traveled to San Francisco Miette and brought me back a treat. I thought it was cookies, but when I looked in the bag, I was pleasantly surprised to see a cake pan! Miette cakes are baked in 6″ pans and I haven’t been able to find one in town. So I baked the tomboy cake, which is on the cover of the Miette cookbook.

The recipe makes two cakes and enough raspberry buttercream icing for both. I only had one cake pan, so I made a batch of cupcakes and froze them along with the leftover buttercream.

We’re having our first stormy weather of the season – leftover of a Japanese typhoon! I thought some cupcakes were in order to cozy up by the fire. I thawed them out, whipped up the frosting and piped it on the cupcakes.

The moist chocolate and raspberry pairs so well together.

Link love: food

I love comforting, soft chocolate chip cookies. I love crispy ripe apples. I love home-grown kale. I love baking for friends and family and I love that this time of year has so many excuses for good food.

I’ve rounded up a handful of my favorite websites; savory and sweet; healthy and indulgent. I’m inspired by these beautiful photos on our gray rainy winter days.

Honey and Jam‘s photographs are calming and gorgeous. These sweet potato biscuits look like they’ll melt in your mouth.

Joy the Baker is entertaining as it is delicious. She’s a girl after my own heart, she loves cookies and cake as much as she loves kale.

Vegetarians unite! 101 Cookbooks is your place for healthy eating. This dish looks just perfect to me (um, with some kale). Her kitchen is so white and clean and calm. I love it.

I just got a copy of the new Smitten Kitchen cookbook and am excited to cook from it this week. This simple dessert is just what January needs.

The Kitchn is a catch-all site for people who love to cook and with good design. They have posts about kitchen tools, renovating, and, of course, recipes.

What are your favorite foodie sites?

P.S. What’s up with all my kale references in this post? Guess I’m craving it…I think I’ll go cut some from the garden.

 

Photos all courtesy of the sites they’re linked to.

cooking links

It is a cold, gray, rainy day here. It was snowing a bit this morning but that quickly turned into the dreaded slushy rain. I’m trying to warm myself up with some yummy, warming baking ideas. (I get to bake an apple tart for John’s birthday!)

Posie Gets Cozy | Alicia's Oatmeal Bread

Smitten Kitchen's Chocolate Hazelnut Biscotti

101 Cookbooks | Chili Lime Tequila Popcorn

The Kitchn | Shredded Apple Muesli

What are your favorite rainy day recipes?

P.S. I’ve updated my links in the sidebar.

Click on the pictures to view the recipes. All photos taken by the bloggers or contributors.

Baking Apprentice

We’ve been a bit out-of-sorts around here lately.  John has been traveling for work quite a bit this month and very busy when he’s home.  I think I slept snuggled up with piles of (clean) laundry on the bed most nights while he was away.   Everything just seemed to pile up and I couldn’t dig my way out.  We were all a little crazy.

But, John is back, Meet Your Maker is planning our next show, and Ruby is helping me bake.  All is good.  We made carrot-bran muffins yesterday.  “Ruru” as she calls herself, insisted that she get to stir the ingredients together as well, so she had her own bowl of oatmeal, raisins, carrots, then some water added.  She was quite happy, and even began to “sneak” bites of her “dough”.  My family thought I would have to teach her to eat raw dough, but not this kid.  She comes by it naturally.  When the muffins came out of the oven, I told her I needed to get a cooling rack.  Ruru opened the cupboard, pulled out a cooling rack (!) and handed it to me.

Now if I could just convince her that it is not 80 degrees out and she should be wearing something other than a tank top and wear some slippers, we would be good.