Cupcakes

My dad likes yellow cake with chocolate frosting. Yup - no fancy flavors or icings allowed. Since I couldn't experiment with different flavors for his birthday cake, I wanted to do something fun with the presentation. I ran across this idea at:

http://confessionsofacookbookqueen.blogspot.com/2010/05/cupcake-cupcake-toppers.html

and thought it was so cute! And so easy that I wish I had thought of it myself. Plus - edible topper made from a pb cup? Delicious and genius.

Mushrooms

It has been raining like crazy lately. That means that mushrooms are popping up all over. I think they're fascinating - alien-looking, those perfect soft frills on the underside that I am compelled to smoosh, rounded caps and sturdy little stems. And they fade away as quickly as they seem to pop up! Perfect one day and black or brown squishy or dried out piles the next.

Now I am no mycologist (mushroom expert), but I basically separate them into several different categories: smurf houses, tutus or inside-out umbrellas, cafe dining umbrellas (like the big white one below, that is an unopened cafe umbrella, see?), sea barnacle/coral types, puffballs (not pictured but you know what I mean), lilypads, and Crazy (which has many subcategories).

I don't eat mushrooms for the same reason I don't like patchouli - they smell/taste like dirt. The bright side is that I will never be poisoned by a questionable wild mushroom, right?

Happy Memorial Day, Free Graphics, and the End of May

Hope everyone is kicking off summer with some fun (unofficial summer but summer nonetheless.) I recently discovered a cool website where you can download vintage graphics, type, and clipart for free - thanks to a generous blogger! I found the bathing beauty above on her site: http://graphicsfairy.blogspot.com/

One other thing - I've finished my "Post a Day in May" project and am AMAZED that I was able to post every day in May without missing a single day! I hope that my reader(s) enjoyed it. It was fun but I don't think I could do it permanently. Hopefully, I'll still be posting several times a week as the summer fun heats up!

Cherry Pie Recipe FINALLY

Okay - finally. Here is the cherry pie filling recipe that I used. There's a link at the bottom to the piecrust recipe, too.

Ingredients:

• Canned Cherries (not the pie filling stuff, just cherries in juice/water) 16 oz
• Drained cherry juice 6 oz
• Cold Water 2 oz
• Cornstarch 1 oz
• Sugar 7 oz
• Salt .25 oz
• Lemon Juice .33 oz
• Almond Extract To Taste
• Butter .75 oz

1. Combine cold water and cornstarch in a small bowl to make a slurry.

2. In saucepan, bring juice to a hard boil (should be bubbling rapidly in the middle and the sides, not just the sides).

3. Add cornstarch slurry to juice, a little at a time while whisking vigorously. You want to make sure that there are no cornstarch lumps. You may not use all the cornstarch mixture but you want the syrup to be very thick, as it will thin out again once the sugar is added.

4. Add sugar and salt, stir until dissolved.

5. Add cherries and boil briefly. Mixture should continue to thicken. If you're worried that the cherries will become too soft, you can skip this step and just pour the finished syrup mixture over the cherries.

6. Add almond extract and lemon juice.

7. Cool mixture to room temperature. If filling is still hot, the bottom crust will become soggy. Add butter right before putting filling in pie tin.

8. Here is the recipe for the crust, as promised: http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Butter-Flaky-Pie-Crust/Detail.aspx?prop31=1 I put a nice egg wash on mine (just a beaten egg, nothing fancy) for shine and to help it brown. I also sprinkled some swedish sugar on top for crunch.

9. Bake at 425F until crust is nicely browned and filling bubbles slightly in middle - approximately 35-40 minutes but it really depends on your oven. Rotate halfway through cooking.

The Salty Tart and a milestone

I know, I know - I promised the cherry pie recipe for today. But, it's like this, I'm tired, it's past 10:30pm and I got a little too much sun today. Tomorrow - for reals.

Instead, a quick post with a mini-review. Guess where I FINALLY went today? Oh, right, you already know because you read the post header. Yes - the Salty Tart! I was supposed to meet someone at the Midtown Global Market today for a work thing. It didn't work out (not-really-hypothetical question: if you were calling someone to reschedule a same-day meeting, wouldn't you leave a message, even if you were heading into a building with no cell reception? Or would you wait until the person showed up, having driven across town in a car with no a.c. and found a spot in the pay parking ramp?Hmmph!) but there was a silver lining, as usual.

I have to do a little write-up about a bakery for my baking class, and it's due on Tuesday. So, I did a short interview with one of the kind folks at the Salty Tart, and it even turns out he is a graduate of Le Cordon Bleu!

I didn't want to leave empty-handed but all I had was a dollar and I needed it for parking. Bummer! But wait.....if I bought something, they would validate my parking! The only thing I could get with my measly dough was a chocolate meringue (priced at buck plus tax). You know I'm not a big fan of meringues, but it was chocolate and I wanted to try SOMETHING. Plus, what kind of dummy pays for parking when they could get a meringue instead? Not this kind.

So, how was it, you're wondering? Seriously delicious! Crispy on the outside, gooey inside a little like a toasted marshmallow, deeply chocolatey, and with surprise crunch from bits of cocoa nibs inside. Score! I ate it all while still in the car.

I'm hoping to be back at the Salty Tart at some point with a bigger budget.

Anywho, guess what my milestone is? This is my 300th blog post!

Pies and Stuff

This week I made a cherry pie for one of my sister's co-workers. Excuse the weird yellowy pic above; the lighting in my place sucks at night. I'll post the recipe tomorrow, I promise. I'm way too tired tonight.

In other news....

I made the tray of pastries above for my practical exam today. Overall, it went well but I did get some points taken off for my chocolate croissants (see how they are unrolling a little? that means they're probably underproofed).

I also found this rock, below, in the school parking lot. Am I crazy or does it not look a little like a piece of chocolate cream pie (I put another rock under it as as "plate" cuz I'm goofy like that)? Maybe I just have pie on the brain :)

Star Tribune's Taste 50 List

The Star Tribune came out with it's annual list of 50 Minnesota "tastemakers, trends, products, and places". Sadly, I have been to/tried very few of them. It's hard on a student budget. There are lots that I'd like to check out, though, including:

• Paul's 7-Grain Cereal from Natural Way Mills (http://www.naturalwaymills.com/)
  
• Fresh & Local radio show on AM 950 every Saturday morning


• The Roseville Dairy Queen - retro awesome building that didn't get "renovated" into a bland stripmall-type box. See pic above.


• The Salty Tart (http://www.saltytart.com/)
  
• Sweets Bakeshop (http://www.sweetsbakeshop.com/)


• The Birchwood Cafe (http://www.birchwoodcafe.com/)
  
• Sugar Sugar candy store (http://www.sugar-sugarcandy.com/)

Do you agree with the choices? Any that you'd add? See the whole list at www.startribune.com (my computer won't let me link to the actual list for some reason)