Strawberry Galette

The weather has finally been improving, and it's getting warmer (if only slightly), and the sun has been out (I'll take two days of sunshine a week!).  Things are looking brighter, and I can't wait for spring to really arrive with full force. For now though, these mild improvements are a very welcome change.  Since this past weekend was the first that kinda sorta resembled spring (aside from the crazy howling wind on Saturday), there was nothing better than embracing a new set of seasonal flavors.  In my mind, nothing says "spring is here!" quite like the arrival of fresh strawberries.  Fresh, colorful, and beautiful, strawberries are one of my all-time favorite fruits.  There's nothing more disappointing than eating fresh strawberries in winter, simply because they don't taste like anything.  So when an abundance of strawberries arrive at the grocery store and farmer's market, and they really taste the way they're supposed to...it's just a wonderful thing.

Carrot Cake

No cake makes me think of Easter or spring more than carrot cake.  I LOVE it. It's the best flavor outside of vanilla and chocolate cake, and that's saying a lot, because I love nothing more than a perfect slice of moist, rich chocolate cake. This is something else though! Carrot cake has been a treat that I've looked forward to ever since I was little.  It's not that I remember ever having a particularly good carrot cake when I was younger, but I do remember that whenever my dad brought a slice home, it was a cause for celebration (in my mind, at least; no one else seemed to love carrot cake as much as I did).  I love all types of carrot cakes, from a the most basic to the one with all the mix-ins.  This carrot cake took a middle of the road approach.  It's got a fair amount of extras stirred in (shredded coconut and crushed pineapple), but lacks the raisins and nuts that would make this a hefty, fully-loaded cake.  Nevertheless, it's an incredible cake. 

Tea Party Cupcakes

If you follow me on Twitter, you may have seen a tweet this past weekend that went along the lines of baking and decorating 6 dozen red velvet cupcakes.  I really wasn't lying, that was how I spent my Friday night! I hadn't initially intended to spend my Friday night baking and decorating so many cupcakes...this kinda just sort of felt into my lap unexpectedly.  You see, my mom had been put in charge of making the cake for my cousin's baby shower on Saturday, and we had planned out an amazinggg cake for it.  Seriously, this cake was gonna be amazing.  

The theme of the shower was a combination of Alice in Wonderland, gardens, and tea parties.  My mom and I had planned out the cake, and I drew up a sketch of what the final cake would look like.  It was to have three tiers or red velvet cake with cream cheese frosting.  Each tier was to be covered in fondant.  The bottom tier was to be a garden, and covered with fondant grass, flowers, butterflies, and the like.  The second tier was going to be a pale shade of pink with a white fondant bow along the bottom, and the top tier was going to be a tea party setting, complete with an engraved tablecloth and a full tea set.  It had the prospects of being a really beautiful cake.  

Note that I say, "it had..."

Unfortunately, the cake my mom and I had spent so much time planning out never actually happened.  Three days prior to Saturday's shower, on Wednesday afternoon, my mom somehow managed to fracture her hand while adding the green coloring to the fondant for the bottom tier.  I know, it sounds crazy, but it actually happened.  I guess it makes sense though...mixing fondant colors by hand is hard enough, but it's even harder when you have to mix enough fondant to cover a 16" cake that's supposed to be 4" tall!  If you've never added color to fondant by hand before, imagine that it is something like play-doh, but much much much harder.  In any case, after a relatively quick trip to the emergency room, my mom was left with a totally bandaged hand, and the next day, a bright purple cast all the way up to her elbow. 

Mini Strawberry-Rhubarb Pies

Every now and then we think up an idea that at the time seems brilliant and amazing, and no matter what, we HAVE to go through with it.  This happens to me all the time.  Last summer, I got the idea of making a sour-cherry lattice top pie stuck in my head.  I just HAD to make one.  Mind you, I had only made like...one pie before that in my life, and it had a crumble for the topping; it wasn't even a double crust pie!  I'm not really sure how I figured that I would be able to put together a lattice crust given that I had practically no experience with pie dough.  Other fun factors that added to this situation was that I decided to try a completely brand new pie crust recipe, despite having made a pie crust successfully before.  I'm not sure why I didn't choose to simply reuse that recipe that I knew worked, but I just HAD to try out a new recipe for some reason.  To make matters even more fun, I also didn't have a cherry pitter...and I still don't (this fact will change soon, I'm sure). I decided to give myself the added pleasure of pitting about 2 pounds of cherries by hand.  These were clearly all great decisions on my part.  

Hummingbird Cupcakes

Finals are over, at last!  Ahhh, it felt like this day would never come, but it finally did, and it was seriously about time. It's so nice to just sit back and just do nothing.  Well that’s not entirely true I suppose.  I got out of my last final exam this afternoon and did my last load of laundry and then watched more episodes of Mad Men than I’m going to admit (I’m attempting to catch up as quickly as I can, I only jumped on the Mad Men bandwagon a couple of weeks ago.  I’m already up to the middle of season three!).  I guess that’s not much to brag about, but hey, I just finished exams and I did a load of laundry...that has to count as productive right? I’m going to pretend it does.  I should technically be packing right now too, as I’m moving back home tomorrow, but let’s just say that the process is going much slower than I would have hoped...I guess that fact that I have Mad Men playing on Netflix as I pack isn’t really helping things move along.  But that’s ok, because school is over and it’s summer (sort of)!  My things will just have to pack themselves; I’m sure they’ll manage.

Carrot Cake Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting

I've always been a fan of sticking carrots and other vegetables that might seem kinda weird (like zucchini) into baked goods, like cakes and cookies.  The combination of the two just seems to work, I think.  By this point, I'm sure you've all picked up on my indifference towards frosting, but I don't think I've shared with you  that I really don't care very much for cream cheese frosting.  Shocking, isn't it?  Cream cheese frosting seems to be a favorite for most people, but I don't know, I think I'd rather just have buttercream frosting, despite my apathy for it.  Before this post seems to get any more pessimistic I will say this.  Cream cheese frosting spread over a carrot cake cupcake is possibly one of my favorite combinations of cupcake/frosting.  I can't really tell you why I like cream cheese frosting so much when it's on a carrot cake cupcake, but for some reason, it really just works for me.  I'm weird and particular, I know.

Anyway, carrot cake has always been a real favorite of mine.  It could be because I think carrots are so versatile (if you wanna try something crazy and delicious, try making juice with carrots and fresh oranges, this is one of my favorite types of fresh juices to make).  It could also be because carrot cake is simply so timeless.  It's been around for forever, and if anything has been around for a while and is still a favorite, there has to be a reason for it.  Classics are goooood.