I haven’t made cupcakes in a while, so I thought I would rectify that. Chocolate Cupcakes with Chocolate Pistachio Frosting, Pistachio Linzer Cookies with Red Currant and Passion Fruit Jam, all packed up in egg cartons for Easter.
desserts
I really wanted some flowers in my life. Spring is not springing quickly enough here in New England and so when I saw this cute fluted bundt cake pan, I thought it would make a cute flower. Of course, then I singed the top of the bundt cake so it isn’t very flowery anymore. Oh well. Not everything comes out perfectly and to be fair, this cake was fine, just the top was a little dark.
Fluted bundt cake pan came from UpSwing Vintage, on Etsy.
For those of you who follow my baking and cooking, you will know that I really really hate food coloring. I rarely use it and generally find that if it isn’t a color that naturally occurs in something that one would generally eat, you shouldn’t dye it that color. The only thing that I would put in my mouth that is the color of this cake is Pepto Bismol, which didn’t exactly help in the baking. But every now and again, I bow to pop culture and decide to make something silly. Back to the regularly scheduled programming tomorrow.
Also, the last time I made one of these “Cake-Inside” Cakes, I took photos of all the steps. Those can be found here.
Another Easter Treat! In essence these are just sugar cookies, but in my continued quest of flavor experiments, they are made with honey and culinary lavender extract. Very spring like. Also, I used India Tree “Nature’s Colors” Sanding Sugars which use things like beet juice instead of artificial colors.
Switching gears from some of my Easter baking to another Springtime ritual here in New England: Maple Syrup. Seriously one of the best things on the planet. And no, not the fake stuff that is made from corn syrup but the real maple syrup that comes from trees and all. Last weekend was Maine Maple Sunday (always the 4th Sunday in March, right around when the trees should be tapped) and many of the producers had open houses. No, I don’t live in Maine, but close enough (not to mention family lives there, and many friends) so I got to thinking that I should commemorate this year’s “harvest” somehow. These lovely, crispy, nutty, maple-y cookies did the trick. Enjoy!