The first things that I will say about this project is that it is time consuming, somewhat frustrating and at some point, you will be asking yourself why the heck you are doing it. But then the presentation wins out because they are very pretty. And tasty. Here is the deal … and I am mentioning this right away so you can plan for it … first you need to painstakingly poke holes and drain a dozen eggs of their content. This took me an hour (even though I have done this before and thus have “had practice”). Then you have to “wash” the insides of the eggs by soaking them in water and wiping them and shaking them somewhat dry. Once you’ve done all that, the actual making of the cake batter and filling them with a piping bag, and then baking seems minor. At any rate, it seemed like it was an all day affair. Was it worth it? Yeah, the “cupcakes” (which you can also just make regular cupcakes out of, of course) were yummy, the presentation is fun and I like them. So there.
holidays
Easter is still a few weeks away, but I’ve decided to start making a few things early this year, in hopes of inspiring friends to do some baking this spring. It’s also the first day of Spring today, though the weather outside would not indicate that. Anyway, Easter and Spring … birds and nests and easter eggs. Cookies.
It’s getting to be St. Patrick’s Day is a few weeks time and while I am in no way Irish, I do live in Boston, so the town is full of faux-Irish, as it were. And as with any holiday, it is just a good excuse to make something sort of, somehow related to that holiday. So I made these truffles. OK, I probably didn’t need to put the green nonpareils on there, but they are to distract you from the not-so-good look of the truffles themselves. They taste great, but I am not very talented with the whole “dipping in chocolate” part.
Today, February 22, is National Margarita Day. This either makes no sense (“Why in the world would it be decided to have national margarita day in February when it is cold and snowy?!?”) or is completely ingenious (“Hey, it’s National Margarita Day! What a great excuse to have a margarita in the middle of the day on a Sunday when it is snowy and miserable outside!”). Either way, I’m making a drink! And because it is still Meyer Lemon season, my Margarita of choice is this one. Bottoms up!
Happy Valentine’s Day! For this faux holiday, I decided to make one of my “heart inside cakes”, even though I have made many of them over the last couple of years. This time, however, I actually photographed all the steps so that you would have a sense of what is involved (you actually have to make two cakes). After having done this so many times, it seems self explanatory to me, but if you have any questions, shoot me a note. Enjoy!





