At least four other people rode their bikes to work today. So, in the grand scheme of things, it’s not monumental that I rode my bike to work today, but in my little world it was super exciting. And what was more exciting than that was that I rode it to work toting my April Cupcake Hero entry: Prickly Pear Lemon Cupcakes.

There was some definite engineering that happened before this bike ride began this morning. I have a front basket on my bike, so it seemed logical that I tie them to that. I also choose a cupcake caddy that had deep wells, so that they would stay in place during the journey. But the best plans don’t always work out. Some where between Chandler and Gilbert the sidewalk/bike lane literally ended and I had to go off road. You can see that there were a few of them that took a tumble.

But it was actually fun watching them bounce around. By the time I made it to the office, they had all bounced upside down and right side up again. And that caddy stayed in place the whole way. It was interesting for me to see how many different ways I could go green with this challenge. Here’s some of the eco-friendly things that went into these babies:

• Choose a prickly pear product that was bottled within 100 miles of Phoenix (eat local)
• Selected locally grown lemons from a local farmer’s market (eat local)
• Used silicone cupcake cups rather than using paper (reduce/reuse)
• Rode my bike to work to transport these little babies to the office (reduce)

Prickly Pear Lemon Cupcakes

These cupcakes were so moist and the lemon flavor zinged. I think I am officially hooked on prickly pear syrup (margaritas and iced tea posts here). The flavor is subtlety sweet. I choose a lemon cake recipe from Chockylit and made a simple butter cream and added in the prickly pear syrup. I chose this frosting because I wanted the prickly pear taste to stand out and I see a buttercream like a good paint primer, it’s a frosting that helps whatever you mix in really stand out.

Lemon Cupcakes
12 regular cupcakes / 350 degree oven

8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup sugar
3 large eggs
1½ cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
½ cup milk
3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
zest of one lemon

1. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy, about 2-3 minutes.
2. Add eggs, one at a time, beating until incorporated.
3. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt.
4. Measure out milk and vanilla.
5. Add flour mixture and milk alternatively, beginning and ending with flour mixture.
6. Mix in lemon juice.
7. Fill the ice cream cones about 1/2 inch from the top (just over the lower ridge). Tap the cones to ensure the batter fills the bottom. Bake at 350 for 20 minutes until a cake tester comes out clean.

Note: The batter makes 12 regular cupcakes.

This is my April 2008 Cupcake Hero Entry for Earth Day!

“I don’t know why anybody would eat fish that comes from warm water.” I had never thought about the difference between cold water and warm water fish until on day when we were talking about food, Alaska born Molly said that. I’m not much of a fish eater anyways. I love shell fish and you’d be hard pressed to find a fried shrimp basket on the Texas Gulf Coast that I haven’t tried. But I’ve never been a big fan of any type of fish filet.

I feel badly for my parents who love fish. They would literally wait for me to sleep over at friend’s home or go to summer camp and I think they would eat fish every night I was gone. As I’ve gotten older, I’m trying to branch out a little more. I like tuna sushimi, California and spicy tuna rolls and I’ll eat squid salad.

A few years back I got the South Beach Diet Cookbook. It was an interesting read and there are several recipes I absolutely love. One of those is the Spinach stuffed Salmon fillets. This recipe is so super simple, tasty and perfect for a busy weeknight dinner. It literally takes from start to finish about 15 minutes.

Process:

Take one salmon fillet and split it in the center. Squeeze out the excess water in one package of spinach, mix in two table spoons of pesto, a tablespoon of pine nuts, salt and pepper to taste. Stuff the mixture into the salmon and bake at 400 degrees for 10 minutes or less.

Oh and Big Ups to EricaLucci for her new job and for taking the bus to work. Woot!

Oh Cupcake Hero Challenge, you almost got me on this one. I joined during peppermint, caught my stride during coffee, said cheers during liquor but this one was not an easy challenge for me. I struggled with what approach I wanted to take and I wanted a challenge. But how much can you do with a marshmallow?

I started making a list of all the desserts and dishes that have marshmallows (s’mores, Peeps, rocky road, sweet potato pie). I was actually committed to one of those desserts when I had a dream (some may even call it a premonition) about what cupcake I should make for Cupcake Hero: Marshmallow.

I had a dream about cupcakes. It’s the first time for me. Any who…

You see, I had been thinking about my grandmother (Moo Moo). I didn’t go home this year for Easter and she always puts together the best Sunday lunches. One of her signature dishes is Old Fashion Fruit Salad. It’s a simple cut fruit salad with homemade whipped cream and marshmallows! Ah-freakin-ha! There was my challenge. How could I turn her salad into a cupcake?

I started with the Strawberry Cupcake recipe from Sprinkles that I found on the website All Things Cupcake. This is the second Sprinkles recipe I’ve made. They’re good. It seems that most of them follow more of the chiffon cake method rather than traditional Betty Crocker recipes.

For the fruit in the salad I went with apples, pears and bananas. I also added in pecans and a small squares of vanilla marshmallows. I thought that adding juicier peaches would make the frosting too runny. And as you’ll read on later that was a good move.

See that ooey gooey frosting? Um, my original intention was for the frosting to actually stay on the cupcake, not run all the way down it. I had made a cream cheese frosting that had whipping cream in it also, which made the mixture too thin once I started mixing in the fruit. It could have been better to go with a firmer frosting and put the fruit on the top.

But that didn’t really stop me from enjoying every bite of it. The cake recipe called for fresh or frozen strawberries. I only had fresh ones and the flavor was good, but I think that using frozen strawberries would have made the taste more pronounced. I also added red food coloring to add more color and pop.

And we’re finished!

Fruit Salad Cupcakes

For the cupcake I followed the Sprinkles’ Strawberry Cupcake recipe posted on All Things Cupcake.

What I suggest you do for the frosting (not what I did)

Make a firm frosting like cream cheese or a buttercream frosting. Chop fruit and mix with the juice from 1/2 lime. This will help prevent it from browning. Add homemade marshmallows and pecans.

I love that I’m 30 years old and my parents still take the time to send me an Easter basket. Today my whole family is in Texas, cooking a big Easter lunch, hiding eggs for the two who are still young enough to hunt them and going to the Lake to try to get some hint of a tan.

There’s something that has always been deceptive about sunshine, Easter and tanning for us. It’s this time of year that it’s sunny enough that the lure of brighter days tease that it might be warm enough to actually get some sunshine and start working out the gray that’s set in over the past 3 months. And it never fails that after Easter lunch, someone will say, “Hey. Let’s head out to the lake and lay out for a bit.” And it never fails that we get swim bags put together, drive out to the lake and get settled out on the pier, only for 20 minutes to pass before the first person says, “Hey. I’m going to head inside.” It’s not long after that one by one we all start to head back into the house.

Since I’m too old to hunt Easter eggs and I’m not going to be around any kiddos today, I didn’t dye any this year. But I have been craving egg salad and today seemed as good as any to make some for lunch this week. Egg salad is simple, so paying attention to the quality of the components is important.

Boiling eggs as you can imagine is pretty fundamental when making egg salad. When prepping to boil the eggs, set them out for 10-15 minutes to help take the chill off of them. This will help ensure that they boil evenly through out. Put enough water in pot so that all the eggs are submerged in water. Bring the water to a rolling boil and add the eggs. For a hard boiled egg, it only needs to boil for 10-12 minutes depending on the size egg. (Soft boil eggs require 4 minutes for runny, 5 for medium and 6 for a partially firm yolk). When they’re finished cooking run cool water over them and I allow mine to sit for a few minutes in the cold water. Crack and peel. And don’t be fooled you can over boil and egg.

Easter Egg Salad
Makes 2 big sandwiches

5 hard boiled eggs (coarsely chopped)
1/4 cup mayonnaise (homemade if you have it)
1/2 juice of a lemon
1 t yellow mustard
salt and pepper to taste.

Combine all ingredients and serve on a sandwich or crackers.

And in case you were wondering, it’s 65 degrees in Central Texas today.

Do marshmallows quality has an ancient delicacy? Hard to believe that the stale little things found in a box of Lucky Charms were once only created for ancient royalty and gods. The roots of the marshmallow plant were harvested and turned into medicine. It was much later that the roots were boiled and turned into a gummy confection.

When I think of marshmallow’s contribution to my life I think of Easter Peeps and chocolate covered marshmallows shaped like eggs. The marshmallow made a come back a few years back when Oprah listed these fudge dipped marshmallows in O magazine as one of her favorite things.

Without having ever thought about it, marshmallows are made with gelatin, which means that if you’re a Vegetarian or Vegan, you’ll have to shop around for all no animal product marshmallows heck, if you keep a Kosher diet you’ll also have to pay attention to these little fluffy guys. Who knew there was so much to consider with a little marshmallow!

If you want to tour a marshmallow factory and you’re in Las Vegas, hit the road East for 20 minutes to Henderson and you can tour the Favorite Brands Marshmallow Factory.

There was several recipes I was considering when making marshmallows, but I went with a simple recipe that had been reviewed on Cooking for Engineers by Thomas Keller of the French Laundry. I followed the C4E recipe to a T (including the decision to boil the candy to the Hard Ball stage).

As the marshmallows mix, they will begin to fluff. I mixed mine for 8 minutes and by that time I was getting the consistency I was looking for.

One thing I wasn’t ready for is how sticky the mixture was. I found myself in a catch 22 when pouring it out. Everything I touched became sticky and everything that touched me was sticky. This is one recipe that you’ll need someone around to help you pour and scrape the bowl.

After I allowed them to sit for a day, I took them out of the pan, cut them with a pizza slicer and tossed them in powered sugar. The vanilla taste is so much more pronounced in these homemade marshmallows than I’ve ever experienced in store purchased ones. And besides the days wait, the recipe was really quite easy to follow and the results were spectacular.

One of my favorite Phoenix blogs is Lunch Bucket Bento. Lisa and crew are a bento toting, Daring Baking group. A few times a week, she posts snapshots of what I believe are the coolest lunches in town. Sometimes her posts are a simple list of what was packed and other times, she shares simple, but delicious recipies.

My work routine has changed this past quarter and my plans to ride the bus one day a week haven’t been working out. So, in thinking about how I can change just one thing in my day to help out Mama Earth, I’ve been taking my lunch to work more. I’ve been pretty good these past few weeks and as I was packing my lunch, I kept thinking how useful a bento box would be.

This weekend I acquired my very own bento box! I’m so freakin excited and it’s so much fun thinking about how much flavor I can pack in on little box!

This week I’m working through a batch of Sonoma Chicken Salad and Cantaloupe with Chili Powder and Honey.

I don’t know what website I was trolling when I saw this simple recipe for Cantaloupe with Chili Powder and Honey, but it’s super tasty and has really hit the spot this week.

Cantaloupe with Chili Powder and Honey

1 Cantaloupe (balled)
2 t locally harvested Honey and Mint
1-2 t chili powder

Method:
Mix it all together and enjoy!

I can remember when I was little making sure that the night before St. Patrick’s Day that I had green on my pajamas because I knew that if I didn’t that my dad would be in my room bright and early looking to get in a pinch. I love that St. Patty’s Day is a day where people who are Irish pull out all the stops and people who aren’t Irish pull out the “Kiss Me, anyways!” t-shirts.

Now, I have always been more of a green beer than Guinness girl. I know, there’s some cussing Irishman rolling his eyes as I type these words, but the beer is just too, um, stout? So, when cupcake bloggers started posting their Guinness cupcake creations, I knew I had to join in.

A few baking notes on the recipe from Fabulous Foods.  The batter was very runny. So much so that I was nervous and wanted to do a test batch. They turned out perfect and you can fill the cups 3/4 full and not worry about them baking over the edges of the tin.

Guinness Cupcakes
Makes 30-ish cupcakes

1 bottle (12 ounces) Guinness stout
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
3 large eggs
3/4 cup sour cream
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder, plus more for garnish
2 cups sugar
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda

For the Frosting
1 package (8 ounces) cream cheese, softened
1/3 cup heavy cream
1 pound confectioner’s sugar

Preheat oven to 350°F.

In a large mixing bowl, combine the Guinness, milk, vegetable oil, and vanilla. Beat in the eggs one at a time. Mix in the sour cream.

In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the cocoa, sugar, flour, and baking soda. Gradually mix the dry ingredients into the wet Guinness mixture.

Butter 24 muffin tins and divide the batter among the muffin tins.

Bake 25 minutes until risen and set in the middle but still soft and tender. Cool before turning out of the tins.

Make the frosting:
Beat the cream cheese in a bowl until light and fluffy. Gradually beat in the heavy cream. Slowly mix in the confectioner’s sugar.

Spring training baseball games in Arizona, hiking Camelback mountain and patio dining are all hallmarks of Arizona spring. We trade 4 months of 110+ degree days for 6 months of crisp autumn nights and bright spring days. So, when it seemed that my whole Twitter posse was kite flying and bicycle riding yesterday, I had to join in.

We headed to Tumbleweed Park in Chandler, the ride is only a few miles away, and it’s close to the new recreation center that just opened early spring.

A Boston Cooler seemed to be in order when kite flying was over. Boston Coolers are like a Root Beer Float, but made with ginger ale instead. Some sources site that the Boston Cooler came first and companies like McDonalds followed suit with Coca-Cola and ice cream. In Texas we’d make Coke Floats and you can even order them at Dairy Queens in Central Texas (along with tacos, but that’s a whole other story) or we’d make my favorite Dr. Pepper Floats. Can you imagine how good a Cherry Dr. Pepper Float would taste?

Boston Cooler

3 scoops vanilla ice cream
1/2 can Vernor’s Ginger Soda

Preparation:
Put ice cream in a highball glass and slowly add the ginger ale. Enjoy!

In a few months it’ll be 120 degrees in Phoenix, but for now it’s absolutely amazing and 70 degrees and sunny. It’s easy to get Spring fever right dab in the middle of February. I’ve already started planning out my Spring schedule with minor league baseball games, farmer’s markets and gardening.

It’s this time of year in Phoenix that the citrus trees ares are loaded with tangelos, oranges and lemons. People practically walk into the office with crates full of fruit to give away in hopes that it won’t all be wasted.

So, I’ve been toying around with what my Cupcake Hero entry should be for February’s theme of LIQUOR. First I started trolling mixology websites; B52s, Mint Julips, Purple Hooters were all options for a cupcake variation. Heck, I could go easy, make a chocolate cupcake with some Bailey’s frosting and call it a day. But that wasn’t really inspiring any creative juices in the kitchen.

Saturday morning came (only a few days till the deadline) and while I was making my grocery shopping list a little cookbook (drink book) caught my eye. Sangria: Fun and Festive Recipes. Rock on, right? It’s perfect. I’ve got tons of citrus that needed to be used and inspiration.

Here’s how it went:

For the cupcakes: I used an Orange Chiffon Cake recipe from the cookbook cupcakes! by Elinor Klivans. When I pulled them out of the oven, I brushed the tops of the cupcakes with Triple Sec an orange flavored liquor.

For the sangria inspiration: I used a mixology book called Sangria by Mittie Hellmich. I chose a white citrus sangria recipe that featured oranges and berries.

For the Frosting: I used a standard buttercream and added orange zest, homemade pomegranate grenadine and another 2 t. of Triple Sec.

Okay and one last close up simply because with produce this fresh and tasty, it deserves it.

Let the good times roll! As we approach Mardi Gras, that’s the cry that millions of party goers will be yelling in the streets of New Orleans. The parades, the King Cakes and the beads.

Everyone I know has a “story” about the time they visited New Orleans and most of them include Bourbon Street, an alligator, a BAB (Big Ass Beer), a hooker and Pat O’Brien’s. I’ve got a few stories too. I spent Y2K New Year’s Eve in the Big Easy and let me tell you there was nothing easy about that night! But that’s night time.

Catch NOLA in the daytime and the city is very romantic and oozing with history. One of my favorite traditions is visiting Cafe Du Monde in the French Quarter at Jackson Square. Lines wrap around this outdoor coffee stand for days with patrons waiting for a Cafe Au Lait and a Beignet.

A can of Cafe Du Monde chicory coffee has been in my pantry for months. I brewed up a pot awhile back, not remembering how strong the flavor of chicory is/was.

The strong flavor of the chicory I thought would be perfect in a chocolate cupcake with a subtle vanilla buttercream frosting to help the cake not be too overwhelming. What makes this cupcake extra special is the fresh powered sugar covered beignet on top.

Besides the mess from frying the beignet, I think I worked out a great cheat.

Laissez Les Bon Temps Roulez Cupcakes
Original recipe from PrissyCook!

For the cupcake:
Take one box of Devil’s food cake mix and substitute one cup of strongly brewed Cafe Du Monde coffee. Bake according to the directions.

For the frosting:
Take one container of vanilla buttercream prepared frosting and add 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla extract. Mix well.

For the beignet:
Fry according to the directions on the box. I prepared a 1/4 of the recipe and more than enough to top each cupcake.

Cupcake Hero January: Coffee