Cupcake 23 - Orange Ginger Marmalade Cupcake with Orange Butter Cream

The topic of "gack" foods came up recently. I don't really have a strong aversion to any particular foods, nothing that I feel strongly enough to label as a "gack" food. Not to say I love everything, that's hardly the case. I have a huge list of condiments I would never willingly seek out. Mayo is at the top of the list. I was raised to be polite, so I navigate around a lot of foods and its manageable most days, we have choices. And given the choice I'm very much a purist, preferring my salads and sandwiches naked. Bagels too. However, I collect condiments like an 8 year old boy collects baseball cards. Have a hot-dog at my house, I've got 14 mustards to offer. I'll take mine plain, thank you. And a salad, yep, I've got 20+ bottles of dressing. Again, I prefer plain or something simple and homemade. And don't get me started on ice cream toppings. My refrigerator runneth over.

What's this got to do with this week's cupcake? A friend gave me a jar of Orange Ginger Marmalade from her vacation to St. Thomas. It seemed rather exotic for everyday use so I tucked it away on the pantry shelf. Actually, I don't have much history with marmalade. Sure I've used it to top Thumbprint cookies at Christmas and in an occasional marinade. Day to day, given a choice between orange marmalade and strawberry preserves, I'd go strawberry. Toast and PBJ for me, are friends with the strawberry (truth be told, I prefer my toast with butter and my PBJ, sans the "J" but twist my arm and I go strawberry every time.)

The Orange Ginger Marmalade flavor combo intrigued me so I worked it into this week's cupcake. I wanted the Marmalade to be the star, after all it had traveled all away from St. Thomas. I went for a triple play, mixing it into the batter, brushing melted marmalade on the tops of baked cupcakes and adding it to the buttercream frosting for the finishing touch. These cupcakes are not for anyone undecided about orange flavor. Very orange-y, moist with a hint a of ginger, a little zing, almost as an after thought. And they become even tastier on day two.

To the standard yellow cupcake recipe, add 1/3 cup marmalade to the batter. Melt 2 T marmalade on the stove top and brush on cupcakes after they've cooled about 10 minutes. And add 3 T marmalade into your favorite buttercream. I also added the zest of a lemon to give the buttercream a little more flavor.

Cupcake 22 - Lemon Buttermilk Cupcakes with Zesty Lemon Butter Cream

I loved the way the kitchen smelled while making these cupcakes. Fresh and spring-like. Not sure why lemons = spring, but they do. Maybe its the color, maybe its the lightness that the flavor brings.

Lemon Buttermilk Cupcakes

3 C AP flour
2 C sugar
1 1/2 C unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 1/2 C buttermilk
4 eggs, at room temperature
4 t lemon juice
1 t baking powder
1/2 t baking soda
1/2 t salt
zest of two lemons

Preheat the oven to 350. Line 2 cupcake pans with liners. Combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt, set aside. In bowl of standing mixer cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add lemon zest and mix well. Add eggs, one at a time, mix well after each addition. Add lemon juice, mix well. Add flour and milk in three batches. Fill each back cup 3/4 full. Bake 20 minutes or until pick inserted into cupcake comes out clean.

Zesty Lemon Butter Cream

1 C butter room temperature
3 C powdered sugar
1 lemon zested
3 T lemon juice
Cream butter and zest until fluffy, add powdered sugar in 3 installments, mix well scrapping down sides. Add lemon juice and mix on high speed for 5-7 minutes until desired consistency.

Cupcake 21 - French Toast - Maple Cinnamon Cupcake with Maple Butter Cream

I have two food items that stymy me. Jell-O and French toast. Both are easily mastered by most 5th graders, but not me. To admit my failure with Jell-O is much more complicated. I have strong southern roots and the south is home to the Jell-O mold. To this very day, family gatherings involve some sort of Jell-O based "salad" treated not as a desert, but a side dish to the main meal. Rob still can't wrap his head around the concept. Mixing Jell-O, fruit, cream cheese and Coowhip is a side dish served along side mashed potatoes and sauerkraut for Thanksgiving dinner? Yeah, that's how we roll in my family.

Most times my Jell-O does not jell and jiggle, it's more soup-like than jiggly. If it does jell, it's gritty. Its never worthy of cream cheese, Coolwhip and fruit. Maybe I don't give it the proper attention. Maybe I don't stir it the full 5 minutes as indicated on the box. Maybe I don't take day-glow green food seriously enough. Whatever the cause, it will never make it to Thanksgiving dinner.

French toast also eludes me and it's one of Rob's all time favorite breakfast foods. I used to study new recipes, trying different kinds of breads, I mix up the egg/milk combinations, I've tried adding cream and even cornstarch to help the batter adhere. Always a disappointment. If I get the outside crispy the inside is dry. Keeping the inside fluffy results in a limp outer crust. I've come to the conclusion that its a temperature thing that can only be achieved properly on a diner-like grill with a hint of sausage grease.

Rob's best bet for French Toast nirvana is on the rare occasions we have breakfast out, generally on vacations. A number of years ago on a trip to Key West, Rob found the Holy Grail of French Toast in a little coffee shop off the beaten path. This has become the gold standard by which all French Toast is judged – and most fail miserably. I can't compete. I turn to pancakes or eggs as a "go to" for Sunday morning breakfast. Maybe someday we'll go back to Key West, if we do we will eat French Toast every single day. I hope it is as good as the memory.

This weeks' cupcake is a tribute to French Toast. I had some local maple syrup on-hand and added a pinch of cinnamon and a grate of nutmeg to the batter. For the buttercream I again used maple syrup and enhanced the maple-ness with a touch of maple flavoring. I sprinkled the tops with cinnamon sugar. The taste took me back 40 years, eating breakfast at Reed's Drugstore after Sunday school. Funny how taste and memory are so connected.

Cupcake 20- Double Vanilla with Vanilla Bean Butter Cream

Vanilla Bean paste seems to be the buzz lately and I had to try it. It added a nice intensity to the cupcakes, not sure if the vanilla bean was necessary. Good texture, although my oven is still being wonky. I'm hesitant to judge. My camera was being equally wonky, its been a tough week for technology. No picture.

Double Vanilla Cupcakes

1/2 C butter, room temperature
1 1/4 C sugar
2 1/4 C cake flour
3 t. baking powder
1/2 t salt
1 C whole milk
1 t vanilla bean paste
1 vanilla bean, split and seeds scraped
4 egg whites, beaten to stiff peaks

Preheat oven to 325. Line two 12 cupcake pans with paper liners.
In medium bowl combine flour, baking powder and salt. Combine milk and vanilla bean paste, stir well. In bowl of standing mixer cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add milk alternating with flour mixture. Gently fold beaten egg whites into batter. Fill cupcake wells 3/4 full. Bake 18-20 minutes, when top is just solidified. Do not over bake.

Vanilla Bean Butter Cream Frosting

1 C unsalted butter, room temperature
1 t vanilla bean paste
1/2 vanilla bean, seeds scraped
3 C powdered sugar
1/4 C cream
In bowl of standing mixer, cream butter until light and creamy, add vanillas, mix well. Add powdered sugar in 1 C increments, mixing well between each installment. Add cream, mix for 5-7 minutes, scrapping down sides.

Cupcake 19 - Peanutbutter Cookie Cupcake

I have fond memories of baking cookies with my Mom, standing on a chair so I'd be tall enough to reach the mixing bowl. I started out stirring, gradually Mom increased my baking responsibility until was I allowed to use the teal hand mixer. This was a huge promotion and happy to trade in my spoon. Even with my promotions, I maintained my original egg cracking and jimmy sprinkling duties. In hindsight, my duties continued to build until I was actually baking with little assistance. Mom, however, continued to oversee the process and maintain standards.

Peanut butter cookies were a mainstay in our recipe rotation, especially at Christmas. Mom and Dad had different thoughts on the appropriate degree of brown for the cookies. Dad always lobbied for just this side of burnt. Mom would only give in with one cookie sheet, pretending to forget she had them in the oven. (She maintained oven duty along with title of "Boss" even with my progressive kitchen promotions.) My task for the peanut butter cookies was to apply the cross hatch pattern to the top of every cookie. Occasionally my young mind would wander to cartoons or Barbie dolls, Mom would call me back into the kitchen to "fork" the cookies. She talked it up, telling me how good I was at this particular job, assuring me that the cookies would not taste the same without the cross hatch pattern. I just couldn't risk it, dutifully I would grab a fork and get to work. Later on, much later on, I realized just how gullible I was, "forking" the cookies was just plain tedious and easy enough to delegate to a 6 year old. Moms can be tricky like that.

This week's Peanut Butter Cookie Cupcake is a stroll down memory lane, cross hatch pattern and all. I tried to convince Rob to help with the "forking" but he said I did it so much better than he ever could. Guess I'm still gullible.

Recipe to follow, I'm behind this week AND my the temp on my oven is out of whack....

1 2/4 c AP flour
3/4 t baking powder
1/2 t salt
1/4 t baking soda
2/4 c unsalted butter, room temp
1 1/3 c sugar
2/3 c peanut butter
3 large eggs
1/2 t vanilla extract
1/2 c sour cream

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Line 3 12 cup cupcake pans with liners.
Whisk flour, baking soda, baking soda and salt together, set aside. I bowl of standing mixer combine butter and sugar, whip until light and fluffy. Reduce speed, add peanut butter, mix well. Add eggs, one at a time. Add vanilla. Gradually add flour mixture in 3 installments. Combine well. Mix in sour cream. Fill cupcake wells 3/4 full. Bake 13 minutes or until cake tester come out clean. Cool on wire racks

Spread 1 1/2 T frosting on each cupcake. Refrigerate until frosting is firm, about 10 minutes. Using fork dipped in confectioners sugar, put cross hatch pattern on each cupcake.

The mise en place factor

Mise en place - a French term, "everything in its place."

The more I bake, the more this term pops into my head. It is key to a successful product, yet no one ever really discusses the prep side of the task on any of the celebrity chef shows and I think they've done us a disservice. I cut my kitchen teeth watching cooking shows, the shows before cable, and even before the remote control, the shows on Public Television. The cooking personalities made whipping up three dishes look like a 40 minute walk in the park. All he/she had to do was pull out a tray of procured and finely diced ingredients, a few stirs of the pot and magically a meal. Watching these shows started started my longing for 40 miniature bowls just like Emeril's, one for each spice and veg in my recipe. I lusted after Martha's 12 matching cutting boards, in an array of sophisticated yet muted tones, one for every ingredient. (She never actually chopped the three onions required of the recipe, but she would demonstrate with a few quick knife moves turning to prepped ingredients to finish up.) But no one ever discussed the prep side of cooking, I guess it didn't make sexy TV.

Sure Mario taught me how to sauté. Jacques helped me hone my knife skills. Julia made us seek out exotic recipes. And then Rachael came along setting the stopwatch for us to produce in 30 minutes flat. No one ever addressed the mise en place factor.

I know the traditional definition of mise en place does not include procurement, I've added it, after all to get everything in its place - you need to locate it. My kitchen is well stocked, but there is always one key ingredients not tucked away in the pantry or refrigerator. Arugula was the missing element to last night's dinner prep, I had to go to three stores before I found it. That's a chunk of time, people! Do you think Julia just had a rabbit at her fingertips for Saturday's show?

Don't get me wrong, I'm grateful for all the TV chefs have taught me. Along with knife and sautéing skills, and Alton's chem lessons, it would be nice for someone to address the necessity and reality of mise en place.

Cupcake 18 - Raspberry Lemon

Peer pressure is tough.

I work in an ad agency and by default we get lots of comp subscriptions to magazines, Bon Appetite is one of them. May's issue has 3 gorgeous cupcakes on the cover. All week coworkers have been showing up in my office or stopping me in the hall to give me the magazine and point out the beautifully styled cupcakes. I nodded in agreement repeatedly, inspecting the perfectly tanned cupcakes with even more perfect iced circles floating like an island crowned with a single raspberry. Very simple, very classic. Everyone asked if I was going to make "them?" The voice in my head told me to stay away. I knew the perfectness would drive me crazy, after all, I don't have a food stylist at my beckon call. Oh, I knew I could go head to head with the folks at Bon Appetite on taste, but not looks. And deep down I knew that frou-foru was not my thing, really. I'm more high quantity ingredients and taste-play kinda gal. Not a the one who relies on sculpted fondant and sugar roses. Do you see where this is going? I shelved this weeks' planned cupcake and ran headlong into the Bon Appetite gig all the while tormented by the perfect circle of icing.

It was a easy recipe after I overcame the "high math" well fractions, to make the original 12 cupcake recipe into something that would net 36 cupcakes. (BTW how does tripling a recipe net 48 cakes not 36?) Overall nice lemon cupcake. Good for spring. Milk based cakes tend to be heavy, this was not, dense enough, however to hold the jam filling in the center. I opted for a strawberry raspberry mixed jam after scoping out the options at my local Amish market. Surprisingly the lemon and raspberry icings were just enough to lend a sweetness without overpowering. As I predicted, my circle of icing was far from symmetrical. Damn food stylist.

Hopefully no one sees the new Food and Wine, cupcakes are everywhere inside.

Dinner out - Woodberry Kitchen

I usually don't post much about restaurants, sure we eat out, but I just don't get around to posting. This seems worthy. Three weeks ago I made reservations at Woodberry Kitchen. I wanted to explore the hype for myself. And three weeks out, I couldn't get 7 pm reservations, it was either 6 or 9:30. I chose 6, knowing by 9:30 they would be running late and we would be starving.

For anyone unfamiliar Woodberry Kitchen it is a Gjeride operation. Several years ago, they were "Baltimore food" with Joy America in the American Visionary Art Museum, Spike and Charlie's across from the Meyerhoff and Atlantic in Canton. Sadly all three have closed. Woodberry is stellar, even better than my memory of the others. In the Gjerde's prime, I was feeling that they were stretched a little thin with three restaurants. Woodberry is getting undivided attention and it feels like Gjerde's only child. Housed in The Mill Center, a newly developed property outside of Hampden and its cool. Kinda old meets new with exposed brick, steel beams, "deconstructed construction" with loft condos and modern townhouses being built around the Mill.

We were seated promptly at 6. The dining room was not full, but busy. The wait staff was knowledgeable, friendly and professional. The aps range from popcorn to pate and the menu continues down the same meandering path. We both started with a salad, Rob fennel and me a spinach & cheddar, a special of day. Both very fresh. My spinach could have used a little more punch in the vinaigrette, however the cheddar was local and very sharp, in a good way. I opted for a flat bread with more cheddar, pears and rocket, Rob had the hanger steak, two different levels of food, both show cased the local theme. By 7, the main dining room and bar were packed, service slowed down a bit. Our waiter had several larger parties his attention waned. But its Saturday night, I get it, busy is good.

Desert worked with the rest of the menu. I sampled the homemade ice-cream, Cardamon-beet, Burnt Orange and Lemon Mint Tea The flavor combinations made me happy, the cardamon beet was much more spice than veg. The Burnt Orange was just that, sorbet-like and refreshing. The lemon mint tea, tasted only of vanilla, maybe the kitchen got mixed up? Rob had the apple toffee something-another with a garnish the size of a dinner plate. He wished the apple tart was warm, and also wished his coffee had showed up with dessert. But it was all good in the end.

Overall the food was good, not outstanding, but good. The variety on the menu would bring me back, maybe try small plates on a less busy night. Maybe on the patio in the summer. And definitely revisit the wine list. The service was attentive, but atmosphere was exceptional. The total experience was good. And maybe that's what I'm looking for. Not to sound cocky, but I can cook/create an outstanding meal at home, but the total package plays into the overall experience.

Spotted

Roaming the food section of Target on Saturday, I noticed a new product by Duncan Hines mixed in with the cake and brownie mixes, it was a box of Cupcake Mix. I'm all about the marketing spin, after all its my life's work, but really repackaging a cakemix for the sole purpose of making cupcakes is wrong. Are we that gullible as consumers? Cake mixes have always offered the option of layer cake, sheet cake, bundt cake or 24 cupcakes. Then again, packaging is everything. Seems to be a seller, there was lone box on the shelf.

Cupcake 17 - Cherry Chocolate Cupcake with Fennel Cream Cheese Frosting

The Cherry Blossom festival started this weekend in Washington, for some reason I latched onto the festival as a theme for my cupcakes. Although I've lived less than an hour from D.C. my entire life, I've never actually been to the festival. I did commute with festival-goers one year when I was working in our Nation's Capitol. I greatly resented the "tourists" invading my evening commute, cherry blossoms or not. I needed to get into my "zone" to make the two hour commute bearable, sugar addled children racing up and down the isles of the Metro and lost Nebraskans looking for the Blue Line did not allow for a sleepy ride home consumed by a good read. God, I hated that commute.

But I digress, onto cupcakes. This recipe made many more than I originally planned, unless you are having a party, I would cut it in half or any semblance of diet will be ruined. The cupcakes had the look and feel of brownies, slightly rough top, did not rise a lot, but were cake-like and lighter than a typical brownie. Cherries and chocolate are natural partners, the tart cherries playing off the sweet chocolate. I was trepidatious of the fennel frosting, but it worked very well with the rich cream cheese. Overall, a nice combination.

Cherry Chocolate Cupcakes

56 regular cupcakes

2 1/2 c sugar
1 1/2 c AP flour
7 ounces dark chocolate, chopped
30 T butter
8 eggs, room temperature
6 T Dutch process cocoa powder
2 t baking powder
1/4 t salt
1 c dried cherries, chopped and soaked over night

Preheat oven to 350.

Melt chocolate and butter in double boiler. Add sugar stir to dissolve, allow to cool. In second bowl sift flour, cocoa, salt, and baking powder, set aside.

In bowl of standing mixer, beat cooled sugar, butter, chocolate mixture for 3 minutes. Add eggs one at a time, mixing for 30 seconds between each. Gradually add flour mixture, beating well to incorporate. Drain cherries well and fold into batter. Fill cupcakes pans 3/4 full, bake 20-25 minutes until pick inserted comes out clean. Cool on racks.

Fennel Cream Cheese Frosting

4 T sugar
4 T water
2 t fennel seeds, crushed with mortar and pestle.
24 ounces of cream cheese, room temperature
1 stick butter, room temperature
6 c powdered sugar, sifted

Heat sugar, water and crushed fennel in a small pan until dissolved. Allow mixture to boil while stirring for 5 minutes, until tick and syrup like. Allow to cool.

In bowl of standing mixer, cream butter and cream cheese, about 5 minutes. Add fennel syrup and beat until combined. Gradually add powdered sugar, beating between additions until creamy. This is not a super thick frosting, best to slather instead of pipe. And I had lots of frosting left over, you may want to cut back a bit, unless you have other uses.