Saturday, January 26, 2008

Midnight Cupcakes

Nothing really makes me hungry like a long run, particularly in the cold, and if I take a nap after I run, as I did today, I usually wake up starving. First I crave salt, so I hit the pretzels or corn chips (check), then I need water to hydrate (check), and then I crave baked goods like there is no tomorrow, and given that it's usually about 11:00/midnight when these ridiculous cravings attack, and I'm honestly hungry, not just munchy, I often end up baking something for myself to satisfy my sweet tooth.

Tonight's winner: Buttermilk Cupcakes and Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting. The best part of course is sampling the batter along the way (OMG YUM!!), and this time I made my own buttermilk for the first time (do people actually keep buttermilk around anyway?). I love anything with cream cheese frosting and lemon...and I added a hint of almond to the batter and it was oh so good.

And then of course, the additional perks of getting to wear my Marimekko apron and the therapeutic release of using small electronic kitchen appliances just add to the fun. I did discover that I dislike cooking out of cookbooks that don't have the nutritional content listed...I'm a bit skeptical. I used the first (and only) cookbook my husband ever owned, "How to Cook Everything." I always sort of mocked it...but since my new Cooking Light cookbook is lost somewhere in the house...it was the best option. And I have to say I was quite impressed. I'm always a little worried when I improvise with recipes (Katie E. knows exactly why such concern should arise) like not sifting my cake flour (the horror!), using salted butter (no!) instead of unsalted...and doing a mediocre low speed whip job because my $9 hand mixer from Menard's has only 10 speeds. High, Extra High, Super Extra High, and Other Really Really Ridiculously High Speeds I have yet to use because it covers me and my kitchen with flying bits of batter.


And then sadly, there's one in every batch. The casualty. The cupcake martyr. It was a very sad moment for this little guy, but then of course Pinot realized she DID actually like lemon cream cheese frosting and all was right with the world and our floor was a bit cleaner.


Voila!! Delicious. I'll definately enjoy my swim tomorrow!!!

4 comments:

sage said...

Cute cupcakes! And cute pic of you! (can I say that? hey! it's not work! I took the harassment training!)

Renee said...

Oh my god, you've made me want to bake cupcakes so badly! I promised a colleague he'd get some for his birthday but that's nearly 2 weeks away.
And he asked for two kinds of frosting. What? That's madness. I won't succumb to that.

sage said...

You have been tagged by Sage.
Rules:
1) Write your own six word memoir
2) Post it on your blog and include a visual illustration if you want
3) Link to the person that tagged you in your post, and to the original post if possible so we can track it as it travels across the blogosphere
4) Tag at least five more blogs with links
5) Leave a comment on the tagged blogs with an invitation to play

sage said...

I just had to tell you that you haven't updated this blog in ELEVEN MONTHS. That's almost a year in Earth-years. And, your hair is way longer.