cupcakes for a cause: part 2

I lied. I said no more sweets and what do I do? I make cupcakes. I swear I've been eating real food; it just hasn't been very noteworthy. Cupcakes are always noteworthy. These are especially so as they were the second dozen in an auctioned-off set to benefit Northwest Network of Bi, Trans, Lesbian and Gay Survivors of Abuse.

This is one of a dozen lavender-infused chocolate cupcakes with vegan cream cheese frosting. The granulated sugar in the cupcakes and the powdered sugar in the frosting sat for a couple days mingling with dried lavender flowers. I'd never used lavender as a culinary ingredient and I was pleasantly surprised with the effect it had, though it was almost too subtle in the chocolate to even detect its presence. The cream cheese frosting showed it off nicely however (inspired by lovely cupcakes elsewhere.)

But really, next post won't be cupcakes. Or cake in any form. It won't even contain any damn sugar! Promise.

(On a side note, though it clearly wasn't for the occasion, this cupcake is vicariously dedicated to my dad who had his first birthday as a vegan yesterday. He celebrated with tofu and veggies, like any good herbivore. Next up for a vegan birthday: my mum...)

eat yr greens

Our first CSA box in a month of being out of town far too much: bunched carrots, red radishes, Ataulfa Mango, yellow spring onions, baby bok choy, black plums, pears, garnet yams, celery, red beets, snap peas, romaine lettuce, and spinach.

cake or death

One would think that I subsist on cake and cake alone.

Rasberry Coconut Layer Cake
with Coconut Buttercream

Sometimes cake is needed for no reason at all. Case in point: some homemade raspberry preserves that had sat in my cupboard for too long, begging to be baked into something sweet. The cake was coconut milk-based with whole raspberries and shredded coconut folded in and then filled with preserves.

Grandma's Texas Sheet Cake
(gratuitous full sheet shot)

This was another go at sheet cake (not that the first wasn't good to the last crumb.) Although this one gets an honorable mention because it was served with good tea to my grandmother, from whence the original recipe came.

Sugar Soldiers:
Apple Spice Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting
Lemon Cupcakes with Lemon Buttercream

And though these aren't anything new, especially in the spreading cupcake-craze, I still think nothing beats the cupcake for a small package with punch. They're hand-held, boast a perfectly proportioned frosting to cake ratio, and damn cute to boot.

We're getting a box of veggies tomorrow, so perhaps I'll have something besides sweets to show for it.

all green

the first peas

There's something infinitely comforting about tending to a garden. Pulling sucker leaves off a tomato plant or weeding a parsley patch. There are not a great many things that will make me forget that I live in a city of half a million people. Reminders abound in the traffic on the street, the views of cramped buildings, the overcrowded lines at the market. My backyard, though, is a respite from the constant bombardment of people people people. Focusing on something as minuscule as a violet's first sprouting leaves is my salve. And finding the first sweet peas of the summer is more intoxicating than drowning in the beer and buzz of any swarming city bar.