Sunday is for good eating

As is every day!

I had one of those mornings where you just drift comfortably out of Dreamland instead of being rudely wakened by(in my case, seven) alarm clocks. Breakfast was one of the sweet corn with honey frosting cupcakes that I baked yesterday before the Yelp beach party. A short stroll later brought me to Third Rail Coffee, where I had coffee with a friend while attempting to keep myself gracefully composed after being out in the glaring heat. Attempted, I say! The hot coffee didn't help, but it was a good roast at least.

That afternoon, Rachel, whom I work under for Cupcakes Take the Cake, came over to my place to bake cupcakes. We decided on a chocolate cupcake with lemon buttercream from one of my cookbooks, I heart Sugar. I used the parchment paper cupcake liner idea that Martha Stewart uses here. They are more cost efficient, but the folds don't stick together well.

She caught a picture of my mini baking cups that I brought back from Houston. Aren't they adorable? I'll have to figure out the right baking temperature for these, as they certainly don't fall under the same category as the regular tins. We learned the hard way. *sage nod*

We had a bit of trouble with the cupcakes falling flat. I need to find the correct baking time and all purpose flour to baking powder ratio for the self-rising flour substitution. This is the first time it's happened to me, so I'll have to recreate this a few times before I get it right. I also think the heat had to do with the buttercream not solidifying well. But we made do! See, they still came out cute:




















She was also kind enough to bring me back goodies from her trip upstate. The tart (?) is from Perfect Endings Bakery. A faintly tart jam filling sandwiched between two flaky crusts. Delicious! Dangerously delicious.




















Cupcake! Cookie! CUPCAKE COOKIE!! My heart jumps for joy at the marriage of these two wonderful worlds.

At night, I went to a burlesque dance show at Le Poisson Rouge, which was quite entertaining. I was also glad to get some more solids into my body that didn't come in cupcake form, as much as I love them.

Now, what can Monday possibly bring...

Chocolate Butterfly Cakes
Reproduced from I [heart] Sugar by LOVE FOOD.

Makes 12

Ingredients:
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup superfine sugar
1 1/4 cups self rising flour (we used all purpose + 1 tsp baking powder)
2 eggs
2 tbsp unsweetened cocoa
1 oz/25g semisweet chocolate, melted (we used much more than this)
confectioners' sugar, for dusting

Steps:

1. Preheat the oven to 350F.
2. Mix the butter, superfine sugar, flour, eggs, and cocoa in a large bowl until smooth.
   
3. Beat melted chocolate into the batter.
4. Fill cupcake liners with the mixture until 3/4 full.
5. Bake for 15 minutes or until springy to the touch.

Lemon Buttercream

6 tbsp butter, softened
1 1/3 confectioners' sugar, sifted
grated rind of 1/2 lemon (we were missing this)
1 tbsp lemon juice

Steps:

1. Beat the softened butter until fluffy.
2. Gradually add in confectioners' sugar.
3. Beat in lemon rind and lemon juice. Mix well.
4. Finally, cut the tops off the cakes with a serrated knife. Cut each top in half. Spread the buttercream over the cake surface and then push the two cut top pieces in to form butterfly wings. Done!
   

We missed this last step because the parchment paper liners were too high, but they turned out special anyways. See Rachel's post for more photos. Give this recipe a try and tell us what your experience is like!