Remember that vanilla sugar I blogged about little while back? I finally opened up that jar, five months later. I can't tell you how much I wish this picture were scratch 'n sniff.
Eight eggs and a couple cups of vanilla sugar later, I had these little beauties. Orange cardamom cupcakes made for my precious cousin's bridal shower. I unfortunately did not think through temperatures in Riverisde during the month of July and my orange cream cheese frosting has a hot, melty mess. Obladi, oblada.
Fast forward one month to this:
Before you judge this little guy (or me), know that on the inside it is filled with lots of yumminess. Strawberries...
...and lots and lots of lime zest.
If anyone is curious, no matter how durable your aesthetician will tell you that gel manicure is, it cannot stand up to a grater. Neither can skin. No worries, the first batch was tossed.
Anyway, this cake was made to celebrate the birth of my main squeeze who has trouble "ruining" a beautiful cake with a fork. And because eating is so closely tied with caking and caking is so closely tied with my personhood, I needed to create an ugly cake for the sake of our relationship. A pretty cake was created, in addition, for the sake of my sanity. Who ever knew the powerful pull of sugar?
Heavy whipping cream tastes so much richer in buttercream frosting than your typical milk, but it adds an interesting (read: unpleasant) texture that I always forget about. I should have gone with plain old milk over whipping cream for the aesthetic cake, especially considering that guitar is still sitting in his fridge three weeks later. Oh well. One day I'll understand him and one day I'll be able to differentiate between taste and aesthetics.
Alright, we're reaching the end of my pictorial tour. Almost.
This was stolen off my instagram. They are chocolate peppermint cupcakes made late one night last week. Life has been more than crazy as of late and there was something very soothing about knowing that a spatula still has the healing powers it did one year ago. Anyway, the peppermint feels very December-esque, but I truly believe that even just a hint of peppermint heightens the chocolate flavor and is appropriate year round. Just my take, though.
And now we've come to the final picture. Let's see if you actually stick with me long after this.
This picture actually has a lot to do with what is truly on my mind and heart; what I actually want to blog about. This post is already so long. Full of pictures. Full of fluff. None of my heart. Yet it is full. My heart and this post, that is. Oh well. Here is a picture from dinner tonight. Cupcakes turned dinner. Garlic crescent rolls pressed into a cupcake tin, filled with monterey jack, beef, onions, thyme, garlic, and rosemary. Cupcakes broadened from desert to dinner. Cupcakes savory enough to make one roommate just about tear up. (Truth be told, anything beyond a lunchable can do that to her). A cupcaked dinner made for my beloved roommates who love me with longevity, sometimes to a place in my heart that has long been frozen. Somehow they ice-pick their way in. This post is full. It is too full to hear my petty words of being let down and too full to cast light on the hidden cruelty deep within my heart. Things I had initially meant to blog about. It is too full (and I am a smidge too inebriated) to handle all my thoughts about Jesus breaking through my icicles and friends melting apart the ice cubes others have thrust into the freezer that is my heart. So this is what you get. For now.
There is a treason at sea.
