Sucre Rouge

Today was productive and relaxing all at the same time. I got to sleep in with Lydia which never happens, usually she wakes up at about 6 am. Today we woke up at 9:30!

I wrapped a few Christmas gifts and made myself a breakfast of fresh tomato, basil and chopped garlic omelet with camembert toast. It could not have been more delicious.

After breakfast and catching up on a few episodes of Dexter I tried my hand at round 2 of Christmas cupcaking… “Peppermint Bark” Cupcakes: dark chocolate cupcakes with peppermint cream cheese frosting and a dusting of candy cane sprinkles. I tried them and I love them, the frosting in my next batch with have a touch of heavy whipping cream for a more firm texture and I need to put less liquid in the batter so the cakes have better posture if you know what I mean. ;) I tried a new technique and piping tip on these cupcakes. I used an open star tip and a reverse rose piping technique on a few of them. I also added the red swirl with my red gel food coloring in the piping bag. I like how it turned out but I think that from now on I’m going to pipe my frosting a little bit higher than I usually do, makes for a better looking cupcake.

Well A Christmas Carol is on so naturally it needs to be watched. Making a salmon dinner for Papa Bear tonight and planning to drink myself through a bottle of wine (although it will probably end up being a bottle of Sailor Jerry). 

God bless us, EVERY ONE!

…and I just made chilaquiles with salsa verde for breakfast. It is amazing. Sorry, Papa Bear… another delicious meal without you. :p

10 days ‘till Christmas. 2 ‘till Disneyland with my love and Little Flower.

My Christmas this year comes with lots of change. A lot has happened to me in the past 12 months but it has only changed my life for the better.

The newest addition to my little family out here in Las Vegas is my puppy, Lydia (although I only ever call her Mini). She was rescued from a euthanization shelter just days before she was to be put down. I found her shortly after when she was just 2 months old. She is the new love of my life and I’m beyond happy that we’ve found each other, we are absolutely inseparable. She’s currently snoozing in my lap.

I’ve been cooking a lot for my boyfriend, Joey. He loves my cooking so I try to whip stuff up for us as often as I can. Recently it started getting very VERY cold out here in Las Vegas (my fingers are crossed for snow!) so naturally I decided to make soup. I was thinking of something healthy and comforting to make and stumbled across my mom’s old Carrot Ginger Soup recipe. Almost completely fat free; it only consists of veggies, chicken stock, and spices. The soup was enough for me but growing boys need their protein and carbs so I made some grilled cheeses to go with the soup: sourdough bread with sharp cheddar, smoked gouda, and cajun andouille sausage. Needless to say we were both full, happy campers and he now loves smoked gouda haha.

As we all know it’s a holiday tradition of mine to bake my face off when the season approaches. I like to try new recipes and of course, Christmas recipes are always the most fun to experiment with. This year the first cupcake recipe I chose to make was nutmeg eggnog cupcakes with cream cheese frosting. The first batch I made turned out completely awful; too much egg yolk… so I scrapped it and started fresh using beaten egg whites and less eggnog for a bit of a milder taste. The second batch came out beautifully, I topped it with a lightly hued blue cream cheese frosting and all I have left to do is top them with some white chocolate or royal icing snowflakes. 

My next cupcake attempt will be a dark chocolate peppermint one, similar to last year but I might switch up the details a bit and add some things. I’m testing these cupcake recipes for the Christmas party my mom is holding for The Flip Truck next week. I’m the designated cupcaker. Should be fun, I’ll post photos. 

¡Feliz Navidad!

This past week a lot has happened in my life. I decided to channel my energy into cupcaking rather than anything negative. And boy was it a great idea, I came up with what I think is my favorite cupcake creation to date. The grocery store had fresh strawberries for cheap so naturally I bought two baskets full. I decided to make a cupcake utilizing the strawberries, balsamic vinegar, and gorgonzola cheese. It was utterly divine! I also found these darling pirate cupcake liners so of course I had to use them and pose my cupcakes on my favorite nautical themed plateware ;)