…Archive for the ‘MISC’ Category…
The Gift That Keeps On Giving…
Friday, June 24th, 2011
Spencer and Derek had gotten me a gift certificate for a cupcake class at Butter Lane Bakery for my birthday and I finally got the opportunity to redeem it last week.
We were greeted by this beautiful sight and were encouraged to chow down. I had a lovely lemon cupcake that was super moist and deliciously sweet.
Beth accompanied me 
The 12 person class was split into 3 groups and each made a different cupcake and frosting. Our group made banana cupcakes with cream cheese frosting.
I picked up a lot of tips including – to ripen bananas, you can take unripened naners, mash them up, and let them sit until they ripen. (How many more times could I have written “ripen”?) I usually wait until the skins are all brown but this seems like a faster method. Also, adding cream cheese to any frosting (chocolate, vanilla) will help make the consistency of the frosting perfect without having to add that much sugar. That said, we did add about 8 cups of sugar to our frosting 
The other teams made chocolate cupcakes, vanilla cupcakes, and chocolate and vanilla frosting.
Here’s Beth hard at work:
And then we had a frosting contest to see who could frost the most professional looking cupcake. Guess who won?
The above picture isn’t of my winning cupcakes (I think I did much better knowing I was going to be judged) but I received a gift certificate for 12 free cupcakes!
The class was pretty informative (although this class is probably for a beginner baker) and fun and the instructor knew what he was talking about. I even asked him for baking tips – telling him about how my brown sugar buttercream didn’t come together as I had hoped and he encouraged me to email him if I had any future baking questions. Score!
Thanks Spencer and Derek (and Beth) for a fun-filled evening!
Paris Eats
Thursday, June 9th, 2011
I’ve been meaning to write about my Paris eats for a while but it always seems so daunting but here it is…
I, of course, was excited to visit Paris to see Paris but to also eat my way through Paris. My friend Eli had thoughtfully greeted me with an authentic Paris chocolate croissant. I envisioned consuming quite a few of these in the coming days…
She also made this cute sign with my favorite European cookies that she got from a VENDING machine!!! Now, why can’t we have that option?? It would be much easier for me to make things like this.
Walking around Paris was awesome. I LOVE walkable cities. It’s so fun to just take everything in and snap away.
This is my future home, by the way.
The Rodin Museum. I plan on wearing corsets and taking walks in my garden every morning with a parasol and gloves.
We had a picnic by the Seine – complete with Paris ham, French butter, baguettes, and sparkling wine
More shots of the Eiffel in case you couldn’t get enough…
One of the highlights of the trip was going to Laduree to get traditional macarons.
I was in love with the shabby chic decorating and color schemes.
This was some type of praline pastry that was obviously delicious.
Espresso…
…and the macarons!
The green one was Lilly of the Valley, which tastes exactly how the flower smells, a lemon one, a raspberry, and a chocolate with lime macaron.
And yes, the picture above is the wallpaper for my phone.
We also split a strawberry millefeuille. Delicious and light!
Another highlight of the trip was dinner at Le Petit Prince in Paris. I’ll have to blog about that another day because I can’t seem to find the pictures to it. Stay tuned!
My new favorite blog
Tuesday, May 17th, 2011
I know this isn’t food related and is pretty girly but I love everything about The Sweetest Occasion and wanted to share it with you. Love the colors, love the style, love the creativity!
I’m especially loving this white wedding, these birthday pancakes, and this message.
