These little fellas are bunnies. I feel I need to tell you that because upon first blush they look like non descript somethings.

For these cupcakes, I used a peach cupcake recipe from Cupcake Project (link provided below).  The original recipe sites 12 cupcakes from one batch. I actually got closer to 18. In hind sight , I would I filled the cups a bit more as these didn’t bake up as much. I think rounder domes would have made a prettier decorating surface.

I got nice reviews on the peach flavor. I used a cup of peach spread from a local farm. Delicious!

For the frosting, I made a standard cream cheese, used candy buttons for the eyes and cut marshmallows for the ears then dipped them in sprinkles.

Ingredients:

* 1 1/4 C flour

* 1/2 t baking powder

* 1/4 t baking soda

* 1/4 t salt

* 2 large eggs

* 1 C sugar

* 1/2 C unsalted butter, room temperature

* 1 1/2 t vanilla extract

* 1/2 C sour cream

* 2 C peaches and cream blended into a mush (see this peaches and cream recipe) or 1 C peach jam (try to find high quality jam with lots of real peach pieces or, if the season is right, make your own peach jam)

1. Mix the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a medium-sized bowl and set aside.

2. In a large bowl, with an electric mixer on medium speed, beat the eggs and sugar for about 2 minutes, or until light and creamy.

3. Add the butter and vanilla and beat on low speed for about 1 minute, or until well blended.

4. Beat in the dry ingredients on low speed until blended.

5. Add the sour cream and beat until smooth and well blended.

6. Mix in peaches and cream or peach jam.

7. Divide batter evenly among 12 cupcake liners.

8. Bake at 350 F for about 23 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of a cupcake comes out clean and the tops are firm.

via Peaches and Cream Cupcakes ~ Cupcake Project.

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Happy Valentines Day, Y’all!

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Pretty soon we’ll have breezes that feel like you’ve turned on a hair dryer and pointed it straight at your face and night time temperatures that don’t  dip below triple digits. And when all your phone conversations to home have some sort of comment about the Arizona dry heat.

My summer cooking regiment in Arizona is an odd mix of “mix it in” salads and cupcakes. Salads because they’re cool and refreshing and cupcakes, because summer is the time of year when I feel most confined to the house. I celebrated one of the last heat tolerable nights of the Spring by making a Black Bean and Tropical Fruit Salsa.

Black Bean and Tropical Fruit Salsa

1 can drained and rinsed black beans
1 cup of yellow corn
1 cup diced fresh pineapple
1 cup diced fresh mango
3 T finely diced purple onion
2 T finely diced jalapenos
2 cups diced tomatoes
1/2 chopped cilantro
3 T fresh lime juice
Season with garlic, salt and pepper to taste

Mix in a bowl and give it an hour in the fridge so the flavors can mix.

This “salsa” ate more like a spiced up black bean salad although that didn’t stop me from using a chip as my preferred delivery device.

Other mix in salads on this blog:

Confetti Salad
Quinoa Salad
Black Bean Couscous Salad

Other salad recipes:

Black Bean Confetti Salad at Smitten Kitchen
Confetti Pasta Salad at Good-bye Martha

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My idea is that I’m going to use the marker board to write down cooking ideas I see through out the month and depending on the complexity of the dish, I’ll put it down or a week night or weekend “to do.”

I found a cute cupcake idea from Martha, headed right over to my handy marker board and slated Thursday night to try them out. That didn’t happen! But I did keep them on my list and by golly, I got them made this Sunday! Victory for follow through!

I also had another personal victory with these cupcakes. The recipe I used yeilded 12 cupcakes and look! I filled 12 cupcakes and I didn’t have any batter left over! Honestly in the three years I’ve been on this cupcake kick, I don’t remember EVER having a cupcake recipe yeild the exact number it said it would.

To bring the point up again, I’m really not that into frosting. So that typically influences my lack of cupcake decorating. I think if you spend any time trolling this blog you’ll see that the swirly frosting application is far and away my favorite. So, when I do try to venture into cupcake decorating land, I typically look for easy by the numbers kinda decorating.

Here’s a set that I tried to make look like green Easter baskets, ones made to look like ice cream cones, and these Halloween creepy crawly ones. Yup, everything else is your standard frosting swirl.

No news breaking recipe here. I followed the method from the Martha website. I made a basic yellow cupcake recipe from the book, Baker’s Field Guide to Cupcakes. I made a lemon symple syrup to drizzle on the top and then for the frosting I made a lemon butter cream.

Martha Stewart Cupcake Challenge 1/175

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What I love about small towns, is that it was familiar to have the doorbell ring once a night with someone dropping a homemade batch of something and looking forward to your favorite treat to be delivered. My mom LOVES this Cheerio nut mix Mrs. Gold makes. So much so, that its placed in a cookie jar away from all the other treats, just so it doesn’t get consumed too fast.

I love my mom’s Pralines

My doorbell doesn’t ring so much in Phoenix, but I suppose that’s okay. I still make treats for friends. This year, it’s Homemade Hot Cocoa Mix. Enjoy!

Alton Brown’s Hot Cocoa Mix
Ingredients

2 cups powdered sugar
1 cup cocoa (Dutch-process preferred)
2 1/2 cups powdered milk
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons cornstarch
1 pinch cayenne pepper, or more to taste
Hot water

Directions

Combine all ingredients in a mixing bowl (I used my food processor) and incorporate evenly. In a small pot, heat 4 to 6 cups of water.

Fill your mug half full with the mixture and pour in hot water. Stir to combine. Seal the rest in an airtight container, keeps indefinitely in the pantry. This also works great with warm milk.

Other Homemade Gift Ideas

Assemble a “Green Kit”
Homemade Shower Cap
Homemade Gift Tags

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