Would You Like that in a Teacup?

Tea ranks pretty high on my "Comforts" list - right up there with chocolate, cupcakes, books, and a good CD - so what better challenge ingredient for April's cupcakery? A few weeks ago, Lauren made some delectably unique Peach Green Tea Cupcakes (which I was able to sample and yeah. Yum.), and I decided to try my hand with one of my favorite teas: Lavender Earl Grey.

Cupcake Conversations:

This is probably a common thought, but I just realized recently that "cupcakes" probably got their name by, you know, being cakes baked in cups. And then I wondered in what kind of cups they were baked, and decided probably teacups, because I love teacups. And then I looked up the history of the cupcake, and found that it actually was thusly dubbed because all the measurements were by cups, as you can read here. Pretty sure we're still talking about teacups, though. So while cupcakes may not have originally been conveniently cup-sized when they emerged in the 1800s, there still is a very strong link to tea when baking these little beauties. 

Lavender Earl Grey Cupcakes (makes about 12)

1 c. coconut flour

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

5 tsp loose leaf lavender earl grey tea

8 eggs

1 c. honey

6 TBL almond milk

4 tsp vanilla

To begin, warm almond milk and 1/3 c honey until honey is liquid.

Then, add 5 tsp tea, and leave to steep.

Do you like my "1 Cup of Perfect Tea" scoop?

Meanwhile, mix dry ingredients in a separate bowl and add the eggs.

Add honey-tea mixture, the rest of the honey, and vanilla, and pour into prepared cupcake papers!

Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes. Remove from oven and cool on cooling rack!

I found the cupcakes to be deliciously moist, and while there was a distinct tea flavor, the lavender was reduced to only a teensy-tiny hint. Had I known this ahead of time, I would have bought some lavender flavoring from a specialty store and used that in the frosting. As I had not, however, I flavored my dairy-free frosting with almond (a yums addition to lavender earl grey). No recipe for the topping, because it was rather hap-hazard. I used coconut oil, coconut cream, and powdered sugar. With a dash of lavender food coloring. ;)

Review:

These cupcakes were ab-so-lute-ly perfect in texture, so the coconut-egg combo is a keeper! My siblings all raved about them, with Zachary saying he loved them more than the chocolate ones I'd made and they were the "best cupcakes I've ever tasted!" For improvements, I would be interested to see if I could bring out the tea's flavor any stronger, in addition to, as I mentioned, flavoring the frosting with lavender. Besides that, I would just be sure to ground the tea leaves a bit more, as some of the longer leaves were annoying me in the finished product. 

Have you ever made tea-flavored cupcakes?

Previous Cupcakery:

Lauren's Double Peanut Butter Chocolate

Sarah's Death-by-Chocolate

Mikaela's Hazelnut Mocha

Lauren's Spinach Feta

Mikaela's Croutons :)
Sarah's Carrot Ginger Coconut..."Savories"

Lauren's Peach Green Tea

Oh My Cupcakes! (Or...Muffins!)

*ahem*

Pretend I posted this on Monday.

Which is what I meant to do.

And would mean I was still posting in March.

Which held the Cupcake Month Theme of "Savory."

Then this would have been timely.

So just pretend with me.

Are we clear on this? Grand, then let's proceed!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

March Cupcakes were to be baked on a Savory theme, and so we three turned to the wide selection of gluten-free muffin recipes available. Lauren tackled Spinach Feta Muffins, to the delight of her taste-testers, and Mikaela grew resourceful in her adventures with Kalamata Olive & Sundried Tomato Croutons. Now, while both of these flavor combinations comply with the socially-approved definition of "savory," I (in true nerd-style) went to the dictionary definition, and was informed that "savory" did not merely mean "pungently flavorful without sweetness," but also "pleasing to the sense of taste, especially by reason of effective seasoning."

My savory is a bit sweeter than not. But hey - it still has a good combination of flavors! :) So without further ado...

Carrot Ginger Coconut Muffins

2 cups blanched almond flour

½ teaspoon  celtic sea salt

1 teaspoon baking soda

½ tsp allspice

½ tsp powdered ginger

a pinch of clove

½ cup shredded coconut shreds , unsweetened

3 eggs, preferably pastured

½ cup coconut oil ,melted

½ cup maple syrup OR honey

1-2 Tbs grated fresh ginger

1 cup grated carrot

Firstly, whisk together the dry ingredients (almond flour - coconut shreds).

See how organized? Almond flour underneath, salt at the bottom of the picture, followed by the baking soda, allspice, ginger, and coconut shreds. Obviously pre-whisked.

Next, whisk the eggs, oil, and syrup/honey (I used honey).

....ta-dah.

The next order of business is to mix the fresh ginger, carrots, and some optional raisins (it's against my religion to put raisins in baked goods, so I left them out) into the egg mixture. This, of course, necessitates grating the carrot...

If anyone has any tips for grating carrots without carrot shreds spreading all across the work area, I'm all ears! Pleas share your secrets!

Tell me that doesn't look delicious. ("Ok...that doesn't look delicious.")

No surprises in the next step: combine wet & dry ingredients, and pour into paper liners or greased muffin tins!

Oven-ready!

Bake the muffins at 350 degrees for 24-26 minutes. Cool, serve, enjoy!

 

These pictures are in keeping with the delicious-eating theme Joel started here...does anyone see the similarity? :p

Review:
I thought these muffins quite delish and would hardily recommend them!! If I wanted to bend them a little more into the conventional "savory" category, I can't help but think that a cream-cheese-lemon-dill topping would just POP! with the sweeter, subtle flavor of the muffin. But I leave that experiment to other days...

Happy baking!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The Cupcakes of Bakings Past

Lauren's Double Peanut Butter Chocolate

Sarah's Death-by-Chocolate

Mikaela's Hazelnut Mocha

Lauren's Spinach Feta

Mikaela's Croutons :)

Cupcake Party: Sarah Hearts Chocolate

Who ever heard of a girl late for her own party? Yet, I just checked and double-checked the calendar, and can you believe it's Friday ya'll??

So, this week, cupcake party on Friday. My blog. Everyone here? Hooray!

In accordance with the real theme of Valentine's Day (not really -we actually just chose it because there is no better flavor for kicking off a party) February's cupcake category is CHOCOLATE! (and I hope you all were terribly refined and read that with a French accent. I know I typed it thusly)

Lauren made some almost-healthy-and-still-incredibly-delicious Double Peanut Butter Chocolate Cupcakes last week, for which I can vouch as a keeper recipe! This week, I tried DC Cupcakes' Chocolate Chip Lava Fudge Cupcakes.

Three words:

Also a keeper.

The first step in making unbeatably delicious cupcakes is to get some unbeatably cute help, which is often hard to come by. I was lucky in my interviewing process, though, and was able to hire Maddy for some cupcake-paper-placing assistance. (please notice the hearts at the bottom of the papers. we love cupcakes.)

I substituted almond milk for the whole milk. I think this made the batter a bit more runny, and in the end I added an extra cup of flour (although if I did it again I would try only half a cup) for texture.

My other "tweaking" came in the form of dark chocolate chunks instead of chocolate chips - I recommend this change!!

What can I say? It's Valentine's Day tomorrow and I love chocolate. What better shape for cupcakes??

My second cute assistant: Kate! 

Cooling 

Then the truly fun part began! Using a lemon juicer (slightly smaller than an apple corer, which is what the recipe suggested) we punched holes straight through the cupcakes, gutting out their delicious innards for a core of even more delectable-ness -

Namely, chocolate ganache! The recipe said to use a plastic squeeze bottle, which would have made this a one-handed task. However, in the lack of squeeze bottles and the surplus of hands, we made do with a paper funnel!

Yummy-Yum-Yums 

 Next came a vanilla cream cheese frosting, topped with cute little pink sugar-candy-decor-balls. I think the end effect quite charming.

Yes, they were That. Good.

And now for some recipes - just in case you care to make these mouth-watering, diet-shattering, chocolate-fixing cupcakes for yourself! 

Cupcakes

1 1/4 c. gluten-free flour {I used 2 1/4}

1/2 t. baking soda

1/4 t. salt

2 eggs

1 1/4 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

1 c. whole milk {I used almond milk}

1/2 c. cocoa powder

1/2 c. chocolate chips {I used dark chocolate chunks}

Beat butter until fluffy; stop to add the sugar; beat on medium speed until mixed. Then, add the eggs one at a time, scraping the bowl as needed. In a separate container, combine milk and vanilla. Sift flour, salt, and soda. Alternate adding flour and milk mixtures to butter-sugar combo (adding a third at a time). Mix just until combined. Then add cocoa, and fold in the chocolate chips! Bake for 15-20 minutes at 350 degrees, either in cupcake papers or greased muffin tins. The recipe said to start checking the cupcakes at 15 minutes, and mine were mostly ready to pull out then. Allow cupcakes to fully cool (on wire rack) before taking out the centers and adding the...

Chocolate Ganache

2 c. semisweet chocolate chips

1 c. heavy cream

Fill a skillet with about an inch of water, and put ingredients in a small metal bowl in the skillet - kind of like a double-boiler. Turn burner between medium-low and medium heat. {Ok, I cheated here and turned it to 'high' until the chocolate started to melt, then turned it back down. No negative effects.} Melt and mix until it is one smooth, chocolaty goop of deliciousness. It will seem very runny, but have faith! It thickens. We added it to the centers while it was still very runny, then just popped them in the fridge. After the initial hardening, the cupcakes were fine on the counter, and the ganache didn't get soupy again.

Finally, top with...

Vanilla Cream Cheese Frosting!

4 TBLS unsalted butter {but mine was salted, and still good}

4 c. powdered sugar {recipe asked me to sift it...but I didn't. However, if your sugar is on the clumpy side, you will want to}

1/4 t. vanilla extract

6 oz cream cheese, at room temperature.

Combine and frost!

Review:

I really loved this cupcake recipe - and so did all my taste-testers! Those not accustomed to gluten-free cooking said they were a little dry, and they were on the crumbly side. At some point, I would like to experiment with adding a little less "extra" flour, and changing my g-free flour, to see if I could make them a little more moist. With the fudgy filling and creamy frosting, however, it wasn't bad at all. Even if this is "as good as it gets" I would make them again in a heartbeat...and probably will!

Any questions? No? Well then....

Would you like a cupcake?

Blessings of a Bloggy Birthday!

{photo credit}

Hello, friends! Come in! So glad you could make it! As you can see, I've spruced up the place for all the rare fun that's to happen this week. Scrubbed the windows, dusted the cobwebs, put up some new paint ~ how do you like it? Pull up a chair, will you? Would you like some tea? How about some cake? Yes, yes, that's two candles ~ can you believe how old my little blog is growing?

As I look back over these last two years of blogging, I am overwhelmed (and grateful) for the BLESSINGS documented herein. There have been the blessings of memories, lessons, miracles, and musings. Blessings of adventures, smiles, stories, and amazement. And, of course, there has been YOU! Whether you're a bloggy friend, internet acquaintance, or a friend I run into in everyday life (sorry about that ~ I'll have to better watch where I'm going!), I want you to know that your comments put a smile on my face and give me a day of sunshine!

Yesterday, I had the privilege of attending some friends' church, and there I heard a beautiful truth which seems to me to perfectly define true blessing. "We do not," the pastor challenged, "come to God to get what we want, but rather what He has to give us." While I am quicker to label the gifts listed in the paragraph above as "blessings," I have learned - and am continuing to learn - that when we receive tenacity to withstand pressure, comfort to carry through grief, or ability to overcome incompetency, these are often the most rewarding of blessings. In this last year I have begun to learn that somehow, God, in the miracle of Who He is, creates the most perfect beauty out of the most hopeless circumstances. It is the nature of our God. Is He not beautiful? Is He not awesome? Is He not deserving of every form of worship?

As you munch on delicious chocolate-covered strawberries at my little bloggy-birthday party, I ask that you would meditate, would remember, would share with me the blessings ~ both the easy and the hard ~ that Christ has given you this year. Surely, as Christians, there is no greater encouragement than to hear the stories of the Saviour's work!

So settle in and make yourself comfortable. We have a lovely seven~days~of~a~party before us, with stories and encouragements galore from some truly special people. And what would a party be without prizes? ...Still a party, perhaps, but certainly not as much fun! Would you like to see the items for the give-away? Yes, I thought so. :)

The first lovely is this wonderful "Emerald of the Sea" bracelet, hand-made by none other than my own amazing Grandma! An elegant, deep green, beaded in a wave pattern, it is one of my favorite jewelry pieces Grandma has made (definitely makes me think "Ireland" :).

 

 

Next item up for the give-away is C.S. Lewis' Till We Have Faces. I know that I've said this about nearly all his books, but this is my favorite work by C.S. Lewis. In his personal retelling of the mythological story of the goddess Psych, Lewis inexplicably grew my awe, fear, and love of the one true God. One of my top recommended books, to be sure!

 

photo credit (not the same cover picture as give-away book)

Are you as excited about these as I am?? Thought so! Here's how you can enter for your chance to win one of them!

 

1. Follow The Lord's Lass and comment with which prize you would prefer - 1 entry {required}

2. Vote on the polls which will be popping up on the sidebar this week - 1 entry per vote

3.  Blog about blessings and link to The Lord's Lass - 3 entries

 

Please leave one comment per entry you receive on this post. Give-away is open to both U.S. and international bloggers. :) Ends 11:59PM, March 18th, Pacific Time.

 

Now please, have another slice of cake and enjoy the party! Blessings!

 



Dancing in the New year

"All of which came together in preparation for..."

A ball.

A couple weeks ago, the following invitation was sent to several dear family friends:

The Honor of Your Presence

is requested

At a New Year’s Regency Ball

to be held at

The Coder Manor

January One, Twenty-Twelve

5:30 pm

Dinner will be served at 8:30

This was the first ball we've ever been to, hosted, or planned. I admit to being a bit stressed out last week, trying to make sure everything was in place and ready - but it was totally worth it! We danced, and danced, and ate, and danced, and talked, and danced and had an absolutely lovely, grand time! Unfortunately, I have only a few pictures from the evening (I've realized that tends to happen when you're the hostess), but Emily, Lauren, and Lynnae all have shared pictures on their blogs, so pop on over for a wee visit! :)

The dress I made for the event, and the first Regency gown
I've ever made that I was completely happy with! :)

The lanterns the guests arrived to (my awesome dad's idea! :) Please excuse the blur...

Even the Littles danced! Maddy especially enjoyed herself.

  

Dancing 'Comical Fellow'

Aren't the outfits wonderful??

Some of the lovely gowns...

An adorable sis-and-bro couple :)

Maddy and her Prince :)

One of the belles of the ball!

 
     

The meal and some mingling! :)



The whole gang minus Mrs. C (taking the picture)

It was such a lovely ball! Good friends, good music, good dancing - what could be more perfect? I am definitely planning another one!