Once Upon a Time: A Story of Cupcakes

Hello, Lovelies!

Or...Uglies, if you prefer. However, I'm sitting here with a British-flag-covered, steaming pot of tea, and methinks it affects my vocabulary at times. Besides, if you're sparing the time to read of my latest (and *ahem*, long ago) adventures in cupcakery, you are lovely! Shall we begin the tale?

    Once upon a time, when the colors of spring were just beginning to come into focus and warm the landscape, Sarah traveled to the far-off state of Maryland. This land was very merry indeed for the traveler, as it boasted the wonderful attraction of home to her life-long best friend, who had married another life-long friend, the two of whom had an exciting new friend to introduce to Sarah.

  Or, to be more precise, an honorary nephew for Auntie Sarah to meet!!

     Mr. Liam was full of smiles and conversation for Auntie Sarah, and she loved him dearly. Loved him when he napped, when he ate, and when he bounced. They played bump together, read books when Mama and Papa went on a date, and toured the art museum. One day, the adventures of Mr. Liam and Auntie Sarah contained-

What's that you say? You thought you were getting a cupcake recipe? What is this nonsense about cupcakes? Look at the post title. I'm sure I wrote "The Adventures of Mr. Liam and Auntie Sarah"...

Oh.

Cupcakes. Right. I will try again.

     One day, during Auntie Sarah's visit, Mr. Liam regrettably informed her that he had a busy day planned, and advised her to occupy herself as cheerily as she could with Mama while he attended to his duties (he promised to bounce in and out so they wouldn't be too devastated). Mama and Auntie wracked their brains, and finally decided that the best option for keeping happily busy would be the art of cupcakery. But not just any cupcakery. No - it would require a special kind, a kind of multiple colors and dancing flavors, to sufficiently brighten their time in which they could not be playing with Mr. Liam. And so the Sherbet Cupcake was born. Half grapefruit, half blueberry, topped with the fluffiest of So-Fluffy-I'm-Gonna-Die frostings, these cupcakes were masterpieces. Even Mr. Liam, who could not then enjoy their flavor, pronounced the aroma "heavenly" and "oohed" and "ahhed" at the colors. He thought Mama and Auntie were brilliant, and so, today, we share the recipe with the world.

     Because when life gives you no Mr. Liam playtime, you make cupcakes (and Skype him, and save to visit him again, and talk about him, and look at pictures that Mama sends you of him, and...well, you get the idea). So without further ado:

It was so fun to get make cupcakes with Mika as part of our Bloggy Cupcake Party - since we originally conceived the idea the first time Lauren and I got to visit her! For Part One of the recipe (Grapefruit Cupcakes!) and the Delectably Fluffy Frosting (a Mika-Sarah original), hop over to One Bright Corner. Below you'll find the Blueberry Cupcake side of this delicious-duo. Enjoy!

Blueberry Cupcakery
1 cup brown rice flour

1/2 cup coconut flour

1/3 cup tapioca starch

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 teaspoon xanthan gum

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 cup granulated sugar

1/2 cup coconut oil

2 eggs

1/3 cup Berry Blend fruit juice

2 - 3 drops purple food coloring, optional

1/2 cup 2% milk

1 cup blueberries (we used frozen, but fresh would be even more delicious!)

1. Preheat the oven to 350. Line a 12-count muffin tin with adorable cupcake liners.

2. In a medium bowl, combine the rice flour, coconut four, tapioca starch, baking powder, xanthan gum, and salt. Whisk until well combined. Set aside.

3. In a larger bowl, beat the sugar and coconut oil together. Add eggs, one at a time, until texture is thick and smooth.

4. Combine the berry juice and food coloring with milk in a small bowl. Alternate adding milk and flour mixture by halves, beating until just combined.

5. Gently fold in blueberries, then fill papers with half Grapefruit half Blueberry batters!

6. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes, until cupcakes spring back when tops are pressed or until a toothpick comes out clean (but remember gluten-free cupcakes are done at a more moist consistency than wheat flour cupcakes). Remove and cool completely on wire racks.

7. Frost!

(Remember, for frosting and specific details in duo-flavored cupcake assembly, see Mika's blog!)

Review:

This was my favorite cupcake recipe so far and receives two thumbs up!! They were flavorful, moist, and delicious with or without the frosting (but if there were any doubters, I'm highly recommending the frosting)! We all thought they had a slightly gritty taste, so I would experiment with substituting sweet rice flour for the brown rice. Also, I have made them again as lemon cupcakes and found them a bit dry - a problem we did not have with the original Sherbet Cupcakes. My hypothesis is that the juicy blueberries kept them moist - so don't skip the fruit! :)

     And now you know how it came about that there were Sherbet Cupcakes in the adventures of Mr. Liam and Auntie Sarah. And I think I can promise you that everyone lives happily ever after.

     Everyone except the cupcakes.

Tag Time! {part 1}

Don't we all love tag?? Today, I'm playing the game by the rules of my friend, William. We met last summer during the amazing Reformation Tour (which I just realized I never did a true synopsis of...that will really have to happen at some point)!

Me, Kaytch, & William: first meeting!

 Between him, us three girls, and a few other cool people, we formed the fabulous Back of the Bus Gang.

Back row: Aislinn, Charae, Yours Truly, Kaytch, Lieren
Front row: Stephen, William, Abigail, Noel

I have decided that touring Europe together is one of the absolute best ways to make friends.

Lieren, Charae, Abby & Grace, Aislinn, Moi, William

...here is where I rapidly switch back to the topic of tag to avoid feeling a little homesick for that wonderful month of travels!

SO, the rules of the game are as follows:

1. Thank the person who nominated you and link to their blog. This feels slightly egotistical toward whomever I tag, but I'm certainly grateful to William for getting to join the fun!!
2. Answer his/her 11 questions.
3. Add to these 11 random facts about yourself.
4. Come up with your own 11 questions.
5. Tag (up to) 11 other blogs (with under 200 followers) to answer your queries and follow the previous 4 steps.

6. Do some mental math and come to the conclusion that, provided all 11 blogs comply, there will be 242 answers/random facts added to the blogosphere, compliments of your solitary blog post.

{confession: I did not do that math mentally}

Shall we begin? Because I love to ramble (apparently), and because I love to play tag (obviously), I'm prolonging the game into two posts. Because I can. :)

Part I: answering William's questions.

{photo credit}

1. What is your favorite type of music?
One of the hardest and favoritest questions! I like to play classical, listen to soundtracks, and sing along to hymns and (some) praise music. Thanks to this question, I now have a theme for this week's Watch-It Wednesday. :D

And...complete honesty requires me to acknowledge that I enjoy some kpop, also.

2. What is your favorite genre of literature?
Historicalfictionfairytalesfantasy(specificallyallegorical)philosophytheologybiographyclassicspoetry.

3. Would you rather read books or write articles?

I know this may come as a shock, considering the 30 Day Book Challenge I did last month, but I'd rather read than write.

{Yes, sarcasm.}

While I really do enjoy writing - when I feel I have something worth saying - I would much rather find an author with a complete mastery of words and read his. :)

4. How many brothers and/or sisters do you have?
4 bros, 5 sisters. For a total of 9 siblings. And yes, I did that math in my head.

5. If you lived 100 years ago, where would you choose to live?
According to HistoryOrb, August 25th held these events:
-German army begins 6 weeks of plundering Leuven, Belgium
-German Zeppelins bomb Antwerp, Belgium
- German troops march into France and pushes the French army to Sedan

Basically, if I was alive 100 years ago, I would be watching the beginning of the first world war. I don't really feel any pull to that difficult and tragic time, so I guess the best answer would be the US, since we hadn't joined the war yet...

6. Which theological subject are you most interested in?
This was a hard one, William, because I've actually never thought of Theology as being divided into different subjects. I had to ask Ben, but his answer was right-on (which is why, you know, he was to be asked). Answer: the personhood of Christ.

7. If you could travel to any one place in the world, where would you go?

Why must you ask a question like this?? Only one place? I can't pick one! I want to go back to Scotland, England, and Switzerland. I want to see Austria, Italy, Spain, Poland, Korea, Japan, Greece, Australia, Norway, Finland...Victoria B.C! Arches National Park, the Grand Canyon, Chicago, Disney Land, Maine, Prince Edward Island, Gates of Calypso Iguazu Falls (Brazil), Grand Wailea Canyon Activity Pool (Hawaii), the musical road in Lancaster, CA, and, within the next couple weeks, Frederick, Maryland will be added to the list.
Basically, give me a plane ticket and a suitcase, and I'm off.

8. Why did you start a blog?
Oh, self-absorption, mostly. Feeling a driving need to be recognized on the world wide web, I planned my momentous debut for months ahead of time, researching for agonizing hours what exactly was calculated to instantly draw the masses and grant me the platform I never found to be large enough in real life.

It didn't work.

So I went to Plan B for "purpose." Namely, maintaining an easy scrapbook wherein both grandparents and other family/friends could keep somewhat updated on my life.  Part B of Plan B was that it gave me an outlet for writing and a challenge to write consistently.

That's worked a bit better.

9. Where would you prefer to live: the city, or the country?

 

City for a couple years (and I'm talking city city: apartment downtown sorta thing)...because cities hold such an endless realm of adventures and possibilities, I'm drawn to them. Ultimately, however, I prefer to live in the country with s-p-a-c-e and quiet and flower gardens and veggie gardens and fruit trees and animals...and maybe even a house. :p

10. What is the most influential book, other than the Bible, in your life?
I feel like I keep talking about these books. I don't know if I could pinpoint just one. The Narnia series is so fully ingrained into who I am, that I'm sure I don't know all the influence it's had on me. When I think of truly mind-opening books I have read, they are Surprised by Joy, Til We Have Faces, Ten Ways to Destroy the Imagination of Your Child, and The Book that Made Your World.

Disclaimer: I'm sure there are tons of others I simply can't think of at this moment. ;)

11. What is your favorite movie?
Oh goodness. Really, William?? :p Short answer: Can't answer. Long answer: well, you asked for it....

Master and Commander, Ever After, Les Miserables, Cinderella Man, Wives and Daughters, Patriot, The Man From Snowy River, North and South, Tammy and the Bachelor, Luther, Sense and Sensibility (with Emma Thompson)...

...these are in no particular order. Some of them are "favorites" because I've grown up on them. Almost all of them are favorites for nostalgic reasons, as much as anything else. I like watching movies just fine, but am hard-pressed to say that I really have "favorites." :)

There now, aren't you glad I'm doing this in two parts? 400 brownie points to all of you who waded through my verbosity. To the skimmers: shame on you, on your family, and on your cow.

Tune in next Monday for part 2!! :)

Hello, hello! Guess what day it is? Not hump day (unfortunately), but Monday, which means I have 31 more minutes to upload a post.

The only problem is, the post I was going to share today isn't finished being written is, uh, experiencing technical difficulties loading words onto the page, and had to be postponed. Thus, I am here to tell you...to tell you...whatever pops into my head to say at 11:31 at night! (2 minutes have apparently flown by since I first began to ramble.)

So what do I care to say at such a late hour? That summer is flying by waaaay too quickly, but - provided we get to keep the fantastic weather - dad has been working hard to convince me that fall is certainly a good thing coming.

Step one in this campaign was that we finally have one of these puppies for our 1800-2700 pounds of apples we get each year:

See how you can crush and press the apples at the same time? Plus, it apparently improves the quantity by quite a bit, and also, you know, we don't have to rent one anymore and lug it back and forth. My mouth is watering for cider and my hands are itching to once again compete with Charae for the best cider-pressing team!

Step two in Father's Fabulous Fall campaign was that, quite unexpectedly, we were confronted with the fact that he can make killer apple pie. I'm talking seriously amazing. And I never knew it in all my born days!

I guess you could say that, here in the Evergreen State, fall is synonymous with apple abundance ~ thus, much as I love the warmth and the sunshine, Father's campaign has been successful, and I am looking forward with great anticipation to the coming months.

14 minutes left.

um...

Oh! I can tell you my Chick Fil A story! Back in July, when I was road tripping home from Branson with my grandparents, we happened to be going through a part of the country where there were several - you guessed it - Chick Fil As! Having never been to one, but supporting what the restaurant has stood for, we stopped there for lunch one day, with fantastic consequences.

Rolling out of the restaurant later....

Papa and I ordered a sandwich; grandma ordered a salad, and papa added a sundae to his meal. I toyed with the idea of ordering fries, too, since...I really like fries, but decided against it. Only to have cashier (who we think was a manager) ask me (upon finding it was my first time at a Chick Fil A), "Do you hate french fries?" "Um, no. I love them," was my confused answer. "Well, then," he informed me, beginning to punch a secret code of buttons on his register, "I'm going to give you a complimentary fry, because you have to try this sauce with them," (handing me a stack of sauces). "Ok - cool! Thanks!" I decided I'd gotten a pretty sweet deal. Little did I know, it was just the beginning.

"You know," he paused before ringing up our total, "you really need to try our chicken sauce, too, so I'm going to give you a complimentary chicken. No - two. One fried and one grilled. You'll love this sauce," (handing me another stack). "Wow...thank you," was all I could manage now, wondering how in the world I was going to eat all of this.

"And," he added, warming to his theme, "two cookies!"

By now, I was chuckling so hard, I could hardly manage a "thank-you."

"You know," his exuberance waning, "Chick Fil A was originally from Georgia, so I'm going to give you," (beginning to go crazy on the buttons again) "a Georgia peach milkshake as well!"

At this point, I think my eyes popped out of my head. How could he give me all this free food? How could I possibly eat it all?

Is this a normal amount of food for 3 people???

I cannot believe all this food

Took me a while to finish everything... :p

And now, my dears, it is 12:10. So I'm late anyway. Would have been on time...or at least closer to on time, except for the internet skipped out on me for a while.

So, since we're here, I might as well wish you a happy Tuesday!!

And ask if you can taste the apple pies yet.

And advise you to tell the cashier if it's your first time at Chick Fil A.

And bid you good night.

30 Day Book Challenge! Day 7: The Past Year ~ The Ugly

You know that saying, "Duty first and pleasure afterward"? We're going to reword that to be "boring first and beautiful afterward." Ok? Right. First on the docket, then, is our book "challenge" question:

Day 7: What is the worst book you've read in the last year?

Dumb question. You've heard of this book before now. Answer: An Unlikely Friendship, by Ann Rinaldi.

Moving on to more exciting things, today we drove through Arches National Park. It was amazing. Beautiful. Breath-taking. I decided immediately that I am planning a road/camping trip there next summer to try out all the amazing hikes! Here are just a few photos of the fab rock formations...

Amazing, right? Have you been to Arches National Park?

New York, New York! Part III: Sunny Endings

Blue skies and sunshine again greeted us on Sunday morning. Kate and I spent some time reading through and discussing Philippians 2 for our morning "church", then rode a couple subway stops to Central Park, ready, after the previous day's adventures, to just enjoy a {free}, relaxing walk. It was a lovely morning/afternoon.

First stop: A park in Central Park! We got some strange looks from all the young parents and 5-year-olds, but very classily pretended not to notice.

Thus began our 3.5 hour stroll through sunshiny paths. With beautiful scenery, fabulous people-watching, and good conversation, we reckoned it time well-spent.

There were many ponds throughout the park, but the reservoir was by far the prettiest. The path around it was especially designed for runners, and literally hundreds were taking advantage of it, making me wish I'd brought my running gear!

We finally got pretzels! (they were rather dry and anti-climactic, but we got 'em!)

During our short sit-down, I wrote postcards, and Kate took pictures.

I thought we should do a grumpy picture, but Kate doesn't know how to be grumpy.

  This little tower was actually built in 1869 as a look-out tower. Now, it's in the Shakespeare garden of Central Park. :)

How cool is this instrument?? I wish I knew what it was called, so if you're an enlightened individual, leave a comment and let me know! The musician had a microphone and was playing and singing away.

After Central Park it was time for getting lost a stroll along the streets, heading toward none other than Times Square! Bikes and buildings marked our way...

 ...and the Museum of Natural History...

...with good ol' Teddy guarding the entrance.

After a quick stop for "coffee" (aka, an excuse to use an outlet to charge a dying phone/camera battery), we arrived. Unexpectedly, this was actually one of the most fun and exciting moments for me! :p

First view...

We were there!! :)

And so were the minions!

Bound and determined to spend as little money as possible, we boldly began our walk down the square. However, being chased down by Spider Man, who apparently thought we were gorgeous enough to get a picture w/o paying for his pose, forced us to seek refuge in the Hershey store. What could we do? We were greeted, upon entering, with two free chocolates, and enjoyed perusing all the delectable options. It was here that I lost Kate for a second time, although our separation was considerably shorter, being above ground and in the same crowded room.

Next, we were drawn by unseen forces to the M&M store. This place was beyond cool. Boasting over 22 non-traditional colors in M&Ms, I just had to get some hot pink and deep purple ones for my M&Ms back home (Megan and Madeline), as well as some green M&M shoelaces for the Z-man who leads the Littles.



Next stop (which was just a thrill to walk into, as you shall presently see) was the Disney store. Downstairs was cute - Mickey & Minnie Mouse, Winnie the Pooh, etc - but when we turned our feet toward the escalator to visit the second floor, we were enchanted with the "Tangled"-theme lighting!

(Yes...this pic is obviously from our trip back down the escalator. Kudos to you observant ones)

At the top, a Disney castle and elegant chandelier dominated the floor, with princess dresses, accessories, and dolls at every turn. We liked it muchly.

A quick stop to H&M, and then the growing darkness encouraged us to turn our steps away from the Square (I would 100% recommend spending a whole day there, not just a couple hours) and toward the Empire State Building!

Long lines and elevator rides brought us to breath-taking views from the 86th floor/observation deck. It was beautiful (the pictures really can't do it justice), with lighted streets cutting deep gorges between the towering buildings, stretching far, far away.

Thus flew our weekend in New York City. The next morning was pack-up-and-leave day, in which we marveled at the sunburns we had somehow acquired during our hours of walking in freezing sunshine, at how fast the time flew, and at how confusing train stations can be. It was a fabulous couple days, and so I say, "Hooray for NYC!"