So many sprinkles to choose from.

Colored icing carnage ensued.

Afterwards, all the artists posed with their masterpieces.

In two hours time we had eight creative cakes and clearly some budding pastry chefs in the making.   The afternoon was a sparkly, sugary success!

In the coming weeks I’ll be doing some spring cleaning and updating around here but in the meantime I thought I’d share these Honey Lavender Cupcakes  I made for an Australia Day  celebration.

These aren’t the first Aussie inspired treats I’ve made (also here and here) but they may be my favorite.   They are topped with a honey cream cheese frosting and caramelized lavender sugar and they remind me of spring.

Honey Lavender Cupcakes
adapted from Donna Hay and the Spicy Ice Cream blog
1 cup sugar
½ teaspoon dried lavender
2 1/2 sticks butter
4 tablespoons honey
3 eggs
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
2 1/4 cups plain flour, sifted
1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup milk

Preheat the oven to 325. Pulse sugar and lavender in a food processor. In a mixer, beat butter, lavender sugar and honey until light and creamy. Beat in the eggs, then vanilla. Add salt, baking powder, milk and flour and beat until just combined. Scoop into cupcake tin and bake for 15-20 minutes until the tops of the cupcakes are springy and a toothpick comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack. Yields 18 cupcakes.

Honey Cream Cheese frosting
16oz cream cheese, softened
4 cups powdered sugar
4 tablespoons honey
2 teaspoon vanilla extract
pinch of salt

Beat all ingredients in a mixer and mix until smooth and blended. This is a very soft frosting so you may want to chill it for 20 minutes or so until pipeable.

Lavender Sugar
adapted from Meg Hall

1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup water
1 tsp dried lavender

Line a small baking sheet with aluminum foil and grease lightly with baking spray. Combine ingredients in a small saucepan and cook over medium high heat until it turns a deep amber color. Pour onto the sheet pan and let cool. Break into shards.

Honey Salted Caramel
adapted from here
1/2 cup butter
2 cups brown sugar
1 cup honey
generous sprinkling of salt
1 can sweetened condensed milk
1 tsp vanilla

Melt butter in a large saucepan over medium high heat. Add sugar, honey, and salt and stir continuously until boiling. Add condensed milk and keep stirring until temperature on your candy thermometer reads 248 degrees. Remove from heat and stir in vanilla.
Use in your favorite recipe!

Last we talked coconut cupcakes where coming out of the oven, inspired by this shoot.

That’s the energetic and amazingly talented Libbie Summers, whose new book is hot off the presses.

Wedding season had me cooking another talented lady at venues like this beachside beauty in Malibu.  Corner office windows have nothing on this.

Too soon it was time to say farewell to summer with a gorgeous Tahoe sunset,

And a hello to fall (and my old pal Dunkin’) with a quick trip to magnificent Chicago

There were pendant cookies for a jewelry designer,

spooky broken glass cupcakes for Halloween,

and trays of pretty little macs.

These pumpkin spice, along with some hazelnut and apple cider versions are on sale here!

That catches us up for now but there’s lots more to come in the very near future. Holiday treats, projects with some amazing food stylists, and a little gussying up of this site are all on the horizon so stay tuned!

Soft and fluffy coconut cake filled with tangy key lime curd and topped with cream cheese frosting and toasted coconut- each one is like a little bite of summer.

Coconut Cupcakes
from Martha Stewart
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup packed sweetened shredded coconut
6 ounces unsalted butter, softened
1 1/3 cups sugar
2 large eggs, plus 2 large egg whites
3/4 cup unsweetened coconut milk
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 350. Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add vanilla. Whisk together dry ingredients and coconut. Alternate adding dry and wet ingredients, finishing with the dry. Fill muffin liners and bake for 14-18 minutes until tops are springy and lightly golden.

Cream Cheese Frosting
16 ounces cream cheese, softened
2 sticks unsalted butter, softened
1 tbsp milk
1tsp vanilla
4-6 cups powdered sugar

Beat together cream cheese and butter until smooth. Add milk, vanilla and half the powdered sugar and beat until well combined. Add the remaining sugar and beat until desired sweetness and consistency.

These Strawberry Muffins are healthy, delicious, and patriotic colored.  The were also a wonderful way to use up the last of my gaviota strawberries from Harry’s Berrys.  If you live in Southern California you must pick up a basket of these little gems at your farmers market.  Lower in acid and sweeter than your average berry, they are worth the slightly heftier price.

Have a delicious 4th of July!

Strawberry Muffins
adapted from here
2 1/2 cups of oats (old fashioned preferred but only had quick oats which worked fine)
1 cup plain greek yogurt
2 eggs
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 cups diced strawberries

Preheat oven to 400. Lightly grease muffin tin with baking spray.
Mix all ingredients except strawberries in a blender until smooth. Pour into a bowl and fold in 1 cup of the berries. Fill muffin tins 3/4 full and top with remaining berries. Bake for approx 20 minutes or until golden brown and a toothpick comes out clean.

The cars on top were a huge hit.

I figured eight year old fashionista/ballerina Rachel would enjoy this vanilla cake with strawberry jam and strawberry buttercream, decked out in shades of pink and purple.

It even matched her outfit.
The best birthday gifts come in bakery boxes.

My love affair with madelines began long before they showed up at Starbucks registers and it’s not just because of their cute shape.  They are so versatile, adapting easily to any flavor combination you can dream up.

Here they are scented with notes of spicy chai tea and fresh orange zest.  They’re perfect dusted with powdered sugar for afternoon tea, or smeared with lemon curd and paired with your morning coffee.

Chai Tea Madelines
adapted from Baking From My Home To Yours
5 tbsp unsalted butter
2 tbsp chai tea
3/4 cup ap flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
pinch of salt
1/3 cup sugar
grated zest of 1/2 orange
2 large eggs at room temperature
2 tbsp honey
2 tsp vanilla extract

Melt butter in microwave, stir in tea leaves and let steep for 15 minutes. Line a fine mesh sieve with damp cheese cloth and strain butter into a bowl. Discard tea leaves.
Whisk together dry ingredients. Combine zest and sugar into mixer bowl and work zest into sugar with your fingertips until fragrants.
With the whisk attachment, beat sugar mixture and eggs together for 2-3 minutes until pale and thick. Add honey and vanilla and beat for an additional minute. Gently fold in dry ingredients, then butter until incorporated. Spoon batter into a greased madeline pan, cover the surface with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 3 hours.
Preheat oven to 400F and bake until golden and springy, approximately 12-14 minutes. Remove madelines from the pan and cool to room temperature

Because everything taste better on a stick right?
To be honest, these macs was born out of prior cookie fails. I was trying to make these but they just ended up looking like burned angry faces. And of course you know all about my macaron issues so I figured why not push the envelope and tackle two problem recipes at once?
Current trend follower that I am, I used this recipe for the macs and filled them with dark chocolate ganache and melted down mini marshmallows. I added the sticks for the kitsch factor.

Watch out cupcakes, despite your deliciousness your days at the top are numbered.

This tart was my original plan but I was forced to experiment due a lack of eggs.  On the plus side, I made a lovely vegan coconut custard but omitting eggs yolks from the crust was a bust.  Ultimately, we ditched the pastry shell and ate the strawberries and custard parfait style.

I’ll try to never (dessert) desert you again.

Vegan Coconut Custard
adapted from Food Network UK
1 can coconut milk
1 cup almond milk
1/3 cup sugar
1/4 cup cornstarch
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tbsp Malibu coconut rum

Whisk together the first 4 ingredients in a saucepan until smooth. Stir continuously over medium heat until boiling then reduce heat and continue stirring until thickened. Strain into a bowl and chill until set.