Never Bashful with Butter

When I was a kid, my mom did the majority of the baking around the house. Occasionally my dad would fill in as short order cook when my mom didn’t feel like making dinner, or for our standard Sunday morning breakfast, but my mom.. she was the kitchen warrior.

Growing up, I had no idea how she did it.

I knew she had this Magical cookbook that she always had open when she made one of her specialties, but being a child, I had no idea what any of the words or symbols meant. I was one of those…. special children, so I always likened it to a spell book, and her wooden spoon was her magic wand. She’d throw in all these crazy things, and in the end everything ended up delicious, so long as she kept the vegetables out of the cupcakes, and kept the candy out of the vegetables.

So when I saw my mom standing over a bowl holding onto a box grater, shredding zuccneverbashfulwithbutter.comhttp://www.neverbashfulwithbutter.comhini, with a giant bag of gumdrops sitting next to where the rest of her ingredients were laid out, I panicked.

Gumdrops and zucchini? Together?

And then she laid it on me..

Not only was I going to be eating this stuff that she was mixing up, but I was going to aid her in creating it. She handed me this big mixing bowl filled about halfway up with granulated white sugar, a butter knife and the giant bag of gumdrops. She sat me down at the kitchen table and demonstrated what I was supposed to do, and then went back to grating zucchini. For a moment I was awestruck, then I complied.

I cut the gumdrop into thin slices horizontally.
I rolled them in the sugar.
I cut each of those slices into for pieces.
I rolled them in the sugar.

Then I started on the next one. All the way through the entire bag, though actually, I only got about a quarter of the way through before my complaining attracted the attention of my older sister, who was snagged and dragged into duty as soon as my mom saw that she entered the kitchen.

Then my mom did something that I was sure would lead to disaster. She mixed up the zucchini shreds with sugar, egg, oil, some powders and flours and THEN SHE DUMPED IN THE GUMDROPS.
OMG it was devastating.

I think my sister and I both cringed and ‘Ewwww’d and flailed our little arms in pseudo panic. My mom was making something brown and goopy, filled with vegetables and gumdrops and WE WERE GOING TO HAVE TO EAT IT.

Cut to 30 minutes later, when out from the depths of the oven sprang forth a tray of odd lumps that we did not quite understand how to consume, as they looked like green flecked dirty cupcakes, but smelled sweet, like something we might enjoy.

I worried this might end badly, like the time my grandma told me that it would be alright for me to eat horse chestnuts from the tree in front of our church, not realizing that they are extremely poisonous. Knowing that I didn’t want to end up in the hospital with a tube up my nose getting my stomach pumped… again, I was wary.

It only took me one bite to realize that they were the most delicious and tasty muffin/cupcake/ bread that I’d ever eaten in my entire life.

The gumdrops were dispersed perfectly throughout the body of the muffin, and when sliced through, glistened in the light like stained glass windows.

My mom had to stop me from eating them, actually. It wasn’t yet dinner time, and I was already stuffing my face full of muffins. They were light and fluffy, and - Dare I say it, MOIST!

They were amazingly delicious. Magically, the zucchini itself blended in perfectly with the rest of the muffin, and they weren’t vegetable-y at all!

But now, I’m older. You’d think I’d cringe less when I thought of strange food pairings, but I don’t. I am, however, still a huge fan of my mom’s zucchini bread muffins. They’re so good they don’t even need icing. They’re so perfect, you could double the amount of zucchini, and they’d still taste like candy.

They’re also perfect housewarming gifts when baked in loaf pans, wrapped in parchment and tied with a ribbon. They freeze well (up to 6 months wrapped in saran wrap and then again in tin foil.)

And people LOVE them.
…after they’ve gotten past the description of “Zucchini bread, with… gumdrops.. in it.”

Anyways… I’m now in posession of my mom’s “spell book”. Its full of all sorts of delicious and almost fool proof recipes that I rarely see people making now a days. Old fashioned cookies, cakes, breads.. candies.

..But best of all, my mom’s zucchini bread recipe.

And in keeping with tradition, you’ll have to read the recipe card yourself. Its forbidden to be passed along any other way.

(click the photo to enlarge it and read it.)

There is a story behind the card itself, actually.

The original recipe card was written by my great grandma on my mom’s side. She was a very youthful woman, who despite having diabetes and having been instructed by doctors to not eat any candy or sugar, she insisted to all around her that it was alright, so long as she ate them IN something. However, when she wrote out her recipes, she’d often write down healthy ingredients (with “optional” next to them), but in all actuality she’d make the recipe with the “naughty” ingredients, like candy and sugar.

Hence why the recipe card calls for coconut, when what she really used was chopped gumdrops.

My grandma changed the recipe when she wrote out her version of the recipe card, by omitting the chopped nuts and the coconut, and adding an extra 1/2 cup- 1 cup of zucchini shreds and the requisite 1 cup of chopped gumdrops in its place. This is how my mom grew up making it also, and how I grew up with my mom making it, and how I now make it, myself (you can make it any way that you want, including using whole wheat flour, adding oats, using applesauce instead of oil, or just following the recipe as it is written.)

…But we keep the recipe card reading the same as it always did. Misspellings, strange instructions and all.

Its kind of part of the magic of the family cookbook.

1 part bippity, 1 part boppity, 1 part chopped gumdrops.

-A.

P.S. if you’re going to make them as muffins, be sure to grease the muffin tin or use paper liners, and bake them for 20-25 minutes at 350, or until a toothpick poked in the center comes out clean. The tops should be flat and crunchy. Use a knife to loosen the edges of the muffins from the pan (unless you used liners) as the gumdrops that are at the edge of the batter have a tendency to stick to the pan, but will come off easily if you are gentle!

I am allergic to cinnamon.

…There, I said it. I do indeed have a food allergy.
I can claim my place amongst the estimated 12 million Americans that also have a food allergy.

Apparently, cinnamon allergy is not necessarily as rare as some people believe it to be. True, its not nearly as prevalent as nut, wheat, milk or shellfish allergy, but there are more than a couple people with cinnamon allergy.

Luckily, as with most people who are allergic to cinnamon, the symptoms are fairly mild. Speaking for myself, whatever part of my body comes in contact with the spice is what shows the effects. If I eat the spice, my lips, cheeks and tongue neverbashfulwithbutter.comhttp://www.neverbashfulwithbutter.comswell up. My throat gets tingly. If I get cinnamon or cinnamon oil on my skin, then I break out in a rash. Its very mild.

I found out I was allergic to cinnamon over time, through a combination of events that were memorable enough to look back and think “hmm.. I might want to see someone about this.”

…Like the day I went to work and brought a giant box of Mike and Ike candy to share with my co-workers. There are two different shades of red candy in the Mike and Ike box, neither of which is cinnamon. I never was a big fan of cinnamon growing up, so I usually avoided red candies, but since I knew Mike and Ikes were only fruit flavours, they were safe to me. Then another co-worker comes in, sees the giant box of Mike and Ikes, goes to the vending machine and buys a box of Hot Tamales, and pours them into the pre existing box of Mike and Ikes (they’re made by the same company and the candy is identical) without telling anyone.

I put my hand in the box a little later, fished out a red candy and assuming it was cherry, gobbled it down. Much to my chagrin, I discovered that it wasn’t in fact cherry, but a very spicey, hot, cinnamon. I spat it out.

Not more than 2 minutes goes by and my coworkers start noticing that my lips were bright red. One of them asks me if I decided to be girly and wear lipstick that day, and I started to say “no, why would I dress up to work here?” Sarcastically. But what came out was closer to “snow, why woo I stress ups dwork here?” My tongue had swollen to the point where speaking wasn’t exactly a good idea. It was then that I wrote on a slip of paper “ WHO PUT THE CINNAMON CANDIES IN MY MIKE AND IKES?” Someone fessed up, but really.. what can ya do?

Anyways, After this, I took a job in a bakery. One of my primary jobs was making the cinnamon rolls. Large quantities of cinnamon and bare forearms (I wore gloves and my sleeves went to my elbows) left me with a bit of a skin rash that I only broke out in after the cinnamon roll assembling part of my shift.

Finally I went and had an allergy test at the doctor, and found out that I have a very mild allergy to cinnamon and cassia, which is a spice so similar to cinnamon that in many cases, it is used in place of cinnamon, because its cheaper.

However, after all of this talk of allergies, mouth swelling and arm rashes.. I am not able to shake my love of cinnamon, and so I often find myself weighing the consequences against the flavour, and the flavour almost always wins.

And so when I made these dark chocolate cupcakes, as I held the measure of cinnamon above the batter, I said to myself, “I’ll only eat one, it’ll be alright” and added it. The smell was heavenly, and I did not regret my decision.

Recipe for Dark Chocolate Cinnamon Cupcakes-

Makes 12 cupcakes

8 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped
½ cup Dutch-processed cocoa
2 tablespoons cinnamon
3/4 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
½ teaspoon baking soda
¾ teaspoon baking powder
2 large eggs
¾ cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
½ teaspoon table salt
½ cup sour cream

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Line standard-sized muffin pan with baking-cup liners.

Combine butter, chocolate, and cocoa in medium heatproof bowl. Set bowl over saucepan containing barely simmering water; heat mixture until butter and chocolate are melted and whisk until smooth and combined. Set aside to cool until just warm to the touch.

Whisk flour, baking soda, cinnamon, and baking powder in small bowl to combine.

Whisk eggs in second medium bowl to combine; add sugar, vanilla, and salt and whisk until fully incorporated. Add cooled chocolate mixture and whisk until combined. Sift about one-third of flour mixture over chocolate mixture and whisk until combined; whisk in sour cream until combined, then sift remaining flour mixture over and whisk until batter is thick.

Divide batter evenly among muffin pan cups. Bake until skewer inserted into center of cupcakes comes out clean, 18 to 20 minutes.

When the cupcakes have cooled, mix together a half teaspoon of cinnamon with 3 tablespoons powdered sugar. Sift a light coating of the mixture on top of the cupcakes. No frosting necessary.

Also, just a little extra tidbit here, You might have heard about the “Cinnamon challenge” on the internet.

While I guess I can see how someone who has knocked back a few cold ones might find it to be a good idea to then try and ingest a spoon full of cinnamon, it’s much wiser to stay away from this “challenge” Cinnamon is a dessecant, which basically means that it sucks the moisture out of things. Like your mouth. If you do try to eat a spoon full of cinnamon, you WILL choke. And then you will breathe in cinnamon powder, causing you to cough. And it will be painful.

I know everyone likes a food challenge, so why not do something less dangerous, like chugging maple syrup.*smile*

-A.

When I was a little girl, my favourite colour was pink. Evidence of this can be found in the photo directly below. Please ignore the bad 80’s girl-mullet, however. *wince*

Note the overabundance of cabbage patch kids, the entirely pink outfit, pink curtains, pink miscellaneous, and just know that my bedding was a very pretty light pink as well. I loved pink.

When I got older and we moved houses and I got my own bedroom (the photo above shows me on my bed, which was the top bunk. My sister had the bottoneverbashfulwithbutter.comhttp://www.neverbashfulwithbutter.comm bunk.) When I had my own bedroom, I told my parents I wanted pink walls and pink bedding and pink carpet and blah blah blah- pink. My proposal was immediately shut down. My parents were strictly white wall people, and the notion of the walls being any other colour than white, or possibly “eggshell” was unheard of. They also denied the remainder of my requests, siting my reaction as I grew older, saying that when I was 16, I’d not want a pink bedroom anymore.

I kept on, and despite a brief stopover in panda addiction, I remained a lover of all things pink. Finally my parents sent me off to church camp, and upon my return, they’d painted an “accent wall” bright pink, and given me pink area rugs for my bedroom. I was totally stoked.

Even when pink was no longer cool amongst girls my age, I loved pink.

Sure, I might have told everyone that my favourite colour was green, or blue, or black (Yeah, I went through that phase, too) It was always pink, and I loved the colour of my bedroom. I requested pink parties, pink clothes, pink everything. I even chose my favourite brand of shampoo and conditioner based on their pink colour, totally ignoring that they were watermelon scented, and I hated watermelon.

One of my favourite sweets, growing up, were snowballs. You know.. Hostess snack cakes. An inverted chocolate cupcake filled with cream, covered in a layer of marshmallow and then rolled in pink dyed dessicated coconut. My only problem was that I didn’t much like the chocolate cake, but I loved the idea of coconut on a cake. My mom started adding coconut to the birthday cakes that she made me, and one year she covered my entire birthday cake in a thick layer of pink dyed dessicated coconut, so that it looked like a giant snowball. I loved it. Had I made my own birthday cake this year, that is exactly what I would have done.

But instead I’ve decided to make pink hazelnut cupcakes, dip them in string icing and then roll the tops in pink dyed dessicated coconut. They’re amazingly delicious, too.

I felt like maybe I should have added something extra to the presentation of these cupcakes, but simplicity is best, I think. The cool thing is that the coconut ended up the exact same colour as the cupcakes themselves. The perfect shade of pink.

And now for the recipe!

Pink hazelnut and coconut cupcakes

1 cup white sugar
1/2 cup butter
2 eggs
2 teaspoons Hazelnut extract
1/2 cup fine ground hazelnuts
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 3/4 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 cup + 2 Tablespoons milk
2-3 drops pink food colouring

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). line a muffin pan with paper liners.
In a medium bowl, cream together the sugar and butter. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, then stir in the flavouring and pink food colouring. Combine flour and baking powder, add to the creamed mixture and mix well. Stir in the milk until batter is smooth, then fold in the ground hazelnuts. Pour or spoon batter into the prepared muffin cups.
For cupcakes, bake 20 to 25 minutes. Cake is done when it springs back to the touch.

After you’ve allowed the cupcakes to cool, whip up a quick batch of string icing, which is just 3 tablespoons milk mixed with about a cup of powdered sugar. Make sure there are no lumps. Dip the tops of the cupcakes into the icing, allowing any icing drips to fall back into the bowl. Once iced, dip into a flat tin with a wide opening full of the prepared coloured coconut.

To tint your coconut, you’ll need dessicated coconut (available in most grocery store bulk sections) and a couple drops of food colouring. Put about a cup of coconut into a ziplock bag, and then add a drop of food colouring. Close the bag and smush it around until the colouring is fully dispersed. Add more food colouring as needed.

-A.

Ok, you know I had to do it.

Its just not possible to make anything Swedish in my house without indulging in a fair amount of Swedish Chef-speak, and trust me.. There were plenty of “bork bork bork’s” uttered this morning in my house.

I know these little cupcakes just look like regular old cupcakes, but they have a story.

They’re modeled off of Swedish Princess Cakes.  The marzipan coated, whipped cream iced, raspberry jam and custard filled sponge cake domes that really aren’t very common anywhere near where I currently live.

Sure, I’ve seen them on the internet, and thats exactly where I got the idea to make these cute little cupcakes. They’re just like regular princess cakes, only they’re bite sized, and filled, instead of layered.

The thing about these cupcakes, is that they’re really labour intensive.

Not only do you have to make the sponge cake, but you’ve got to “soak” it in a sort of sugar syrup. Then fill it with raspberry jam and vanilla custard. Then add a giant mound of sweetened whipped cream, and cover the whole thing in a thin layer of green marzipan. The pink rose is the traditional decoration, and I figured since I put so much work into these little buggers, I might as well keep it simple with the decoration.

But why would I spend my entire morning making a dozen cupcakes, when I could have spent about 10 minutes making a dozen similar ones?

Herein lies a little bit of a story.

You see, my husband currently works for a company which is ran by Swedish people.
Well, I guess that story is a lot shorter than I thought it would be.

Anyways, My husband is quitting his job, and although there have been a few issues with his co-workers, but not anyone that he works with directly, He really likes the people he works with. When he first got the job, the owner of the company, whose name I don’t know but I probably couldn’t spell anyways, took my husband out to dinner, and told him how great of an employee he is, and how happy he was that they hired him.

Since then, he’s called my husband probably once a month just to make sure everything is alright with him. From what I’ve gathered, this guy is pretty cool.

So, since my husband has been bringing in my cupcakes to work for his co-workers ever since I started this blog, I figure I’d send along a special batch, as Swedish as the boss, for Aaron’s resignation day.

I mean, I thought about other Swedish things, but sending packages of Swedish fish to work with him just didn’t have the same sentimentality behind it.

This special one is for the boss-

Pretty pretty princess cakes!

The one in front is my favourite…

So this recipe I snagged from I-village. I changed a few insignificant things about it, but I can’t claim that its my own recipe at all.

However, since the recipe is posted on the internet in the first place, I’ll provide a link to the original recipe, if you’d like to make a traditional Swedish princess cake of your own. I’ll give the details of how to make little princess cupcakes, below.

• Instead of using round cake pans, I used a muffin tin with a dozen cupcake papers, and 2 four inch cake pan rounds. The recipe will probably make 24 cupcakes if you would like to just make cupcakes with it.

• Instead of using rum in the soaking solution, I used lemon juice.
• Instead of brushing on the soaking solution, I cut the top of the cupcake off and poked about 5 holes in it with a tooth pick. Then I spooned on about a teaspoon of the soaking solution.
• To fill the cupcakes, I used a sharp knife to remove a cone of cake from the center of the cupcake, then I spooned in a little raspberry jam and some of the vanilla pastry cream.
• I piped on a generous mound of whipped cream on top of the cupcake and placed a thin round of green marzipan on top, as well as a rolled marzipan rose.

Really, it was a bit labour intensive, just with all the individual things you have to make, but very simple to assemble, and SO TASTY when its all put together.

-A.

Living in the country, its definitely not a rarity to claim to have a berry bush of some sort in my childhood front yard. Especially not living in the Northwest.

Back when I was a kid, it seemed like everyone wanted theirs gone. All of our neighbours were often seen in the yard, donning their full on yard armor- Carhartts, Flannel, leather gloves, long boots.. The real serious ones even wearing some sort of crazy headgear consisting of a fine mesh screen being held at a distance from the face, suspended by some sort of wirework.  Always with clippers, pruning shears, scissors, shovels, rakes, post hole diggers. Some sort of weaponry against the berry bushes.

I think for a while my parents were even included in this group. Always attempting to remove the berry bush on the side of the house. Claiming it was a danger, it was attracting bees, it was an eye sore.  The only problem with being against the berry bushes, is that you have to commit to your cause, and my parents weren’t so good with that.

Noneneverbashfulwithbutter.comhttp://www.neverbashfulwithbutter.com the less, we ended up with a pretty large sized blackberry bush attached to the side of our toolshed. It started out fairly small and manageable, but quickly over a particularly damp summers, it grew well beyond the size of the toolshed, at which point my parents managed to whack it down to about half its size, and for the remainder of its life, it stayed fairly small.

Our black berry bush was nothing compared the the giant monstrosity being grown by our next door neighbours. I guess the fact that the original owner of the house grew quite old and passed away, leaving the house to her disabled son, then the house sat without an tenant for quite sometime before being occupied by a family with two kids and entirely too many vehicles in various states of repair. No one had the time or ability to deal with it and It really never was very well tended to, so it grew to an enormous size before too long.

I loved this berry bush. It was a mixture of black berry bushes, raspberry bushes and a small amount of marionberry bushes. There was another unidentifiable berry growing in there, but we never picked it for fear of it being poisonous, and seeing as how we had so many other berries to pick, it wasn’t that big of a deal, even though looking back I think it was a low lying bush berry like a huckleberry.

Anyways, this bush, being of such size that when it was later removed, it was found to have over 10 vehicles within its masses, was so full of berries that the people that owned the house didn’t mind me and a few friends going and picking a few buckets full of berries every once in a while.  I think they figured I was 15 and bored, and picking berries was much better than doing something much more destructive.

So one particular day I enlisted the help of two of my best friends, and we decided we would tackle the bush.

We suited up, thick rubber kitchen gloves for all three of us, provided by my mom who was so afraid we’d prick our fingers and catch some sort of berry bourne disease, that she insisted we remove the gloves every 15 minutes and check our fingers for cuts before resuming our berry picking. Also, we went wearing the most reasonable of outfits, shorts, tanktops and flip flops. Taking a moment to check ourselves out in the mirror, we remarked about how stylish we looked, and how it made much more sense to have our arms bare, so as not to catch any loose material in the thorns, than to worry about cutting our arms on the bushes. We weren’t worried about our legs, because we didn’t plan on stepping into the bushes, just picking from the outside. Also, being a farm girl, wearing flip flops was a bit of a stretch, as most times I would never wear shoes at all, prefering the feel of the grass and dirt on my feet and between my toes.

Grabbing a five gallon bucket each and a smaller bucket, a large bowl and a plastic garbage sack for each of our remaining hands to hold, we set off to the giant berry bush hoping to find it full of fruit and ready for picking.

It was quite a sight, the three of us dressed in summer outfits contrasted by the giant plastic kitchen gloves. Picking berries proved nearly impossible with those darned things on, they were quickly removed and placed in the garbage sack.

We spent nearly the whole evening out there, picking berries, laughing, telling jokes, singing songs (I have no idea why, but my friends and I couldn’t go anywhere without singing) and just enjoying each other’s company, gently plucking the soft fruits from the vine, inspecting them and letting them fall into the bucket below.

I don’t know which one of us said it first, but as our  buckets each reached about half full, someone mentioned that it might not be a good idea to fill the buckets all the way, as the weight of the berries on top would smash the berries on the bottom. We agreed we would fill the bowl and the smaller bucket and then return home, and if we still felt up to it and there was enough light left, we would come back and pick more berries.

Soon after that, we finished filling the bowl, and we decided to head back home. It was only about a 5 minute walk through the field, the only thing slowing us down was the fear that we might step into a hole, or a spider might jump up out of the hay below. We crossed from the field into my parents back yard and we had to stop because one of my friends had a rock stuck under their foot in their flip flop. My parents had a little park bench and some big rocks in their yard, so we all sat down, and as my other friend and I waited for our remaining friend to remove the rock, we started eating some of the berries.

Really, we couldn’t be blamed for what happened next. It was human nature… at least, 15 year old girl human nature. All it took was one berry flying in the air to land on someone’s shirt to spark an all out berry assault that would leave us red, sticky and stained, but still very tasty.

Needless to say, it only took about 20 minutes for the three of us to go from three half filled 5 gallon buckets of berries, one small bucket and a very large bowl full of berries, to no berries and three very sticky teenagers. We didn’t even get in the house before my mom found out, I think she heard our laughing and screaming from the kitchen, and when we turned towards the house she was standing on the porch holding some old dish rags and pointing the the garden hose. She didn’t look angry, but you could see the questioning look on her face.

Why would we spend such an incredibly long time picking berries just to waste them all in a bright red food fight?

As we cleaned up in the freezing cold water straight from our ground well, we didn’t really talk much. I think we all were kind of wondering what we just did, and why. After we cleaned the majority of the sticky mess off our ourselves we took turns getting approved for entrance into the house, then sprinting to the bathroom and showering off before coming back outside and sitting on the grass, enjoying the crisp, cool and windy summer evening in my parents yard while sizing up our scrapes, pricked fingers and otherwise injured selves.

We ended the evening roasting marshmallows in the burn pit and then camping out in a small pup tent that we were barely strong enough to get the stakes into the ground to secure it with. Ghost stories and large quantities of sugary snacks kept us from sleeping and ultimately led to us abandoning our outdoor post and retreating to the comfort of my parents living room.

In the morning we woke up to the sound of my mom chasing my little sisters around the house, and my dad making a giant waffle breakfast, just like he did every time I had friends over. We waited until my parents ate before finishing off every prepared breakfast food in the kitchen, and my dad laughed as he said “I dunno.. My breakfast might have been a little better with some fresh raspberries.” and winked. It seemed like for a moment my family was one of those television families, My dad the wise one who always made a wry joke of my bumbling mistakes, my mom at her wits end with my little sisters as the cuteness factor. My older sister making a cameo appearance from time to time because she’s so busy with her friends and being old enough to drive, and my friends were always around, making me appear much more cool than I am, but really, they were just there for the food (which is SO true, by the way).  It all made sense.

I remember that summer day as one of my best teenage memories. I don’t think I really truly knew what I had back then, and I never really thought that I’d look back on my childhood and wish that I hadn’t wasted so much of it being worried about so much. We were free that day. Free of responsiblity, worry. We didn’t think “Oh no, what if someone sees me looking like this.” or “ew gross, berries and bugs!” We just enjoyed ourselves living in the moment, as teenagers.

I wish I had spent more summer days that way. There were so many more berries to pick, enough for a whole summer full of berry fights.

I’ve yet to go berry picking this summer, and I know the window for berry season is drawing to a close, but my mom was able to take my sisters berry picking this weekend, and they brought me a few containers of fresh raspberries to eat and bake with.

Berries don’t seem to last very long in my house, so I froze one of the containers of berries before it had a chance to over ripen or mold. The second container I reserved for baking… but really, only about half of them made their way into this recipe, the rest…

Well.. lets just say they were very tasty.

Today I made chocolate raspberry cupcakes with raspberry cream cheese filling, chocolate icing and a little raspberry cream cheese on top.

…Uh oh.. the robots found them…

I think adding the raspberry puree really made these cakes super soft. They had such a delicate texture, and they were so moist.

Messiest bite ever.

So enjoy your summer. Enjoy the simplicity that is this change in weather, which is only temporary. Enjoy your youth if you have it, and the life you’ve lived, if you don’t.

And for goodness sakes, eat some cupcakes.

Chocolate Raspberry Cupcakes

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
4 large eggs, at room temperature
6 ounces unsweetened chocolate, melted
1 cup buttermilk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup pureed raspberries
1 teaspoon cinnamon

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line two 12-cup muffin tins with cupcake papers and Set aside.
In a small bowl, sift together the flour, baking soda and cinnamon.

In a large bowl, on the medium speed of an electric mixer, cream the butter until smooth. Add the sugars and beat until fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add the chocolate, mixing until well incorporated. Add the pureed raspberries mixing well. Add the dry ingredients in three parts, alternating with the buttermilk and vanilla. With each addition, beat until the ingredients are incorporated, but do not overbeat. Using a rubber spatula, scrape down the batter in the bowl to make sure the ingredients are well blended and the batter is smooth. Carefully spoon the batter into the cupcake liners, filling them about three-quarters full. Bake for 20–25 minutes, or until a cake tester inserted in the center of the cupcake comes out clean.

Chocolate glaze

3/4 cup semisweet chocolate chips
3 tablespoons butter
1 tablespoon light corn syrup
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

In a double boiler over hot, but not boiling water, combine chocolate chips, butter and corn syrup. Stir until chips are melted and mixture is smooth, then add vanilla. Allow mixture to cool slightly before spooning a bit over the top of the cooled cupcakes.

Raspberry cream cheese filling and topping

1 1/2 cups thawed frozen or fresh raspberries
1 cup cream cheese
1/2 cup powdered sugar
2 tablespoons firmly packed brown sugar
pinch of cinnamon
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
milk as needed

In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat the cream cheese until smooth, scraping the sides of the bowl often to eliminate clumps. At a low speed, mix in the raspberries, brown sugar, vanilla extract and cinnamon. Blend well. Mix in the powdered sugar. When all is well blended, decide how thick you want your filling to be. If you would like it thinner, add a bit of milk, if you would like it thicker, add more powdered sugar. I left mine as is, sort of in the middle.

To fill the cupcakes, use a sharp knife to cut a circle in the center of the cupcake, lift off the top and pick out a bit of the cake inside. Using a ziplock bag with a hole cut in one end, pipe the filling into the center of the cupcake, replace the top and spoon a bit of the chocolate glaze over top. Before serving, pipe a little more of the cream cheese mixture on top of the cupcake.

Keep the cupcakes and the filling refrigerated.

-A.

-Lesley Boone

Sometimes all it takes is a little cupcake to cheer a person up. 

Today I needed a little cheering, so I made some cupcakes.

Despite their different colours, they’re all the same flavour. Butter cake with Almond/Orange icing.

I realized today that our local county fair started today. The Clark County fair, where I got my start in baking.

You see, back when I was an itty bitty little girl, my mom, my sister and I used to spend weeks and weeks in the kitchen during the month of July, In preparation of the baking booth at the Clark County fair. We’d all enter at least 5 entries each year, mostly jneverbashfulwithbutter.comhttp://www.neverbashfulwithbutter.comust to see what ribbons we could win, but it was also pretty cool when we ranked high enough to get a little money for our hard work.

I remember entering all sorts of goodies. Zucchini bread, spice cake, coconut macaroons, buttercreams, pound cake, cheesecake, chocolate chip cookies, sugar cookies… My mom always entered the specialized contests, like the decorated dummy cakes and the bread contests. My sister was in 4-H, so she had her own contests amongst the other 4-H’ers.

We’re going to try to go to the fair this coming week, so I might have photos from that if we end up going. In addition to that, I’m going to try and re-create some of those recipes that I made way back when. We’ll see. I’ve got a few of the actual original recipes on hand, and a few other ones that I’ve tweaked over the years.

And I still have that huge 5 gallon drum (with about 4 gallons still in it) of dessicated coconut, so.. coconut macaroons might just be something I have to make next week!

Also, I’d like to apologize for the lack of photos this week. We had a little family crisis (still in the midst of it, actually) so all extra activities were sort of shut down over the end of the week. I’m still dedicated to posting as often as I can, but things might be slow for the next week or so.  Please bear with me.

Also, My husband managed to eat my tarts and my ice cream BEFORE I could take photos of it. I’m thinking I need to get some post it notes and stick them to everything I make with a little note saying “Haven’t photographed yet” so it doesn’t happen again. Like I said though, we had a bit of an issue this week, so I didn’t mind so much, I’ve been sort of bogged down with other things.

Please keep The Muffin household in your pleasant thoughts and good graces over the next days and into the coming weeks. I’d really appreciate it.

Until then, I’ve got some cupcakes to give to my upstairs neighbours.

I’d like to say I used a different recipe, but I didn’t. I was kind of depressed today, so I figured some cupcakes would cheer me up, and I used one of my old family recipes.

Here it is-

Buttercake

1/2 cup butter, softened
2 eggs
1 cup sugar
1 1/2 cups sifted cake flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup sour cream
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon almond extract

Preheat oven to 350 F degrees. Prepare your muffin tin with paper liners (or you could grease a cake pan)

Cream butter, and gradually add the sugar, creaming until light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.

In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, soda, and salt. Add flour mixture alternately with milk and flavorings to creamed mixture, beating after each addition until smooth and light. Fill each cupcake paper about 3/4 of the way full. Bake for 15-20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Allow to fully cool before icing.
Orange Almond Buttercream-

1 cup butter
6-8 cups powdered sugar
1/4- 1/2 cup milk
2 teaspoons almond extract
2 teaspoons orange extract

Cream the butter in a large mixing bowl. Gradually add 4 cups of the powdered sugar. Add more if the mixture is not crumbly. Stop when the mixture looks like pie crust dough. Add 1/4 cup of the milk and all of the flavouring extracts. whip on high speed until the mixture fluffs up. if the mixture looks too soft or liquidy, add the remaining powdered sugar by the cupfull. If the mixture looks too crumbly, add the remaining milk a tablespoon at a time.

Store the mixture at room temperature. Makes enough icing to cover at least 24 standard sized cupcakes, generously.

And there you have it. Simple cupcakes with a simple flavour, but still very delicious.

-A.

As an incentive, I offered to bake a batch of vegan cupcakes for the lucky purchaser.

It just so happened that the person who responded to the post I made about it on damnportlanders is the wife of one of my husbands co-workers. They ended up buying the car, and last night I made a batch of vegan cupcakes for my husband to bring to work with him, to give to his co-worker to bring home.

This one.. well..

It “didn’t fit” in the container, so.. I had to keep it. What can I say?

Its Cherry almond flavoured. I loves it. Last night after I made the icing, Aaron licked the beaters because he liked the flavour so much. Best thing, its completely vegan, and oh so tasty.

Today is another super hot day here ineverbashfulwithbutter.comhttp://www.neverbashfulwithbutter.comn the Northwest, and tomorrow is looking like it will be even hotter. For the next week or so, I’ll probably post mostly no-bake or low-bake goodies and foods, simply because turning on the oven is nearly painful with all the heat in the house.

Here’s the recipe- (which is very similar to previous vegan cupcake recipes I’ve posted. Go figure)

1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
1 Cup plain soymilk
1 1/4 cups flour
1 Tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon. baking soda
½ teaspoon kosher salt
1 1/4 cups sugar
1/3 cup oil
1 Tablespoon Vanilla extract
1 Tablespoon Almond extract
1/4 Cup finely ground almonds (optional)

Preheat the oven to 350º. Line muffin tin with paper cupcake liners, Set aside.

Mix together the soymilk and apple cider vinegar in a small bowl. Stir well and set aside for about five minutes (the mixture will curdle).

In a large mixing bowl, stir together the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. In another mixing bowl whisk together the soymilk mixture, oil, vanilla, and almond extract. Add the wet to the dry ingredients and whisk together until all of the large lumps are gone. (the recipe actually said to use a hand mixer, but I felt that it’s much to easy to over beat your batter with a mixer, so I just whisk it.) Fold in the 1/4 of finely ground almonds.

Fill each muffin cup about 2/3rds full. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes, until a cake tester inserted in the middle of a cupcake comes out clean.

Let cool in the pans for 5 minutes, then remove cupcakes from the pan and place on a wire rack. Let the cupcakes cool completely before frosting.

The icing I used was-

1/2 cup non hydrogenated vegan shortening
1/2 cup vegan margarine (earth balance)
3 1/2 cups powdered sugar
4 tablespoons plain soymilk
2 tablespoons almond extract
1 tablespoon cherry extract
one drop of whatever kind of food colouring you’d like. (I used pink, the cherry extract kind of gives it a light pink colour anyways)

With a hand mixer or stand mixer, beat the shortening and margarine together until fully incorporated and fluffy. Add the powdered sugar to that and beat until the mixture is crumbly, but the powdered sugar is fully incorporated. While the mixer is still on, add the soymilk slowly, and then the flavouring and then the colouring. Beat for a few minutes.. just until its fluffy.

Make sure the cupcakes are FULLY cooled before frosting. The frosting melts quick, so the colder the cupcake the better. You can refrigerate the frosting, but if you chill it longer than a few hours, you’ll want to “re-fluff” it in the mixer before you use it. Just let the icing warm up on the counter for about 15 minutes and whip it in the mixer for a minute or two.

I have to tell you, this recipe makes DELICIOUS cupcakes and the icing is to die for. It is wonderful. I’m not even vegan and I want to make it all the time!

Use the cake batter immediately. If you don’t, you never know if you’ll end up with something chewy and shaped like a hockey puck.

Sometimes this recipe bakes up and the cupcakes are kind of tough on the top. Just make sure to ice them, and store them in the fridge overnight, and they’ll be just fine. The more practice you get with this recipe, the less likely you are to have tough topped cupcakes though.

Another little tip, this recipe is for cupcakes. It will not rise properly if you try to make a full sized cake with this recipe. Same for most of my recipes. Its just not a good idea.

These cupcakes are seriously tasty. I love them. You should make some today!

-A.

So, on friday, I posted the Lychee experiment. This weekend I started actually experimenting with lychee recipes.

Saturday early morning, I started work on these cupcakes.

The cupcakes themselves are made with a combination of coconut milk, coconut oil and lychee puree/juice in lieu of the dairy products in the recipe, so I figured I’d just make it all vegan and I used a commercial egg replacer.

I decided to continue the trend, and make the icing with earth balance margarine, apple sauce, lychee puree and powdered sugar. Again, vegan.

Just under the icing is a thin layer of smushed raspberries.

Topped it off with a thin slice of apple and some sugar sprinkles…

And I ended up with the most moist, tender and delicious cupcake I’ve ever made.

The only thing I would change, is maybe applying the icing as a glaze, as opposed to a glob. You can tell that the apple sauce and the margarine really didn’t bind together too well, and it looks lumpy. It doesnt FEEL lumpy though, and the texture is smooth and silky. It was just a bit too much for the delicate cake underneath.

I was amazed at how well this experiment came out. I was expecting something weird, but really, the lychee flavour is light, and not overpowering, neither is the coconut.

The icing, you can really taste the lychee, but then again, its not overpowering, its just more noticeable than it is in the actual cake.

All in all, its a pretty good cupcake. I liked it, and so did my new neighbours, who I shared them with yesterday.

Anyways, so I’ve been experimenting with lychee, and here is one of the recipes I’ve come up with using lychee puree. I offset the sweetness of the lychee with the richness of coconut milk, and basically converted a regular cake recipe to a vegan cupcake recipe, by using coconut oil instead of butter, and the aforementioned lychee puree/coconut milk mixture instead of regular milk. I had some Ener- G- egg replacer, so I used that instead of regular eggs.

I topped it off with some smashed raspberries and coated it with an apple/lychee coconut oil icing.

This recipe only makes about 12 cupcakes, depending on your cupcake tin size.

So on with the recipe!

You’ll need-
3\4 cup self-rising flour
Heaping 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup melted coconut oil
1 cup sugar
Equivalent 2 eggs worth, egg replacer
1/4 cup coconut milk
1/4 lychee puree
2 tablespoons lychee juice
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

In a separate bowl, combine the flours. Set aside.
In another bowl, mix together the coconut milk, lychee puree, lychee juice and vanilla.

In a large bowl, on the medium speed of an electric mixer, pour in the melted coconut oil. Add the sugar slowly and beat until fluffy. Add the egg replacer. Add the dry ingredients in three parts, alternating with the coconut milk mixture. With each addition, beat until the ingredients are incorporated but do not overbeat. Using a rubber spatula, scrape down the batter in the bowl to make sure the ingredients are well blended. Carefully spoon the batter into the cupcake liners, filling them about three-quarters full. Bake for 20–25 minutes, or until a cake tester inserted in the center of the cupcake comes out clean.

When the cupcakes are completely cool, you can frost them however you like.

This was the recipe I used for the icing-

2 tablespoons applesauce
2 tablespoons coconut oil or earth balance margarine
2 cups powdered sugar
Lychee juice as needed

Beat together the applesauce and coconut oil. Add the powdered sugar and beat until crumbly, add the lychee juice while the mixer is on, and stop when the mixture starts coming together and smoothing out.

The frosting looks lumpy, but doesn’t feel lumpy. Also, keep it refrigerated, or it will separate, because the juice will start to separate from the fats in the icing, This only happens in the icing bag, mind you, and doesn’t affect the cupcake once iced. (it may have also only been because of the extreme heat here)

So there you go!

Before I iced the cupcakes, I smashed some raspberries in a bowl and spooned a little onto the top of the cupcake. The flavour really added a punch the the cake, that everyone loved.

Top with an apple slice, or some coconut.

Enjoy!

Even though I was a very sensitive child, I tried my hardest to be a rebel…

I can remember the first time I bit into a lime. My mom told me I wouldn’t like it, so I was determined to prove her wrong. Bordering on 6 years old, thats just what I did. I spent my time asking questions and then saying “nuh-uh” and then doing what I was told I wouldn’t want to do, or wouldn’t enjoy doing.

I didn’t really think much about it, since I’d only met with two other types of citrus, the orange and the lemon. This fruit was much prettier. The exact shade of green that I liked. One of my favourite colours, besides pink. Since there were no pink fruits that I knew of (I hadn’t met with the amazing grapefruit before, and it would be quite a few years before blood oranges made their debut in my local grocery store) This green one would have to do.

I didn’t know how to broach it. Do I peel it? Do I bite right into it like an apple? It was greeneverbashfulwithbutter.comhttp://www.neverbashfulwithbutter.comn, like an apple. It smelled faintly sweet. I licked it.

The rough texture of the rind felt like how I imagined a frog would feel on my tongue, minus the sliminess, of course. I thought of the frog that I had been keeping as a “pet” in the hose box outside by the water spigot. I named him Fred, and I would dig up worms in the garden and put them in a cup with a little bit of dirt inside the hose box, so Fred would have something to eat. Occasionally I’d keep a few worms and put them under my sisters pillow, or just throw them at her if I felt like it. I wasn’t afraid of worms, though the thought of putting them in my mouth made me gag a little. So did the thought of putting an amphibian in my mouth. I decided to peel the lime.

For those of you who don’t know, citrus peeling technology in the mid 80’s was fairly… barbaric. You either used a paring knife, or a peeling tool. I was still five years old, so I wasn’t allowed to handle sharp knives just yet. I used the orange peeling tool from my mom’s bright orange tupperware set. The thing looked like a crochet hook , only the front of the hook was flat, and the inside of the hook was sharp. It worked kind of like a reverse zipper. You hooked the rind on the hook, and then you pulled downward, “unzipping” the peel, and revealing the soft white pith that you removed by hand.

It wasn’t so easy with a lime. I think I cut myself a few times on the sharp end of the citrus peeler, so I gave up and tried the potato peeler.

This did not work so well. I turned to the butterknife in hopes that it would help free the tasty green flesh of this forbidden fruit.

My mom looked on as I cut into the lime, spilling the sticky juices out onto the cutting board. Again, she warned me. “you’re not going to like it”.

This was like adding fuel to the fire. I was a pretty good little kid, but I found little ways to rebel. This was one of them.

She took a break from putting the dishes into the dishwasher to observe my little experiment. I think she cringed as I bit deeply into the lime, as if I was trying to shove the entire fruit into my mouth.

From the moment the sour juice hit my tongue, I was no longer in control of my actions. I dropped my hands to my sides and made the sound that my mom used to refer to as “the shudder gag” which is sort of an involuntary sound made by a person who is gagging, only they have their mouth open. Try it sometime, its unique.

My teeth clenched, holding the lime deeply within my mouth. When this happened, the hard rind of the fruit hit the spot in the back of my mouth that sets off my gag reflex. So I’m gagging with my mouth propped open by the fruit that I can’t remove from my mouth because my jaw has clamped down because I’m gagging, but the fruit is making me gag. It was a vicious cycle.

My mom dropped her dishtowel and laughed that full body belly laughter that made her knees buckle. She said I looked like a cat that had just been given peanut butter. My tongue was thrusting against the fruit which would not budge from the spot which my teeth held it tightly to.  I started to cry.

Finally, my mom realized what was going on, and stuck her finger in my mouth and pulled out the lime. I’m fairly certain she was still laughing when I yelled “ITS NOT FUNNY!” and got all bent of shape about her making fun of me, although really, she was just laughing at a funny situation.
…And that is when it happened.

I threw a temper tantrum. The last temper tantrum I EVER threw in my entire life.

To say I was a spoiled little brat would be missing the point. I wasn’t spoiled, per se, I was the baby of the family, which did not get me anything special really, other than the excuse that I was the baby, and that was why I was throwing a temper tantrum.

I’d throw a temper tantrum over anything. ANYTHING.

I didn’t want to take a shower. Temper tantrum.
I didn’t want to go to school.  Temper tantrum.
I didn’t want to eat my vegetables. Temper tantrum.

I didn’t want to take my cold medicine..
… OK, that last one never happened. My mom will freely admit that I was a Dimetapp addict as a child, even convincing my older sister that “mom said it was ok” for her to get the bottle of delicious grape flavoured goodness (grape is still one of my favourite candy flavours), down from the shelf that I was too short to reach.

Anyways, I was big into the temper tantrums. They all followed the same format, too.

Step #1- Clench fists and hold arms tight against the sides of your body. Frown
Step #2- Stomp, using the biggest steps your body can muster. Develop a “tantrum catch phrase” such as “I DON’T WANNA” or “YOU CAN’T MAKE ME!” Repeat often. Fake cry.
Step #3- Jump up and down, repeat your tantrum catch phrase loud, and repeatedly. Alternate between jumping up and down and stomping.
Step #4- Fall down, Kick, scream, and writhe on the floor, continue until either parent relents, or you are told to go to your room.

This tantrum was just like any other.  I stomped, I clenched, I repeated something like “Its not funny!” and just when I got to the part where you fall backwards.. Yeah, The look of horror filled my mom’s eyes as she realized what I was about to do.

I was probably about 2 feet in front of the dishwasher, which was open.

Before she could act, I launched myself backwards, landing on the open door to the dishwasher. When I hit, I realized what had just happened, and I scared myself so bad that I started crying for real. When I used my legs to try and kick myself back up, the backs of my calves hit the door latch, which was a big sharp metal hook. Needless to say, I cut both of my legs on this hook. I managed to wriggle myself back up, but the force of my body pushing down on the door bent it down to where it could not be shut again. I ran into my bedroom, screaming and freaking out all the way.

Unaware that  I was injured, my mom came running behind me into my bedroom. She wasn’t screaming at me because she was mad, but because she was just as scared as I was. I just remember her saying over and over, “THE WHOLE DISHWASHER COULD HAVE CLOSED ON YOU!” and telling me she was just glad I wasn’t hurt.

Well, I was hurt. We didn’t have health insurance at that point, so my mom just used butterfly bandages to close the huge wounds on the backs of both calves. I told all the kids at school that I got hit by a car, and survived. They didn’t believe me.

I had to do the dishes, by hand, three days a week for the next month. I guess it was a fitting punishment, since my parents had to buy a new dishwasher and everything.

That was the last temper tantrum I ever threw. Srsly. Sure, I’d cry or say “MOoooooOOOoM!!!” in that way that kids do when they want something and they just can’t have it. But I never ever threw a physical tantrum again. I was too scared.

It was a pretty long time before I tried another lime, too. The next incarnation of the lime that I experienced was via the Lime Jello, Cottage cheese and pineapple “salad” that was so very popular in the 80’s, even though people were eating lumpy green goo with stringy chunks of yellow stuff in it.

But really, who am I to judge. I played with worms.

These cupcakes taste like the key lime cheesecake I had for dessert at my high school prom. It was the first time I’d ever had cheesecake with a layer of sweetened cream cheese at the top, and a layer of pineapple at the bottom, just sitting on top of the crust. To say this cheesecake tasted like that lime jello salad that I mentioned before would be an understatement.

It was delicious, and so are these cupcakes.

Tasting more like cheesecake than my childhood memories of the evil “Lime jello salad” with cottage cheese and chunks of pineapple, I chose to add pineapple juice and lime jello powder to a cream cheese base, eliminating the awkward texture that no one loved about the original.

Key lime cupcake recipe-

1/2 cup butter, softened
1 cup white sugar
2 eggs
2 teaspoons grated key lime zest
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup key lime juice

Cream together the butter or margarine and 1 cup sugar. Beat until light and fluffy. Separate the eggs. Beat in the egg yolks one at a time, and add the key lime zest.

Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Add these dry ingredients to the egg butter mixture, alternating with 3/4 cup key lime juice.

Beat the egg whites until stiff, and fold into the batter.

Spoon the batter into paper lined cupcake tins. Bake for 15-20 minutes at 350 degrees F, or until the cakes test done with a toothpick. This recipe should make about 12-18 cupcakes.

Allow to cool before frosting.

Lime Jello Salad Icing Recipe-

1 regular sized package of lime gelatin dessert powder (not sugar free)
3 cups powdered sugar
1 cup cream cheese
1/4 cup butter
1-4 tablespoons pineapple juice

In the bowl of a heavy duty stand mixer, beat the cream cheese and butter together on high until smooth. Scrape from the edges of the bowl with a spatula and turn mixer to one of the lowest settings. slowly add the lime gelatin dessert powder, followed by the powdered sugar. The mixture should be dry and crumbly.

Turn the mixer speed to high, one step at a time, allowing the mixer to remain at each speed for about 30 seconds or so. Add the pineapple juice one tablespoon at a time. Mixture should come together and fluff up. IF the mixture is still dry, add a tablespoon of HOT water. IF the mixture is too liquidy, add more powdered sugar.

Let the mixture rest for about 5 minutes before spreading on the cooled cupcakes. Sprinkle with sprinkles and top with a lime section or a marachino cherry. Serve cold and enjoy!

-A.

Its fathers day again (tomorrow) and so in honour of fathers day, I made my fathers favourite type of cake, Angel Food.

Angel food cake is interesting to make. The texture of the cake is based on how well you whip the egg whites, and how fluffy your cake “batter” is, though its really much less a batter than it is a poof. A poofy batter.

I think its kind of interesting that my dad’s favourite type of cake is angel food cake, considering its fluffy consistancy. Most people reading this have never met my father, so I’ll try to do my best to describe him in a way that I can explain my thoughts on this…

But first, the cake.

And now, a VERY random detailing of my father.

My dad cries at sad endings of movies. I’ll just get that out there right now, out of the way. Not only does he just cry at theneverbashfulwithbutter.comhttp://www.neverbashfulwithbutter.com sad endings of movies, but he cries at the sad endings of movies like… Rudy (Sean Astin plays the little guy that just wants to play football, and in the end he gets his wish.) or Radio (I don’t really know much about this movie, since I haven’t seen it, but from what I’ve gathered, its a heartfelt movie about Cuba Gooding Jr. as a mentally challenged man that has something to do with sports.) But his movie time crying doesnt end with just sports movies…

I’d like it to be known that my father cried at the end of Disney’s Iron Giant. Yes. Iron Giant. An animated movie about a boy and his robot. Sometimes I think.. Maybe my dad sees himself as that boy, and he lost his robot long ago..

..But then I start to chuckle, because my dad is crying at a cartoon.

I guess I should go to explain further. My dad doesn’t look like the kind of guy that would cry at football movies.

He’s about 6′3″, 250 pounds. Bright orange hair growing wildly from the sides, and the majority of the top of his head. His only facial hair is a thick orange tuft of mustache, and an orange goatee accented by two bright white stripes growing down both sides of his chin. He can usually be found in his work attire- Button up shirt, Dress slacks, a tie and some shiny shoes, but as soon as the weekend hits, he’s wearing a pair of jean shorts, a sleeveless shirt and tennis shoes, he’s either wearing a cowboy hat that he’s owned since the mid 80’s, or he’s got his reading glasses on, perched atop his head when they’re not in use. He’s a big country dude, if he was wearing leather, he’d look like an old biker. No joke. Not someone you’d expect to find their sensitive side in the ending of a sad movie.

The thing about my dad is, he’s really a great guy. He’s got this crunchy outer shell, and he’s full of all this soft fluffy stuff.

My dad is the kind of guy that doesn’t expect much, and is ever grateful for what he does get. I don’t know how many ties he’s managed to amass over the years of my childhood, recieving a tie for his birthday and a tie for fathers day, and possibly another tie for christmas from both me and my older sister. Still, he would make a point of at least acting excited about them, and on the days that he wore them, he’d make sure that we saw that he wore OUR tie to work that day.

My dad is the kind of guy that appreciates the humour in gag gifts, and appreciates the heartfelt sentiment in handmade things. I planned out my dad’s 50th birthday present for two years. I collected a penny for each year that he’s been alive. At that time, 1954 to 2004. I mounted these pennies to a board and under each one representing a year where something major happened in his life, I wrote down the event and the exact date. Things like when he got his drivers license, when he met my mom, when he started working at the job he currently has. He loved it. And yes, he cried after he looked at it. Now he’s got it hanging above his window in his office. Other things he has in his work office might seem slightly strange to outsiders, but between me and my dad, they have meaning.

Like the cabbage patch doll that I had since they first came out, dressed in a business suit that my mom sewed. I gave this to my dad for Christmas one year. It was supposed to look like him in a business suit. (the random tuft of hair on the top of the head really sent that message home. *smile*)

He also has three paintings that I made for him when I was in highschool. I never knew he had them hanging up at his office, I just thought he put them somewhere, but imagine my surprise when I visit him at work one day, without him even knowing that I was going to be there, and there all this stuff is, things that I got my dad, or made for my dad. Prominently displayed. That makes a girl feel good.

When I was growing up, I spent the majority of my time with my dad. I have a lot of memories with my mom, but she was around more often, since she was a stay at home mom. But when it came down to it, when she wanted to go somewhere, she’d take my older sister, and I’d stay home with my dad. We spent a lot of time watching TV, but that was ok. I’d rather watch tv with my dad than go shopping with my mom. I’m still like that today. I’m not much of a girly girl. I hate shopping. I’m a list girl. My dad, he’s a list guy. If its not on the list, its not in the cart. Thats just how we do.

We did other things. We went fishing a lot. I liked fishing, though I wasn’t a big fan of putting the worm on the hook, so he bought these bright coloured marshmallows that had stuff that smelled like bait on them, so I just had to put a marshmallow on the hook. He taught me how to cast the line, how to reel it back in, and how to have the patience to sit back with a cold one (Big red soda, for me) and wait for something to happen. I think I only really caught like, 2 fish in my entire life, and both of them I made him throw back, because I felt so bad for the fish and their family (yeah, I was that kinda kid). My dad was friends with this guy who owned a convienience store, and we’d go visit him after we went fishing, or whatever it was that we did during the day, and he’d let me pick out whatever kind of soda I wanted from the refrigerated case. Coming from a poor family, this was a special treat, and I felt special because I got one and my sister didnt. *smile*

I’ve got other, more random, memories of my dad.

Whenever we had a family reunion, my dad would hook up the trailer to the back of the tractor, throw a couple hay bails in there, and give all the kids a ride through the yard. He’s always been good with kids, because he’s like a big kid himself.

He built the huge playhouse that my sister and I spent a huge chunk of our childhood in (that was made with such quality that when we sold it to someone else, it was easily transported, and is actually still in one piece to this day.) He built me a “goodie stand” which I used until I was around 12 years old, selling lemonade and cookies and cupcakes at every garage sale my mom had during each of my childhood summers.

My dad was a smoker.. but he would pay me one penny per cigarette butt I picked up out of the yard or in the driveway. He even made me this thing to pick them up, with a nail in the end of an old broom stick. One time he paid me almost 50 dollars, which was a ton of money to a little kid.

My dad has a twin brother. An Identical twin brother. For a while, my dad and I stayed with my uncle, and I would get the two of them confused sometimes, because they looked so much alike. My uncle had a pony tail, so sometimes I’d check the hairline before saying anything to either of them. My uncle always seemed pretty much like my dad, though its pretty obvious that my dad was the shy, less outspoken twin…

This isn’t so much a memory, but it speaks to my fathers character- My mom used to be a waitress at Sambo’s restaurant. My dad was one of the guys that sat at the bar and drank coffee. Apparently he liked my mom so much, but he never knew what to say, so he’d give her really big tips and then just leave and not say anything. He actually sent his brother in to approach my mom, you know, “my friend likes you” kindergarten style. After they went on a few dates, they moved in together, and they got married 6 months later. Its been almost 30 years now.

One spring, he took my sister and I to go pick huckleberries on Mt. St. Helens. We emerged a few hours later, purple stained faces, carrying 5 gallon buckets full of berries that we lived on throughout the summer. I think he would have taken us on more berry picking excursions, but he worked a lot to take care of our family.

My dad was the kind of guy that would scold you for doing something stupid like jumping off the back of the exercise bike onto the couch, but he’d cry along with you if you got hurt. He was always afraid of me and my sister getting hurt. I knew he loved me because he only yelled when I was doing something that would cause me, or someone else harm.

My mom says that I was my dad’s favourite. Its possible, but only because I spent a lot more time with him than my older sister. Also, spending so much time with him meant he had time to teach me things, and then hold me to the expectations that he built up based on those things he taught me.

Mostly the stuff he taught me had to do with cleaning or cooking. Things like, how to fold a towel. Longways- fold in half, then half again. Sideways, in thirds. And How to make a perfect pancake- Never use a pan on the stovetop, always use a griddle. Don’t butter the pan after the first pancake, but use the temperature control to keep the pancake from sticking. We had a ladle that held exactly 1/8 of a cup of batter, and that made the perfect pancake. He even taught me how to swirl the batter so it came out perfectly round and exactly the same size as the rest of the batch.

There were other nitpicky things that my dad “taught” me, most of them are still habits to this day. I look at it as a good thing, because it keeps me more organized and structured. My dad is a pretty structured guy.

But I remember when I thought my dad would no longer be there for me.
I was working at Michaels Craft store, and everything was normal that day. I was in charge of the art classes, and that day I spent the majority of my morning in the classroom, working with the kids in my class, cleaning up, or planning things out for the next day. My manager came running back and told me “you can go home if you want” which seemed sort of strange, because I didn’t ask to go home, and the store seemed pretty busy, which normally means they would ask me to cashier or something. I looked at her funny, ’cause it seemed weird, and she continued “well, I just got off the phone with your mom, she’s on her way to pick you up”.

This was especially odd, because I didn’t live with my mom. I was living with my first set of evil roommates, so I honestly thought something happened with them, and my mom was coming to tell me about it. Small towns, people gossip, you know how it is.

Anyways, my manager told me to go ahead and keep working until she got here, unless I wanted to clock out. I kept working, A girls got bills to pay, you know? I was walking up from the classroom, towards the front of the store to go sort baskets when my mom came running in, crying. She told me she needed me to sit down. We went back to the classroom, and we sat down.

“Dad’s in the hospital. He’s having heart problems, and they’re not sure if he had a heart attack or what.”

I don’t recall replying to her statement.

“You don’t have to leave, but dad is at the hospital, and we’re not sure how much of a recovery he’ll make.”

Still, no reply crossed my lips.

“I just wanted to tell you, so you knew what was going on. I know you and your dad are close. He’d like you to be there.”

I told her I just needed to clock out and I’d follow her to the hospital. My dad? In the hospital? This sort of thing just doesnt happen. My dad never was much of a “going to the doctor” type of guy, just like he wasn’t much of a “going to the dentist” type of guy, and he never had tooth problems, so why was he having heart problems?

We got to the hospital, and there was my dad. The first time ever I saw my dad laying down. He was quick to put on his “everything is ok” voice, and reassured me that he would be fine. I had my doubts. There he was, sitting in the hospital bed, drinking water from a pink plastic cup, looking rather large compared to his surroundings. He used to be much larger back then. His being thinner now is a direct result of what the doctor told him after his heart failure.

He had to stop smoking, he was put on a strict, low/ no salt diet. Tons of medications. He’s done surprisingly well. And I’m grateful for that, I want my dad to spend as much time on this planet as possible.

The cool thing about angel food cake, is that it has very little sodium in it, and compared to other cakes, its pretty dang healthy. So there is no problem with him having a slice every now and then.

So tomorrow, when father’s day is in full swing, he can have his piece of angel food cake, watch his tear jerker disney movies, and enjoy. Its his day, afterall.

I reserve the right to continue teasing him though, thats how it works for us. I tease him, he laughs. Its a great situation.

I’m sure you’ve heard the rumours. Making angelfood cake is supposed to be more difficult than other cakes, because you’ve got to make sure the egg whites stay fluffy while you’re mixing it all in, otherwise you’ll end up with flat cake instead of fluffy, airy angelfood cake. Thats what the cream of tartar is for. Its a a stabilizer for the egg whites. Thats why its so important that you don’t omit that ingredient.

Anyways, I had fairly good luck making this, though I made them as mini cakes rather than a full sized ring cake, as is traditional. Either way, the recipe is delicious, and I’m sure my father will really enjoy his mini cakes tomorrow.

Recipe for angel food mini cakes-

1 1/2 cups egg whites (11 to 12 large eggs)
1 1/2 cups confectioners sugar
1 cup cake flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoons cream of tartar
1 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla

Let egg whites stand in bowl of a standing electric mixer (see cooks’ note) at room temperature about 1 hour before making cake. (They should be about 60°F, slightly below room temperature.)

Set oven rack in lower third of oven and preheat oven to 350°F.

Sift together confectioners sugar, flour, and salt onto a sheet of wax paper using a fine sieve.

Beat whites in mixer until frothy. Add cream of tartar and beat at medium speed until they form soft peaks. Add granulated sugar gradually, beating, and continue beating just until whites are thickened and form soft, droopy peaks. Beat in vanilla.

Sprinkle one fourth of sifted dry ingredients over whites and fold in with a rubber spatula gently but thoroughly. Fold in remaining dry ingredients, one third at a time.

Gently pour batter evenly into ungreased tube pan (or about 30 paper lined muffin cups) and bake until top is light golden, cake retracts a bit from pan and springs back when touched lightly, and the cracks are NOT sticky, 40 to 45 minutes for the full sized pan, or 15-20 minutes for the mini cakes. If using a ring pan, invert pan onto neck of an empty wine bottle or a large metal funnel and cool cake completely.

Its really important not to try and remove the cake while its still hot. Even trying to remove the mini cakes from their papers is a bad idea until they’re fully cooled. Then it will be really easy to remove them from their papers, or remove the cake from the pan.

You can garnish your angel food cake however you like. My dad likes frosting, but you could use whipped cream and fresh berries, which is how I would typically dress my angel food cake, since its so delicious.

Enjoy!
-A.