Icebox Pumpkin Pie

This recipe has been moved to tiramipursuit's new website. Find it here.

Strawberry Buttermilk Cupcakes for Valentine's Day

I have finally braved the kitchen here at Mills, even though the oven is about 60 years old and is on a completely different floor from the prep space...I did it because Valentine's day is coming up and I had to share some recipes with you all and get back in the kitchen! I had a bunch of buttermilk and cream cheese frosting left over from baking club, so I got to work making these tasty cupcakes.

The weather today was perfect for taking pictures: overcast and bright. I was so delighted to discover that the creepy little kitchen has these awesome old windows and I have finally, for the first time ever, been able to bake in a room with amazing lighting. So, I had fun taking pictures of the baking process as well.
I hope you enjoy the recipe, I adapted it from the buttermilk cake recipe in "Super Natural Every Day" which you can find on my books page. I didn't have some of the same ingredients, so I tweaked it a bit. I will admit that 16 strawberries were smuggled out of the Mills cafeteria in my bag this morning, but at least I shared the final product with the other people in my dorm, so hopefully I won't have any bad karma!

Ready for the oven!

The old oven.

Little cupcakes going in.

I took the cupcakes all around campus. I am in love with the blossoming trees right now.

Vanilla speckles.

One cupcake looking for love.

The other cupcake is sad and lonely until...

...they find each-other! And they live happily ever after.

Needless to say, they were gone when I came back!

Strawberry Buttermilk Cupcakes (with vanillabean cream cheese frosting)
2 1/2 cups unbleached pastry flour
1 tbs baking soda
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 tsp fine grain sea salt
2 large eggs
1 1/2 cups buttermilk
1/4 cup unsalted butter, melted and cooled
grated zest of two organic oranges
approximately 16 strawberries, chopped
some large-grain or turbinado sugar for decoration

Preheat your oven to 400F. Prepare a muffin tin by spraying the tops and filling 18 cups with cupcake papers.
Whisk together the flour, salt, baking soda and sugar in a bowl. In another bowl whisk together the eggs and buttermilk. Add the butter and zest and whisk. Add the buttermilk mixture to the dry ingredients and mix until just combined.
Pour the batter into the cupcake cups until each is 2/3 full. Sprinkle the cupcakes lightly with chopped strawberries, then with the large-grain sugar.
Bake for 10 minutes or until golden. Be sure to rotate halfway through to ensure even baking. Let cool and serve with vanilla bean cream cheese frosting. Decorate with remaining strawberry slices.

Vanilla Bean Cream Cheese Frosting
It was an accident that we used vanilla beans in baking club last night because I forgot to buy vanilla at the store. The speckles are so pretty though, I didn't regret it.
1/2 vanilla bean
4 oz cream cheese
3/4 cup granulated sugar
Whip the cream cheese and sugar together with a hand-held mixer. Cut the vanilla bean lengthwise and scrape the seeds into the frosting. You can save the pod for flavoring another dish. Whip until light and fluffy. Pipe onto your cooled buttermilk cupcakes.

~Carrot Cake~

I made this cake last Easter and had people asking for the recipe! It is the best carrot cake I've ever had and I thought it was about time I shared the recipe!

Queen Anne's Cake
from "A World of Cake" by Krystina Castella
The original recipe also has 1 20-oz can of crushed pineapple and 3/4 cup golden raisins, which I omitted when I made this cake, but you can add them at the same time as the carrots if you wish!

Ingredients
2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp grated nutmeg
1/2 tsp salt
5 eggs
1 1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 1/4 cup light brown sugar
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/4 cups corn oil
2 1/2 cups finely grated carrots
1 1/4 cups chopped walnuts

2 cups cream cheese frosting
(recipe follows)


Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Butter and flour 2 8-inch fluted, round cake pans.

 Combine the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt in a medium bowl. In a separate medium bowl, beat the eggs, granulated sugar and brown sugar until thick, about 2 minutes, then stir in the vanilla. Slowly mix the oil until blended. Add the flour mixture to the egg mixture, stirring until blended. Stir in the carrots and walnuts and mix until evenly distributed.

Pour the batter into the prepared pans. Bake for 50 to 60 minutes or until a knife inserted into the center comes out clean. Let cool in the pan for 10 minutes, then remove the cake from the pan and set on a rack to finish cooling.

For the Cream Cheese Frosting:

1 (8 oz) package of cream cheese
6 tbs (3/4 stick) unsalted butter, softened
3 cups confectioner's or "powdered" sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract

Makes about 4 cups

Cream the cream cheese and butter until smooth. Slowly sift in the confectioner's sugar, and continue beating until all the lumps are gone. Add the vanilla and mix until fully blended and smooth.

Be sure to share this cake with your friends, they will thank you for it! ( :
Find a link to the cookbook in my book section here.