Bake for Barack!

cute as a

cupcake storage bag set?

I'm baaaaack...

Well, sorta. Not really. I'm not even totally sure what to do here. Maybe I'll bake something once a month and blog it, but will anyone even look? I'm not baking cupcakes like I used to, I'm not doing anything like I used to. I really just need a place to reflect upon and store my recipes. So I'll be back from time to time with party cakes and other baked treats.

These baby cakes were my first attempt at cupcaking postpartum so I went to super easy cheater's route - I bought a box of Pillsbury Funfetti cake mix and used butter instead of oil and milk instead of water. Oh and added a splash of vanilla. I frosted with the super easy cheater's buttercream (1 stick unsalted butter, splashes of vanilla and milk, confectioner's sugar until it is right).

I was asked recently for some help in the cheater's cake department - someone was requesting homemade cupcakes but the baker didn't have time for all that nonesense. Here are the tips I have, that I know I have given here before but will repeat just so I have something else to say while I'm here.

Cheater's Baking Tips:

Use a boxed cake mix and add a box of pudding - I prefer Duncan Hines Devil's Food with chocolate fudge pudding, Duncan Hines Strawberry with vanilla pudding, or any mix that doesn't come with the pudding already in it, then you get to add the pudding yourself (it's better, I promise).

Use melted butter instead of oil.

Use one of the following instead of water: milk, buttermilk, 1/2 sour cream 1/2 milk, coffee, white wine (really! you don't taste it and it makes it nice and moist).

Soup it up with spices - cinnamon, pumpkin pie spice, lemon or lime zest, get creative

Add flavor bombs - chocolate, butterscotch or peanut butter chips add a surprise inside - or you can add sprinkles and make your own confetti cake

Frost with easy cream cheese frosting - 2 sticks cream cheese, 1 unsalted butter, confectioner's sugar to taste; lighten with milk if you need to. Add vanilla, almond extract, a pint of raspberries or blueberries, pomegranate juice, flavored syrup, or just brighten it up with food coloring.

Use pretty cupcake liners. Put your cupcake tins on baking sheets so the bottoms don't burn. What else? I don't remember, I haven't even finished my coffee.

xoxo

cupcake in a jar

this is f-ing genius! it's almost as good a gift as this. merry x-mas, or whatever you celebrate!

xoxo

maternity leave

Alright folks, I'm officially going on maternity leave from this blog. I've been slacking on the cupcake blogging (and baking) for most of my pregnancy, but as of now I am officially done, until, you know, I feel up to it again, which will likely be in 2008. We shall see.

I was happy to discover this morning that the one true Domestic Goddess, Nigella Lawson, is coming out with a new cookbook of quick recipes called Nigella Express one month after my due date. Thank you Nigella. If I do any cooking at all in the coming months, the recipes are sure to be quick and easy ones, so they may as well be tasty, and you know, accompanied by fabulous photos (as all Nigella recipes are). I've already placed a copy on hold at the library. Yay!

Maybe next year around this time I'll be crafting up a cupcake costume like the one seen above, but for now I'll leave you with the darling photo (she's so cute!) and article with instructions from Wondertime Magazine.

Happy Halloween, and all the holidays that follow until I return.
And, of course, happy cupcaking! xoxo

Cupcake Jones

My husband picked me up from work on Friday with a trio of cupcakes from Portland's new Cupcake Jones and roses (!!) 3 days before our anniversary (I was having a bad pregnancy day). He really is the best.

The cupcakes were beautiful, unfortunately I dropped them as soon as we got home. I managed to get a couple of good shots of them anyway, but they really were much much more beautiful pre-drop.

Here's what we tried:

Mimosa: orange yogurt cake pastry cream, filled with orange champagne pastry cream, topped with champagne buttercream and a strawberry "floating" on top

Downtown Chocolate Brown: delicious devil’s food cake filled with sour cream chocolate ganache, topped with rich fudge icing and fresh grated chocolate

S'mores Please: rich chocolate cake with fresh made marshmallows melted in the center, topped with rich fudge icing, graham crackers, and homemade toasted marshmallows

I really really wanted cupcakes, but I probably shouldn't have eaten any. I was having a sick day and I should have avoided heavy sweets. But I didn't, I ate the Mimosa (how could I not?). Unfortunately it's hard to review a cupcake that made you sick (which it did), but I will say this, the cake was very moist and dense (which I love) and, different. I don't know how else to say it. It wasn't your standard fluffy cake, and I loved it. Just a hint of orange, and filled with a yummy orangey filling. Now the description says "topped with champagne buttercream" but I don't know, after nearly 8 months of not drinking I think I'd be able to detect champagne, and I didn't. The frosting was really heavy and possibly what made me so nauseas, so I probably shouldn't review it at all. It tasted like cream whipped to almost butter. I would probably love it as the normal me, but the pregnant me thought it was too rich and heavy. I didn't try the DTCB but Matt declared it "super chocolatey" and "yummy." It looked it. The S'mores sat in the fridge for two days until this morning when he decided to eat it. I sliced off a little bite and will say that the cake didn't have the chocolate cake problems I've discussed in past posts, it wasn't dry after being in our fridge for two days, and the creamy filling was the way you want a hostess filling to taste (really yummy, not gross-out yummy). The chocolate fudge frosting was perfect perfect perfect, just the kind you want on top of a homemade yellow cake, which unfortunately they don't make at Cupcake Jones! Like the hostessy middle, the fudgey frosting tastes how you think the frosting in a can should taste. It's the real version of that and it is oh so good. So yeah, I'll be going back to Cupcake Jones when I'm feeling better. They're fancy and expensive, but I'm impressed thusfar and I'm really enticed by their menu (especially the Almond Joy, Black Forest, Belmont Berry and most intriguing, rose-water flavored Rose City).

they were so pretty and then...

cupcake heaven

The Cupcake Heaven cupcake tree, by Wilton. It was anything but heaven to put this thing together - it took multiple attempts, three people (at once), and a hammer, but we got it! The cupcakes are peanut butter chip dipped in chocolate, always a crowd please. The recipe can be found here.

Amy & Her Cupcakes

Apparently the every so fabulous Amy Sedaris hostessed the signing for Todd Oldham's new book, Charley Harper, last night at Barneys in New York. And being the hostess with the mostess, she brought cupcakes. She really couldn't be much cuter.

(photo: Getty Images)

adorable!

Sorry, kids, I haven't been baking, at all, so I'm sticking to blog posts about cupcake related items for the time being. I'll whip up a batch of something yummy soon, I promise.


Fabulous covered cupcake bowls - and a steal at $15!

super cool cupcake courier

cuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuute

Those William Sonoma geniuses are at it again.
I love this cupcake tin!
Love love love it.
Happy Tuesday. xoxo

Saint Cupcake - Part 3

As any Posy Party Cakes reader knows, my first visit to Saint Cupcake was disappointing, my second was much less so, I actually liked most of what I ate and started to turn the corner on my Saint Cupcake dislike (and jealousy). Well, as noted in the post below, I had a cupcake-mergency on Thursday that required an immediate cupcake injection. I met my husband at Saint Cupcake after work for a pre-dinner dessert treat. While there (sitting outside on a lovely evening) I had Pumpkin Spice, which if I've had before. The Pumpkin Spice is heavier on the spice than the pumpkin, but it's nice and moist (like all St. C cupcakes, they don't lack moisture). The Pumpkin Spice is topped with cream cheese frosting that is good basic cream cheese frosting. I think it was a little sour the first time I went there, but it's either been improved upon or I just hit a bad day (or started it with a sour taste in my mouth!). Because I was in such a state that one cupcake (full size!) would not satisfy, we got four more to go. I didn't taste my husband's choices (all chocolate based) so I can't report on those, but here's what I'll say about what I did eat (oh and how cute is that cupcake carrier?!!):

Fat Elvis: There's more to love than the clever name. This is their signature banana pound cake with chocolate chips (we at Posy's Party Cakes call them "flavor bombs"), topped with peanut butter fudge frosting. While I don't love peanut butter, and would prefer this cake without it, the peanut butter fudge is good. Again, I'd say too peanut buttery and that the pb flavor over powered the yummy banana, but I'm probably the only one with this complaint. Though I think I prefer a chocolate cream cheese on banana cake, this is yummy nonetheless.


Turtle: Perfectly described by St. C as "chocolate cupcake coated with gooey caramel, topped with a toasted pecan, then drenched in hot fudge," I have saved the best for last! GOOD GOLLY I could eat these all day. Maybe I've said it before, I don't think this is the best chocolate cake I've ever had, but who cares? This caramel topping is like a melted praline from New Orleans. It is the most perfect homemade caramel taste and is only made more perfect by drizzling that delicious hot fudge across the top. And those pecans? They just make it better. I am really in love with this cupcake and in awe of Saint Cupcake for creating it. I will def have to go back for another!

One note on the chocolate cake - why does it seem that often in homemade chocolate cake recipes you can taste the flour more than the chocolate? This is a problem, no? It is for me. Luckily the topping on the Turtle is so delicious it covers up that problem, and this isn't just a Saint Cupcake problem either, I've had this happen before and I don't understand it. Increase the chocolate!!!

Ok, but clearly, the bottom line is, I can't bad-mouth Saint Cupcake anymore, and now, I just want to try all the other flavors I haven't had. Like, um, now!

cupcakes more fattening than pizza

I heard this on NPR today and found it to be hi-larious! Based on the report, I'm lead to believe you could have one Magnolia cupcake and a slice of pizza and be A-OK! Just avoid the giant cupcakes at Crumbs, right? Oh whatever, we all know cupcakes aren't diet friendly, they're just cute and delicious. So rather than letting this sway me from cupcakes, it just made me hungry for them. And because I'm pregnant I can't just think "oh that sounds yummy." Nope. I have to sit here thinking about cupcakes all afternoon. AND because I'm pregnant, I'm too tired to even think about whipping up a batch, but not too tired to make a stop by Saint Cupcake on my way. Hope ya'll have a yummy evening, I know I will...

ps I didn't take this photo, it's by Mike Pesca and swiped from the NPR article linked above, it was just too fab not to re-post!

jungle boogie

i'm not totally sure that there are lions, monkeys and pandas in the jungle, but whatev, babies sure don't seem to care. here are some pretty goofy jungle cakes i made for a little monkey's first birthday...


real monkey cakes these were not. i just made easy chocolate cupcakes with easy cream cheese frosting. however, i wanted to make the monkeys with banana cakes and chocolate cream cheese frosting, but i ran out of time. so on sunday i whipped up a batch (because i've been craving them since i went to tribeca treats) and they were deeeeelish! i used chockylit's recipe for banana cakes found here, but i didn't do any of here fancy additions. i just used the basic cake recipe and added a couple teaspoons of toasted cinnamon. and i used some defrosted chocolate cream cheese frosting that i made sometime last year. these cupcakes were so good i think i'll be whipping up yet another batch as soon as these are gone. i may add pecans, or chocolate chips, or both.

Tribeca Treats

tribeca treats, a bakery and party supply store, hmmm... exactly what i should have done a year ago. i hear there's a place in seattle now that sells yummy flavored cupcakes and vintage party supplies. you know when you say "we should open a/start a/do a___" and then you don't do it. someone else does, they do it right, and you could just _____? well that's how i feel. but oh well, i have a much bigger project on my hands (or rather, in my belly) and can't worry much about couldawouldashouldas. so anyways, the treats:

red velvet, not fabulous, but tastyish. good density, moist, etc., just not the yummiest. but their cream cheese frosting was done to perfection. and though you might think that's easy, many places over sweeten. no sugarbitus here.




ok, so a little disappointed with the red velvet, but the banana cake with chocolate cream cheese frosting? perfection! the cake wasn't fakey banana, but delicious fresh banana cake, like banana bread, but not so dense, and topped with perfect (better than2 G's!) chocolate cream cheese frosting. oooooweeee, i'm going to have to replicate this one!



some flavors i didn't try - pbj (left) and chocolate caramel (right)


and they make the cutest birthday cakes! i hope jack enjoyed his rocket ship!


and the party supplies were fab too, though not a huge selection, what they did have was cute and clever, and they have a great selection of cards too!

buckle up!

(photo from marthastewart.com -
I forgot my camera but swear mine looked
almost identical,without the
powdered sugar)

Last night, at the request of a birthday tyrant for "something raspberry," I whipped up a raspberry buckle ala Martha Stewart. You can find the recipe here. It was super duper easy and even more delish. I served it with fresh whipped cream. It was a huge success and led the group of us to discuss future buckles. Marion berries were mentioned, which would be yummy. I'm thinking dark chocolate and sour cherries. Or rhubarb. Martha has a peach buckle recipe that calls for cinnamon and almonds (yum!). There will definitely be more buckles to come...

Drunken Irish Cakes

In honor of good ole Saint Patrick, I whipped up some drunken Irish cupcakes. Easy, tasty, and boozey, these cakes are a perfect way to celebrate.

Dark Chocolate Fudgey Guinness Cakes

1 box Dunken Hines Dark Chocolate Fudge cake mix
1 box Jello brand Devil's Food flavor instant pudding
1 stick unsalted butter, melted
3 eggs
1 1/3 cup Guinness

Mix it all up, put in it your cupcake liners, bake at 350 for approx. 20 minutes.

Irish Cream Cheese Frosting

2 sticks cream cheese (I use the low fat)
1 stick unsalted butter
about 3/4 box powdered sugar (to taste)
1 little airline size bottle of Bailey's Irish Cream

Frost, decorate, serve, do a jig!

Happy Valentimes!

Lazy cupcakes here folks. I bought the Duncan Hines Red Velvet box mix, which turns your tongue, teeth and fingers red. I mixed up 1 pkg cream cheese, 1 c. sugar, 1 egg and 1/2 bag mini chocolate chips. Set it aside, mix up cake batter according to box, fill cups 2/3 full, drop a dollop of the cream cheese mixture in the center (or try, like I did, to make hearts, it didn't work out so well). Bake for 25 minutes. Sweet!

i heart brownie edges

this is brilliant!

I was just asking myself the same thing...

This was the cover of the Oregonian's FoodDay on Tuesday. I've been wondering the same thing myself (and had guessed/hoped it was pie). Layer cake and Madeleines? I dunno. I do know that when I started this blog I did it out of my love of baking and requests from friends to make my recipes accessible. I've loved cupcakes since childhood and always preferred making them over making a big layer cake, for special occasions and whatnot. But I'm a little burnt out. I'm sure you've noticed, as I seem to post more about baking-related things rather than baking myself. I have a few recipes up my sleeve that I want to test out. And I'm by no means quitting, but I may start blogging about baking things other than cupcakes. Whaddya think?

I thought this was the best part of the Oregonian article:

Five recent baking obsessions

Muffins: A staple of early 1990s coffee breaks with wide-ranging variations, from super-sized cakey monstrosities from warehouse stores, to pop-in-your-mouth mini sizes. Their popularity made big sellers out of special pans producing just the muffin tops.

Bagels: Though frozen bagels had been widely available since the 1970s, they reached critical mass only in the mid-'90s, when chains like Noah's and Einstein Bros. made freshly baked varieties widely available. Sales dropped significantly in 2002, as low-carb dieting became a national obsession.

Scones: Starbucks is directly responsible for the ultra-sweet updating on this Scottish biscuit. In the late '90s, the coffee giant began filling its bakery cases with dense cookielike pastries filled with cranberries, blueberries, nuts and what-have-you. These days, they're touting "healthy" multigrain versions with zero grams trans fat. Not surprisingly, they aren't very good.

Doughnuts: Oddly, while Americans were shunning bagels during the Atkins era, we were also obsessing about sugar-glazed rings from Krispy Kreme. When outlets arrived in Oregon in 2003, customers lined up for hours for the sweet treats. Interest waned in 2005 as the brand's cult following faded. In the end, it was a very good doughnut, but it was still just a doughnut.

Cupcakes: The recent return of these staples of the '60s and '70s inspired best-selling cookbooks, specialized baking equipment, even the popular blog Cupcakes Take the Cake on the Internet (http://cupcakestakethecake.blogspot.com). The resurgence gave legions of home cooks new uses for all those muffin pans they bought in the '90s.

-- Grant Butler

go here now

just a quick post to say: go to cupcake bakeshop or vanilla garlic and admire all the creativity! i mean, these baking masters have some crazy delicious recipes on their sites, and now they've kicked off this contest bringing out all the crazy cupcake heads. the 60+ recipes have my head spinning. i don't know which recipe i will try first! avocado?!! cuba libre? vanilla saffron, figs and mascarpone, lemon curd & whiskey? pear walnut and cardamom?

A Yummy Smelling Valentine's Gift?

new from philosophy - red velvet and buttercream frosting 3 in one shampoos (hair, body and bath). i'm gonna git me some.

xoxo

Stay Super Sweet!

Over at Fred Flare you can get a hand-made by Amy Sedaris FAKE CAKE! There's only one of each color, and they are expensive. But they're made by and SIGNED by Amy! I think I'll stick to baking real cakes, it's much cheaper and yummier, but I might have to order some of these overpriced Amy Sedaris Jimmies. Cute!

how did I miss these cuties?

My mouth is watering on overdrive because of this post at Orangette! How have I missed these little lovelies right here in my own fabulous city?!! I've been to Pearl Bakery, I've eaten their scrumptious treats, but I've never seen, tasted, or even heard of a bouchon! Where have I been? I love me some chocolate! And brownies, scones, and stale cake! And I looooove champagne, so all of these flavors, textures and tests rolled into a mini cupcake slash champagne cork? That's just too good to be true. OH! And the creator is a baker whose last name is Posey?! How did I not know of her? I'm feeling a little silly and embarrassed about all this right now (and very hungry). I'm going to make a special trip to Pearl Bakery this weekend and will report in as soon as I do. And I'm going to test out that recipe as well. Thanks Orangette!

xoxo

thank you.

I'm playing catch up today and writing out my overdue "thank you" cards for birthday and christmas presents. I got so many cupcake and baking related gifts that I thought I should share some. One you've already seen the results of, the gingerbread pan in the post below. SO cute! I never knew I needed one until I owned it. I can't wait for Christmas to come back so I can do some more cute Christmas baking! Thanks Maureen!

Birthday bowls - set of three of these fabulous mixing bowls. They are perfect for mixing and pouring (love that lip). Thanks Dan!


Also these fabulous measuring bowls. No idea where my mom-in-law found them, but I adore them and have used them in every cooking adventure I've gone on lately. (I love that you can get two measurings out of one little bowl!)


Cookbooks galore! I got cookbooks from both moms. Some how I'd made it this far without owning Nigella's How to be a Domestic Godess;
Chocolate Obsession is so good I can't read it without a piece of chocoltae in hand, well, mouth. I'll let you know as soon as I've tested out some recipes!

The Amy Sedaris book is fabulous! The day after Christmas I made turkey pot pie with leftovers (her recipe calls for chicken, but I thought she'd approve of the substitute). Really, if you don't have it you must run out and get it now!

My husband stocked my stuffing with Sili Cups from Sur La Table. I've used them and they're superfantastic!














Miss Erin got me these stylin' rain boots that I love to pieces (they're so comfortable!)




and Gretchie gave me this super cute necklace and Tina made me the darlingest (totally a word!) cupcake tray bracelet...








I have very very good friends and family and I feel very loved. I also received all kinds of crazy fabulous gifts of the non-cupcake kind. Thank you, everyone.

Julia Child's Gingerbread

I followed the recipe to a T, 'cept I added candied ginger. It was delish. I served it with lemon curd. 'Was going to make a white chocolate lemon sauce, but ate too much turkey and, well, you know how that goes.

One more post to follow, before the year's end...

Happy post-Christmas week.

xoxo

Happy Christmas

While celebrating my birthday in Sonoma, we took a quick trip to SF for some birthday shopping. While there, we visited Citizen Cupcake (oddly placed in the Virgin record store). More on that later, but I will say that I was more impressed with their decorating than the cakes themselves. But this little gingerbread house is so cute I had to post. I'm going to make Julia Child's Ginger Babycakes on Monday (p. 247 Baking with Juila), though I'm going to use my new gingerbread pan, I might have to make a little mini gingerbread house too.

Anyway, here's to a happy 3-day weekend! I'll try to be a better blogger in 2007. I've got a lot on my mind, but I'm too fogged up with Christmas to express myself properly right now.

cheers!

Her Royal Pie-ness Part 2

I recently celebrated a birthday over the course of about 2 weeks - the first of the celebrations came with Pink Lady Pie from HRP. Bits of the other celebrations call for blogging as well, but it being the Christmas season and all, I'm a little behind. I'll do my best to catch up this week.

I realize pink pie isn't very Christmassy, unless you're celebrating at my house (pink tree), but it is quite possibly the most delicious pie I've ever had, so it needed to be blogged and you need to go make yourself some. If you're not willing to make it a pink Christmas (or New Year's!) then store the recipe away for Valentines pie, or Easter, or for one of those days when you just want something sweet and pink, in the form of pie (or mini pies). Ok, that's it, here's the recipe (look at those yummy insides!):

PINK LADY PIE

2 c. diced rhubarb
1 c. sugar
1 pkg. (3 oz.) strawberry gelatin
1 tsp. lemon juice
2 c. whipped topping

Cook rhubarb and sugar slowly until tender.

Add gelatin dry; stir gently until dissolved.

Let cool and add lemon juice.

Cool to room temperature, fold in whipped topping.

Pour into baked crust and refrigerate.

Top with whipped topping when served.

Guest Bloggamist: Her Royal Pie-ness

Today, in honor of the pie season that kicks off with Thanksgiving, I bring you my first guest bloggamist, Her Royal Pie-ness, and her super scrumtious mini pies:

If you like your pie dough extra flaky and aren’t opposed to a little hydrogenated oil, I would suggest this pie dough recipe

Double-Crust Flaky Pie Dough

Mix in a bowl:
2 ½ cups flour
1 tsp white sugar
1 tsp salt

Take ½ lb cold unsalted butter (2 sticks) out of fridge and quickly cut into ¼ inch pieces. Add to dry ingredients. Chop the butter into pea-sized pieces with a pastry knife.

Then add ¼ cup solid butter flavored vegetable shortening.

Cut into pea-sized pieces with pastry knife. Don’t let mixture soften. Then drizzle over the mixture 1/3 cup ice water.

Cut into the mixture with a spatula until it is evenly moistened and begins to form small balls. Continue cutting in ice water 1 tablespoon at a time until the dough sticks together. But don’t get it too wet.

Split dough into two halves and form into balls. Wrap each tightly in saran wrap and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes, or up to 2 days.

When you are ready for the dough, roll it into a 9-10 inch circle. Then place it in a pie dish and form a fluted rim with your fingers.*

If you are opposed to using shortening, then use the same recipe as above without it. It will be equally as delicious, just a little less flaky.

*For mini pies, cut rolled dough into 5-5 ½“ circles. Slip them into the a cupcake tin (I have found that the silicon cupcake tins cook the mini pies more evenly and are easier to clean afterwards). Use every other cup to give the pies enough space. This means you will need 2 cupcake tins to make 12 mini pies. Smooth the dough into the cup and flute the rim with your fingers. Top as you would a normal pie.

Another tip for mini pies is to cook them at a slightly lower temperature and sometimes for a shorter period of time than the recipe calls for. Just keep an eye on them and when they get golden brown on top and the filling bubbles up through the crust and look syrupy.



Grandpa's Cafe Chocolate Pie

1 cup plus 6 tablespoons sugar, divided
2 heaping tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
1/8 teaspoon salt
3 1/2 tablespoons cornstarch
3 large eggs, separated
2 cups whole milk
1 tablespoons vanilla
1 (9-inch) basket pie crust

- In saucepan combine 1 cup sugar, cocoa powder, salt and cornstarch. Add egg yolks and milk stirring until well mixed. Cook until thick (10-15 minutes- *it took me longer). Remove from heat and cool to room temperature.

- Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

- In medium mixing bowl beat egg white on high speed until soft peaks form. Add 6 tablespoons of sugar, 1 tablespoon at a time, beating constantly. Add vanilla. Beat egg whites until stiff and glossy.

- Pour filling into baked pie shell. Top with beaten egg whites, being cared to completely cover filling, sealing at edges of crust. Bake for 5 to 8 minutes or until light golden on the peaks. Remove and let cool. Refrigerate at least 2 hours to set.

Apple Pie

Prepare and roll out double crust pie dough. Line a pie dish with half of the dough (or 6-12 mini pies.) Set the other half aside for the pie top.

Peel and slice 6 cups of cooking apples. Sprinkle with lemon juice. In a large bowl, mix together:

¾ cups sugar

2 tbsp flour

½ tsp ground cinnamon (I use more to taste)

1/8 tsp ground nutmeg

Add apple slices and mix until thoroughly coated. Place mixture in pie pan. Trim dough if necessary. Place other half of rolled dough on top and cut edges if necessary. Seal and crimp edges as desired. Cut slits into the top of the pie to vent. If making a normal size pie, cover edges with foil to prevent burning. Bake at 375 degrees for 25 minutes. Remove foil and bake for another 25-30 minutes until golden brown. Cool on a wire wrack.

Rhubarb Pie

Prepare double crust pie dough. Roll out half and line a pie dish. Trim edges if necessary and refrigerate. Roll the other half out and refrigerate.

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

Cut 1 ¾ to 1 ½ pounds of rhubarb stalks. (Use thin skinned, pink rhubarb, no bigger than your thumb.)

Measure 5 cups and combine with:

1 ¼ to 1 ½ cups sugar (use larger amount when rhubarb is more mature.)

¼ cup quick-cooking tapioca or cornstarch (cornstarch for lattice top)

Grated zest of 1 orange (optional)

¼ tsp salt

I also throw in cinnamon to taste

Let stand for 15 minutes, then stir. Pour into the pie crust and dot with 2 tbsp unsalted butter. Cover with lattice top crust, then seal the edges, trimp and crimp.>

Bake pie for 30 minutes at 425 degrees. Then slip a baking sheet underneath and reduce heat to 350 degrees. Bake about 25-35 more minutes, until thick juices bubble through the vents. Let cool completely before serving.

i heard a rumor that next week she'll be bringing you a recipe for Pink Lady Pie...

Panda Jonx

my little sister turned 16 recently and requested i make her "cute" cupcakes. what's cuter than a panda?

i made amy sedaris vanilla cupcakes with vanilla buttercream (dreamy!), used large dark chocolate discs for ears, junior mints for dark around eyes, and plastic eye balls from the craft store. you could do that part in frosting, but i was being lazy.