Strawberry Shortcake Cupcakes

My cousins Lynne and David came over this weekend to make cupcakes again. This may become a weekly tradition. We decided to do a recipe that called for fresh strawberries. This was a nice, light recipe and neither the strawberries or sugar were overwhelming.

Strawberry Shortcake Cupcakes

Ingredients

• 1 pint of strawberries
• 1 and 1/4 cup sugar
• 1.5 cups all-purpose-flour, sifted
• 1.5 tsp Baking Powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 3 eggs, room temperature
• 1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1/4 cup milk (2% or whole)
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

Directions

1. Strawberry Syrup:
• Part 1: slice strawberries into halves and place in a bowl with 1/4 cup sugar - refrigerate for 1 - 2 hours. Then puree in a food processor or mash into a pulp (fork or potato masher). 
• Part 2: Refrigerate for another 1-2 hours. 
2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. 
3. In a bowl designated for dry ingredients, mix together 1 cup sugar, all-purpose flour, baking powder, and salt. Mix together with whisk, set aside.
4. In a separate bowl designated for wet ingredients, mix eggs, butter, milk and vanilla extract. Beat in low just to combine. 
5. Next, add dry ingredients 1/4 cup at a time into the wet ingredients. Beat on medium speed between additions to combine until batter is light and fluffy. Use a spatula to scrape down the sides and mix again to ensure everything is well combined.
6. Line your cupcake tray with paper cupcake liners. Fill the cupcake liners 1/3rd full with cupcake batter ensuring the entire bottom surface is covered. Next add a spoon-full of strawberry syrup, then add another 1/3rd of batter on top. 
7. Bake for 15 minutes or until cake tester/toothpick comes out dry. 
8. Allow to cool completely BEFORE icing. 

Strawberry Cream Cheese Frosting

Ingredients

• 1 package (8 oz) cream cheese
• 1/4 cup butter, room temperature
• 2 cups icing sugar
• Strawberry syrup (see step 1 in directions above). 

Directions

1. Beat cream cheese, 2tbsp of strawberry syrup and butter together on low speed just to combine. 
2. Add icing sugar 1/4 cup at a time until light and fluffy.
3. Ice cupcakes once cupcakes have been completely cooled. 

** You can choose to use whole strawberries to garnish your cupcakes. 

Celestial Chocolate Cupcakes

I've always been fascinated by events in the night sky. I took a course in university undergrad called "Origins of the University" - we studied how stars are born and how they die, beginnings of the universe and how to determine the chemical composition of distant planets and stars. 

Nowadays, I like receiving the "astronomy events" updates from National Geographic on my Facebook feed, and there's a LOT happening in August (e.g. meteor showers!).  So we thought we'd dedicate this cupcake post to the celestial events that happen in August. 

I was inspired by these celestial cupcakes I saw on the Canadian Living website. However, we decided to use a vanilla buttercream instead of plain frosting, and milk chocolate stars instead of fondant. I've never used "Royal Blue" icing colour before, but it produced this beautiful deep blue colour reminiscent of the night sky. This was so much fun to bake and decorate!

 

Celestial Chocolate Cupcakes 

Ingredients:

• 1 cups all-purpose flour, sifted
• 1 cups granulated white sugar
• 1/2 cup cocoa powder
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp instant coffee powder
• 1/2 cup 2% whole milk
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil
• 1 eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup boiling water

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Line cupcake tray with paper liners
2. In a bowl, add your dry ingredients: flour, sugar, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, salt and instant coffee. Stir with whisk. 
3. In a separate bowl, beat your wet ingredients: milk, vegetable oil, eggs, vanilla. 
4. Add wet ingredients gradually to dry ingredients bowl and beating with a mixer on medium. Add boiling water and beat.
5. Fill your cupcake liners 3/4ths full of cupcake batter. 
6. Bake for 15-20 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean. Allow to cool completely before icing. 

Royal Blue Vanilla Buttercream Icing

Ingredients:

• 1 cup butter, room temperature
• 4 cups confectioner's sugar (aka icing sugar)
• 2.5 teaspoons of vanilla extract
• pinch salt
• 2.5 tbsp 2% milk, slightly colder than room temperature. 
• Royal blue icing colouring and black icing colouring. 

Directions:

1. Cream butter on medium speed until smooth.
2. Add confectioner's sugar a half cup at a time and beating on medium speed. 
3. Stir in vanilla and salt.
4. Add milk until you have the desired consistency - add more milk if you want softer frosting add less if you'd like it firmer. 
5. Add royal blue colouring first, THEN darken it with very little black icing colouring. 
6. Put in icing bag, then use Wilton 1M icing tip to frost your cupcake in a swirl pattern. 

Chocolate Stars

You need: 

• Yellow milk chocolate wafers
• Star chocolate mould

Directions:

1. Melt the chocolate wafers in the microwave 30 seconds at a time. 
2. Fill the melted chocolate into the star mould.
3. Put in freezer for about 5 minutes, or until solid.

The cupcakes in my special "cupcake transporter caddy" from Wilton.

STEP BY STEP RECIPE ILLUSTRATED INSTRUCTIONS >> 

Tea Ceremony in Kyoto, Japan

Tea Ceremony with En 縁

Near Gion District, you can go to En Tea Room, and have a traditional tea ceremony experience. It was such an enlightening experience, and very meditative even just to observe the making of the tea. We went through an informal tea ceremony, which should normal last 4 hours but ours was only 20 minutes with plenty of time for explanation. Normally there are a maximum of five guests, however we had 10+ people in the tea ceremony room

The movements during a tea ceremony or slow, deliberate and well practiced. They serve Matcha tea - a powdered green tea. 

"Tea ceremony (the way of tea) is one of Japan's traditional cultural practices,
and is the name given to a synthetic art
that encompasses not only the making of tea,
but also tea-room architecture,
the appreciation of tea utensils and bowls,
and Zen Buddhism."

Niagara-on-the-Lake: Wine Tour

Me and the the girls from grad school that I keep in touch with went on a wine tour at Niagara-on-the-Lake. This is becoming an annual event.

When I did the wine tour, I was a complete wine virgin. I couldn't really distinguish between wine tastes - I only knew that white wine was just a bit sweeter, red was more bitter than white wines, and dessert wines were very sweet. All red wines tasted the same too.

Since last year, I've had some wine on social occasions and have finally acquired the taste for it (beer.. is a different story). So I was excited to try the different types of wines on this trip!

My friend Melinda did research on each of the different wineries and selected ones that were in close vicinity and had good ratings. Each winery we went to had $2-3 wine tastings (sometimes $3 for three wines, or $2 for an ice wine tasting). Overall it was a very good deal! 

My approach to wine tastings: White wine first, red wine, then dessert wine. 

Herb Salmon with Baby Kale Salad

This is a recipe adapted from September 2014 issue of Canadian Living. I was recently introduced to this magazine by some coworkers and was floored at the quality of content - recipes, parenting, home decor. There was a section on "15 minute" recipes and I decided to try this appetizing meal since for the most part I had the ingredients.

Herbed Salmon

Ingredients:

• 2 salmon fillets
• 1 tbsp chopped fresh parsley
• 1 tsp olive oil
• pinch of salt and pepper

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees Farenheit. 
2. Mix olive oil and fresh parsley in a mixing bowl.
3. Place salmon on a greased (with olive oil) sheet of aluminum foil.
4. Lightly season salmon with salt and pepper

Baby Kale Salad

Ingredients:

• 4 cups of baby kale (I chose a spring mix with baby spinach and chard)
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1/2 tbsp red wine vinegar
• pinch of salt and pepper
• 1 can of mandarin oranges (drained, for a healthy alternative use ones that are in its own juices rather than the syrup option)

Directions:

1. In a small, mix olive oil, wine vinegar, salt and pepper.
2. Add to larger salad bow along with mandarin oranges and baby kale salad mix.

Serve!

Japan: Kyoto

A view of Kyoto Tower and hte city from Kiyomizu Temple

Grabbing a quick breakfast before starting our day!

Creamy Pesto Avocado Pasta

Another recipe that I tried from With Peanut Butter on Top that I came across on instagram. This was such a tasty and unique pasta that I've never tried before, best of all its SIMPLE. Just grab your ingredients, boil the pasta, blend all ingredients in a food processor, mix and serve. Thats it! 

Creamy Pesto Avocado Pasta

Equipment:

• Food Processor/blender.

Ingredients

• Spinach Fettuccine (or pasta of choice)
• 1 avocado
• 1/4 cup Greek Yogurt Plain
• 1 tbsp pesto sauce
• 1/4 tsp garlic powder
• 1 tbsp lime juice (freshly squeezed)

Directions

1. Boil fettuccine until al dente. Drain, set aside. 
2. In a food processor: add Greek Yogurt, Avocado, Pesto Sauce, Garlic Powder and Lime Juice. Blend until creamy consistency - you can pause to scrape down sides and continue blending.
3. Add salt and pepper to taste. 
4. Mix pasta sauce with fettuccine, and serve.

Healthy Mac & Cheese

Whats interesting about this recipe is that it uses no butter. You use greek yogurt instead to achieve a creamy taste! This recipe was adapted from With Peanut Butter On Top, a wonderful health eating blog I came across while searching for healthy recipes on Instagram.

Healthy Mac and Cheese

Ingredients:

• 2 cups of large shell pasta (* whole grain pasta)
• 2 cups shredded cheese of choice
• 1 tomato, diced into cubes.
• 1/2 cup plain Greek Yogurt
• 1/2 cup skim milk (or almond milk, unsweetened)
• 1/4 tsp paprika
• 1 tsp dried basil
• 1/2 tsp garlic powder
• 1/4 tsp onion powder
• Salt and pepper to taste. 
• 1 cup baby spinach

Instructions:

1. Boil pasta for 7-8 minutes or until desired tenderness. Drain and set aside. 
2. In a separate mixing bowl, add Greek Yogurt, milk, paprika, basil, garlic powder, and onion powder. Whisk together. 
3. Add 2 cups of shredded cheese.
4. In a heated pot (use the one you used to boil pasta), add drained pasta and your Greek Yogurt mixture. Mix around to allow the cheese to melt. 
5. In a separate heated pot, add a little bit of water, bring to a boil and add spinach. Allow the spinach to wilt and then remove. Mix with pasta.
6. Garnish with (more) cheese. You may Serve with diced tomato on top.