I think it’s an established fact that I “read” too many blogs. There are 125 subscriptions in my Google Reader. Yea, I know it’s a bit weird. But read is in quotes, of course, since I don’t actually read them. I skim headlines. I quickly tag what I want to save for later or read something that is momentarily amusing but of no real long-term value. I am also merciless about tossing a blogs that no longer hold my interest. It probably shouldn’t surprise you that I have a tag for recipes. Then usually when I’m making a menu up for the week I like to run back through the recipes I’ve marked and see what looks tasty.
As I was in the midst of this process on Sunday, I saw the Strawberry Milk Cake. I have absolutely NO recollection of marking it, but there it was in all its pink glory and it smacked me in the face with the realization that “Oh sheesh! I need to make a treat for Tabby to take to school for her birthday!!” Because, of course, I’d completely forgotten about that small fact. And had I not realized it in the midst of menu and shopping list making then we would have been reduced to making the Funfetti. For shame.
Seeing as I don’t want Tabby’s teachers to have to deal with cake cutting, etc. we made the cake into cupcakes. Recipe is as follows:
Strawberry Scalded Milk Cake
(adapted from Mrs. Joe Montgomery’s recipe card via The Kitchn)
2 eggs
1 3/4 cups sugar
2 1/2 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup scalded strawberry milk
1/4 cup butter
Heat oven to 350. Line about 18 muffin tins with liners. Beat the eggs, vanilla and sugar until fully combined (I used the stand mixer). In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder and salt, set aside. In a small sauce pan, heat milk until almost boiling (look for a bit of steam and some bubbles around the edges), add butter and turn off heat then stir until butter is fully melted. Alternate additions of milk and flour to make a nicely consistent batter. Don’t overmix!!
Cupcakes take 20-25 minutes to bake and are better on the slightly less cooked side from our findings.
Whipped Cream Frosting
1 package cream cheese, room temperature
1/3 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups heavy cream
food coloring as desired
Use your stand mixer again and beat the cream cheese, sugar, vanilla and almond extract until smooth. With the mixer on medium-high speed, slowly pour in the heavy cream. Try not to make a big freaking mess. Keep whipping, adding more speed if you need to until you get the stiff peaks about 2 minutes. Add food coloring if you wish.
This frosting goes on super easy but it is very susceptible to melting so make sure those cupcakes are cool!
I give this recipe HIGH marks. It was really easy to execute and produced excellent results. The frosting in particular is a triumph. I am a huge fan of cream cheese frosting and this was cream cheesy AND light and fluffy and super super tasty. I anticipate making it quite a bit in the future.
The folks at my house are big pizza fans (I know it’s rare to find an American who isn’t). We’re completely happy with the garden variety mushroom and pepperoni variety (we frequently order it from down the block), but we also like something a bit different. We’ve put lots of different things on pizzas including buffalo chicken, shrimp scampi and various “Mexican” combinations. I don’t think we’ve had a loser yet. Surely this wasn’t it! This pizza, adapted from a Devin Alexander recipe I saw in the Biggest Loser Family cookbook, combines slightly disparate but always yummy ingredients into something really tasty and unexpected. It was a hit with the whole family. Matt and I ate it in its entirety.Tabby (who normally loves pineapple) ate all of the chicken and handed Ben her pineapple. Ben picked off and ate all pineapple, including Tabby’s and then licked off all the cheese. #facepalm
