A busy kitchen!

Well it's no secret that the Anne Strawberry Kitchen has not lived up to it's potential lately. But, I was very busy baking up a very special treat- a sweet new baby girl! She's a perfect little pretty with the nicest snuggles and the sweetest personality (must have been all those chocolate chip cookies I craved). She's 2 months old now and I'm finally baking and {more importantly} making decent dinners again most nights. She definitely sapped my baking mojo while I was pregnant and I went weeks at a time without using my KitchenAid- a sad first for me!

I have missed my little corner of the blogosphere a lot, although it's kind of awkward to figure out how to break back in. I'm not taking gorgeous pictures of cupcakes very often though I still have dreams about new baked goods to invent and try out and love seeing what my friends are cooking. I'll try to post as often as I can and remember that this is still my favorite way to save and share my most loved recipes, even if it's not as fancy and perfect as I'd like it to be. Perfectionism is tricky, friends! Hopefully... I can remember that it doesn't have to be perfect to be beautiful (or delicious).

Speaking of fancy and amazing food blogs, a few of my favorites are really great lately...

Tracey's Culinary Adventures
Cafe Johnsonia
Aggie's Kitchen
Closet Cooking
And my always favorite... Peabody

I always love finding new blogs and seeing what my favorite bloggers and reading and enjoying. Let me know if you have someone I should be following (while we still have Google Reader, right?)

We had a perfect Mother's Day yesterday and I've had a few Facebook friends request the trifle recipe I made. Since I just threw yummy things together until it looked right I'll work on making an actual recipe and get that up tomorrow hopefully. Until then, happy baking (and let me know if you have a suggestion for my sweet baby's new blog nick name! I hadn't thought about that until just now!)

Happy Birthday Julia!

  

Adorable Julia Child Quote via Unraveled Design on Etsy- so true, too!

Today is Julia Child's 100th Birthday. She was such an amazing woman and really changed the whole food world. She's such an inspiration and if you don't know much about her, you should read her lovely book "My Life in France" (the book the "Julia" half of the movie "Julie and Julie" was based on- I don't recommend the other book though! Meryl was amazing though and I loved the movie!)

 

Let me know if you read the book and what you think. I'll warn you now it will make you want to eat... and go to France now! And I hope you will go try a new recipe in Julia's honor today. She was told over and over that was too tall, too old, too American, too much to follow her dream but she did- and what an impact she made!

Pineapple Yogurt

The first time I went to France, I spent a summer semester studying, exploring, playing, and eating my way through Paris. It was an awesome time and introduced me to a lot of still-favorite foods- pain au chocolat, baguettes, chevre (goat cheese), and pineapple yogurt. When I went back to France for a few days, I immediately sought out the pineapple yogurt. I've really never been a yogurt person but there was something special about my 'ananas' yogurt, so fresh and creamy and just amazing. I've attempted to recreate the taste by mixing crushed pineapple and juice into Greek yogurt (the Fage at Costco is reasonably priced and yummy) but when I tried this Chobani Pineapple last month I knew I'd met my match. This yogurt... it's just ridiculously delicious. It comes in a host of other flavors that look great but I've only got eyes for this one. It's like I'm eating ice cream for breakfast, filling up with healthy protein and calcium and starting my day off just right. Have you tried this? Do you love it? Have another amazing flavor to recommend?

PS You can read more about Chobani on their site and even get coupons too. And no this isn't a sponsored or sneaky post, I just really... really love this yogurt. Call me crazy.

Custom Cupcake Toppers & Pink-ifying Cupcakes

In keeping with my super stringent once a month summer posting schedule, today I'm sharing some cupcakes I made recently for my friend's birthday. My friend was having a super pink birthday party so I took out all of my pink supplies and overloaded them. I used my regular favorite cupcake recipe to make some chocolate cupcakes and my favorite light cream cheese frosting with a little pink food coloring.

I wanted something special and pink to top the cupcakes but didn't have anything bold so I used some marshmallow fondant I'd made before to make some heart toppers. It's simple to make (melting marshmallows, powdered sugar, and water then kneading it together) and will stay fresh for weeks and weeks well wrapped (I'll admit I made this batch in February!) Kneading in a color is a lot like making playdoh and really fun. I don't have any special fondant tools but used a regular little rolling pin and small cookie cutter to cut out the hearts. I let them dry over night and stuck them on top of the frosting the next day. I even made some extras and saved them in the freezer for Baby Strawberry's upcoming birthday. You can see some more about the marshmallow fondant at this post about my son's Pirate Birthday Cupcakes.

Here are a few supplies I used to pink-ify the cupcakes:

I used my Americolor Gel dye to get the vivid pink color. I think they do the best job of providing simple, vivid colors and they have a squeeze top bottle for ease of use. There a few dollars each at the Cake decorating store (or at Amazon of course) and last forever. I've used them to dye frosting, cake batter, homemade playdoh, and more with great results.

To add her initial, I used an edible food marker- Wilton sells some at Michael's, JoAnn, or Hobby Lobby but I hear the Americolor ones are better (thought my Wilton ones have lasted a long time so I guess that says something good about them after all! I have only ever tried the black though.)

Last I gave the cupcakes a hearty sprinkling with my edible glitter (It's called Pixie or Disco Dust and while it looks exactly like delicate craft glitter it claims to be safe to eat!) It's gorgeous and really makes a regular dessert something special. I buy mine locally from ABC Cake decorating (or on their site) but Amazon has something comparable as well.

A basic piping bag and tip doesn't have to cost a lot (this set is less than $8 with free shipping). While I've frosted cupcakes before with one of those small bags and tips a lot of people use, a little bigger one can make for some fast frosting and a high impact cupcakes. This set looks like a good place to start with my favorite brand- fill the bag up and practice piping some icing spirals on a plate or sheet of parchment, you can add it right back to the bag and keep on trying until you get the shape you like best. It's actually really fast and fun to frost a whole bunch of cupcakes and take it from the worst cake decorator in the world- if I can do it, you can.


Do you have a favorite way to decorate cupcakes or a favorite recipe? Birthday season is about to start around here and I think there is a lot of frosting in my future!!

{My favorite Cupcake and Frosting Recipe Here}

{Printable Marshmallow Fondant Recipe Here}