Spring Break… The San Francisco Treat

It started when I signed up for a food photography workshop in Oakland last Saturday which was to be a quick turn-around flight for me…

…when CollegeBoy 2, who was on break, came home and suggested he and I take a road trip up north to visit CollegeBoy 1 who was still in session at Berkeley.

What?!? My son asked to take a trip with me? I was all over it… like this ... no, not like an out of focus biscuit but like honey on a biscuit!

I put gas in that tank faster than you could say, “Fill ‘er up"!”

Last Wednesday, we hit the road at the crack of noon and headed up the 5 through the ‘real’ valley past the mounds of fertilizer, flowerless almond trees and hours of straight unattractive scenery all of which could not have been more delightful when shared with a child and ‘the sixties on six’.

While CollegeBoy1 was in class on Thursday, CB2 and I took the Bay Bridge over to city and explored the Presidio and Crissy Field where this shot was taken…

We then drove over the Golden Gate Bridge with the sun roof open (so wish I had a pic) and headed over to Muir Woods to see the redwoods.

It was beautiful.

As planned, we continued on Highway 1 up the coast to Point Reyes. It was some of the most beautiful coastline and inland pockets of meadows and forests I have ever seen. We stopped at Muir Beach Lookout. It was a little hazy, windy and chilly. It had to be in the mid to high 60’s. ‘Brrrrr’. It’s a SoCal thing.

We finished up our big loop with our third bridge of the day and went back into Berkeley for dinner. Berkeley is so diverse. Telegraph St. is still hanging onto its counter culture past although College St. is very charming and upscale and the shopping on 4th is where I could spend an entire morning or afternoon yet among the high end stores there is still a very green and organic feel to everything ‘Berkeley.’

If I were to compare Orange County to Berkeley in food terms, OC would be this…

and Berkeley would be this…

Each finding their respective place at the table.

Not one to miss a good time, on Friday, my hubby flew in. CB2 and I picked him up at SFO for a late lunch which turned into an early dinner by the time we found a place to park in the city. Later, we met up with CB1 for the real deal in Berkeley when he finished up in his lab.

On Saturday, while the boys took a trip to Napa to visit a couple of wineries, I attended the food photography workshop with Danielle Tsi and Denise in Oakland. I guess it’s kind of obvious all the food shots were taken there.

I styled. I accessorized. I put every dial and button on my camera into manual mode including the focus.

I used my live view feature for the first time and even succumbed to using a tripod.

I poured honey and melted pats of butter with a blow torch.

I fiddled around with rhubarb.

The rhubarb won.

I learned an incredible amount and had a terrific time.

There were 8 participants all with different backgrounds and levels of expertise yet all willing to share and assist one another. Danielle was extremely knowledgeable, organized and patient, as was Denise. They were very generous with their time and talent. I highly recommend this workshop and I would love to go back again for the video workshop at some point.

What? Time to eat again? Is it just me or does anyone else’s vacation seem to ask the question at every turn, “Where are we going to eat dinner tonight?”

Another great dinner in Berkeley Saturday night - this time at the pier. Seafood. A change from Thai, Greek and Italian of the previous nights.

Sunday we drove CB2 back down the coast to begin his new quarter, settled into our favorite spot to stay overnight in the area and watched Mad Men (I knew Joan kept the baby and Roger wouldn’t have acknowledged that baby if it was puffing away on an unfiltered pacifier with a double scotch in the Platex Nurser and had white hair!)

Monday, on our way home, we ventured to a recommended winery near Santa Barbara and continued on.

Luckily, CB1 flew in yesterday for a few days on his break this week so my spring break continues!

Also, I plan on winning the half billion dollar lottery today so this is shaping up to be one heck of a spring break but with or without the winfall I already know I’m a lucky lady- just look at how many nights I haven’t had to cook the last two weeks and the company I’ve kept. :)

Have a wonderful weekend!

Vera Bradley Give-away next week. Oh boy!

Decorated Easter and Springtime Cookies and Treat Links

I’m hopping back into my springtime cookie archives while I enjoy some spring break time with my boys over the next couple of weeks.  Of course, they couldn’t be on break the same weeks could they, but at some point we hope to spend at least a few days all together. 

When I return I’ll have a special Vera Bradley give-away for followers that I think you’ll really like.

In the mean time, if you’re thinking about Easter and springtime treats, click on the titled links above the photos for decorating tutorials and if you’re on spring break too, have a wonderful one, or two, like me!

Bunny Cookies!

Marshmallow Bunny Pops!

Baby Bunnies!

Baby Chicks!

Butterflies!

Lambs!

Springtime Tulips!

Chocolate Ducks!

Sugar Cookie Recipe & Tutorial

Royal Icing Recipe & Tutorial

St. Patrick’s Day Cupcakes with Bailey’s Irish Cream, Frangelico and Crème de Cacao Buttercream Icing

As if my favorite espresso martinis weren’t decadent enough I made espresso martini cupcakes for St. Patrick’s Day with buttercream icing made with Bailey’s Irish Cream and a few of its flavorful, sweet, high octane friends.

These friends play together beautifully and are three of the five ingredients in the espresso martinis that I love.

Bailey’s is creamy goodness.  Frangelico is hazelnut-flavored liqueur and Crème de Cacao has a light chocolate flavor.

For the cupcakes, I substituted the liquid ingredients in the batter with two espresso martinis.  Texturally, the recipe works but the intensity of the alcohol needs some refining but what I came up with for the icing is absolute perfection and I’d like to share the Irish love with you and how to decorate the shamrock cupcakes. 

To decorate the cupcakes, I took inspiration from classic Irish Belleek.

photo from Belleek.

Making the basket weave is not difficult.  I used a #47 piping tip.

What is very cool about this tip is that it is smooth on one side and grooved on the other.  This one tip will make both the smooth lines and the wavy lines of the basket weave.

Here’s how to make the basket weave design.

To finish decorating the top of the cupcake I made a shell border with a #14 decorating tip and brushed the border and the wavy cross lines with gold luster powder after the icing had crusted.

For the shamrock cupcake top decoration, I melted white candy coating and placed it in the Oreo mold using just the shamrock indentation. 

When the shamrock hardened in the fridge, I popped it out of the mold and brushed on luster powders over the shamrock in mallard green and gold and secured it on top of the cupcake with a dab of icing.

You can read the tutorial on making chocolate covered Oreos using the mold HERE.

I also think the cupcakes are pretty without the gold powder and more like the Belleek’s tone-on-tone pattern.

Either way…

Remember to eat these St. Patty’s Day cupcakes responsibly. 

Bailey’s Original Irish Cream, Frangelico and Crème de Cacao Buttercream Icing Recipe – original recipe by Marilyn

2 lbs. powdered sugar, sifted

1 1/3 c. butter, softened

1/2 c. amount total combination of Bailey’s Irish Cream, Frangelico and light Crème de Cacao (I used mostly Bailey’s then added a splash of Frangelico and Crème de Cacao each to bring it up to the 1/2 c. amount)

2 teaspoons vanilla bean paste (can substitute vanilla extract)

1/4 c. milk, to thin out to piping or spreading consistency

Beat butter with powdered sugar and liqueurs alternately.  Add vanilla and continue to beat.  Add enough milk to thin to piping or spreading consistency.

Makes approximately 5 cups.   Enough for 2 dozen cupcakes plus a few generous spatula tastings.

This post is featured on…

 

Cupcakes Take the Cake today!  WooHoo!  Thanks gals! 

Springtime Tulip Cookies!

The weekend was perfect here in sunny SoCal and the flowers were making their seasonal debut, especially in my kitchen.

Butterflies were visiting.

And ladybugs too.

Getting ready for springtime baskets of nature’s smiles.

I can hardly wait until our real garden is as colorful.

With gentle friends fluttering and buzzing about.

Spring.  Officially 8 days and counting.

Have a sweet, colorful week.

Sugar Recipe & Tutorial

Royal Icing Recipe & Tutorial

Colors used:

Americolor – deep pink, electric green, yellow

Wilton – orange

A special thank you to Susan of Susan Keller Photography for allowing me to use her super-duper 35mm and 100mm macro lenses and giving me invaluable instruction along the way.  I had so much fun!

A Big, Beautiful Birthday Cupcake!

Only the most glam birthday cupcake would do for my wonderful friend, Suzi, and her most fabulously stylish daughter, Rebecca June, who describes herself on her blog as an ~

Interior Designer. Jewelry Addict. Clothes Horse. TV Junkie. Wife and Mother to a Rescue Dog.

Suzi and Rebecca sparkle. Some people just seem to do that.

I knew my design had to include glittering stars - (made from thinned royal icing, piped and filled in on top of cloth covered wire and sprinkled with pink and rainbow Disco Dust, of course)…

… and ribbons galore (made from gum paste, which dries hard, and twisted into festive shapes then brushed with pink pearlized luster powder on the pink ribbons and rainbow Disco Dust on both colors).

Both brought together…

…for one spectacular celebration and one very festive birthday cupcake!

For the big cupcake, I started with the Wilton Jumbo cupcake pan. It’s one pan that makes a separate base and top. There’s a recipe on the cake pan box but I used 2 boxes of Funfetti cake mix, the birthday girl’s favorite. The base of the cupcake takes 4 cups of batter. I then filled the top of the cupcake pan and had enough batter remaining for 9 regular sized cupcakes.

Do you know how to make a regular white cake a Funfetti cake? Add a handful of colored jimmie sprinkles. Something I might do in the future when I have assorted jimmies on hand but the Funfetti boxed mix worked just fine.

Bake to baking, I found the top of the jumbo cupcake baked quicker than the bottom part so I laid a small plate on top of the bottom part to keep it in the pan and flipped the cupcake top out and baked the cupcake base awhile longer. When I first poured the batter into the pan, I was tempted to insert a metal rod into the cupcake base from a dome cake pan I had to make sure the center of the cake was baked to perfection but I wanted to see how well it baked on it’s own since this was the first time I had used the pan. It turned out fine with a little more baking time although it started to brown a little more around the outside edges.

I cut off the domed tops on both the top and base. I also cut the base horizontally to add a layer of icing as you would for a layer cake and iced the top of the base before adding the swirly cupcake top. I would recommend icing and decorating the base before adding the top.

Oh my! Not more Tushie Cookies! The birthday girl has an obsession or should I say “collection” of pretty little panties. My recent philosophy is, “Those who can wear them – do, and those who can’t - bake and decorate. I guess you know which side of the cookie I frost. lol!

Rebecca’s hubby Jim loved the special 'tushie tat' in his honor.

(For more 'tushie' cookies, click HERE and HERE)

A whole plateful of pink party panties just for Rebecca!

I hope to share photos with you of the party when they are sent to me since I didn’t bring my camera to the party and Suzi did an incredible job of decorating. There’s something about bright pink balloons hanging from sparkling crystal chandeliers that is magic.

If anyone has questions about working with the jumbo cupcake pan and decorating it, feel free to ask.

Have a great week ahead!