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Posts tagged ‘cute’

Feb 14

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All you need is love…

(I wrote this post last night.  All I need is time.  Has it really been over a month since I posted? Fuuuuuuuuuuudgey cupcakes.  Guess Valentine’s Day is as good an excuse to come back as any.)

When it comes to classical music I have always been a girl for the romantic composers.  When I say romantic, I don’t mean love, I mean the movement.  There is definitely a sense of romance in the works but it’s a sad sort of feeling that only strings and piano can convey.

Tchaikovsky, Mendelssohn and Chopin all wrote such beautiful, and often times heartbreakingly sad sweet songs.  Tchaikovsky was a bit separated of course due to the nationalist movement of his Russian mother country so I’m not sure how much he gets classified as a romantic by actual musical theorists.  If you are writing a paper on the man please don’t take my ramblings here for expert testimony.

I think that the average person today gets exposed to contemporary instrumental pieces through film scores.  There are some amazing people out there doing things I love too.  For example Murray Gold IS the essential player to the success of Doctor Who.  You can lose the writers, the actors but if you lose Gold the show will never be the same.  There’s also Hans Zimmer (Nolan’s Batman films, The Lion King, Inception), John Williams (Uh ever heard of Star Wars), John Murphy (Sunshine Adagio In D Minor trust me you’ve heard it) and Howard Shore (Lord of the Rings)

Pandora might be changing that.  At least it did for me.  I just found Brian Crain a modern composer whose music captures the same love affair of piano and strings I have always associated with my romantic loves.  I knew there would be a connection when I saw he has an entire album dedicated to “Piano and Light”  There is a sadness to some of his work but it’s unusual for me in that it seems to have a lighter, sweeter tone to it a lot of the time.  Especially Song for Sienna, which you really need to listen to, like, now. Initially the internets said this song was part of a movie score in Love Actually so I guess it is especially appropriate I blog about it today on Valentine’s Day.  Upon further investigation I have not found this to be true according to the soundtrack / score listings online.

So if you can convince your guy (or gal) to watch Love Actually today, here is a great way to spend your evening.  Watch a sappy British romance film, because British is always awesome, bake up some Chocolate Chiffon Cupcakes with Pretzel Love Buttons and be on the lookout (or listenout) for this amazing musical piece by Brian Crain.  Let me know if you can find it in the film after all.

Chocolate Chiffon Cupcakes Read more

Oct 17

AppleCupcake

Apple a Day?

Not sure this is exactly the kind of apple that keeps the doctor away but it certainly makes me feel better!  Butterscotch Caramel Cupcakes with vanilla frosting and an apple motif.  I made this because fall has FINALLY started to kick in here in California and fall always reminds me of school.  Even though I’ve graduated I’m aware that the students are back on campus.  Suddenly I find myself in danger riding my bike to work because Freshman are running wild through campus.  Oh how badly I wish they’d learn to bike properly and be considerate when they do.  Friday afternoons in particular are the worst.  So if I end up missing for a few weeks odds are some freshman hit me in a bike circle and I’m suffering a soap opera-esque bout of amnesia.  Read more

Apr 7

April Showers

Bring May Flowers (and where I live baby chicks and ducklings!)  Plus how adorable is this?  I wish I had a baby shower I were heading to because I think that’s where these cookies belong.  It’s a crazy busy week so no recipe today but I promise to have one up soon.  All these cookies are cute but I think the ducks just stole the show.  How about you?

May 19

1 Comment

Can you lend me a Paw?

I played with fondant for the first time and wow, just wow.  I don’t know why I was always so scared of it.  It’s certainly not easy but it’s not nearly as hard as I imagined it to be.  I found a simple recipe here and used that to make cookies in the shape of paw prints for my sorority with some friends.  The plate they are on is a gift from my big sis :-)

pawprintcookie2 pawprintcookie

I used a basic sugar cookie recipe and cut out shapes in the fondant with cookie cutters.  They aren’t perfect but I’m very proud of how my first trial run went.

Sugar Cookies

Faithfully replicated from my “King Arthur Cookie Companion”

  • 3 cups flour
  • 1 cup butter
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 2 Tbsp Vanilla
  • Grated Nutmeg (ok this is my addition)
  • 1.5 Tbsp baking powder
  • 3 Tablespoons cornstarch
  • 1/4 cup Heavy Cream
  • 1 egg

Preheat the oven to 375 and prep a cookie sheet.  Beat the butter and sugar at high speed for 2 minutes until they are light and fluffy.  Add the egg and beat for one minute.  Mix in the vanilla, baking powder and freshly grated nutmeg.

Now add half the flour, all the cornstarch and half of the cream.  Mix until blended and then add the rest of the flour/cream but only just until blended.

At this point I rolled the dough into a ball, flattened it into a disk and refrigerated it for a few hours before rolling it out to make the shapes.  Bake your cookies for approximately 15 minutes.  They should be puffy but not yet brown.  This will ensure super soft sugar cookies.  If you want them to be crispier then let them bake longer but I like them soft and chewy.

pawprintcookie4pawprintcookie5

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