Longest Break Evar! + Spice Cupcakes

Dear friends,

I have missed you! I took a break from the baking blog to start an Italy travel blog, then took a break after Italy that lasted way longer than I expected! Italy was so much fun, I guess I needed a while to recover :)

While we were there, we saw lots of bakery shop displays. One thing that was expected but still surprising was that none of the shops had cakes or cupcakes, they mostly had biscotti, pastries, and other sweets all on display, lined up perfectly. I think it's where the term "eye candy" came from. Imagine a whole storefront display covered in all different kinds of sweets in every pretty color imaginable. And the packaging is to die for. In Florence, especially, they used special Florentine paper to wrap things up, and everything was tied with beautiful ribbons. The less fancy stores just had pastries galore, and I had the best "brioche" of my life at one of these places. It was a giant croissant type thing with a chocolate/hazelnut filling, kind of like nutella but better. I know, you must be asking, is that possible??? YES! Drool drool drool. I would weigh 400 pounds if I had my way and ate one for breakfast every morning for the rest of my life. Fortunately, they're tucked away on a tiny street in Vernazza and out of reach.

Back at home, I've been a bit lazy. It took me a few days to even remember that I had to do dishes and chores.. I was so used to only worrying about a back pack and how to navigate the Italian trains and streets. It took even longer to remember that take-out is easy but not necessary, and that I liked to bake for fun. Bizarre how two weeks away from home can totally change everything!

My first opportunity to bake came when I was about to see my new favorite triplets for the first time. Mom mentioned spice cake the night before my visit (hello, why didn't I think of it! Italy induced zombieness!!). I had to pick a recipe based on the ingredients I had on hand, and ended up going with Martha's recipe which she passed on from her mother. It seemed easy enough and I whipped them up pretty quick, but it was obvious about 10 minutes into baking that these weren't the best cupcakes. Sure enough, they came out a bit rubbery and super spicy. The recipe called for an icing, but that bored me. I would have rather topped with a cream cheese frosting, but didn't have any cream cheese, so I went with vanilla buttercream. They came out cute but sadly, they were nothing special. I felt bad bringing them to such an extraordinary hard working mother of three newborns, but decided she wouldn't mind and probably wouldn't notice they weren't the best because she'd be a zombie, too. :) And besides.. when I got there, it was all about the babies! They're adorable!!!

I had another request for spice cupcakes for a coworkers birthday, and was determined to get it right this time. I am a huge fan of buttermilk cakes, so I googled a recipe for buttermilk spice cupcakes and found a total winner. You make them like you'd make a chiffon cake, with egg whites whipped in at the end, and they came out super moist and fluffy. Martha's cream cheese frosting on top is the perfect compliment. I brought them in for the coworkers birthday/halloween potluck and they were a hit. Cream cheese frosting makes any cupcake outstanding, though! This time I remembered to take a photo:




Happy belated Halloween and hurrah hurray for Thanksgiving and Christmas coming up!!

xo
Collie