by the Mall Diva

Last Sunday, we made fried green tomatoes for the first time!!! We planted some veggies and herbs over Memorial Day weekend, and our tomato plants look like they’d attack you if you look at them funny. I felt so proud, getting tomatoes from my own garden…mostly because I made it back into the house alive.

I also made chocolate cupcakes, and used my new super awesome icing-piping tips that my cousin gave me to frost them with. They were adorable!

Now, as exciting as those things are, they’re not nearly as exciting as what happened last Tuesday, which you all know about by now. But I have to say it again- I got engaged! It was the sweetest and most wonderful day of my life…so far, at least.

We’re no longer just “courtship buddies” as my dear friend Princess Flickerfeather so eloquently put it; but, as Ben said yesterday morning as we announced our engagement at church, “we’re on double public probation”. That made me laugh. It’s true, and though it might not sound all that great, it totally is! From the beginning of our relationship we’ve been blessed with the involvement of people that care about us. It started with family and some MOBsters while we were acquaintances and friends. As friendship grew to be courtship, and as soon as people knew about it, they wanted to be in on it. This really is a community project, with our best interest at heart, and that is what I am most thankful for. Last night I went with Ben to hear him preach to elderly people in an independent living center. He knew a bunch of the ladies there because he has Bible studies with them during the week as part of his internship. He took me around to meet some of his “lady friends”, and a few of them got very excited as they realized who I was. There was one who told me that she’s spent hours talking to Ben, and that she’s been praying for me for a while. How cool is that???

Another lady told me that she was so excited to hear that we’re engaged. She had had a good marriage, and wanted the same for us and was quite sure we would have one. That’s something that I’m pretty sure of myself, not because we used a courtship method as opposed to dating, or because we are surrounded by support from the people we know and love, who know and love us back. Those things would mean absolutely nothing if they werent in place by God’s own hand. They are not a formula for success; but they are blessings and helpful to us because God gave them to us and said “Do it this way”. Ever heard the hymn “He Leadeth Me”? Yep, I’m thinking that applies here. I’m also not saying that its not going to be hard work, or that there won’t be tough times, but we’re not relying on ourselves to get through them. We’re relying on the God who gave us this awesome support group! See? It comes full circle. This is the example that we want to set, that obedience brings the blessing, and testimonies like this are just waiting to be lived out!

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by the Mall Diva

Hey, what up, peeps?

I have been doing a lot of baking, even though I haven’t done a lot of posting. Sorry! I’ll give you the rundown (and no, Jifufu, not the version with The Rock).

Let’s see, 2 weeks ago, I made these totally awesome cookies that were posted by a fellow baking blogger. Thanks, Gino!

Along with that, I made Mint Chocolate Chip cupcakes from How to Eat a Cupcake. I had made these two recipes because we were having a barbeque with a bunch of friends. The cupcakes were pretty good, but the kids at our house informed me incessantly that the frosting tasted like toothpaste. I kind of agreed with them, even though I used less peppermint extract than the recipe called for. Maybe next time I’ll use even less; or none at all, and just have chocolate buttercream. Mmmmmmm…

Then this past week was poppyseed week! Orange Poppyseed cookies came first. They were completely awesome!! They are the perfect summer cookie.

The second recipe of last week presented itself to me via fanmail. (That’s right, I get fanmail*.) It came from the July issue of Family Circle, and was, in fact, on the cover- Giant Lemon Poppyseed cupcakes!
I love pretty much anything lemon poppyseed, and so away I went. I did not make giant cupcakes, because I’m too cheap to order the giant cupcake pan from the magazine, but they were absolutely delicious normally sized. While I was frosting the cuppycakes, Benny was taking pictures, and kind of irking me at the same time. I chased him with my frosting knife. I would post the pics, but I don’t know where the little USB thingy is, and I’m too busylazy to find out.

*Thanks, Grandma!

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by the Mall Diva

…And not just my own. I like them because I can make cupcakes with impunity.

Now, I love to make cupcakes and try out new and different things, but the problem with making them (almost) weekly, is having a whole batch of them in my house. They stare at me, calling out my name and reminding me that if I don’t do my part to get them eaten within a couple of days, they’ll go bad, and that’s a shameful waste! So I’ll eat one every day, and maybe that’s okay for one week, but after a few weeks I start looking a little too good in my fat jeans.

This week was my little cousin Weston’s 17th birthday, and today is Princess Flickerfeather’s 19th birthday. Yay! Happy birthday!! So I made a batch of lemon curd filled vanilla cupcakes with cream cheese frosting to send to our youth group on Wednesday night, because I knew they would be celebrating. Unfortunately, I couldn’t go. I think they were well received; the birthday boy said “they were way good”. Yay, me!!!

This recipe was my best effort yet! The cupcakes did what they were supposed to, and were aesthetically pleasing.

To fill these cupcakes, I cut a cone out of their center after they were cool, filled them, cut the top off the little cone, and put the top back on the cupcake.

I didn’t actually have one of these cupcakes. Instead I ate cupcake guts drizzled with lemon curd and topped with frosting. Mmmmmm!!!!!

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by the Mall Diva

I’m sorry I missed last week. There were too many other things going on, and cupcakes were not high on the list of priorities.

The Queen joined me again this week for the baking of cupcakes, and there was a certain recipe I wanted to try. This one, in fact, so I went to the store for my ingredients. I found out a couple things: #1- You shouldn’t go to the store to buy pears the same day you need to use them, if ripe-ness is important to you; and #2- One vanilla bean costs $10. Yep. “So did you buy it”, you might ask?

Heck no! I’m no snob, I’ll even substitute imitation vanilla! And as for the pear, I bought a can of sliced pears in syrup, then drained the syrup and followed the recipe the same way. I know, I’m a genius!

Do you see how cute the frosting on that cupcake is? That’s because my own dear mother bought me an icing piper! It is so awesome! Using it makes me feel like a real cake decorator!!!

They were pretty yummy, but super crumbly. That just means I get to practice more! But the problem with practicing more is that I end up with a bunch of cupcakes that I really shouldn’t be eating. The way I solved that problem this week was by bringing a bunch to work with me. The ladies there mostly know about my new hobby, and for the most part are willing to support me by eating the results.

And now I’m sad to say that Chockylit, founder of the Cupcake Bakeshop is closing up shop. I’ll be waiting for your next site, and thanks for the recipes!

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by the Mall Diva

It is a cheesecake post. Thank you, Gigi!

Yes, this is a slice of the first cheesecake I have ever made; and it won’t be the last!!! It was covered with blackberry topping, and was heavenly.

So it seems that when my friends get involved with photographing my food creations, they go a little insane. First example: Princess Flickerfeather getting all touchy with how the craisins should be sprinkled on the plate, and growling fiercely if anyone got too close.
(Heehee! Just kidding. She didn’t really growl, she just glared.)

Next example: Benny is on a quest for “natural light” in which to photogragh his beloved cheesecake, as seen in the picture below.


I humored him for a little while, but when it started raining I grabbed the cheesecake and ran.

What became of this now-famous little slice of cheesecake?

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I’m sorry!! I didn’t post cupcakes last Friday because it was much too busy a day, plus I didn’t have the camera.

It was last Monday that my cousin Lindsay (that’s right, the Queen), came over to bake cupcakes with me. We chose Raspberry Cupcakes with Lemon Marshmallow Frosting from The Clean Plate Club blog. I am quite proud to say that none of them sank. Yay, me and Lindsay!! We had a wonderful time making these cupcakes, and we brought them to our church league softball games, where they were very appreciated.

Unfortunately, there are comlpications with the pictures that were taken, so I will leave with this one until a future date, it’s frosting!!!

You will also soon be getting pictures of a wonderfully gorgeous cheesecake that I made for Benny’s birthday. My first one ever!!!! It was delicious.

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by the Mall Diva

Cupcakes!

I was volunteered by our very own Princess Flickerfeather to make cupcakes for a special, if sad, occasion. I’m in the praise and worship band at church, and we practice every other Tuesday night. This past Tuesday we had practice, but it was also a going away party for one of our band members…*sniff*. We’ll miss you, Mel!

Of course, if there’s a party, there has to be food! I decided to make a cupcake that the name of which I’m sure is 50 calories by itself: “Chocolate Cupcakes stuffed with Strawberry Chocolate Ganache and frosted with Chocolate Glaze and Buttercream“.

Now that’s a mouthful, in more ways than one! From the site that is turning out to be one of my very VERY favorites~ Cupcake Bakeshop! Give Chockylit a hand!

You may be wondering why the hack my cupcakes aren’t as pretty as Chickylit’s. That’s because I’m a novice, and actually, I only made 4 cupcake prototypes. They came out of the oven a little sunken and crumbly and not wanting to be filled. I was distraught until my mother came in and saved the day.

“Why don’t you just crumble them in to a cake pan and layer it with all the ganache and frosting?” So I did. I called it “Not quite a cupcake”, and it was a huge hit. Yay! What would I do without you, Mom? Well, I’d probably serve cupcakes that were messy and not aesthetically pleasing.

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