Wonder Woman Cake

So Friday night. Lets discuss Friday night, shall we?

I was going to meet John's coworkers for the first time. We were going to get all dressed up, head over to Whiskey, and pretend like we were sorta fancy. One by one, the wives, girlfriends and dates started dropping out and, while I am more than comfortable as one of the guys, I realized that being the only lady amongst this crowd was a surefire way to ruin a perfectly good Manscursion.

My adorable and usually kinda oafish fiance gets all dressed up in his pinstripe pants, dress shirt and dress shoes. He even had me put some Aveda Control Paste in his hair. His best friend shows up from Greensboro to pick him up, also dressed to kill. So, I send my two hotties off and snuggle in to have a perfectly amazing Friday night at home, by myself. Some people don't like being alone. I usually get about 8 hours alone in my house a month, total. A whole night to sit on my ass, snuggle my animals and do nothing? By myself!!? I was fucking stoked. The Bones marathon began. Season 3. Gormogon. Rock.

Two episodes in, John calls me. In full wounded puppy mode, he informs me that some of the coworkers did a little pre-gaming, showing up to Whiskey sloshed. John made everyone leave and head to a dive bar where their drunkeness would be slightly more appropriate. One of them climbed on the roof of the bar, ripped his pants all the way to his crotch and proceeded to spend the rest of the evening demanding that people look his "inch and a half." The other one, who was supposed to be the DD, was so drunk that he kept passing out on the bar. Now, I should preface this by saying that occasionally, it becomes apparent how different our high school/college experiences must have been. This doesn't seem too appalling to me. This sounds hilarious. Like something I might want to get pictures of- because Monday morning blackmail is awesome.

Unfortunately, I had an unhappy fiance. We all know what that means, right? Time for baking!! My gorgeous 1950s oven hasn't really appreciated my baking efforts lately. The temperature vascillates between around 300 and 600 degrees, leaving my cupcakes scalded on the outside and straight up batter on the inside. I've discovered that if I turn it to 400, let it heat for an hour, crack the door, let it cool for a while and then just leave the dial 25 degrees under the temperature that I actually want it, I might have a chance at baking an okay cake. I rarely have the time to do this. Friday night, I had nothin' but time.

Normally, this would be the point that I cranked up the Mirah, but I was far too invested in the chemistry between Brennan and Booth. I rummaged through the pantry and found a box of Trader Joe's Madagascar Bourbon Vanilla Bean Cake Mix. Sweet. 1 cup of milk? Check. 2 eggs? Affirmative. 1 stick of butter? Rock. I couldn't bear to just whip up some boxed cake mix without doing anything to it, so I threw in 1/4 cup of Creme Fraiche, just to see what happened. I threw it all in a casserole dish and popped it in the oven for about 50 minutes. I knew when I smelled it that it was gonna be good as shit. I nibbled the corner and found it intensely moist but also surprisingly fluffy. The Halloween episode was on, the one where Bones is dressed like Wonder Woman.

Fuck. Frosting. I didn't have any room temperature butter. No eggs left for Meringue buttercream. No cream cheese. Creme Fraiche? That should work, right? I threw the rest of the tub in my table mixer. Slowly, I alternated between adding about 3/4 cup of Valrhona Cocoa Powder and about 1/3 cup of Confectioners Sugar. Normally, this is the point where I would add the liquid Jesus that is Vanilla Bean Paste. Kate gave me a jar for my birthday and I'm obsessed. OBSESSED. I try to put it in everything. Unfortunately, I thought it would be a fantastic idea to knock it off my counter and watch the jar shatter on my tile floor. After I had cleaned it up and dried my tears, I added plain old boring vanilla. Maybe 1/2 tsp Organic Vanilla Extract. Upon tasting it, I felt like it was still missing something. It was delicious and kind of tasted like a upscale European truffle- but it had a shallow backend. I added about 1 1/2 tsp Instant Espresso Powder and a teensy bit more cocoa powder. Finally I sprinkled some Fleur de Sel in there. For those of you not in the know, fleur de sel is a french, hand harvested sea salt. Despite having a higher mineral content than most salt, it tastes smoother, less metallic and smells a little bit like the ocean. Hot damn, kids. This shit was sex in my mouth. This was close your eyes and sigh delicious. This was no-shopping, no planning, impulse baking, dancing around my kitchen yum. I turned the mixer on 4 and beat the crap out of it for about 5 minutes and then slapped it on the cake. My trick- I put the cake in the freezer while I make the icing so it's nice and cool and I don't have to wait to frost it. I sprinkled some Fleur de Sel and cocoa powder on top once the frosting set and popped it in the fridge. Oh, I also used tweezers to place little decorating pearls in fun swirly heart shapes. It wasn't much to look at and I had to do something to make it feel special...

After about 6 episodes of bones and a belly full of cake batter and frosting, I passed out on the couch. I woke up when the boys got home to watch their faces when they opened the fridge to see their surprise. After hearing, "oh my god, mmm" I decided that my job was done. Baking is kind of like being a super hero, you know.. Except, instead of being smoking hot and badass tough bitches who make the world a better place through vigilantism, we are smoking hot and badass tough bitches who make the world a better place with carbs and foodgasms.

Potato Pancakes...mmmmmmmmm

(you're welcome. i got a fancy new phone with a better camera in it.)

what the day after thanksgiving means to me, instead of psychotic 4am shopping, is potato pancakes.

i know, i know, i usually post about baking...but listen, this food is for serious.

ok, so i realize that the reason these are so amazing is that i got my mother to give me her step by step instructions for the best mashed potatoes ever last night for thanksgiving...which involved some adamant insistence on IDAHO POATOES...[yelled]. someday, if you're really nice, i'll give you instructions, blog followers. maybe. but anyway, your mashed potatoes should do nicely as well...

btw: i spent thanksgiving with these two amazing women right here ------> and the rest of their family (husband/father and two precious twin baby boys not pictured.) aren't they the cutest? i'm thankful for a lovely couple of friends who let me spend thanksgiving with their family, while mine is far away.


Anyway, on to this morning. So, you drag your rusty bottom out of bed and stumble downstairs. get some caffeine in you, and get ready for deliciousness.

first, form the mashed potatoes from last night into patties. this is easiest when they are right out of the fridge, but that's cold...don't worry, your coffee mug will warm you back up! heat a tablespoon (or 1 1/2) of butter (salted...mmmmm) in a non-stick skillet over medium-medium-high until it's all bubbly and then add the patties.


here comes the tricky part: wait.

wait...


wait a long time. if you try to flip them too early, they'll just fall apart. and then you'll have even butterier mashed potatoes, scrambled...which, i have totally eaten before, but even they are not as good as these. have patience. wait about 5 minutes.






keep waiting until they smell all toasty and you can see the browned edges just under the patty.

now flip. ok, this is totally hard, because the potatoes really want to escape from their new toasty brown outside. but you have to show them who is boss. get your spatula all the way under one and lift, slowly flip.

now don't get all cocky after you've successfully flipped one. or they'll know. and then they'll punish you.






now, you'll notice that you've got some potato on your spatula and you are welcome to reward yourself for a flipping job well done by eating it. like i do. and possibly burning your fingers and tongue. like i do.


ok, now you have to wait some more. not quite as long as the first time, but you still have to wait. maybe 3 minutes? you'll see the browned bits at the bottom if you looks closely enough. oila! effing delicious black friday breakfast.

i'm totally obsessed with organic, aromatic flat-leaf parsley these days (which is hilarious because i hated it THE MOST when i was a child!) and so i chopped a little and served it on the side.

and then, as a bonus, i made this beautiful little sip of heaven right here: apple cider, guava nectar, cranberry juice and a slice of lemon (whose zest was sarcrificed to a bechamel yesterday.)

be jealous. then make it yourself. and be thankful.

my holiday tradition. in living color. love you, mom.

Paid for my Services!!!

Disclaimer: Sorry these photos are totally hosed. I took them with my camera phone. I promise to get a digital camera someday.

Okay, I totally should have priced my services higher, because i spent a whoooole bunch of hours on these cupcakes, planning, shopping, baking, etc, and i only made $10 more than i spent, but it was delightful to have someone pay me!!

The client, a friend of a friend, had a one-year birthday party to cupcake-ify.

Though I now wish I had made these stupid-adorable little guys, i made chickens and pigs instead.

The chickens were strawberry cupcakes, aka birthday beauties from the amazing cupcake cookbook that has never done me wrong. only it did me wrong! the cupcakes came out more like muffins. I'll work on finding a new strawberry batter. Maybe adapt the peach one I made up this august...I'm allergic, so I'm personally in no big panty-twisting rush to get a perfect strawberry cupcake in my life. anyway, hopefully they loved them anyway, because they were absolutely mounded with lemon zest buttercream.

I recently made this amazing coffee cake...literally recipe from a fantastic blog. Make immediately. Only do as I did, and make them mini-cupcakes with frosting poofs, rather than a layer cake. They're very rich, and bite-sized is definitely the way to go.

Soooooooo, the I adapted her coffee buttercream recipe for my lemonzest buttercream, adding instead of instant coffee granules 2 1/2 lemons worth of zest and a little squeeze of juice as well. now, it seems like you can't add lemon juice to things with cream in them, but that's just not true! it's actually a delightful taste combination...you just have to be beating the cream as you add the lemon. That way, everything mixes and the flavors play nice without any sort of dreaded curdle situation.

Anyway, I decorated them with those little orange slice candies, which I had cut while watching grey's anatomy and weeping, and some black decorating gel.

Here is a dark, fuzzy picture of one (i promise, I am looking at digital cameras right now!)











The pigs are chocolate mousse cupcakes from the amazing cupcake cookbook that has only once ever done me wrong. Basically, you make a quick mousse, then whisk in some flour, baking powder and salt and bake. They come out a little smooshed and ugly in the middle, but that's a small price to pay for mousse cupcakes! I frosted them with cream-cheese buttercream. I only slightly changed the recipe i got it from, playing slightly with proportions, (also doing it in the wrong order) and adding extra vanilla bean paste. deeeee-licous! The noses were perfect, if i do say so myself! strawberry mentos gum. The chocolate chips i bought to make eyes and nostrils with did very nicely in the god-among-men cookies would you like the recipe for those? i could post it if you want it. pumpkin chocolate chip? i made yesterday, because they were a pain in the ass, so i just used black decorating gel again.

Here's a little piggy.


















And my army of swine!!!!! Muahahhahahahahahahaaaaa!



Here's to the future! I learned some things...like that I should charge a little more...and to find a less muffiny strawberry cupcake recipe...and to not double the icing...my fridge is still full of various buttercreams! but the most important thing i learned is that food color gel is my moon goddess. it colors amazingly, with just a little product...doesn't make buttercream separate... i want to throw a fucking party for the wilton people. this stuff is life changing, people!


I leave you with this army of chickens:

And did it MYYYYYYYYY WAAAAAAAAAAAAAY!

i've always had a movie soundtrack, constantly evolving in the back of my conscious mind. And in this land of perfect songs for perfect moments, a land which i am constantly constructing, i have always pictured myself overcoming adversity, tackling impossible odds, and winning out just in the nick of time, using ingenuity, to the tune of frank sinatra's "my way." now, i didn't imagine defeating a dragon or anything so dramatic...more like conquering a real-life scenario, which, in my line of work, can get pretty drastic and flurry-of-fuckingnuts. so anyway, it appears that my dream is about to come true. there's a number in my new musical, and it just so happens to be old blue eyes singing my way, remastered old vocal tracks with a 17 person live band, in which all the dancers are in nice outfits ...silver dresses and dinner jackets...just for that one number, and then they go back to half of the outfits they were wearing before, plus half of the outfits they wore at the top of the show. in any case, it shall be a massive feat of tracking, organization and fast action to get them onstage, then reset their costumes, adding in the other pieces and get everything ready on the correct sode of the stage...i am thinking it will only get done, just in the nick of time. and all to the tune of my way!

in honor of that, let's talk about some badass baking rules that make me do things my way:

i like fresh fruit. a lot. but i'm too lazy to make pie crust (easy as pie my ass), so i puree it into cupcakes, or add citrus zest to just about everything. (i am also considering delving into the world of puff pastry, in order to continue to circumvent the pie crust.)

this is the zester i have, only mine is green. it makes beautiful curliques, and i love it.

this is the sort of zester my parents have. perfect for zesting, grinding nutmeg, hard cheese, anything. it rocks for a nice, fluffy pile of zest and gets the job done quickly.

i love extra virgin coconut oil. it may not be as awesome in an expensive jar from the health food store, but i can get it fresh from the farmer's market a couple of times a year, and it is my moon goddess. coconut flavor without the sweetness. i like to do cookies with 1/2 butter and 1/2 evco. i like to use it to coat pans when nessecary...i found that the mini corn muffins i made that way were deee-licious. it basically actse like crisco...solid, but pliable at room temperature, melts easily, binds as a fat.

self-rising flour is made by adding 1 1/2 t baking powder and 1/2 t salt to 1 c all-purpose flour.

butter should always be unsalted for baking. and room temperature. as a matter of fact, anything you are whipping (cream, eggwhites) should be cold, and in a chilled bowl, but everything else (including eggs) should be at room temp. butter, btw, freezes well, so get a lot of it when it's on sale!

sifting is for suckers.

shaking your hips or otherwise dancing is always better than not doing these things. when folding in eggwhites or whipped cream, a slow lean-sip-swerve motion is preferred. slight undulation is welcome when massaging a rissoto.

everyone loves a baked good, and that's because everyone loves knowing that you created a sweet, fresh item just for them. i try to bring this idea from baking to my life and vice versa. just throwing the love i have for people out into the universe makes my life a better place...in a paper wraper or without one!

next time you hear "my way," picture me emerging from a tangled mess of dance shoes and skirts, clutching some all-important bobby pin, victorious.

Vegan Cookies that ROCK!

my father, bless his heart, has been on this infuriating diet for years now...granted, he is thinner than he's been in 35 years, and granted it does a lot to make him worry less about hereditary heart problems, but GAH! dr. dean ornish is a brilliant man, but sometimes i'd like to write him a letter, informing him that he needs some damn mashed potatoes! with cheese!

so, i've adapted this recipe (that lovely, lovely jane sent me) to be even healthier than it was before. now, i'll be real with you...the next time i make this, it will be at home, and i will use 1/2 cup brown sugar, and i will put chocolate chips in this beast, but this is pretty good. it's vegan, whole grain, sugar-free (except for the naturally occurring fuit sugars...i can't speak to its diabetic-friendliness), and oil-free (again, excepting the naturally occurring oil in nuts. yeah, i typed that.) now the texture of these cookies will be a bit fluffier than you'er used to. if you use brown sugar or molasses instead of sugar-substitute, it should weigh them down slightly. also, i find that using quick oats instead of the old-fashioned oats that i prefer can get your cookies a little more mucked-up and squooshed together. what? shakespeare made up words too, you know.

Your ingredients:
1- 1/2 c. mashed bananas
1/2 c. applesauce (dad makes his own, out of his homegrown, organic apples, with no added sugar. isn't he precious? i love it here.)
2 t. vanilla extract
1/4 c. + 1Tbsp Sugar-equivalent sweetener. (we use apriva, which is a splenda knock-off)
1 c. whole wheat flour
1- 1/2 t. baking powder
dash salt
dash nutmeg (i always add more nutmeg than asked for, especially with bananas or peaches...so let's call it a smidge!)
1 t. cinnamon
3/4 c. oatmeal
1 c. add-ins (i used 1/2 golden raisins and 1/2 crushed pecans. on a related note, how will i ever go back to my apartment and our small-sized cuisinart, which i have to get off the shelf and plug in every time? i am spoiled by food processor accessibility.)
peaches. (this one is the kicker. i only figured this out after the first batch, because my father is also tooling around in the kitchen. he's making peaches to freeze and eat later, because he bought 30 lbs of ripe peaches from the farmers' market yesterday and there's really only so much you can do in 24 hours. so he parboiled them, then threw them in icewater [to stop the cooking process, and it also makes it so you can shrug them right out of their skins.] then he removed the skins, cut them up, and threw them in a big bowl with more artificial sweetener & a bunch of cinnamon and nutmeg. this is what i had on hand, which makes me a lucky young lady. you may use whatever you'd like, but i'm betting canned peaches will do the same thing.)

perhaps you find yourself wondering what song was stuck in my head the whole time?

so, anyway,


preheat oven to 350*

i think there should be a degree symbol key, so i choose asterisk in defiance.

blend bananas, applesauce, vanilla, and sugar or sugar substitute. you guessed it. i used the food processor.

in another bowl, mix flour, baking powder, salt, nutmeg, cinnamon, & oatmeal. don't be shy here. add more cinnamon, more nutmeg, some almond extract, a dash of clove...do what you will! it'll be lovely!

pour wet and dry together, mix 'em up, and then fold in additions.

drop those babies onto some parchment paper on a cookie sheet (see? no need for oil here either! plus, easy cleanup!). now comes the beauty part. did you ever have those cookies when you were little that looked like a hershey's kiss was growing out of them? do that, but with peaches. you will thank me for it. i prefer to add the peaches after 3-5 minutes of baking time, so that the cookies are starting to take form before i squish something into them. bake for about 15 minutes, total. when done, you can pluck them right off of the parchment paper.





so here are a couple of observations ala kate:





i feel comfortable eating 1,237,583 of these, as i have convinced myself they are basically a warm sip of smoothie. feel free to follow my bad example.





vegan cooking and baking can be fun, if you have the right substitutions! i've been on such a butter kick lately, i was starting to forget! of course, i am eating one of these warm, delicious cookies right now, with a huge glass of milk, so stick that in your vegan organic corncob hashpipe and smoke it.





i watched julie and julia today. it was lovely and made me proud to have this blog, even if the only people who look at it are my dear friends that i force to read it! except that the other day, we got a comment from a person named amber. who are you, amber? are you evan's girlfriend? are you a friend of lis'? are you *possibly* just a random person? in any case, thanks for liking the blog. here's to you, amber.





here's to you, dad! i'm proud of your commitment to healthy eating and living. i'm proud of your commitment to having a light carbon footprint (even though you don't call it that...to you it's just the way you know to love the planet). thank you for influencing me to be a workaholic who spends her few days off in the kitchen, entertaining, cooking, baking, laughing, and generally caring for my loved ones, near or far. you're a prince, daddy.

lime-in-da-coconut cupcakes

do you ever find yourself motivated to do something, just because you have a song stuck in your head? well. yesterday, i should have just listened to the joy of cooking about how to make that sweet, subtle, coconut milk pudding. but i did not. because i started thinking to myself...you put the lime in da coconut and shake it all up, you put the lime in da coconut...etc. but that shit tasted gross. so today, i made it into delicious cupcakes. take that, failure! when life gives me lemons, i'll fucking bake some shit! i'm not even scared.

furthermore, this entry serves to be a reminder of my firmly-held belief that the reason we all think that baking is a careful science is that type-a bakers and bakresses are just trying to make us feel badly about ourselves. i jacked up that pudding recipe. and these cupcakes showed warning signs of disaster several times. but they turned out light, fluffy, delectably crispy around the top edges and addictive like a teen aged girl reading twilight, you feel me?

ok, cream together:

1 stick u/s butter

1/4 c light brown sugar

1/2 c granulated sugar

add:
1 whole egg, plus 1 egg yolk

then, if you're a jackass like me, you can add:
1/2 c. lime-in-da-coconut pudding (the recipe, as i altered it to its detriment, went a little like 1 can coconut milk, juice of 1/2 lime, scant 2T sugar, scant 2T cornstarch, scant 1/8 t salt) you are lucky i am not posting the picture i took of that ugly dessert. ew. what you can do, instead, is use 1/3 cup coconut milk and the juice of 1/2 lime, plus one more tablespoon of sugar. that's really a much better idea. the joy of cooking is the bible to little ladies like me. i don't know why i was all worshipping a golden calf of adding lime juice! what's that? no one except me thinks golden calf jokes are funny? oh, ok.

at this point, my batter started to have that really unfortunate, i'm-trying-to-separate-from-myself look..you know the one...all slimy...i blame the pudding. (gentle reminder that no one should be intimidated by fear of baking disaster!) in any case, i shut that shit down by adding...

the dry ingredients:
1- 1/4 c. a.p. flour
2- 1/2 t. baking powder
1/4 t. salt
zest of 1/2 lime

wow, that baby goes fast!

except, they didn't taste really delicious yet. i kept thinking of adding vanilla or almond extract, but i didn't want to overpower the coconut milk. i did find the oldest known bottle of imitation coconut extract in the cabinet...

can you believe that shit? ...but it was actually empty. i just left it there, because that shit is hilarious! it was actually price marked 75 cents...ummm...ok, did you guys realize that the cent symbol is not even on the keyboard anymore? man, i am so old.

anyway, right around this time, i had my first brilliant epiphany, and added:

3 T. shredded sweetened coconut flakes. btw, i had a long talk with my mother this evening about how she needs to replace that wallpaper.
(and another 1/4 t. baking powder, but i'm not convinced that was necessary. yeah, ignore that)

this made the batter delicious enough for my favorite method of kitchen-aid beater cleanup:



the other epiphany was about the glaze on top. can you guess what it might involve?

bake until they're damn well good and ready. (this is why i think the other 1/4 t. baking soda was superfluous. they got all excited and exceeded their cups!) my parents have this little device called a cake tester. i get my obsession with kitchen gadgets naturally. the thing is, a toothpick actually works better than this device. but who am i to judge?

while the cakes were not yet cool enough to consume (i really just can't learn), i made my glaze.

now, i find the taste of confectioner's sugar overpowering and ooky, so i am always trying to alter it. this time, i did:

1/2 c. confectioner's sugar

1t. orange blossom honey

3 t. spiced rum

blend and drizzle, my frizzle.

except that the taste still grossed me out, so i added 2- 1/2 more teaspoons rum, poured over cupcakes and poked holes with the cake tester(finally! a good use for it!), so the booze would get all up in there. the cakes were pretty friggin' alright then. but when they cooled, they were freaking delicious.

you should know that this idea was inspired by a coconut cake recipe in the new york times cookbook, which substitutes coconut milk for milk. you should also know that this cookbook is ever present in my childhood memories. for example, this is the page with the pancake recipe. can you see the evidence of all 3 kids there? and how much we loved dying breakfast green on st. patrick's day?

unemployment cupcakes (peach cupcakes with lemon almond buttercream)

ok, blogworld. two things are granted:

one - we have been ignoring this blog. sorry. couple of undependable bitches, we.

two - i am unemployed and in tactical retreat. this means i have come to visit my parents. which, in turn, means:

a. i have nothing but time,

b. my parents' anniversary is today, so i wanted to make some dessert for them, and

c. i drove through gaffney, sc, 2 days ago, which means

I. i have ripe peaches in my possession.

sooooooo, i invented peach cupcakes. yeah. and it was a reeeeeally good idea.

i roughly based this recipe on something in the joy of cooking (the bible), a cake recipe called lightning cake. this means that many of my measurements are in hillbilly language, like scosh(sp?), pinch, dash, splash. i took that recipe, added a ton of deliciousness and a little more baking powder and put it into a paper-lined muffin pan. god bless the u. s. of a, baby. freedom of choice.

ok, cream together: (that means the kitchen aid beater that looks like an upside-down, melted peace sign, in my book.)

1 stick butter (unsalted, room temperature...i would think you knew that by now.)

1 cup white sugar

Then add, one at a time, while still beating:

3 eggs (room temperature, or i pity the fool!)

then add

the zest and juice of 1/2 lemon (btw, lemon = glory. i fucking love that tart little motherfucker.)

dash of nutmeg

splash of almond extract. (call me crazy, but organic almond extract is way better than normal)

and then stop beating your batter, perv!

stir in with a wooden spoon, a whisk or whatever suits you:

your flour mixture. what's that? you wanna know more? ok, fine.

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 1/4 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

i always just give a quick whisking to my flour mixture before adding it to the batter, to combine ingredients and do a quick lump search, because sifting is for suckers.

now, stir in:

one fucking delicious, ripe, perfect peach, diced. no need to peel. it worked just fine this way. but if you'd like, i recommend dropping it for a few seconds into boiling water, then ice water...the skin will peel right off! i also considered pureeing it in the cuisinart, but was too lazy, so if you go that route, let me know how it works out, ok?

pour into paper-lined muffin pan, 2/3 full...bake at 350 for...ummm...ok, i wasn't paying attention, but i'm sure it's somewhere between 15 and 25 minutes, and you know how to check if it's done! golden top, toothpick inserted in center comes out clean!

now make some buttercream!

i did a half recipe, because i didn't want to ice all 12 right now, and my father won't eat much butter anyway.

whip (that's right, baby, the whisk-looking attachment on the kitchen aid! as a general rule, when whipping anything, i start at stir, slowly work my way up, and don't go beyond 8 for whipping!)

1/2 stick butter

1 scant cup confectioner's sugar

2 splashes vanilla extract

zest of 1/2 lemon

1 wee scosh almond extract.

whip until it's a little fluffy. now the tricky part is actually letting your cupcakes cool. warm cupcakes will seriously melt and sabotage your buttercream, but if you're anything like me, you'll do it anyway. (and i recommend trying a cake warm, because those baked warm peaches are sexy.)

sorry, loves, i am away from my faithful webcam, so i do not have a picture of these, but rest assured, they are golden, with a slightly more browned tinge on top from the peach juice. the buttercream ended up kinda taupe, because i was waaay excited about the vanilla. anyway, the following is a picture of what they taste like: