Baking attempt #2: Nutella Banana Bread mini-cupcakes

Tonight I had my second baking attempt in Madrid and you can check out all the details including photos right here.

Cupcake fondue?

I'm actully appalled that I never thought of this myself. Check out cupcake fondue below:


Lottie Loves...: {Make It} Cup Cake Fondue

Baking cupcakes in Spain?

I am not updating this blog while I am currently living in Madrid, Spain and writing about this adventure at http://magdalenamadrid.blogspot.com/. PS. "magdalena" is the Spanish word for muffin (and I bend the rules and pretend it also means cupcake).

Nonetheless, I decided to experiment for the first time with baking cupcakes since arriving in Spain more than four months ago.

Read more about this major cupcake FAIL here.

Liberace and Coconut Lime Cupcakes

This past Friday morning at just after midnight, I flopped into bed, let out a resounding sigh and then declared to the half asleep ninja next to me, “I am a domestic diva!” It was just one of those days where I did it all AND had fun punching life in the face and screaming “HOAH”. Seriously though, I worked a full day, had a craft night with friends where we made a most delightful Liberace mobile (yes, you read that right) for the impending birth of a friend’s baby, AND made Coconut Lime Cupcakes from scratch for the following day’s BBQ to be had at work. See, that is serious domestic goddess material.


First, the Liberace Mobile: this is potentially the most amazing creation anyone on this earth has ever created. We each got to pick our two favorite Liberaces from a book. We then backed each diva cutout in gold glitter paper. This was fantastic and produced much laughter – most memorably – the idiocy of vagazzling (I’m looking at you Jennifer Love Hewitt). The final product was the most glitter-tastic, sparkle-icious, joy-filled baby mobile I have ever seen.

I returned home covered in glitter so much so that I walked in and Ninja remarked, “What happened to your face? Why is it sparkling?” With a groan, I remembered that I’d promised to bring cupcakes to a work BBQ. Honestly, I don’t fancy cupcakes as a good summer treat, so this took some considering and I realized that really the only acceptable flavor for a summer BBQ was the Coconut Lime Cupcakes from Isa Chandra Moskowitz’s “Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World”. I had to run to Food Front Co-op around the corner to pick up some coconut milk and limes before they closed and then I was in business. I may have fallen asleep for 15 minutes in between pulling the cakes out of the oven and actually beating the frosting, but hell, I got it done. Even more shocking, the neighbors didn’t bang on the floor as I used my hand mixer to beat the butter, limes and powdered sugar at about midnight.

And that’s when I crawled into bed and declared my domestic diva ranking. And really, for that evening and that evening only, I totally was.

Pickled beets are my summer love

As I mentioned in a previous post, my summer obsession seems to be pickled beets. This all started when I went to the Farmer's Market at the beginning of summer on 23rd and Savier and enjoyed a free sample of the pickled beets by Unbound Pickling. They were so delicious that I had to pick up a jar even though it ran at a steep price of $8.99 per jar.

Since then, I've had quite a few hankerings for beets (usually to throw into a salad with spring mix, goat cheese, and roasted chickpeas - yum!). Trader Joe's sells steamed and packaged beets for under $3 and I've definitely used those here and there, but just a couple days ago I discovered a jar of pickled beets at Food Front, our neighborhood co-op, made by Sweet Creek Foods. It was only $4.29 so a huge cost savings compared to the Unbound Pickling brand and equally delicious. Even better, these beets were finely chopped which for some reason made all the difference. I think I could eat a jar of these tasty beets pretty much on a daily basis. Yum!

Glimpsed and Admired

Things I'm loving lately:

1. Loving the mismatched/colorful classroom chairs in this wedding reception via Poppytalk.

2. Teddy bear cupcakes via hello naomi.

3. I am IN LOVE with how this cake looks. The simple clean white frosting, the fruit, and then it resting on the cutting board. I am obsessed. Then, I find out it is a hazelnut cake with raspberry cream and lavendar buttercream. Holy. Freaking. Cow. Yum. Via Snippet & Ink.

4. Interesting take on a beer and wine glass via Design Milk.

5. Adorable butterfly cupcake toppers via Candy and Cake.

Birthday cupcakes

Pictures aren't great, but here are some jelly donut cupcakes (from Veganomicon) in these adorable boxes I got for Christmas last year.