Carrot Cake Cupcakes, with Maple Cream Cheese Frosting

I am always a little perplexed when someone says to me, "Oh carrot cake is my favorite!"  I mean, obviously I think carrot cake is awesome... but your favorite? Really?  (Are you sure you aren't fibbing?)  I always want to ask them why, not necessarily because I question their taste, but more out of sheer curiosity.  What is it that holds carrot cake at the forefront of your taste as your favorite?   

I think I feel this way because for me, carrot cake is sort of akin to that old worn out sweatshirt at the bottom of your drawer - you know, the one that you know you love, but that you forget you have.  Then the minute you put it on you immediately chide yourself for not wearing it all the time because it is so comfortable and so warm and just all-around perfect.  Carrot cake is like that old sweatshirt - a love, many times forgotten, but never a quite placed on the 'favorite' shelf.      

But last week my sister (who has recently discovered her love for baking, Yay!) said to me, "Hey I am going to make carrot cake cupcakes!"  And just like that - carrot cake rushed off the dusty shelf in the back of my mind.  I couldn't stop thinking about making these cupcakes.  I was dreaming of fall spices - cinnamon, nutmeg, and ginger - and I knew this would be the perfect recipe to make me feel like the season was here.  (Of course, it didn't hurt that my sister told me her co-workers loved them, and highly recommended I make them.)   

Since my sister had already made these cupcakes using a Smitten Kitchen recipe, I asked her if she had included any changes to the ingredients or baking time.  I was super excited to hear that she had read through some of the comments on the original post (as well as some reviews from a similar recipe on Epicurious), and decided to substitute applesauce for most of the oil in the cake batter. Swapping apple sauce for oil is a trick I have long wanted to try, but never really had the occasion.  

Blood Orange and Pomegranate Cupcakes

Life has been busy these days.  Between getting sick, entertaining visiting friends, and working long hours to prepare for a big presentation at work, I feel like February has flown by.  Winter is quickly coming to a close and spring is right around the corner.  But, winter isn't over yet, and that means that here in San Diego, beautiful citrus is still plentiful.   

At the markets, local farmers are still sharing sweet Cara Cara oranges, large Ruby Red and Oro Blanco grapefruits, and popular Meyer Lemons.   But it's the tart Blood Oranges that I really can't resist.  

From the outside, blood oranges look just like any other orange.  You might be lucky enough to spy an blood orange by a slight blush on the rind, but not always.  Usually the dimpled skin the color of late-afternoon sun belies the crimson flesh that is characteristic of this citrus.  I am powerless to resist the hidden beauty of the blood orange, so when I decided to create a cupcake for the POM Wonderful cupcake contest, there was no question that I wanted to work blood oranges into  my recipe.  

Foodbuzz Festival: The Food

Hi there friends!  Can I offer you an apology?  I seem to have been completely absent from my blog for almost one and a half weeks now, ack!  So sorry to have left you all alone, but not to fear, I am alive and well, I have not been gobbled up by a woman-eating monster, and I have a few reasons for being away.  First, I was completely caught up making my video for Project Food Blog (yesssss!  I did advance to the next round and will share my next VIDEO entry with you this week!) and I am SO excited about it.  I can't wait for you to see it!  Immediately after finishing my video, I jetted up to San Francisco for a weekend of eating, socializing, and general debauchery at Foodbuzz's Second Annual Food Blogger Festival. 


The weekend was filled with events (and of course my tummy was filled with food) and I got to experience it all with both new and old friends.  I have loads that I want to tell you about, but I thought I would break it down into The Food and The People.  And really, for The Food, I just want to tell you about the Taste Pavilion from Saturday afternoon (I may have been too preoccupied with those aformentioned People on Friday night to take any real notice of what I was eating) and share some details about several amazing new food vendors and local food craftsmen that I discovered.   

The Taste Pavilion was located at City View at the Metreon, and the venue couldn't have been more perfect.  The space indoors was large enough to so that all 350 of us bloggers could comfortably weave around and eat to our hearts content, and then outside there was ample space to breathe in some fresh air, bask in the sunshine, and take in the scenery.  

Foodbuzz did a fabulous job of organizing a variety of excellent vendors and local food craftsmen for the Taste Pavilion, and I think there were only a few that I might have missed out on.  Almost all the food and wine I got to sample exceeded my expectations (and I am a tough critic!), but I had a few favorites that I just had to tell you about.   

Strawberry Lemonade Cupcakes

Ahhh... Summer.  Those lazy days when the living is easy and life is breezy.  I definitely love the bright blooms and fresh air of spring, the changing colors and brisk chill of fall, but I feel like I live for summer.  (Winter, eh, not such a fan.)  I think some of that summer love comes from a strong sense of nostalgia; dreaming about long midwest summer days filled with splashing around in the pool, running through sprinklers, and selling lemonade at the corner of our street for 25 cents a glass.  Of course, I love San Diego summers too, with the salty spray from the Pacific Ocean, backyard barbeques with friends, and an abundance of fresh produce.      

And I have always loved summers for the food (even before I actually knew I was a bona fide foodie).  There really is nothing like a thick hamburger or a steak, fresh off the grill...juicy watermelon or strawberries...and a tall glass of lemonade or iced tea.  Somehow, if I sat down to enjoy a meal like this in the spring, it just wouldn't feel the same as if I was relaxing with my feet up on a balmy summer evening.   

Although dessert is usually not the star of most summer meals (and those men hovering around the grill would deem anything other than meat-worshipping blasphemous), I wanted to make something summery but unique.  I found the recipe for these lemonade cupcakes in a cookbook I borrowed from a friend.

Double Chocolate Cupcakes

Did I mention that my boyfriend loves sweets?  Oh, I said that already?  Wait, now I remember: I think my exact words were, "He has an insatiable sweet tooth and I can't say I have the inclination or the will power to refuse him."  Hmm, lets check again... Yep, that's is still true.  So you will have to forgive me, but despite the fact that he is leaving in three days (soooooo sad), I now have a backlog of sugary and chocolately recipes that I will be posting.  These recipes will not be kind to your waistline and will most certainly violate any possible diet you might be on, but they absolutely will make you smile with glee.  So to kick off this sugar-spree, I present rich, gooey, melt-in-your-mouth Double Chocolate Cupcakes.  

So my boyfriend obviously really enjoys his sweets, which means he loves his cupcakes.  But they can't be just any cupcakes.  Oh no.  They need to have chocolate, chocolate, and more chocolate.  No peanut butter, or mint, and certainly no berries.  In his opinion, chocolate should be chocolate.  (He is crazy.  Give me chocolate and strawberries any day, and I am happy woman.)  So, to appease the love-of-my-life a.k.a. chocolate-worshipper, I went on a quest to find the perfect chocolate cupcake.