Almond Rochers

 Greetings and good morning!  I hope you enjoyed the season premiere of The Bachelorette as much as I did, and that you treated yourself to a tasty Monday night dinner.

Today I want to talk about meringues.  Or rather, I want to talk about these meringues, which I have lovingly named "Dr. Seuss cookies".  They come from the lovely Tartine cookbook, which I have on loan from the local library.  That's a great tip that I got from BFF Jill!  Test drive a cookbook before you buy it, it'll save bookshelf space and money if you don't like the book, or don't find yourself cooking from it in the four weeks that you have it.  Yesterday I catered a meeting for John's research group, and I couldn't help but feel a bit listless at the thought of baking another chocolate cake, oatmeal cookie, or heaven forbid, a cupcake.  Don't worry, we're not abandoning the baking staples here at B+C, but I think that with baking, as in most things, you have to shake it up every once in a while to keep yourself interested.

Enter these morsels.  With a beautifully short ingredient list and an appearance that look straight out of Whoville, these cookies charmed me into making them.  The technique is surprisingly simple, and the result is a cookie that's lighter than air, melts in your mouth, and is packed with flavor reminiscent of a toasted marshmallow.  Are you convinced yet?  Wait until you see how easy it is...

Butter + Cream Cupcake Bash!

Happy Friday! Last Friday, I skipped out of the office at 2:30, and picked Allison up from the airport!We went to Cafe Surfas and got iced tea and croissants. We bought chocolate. Allison wished she could take all of Surfas back home with her. And then we went home and baked cupcakes. A LOT of cupcakes.
We used every available space we could find while baking, including the laundry room:
It may be a bit of an oxymoron, but the dryer actually made a very good cooling area. And after hours of baking, we ordered Thai food. And may or may not have watched eleventy five episodes of "Say Yes to the Dress". Don't judge please. Baking cupcakes for 5 hours fries your brain.
The next morning, we frosted!
And topped! These are coconut cupcakes with an almond cream cheese frosting. They're probably the best coconut cupcakes you'll ever have. Yeah, that's right, I said that.

Lemon Meringue Cake

A few weekends ago we celebrated my Mom's Birthday with a surprise party. I'm not going to tell you which birthday we were celebrating, because I know better than that, but I will let you know that it was a big one, one that required some fanfare and attention. My Mom however, is the kind of person who hates attention. She loathes the idea of all eyes being on her, and she would rather someone else be in the center of it all. These were all things that she told me explicitly about a month before her birthday, when she expressly said that we were not allowed to have a surprise birthday party for her. She swore to me that she would never forgive us if we threw her one. I tried to reason with her, but she would not budge in her thinking.

So when my father approached me asking me to help him plan a surprise party for her, I very adamantly told him everything that my mother had said. I explained that she would be mortified if we had one, and that she would be very upset with us. To which he quickly replied, "I don't care." Apparently my Dad can be just as stubborn as my Mom.And wouldn't you know, but my Dad was right to not care? The party was a huge success, and my Mom had the time of her life. It truly was one of those magical evenings where everyone seemed to have a great experience. I'm just happy that the guest of honor didn't pass out or start swearing at us, because either reaction might have put a damper on the whole event.

We held the party at my place, and it was the perfect day for it.
The weather was absolutely gorgeous, sunny and clear, with just enough warmth for dining outside on the deck.

Buttermilk Spice Cake

This is a story about a proposal.  No, not that proposal.  Last week, my fiance submitted his dissertation proposal.  What does that mean?  It means that he got to spend many loooong days writing a paper, which, if successful, will enable him to write a much longer paper of the same topic.  Oh and then he gets a PhD.  My point with all of this is that sometimes, a boy just needs some cake.

I've been known to unintentionally stockpile ingredients, and this cake came about because I had a whole lotta buttermilk that needed to get used.  I saw this recipe in the March Bon Appetit, and I was intrigued by the combo of spices, which included none other than black pepper.  My man loves black pepper on nearly everything, so I figured putting it in a cake wasn't too far off.  Frankly, I was surprised by how much I liked it.  While it may look like just another white cake, this bad boy packs some flavor.  The spices, citrus zest, and vanilla bean all meld together into a harmonious combo, and the buttermilk yields a fluffy moist texture.  Serve it warm with some jam and whipped cream, and you're in business.

Vegetable Gardens

Hi there! It may have been absent last week, but “Stuff We Love” is back with a vengeance. This week were talking about vegetable gardens. Just take a look at all this green. This is good good stuff. The site of all of this green makes me feel happy and healthy and alive. Because there’s nothing better for you then vegetables grown out of the ground, especially when they’re in your own backyard.
When I moved into my place last December, the one thing I was most excited about was having enough space for a garden. I was giddy with anticipation over all of the things I could grow. And so over the past couple of months I have been slowly planting my garden with vegetables that I can't wait to eat.
I don't have children, and I don't have pets, so my garden has become my baby. I feel like a proud parent, watching over their kids while they sleep. Every morning without fail, I hurry outside to survey my plants for any signs of growth, excitedly hoping that something has magically grown by leaps and bounds overnight.

Crispy Salted Oatmeal White Chocolate Cookies

One of my favorite reasons to bake is when I’m baking something for someone else. There’s nothing like the feeling of sharing with others a delicious treat that you’ve made with your own two hands. I like to think about the person who will be receiving it, and how it will hopefully bring them joy. Which is what I was hoping these cookies would bring when I made them for my friend Caitlin. She had mentioned to me that she was a white chocolate nut, and so I hemmed and hawed over various white chocolate recipes, finally deciding on these cookies. I was hoping that there would be enough white chocolate flavor in them, because I did not want to disappoint.

Let me tell you a little bit about Caitlin real quick, because she was my very first best friend. We were neighbors growing up, which was a pretty big deal because our houses were out in the country with no one else nearby. Caitlin and I were born two months apart, and I like to think about how we became best friends from the time we were infants. I guess we didn't have much choice in the matter considering our location.

Caitlin and I
Considering our outfits, I'm assuming sometime during the late 80's or early 90's

But I was so lucky to have someone to share such an amazing childhood with. Whether it was exploring in the creek together, creating our own special languages, playing hide-and-go seek in the tall grass of the field next to our house, or goofing around at a slumber party, Caitlin and I were always having a good time. It may sound silly, but I look back on those years as being a truly magical time; and I feel blessed that I got to spend it with a really good buddy.

Pineapple Upside Down Cake

 

Hello!  Mary here...  It's been a while!  I missed you all, and I want to say muchas gracias to Allison, who kept the ship running last week when I was MIA.  Her Cinco de Mayo posts were awesome, and I will be ordering one of those tres leches cakes when she comes to visit next weekend.  I have a lot of things to tell you, so I'm going to enumerate in the interest of not blathering on too long.

1.  I got engaged!  John popped the question on a drive to Big Sur.  We're getting married next summer, and I'm trying to hatch a plan to bake my own wedding cake.  Here's a picture of a very euphoric us:

2.  This week, in an attempt to recreate the Tartine morning bun that I ate on the morning that John proposed, I set my oven on fire.  Like with flames and everything.  Hey home bakers:  buy a fire extinguisher!  I have never been so grateful for one in my life.

 

3.  I'm in love.  With the flash that John's dad is letting me use until I buy my own.  Here in Casa Butter we have a serious natural light issue, which leads to frantic weekends in which I try to get home in time to snap photos in the tiny window in which the light is decent.  I've decided to stop fighting with the elements and just roll with what I have.  All of the photos in the post below were taken in my kitchen after dark with my new favorite camera accessory.

Ok enough about me.  It's Mother's Day.  I want to talk about my mom.

My mom loves baking.  When I was in elementary school, she would get up at the crack of dawn to bake cupcakes for my class on my birthday.  Other moms called her "the cupcake machine".  Is it surprising that I turned out the way I did?

Along with baking, mom loves John Mayer, Starbucks double-shots, velour sweatsuits, labradors, cleaning, and a good slow wake-up.  In my 26 years, my mom has taught me what it means to give.  She's the first one to offer a home-cooked meal, a ride to the airport, or solid advice when you need it.   When she came down to help with my neighbors' wedding cakes, she brought along her favorite pineapple upside down cake.  In honor of my mama, I suggest you make this cake and then give it to someone who's not expecting it.  Make their day.  It's what Mama Butter would do.