Wine and Cheese Cupcakes: White Edition

This is exciting! A new baking post! For the first time months! For the first time in forever (not really, but I just really wanted to slip in a vague Frozen reference).
I didn't have much time to bake while I was at home the past two weeks, so I had to plan the one day I set aside for any cooking/baking fun carefully. Since cupcakes brought me into the world of baking, it seemed appropriate to rekindle my baking with some.

I first saw this recipe on Cupcake Project back last summer and instantly knew that I wanted to try baking them. It seems that I continue to have a strong attraction to baking with alcohol, probably simply because its still a novelty for my oh so youthful 20s. But I have a feeling these white wine and goat cheese cupcakes will likely be baked again even if cupcakes or alcohol baking has lost its novelty for me in a few years. These are definitely some of my best baked goods of 2014. Well, this is mostly due to the fact that I was on an ice cream making spree earlier (which, rest assured, will continue).

As I was skeptical of my baking abilities, I sought to use the cheapest of white wines. Yep, the two buck chuck. I can't even remember the real name of that stuff anymore (I want to say Charles Schwab, but thats a bank that I'm pretty sure doesn't do a joint business in wine). I don't really actually know anything about wine quality, but I do know that the specific taste of wine was distinctively obvious in the cake. There was some goat cheese added to the cake batter as well, but that flavor was a bit less noticeable, or straight up lacking. I get the sense that the cake flavor varies a bit with the type of white wine used, so this might be a fun area of further exploration.
The frosting is a pretty simple variation of a typical frosting, except with goat cheese, butter and powdered sugar. I found that the frosting was a bit on the sweet side with a cream cheese tang. However, I ended up using only about 75% of the amount of goat cheese called for in the recipe so this may have been why the frosting was more on the sweet rather than tangy side.

I'm still working a bit on my frosting and decorating game a bit. The goat cheese frosting had cream cheese frosting symptoms and was a bit droopy in the first few minutes after I piped it, but it crusted fairly well after five minutes so that it stopped leaking. Though the leaking effect does have its own sort of charm to it.

Recipe from my one true baking love, Cupcake Project. Given the fidelity of the wine and cheese combo in everyday fancy dining appetizers, there must be endless ways to adapt wine and cheese into a sweet cupcake version. Cupcake Project has a chocolate/red wine cupcake that is also on my baking list, so we can do a little comparison in the future. :)

California Cuisine: Some Dining Out

It's been a bit of a hard week in the staying positive and being self-confident area of things. I know its a bit toxic and not particularly healthy, but I also know that in the end it won't matter and where ever I end up in life, I'll be content with it. Which brings the question of why I should subjugate myself to so much self deprecation when the end is definitely not guaranteed and likely the same as if I just saved myself and everyone some disappointment. I guess the main difference, and the one I so bitterly (stubbornly?) believe in is the fact that at least one way I know I tried. Even if I'm often not exactly sure if I'm trying hard enough since a lot of my trying hard involves wasting time on the internet. 

Anyways, not much to talk about on the food end of things, even though this is supposed to be a food blog.  My parents have become quite enthusiastic fans of dining out as they pass through their mid-life. With most of the kids out of the house, and just one with three more years to go, I think that ~retirement~ horizon has got them in the fine dining mood. Lucky for us kids, our parents are really far too generous and take us along with them.
In this case, we went to Downey's, a classic California/American restaurant for a birthday this week. By "California," I mean the typical organic, locally sourced meat/poultry/fish cooked over beds of also organic, locally sourced vegetables and the likes all impeccably plattered. While everything tasted great, I'm not sure it was worth the price. We've definitely eaten at other places with slightly lower prices that were both better and not as formal. Formality, like, the whole three-five course French tradition fixed meal sort of thing is not something I'm particularly into. But hey, if you like that kind of dining mixed with some great fine dining California cuisine, try it out.

For my entree I had the duck, which was quite good, but again similar to what I've had at other restaurants while dining on the parent's money. I did find it charming that they gave out truffles rather than mints with the check. In this case, they added a candle and some birthday writing to make up for the fact that no one in our family had space in our stomaches for actual dessert.

My insistence to post once a week is eating away at the quality of posts, so if you didn't make it this far, don't worry, there wasn't much you missed.

CA Food: The Hits

By hits, I mean basically the most rapid-fire, condensed version possible of foods that embody California to me. There are some gross omissions, but thats due in part to my locking-myself-in-the-house-and-studying mode that I seem to always be in during spring break these days. I suppose this could be my suggested dining plan for someone who had only 1 day in CA and insisted on only eating 3 meals. Which is ridiculous when we all know there is second breakfast (fun fact, this is a real thing in Bavaria and Poland), mid-morning snack, mid-afternoon snack, lunner, linner, dessert, night cheese, midnight snack, late-night greasy food ect ect ect. But that more detailed dining list will have to come at a later date.

 Above are probably the two things that embody CA food the best. On the left, a berry-topped acai bowl from Backyard Bowls consumed by your stereotyped granola crunchy, goin' with the flow, health conscious (though hopefully scientific about it!), yogi/surfer/climber/runner-type. But, as I am only 30% that type of person, clearly the popularity of these types of fruit/smoothie bowls derives mainly from the fact that they're just flipping delicious. Plus, who wouldn't want to eat acai bowls every week if the weather was always sunshines and fresh fruit? Granted, your wallet might not like you a lot, but definitely worth at least a weekly visit!

On the right is the classic, the historic, the #vintage In-N-Out burger with a touch of intense LA #sunshine. Just look at that slightly charred, buttery bun, the gooey melted cheese, the slathering of "special sauce" at the bottom. Can you really say Shake Shack or Five Guys can beat this for only three dollars? No, I didn't think so. I mean, Shake Shack and Five Guys are great, but no one can beat In-N-Out for cost:quality ratio. Especially with that not so secret menu you guys all know about anyways thanks to buzzfeed.

Obviously no blitz summary of CA food is really complete unless something Mexican is included. In this case, a garlic-mushroom, avocado, cheddar quesadilla. Not really the classic queso-oozing to the brink of coronary bypass status of a quesadilla you'd probably find at a restaurant, but hey, part of the charm of a quesadilla is its flexibility. Breakfast quesadillas, dessert quesadillas, so many options! But obviously, any quesadilla (except for dessert I guess) is always infinitely better with a slathering of avocado and salsa when possible.

I should mention, Happy Pi Day! Gotta love 3.14. Sad fact about myself, I really only have pi memorized up to 3.14. I think there's a quiz game you can play to improve your memorization. Though honestly, memorizing pi was one of those nerd skills that only gave you cool points back in high school. Except, if you do know pi out to a large number of digits, you get gold stars from me if not cool points. And specifically on this year's pi day, 3.14.14, the Veronica Mars movie comes out! The one that made history in online crowd funding and broke Kickstarter's record for most money raised for a project! I mention all of this to you because if I had the time to bake, there probably would have been a marshmallow pie post instead for Pi day and Veronica Mars day. You know, since Veronica is really just an adorable marshmallow under all that tough crime-busting stuff she normally does. But seriously, for anyone who is just chilling during their spring break or wants a break from work/studying, check out Veronica Mars! Here are some links to the trailer and the opening scene  of the movie which gives a pretty quick and fast overview of the tv seasons. Not convinced? Kristen Bell (most recently, Anna in Frozen) is just straight up adorable.

Throwback: I'm on a boat

A pita chip boat that is.

Things that this post could have been about:

• look, something that isn't cake!
• the overwhelming relief of spring break.
• the fond memories I have associated with this pita boat about asteroid summer camp. Seriously, some of the friends I made in those stupid(ly great) 6 weeks are among people I talk to the most in a given week. And I'm definitely not the stereotype bff 4lifes camp chippewa type.
• a brief investigative report on the identity of the elbow in the picture.

Things that this post will be about:

• All of the above and including this mildly meta line.