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Mia Cupcake

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Wolfgang’s Last First Day Of School {a recipe}

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I tried making cookies for an after school snack once, when Wolfgang was 6 years old.

Now, I’m a fairly decent cook and a pretty awesome baker, and had made this particular recipe countless times since I was allowed to use the mixer at 8 years old.

But I was off that day. I burned batch after batch, some beyond recognition. I don’t know why I wasn’t setting a timer, or if I had and just missed the alarm, I don’t recall.

I do recall sitting on the floor in the kitchen with a plate of charbroiled cookies, crying because I was just trying to hold it together as a single mom and trying to do something nice for my son.

I felt a little hand on my shoulder as Wolfgang lowered himself to the floor and slipped a cookie from the plate.

Before I could stop him, he took a bite (and to his credit, did not grimace).

“These aren’t bad momma,” he said with a mouthful of cookie. “Maybe next time I can help you watch the oven.”

He’s been like that his whole life. And he still volunteers to eat the slightly burned ones, as it seems I still burn the same recipe on occasion.

He’s been my sidekick and a ray of sunshine, through better and worse, and now…today, he enters his final year of high school.

Today is the last first day of school I will ever spend handing out school schedules to him and his friends. The last first day of school where I can make cookies and have them warm with a glass of milk when he gets home.

The last first day of school where I can still call him “my baby” and not be a totally huge weirdo.

He and I have made it through nearly 18 years of his life and now we start to transition into a life where we are separate and he no longer needs me.

I’m totally crying as I write this, btw.

So I’ll make cookies for him for one last First Day of School so he can sit at the kitchen table and tell me about his day and I can still pretend to check his homework.

Even if his math homework looks like hieroglyphics to me.

Last First Day of School Salted Chocolate Chip Cookies
(based on the infamous TollHouse Cookies)

  • 2-1/4 cup unbleached flour
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1 tsp baking soda
  • 2 sticks unsalted butter (room temp, but still firm not mushy)
  • 3/4 cup sugar
  • 3/4 cup dark brown sugar (light brown is fine, but dark brown is HEAVEN.)
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 tsp vanilla
  • 2 cups milk chocolate chips
  • flaky sea salt (like Maldon)
  1. Try not to cry into the flour, salt and baking soda as you combine them in a bowl. Set the mixture aside and go find some kleenex.
  2. In the bowl of your mixer (or using a wooden spoon, if you’re super hardy and need to pretend your tears are from the effort), beat the sticks of butter like you’re trying to beat your emotions back over your eldest child growing up so quickly.
  3. When the butter is pale and your feelings sufficiently in check, add the sugars (one at a time) and beat until combined.
  4. Add eggs, one at a time, and mix on a low speed until combined. Add vanilla, and mix again. Go find more kleenex because you’re still leaking from your eyes.
  5. Go find the flour mixture, wherever you put it when you went to go find Kleenex. (Check the front room, that’s where mine was.)
  6. Remember you forgot to preheat the oven, and set it to 375º.
  7. Slowly (and using a low speed on your mixer) add the flour bit by bit to the butter mixture until it’s all mixed together.
  8. Mix in the chocolate chips and try to not let your tears drip into the batter.
  9. Chill (both you and the dough) for at least 15 minutes, but no longer than 45. You want batter that won’t melt before you cook it…and you need to collect yourself.
  10. Scoop tablespoons of rounded dough onto the cookie sheet.
  11. Bake for about 9 minutes (don’t forget to set a timer while you’re trying to not cry in front of your teenager). Use cucumber slices if you have them on your eyes while the cookies bake.
  12. When you pull them out of the oven, sprinkle the flaky salt on them right away. Try not to eat too many of them, if they are actually for your kiddo.

For a less dramatic version of the recipe you can bake from, click here.

Do you have an after school ritual?

Salted Chocolate Chip Cookies

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To see the post this belongs to (and the story behind these cookies), please click here.

Last First Day of School Salted Chocolate Chip Cookies
(based on the infamous TollHouse Cookies)

  • 2-1/4 cup unbleached flour
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1 tsp baking soda
  • 2 sticks unsalted butter (room temp, but still firm not mushy)
  • 3/4 cup sugar
  • 3/4 cup dark brown sugar (light brown is fine, but dark brown is HEAVEN.)
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 tsp vanilla
  • 2 cups milk chocolate chips
  • flaky sea salt (like Maldon)
  1. Preheat the oven to 375º.
  2. Add the flour, salt and baking soda in a bowl. Set the mixture aside.
  3. In the bowl of your mixer (or using a wooden spoon), beat the sticks of butter until they are pale.
  4. Add each of the sugars (one at a time) and beat until combined.
  5. Add eggs, one at a time, and mix on a low speed until combined. Add vanilla, and mix again
  6. Slowly (and using a low speed on your mixer) add the flour bit by bit until it’s combined, then mix in the chocolate chips.
  7. Chill dough in the fridge for at least 15 minutes, but no longer than 45. You want it pliable, but not rock hard.
  8. Drop rounded tablespoons of dough onto a cookie sheet, spaced about 2″ apart. (I can fit 6-7 on one normal-sized cookie sheet.)
  9. Bake for 9 minutes, or until edges are just browned.
  10. Remove from oven and sprinkle small amount of flaky salt on top of your cookies immediately.
  11. Try and let them cool before you eat them.

Food is My Love Language {plus 4 foodie pro tips}

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“If she likes you, she will share her food with you.” I overheard Wolfgang saying that to someone a few months ago.

(I had just brought yet another sad clamshell of storebought cookies (the pink frosting ones! I ate most of them too) when I really wanted to bring something amazing and spectacular.)

I thought Wolfgang’s statement was silly at first, very “JOEY DOESN’T SHARE FOOD”.

But the more I thought about it, the more I realized that he was right.

It was doubly confirmed a few days later as I was berry picking with a friend who was asking questions about my blog. I mentioned I had written a post about Game of Thrones and she looked super confused.

“Why would a food blogger write about Game of Thrones?” she asked.

Both she and Wolfgang were right. Blogging only makes sense to me when I’m writing about food.

If I like you, I will go out of my way to get you fed. I will share my homemade cookies. I will give you some of my homemade fig jam. I will offer you salmon bone broth. I will learn how to make those trendy drip cakes last minute for your dessert auction, while sobbing and watching a YouTube tutorial. I will agree to make your wedding cake (that’s a big one, because I had a bad experience. Don’t ask).

I own more cookbooks than any one non-chef-person should. I have 2 bookshelves full and I’m pretty sure there are still some out in storage in our shed.

That’s how my life works. If I love you, I will feed you.

Food and making people happy with the culinary concoctions I create: that’s my love language.

I will spend hours reading about your favorite food so I know exactly how to cook it. I will make homemade chocolate chip cookies right before we leave for a movie AND bring my big purse, so they’re still warm when we sneak them in. I will spend my precious little time in the kitchen creating something wonderful for you.

And I suppressed that joy of cooking (ha) for a really long time.

I tried to stuff that part of me way down deep because I thought it was too much for me to enjoy making food. That may stem from my last relationship, which was with an incredibly talented chef, I don’t know. I may have tried to punish myself for some unknown wrong by denying myself the things I enjoyed.

I suppressed my love language while I tried to heal myself without it, which threw everything else out of whack.

Now, I’ve tried for the last few months to be a “healthy living, self-help blogger”. But my heart isn’t in it.

I’ve been trying to be like someone else, and it’s no longer working for me (if it was ever working at all?).

It’s not me.

I would love to talk all day about matcha, but I want to make matcha chocolate mousse or a matcha frosting. I want to taste what happens when you sprinkle matcha over macarons. I want to research matcha and figure out what foods I can combine it with. I want to make a matcha marshmallow!

I love sharing my life with y’all, but I have to do it through food. That’s how I roll.

So we are shifting gears slightly, and moving away from self-help posts and “healthy living” posts. If you like those types of posts, I highly recommend my friend Autumn’s blog, or my friend Carleeh’s blog. Self help, self love and healthy living is definitely their thing.

Here, we are going to keep the fun travel posts like this Disneyland one, and we are going to keep the “local love” posts. Maybe the occasional “how’s it going in the Cupcake household” posts.

But everything else is going to shift.

The central point of Mia Cupcake, both me as a person and the blog as an entity, has always been food and if I try to convince you otherwise, I am straight up lying.

So let’s kick off the shift with 4 of my favorite foodie pro-tips I’ve picked up through watching, reading about and listening to (and dating!) professional chefs:

  1. Sprinkle Maldon Sea Salt (or another flaky sea salt) on top of your chocolate chip cookies right when you take them out of the oven. (Maldon is on CRAZY SALE on Amazon right now – add an 8.5 oz box on your order for a little more than regular salt!)

    Salt PLUS chocolate = out of this world. (Check out this post where I put this protip into action!)

  2. Infused sugars. I use old Vital Proteins collagen peptides canisters, and layer in sugar with vanilla beans (after I’ve scraped their innards into cookies or jams or what have you.) I’ve also used (dried!) lavender blossoms, lemon zest and mint leaves!
  3. Infused finishing salts. Have a recipe that calls for lemon juice, but not lemon zest? Get half of a cup of fine sea salt and a jar, and zest that lemon before you squeeze the juice out. Add the lemon to the sea salt and rub it in with your fingers.
    Store in an airtight container and use to finish up fish, or chicken by sprinkling a TINY BIT on top before serving.
  4. Taste your food. This seems like a no-brainer, but you always see that one guy on the cooking shows that has an absolutely stunning dish (despite having to cook with plastic utensils while wearing a sumo suit and singing showtunes or something) but it’s SO BLAND because he didn’t take the time to taste his food.

Food doesn’t have to be scary, and it can be something that shows how you feel about someone.

I’m ditching the fast food lifestyle I was leading and getting back into the kitchen. And I hope you’ll join me <3

I have included a few affiliate links in this post. Clicking them won’t cost you any additional $$, and help keep the Cupcake Haus in frosting, glitter and fancy pens.

When Your Brain Doesn’t Work Like It Used To Before (and five foods to help you think)

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I’m getting older.

SHOCKING, I know. But I’m getting older. I told someone yesterday that I was 32 because I honestly thought that’s how old I was.

Only off by 2 years. Wait….no….6! OMG, is that right?

But sometimes, my brain doesn’t function right. I have bad brain days, and I have good brain days. On bad brain days, I describe people like “that one dude we went to see that movie with when Wolfgang was little, but not super little and it rained” because I can’t remember their names. Or I mix up words.

There’s nothing wrong with me, I’ve had everything checked. I’m functionally healthy.

I just get tired and my brain takes a nap and lets my mouth run by itself. That’s not a good thing.

So I went internet-hunting. I don’t want to take a whole mess of supplements if I don’t have to, I would rather try eating more good foods (that are not liver) and try to help boost my brain in a way that doesn’t require me to remember to swallow a bunch of pills.

So here are the 5 foods which, according to my research, can have an impact on your brain’s health:

  1. Blueberries. Stuffed with something called gallic acid, which helps protect brains from stress and breakdown.
  2. Avocados. Low sugar content, and highest protein of any fruit! (weird, right?) Chock full of “good fats” and vitamin K to help keep prevent blood clots.
  3. Bone Broth. Full of collagen, which helps boost your memory skills and keeps your immune system running on all cylinders.
  4. Dark Chocolate. The darker, the better. Skip the sugared kinds, you want almost too dark to eat. It’s full of flavanols, which help blood flow to the heart AND the brain.
  5. Egg Yolks. Break the bank and buy the Happy Eggs. Happy chickens make healthy eggs, and healthy eggs are packed with choline, which helps break down bethane (a chemical that helps the body produce seratonin and dopamine, the happy chemicals!). Happy Eggs can make you happy! (no, I didn’t get paid to say that. I just really like that brand of eggs. The yellow carton makes me happy too.)

So far, it’s only been a week (and I’m on the Whole30 too, so no chocolate quite yet), but I feel like I’m finding my words a little better and I’m a little quicker on the uptake.

Let’s eat right and get those brains of ours working. I’m not ready to be a “forgetful Jones” quite yet (if ever!)

Rosemary Lemonade and Doing Work

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We have never really had a garden in the various homes we’ve lived in.

I think the last time we had a vegetable or herb garden at a house I inhabited was back in the 80s….so it’s been a while.

This home we live in now is a veritable garden paradise. There are huge established plum and fig trees, two big raised veggie beds, an herb garden and lavender, sage and rosemary all over the side of our house.

The rosemary in particular is getting a bit out of hand right now. It’s just finished flowering, so it’s a bit raggedy looking, but all three bushes are enormous. I don’t know that I could use all of that rosemary in a month, if we ate it with every meal.

But I’m making a valiant effort.

(OMG, I just realized how bad my sunburn is in this video, but you can definitely see how huge the rosemary is at our house!)

In the past, I have let things die in the few pots I have dared to plant of edible things. I am not sure of the base reason, but I suppose my past (bad) habit of laziness would have had something to do with it.

This year, I am determined to DO THE THINGS. To take advantage of the opportunities I am given, rather than letting them pass me by. To use the tools and resources that I cultivate or grow or harvest or purchase and not let them rot in my fridge.

Ahem.

So we’ve had a few get-togethers over the past few REALLY hot days, where we needed something a bit more fancy than the norm to drink.

And a few weeks ago, I just happened to unearth my mother’s recipe for rosemary lemonade.

It’s like God said “lady, use up that dang rosemary that I put near your house, and here’s a recipe.”

So after one batch that had WAY TOO MUCH SUGAR and one batch that had some weird metallic taste and then one with too few lemons, and then one really terrible foray into trying to use the smaller lemons to save a couple of dollars….I have conquered the recipe for one of the best tasting beverages I have had, and super thirst-quenching too!

And because I love you and want you to be happy – I am sharing it with you.

HOW TO MAKE SOME AWESOME ROSEMARY LEMONADE

Ingredients (makes about a gallon):

  • 1-1/2 cups sugar, divided (or more, to taste)
  • 4-5 sprigs of fresh rosemary (about 4″ long)
  • juice of 5 large lemons (fresh squeezed)
  • 10 cups of water (or more, to taste)

Directions:

  • You want to make this at least 2-3 hours in advance to let the flavors mingle together.
  • Store any leftovers (if you have any!) in the fridge.
  • I like to let the rosemary sit in the pitcher, both for decorative and flavor reasons. 
  1. Put 1 cup of water and 1 cup of sugar in a saucepan on high heat, cook just until sugar dissolves. Add 2 sprigs of your rosemary once you turn the heat off, and let it cool.
  2. Add lemon juice, 8 cups of water, remaining rosemary and 1/2 cup sugar to pitcher (or sun tea jar – makes serving easy).
  3. When sugar syrup cools, add it (and the rosemary) to the pitcher.
  4. Refrigerate for 2-3 hours before serving to allow the flavors to settle.

Let me know if you end up making this – I want to hear all about it. Tag me on social media with your pictures! <3

Cold Brew Marshmallows!

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I had some good content over on my old blog, but I didn’t want to drag it all over here. This is one of the posts that’s some good reading, so I’m moving it over here. Hence the old blog’s water marks on the photos 😉
With s’more season coming, these will be perfect for camping trips, or just backyard fire pits!
This was originally posted on Bruises in the Frosting on 12/12/2016.

I have been dragging my feet on posting this recipe.

I came up with the idea about 3 weeks ago and emailed my buddy Kevin over at Vital Proteins to see if they would send me some gelatin. He sent me a nice big container and I went RIGHT to work.

The packing box was still on the kitchen floor when I was smoothing the top of my first batch.

I knocked out 3-4 batches while working a launch at my “muggle job” and dealing with Thanksgiving planning and the 8000 other things I do every day…. and handed each of those marshmallows (but one) out to my friends and neighbors.

I woke up at 5am 3 days in a row to slice up a batch I had made the night before. Wolfgang is no longer surprised to see me up, awake, wearing my lipstick and knocking around the kitchen when he stumbles upstairs on his way to jazz band at 6am.

After that initial flurry, I didn’t make marshmallows for a week. The previous batches weren’t good enough. My friends were RAVING about them and demanding more, but I was convinced that they were not up to par for the blog.

A friend sent me an email, knowing perfectly well what my issue was. She gets me. She said that she knew I was questioning my marshmallow powers, but her husband got angry at her when she brought my marshmallows home because he thought that she had bought those “expensive artisan marshmallows” from the local grocery.

This guy is a picky man, so the fact he assumed my marshmallows were on that level helped shake me out of my Impostor Syndrome.

So then I made 13 more batches of different flavors of marshmallows and sold those to benefit our local mama group’s Giving Tree.

And now I finally think my recipe is good enough to share with you.

[bctt tweet=”Oh hey, homemade marshmallows for s’mores! Check out @miacupcake and @vitalproteins!” via=”no”]

A few notes before you make these:

  • Please make sure you read the whole recipe before you start. There are a few steps where you have to have your mise en place or you’re going to get held up!
  • Watch the boil on your syrup. Something in the cold brew makes this boil up bigger and faster than the regular vanilla marshmallows.
  • It may smell a little odd as you’re boiling down the syrup. That’s normal. No, your marshmallows will taste nothing like that smell.
  • Yes, you can use the cold brew concentrate from Trader Joe’s or cold brew from Starbucks. IF you get the kind from Starbucks, please make sure to ask for a tall size with  no sweetener, no milk, no ice and no water. You want just their concentrate.
  • Yes, you CAN use a hand mixer, but you’ll be standing there forever. If you can get your hands on a stand mixer, it will make your life so much easier.
  • If you want to make plain marshmallows, replace the cold brew with water and add 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla extract just after you finish pouring the syrup in your stand mixer, before you increase the speed of the mixer.

Print Recipe
 Cold Brew Marshmallows
Delicious homemade marshmallows are not out of your
Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 20 minutes
Passive Time 4-6 hours
Servings
1-inch marshmallows
Ingredients
Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 20 minutes
Passive Time 4-6 hours
Servings
1-inch marshmallows
Ingredients
Instructions
  1. Pour half of the cold brew into a bowl fitted on your stand mixer. Sprinkle your gelatin over the cold brew and set aside.
  2. Get your 9×11 baking dish (I used an 8×10 for taller marshmallows). Line it with aluminum foil, then spray that foil lightly with baking spray. Set aside.
  3. Combine the remainder of the cold brew plus the sugar, salt and corn syrup in a medium saucepan over low heat. Stir until sugar dissolves.
  4. Increase heat to medium, clip a candy thermometer to the side of the pot and WATCH THE POT. Seriously, don’t walk away right now. It can boil up real fast. If it boils up, lift the pot off the heat and decrease your burner a notch.
  5. Cook without stirring until syrup reaches 235-240°.
  6. Start the mixer on low, and pour the syrup in a slow steady stream down the side of the bowl.
  7. When all syrup is incorporated, increase speed slowly to high.
  8. While this is beating, get a spatula and a glass of water.
  9. Beat until mixture has tripled in volume, is glossy, thick, and pulls away from the sides of the bowl as you mix. When you pull the beater out of the mix, it should fall in large slow ribbons and be slow to melt back into the bowl.
  10. Pour mixture into your prepared baking dish. Use your damp spatula to scrape out the bowl and smooth the top. Work fast – this stiffens up QUICK.
  11. Set aside to set for 4 hours (or overnight).
  12. Sift together the cornstarch and powdered sugar and spread some of that mixture onto a clean work surface (leave the rest in a bowl). Turn your marshmallows out onto this surface and remove the foil.
  13. Use a damp knife (that glass of water comes in handy!) and cut into squares in the size of your choosing.
  14. Toss your squares in the remaining cornstarch/powdered sugar mix and shake off excess.
  15. Store in an airtight container for up to 10 days, though they probably won’t last that long.
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And BOOM! You’ve got cold brew marshmallows.

Please let me know if you make these, and tag me in social media if you post pictures! (I am @miacupcake everywhere!)

Need a visual? Check out my Day Five of VLOGMAS 2016, where I went through the whole process:

 

Have you ever made marshmallows or had homemade marshmallows? Tell me about it! <3

Cashew Butter Collagen Cups

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Occasionally, I like to have a treat.

(Ok, maybe a little more than occasionally. I’m in a bit of a pickle right now from all of the treats, but that’s a story for another day.)

I figure if I’m making the treats myself PLUS I am packing a bit of extra nutrition in them, they can’t be all bad.

I still need to exercise portion control, but when I’m making them myself, I can not only decide what goes in them, but I can also choose the quality of the ingredients.

[bctt tweet=”Get chocolate + collagen with these Cashew Butter Collagen Cups from @miacupcake and @vitalproteins!” via=”no”]

After some hemming and hawing, a lot of  chocolate smeared all over every surface of my kitchen and with some help from my friends at Vital Proteins (and many many testers that didn’t set and we had to pour over ice cream!), we came up with these Cashew Butter Collagen Cups.

They have cashew butter (good fats!), coconut oil (more good fats!), honey and collagen peptides. So they’re better for you than most candy-ish substances!

Plus, chocolate. Cannot go wrong.

Print Recipe
 Cashew Butter Collagen Cups
A nutrition-packed treat for those days where you're craving a little chocolate!
Cook Time 20 minutes
Passive Time 2 hours
Servings
pieces
Ingredients
Cook Time 20 minutes
Passive Time 2 hours
Servings
pieces
Ingredients
Instructions
  1. Start water boiling in pot on stove and once boiling, lower heat to a simmer. Set heatproof bowl of chocolate chips over simmering water, but don't let the bottom of the bowl touch the water.
  2. While keeping an eye on the chocolate, mix the cashew butter with the peptides if using. Add coconut oil and honey, stir well.
  3. Once chocolate is fully melted and lump-free, grab your mini muffin tin. Drop about a teaspoon into each well and smoosh it up the sides. You don't want TOO much chocolate in there or they get hard to bite! Work fast so the chocolate doesn't harden!
  4. When you've covered the bottom of about 12, add a teaspoon of the cashew butter mixture right into the middle of the chocolate. Don't press it down, that displaces the chocolate on the bottom.
  5. Cover each cashew butter well with chocolate, and swirl the top if you want to be fancy. Use any remaining chocolate and cashew butter to fill other wells (or you could eat it. I don't judge).
  6. Stick your mini muffin tray in the freezer, make sure it's level! Freeze for 2 hours.
  7. Unmold by running a sharp knife around the edge of each well. Eat one, then store in the fridge where nobody will accidentally happen to find them, and where they can stay cool.
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I was provided with product from my friends over at Vital Proteins in exchange for this post. All opinions are mine.