Farewell, Baltimore

Some of you already know this, but for those of you who don't, tomorrow is my last day in Baltimore. I'm moving back to NY tomorrow and I'm starting an exciting new job on Monday.

As much as I love NY (I love the city itself and my parents and almost all of my friends live there), I'm really going to miss Charm City. Over the past two years, Baltimore has really grown on me. I love its diverse neighborhoods, small town feel, simultaneous accessibility (it's easy to figure things out and get involved in things here) and inaccessibility (you really need a car to get around), its unabashed pride for being what it is, and a million other things that I'm too lazy to list. I'm also going to miss the friends I've made here, especially because I've only gotten to know most of them only somewhat recently and it's unfortunate that I'm picking up and leaving right when things were getting good.

I'm not sure this blog would be what it is if I didn't move here two years ago. While I did love to cook and bake when I lived in NYC, I didn't do so nearly as much as I do here. This is mostly due to the fact that I never lived alone in NY and therefore couldn't make cupcakes at 11 pm (assuming I even was home at 11 pm and not out at some sort of concert or happening) or leave the dishes in the sink overnight after making an elaborate meal, and also because my dining options are more limited here (but I'm in no way saying that there aren't great restaurants here, because there certainly are!). The combination of having my own (incredibly tiny) kitchen and being home more frequently really motivated me to cook more often and also to document and share my kitchen adventures.

If someone told me two years ago that I'd have a purple and magenta blog on which I posted recipes and which people other than my immediate family and closest friends read, I would have said they were nutty. But that's what happened, and I really do have Baltimore to thank for it. Of course I'm going to keep posting on here when I'm in NY, but it probably will be quiet on here for the next few weeks while I get settled in at home and at my new job.

With that, off I go to pick up the U-Haul. Farewell, Baltimore. You've been wonderful to me these past two years and I'm really going to miss you.

Cake is Awesome! Another review of Charm City Cakes

Yes it is, and the one pictured above most certainly is! (As is written on his head!)

This past Saturday night, Matt and I went to a party hosted by Threadless and Charm City Cakes. Threadless is one of my favorite clothing purveyors - they make t-shirts based on user-submitted designs, and I own far too many of them (such as this, this, and this, and yes, I love giraffes). If you don't know what Charm City Cakes is, check out their website - they're an incredible bakery here in Baltimore that turns out anything but the standard cake, and they have a show on Food Network. But what does Threadless have to do with Charm City Cakes?

Miracle Fruit Party!

This past Friday, I hosted a party for my fellow Baltimore food bloggers. The special guest? Miracle fruit!

For those of you who aren't familiar with it, miracle fruit is a tiny berry that, when eaten, causes sour foods to taste sweet. The berries contain a protein that is aptly named miraculin. Miraculin binds to the sweet receptors on taste buds but it doesn't trigger the taste bud. Instead, its free end binds to acids (which taste sour), at which point the sweet receptor is triggered, thereby creating the sensation of acidic foods tasting sweet. After eating miracle fruit, lemons taste like lemon candy, sour patch kids are irresistibly sweet, and raw hubarb loses its bite and becomes incredibly palatable. (You can watch a video of me giving a more in-depth description of the fruits here.)

Perfect Vanilla Cupcakes

I’m not feeling so good today (I’m convinced I caught something while riding the nasty Greyhound bus earlier this week), so I’m going to keep this short.

I’ve tried lots of different vanilla cupcake recipes, including the three that most people consider to be the best: Martha Stewart, Amy Sedaris, and Buttercup Bakeshop. However, I’ve never been fully satisfied with them, mostly because the texture wasn’t right (a little too dry and coarse-crumbed for my taste).

Risotto with Asparagus and Morels

Yep, I’m obsessed with asparagus. This time I paired it with another springtime treat, morel mushrooms, and put the mixture on top of a simple risotto – it was a last minute lazy Sunday supper whose flavor belied its simplicity.

I love mushrooms of all kinds, and morels are no exception. They’re available fresh for a short time each spring, and their rarity and elusiveness means, unfortunately, that they’re pricey (the bf was shocked at how much I shelled out for a small container of them). They’re available dried year-round, but there’s nothing like a fresh morel sautéed in butter – the flavor is earthy and rich and the texture is slightly chewy but not quite as spongy as other mushrooms. Make sure you cook them, though, because morels are toxic when raw, and the toxin is broken down by heat.

Asparagus Flan with Mint-Pea Puree and Wilted Pea Shoots

I got to the JFX market a little late on Sunday, but I was still able to get my hands on some great spring produce (although they still don’t have too much of it – it’s mostly flowering plants and food vendors). In addition to a few pounds of asparagus (which I love), I picked up lots of mint and pea shoots, which I’ve never before seen at the market.

Pea shoots are the tops of pea plants, and they taste exactly like you would expect them to: like peas. They’re currently available at farmers markets, but you can also get them at Chinese markets (I’ve definitely seen them in Chinatown in Manhattan). Make sure the ones you buy are young; mature shoots are tough and stringy and are not fun to eat. About a third of the shoots I bought from the market were advanced in age and were barely eatable even after being cooked – they were that stringy.

White Chocolate Cupcakes with Strawberry Buttercream Frosting

There’s really not much of a story on these cupcakes – they were made as per a friend’s request for his 30th birthday. I sent him an email listing all the possible flavors of cake and frosting I could make. He picked white chocolate, vanilla, lemon, and strawberry, and I decided on white chocolate cupcakes with strawberry frosting.

Most white chocolate cakes and cupcakes are very dense (which is why I generally dislike them), so I made sure to make these cupcakes light and soft (yogurt is my new best friend when making cupcakes). The frosting is a standard Swiss meringue buttercream with a thick strawberry reduction added at the end, and the cupcakes were finished off with half of a locally grown strawberry that is small and ruby red and actually tastes like a strawberry.