A Life in Food by real-life Chef Cheryl Bennett
Simple vanilla cupcakes with strawberry cream cheese frosting are the perfect cupcakes for any occasion. From birthday parties to Mother’s Day, summer backyard BBQ’s to school bake sales and of course Valentine’s Day, these cupcakes will become your go-to recipe. Made from scratch, with zero artificial coloring, this strawberry cream cheese frosting is the perfect complement to this easy vanilla cupcake.
This easy panna cotta recipe with bourbon-poached figs will make you swoon. Lightened up just a bit, this vanilla panna cotta is still decadent and delicious, but with just a few less calories.
Whenever I see figs, I must buy them. I can’t quite help myself, they are just so sexy. Then my brain starts spinning with all the possible things to do with them. When I am visiting my family in Ohio, I always try to make something special. Something that I know for sure they have never had before. Sometimes it goes over well and sometimes, maybe not so much. I think this one was a winner.
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Let me say that I think we should appreciate our Mom’s on more than just one day a year… It is an incredibly important job that is sometimes thankless. Through terrible two’s and rebellious teenage years, through laughter and tears, joy and fear… you are there for it all.
So, to every Mom out there: Happy Mother’s Day today and everyday for all that you do!
Now that I’ve earned my birthday and Christmas presents for next year, let’s get to it.
This weekend is Mother’s Day and the Internet, food magazines, morning shows, cooking shows, even the evening news is filling the space between our ears with recipes to make for Mom…
Most of them even look really good! But here’s the problem: MOM isn’t the one making them! (I hope)!
More than a few of the recipes featured have ingredient lists long enough to make even the average home cook sweat under the collar, much less someone who rarely ventures into that mystical space from where food magically appears.
Some of you out there are lucky enough to live with people who actually know: A. where the kitchen is located in your home and 2) how to find things in this mysterious room. Then, there are those of you who live with people that open the fridge door, stand there staring at it’s insides and then ask you “what is there to eat?”.
Well, even THOSE people can handle this recipe.
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I know it may seem a bit early to start thinking of Valentine’s Day, but it’s only a few short weeks away. If you like to make a special treat on Valentine’s Day, this is the cake.
It is a towering 4 layers high and lovingly encased in the most delicate rose-scented buttercream. It is outrageously good and worth every. single. calorie.
This is also the type of cake that could easily become adorned with say a few candles for a little celebratory birthday party? The colors could be swapped out for any, the flavor of the buttercream could be adapted to whatever you’d like it to be. Using a vanilla base for both cake and buttercream allows you the flexibility to change colors and flavors to suit the occasion or intended recipient….
Songwriters often say that they do their best work when they are going through something difficult in their lives. They channel those feelings and pour them into lyrics that move us to our very core.
I don’t write music… I sequester myself to the confines of my kitchen.
Being in the kitchen is cathartic for me, it always has been. Looking back, I’ve realized that it is one of the reasons I love baking.
It brings me comfort in times of sadness, calms me when I’m stressed or anxious, reassures me when I’ve had a particularly rough day.
Baking is my therapy and let’s face it… it’s cheaper than $150 dollars an hour and much tastier.
I find solace in the kitchen, the familiar smells and sounds, the warmth of the oven… being able to “shut off” my brain and do things on autopilot also brings a certain sense of comfort.
Once again, I find myself puttering about in the kitchen late at night when the rest of world is fast asleep.
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