Champagne (for breakfast) Cupcakes, (taxi) Cab Piracy, and Cornstarch Issues

Okay she is just showing off with her yard. Look at that! She must have the largest lake front property on the block. No wonder the boys are in her yard. And yes that is Dateline on in the background of my cupcakes - I still don't know who killed the woman. I'm thinking it was her renter

Sometime last year my dear friend, Betsy Wetsy, introduced me to her dear friend, Winehouse. Winehouse deals in black market wine for a living. I joke. But she deals wine in a part of the country that I know nothing about. This chilly March weekend marked a birthday for Winehouse and in honor of said birthday I tried a new cupcake recipe. Fair warning I am a huge self critic of my cakes and was not happy with this one. Though that did not stop me from eating one for breakfast. And keep in mind expectations were high. Betsy Wetsy told me earlier that my "cupcakes bring all the girls to the yard". I reminded her that I am gay and that explained a lot about my current state of (lacking) affairs.

Early last evening as Betsy Wetsy and Winehouse wrapped up some sisterhood of the traveling pants bonding time at the local casino I put the finishing touches on Champagne Cupcakes with a pastry cream filling and buttercream frosting. All three elements I love. All three elements together were tolerable. As I passed the cupcakes around the room I provided the caveat that I did not want to make sweet mouth love to these cupcakes like I do other cupcakes. These had an almost yeasty bread taste to them.Again, I ate one for breakfast. And maybe had a glass of champagne with it. Why waste the bottle on these bad cupcakes? In fact if you make these cupcakes buy an extra bottle of Korbel to wash them down with.

After a quick nosh of cupcakes we scooted off to the local bar to drink a birthday like God intended. Our good friend Not Amish Susan joined us. She is from Pennsylvania and not Amish. We share a penchant for J Crew and she has been known to take over a cab like a pirate. I'm not joking. Last week after much needed happy hour I was told she commandeered a minivan cab in the heart of Minneapolis. Thankfully the already established patron of the cab was kind enough to let her settle into the sexy captain's chair next to him. Sadly a love connection was not made - but if you hear of a Minneapolis chef who was kind enough to share a cab with a J Crew'd Pennsylvanian let me know. I want story closure.

Champagne Cupcakes (adapted from gimmesomeoven.com who adapted it from allrecipes.com which proves there are no more original ideas out there)

2 3/4 C All Purpose Flour

3 t Baking Powder

1 t Salt

2/3 C Butter

1 1/2 C Sugar

3/4 C Champagne - get a super sweet champagne

6 Egg White

Cream your butter, sugar, salt. Sift in your flour and baking powder. Stir in your egg whites and champagne. I suggest you google "creaming method" for baking. This method of baking makes it very easy for you to follow a recipe if you don't have instructions.

You will get about 20 cupcakes out of this recipe - who the hell creates a cupcake recipe that yields 20? Muffin tins come in sets of 12 people. 

I made a standard pastry cream to fill the cupcakes with. Pastry Cream recipes are available all over the internet. Don't fall victim to the ones that use cornstarch. Cornstarch is rumored to have not been used in foods until the mid 1800s. And eclairs were around before that.Plus Julia Child didn't use cornstarch in hers. 

As for frosting I used my go to Swiss Buttercream. Check out the recipe here in one of my top rated blog posts. Don't ask me why it's top rated because I find it rather sad. But for some reason people keep reading it.

Okay I am out. Family dinner in a few hours. I made a lasagna and bruschetta with roasted cherry tomatoes, red bell pepper, honey and olive oil. Thankfully there is still champagne if it tastes bad.

Next week I cover March's Restaurant pick...tell Siri to remind you to check back.