Page 133: Agave Lemonade

I love lemonade!  Especially when it's more tart than sweet, and this agave-sweetened lemonade recipe is my idea of perfect beverage! Some might find it a bit sour, but you could always add more agave.  I thought it was delicious and so refreshing on this warm and sunny July afternoon!

You start with lots of lemons!

Squeeze them...

Add water and agave...

And enjoy over ice!

I'm sipping on it as I write and it's so lovely.  There's also a BabyCakes Arnold Palmer recipe I could so easily knock out right now, if only I had not just run out of yerba mate tea.  Hopefully I can squirrel some lemonade away until tomorrow so I can pick up some tea and check off yet another BabyCakes recipe.  I'll keep you posted!

Page 73: Sugarplum Cookies

I'm on a roll... back already with a new BabyCakes recipe!  Actually two, but I'll get to that later.

These Sugarplum Cookies (apparently also known as Mexican Wedding Cookies) were my last cookie recipe in the book and I've been putting them off for a long time because, quite frankly, they just didn't inspire me.  I've never had sugarplum cookies before and have to admit this is a recipe that I never would have made if I hadn't committed to working my way through the whole book (I mean, there are donuts waiting in book two, friends - DONUTS).  But... since I have committed... here they are.

The underlying cookie is a pretty simple but pretty sweet spice cookie with cinnamon and a hint of nutmeg.  After baking, they're coated in powdered sugar and filled with plum jam.

I was pleasantly surprised by these cookies.  First by the dough, which I ate plenty of in the baking process. Then by the finished product, because the plum jam is subtle and goes oh so well with the spice of the cookie and the super sweet powdered sugar coating.

Not sure these will make it on the staples list at my house but they were a nice treat.  And they are so cute!  Tasty AND cute.  What more could a girl ask for?

While I was in the kitchen I decided to knock out a BabyCakes drink recipe.  My post on BabyCakes Agave Lemonade coming soon!

Page 100: Meyer Lemon and Bing Cherry Cupcakes

It's cherry season!

I always know this because Whole Foods has their annual one-day cherry sale.  I now consider this day one of my favorite holidays of the year.  Last year I purchased five pounds and tried the BabyCakes cherry cobbler.  This year, I own a dehydrator... so I bought ten pounds!

How did I use ten pounds of cherries you may ask?  Well first, after I pulled out a bowl for us to munch on over the weekend, I spent the better part of Friday night standing over my sink pitting the remaining cherries.  And despite the purchase of a cherry pitter since last year's sale, my fingers remain slightly stained. 

First off, I removed 24 cherries to make the much anticipated BabyCakes Meyer Lemon and Bing Cherry cupcakes.  That didn't make much of a dent.  Next, I loaded my dehydrator - all five trays - with halved cherries and set it to dry.  We're set on dried cherries for awhile!

But I still had a couple pounds of pitted cherries looking for a delicious home.  So I began googling... and ended up making my first ever batch of jam.  Cherry jam!  Using this easy-peasy recipe.

It's so yummy ... and I love having jam in my fridge that I made myself.

But back to the highlight: the cupcakes.  I've been wanting to make these for quite awhile and finally got to check them off my list.

The cupcakes are lemon - made with both lemon extract and lemon infused agave nectar.  They are supposed to be Meyer Lemons but I couldn't find them on the island, so I just used regular lemons.

You add a cherry filling by inserting a layer of chopped cherries (bathed in the infused agave), between scoops of cupcake batter.

The frosting was the traditional BabyCakes vanilla frosting with some of the chopped cherry mixture folded into the frosting. Thanks to Jen, who recently left me a comment about the frosting - I used less milk this time which definitely seemed to help. I was short on coconut oil though so I need to give it another try and see if it sets up better with half the milk.

These were really good - definitely my favorite BabyCakes cupcake recipe so far - and likely the only one I would make again. They were still dense - but unlike other BabyCakes cupcakes they stayed really moist and were very tasty!  They also got rave reviews from the office-mates.  Hooray for a BabyCakes success story!