whine & dine

I made Pecan Cupcakes today, and intended to take pictures and post a mini recipe thingamajiggy complete with photographs documenting some of the steps, but ended up getting very angry with the packet of sugar (for some reason there were a whole bunch of large, wet clumps inside that I then had to sieve out and ended up spilling EVERYWHERE), so right now I’ve got a picture of butter – cut into cubes – and about 27 pecan cupcakes sitting on a wire rack in my kitchen. I will think about taking a picture of the cupcakes later on. (Edit: Picture of cupcake duly taken and you can now see it at the start of the post. Other pictures mentioned have been linked up.) They’re rather yummy, though some kind of umm blossomed a little too much. And I must make a mental note that all the cupcake recipes I try from this book are going to give me twice the estimated yield.

Sidenote: For some reason, one (quite lucky – if I may say so myself) friend of mine upon whom I regularly bestow the fruits of my oven says we can’t keep giving [her] cupcakes!! I don’t really understand that, since I did make about 31 when I intended to make 15, and of those 2 have been consumed, 2 were dished out to Steph (whom I’m going to miss terribly), and I think 12 will surreptitiously arrive in the bunny’s office and attempt to remain uneaten till the end of the day. (They usually fail and disappear by 10am.) If my math hasn’t failed me, this leaves us with 15. Strange friend, if you take 4, and pass 2 onto ITSJUSTAMICE cafe, I will still have 9 left to tide me through the week. And possibly dish out to some other friends.

Anyhoo, I’m heading back to Shermay’s to get a few more bottles of their orange and lemon and almond and coffee extract – oh! And that reminds me: I also did take a picture of the vanilla bean paste I bought yesterday, only it doesn’t really apply to this recipe since I used vanilla extract instead. Ho-hum.