Sugar Fix

On The menu: Chocolate Easter Cupcakes (yeah, I kinda made that up) and Cherry Pie...from scratch, crust and all. If you know anything about me, I am NOT a baker. I like to pretend that I can bake. I sometimes get all uppity, like I know what I'm doing. I challenge myself, thinking...how hard can chocolate cake be, who needs the boxed kind? Ummmm...me. I need the boxed kind. I admit it, after several valiant attempts at chocolate cake from scratch, I admit defeat. So, why, you may ask, did I voluntarily choose to make cherry pie, which I have never made before, and only ever had once in my life (funny story...I used to hate cherries, with all kinds of passion. Now I don't.), and why would I choose to make it from scratch, and also make the crust from scratch, when you can buy perfectly good crust in the freezer section? Why, indeed. Come on now, this is me, remember? This is my modis operandi.

So, here we go. We'll start with the cupcakes. I feel fairly confident in my cupcakery skills, after conquering them so soundly for G's birthday party. And I am procrastinating the pie. The pie scares me.

Hello Devil's Food Cake box mix. Welcome to my kitchen. I hope I can make your stay warm and happy. Would you care for some chocolate chips? You would? How about a splash of white chocolate chips, too, for panache? Here you are. My, my, you are looking well. I'm so glad you came.


You don't mind if I take a break here to just stick my face in that bowl, do you? It must be genetic. Right about the time I took that picture, G came running up to me, all "mamamamama" and tried to climb up my leg. I picked her up, and gave her the tinniest tiny little taste of the batter (I know, I know...raw eggs, ewww....I'm a terrible mother...) and she immediatly tried to dive right in, head first.


See, Easter cupcakes. Don't they look eastery to you? (Side note, I also admit defeat on icing. So complicated to get it just right when it is very easy to just open a tub. I did add food coloring, does that count as homemade?)

Ok, we can't put off the pie any longer. Or the pie crust. Dammit. Well, it's a good excuse to use my new kitchen aid mixer. Thank God for that mixer. I have no idea how to make pie crust without it.


Action shot of me channeling my inner three-year-old and rolling out a long snake for the crust edge. Or a long poop. Sorry, that was my inner six-year-old.


Add some thawed and well-drained cherries to the cherry pie filling mix in a can (ok, that part wasn't so "scratch", give me a break here.) and a splash of lemon juice to "brighten" the tartness. Whip out my NEVER BEFORE USED fluted pastery cutter that I registered for in some crazed moment of soon-to-be-married self-delusion. And a sprinkle of my fancy-pants "sparkling sugar"...and....wala.



Not too shabby. Not a tangled spaghetti pile in sight.

And, as a bonus, I paid homage to my Grandma Creery by making little cinnamon-sugar cookies out of the left over pie dough. I remember waiting some what impatiently, face pressed as close to the oven door as my Grandma would let me, for those yummy, crispy pie scrap cookies to come out. I remember burning my mouth because I refused to wait till they cooled off once they were finally out. They were never fancy. She simply cut the scraps into wedges, sprinkled them with cinnamon-sugar and popped them in the oven for five or six minutes.


I was so excited to share this tradition with G. I think I may have had my face pressed up to the oven window waiting for them to be done. And I had to make myself wait till they were cool before giving her one. She....gave most of her's to the dog.


Sigh.

Oh, and here's her Easter basket, just cause it's the first one I've ever put together (we didn't do a basket for her last year cause we're loser parents like that).


I can't wait for her to see it. Have a Happy Easter.