Blueberry Muffins

Is there anything better than fresh Blueberry muffins right from the oven? During my graduation weekend I could not sleep due to the excitement so I actually got up early and made fresh muffins with organic blueberries for my aunt who was visiting from out of town.

I absolutely love baking for people when they come to visit. It's always nice when you haven't seen someone in years to be able to give them a piece of yourself by baking for them.

As for graduation, I received some lovely graduation presents for my future career as baker :D

Anyways on to the muffins! I used a recipe from Paula Dean and tweaked it a bit.

Ingredients:

• 2 Cups of flour
• 2 Tablespoons baking powder
• 1/2 cup of sugar
• 1 stick of unsalted butter (melted)
• 1 egg (slightly beaten)
• 3/4 cup of whole milk
• 1 1/2 cup fresh blueberries
• 1/2 cup granulated brown sugar
• Splash of lemon juice (optional)

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. In one bowl, combine the flour, baking powder and sugar.
3. In a second bowl mix the butter, the egg, and milk.
4. Pour the wet ingredients into the flour mixture and mix with a spatula until just combined. This is where I typically add a splash of lemon juice, it really brings out the flavor of the blueberries. Be careful to not beat or over mix the batter, it's alright if there are lumps.
5. Gently fold the blueberries into the batter.
   
   
   
   
6. Spoon the batter into a muffin tray filling each cup only about 2/3 of the way.
7. Bake for 10 minutes, remove from the oven and sprinkle the tops of the muffins with the brown sugar and return the muffins to the oven and bake for an additional 10 to 15 minutes, until the muffins are a beautiful golden brown.

Allow to cool and enjoy!

Fondant Cakes

Oh Goodness where has the time gone? It has been over a month since I updated and so much has happened since then.

First and foremost, I have been accepted to Culinary School, and I graduated from Business School so I can finally focus on the sweeter and more important things in life.

Secondly, a few very important birthdays went by. My dear brother Snorlax had a birthday and cutie Sami had a birthday. So if nothing else this is a picture post of the cakes I made for their birthdays.

First up, Snorlax cake for my dear brother Snorlax. This was my first time baking in a bowl and I had to keep putting it back in the oven because the middle just would not bake through! I did end up with a nice round tummy for the snorlax though and was pretty happy with the results.

Then for cutie Sami I came up with the idea of trying my hand at a purse cake. More notably, a TokiDoki purse cake. Unfortunately, when I put the cake to let it chill out in the fridge some how the fridge door was left ajar and cake caved in a bit on itself resulting in lumps. So it is a bit of a lumpy purse, she loved it so I decided to chalk this up to experience and not get too upset about it. Especially, considering I made it faster than any other cake and it was also bigger than any other cake I had done before!

There's nothing like cutting out 200 little fondant stars at 1 am :)

Back of the purse:

Front: