New Creations

I have been getting better at creating my own recipes and modifying "base" recipes I find to make something new out of them. It has taken me quite a while to get to this point, but being a self-taught baker, I guess I'm pretty happy with my progress. Looking back at old photos and thinking of past things I've made, I realized that I have come a long way. All of the practice has helped me discover what flavors go well together.

Even though I am getting better at making things on my own, I do get inspiration for new recipes/flavors from various places. Most recently, I was walking around downtown DC when I started to get the munchies. I stopped at a Starbucks and decided to try the triple berry coffee cake. I liked it so much that I was determined to re-create something similar. Here is attempt #1:

I still have some tweaking to do, but for my first try, I was happy with the result. Next time, I will make some modifications to add more moisture and to make it a bit fluffier. The texture just wasn't quite right for me, and ever the perfectionist, I want the perfect texture and flavor. =p

Next up: strawberry mascarpone cupcakes. Having moved to the DC area, one of the things I miss dearly from Ohio is Jeni's Ice Cream. I found a local gourmet market that actually sells it here, but I've only been willing to cough up the required $19/pint once (in a moment of excitement and weakness, I caved in). One of my favorite flavors of all time was Jeni's strawberry mascarpone. I don't think she ever brought it back after the one year that I had it in college. So, inspired by Jeni, I made strawberry mascarpone cupcakes: strawberry cupcakes with strawberry mascarpone frosting. The hubby ranked this one as his second favorite cupcake of all time (thus far).

Next on my to-do list is lemon pomegranate cupcakes. I once had a sparkling pomegranate lemonade from the cafe at Nordstrom, which sparked my love for the lemon-pomegranate flavor combination. So, I'm thinking...why not try it in a cupcake? Too crazy? I guess I'll find out the next time I have a chance to experiment. Like I said, my inspiration comes from many random places...