100 cupcake plus and incredibly busy menapausal woman

It just started a hour ago. Cleaning, organizing and prepping before the real baking start. Have already prepped 2 batches of swiss buttercream [I think I need make another], 2 batches of cream cheese frosting [for sure I need another], lemon curd, raspberry jam, steeped the milk with earl grey tea and measure out 3 batches of dry ingredients. 

I'm still working out what I'm making, this is what I have committed to so far:

• Earl Grey cupcakes with lemon curd filling and cream cheese frosting
• Strawberry cupcakes with strawberry jam filling and strawberry cream cheese frosting
• Blackberry Jam cupcakes with vanilla swiss buttercream
• Red Velvet cupcake with chocolate ganache filling and cream cheese frosting
• Chocolate cupcake with fudgy chocolate frosting [may have a little surprise filling]
• I'm thinking of doing an apple spice cupcake or orange cupcake that probably will be the last batch I'll make

And I'm hoping that I get all of these done so I can whip up a couple of batches of macarons for the restaurant as valentine's promotion. I haven't even promoted that yet as I don't know if I can make it. But if I do, it will be raspberry and meyer lemon macarons. I'm making them smaller than I've testing so I can give out 1 per person or 2 per couple. There will be lots of piping in my future--my arm already hurt.

Okay, off I go to prep some almond flour for my macarons. I have faith that I can do it all. Pictures to come. 

My last vacation day of the year

that was Friday wasI spent most of it baking, prepping and cleaning. I started off baking for the restaurant; cheesecake and coffee creme brulee. Our staples at the restaurant. 

Once that was done I started on prepping for today, a day of baking and jamming. 

First up swiss buttercream for my second attempt at macarons. A little of a disaster as it just wasn't coming together. My butter was too cold. looked like it crudled. After a little bit a reasearch [thank you  Confections of a Foodie Bride], I got it to work. I'm thinking vanilla macarons with vanilla buttercream and raspberry jam [another thing I worked on].

Next up was to slice up the meyer lemons for my marmalade. Needed to sit over night in water. That's on my stove at moment. This is for holiday gifts. I made this last year for the restaurant. I'm working off this recipe from One Green Generation, made a few adjustments, let's see how it comes out. Here's a pic of it cooking away.

Then raspberries for jam. I do my jam in 2 parts. I boil up my jam and melt the sugar then let the fruit sit overnight in the sugary syrup. Then next morning I cook it up. I don't know I think I get better result from this method. As a mention before, I'm think of using the jam for my 2nd attempt at macarons. I got 3 8oz bottles from 1 1/2lb. of raspberries. I even ran it through a food mill to get most of the seeds out. Maybe one of the jars will be a holiday gift.

While the raspberries were on the stove, I mixed up a batch of cream cheese frosting, for some cupcakes I'll bake today or tomorrow. Need to be prepared.

And last but not least, I roasted my last batch of sweet potatoes I got from the farmers market. I'm still deciding what to make with these potatoes, pie or doughnuts?

Mixed in with kitchen madness is constantly wiping and washing. My hands are so chapped and dry even with my new re-moisturizing method--coconut oil. I got a big bottle of it from Costco. Been reading about for a while. Mainly about how get it was for dry scalp which I suffer from during the winter. I figure I try and and see how it works out. I'm giving it time so I'll give you my review in a couple of months.

Oh--I forgot to mention I made some persimmon jam last week. I wanted to try it as my mom really loves persimmons [kaki in japanese]. I over cooked it and it looks very dark [sad though I love the bright orange color of the persimmon] but has an intense flavor and so sweet. I made 3 lbs of kaki with 5 1/2 cups of sugar. I think next time, I'll minus 1/2 cup of sugar and wait slightly longer so the kaki is a little more soft, so I don't over cook. Got 4 1/2 8oz bottles. I think it's okay on a great piece of bread toasted with butter. I know a couple of people who love persimmons so I get their review.



I'll better go. My marmalade is cooking on the stove now. My house smells of meyer lemons. I think I should get tons at least 6 bottles. Thinking of bring out of retirement, my chai cupcakes with marmalade filling and cardamon spice cream cheese frosting for the restaurant.