christmas bake-off part two:

It all started with one little cupcake. Cute, right? Not scary at all.
A dark chocolate peppermint cupcake with vanilla buttercream and crumbled candy canes on top. Even used a nice recipe from the sadly defunct Gourmet as a tribute (with added peppermint extract).
But then, they started to multiply-- tiny, minty warriors.

All the while, I feel ashamed. Will I be overtaken by a monster of my own creation?

But I regained control and paired them off, two by two.

One hundred and twenty-six tiny cupcakes later, they became the perfect army of happy homemade Christmas joy.

dessert: two ways

Though I have ceased eating most baked goods, I still have a love for making them, so on occasion, I'll be posting here some of my sweeter experiments here for your post-meat-eating enjoyment.

This weekend, I finally made Pavlova, which I have been dying to try since seeing a lovely picture in the April 2009 issue of Gourmet magazine.

Here's the finished product--

Pavlova with Lemon Curd and Berries.

Slightly more ambitious than Friday night's cheater dessert, which was adapted from one of Martha Stewart's old recipes for Honeyed Fruit Tartlets using (gasp!) store-bought pastry crust.

Honeyed Plum Tartlet with Fresh Mint and Lime