OmniVeggie

Sorry for the silence (Marshall). Please, let us move through the excuses and on to what is really the most important issue at hand....

Birthdays! In particular, my little sister Abbie's birthday! With sincere regret in my heart, I could not be with her to celebrate, so I did the next best thing.

Yesterday as I was walking out of the apartment, I encountered my upstairs neighbor and his wife, with their hands full of silver mylar balloons complete with curled ribbons, pink and purple wrapping paper, and excited faces. They revealed to me that it was their granddaughter was turning five years old and would be honored that evening with a party fit for a princess.

These neighbors are a source of endless smiles for Matthias and me, as they are always quick to point out the delicious smells that come wafting upstairs from our apartment below. And remember those chocolate hazelnut spice cookies? They were so rich, that twenty of them were entirely too many to eat in a week, and so we gladly gifted some upstairs. (They have requested lasagna, or veal, but we have yet to grant those wishes. Please don't get me started on veal...).

I asked if they would like me to make cookies or cupcakes for their party and their faces lit up and they enthusiastically consented.



And so, I set out to make cupcakes fit for a five year old little girl, with pressure for perfection, and a strange pang of longing to be five again once more with my gregarious little sister by my side. It was this nostalgia that led me to choose the recipe for Jamie Oliver's 'Tea-Party Cupcakes'. For you see, when we were small, one spring afternoon I very much wanted to have a tea-party, and several weeks before that, I had very much wanted my mom and dad to bring me a sister home from the hospital so that she could perform the role of guest at my very grand afternoon teas. My mom explained to me that Abbie was too small, but one day she would make a fabulous guest, and oh my goodness, what do you know? She wound up being my very best friend. So, it is on this April 26th that I give a five year old stranger, and my dearest wee sister the gift of tea parties and cupcakes and all other manner of little girl-ness so that they can both feel so delicate, because these tiny, lemony little cakes exemplify the word.




Tea Party Cupcakes
adapted from Cook with Jamie, by Jamie Oliver
yield: approximately 20 cupcakes

Ingredients
for cake:
1 cup unsalted organic butter, softened
2 cups flour
1 tsp. baking powder
.5 tsp. kosher salt
.75 cup + 2 tbsp. organic sugar
4 large free range organic eggs
zest of 1 lemon

for icing:
2.2 oz. fresh blueberries (or raspberries or strawberries)
1.5 cups powdered sugar
juice of 1 lemon

Preheat the oven to 375 F.
Combine flour, baking powder, and salt in a medium bowl. Set aside.
Beat the butter and sugar together until they are light and fluffy.
Add the eggs one at a time, fully combine them before adding the next.
Fold in flour and lemon zest, gently. Be careful not to overmix, you are essentially making a spongecake, but still, it should be delicate in the end, not gummy.

Spoon by heaping teaspoonful (the kind for eating, not measuring) into lined muffin tin.
Bake for 15 minutes, or until golden brown and springy to the touch.
Cool on a rack while you make the icing. (Which is just zizzing the berries in the food processor and adding them to the lemon juice and powdered sugar).
Use a teaspoon to drizzle the cupcakes with the icing. It will not be typical icing texture, don't fret. This makes it delicate and you don't feel like you have fur growing on your teeth when you are finished eating it, because there is nothing princess-like about that at all.
Garnish with fruit.




Happy 22nd Birthday, Sistercat!
Love, Sissy, Matthias, and Yossarian