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The Sweet Life
For those of you following my Instagram account, or my blog, or those who know me at all are aware that I have a sweet tooth. I always have. I always will. I grew up on strawberry milk in my sippy cup and munched on half moon cookies or anise toast when my mom felt like spoiling us kids. It's only natural that I also learned to feed my sweet tooth by learning to bake for myself, but I can't say it's been easy.
I remember getting the nerve to ask my mom to let me bake something myself. I pulled a box of lemon squares off the shelf at the grocery store sometime in middle school and when we got home I asked my mom if I could do it....alone. I remember her being a little hesitant - she was probably afraid I would burn the house down and rightly so - but she let me do it anyway. I heard somewhere that if you could read, then you could cook so I figured it would be simple, but apparently I wasn't reading very carefully. The box came with two packets; one for the filling and one for the crust. I confused the two and got so upset that I swore off cooking completely. My mom was able to salvage the dessert, but I was determined not to attempt any more baking projects.
( I made these for a sweet friend, Carmen Brandy, check out her blog here )
Right before high school my parents decided to get cable TV and we basically left the Food Network on 24/7. I didn't know that I was learning per se, but I really enjoyed watching Ina Garten make her beautiful French pastries and Alton Brown's science experiments with chocolate chip cookies. Slowly but surely I made my way back into the kitchen for fun projects. I remember one particular experiment making Paula Dean's recipe for Angel Sugar Cookies with a dear friend of mine. There is a photo that very accurately describes how I feel about that whole experience. It took 16 hours start to finish to make that batch of cookies and I remember being so thoroughly exhausted and collapsing into bed afterward. Although that batch of cookies took alllllllll day it sparked something in me and I found more recipes to try. My favorite recipes came from a BHG Special Edition magazine of all things cupcakes and that started the latest era of my baking journey.
( Oreo Death Star and Galactic Chocolate )
When I got the magazine I was still in high school, a senior I believe, and was looking for any excuse to try out the recipes. I put mini snickers in my little sister's birthday cupcakes and successfully made peanut butter and chocolate swirled frosting for my friend's birthday too. I experimented with some fondant (which I figured out I hated) and learned how to use piping bags and tips. Then my to-be mother-in-law showed enough faith in me to let me make cupcakes for a baby shower. Everyone was so encouraging and raved about the cupcakes. From then on I started making more and more cupcakes for family members' parties and eventually my in-laws ordered delivery boxes for the cupcakes and Lexi's Cupcakery was born.
The magazine had to be thrown away when a rotten banana was left on it and all the nasty seeped through most of the pages, but I didn't stop baking. By then Pinterest was open to the public to join - high five to those of you who applied for an invitation, I waited 2 weeks for that acceptance email - and the amount of cupcake recipes available was unreal. I ate it up...literally and figuratively.
( Chocolate Mint )
Lately I've been playing around with developing my own recipes and it's been a lot of fun and a whole new challenge. The funniest part about it is that more often than not I have many lemon bar moments like the one I experienced when I was younger. Baking is a science so it can take a few tries to get something right, but when you do it's super satisfying. Pretty soon you'll see some recipes coming up on the blog that I'm happy to say are originals. Let me know if you give them a try or have any tips to improve. A special thanks to my mom for letting me use your kitchen, your ingredients and your patience when I screwed stuff up; thanks to my mother-in-law for your encouragement and shameless plugs about my little side business; finally, thanks to my hubby for being my official taste tester. You guys are so sweet. ;)