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Tuesday, March 8, 2011
Recipe / Priscilla Tsai / cupcake Earl Grey cupcakes with citrus Swiss meringue buttercream
Posted By Priscilla Tsai on Tue, Mar 8, 2011 at 8:00 AM
The reign of tea-flavored cupcakes continues.
Yesterday I posted a recipe for green tea cupcakes. Today, I'm sharing with you a recipe for Earl Grey-flavored cupcakes with a citrus Swiss meringue buttercream.
Earl Grey is a tea blend with a distinctive aroma and flavor due to the addition of oil from bergamot, a citrus fruit. I've always been curious as to what it might taste like in a cupcake, so here it is! To compliment the bergamot flavor, I paired the tea cupcake with a citrus frosting.
To create the Earl Grey flavor, I tore open three tea bags and gave the contents a whirl in my coffee grinder to finely grind up the tea leaves before adding it straight to the batter. When you bite into a cupcake, you'll see flecks of tea. To deepen the flavor, I also steeped one tea bag in the half cup of milk the recipe calls for. (Again, I used Magnolia Bakery's vanilla cupcake recipe as my base recipe.)
For the frosting, I went with a silky smooth Swiss meringue buttercream flavored with two types of citrus – lemon juice and orange zest. The resulting cupcakes were fragrant and floral.
Monday, March 7, 2011
Food News / free food / Priscilla Tsai Yo, I've got some Yoforia giftcards for you (UPDATE: Free fro-yo for grand opening)
Posted By Priscilla Tsai on Mon, Mar 7, 2011 at 12:45 PM
Hey, Yoforia lovers, did you know Yoforia's new store at Promenade on Providence (off I-485 and Providence) is now open? They opened last Tuesday, March 1, and will be hosting a grand opening event this Friday, March 11th from 5 p.m. to 11 p.m. You are invited to come out to enjoy a FREE 16 oz. yogurt with unlimited toppings.
It gets better than that...
I'm giving away a few $20 Yoforia gift cards to use at any of the Yoforia stores in town.
To win: I like to share my recipes with you guys each week, but now I want to see what you've got. Email me with your best tried-and-true recipe from your recipe box. (email me at priscilla.tsai@creativeloafing.com). I'll need your name, email, and mailing address, and a short description would be helpful, too.
From the submissions, I'll pick four winners based on the tastiest-sounding recipes. I'll pick one stand-out recipe to make and blog about, too.
Deadline for submissions: Friday, March 11.
One recipe per person, please.
Priscilla Tsai Green tea cupcakes
Posted By Priscilla Tsai on Mon, Mar 7, 2011 at 8:00 AM
Green tea-flavored foods make me happy ... like green tea ice cream, green tea Kit Kat bars, green tea popsicles, and green tea Swiss cake rolls.
If you love green tea too, you'll appreciate my newest cupcake creation: Green tea cupcakes made with matcha powder (aka. green tea). They are slightly green-tinged, which makes them appropriate for St. Patrick's day.
My original plan was to make a green tea cupcake and top it with toasted almond buttercream, but after baking and tasting the cake portion, I realized the subtle green tea flavor would be overwhelmed by other flavors. I went with a green tea frosting instead to enhance the green tea flavor of the cake.
The base cake recipe was adapted from Magnolia Bakery's vanilla cupcake recipe. I find that Magnolia's cupcake recipe always produces a good tight-crumbed cupcake, which is also easily adjustable to make different flavors. What's also a plus is that you don't even need to break out your measuring spoons – you don't need to measure any baking soda, powder, salt, or anything because it calls for self-rising flour.
For decor, I typed up and printed out funny fortunes. I laminated them with packaging type so they wouldn't get ruined by the frosting. I went with fortune cookie fortunes as garnishes because I figured green tea is associated to Chinese food, and Chinese food is associated with fortune cookies... makes sense, right?
(P.S. I you want more tea-flavored cupcakes, stay tuned ... a recipe for Earl Grey cupcakes will be posted tomorrow.)
Friday, March 4, 2011
Recipe / Contributors / Breakfast Buckwheat pancakes
Posted By Priscilla Tsai on Fri, Mar 4, 2011 at 8:00 AM
Here's something you can make for a healthy breakfast this weekend. Scrap those boxed pancakes mixes full of additives and try these natural buckwheat pancake instead.
You'd think buckwheat flour is a grass, but it's actually a seed. According to Wikipedia,"despite the common name and the grain-like use of the crop, buckwheat is not a cereal or grass. The grain is called a pseudocereal to emphasize that the plant is not related to wheat."
Gluten-free buckwheat is nutritious – it's packed with minerals and flavonoids, which act as antioxidants.
This recipe comes from the back of the Hodgson Mill bag of buckwheat flour. The pancakes came out light and fluffy, with a slight tang because I used buttermilk.
If you're looking for it at the grocery store, here's what the package looks like:
Buckwheat Pancakes
Ingredients:
1 cup buckwheat flour
1 tsp. baking powder
2 Tbsp. sugar
1/2 tsp. salt
1 egg beaten
1 cup milk
2 Tbsp. melted butter
Directions:
Preheat griddle of large skilled to 375 degrees, grease lightly with oil.
Griddle is ready when small drops of water sizzle and disappear almost immediately.
Mix dry ingredients together; add egg, milk and butter, beating well after each addition.
Pour 1/4 batter for each pancake onto hot griddle. Cook 1 to 1 1/2 minutes, turning when edges look cooked and bubbles begin to break on surface. Continue to cook 1 to 1 1/2 minutes or until golden brown.
(For buttermilk buckwheat pancakes, use the recipe above, but add in 1 tsp. baking soda and substitute buttermilk for milk.)
Wednesday, March 2, 2011
Events / free food Free cheese fondue at The Melting Pot
Posted By Priscilla Tsai on Wed, Mar 2, 2011 at 1:39 PM
Apparently there is a holiday for every food imaginable.
In celebration of National Cheese Fondue Day on April 11, The Melting Pot is giving away free cheese fondue April 11 - 14 (no purchase necessary).
The cheese fondue course (serves two people) is valued around $14 per selection. Reservations are required.
The Melting Pot
901 South Kings Drive #140, Charlotte - (704) 334-4400
230 East W T Harris Boulevard, Charlotte - (704) 548-2432
Events / Beer March 15: Beer dinner at Bask
Posted By Priscilla Tsai on Wed, Mar 2, 2011 at 11:12 AM
Charlotte Craft Beer Week is coming soon (March 11 - 20) and restaurants around town are offering beer dinners galore.
For CCBW, Bask at the N.C. Music Factory is offering a Brooklyn Brewery beer dinner at 7:30 pm on March 15, 2011. The price is $40 per person and the menu is as follows:
Smorgasbord / Events BLT's birthday means specials for you
Posted By Priscilla Tsai on Wed, Mar 2, 2011 at 10:39 AM
BLT Steak is celebrating its birthday on March 3, the birth date in 2004 of the original BLT Steak in Manhattan. Visit the BLT at the Ritz here in Charlotte this Thursday to get special birthday deals like filets, rib eye and New York strip steaks, Dover sole and signature blackboard main courses for a special price of $33.04.
They'll also have special prices for sides, desserts and cocktails, too. Sides like jalapeño mashed potatoes, creamy spinach and Hen of the Woods mushrooms, will be $3.03 instead of their normal $8-$10, and signature cocktails, regularly $14-$15, also will be $3.03. Desserts like peanut butter chocolate mousse with banana ice cream and crêpe soufflé with passion fruit sauce will be $3.03, also reduced from $10. Prices are for both lunch and dinner.
BLT Steak Charlotte
The Ritz-Carlton Charlotte
110 N. College Street
Charlotte, N.C., 28202.
704-972-4380
Tuesday, March 1, 2011
free food Happy National Pancake Day
Posted By Priscilla Tsai on Tue, Mar 1, 2011 at 12:02 PM
Eat some free pancakes from IHOP today in celebration of this flapjack holiday.
From the IHOP website:
Join IHOP on Tuesday, March 1, 2011, 7 a.m. - 10 p.m., for National Pancake Day and receive one complimentary short stack!* In return for the free flapjacks, we ask you to consider leaving a little something behind for Children's Miracle Network Hospitals and other designated local charities. Thanks to our guests' generosity, IHOP raised more than $2.1 million last year. IHOP began its National Pancake Day in 2006, and since then, has raised $5.35 million for Children's Miracle Network Hospitals and other local charities and given away more than 10.1 million buttermilk pancakes.*One short stack per guest, at participating restaurants.
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Recipe: Rose Water Tea Cookies 1
Cookies, tea and shouting. In that order. Ascending order.
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Dish on this: Charlotte-based chefs join ACF Culinary Team USA 2016
As fall approaches, local chefs prepare for a culinary battle in Germany.
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Recipe: Pomegranate Gingerbread Granola
Breakfast logic: Things that are crunchy are good. Granola is crunchy. Therefore, it is good.
