Shame and Sore Feet: 2013's Plant Sale

My dear people,

It is with great regret and shame that I am coming to you here today. For I have unintentionally neglected Purple Door Kitchen's blog these past few weeks. And I honestly have no excuse for why I have done so. I mean, there is the fact that I had tests and papers and projects (oh look, more tests and papers and projects. It isn't over! Heh.) Or that I'm leaving for Brazil in less than a month and there have been crazy missions meetings and fundraisers and general busy-ness for that. (Oh yay oh yay oh yay oh yay, I'm SO excited for that trip!) But despite the lack of posts here, I have still been kitchen oriented, you know...I made raspberry lemon cake the other day. And before that I made some bread, and there was a last weekend where I made 100 cupcakes, 20 sugar cookies, 80 filled croissants, and 36 cake pops.

Oh you didn't hear about that? Yeahhhh...
Every year, the Saturday before Mother's day our cute little town of Duvall holds a Plant Sale. It's the first big outdoorsy event of the year. The precursor to the Big Rock Classic Car Show, Fireman's Pancake Breakfast, Dirty Paws festival in the park, Duvall Days, Summerstage, Sandblast, Quilt Walk, Heritage Day...
Okay. You get the idea. We like lots of fun activities because we are fun people who try and take advantage of the three months of sun we are so benevolently blessed with here in the Pacific Northwest.

"Sunshine" cupcake: Lemon cake, lemon curd, lemon buttercream and candied lemon peel. Doesn't get any better than this, peeps.

So yes. Plant Sale.
For the past three years, I've been the food vendor at the Duvall Plant Sale. It's fun! Also completely-over-the-top-I'm-going-to-die-stressful and exhausting. Everything has to be fresh and not stale and 100% delicious, but there is only one baker: me! and I do it all in my parents' spacious kitchen so they are forced to eat takeout or pizza for two or three days while I inconvenience them. (Sorry guys! I love you and I promise this is THE last year. I know I said that last year and I went back on my word but I promise it's for real this time.)

Tie Dye Sugar cookies! They are as big as your face and possibly the most fun thing you'll eat this week.

 But it is really really fun. Once I get past the fact that I can't feel the lower half of my legs because I haven't sat down in 26 hours. But I play my tunes full blast in the kitchen and line up counter tops and tables and shelves with boxes of baked goods. By the end of both Thursday and Friday I am covered head to toe in some form of either sugar or flour. And the actual booth is fun to run, too. People will come up and tell me how pretty everything looks, and then they pay me to eat it! Sometimes I get called "The cupcake girl" and that makes me happy.

Boxes of yummy.

 The only sad thing about the day is that I'm usually so busy/tired that I take zero pictures. It's a tragedy really because I think my booth is about the classiest thing since champagne, but you know. (GUYS! I even have an old door that I found and painted purple. My booth actually has a purple door, it's fantastic.)
But alas, this really is the last year for me. I'm moving out this fall and next year I won't have the resources or the time to throw myself into baking for three entire days since I'll be enrolled full time in the School of Education at my university. :( Sad news. But good news! Because I'm sure something equally as fun and exciting and challenging will come my way in the next year! Right? It always does. Til then...I can thankfully enjoy having feeling back in my feet.

April's Favorites

I have been on the brink of death.
Seriously. I thought I was going to die. At one point I wanted to very very bad.
I had the flu. And then I had a sinus infection, and then I went to the walk in clinic, scratch that, the next day I went to the Emergency Room. IV in, meds taken, I slept for 48 hours.
I am finally (THANK JESUS) back on my feet. I'm ready to start baking and blogging once more!
Man, I've missed it. Really really missed it.
Same way I missed being able to breathe through my nose or stand up without my head turning to a raging pain. Ohhh...it's good to be back. It's like the world is an oyster and everything is pearls. (That could very well be a side effect of the nice cocktail of meds I've been downing for the past two weeks, but it's okay. :D)
Sadly, I have no new recipes to blog. :( This is the only really bad thing about the world right now. Otherwise I am a new woman. ;)

So that whole paragraph was to make you feel sorry for me and forgive me for being a bit behind with "April's Favorites". Jumping right in...
We will skip the list of fun activities and such since we have already established that most of April was indeed me lying wrapped blankets and scarves, eating soup, swallowing pills and sleeping at odd hours. Annnnndddd so!
April's Pinterest Finds:

Oh my goodness! May is the first month of farmers market here in little Duvall.And it's tiny and lacks the big city farmer's market hoo-ha, but it's charming and I can not wait till Thursday when I will make my huge grinning appearance to buy flowers and honey and bread and veggies. I'm so excited. This print from etsy is charming too, yes?

 Since my mom has been trying to eat healthier lately, I think I might buy some flowers and surprise her with this garden cake instead of my traditional route of the sugar laden kind.

This blew my cupcake obsessed mind. Frosting in every bite? I should have discovered the true way to eat a cupcake so long ago...

Your March Favorites

Facebook's Favorite

 Orange Pistachio Almond Cupcakes

Pinterest's Favorite

Return of the Turtle Cake...I've got to make another one of these cute cakes...they seem to be popular. 

So here's to May!! It's here already, I know. And it's been absolutely 100% beautiful. I'm hoping the gorgeous weather and good health are both here to stay. ;)

Preppy College Girls and Chicken Nuggets

I have so many recipes backed up that I need to blog. I feel quite neglectful letting them stack one upon each other like forgotten or old magazines you'll never read again but can't really bring yourself to throw away...I promise to treat you better, dear recipes.

Two weeks ago (two weeks, ah! So long ago. So much shame.) I decided to venture out into the land of the unknown. It's become a thing. First ugly food, now deep fried savory things? It's bizarre. I don't even know who I AM any more. Okay. That's very much untrue and I'm being melodramatic because this is supposed to be a baking blog and BAM! I decide to heat a huge pan of oil and decorate my kitchen in little droplets of oil that refuse to be cleaned up without smearing over everything. Hot oil is like college aged preppy girls. (I sincerely apologize to everyone I will most definitely offend in the next few statements) It's loud, can cause drama flames to flare up very easily, and generally gets its issues all over everything and everyone within a certain vicinity. But you think it's your friend! So you try and clean up the mess and avoid more mess. Nope. It's impossible. Also, if there are any college aged jock dudes around, it's not too far behind.

Hot oil = preppy college girls.
Okay, I am being too harsh on my peers here. But there was a whole gaggle of them in the Student Union Building yesterday and they were singing Kesha out loud in the study area like they were God's musical gift to mankind. Break it down, shall we?
Study Area
People Trying to Study
Said people appreciating the quiet atmosphere to study in
Preppy girls in yoga pants/weird bun things on their heads singing Kesha
Off key
Oh. Sorry, that's Ke$ha...m'bad.
Candice has the urge to fry aforementioned yoga pants girls in very hot oil so they shut up.

AH! If you ever have an experience like this and you need something to ease your rage...you can go home and make homemade chicken nuggets and eat them all. Not saying I ate them all or anything. But if I did...I totally have an excuse and it is legitimate, I swear.

A while ago I saw some disgusting chicken nugget video about the process that chicken nuggets come to be. And I was all "EW! How awful! What is the world coming to? This is despicable and I refuse to ever purchase another chicken nugget!" and then maybe a week later I ordered like, 17 hundred chicken nuggets from McDonalds. Go me. My mom (eating a salad of course) made some comment to me as I munched those crispy little death morsels..."Weren't you just talking about that pink slime stuff the other day? The stuff that's in those? How do you eat it? Do you just distance yourself?"
Thanks mom. Calling me out and shaming me for my nugget addiction...the woman is wily, I tell you. I need to learn her crafty ways. Well! Lo and Behold!! Homemade nuggets. Tasty nuggets. Nuggets o' awesome.

Recipe for Nuggets O' Awesome:
4 chicken breasts cut to bite size pieces
1 cup of marinade*
2 1/2 cups flour
1/4 cup powdered sugar
4 tsp salt
1 tsp white pepper
1 tsp paprika
1/2 tsp celery seed
1 tsp onion powder
2 eggs
1/2 cup milk
Oil for frying
*I used 1 cup of dill pickle juice, but the chicken had a very pickley taste after frying. I thought that was awesome. But if you don't really like dill pickles, try using half a cup of pickle juice and something else to compliment it. I plan on using mild fruit juices or coke. (anyone ever had Coco cola chicken? Amazing.)
Marinate your chicken pieces in the marinade for at least four hours and up to 24 hours. Heat oil to 375 F in a large high sided skillet. In a small bowl whisk together the eggs and milk. Throw together all the dry ingredients into a gallon sized ziploc bag and shake it up to combine. Take your nuggets and dip them in in the eggy mixture, then throw them in the bag. Go to town shaking it...shake some more. Then shake off the excess from the chicken pieces and lay then in the hot oil to fry. Fry three or four at a time, don't let the oil get too hot or else they will burn. Fry about two to three minutes on each side and then drain them on layers of paper towels. 
Eat them as soon as you can without burning your fingers or the roof of your mouth. Because nothing quite ruins the eating experience when you have that burnt feeling on the roof of your mouth. 

Signs of Spring and Orange Pistachio Cupcakes

People.
Tulips are here. So are forget-me-nots. Also...the sun stays up til eight o'clock.
This means SPRING!
Okay, so it is still raining cold, hard, ugly rain and venturing outside usually means misery, but it's coming. There are signs. I love the signs.

So today being a Saturday completely to myself (my family is out of town) with zero obligations to the outside world I decided to wake up at 7 o clock in the morning and be HAPPY and PRODUCTIVE. (See  how those things are in caps? That means stuff just got real.) Do you know how much more time you have when you wake up at 7 instead of at ten? It's crazy...

So. What does HAPPY mean in my personal dictionary? It means making cupcakes. And cupcakes can kind of be productive, right? (I did three loads of laundry and cleaned all the bathrooms just to make sure I covered the PRODUCTIVE aspect of the morning. You know, just in case. I wanted there to be no doubts regarding the matter.)

Enter:
Happy Productive Signs of Spring Cupcakes;
Mandarin Orange and Pistachio Almond Cupcakes
So that's a long name. I'm sorry, you'll have to deal with it because all those words are important for everyone to understand how awesome these cupcakes are.
Fluffy almond cake: check

Juicy bits of mandarin oranges: check

Crunchy pistachios: check

Lightly sweet almond buttercream and cute springtime topping of orange segments and pistachios: check

Happiness and productivity: check

Now, decorating these cuties proved a challenge. I started with green tinted frosting. Because pistachio cupcakes=green. Understandable.

But it didn't look quite right. So I added orange tinted frosting to the equation. Better....But then I tried frosting them with just the plain white un-tinted frosting. I liked the way those ones looked best.

What can I say? I like simplicity. And it seems classier that way. But of course, when you make these yourself (You will be making these, right? RIGHT? Ok, good.) you can decorate them however you please. You can even skip all the trial and error of frosting tinting since I got that out of the way for you.

Mandarin Orange and Pistachio Almond Cupcakes (Makes 12)
1 1/2 cups flour
1/2 Tablespoon baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
6 Tablespoons unsalted butter
3/4 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp almond extract
1/4 c. buttermilk
2 cans mandarin oranges, with syrup
1/2 cup shelled and chopped pistachios
Preheat your oven to 350 F and line a muffin tin with cupcake liners. Whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt in medium bowl. Set aside. Open the cans of mandarin oranges and measure 1/4 of the syrup in to a small bowl. Add 1/4 cup of buttermilk to this syrup, set aside. Using mixer, cream butter and sugar until fluffy. Beat in eggs one at a time. Beat in vanilla and almond extract. Beat in the dry ingredients and milk/syrup mixture in 3 additions to the batter. Chop orange segments roughly to measure 1/2 cup. Fold with pistachios into the batter. 
Measure the batter into the muffin cups, filling 3/4 of the way full. Bake 20-25 minutes or until the tops spring back when lightly pressed. Let cool completely before frosting. Top with additional chopped pistachios and remaining mandarin orange segments.

Almond Buttercream Frosting:

1 lb powdered sugar

1/2 cup milk

1/4 tsp vanilla

1/4 tsp almond extract

1 stick of softened butter, cut into cubes

1/2 cup shortening

Whisk together sugar, vanilla, almond, and milk in stand mixer. Add butter one slice at a time, beating until incorporated. Add shortening and whip about 8 minutes until double. 

Me dealing with the Ugly: Oatmeal Raisin Cupcakes

You guys ready for some ugly food?
I love baking...because I feel that baked things tend to look prettier. I mean. C'mon. Cupcakes? They are probably the prettiest things you can eat. I'm having a hard time thinking of something that is cuter than a cupcake. And so I usually don't get super excited about shrimp scampi or meatloaf. It just isn't nice looking. Tasty, yes. Beautiful? Not so much.
But sometimes I try and work my way off the beaten path of the frilly baked goods and try to make ugly food. It's hard. It is so very hard.

My little artsy soul is repulsed by something so ugly as an Oatmeal Raisin Cupcake. Yes, my dear friends. I have created an UGLY cupcake. It's most likely a sign of impending doom. The end is coming. An ugly cupcake. Oh my oh my.

But then...I tasted it. And it kinda helped a little. Who am I kidding. It helped a lot, because it was darn scrumptious.
It was a little like a oatmeal cookie, but in a cupcake form. Doesn't that sound nice? Just make sure you close your eyes when you eat it so that the ugly doesn't have an effect on your taste buds.
Because oh my goodness, is it uhhhglee!

Oatmeal Raisin Cupcakes
1/2 cup of softened butter
1 1/2 cups of sugar
3 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup unsweetened applesauce
1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
1/4 cup of vanilla or plain yogurt
1 cup flour
1 1/2 cup of oats
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp salt
2 cup raisins
Cream together butter and sugar. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, scraping the sides of the bowl when needed. Add the vanilla, applesauce, yogurt, and vinegar. Beating until combined. In a separate bowl whisk together flour, oats, baking soda, baking powder, spices, and salt. Mix the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients slowly. Fold in the raisins. Fill cupcake liners 3/4 full and bake at 350 F for 20 minutes or until the tops bounce back when touched lightly.

Maple Glaze Icing
2 cups powdered sugar
2 Tablespoons of pure maple syrup
3 Tablespoons of water
Mix together all ingredients with a whisk. Add more water if needed. Drizzle on cooled cupcakes.

March's Favorites

Hurrah! Round two of monthly favorites here. March was a fun fun month. First off, EASTER. We have already established that Easter is the best day of the entire year. So, yes. Secondly, lots of exciting baking things happened. And thirdly, lots of NON baking (but just as exciting) things happened.

Exciting Non Baking things first:
Ruby The Berry 
Sadly, my trusty (kinda) dependable  car, Florence, finally bit the dust. Driving on the thruway something popped, everything rattled. And my car died. An adventure ensued, my mother got feisty with a police officer, the police officer got catty, diabetic glucose lows happened. Annnnnd. My car took one final trip to the dump. :( BUT! Just as all good things come to an end...more good things are right around the corner. Like this brand new happy red little vehicle named Ruby the Berry.

I love it. I have to pay 200 bucks a month for five years to have it, true. But I'm excited. I'm excited to have a car that isn't held together by zip ties, and I'm excited to be paying for my own things, making a way in the grown up world of adults, building up credit and all those things. And I'm able to do it all sporting a cute car!

Brazil Trip
Last week we had our first official Missions Meeting at our house on Sunday night. This June I and a team of people will be traveling to Brazil for a one of a kind missions trip. There is so much stirring and moving going on around this trip. Wayyyy too much for me to explain in one small post. I haven't been back to Brazil since high school, so that's five years of doubts and fears I'm dealing with. But also five years of giddiness and catching up to do with good old Brazil and me. There will be water filters, and boats on rivers, Portuguese (yikes!) and hopefully churrasco and guarana! Hurray Brazil food...I am very nervous and mostly looking forward to it with lots of excitement! More news to come...

Baking Things!!
Homemade Cheese:
Best. Time. Ever. Go find the recipe (oh look, a link! How convenient...) and make it as soon as humanly possible. It will change your life. It was my number one fun kitchen adventure this month.

March's Pinterest Finds:

Crocheted Apples...cutest snack in the world!

Homemade Fettuccine. Looks good, no?

A tutorial on how to make caramel swirls for decorating. I've got to try this. 

Your March Favorites:

Facebook Favorite:

Honey Peanut Cupcakes

Pinterest Favorite:

Bailey's Irish Mousse

I am SO looking forward to April! I can't wait for the warm weather and the sunny days, lighter flavors, more veggies and gardening...hope yours is just as wonderful to look forward to. :)

-Candice

Happy Easter!

And today, on the best Sunday of all, I give you pictures of lemon meringue cupcakes. 

And a boy fashioning a cross for the garden.

And a picture of spring unfurling.

Happiest of Happy Easters!

He is Risen...

Life has begun.