Motherhood impending last year, Mr Cherryspoon and I decided on a baby moon. We were also two minutes away from having construction on our house, I think you know we’re I’m getting at here, we needed a budget getaway, so we opted for a short cruise. It was alright but that’s besides point, the point is it sailed from Boston and amidst all the cool historical sites we saw walking around downtown we stumbled upon Sweet Cupcakes.

We sat down for a little bit in a beautiful shop and tried two cupcakes, it was June so the these are from their Summer menu. The person behind the counter suggested I tried the strawberry shortcake which I did, and upon viewing a beautiful pink cupcake with a matching darling straw on top I just had to get that one too.

The cupcakes were very tasty and fresh, the Pink Lemonade was not just beautiful, it tasted exactly like Pink Lemonade. (delicious, summery, tart and a little too sweet!) The star of this event, however, really was the Strawberry Shortcake cupcake. This cupcake had the most amazing preserve filling I have ever tasted. If you like fresh strawberries (and who doesn’t!), that’s exactly what it tasted like, this will be your cupcake, it was so delicious I just… I can’t even…see? It was that amazing.

The guy at the counter also pointed out to me that recipe for the preserve was in their book.

Kids, I’m lucky that I have many close friends that I can count on and love dearly. I even have many best friends, but I do have a bestest friend, someone whom I’ve known since I was 16 and, like me, she can laugh at all the curve balls life throws at us (and there have been too many…). This lady is very particular about sweets, she doesn’t like anything too sweet, in fact she even says she doesn’t like desserts. The nerve!

I baked her the cake above! The flavoring was tricky, since only thing she could bring herself to say about desserts is that she loves Blueberry Muffins. Technically a breakfast food, but mama takes what she can get! I pureed blueberries and folded into white cake, it was a very subtle taste but she said it was the most personalized cake she ever had and it was ALL gone in minutes.

The frosting was MY ABSOLUTE FAVORITE Stabilized Whipped Cream, because it’s versatile ( I folded in Lemon Curd, but the possibilities are endless! ), not overly sweet and way lighter than Buttercream.

Full disclosure:
I made this cake almost a year ago, bestie was visiting because I had just found out I had a bun in my oven! Since then we had a bathroom and dining room redo, that made us move to a hotel for 2 months, a hurricane and a baby boy! Baby Edgar was born 11/8/2012. She even visited again, spending Christmas with us! No cakes to report this time, though.

If you make this yourself let me know how it goes and if you tweaked anything, while these are delicious maybe next time I’ll add more sugar.

Red Velvet Shortbread Cookies

Ingredients:

• 6 oz Sugar
• 14 oz Butter (Room Temperature)
• 18 oz Flour
• 1 Tablespoon Cocoa
• 1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
• dash of Salt
• dash of Citric Acid (This replaces the vinegar usually used in the Cake Batter)
• Red Food Coloring

Preheat oven to 350F.

Cream the Butter and Sugar until light and Fluffy. Add the Cocoa, Vanilla, Salt and Citric Acid. Add the Flour slowly until the dough is cohesive and forms a ball, lastly add Red Food Coloring until desired color is achieved. (Don’t go to crazy, a cookie will never be as Red as the Cake)

Shape Dough into a log, wrap, refrigerate for at least 30 minutes, slice cookies to desired thickness.

Bake until set, check them every 10 minutes.

The finishing touch is your call, kid! Enjoy!

Brigadeiros are little truffle like sweets every Brazilian knows how to make by heart, they are ubiquitous to any party, specially a kids parties! You can only eat them after they cut the cake, but I always steal a few from the table, before we sing Happy Birthday.

I humbly theorize that cupcake bakeries inspired the many stores now available in Brazil (at least in the state of São Paulo) that only sell Brigadeiros! Brigadeiros of every variation possible, and I had the opportunity to sit at a Brigaderia, drink really good Espresso and share five of these variations with my very awesome Mom.

Being extremely biased towards Dark Chocolate I will tell that of course, it was my favorite, the White Chocolate Passion fruit coming in close second. We also had a Brazil Nut one that was divine (my Mom’s fave), and traditional one and a Capuccino one that was only ok.  The store’s look and packaging is also really killer, it’s Paisley heaven and our table was was delightfully orange as you can see!

America’s test Kitchen posted a great recipe for them here.
…And if you understand Portuguese and can withstand a very messy flash website this is the Brigaderia website.

While I’m not really a newlywed (7 years anniversary this year!), husband and I spend a lot of time in the kitchen baking and cooking together, he is a Mise en Place wizard, he makes killer Gnocchi and he’s cute too!

We made this Bread Pudding on a cold Sunday afternoon, you however, should make it any day of the week and not only will you get to enjoy this delicious, comforting dessert, your house will smell delightful as it bakes away in your oven.

Sarah suggest you to:

Eat this warm or at room temperature, when the chocolate chunks are still warm enough to melt away the biggest worries of your week.

I agree with her!

Chocolate Bread-&-Butter Pudding
From The Newlywed Cookbook
Reprinted with permission from Sarah Copeland and Chronicle Books

Serves 4 to 6

6 oz/170 g bittersweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
4 tbsp/44 g unsalted butter {at room temperature}, plus more for brushing
7 oz/200 g pugliese or rustic white bread {about 1/2 loaf}, cut in 1/4-in/6-mm-thick slices
3 large eggs
3 large egg yolks
1/4 cup/50 g packed brown sugar
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon, plus more for sprinkling
Pinch of fine sea salt
2 3/4 cups/ 660 ml half-and-half/half cream
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
1 tbsp turbinado or coarse sugar

Preheat the oven to 350˚F/180˚C/gas 4.

Sprinkle 3/4 cup/90 g of the chocolate all over the bottom of a 7- by-11-in/ 17–by-28-cm baking dish.

Spread the butter on one side of the bread slices. Place the buttered bread on top of the chocolate, overlapping at the edges in a single layer like shingles.

Whisk together the eggs, yolks, sugar, cinnamon, and salt in a medium bowl. Stir in the half-and-half/half cream and vanilla and whisk to combine well. Pour the custard over the bread, and press any floating bread slices down into the custard to ensure the custard will soak all of the bread. Sprinkle the remaining chocolate pieces over the top, tucking them into the custard slightly to fill in the gaps where the bread meets. Set aside for 20 minutes to soak. Sprinkle coarse sugar over the top and dust very lightly with cinnamon.

Place the pan inside a roasting pan filled with 1 in/2.5 cm or so of warm water (the water should come about halfway up the sides of the baking dish. Bake until the custard is just set but a touch wobbly in the center and the pudding puffs slightly, about 55 minutes.

Let the pudding cool for about 15 minutes. Serve warm.

Enjoy!!

Giveaway Rules (Now Closed!)

Chronicle Books is providing one copy of The Newlywed Cookbook, by Sarah Copeland to be given to the winner.

Who can Enter

Open only to residents of the USA 18 and older.

Until When Can You Enter

Until Thursday, February 16th, 3:30 pm EST.

How to Enter:

Leave a comment below — one entry per email address please.

How Winner Will Be Chosen:

The winner will be chosen at Random.org and will be notified via email, he will have 48 hours to respond to me, or a new winner will be chosen any duplicate comments will be deleted. (My comments are moderated, so please be patient if they don’t show up immediately.)

Good Luck!

Edit 02/09: Number 10 won!!! Congratulations Adele!!

Edit 02/23: Unfortunately Adele never got in touch with me, the new winner is Marcia! Congrats!!