On top of two graduate level classes and an internship I was also invited back to my old office to help out as a part-time temp while they were training a new employee and while a co-worker who had an accident was recovering. So, add that 16 hour a week part-time job to my 12 hour internship and two grad classes and that equals exhaustion, burnout, and no blogging!
Lucky for you (and for me) one of my instructors canceled the second half of the week's worth of forum postings, so here we are!
I've been craving Spain lately and kept thinking of some of my favorite Spanish flavors...saffron, almonds, and oranges, in particular. I didn't have anything in my cookbooks, so I went back to my staple "cookbook"...Google.
For the honey almond cupcake I referenced this site: http://picnicchick.blogspot.com/2011/10/honey-almond-cupcakes-anyone.html
Honey is one of my favorite things ever. When I was teaching abroad this summer in Valencia, Spain, we went on an excursion to a nearby city named Cuenca where I bought some incredible local orange blossom honey. It was hard not to bust that jar open and dig in, but I waited patiently so that I could bring it back to the states to enjoy it over a longer period of time.
For the saffron buttercream I referenced this site: http://www.cupcakeproject.com/2008/02/saffon-cupcakes-golden-threads-make.html
The only difference to the icing was that I scraped two vanilla beans and added those. I figured saffron-infused butter was enough of a pop that it didn't need anything else too fancy.
So, just a short blog post. It's hard work to document every step of the process, so no extra photos this time. Sorry! If you have any questions, please leave a comment and I'll get back with you!
