Adventures in icing

Tonight, my lovely parents made a soda can chicken. Very tasty and moist! To accompany it, Z and I made some awesome loaded mashed potatoes and cupcakes with raspberry icing. Here's the goods:

LOADED MASHED POTATOES:

(feeds 4-6 people)

6 medium-sized red potatoes, washed and cubed (I imagine Yukon Gold would be good too)
3 tablespoons butter, softened
1-1.5 cups plain yogurt, unsweetened
6 pieces of bacon, crunchy and crumbled
3/4 cup shredded sharp Cheddar cheese
3 green onions, diced
heaping tablespoon of Dijon mustard (Trust that it will work, sounds crazy, but it adds a tangy flavor)
heaping tablespoon of minced garlic
salt and pepper, to taste

Boil potatoes until soft. Drain off the water, then mash potatoes using a hand mixer. Add yogurt and butter, mix until combined. Add remaining ingredients, mix well.

Record in your log books that today was the first time I've ever gone back for seconds on mashed potatoes. EVER. They were flavorful and interesting to eat. My main complaint on most other mashed potatoes is that they are blah and starchy and dry. Totally not so with these. :)


CUPCAKES:

(Fairy Cakes recipe from "How to be a Domestic Goddess" by Nigella Lawson)


1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
7 Tablespoons sugar
2 large eggs
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2-3 Tablespoons milk


Directions :

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

Line a 12 cup muffin tin with baking paper cups.

Put all the ingredients except for the milk into a food processor and blend until smooth.
Pulse while adding the milk down the funnel to make for a soft consistency. (I use the full 3 Tablespoons)

It doesn't seem like enough batter, but it will all work out, scrape every bit from the bowl and try to fill each cup equally.

Bake for 15-20 or until they are golden on top. It's best to start checking them at 12 minutes.


Cool on a wire rack, but remove from the tin as soon as possible.


RASPBERRY FROSTING:

1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter, softened
2 heaping tablespoons seedless raspberry jam
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
2 1/2 tablespoons milk
1 teaspoon raspberry extract

Cream butter and jam together. Alternately add powdered sugar and milk, beating to spreading consistency. Add small amount additional milk, if needed. Stir in raspberry extract. More milk makes a thinner, more glaze-like frosting, and less makes it thicker.

When cakes are cool, frost with the yum-tastic frosting. I sprinkled mine with pink sugar right before serving. MMMMM. The simplicity of the cake and the sweet tanginess of the frosting waltz together happily in your mouth. :D

It's getting colder outside, and that's exciting! More decadent and rich things coming soon...

Eat well!
~*~Jen