So much to say...

I've been thinking a lot about these really simple salmon quesadillas we made for the first time a few weeks ago. they definitely can't be classified as sweets, but they are still fabulous and in my mind pretty consistently as of late.

My fabulous new necklace

I might post more in a little while, but I couldn't resist putting a picture of my new present all over the internet. i came home today and Aaron had gotten me this fabulous, fluorescent pink Alex+Chloe octopus necklace. I have been secretly lusting after their jewelry for some time now and am pretty stoked he found it for me! I don't mean to be too sappy, but....

A week later...

and my summer has begun. Finals are finally over, my grades are in, I've taken my requisite week-long "mental health break" consisting mostly of sleeping 10 hours per night and sitting on my couch, watching mindless reality television. I have to say, it was fabulous...and mildly full of baking.

I've been listening to She & Him obsessively and have at least one of their songs stuck in my head at a given moment. Aaron doesn't love it, I can assure you. He's sweet though, and pretends I'm not constantly singing. It really doesn't help the matter that everyone I work with is just as enamored by the band. The CD gets played at least once a day, and doubtlessly more.

In lieu of anything else significant to say this evening, I think I'll just show you pictures of cupcakes:

These, I made a month or two ago. I used the base recipe for peanut butter cupcakes I found in a cookbook my friend got me for Christmas. I doubled the amount of peanut butter, though, so the result was a really decadent pound [cup] cake. Half of the batch were topped with chocolate buttercream frosting and the other half with an improvised grape jelly frosting (peanut butter and jelly, get it?). Buttercream is sort of always improvised though, at least for me.

It's funny how after a while, "enough" seems to be an acceptable measurement of ingredients. I seem to be slowly getting the knack for "enough" with my cooking, but I'm still not quite there. The art of spicing food still basically eludes me. I'm unquestionably more the baker than the cook.

Cupcakes for dinner?

Sounds good.

First Day Jitters

Welcome to The Frosting on the Cake. Being, as it is, my very first day blogging, I'm a little nervous. Bear with me...

I woke up this morning, thinking about the vast amount of attention that cupcakes have received in the last several years. And why not? They're fabulous and portable and have become tiny canvases upon which to present endless combinations of flavor, color, and texture.

(Be sure to check out my links section for just a few of my favorite cupcake sites)

In any case, having only recently finished the first year of my graduate education, I assure you, I have made my fair share of cupcakes. In addition to (or most usually, instead of) working on reading assignments, research, and writing, I have found a remarkably great deal of time to devote to baking. This has included not only cupcakes, but other cakes, cookies, and pastries as well.

Though I don't currently have much procrastinating to do (being, as it is, the quarter break), I still spend an inordinate amount of time looking for new recipes, looking at pictures of glorious sweets, and looking forward to the next dessert to try. In the process, I tend to get waylaid by all the other interesting things the internet has to show me. Thus, while this blog may be the Frosting on the Cake, I have a feeling it'll be a reflection of all the other directions my mind wanders too.