Chocolate Lavender Cupcakes

When I lived in Montreal, my lovely roommate Jessa was the first to introduce me to the concept of baking and cooking with flowers. Until this point in my life, I reveled in the bold colors, soft lines, and sweet scents of buds and blossoms, but it hadn't occurred to me just how delicate they could become in food. The subtle aromas, the muted tones, the calmness they brought to a flavor storm of complexity—it was beautiful.

It opened a new door to how I perceive and interact with food.

It started with a glass of lavender lemonade. Jessa brewed up a fresh batch in our small kitchen while I was away and greeted me with a tall glass when I arrived back home. I was hesitant at first. The scent of lavender reminds me of summer days and peaceful breezes, not sweet refreshments. However, after I took a sip, my opinion changed entirely. The subtle tones of lavender were the perfect match for a lemon's tart disposition.

[To this day, that lavender lemonade is the best lemonade I've ever had. When the weather gets warmer, I'll be certain to share it with you too.]

Later, Jessa introduced me to the small, quaint café Fuchsia, where I happened upon my first chocolate lavender cupcake. It was, undoubtedly, delicious, but deliciously simple. The cupcake wasn't covered in a sweet, buttercream frosting. It wasn't filled with lavender cream. A few lavender buds settled on top of the cupcake to reveal the secret within.

With a flavor so pure and effortless, it would be such a shame to cover it up.

These Chocolate Lavender Cupcakes have a delicate lavender tone that is not too perfumed or overwhelming. The chocolate and lavender complement each other well, creating a cupcake with a complex palate. Please be sure to use culinary lavender and not lavender labeled for another purpose, which may be sprayed with pesticides or coated in inedible solutions. Edible lavender can readily be found in most health food stores.

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Guest Post: Chocolate Clementine Cupcakes from Laura of Blogging Over Thyme

Today's post is brought to you by the fabulous Laura of Blogging Over Thyme. Not only is she a lovely new friend of mine, but she can bake up one mean cupcake (seriously, how cute are these?!). Show her some love!

When Kristin asked me to write a guest post, I was both honored and thrilled! Kristin’s fabulous recipes, stories, and photography have been such a source of inspiration to me and it has been such a pleasure to get to know her. With the holidays coming up, we both decided that something sweet was in order.

Christmas Day, at my house, is filled with tradition. After slowly waking up and greeting the morning, my family sits down at our kitchen table, where we feast on Italian panettone, fresh fruit and berries, and warm mugs of hot coffee. Pajamas, robes, and fuzzy socks are the official attire of the day. After eating breakfast, we head to the living room, where we grab our stockings and slowly open them, one gift at a time, attempting to prolong the process as long as possible.

Every year, my sisters and I reach our hands deep into our stockings and pull out a fresh clementine. Amidst all the other gifts, it is the most simple, but also the most sentimental. We usually end up munching on tons of fresh clementines throughout the holidays, leaving small trails of peel wherever we go, the smell of citrus lingering on our hands and fingers.

When I saw fresh clementines hit the shelves recently, I knew that I wanted to create a holiday dessert incorporating them and immediately began daydreaming up ideas. Chocolate was the next logical choice. Orange and chocolate is a classic combination and one of my all-time favorites.

Tarts, cookies, and cakes all came to mind, but cupcakes inevitably won for their portability, cute factor, and individual portion size. The next step was getting into my kitchen, cranking up the oven, and whipping up several trial and test batches. It instantly brought back memories of my days working at the bakery!

While some cupcakes can be heavy and leave you feeling weighed down, these cupcakes are surprisingly light and airy, while still being decadent and full of flavor. The cake is infused with clementine zest and orange extract, dipped in rich (72%) dark chocolate ganache, and topped with candied clementine slices (optional). These cupcakes have just the right amount of citrus and chocolate flavor, without either taste overwhelming the other.

When I took my first bite, I was instantly reminded of Terry’s Chocolate Oranges, a favorite childhood treat. These cupcakes, on the other hand, are a bit more sophisticated, special, and sure to impress your family and friends over the holidays. Enjoy!

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Pumpkin Chocolate Granola Bars

This morning I did something completely out of the ordinary. I took a break. After working nearly eighty hour work weeks for the last month (or three? They all seem to blur together), I haven't had much free time. I truly enjoy what I do at each job but, at the end of the day, there is such a thing as too much of a good thing. Or really, just too much. Though the end of this madness is in sight (hurry up January!), there is still another month of workaholic tendencies to attend to.

Today, however, I found myself with an entire morning with blissfully nothing to do. Four hours. Four hours doing absolutely nothing.

It was a beautiful, beautiful morning.

Truth be told, I'm not used to having free time so it took me a moment to fully settle into my lazy groove. I caught up on Gossip Girl, my favorite guilty pleasure, while eating up the last of the leftover Honey Cinnamon Roasted Chickpeas from Thanksgiving (these are so addictive!). When I had my fill of television, I took out the arts and crafts. Last Christmas I received a card making kit and for some reason I never got around to putting them together. So I put on a little Ella Fitzgerald, brought out the scissors and glue, and got to work.

This was on track to be one of the best mornings in a long time, except for one minor detail. Can you guess what was missing?

Chips and soda, people. Chips and soda.

I almost never eat chips or drink soda. Since my life tends to often be consumed by sweets (if this blog and the fact that I work in a bakery weren't enough of a hint already), I often try to eat as healthy as I can at home. While this means I occasionally snack on chips or soda instead of apple slices or water, I never eat or drink both at the same time.

This morning, however, was a special occasion. There were chips and soda, cards and crafts, and enough of these Pumpkin Chocolate Granola Bars to round out a meal called lunch.

Is this what heaven feels like?

What guilty pleasures do you like to indulge in when you have free time?

These Pumpkin Chocolate Granola Bars are a spin-off of the Pumpkin Granola I made earlier this autumn. These bars feature pumpkin, chocolate chips, almonds, dried cranberries, and flaked coconut, though you could certainly play around with ingredients to adapt the bars to your personal taste. Most of the sweetness in the bars comes from the chocolate chips and, without any butter or oil, they are even good for you. These granola bars make for a healthy snack or a quick breakfast on the go.

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