Seashells, seashells, by the sea shore

You got me, that's not how the tongue twister goes. But, I've got something better than a tongue twister. I've got cupcakes! Not just any old cupcakes. I have sea shore cupcakes! These little cuppies were very simple to make. All you need are cupcakes, buttercream, a chocolate mold, and some chocolate wafers.

Melt your wafers using your preferred method - microwave, melting pot, or double boiler - and pour the chocolate into your mold. Pop the mold into the freezer for the chocolate to set. For me it took about 20 minutes because I was impatient. Then you pop those suckers out and lay it onto your swirl of frosting.

Now, you'll notice my shells aren't monotone. Personally, I'm not a fan of pure white shells. Why, you ask? Have you been to the beach? Did you ever find a snow white shell? In case you're wondering, I really do mean on the beach, and not something found in a store that was probably bleached.I thought not. Most shells aren't pure white. They have some color to them - so why should mine be any different?

Regardless of how you like your shells, these cupcakes are a great way to say goodbye to summer and ready yourself for fall...unless of course you live in Hawai'i and it's summer all year round!

The danger of reality baking tv

Do you watch reality tv? What about shows such as Cake Boss, Amazing Wedding Cakes, etc? I do. I can spend an entire weekend watching them even if they are repeats. Yes, it's horrifyingly true - I have no life. Watching these shows does 2 things: it teaches me how to cake and it gives me crazy ideas about ingredients that I obsess over.

One such show is DC Cupcakes. Granted, I only watched half of an episode but it was enough. The sisters were shopping and tasted hibiscus syrup. Yes, hibiscus! Who knew hibiscus was edible? I grew up around the flower (how could I not, being from Hawai'i?) but I never thought to eat one. Of course I then needed to find some syrup. That's the advantage of working for a grocery store - I went to the office and bothered - *ahem* excuse me asked - the Natural Foods department if they had any. No luck there. So then I asked the Gourmet division, which, incidentally share the same assistant so yes, I bothered her twice. No luck. She did however tell me that I should stop watching food tv because I would always ask her about specialty ingredients which we never seem to have.

So what's an obsessive baker to do? Figure out how to make my own syrup of course! I found some dried hibiscus (which was actually very easy to find) and experimented. The dried flowers turned my syrup into a pretty pink color so I went with pink macaron shells with a white chocolate/hibiscus ganache. Unfortunately the pink syrup didn't translate well with the white chocolate so I had to add some color to pink it back up. I also ended up with lilikoi macarons and a...wait for it...this is a long one...a chocolate hazelnut macaron with vanilla bean/fleur de sel caramel filling.

I'm thinking macarons are going to be a part of the Christmas gifts this year. Yes, I know it's August but really, it's right around the corner and I've got more flavors in the works. Besides, if you're over on the East Coast, wouldn't some tropical flavor macarons make you feel warm and fuzzy inside while it's freezing and blustery (using my Winnie the Pooh words here,) outside?

And now I am off on vacation, heading towards what we Hawai'i folk call "the 9th island," then it's right back here to deal with more egg whites and almond flour. I'm warning you - there may be more macaron posts ahead!

Oh and I also have my version of a maple bacon cupcake but more on that later. My flight is tomorrow and I still haven't packed. Oops!