Adding Lavender to Your Kitchen - Lavender Lemon Scones

It was 6:30 on Tuesday morning right after dropping off my daughter at school, I was driving back home and ready to enjoy my day off with my husband we both have been working like crazy in the past months, it was a looong wedding season for us. And soon we will be going in our two week vacation/honeymoon. Horray!
So, I knew that when I would be back home he would be still sleeping  and I wanted to surprise him with something yummy for breakfast. It came to my mind a lavender lemon scone recipe that I got a while ago but never actually tried to make it. So I got home with a purpose to make lavender scones went outside cut some fresh lavender flower from the garden, which is doing surprisingly well. I always prefer to use fresh instead of dried lavender I think it tastes a lot more floral when it's dried so I always need to watch out in the quantity and not let it taste like perfume. 
Trying my best in not to make too much noise I pulled out the ingredients to make the scones, did my scone and even decorate them with some lavender flowers before putting in the oven . Well, I like to serve and make pretty things for my family .And, I do believe we first eat with our eyes!
And by the time the scone were just about to come out of the oven I could smell the scent of lavender all over my kitchen.Ethan my husband got up and came downstairs to see what was going on in the kitchen. It must have been the delicious scent of baking with lavender that takes you back to spring..... then I had a second thought... No, I bet was the bacon that I just pull out of the oven and now was cooling down on a rack on the kitchen counter.
I hope you will enjoy this recipe, it's really easy to make it and so delicious you can serve with butter or jam or both!
Lavender Lemon Scones 
Ingredients: 

Makes about 10 scones

1 3/4 cups of all purpose flour
1/4 cup sugar
1 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt

zest and juice of 1/2 lemon

5 tablespoon butter

1/2 teaspoon  fresh lavender chopped

1/2 teaspoon honey
1/2 cup + 1 tablespoon of milk

How to make it:

Preheat oven to 375 F. In a bowl mix together flour, baking powder, sugar, baking soda,salt, lemon zest and lavender. Add in and mix butter until the texture resembles a coarse
meal. Mix together lemon juice with the milk and honey and add to the scone mixture. Combine until dough just comes together.

On a lightly floured surface, shape dough into a disc shape and just slice the disc into 10 pieces. Place scones on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Brush with remaining tablespoon of milk and sprinkle the tops lightly with some sugar decorate with lavender flowers. Bake for about 20 minutes or until lightly golden on the top.

Enjoy!

Pri =)

get all of the ingredients measured first 

after you add the butter you are looking for a coarse meal texture

Make it pretty!

just out of the oven

Yum!

And that's Ethan's breakfast!

Mexican chocolate cupcake with cayenne frosting AKA little devil cupcake

It feels like my last post was so long ago, but it's been only a little over a week.
 I was so busy running around decorating, inventing, baking for the Halloween Party at my house, which was a great hit among family and friend.I spend quite some time planing for it. We had great halloween food, spooky decor all around the house , and I was able to put together a horror movie trivia and dares for the losing team. What a great night!
One of the recipes that I did for the party was this mini  mexican chocolate cayenne cupcakes that was a big hit.
I decorated them adding red food coloring for the frosting and making horns a devilish tail with black fondant. I am going to share the recipe with you in this post,  and you can decorate just like I did or just to keep it simple depending that the occasion you are serving these cupcakes.

Mexican Chocolate and Cayenne Frosting Cupcake - AKA Little Devil Cupcake

I used mini muffin pan ,I think it's the best size for this little full of flavor treat.And this recipe makes about 36 mini cupcakes

Ingredients for the cake: 
1 cup all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt 
1/4 teaspoon ground cayenne pepper
1/2  cup hot water
1/2 cup  Abuelita hot cocoa powder( it's a delicious mexican style hot cocoa) 
3/4 cup sugar 
1 large egg
1/4 cup of vegetable oil 
1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
How to make it:
 Preheat oven to 350°F. Line a cupcake tin with cupcake liners. Set aside.
In a small bowl, whisk together flour, cinnamon, baking powder, salt and cayenne pepper. Set aside.
 In another small bowl, whisk together hot water and cocoa powder. Set aside.In a stand mixer, cream together butter and granulated sugar until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add egg, vegetable oil and vanilla extract, mixing until combined. Then mix in flour mixture, alternating with water/cocoa mixture, mixing until there are no lumps.Spoon batter into prepared tin, filling 3/4 full. Bake for 12-15 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
Remove from pan and let cool completely on a wire rack.

Ingredients for the frosting:
1 cup unsalted butter (2 sticks)softened (but not melted!) 
2 cups powdered sugar
1/4 teaspoons cinnamon 
1/4 teaspoon of ground cayenne pepper
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
3-4  tablespoons milk or heavy  cream 
Optional: for red color 1/2 teaspoon of red food coloring gel( you can find at Michaels)
Beat butter for a few minutes with a mixer with the paddle attachment on medium speed. Add the powdered sugar, and the rest of the ingredients and turn your mixer on the lowest speed (so the sugar doesn’t blow everywhere) until the sugar has been incorporated with the butter. Increase the speed and mix until you have a smooth consistency
Frost your cupcakes using a pastry bag and tip and decorate as you like it and have fun with it. Foundant devil's horns and tails or shaved chocolate and they are ready to be served. You can make it for Halloween ,Cinco the Mayo, bachelorette party , birthdays... any occasion!
Enjoy!
Pri =)

get all the ingredients measured first 

Alternate flour mix 

and the water/cocoa

batter is done!

Fill them up 3/4 of the way

Decorate as you like it with food coloring and devil horns 

or simply with chocolate shavings