Earl grey cupcakes with lemon buttercream frosting.

Yes, I baked again. Will this ever stop? I hope not!
I had some girls over for our church smallgroup last night and really wanted to try this new recipe I found over at Une-Deux Senses. Earl Grey cupcakes sounds a bit strange to me, but I like to try new things, and just rediscovered how much I enjoy a plain cup of Earl Grey tea.

The challenge was that 30 DTS students were coming today, so we have had lots of preparation to do the past week to get the base ready for their arrival. My hopes of leaving work at 4 were crushed, as I continued scrubbing floors and moving closets till about 5. Luckily, the lovely Anne Mari offered me a ride home, and on the way she decided we were going to Bergbys, the local fast food chain. I don't really mind fast food when it happens once every two months or so, and this was a nice treat, as I've never been there before. But then... today I am watching "Jamie Olivers food revolution", and it is scary to see what is in all that processed food. You won't see any chicken nuggets coming my way, thats for sure. There is a reason I like to make food from scratch, and this was a reminder.

I finally got home, after the not-so-fast-food-after-all, and shopping the essential and oh so healthy ingredients: sugar, brown sugar and some good old real butter. Cupcakes aren't hard to make, the challenge is to make them look good. Well, there are no pictures this time, and the cakes are all gone, so you will never see them either. The icing looked like a 5 year old did it, so I'm okay with this pictureless post. But most importantly, they tasted good. Buttercream is very rich, which is no shocker, so two of those light fluffy things should have been my limit. With good company and some steaming Earl Grey in rose patterned vintage china I had to have another one, so three it was (four would have been outrageous, my body would not have handled all that sugar).

Today was a clean slate (just like my arms would be the perfect white canvas for a tattoo, according to Hope. Dont know if I agree with that though) and for dinner I tried Andreas Viestads recipe for tomato sauce. Nothing revolutionary really, but small things were new, like sautéing some of the tomato with sugar on high heat to caramelize it before adding the rest of them to simmer. Then I served it with pasta and fish cakes, which sounds strange, I know, but I like fish cakes. All this happened while the students entered the YWAM Skien prison doors. A new school year has started, and I wonder what it will all bring. At least I know I look forward to some transformation of lives, hearing good teaching, new friends, seeing and hearing Loren and Darlene Cunningham live and lots of good stories.