I’m sure I am not the only one who knows how frustrating it is to find the perfect recipe, start making it, and then realize that I am out of a crucial ingredient. (What’s that? You don’t make recipes without double-checking that you have all the ingredients on hand? Well, aren’t you special.)

Because there is nothing more annoying than having to run to the grocery store and leave your raw cookie batter sitting on the counter, I took the liberty of putting together a handy-dandy substitution cheat sheet of things you can use when you find yourself without the genuine article.

For self-rising flour, substitute flour with baking powder and salt. Self-rising flour is really just a fancy name for flour that already has baking powder and salt added, so you can cheat the system by adding those things yourself. For each cup of flour, just throw in 1 ½ tsp baking powder and about ½ tsp salt.

For cream/half-and-half, substitute milk. Keep in mind that this will only work sometimes. Milk is a lot thinner than cream and has a lot less fat (added health bonus), but that also means that it doesn’t behave the same way. For a recipe in which you’re mixing everything together anyway (quiche), it will work fine, but it’s not going to get you anywhere if you pour it in a bowl and try to whip it into real fluffy cream. If you don’t have regular milk, try using buttermilk, yogurt, or sour cream. Read More »

When you hear the words raspberry and lemon together, you can’t help getting a little excited. But when you throw in the word cupcakes, all bets are off and you know you have to have them. Even if you have to bake them yourself.

The cover of April’s Bon Appetit magazine just screamed spring to me and I made those cover cupcakes within a few days of receiving the magazine. And I’ll probably make them several more times this spring…and summer….and maybe even into fall and winter too. They were that good.

Here’s what you’ll need to make Lemon-Rasberry Cupcakes: Read More »