Yummy Cupcakes

Photos by Karen at French Skinny

Today is Hubby's Birthday. Usually I love to make big, crazy or unusual cakes for the guys but Hubby didn't want a big who-ha so I used this excuse to visit the "Yummy Cupcakes" shop I pass by on my French Skinny walks.

It's a quaint little shop with big glass windows, allowing any passerby to watch them make these delightful little pieces of heaven.

Hubby chose the cupcake that looks like a Ding Dong (the one with swirly white on top). He let me have a taste and it WAS like a Ding Dong. But so much better.

The one with the marshmallow on top tasted like a Smore. They were all delicious.

Breakfast: 2 cups of black coffee.

Lunch: 10 Sweet Potato Fries (baked) dipped in Mayo.

Dinner: Pasta Carbonara and Cupcakes for dessert.

Shaboom's Pasta Carbonara Recipe

Boil pasta in big pot of salted water until al dente, then drain. Reserve a cup of the broth to add into your sauce later.

While you were boiling the pasta, you should have started (in a deep dish frying pan) to fry up some cubed or sliced panchetta (ham) in butter (or olive oil.) It only takes about 3 minutes to get the ham crispy and reduce the fat content. You can add fresh sliced garlic to the ham and cook for the last minute or two before you add the pasta if you want. Instead of panchetta, you can also use bacon. Don't tell Obsessed! that I'm bastardizing his recipe.

Once you've drained your pasta, throw it in with the buttery panchetta and toss for a minute or two in order to coat the pasta in your pork fat/butter mixture.

While you're preparing your pasta or your panchetta on the stove, in a bowl on the counter, crack some eggs. Obsessed! uses an egg yolk per person. (When I make it, I use the entire egg, so I take an egg per 2 people and then add an extra.) You beat the yolks together and add some salty pasta broth, parmesan and freshly ground black pepper until you get the right consistency. (Obsessed! adds the broth, cheese and pepper not to the eggs but directly to the pasta on the plate.)

If you're Obsessed!, you take the pasta/ham/butter/garlic mixture out of the pan and put directly onto your plates/bowls from which you'll be eating. You IMMEDIATELY add the egg yolks and mix into the pasta ham mixture. The heat of the pasta ham mixture cooks the egg which is why it's so important to not let the pasta cool down EVER during the process. Carbonara has to be served and eaten right away which is why it is rarely served in restaurants. Once you've turned the eggs into the pasta, you add some of the pasta broth to the plate to smooth it out. Add freshly grated Parmesan and grind some black pepper over your plate and serve. Voila!

When I used to make this dish, I found it easier to add the pepper, broth, parmesan, etc into the eggs before mixing it with the hot pasta. I would also add fresh parsley and/or corn and/or peas to the pasta ham mixture once it's on the plate. This makes Obsessed! cringe with embarrassment. If you find you are a fan of the French creamier version of carbonara, you can add cream to the egg mixture before adding it to the pasta.

When I cook, I always make way too much food. I don't know how it always happens that way, but it does. I am not going to get into how much pasta is appropriate per person, but I'm sure you have your own method of gauging. As

far as the other quantities are concerned, per person, I usually use a handful of panchetta cubes, a handful of corn and 2 tablespoons of grated parmesan.

This is Hubby's portion. My portion was one fourth the size.

One bite of Hubby's cupcake.

One bite of my kid's cupcake.

2 bites of the green cupcake.

I would love to say that I walked to the cupcake store but in all honesty it was too hot and I was too busy. Big walks and ridiculous amounts of stairs are a thing of the past. I'm now eating pasta and cupcakes but have increased the "indoor cardio". (Hubby's idea)