For those of you not familiar, let me introduce you to the fritatta.  A frittata is an Italian-style omelet and, in my opinion, is much easier to make than the traditional French version.   Like omelets, frittatas can be made with endless combinations of cheeses, meats, and vegetables.  The ease of preparation for the frittata is two fold.  First of all, a fritatta is made in a skillet, and as long as the skillet is large enough, can feed a group.  (Those of you who have ever tried to serve omelets to order for a crowd know its not the easiest or most efficient way to serve brunch to a group.  And I certainly don’t recommend it!)  Second of all, the frittata does not need the constant attention of an omelet, and finishes baking in the oven.  You get the best of both worlds with frittatas – ease of preparation and it still tastes as great as its cousin, the omelet. (more…)

As promised, although slightly late, here is one option for using all of those perfectly ripe summer strawberries.  These fresh strawberry cupcakes certainly let the sweetness of the strawberry shine.  I used white cake and filled the cupcakes with berries marinated in sugar, grand marnier, mint and orange zest.  Surprisingly so, these additions really help to make the flavor of the berry pop and add some depth to the overall taste.  To top the cupcakes, I made a fresh strawberry buttercream.  Using my traditional Italian Buttercream recipe (post to come soon), I added fresh, mashed strawberries.  The juices from the mashing helped to not only flavor but also color the buttercream a perfectly pale pink.  I purposely mashed the berries instead of pureeing them because I also wanted small pieces of the strawberry throughout the buttercream.  If you are going to go to all the trouble of making fresh strawberry buttercream, you may as well show it off, right?  To finish up, I adorned each cupcake with a small perfect berry (stems attached, for that just from the farm look) and there you have it.

Recipe: Fresh Strawberry Cupcakes

Chocolate Wedding Cake with White Scrolls

I made this three-tiered cake at work a couple of weeks ago.  Chocolate through and through, this simple cake was chocolate, layered with chocolate mousse, then iced with chocolate buttercream.   Classic white scrolls were piped on the sides of the cake for an elegant design.  Because the cake was made at work (The Crown Market), it is a kosher wedding cake.