Grapefruit Cake with Grapefruit Buttercream

Lately I've had intense cravings for sour and tart foods. With my traditionally sweet and salty palate (with nary a deviation), this sudden change in taste took me (and my cupboards) by surprise. The cravings would hit me out of the blue. On long car rides, I suddenly found myself buying sour candy (a rarity for me) and finding myself disappointed at the lack of a face-scrunching flavor punch. "Sour" snacks were hardly sour enough to nix my cravings.

After hitting that particular dead end, I turned towards citrus fruits.

My grocery cart began filling up with lemons. I was buying six or seven at a time, determined to create a dessert with a sour taste so pungent even I could be satisfied. What I didn't account for was that baking usually includes sugar (and sugar often puts a stop to that sour hit I so desperately craved). I made lemon bars. Lemon cookies. Lemon cupcakes. Lemon poppy seed muffins, twice. Each time a new dessert was attempted, I used less and less sugar and added increasingly more lemon juice or zest.

Though they were all delicious in each individual form, they just weren't what I was looking for. They weren't sour.

I spent nearly $20 on lemons in a single month, with nothing to show for it. It was a rough period for me, as a baker. I felt defeated, defeated by such a simple craving. I assuaged my sorrows by eating lemon slices, but it was hardly the spectacular dessert I had imagined.

During my next foray to the supermarket, the grapefruit found me. I'm on sale, they shouted at me. Buy us! Eat us! We will be sour enough for you! The grapefruit was, in fact, right. If ever a food should scream out at you from the supermarket shelves, do take heed. Paired with a sour, plain Greek yogurt, I found my breakfast of champions. It was only a small step to turn these ingredients into a tart (and softly sweet) cake.

This cake is fresh, bright, with a flavor you can truly appreciate whether you simply love a good grapefruit or have spent a month and unaccountable dollars trying to replicate.

This Grapefruit Cake with Grapefruit Buttercream has an original flavor, both clean and pure. After the warm cake emerges from the oven, it is brushed with grapefruit juice which soaks deep into the layers, making an unbelievably moist and tender cake (with just a hint of true tartness). The Grapefruit Buttercream lends a sweeter aspect to this cake. Made with a grapefruit juice reduction, the sourness of the juice balances out the sweetness of the powdered sugar. This cake itself, however, is the true star and is lovely when enjoyed in the afternoon, when the sun is bright and thoughts of spring are on your mind.

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Cinnamon Sugar Cake with Brown Sugar Cinnamon Buttercream

We are creatures of habit.

Good habits, bad habits, healthy habits, poor habits—we have them all. Some we are proud of, like our ability to be someplace on time or flossing our teeth before bed each evening. Some we are ashamed of, like the amount of books we don't make time to read or how often we bite our nails. Some are hard to keep and others are hard to lose. We have hundreds of little habits and, whether we like it or not, they help to define us. They help us through the day.

I originally sat down to write a post about my cravings to have a sweet ending with every meal, but I soon realized I wrote about that exactly one year ago. Since I've been trying to eat healthier in the new year (as I attempt every year), I often feel my sweet cravings hold me back from my fantasy health food diet. I plan on eating carrot sticks and quinoa, but cake finds its way into my daydreams instead. Sweetness has become a habit, much to the chagrin of my dentist.

I have a few good habits I'm proud to share. I make time to exercise every week. I eat breakfast every morning. I try to find the positive in every situation. I also have a few habits I would like to break. I wish I had the motivation to be more productive. I wish I made more time for the people I care about. It is as easy for me to be cruel as to be kind.

It's easy to be hard on ourselves when we struggle to break our bad habits. Sometimes we actually change them and it's a true moment of self celebration. More often than not, however, we find our habits too difficult to alter, despite our best intentions. Does this make us bad people? No. Habits are habits for a reason—they are extremely difficult to change. Some are so ingrained in ourselves, our souls, that they have almost become involuntary.

Accepting our habits, for better or worse, is something we all must come to terms with at some point in our lives. Wanting to change our bad habits and turn them into positive ones is honorable. Realizing that these habits make us who we are, the big and the small, the significant or insignificant, may be the most important revelation of all.

This Cinnamon Sugar Cake is frosted with a sweet Brown Sugar Cinnamon Buttercream. The cake is made with sour cream, which lends a moist texture to the final product, but the cake itself is not very sweet. The brown sugar buttercream, however, is the perfect complement to the cinnamon sugar cake. The brown sugar addition gives the buttercream a slight grit, which is reminiscent of a warm piece of cinnamon sugar toast. This cake is an everyday cake to sweeten up your daily moments.

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Peppermint Pinwheels & Giveaway!

This year I decided to participate in The Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap hosted by Lindsay of Love & Olive Oil and Julie of The Little Kitchen. The idea is simple—make three dozen homemade cookies and mail them to three lucky bloggers, Secret Santa style. A few days later, I would find my own mailbox filled with boxes of homemade cookies. And the best part? I could enjoy them knowing someone out there made them especially for me.

When I first heard about this exchange back in October, I was immediately sold. How fun was this idea? Not only do I love sharing my baked goods with others, but I love getting packages in the mail. It was absolutely a win-win situation for me.

But, as the days ticked by, I struggled to come up with an idea for a cookie. I went to the library and picked up half a dozen cookbooks just on the subject of cookies. I flipped through each and every one, feeling more and more uninspired as I turned the pages. Even Martha Stewart, the goddess of all things sweet, couldn't spark my creative interest. As the weeks flew by and I found myself swallowed in work, original cookie ideas were simply lost to the wind.

When the date of the cookie swap finally loomed overhead, the month and a half I had to come up with a fun cookie idea was reduced to all of 10 minutes and restricted to the ingredients already in my kitchen. Out of this exigence, the idea for these Peppermint Pinwheels was born. While the idea may not be original, it doesn't make the pinwheel sandwiches any less fun (or delicious).

After baking and individually packaging each cookie for a safe journey across the country, I wished my cookies well on their journey, hoping the mouths to receive them would enjoy them as much as I did.

Inspired by the idea of a cookie exchange, I thought it would be fun to send out a dozen cookies to you. Yes, you! And so three of you lucky readers will find a box of handmade cookies sitting in your mailbox in the next week. I love getting mail and, when it just so happens to be edible mail, it just makes it that much more fun. I want to share in the season of giving with you!

To find a box of cookies on your doorstep...
1. Leave a comment below and tell me about your favorite holiday cookies. Make sure to include your email address when filling out the comment form so I can get ahold of you!
2. You must live in the United States or Canada. I unfortunately cannot afford to send cookies further away (and I fear they may arrive shattered after such a long journey).
3. The contest will end on Wednesday, December 14th at 10 pm (cst) and the winners will be chosen randomly and announced on Facebook and Twitter immediately thereafter (and on here Thursday morning).

Good luck!

Peppermint Pinwheels are bold and colorful holiday cookies. Featuring vanilla sugar cookies and peppermint buttercream frosting, the cookies have no shortage of flavor. The cookie sandwiches are surprisingly soft, making it difficult to eat just one. While pinwheel cookies may appear intimidating, just note that, if you can roll out dough for cut-out cookies, there is no reason you couldn't whip up a batch of these since the same concepts apply. Do not skimp on refrigerator time and these cookies should turn out just as beautiful for you!

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