ORANGE BERGAMOT CUPCAKES

instead of using extracts or juice to flavor this cake, i used tea. yay! these cupcakes are verrry faintly flowery with a sweet orange buttercream on top. yum.

I FOUND IT AT ASIAN FOOD MARKET: JASMINE ESSENCE

spring is coming, and i found a teensy bit of inspiration at asian food market. i was browsing the spice section and found some intriguing flavor extracts. they were so cheap i had to get at leeeeeeast two of them. i went with jasmine essence and something called amyl acetate, which mimics a banana flavor. i had no clue what to use the jasmine for when i bought it, but by the time i got home i was ready to bake. jasmine green tea sounded good but i didn’t get any matcha powder, so i went with my second idea: orange blossom cupcakes. they use just a teensy bit of jasmine essence–just enough so it smells like an orange grove when you raise the cupcake to take a bite. yuuum.

CHIA SEED ADVENTURES & OSB SMOOTHIE

so chia seeds have been a thing for a while, right? with good reason, i guess. there’s a lot going on in them- lots of protein, fiber and omega-3s for their serving size (1 tablespoon). i’m on a bit of a smoothie bender again (smoothie, not juice. juice is for weenies) and i picked up my first chia seeds at trader joe’s the other day, so you can probably guess what happened. yeah. weird little buggy black specks in my tasty tasty.