Hey everyone!

It’s time to celebrate!!! Sugar for the Brain just turned 1 At this very moment last year I was posting my first ever blog post: Peanut butter filled chocolate cookies. It was a great moment and I don’t regret it at all! A lot of sweets have gone in my belly since then (and my boyfriend’s, and my family’s, and my friend’s, etc.), a lot of photos have been pinned, a lot of chocolate have been used and a lot of item have been added to my Dessert To Do List. It was an awesome blogging year! I think it’s time for a retrospective!

First things first
I was lucky enough to get my first picture (Peanut butter filled chocolate cookies) accepted on Foodgawker. Maybe that wasn’t a good start because it had me think that all my pictures would be accepted *sigh*. You know what I mean right? I remember getting quite frustrated when my photo got rejected and very stressed out waiting for the answer! Today I thank them so very much for rejecting my photos and giving me feedback to improve them (on the contrary, TasteSpotting always write “composition” which isn’t helpful at all! I assure you that at first there were bigger problems with my photos than composition ). Without them I guess I would still be thinking that my pictures are well exposed and have a good composition when they don’t (I’m getting the trick with the lighting now, most of the time, but composition is still tricky and I really go with my instinct!). And yes I’m still getting rejected from time to time by Foodgawker and almost all the time by TasteSpotting I’m not getting upset anymore about that and you shouldn’t either

A photo please?
So you might wonder, if you have followed me for a while, why there is no pictures of me here. *Ahem* Well, it’s mostly because I usually don’t like myself on pictures and didn’t feel comfortable showing you this so-so portrait. So for all of you curious reader, I’m working on that I did have this nice picture I wanted to post today, but it was corrupted or something, I wasn’t able to edit it (I guess this is what Freud calls “acte manqué” or “faulty act”). Anyway, after one year I’m ready to show off This reminds me of all the back and forth I did before starting Sugar for the Brain. I never told you that it took me more than a year to decide to go live. I was worried about many things (I usually am, but I’m improving!) : not having time to post, nobody would care, the passion would fade away and I would deceive my followers, etc, etc. So glad I surpassed these fears! Yes from time to time I get really busy and regretfully have to postpone a next post, but I tell you I will be back and you play along (hopefully) As for the readers, well, I now have 2 500 fans on facebook, which is completely amazing! I can’t thank you enough for that. And there is the twitter followers, the rss feed followers, and all of you who are coming from all over the Web Thank you so much!

What’s next?

• Improve my photography skills:  I need to find some time to practice and read photography books. Oh and I need to make money to buy props too!!
• Improve my caramel skills. What?! Improve?! To improve you have to have some skills in the first place right? OK, so develop my caramel skills I really want to do homemade caramel!!!
• Check a couple of desserts off my To Do List (I guess it won’t change anything since I will add many more items along the way!)
• So many other things that I cannot think of right now!

Milestones of the year

• Posting the Decorated Cake Roll Tutorial and getting to 1000 fans in a couple of hours on Facebook!
• Succeeding in doing Pate a choux! Yeah!
• Discovering the food community on facebook (like 2 months ago duh!), so much great people loving food, cakes and chocolate!
• Having 2 photos in a row getting accepted on TasteSpotting (I just have 6 photos accepted so far but I didn’t submit all of them, at one point I just let it go and dind’t submit anymore!).
• I guess it doesn’t really count for this year since it’s not posted yet, but I made a guest post for a website that you might know Can’t wait for you to see it! Coming up in September!
• And finally of course reading all your sweet comments Keep them coming, they always make my day! This is truly the perfect pastime Thanks to each and every one of you xxxxxx

(Smiley overload!!!)

Here is the recipe that I made to celebrate this event!

Chocolate Cupcakes with Raspberry Filling Topped with Caramelized Meringue
One Bowl Chocolate Cake
Adapted from Sing for your Supper
Yield : 24 cupcakes

• 2 eggs
• 1 cup milk
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
• 2 cups sugar
• 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup cocoa
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup boiling water

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line cupcake pans with liners.
In a large bowl beat all the ingredient except for the boiling water on medium speed for 2 minutes.
Stir in boiling water (batter will be very thin).
Divide into cupcake liners.
Bake 20 to 25 minutes or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean.
Cool 10 minutes; remove from pans to wire racks. Cool completely.

Raspberry filling
Adapted from My Recipes

• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 1/2 cup fresh raspberries
• 1 (16-oz.) package powdered sugar

(You won’t need all the recipe to fill the cupcakes, I made a tiny batch )
Beat butter and raspberries at medium speed until creamy.

Gradually add powdered sugar, beating at low speed until blended and smooth after each addition.

Italian meringue
Adapted from Taste

• 1/2 cups sugar
• 1/4 cup water
• 4 egg whites, at room temperature

Stir the sugar and water in a saucepan over low heat until sugar dissolves.

Increase heat to medium-high.
Cook, without stirring, for 3-5 minutes or until the mixture reaches 115°C.
While the syrup continues to cook, use an electric beater to whisk egg whites and cream of tartar in a bowl until soft peaks form. When the syrup reaches 120°C and with the beater on low speed, gradually add syrup to egg white mixture. Increase speed to high. Whisk until thick, glossy and cool.

Assembly

Once cupcakes are cool, cut a cone shape hole in the cupcake.

Spoon the filling in the cupcake hole and add a raspberry.

Using a piping bag fitted with round nozzle (choose your favorite size), pipe peaks on top of the cupcakes. Use a blowtorch to caramelise the meringue (the fun part ).