Sometimes, don't you need to just do something scrumptiously frivolous?
Something perfectly Victorian?
Lovely.
Wonderful.
I do.
It's fun to just step out of everyday life from time to time.
So you can imagine my thoughts when I saw my two big patches of violets in full bloom.
The thing about these violets is that, they are extra special.
You see, when I was from 1-7 years old, we lived in this old little charming neighborhood.
In a red brick gingerbread house on a hill.
Where kids rode their bikes all around.
The Shamrock delivery man lived down the street, and he'd sell you a little plastic cup of ice-cream with a wooden spoon, for 25 cents.
Kids trick or treated by the boat load full.
The front door was always open.
Kids running in and out after school.
You ran across the street to play all afternoon.
You were safe.
Times were idyllic.
Childhood was the real deal.
My mom had beautiful flowers and succulents in her garden.
And gobs and gobs of violets.
When we moved to the middle of nowhere desert, my mom transplanted lots of her violets to my grandma's garden.
Those violets still grow in my grandma's garden today.
So, about 3 years ago, my gran and I dug up some violets in her garden, and I brought them to my garden.
Where they are now thriving.
So, these violets are extra extra special to me.
I picked a few with stems, and popped them into water.
Then I searched for a candied violet recipe.
I used this recipe, which gives you two options.
I opted for the non egg white mixture.
Just dipped in sugar water, sprinkled with caster sugar.
Then placed on wax paper to dry for 24+ hours.
The violets when picked, smell like faint sweet grape candy.
Just what they taste like when candied.
So lovely.
I decided to surprise Mister Lovee.
Chocolate butter-cream cream cheese cupcakes.
With candied violets.
I think candied flowers just stole my heart.
Some hot tea in the garden after trimming trees for ML…
And chocolate.
Yumm.
The frosting was outrageous.
I just winged it on a whim, and I think it's going to be my go to frosting now.
The ingredients are so wrong, they're right :)
I just plopped the following into a bowl and mixered.
ButterCreamCheese Frosting
1 – stick real butter (salted)
1 – 8oz. package cream cheese
3 cups powdered sugar
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons vanilla
Whip softened butter and cream cheese for about 4 minutes.
(I used a hand mixer)
Then add sugar, salt and vanilla.
Whip until fluffy (4 minutes).
Done.
(adjust sugar and vanilla to your liking)
Of course, I had lots of cupcakes left over.
So I decorated the rest, and sent them off with Mister Lovee to the office.
I didn't put violets on the office ones though.
You never know about allergies people have etc.
Cupcakes are the epitome of pretty things, aren't they?
I confess, I used a devil's food cake box mixture for the cakelets.
But the frosting made up for it.
I hope.
🙂
And now I am freaked out because it's Friday.
And I don't know what happened to my week.
Where does the time go, seriously?
I ask.
Matty is crying at me, must go for now.
(There was a blog service glitch, and I lost this post 2 times today. Let's hope it works this time.)
Looove, V
The cupcakes with violets look so pretty. Perfect for a tea party.
If you have any viewers from the east coast, I’d like to wish them well in the coming days. Good luck to everyone out there, some getting over 2 feet of snow! We haven’t even gotten 2 inches at one time this year. I can’t imagine 2-3 feet!
You won’t be seeing any violets peeking out over there.
It’s always nice to have flowers from another place or from someone else’s garden.
My sis-in-law has a friendship garden with plants she got from other people.
I saw Miles & Matty’s art print. How cute is that! Now they will be even more famous!
Oh yes Laura, lots of well wishes to anyone in winter storms for
sure!! We are getting some weather here too, but just wind and rain.
Temps will drop from 70F to 50F they say. Everyone stay safe!!!
xoxo
Blog: http://www.aFancifulTwist.com
Website: http://www.VanessaValencia.com
In a message dated 2/8/2013 7:01:52 P.M. US Mountain Standard Time,
Your post worked!!! Thats the good news ……bad news is i don’t know what caster sugar is??? But candied violets sounds WONDERFUL! 🙂 V i just finished my Enchanted Crystal Tree the other day and posted on my blog. I think you will LOVE it. I’d love it if you’d pop over and take a peek when you get a minute. Hugs! deb
learningtojustbreathe.blogspot.com
Hiya! Caster sugar is either bakers sugar, or superfine sugar.
Its just a bit finer than everyday granulated sugar. I often just pop
some granulated sugar in my food processor for a few seconds, if I am out
😉
I will visit you for sure!!
Blog: http://www.aFancifulTwist.com
Website: http://www.VanessaValencia.com
In a message dated 2/8/2013 9:59:51 P.M. US Mountain Standard Time,
Oh my goodness Vanessa!!! These cupcakes looks so scrumptious!!!! I will be baking this week, although I am doing a red velvet batter. Me thinks I will use your buttercream cheese icing recipe🖤
Happy Valentine’s Day my love!!!
xoxo
Dena
Happy early v-day lovely Dena!!! 😉
Blog: http://www.aFancifulTwist.com
Website: http://www.VanessaValencia.com
In a message dated 2/8/2013 11:14:32 P.M. US Mountain Standard Time,
Such beautiful candied violets! And those are obviously really special violets, with all the memories and family love they bring with them 🙂 They make the perfect topping for those yummy looking cupcakes, scrumptious in the extreme! Have a lovely weekend V. It’s deep deep snow in the Devon countryside with us! (see Kiki and the Gypsy for the evidence!)
Emalina, it is 5 a.m. here, and I am wide awake in the dark. WHY? Because I heard wind and noise knocking things down outside. So I woke up, and decided to go outside and make sure my car windows were closed because it had been raining. It was spring warm all week, so I put my flip-flop sandals on and stepped outside. It was then that I felt very cold, and thought, wow, it’s colder than normal. So, I walked into the yard from the porch, and the ground was white. You got it. Snow! It was sleevless weather yesterday. Arizona is so weird, haha!! Now off to visit Devon…
Love the story about the violets from your grandmother thriving in your home. And the buttercream frosting looks and sounds divine! Must try it. Am sure Mr. Lovee was thrilled with the unexpected treat! xoxox
Cakelets! Only in the Magical World of Vanessa 🖤 You could write A Fanciful Twisted Dictionary! OOoooo with drawings describing each Vanessa-ism. Please put me on the pre-publication order list. Now I must go wipe the drool off my chin. DeLovely Cakelets. **blows kisses** Deb
Ohhh Vanessa:
I adore inherited flowers! They have so much history and meaning and heart in their roots.
I haven’t seen an actual violet in years. My mom always had a patch or two around our little house in Los Angeles county, but when my parents moved “back home” to Northwest Arkansas, she left all her flowers behind. Well, everything except her gorgeous Azaleas….which her across the street neighbor inherited.
You know what? I actually like boxed cake mix for the most part. It’s so light and fluffy (and easy).
I’m copying your icing recipe for the next time I make a chocolate cake. My kids love cream cheese icing.
xoxo
Kim
Gerushia’s New World
P.S. Thanks for being you.
Vanessa ~ Violets & a Gingerbread House…..sounds so charming. What special memories ~ children don’t seem to even be playing outside any more…..
I went to a tea given by an 84 year old woman & when I saw the miniature cupcakes she made with lavender essenced frosting & tiny candied violets….they really touched my heart. Violets are so old fashioned. She used an old movie tin to store them in!
I put buttermilk in cake mixes instead of water & they’re even better ~ but who cares what’s underneath with that frosting recipe of yours! I love coming here…..it’s always cozy
OH, I love this……LOVE THIS!!!!
Of course, I have a little namesake running around the house that would love this, too. These are perfect. Just perfect.
We have wild violets out in the woods. They’ve started leafing out but no flowers yet. We have white ones, too. The deep dark purple ones are my favorite, though.
I can’t wait to try these when they finally bloom. Great post, V.
Kim, this is a test, are you getting this in your e-mail box also??
Blog: http://www.aFancifulTwist.com
Website: http://www.VanessaValencia.com
In a message dated 2/9/2013 1:15:43 P.M. US Mountain Standard Time,
Always such a sweet magical experience to visit your place, Vanessa. I can always smell the lovely fragrance from here… 🙂
i too grew up with violets in my grandmas garden and went searching for a plant to put in my little gardent. so happy to say that my violet plant is HUGE and in winter gave me many a good posy for my bud vases. i actually have a picture of my violets as my screensaver~_~…they remind me of my grandmother which just makes my souls soar when i smell their scent and think of my ‘mama’.
i must try the candied viloets in winter when my little bushlet comes alive with purple treats. thanks xxxxrosey
Vanessa, I have to say I am teary eyed thinking how these beautiful cupcakes were graced with such little but well loved inherited violets! Just precious how they came about! Your frosting is such a fresh and pretty white color too and I am sure scrumptious on top devils food!
I had violets in Ca. but not now living here in Phoenix they just would not last. Trade offs are hard you know for a gal that worked in a floral shop years ago and loves plants. I can’t complain seeing the snow elsewhere though! I would literally die if I had to live in snow. Nice thing to visit that snow but only for a visit!
Miss V is that a new piece above your cupcake platter? ADORABLE Face! Love all the colors next to the cuppycakes too!;)
Referring back to your test. Nope… still no email.
xoxo
Kim
Oh, I absolutely love your candied violets! Absolute gorgeousness with a wonderful story of days gone by and beautiful memories to accompany those purply blooms. I am so glad you were able to continue the growing of them from one yard and era to another. That is really special.
Early morning snow, what a magical surprise! Better put something thicker than those flip flops on! Enjoy it sweetheart 🙂
Miss Linda Diane, I so agree. That is what I love about them the
most. How they were first my moms, then my grandmas, and nowI have
some of those violets myself. When I showed my mom how the violets were
doing, she kept saying, this makes me so happy, oh, this makes me sooo happy,
my violets in your garden.
It is almost like, they were being held safe at my grandmas for the day I
would take some. I feel like I have a little piece of my moms garden, and
our early lives at that gingerbread house with me now. Plus a piece of my
gran who cared for them the last 30 years.
Makes me all sappy and snifflerjust thinking about it 😉
Blog: http://www.aFancifulTwist.com
Website: http://www.VanessaValencia.com
In a message dated 2/10/2013 5:29:27 A.M. US Mountain Standard Time,
This is Typepad Support testing your comments. Please feel free to delete this.
Hello Kymberlie, I am responding to the test 🙂
In a message dated 2/10/2013 12:46:20 P.M. US Mountain Standard Time,
I love candied (and all edible flowers) violets. And that yours have ancestry attached, makes them special Don’t worry at all about the packaged mix. I was (still am) a huge Julia Child fan. I remember her once saying it was perfectly acceptable to have to use a cake mix now and again, though she did prefer homemade frostings since they tend to be less sweet.
Thanks for the thoughts about the Northeast. I feel so badly for those people in NJ and NY who are still suffering from the afftects of Super Storm Sandy. But for the people of N.E., this blizzard didn’t do much harm. The blizzard here on the coast of Maine left over 2 feet of snow. This morning I snowshoed for 2 hours with the Atlantic Ocean as my view! Such good fortune, I felt.
The other day we got about 11 inches of the beautiful white stuff…Today it is 40…The weather here in Michigan is a never-ending story. Now, just as long as it doesn’t freeze…
I love all your sweet treats, candied violets….Yummmmm.
thank you for sharing.
Wow…how did I miss seeing this post on Friday? And here it is Sunday already! What a crazy weekend!
The sugared violet cupcakes look divine, especially with Devil’s Food Cake cupcakes and white frosting (which I need to copy your recipe…thank you so much for sharing your made-up recipes!)
As soon as our weather warms up a bit more with no more frost, I expect my ‘volunteer’ violets will be blooming soon! They are the first sign that the fairies are at work in my flower beds. I love the fragrance of wild violets. It is so special you have transferred the violets from home to home over the years.
Have a very lovely week!
Miss Teresa
Miss Kelly, I agree, I like a little cold sometimes. Otherwise, I
like sunshine. It was FREEZING here today. I made that mask about 7
years ago. I used to makes oodles of clay masks and sold them at my
shows. I have so much art and masks I have made over the years (20+ years
of art piles up big time, haha!). I just decided I would start rotating
things here and there so I dont forget about them 😉
Blog: http://www.aFancifulTwist.com
Website: http://www.VanessaValencia.com
In a message dated 2/9/2013 8:01:18 P.M. US Mountain Standard Time,
What a beautiful, beautiful post, dear Vanessa! (Are your posts ever not beautiful…hee)
I love this….and I want to thank you, because as much as I have always wanted to make candied flowers…the egg whites put me off! But what do you know…there is an egg-free way to do it…YIPPEE! 🙂
The frosting sounds amazing too…
Thank you for the inspiration!
Sparkly blessings,
– Irina
We love chocolate cupcakes with cream cheese frosting.
Violets grow wild here-everywhere. I love to see them in early spring.
I love your description of the neighborhood and the carefree innocence that we’ve lost in certain parts of America. Also, my grandmother loves to grow plants, flowers and vegetables. She always has some lovely things in her flower garden, usually Hydrangeas. I don’t think violets can grow in her area? What plant zone are you in? I’m in 9-10 and while the tropical heat can keep a lot more alive here in the winter, sadly it’s brutal to delicate flowers like violets. I’d love to have an entire garden-bed full of violets, peonies and dahlias. Your pictures of the violets in the sugar remind me of snow…so pretty.
Misha,these violets are cold weather violets actually. I
am zone 8, but my high elevation does have us freeze more often than 20 minutes
away. We have to build huts for our citrus trees and such. My
violets only bloombigin late January. Weird right? They
LOVE the cold. ps: I ADORE hydrangeas!!!!
Blog: http://www.aFancifulTwist.com
Website: http://www.VanessaValencia.com
In a message dated 2/11/2013 4:30:26 A.M. US Mountain Standard Time,
Oh yummy yummy yum yum! Those cakes look delicious and I’m a huge fan of candied flowers, they always look so pretty.
Oh my those look scrumptious! I love a good bit of Victorian tradition every now and then. Everything you make is just so lovely, I am not even that big of a cake fan, but I would eat those up. If you ever have any extra delectables you need to dispose of, feel free to send em on down the road to me!