I'll be making cupcakes for Scott's birthday so I've decided I want to learn more about types of cake (or, more specifically, cupcake) frosting. I got The All New Joy of Cooking from the library, and The Cake Bible is on it's way. I'm trying to learn more of the basics of cakes so I have a solid place to come from when I, say, want to fill them with goopy cream. Are there any good baking books that start at the begining I should consult? I'm interested in the chemical process stuff as well. And I want to wish the best to those I know who travelled all the way to NYC to sell at the Renegade Craft Fair in Brooklyn. If you anywhere within driving distance you gotta go, Amy Sedaris is baking the cupcakes!

Last week I tried to keep the house as clean as possible. I told myself it was because I need to develop better habits but I knew it was because I knew the landlords (who are spectacularly nice people) were in town and if they wanted to meet I wouldn't have to rush around hiding dirty dishes. I failed except for one five minute period where all the dishes in the house were simultaneously clean for the first time ever. I have been trying to summon up the energy to clear out the stuff we don't use anymore. It's not going well.

Lavender Week Three update -- I think the lavender is ready! I'm ridiculously proud of this, which is strange because I have never done anything to care for the plant and a month ago I didn't even know what it was. Here's fresh cut from last weekend, Week 3 Then yesterday I noticed that just a few of the buds on the plant had popped open into flowers so I cut some more. Here is Week 3 And Five Days: I'm interested to see how the new batches dry. I am paying attention to see if there is increased bee activity around the plants but so far the bees seem to be ignoring them. According to a tag on some lavender at a garden shop, the type growing in my front yard is Lavender Grappenhall. (The cameraphone is really handy for recording things like this.) Some new tips people wrote in with were to wait until the lavender is showing as much purple as possible, with that in mind I think I can go another week perhaps. Also, Jake wrote to tell me about an Alton Brown method (also mentioned in this article at Wired) that involves sticking herbs beween air condioning filters, strapping those to a box fan and letting it run two hours per side making your house smell nice in the process.

Cupcakes Take The Cake has been teasing us with photographs of these chocolate-covered hi-hat cupcakes since last week, and mercifully there is a write up including recipes about them here at Gothamist Cooks. The recipe is from the book Cupcakes! by Elinor Klivans which I've been seeing all over the place and must get for myself.

Last week I posted asking if my lavender was ready to cut. I got a lot of responses (thank you to everybody!) and the hive mind seemed to agree it needed another week if it was a sunny week. Well, it wasn't sunny but for the purposes of experimentation I cut some more. So far the fresh cut lavender smells more lavender-y but I suspect it's still too early. week 2 cut: week 1 is still drying, and not looking so hot: Other bits of advice included wait until the very first of the flowers pop open, cut only on a dry day, for best potency cut in late morning or afternoon, hang in a dry dark place, cut just above where the leaves or side flowers (??) branch off, about eight inches, and wait until you notice more bees than usual paying attention to the plant.

Cool Tools gave high marks to this compact Brother sewing machine with a free arm that you can find for around $70.

Check out this Star Wars cookie made by Blair Fukumura. So cool.

Last year I went a little crazy because the Gap (of all places) was selling something I had wanted for years - a flip flop type shoe without that between the toes thong action. It was called the Ribbon Slide, and it was perfect. I'm embarrassed to tell you how many pairs I bought. If by any chance you are like me (and I know you're out there since I got a bit of mail last year about these shoes) the slides are available in Gap Outlet stores right now, and come in colors combinations of green with pink, blue with lighter blue and maroon with pink. I talk about them a bit more on my mostly ignored (by me) I can't wear flip flops page. The outlet stores are also carrying those colorful jelly totes from last year. Oh and clothes or something. Thanks go out to Molly for letting me know they turned up again!

I have been looking around for a small round table to fit in our small kitchen, and later (when we move) to use outdoors. My conditions were: no holes*, no larger than 30", as close to $50 as possible. After looking through lots of outdoor furniture listings for bistro tables I came up with two I liked. A 24" silver folding bistro table from CB2. This is the one we bought because it'll be easy to move and store, yay. Colorful retroish 24" tables at Target in red (also yellow and sky blue). Not available in the Target stores, I learned after taking a trip to two stores looking for this. * As for an umbrella. Also no openwork table tops -- this was ruled out after I managed to drop peanut sauce on my toes twice during an outdoor dining experience.

Last weekend I made a mini version of the Martha Stewart Coconut Layer Cake. I was going to make cupcakes but then I found small 4" cake pans just calling to me when I was looking for a big 8-cup Pyrex measuring cup (to microwave oatmeal in, works well if left uncovered). I had enough batter to make some mini cakes using some strange hybrid Wilton mini muffin/tartlet shaped pans I bought in a moment of weakness some time ago. It turned out well considering I halved the recipe, didn't use pastry flour or ultrafine sugar, and used the cursed Wilton pans. I considered making it blue but decided against it when I discovered I didn't actually have any blue food coloring in the house. Check out how it looked like a Big Mac when being assembled!

File under Lifehacker? A month back I broke (safety glass like shards down the sink disposal!) one of my frequently used and loved nesting glass bowls. After being sad I spotted individual bowls that looked the same at Mrs. Cook's. I came home and took a cameraphone picture of the imprint on the bottom of my bowls and traced the sizes of the bowls surrounding the broken one onto a sheet of paper. Back to the shop and I was able to find out the bowls were the very same brand, and it was easy to figure out which size was the missing one.

Do you know anything about growing and drying lavender? Good, I need your help. I have a lavender plant in the front but I'm not quite sure what it will look like when it's ready to cut. The sources I've found (and, ok, I haven't been to the library yet) say to cut it either before the first bud opens or before the first flower opens. So I'm going to ask you: Is my lavender ready to cut? If you can tell please let me know: notmarthaATgmailDOTcom, my huge thanks. Too soon? Do I want to wait for one of those little purple tubes to pop open into a flower and then hack all the stuff off? Do I want it to look more like the lavender in the picture on this page? Some places said the lavender will continue to open as it dries so I didn't want to wait too long. Lavender related pages I've found so far: How to dry lavender at Cat Smith, Culinary uses for lavender at The Master Gardeners, some ABC News article Lavender Libations with recipes for lavender lemonade and bath stuff. Martha Stewart pages say to cut when about a third of the buds have opened, and HGTV on making lavender wands.