Yeah, yeah, I’ll post my signing schedule for SDCC at some point soon, but first can I say how INCREDIBLY TICKLED I AM that my cupcakes made the Cupcakes Take the Cake blog??

Of course, now I’m all like, “Oh no! I should have take better pictures!” And written more about the cupcake I did manage to post.  Etc.  It’s like when someone comes over and you wish you’d known they were coming so you could’ve run the vacuum first.

Nikol posted a How To for making Greek-style soy yogurt on her flicker page. Click through to read it.I might give it a try at some point.  Doesn’t sound too difficult. (Details on Heroes Con soon.) 

• Holy crap, the dummies of Comic Book Tattoo (pictured above) are gorgeous, no? Rantz, you should be very proud. You have the patience of a saint, corralling eight gazillion creators the way you did, but it looks as though it’s going to pay off in spades. I’m certainly proud to be a part of it.
• Preview Kathryn Immonen‘s Hellcat here. (Kathryn, on whom I have a truly embarrassing girl crush, was kind enough to let me read the pitch for this series and I assure you it’s a HOOT with a capital HOO.) I should also note that I will get to SEE the lovely lady live and in the flesh at Heroes Con next week. Here’s the kicker: if you come to Heroes Con YOU CAN SEE HER TOO. And me. And Fraction. And Stuart, even. And even more lovelies, all of whom are listed here.
• I’m working on the very last volume of Black Cat today. Sniff, sniff. I’ll miss you Train Heartnet. You’re a scamp.
• In domestic news, I made a batch of Green Tea cupcakes at 7am this morning and had walked the dogs 2.75 miles before 9. I like mornings. Go. Me.
• EDITED TO ADD: Kevin Mellon sent me a link to this girl’s awesome softies.  Thanks, Kevin.  Wow.  
• Okay… back to work.

The roses are INSANE this year. Is it all the rain?

Dogs have been on a 45 minute walk, chocolate cherry rolls are on their second rise, Miss April put HL down for his nap and as soon as I finish cleaning the kitchen I need to make my list for the day. Feeling very productive already. Yay.

SO glad I did the practice batch first — I’m really happy with the finished product.

Again, the recipe is here.

Changes made from practice batch:

• Butter for cake batter reduced to 1 stick.
• Ganache added to cupcake filling (in addition to the marshmallow).
• Cupcakes refrigerated after filling and icing to give the ganache a nice finish.
• Medium to large topping marshmallows.

Okay, kids — I need some opinions. For the delivery batch, should they be topped with small marshmallows or large?

Recipe is here: cupcakeblog.com/index.php/2007/04/smores-cupcakes/

I reduced the butter by 1/4 cup to see if that would help with the shrinkage issue and… it did not. Mine, in fact, did not rise as high as hers. They taste great though, so I’m not sure I’m going to cut any more in the final batch. We’ll see. Maybe.

What I really like: the ganache is bittersweet and paired perfectly with the sweetness of the marshmallows. The graham cracker cake is pretty tasty too — in fact, by itself it’s one of the yummier cakes I’ve ever made.

What I don’t like: there may still be too much butter. They’re dense. I mean DENSE. And small. And not the prettiest cupcakes ever. (I think I can work on that, though.)

Also of note: Mine took 32 minutes to cook, not 22. I have no idea why.

Adapted from the recipe by Bill and Cheryl Jameson:

• 1 T (generous) Thai red curry paste
• 2 tsp peanut oil
• 1 can lite coconut milk
• Asian fish sauce
• 15 chicken thighs, boneless + skinless
• sweet Thai red chili sauce
• chopped dry roasted peanuts
• cilantro

Combine curry paste and oil in a bowl; stir until the paste is good and soft. Mix in coconut milk and a couple shakes of fish sauce.

Place chicken in a zippered plastic bag, pour in coconut marinade and seal. Toss to coat evenly. Let sit at room temp for 20 minutes (longer if refrigerated).

I used my panini press grill — I set it on high and grilled the thighs in 3 batches, turning them at 3 minutes per side to get the criss cross grill marks. After the first flip, I brushed them with the sweet chili sauce. The chicken is done when it’s white throughout, but still juicy and the sweet sauce is caramelized in spots.

Pile the thighs on a platter of cous cous and red cabbage, sprinkle with peanuts, cilantro and another drizzle of sweet sauce, then serve.

• My cousin had her baby last night — a little boy, as yet unnamed.  We were in Houston Saturday and Sunday, so we barely missed his arrival.  (Alas! Alack!)  Can’t wait for Henry to get a chance to play with New Baby. Congratulations to Jenny and her family! 
• Fraction is signing at Elite today.
• The KC crew (Fraction, Jason Aaron, Tony Moore, et al.) was featured on the front page of the KC Star this weekend.
• Thursday, May 8th, my friend Craig “Baldo” Balderston will be doing stand up on Late Night with Conan O’Brien.  Congratulations, Craig!
• If Fraction and Terry can take the baby on Sunday morning, it looks like Susan and I will be taking an Annie Modesitt workshop at the Studio with Tobi.  It’s not Yarn School, but as consolation prizes go, it’ll most certainly do. (I think I’ve knit ONCE since Henry was born.  Still.  It sounds very relaxing.)
• Annie Ok’s Second Life Iron Man.
• Oh my god these are so awesome!!  Thanks for the pointer, Adrian.
• Adam Hamilton is on Up To Date today; I’m very impressed by what he has to say. 

• Not exactly a definitive answer on the agave nectar thing, but helpful. 
• This is hilarious. I believe I have Brian Wood to thank for it. 
• IRON MAN had me at BACK IN BLACK.  I could only have loved it more had there somehow been a knitting yogi on a snowboard involved.  And, like, James Bond.  If he were a redhead.  Yeah.  That.

I have a TON of work to do today, so this’ll have to be quick:

Henry* and I made a loaf of banana date bread yesterday as our first experiment in baking with agave nectar. We used this variation on the recipe from “Baking With Agave Nectar,” by natural foods chef Ania Catalano.

The flavor was fantastic (I found it to be less banana-y than Kim O’Donnel did) but the texture needs refining. It was too moist. The top half was perfectly spongy but the bottom was… soggy.

As a test of the sweetener? WIN! I’ll definitely bake with agave nectar again. In fact, I’ll make this recipe again.

Here’s the bad news: I ran it through the calorie calculator on About.com and even without the agave nectar (which the calculator couldn’t identify even though someone has already added it to their database) it’s coming out at 179 calories per slice (a little math tells me that with the agave nectar it’s 211 per slice). Now, that’s not HORRIBLE, by any means. And this is meant as a sweet treat and not a dietary staple, but it’s a little higher than what I was hoping. (That’s 4 POINTS per slice, Laurenn.)

NEXT TIME: I’ll try upping the baking temperature a bit and cut the dates and pecans by half.

* Henry “assisted” he didn’t sample. I still need to find out if agave nectar is safe for children under 1 year old; I know honey is not.