You know I always have a good reason for not blogging.

Unlike former hiatuses where I’ve still been cooking and baking loads of things, these past two weeks have been different, since I’m back home in Sudbury. Because of this, my mom has been the one doing all the cooking and baking. Have I mentioned that I’m spoiled?

So why am I home? Well at this point I am two weeks into a three-week internship with CBC Sudbury. It has been an absolutely amazing experience so far. It’s a small station, which means I got thrown into doing on-air stuff, editing and interviewing right off the bat. The past two weeks have been some of the most educational ones of my journalism career so far. Here are a few links to the things I’ve been working away on: an interview with the son of a man who died in the Ocean Ranger oil rig accident in 1982, a story I did about the shortage of working stoves in Sudbury (which resulted in more than half a dozen donations of the appliance!) and one portion of a three-part series I did on the behaviour of coaches in minor hockey.

One thing that has made my experience at CBC even better has been the friendliness of my co-workers. They’re always willing to help and have a great, down-to-earth sense of humour. This especially comes out when talking about our particular love-hate relationship with Valentines Day crafts.

Since I couldn’t pass on an opportunity to theme bake – even after actual Valentines Day was over – I made these cupcakes last night and brought them into the newsroom today. Next week: A CBC fondant cake!

Recipe: Chocolate stuffed pink marble cupcakes
Adapted from Martha Stewart
– 1¾ cups cake flour (not self-rising), sifted
– 2 tsp baking powder
– ½ tsp salt
– ⅓ cup milk, room temperature
– ⅓ cup heavy cream, room temperature
– ½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
– 1 cup granulated sugar
– 3 large eggs, room temperature
– 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
– 1/4 tsp rose gel food colouring
– 3, 1 oz semisweet chocolate squares, cut into quarters

Preheat oven to 350° F.

Line standard muffin tins with paper liners. In a small bowl, whisk together cake flour, baking powder, and salt. Combine milk and cream.

With an electric mixer on medium-high speed, cream butter and granulated sugar until pale and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating until each is incorporated, scraping down sides of bowl as needed.

Beat in vanilla. Add flour mixture in three batches, alternating with two additions of milk mixture, and beating until combined.

Transfer half of the batter to another bowl. In one bowl, add the gel food colouring and mix until all the batter is a sickeningly pinky hue.

Fill each cupcake liner with half normal cake batter and half pink batter. Use a chopstick to swirl the two together.

Take one chunk of chocolate and insert it in the middle of each cupcake, pressing it deep into the batter. Use the chopstick to cover the chocolate with more batter.

Bake for about 15 minutes, or until a toothpick entered into the centre of a cupcake comes out clean.

Let cool of rack completely before icing.

Cream cheese icing
Adapted from Canadian Living
– 8 oz package of cream cheese, room temperature
– 1/4 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
– 4 1/2 cups icing sugar
– 2 tbsp whipping cream
– Fun sprinkles

In a large bowl, cream together the cream cheese and butter. Add the icing sugar, one cup at a time. Add the whipping cream and fun sprinkles. Use a piping bag, ziplock bag or icing spatula to decorate the cupcakes. Scatter additional sprinkles on top, if you so choose.

Makes 12 cupcakes.