With the abundance of summer berries (mainly FREE organic strawberries from Amy's Organic Garden), I've been brainstorming up a host of new ideas on how to use the deliciously sweet fruit - that is after eating a few generous handfuls of the tangy fruit myself.

With each idea comes another - from my (hopefully soon to be famous) layered Strawberry Cream Cake, to strawberry tarts (thanks, Amanda), to eating them by the mouthful (SonyaAnn - if I could've eaten more, there wouldn't have been any leftover!), to preserves, to decadent desserts - there's so much to love about a batch of beautiful berries. This weekend will mark the first of 4 experiments with strawberries - I've got some new ideas, and I'm aching to give them a try! Heck, I wouldn't be surprised if they ended up topping the next batch of Amish Friendship Bread!

I'm not shy about mixing bold flavors and trying new combinations - I'm more nervous about the outcome of different techniques and how the textures will balance each other. Nothing is worse than burnt toast, soggy bread, tough veggies (that are supposed to be fork tender), and gummy noodles. In that respect, I am a perfectionist. I don't know how the syrup from the berries will react with some of the other ingredients in my ideas, so this weekend - we'll start with a french vanilla cupcake surprise: the surprise being the strawberry center!

This weekend - a cupcake...next week, I'm out to conquer the world! Okay, I'll stick with conquering the berries. That's a sweet challenge I'm more than up for!