St. Patrick’s Day Cupcake Fail

When a potluck sign-up sheet goes around at work I love to bring cupcakes.  They have all been such good sports about my efforts and even the ones that don’t turn out perfect are ok with coffee at work.  Because really there’s not much that a cup of coffee and a sweet bit of cake with a mound of frosting on top can’t help.

I’ve been dreaming up a new recipe to try and was actually looking forward to a culinary experience last night.  I was set to make a white cupcake – with green food color of course – with white buttercream frosting.  BUT…my ingenious plan was to bake Junior Mints inside the cupcake and also use on the top as a decoration!

Each pan of cupcakes had a slight difference in the way they were baked, all the while I took copious notes.  The frosting went on beautifully, with an almost perfect swirl on each cupcake.  I did notice that the warmth from my hand started causing the frosting to melt a bit, so I put every cake on a platter to set inside the refrigerator a bit before decorating.

And then…….disaster struck:

I tilted the platter just right and they all came tumbling down!  Poor Keith was in the kitchen with me when it happened and I think time froze as he waited for my tears to start.  But I just looked at it and said “Huh.”  And then I laughed.  And he joined in.  And all was right.

And this is my little buddy Joe, who is always right next to me regardless of what I’m doing.  Fortunately he is a very well trained dog and I had him “down” and “stay” while we took pictures and then cleaned up.  I did let him take two licks of frosting, but he grabbed a cupcake to carry around (after all, he IS a retriever!).  I made him “drop” and he did obey, though he looked disappointed.

I was able to stop at a grocery store on the way to work and buy some cupcakes to fulfill my part of the potluck.  And I showed the Joe picture to everybody and we all got good laughs.

I’m thinking I might try these cupcakes again next week, because I really think I’m on to something with the flavor combination.

Watermelon Cupcakes

When I heard that yesterday was the first day of fall I had to rush and get this post up. Watermelon tugs at the summer memories and now that we're looking October in the eyes I need to get one last summer treat posted before I turn to pumpkin and apples (of which I cannot wait!)

There is nothing watermelon about these cupcakes other than how they look. The cupcake itself is just a strawberry cake mix. Before mixing the batter I reserved about an eighth of a cup of dry mix that I tossed about an eighth of a cup of chocolate chips in. Ordinarily mixing chocolate chips in flour will keep them from sinking in the batter, but you can see the chocolate chips above happily nestled at the bottom, so it didn't work for me this time. I guess this means my watermelon seeds were easy to eat around. :)

I also used canned frosting with a few drops of green food coloring. There's a few green sprinkles on top to add to the illusion of the watermelon rind.



Most important of all though is to remember your 'style' while eating a cupcake. A girl simply must sit on her mommy's lap with her foot on the table while having a cupcake. And a Clifford apple juice should be nearby in case one gets thirsty.

I just love being a Grandma - or should I say MawMaw? :)

Angel Food Cupcakes

Oh you clever little unassuming cupcake. You sit there so innocently thinking that people will pass you by since there isn't the usual abundance of frosting spiraled high.

But we know the truth about angel food cakes. The light, almost spongey texture that tastes oh so sweet but doesn't load on the calories or fat like its buttercream laden cousins.








And then you appear with a little whipped cream and even a strawberry on top. We are intrigued.

Really these are one of the most perfect desserts for a hot summer. We decided these are just like strawberry shortcakes you eat with your hands.

I found the recipe on Annie's Eats blog and loved the idea, so made these to take to a swim party. It's funny to watch them while baking - they puff up to a fairly large size, but then when they come out of the oven and then cool off they do a lot of shrinking.


ANGEL FOOD CUPCAKES
(adapted from Annie's Eats)

1 cup cake flour
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
1/4 t salt
12 large egg whites
1 t vanilla extract
1 1/2 t cream of tartar

Adjust oven racks to the two lowest positions. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees and line cupcake pans with paper liners.

In a small mixing bowl, sift together the flour, 3/4 cup of the sugar and the salt, then set aside.

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment beat the egg whites with the vanilla and cream of tartar on medium-high until soft-medium peaks form. Gradually add the remaining 3/4 cup sugar, continuing to beat until stiff peaks form. Gently fold in the dry ingredients using a rubber spatula, being careful not to deflate the batter.

Fill cupcake liners full and bake for 12-15 minutes or until light golden brown. Let cool in the pans for 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Serve with canned whipped cream and sliced berries, if desired.

Makes 24-36 cupcakes.

Baby Shower Cupcakes

When friends asked me to make Pink Lemonade Cupcakes for a baby shower at work I have to admit that I was so excited. But my next emotion was a little bit of panic because I haven't done anything like that before. It's one thing to make cupcakes for my work friends and quite another to do something important like a baby shower!

I ended up making two batches because the first one only made 18 cupcakes (the 2nd batch made the same amount). I also decided that simply having pink cupcakes for a baby girl shower was not enough - I needed to make cupcake picks to put on them.

But ultimately, it's the cupcake that matters the most. I've seen several recipes for these cupcakes on the net, but ultimately I use the same one each time. It's tried and true and work friend approved!

PINK LEMONADE CUPCAKES

(adapted from Confections of a Foodie Bride)

3/4 cup frozen Pink Lemonade Concentrate, thawed (I use the large can to make a double batch)

White cake mix

3 egg whites

2 T vegetable oil

red food color

Mix the cake mix, egg whites, vegetable oil and pink lemonade concentrate. Mix on low for 30 seconds, then mix on medium for 90 seconds (batter will be lumpy; do not overmix).

Fill each cupcake liner 2/3 full with batter. Baket at 350 for about 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the cupcake comes out clean. Removes the cupcakes and cool completely on a baking rack.

LEMON BUTTERCREAM ICING

3 cups + 3 T powdered sugar

1 stick unsalted butter, room temperature

2 T lemon juice

red food color

Mix the butter, powdered sugar, lemon juice and food color on low until combined. Mix on medium-high until the icing is fluffy and uniformly pink. Ice the cupcakes as you desire.

The picks were made using punches and QuicKutz dies. The paper was all StampinUp (white and pink pirouette) with a small kraft stick stuck between the two pieces of paper.

I'm really happy with how the whole thing turned out and most important of all, so was the new mama. I'm already thinking of other ideas for cupcake picks - too much fun to combine hobbies of cupcake baking and paper crafting!

Chocolate Cream Filled Cupcakes

These are the cupcakes that I brought with me to retreat this time. I've seen the recipe all over the internet and in a magazine and kept thinking how fun this would be. In addition to the classic "swirl" on top I also did my best at putting some words - laugh, fun, LOL, haha - on top. And I left cupcakes at home for Keith that said "love" and "babe" on them.

The only real problem I had with these is that it's a little hard to tell how much cream filling is really going into the cupcake. The girls at retreat all said I should add more filling and when I told them that I ended up throwing some away I almost feared there would be a mutiny! :)

Chocolate Cream Filled Cupcakes

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 1/2 t baking soda
1/2 t salt
1 1/2 cups buttermilk
1 t vanilla
1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 1/2 cups sugar
3 large eggs

Preheat oven to 350 and line muffin cups with paper liners (I got 21 cupcakes from this recipe).

Combine flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt in a medium bowl and whisk to blend. Combine the buttermilk and vanilla in a measuring cup. Beat the butter and sugar in a medium bowl on medium high until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add the flour mixture and buttermilk mixture, starting and ending with the flour mixture.

Divide the batter into the prepared muffin cups. Bake for 18-20 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Transfer to a wire rack and cool for 10 minutes, then remove from pan and cool completely.


Filling and Swirl Ingredients

4 T unsalted butter, softened
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
2 - 3 T milk

Beat butter in a medium bowl until light and fluffy; gradually add powdered sugar. Add 2 T of milk and beat 5 minutes until mostly white and fluffy, adding additional milk if mixture is too thick. Spoon frosting into a pastry bag fitted with a medium plain round tip. Insert tip of pastry bag into the top of cupcakes, about 1/2 inch deep, and squeeze.


Chocolate Glaze Ingredients

1/2 cup heavy cream
1 T light corn syrup
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Heat the cream and corn syrup in a small saucepan over medium heat until it just comes to a boil. Remove from heat and stir in chocolate chips. Cover and let stand 5 minutes, then whisk until smooth.

Dip the tops of the filled cupcakes into the chocolate glaze. Place on a cooling rack to set for 10 minutes.

Change the piping tip for the vanilla frosting to a smaller round tip to pipe decorative swirls or words on top of the glazed cupcakes.

I dare you to just eat one!

Scripture Memory Verse and Easter With Brooklyn

Scripture Memory Verse:

"Do not repay evil with evil or insult with insult,

but with blessing, because to this you were called

so that you may inherit a blessing."

1 Peter 3:9

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Even though Easter is over I'm going to go ahead and post late photos. Remember that I'm a doting grandma that didn't have a computer, so I decided better late than never.

We had quite a bit of rain last Saturday night, so we changed our egg hunt from the yard to the inside. Since this is the first year Miss B was able to do egg hunts she didn't seem to mind at all and in fact squeeled in delight when she rounded the corner and saw eggs all down the hall. In the photo above she was excited about seeing the candy inside the egg and decided to show it to "Bapaw".

And of course she had to sample a few. I love her little dress and pig tails. :)

These are the cupcakes that I quickly made so that Little Bit would have some fun. I went to Stamp Club on Friday night and the lady that brought snacks had made these and I loved the idea. Though I will admit that when I saw this photo it made me chuckle because my little bunny cupcake looks a little maniacal!

While Loni helped me finish these up before lunch I gave Brooklyn one of the marshmallows, her first ever, and I'm here to tell you she thoroughly approved!

Good times..... :)

Vanilla Retreat Cupcakes

I still haven't decided on what my 2009 Bible verse will be, but I know that one thing I want to do more of is sharing my hobbies with friends and family.  So on that note I present to you the Vanilla Retreat Cupcakes, so named because I will be leaving shortly to join some friends at a weekend retreat!

I used a vanilla cupcake recipe I found here and haven't had the opportunity to try before now and a standard vanilla buttercream frosting.  Hopefully I'll get some honest feedback from my friends so I know whether the recipe is a keeper or not.  Course, I did set two aside so that Keith could have a few.

And this is the cupcake carrier that James and Loni got me for Christmas.  The retreat cupcakes made 24...and can you see the two unfilled holes for the cupcakes I set aside for Keith?  The carrier has another layer so it will hold up to 36 cupcakes.  This is about the coolest thing I've seen in a long time.

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It's not often that a golden retriever can look like a shar pei, but this tired old dog was worn out on New Year's Eve.  We went to bed at 10:30 (I'm sure y'all have surmised by this blog what party animals we are and now you can verify it!), but apparently that was too late for some dogs.  He fell asleep under the lights of the Christmas tree and I think he was happy as a clam over it.

"When just being together is more important than what you do, you are with a friend." - Unknown

Pumpkin Cupcake

I know that December makes a person think of peppermint and other desserts, but I still want to post about a cupcake I made for Thanksgiving. James and Loni got me the book Cupcakes Galore by Gail Wagman for my birthday and I finally had a chance to use a recipe.


This little cupcake is actually called the Halloween Pumpkin Pecan Cupcake in the book and the description says that it is "pumpkin pie in a cupcake." They are so right! I didn't have high hopes for them when they came out of the oven as they looked a little funny. And instead of the Fresh Orange Juice Frosting that was used in the book I used my favorite cream cheese frosting and that was definitely the way to go.

One bite made believers out of all of us. This truly did taste like pumpkin pie rather than a pumpkin spice cake like so many do.

Absolutely fabulous cupcake that I will make again and again.

Brooklyn's Open House and Chocolate Cupcakes With Peanut Butter Icing

One of the things I promised myself when Loni was pregnant with Brooklyn was that I would try and be at as many of Brooklyn's school/church events as possible.  Tuesday night it was time to put my money where my mouth is...so to speak.  Brooklyn's new daycare had an open house and I went with the kids so that I could see.  There was a table with cookies and punch set up in a room that is ordinarily for older kids, so as you can see above Brooklyn was all eyes as she stood there holding her cookie.

We visited the room that Brooklyn will go into next and I showed her the oatmeal table.  Took her a minute, but then she thought this was a lot of fun!  And especially fun was filling a measuring spoon with oatmeal and watching it pour over Grandma's hand.  I would've never remembered playing with oatmeal, but now that I saw it at the daycare I remember having one of these in the room when I taught Sunday School to 2 year olds and they loved it.

When I got home my golden retriever Joe was all happy and ready to play.  I don't think I mentioned this on the blog yet, but the biopsy came back benign, so all clear.  Plus I really think the new hypothyroidism pills are working wonders for him.  Praise be!

One last thought - I realized today that I haven't even picked up my knitting needles this week and that rather startled me since I enjoy it so much.  But you know how we all get busy sometimes and really it's all good.  I've been doing other hobbies, one of which is shown above.  Keith shook his head at me when I mentioned that making cupcakes is a hobby, but yes I think it is. 

One of the girls I work with asked me at the beginning of the week how much I'd charge to make cupcakes for her work team since 4 of them had birthdays in a 2.5 week period.  I told her I'd do it for free since I loved them and she told me that they wanted chocolate cupcakes with peanut butter icing.  So that's what I did last night and had a really nice time.  Of course, sometimes things don't go as easy as you might think they should.  For instance when I got to the "add sour cream" portion of the recipe and opened the lid of the sour cream I discovered that it was a solid, yucky green color.  After a hyperspeed emergency trip to the store we were back on track and they came out lovely.  In fact, a friend called as I was flying out the door to get the sour cream and I told her "I can't talk now, I'm having a cupcake emergency...I'll call you back!"

Good times....

Cute Chocolate Cupcakes

Aren't these a beaut?  I have been wanting to get back to my cupcake baking and have been doing a thousand other things instead.  But yesterday I decided to put everything aside and take the time to "just do it" and surprise Keith.

I am more pleased with the appearance of these than any I've done so far.  I think they're cute.  :)  It's a chocolate cake with buttercream frosting and I sprinkled some mini chocolate chips on top.  Unfortunately these cupcakes turned out very dry and only the frosting saved them.  I was even so careful when I added my flour and cocoa powder to stir by hand as I think that part of my problem with dryness is how much fun I have revving my Kitchenaid mixer up to warp speed.

Keith has already said that I can put an X next to this recipe and move on and try others.  Lucky for him I have a plethora of recipes printed out just waiting for their turn.

I almost hate to show the book where I got the recipe here because I said that we'd X'd the recipe.  But since I honestly think it's me and not the recipe I'm going to show the book.

Keith and I were in Half Price Books recently and when I saw this book you would've thought I'd found an original copy of the Declaration of Independence I was so thrilled!  One thing I liked when I glanced through the recipes is that there are quite a few that make a smaller batch.  With it being just the two of us I don't want 24 cupcakes around here because it seems to become our mission to eat them all. 

This recipe said it made 12 and I got 10, which would've given us plenty and still had some to take to the neighbors.  As dry as these were though I decided not to share.  ;)

Happy Birthday Baby Girl!

I cannot believe I didn't post a Happy Birthday to Brooklyn yesterday! My only excuse is that by the time we got home last night from birthday party prep at their house it was no longer her birthday!!!

Loni is so clever and creative and it's so much fun. She scoured the internet looking at birthday cakes and cupcakes as she tried to decide whether to buy a cake or make one. Homemade was decided and it became a wonderful bonding evening.

We all went out to dinner, then came back and Keith's parents had made it to town and came over. Loni had already made the cake, cupcakes and a big bowl of icing, so we got down to business. Luckily cake decorating is similar to riding a bike because it did come back to me! She had me do the cake and it went pretty well. When the writing with icing part came up I was a nervous wreck! Keith and Loni ended up writing the words on a piece of paper and putting it next to the cake board so at least I'd have something to look at. Nerve wracking!

Loni decorated all the cupcakes and I'm so proud of her at how well they turned out - she'd never done anything like this before! Today they will be arranged on the cupcake stand and she has butterfly picks to put on top.

Lynne' spent the night at their house last night to help get things ready for today's party. Both girls worked on decorating the house and it looks so cute. Aunt Lynne' also was in charge of getting Brooklyn dressed for bed and reading her a bedtime story until she fell asleep. I think she really enjoyed that.

At one point we did all talk about "one year ago today" and admitted that Loni looks a lot better today than she did last year in labor! Go figure.... ;)

So I leave you with a video of Grandpa holding Little Miss and her having a ball playing with the balloons. She came up with the little wrinkle face tonight at dinner when her Aunt Lynne' was laughing hard enough that her eyes were squinting. Little toot likes to copy everybody around her! :)

Good times....

Strawberry Cupcakes

Finally last night I made cupcakes again and I had so much fun doing it. I really need more hours in my day/week to do all the things I enjoy! :)

So far the comments at work have these as the best cupcakes I've brought to date. My car smelled oh so good on the way to work this morning.

These are not the prettiest I've ever made, partly because of the icing. The icing consists of cream cheese, butter, powdered sugar and frozen strawberry puree. As I was piping it on the icing became less and less able to hold its shape, so I plopped the whole lot into the refrigerator for a while. The second batch did a little better.

Regardless of appearance, these were awesome. Keith is not normally a fan of "scratch" cakes because they are more dense. This recipe made a very light cake full of flavor.

Edited to add link to recipe. :)

Meandering Thoughts

Those that know me well know my love for garage sales, flea markets, antique shops, etc. I was thrilled to discover that my daughter-in-law enjoys the same thing! And now what makes it even better is this little grandbaby. When I got there this weekend Brooklyn was asleep and of course grandma volunteered to go get her up. I went in her room and took pictures first, then softly called her name. She did those amazing baby stretches where they stretch and kind of roll and scrunch up their face. Then she finally opened her eyes, saw me and just got a smile that lit up her entire face! The grandma in me wants to believe that the smile was just for me, but really this little ray of sunshine is just such a happy baby I know she would be smiling to see any happy face over her. I told her she reminds me so much of her Aunt Lynne' when she was a baby. :)

We were riding around with her in the back seat and she started making the funniest little sounds, then would just grin real big. I think she's definitely figuring out her sounds and it really is cracking her up.

We had another older gentleman try to get her this weekend. He was walking out of a garage sale with his wife, saw me sitting on the driveway talking to Brooklyn and he said "That's what I've been looking for all day - how much for the baby?" I told him that being the grandma I just couldn't let this one go and he just chuckled and walked on. His wife turned to me and said "Being a grandma, I know just what you mean" and with a smile she joined her husband. Too cute!

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I haven't mentioned Weight Watchers in a while, but it's time. Weigh in last Friday showed a 1.8 pound loss, for a total so far of 10.8 pounds! AND...Monday night I started an exercise class, can you believe it? A girl I work with is working to get her personal trainer certification, so she started a class after work. She thinks nothing of doing a 12 mile run before work, so I will admit to being a little worried. But Monday's class went very well and I'm so impressed with myself - LOL! And truthfully it's one of the most fun things I've done in a long time. As usual, laughter is what I do. Another girl and I got tickled part way through the class and just laughed and laughed. And then the instructor separated us. ~ sigh ~ I guess she expected us to be a little more serious about it. ;) We do it again tonight and I'm actually looking forward to it.

Back to the 10.8 pounds - while at Walmart this weekend Keith and I were actually in the exercise department to get some 5 pounds weights for this class. He picked up two of them, smiled real big and handed them to me, while pointing out that this is about how much weight I've lost. WOW! Big incentive to continue because they were heavy!

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I finally this week started up with the cupcakes to work again (seems silly to post this after my WW post!). These are peanut butter cupcakes with a Reese's peanut butter cup in the middle. The recipe was one that some of the people at work found online and asked me to make for them (ironically, my personal trainer instructor was the one that asked!). I thought the flavor was very good, but they were a little bit dry. But the lack of frosting on them would make them very easy to transport somewhere.

Random Thoughts

And so life falls back into its routine again. The nice thing is that even though I'm working approximately a million hours a week at work right now and my house is a mess, I'm able to look at a picture of a sweet little someone anytime I feel overwhelmed and she makes me smile. :)

Last night I made Black Bottom Cupcakes to bring to work. The recipe and request was sent to me from a girl in another department, along with a note that they had let me get by without bringing cupcakes for a bit to let me bond with the grandbaby, but enough was enough! LOL! I was tickled and touched by the note, so of course I made them. Keith and I shared the "trial cupcake" while watching Damages last night (yeah, I'm hooked on another tv show!). We thought these were VERY good, so now to see what the workmates think.

This little gem came in the mail yesterday and I feel so hip and cool now! This means I can now put away the 8 track player and join the twentieth century. ;) I've thought about getting an mp3 player/ipod for quite a while and just wasn't sure if I'd use it enough to justify the cost. A friend sent me the link to this one on buy.com last week. It's refurbished and was only $14.99 and no shipping! This will be a very inexpensive way to see if it's something I'll use. Keith loaded two of my favorite "albums" on it last night and a couple of podcasts, so I'm set for today. Of course, I had to ask one of the girls at work this morning how to turn it on, but I'll get it all figured out eventually.

An example of my poor neglected house. I bought these flowers two weeks ago when Mom, Gary and Michele came to town and they are still sitting in the same spot. Poor little droopy flowers. When the kids were over for dinner the other night I sat and held Brooklyn while they ate (I got the better end of that deal!!!). I apologized for the flowers and Loni just calmly said "flowers fade next to Brooklyn's beauty". I loved it. :)

"Grandmas are moms with lots of frosting" - Unknown

The Countdown Is On!

The grandbaby is officially due in July and since my calendar says that month is indeed here, we are excited!!! Excited more so since Loni is having contractions. They are not steady yet, so I do realize it can be a while. And I haven't talked to her yet this morning, so for all I know right now things might be hopping in their household!

It's amazing how much a person can love somebody they haven't even met yet. Thinking about her honestly gives me such a warm and peaceful feeling. I can't wait to look into her eyes and feel her in my arms. :) I spoke to my cousin this week and I always love hearing her talk about her grandbaby. She absolutely loves her little girl and hearing the toddler girl voice in the background talking to her MeMe just warms my soul. I can't wait!!!

Our weekend went really well - this was the first time in quite a while that we didn't have something "very important" to do or somewhere to be. Lots of relaxing at home together. We did go on Saturday to see Live Free or Die Hard and enjoyed that. I did, however, come out of the theater with a headache as they had the volume quite high. Wonder if it's always been that way or am I getting old??? Hmmm.... Last night we watched Failure To Launch at home (a gal at work had loaned me the movie) and that was cute. It did get us to talking about the whole Empty Nest thing and how so many people keep mentioning to me how either they themselves or people they know have problems when it's just the two of them again. How blessed Keith and I are to be having so much fun together.

Which brings me to the Honor Your Husband 30 Day Challenge. Being sure to keep Keith first in my life has brought some amazing results. My first thought to not put a lot of my feelings on my blog seems to be correct as I seem to be having a problem lately with some people twisting many of my words around to their benefit. Therefore I will just say that this challenge has been a tremendous blessing to my family and I encourage everybody to do this.

These are the cupcakes I took to work last week - Chocolate Cupcakes with Peanut Butter Icing. They were so good and the fun part about this recipe was that one of the guys I work with brought the recipe and asked me if I would make them some time! The recipe looked good enough that I told him I'd move them to the top of the rotation, which made him grin. Always good to keep your workmates happy! :)

Friday night I went scrapbooking with some friends (nothing like bouncing around on different subjects!!!) and had the best time! I laughed so much and so hard that my cheeks hurt by the time I came home. Project pictures to follow. :) And we met some new ladies that were at the table next to us and they were a ton of fun as well. Good times....

Chocolate Cupcakes

Looks like I'm still stuck on cupcakes! Lucky for me and my pile of printed cupcake recipes, we have a birthday girl at work today. She has a deep fondness for chocolate, so I made Chocolate Cupcakes for her of course! We were very pleased with the recipe and at least for now it will be my chocolate cupcake recipe of choice - they really are that good. They are topped with Fudge Frosting from a Betty Crocker cookbook that we received as a wedding present. Keith isn't fond of powdered sugar frostings, so wanted to try this one and I'm glad he did. Pure fudgy delight!

I have also joined the Honor Your Husband 30 Day Challenge. I'm not sure how much of this I'll share with the world, but I think it's an awesome thing to do. Keith and I have been married for 27 years and still thoroughly enjoy being together. This challenge came at a good time for us as we are just now facing an empty nest for the first time. Since this is a fresh new start for the two of us, it's good to keep the challenge in mind.

Random Thoughts

In my continuing quest to find the perfect cupcake recipe for Brooklyn, who hasn't been born yet (!), these were the cupcakes I just took to work. They are Magnolia's Vanilla Cupcakes with Magnolia's Vanilla Buttercream Frosting. The funny thing about all this is trying to get honest opinions and critiques from people. We've all been so conditioned to saying nice things and when I asked the people at work what they really thought I kept getting "these are good" type of answers. I explained my quest for the perfect recipe and they just smile and say this would be it. It's a very good recipe and I'm sure to make it again, but I guess I just can't believe the first vanilla recipe I try would be The One!

I just finished reading this book and really loved it. It's a Christian novel and was filled with real people that had real thoughts and struggles. Kind of a chick lit without all the extra baggage that I don't need to be reading. :)

Speaking of cupcakes, when Mom, Gary and Michele were in town for the shower we went to Sprinkles Cupcakes to try them out. Very good and I have to admit that it was kind of fun to be eating the same sort of cupcakes as Ms. Hilton does in Beverly Hills - LOL! We don't like to leave Joe out of things, so I brought home a Doggie Cupcake as a treat for him. These are made with dog friendly ingredients and for a mere $2.50 (!) for a cupcake about an inch and a half wide I'm sure I won't do it very often. He was quite appreciative of it though!

This is a picture of "our" lake a week ago. At that time the lake measured four feet above normal and with all the rain we've had recently there's just no telling what it is now. To the right of the picture is the boat ramp we use and just in front of those trees is the road we travel to get there - currently under water. The ramp getting to the dock that is shown is under water the first eight feet. It's been many years since the lake has seen a water level like this. Seems especially strange when I think of the drought we've had the last few years.

Pink Lemonade Cupcakes

Happy Birthday to Loni today! Since we work at the same company I decided to make some cupcakes to bring to work. And with a granddaughter on the way I've also been intrigued lately about all the cupcake excitement that is so popular right now (more on that later!). Now that it's just Keith and I there is a lot more time available and I don't have to rely on box mixes and canned frosting so much.

Off I went surfing for cupcake and frosting recipes. I found the perfect recipe for Loni - Pink Lemonade Cupcakes with Lemon Buttercream Icing! She orders Pink Lemonade everywhere we go now, so I knew it would be something she would enjoy.

I stopped at Joann's on the way home from work yesterday, armed with my 40% off coupon, and purchased a cupcake decorating kit. I still need some practice, but I think it looks a little more special than just slopping it on. Though apparently getting it to look really good is quite an art and will require practice! I ended up with frosting drops all over my shirt and when Keith got home from work and was petting Joe he found a frosting drop on his back! Hmmm.....

Lynne' stopped by to get more of her things and we chose the ugliest cupcake and split it - you know, in the interest of making sure they were good enough to take to work. LOVE these! It's a light, tart flavor that is perfect for summer. Keith had one when he got home and he enjoyed it as well. We'll be adding this recipe to the rotation now.

And hopefully Loni will like them as well! :)