weekend update: Oct 14-16 [in pictures]

Celebrating Josh's brother Dan's birthday Friday night @ Hibachi

Saturday breakfast

Cupcakes :)

Birthday Cupcakes!

Recipe here: Milk Chocolate Cupcakes by How Sweet Eats

No pics from Sunday. Lazy day and we picked up a filter for the furnace. Happy Monday, folks!

strawberry cupcakes + vanilla cream frosting

It's not that I wanted to make cupcakes tonight. But you see, I had all these gorgeous strawberries and was so afraid they were going to go bad. Something had to be done.

 

Enter: my newest first-search for recipes. If you don't follow Jessica over at How Sweet Eats, there is seriously something wrong with you. Or maybe you've never heard of her blog, and that makes me sad. I love her funny posts, gorgeous pictures and amazing recipes. I've made several things from her blog including her homemade barbeque sauce, roasted potato salad (ah-ma-zing), and now these amazing strawberry cupcakes. Not to mention I've drooled over and bookmarked some of her beautiful mixed drinks and several desserts.

So, these strawberry cupcakes are pretty darn awesome. I almost ate a whole bunch without even adding the frosting. I think some strawberry jam or strawberries on top would have been really great, but I was afraid they would get all watery over the frosting.

Oh - and I didn't have any more cupcake liners. But that didn't stop me! A few years ago some of the SKANK's decided to make sweet potato cupcakes and follow a recipe online that instructed using parchment paper instead of liners. Of course we had only wax paper...which we didn't realize wasn't the same thing...and that was quite a disaster, pulling out the cupcakes, dumping the half-baked cuppies into real liners. Yikes. Won't make that mistake again.

Anyway, I thought these turned out super cute with the parchment lining. It worked best for me to fit and fold them into the cupcake tins and dollop only a little at a time inside the parchment cradle with a spoon. This allowed for the cuppies to bake around and flatten out the folds.

Awesome! And - I got this fabric from my boss's mom - she was giving away a bunch of random fabrics - and it turns out this is some Ralph Lauren HOME collection fabric! I really want to use it to make some pillows, they would look nice with our couches. Oh...sorry...tangent...

I used a vanilla buttercream for the frosting. I wish it could have been a white chocolate buttercream, but I didn't have any good quality white chocolate to use.

Vanilla Buttercream

~ingredients~
1/2 c butter (I used 1/4 c and 1/4 c shortening - that was all I had)
1 T vanilla (or more - I wanted a lot of vanilla flavoring in the frosting)
1-2 T heavy cream (as needed)
2-3 c powdered sugar

~instructions~

1. Cream everything together. That's it. Easy, huh?

Anyway, check out How Sweet Eats for the strawberry cupcakes recipe!

Anyone else have a semi-disastrous kitchen or baking episode??

banana cupcakes with browned butter cream cheese frosting

i swear i only made these because i had a banana that had gone bad and i will not waste things. especially when you can make said things into deliciousness such as this.

cupcake recipe from Food Network: The Neelys. browned butter cream cheese frosting recipe originally from Big Red Kitchen. the cupcakes were AMAZING. they had sour cream (interesting addition) and were super moist and delicious. i used shortening instead of butter so i could save that for the frosting. and of course i made my alterations - only had one banana so the whole recipe was halved and the cream cheese recipe was made up as i went to accommodate for the 8 cuppies. (about 2 T butter, browned; 2 T butter softened; 2 T cream cheese; probs about a cup of powdered sugar and a few drops of milk to keep a good consistency.)

turns out the cupcakes were a little warm still...turns out that is a great thing.

i'm only sorry i could only make 8 cupcakes and that i'm going to eat them all and no one else will know the greatness that is these cupcakes!

s'more cupcakes: graham cracker cupcakes

i've been craving s'mores cupcakes for a LONG time. well, s'mores in general. anytime the weather gets nice - i want that melty chocolate, graham cracker crunch, crispy outside/gooey inside marshmallow goodness.

these s'more cupcakes were a little different than what you usually see when browsing the web, but amazingly delicious. graham cracker cupcake goodness, melted chocolate delight on top and oozing in the middle, easy marshmallow frosting on top.

the cupcakes alone were amazing. great texture, great flavor. not to mention the other bits of deliciousness on top.

graham cracker cupcakes recipe from Nabisco. (i made a 1/2 batch because i didn't have enough graham cracker crumbs. i still used the 2 eggs, but everything else was halved.) my plan was to pipe the chocolate goodness inside the cupcake, but the chocolate didn't really want to cooperate, so i ended up smearing some on top as well. the frosting recipe adapted from Rachael Ray. since i ended up with only about 10 cupcakes, i had to alter this recipe too. i did 4-5 T butter, around a teaspoon of vanilla, about 1/2 cup of marshmallow fluff and about 1/4 cup (eyeball it) of powdered sugar.

i used this "cake decorating" tool for the first time, even though i had purchased it years ago. this was SO much easier than piping from a bag - way more control, way easier to fill and do you see that image below? yeah, no wasted frosting. every ounce scraped out.

also, isn't that fabric cute that the cupcakes are on? it's actually an apron (with an "A" on it!) that i received at my bridal shower. i don't use it as much as i should...(i always forget to put aprons on...) but the pattern i thought was perfect for something different than my usual countertop or tablecloth pics.

we only do EXTREME

i don't think my family believes in doing things "the easy way," or "simple." (at least, i don't!) So when my sister Rachel's baby shower rolled around, we knew we had to go EXTREME. we also knew this because her hubs works at the church, there are a lot of church people they are close to and need to invite. we had her shower on sunday and the guest list kept climbing up from 80 people, and we knew we were still somehow leaving people out that are important in their lives and we wanted to attend.

that's a lot of people. that's a lot of food.

we had an amazing array of food and even more so, desserts, made and provided by our awesome family and friends.

we had wegman's subs and carrot cake thanks to my auntie mary, my mum made tortellini salad, veggie pizza, two amaretto trifles, and cut up all the fruit (and bought most of the gift baskets and decorations), my auntie paula made her amazing lime vinaigrette salad dressing as well as a chocolate peanut butter cake and her own version of a "baby cake." friends of the family also made butter cream wafers, chocolate cherry brownies, oreo truffles and nut roll. and i provided the salad and fixings and made lemon cupcakes with raspberry filling and cream cheese frosting. mum also made nut and semi-sweet/white chocolate bark and i made peppermint bark for the favors.

yeah. it was a lot of food. it was also amazing. we had a lot of fun and everyone we knew helped out a lot. mum and i kept the freaking out to an *extreme* minimum, and rachel did a great job opening all her presents and talking to everyone and refusing to let herself be overwhelmed.

we can't wait to meet this little baby girl! every day she comes closer to joining us! she is going to be amazing and so loved and supported. can't wait!!

here's some pictures!

thanksgiving and things

for thanksgiving i made pumpkin cupcakes with browned-butter cream cheese frosting. both of these recipes were thanks to Robin Sue @ big red kitchen. the cupcakes i made with the 2-ingredient pumpkin cake recipe [which, i must say...i botched first because i didn't READ right, and made the actual cake - adding the eggs, oil and water - and then the can of pumpkin. yeah, that was a disaster. i had to go back out to the store and get more pumpkin :( ]. the frosting, however, was amazing and turned out great! well, the cupcakes did too, after i made them the second time...

kristen made lemon squares...

pumpkin cupcakes w/ browned-butter cream cheese frosting. topped w/ cinnamon sugar.


i love thanksgiving dinner!


me and my cousin, rebekah. i can't believe she's almost 18 and graduating this year!!!

yesterday kc and i decorated our christmas tree. you can check her blog out for pictures, but i'll post some tomorrow i'm sure.

[weekend]

[chocolate cupcakes with marshmallow frosting inside]


[added melted unsweetened chocolate & cocoa powder to marshmallow frosting to for the top]

[used melted white chocolate and blue & green food coloring to add the polka dots]
[the baby's colors are teal & brown]


baby mckenzie




its a boy! well, courtney and dan's baby is a boy!

[last 4 pics thanks to rachers]

and i thought it totes approps to add some snowy pics...

[view from my window]




[outside the office. not. plowed. my little two-door civic wasn't happy about all this this morning. i got stuck in my spot in the parking lot at the apartment. so irritating. and i'm pretty sure my car is stuck where it's parked now.]

• kristen and i watched two movies on tv this weekend. it sucks only because it means you commit over 3 hours of your time because of all the stupid commercials
• i did laundry at the laundromat at our townhouses yesterday. the thing that sucked was all my clothes didnt dry in the dryer and i didn't have enough money to put them round again. plus, i didn't need the whole $1's worth of 45 min...oh well.
• ALMOST went to hibachi on saturday. unfortunately, we didnt call ahead soon enough so we ended up at Damons. it was still a fun time with Josh's brother & sister-in-law.
• the pics above are from a friend's surprise baby shower. yay!
  

cuppies!

cupcake pictures tonight. i have some pics but i don't care to show any yet.
i'm so glad its the weekend. i'm exhausted. plus, today is pay day...sooo, that's awesome.


oh, and co-worker bethany and i went to "Under the Clock" today for lunch. [newer restaurant in erie] it was great! such a fun atmosphere and good food at reasonable prices! i apologize for the crap-for-crap pics, i forgot my camera and only had my phone...

[chocolate avalanche cake & lemon crème cheesecake]