A Few of My Favorite Things....

Is that song running through your head right now like it is in mine? Every time I read the name of this post, I can't get it out of my head. Anyway, I've been racking my brain as to how to stay active in the bloggy world without an oven and I decided to tell you about some of my favorite things so that you can get to know me a little better....

#1 The beach. I don't really care for swimming in the ocean but I could just sit on the beach (properly sun-blocked, of course) all day with a book and the sound of the waves in the background. It's just so beautiful, peaceful, and oh so soothing!

I wanna be here right now!

#2 Bare Minerals make up. I will never go back to regular foundation again! Never! This stuff is amazing. If you've never tried it and think, "It's just a bunch of hype for a more expensive product." Wrong-o! This stuff works miracles. Flawless, radiant skin every time! It also helps clear up skin problems when used regularly. (No, I wasn't paid or asked to say these things.) This is 100% my opinion!

Foundation & brush, concealer & brush, and blush

#3 Vera Bradley bags. I love all things Vera Bradley! I don't have a favorite print, I have lots of prints that I love. I can't choose just one. I think I've mentioned before that I have a bag addiction. Well, I'd say that 85% of the blame goes to Vera Bradley. I'm obsessed. My family and I went on a weekend beach trip one time and I used my large duffel bag. Dad was getting everything out of the back of the Yukon and I yelled, "Stop! Vera does NOT go on the ground!" To which, he responded, "Who's Vera?" When I pointed to my bag, he rolled his eyes and held my bag hovering over the asphault, waiting for me to take her off his hands. :)

That's 2 duffel bags, 3 purses, a lunch bag, a lunch cooler, 3 wallets, 1 wristlet, 1 lrg cosmetic bag, 1 small cosmetic case, a lrg tote, medium tote, apron, and tin and the prints are Java Blue, Buttercup, Baroque, Hello Dahlia, Twirly Birds Navy, Pirouette, Raspberry Fizz, Peacock, and Classic Black

A Baker, a Blog, and No Oven? It's time for a giveaway!

It is a sad day, indeed, when a pastry chef and author of a cupcake blog has no oven! Yes, folks, it's true. My oven is out of commission and I don't know when it's gonna be fixed. Seriously, I'm at a loss. I'm like a singer without a song, a doctor without medicine, or an author without a pen. How am I supposed to entertain you lovely folks or bring smiles to hungry faces? Well, I'm hosting a giveaway! That's right. For the next week you can enter to win a $10 gift card to Michaels! I don't know about you but I can spend hours in this store without noting the passing of time!! One of you lucky readers will win this fun prize by following the instructions below. What would you spend it on? Here are a few of my favorites:

Adorable Spring liners!

Daisies are my favorite and these sprinkles are just too cute!

LOVE this pan!

*These pictures are all taken from Michaels.com


Alright. Follow the steps below and good luck! I'll notify the winner next Tuesday and announce it here on the blog! *Update: The winner of this giveaway is Cari from twosasters.com, chosen by random.org! Congrats, Cari, and thank you to everyone who entered!

"I Do" With Tiramisu

Mmm...tiramisu...literal translation - "pick me up" - so appropriate. The very word inspires visions of lavish surroundings, faraway elegance, and a quiet moment of indulgence all to myself....

I think I love freehand piping decorations! They all come out so different and unique!!

....ok, I'm back. The second cupcake I served at the bridal shower Tuesday night was a Tiramisu Cupcake from Martha Stewart that I found on Pinterest. The bride's two favorite desserts are anything minty and Tiramisu. You've already read about the mint chocolate chip cupcakes and now I'm gonna share these beautiful little treats with you. First of all, the cake is absolutely fabulous - light and spongy- and very reminiscent of ladyfingers. In fact, I will probably use this cake again as a base for other flavors. For the coffee, I used a dark roast (is there any other kind) Folgers and brewed it extra strong for a full-bodied, rich flavor. The icing is a whipped mascarpone creation that basically melts in your mouth. Finally, the cupcakes are dusted with cocoa (I used dark). Now, normally I would dust them much more liberally but since these were for a shower and the colors were pink and green, I didn't want to put that much dark brown on top and take away from the theme or decor. The overall result was....well, it was a treat for sure. Such a great representation of the traditional dessert. The bride said that it was probably the best cupcake she had ever eaten. High praise, indeed! The looks on the faces of the ladies - surprise, excitement, and pure joy - when I told them about the cupcakes is the very reason I do what I do!

The recipe (original found here):

• Tiramisu Cupcakes
• 1 1/4 cups cake flour (not self-rising), sifted
• 3/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon coarse salt
• 1/4 cup milk
• 1 vanilla bean, halved lengthwise, seeds scraped and reserved (I used 2 teaspoons vanilla extract)
• 4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature, cut into pieces
• 3 large whole eggs plus 3 egg yolks, room temperature
• 1 cup sugar
• Coffee-Marsala Syrup
• Mascarpone Frosting
• Unsweetened cocoa powder, for dusting

A Luck o' the Irish Month o' Cupcakes #2 - Mint Chocolate Cupcakes for the Bride

The second cupcake in my tribute to St. Patty's Day series is Mint Chocolate Chip. I am so excited to introduce you to this cake! Remember my post about random things a little while back where I told you all about my favorite chocolate cake recipe? Well, scratch that! I found my NEW favorite and it is to die for! I mean it. Unbelievably, ridiculously, slap-your-mama good! Trust me. Even my mama would agree. She loves this cake so much and that, my friends, is HUGE! I think I've told you before how picky she is. Well, she was licking her lips over this cake. I found it in a cookbook that my parents got me for Christmas. This book is so cool and has so many recipes that I can't wait to try. It's called Baked Explorations and I love it! The chocolate cake recipe that I am referring to is their Devil's Food cake. High quality dark chocolate (I used Ghirardeli Intense Dark 60%), dark chocolate cocoa, and strong hot coffee are the secret ingredients in this decadent, oh-so-scrumptious cake. Try it. You will be hooked, I promise!!

Love this book!

For the icing on these cupcakes, I used a recipe I found on, you guessed it, Pinterest. This mint chocolate chip icing tastes just like the ice cream. No kidding. In fact, my sister whose favorite ice cream flavor is mint chocolate chip and who also happens to be lactose intolerant, said that she could freeze the icing before eating it and never feel deprived again! I will say this, though. I don't think I will ever use it for cupcakes again! Piping this stuff is a nightmare. One of the reasons I love cupcakes so much is because they are just about the cutest things ever! Well, these babies are not at all cute. I tried two different sized round tips. Then I tried just piping through an open piping bag without a tip. Ugh! So, in the end, I just had to flatten it out and smooth it with a spatula. Thankfully, these were for a bridal shower and I had cute toppers to go on them. From now on I'll just be using this one for cakes - not cupcakes!

Ugly but oh-so-delicious icing! :)

The bridal shower colors were pink and green (spring wedding, of course) so the mint chocolate chip icing was the perfect color. I piped the letter "W" (for the couple's last name) and hearts with green candy melts and I think they turned out quite adorably. We also had carrot cupcakes from the previous post (I made a double batch because I knew we had the bridal shower) and tiramisu cupcakes (you'll get to read about those in my next post). These may seem like strange combinations that have nothing to do with the other and, well, you'd be right except for one important thing. The bride's two favorite desserts are anything minty and tiramisu. Therefore, that's what I made. Hello! What the bride wants...the bride gets!! :)

Carrot, Mint Chocolate Chip, and Tiramisu Cupcakes (post coming soon) 

The recipes:

Carrot Cupcakes and a Purple Velvet Birthday

Well, friends, I survived the weekend! How sad is it that I'm glad it's Monday so that I get a break from my weekend? It was fun but oh so very busy and today is the first of many celebrations this week! First, it's the birthday of one of the ladies I work with (who also happens to be my pastor's wife and mother of my friend Michal from previous posts). For her, I made carrot cupcakes - her favorite cake flavor. Let me tell you, finding the perfect carrot cake recipe has always been a struggle for me. There are so many different versions out there and so many people who say they have the best one! It's actually quite frustrating and someday when I have the time I think I'd like to get a bunch of different recipes and make them all and decide for myself what the best recipe is! Anyway, for these cupcakes, I turned to my new favorite website for wasting time, Pinterest. I found one that sounded pretty good and am pleased with the outcome. I don't know if I'd say it's the best I've ever had but it's tasty and moist - my two requirements for a good cake - and they were well received. I dipped the cupcakes in ganache, iced them in that fabulous whipped cream cheese icing from the Green Velvet post, and topped them with chopped walnuts. Yummy!

Carrot Cupcakes: (adapted from here)

2 cups granulated sugar

1 1/2 cups vegetable oil

4 eggs

2 cups all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon ground cinnamon

3 cups chopped carrots

1/2 cup chopped walnuts

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Grease and flour two 8 or 9-inch round cake pans.  In a large bowl, combine sugar, oil, eggs, flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, carrots and walnuts. Bake in prepared liners until toothpick comes out clean. 

Cute little cupcakes!

Happy Birthday Brunch & What's Coming Up.....

Birthday Muffins

Hey friends! This has been a busy week and next week isn't looking any slower! I wanted to take a few minutes and give you all a heads up about what's goin on in my life and what you should expect to be reading about in some upcoming posts. First, remember I told you that we'd be taking a few detours from cupcakes this month because of birthday celebrations at work? Well, today is my second birthday with two more - one on Monday and another on Tuesday - next week. For today's birthday girl, Debbe, we're having a surprise birthday brunch. I made Glazed Spice Muffins that I found on Pinterest (the recipe I used calls them Glazed Doughnut Muffins, but I don't get the correlation between these and doughnuts so I changed it), Breakfast Casserole, and a fruit salad with a Marshmallow Cream Cheese dip. Now, this sweet lady's birthday is actually on Saturday - St. Patrick's Day - but the office is closed on Saturday so we celebrated a bit early.  The muffins were wrapped in birthday themed liners with a candle in one so that we could sing to her and she could make a wish and blow it out. Let's face it, a birthday isn't a birthday without candles , singing, and wishes! We also had juice and coffee and lots of fun! I love surprises!!

Fruit with Marshmallow Cream Cheese Dip (equal parts marshmallow fluff and cream cheese)

The spread :)

Let's see...this week we've had missions conference at church and tomorrow morning is our ladies' breakfast and then church-wide missions banquet in the evening - yes, lots of food. Also, I have friends moving out of state so I'm meeting up with them Sunday night; I have to get things planned for the two birthdays next week - one of which is my BFF, Michal's (from my Lemon & Raspberry post); and I have a bridal shower Tuesday night which will bring us back to cupcakes - Tiramisu and Mint Chocolate Chip - YUM! Oh yes, and two other friends are coming into town over the weekend with lots of plans and fun to be had for all throughout the week!! Whew...I'm tired just typing all of that!

So, what can you be expecting to read next week? Well, first there will be the aforementioned Tiramisu cupcakes in a post titled "I Do with Tiramisu" and "A Luck O' the Irish Month O' Cupcakes #2 - Mint Chocolate Chip for the Bride". There will also be a post about the two special birthdays next week but I don't want to give any surprises away so you'll just have to wait and see....don't let the suspense kill you! ;) Anyway, I'll be happy when life settles down a little bit because I have some really exciting ideas for cupcakes and can't wait to share them with you!

Some fun and exciting news - Terry over at These Peas Taste Funny featured the Green Velvet Cupcakes from my previous post on her Facebook page so head over and check out her fun blog! Thanks, Terry, for the shout out! Also, Kara over at Happy Go Lucky just featured the Lemon & Raspberry cupcakes from last week (thanks to all of you wonderful "clickers") so head on over and check them out on her blog! Thanks, Kara and Amy, for a fun party!

As you can see, great things are happening in my little corner of world and I'm loving every minute! Talk about blessed! As always, happy reading and, more importantly, happy cupcake-ing!

Luck o' the Irish Month o' Cupcakes #1 - Green Velvet!

This is the first in a series of green cupcakes for St. Patty's Day in honor of the Irish and my heritage - not sure how much, but I am part Irish - and to start, I'm going to confess something to you. I could have dedicated an entire blog to my love affair with red velvet cake. I don't know what it is about the stuff but I LOVE it! Is that terrible of me to admit? I know the red food coloring isn't the best thing for me and recently I've been thinking about trying more natural ways of making the batter red without all the yuck, but I just can't get enough of this cake. There's just something about the tartness of the buttermilk and vinegar in the cake combined with the sweet creaminess of the cream cheese icing - oh, I'm drooling now! I've made it red (standard), blue (for a winter wonderland wedding), and now I'm gonna go green! Everyone else is, why not me too? :)

Can someone please explain to me why, 5 days before St. Patty's Day, I couldn't find cupcake liners or sprinkles to go with the theme anywhere?? I looked at Publix, Sweetbay, Target, and Walmart. Today I went to Michaels (where I probably should've started in the first place) and finally found some. Even Michaels was almost out so I stocked up for next year!

My cute little liners I found at Michaels - Standard and Mini :)

So, here it is - the best red velvet cake recipe I have ever tried, adapted for St. Patty's Day and made into a slightly healthier version of the original. I filled the cupcakes with a light green cream cheese filling and iced them with a FABULOUS whipped cream cheese icing - best ever! Then I freehand piped some 3 leaf clovers with white chocolate (dyed green, of course) and voila! Green Velvet Cupcakes for St. Patty's Day!

Piped 3 leaf clover

Green Velvet Cupcakes: (original recipe found here)


2 cups sugar
1/2 pound (2 sticks) butter, at room temperature

• 2 eggs
• 2 tablespoons cocoa powder
• 2 ounces red food coloring
• 2 1/2 cups cake flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup buttermilk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 tablespoon vinegar