Boston Cream Cupcakes.

 Last week I bought the ingredients to make boston cream cupcakes. I told myself I was going to make them a few times, but then thought about the work involved and was just like, eh, I'll do em' another day. Yesterday I finally made them! It was a little tedious...and you have to make them when you have time to allow everything to cool for a while, and then go back and work on them some more. I am actually going to share a recipe for once, ha.

So, I started out by making the actual cupcakes.

• Cupcakes
• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 3/4 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp each baking powder and salt
• 3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
• 1 1/4 cups sugar
• 3 large eggs
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 cup buttermilk
• 1. Cupcakes: Heat oven to 350ºF. Line 18 muffin cups with paper liners. 
  
  2. In a bowl, whisk flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt until blended.
  
  3. Beat butter and sugar in a large bowl with electric mixer until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add eggs, one at a time, until well blended. Beat in vanilla extract. 
  
  4. With mixer on low speed, alternately beat in flour mixture and buttermilk, beginning and ending with flour mixture, until just blended. 
  
  5. Spoon about 1/4 cup batter into each muffin cup. Bake 18 to 20 minutes until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 5 minutes; remove from pan to wire rack to cool completely. 
  
  
  
  Next I made the filling... I DID cheat with the filling, because it was my first time using this recipe and I didn't want to go through all the work, and mess up the custard filling....that would have really pissed me off...SO, I cheated and used vanilla pudding. Next time, I will for sure use a real custard filling, and I can't even imagine how much more delicious they will be!
  
  
  
  
  

  • Filling
  • 1 package (3 oz) cook & serve vanilla pudding
  • 1 1/4 cups milk
  • 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

  
  
  

  6. Filling: Prepare pudding as package directs, using 1 1/4 cups milk. Remove from heat and stir in vanilla. Scrape into a bowl; cover surface directly with plastic wrap and refrigerate until cold. 

  

  
  
  

  • Chocolate Glaze
  • 8 oz semisweet chocolate, chopped
  • 1/3 cup each sugar and water
  • 3 Tbsp unsalted butter, softened

  
  
  

  7. Glaze: Place chocolate, sugar and water in a small saucepan over low heat. Cook, stirring, until melted and smooth, about 3 minutes. Remove from heat; stir in butter until it melts and mixture is smooth. Let cool. 

  

  
  

  
  

  Next was the glaze..I can't stress ENOUGH that you really have to WAITTTT for it to cool....the first few I didn't and they ended up looking like this:

  

  
  

  
  

  
  

  To assemble, I cut into the cupcakes and hollowed them out, filled with filling, then stuck just the top of the cupcake back on.

  

  
  

  

  
  

  

  
  

  
  

  
  

  After the glaze cool completely! CAREFULLY AND SLOWLY add the glaze on top!

  

  
  

  

  
  

  
  

  
  

  yum!

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

Antarctica.

 But not really. We went to the frozen lake Erie this week. It's pretty amazing that such large body of water freezes like that. It was pretty neat. It was also pretty freaking cold. I want to go out out on the frozen lake sometime, but I read somewhere to only do that on the bay side...and I liked the view better from the beach side, so maybe some other time we will go to the bay and go out far on the ice!
It was so windy and cold, by the time we were back at the car, my mascara was allll over my face...note to self: wear waterproof when going out in frigid subarctic temps..ha.
Presque Isle really is BEAUTIFUL in the summer! So I plan on being there daily and spending time with my family and taking amazing pictures.

Pajama time.

 I would like to add that these Betsey Johnson PJ's, are pretty much my favorite.

Banana Bundy.

CrazyRoller Future Cat Lady.

Nutella.

 One of my most favorite things in the world is Nutella. I like it in things, on things, and I am even known to just eat it right out of the container with a spoon. I often spread it on bread for Banana (and myself,heh)., for a snack. A few months ago, I even made Nutella cupcakes, they were AWESOME. So this morning I decided to make Nutella pancakes. Well actually they were, Nutella, peanut butter, banana pancakes.  Yum.  I started out by making pancakes as normal, then after putting the batter in the pan, I put globs of Nutella on top, the covered with more batter, to form pockets. Flipped them as usual and they were done! Then added peanut butter, confectioners sugar, bananas and syrup, yum yum yum.

Meatless wings.

 Sooo, one thing that Patrick and I have definitely been missing from Philly have been El Camino's seitan hot wings. We love them. Like a lot. So I decided to try to make them myself. It wasn't very hard actually. They weren't EXACTLY like the wings from El Camino, but I also pan fried them in olive oil and I am pretty sure if I threw a deep fryer into the mix, they would have been perfect. Either way, they were yummy.

Momma & Baby Cooking Time.

My Princess.

It's been a while!

 Once again, it's been a while! Between working, AnnaBella, the holidays, finding a new house, moving across the state and helping with my little sister, I really haven't had the time OR the energy to update anything besides my facebook..mostly because its easy and I do it on my phone ;)

 Soooooo......we made it to Erie,Pa! We found an adorable house too. It feels more like home than any house Pat and I have lived in together! It's awesome to not be attached to another house, and not have mutant neighbors. Actually, I never even seen any neighbors yet, but even if they ARE mutants, at least I won't have to hear them constantly! Banana loves it too. She has her own playroom which not only makes her happy, but it makes me happy that her toys are not ruining my life and always in my face!  We have had a little bit of bad luck considering that two days after we got here, our car decided not to work anymore. So I have pretty much been stranded in the house until it is fixed :( On one hand it is nice to just relax, butttttt on the other, it kind of sucks because I don't know how to relax, so we'll see how this goes!
 I will not be working here, so I will have time to bake and cook and perfect my domesticated skillz!  And obviously, update my blog more than once every 3 months!
 Until then, I will be getting my house together, I am excited to see what we are going to do with the inside! Will def post pics of the interior when we are 100% unpacked and all that.