Finally mine!

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V-day.

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 I LOVE holidays. Like, a lot. I like any excuse to be cheesy, buy people cheesy things, make cupcakes and celebrate. It is a really good time for me. My Valentines's day was perfect. Pat bought me the red kitchenaid mixer I have wanted!! Perfect that he got me the empire red, and on v-day too ;)

I had wanted the light blue/seafoam-y one FOREVER, then the baby pink, HOWEVER, we are painting all of our kitchen furniture REDDDD, so it really is perfect ;). Later in the day he had roses and chocolate delivered,awwww.  For our valentine's day dinner he cooked the meal and I made dessert. I took pictures of BOTH, but, I took them on my phone and my phone decided to break this morning, so my word will have to do. He mad me lobster tail and a delicious fresh parm,lemon arugula salad. I made him peanut butter pie. (he is obsessed with peanut butter). It was so easy to make! Especially with my new mixer!!!

I found a pic of the pie online so you get the idea:

DELISH.

The night before Banana and I made cupcakes for Patrick of course. I, myself do not ever use box cake, HOWEVER, when it is a 2 year old baking...you kind of have too! So we made him box strawberry cupcakes with strawberry icing...it was cute!

xoxo

Pretty Pretty Sky Last night.

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Cute.

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  I like to collect adorable things like this for my kitchen!

Oreo Cupcakes.

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 So it may seem like all I blog about lately is food. Well, it's true. I have delved into the domesticated world..since I am a stay at home mom now, I have nothing else (besides obviously taking care of Banana), then to get super kick ass at baking and cooking. I do actually cook a ton too...but I am always too rushed and forget to take photos and blog. Since I only cook vegetarian in the house, I have come up with some PRETTY delicious stuff recently because you gotta get a little zaney when there is no meat involved or it can get really boring.
 I have made oreo cheesecake cupcakes before, but never oreo cupcakes. Let me TELL you, DELICIOUS. They one thing I would change, would be to use a thicker liner for the the cupcakes because the thin paper ones became stuck to the cupcake and was hard to get off....and that's just annoying.
 Imagine oreo on the bottom, mixed in with the cake and then on top too. Heaven.

a tip for when it says to use "room temperature" eggs. I seriously suck at thinking things before hand and ALWAYS forget to let butter and eggs get to room temperature. PLUS, my house is like -100 degrees so nothing really gets there anyway... if you fill a bowl with lukewarm water and let the eggs sit in for a few minutes, that will get them where they need to be ;)

cupcakes:

24 Oreo halves, with cream filling attached
2¼ cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp. baking powder
½ tsp. salt
8 tbsp. unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 2/3 cup sugar
3 large egg whites, at room temperature
2 tsp. vanilla extract
1 cup milk
20 Oreo cookies, coarsely chopped 

frosting:
8 oz. cream cheese, at room temperature
6 tbsp. unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 tbsp. vanilla extract
4 cups confectioners’ sugar, sifted
2 tbsp. heavy cream

garnish:
Oreo cookie crumbs
24 Oreo cookie halves

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 350˚ F.  Line the wells of two cupcake pans with 24 paper liners.  Place an Oreo halve in the bottom of each liner, cream side up.  In a medium bowl, combine the flour, baking powder and salt; stir together with a fork to blend and set aside.  In the bowl of an electric mixer, combine the butter and sugar and beat together on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes.  Blend in the egg whites one at a time, beating well after each addition.  Blend in the vanilla extract.  With the mixer on low speed, beat in half of the dry ingredients just until incorporated.  Add the milk and beat just until combined, then mix in the remaining dry ingredients.  Gently fold in the chopped Oreos with a rubber spatula until evenly incorporated, being careful not to over-mix.

Evenly divide the batter between the prepared cupcake liners.  Bake for 18-20 minutes, rotating the pans halfway through baking, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.  Allow to cool in the pans 5-10 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

To make the frosting, combine the cream cheese and butter in the bowl of an electric mixer and beat on medium-high speed until smooth, about 1 minute.  Blend in the vanilla extract.  Beat in the confectioners’ sugar until incorporated and smooth, 1-2 minutes.  Add the heavy cream to the bowl and beat on medium-low speed just until incorporated, then increase the speed to medium-high and whip for 4 minutes until light and fluffy, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed.

Frost the cooled cupcakes as desired.  Sprinkle with Oreo crumbs and garnish with Oreo halves.

Boston Cream Cupcakes.

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 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.

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 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.