Happy 4th Cupcakes!

Happy 4th of July everyone! I hope your day is full of picnics, hotdogs, fireworks, and cupcakes. And family, friends, and loved ones. I am so grateful to live in the land of the free. Let’s take this day to remember what a great country we live in!

In honor of the 4th I decided to make some red white and blue cupcakes!!! My inspiration was all over Pinterest…

However, I didn’t find any red, white, and blue cupcakes! So I decided to make my own. First I mixed up some cake batter from a mix.

I separated it into 3 somewhat equal parts. Then I colored one part red and one part blue, leaving one third white.

I threw some cupcake liners into muffin tins (which I think should really be called cupcake tins). Then, using a soup spoon, I put the first layer of blue cake batter into the liners.

Then white…

Then red.

I put them in to bake at 350 for 18 minutes. They came out looking like this:

I love the side! I hope the layers are that neat when the cupcake is bitten in half!

Then I frosted ’em. I just did a plain white frosting since the cupcake itself has so much pizzazz.

I felt like the frosting needed a little something extra, so I dipped the tops into sparkling sugar- one of my favorite simple ways to jazz up a cupcake! I just dumped some onto a small plate and rolled the cupcake in it.

So the cupcakes with sugar looked like this:

Then I went about making some gorgeous cupcake tags to go on top. I found a really cute printable over at Tater Tots and Jello. The printable was made to be 4 inches in size when finished, which I thought was a tad big for what I was going to do with it. So I printed it at half size.

I had A LOT of cutting ahead of me! After quite a while, I got all the pieces cut out.

I put the pieces together using the instructions on the blog where I got the printable. Lots of folding and gluing to get them looking perfect. I added a toothpick in the middle so it would sit right on the top of the cupcake! Here are the finished cupcake toppers…

Pretty obsessed with them! Here they are on top of the cupcakes!

And a pic where you can see the cake layers too…

I love how these ended up coming out! I loaded them into my brand spankin’ new cupcake carrier (which is also collapsible for storage). Love how it also serves as a tiered cupcake stand.

The layers are extra tall so the cupcakes fit right in with the toppers attached!

They’re all ready to go to my uncle’s picnic later today!

Have a happy happy independence day!

-Carolyn

 

Berry Happy Birthday Pie!

I love pie. Any kind of pie. Cake is pretty good too, but pie is to die for. I actually think I want pie at my wedding. So for my birthday dinner, I made myself some mixed berry pie!

Mixed Berry Pie Filling

(Makes two)

-3 cups blueberries

-4 cups raspberries

-2 cups strawberries (halved)

-1 cup sugar

-6 Tbsp cornstarch

Put all the berries in a big bowl.

Add the sugar and cornstarch and mix until everything is evenly coated.

While that sits (and becomes absolutely delicious), make the pie crust. I just used a recipe from the Betty Crocker cookbook. Make sure it is for two crust pies and then double it. First, mix the dry ingredients, shortening, and ice cold water using a pastry cutter until you get a doughy consistency. The cold water is important because it makes the dough flaky when cooked.

When the dough is at the correct consistency, split the dough into 4 parts. Take one of the larger pieces and roll it out into a large circle.

Lay the dough down into a pie dish. Lightly press it down using your hand. If cracks appear (and they probably will), lightly wet your finger and use it to fix the cracks.

Do this for both pies and cut off the excess dough. Then fill with the berry mixture. The filling cooks down, so put in more than you think you need.

Roll out the other two pieces of dough into slightly smaller circles and lay them on top of the pies. Tuck the edge of the top crust under the bottom crust.  Press the tines of a fork around the edge to seal the crusts.

Cut a hole in the top to let the steam out. I made mine in the shape of a C for Carolyn! Brush the top with egg whites and sprinkle with sugar (I used sparkling sugar). Wrap the edges in foil so they don’t brown too quickly.

Bake at 375 for 20 minutes. Then remove the foil and bake for 25 more minutes, or until golden brown.

Cut and serve. I like mine with vanilla bean ice cream.

It is the perfect birthday dessert. Not too sweet, not too tart, and absolutely delicious (even if the filling does run out of the pie a little bit). It is worth the effort of making it yourself. It would be great for a 4th of July picnic as well with all the blue and red berries in there! I hope you enjoy!

-Carolyn

Seashell Cookie Favors

I started planning my sister’s bridal shower well in advance. I think the first thing I bought was purchased last July. I decided it would be a beach theme and so I bought these cute cookie stamps to make favors.

Sea star, scallop shell, and sand dollar. I think they were seven dollars each, and I don’t know where I bought them but I do know that I googled cookie stamps and that is how I found them.

Then I googled “cookie stamp recipe” and went with the first recipe that came up. (I was hoping for something that didn’t include nuts because you never know).

Honey Stamped Cookies

1/2 c. butter
1 1/4 c. all-purpose flour
1/3 c. sugar
1 egg yolk
1 tbsp. honey
1/2 tsp. vanilla
Sugar (optional)

I think the recipe says to mix certain things together first, but I never do that. And I think the recipes still come out great. So mix all those together using an electric mixer. Then roll the dough into 1/2 inch balls.

Put flour on the cookie stamps (so they don’t stick to the dough) and press firmly. The shape will show up in the cookie!

The sea star and scallop shell came out perfectly. It was much harder to see the sand dollar (unfortunately) and I stopped making those after a while (and I was making these cookies for a WHILE- 250 cookies overall). I added some sparkling sugar to the top of the cookies before baking… it added a little pizzazz.

Bake the cookies at 375 for 7-10 minutes or until golden brown. I found they took much longer than what the recipe called for so trust your oven. After you take them out, let them cool for a minute on the pan, then transfer to paper towels.

I wanted each guest to leave with 5 cookies (many left with more than that because I made a few too many). I ordered some cellophane bags from Oriental Trading, bought hemp string from JoAnn’s, and made beachy tags using seashell stamps.

Each bag got ~5 cookies in it and was tied up with a tag…

I put all the bags into a large basket to have out at the shower.

People loved these favors. The cookies are sweet without being too sweet and went really well with the theme.

Here is an even better picture that my photographer aunt got!

I can’t rave about her photos enough.. make sure you go here to check out her stuff even more!

What kind of favors do you usually do for a shower or party?

…Duck Cupcakes

I decided to make cupcakes for one of my classes tomorrow as it is not only the day before break but also two girls birthdays! (It’s Maggie’s birthday too… More on that later) These duck cupcakes have been beckoning to me ever since I saw them! How cute for spring!

…Vanilla Cupcake Variations

Happy Snow Day everyone! In honor of the snowday, and my friend’s 24th birthday this weekend, I decided to make cupcakes. Instead of making plain vanilla cupcakes, I decided to see what I could do to jazz them up. So I made vanilla cupcake variations!

First I made some vanilla cake batter. I made mine from scratch, but you could just as easily use a mix. Any vanilla cake batter will work. I poured the batter into the pre-lined muffin tins. On the top row I added crushed Oreos to make cookies and cream cupcakes. In the second row I added chocolate chips. In the third row I added a spoonful of grape jelly and in the fourth row I added a dollop of peanut butter.

After baking the cupcakes looked like this:

Then I frosted them. I used a recipe from 500 Cupcakes. It is basically butter, sugar, and a pinch of salt. The cookies and cream cupcakes got plain frosting with cookies crushed on top. The chocolate chip ones got plain with a bit of sparkling sugar. I also made some colored frosting using neon food coloring. The jelly ones got purple frosting (not pictured below because I gave them to the plow guys). The peanut butter cupcakes got green frosting with pink dragee crowns (for my friend’s nickname as The Princess… and yes I used pink and green). The pink ones with the silver dragee B (for my friend’s initial) are plain vanilla.

I think they are a beautiful birthday present and a very fun way to spend a snow day. Be surprised B!

Drinking Earl Grey,

Carolyn

…Cream Filled Cupcakes

It is frigid today. OMG! It needs to not ever be this cold again in my whole life.

Because of the horrible cold, I decided to make soup! Again I used my favorite cookbook (New Complete Weight Watchers) to make Creamy Potato Soup with Roasted Garlic (7 points). The soup also has ham (I used turkey ham) and green beans. It was so delicious! And I made beer bread (3 points) that I bought at a Tastefully Simple party. All you have to do is open the package, pour in a beer, and add some melted butter. It was the perfect meal for a cold day.

A lady at work is going to a different job next week so we are having lunch for her tomorrow. I decided to bring a dessert… and I am bringing cupcakes! I got a cupcake corer for Christmas and have been waiting for a reason to try it out. So I looked up a recipe for creme filled cupcakes. I used devil’s food store bought cake mix and store bought (funfetti) chocolate frosting, but I made the cream filling myself.

So here are the instructions on how to make your own!

1. Make and cook cupcakes and let them cool.

2. Core each cupcake using the corer (or you could use a knife, but the corer is definitely cooler).

3. Use a ziplock bag or a pastry tube to fill the cupcakes with cream. (I apologize for the blurry picture… I had to take it with my left hand.)

4. Frost with the chocolate frosting and decorate with the sprinkles!

So easy, right? These look so delicious. I have no idea how many points they are, but they’re too good to care. I’m bringing them into school old school style- In a shirt box. Maybe I should get one of those cupcake carriers.

Happy baking!

-Carolyn

…Cupcakes

I love cupcakes. Almost as much as I love tea (I am currently drinking some red raspberry.. yum). It is definitely all the rage to make and decorate cupcakes right now. Has anyone seen Cupcake Wars? So fun! At first I was just into decorating the cupcakes, but I recently got some cookbooks with a ton of different fun flavors in them. I’ve been experimenting and found some interesting flavors that I will be sure to share in the future.

I made some really cute cupcakes during my decorating phase. The two books that I use are Hello Cupcake and What’s New Cupcake. Both books have really amazing ideas that are easy to make! The first ones I made for the last day of school. The decorations are made from canned frosting, mini marshmallows, and colored sugar. They look awesome, and are so easy to make. All you have to do is cut each marshmallow on the diagonal, shake a bunch up with colored sugar, and arrange them on the cupcake. I used non-pareils for the pollen, but you can many other small candies instead.

These swimmers are my absolute favorite! I made them with Entenmann’s chocolate donuts, Starbursts, gumdrops, and vanilla wafers. Technically they were supposed to be made from mini donuts, but I couldn’t find those. These worked just as well and were a huge hit!

I am a youth group leader at my church and we went on a mission trip this summer. We had to raise a lot of money to go and one of our fundraisers was a bake sale at our church. For the bake sale I made some jungle themed cupcakes as well as picnicking ants. The hippos are made from canned frosting that I dyed blue, fruit loops, and nutter butters. Very easy to put together. The alligators are made from the same materials, but you cut the nutter butters and cover them in green frosting. The ants are made from chocolate covered peanuts, dyed green frosting, and some chocolate frosting.

 

 

The youth group also hosted fellowship at church during Halloween. Halloween, in my opinion, is the perfect time to make cupcakes. There are so many fun things to do with them! I made owls (which ended up being my absolute favorite) out of oreo cookies, junior mints, and runts. For the owls I used chocolate canned frosting. I also made pumpkins and jack-o-lanterns. Both have dyed orange frosting. On the jack-o-lanterns I also used chocolate and lemon tootsie rolls.

I think the next ones I will make are the penguins or the ducks… So cute! I hope you enjoy the cupcakes and they inspire you to make your own!

-Carolyn