blog neglect

So, I haven't blogged much lately and I apologize. That should change now that I'm off work for the summer!!! YAY!

I've kept busy lately with cupcakes and photos, I'll share those with you now.

Ok, lets see. We went to Ribfest last weekend. The only word to describe what we ate there was delicious. I had a pulled pork sandwich from Sgt. Oink's. Dave had a sandwich from another stand, which I don't remember the name. Connor had a few ribs from the same place Dave went to and Mason (who just likes to be different), had a corndog.

We sat in the shade on the west side of the park right by the Hot Waffle and Ice Cream Sandwich stand. My gosh this was genius!! Again, delicious works here!

I'll save you from the photos of me v. the bouncy castle at my nephews' birthday party. Let's just say that the bouncy castle won. I really didn't mean to go down the slide head first, I promise!!

I made ice cream cone cupcakes (vanilla cake with vanilla buttercream frosting colored blue to look like the Connor's favorite ice cream - Blue Moon) for the Connor to take to school since he has a summer birthday. They came out perfect and were a big hit with his class. I also made the cookie dough cupcakes to take to work with me for my boss's summer birthday, but I don't have any pictures of those this time.

This past Wednesday, I took pictures for a friend whose son was graduating high school. We headed up to the Wintergreen Gorge cemetery and across the street from it because that was where she chose. I love the small waterfall out in front of the cemetery. These photos were a bit of a challenge for me since I'm barely 5'1" and he towered over me. I had to make sure to be on higher ground from him, or at least farther away. The majority of these were taken with my 50mm lense which I looooove!!

This past Friday was the last day of work for me for the summer. Now, to just stay out of trouble!

I'll leave you with these flowers. I really have no idea what they are but to me they look like fireworks. I took these the same night as the graduation photos and was playing around a little with DOF.

Margarita cupcakes

Cake recipe here. Frosting recipe here. I didn't use the alcohol in them though, simply because I didn't have any at the house (I don't drink much anymore).

Lime buttercream frosting before I added the food coloring ... I love that you can see the little flecks of zest!



I used a coarse sugar to simulate the look of salt.





I also made the s'mores ones. I couldn't think of two cupcakes more suitable for a picnic than s'mores and margaritas!



The chocolate pieces on top of the s'mores cupcakes are little bitty baking pieces I found recently! I had been chopping up the fun size bars of Hershey's, but these are SO much easier! I also found them in Peppermint Patty and Reese's kinds too! They are the perfect size for the top of a mini cupcake.

I got a little bit of video too, lol.

Three ingredient peanut butter cookies

Yes, you read it correctly - only three ingredients (and they're not cupcakes, LOL)!

1 cup peanut butter
1 cup granulated sugar
1 egg

Mix, scoop, flatten, bake at 350F for 8 minutes (until the bottoms are just barely brown).

a walk in the park

These are just a few shots from my walk in Frontier Park the other night. I hope you enjoy them as much as I enjoyed taking them.

I couldn't stray from cupcakes for long!

That is my latest creation - a devil's food cupcake filled with Dulce de Leche and topped with a Dulce de Leche swiss meringue buttercream.

Dave's comment on the buttercream was "I could brush my teeth with that." I'm guessing that's a compliment (but I really wouldn't recommend brushing your teeth with frosting!).

I got the cake recipe from Chockylit's now defunct blog (but she still has her recipes posted there) and it will now be my go-to recipe for chocolate cake. The only thing I did differently was I used a dark cocoa powder rather than a regular one because that's what I had on hand.

For the frosting recipe I used the same base I use when I make the salted caramel cupcakes, just substituting Dulce de Leche for the salted caramel.

The filling is homemade, recipe to follow - it's SUPER easy!

Preheat the oven to 425° F.

Pour one can (14 ounces) of sweetened condensed milk (not evaporated milk) into a glass pie plate or shallow baking dish. Stir in a few flecks of sea or kosher salt.

Set the pie plate within a larger pan, such as a roasting pan, and add hot water until it reaches halfway up the side of the pie plate.

Cover the pie plate snugly with aluminum foil and bake for 1 to 1¼ hours. (Check a few times during baking and add more water to the roasting pan as necessary).

Once the Dulce de Leche is nicely browned and caramelized, remove from the oven and let cool. Once cool, whisk until smooth.

Store in the refrigerator until ready to serve. Warm gently in a warm water bath or microwave oven before using.