Colletta's Kitchen Sink: Strut Your Stuff Thursday

Making Your Home Sing

Raising Homemakers Link-up

Tuesdays at the Table

Making Your Home Sing Monday

Saturday, October 2, 2010

Brown Sugar Cinnamon Cupcakes with White Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting

Brown sugar + cinnamon + cream cheese + white chocolate = Yum!

I found this recipe at http://www.sweetebakes.blogspot.com/ .

Brown Sugar Cinnamon Cupcakes

3/4 cup butter, softened
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
3 eggs
1 1/2 cup flour
1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 cup buttermilk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 325. Line pan with cupcake liners and set aside.

In a large bowl, cream butter and sugars until fluffy.

Add eggs one at a time, beating after each addition.

In a small bowl, whisk flour, baking powder, salt and cinnamon.

Add vanilla extract to buttermilk.

Mix dry ingredients into butter/sugar mixture alternating with buttermilk, beginning and ending with flour mixture.

Fill each cupcake liner 3/4 full.

Bake for 20 minutes or until cupcakes bounce back to touch or toothpick comes out clean.

Cool completely before frosting.

White Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting

1 8oz. package of cream cheese
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, softened
4 cups powdered sugar
1/4 cup whipping cream
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup white chocolate, melted
1 Tablespoon crisco

In a large bowl, cream butter and cream cheese until smooth and creamy.

Slowly add sugar, whipping cream and vanilla extract. Beat until smooth and creamy consistency is reached.

Melt white chocolate and crisco in the microwave. Check every 30 seconds until melted. Allow to cool slightly before adding to icing mixture.

Add melted white chocolate to frosting mixture and beat on high for a few minutes.

Place frosting in the fridge for a few minutes. Use a ziplock to pipe frosting onto cupcakes.

Mix some sugar and cinnamon together in a small bowl. Sprinkle cupcakes with sugar/cinnamon mixture.

Let me know if you try this recipe and what you think!

Linking up to:

Making Your Home Sing Monday

Wednesday, September 29, 2010

Hanging Kitchen Towel Project

I don't know about you, but I love having a Hanging Kitchen Towel at my fingertips while cooking. So does my sweet Aunt Sherry. Hers were so well-loved that she said they weren't fit for the rag bag.

She asked me if I would make some for her. I said, "Of course!". She had already bought the towels. I guess she anticipated my answer!

So here are the towels before:

And here are the towels after:

Only one end of the solid towel had the stripe, so one of each color is just solid at the bottom. My aunt has MS so velcro was the way to go for closures.

These were so easy to make. Now I need to make myself some. Mine current ones aren't fit for the rag bag either!

It only took me about 1 hour to construct all four Hanging Kitchen Towels. Super easy!

If anyone is interested in a tutuorial, let me know and I can put one together.

Linking to:

Homemaking Link-up (Raising Homemakers)
Strut Your Stuff Thursday
Made By You Monday
Making Your Home Sing
Homemaker Mondays
Metamorphosis Monday

Monday, September 27, 2010

Pink Lemonade Cupcakes

I made these cupcakes to take to our Guardian Angel Program picnic.

The Guardian Angel Program is a program where adult church members are assigned a specific school-kid to pray for and to give special treats to for that school year. The child's Guardian Angel is a secret until they are revealed at the yearly picnic. It is great fun and a very special lady, Jane, is the coordinator.

I originially found this recipe at http://www.potsandpins.com/ . I tweaked it a little, especially to make the cupcakes more "pink".

Pink Lemonade Cupcakes

1 1/2 cups sugar

6 Tablespoons butter, softened

1 Tablespoon grated lemon zest

3 Tablespoons thawed pink lemonade concentrate

2 teaspoons vanilla

3 drops red food coloring

2 large eggs

2 large egg whites

2 cups flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1 1/4 cups milk

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line muffin tins.

In a large bowl combine sugar, butter, lemon zest, lemonade concentrate, food coloring and vanilla. Beat until well blended. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.

In a medium bowl combine dry ingredients, mixing with a whisk.

Add flour misture to sugar mixture, alternating with milk. Mix only until blended.

Spoon batter into cupcake liners (fill them fairly full) and bake for 20 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool in pans 10 minutes before removing to a wire rack. Cool completely before frosting. Makes 24 cupcakes.

Pink Lemon/Cream Cheese Frosting

2 Tablespoons butter, softened

2 Teaspoons lemon zest

2 Teaspoons thawed pink lemonade concentrate

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

3 drops red food coloring

8 oz. cream cheese, softened

3 1/2 cups powdered sugar (I needed more than this.)

Pink Decorating Sugar

Combine in a bowl at high speed the butter, lemon zest, lemonade concentrate, vanilla, food coloring and cream cheese. Beat until light and fluffy. Add the powdered sugar at a low speed and best until well blended. (You'll probably need additional powdered sugar to get the consistency desired.) Chill frosting for one hour before using. Spons into a Ziplock bag, snip one corner and pipe onto cooled cupcakes. Sprinkle pink decorating sugar on top.

Regrigerate, loosely covered, but serve at room temperature.

I took some different colored bendy straws and cut them down to add a little bit of decoration to the top of the cupcake. They were a hit and the kids loved picking out the straw colors.

Let me know if you try this recipe and what you think!

Linking up to:

Making Your Home Sing Monday

Monday, September 20, 2010

Dr. Pepper Cupcakes

These cupcakes were so moist! They were so chocolately and fudgy and just oh so delicious!

I originally found this recipe over at http://www.christyrobbins.blogspot.com/ .

They are a must try!

Dr. Pepper Cupcakes

1 1/2 cups Dr. Pepper Soda

1/2 cup vegetable oil

1 stick butter

4 Tablespoon cocoa powder

2 cups sugar

2 cups flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

2 eggs

1/2 cup buttermilk

In a pan, combine Dr. Pepper, oil, butter, and cocoa. Stir over medium heat. When it starts to simmer, turn of stove. Make sure it is well mixed.

Add all the dry ingredients, but don't over mix.

In a separate bowl, beat the buttermilk and eggs, then add it to the rest of the mix. Blend together.

Place batter in cupcake liners. (Fill the liners almost completely full. These don't rise much).

Bake at 350 for 16-18 minutes. Don't over-bake.

Buttercream Icing Recipe

1 lb. powdered sugar

1 1/2 Tablespoons milk

1/2 Tablespoon water

1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla

1 cup chocolate chips

1/4 cup cocoa powder

1/2 stick butter

Combine sugar, milk, water and vanilla.

In a pan, melt and stir together the chocolate chips, cocoa and butter.

Add melted chocolate mixture to the sugar mixture. Beat together until smooth and fluffy. You may need to add a little more milk if your mixture looks to crumbly. ( I had to add quite a bit more milk. Just add a little at a time until you get the consistency you desire.)

I topped each cupcake with a well-drained Maraschino cherry. It added that sweet pop of cherry flavor. And it looked so cute!

Let me know if you try this recipe and what you think!

Linking up to:

Monday, September 13, 2010

Coconut Cupcakes

I originally found this recipe over at http://www.acuppycakelife.blogspot.com/ . I tweaked it a little to accommodate my tastes and what I had on hand.

This cupcake has a delicate coconut flavor and is like eating a little bit of summer.

Coconut Cupcakes

2/3 cup butter, softened

1 3/4 cups sugar

2 eggs

3 tsp. coconut flavoring

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

2 1/3 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. salt

1 1/4 cups coconut milk

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line muffin tins and set aside.

In a medium bowl, sift together flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside.

In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time and beat until well blended. Mix in coconut flavoring. Add the dry ingredient mixture in thirds alternating with two additions of coconut milk. Beat until all ingredients are well blended.

Scoop 1/4 cup of batter into each cupcake liner. Bake 13-18 minutes (more toward the 18) or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Let cool in pan for 4 minutes before removing to wire rack to cool completely.

Coconut Buttercream Icing

(enough for 24 regular cupcakes)

1 1/2 cups vegetable shortening

1/2 tsp. salt

1 Tablespoon coconut flavoring

6 cups powdered sugar

2/3 cup coconut milk

In a large bowl cream shortening, salt, coconut flavoring and 2 cups of powdered sugar. Add remaining sugar alternating with coconut milk until desired texture is reached. You may not need all of the coconut milk. Beat on high for 10 minutes until creamy and fluffy.

I will be linking up to:

Making Your Home Sing Mondays

Homemaker Mondays

Monday, September 6, 2010

Summertime Eclairs

Since summer is just about over, I thought I better post this recipe soon. Although this would be great anytime of the year!It is super rich and super delicious. Making it was easy, easy, easy.

I found the recipe over at http://www.sumossweetstuff.blogspot.com/.

I taste tested it and decided it was "satisfactory" for company. lol

Summertime Eclair

2 small boxes of vanilla pudding
graham crackers
2 cans of chocolate frosting
3 cups milk for the pudding
2 T milk for the frosting
8 oz. Cool Whip

Mix your pudding with 3 cups of milk. Let it stand for 5 minutes. Mix in Cool Whip.

Layer graham cracker in the bottom of a 9X13 pan.

Spread on a layer of pudding.

Mix 1 can of frosting with 1 T milk. Spread on top of pudding layer.

Make another layer of graham crackers.

Add another layer of pudding.

Add another layer of frosting mixed with 1 T milk.

Crush up some graham crackers and sprinkle on top.

Chill in fridge for at least three hours.

This is also a great recipe for the kids to help with "clean up" as you can see from the pictures below.

Yum, yum, yum...

Linking to:

Making Your Home Sing Mondays

Saturday, September 4, 2010

Sanity Saving Routine Charts for Kids

It was the week before school was to start and I was dreading the inevitable fighting in the morning to get ready for school, the afternoon to do homework and the night to get ready for bed and the new day.

I was trying to forget about all that when I came across a post at New Nostalgia about routine charts. Now, we had tried chore charts in the past with no success. But, I decided to give it another go for the sake of my sanity and mother/daughter relationship.

I am glad to report that it has been a success for the past two weeks!! Maybe Kaylee just wasn't mature enough before, or maybe I was just too lenient for it to work before. Either way, it is so wonderful not to have to tell her step-by-step what to do every morning, afternoon, and night.

I thought about what reward to use and decided on an allowance system. She gets $0.50 for each that she completes every one of her tasks. She gets paid when we get paid, which is every two weeks. She can use her pay for the student store, book orders, Dollar General, whatever she wants. It is her spending money and once its gone, its gone.

Here's what we did for her charts:

I used DLTK's Custom Chore Charts to print them off. Then we pasted them onto colored posterboard. Kaylee decorated them with stickers and then I put them into a page-protector so she could use a dry-eraser marker and we could just wipe it clean at the end of the week. (I couldn't find laminating supplies at Wal-Mart.)

We taped them on the back of her bedroom door so that she has easy access to them.

Morning Routine:

Afternoon Routine:

Bedtime Routine:

I think you should be able to read what we have included in each of her routines. If not, let me know and I can type them out. Really though, you'll have to personalize them to suit your specific needs in your household.

I hope we can continue having success with this system. So far, so good!

Good luck to you! Let me know if you try it and how it goes.

Linking to:

Homemaker Mondays