Graduation Cake and Cupcakes!

   Flashing back a few months... May 2013, I graduated! I was not one of those people who wanted to order a couple big graduation cakes for my reception, and I surely didn't want anything that was ordinary or simple. I wanted to have cupcakes and a cake, and I wanted to make them all myself.
   That week I was busy that is for sure! I spent a full day in the kitchen mixing up all the cupcakes myself and baking them. 280 cupcakes, 6 hours, and one big mess later, I was finally finished with the baking. Once they were all baked I had them all tightly wrapped and stored in airtight containers until the next day when I spent the evening frosting them. I decided to have four flavors of cupcakes: Salted Caramel, Pink Lemonade, Vanilla with butter cream frosting, and Confetti with butter cream frosting.
   The next day I spent half the afternoon painting the cupcake stand that my dad helped me to make for my cupcakes. I absolutely love it and it will be used over and over for many occasions I am sure! After I finished my cupcake stand, I spent all evening mixing up each kind of frosting and frosting all of the cupcakes to which I then repacked them into their airtight containers. Thank goodness for the help of my best friend who came to Chadron early before graduation to help me frost all of the cupcakes and make signs for each flavor to follow go with the theme of my graduation party (peacock). My graduation preparation would have taken twice as long as if it wasn't for her help.
   That evening I also threw together a graduation hat cake for the top of my cupcake tower. I spent about an hour frosting and star-tipping the entire top part of the cap. It turned out super cute and I got so many compliments on it! It was definitely the finishing touch to my cupcake tower!
   The cupcakes were a huge hit at my graduation reception! People typically go from reception to reception and of course that means the usual cake after cake after cake. When people got to my party they loved that I didn't just have typical flavors of cake. My guests loved trying the salted caramel and pink lemonade cupcakes because they were something different from every other party. I love to cook, so making my own cupcakes and cake was not a problem at all for me, and I loved getting to hear the responses when people found out I did all of the work on my own rather than hiring out someone to do it for me!

My Family! They are my biggest supporters! Love them!

   The day of graduation was of course a bittersweet one, but definitely a day I will never forget. The weather was perfect (especially since I was planning my reception outside of my house in a huge party tent), and I had the most amazing friends and family to support me. Graduations are all about celebrating a great accomplishment and huge milestone while gathering with family and friends for good food and a good time, and I was so blessed to have such a wonderful day!

Camouflage Cupcakes

    Its been a while since I have blogged about my cooking... Guess it's time to catch up :)

   One of my new adventures lately was camouflage cupcakes. My aunt is a huge duck dynasty fan and asked if I would make camouflage cupcakes for her birthday. The middle of the cupcakes looked camo and I even swirled the frosting to make it camouflage colors. So I made a huge mess of the kitchen but it was so much fun! I love trying something new! The cupcakes turned out great and my aunt and everyone at the party absolutely loved them!
   Making these cupcakes was actually very simple (I cheated and used the box due to the amount of time I had, but cake mixes from scratch would work too but just be sure both cake recipes bake about the same amount of time if you do some from scratch.) If you are interested in making some, here are the instructions:

Ingredients:
Chocolate Cake Mix (I used German chocolate)
Vanilla Cake Mix
Chocolate Frosting (recipe below)
Vanilla Frosting (recipe below)

      Chocolate Frosting:
3 cups powdered sugar
6 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
6 tbsp butter (I find Room Temperature works best for frosting)
5 tbsp evaporated milk
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Sift together powdered sugar and cocoa then set aside in separate bowl. Cream butter until smooth. Gradually add in the sifted mixture and evaporated milk alternating what goes into the creamed butter. Add in the vanilla and beat until light and fluffy.

      Vanilla Frosting:
3 cups powdered sugar
1/2 cup butter (Room Temperature)
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
2 tbsp milk

Cream butter. Gradually add in powdered sugar. Stir in the vanilla and milk. Beat all of the ingredients until smooth.

Instructions:
    Mix up both cake mixes according to box. Take about 1/3 to 1/2 of the vanilla mix out and dye it green with green food coloring. (You should now have three bowls of cake mix: white, brown, and green.) Take and put small blobs of cake mix alternating colors into white cupcake liners. Fill the liners about 2/3 full.
    Average the baking time of the cake mixes according to the boxes. (Even though the average bake time is according to the boxes, still watch the cupcakes. They will be done when a toothpick is inserted into the middle of a couple of the cupcakes and the toothpick comes out clean.) When cupcakes are done, take them out of the oven, and out of the pan immediately (This prevents cupcakes from sitting in pan and "sweating" making them kind of soggy.) Allow to cool completely

   For the frosting mix up the chocolate frosting recipe as well as a plain frosting recipe. Do the same thing with the plain frosting as you did with the vanilla cake and dye about 1/3 to 1/2 green depending on the amount of green you want. (You should now have three colors for frosting: white, brown, and green.) In a piping bag (with a large frosting tip not the normal tip set size) alternate dropping tablespoons of each color frosting into the bag. *Be careful to not squish all the frosting together into one messy color. (Simply squeeze the bag from the top not the sides to prevent meshing colors.) Swirl frosting on top of each cupcake and the colors should turn out swirled together as well. Store in airtight containers if not serving right away! Enjoy!

Recipe Makes about 40-48 Cupcakes

Reflecting on the Past Year

Our Last Family Photo

Grandpa and his Granddaughters

  I know this doesn't have anything to do with the title of my blog, but I decided I would like to share it anyway. Reflecting on this past year for me has truly been a lesson in God's timing and his little blessings. (Bare with the story here as the moral does come at the end.) It all started a year ago this morning sitting around the Christmas tree when I thought to myself "I should record grandpa reading the Christmas story like he does every year. There will be a Christmas when we won't have him there to read it." Little did it know a year later he wouldn't be here with us sitting around the tree. I'm so thankful I took the opportunity when I did last year to record him reading the Christmas story so we could listen to it this morning.
    Then one Saturday morning in November we randomly decided to throw together a family picture while we were all together had our host brother who was available to take a picture for us. None of us were dressed up and we were just sitting on grandmas front porch, but it turned out to be one of the best family pictures we have ever taken. Everyone looks so happy! Later that afternoon grandpa was admitted into the hospital for a week and that was the last family picture we ever got. What a blessing!
    Later that Saturday evening I got the unexpected call with the news grandpa went to the hospital. It was during a movie night with two of my friends, and I don't think God could have put two better people in the room with me. As I burst into tears on the phone my roommate (not even knowing what was going on) came over and just hugged me. The two of my friends offered to take me up to the hospital to see grandpa and bare with me while I sat out in the hallway of the hospital and cried before even walking into the room. Those two were so great that night. I am so thankful God picked those two as my friends!
    Then after grandpa was in the hospital for a week, he was released for two days. This was just long enough to see the beginning of the addition to their house that he drew out to add on for Tia to move in. He sure was excited to see it started. God wanted him to see the addition at least get started before he passed away. How cool!
    After being home a couple days, he fell at the house and the ambulance was called to take him back to the hospital.
    That last week was the hardest but I had one of the best people there to support me who knew exactly was I was going through. Sammie was such a blessing to me and was there to let me cry and to visit grandpa with me. She and grandpa had some great conversations together and I know he enjoyed every minute of it! God used Sammie to reach out to me in a huge way that week!
    I got a call from mom the morning of November 20th saying things weren't looking good. I felt God pulling on my heart with the need to write grandpa a letter and tell him how thankful I was for him. I brought Sammie up to the hospital to read the letter for me as I knew I couldn't do anything but hold his hand and cry. Needless to say that letter is tear stained and in a very special spot now. Grandpa was practically unresponsive, but I knew he could hear me. He did mumble to me "I love you" and I then knew this would probably be it. We spent some time up there and left.
    Later that evening I got the call that grandpa went to heaven and oddly enough, I felt the biggest weight lifted off my shoulders and I felt comfort in knowing I did tell him everything I did and I got to see him that morning. God knew I didn't need to be in the room when he passed.
    The day of grandpas private burial was also Grandma and Grandpa's 48th anniversary. There was not a cloud in the sky. It was an absolutely beautiful day!
    The day of the funeral service was perfect weather for everyone to get here safely which was great. Having already had the private family burial of grandpa, his service of course I did cry, but it felt more like I was attending church than a funeral. It was amazing! I thank God we did it the way we did burying him privately and later having the "celebration of life."
    If you have stuck with me through this whole long story that's awesome (I have always been one slow to the point of things haha) so here is the lesson in it: Gods timing is absolutely perfect. As Ecclesiastes 3:11 says, "He has made everything beautiful in His time." This has been a huge lesson to me looking back on the past year with the little blessings that God gives us and the absolute perfect timing he provides us with. We often go out and make our own plans and think the way that we do things is going to work out perfect, but God surprises us with something different and even better in His time.
    I am so blessed this Christmas to have received the most precious gift of all. A baby born in a manger whose hands years later was pierced for our transgressions and died for our sins. Without that gift of eternity, I wouldn't be able to see my grandpa again! The best gift I have received did not come wrapped in paper and sitting under a tree, but from a stable Bethlehem where a baby was born in a manger many many years ago. Happy birthday Jesus and Merry CHRISTmas to everyone!

Pies and Pastries

A few quick pie tips...

Before filling your pie crust, be sure to "blind bake." To blind bake a pie crust means to bake it first, without the filling. One way of doing this is to put the pie dough in the pan, and then put tin foil over it and fill the pan with beans or marbles to prevent the dough from bubbling up.

Do you find it hard to bake your pie all the way through and not burn the crust? To prevent your crusts of a pie from burning, you can make a shield out of tinfoil, and then remove it a few minutes before it is suppose to come out of the oven, and you will have a perfectly golden crust.

Preparing for a Blizzard

Rather than going out and stocking up on groceries before a big snow storm, we decorate cakes! Today a friend and I spent the day decorating a cake while we waited for the blizzard to hit. Since both of us are really good at making messes in the kitchen, we had a disaster on our hands, but it was full of laughs and many memories!
    We sorted all the M&Ms by color and decided how we would decorate the cake. After a decision for the design was made, we carefully placed 441 M&Ms onto our heart shape cake. There were 295 red, 68 dark pink, and 78 light pink M&Ms. Gotta love spending a lazy day inside decorating a cake! :) Take some time to do some "therapy baking" during this cold dreary weather! Put on some good music and decorate away!

A Cupcake Kind of Occasion: Miss America 2013

Tonight 53 inspirational women from all over the United States will compete for the title of Miss America 2013. Fifty state title-holders plus three more contestants from the Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands have spent the past week and a half in Las Vegas competing in preliminary competitions. It has all led up to the final night of competition tonight at the Planet Hollywood Resort and Casino in Vegas.

Glitz and Glam Cupcakes in support of Miss NE, Mariah Cook!

My family has hosted a Miss America party each year for the final night of competition as it shows live on ABC. This year, I didn't think the party could go without some glitz and glam cupcakes to help celebrate the special occasion. :) I found some cheap and super cute little crowns and rings to stick on top of cupcakes. They are the perfect finishing touch to add to my cupcakes for the party this evening.

This year is an especially exciting night to watch the Miss America pageant, because one of my dear friends, and Chadron's very own Miss Nebraska, Mariah Cook will be competing for Miss America! Over the past few years, she has become like a sister me.  We all love you Mariah and wish you the best of luck. Even though we can not be there tonight in person to support you, we will all be here with a bunch of friends cheering you on!

Our Miss Nebraska Shirts!

 At Mariah's welcome home party after she won Miss Nebraska 2012.

I Learn Something New Everyday

Over the past week I learned how to make ricotta, crème fraîche, and a few simple but fancy breakfast foods. It is actually way easier to make ricotta than I ever thought it would be, and definitely not the long and hard process I had imagined. It only takes anywhere from 4 to 24 hours to make (depending on how much a person wants to let it drain) and 2 ingredients! After spending time making home made ricotta, I experimented with it and crème fraîche in a couple different recipes.

I came to find out ricotta is not actually a cheese, even though many people call it that. Ricotta is actually a creamy curd. According to cliffordawright.com, the curd is cooked twice hence the name "ricotta," meaning re-cooked. The hot whey of milk that is left over ends up being used used for cheese making which has milk solids and a protein called albumin. Albumin solidifies under high heat. When the whey is re-cooked, the solid milk parts are skimmed off to drain, and this is called ricotta cheese.

On Tuesday I made Lemon Ricotta Biscuits as seen on the Food Network. The name did not sound very appetizing to me, but I decided to try them anyway. After baking them, I topped them with the Crème Fraîche I made and then added some strawberries. They were so yummy especially fresh from the oven! I will definitely be making those again! They were to die for!

Thursday, I made some Cheese Blintzes. The recipe was a crêpe stuffed with ricotta, vanilla, lemon juice, and an egg yolk then sautéd to heat through. I topped them with the left over crème fraîche from the last recipe and strawberries, then I drizzled them in chocolate. The texture and flavor of the filling was interesting. The texture was kind of grainy and I expected it to be sweeter than it was, but they definitely tasted good.

Now that I have learned how to make my own ricotta, and since I know how easy it is to make I will probably be using it more often. I will be able to make ricotta and have it for numerous recipes for breakfast, lunch, or even dinner. Knowing how to make it at home will be very convenient not having to buy it when a recipe calls for it.

Friday, I made a tasty breakfast dish of shirred eggs with ham. This recipe is a perfect single serving size breakfast that is very simple to make and looks fancy. I lined a buttered ramekin with ham and cracked an egg on top. I seasoned it with salt, pepper, and dill to add flavor and then I baked it at 325° for about 12 minutes so my egg was cooked over easy. After I took it out of the oven I added a little cream and topped with Swiss cheese and put the ramekin back in the oven for about 3 minutes to let the cheese melt. I thought this was a fun new recipe to try and it tasted good!

Pictured below are the delicious Cheese Blintzes with the crème fraîche, strawberries, and chocolate drizzle.

Banana Split Cookies!

    I decided the other day I wanted to make some cookies, but not your normal run of the mill chocolate chip or sugar cookies, I wanted to make something different. I finally decided on making a banana split cookie. I did some searching and looked at some different recipes to get a basic concept of how I could go about making this cookie. After a bit of searching I combined the best of a bunch of recipes and added some of my own ingredients to make the cookie different from all of the other cookies I found. They were quite delicious, and I will definitely be making these again. (Hopefully I can remember what all I put into them!)