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!