Unless the berries are served with a side of Lemon Cream Cupcakes!
Friday, June 12, 2009
A Summer Salad
Not much is better than fresh berries on a hot summer day...
Unless the berries are served with a side of Lemon Cream Cupcakes!
Unless the berries are served with a side of Lemon Cream Cupcakes!
A Boston Visit
I've been a little MIA from my blog this week because Los, the girls & I made a trip up to Boston because my wonderful grandmother made the long trip over from England to see all of us. Granny had the opportunity to meet Ms. M
And we got to enjoy a wonderful BBQ with my sister & brother-in-law. I of course used the afternoon to photograph some of the beautiful flowers in their garden.
And Just one more beautiful Flower!
And we got to enjoy a wonderful BBQ with my sister & brother-in-law. I of course used the afternoon to photograph some of the beautiful flowers in their garden.
And Just one more beautiful Flower!
A New Photographer!
My wonderful husband always comments that because I"m always behind the camera, I have very few photos of me with the girls so during this trip, he made sure to grab the camera from me occasionally. I'm so glad he did!
Monday, June 1, 2009
Photos are a wonderful thing
I know there are many reasons why having lots of photographs around is a good idea, but I was reminded of a very important one tonight. We decided to move Miss M into Miss A's room tonight as Miss A has been out of her crib for a few weeks now and Miss M was rapidly reaching the limits of her bassinet. Well, 3 hours later I finally got both girls settled. During those 3 hours, it was difficult to see my children as anything other than screaming, wailing, and throwing all out temper tantrums, however once I looked at my computer and a handful of photos I took of Miss M right before bedtime started, those thoughts quickly vanished and were replaced by the sweet faces that are normally seen!
It's hard to believe that this sweet little face could scream so loudly!
And who would think that Miss A could be anything other than a little Angel :)
It's hard to believe that this sweet little face could scream so loudly!
And who would think that Miss A could be anything other than a little Angel :)
Saturday, May 30, 2009
Hot Chocolate with Baileys
Lately I've been in a cupcake baking kick yet I don't really want to bake the standard chocolate cupcake with vanilla frosting so I've started to branch out more. An idea came to me to try to recreate a classic drink, Hot Chocolate with Baileys, in cupcake form - I figured that if the flavor combination works for a drink, then it definitely should work for cake! I took inspiration for the recipe from a new cookbook that I picked up at Williams-Sonoma recently called Cupcakes.
Here is the basic recipe that I used:
1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup Baileys
1/2 cup coffee, at room temp
1/2 cup unsalted butter, at room temp
1/2 cup granular sugar
1/2 cup firmly packed dark brown sugar
1 large egg, at room temp
Preheat oven to 350. Sift together flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, and salt into a bowl. In a small bowl, combine Baileys and coffee. In the stand mixer on medium-high speed, beat butter & sugars until light and fluffy (2-3 minutes). Add the egg and beat until combined. Add the flour mixture in 3 parts, alternating with the Baileys mixture in 2 parts, beating on low speed until just combined.
Fill the cups about 3/4 full. Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out cleanly, 22-24 minutes.
This recipe made 13 cupcakes for me, although had I not overfilled a few of the cups, it most likely would have made 14.
Now during the process of making the cupcakes, I faced the difficult decision of what sort of frosting I should use. Although the cupcakes have a chocolate base to them, the Baileys is definitely the dominating flavor so really it came down to 2 choices. I could stick with the chocolate buttercream - thus recreating the Hot Chocolate w/ Baileys idea - or I could switch it up and do a coffee buttercream and have the flavors of Coffee w/ Baileys. I opted to do half & half! I also tried out a new (to me!) buttercream recipe from the cookbook and although skeptical, it ended up being a delicious change from my normal recipe! It wasn't as sweet as my typical buttercream which complimented the cupcakes well, although the consistency of the coffee buttercream didn't seem quite right, but may have had something to do with me halving the recipe.
Here are the finished products!
For any cupcake fans out there, I highly recommend Cupcakes by Shelly Kaldunski. It has some great ideas and fabulous photos to provide inspiration!
Here is the basic recipe that I used:
1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup Baileys
1/2 cup coffee, at room temp
1/2 cup unsalted butter, at room temp
1/2 cup granular sugar
1/2 cup firmly packed dark brown sugar
1 large egg, at room temp
Preheat oven to 350. Sift together flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, and salt into a bowl. In a small bowl, combine Baileys and coffee. In the stand mixer on medium-high speed, beat butter & sugars until light and fluffy (2-3 minutes). Add the egg and beat until combined. Add the flour mixture in 3 parts, alternating with the Baileys mixture in 2 parts, beating on low speed until just combined.
Fill the cups about 3/4 full. Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out cleanly, 22-24 minutes.
This recipe made 13 cupcakes for me, although had I not overfilled a few of the cups, it most likely would have made 14.
Now during the process of making the cupcakes, I faced the difficult decision of what sort of frosting I should use. Although the cupcakes have a chocolate base to them, the Baileys is definitely the dominating flavor so really it came down to 2 choices. I could stick with the chocolate buttercream - thus recreating the Hot Chocolate w/ Baileys idea - or I could switch it up and do a coffee buttercream and have the flavors of Coffee w/ Baileys. I opted to do half & half! I also tried out a new (to me!) buttercream recipe from the cookbook and although skeptical, it ended up being a delicious change from my normal recipe! It wasn't as sweet as my typical buttercream which complimented the cupcakes well, although the consistency of the coffee buttercream didn't seem quite right, but may have had something to do with me halving the recipe.
Here are the finished products!
For any cupcake fans out there, I highly recommend Cupcakes by Shelly Kaldunski. It has some great ideas and fabulous photos to provide inspiration!
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
Cox Arboretum in May
One of the great things about living in Dayton is the accessibility of many parks. One of my favorites is the Cox Arboretum because you can find so many different plants and wildlife on the grounds. Not to mention it's just a beautiful place to take a walk. Here are just a few photos from our visit there on Memorial Day.
Monday, May 25, 2009
Weekend Visitors
This weekend we were fortunate enough to have friends come visit us here in Dayton. As we've found out in the Air Force, you make friends all over the country and then get to enjoy catching up when you can make it back to the same city again. We decided to take a walk down out the Cox Arboretum and show them a little bit of Dayton.
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