{Cupcakes: Disney's Peanut Butter Cupcake}

I have caught the itch for the trend of cupcakes.
I love how each individual cake looks nice as opposed to when you cut a cake it looks awesome as a whole but the individual pieces do not always look so stellar when they are being served.

This winter I have really taken seriously my love of cupcakes and have started to learn how to frost/decorate my own as well as bake my own from scratch. {I know they probably don't taste all that much different and maybe not even better, but I love knowing I created something from square one} Pinterest has a TON of fun ideas, the problem is some of them are just pictures while other include the entire recipe. I have an entire Pinterest board dedicated to cupcakes. I {and my mom} are always pinning different cupcakes, some people are ridiculously creative.

A couple weeks ago Lucy, Marc, Dakota, and I met up with Cubby {my brother}, Al {Cubby's girlfriend}, and my parents in Minneapolis to celebrate my Mom's 60th birthday. I offered to bring the cupcakes {what's a birthday party w/out cake?!}.

I found THIS pin on Pinterest, which lacks any directions just has a picture.
They claim to be Disney's Peanut Butter Cupcake. {I would LOVE to learn a ton of Disney parks recipes}

I made a chocolate cake from scratch
Put mini peanut butter chips inside the cake
Baked them
Made a homemade buttercream frosting
Sprinkled with a few mini peanut butter chips
Drizzled melted peanut butter chips {I add a tiny bit of oil to my melted chips}
Drizzled melted chocolate chips  {I once again add a tiny bit of oil to my melted chips}
Added a mini Reece's Peanut Butter cup to each cupcake

In retrospect: the pin put the peanut butter cup on then added the two drizzles


We brought a dozen to Minneapolis and a dozen to a St. Patty's day party
We had zero left at the end of the weekend, so I am calling it a success

Do you like to bake?
What do you like to bake?

Winter Bucket List

My winter to do list in no particular order:

• Finish my 2014 photo book by mid-January
• Start my 2015 photo book
• and keep it up to date
• Keep up to date w/ Lucy's First Year photo book
• Snow shoe as often as the weather allows
• Read the Discovery Series by Wanda E. Brunstetter
• Goodbye to Yesterday
• The Silence of Winter
• The Hope of Spring
• The Pieces of Summer
• A revelation in Autumn
• A Vow for Always
• Go winter hiking
• Go winter camping
• if weather permits
• Finish my mother's blanket
• become a cupcake master
• I want to learn to how to frost cupcakes really well and I have a wonderful woman teaching me how to do it
• I want to make homemade frosting and bake from the cupcakes from scratch
• Sew a dress for Lucy
• I have a pillowcase dress pattern that I would like to attempt to sew
• I also have a "brown paper bag" pattern pinned on pintrest I want to attempt as well
• Embroider
• I would like to work on my embroidery skills
• my current skills are pretty low - I would like to keep improve
• Crochet Hats
• lots and lots of hats
• I have a secret project that will be revealed at some point but it involves lots of hats
• try 12 new hat patterns
• Get back in shape - Lucy was rough on my body
• with an upcoming triathlon and several road races I really need to focus on running and biking
• swimming comes ridiculously naturally for me - and the swim is short for the triathlon I am doing soooooooooo I will worry about that come spring - plus I haul 30 to 70 pound weights, I mean children, around the pool for swimming lessons for a couple hours every week - trust me this is more of a work out than I give it credit for
• go to cycling class at least once a week
• keep up on Lucy's monthly pictures
• grow my photography skills
• learn how to use my camera more, learn more of the features, learn about white balance, learn about focus, learn about editing photos
• Keep up on once a month cooking
• I LOVE cooking only once a month, I hate it while I am doing it but after its done and during the month I LOVE IT!

What is on your winter to-do list?
How do you feel about to-do lists?

• I am a list addict and LOVE having goals and the ability to cross things off of a list is ridiculously gratifying
• I have been known to put something on my list just to be able to cross it off

High Heeled Cupcakes

A few weeks ago a friend called and asked a few of us if we would be willing to help make "high heeled cupcakes" for her daughter's graduation party. I, along with several others, agreed, and the following is the photos from the project - I must admit they turned out WAY better than I anticipated.

The cupcakes before they were decorated

Taking a chunk out of part of the cupcake to fit in the bottom
portion of the shoe

Decorating the bottom portion of the shoe
first the graham cracker had to be cut to the right shape
then the bottom had to be colored
and then the outline color had to be added to the graham cracker

More decorating

Once the bottom of the shoe was added to the cupcake
the whole cupcake was frosted and the bow was added

heelless cupcakes 

finished product
the heel was added as a very last step