{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?

PINTREST SUCCESS

This weekend we had what I am calling a Pinterest success. I am weird and we sort our laundry as we throw it in the baskets, the whites in one load and the darks in the other load and then things like: cloth kitchen napkins, towels, dish towels, wash rags, etc go in a third pile (of which we never had a basket or anything for) then I don't have to sort the laundry, but can just throw in a load of laundry whenever I have time or when a basket gets fullish. Before this weekend and in the first picture you can see how our laundry baskets were, we stacked, two mis-matched baskets on top of one another and you had to lift up the second basket any time you had something to go in the bottom one. Yes, I know it wasn't that much work but it was a little annoying none the less. I found on pinterest, somewhere and I apparently didn't repin it (oops) but they essentially hung up baskets in their closet, which we have the PERFECT space for.

So this weekend we stopped in at Menards and bought two sets of bracket hanging things, mounted them, and bought two matching laundry baskets at Target (which happened to match one of our other baskets we already owned) and we have a great hanging system. SERIOUSLY WONDERFUL, I now can pull off the wall whichever I want to wash (the bottom basket just sits on the floor) and wash and we can throw our clothes in without having to pick up baskets. {Top Basket: towels and kitchen laundry Middle Basket: whites Bottom Basket: darks}

Total Project Cost:
Brackets and pieces from Menards: $11.23 {plus it is the 11% sale so we will get a little back from it}
2 laundry baskets from Target: $18.01

WONDERFUL project. I am in love.
Took us less than 30 minutes, the hardest part (which really wasn't that hard) was to make sure the two sets of brackets were level to each other and spacing them out as we wanted.

Freezer Crockpot Meals

I seriously don't know how people actually get dinner on the table if they don't use a crock pot. I work crazy ridiculous hours some days and my hours are unpredictable at best and I LOVE IT. Seriously love my call, however, I also love a good home cooked meal. I am so thankful for pinterest and people who have WAY more time on their hands than I do and come up with brilliant lists of Freezer Meals that you can assemble and then in the morning when you want one of the meals you just take it out of the freezer and pop it in the crock pot. I like to make up sets of 5-10 meals at a time and it takes me about an hour to prepare the meals. I label them all and throw them in the freezer and then in the morning I think through my day and what it will entail and often times walk to the freezer and drop a meal in the crock pot.


Do you make freezer meals?
Do you have any favorites you want to share with me? I am always looking for new recipes.

Cinnamon Roll Pancakes

This one goes down in the books as a Pinterest SUCCESS! Seriously. I found THIS pin on pinterest and decided to give them a whirl. Several things I learned, make the cinnamon goo a little thicker than you anticipate, so that it isn't so runny when it comes out of the sandwich bag. I just made my standard pancake mix (from a box) and then used her cinnamon mix:

1. 1/2 cup butter, melted
2. 3/4 cup packed brown sugar
3. 1 Tablespoon ground cinnamon
5. Cream Cheese Glaze:
6. 4 Tablespoons butter
7. 2 ounces cream cheese
8. 1 1/4 cups powdered sugar
9. 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

SOOOO YUMMY - This one is going in the books as a Pinterest Success!

Baked Peaches

I am certain many of you have seen the baked peaches recipe going around pinterest lately. We decided to give them a try because we LOVE peaches. The original recipe calls for one tablespoon of butter (we put a thin slice of butter) and one tablespoon of brown sugar and then bake at 350 degrees until warm.

While vague at best as to how long to bake them and confused by exactly what they should looked like we went for it anyways. We baked ours for probably twelve minutes at 350 degrees. We took them out of the oven and ate them up.

Result: Pinterest success. They are actually really good, it is sort of like eating peach pie but not quite. I definitely wouldn't put the full tablespoon of butter, the thin slice of butter was more than plenty to give the peaches just a little bit of flavor and I don't think I will use as much brown sugar next time.

Twelve minutes at 350 degrees seemed to be plenty to get nice and warm peaches.

I didn't read the instructions fully to see that we also were suppose to sprinkle cinnamon on the peaches, I am sure that would also add to it - I just happened to space it out. Overall, we are marking this one in the books as a victory and to eat again soon. Not to mention they were husband approved.

I love peach season and can't eat enough of them this time of year. It makes me wish I live somewhere warmer where I could have a peach tree or two in my backyard, but for some reason peaches don't love northern Minnesota. Drats.

On with peach consumption......



Have you have any pinterest successes lately?
Have you had any pinterest fails lately?
Want to find me on pinterest? My name is "sthomson"
                                       What is your pinterest name?