Crazy for Cupcakes

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  I love making cupcakes instead of big cakes, you can have so many different varieties of cake flavors, fillings and frosting's you can go with.  It is endless. Not that you cant do this with traditional cakes it is just a lot easier to do it with cupcakes and it is so much easier to serve.
   I have been asked to do cupcakes a lot lately and have had the opportunity to play with some new flavors.  I have been using Pinterest for inspiration.  This particular one caught my eye, it is a Key Lime Blackberry Cupcake, I never really thought to put these flavors together so I toyed with my vanilla cake recipe a little and added Key lime Juice and zest.  The batter was divine.  I would just eat the batter.
    I wanted to do a blackberry filling so I used 1/2 frozen blackberries and 1/2 fresh put them all in a fine mesh colander and let the defrost over a bowl with a little sugar sprinkled on them.  When the were soft enough I pushed them through the strainer to get rid of any seeds.  Placed the berries in a pot and added some cornstarch and cooked until they were a thick sauce.
  The frosting I used was adapted from my basic Butter Cream recipe.  I whipped it up as usual and then added 1 cup or so of my Blackberry filling and a little lemon juice to brighten it up.

  So assembly is pretty simple, I used a melon Baller to take out some of the middle of the cooked cupcake as to make room for the amazing tart but sweet filling. Then poured my filling into a ziploc bag and cut off the corner and filled the middle of each cupcake.  Remember that your cupcakes NEED to be completely cool before you fill them of the filling will just melt into the cupcake and you will end up with a halo middle.  NO GOOD!!

  While I waited for my cupcakes to cool I went ahead and started making one of the garnishes for the top of the cake. I had decided that the garnish they had on pinterest was not enough and wanted to add a Candied Lime wedge.  In a small sauce pan add 1/2 cup water and 1 cup sugar and bring to a simmer for a minute or two then take off heat and dip your lime in and take it out and allow to dry on parchment when dry , it will still be a little tacky, you dip them in sugar and set aside.

                                                                                                                 

  You can candy almost anything to add as a garnish.  I have done pansies, oranges, cherries, strawberries, mint, you name it, I have candied it. However when you are candying please use edible products.  I have a rule of thumb, Don't garnish with something that is not in the food.  So if there is not mint in the cupcake don't garnish with mint.  You get the idea.  It is so much fun to play with your food and come up with some fantastic garnishes to decorate and display your tasty creation.  For the last thing I frosted the cupcakes and added a fresh blackberry and the candied Lime wedge.  Beautiful!!  I love them.  And they were very tasty!    
                         

                        
 Key Lime Cupcakes with Blackberry Frosting
recipe from Baked Perfection

makes 30 cupcakes

1 cup butter, softened
2 cups sugar
3 eggs
2 teaspoon vanilla extract
4 tablespoons key lime juice
zest of two limes
3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups sour cream

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Grease or paper-line 30 baking cups.

In a medium bowl combine the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. In a separate mixing bowl, cream the butter and sugar. Beat in the eggs, one at a time. Add the vanilla, key lime juice and lime zest; mix well. Add the flour mixture to creamed mixture alternately with sour cream (batter will be thick). Fill muffin cups with 1/4 cup of batter. Bake at 350 degrees F for 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool completely and frost as desired.

Blackberry Filling
recipe from Baked Perfection

1 32oz container frozen blackberries
3 tablespoons sugar
Juice of one lemon
3 tablespoons cornstarch
pinch of salt

Place blackberries in a small bowl and sprinkle with sugar, let thaw. Drain blackberries, reserving liquid. Squish the blackberries and push through a fine mesh sieve to remove the seeds, set aside. Add enough water to the blackberry liquid to equal 1 cup. In a large saucepan, combine the blackberry liquid, lemon juice, cornstarch, and salt. Heat and stir until the mixture boils and thickens. Cool completely.  Refrigerate until ready to use. (This can be made several days in advance and any leftovers works well on toast, on pancakes, or mixed in plain Greek Yogurt.)

Blackberry Butter cream
recipe from Baked Perfection

2 sticks butter, softened
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/3 cup blackberry filling (seedless blackberry jam or preserves can be substituted)
pinch of salt
6 cups powdered sugar
2-3 tablespoons milk

Beat butter and vanilla until creamy. Mix in blackberry filling and salt. Add powdered sugar 1 cup at a time, beating until combined. Add milk 1 tablespoon at a time until you reach desired consistency.

A gift is Never too Sweet

  I have always found joy in giving gifts to others, even as a child it was one thing that really brought me happiness.  I love the process of figuring out what to give and bring it all together.  To me the gift is everything from the actual gift down to the bag,paper, and bows it is wrapped in.  Ask any one of the people I have gifted to and they will tell you that most of the time the wrapping is better then then the gift.  I am often told that they feel bad ripping into it because it just looks to good.  To me that is were the real joy lies.  Knowing that I could present something that is hard to ruin.  But of course I want them to open it and enjoy what is inside.

  So I present to you a few gifts that I have put together with great care.  Please use them as inspiration for gift you are preparing to give to someone you love. 

A decoupage suit case filled with Dresses

Hand ripped and folded roses and Tag to add a little color

 

Hand made box from corrugated cardboard filled with hand made cards

                                                                           

Hand wrapped box and Cards

Gift box full of Sundae Treats and toppings

A hand wrapped box full of  Sweet Treats

Cookie dough Cupcakes, home made Jam, Peanut Butter Truffles,  Button short Bread Cookies, Mini Funnel Cakes, Apple Pie Tartlets and a Jar of  Cowboy cookie mix

  I am in love with all the beautiful gifts that I have been given that inspire me to continue to bring joy to others. As well as inspirational sites like Pintrest

God Bless America

With all the media focusing on Presidential candidates and their campaigns I have been reflecting a lot on our country and what it stands for, and what I stand for and if I am making a difference. I really was in the mood to make sure that everyone around me can see that in our household we believe in a free America . So I decided to do some decorating for this upcoming Memorial Day as well as Independents day. I know that it dose not have a large impact but it will show that I believe in America and am a True Patriot!

I feel so blessed to have been born into a free country were I can choose my religion and my beliefs. God has given us the promised land and inspired the Founding Fathers to write our Constitution and give us a solid foundation. I just wish that we could go back to the basics, and not forget what so many men and woman Sacrificed to make us Free.

So there is my rant!!!!!! Here are the great things I have been up to.

Hand painted Tin Stars

3 Foot Fire Works
(almost finished, real pics to come soon)

2x4 American Flag

Hand painted Stars
( Real Pics to come soon)

Love is in the Air

Just got finished working on a wedding cake for my Brother in Law Josh and his new wife Felicia. They gave me complete creative license. It was a lot of fun to do, though I did struggle with inspiration for this one, it eventually came together. Not exactly as I would have liked, but well enough.
The cake its self was french vanilla and the filling was Bavarian cream, fresh strawberries and chocolate mousse.
I decorated the cake with Brushed Embroidery Flowers and textured Butter Cream.






















Evan with all the set bakes and a melting cake, it was a lot of fun to create free of limits and restraints, I love being able to express my creative side and branch out and do new things. I am excited to venture into many more new avenues of the cake decorating world.

Little Pig, Little Pig

I had a lot of fun with this project. I gave away a gift certificate in a Drawing on my Sister in law Laura Jackson's Blog All Things Purple, for a 3 layer cake and months later the winner called to redeem her prize. She explained that her 6 year old daughter was having a birthday party. It was animal themed and her daughter expressed that her favorite color was pink so the cake had to be pink and the only animal that was pink in here eyes was a pig.. So of course we decided that I would do a cute little pink pig cake for her party. It was a challenge for me because I am not great at drawing or realizam in living things. But it turned out very cut and what a great opportunity for me to hone my skills in this area.

Grow a little Green

My Brother-in Law asked his sister and I if we would decorate and coordinate a wedding reception for him and his new wife this March. Of course we said yes. So as we were deciding what we wanted to do I came up with a great idea for the table center pieces that would be inexpensive and cute. We do not have a lot of money for this party so anything that is inexpensive is great. Now if you know me you know that I have really expensive taste so it is hard to find things that are up to my standards and as beautiful as I would like them. So, I was bull sessioning with my mother as to how we could do a center piece that was both great looking and great on our budget. Here is what we came up with!

Potted wheat grass with cute little monogrammed picks in them and a flower for some color. I went a head searched for some inexpensive containers and decided that disposable food storage containers would be perfect and at $3 for seven it is a great buy for this project. Then had to do a little research to find the Wheat grass seed. finally found a local place that i can buy from @ $4 a pound. A pound goes a long way.
I have been able to do a couple of projects with it.

And last but no least I bought some top soil to plant in. as well as some river rock for looks.

How to plant your Grass! Start by putting some river rock and the bottom of your planter then add your top soil. After you have moistened the soil sprinkle your seed on top in a thick even layer, then add a very small amount of soil on top. Again moisten the dirt and you are done with this part. set them in a sunny area and water only a small amount each day to moisten the top of the dirt. It takes about ten days and you should have great full grass. to keep you continue to water and trim once a week.

I finished off our planters with a cute ribbon tied in a bow in their colors of course and a pick and flowers. the cost for all the centerpieces for the reception cost $4 each. Awesome I know!!!

Its a Purple Lady Party

My Sister in Law asked me to surprise her with a great cake for her Birthday party. I was very excited and more then willing to oblige. As I was trying to figure out what to do I realized the obvious, (well, to anyone who knows her at any rate) She loves, no is obsessed with the color Purple. So I decided to do a purplelicious cake. Purple cake, purple frosting, the whole nine.

I started by making the cake batter for all three tiers at one time. Saves time in the long run if done this way. I portioned out the batter i would need for each pan and colored it the required purple. Each cake has three layers, thus has tree different shades of purple. Filling is a light coconut cream with a thin layer of chocolate fudge. Frosted with butter cream and set in the fridge to set up over night.

The next day I did the finish coat of frosting and let set up about fifteen minutes. I then airbrushed on the purple fading color. again let set up. I did this with each tier separately.

After the color was set I began the Brushed Embroidery Flowers. I did two types of flowers. This was a new technique for me and it was a lot of fun to do.


















After all of the tiers were done I staked them and did the finishing border.

This cake was so easy but so much fun. And it was loved by all.

I cant wait until I get to do another one similar to it.

Happy Birthday Laura Sue Jackson I hope it was all you ever wanted.

Love is in the Air

Had a great day with my girlfriends and family doing some fun Valentines decorations and gifts for our loved ones.
We started by making the XOXO sign. We used red and white glitter for two of the letters decoupaged one and painted one. I found the little hearts from Joannes. They were ornaments that I pulled out the eye pin and ribbon and used curled wire to stick into the letters. So fun and cute.


Then We worked on our fabulous "Be My Valentine" Blocks. I saw this idea from pinterest It was a little different. on the site they used the narrow side of the 2x4 and by a happy accident on my part the vinyl letters were too big for the small side so we used the face of the block. In my opinion it look much better this way, and it makes it more individual. The paper was decoupaged on after we painted a wash on the blocks.



The next project was the "52 Reasons" deck of cards. also an idea taken from pinterest . Some of did these for our Hubbies. For me it was a true Labor of love, with lots of time and thought to come up with 52 reasons that were very personal and genuine.

Another project we did was a Vinyl picture frame. Very straight forward. We used a 12x12 picture frame and used craft paper for a back drop and place vinyl in the glass of the picture frame. Simple but cute! I do think however I will change the background to a less busy one.

As well as Paper roses. I had some great paper that was black and white and wanted to tint them red and pink so I used a shimmer mist to get the desired color. I cut out circles from the paper then ripped it in a spiral and rolled it up to make the roses. These are a fun box filler or you can do like I do and filled one of my apothecary jars with them.

Yum, Yum!

Last night I was siting at home and had a major chocolate craving that I could not satiate. I searched the kitchen trying to think of something I could make that would fix this problem. I don't have much in the way of treats very often in my house so I was getting desperate. I looked in the fridge and I had some left over pie dough from a pie I made for the Ward soup and pie night, some marshmallows and chocolate chips in the Cabinet, oh and some milk chocolate ganache I had from a party a week ago. I rolled out the pie dough and placed it on a cookie sheet, then spread the chocolate sauce on it and sprinkled the white chocolate chips the marshmallows on top. then found some nuts in the freezer and thought why not, and put those on top. Bake at 350 degrees until the crust was cooked and the mallows were golden brown. OH MY GOSH were they good. I am diffidently making this again. My husband even was floored at how good this treat was when I just scavenged the house for bits and pieces to make it from.

Quacktastic!

I would first like to say, Happy Birthday to my Nephew Lorenzo! He had his 6th birthday on Sat. and he requested that I make him a birthday cake. He was very excited to have a fun cake for his special day and asked to have a Duck cake that was like his stuffed duck that he loves. Well his stuffed duck is not really something that I was able or even capable of doing for that matter. So I tried to come up with a cake that was duck themed. It was fun to do. I have not ever done a cake quit like this. It turned out pretty cute.













The Cake its self is Yellow cake with Green polka dots. The filling is a chocolate cream filling and all topped with Whipped butter-cream icing

Birthday Bash

This last year seemed to have flown right by for us here in the Jackson house hold. We came to our children's birthdays way too fast. I wanted to make this year special since their Birthdays
are right after the holidays and only a day apart.


Texas' birthday was first. So I decorated the house especially for him. Streamers on the door, a happy birthday banner that took me 3 hours to make, and a special breakfast just for him.










Lizzy also got the house decorated for her special day, A banner streamers and a room full of Balloons. I think it was a successful year as far as Birthdays go.

At the end of the week we had a big party with all of our Family here. It was wonderful.













Both the Kids loved their gifts. And have thoroughly enjoys playing with them. Thanks to all who joined us for the Fun and Games for Texas and Lizzy's 4th and 3rd Birthday Bash.