strawberry cupcakes with lime buttercream frosting.

happy tuesday, lovelies! here is the recipe i promised. i made these cupcakes for Easter Sunday... the strawberry and lime flavors are perfect for welcoming in spring (btw spring, where are you? winter has overstayed his welcome). this recipe is very simple. 

i made the frosting first so i could refrigerate it while preparing the cupcakes. i think cold icing is easier to manipulate onto the cupcakes. 

lime buttercream frosting:

• 1 package of cream cheese
• 1 stick of butter
• 3 tbsp of lime juice
• 4 cups of confectioners sugar
• 1 tsp of almond extract 

beat the cream cheese and butter together until mixed. add the lime juice. gradually add the confectioners sugar, about one cup at a time, waiting to add the next cup until mixed. add the almond extract. once frosting is smooth and creamy, put in fridge to chill. 

strawberry cupcakes: 
(makes 24)

• 1 box of white Duncan Hines cake mix
• 1 box of strawberry Jello mixture
• 3 large eggs
• 1/2 cup of oil
• 1/2 cup of diced fresh strawberries

preheat oven to 350 degrees. combine cake mix, jello mix, and oil into mixer and beat. gradually add the eggs, one at a time. add diced strawberries. once mix is completely smooth with no bumps (and a pretty pink color), add your mixture to some pretty cupcake liners and bake for 18-22 minutes. once cupcakes are baked and completely cool, add your frosting.

{yes, i did in fact eat one for breakfast this morning. in the words of kate spade and her merchandise, "eat cake for breakfast." i happen to like this motto very much.} 

have a beautiful tuesday!

two layer carrot cake with cream cheese frosting.

This past weekend was Brian's birthday and carrot cake is his absolute favorite. This is my mother-in-law's recipe and it never fails to please. 

ingredients:



cake

• 2 cups of flour
• 1 tsp of baking powder
• 1 tsp of baking soda
• 2 tsp of heaping cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp of salt
• 1 1/2 cups of vegetable oil
• 2 cups of sugar
• 4 eggs
• 2 cups of finely grated carrots
• 1 cup of chopped walnuts

frosting

• 1 package of cream cheese
• 1 stick of softened, real butter
• 2 tsp of vanilla
• 1 box of confectioners sugar
• 1 cup of chopped pecans

For the cake...

• Combine oil and sugar. Mix well.
• Add eggs one at a time and beat well.   
• Gradually add dry ingredients and mix well.
• Add carrots and mix.
• Stir in nuts.
• 
• Pour batter in 2 greased and floured nine inch (round or square) pans. 

For the frosting...

1. Beat cream cheese, butter, and vanilla. 
2. Gradually add confectioners sugar. 

Frost each layer of cake when it is completely cooled. Easy peasy! 

(if you happen to be making this cake for a boy who loves lego blocks, light up the cake with some lego candles! yes, my hubby is 28 and loves legos.) 

blueberry cheesecake macarons.

thursday my friend allison and i tried our second hand at macarons, but instead of making a basic vanilla, like we did the first time, we tried making blueberry cheesecake. we couldn't be more happy with how cute and yummy they turned out to be!

so we gathered our ingredients (including the adorable macaron book allison sweetly gave me!)

shell:

3/4 cup ground almonds

1 cup confectioners sugar

2 extra large egg whites

1/4 cup superfine sugar (we just used regular sugar here)

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

blue food coloring paste or liquid 

filling:

1/2 cup cream cheese

2 tbsp sour cream

1 tbsp confectioners sugar

heaping 1/2 cup blueberries 

to make the "shell," or the "cookie" part of the macarons, follow these steps: 

first, we used a food processor to grind up our almonds. you will want to make sure your almonds are ground up as fine as possible. 

while allison did a fine job grinding up those almonds, i started whisking together our egg whites and sugar. the trick is to beat them "until holding soft peaks." this will take awhile, but if you have a handy dandy mixer, she will make a gorgeous, glossy meringue for you. once the meringue is nice and glossy, add in your vanilla extract and food coloring. we used a couple drops of wilton "sky blue" to help us achieve the "tiffany blue" color that is so fabulous!  

next, you'll need to combine your confectioners sugar and ground almond and sift. the. crap. out of it. this definitely is the most time consuming part of the whole macaron baking shebang. neither of us own a real sifter so we did it manually...but don't worry, it's a nice arm workout. sifting=nicely toned arms.   

once the almond and confectioner sugar mixture is completely sifted, fold it into your pretty blue meringue, 1/3 at a time.

the batter should have a "thick, ribbon like consistency."

pipe your batter onto a baking sheet using a piping bag and a 1/2 inch/1 cm plain tip. 

use a spoon to help even out your circles if you need to. let sit at room temperature for 30 minutes. meanwhile, preheat your oven to 325 degrees. after macaron batter has sat at room temperature, put in oven and bake for 10 minutes. we kept a pretty close eye on them  in the oven so we could take them out earlier if needed, but 10 minutes worked perfectly for us. 

let your cookies cool completely on a cooling rack. 

to make your filling, simply beat your cream cheese, sour cream, and confectioners sugar together until very smooth. crush your blueberries and fold into your cream cheese mixture. when your cookies are completely cool, use this mixture to sandwich your cookies together! 

we are so proud! 

of course we had to sample some to make sure they were adequate. i planned on giving mine as a gift so i needed to make sure they were yummy enough ;) sure enough, they were!   

side note: macarons really do make awesome gifts! i gave mine to my best friend for her birthday, whose favorite color is tiffany blue. find a pretty way to package them, and voila! sweet and personal gift. 

i think allison and i may have started an obsession. first the vanilla macarons, now these...i wonder what flavor we'll try next?! check out allison's post about our macaron experience and let me know if you try making any for yourself :)

"watermelon" cake pops

sunday i made these adorable "watermelon" cake pops for a work meeting. you simply use a baked strawberry cake, mini chocolate chips, and wilton green candy melt found at michaels or hobby lobby (i tried using green food coloring with white chocolate once and that didnt turn out so well...my reasoning for the green candy melt :) ). add some stripey staws for a cutesy effect. for the full recipe and directions, click here. 

via

delicious tiramisu.

tiramisu is one of my favorite desserts, if not my most favorite. i am having company tomorrow and made some refreshing tiramisu for us to enjoy. thought i'd share the recipe ;)

ingredients: 

2 boxes of sara lee all butter pound cake

4 cups of fresh coffee mixed with 1 tbsp of sugar

2 cups of mascarpone cheese

2 cups of fat free cool whip 

1 and 1/2 cups of sugar

cocoa powder for dusting 

i know most recipes for tiramisu call for lady fingers, but i never have any luck finding them, so i opted for pound cake. 

1. take the first box of pound cake and cut into slices, length wise.

2. then cut each slice in half, length wise, and place them in an 8x8 baking dish

3. take your freshly brewed coffee (mixed with your 1 tbsp of sugar) and pour it over your pound cake until each slice is soaked (should only take about half of your coffee)

4. next, prepare the filling/topping by mixing your mascarpone cheese, cool whip, and sugar

5. spread about half of that creamy goodness on top of your soaked pound cake slices

6. take your second box of pound cake and repeat steps 1-3

7. spread the remaining mixture on top and dust with cocoa powder

8. let chill in refrigerator 

YUM!! i cannot wait to dig into this refreshing goodness tomorrow!! 

stuffed blueberry & cream cheese croissants.

WARNING: these will make you fat. if you don't care, keep reading. if you do, then exit this page now while there is still time. save yourself. 


so tonight i am having a blueberry party. some girls will come over, they'll wear blue, and they'll bring a dish with blueberries in it. i really wanted to make something atypical, so i came up with these blueberry and cream cheese croissants. super easy and very, very fattening. if you're sure you want the recipe, please continue, but there's still time to back out. 


ingredients:

1.  a package of pillsbury croissant dinner rolls
2. a container of whipped philadelphia cream cheese
3. a bag of powdered sugar
4. a package of fresh blueberries
5. cinnamon

go ahead and preheat your oven to 350 degrees. take your cream cheese and put it in a bowl for mixing.

add your desired amount of powdered sugar. this depends on how sweet you'll want your filling. i used almost as much powdered sugar as i did cream cheese :-D then add a dash of cinnamon. 

mix it up real good. 

on a sprayed sheet, spread out your crescents into triangles. 

put the desired amount of cream cheese onto your crescents. do you like your desserts exploding with creaminess? then be generous with your filling. do you like your desserts petite and pretty? then a little dollop with do.

stick blueberries onto cream cheese helping.

fold up crescents to cover filling, top with a little cinnamon, and bake for 12-15 minutes! 

and voila, you're ready to indulge :)