Showing posts with label valentines. Show all posts
Showing posts with label valentines. Show all posts

Monday, February 13, 2012

Sweets and a Treat


Yummy cupcake sweets from me to my favorite men . . .


Red velvet and Sprinkle's strawberry cupcakes.


And a pretty little treat from me to me . . . 


A pot of mixed tulips in one of my favorite color combinations . . . 
pink, red and white.



Two new cupcake recipes tested.  Both came out very well with good reviews.


Pretty colored tulips from the grocery store I picked up as a treat for myself. 


Grandmother Paula's Red Velvet Cake
(Food Network - Paula Deen)

2 cups sugar
2 sticks butter (room temp)
2 eggs
2 tbsp cocoa powder
2 ozs red food coloring
2-1/2 cups cake flour (to make your own cake flour, take one cup AP flour minus 2 tbsp and add 2 tbsp corn starch)
1 tsp salt
1 cup buttermilk
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tbsp vinegar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  

In mixing bowl, cream sugar and butter, beat until light and fluffy.  Add the eggs one at a time and mix well after each addition.  

Mix cocoa and food coloring together and then add to sugar mixture - mix well.
Sift together flour and salt.  

Add flour mixture to the creamed mixture alternately with buttermilk.  Blend in vanilla.  

In small bowl, combine baking soda and vinegar and add to mixture.  

Pour batter into three 8" round greased and floured pans.  Bake for 20 to 25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into center comes out clean.  

**Note**  I halved the recipe to make about 18 cupcakes.  It worked very well.  I used a standard cream cheese frosting tinted with pink gel food coloring.


You can see the real bits of fresh pureed strawberry.
yummmmm

Sprinkles' Strawberry Cupcakes
(featured on The Martha Stewart show February 2008)

2/3 cup whole or frozen strawberries (thaw if using frozen)
1-1/2 cup AP flour, sifted
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp coarse salt
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 cup whole milk, room temp
1 stick butter, room temp
1 cup sugar
1 large egg, room temp
2 large egg whites, room temp

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Line 12 cupcake liners.

Place strawberries into a small food processor and puree.  You should have about 1/3 cup of puree, add a few more berries if necessary or save any extra puree for the frosting.  Set aside.

In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder and salt.  Set aside.  In a small bowl, mix together milk, vanilla and strawberry puree.  Set aside.

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream butter on medium-high speed until light and fluffy.  Gradually add sugar and continue to beat until well combined and fluffy.  Reduce the mixer speed to medium and slowly add egg and egg whites until just blended.  

With the mixer on low slowly add half the flour mixture.  Mix until just blended.  Add the mil mixture.  Mix until just blended.  Slowly add remaining flour mixture scrapping down sides of the bowl with spatula as necessary.

Divide batter evenly into lined muffin tins and bake until tops are just dry to the touch, 22 to 25 minutes.  

Sprinkles' Strawberry frosting recipe can be found here.

**Note** I added some of the strawberry puree to the leftover cream cheese frosting used for the RV cupcakes for the strawberry cupcakes.  


 Are you making some yummy Valentines goodies for your sweeties? 






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Saturday, February 11, 2012

Been MIA


But now I'm back!


And I'm spreadin' some 
LOVE.



Been busy with this and that, especially the last couple weeks.


We had Son No. 1's college grad party back in mid-January.  I went on our annual girl's weekend getaway last weekend at The Swiss Woods B&B in Lititz, PA.  


Sheesh . . . I can tell I'm gettin' older.  Seems it took me nearly most of last week to recover from the late nights of girl-talkin' into the wee hours of the morning, too many second helpings of the delicious home-cooked meals, and a bit too much cocktailing each and every evening . . . okay. . . darn near all day long!



The weekend started six years ago primarily as a scrapbooking weekend.  But it's turned into more of a relaxing getaway with some of us scrapbooking during our spare time, and some relaxing with a book or just hanging out in front of the fire.  I did manage to get some pages done in a new album I started devoted to me and Hubby's vacations together.  

Once I get the finishing touches on the pages, I'll share some of the layouts.  First I have to unpack my supplies.  I haven't even gotten to that yet!



Actually, I have a few things I want to share in upcoming posts.  But for now, I'm sharing some 
V Day love accents from around my house.  




I love these napkins!  
I ordered them several years back from Tracey Buxton at Notes From a Cottage Industry.  






I also want to share my small collection of vintage V Day postcards.  Why don't people send pretty postcards anymore?  


I like displaying all my vintage postcards on this mirror by the kitchen.  Not only V Day, but Christmas, Easter and Halloween.  I've purchased most of them on Ebay.



And I love the handwriting.  


Makes you wonder about the senders and the recipients.  





Oh, and we had our first somewhat substantial snow.  It started flurrying last night, and I thought we were getting just a dusting, but this morning we awoke to a pretty snowfall.  I'd say a couple inches or a bit more.  



Today will be spent getting my scrapbooking supplies unpacked and getting my craft room in some sort of order.  It's a mess! Also, trying to spend some time catching up on some of my favorite blogs.




Hope you all have a Happy Saturday!






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Sunday, February 13, 2011

FROM THE HEART



Actually, a mini album that IS a heart.


I created this little album for Hubby . . . gosh . . . two, maybe three years ago for V'day.  I never finished it with photos, because photos of the two of us are extremely scarce.  








You see, we both HATE having our picture taken.  
Me especially.  
I either end up with my eyes closed, or making a goofy face.



A few nights ago, I was able to scrape up enough snaps of the two of us to fill this small album and finally complete it.  I will have to admit that most of the photos 
I really don't like. 


Gotta work with what I got!


I think Hubby kinda likes it.  Each one of the photos was from a special occasion.  It's fun to look at these pics and remember the good times we were having when they were snapped.






That will have to be a future post ~ how to feel comfortable in front of the camera.

Hope you all have a fabulous Valentine's Day, and can incorporate even just a bit of extra love in whatever you do!



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