Archive for May, 2010

Strawberry Lemonade Cupcake Recipe

May 13th, 2010
26 Comments

Monday night I made the most delicious cupcakes ever. They were so delicious, some folks in the tweetiverse even asked for the recipe. I was very flattered to see the response. So here it is.

How to Make Strawberry Lemonade Cupcakes:

  • Make the fluffy white cake from epicurious. (this makes over 3 1/2 doz cupcakes, so you may want to half the recipe). I’m sure any white cake recipe would do, but I really like this one.
  • Fill cupcake cups with a heaping spoonful of batter and bake at 350º for 15-17 minutes.
  • Allow cupcakes to cool. Put the cupcakes in an airtight container and allow to rest for a few hours or overnight. If you don’t cover the cupcakes, they’ll dry out!
  • Make the lemon curd recipe from epicurious. You’ll want to half the recipe if you don’t want loads of leftovers & even if you’re making the full 3 1/2 dozen cupcakes. You could always just buy the curd if you wanted to.
  • Poke a hole in the middle of each cupcake using the back of a fork or knife.
  • Fill pastry bag with lemon curd & fill each hole with curd.
  • Make strawberry lemon icing (recipe below).
  • Fill pastry bag or plastic bag with frosting and frost each cupcake.
  • Garnish cupcakes with sliced strawberries just before serving.

Strawberry Lemon Icing
from the kitchen of Melissa Esplin
makes enough to frost about 1 1/2 dozen cupcakes

1 tablespoon lemon juice
4-6 fresh strawberries
1 cube or 1/2 cup butter, softened
2 cups powdered sugar

Puree strawberries & lemon juice in a blender. Allow strawberries to macerate for about 10 minutes; it helps with the flavor. With a hand mixer beat strawberry mixture, butter and sugar until consistency is smooth. You may want to add more sugar or more lemon juice to get your preferred consistency. Frosting is perfect for sugar cookies, cupcakes, cakes, etc.

Hope you like them! Let me know if you have any questions about the recipe. I used the fluffy white cake recipe for Penelope’s birthday cake. It was really good, but I think this recipe works better as a cupcake. I don’t know what it is, but that’s just how I feel about it. Enjoy!!

Sunday Best: Ode to My Mother

May 10th, 2010
7 Comments

Yesterday was my third Mother’s Day being a mom; it was so wonderful! Chris let me sleep in, let me take a three hour nap in the afternoon, made me breakfast in bed & made me dinner. Glorious!

I also made Chris snap a few photos of me & the nels. It meant so much to me that he took photos of Penelope & me together. I think that needs to be a Mother’s day tradition from now on.

DO you like our vogue pose? That wasn’t on purpose, btw.

Our outfits also made the occasion rather special. My grandmother bought my dress for my mom in the early ’80s; just after she had my sister, Emily. I love this dress. I love that it fits! I love that it’s so stylish! Coincidentally, my mom bought Penelope’s dress for her birthday and it matches my outfit perfectly! Maybe my mom has a thing for navy & white polka dots.

I have such an inspiring mother & mother-in-law. They’re both so uniquely creative, smart, resourceful, beautiful & loving. I am so thankful for both of them! Mothers are the best. I hope you all (and/or your moms) had a great Mother’s day yesterday!

Stay tuned for a new flickr challenge! I’ll be announcing it early tomorrow morning. It’s going to be awesome!

Thrifty & Chic: Springy Dress Refashion

May 7th, 2010
9 Comments

I bought dress at a thrift store a few weeks ago for $6. It was a little bit of a splurge for me, since I could tell right off the bat that it needed some work. I didn’t much care though, because I really liked the delicate pattern and the demure nature of the dress.

I forgot to take a before picture; I was a little too eager to get started on the project. It fit so poorly. The sleeves were too long and baggy, my little twiggy arms got lost in all the fabric. There was a pocket over the right breast, which made me look like I sagged unevenly. Ew. The high, sans-collar neckline and the long dress length just screamed matronly. I’m 25. My clothes should make me look like I’m 25, not 65. It kinda looked like this dress from my flickr stream, but worse.

So, this is what I did:

  • Shortened the sleeves by 3 inches(!)
  • Took in the sleeves and sides of bodice by 2 inches
  • Removed the breast pocket
  • Shortened the skirt by 8 inches
  • Turned the collar into a V-neck
  • Added a giant bow to the neckline

Much better! You can’t see the bow very clearly from my pictures, but it looks far more pronounced in person. It probably would’ve made more of a statement had I attached a bow in coordinating fabric rather than the same fabric. Next time, perhaps. I was a little worried that I was going to hem the skirt a little too short, but it turns out it’s the perfect length! It covers what it needs to & shows off the rest. It’ll be the perfect summer dress if the weather ever decides to warm up past 50º.

Make You Over Mother’s Day Post

May 6th, 2010
4 Comments

I’m a guest over at Make You Over today, sharing a Mother’s day gift idea. Chelsea of MYO is hosting a Mother’s week where she’s invited several bloggers to post about their favorite Mother’s day gift items. That’s not all, though. For every gift idea there’s a chance to win it! Big Kudos to each company sponsoring the giveaways!

Click here to see my post

Click here to see Gabrielle Blair’s Post

Click here to see Azúcar’s Post

Click here to see Caitlin Creer’s Post

Additionally, Chelsea is offering a unique e-consulting giveaway with prizes from Shabby Apple, Roxie Heart Vintage & others. Click here to enter her giveaway.

Penelope’s Birthday Party Part II

May 5th, 2010
17 Comments

The party was organized chaos. I didn’t take very many photos of the festivities, but I did manage to document the food table. We had Bee’s lemon water (a delicious homemade beverage that’s clear – perfect for living room dining), pulled pork sandwiches, clementines, bananas, cut veggies, chips and cake. The food was all pretty low-key except for the cake, which took a few hours to make entirely from scratch. I made a white cake with lemon curd and lemon frosting. It was deliciously moist and dense. MMM! I’ll make it again and share the recipe with you, if you’d like.

I used the Silhouette to cut a P out of paper to use as a stencil for the decorative sugar. It kind of looks gritty as if I spray painted the P on there. I like that.

I kept the decorations simple by using balloons and a handmade garland using the same paper I used for the envelopes. It was really easy to make. If you’d like a tutorial for the garland, comment! I was going to make the vellum mobiles as seen on Oh Happy Day, but I didn’t have enough time to run to the store for more paper, so I opted to make the strips into a garland instead. The vellum mobiles would’ve looked really rad, had time been on my side. I also made Penelope’s party favors using the envelope paper and a variation on the petal box template (cut with the Silhouette). I filled the boxes with hard lemon candies and candy orange slices.

The festivities were really simple: eating and dancing. It was great to keep things simple, otherwise it would’ve been like hearding cats. Plus, after spending so much time on the invitations, I wasn’t about to plan a creative party curriculum. I’m much too lazy for that. The kidlets enjoyed dancing, screaming, fighting over balloons and playing hide and seek in the ikea garbage cans that we use for storing Penelope’s toys. I say it was a great success! Also, the kids were so entertained, us parents had a great time catching up.


Click here to read part I: The Invitation

Click here to read part III: The Thank Yous

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