Homemade Funfetti Cupcakes

Many, MANY months ago my brother had a birthday.  We all planned to get together for dinner to celebrate.  But instead of sharing a silly little scoop of ice cream between 8 people, I offered to make cupcakes.  And in my family we have a tradition of making "party in your mouth cake", aka funfetti to the rest of y'all.  But this year I decided to make homemade party in your mouth cupcakes!

Homemade Funfetti Cupcakes
makes 12 cupcakes


1/2 cup butter
1 cup sugar
2 whole eggs
1 tbs vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/3 cup milk
1/3 cup assorted brightly colored sprinkles, plus more for top of frosting

1. Preheat oven to 350F.
2. Cream butter and sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer until fluffy, about 3 minutes.  Add eggs and vanilla and beat until combined.
3. Combine dry ingredients in a bowl.  Add half of the dry ingredients, mixing until just combined.  Add the milk.  Once mixed, add remaining dry ingredients.  Fold in assorted sprinkles.
4. Pour into cupcake tins and fill 2/3 of the way full.  Bake for 18-20 minutes.  Let cool, then frost.

Vanilla Buttercream
2 sticks of butter, softened
2 1/2 cups powdered sugar
1 tbs vanilla extract
1 tbs of milk, if needed

1. Cream butter in the bowl of an electric mixture until completely smooth and creamy.  With the mixer on low speed, add in powdered sugar slowly.  Gradually increase mixer speed and add vanilla, then beat for 2-3 minutes, scraping down sides and bottom of the bowl.  If frosting is too thick, and milk 1 tsp at a time until desired consistency is reached.  If its too thin, add sugar gradually until it thickens.  Frost cupcakes and top with sprinkles.

And boy were they good!

Recipe from the ever fabulous How Sweet It Is

Cinnamon Sugar Donuts

 Sometime ago, I think it was in ... late February?  I don't know.  But my parents and Kaitlin were gone to Arizona to pick up the new boat.  So I was a little lonely.  But Kevin and his roommates were having a yard sale.  So I thought I'd be nice and make them some donuts to munch on.


By the way, go get yourself a donut pan asap!

I found this recipe on www.bunsinmyoven.com and decided they sounded good. Needless to say, they were a hit at the yard sale.

Baked Donuts
Ingredients
for the donuts:
2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup white sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp salt
3/4 cup buttermilk (or make your own with milk and vinegar)
2 eggs, beaten
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 tbs butter, melted

for the topping:
1/2 cup butter, melted
1/4 cup white sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 tbs cinnamon

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 325F degrees.  Lightly spray a donut pan with cooking spray.
2. In a large bowl, mix together the flour, sugar, baking powder, nutmeg, cinnamon, and salt.
3. In a small bowl, beat together the buttermilk, eggs, vanilla, and melted butter until well combined.
4. Stir the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix until well combined.
5. Fill your donut pan 3/4 full and bake for 8-10 minutes or until the donuts spring back when touched.  Allow to cool slightly before removing from the pan.
6. To make the topping, mix together the sugars and cinnamon in a small bowl.
7. Dunk each donut into the melted butter to completely coat and then swirl around in the cinnamon sugar to coat.

Bun In My Oven

Mississippi Sin

We're going way back in time.  Here's one of the dishes I made for my New Year's Eve party...

Mississippi Sin

Ingredients:
16 oz sour cream
8 oz cream cheese, softened
2 c cheddar cheese, shredded
1/2 c chopped ham
1 green onion, chopped
1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
salt
pepper
French bread loaf

Instructions:

1. In a mixing bowl, combine all ingredients, except French bread; stirring until well blended.
2. Cut a thin slice from top of bread loaf; set slice aside.  Using a gentle sawing motion, cut a vertically to, but no through, bottom of the loaf, 1/2" from the edge, to cut out center of bread.  Lift out center of loaf.  Fill hollowed bread loaf with the dip.  Wrap loaf with foil.
3. Bake dip at 350F for 1 hour.  Serve with reserved bread cubes, crackers, or potato chips.

Adjustments:

• Most likely, I used fat free sour cream
• And 1/3 less fat cream cheese.
• I had Canadian bacon on hand, so I used that instead of ham.

Source:   Plain Chicken

Balsamic Lemon Chicken

What can I say, my tree was FULL of lemons.  So I picked a bucket full.  Squeezed them.  And froze the juice in cubes.

Since I've got lemon juice coming out of my ears freezer, I've been on the look out for recipes to use it up.  And not just desserty type recipes.  This chicken recipe was really good.  Nice and balsamicy and lemony.

Balsamic Lemon Chicken
Serves 4

Ingredients:
8 pieces chicken (legs and thighs, skin on, bone in)
2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
2 whole lemons, zested, 1 juiced and the other cut into wedges
2 tsp kosher salt
2 tsp ground black pepper
2 tbsp sugar
2 tbsp canola oil
4 tbsp unsalted butter

Instructions:

1. Prick the chicken pieces all over with a fork and set aside.
2. In a large bowl, whisk the balsamic vinegar with have of the lemon zest, salt, and pepper.  Add the chicken and turn to coat.  Refrigerate for at least 20 minutes.
3. Mix the sugar with the remaining lemon zest in a small bowl and set aside.
4. Preheat the oven to 400F.
5. Heat the oil in a large oven-save skillet over medium-high heat until very hot, about 2 minutes.  Melt 2 tbsp of the butter, and place chicken skin side down in the pan along with the remaining marinade.  Cook until the chicken is browned on one side, 3-4 minutes, and then flip each piece over and cook 1 more minute.  Sprinkle the lemon sugar over the chicken and transfer skillet to oven.  Roast until chicken is completely cooked through and a thermometer inserted into the thickest part of the thigh reads 165F, about 25 minutes.
6. Remove chicken from oven.  Cut remaining 2 tbsp of butter into small pieces and scatter around chicken.  Pour the lemon juice over everything.  Once the butter is melted, serve the pan sauce drizzled over the chicken and lemon wedges on the side.

Adjustments:

• I don't tend to have bone in skin on chicken in my house, so I used chicken breasts.  BI-SO probably would have give it a different flavor.
• I used more juice, i think 2 lemons worth. 

Source:  Tasty Kitchen, Balsamic Lemon Chicken

Champagne Limoncello Cocktail

I.love.pinterest!  If you're not a member and want to be one, leave a comment with your email and I'll send you an invite.  If you are a member, you should follow me!  Anyways, I find a bunch of cool recipes and crafts and inspiration and home stuff on pinterest.  And some of the stuff I've actually tried.  Really it's only like 0.5% of things I've pinned I've tried, but that's a start!  So it's about time I share the recipes I've tried.  Like this one...

Don't mind the fancy "champagne glass"

Champagne Limoncello Cocktails
Ingredients:
8 (3x1/2") lemon rind strips
8 tbsp Limoncello (lemon flavored liqueur)
4 tsp fresh lemon juice
1 (750ml) bottle brut Champagne, chilled

Instructions:
Roll up each strip of lemon rind; place 1 in each of 8 champagne flutes.  Add 1 tbsp liqueur and 1/2 tsp juice to each glass.  Divide champagne evenly among glasses.  Serve immediately.

Alterations:
I didn't bother with the lemon rind bit.

Optional:
Rim each glass with sugar - rub a cut lemon wedge on the rim of the glass, and roll in sugar.

This drink paired well with our post egg hunt egg salad sandwiches on Easter.  Let's just say, I had a gigantic bottle of brut, and it was all gone by the time lunch was over.

Champagne Limoncello Cocktails, myrecipes.com