14 Days of Lovely: Buttercream Filled Cupcakes

For Christmas I got some amazing cupcake Coring tools, and figured I would put them to spruce up some gluten free chocolate cupcakes.

To begin, you'll need a batch of cupcakes and a coring tool like this:

via

I chose to use the smaller corer on my cupcakes because the gluten free doesn't tend to get as big and fluffy.

For my filling and frosting I used a modified buttercream frosting. (After completely botching a cream cheese frosting. Oi.)

Ingredients:

• 1/2 softened butter
• 4 1/2 cups powdered sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
• 5-6 tablespoons milk
• Food coloring (optional)

Begin by beating the butter with electric mixers until it's fluffy and creamy. Next slowly add the powdered sugar and vanilla and milk. I ended up not even adding any milk at all to my mixture because I loved the light and fluffy texture that I had without it, so feel free to adjust the amounts of powdered sugar and/or milk to get a consistency that you like.

To put the filling into my cupcakes, I spooned my buttercream frosting into a ziplock bag and snipped one corner off to create a makeshift pastry bag. I love that there's a fun little surprise of filling inside the cupcake.

I used the same tasty buttercream frosting to spread on the top. I have absolutely no skill whatsoever when it comes to frosting cupcakes in a cute sort of way, but it tasted so good so... oh well!

14 Days of Lovely: Vibrant Sugar Cookies

I have a gluten intolerance that I tend to go back and forth with blatantly ignoring, despite my body's protestations. Every now and again I try to be better though, and whip up something nice and gluten free.

Because my adherence to a gluten-free lifestyle is directly proportional to how easy it is for me to substitute in gluten-free options, I don't currently do a lot of gluten free baking from scratch. (Although I do have a healthy stock of gluten free baking flour that I continue to experiment with over time.) For this recipe I used a boxed gluten-free sugar cookie mix, but because this is mostly about the technique rather than the ingredients, you could do this too with your own sugar cookie or snicker doodle recipe.

After preparing the dough I took teaspoon sized-ish balls of dough and rolled them in a mixture of red and white sugar. I tried to vary the ratios of each color to get some different looks.

When I place my dough on my cookie sheet I used a finger to slightly press in the top. 

Somehow I managed to over grease the cookie sheet. Ew. Do not copy. But at least there was not a single burnt or overly browned cookie bottom in the bunch! 

Also, since I have followed my sister's pro-tip to undercook by at least a minute or two, I am sooooo much happier with the way my cookies turn out. They are much more soft and melt-in-your-mouth.

Baked, they turned out absolutely perfect. Vibrant, colorful, and delicious. And the best part is, this colored sugar roll technique can be used to spruce up your traditional sugar cookie or snicker doodle for any holiday in the book.

14 Days of Lovely: Cranberry Crush

I learned about this satisfying and simple drink from Jenna's wonderful mother-in-law over the Thanksgiving break, and I am all over this as a go-to party drink for all seasons.

All you need is this:

... I broke into the cranberry juice early, I just couldn't resist!

Ingredients: 

• Cranberry Juice
• Sprite, 7-Up, or some other lemon-lime soda.

All you have to do is pour the cranberry juice into an ice cube tray. You can use any old typical ice cube tray.... OR... you can use cute silicone shaped ice cube trays!

You could honestly go crazy with any wacky shapes or sizes, but for Valentine's we have to go with hearts.

Your cranberry ice cubes really should be left to freeze overnight. Pull them out once you're ready to serve and put them in your glasses.

Oh so pretty, just like that.

As you pour the soda in, it all mixes up so nicely for a drink that looks and tastes just beautiful..

14 Days of Lovely: Scrumptious Cake Bites

Before we even get started, let me just say: Proceed at your own risk. 

These cake bites are like candy-cake-crack. You can't just have one. 

Seriously.

When it comes to mass-producing holiday treats, I like to keep in simple. Some things are worth the extra time and trouble of making home-made totally from scratch-- such as these perfect sugar cookies. Other things, in my opinion, just aren't. So, for this recipe you're going to grab some basics that are available at any major grocery store. 

Ingredients:

Cake Mix

Frosting

Chocolate Candy Melts

Sprinkles (not pictured)

Other Supplies:

Sucker Sticks 

Mini Cupcake Liners (Presentation Option Two)

The cake mix and frosting you choose are completely up to you. Chocolate cake mix and chocolate frosting would logically go together. Vanilla and chocolate could... but looks ugly. I got pink vanilla frosting to go with my white vanilla cake thinking it would turn out light pinkish and it kind of did--these photos aren't the best representation of their look and when you bit in it was a nice light pink color-- but in the future I'd probably stick to white frosting with white cake. 

ANYWAY.

First, bake your cake according to the directions on your mix. Let it cool. Then scoop it out of the pan, throw it in a bowl, and mash it all up. Wash your hands and get in their to crumble it up between your fingers. (This is my favorite part.) 

Next, you're going to start adding in frosting. START SMALL. Now, I cannot give you approximate measurements here. You are going to have to watch this as you go. I started with one or two tablespoons of frosting and plopped it into my crumbled up cake. To begin with I used a large spoon to kind of get things started and then, once again, I cleaned up my hands and got in there. I really think you have to use your hands as you mix in the frosting, because you want a play dough or truffle-like consistency that doesn't stick to your hands. You should be able to handle and roll your cake bite balls in your hands without feeling... sticky. If the mixture feels too dry or crumbly add little dollops of frosting at a time to make sure you don't create a cake bite that is too soft and wet to hold the right shape. Never ever should you use more than 1/3-1/2 of the tub of frosting, and probably even less.

 This is what a rolled cake bite should look like. It's a little smaller than a ping pong ball, probably about a tablespoon size worth, and holds its own shape perfectly.

From here you have two options, which we'll go through one at a time. For  Option One I dipped the top of sucker sticks in melted chocolate candy melts and then inserted them about halfway into the cupcake.

I placed these in the fridge to chill for a couple hours before pulling them back out. I melted down some pink and white chocolate candy melts in bowls and then twirled my cake bites in the melted chocolate to create an even coating.

I am not good at creating the even coating, however, so I threw on sprinkles to mask various lumps and swirls. It sort of worked. Note: put your sprinkles on quickly, this candy melt coating solidifies quickly!

I did have a couple cake bite casualties when the cake balls fell apart as I tried to spin them in the chocolate, so be aware.

Aww! Perfect! I packaged these up with sucker bags and ribbon and gave them away quickly because they need to get out of the house OR YOU WILL EAT THEM ALL.

Now for cake bite coating Option Two. Take your round cake bites (no sucker sticks) and stick them in those mini cupcake liners. Melt up some chocolate candy melts and use a teaspoon to pour them over the exposed top half of the cake balls. At this point you can choose to put a sucker stick in the top of the cake bite while the chocolate is fresh, or skip the stick all together and just put on sprinkles and serve it box of chocolates/truffles style.

I tend to like this option both with and without sucker sticks because it is fast, easy to prep and serve, and there are no cake-bite-falling-apart-while-twirling-casualties. Plus it just looks so darn cute.

Create and enjoy! They are simply so scrumptious and tasty and sweet that they will be gobbled up quickly... so eat one or two and then send them away before you are the one responsible for the entire disappearing act.

14 Days of Lovely: Strawberry Banana Smoothies

Whenever we get back from hiking my mom whips up the most delicious smoothies... they are so good, they are definitely worthy of making the cut for the Lovely posts.

For your delicious f all you need is:

• 2-3 cups frozen strawberries
• 2-3 cups frozen bananas
• Milk
• 3 tsp. Sweetener (We use Stevia, but you could substitute with whatever you like.)

That's it. Really. The way you get that good cold, frozen texture isn't by using ice, but by freezing your fruit ahead of time.

Smoothies are a routine breakfast around here, so we freeze plenty of fruit ahead of time. Just cut your fruit into small pieces -- halves for strawberries, 1.5 inch chunks for bananas, whole blackberries, etc. They lay the fruit out on a cookie sheet lined with wax paper and place in the freezer to flash freeze. By flash freezing your fruit ahead of time it won't stick together in big chunks when you put it into bags. You can leave the cookie sheet in the freezer anywhere from an hour to overnight before placing your frozen fruit into freezer-safe ziplock bags to save for later.

When it's time to make your smoothies, pull out the fruit of choice. Today we did simple strawberry and banana smoothies, adding 2-3 cups of each fruit into the blender. Then we poured milk in until it was just below the top layer of fruit and sprinkle in your sweetener of choice. If you want a thicker smoothie, add less milk. For a thinner smoothie, add more. It's really up to you!

Turn on that blender and get things mixed up to a consistency you like, and then enjoy!

I love these simple frozen fruit smoothies because they are sweet and satisfying. They're a great breakfast drink or the perfect guilt-free dessert.

14 Days of Lovely: Mod Podge Tile Magnets

Last year I got a big bag of 2 inch tiles from an "Up for Grabs" table in the teacher's lounge. I used a batch for an arts activity with my students but still had a lot left over which I found again when I was scrounging through my craft supply boxes looking for Valentine craft ideas.

Time to gather the troops! It's time for some super traditional Mod Podge crafting.

Supplies Needed:

• Tile Squares
• Magnets
• Mod Podge
• Foam Brush
• Colorful Craft Paper
• Letter Stickers (not pictured)
• Glue Gun (not pictured)

My tiles squares measured just under 2 inches so I cut my paper into 1 3/4 inch squares. Using the foam brush I put a light coat of Mod Podge on the back of my paper squares and smoothed it onto the top of my tile. Then I brushed a thin layer of Mod Podge over the top of the paper on the tile to bind it to the surface. I let the Mod Podge dry over the paper before placing my sticker letters and doing one last thin coat of Mod Podge to seal the sticker on with everything else.

And what better to spell out and share with the world on your tiles than:

When all of the Mod Podge has dried you can begin gluing magnets to the back of your tiles.

I used a hot glue gun. Due to weight of the ceramic tiles I chose to glue two of these magnets back to back in order to ensure that the tiles would have a tight hold onto the fridge.

I am so in love with these tiles and how quick and easy they were to make I just kept going and going.

I used up all the "LOVE" letters in this sheet of stickers but hey, love is all you need.

Once you've got the magnets all glued on you can display your cute creation on your fridge or magnet board to add a little extra flair to your photos.

Aww, look at this cute hiking family.
 Photo with my parents and little bro hiking Devil's Bridge, December 2012.

14 Days of Lovely: Refreshing Fruit Heart Kabobs

After the delicious sugar bomb of Jenna's sugar cookie recipe, I thought it'd be refreshing to share a healthier alternative to  Valentine treats.

We cut watermelon, pineapple, and honeydew into inch+ thick  slices and used a heat shapes cookie cutter to create whimsy snack that your body will love you for.

I will say that the pineapple was surprisingly difficult to skewer-- pieces kept splitting! You may want to cut it a little thicker. I also think cantaloupe would be a good addition to this fruit trio.

What else would you add on?