"Red Velvet Cupcakes with Piped Cream Cheese Frosting"

This past summer my husband and I got into cupcake making. We were trying to find the perfect cupcake for my son's baptism reception. Really we just wanted to try out recipes and eat dozens of cupcakes. In fact I was seriously on a cupcake a day diet for awhile (great weight loss program after giving birth to our son in May!). After stepping on the scale and realizing a cupcake a day maybe wasn't the way to drop a few pounds we took a little break from cupcake making.

But my love for cupcake making and decorating returned while trying to find the perfect recipe for a baby shower I was helping to throw for a friend. I look all over the internet for cupcake recipes but I always have the best luck on Pinterest. I searched red velvet cupcake (the previously decided upon cupcake of choice for the baby shower) and the first Pin that popped up was "Red Velvet Cupcakes with Piped Cream Cheese Frosting" from Just a Taste. So that's the recipe I decided to try.

 Ingredients:

• For the cupcakes:
• 1 1/4 cups vegetable oil
• 1 cup buttermilk
• 2 large eggs
• 1 teaspoon white vinegar
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• Red food coloring 
• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 3/4 cups sugar
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 Tablespoon unsweetened cocoa powder
• For the frosting:
• 2 (8-oz.) packages cream cheese, at room temperature
• 1 cup powdered sugar
• 2 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 1/3 cups cold heavy whipping cream

Make the cupcakes:

Preheat the oven to 350ºF. Line a cupcake pan with liners. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat together the oil, buttermilk, eggs, white vinegar, vanilla extract and enough red food coloring until the mixture is well combined and reaches your desired color. In a separate medium bowl, sift together the flour, sugar, baking soda, salt and cocoa powder. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients, 1/2 a cup at a time, mixing between each addition to avoid any lumps in the batter. Fill each cupcake liner about 3/4 full with batter and bake for 18 to 20 minutes. Transfer the cupcakes to a cooling rack to cool completely while you make the frosting.

Make the frosting:

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the cream cheese until smooth. Sift the powdered sugar into the bowl, beating to combine, then add the vanilla extract. Remove the paddle attachment and attach the whisk attachment. Scrape down any cream cheese from the sides of the bowl, and then with the whisk beating at medium-high speed, stream in the cold heavy cream until the frosting is thick enough to pipe. Transfer the frosting to a piping bag fitted with your desired pastry tip. Pip the frosting onto the cooled cupcakes.

My take on this recipe:

Bentley trying to eat the mixer
...can you say teething!

This recipe was easy to follow and did not take very much time to whip up. However I did not think the finished product was up to par. The cupcake seemed sticky and bland but the frosting was pretty good. This was the first time I made frosting this way - I typically go with a buttercream frosting. Overall I give this recipe a take it or leave it rating. I didn't really want to waste the calories on it to be perfectly honest. We ended up throwing half of the cupcakes away and I took the other half to work. My coworkers thought they were delicious but who knows maybe they were just being nice! 

I do think that my perception might be slightly skewed. I like my desserts sweet and chocolate filled. This one was definitely not chocolate filled and the cream cheese frosting cuts down the sweetness. I checked out other Pinners responses to the recipe to see if I was just being biased. Most Pinners seemed to like the recipe, a few had rave reviews but then again why Pin something you don't like! 

I guess you will just have to try it out for yourselves!


Original pin from http://www.justataste.com/red-velvet-cupcakes-piped-cream-cheese-frosting-recipe/ 

"10 Ways to Clean With Lemon"

BEFORE

I am truly embarrassed to show off these photos.  Sadly this is the shower door in our master bathroom. I promise I am not a dirty person. I obsessively clean every other inch of my house but for some reason I HATE cleaning the shower.

This isn't all my filth though, I blame my husband and the previous homeowners. Really now I am just making excuses! My husband and I are throwing around the idea of relocating so I am trying to fine tune our house, including this nasty, disgusting shower door. Naturally I went to Pinterest to look for an easy cleaning solution.

AFTER

One of the first pins I found was "10 Ways to Clean with Lemon." Seems easy enough right? Well it was! I picked up a big bottle of lemon juice - yes normal lemon juice from the grocery store. I took the bottle straight from the store to the bathroom. Put some lemon juice on a rag. And ran the rag over the bottom of the shower door. It worked like a charm! For this large project I ended up just pouring lemon juice into the base of the shower door, let it sit for a minute or two and then scrubbed the stainless steal spotless. I was really impressed how fast and how clean a little lemon juice got this disgusting door. That and I left my bathroom after cleaning not high on bleach fumes!

The only downside of cleaning with straight lemon juice? Our dog had a field day licking the shower! But if that is the only downside I am sure to use this Pin again and again. Good luck tackling your cleaning projects, this tip is a keeper!

 Original post found at http://parentpretty.com/clean-with-lemon/

"Ridiculously Easy Peanut Butter Dog Treats"

I love my dog...but really...people do this? Home make dog treats? Me living in my little bubble of a world had no idea. I always just went to the store and picked up a bag of expensive healthy dog treats along with an extra large bag of expensive healthy dog food. Mind you, we have a crazy, fun-loving 120 pound German shepherd who eats 10 cups of food a day and loves his treats to go with it! That's a lot of food! And a lot of money! I get the idea of it. Less ingredients = better for pup.

Jacks - 12 weeks old

Jacks - 2 years old

As I was looking through Pinterest the other day for a new dinner recipe to try I stumbled instead upon the pin "Ridiculously Easy Peanut Butter Dog Treats," which boasts only 4 ingredients.  With a name like that how could I not try it? It basically guaranteed that I wouldn't screw it up! 

So while trying to entertain my 7 month old son Bentley in his high chair and making sure that Jacks isn't giving Bentley too many loving kisses I began to make Jacks' dog treats. 

The recipe is as follows:

 - 2 cups whole wheat flour

 - 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

 - 1/3 cup smooth peanut butter

 - 1 cup skim milk or 1 cup hot water (not boiling)

 - 1 egg (optional addition for a shiny dog coat)

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Line your cookie sheet with aluminum foil. In a large mixing bowl combine flour and baking powder. Then add milk (or hot water) and peanut butter. Mix ingredients together (add egg if going this route). If the dough is too dry, add a little more milk or water. If the dough is too wet add additional flour until it is not too wet.

Roll out dough and use desired cookie cutters to create the perfect size treat for your critter.

Place on cookie sheet and bake at 375 degrees for 20 minutes.

*********************************************************************************

So here is MY take on this pin.

I wanted my treats to last as long as possible so I decided to stick with using water instead of milk and opting not to add the egg. I found that once my batter was mixed it was extremely sticky so I did add about another 1/4 cup of whole wheat flour to the batter to get it to the correct consistency. I of course used additional flour when rolling out the dough too. So it seems like the flour amount is extremely variable based on what you decide to use for your ingredients (makes sense!). Even with going with water instead of milk and not adding the egg the treats lasted for about 2 weeks in a sealed container before they became moldy. While I'm sure Jacks would have eaten them mold and all, he is a bit of a bottomless pit, I ended up throwing about 5 treats away. It does mention in the original pin that these treats can be frozen and thawed when ready for consumption. Maybe I'll try that next time to cut down on waste.

Rolled and cut cookies

These treats were Jacks' Christmas present this year so I went with a few fun Christmasy shapes. Any cookie cutter will work but I found that a smaller cutter even for a big dog is better. Jacks had a hard time biting the cookie into pieces even though these are a soft baked treat. When he was able to get the cookie into the size pieces he wanted, it made a huge mess on my floor. 

Overall though they passed the ultimate test: Jacks LOVED them. He definitely preferred them over his store-bought treats. And let me tell you these smell so good you will be tempted to try one! They also were definitely cheaper to make than the $15 bag of treats we get from the store!

They did not take too long to make. Even with a 7 month old to entertain and a dog to keep track of around the baby it probably took about 20 minutes to get these into the oven. Of course once I got them into the oven Bentley decided he was hungry so the dishes got forgotten. 

Finished product! MMMHHMM GOOD!

***DO NOT WAIT TO CLEAN UP AFTER!*** 

I fed Bentley, got him down for his nap and came back to clean up only to find glue stuck to my mixing bowl and counter top. Oops! Will definitely do that different next time. It took a full day of many hot water soaks to finally get the bowl clean!

Overall I'd say this pin was a success with a few minor setbacks! Let hope my next Pinterest Interest endeavor goes this smoothly!

My Pin!

Original post and recipe can be found at

http://simplificlife.blogspot.com/2013/11/ridiculously-easy-peanut-butter-dog.html?m=1