Winter Wonderland Cupcakes

So this weekend my nephew turned 5! Where has the time gone!?!

It's one of my favorite things to make a pretty exciting cupcake creation for the birthdays of my niece and nephew. I don't usually do fancy things, but my niece and nephew are worth some sprinkles and fondant frustration anytime!

My nephew requested vanilla cupcakes, so that's what he got, plain and simple. I made 36 cupcakes and then squished them all onto a 16 inch cake round that I had. They BARELY fit, it was a close one. 

After that I frosted them with a buttery cream cheese frosting. To do this I went around the edge with my piping bag and then squeezed the rest of the frosting over the middle. Then I took my spatula and spread it all out. The beauty of making a winter wonderland is that it doesn't have to be perfectly smooth! (I was a little short on frosting, I was worried but it ended up working out just fine!

I then used some white sugar sprinkles and COVERED the frosting (I'm serious here, I COVERED the top of that cake). My nephew got the special birthday honor of helping me put the trees on. He did a great job! He did keep putting them into lines, but we had plenty of trees and I would just fill in around his to make it look more natural. Then we placed a snowmobile toy (his grandparents own several snowmobiles and mountain property where we ride them, my nephew loves his snowmobile!) and the masterpiece was complete! It's always really fun to push the boundaries of my decorating skills and see what I can come up with. This one is my favorite so far.

Vanilla Cupcakes

makes 24

2 sticks butter, room temperature
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda

1/2 teaspoon baking powder
2 1/2 cups flour

1 cup sour cream

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and line two cupcake pans.

In a large bowl whip together the room temperature butter with the sugar until they get nice and fluffy, it's best if you let it beat for 2-3 minutes.  Add the 2 eggs, one at a time and beat for another minute. The mixture should be a light yellow color. While the eggs are mixing in, add the vanilla and the salt.

Next, measure out your baking soda, baking powder and flour in a medium bowl.  Add about 1/3 of the flour mixture to the butter mixture and beat until just combined.  Add half of the sour cream.  Follow that with another 1/3 of the flour, the remaining sour cream and the last of the flour, beating well after each addition.

Scrape the bowl, give the batter one last power mix to get everything well incorporated (about 10 seconds on medium-high).

Scoop into the cupcake pans using a 2 oz ice cream scoop, or filling about 2/3 of the way full.

Bake for 18-20 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.  Let cool.

Buttery Cream Cheese Frosting

2 sticks butter, room temperature

1 8 oz block cream cheese, room temperature

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 tablespoon heavy cream (optional)

3-4 cups powdered sugar

In a medium bowl combine the butter and the cream cheese with a mixer until it gets a little fluffy, this will take about 3-4 minutes.

While the cream cheese and butter are mixing add in the vanilla and heavy cream (make sure to turn your mixer on to low!).

Now slowly add the powdered sugar, about 1/2 cup at a time, keeping the mixer on low to let it mix in.  Once you have the right sweetness, scrape the sides and mix on medium for about 20 seconds to make sure everything is smooth.  Don't be afraid of over-beating this.

Once the cupcakes are cooled, pipe or frost the frosting onto the cupcakes.

Enjoy!

Love, 

Keely

Baking for love

So I bake a lot (in case you haven't been paying attention), and most of the time I love it, but there are days where it's not my favorite thing to be doing. Days when I would rather just lay around and watch TV, days when I wish I wasn't "the baker."

Friday was one of those days. I left work, went to dinner with a friend and then headed to the grocery store to gather ingredients. I wanted some festive Christmas cupcake liners but the grocery store didn't have any (side note: WHY NOT!?!). It was quite a situation that was happening. I needed sprinkles and festive liners, so I headed to Target.

At Target I learned that they didn't have the sprinkles that I have bought for my entire life! My variety pack of Christmas sprinkles now came with blue and white sugar instead of red and green. I was getting grumpy about the whole situation, and I hadn't even started baking yet!

When I finally get home I'm dreading the baking, I don't want to have to deal with it, I just want to curl up in a ball and watch TV. In the end it only takes me 45 minutes to bake off 36 cupcakes and make three colors of frosting. At this point my begrudging attitude seemed a little silly. I wrapped everything up and called it a night.

The next morning I got up and gathered all of my baking from the night before and loaded everything in my car. I went to my church office and started setting up. I put the frosting in several bowls, shook my blue and white sprinkles into bowls and then everything changed. My favorite little girl showed up, and she decorated a cupcake with a huge smile on her face.

My church puts on a camp with an organization called Royal Family. Every year we take 24 kids from the foster care system to the mountains and give them a week of camp, plain and simple. They're some of the greatest kids you will meet. Then, around Christmas time we throw them a Christmas party, and I bring cupcakes and frosting and sprinkles for them to decorate, and it's always worth it.

My heart was overwhelmed on Saturday, these kids are so joyful, so deserving of love. Sometimes I get grumpy about baking, but when the result is like this, it's always worth it.

Love,
Keely

How to support yourself, be better and change the world.

*Sigh* I apologize if I have mislead you, you see, there is no 5 step list here, no guidelines that have been miraculously given to me in a dream that you should listen to. There is just honesty, fear, and a girl who is overwhelmed.

I often get this strong feeling that I'm not doing "enough," that there is "more." These mystical words lead to a place of discontent in my life. I feel stuck, lost and unguided. It's hard to feeling like you need to do something but to have no direction as to what that something must be.

These days it feels like wanting to change the world is a required state of mind. I do desperately want to make a difference, even just in one person, but I always feel like I'm somehow missing the boat.

In some of the darker moments (like when my car dies for the third time in a month) I feel as though I just need to leave, to just move overseas and start living a missional life. Lucky for me, God and I have a pretty solid communication stream in which he blatantly says NO to these crazy ideas. While someday I would LOVE to live overseas, that day is not now. For now there is still much that needs to happen. For now I need to fix my car, pay off debt, build relationships and improve on ME.

The thing is that there is now and there is then and all that I can do is deal with the now. For now my car is dead, and that might set back my paying off debt plan, which will in turn set back my "I would love to move overseas so I should start saving" plan. If I try to do it all at once I will fail, it will not work because I would burn out. 

Here's to the now, to living outside of the pressure of the world and focusing on the steps that you need to take.

Love, 

Keely

Cupcake Tuesday-Eggnog Cupcakes

I know, even the title of this just blew your mind! And I apologize because these are about as unhealthy as it can get (eggnog, butter, sour cream...). But bear with me, because these are SO GOOD. I don't often boast about my own baking creations, because I always think they could be better. But these, these delicious little cups of goodness are about as good as it gets. The eggnog changes the texture and makes the cupcake so...smooth (is that a strange way to describe a cupcake?)

(For now let's pretend that there's a final product picture here...I may have forgotten about that part due to the excitement of the flavor proceedings!)

These cupcakes make me sad that my birthday is in May, because there is no eggnog in May. They make me contemplate the sustainability of celebrating my birthday in November, a time of eggnog.

So I know eggnog is more Christmas-ey, and that this post may seem a little premature, but I just want you to get the full experience of eggnog before it is lost and gone forever!

Eggnog Cupcakes

makes 24

2 sticks butter, room temperature
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla

1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda

1/2 teaspoon baking powder
2 1/2 cups flour
1/2 cup eggnog

1/2 cup sour cream

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and line two cupcake pans.

In a large bowl whip together the room temperature butter with the sugar until they get nice and fluffy.  Add the 2 eggs, one at a time and beat for about another minute. The mixture should be a light yellow color. While the eggs are mixing in, add the vanilla, nutmeg and the salt.

Next, measure out your baking soda, baking powder and flour in a medium bowl.  Add about 1/3 of the flour mixture to the butter mixture and beat until just combined.  Add the eggnog.  Follow that with another 1/3 of the flour, the sour cream and the last of the flour, beating well after each addition.

Scrape the bowl, give the batter one last power mix to get everything well incorporated (about 10 seconds on medium-high).

Scoop into the cupcake pans using a 2 oz ice cream scoop, or filling about 2/3 of the way full.

Bake for 18-20 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.  Let cool.

Eggnog Cream Cheese Frosting

2 8 oz blocks cream cheese

1 stick butter, room temperature

1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

1/4 cup eggnog

3-4 cups powdered sugar 

In a medium bowl combine the cream cheese and the butter with a mixer until it gets a little fluffy, this will take about 2-3 minutes.

While the cream cheese and butter are mixing add in the nutmeg and eggnog (make sure to turn your mixer onto low!).

Now slowly add the powdered sugar, about 1/2 cup at a time, keeping the mixer on low to let it mix in.  Once you have the right sweetness, scrape the sides and mix on medium for about 20 seconds to make sure everything is smooth.  Don't be afraid of over-beating this.

Once the cupcakes are cooled, pipe or frost the frosting onto the cupcakes.

Enjoy the delicious goodness that you are about to put into your mouth, and when you end up eating all of the cupcakes, just make more tomorrow, no judgement here.

Love, 

Keely

No Spend November-Mid-Way Link Up!

What an interesting couple of weeks this has been! I've learned a lot about myself as I've powered through a month of (attempting) to not eat out.

Here's what I've figured out.

What my challenge really should have been was to not eat out for lunch, or maybe even to not eat out alone. The thing that I always forget is how much time I spend with my friends/family/community around a table at a restaurant. I've cheated a couple of times (and tried to make up for it...)

This past Monday I had a free session with a personal trainer a.k.a. the most insane workout I've had in a LONG time. As I was leaving the gym, barely able to lift my arms, I knew just what I needed, a beer and a burger, and my friends. So sent out a text to my two most reliable friends and we got just that. It was needed, it was an hour that I got to spend with two of my favorite people. To make up for it, I brought my lunch to work on Tuesday (and passed up on the food truck, which was my pre-determined cheat).

There have been a couple other moments. I'm still on the fence about pastries, but considering that I never bought them all that often I've let myself have a few. It's been a fun experience.

My sister and I went to concert this week in a super cute part of Denver called The Highlands. I don't make it up there very often, so we stopped at a place across the street and grabbed a quick dinner. How could you say no to this decor!

I learned that bringing my lunch to work is SO much less stressful than eating out on my 30 minute lunch break. I was never able to relax because I was also so concerned about making it back on time, it was ridiculous. Now all I have to do is walk down the hall and I can take full advantage of all of my 30 minutes, so much better!

I hope to be a little better in the next two weeks about eating out with friends, we can really have just as much fun at one of our houses, however if it happens I'm not going to feel guilty. Community is incredibly important to me and if community is happening around a table full of pizza/burgers/beer/etc. I will be there with a smile on my face.

I hope you join our link up! If you missed the one at the beginning of the month, it's not too late to start now! 

Are there any changes you might make to your "fasts" in the rest of the month?

Welcome back everyone!  

Painting the Sunflowers Yellow

This post has been brewing in my head for a little while now. It all starts with the question:

Why is it more socially acceptable for us to hate ourselves than for us to love ourselves?

I was at an event a little while ago with my sister and mom, and 220 other women. We were learning how to paint. (It was at my mom's church, they called it Canvas and Mocktails, a quite silly spin on the trend in Denver that started with a company called Canvas and Cocktails, check 'em out!)

So here we are, 220 women strong, and then we start painting, and then it happens.

Out goes the happy go lucky charm, and in comes the self-criticism.

All of the women at my table start talking about how bad their painting skills are, about how they need to find the nearest trash can so that they can throw it away on their way out. The fun is gone, and it has been replaced in a hurry with hate.

Here's the deal. We were painting, this was nothing of any consequence! Who cares if you suck! This isn't brain surgery, we're not repainting the Sistine Chapel! We're painting, just for fun, just let it be fun.

And then I realized that this is FAR more common than just this particular setting. This happens in groups of women, even between just two women, daily. Let's think about this. How does it make more sense for us to outwardly hate ourselves than to outwardly love ourselves? What has gone so wrong that has led to this!?!

It makes my heart break. I was so saddened by this mask, this shield that women were using. Here I was enjoying myself, sipping on my grape juice (let's just be honest people, "virgin" sangria is pretty much just grape juice) focused on my painting, proud of the fact that I was creating, grateful for having the ability to create!

I've fought over the past several years to remove the voices telling me that I was weird, that I needed to change, that I wasn't good enough. I have learned that I am funny, creative, awesome and most importantly fun to be around, and I'm not ashamed to say it! The night was more about community than painting, and when you shield yourself behind your own negative comments there's no way that community can be fed. Dissing yourself is hurtful to those around you. Talking down compliments is hurtful to the givers.

I hope that you take the time to "paint the sunflowers yellow." Enjoy your abilities, and enjoy yourself! And don't be afraid to remind your friends of how great you are!

Love, 

Keely

Cupcake Tuesday-Honey Berry Cupcakes

I was inspired to make these cupcakes recently after suffering from a terrible sore throat. I drank SO much tea with honey, lemon water with honey, etc that it was just really on my mind, and I figured, why NOT make a cupcake?

Thus was born the honey cupcake. I frosted them with a berry cream cheese frosting, but you could do lemon, orange, chocolate, pretty much whatever you would like.

Honey Cupcakes

makes 24

2 sticks butter, room temperature
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda

1/2 teaspoon baking powder
2 1/2 cups flour
3/4 cup sour cream

1/4 cup honey

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and line two cupcake pans.

In a large bowl whip together the room temperature butter with the sugar until they get nice and light.  Add the 2 eggs, one at a time and beat for about another minute. The mixture should be a light yellow color and not the dark color of egg yolks. While the eggs are mixing in, add the vanilla and the salt.

Next, measure out your baking soda, baking powder and flour in a medium bowl.  Add about 1/3 of the flour mixture to the butter mixture and beat until just combined.  Add the honey.  Follow that with another 1/3 of the flour, the sour cream and the last of the flour, beating well after each addition.

Scrape the sides of the bowls and mix one last time to make sure it is all combined.

Scoop into the cupcake pans using a 2 oz ice cream scoop, or filling about 2/3 of the way full.

Bake for 18-20 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.  Let cool.

Berry Cream Cheese Frosting

2 8 oz blocks cream cheese

1 stick butter, room temperature

2 Tablespoons mixed berry jam/preserves

3-4 cups powdered sugar 

In a medium bowl combine the cream cheese and the butter with a mixer until it gets a little fluffy, this will take about 2-3 minutes.

While the cream cheese and butter are mixing add in your jam.

Now slowly add the powdered sugar, about 1/2 cup at a time, keeping the mixer on low to let it mix in.  Once you have the right sweetness, scrape the sides and mix on medium for about 20 seconds to make sure everything is smooth.  Don't be afraid of over-beating this, you're going for a pretty light frosting here. 

Once the cupcakes are cooled, pipe or frost the frosting onto the cupcakes.

To make them extra special and sticky, drizzle some honey on top!

Enjoy!

Love, 

Keely