Weekly Wrap Up

Happy Friday lovelies!

I hope you have had a wonderful week!  I have really been enjoying myself this week!  It's been raining a lot which I always love (except on days when I wear my hair curly...).

It's been super busy at work recently and I have spent LOTS of time watching the Olympics, I am in love!  Have you seen white water canoeing, what is that!?! It's SO amazing!

Don't forget to check out my sponsor giveaway here!  Today is the last day!

In other news...I only have 6 pictures to share with you, so this is going to be quite short :)

You may have already seen these, but the recipe for these Olympic cupcakes can be found here!

The roomie and I head out to a Lumineers/Cake show at Red Rocks, rain or shine people.  The first half of the show was in the rain, still so amazing!

My empty blog calendar for August, don't worry though, I got it all filled up.  There are some changes coming (nothing too major).

Olympics and blogging, what a great way to spend a Tuesday night!

This is my slightly messy hair.  I do love it, however, because of the way you can see the blue weaving through!  I am in love with having color in my hair (might do purple next...)

At work we did an outdoor space, and this was the one time I DID NOT want rain, but alas, you win some you loose some.  Needless to say, there was a slight weather delay.

So there you have it loves!  A VERY brief view of my week!  What were you up to?  Any big weekend plans?

Love, 

Keely

Cupcake Tuesday-Nutella Chocolate with an Olympic Twist

It's that time again!

My favorite day of the week!  It's Cupcake Tuesday!  I still don't know why I love these tiny little goodies so much, but they are for sure my favorite.

This week I made some goodies for the Olympics!  I love the Olympics about as much as I love cupcakes, I'm totally watching diving right now! (How do they do it!)

It's been a good week, bingeing on Olympics, it's so much fun!  So now, back to the cupcakes

These are just a basic chocolate cake with some Nutella cream cheese frosting on them, they are yummy!

Chocolate Cupcakes

makes 24 cupcakes
2 sticks butter
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup cocoa powder
2 1/4 cupcakes flour
1 cup sour cream
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
salt

Preheat oven to 350 and line two muffin pans with liners.

In a medium bowl, whip the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy.  Add the eggs, one at a time.  Beat until everything is nice and combined.  Add the cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder and salt, mix until combined.

Add in 1/3 of the flour to the well mixed butter mixture.  When that is just combined add 1/2 of the sour cream.  Repeat.

Add the last of the flour.  Mix until just incorporated making sure to not over mix.  Scrape the sides of the bowl to make sure that everything gets mixed in and quickly mix one last time.

Scoop into the muffin tin using a two ounce ice cream scoop (you can use spoons but this is much faster).

(This is the scoop that I use, I just picked it up at the grocery store).

Bake for 15-18 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Nutella Cream Cheese Frosting
2 blocks cream cheese
1 stick butter
1/4 cup Nutella
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 minutes.

Add in the Nutella and briefly mix until combined.

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.

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

You can stop there and they will be delicious, or you if you are feeling Olympic, which I am :), you can add some decorations!

I just used M&Ms to make the Olympic rings, and then I took toothpicks and printed out little 2x3 flags, a different country for each cupcake!  I really love the way they turned out :).

Enjoy!

Love, 

Keely

Whimsical Wednesday-Week 9

In my normal life I have a hugely disgusting amount of conversations about cupcakes. Different flavor ideas, what I'm making them for, my new pans, etc.

My friends and I often sit around and chat about new flavor ideas, which ones were their favorites, and it's a really great way to get new ideas for recipes.

This week I came up with ideas for Strawberry Balsamic Cupcakes, Pineapple Upside Down Cupcakes, Shirley Temple Cupcakes, Olympic Cupcakes (my friends are going to be having an opening ceremony party), and some times I need some recipe help.

I turned to the interwebs and found some great ideas!  I plan on making them my own but it's nice to have some guidelines.



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Strawberry balsamic buttercream on top of a chocolate cupcake.  Yes please!



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I have dreams about making a Shirley Temple Cupcake, look at how amazing this one is!



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My friend mentioned Pineapple Upside Down cake, wow, this one is amazing!



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Key lime is my favorite kind of pie, so why not bake it into my favorite dessert!



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These are absolutely perfect peanut butter and jelly cupcakes!  How cute!



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The Olympics are coming up!  Look at how perfect these Olympic cupcakes are!  I have big dreams...

There you have it my friends, my brain on a daily basis.  I am pretty much always wondering what I can bake into a cupcake, if you ever have any ideas let me know!

Love,

Keely