Cupcake Tuesday-Chocolate and Honey

Finding the perfect chocolate cake recipe took me forever.   I tired so many recipes, oil based, butter based, with sour cream and without sour cream, etc.

As my experiments progressed I knew I wanted two things: butter based and with sour cream.

After some messing around in the kitchen, I made my own vanilla recipe, and it's actually the base of pretty much all my cupcakes, it's insanely versatile and I love it!  Turns out that adding a touch of cocoa makes the perfect chocolate cupcake as well!

You've seen variations of it before in my Black Forest Cupcakes and my Malted Chocolate Cupcakes, but this one is the plain, all chocolate chocolate cake recipe!

It's nice and dense and moist and delicious!  It's hard to find in a chocolate cake!

Chocolate Cupcake
makes 24
2 sticks butter
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
vanilla
salt
1/2 cup cocoa powder
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 light and fluffy.  Add the 2 eggs and beat for about another minute.

When the eggs are fully incorporated add in the vanilla, salt and cocoa powder.  Mix well.

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 1/2 of the sour cream.  Follow that with another 1/3 of the flour, the last of the sour cream and the last of the flour, beating well after each addition.

Scrape the sides of the bowls and mix on 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.  My rule with chocolate cake is that it should look like chocolate ice cream before it bakes

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

Honey Cream Cheese Frosting
2 blocks cream cheese
1 stick butter
1/4 cup honey
2-3 cups powdered sugar

In a medium bowl use a mixer and whip together the cream cheese and butter.  When those are combined, add the honey and mix well.

Next, slowly add the powdered sugar about 1/2 cup at a time.  Beat well after each addition and taste occasionally.  Stop when you have reached your desired consistency and flavor.

Pipe or frost on top of the cooled cupcakes and drizzle with honey.  Enjoy!

Love,

Keely

Budget With Me Wednesday-Week 3

Hello loves!

So can I just start by saying that budgeting is no fun!  I know it's the whole sacrifice now, reward later but it's just hard.  I've been earning some extra money recently (I've been taking care of people's pets, AKA getting paid to live at someone else house) and it would be nice to treat my self to something special.  Alas, there are the rules.  Those tricky rules.

This week I went to Kohl's and bought myself some new leggings and workout pants (I also started this new workout shenanigans, it's a form of martial arts called Capoeira, need to figure out if that could fit in the budget), so there went my one purchase over 30 dollars, good thing it was "necessary".

Anyway, I've only strayed from my $10 a day of "fun" money once in the three weeks I've been doing this, so I feel like that's a good thing.

The temptation to spend more will only lead to my continual lack of money, I'm fighting that urge so much!  If I want to be able to save for vacation, a "rainy day" etc, I need to push myself now to not spend, and that's a lesson that is hard and incredibly annoying to learn.

Good luck with your budget woes!  What has helped you get past the spending "urge"?

Love,

Keely

Cupcake Tuesday-Strawberry Banana

Ah Tuesday, welcome back to Tuesday everyone!  

My niece turned 1 a month or so ago and we had a party for her this weekend.  Now as you can imagine I'm the baker in the family so I got to make her some delicious cupcakes!  She loves fruit so we went with Strawberry Banana and we also used some fondant and made a sock! 

I was pretty pleased with the result, considering that decorating is NOT my specialty.  And it was so fun to see my beautiful little niece smashing her cupcake into her mouth eating her cupcake.  I loved it!

So this recipe is super simple (do I say that about all of them?).  It's a banana cupcake with strawberry cream cheese frosting.  Yum!

Banana Cupcakes
makes 24
2 sticks butter
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
salt
vanilla
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
2 1/2 cups flour
1/2 cup sour cream
1/2 cup mashed banana

Preheat oven to 350 and line 2 cupcake pans.

In a large bowl whip the butter and sugar using a mixer, this will take about two minutes, you want it to be light and smooth.  Once the butter is whipped, add in the eggs, one at a time.  Mix for about a minute, or until well combined.

Next, add in the vanilla and salt to taste (I'm bad and don't measure either, ever) followed by the baking soda and baking powder.

Now mesure your flour as well as your sour cream and banana.  Add in about 1/3 of the flour and mix until just combined.  Then, add in all of the sour cream.  Follow this with another addition of 1/3 of the flour and then the mashed banana.  Add the last 1/3 of the flour and mix until combined.

Once mix, scrape the sides and mix one last time to make sure that everything is incorporated.

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

Bake for 18-20 minutes or until the tops are golden brown and a toothpick comes out clean.

Strawberry Cream Cheese Frosting
2 8 ounce blocks cream cheese
1 stick butter
1 1/2 tablespoons strawberry jam
3-4 cups powdered sugar

In a large bowl cream together the cream cheese and butter using a mixer.  Once those two are well mixed and a bit light, add in the strawberry jam and mix well.

Now, start adding in powdered sugar, about 1/2 cup at a time, mixing well after each addition.  I always taste as a go to avoid over sweetening the frosting.

When it has reached a nice consistency and flavor, scoop into a piping bag and pipe on to the cooled cupcakes (you can also just use a knife/spatula to frost them).

Decorate as you please and enjoy!

In other news, I used this fondant recipe.

Love,

Keely

Soundtrack Saturday-Dave Matthews Band

Ah, happy Saturday!  I hope you are having a lovely weekend so far!

I'm super excited because today I'm going to try something new! Have you heard of Capoeira?  It's Brazilian Dance Fighting and it looks AMAZING!  So I'm giving it a try and have high hopes (possibly too high?).

I really want to find a work out that works for me, something that I really love and want to do and that is also good for me.  I know that I LOVE dancing, so I figure that this dance fighting stuff would keep the dancing and add another element of strength into it as well.  Keep your fingers crossed for me!

In other news, I rediscovered a band today.  An oldie but a goodie!  Hello Dave Matthews Band!

My sisters were in love with this band for so many years, and he is GREAT!  I didn't get into him until a few years ago, and to be honest I kind of forgot about him for a bit, but here he is, in all his glory!

This is pretty much my favorite song of his as well.  "You and me together we could do anything, baby."  I love that lyric, it's so positive and romantic really.

Enjoy!



Love,

Keely

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

Sponsor Feature and Giveaway!

Happy August!  I am so excited to announce my first sponsor feature/giveaway!

Ad swaps are still available, check out the sponsor page for more details!

I asked all of my lovely sponsors some questions.  Read on to learn more about them and find out what they're giving away!  Good luck to you all!

Desert Rose Knit Shop/Living the Creative Life

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Hi I'm Jennifer from Living the Creative Life!  I'm a graphic design student who also knits in her spare time.  This summer I've been working on Build Your Blog! summer series.  I'd love for you guys to come check it out!


Why did you start blogging?
I started learning HTML around 1998 or so.  At that point in time there was no such thing as blogging, but I liked to create my own websites and just post recipes and pictures on them.  Eventually Blogger came into being and that was sooo much simpler!  I've since bounces around to several different blogging platforms but decided about a year ago to just stick with Blogger, so that's when I started Living the Creative Life.  My goal with this blog is reall just to be a creative outlet for myself and to be able to share tips and advice I have from my years of designing and creating things.

What is your favorite piece of clothing?
Great question!  I don't think there's anything in paricular that I'm in love with in my closet right now.  I did really love my grey Converse shoes but they broke a couple weeks ago and really need to be replaced!  Lol.  Generally though, I love a good pair of jeans and a soft t-shirt.  I'm a pretty laid-back, casual type of girl.

$20 store credit to Desert Rose Knit Shop!

Eat.  Enjoy.  Live

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I'm Helen the perfectly imperfect domestic goddess.  My version of crafting is making something pretty and then realising my fingers are stuck together thanks to a glue gun.  Cooking I'm slightly better at, but filo pastry makes me want to pull my hair out, and you can forget about getting bread to rise.  My life's a little bit crazy, as a result so I am and yes you've guessed it, so's my blog.  I love life and my littlet space on the web.  I would love for you to join this roller-coaster with me.


Why did you start blogging?
I started blogging because I was a couple years out of Uni, no real career on the horizon and I felt like I'd lost the essence of who I am.  Thanks to writing and communicating with people all over the world. I feel like I'm finally getting 'me' back.


What is your favorite piece of clothing?
My orange chinos.  Love, love, love!  In fact I may be in love with them; can you marry a piece of clothing?  Weird!

200 x 200 ad space for 1 month, 1 ring, 1 friendship bracelet

Yellow Umbrella

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Bonjour!  I am Britt from Yellow Umbrella.  I am a self-taught feelance graphic designer who absolutely loves her job.  I am also all about good music, dark strong coffee, amazing books, and of course my lovely dogs.  On my blog you will find graphic design freebies, music and book info, fashion, and a few other things I enjoy!  Stop by anytime to say hello!

Why did you start blogging?

I began blogging as a way to meet new people and as a creative outlet!

What is your favorite piece of clothing?

My favorite piece of clothing definitely has to be my black blazer.  I love wearing it casually with jeans and super cute shoes!

Win a Thirty-One Little Carry All Caddy!

Free Spirit Reigns 

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Hey all!  I'm Torrie, a 20-something year old residing in rural Alberta, Canada where I'm married to the guy of my dreams, have one cat that I love more than I should and expecting my first baby in the fall.  I blog over at Free Spirit Reigns where I like to document things I find inspiration from, like crafting, baking, cat memes, early 2000s hip-hop and the Good Word (in no particular order).  I try to keep things real and find humor in every day life.


Why did you start blogging?
I started blogging because I've always been a writer/journaler and blogging seemed like the next step in my journaling.  I love reading & interacting with other blogs, so having my own has been a lot of fun!


What is your favorite piece of clothing?
I don't think I have one piece of clothing I love the most, but I do love tops more than anything else.  I wear jeans pretty well every day so I like having a variety of tops to wear.  If I go shopping, I almost always come home with just tops, ha.

Win 2 embroidered note cards and 3 embroidered bookmarks!  A sneak peak into Torrie's Etsy store! 

The Thing About Joy

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Hey everyone!  I'm Bree.  A graphic design student, a newlywed, a blog designer, an art journal junkie and a fitness enthusiast!  That's a lot of what you'll see on my blog, as well as some personal random stuff that I like to throw out every once in a while.

Why did you start blogging?

I started blogging because I needed an outlet to channel my creativity.  Blogging has done that for me and so much more!  I have met some amazing people that I now call friends.  I have a space where I can be as creative as I want to be!  And for some reason, people keep reading!  Never thought I'd have something to say that people want to read.  It's pretty humbling.

What is your favorite piece of clothing?

Umm... Is it bad to say my comfy shorts that I wear around the house? Ya know, the ones that fit so comfortably but are too short to wear out? ... no?  Is that just me. *yikes*  Umm... otherwise- do my Toms count!? I l-o-v-e my grey canvas Toms and my silver glitter Toms!

You can check out Bree's July giveaway here!

Skylarking Nanny

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Hi, my name is Elle and I blog over at Skylarking.  It all started out as a way for me to document my job as a nanny because some of my kids are funny as hell, but now it has turned into a more personal diary.  I post pictures, and crafts and stories and drawings.

Why did you start blogging?

I started blogging a couple of years ago over at Riding Giraffes in Stillettos with my best friend and haven't looked back, I love it.

What is your favorite piece of clothing?

My favourite piece of clothing, this is a tough one I just sorted out all my clothes recently, I would have to say a mid length tulle skirt in nude that  I wear ALL the time!

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Budget With Me Wednesday-Week 2

Hi Friends!

Happy Wednesday!  As promised I'm here with a brief update on my budgeting (snore, I know).

This week has worked out better than I expected!  The $10 a day rule is not that hard to stick with!  The hard part for me is the groceries, it's really easy to spend a lot at the grocery store when I get really inspired to bake something for you lovely people!

However, for the time being I'm focusing on the $10 a day.  I was surprised that at the end of the week I actually had $30 left! (including that days $10).  I thought that this was going to be super limiting for me, but so far it has been nothing of the sort!  It's been really great to get me on track with the spending!

Also, I've been keeping up with TheBirdy.com, it's been great to see how much I'm spending, just part of the slow process to change my habits.

Have you made any changes?  I would love to hear about them!