Strawberry and Chocolate Cupcakes-A Celebration.

My daughter's baby shower was yesterday and we went with pink and brown for the theme. We wanted to do cupcakes instead of a boring cake.

We went with a mixture of strawberry and chocolate cupcakes and put chocolate frosting on the strawberry cupcakes and strawberry frosting on the chocolate cupcakes. I came up with the idea of putting fresh strawberries on top of each of them at the last minute and it really added to the look.

I love the cupcake holders that Michaels carries, so I picked up one and we made it the centerpiece.

The bowl at the bottom of the photo is just some salsa in case you were wondering. For variety, I wanted some simple appetizers, so I scoured the Internet and found a recipe for these.

They are called French Dip Appetizers. I used Ritz crackers instead of wheat thins. They went fast. We still ended up with lots of leftovers because we had a lot of girls cancel, so I sent them all home with little mama.

Big brother will surely help her with eating them!

Make it:

Chocolate Cupcakes Recipe

2 sticks unsalted butter

1 cup granulated sugar

1 cup light brown sugar

4 large eggs

6 ounces unsweetened chocolate

2 cups cake flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 cup buttermilk (room temperature)

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Cream together:
2 sticks unsalted butter (8 ounces)1 cup granulated sugar (7 ounces)1 cup light brown sugar (7-3/4 ounces)
Add:
4 large eggs (one at a time)6 ounces unsweetened chocolate (chocolate should be melted, then cooled for approximately 15 minutes before being added)
Add and alternate:
2 cups cake flour (9-1/4 ounces)1 teaspoon baking soda
With:
1 cup buttermilk (room temperature)1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Place cupcake paper into each cup of 2 muffin pans (each pan yielding 12 muffins). Then fill each cup with 1 leveled off scoop of an ice cream scooper.
Bake at 350°F in regular oven for 20 to 25 minutes or until tester comes out clean.
Yields 24 to 27 cupcakes

Strawberry Cupcakes Recipe

Ingredients
10 tablespoons butter, room temperature
3/4 cup white sugar
3 eggs
1 teaspoon strawberry extract
1 3/4 cups self-rising flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup finely chopped fresh strawberries, drained

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C). Grease 12 cupcake pan cups or line with paper liners.
In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs one at a time, then stir in the strawberry extract. Combine the self-rising flour and salt; stir into the batter just until blended. Fold in strawberries last. Spoon the batter into the prepared cups, dividing evenly.
Bake in the preheated oven until the tops spring back when lightly pressed, 20 to 25 minutes. Cool in the pan set over a wire rack. When cool, arrange the cupcakes on a serving platter. Frost with desired frosting.

Frosting-I used ready-made.

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French Dip Appetizers Recipe

Ingredients:

Roast beef lunch meat

Box of Ritz crackers

Block of chedder cheese

Container of fried onions

Directions: Place crackers on serving tray or plate. Tear off an inch of roast beef slice and fold over and place on cracker; repeat for all crackers. Slice thin slices of cheese and cut into one inch squares and place on each cracker. Place in microwave and set timer for 15 secs or just until cheese melts. Take out and put a couple of fried onions on each cracker as topping.

Whipped Lime Yogurt Dessert

After making the pound cake a couple of days ago, I found myself with lots of pound cake left over. In our house, I'm the one with the big sweet tooth, but I was not going to eat that whole thing. What to do with tons of pound cake in a house of non-sweet-eating-people?

I checked the fridge and found a container of lime flavored whipped yogurt and thought, why not? So, I opened it and got out the pound cake. I took the pound cake and cut up some squares and layered them in a small dessert glass, alternating with a layer of yogurt.

This is what I got.

You can't really see the lime green color of the yogurt in the photos, but the lime flavor really complimented the pound cake. I light snack or dessert that doesn't make you feel guilty afterwards. My five year old, Emily ate the rest and asked when I was going to take some more yummy food photos. lol.

Blueberry Pound Cake

Usually when I go to the grocery store, I rush through, hurrying to get out of that darn place. I never know what to get. What to make for dinner each night. Going grocery shopping gave me a pain in my shoulder just thinking about it.

Last night when I went, I had a whole new attitude towards the whole food shopping thing. I went up and down the aisles with with my eyes open this time and I discovered things that I never saw before. I was even excited. I made a mental note of what I wanted to make for meals. I'm going to take it slow, but I am anxious for my next learning experience.

I had decided to make pound cake with blueberry sauce, since I had a lot of blueberrie sitting in my fridge. I gathered up the ingredients (I did buy some sea salt-not part of the ingredients, but I've always wanted to buy some) and I drove home and started.

I mixed the ingredients together for the pound cake and stuck it in the oven. I prepared the sauce while waiting. Everything went well, except for the pound cake sticking a bit. Okay. This isn't so hard. Maybe I can do this after all!

The finished product.

The photo above was taken inside.

This one was taken outside.

Which one do you like better?

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Make it:

Pound Cake with Blueberry Sauce

Ingredients:

Pound Cake

2 cups flour

2 cups sugar

1 cup butter or margarine, softened

5 eggs

2 teaspoons

Blueberry Sauce

Ingredients:

4 c. berries

1 c. sugar

1 tbsp. lemon juice

2-3 c. water

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350:F Cream butter and sugar. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each one Add flour, beat until smooth. Pour into greased baking pan and place into oven. Bake for 55 to 60 minutes.

Make blueberry sauce while cake is in oven.

Directions:

Mix ingredients together and simmer in a sauce pan. Check cake for dry cracks on top. Cool for about 15 to 20 minutes on rack, remove from pan and pour blueberry sauce over the cake.

Makes 8.