Red Velvet Cupcakes with Vanilla Cream Cheese Frosting

 The Quest for the Perfect Cupcake continues. This week, per the requests made on my last post, I decided to tackle Red Velvet Cupcakes. Now, I may be the only person I know who has never actually tried red velvet cupcakes. When I mentioned that I had never tried them, my comments were greeted by shock and horror! I am more of a chocolate and caramel girl, so this whole red velvet thing was new to me.

http://www.sprinklesandtrinkets.com/

Unfortunately, since I had never tried a red velvet cupcake, I had nothing to compare it to, and no way to know if the cupcakes I made measured up to the famous cupcakeries. I did some very technical research (googled ``best red velvet recipe``) and found the best reviewed allrecipes.com recipe that had notes for suggested improvements. I took all of this into consideration and then visited my local cake decorating shop, just around the corner from me: . It`s a lovely little store and the owner has tons of super cute cake boxes and decorating supplies.

Source

I actually went to Sprinkles and Trinkets because the recipe I found called for a one ounce bottle of red food coloring. The cake store carried a baking emulsion that I could use in place of the red dye (because who really needs to ingest the entire contents of a one ounce bottle of food coloring??). The emulsion worked great, I only needed two tablespoons for the entire recipe of 30 cupcakes!

I followed the recipe for the icing exactly as was directed, and was not impressed with the outcome. The recipe promised that if I started with cold cream cheese and butter then I would be able to make a big tall pile of icing. Not so much. It was kind of hot when I made the icing, but I followed the recipe exactly as outlined and was able to make pipable icing, but nothing thick and stable enough to properly pipe a cupcake. It was however super-delicious, and would be awesome topping for cinnamon buns, berry scones, or just plain old toast.
Now, without further ado, here is the recipe:


Red Velvet Cupcakes with Vanilla Cream Cheese Frosting
Adapted from Carrot Top Mom
Ingredients
2 ¼ cups flour
½ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 tsp baking soda
½ tsp salt
1 cup butter, softened
2 ¼ cups sugar
4 eggs
1 cup sour cream
½ cup buttermilk (or milk with 2 tsp of lemon juice)
2 tbsp Lorrann Red Velvet Baking Emulsion (or 2 tsp – 1 ounce red food coloring)
4 teaspoons vanilla extract
Cream Cheese Frosting
1 8 ounce package cream cheese, cold
¼ cup butter, cold
2 tbsp sour cream
2 tsp vanilla extract
4 cups icing sugar
Directions
Preheat oven to 350F. Mix flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt in medium bowl. Set aside.

Beat butter and sugar in large bowl with electric mixer on medium speed five minutes or until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs, one at a time (or have your helper do it!). 

Mix in sour cream, milk, baking emulsion and vanilla. Gradually beat in flour mixture on low speed until just blended. Spoon batter into 30 paper-lined baking cups. I used my large cookie scoop. 

This batter is really thick and the usual scoop I use for my cupcakes wasn’t releasing the batter into the cups. The cookie scoop worked much better.

Bake 18-20 minutes or until toothpick inserted into cupcake comes out clean. Gently remove from oven. Cool in pans on wire rack at least five minutes. Remove from pans, cool completely. 

Frost with cream cheese frosting. I baked my cupcakes in the evening, stored them overnight in a Tupperware container until the icing was made the next day.
Vanilla Cream Cheese Frosting: With a high powered mixer, beat cold cream cheese, butter, sour cream and vanilla in large bowl until light and fluffy. Scrape bowl and beat again. Gradually beat in icing sugar until smooth. Once smooth, turn beaters to high speed and whip for five minutes.

Frost the cupcakes generously, and serve at room temperature. I tried to pipe my icing with a star tip, and it didn’t pile up super high. It was definitely delicious though – next time I will probably just use an open round tip and make a lovely blob of icing on the top of the cupcakes.

So how did this recipe fare on my Quest for the Perfect Cupcake? As far as cupcakes go, this was a moist, delicious, flavorful cupcake with a perfectly sweet, rich icing. However, there must be more out there for me to conquer on my quest…. I got a new cupcake cookbook as a gift, I might find a few gems in there to test out on my quest!

What to Make for Dinner When It's Sunny Outside?!

Red Velvet Cupcakes - recipe to come this week!!

Oh what a glorious weekend! The weather here is amazing, it got up to 26 degrees yesterday! 

DIY Decorative Flower Pots - great teacher gift idea!! 

We spent the entire weekend with a relaxed schedule, but surrounded by wonderful family and amazing friends.  The girls made their own flower pots for Nanny, Baba, and their aunties for Mother's Day!

My lovely girls and the presents they spoiled on Mama!

The girls and the hubs spoiled me rotten and took extra special care of me this weekend ~ home made presents from school, and the girls each bought me a present - a watch from each of them! Aidyn said I needed a pretty watch because I don't wear a watch. Eila decided that I needed a watch for when I exercise, so she picked a purple one! Such sweet girls I have!

With the long weekend coming up, and a week of glorious weather ahead of us, our menu this week includes a lot of my pre-cooked freezer meals. That way, when I get home from work I can play outside with the kids instead of slaving away in the kitchen.

Here's what we will be having this week:
Monday: Salmon with Pasta and Veggies
Tuesday: Pulled Pork Calzones (freezer menu item!)
Wednesday: Lasagne Wednesday!
Thursday: Tourtiere (Last time I made 8 of these for the freezer!)
Friday: Chicken strips and fries
Saturday: BBQ burgers with roasted potatoes & veggies
Sunday: Baked Ziti

I hope you all have a wonderful week! Check back tomorrow - I'm hoping to have the post for the Red Velvet Cupcakes ready to go!!
I will be linking up with OrgJunkie's Menu Plan Monday - check it out for menu ideas, recipes and other great tips!

Ten Minute Tidy Part 3!

Ten Minute Tidy!

One last ten minute project for the week - this time the task was to tame the pile of not-yet-unpacked suitcases and bags that was starting to get a little crazy beside my bed.
Earlier in the week I did a quick tidy of the master bedroom walk-in closet, and sorted out the mess under the bathroom sink.

Every time we pack up for a day out, or the kids go on a sleepover, inevitably the bag full of swimming supplies or the kids suitcases from a sleepover at Baba's end up in our room. 

I gathered up my helpers, Miss A and Miss E, and put THEM to work! The girls each put their clothes back in their drawers, while I emptied the shampoo and other goodies from the swimming bag.

We finished the project so quickly, I managed to tidy the ottoman, clear off the nightstand and put my helpers to work dusting the bedroom furniture.

My lovely helpers also managed to pack their bags for another sleepover this weekend! Such social butterflies!

AAAAHHHH A Nice Clean Room Once Again!

How did you spend your week? Finish off any nagging projects?

Ten Minute Tidy Part 2!

Ten Minute Tidy!

I took another ten minutes out of my week to fix up another area in the house that was nagging at me for attention.

Next up? Under the bathroom sink. A place where, when left unattended becomes a mess of unfolded towels, half full bottles of shampoo, and near empty cleaning supplies.

 

After emptying out the space, I grabbed a bag to contain what would be recycled (all of the empty plastic containers, plus the random cardboard boxes that I was using to contain stuff).

Containing all of the like items into a couple of plastic dollar store containers and stacking them neatly back into the space, refolding the towels and putting it all back together took just a little less than 10 minutes!

Why don't you see what you can get done in ten little minutes this week?!

Ten Minute Tidy Part 1

Ten Minute Tidy!

Well, I took 30 minutes this week and got to work on three different areas of the house that have been nagging me for a little attention.

First up? My master closet. Now, since there was only ten minutes for this task, and I am not ready to do a total overhaul (even though it definitely needs an overhaul)is the master bedroom walk in closet.
I asked for slimline velvet hangers for Christmas (I know, Little Miss Practical) but I haven't switched over all of the clothes in the closet yet. Mostly because the hubs has a ridiculous amount of clothes, and partially because I'm lazy!
In my ten minutes, I removed all of the old cheapie metal hangers and the yucky plastic ones that were sitting empty in the closet. The last time I did a big cleanout in the fall, for some reason I kept the empty hangers, just in case. I need to be done with "just in case."

First things first: Empty out the space. I grabbed the clothes and purses from the racks and did a quick run-through. 

I purged six purses, and put the rest in the wooden chest under the rack.

Next, I pulled the empty hangers that were between the clothes and added them to the recycling pile.

I quickly put the clothes back onto the rack, trying to keep like colors together. I plan to hang my jeans and pants, but that project will have to wait for another day!

It's almost time to switch out my fall/winter clothes for the summer selection. When the weather is finally warm enough for the change, I will embark upon organizing the rest of the closet. I may even convince the hubs to get to work on his massive collection of clothing. It's insane!

A Week of Freezer Meals!!

Our sweet family, all dressed in our Sunday best!

Another wonderful weekend has passed by all too quickly! We were lucky enough to have a mostly kid-free weekend – my parents brought the girls away to their trailer down in the states for a weekend of shopping and swimming and making memories.
You would think that a kid-free weekend would mean a whole bunch of cleaning, organizing, cooking and baking. HA! We got absolutely nothing done around the house. We didn’t even do the laundry!

I did manage to help a friend with a cake for her little guy – well, I held her new baby while she decorated the cake!! I’m really looking forward to this weekend ~ Mother’s Day! We are doing two separate family dinners, on Saturday and on Sunday, so it should be lots of fun.
For the rest of the week, I’m going to keep working on the kids to have a serving of fruit with their dinner and maybe beg, pay them, try to get them to try a vegetable or two (my hopes are NOT high on this one!!).

On the menu this week are items that I have mostly on hand from my last freezer cooking experience. In fact, all of the menu items for the weekdays except Monday are already cooked and ready to go, just needing side dishes and a salad to complete the meal!

Here's what we will be having this week!

Monday: Fish and Chips, recipe from here

Tuesday: Chicken Tetrazzini

Wednesday: Meatloaf, Mashed Potatoes, Beans 
Thursday: Pasta in Meat Sauce with Garlic Bread and Caesar Salad

Friday: Beef Enchilada Bake, Cheese Quesadillas for the kids
Saturday: Mother’s Day Dinner #1
Sunday: Mother’s Day Dinner #2
I will be linking up to OrgJunkie’s Menu Plan Monday – check it out!!

Pasta with Prawns in a Boursin Cream Sauce

Here is the recipe for one of my favorite dinners! It was on our weekly menu plan for the last three weeks. Life kept getting in the way, and it was missed for the first two weeks. This week, I made sure to put it on a weeknight, so we'd be able to actually have eat it this week!
It's a quick, easy dinner that is super rich and delicious. It's definitely not the healthiest thing on our menu, but it's amazing, and totally worth the calories!
There are only a few ingredients, and once in a while in Costco the two-pack of Boursin Cheese goes on sale for $5.99! Everything else I usually keep on hand, so it's a dinner I can throw together easily.

 Pasta with Prawns in a Boursin Cream Sauce

Ingredients
One package of Boursin cheese 
1/2 Cup butter
2 tbsp Epicure Herb and Garlic Dip Mix (or you could use real garlic and real herbs, up to you!)
1 370g bag of frozen, tail removed prawns
1 cup milk
And that's it!!


Instructions
In a large pot, cook pasta according to package directions.

Melt the butter in a frying pan. Add the herb and garlic and the prawns to the pan. Cook until the prawns are pink all the way through.

Crumble the Boursin cheese into the butter and mix together until it melts. Add the milk and simmer for a few minutes until all ingredients are combined.

When the sauce is ready and the pasta is cooked, drain the pasta, add the sauce and toss together. 

Top with a little bit of Parmesan cheese and cracked black pepper and serve! Enjoy!!

This post was featured on Doodles&Stitches Another Fab Friday!