Hi!

Wow. I have not posted in like a week. I am lame. I have just been very busy with school (and watching Battlestar Galactica. I am so obsessed with the show!)

I did make some excellent little pies last Thursday that I have been meaning to share with you all.

 

They were so yummy they were gone in a matter of days here. I am going to make some more apple ones this Friday with my friend Amanda and my love, Angelo.

I also really wanted to share this amazing illustration that Angelo made for me for our two year anniversary. (It was two years on Halloween. It seems like just yesterday that we were walking around Meijer and watching Benny and Joon from opposite ends of my couch. And it seems like we've been together even longer than I can imagine at the same time.) Angelo is the most amazing person I have ever known and I am so blessed that he is mine.

What I Wore

 

 

 Shirt: Pac Sun

Dress: Forever 21

Pants: Forever 21

Shoes: Forever 21

Hood: handmade by me!

I crocheted this hood! It is the very first thing I have ever crocheted and I must say I think it turned out really good for an inexperienced person. There is still a lot I want to learn when it comes to crocheting, but so far I really like it. (By the way, the hood is from this tutorial.)

Zorro

 

la photocabine

What I Wore

Dress: H&M a couple years ago

Sweater: H&M a couple years ago

Tights: A gift from a friend

Shoes: Forever 21

I also kinda wish I had a cute black skinny belt with this outfit too. I need more money to get cute clothes.

 

It is such a beautiful fall day today. I would love to take my camera up to the park and just walk around and what not, but sadly I have a ton of homework that I was too lazy to do the past few days. I should probably get started on that now.

My Family

 

Madie just got a new hair cut and dye. She's a cutie.

 

Riley is easily the cutest person in our family.

 

Riley was talking on the "phone" with Angelo. She has a crazy baby crush on him. It's cute.

 

I am totally convinced our family dinners are the greatest thing. Everyone who ever comes over to either of my houses is always of a similar opinion. Apparently some family dinners are boring.

Some Rad Halloween Costumes

Squid Costume

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Perry the Platypus!

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 Linguini and Remi!

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Coolest. Bumblebee. Ever.

And sexy Doctor Who costumes. Not a fan of the sexy, but these are still really cool.

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This excellent Lady Bird Owl costume. So cute.

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This Weeks Five Things

Here is a little list of things that have sparked my interest (or obsession) this week.

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Pokemon Online is a game my boyfriend recently found. He loves Pokemon and hey, so do I, just not as much as he does. I have been researching Pokemon to use on my team all weekend so that I can beat Angelo in an awesome battle.

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I have really, really, really, really, really been wanting to get a hairless rat. I found this rat blog the other day and totally fell in love with all the cute pictures.

This is a Doctor Who themed cottage available for you to stay in. I love Doctor Who and if I ever go to the UK (which I can most certainly say that I one day will go) I am so going to stay here.

This beautiful scarf (that would look perfect with my new vintage jacket) and this hat from Anthropologie. Such perfect winter wear.

I am very excited for Halloween. Guess who I am dressing up as. :]

More Vanilla Cupcakes

Look at these cute cupcakes I made! They have spiced sangria frosting which is delicious! I tried a different recipe for the cupcakes and this one is more moist. I was more happy with it, but I am still on the lookout for the perfect yellow cupcake recipe. Here is the sangria frosting recipe though.


Sangria
I used a pre-made bottled sangria for this. You can probably find it at your local grocery or liquor store. I also used a couple of spice tea packs. I found them in a little store near me. They are actually for making spiced apple cider, but I used them for the spiced sangria.This is a great recipe for making your own spiced sangria.

Frosting

• 2/3 cup granulated sugar
• 2 egg whites
• Dash of salt
• 2 sticks unsalted butter, softened
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 cups confectioner's sugar
• sangria syrup to taste

1. Heat egg whites and sugar in a glass bowl over a simmer saucepan of water.
2. Whisk occasionally until the sugar has dissolved and the mixture is frothy.
3. Remove from heat and allow to cool completely.
4. Using a hand mixer, beat 3-4 minutes on medium speed, or until stiff peaks form.
5. Add dash of salt
6. Add softened butter by the tablespoon, ensuring that each addition is incorporated fully before adding the next.
7. Add vanilla extract.
8. Add sangria to taste (start with about 1/4 cup, and add slowly – the wine will not incorporate well with the butter if you add too much too quickly).
9. Add the confectioner's until the frosting is the consistency you like.

The recipe is modified from this one. I definitely really liked this frosting and I may just use the base frosting as a regular staple in my baked goods arsenal from now on.

Vanilla Cupcakes with Honey Cinnamon Frosting

 

So I have yet to find a really, really good vanilla cupcake recipe, but this one is definitely the best one i have made yet. I don't know why they are so tricky. It's funny I used to hate chocolate cake because it was always dry, but I have had a more difficult time finding a moist vanilla cupcake recipe than I have had finding a seriously moist chocolate recipe. And the frosting I kinda just through together myself. It is really sweet, to say the least.

Vanilla Cupcakes

Ingredients:

½ cup unsalted butter, at room temperature

2/3 cup sugar

3 eggs

1 tsp. vanilla extract

zest of 1 lemon (optional)

1 ½ cups all-purpose flour

1 ½ tsp. baking powder

¼ tsp. salt

¼ cup milk

1-1 ½ recipes easy vanilla buttercream frosting

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350°.  Line a muffin tin with 12 paper liners.  Set pan aside.

In the bowl of an electric mixer, cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.  Add the eggs one at a time, scraping down the sides and beating well after each addition.  Beat in the vanilla extract and lemon zest, if using.

In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt.  With the mixer on low speed, alternately add the flour mixture and milk, in three additions, beginning and ending with the flour mixture.  Scrape down the sides of the bowl.

Evenly fill the muffin cups with the batter and bake for about 18-20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.  Remove from the oven and allow to cool in pan 5 minutes.  Transfer cupcakes to a wire rack and allow to cool completely.

Prepare frosting.  Decorate cooled cupcakes as desired.

Source: cupcakes adapted from Joy of Baking, and Annie Eats.

For the frosting I started with a basic buttercream, added a little more than a table spoon of honey and about 1/4 teaspoon of cinnamon. It turned out pretty great. I left about six of them for my family and there was only one left when I got back from work five hours later. So I guess they were quite a success.

I Got a Boo Boo

So I had to put a band-aid on it.

 

*note: no Amanda's were actually injured in the making of this photograph. She is just weird and likes mustache band-aids a lot.

Marcel the Shell with Shoes On

I found this little video over on Rockstar Diaries and I really needed to share it. It totally made my morning.

Pear and Cranberry

I have no pictures of these cupcakes that I made last weekend, I didn't even get to try one (I chose to eat all of my pumpkin cupcakes and now they are all gone)

I had actually made these cupcakes for a family outing last Sunday to Meijer Gardens and then I forgot them at home. It was silly. And here is a silly picture of all of us.

 Pear & Cranberry Cupcakes
Makes about 24 cupcakes

What You'll Need...
4 cups peeled, cored, chopped pears (about 8 pears)
2 cups sugar
3 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon 1/4 ground cloves
1/4 ground ginger
4 egg whites
2/3 cup vegetable oil
1 cup chopped dried cranberries

What You'll Do...
1) Chop the pears and combine them with the sugar and let them macerate for one hour.

2) Pheheat over to 350 degrees F (165 C).

3) Slightly beat egg whites just until a light foam appears. Comine them with the oil, pear mixture, and cranberries.
4) Sift the flour, salt, baking soda, and spices together. Stir into the pear mixture, and then place into cupcake papers about 3/4ths full.

5) Bake for 15 minutes undisturbed, then rotate the pan and cook for another 3-7 minutes, testing with a toothpick for doneness. Careful, as if the toothpick goes into a pear it will not come out clean, but cupcake may be done.

I don't remember exactly where I got this recipe, but I really need to start saving the links when I save the recipes.

I Had A Dream

This song is pretty much exactly where I am in life right now. I think it explains itself pretty well.

Seven Dozen Cupcakes

That is right. I made seven dozen cupcakes today. Apple spice cupcakes with maple cream cheese frosting (which I made last week but this time I added little apple chunks), pumpkin cupcakes and pumpkin chocolate chip cupcakes with cream cheese frosting, and snickerdoodle cupcakes.

 

My favorite part of making cupcakes is bring them to people I love. For instance, today I had a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day. I really mean bad. So I went to the park and walked around for a couple hours then I came home and baked for about 3-4 hours. So when I was done I wrapped a couple dozen up and delivered them to my aunt and cousins (one of whom had a birthday yesterday), a couple of friends who greatly appreciate my baking, and my dad, step-mom, and sisters. They all were very excited to receive my delicious desserts and that made me really happy that I could make them so happy with my baked goods. They made my day end on a very high note and I thank them all for that very much.

And for now, I am out.
xo Amanda

Dream Socks

When I was a little kid my best friend told me that if she wore socks to bed she would have nightmares (or something along those lines). I took that theory as I grew up a bit and tested it out and while I definitely have dreams without socks on it does always seem to be that my dreams are more vivid if I do wear socks. Of course, I don't think that always works. I haven't figured it out, but maybe one day I will try a more solid experiment with this theory. I'll probably just leave it a vague mystery though. It is more interesting that way.

xo Amanda

P.S. Those awesome Dead Head pajamas I am wearing are years old and have a large hole in the butt, but they are so comfy!

Apple Spice Cupcakes!

I made some delicious apple spice cupcakes with maple cream cheese frosting today.

I used this recipe for the cupcakes, but I added well, probably more like 2/3 to a cup of applesauce instead of the 1/3 it said. That may be why they fell a bit, but they were still pretty delicious.

Ingredients

• 1 package (18-1/4 ounces) spice cake mix
• 1-1/4 cups water
• 3 eggs
• 1/3 cup applesauce

Directions

• In a large bowl, beat the cake mix, water, eggs and applesauce on low speed for 30 seconds. Beat on medium for 2 minutes.
• Fill paper-lined muffin cups two-thirds full. Bake at 350° for 18-22 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool for 10 minutes before removing from pans to wire racks to cool completely.

 
They make about 3 dozen actually.

I frosted most of them and sprinkled some of them with confectioner's sugar for my diabetic mom and my step-dad who doesn't like frosting. But here is the frosting recipe I used.

Ingredients

• 1 package (8 ounces) cream cheese, room temperature
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1 tablespoon pure maple syrup
• 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 2 cups confectioners' sugar

Directions

1. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat cream cheese and butter together until smooth. Add maple syrup, vanilla, and confectioners' sugar; continue beating until well combined and smooth. 

 

I hope you enjoy these if you try them out. Leave a comment and let me know how they tasted!

Carey Mulligan

If you know me then I am sure you have heard me talk about how much I love a little British show called Doctor Who more than any other television show out there. I highly suggest that you check it out. It was on this show that I was first introduced to Carey Mulligan. She starred in one of the best episodes of the new series ever called, Blink. I didn't take too much notice to her besides the fact that she starred in this episode that even the Doctor himself was barely a part of.

Until the past year or so when suddenly I started to see her face everywhere. I was totally excited because as I said she was in the best episode of Doctor Who. So a few months ago my sister bought An Education and it was brilliant. Carey was awesome in it and I was pretty blown away by her acting. I must admit I haven't seen her in much else yet, but I love her style and she is my current style icon. (My new hair cut was even kinda inspired by hers.)

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Also, today is the first day of fall. I know this is everyone's favorite season, but I would be lying if I said I was excited for it. I love summer. Fall just leads into winter which means I will be cold for the next eight months of my life and that is a bummer. But I do like fall, it just takes a little time for me to adjust.

xo Amanda