Blackberry Cupcakes with Lemon Glaze

Oh my goodness. I am really not lying when I say that these cupcakes are amazing. I am so in love that all I want for my birthday is stuff to make these again. (Just kidding on that being all I want for my birthday. lol.) These are definitely my new favorite. They are so moist and sweet. I think they would also go great with my favorite cream cheese frosting. (of course, I think everything goes great with cream cheese frosting.)

So here is this awesome recipe for you to enjoy.

Blackberry Cupcakes with Lemon Glaze
modified from this recipe

Ingredients:

1 cup all purpose flour
1 cup cake flour
4 tsp baking powder
2 tsp salt
12 tbsp unsalted butter at room temperature
2 cup sugar
4 eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup milk
1 cup blackberry puree


Preheat your oven to 350 F. Line a cupcake pan with paper liners and set aside.

In a bowl, mix the flour, baking powder and salt, set aside.

In an electric mixer cream together the butter and sugar until it is light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, continuing to mix.

In a second bowl, whisk together the milk, vanilla and blackberry puree. Add half of the dry ingredients to the electric mixer bowl and mix until just combined. Add the milk/blackberry mixer and continue to mix. Finally add the rest of the dry ingredients until just incorporated.

Divide the batter evenly into the cupcake tin and bake for 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.


Blackberry Puree:
Puree 12 oz. blackberries together with 2 tbsp sugar and a splash of water. Strain through a fine mesh sieve and discard the seeds. This should make about 1 cup but you may have to fiddle with it a little.

Lemon Glaze

Ingredients:
2 lemons
2 1/2 cups confectioner's sugar

Mix together with an electric mixer until smooth. Pour over cooled cupcakes.

Bridal Shower Invitation

I get to host my sweet cousin, Nicole's, bridal shower in July and I am so excited. I have been brainstorming tirelessly for the past month on planning ideas and I think she may just have the sweetest bridal shower ever. Here are the invitation I came up with. I am sending them out as we speak. They are headed out to seven states plus South Korea. That's right South Korea. Nicole's sister, Sarah, is living there and teaching English. We made sure to plan the shower for a date after she arrived home for a few months to celebrate her sister's wedding and be a dutiful Maid of Honor.

My day :)

I spent my day in school (I got an A on my anatomy lab test!), making bridal shower invitations (I will show you those tomorrow), making this awesome crown for myself, and I got this book in the mail. I can't wait to read it.

I'm off to make dinner! Adios!

DREAM PETS

It is no secret that I love and adore animals. I love all types of animals and I would love nothing more than to move to a country house and have a farm with tons of animals. However, that will probably never happen. I do have a list of dream pets, though, and if I do ever get a dreamy house with lots of room I will probably get them all.

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Old English Sheepdog: I have wanted one of these since the very first time I saw The Little Mermaid. (Max was my favorite part of that entire movie!)

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Beagle: I used to have a beagle. His name was Domino and he was my favorite doggie ever. I miss him and because of how great he was, I love beagles.

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Teacup Pigs: Okay, these are the babies, but in reality they get much bigger. In fact they get anywhere from 60-10 lbs. But that is much smaller than normal pigs who can get up to 300lbs! They are brilliant animals.

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Pygmy Goats: I have only ever heard great things about these sweet guys. Both my cousin and I want them. Our goats can be friends! Have you ever read this gal's blog? She has a couple of these sweeties.

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Ducks! I so want a pet duck. It would just be so sweet.

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Sphynx Cats: I hate cats but these cats are so sweet and ugly I don't think I could ever resist if the opportunity presented itself. One of my best friend's has one, Puma, and she is seriously the sweetest kitty ever.

In reality only some of these animals will ever be my own, but they are all so sweet I would settle for the dogs and a couple goats. ;)

Peanut Butter Cupcakes

It is hot here in Michigan, which is my most favorite weather ever. However it is not my mother's favorite weather and she is the one who sets the house rules and she has banned use of the oven between the hours of 7:00 am and 10:00 pm, and even nights on days when the temperature is especially high. Like today. So I stayed up late last night and baked up some peanut butter cupcakes for my momma.

Peanut Butter Cupcakes

by Nina Jones

Mix in pan and bring to a boil:
1/4 cup creamy peanut butter
1 cup water
1/2 cup butter

Sift the following and add to the above mixture:
1 cup sugar
1 cup brown sugar
2 cups flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp soda

Mix and add to the above mixture:
2 eggs
1/2 cup buttermilk
1 tsp vanilla

Stir well and pour into cupcake cups 2/3 full. Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes.

Extras: I added extra peanut butter to the batter and a dash of cinnamon on top of each cupcake before I baked them for a little something extra. I topped them with chocolate ganache frosting. (for frosting you let it cool in the fridge for about a half hour while mixing it every five minutes.)

What I Wore

Outfit Details

Shirt: aerie

Belt: Forever 21

Skirt: Gift from my true love

Shoes: Urban Outfitters

Bracelet: aerie

This is by far one of my favorite skirts. It was gifted to me by my true love who picked it out when he was in Italy a couple years ago. I love that I can make a reference to a couple years ago and be talking about a time when Angelo and I were dating. (I just love being with him and I love that I have been with him for almost 3 years. :D)

Sloth Love

Sloths have become one of my favorite animals recently and about a month ago I went to Angelo's Senior Art Show at College for Creative Studies. Across from his display Gracie Cole had her art set up. Among her pieces were six or seven stuffed creatures. Among them were a couple sloths. I fell madly in love the very instant my eyes fell upon them. I knew I had to have one, and in particular the one with a green face and hands and feet. (Green is my favorite color after all.) However was not so in love with the price tag. So I decided to wait. Fast forward to the very last day of the show. My mom and step-dad still wanted to see Angelo's show so we heading downtown to see all of his brilliant work. Low and behold my sweet green sloth was still available. Well if no one bought her by then obviously it was a sign that I should splurge and bring her home as a new member of my stuffed animal collection.

She doesn't have a name yet, but I surely do love her.

Friday Five!

Hello everyone! It's Friday which means it is the one day of the week that I get to sleep in. Today I slept in till 9:30. Which is three hours later than any other day of the week. It has been crazy the past couple of weeks with my anatomy class, but I did do really well on my first two exams. Yay! So any way, here are some lovelies things that I am loving this week. (Besides the beautiful 90 degree weather we had Monday and Tuesday. That is my most favorite weather ever.)

I bought me some of this lovely stuff because I don't like wearing makeup but at the same time I do. I love it. It brightens up my face and makes me feel extra pretty.

I also bought some awesome TOMS. So comfy.

So true and important to remember.

My sister and mom got the three of us some of these. Oh my goodness I am so in love. They are great and completely make the use of plastic sandwich bags unnecessary.

I love this art. It is right up my ally and I would love to one day have one of these pieces of my own.

Now I am off to study and watch some Fringe. Adios!