puffle cupcakes--guest post by bonnie @ inspiring pretty

i have been so excited about my oldest son’s birthday this year. birthdays are always fun, but this year he changed schools. why does that matter, you ask? only because his old school forbade any homemade goodies of any kind. and for a mama who sometimes bakes just to pass the time, this was almost sacrilege. so when we began school shopping, imagine my delight when I found out that our school of choice not only allotted time for classroom birthday parties; but they also allowed you to bring in any kind of treat you desired.

i wanted to make something special, but i didn’t want to go overboard for a bunch of second graders who don’t know the difference between marshmallow and meringue. aiden (the birthday boy) and I decided to do hostess throwbacks in chocolate and orange. his class is really into club penguin, so we went with a puffle theme.

i settled on a few batters from the sky high cakes cookbook. i chose vanilla buttermilk (and added orange extract) for the orange cake, and chocolate butter cake for the chocolate. the chocolate batter called for brewed coffee, which i was pretty sure the other parents wouldn’t appreciate, so I subbed it with hot cocoa. then i chose smitten kitchen’s seven-minute (aka, marshmallow) frosting as a filling and a swiss meringue buttercream frosting to go on top for its pipe-ability.

they were a LOT of work (if i never beat another egg white to stiff peaks again, it will be too soon), but they were spectacular. and the look on my sweet 8 year old’s face when he got to hand them out coupled with one of his classmates exclaiming, “i wish we lived next door to you!” made it all worth it. 

p.s. i halved the batter recipes, so they each yielded about 15 cupcakes.

orange buttermilk batter

ingredients:

2 whole large eggs
1 egg yolk
2 teaspoon orange extract
2/3 cup buttermilk
1 1/2 cups flour
1 cup sugar
2 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature

directions:
preheat oven to 350 degrees and line a cupcake pan with liners.

place the eggs and the yolks in a medium bowl. add the orange extract and 1/4 cup of buttermilk. whisk well and set aside.

combine the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt in the bowl of a mixer; whisk to blend. add the remaining 1 cup of buttermilk and the butter to the dry ingredients and blend together on low. raise the mixer to medium speed and beat until light fluffy, about 2 minutes.

add the egg mixture in three additions, scrapping down the sides of the bowl after each addition. Don’t over mix.

fill the cupcake liners about 2/3 full. bake for about 18-20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. allow the cupcakes to cool in the pan for 5 minutes, then pop them out onto a wire rack to cool completely.

chocolate butter cake batter

ingredients:
1 cup flour
1 cups sugar
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/2 cup buttermilk
1 egg
1 cup hot cocoa, cooled to room temperature

directions:
preheat oven to 350 degrees and line a cupcake pan with liners.

in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, mix the flour, sugar, cocoa powder, ground cinnamon, and salt on low speed until combined. add the butter and buttermilk and mix on low until moistened. raise the speed to medium and beat until light and fluffy, about 2 to 3 minutes.

whisk the eggs and hot cocoa together in a bowl, and add to the mixer in 3 additions, scraping down the bowl and beating only until blended after each addition.

fill the cupcake liners about 2/3 full. bake for about 18-20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. allow the cupcakes to cool in the pan for 5 minutes, then pop them out onto a wire rack to cool completely.

seven-minute frosting

ingredients:
5 tablespoons water
1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
1 1/3 cups sugar
2 large eggs whites at room temperature
1 tablespoon light corn syrup
1 teaspoon vanilla

directions:
whisk first five ingredients together in a double boiler. To do a make-shift one, place a metal or heat-proof glass bowl over a pan of simmering water. make sure the water level is at least as high as the depth of the egg whites in the bowl. beat the whites on low speed until the mixture reaches 140 degrees on an instant-read thermometer. do not stop beating while the bowl is in the skillet, or the egg whites will be overcooked.

beat on high speed for exactly five minutes. remove the bowl from the skillet and add vanilla, beating on high speed for two to three more minutes to cool.

swiss meringue frosting

ingredients:
1 cup sugar
4 large egg whites
20 tablespoons butter, softened (2 sticks plus 4 tablespoons)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

directions:

beat butter in a stand mixer until light an fluffy.

whisk egg whites and sugar together in a double boiler. whisk occasionally until you can’t feel the sugar granules when you rub the mixture between your fingers, a minute or two.

remove from heat and whip until it turns white and about doubles in size. be sure to mix long enough for it to cool completely.

add the vanilla.

finally, add the egg mixture to the butter and whip, whip, whip.
do not worry when this takes a while to come together. it can take up to 15 minutes, but it will come together. beating the butter ahead of time should reduce this problem, but you still have to whip it good. qlso, if you add the eggs while they are still warm, they will melt the butter and you will basically be out of luck, and $4 worth of butter.

to assemble:

tools:

several pastry bags with tips (in my experience ziplock bags will not suffice. the seams always seem split when any pressure is applied.)

miniature marshmallows, two per cupcake

black writing gel

directions:
fill a pastry bag fitted with a small, pointy tip (the design doesn’t really matter) with seven-minute frosting. push the point into the center of the cupcake and gently squeeze filling into the middle. you will see the cupcake start to expand, so stop short of it actually exploding.

separate the swiss meringue frosting into several bowls, one for each different color you want to do (we used four). mix desired amount of food coloring into each one. spoon about 1/3 on each color into its own pastry bag fitted with a star tip, or any tip that you think would make good looking hair.

frost the cupcakes with a knife or offset spatula in your different shades. flatten marshmallows into between clean fingers and place two in the center of each cupcake.

use black writing gel to draw a pupil on each marshmallow and a mouth below the marshmallows.

pipe hair onto each cupcake with the matching color in pastry bag.

keep cupcakes refrigerated until serving.

bonnie blogs at inspiring pretty along with lindsey and claire. it's a home for everything women care about. from recipes to weddings and spirituality to raising a family, we are here to share our lives with you and make yours prettier. our motto is 'a pretty home, a pretty faith, a pretty life'. born just outside chicago, illinois and raised in the mountains of colorado, bonnie found her home in southern california alongside her husband and three little boys. when she’s not cleaning up after all four of them, helping with school projects or making fabulously healthy dinners and scrumptious desserts, she enjoys being outdoors, a good cup of tea, writing and giving design advice to anyone who’ll listen. you can also find them on facebook, twitter and pinterest.

eight things i miss about high school-- guest post by sili @ mymamihood

eight things i miss about high school

i never thought I'd say it but, as my high school's 20th reunion is around the corner (yes, I graduated high school at age 8, thanks for noticing!) I am finding myself all mushy about that era.


perhaps it's the fact that i've managed to reconnect with quite a few of my classmates on facebook. or perhaps it's because, having gone to 2 different high schools, i didn't have enough years in either school to make me bitter and ornery at my age (of 28, yes). so, here's my list:

1. shoulder pads: why you ask? because i think they made me look taller and hip. didn't you wear blazers a size too big?

2. hair spray: you'd think i wouldn't because i hate product in my hair but, i kinda miss the big bangs that were big enough to tell people i was from nyc but not so big as to be confused with one of those jersey girls

3. no car payment: i mean, it was practical. my first car was my dad's 5 speed jeep cherokee! i was hip and with it and loaded with cash. and by cash i mean i didn't have much to spend my check from my:

4. part-time job: ah! what i wouldn't give to sit around at the doctor's office in the naval hospital hanging out with my friends, filing and listening to music and perhaps hacking the time clock so we could get out a full 15 minutes early!

5. sleepovers: every once in a while i want to have one of these but i'm afraid my girlfriends would think i'm nuts. plus, there's the slight issue of the children. i miss staying up late watching movies with the girls, giggling about nothing (while sober, mind you) and making sure we took pictures that had to be developed at a photo lab for posterity

6. lunch: i (try to) work from home now and what i wouldn't give to get up out of my chair around noon, walk to a lunch line and simply tell the lady behind that counter what to put on my plate. without thinking about it, without needing to go to the store to buy stuff, without expending any of my already dwindling

energy on the task of feeding and being fed

7. spirit week: i would love to have a mami spirit week! where we go off and get dressed up in our colors, take pictures with likeminded people and then, hold a pep rally for ourselves. sounds like fun, no? i really didn't appreciate this perk when i had the chance

8. senior skip day: what i wouldn't give for a mami skip day! a day when i'd wake up knowing i wouldn't have to do any of my mami chores, turn in any mami homework or show up to mami school. i would call my friends up, make sure my car paymentless self would be packed up and ready to head to the beach and, without a care in the world i would ride around picking everyone up and then: off to the beach for a day of frolicking and teenage bliss!

i know a lot of us have hangups about high school. bad situations, awkward moments and at times just sad instances. but, i want to remember the good things, the things that we miss and perhaps the people that helped make those teenage years a little more bearable. do you miss anything about high school?

when not pretending she’s a blogger/writer/editor/social media extraordinaire to her family and friends, sili is busy rearing and shaping her 2 year old frog princess into a natural born leader (read: she’s bossy and she gets it from her mama). sili wants world peace and a good glass of wine. and, whatever those two things might lead to. read more of sili’s writing on her blog my mamihood)

friday fun finds: top 10 places to visit in northern ireland (guest post by janmary)

hi and welcome to my world! i’m a blogger from northern ireland and it was lovely to meet nellie and chach in atlanta at the sits blog conference last october.i design jewelry and love to take photos (with my canon dslr or with my iphone). 

the top 10 i am sharing with you today, in honor of st patrick's day tomorrow, are the places i would take you to visit if you came over to northern ireland for a wee visit.

titanic quarter in belfast

this year it is 100 years since the launch and sinking of the titanic. finally belfast, where the famous/infamous ship was built, will have our own museum. the area was neglected for many years, so some of the original buildings remain and are being restored. can’t wait to see them all finished in time for the huge commemoration and festival next month (april 2012).

giants causeway

one of the natural wonders of the world, scientists can tell us how all these hexagonal rocks were formed, but the myth of how finn maccool tricked a scottish giant is much more interesting! our kids love clambering over the rocks, and i love taking photos of them (the kids or the rocks, i don’t mind!)

carrick-a-rede rope bridge

yes ….. a rope bridge……not great if you have a fear of heights, but it links a small island to the mainland with some wonderful views. it is possible to opt not to cross over, and you can just watch the other poor soul instead, but it isn’t *too* dangerous, and lots of fun!

dunluce castle

another great story behind this destination, but this is the true story how the kitchens of the castle fell into the sea during a ferocious storm in 1643. apparently there were a number of guests being served dinner at the time, and food was still served and the guests not told of the disaster at the time for fear of alarming them!

white rocks beach

from dunluce castle you can see this stretch of beautiful soft golden sand stretching all the way to portrush. our kids love coming here to slide down the huge sand dunes. the water is icy cold – most use wetsuits to swim/surf/body board. i prefer to stay dry on the beach!

mussenden temple

this unusual “folly” was built by a bishop as his library and reading room. It is perched dramatically on the cliff overlooking the atlantic ocean with portstewart strand in one direction and downhill strand in the other.

dark hedges

shhhhh…..going to share my favorite road in all of northern ireland, but let’s keep it to ourselves, ok? it is a tiny road in the middle of nowhere, with the most amazing avenue of 200 year old trees.

ballintoy

a simple white church, which can be seen from miles away, indicates you are close to ballitoy. there is a small village on the main road, but drive down past the church and an incredibly narrow and twisty road with a number of hair-pin bends takes you down to a small harbor, café, rock pools and beach. the “game of thrones” recreated a medieval village and harbor here last summer for filming.

an ulster fry
you shouldn’t really come to northern ireland without experiencing a genuine ulster fry. the main components may vary, but here is what i would include:
bacon, sausage, potato bread, soda bread, fried egg, (optional extras – mushroom, tomato black pudding or white pudding, baked beans)

our holiday cottage!
for the last few years we have been house swapping, and if you are interested in visiting our wee country then you can check out our home exchange listing here.

there you have it, my top 10 recommendations for your visit to northern ireland. so……when are you coming over?!!!

and remember, everyone is irish on st patrick’s day.

For more of my life and photos here in n ireland, please visit my blog www.janmary.com

have a st. patty's post of your own? link up!

janmary designs

a birthday without a glue stick--guest post by melissa @ momcomm

my kids have the same birthday, three years apart. 


yep, that's right. they are roughly three years and four hours apart. and no, it wasn't planned.

i've always had a crafty side - scrapbooking, graphic design, heck I even made soap for a time - but with two kids, running my consulting business, keeping up with two blogs and just life in general, my craftiness somehow got stored on the shelf for a while.

but then birthdays roll around. and I get that itch to CREATE something. i want my kids to have a birthday from "pages" of pinterest in all its crafty goodness.

i've done it before. last year, i went all out throwing both of my kids a party in the same day. one for little roo turning one and then more people came and we continued the celebration for big roo turning four. um, that was nuts.

this year? i just didn't have it in me to get all crafty. but yet that mama guilt creeped in like mama guilt does and i worried when their birthday rolled around, they'd be disappointed. 


it's not like i didn't have anything planned. we had balloons and a gift each to greet them in the morning. we made rice krispy treats for their classes at school. we ate at mcdonalds for lunch (which we never do!). we went to chuck e cheese for dinner (another thing we never do!). and we even had a little cake for them at home after dinner. 


a totally exhausting day without one picture-perfect craft in sight. 


little roo was so exhausted he fell asleep right on my chest (that's after the nap in his crib, by the way). snuggling with my baby boy on his special day. and it hit me. 


why should I feel guilty that I didn't break out glue, paper and ribbon to make some snazzy decor or spend all day slaving over a creatively cute meal? after all, they don't care that their meal didn't come from my pinterest food board or that I didn't stay up all night making something for them. i treated them like birthday boys in the simplest way possible: i showed them they were loved. 


and there wasn't a glue stick in sight. 

melissa culbertson is a mom, marketing communications consultant, blogger, author of the diy blog critique and creator of the upcoming content brew, an online blogging course about content planning and idea creation. you can find her on twitter and at hanging out at her blogs momcomm and adventuroo.

diy chore chart--guest post by allison @ a few sprinkles short of a sundae

i admit it openly. i am not good at making my children clean up. i don’t clean up, so i guess they figure they don’t need to either, right? but the countless number of cars and barbie parts scattered across my floor are enough to make me want to get rid of every toy in my house. every. toy.

but seeing as we, and other people, have spent money on these great little foot jabbers, it would be nice to keep them for more than week before i toss them out in a way that would make buzz lightyear tremble in fear. so as i scoured pinterest one day i came across an idea for a chore chart.

and since my 5-year-old is greatly motivated by anything quarters and dollars, i thought i could make a chore chart where the kids could earn money for doing things they should already do anyway. but whatever, don’t judge.

so here is what i made:

it really was pretty simple to make. i bought myself a shiny new cookie sheet and used my old one for this project (win/win!). i went to a local store and got yellow spray paint and sprayed that sucker down. allow it to dry a day or two before doing anything else with it, but that will give you time to make the other parts.

then i had to think of chores and how much each was worth. i will tell you, i apparently overpriced some of these things because in one day my daughter made off with $2.50 from doing all the chores. be cheap!

i got magnets and would be sticking each chore onto a magnet to put on the cookie sheet. still with me? good! i started off printing the chores out onto little circles, but then i remembered that my children can’t read yet, so i had better use pictures. then simply cut out the little circles and glue them onto the magnets (i used my xyron sticker maker, but use what you have).

since i have two children, i needed to make a side for each child. i pulled out my cricut and made their names, again using the xyron sticker maker to put adhesive on them.

simply put the names where you want them (or just one name if you are only doing this for one child – but seriously, make them all do chores). i then used bright colored duct tape to divide the areas for each child and the chores to be done. voila!

now each child can do a chore and slide the appropriate magnet over to his or her side and at the end of the day we pay them. like i said before, though, one day my daughter managed to make $2.50. my son, on the other hand, is not nearly as motivated by money and really doesn’t care about cleanliness or money.

did the chore chart save our home from the producers of hoarders being called in? not really, but it was fun to make and it has motivated the kids to help with the dishes and make their beds a little more. so i’ll call that a win!

allison is a stay-at-home mom of two, a biological daughter who is 5 and an adoptive son who is 4. she is also wife to one husband (and one is plenty, thank you very much), who is 31. when not blogging or ignoring her children’s pleas to help find their shoes again, allison can be found attempting to write novels in what little spare time she has left between facebook, twitter, pinterest, and, you know, parenting. she is the genius behind the blog “a few sprinkles short of a sundae.”

learn to sew--guest post by maddie @ domestic anarchy

i have been sewing since the age of 9 when I discovered that the cabinet in the corner of our family game room actually held a sewing machine. I was on my own, my mother was no longer interested in sewing nor in teaching a smart-ass 9 year old. i taught myself with little more than the bernina instruction book which I found buried in the cabinet drawers along with all the accessories. i was 9 and i had no fear.

when people find out that I sew I usually get one of three responses:

"oh I wish I could do that but never had anyone to teach me"

"will you sew up my sleeve, hem my jeans, sew my wedding dress" (no i will not)

"i am just no good at that sort of thing"

i usually go on to share the fact that i do more than sew, i actually teach sewing and if they are interested i would be happy to give them information about classes they can take. this is usually when the deeper level of excuse mixed with fear comes to the surface. everything from can't afford a sewing machine to being scared of the fast moving needle to fear of failure.

the fact is that machine sewing in it's simplest form is just not that hard and it is way less dangerous than driving a car. each day thousands of young children in foreign nations use really large really fast sewing machines to make most of the clothing sold here in the united states, if they can do, you can too! heck, danger-wise no one ever was killed by a sewing machine. the worst that would ever happen would be to put a needle though your finger. it is no fun, i have done it, but it hurt way less than childbirth or the car accident i was in so just summon the courage and go for it!

if you can find the right instructor i suggest taking lessons but only with the right person. if the person at all reminds you of your miserable 8th grade home-ec teacher don't do it. you want someone with a cool laid back vibe, nurturing attitude and possibly someone who serves wine with evening lessons. (it does nothing for accuracy but sure does make it relaxing!)

no classes in your area? then it is time to turn to the great resources found in books and on the internet. for sewing books I recommend the following for all beginners:

stitch by stitch learn to sew by moebes - from soup to nuts, or scissors to bobbins this book is very close to having your very knowledgeable best friend teach you to sew, add wine if you like for a full experience!

1-2-3 sew by luckett baker- another friendly book with a casual vibe that makes sure you feel good about what you are learning and increasing your skills with each project.

sew mama sew hosts a fantastic blog where lots of sewing projects and techniques are shared with an open and accepting style that makes you happy to sew.

so there you have it, we are not too far into the new year to make your dream a reality , isn't it time you learned to sew?

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maddie can be found at domestic anarchy where she will hold your hand and calm your sewing fears, all the while making you understand how fantastic you really are. she is also on facebook and twitter.

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maddie kertay is the homechooling, crafting, sewing mother of 6 kids. you can find her most days in her sewing room stitching while she gives spelling tests and listens to kids read her endless list of prepositions she makes them memorize for no good reason - she is cruel like that.

mmmmm, mondays: cherry chocolate chip scones -- guest post by bonnie @ inspiring pretty

ahoy-hoy. bonnie from inspiring pretty here. i am brand new to guest posting, so i’m not sure how much to disclose. should i just go straight to the recipe (which is a good one), or should i tell you about my baking addiction? or my tendency to sing kids’ show tunes in the most inappropriate situations. or that i have been affectionately coined ‘bargain bonnie’ because i literally cannot bring myself to pay full price for anything. one thing you should know is that i am a mommy. not just in the sense that i have children, but in the way that my mind is eternally set to mom time. even when i am away from my kids, i find myself thinking like a mom. “don’t drive too fast. wear a jacket. oooh, look at the chocolate chip pancakes!”

it was this mommy mentality that got me into trouble last week. you know how some holidays have an enormous build up to them, so that when they are over you are left feeling kind of…meh? that was valentines day for me this year. i went a little pinterest crazy with crafts and goodies. i wanted to make everything I saw, you know for the kids. so while i rocked it at the school parties, i now feel like there should be like a gradual return from the land of pink and red hearts to reality.

one of my favorite v-day projects was this recipe for cherry chocolate chip scones. i adapted it from the smitten kitchen, basically just interchanging her cranberries with my cherries and chocolate. The result was an empty plate, which in my house (of picky eaters) is synonymous with success. 

cherry chocolate chip scones

ingredients:

2 cups (10 ounces) unbleached all-purpose flour, preferably a low-protein brand such as Gold Medal or Pillsbury 

1 tablespoon baking powder 

3 tablespoons sugar 

½ teaspoon salt 

5 tablespoons chilled, unsalted butter, cut into 1/4-inch cubes 

½ cup dried cherries 

½ cup chocolate chips 

1 cup heavy cream

 
directions:
1. adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 425°F.

2. place flour, baking powder, sugar and salt in large bowl or work bowl of food processor fitted with steel blade. whisk together or pulse six times. 

3. if making by hand, use two knives, a pastry blender or your fingertips and quickly cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse meal, with a few slightly larger butter lumps. stir in currants. if using food processor, remove cover and distribute butter evenly over dry ingredients. cover and pulse 12 times, each pulse lasting 1 second. add cherries and pulse one more time. transfer dough to large bowl.

4. stir in chocolate chips and heavy cream with a rubber spatula or fork until dough begins to form, about 30 seconds. 

5. transfer dough and all dry, floury bits to countertop and knead dough by hand just until it comes together into a rough, sticky ball, 5 to 10 seconds. form scones by patting the dough onto a lightly floured work surface into a 3/4-inch thick circle and either a) cutting the dough into 8 wedges with a knife or bench scraper or b) cutting pieces with a biscuit cutter, and pressing remaining scraps back into another piece and cutting until dough has been used up. (be warned if you use this latter method, the scones that are made from the remaining scraps will be much lumpier and less pretty, but taste fine.) 

6. place rounds or wedges on ungreased baking sheet and bake until scone tops are light brown, 12 to 15 minutes. cool on wire rack for at least 10 minutes. serve warm or at room temperature

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bonnie blogs at inspiring pretty along with lindsey and claire. it's a home for everything women care about. from recipes to weddings and spirituality to raising a family, we are here to share our lives with you and make yours prettier. our motto is 'a pretty home, a pretty faith, a pretty life'. born just outside chicago, illinois and raised in the mountains of colorado, bonnie found her home in southern california alongside her husband and three little boys. when she’s not cleaning up after all four of them, helping with school projects or making fabulously healthy dinners and scrumptious desserts, she enjoys being outdoors, a good cup of tea, writing and giving design advice to anyone who’ll listen. you can also find them on facebook, twitter and pinterest.