GIVEAWAY!

Ok so I have a couple of fun giveaways to tell you about!

First, My friend Aubrey at all things bright and beautiful is giving away a super cute book for freee! head on over and check it out!

Second, My denim blog Denim lovers is giving away a free pair of jeans! whoo hoo so go there and find out how.


Rach

Raspberry Lemonade cupcakes!

Yummy!

Batter when all is mixed

Batter with puree on top

Look How pretty these mix!



What You Need:

1c. Sugar

1/2 c. Butter~ Room Temp

1 egg

1/2 C. vanilla Yogurt~ I use dannon light and fit

2 tsp grated lemon zest~ about 1 small lemon

4 TBSP fresh squeezed Lemon Juice~ about 2 small lemons

1 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

11/4 C. Flour

1/4 raspberry puree

2cups Powdered Sugar

3/4 C. Butter~ Room Temp

1 TBSP Raspberry extract

How to:

Preheat oven to 350

Mix Sugar and butter til blended. (butter is better at room temp for baking) Add Egg. Blend well. Add Vanilla yogurt. Then zest and lemon juice. Add Dry ingredients and then mix. Don't over mix just until they are well blended.

Make Puree. I use frozen fruit for baking. I think you get more flavour. If you have fresh raspberries put them in the freezer and then thaw and then put in blender or food processor.

Next you will put your cake liners in pan. Put 1 Tbsp of mix into the liner.

Then put a tsp of the the puree on top of the mix.

Next put another TBSP of batter on top of puree.

Stir around with a toothpick. You don't have to totally stir but just make a nice pattern. Fill all liners this way.

Bake for 20-25 min depending on your oven. When you touch the cupcake it should bouncy right back up! Let cool completely before you frost!

Frosting:

2cups Powdered Sugar

3/4 C. Butter~room temp

1 TBSP Raspberry extract

Ok I have done this a few times. I personally thing that imitation raspberry extract in this case tastes better. The real stuff tasted like alcohol to me.

I like to double the recipe but I like a lot of frosting!

Mix well! If you are not getting the texture you want add a little more powdered sugar but this amount seems to work fine for me!

Valentine Topiary

I saw tons of the cute valentine wreaths made out of cupcake liners this year. I love them. (see here) I however, like things HUGE. I wanted a huge wreath. I could not find a styrofoam wreath big enough. So I decided to do a topiary. I used cupcake liners that I found at walmart. A wooden dowel. I found this super cute vase for 50% off at Micheals.

*Take a pencil and poked a hole in the styrofoam.
*Wrap cupcake liner around the pencil
*put hot glue in the hole
*stuff the pencil w/liner in!
*It took me 8 packages of liners
*paint the dowel
*stick it in the ball.
* pull out and put hot glue in
* put styrofoam in the the vase and put other end of dowel in
* put moss on top