My New Year's Eve drink of choice!♥

Sound so amazing, I don't see why anyone wouldn't want these visually appealing treats at their party! If baking the strawberry cupcakes from scratch sounds intimidating, use a box mix! Gnash scare you? Buy microwavable sundae fudge! Pick up some plastic champagne glasses from your local dollar store! Keep it simple! ♥

Recipe created by Sophie Kallinis LaMontagne and Katherine Kallinis This delicious DC Cupcakes recipe makes a dazzling addition to any holiday party.

Servings: Serves 12

Ingredients

Strawberry Champagne Cupcakes (36 mini cupcakes, 3 per Champagne flute)

1/2 cup fresh strawberries , diced

1/2 Tbsp. good Champagne (sweet rose Champagne suggested)

2 1/2 cups flour , sifted

1/2 tsp. baking powder , sifted

1/4 Tsp. salt

8 Tbsp. (4 ounces) unsalted butter

1 3/4 cups sugar

2 large eggs , at room temperature

2 1/4 tsp. pure vanilla extract + seeds from 1 vanilla bean(NOTE: move down to next line...see edits to other recipe)

1 1/4 cups whole milk , at room temperature

Champagne Buttercream Frosting

16 Tbsp. (8 ounces) unsalted butter

4 cups confectioner's sugar , sifted

1 tsp. whole milk

1 tsp. pure vanilla extract

1/8 tsp. salt

1/2 cup good Champagne (sweet rose Champagne suggested)

Strawberry Layer

24 fresh strawberries

1 cup good Champagne (sweet rose Champagne suggested)

Chocolate Ganache

2 cups high-quality semisweet chocolate chips

1 cup heavy cream

Directions

For Serving:
12 glass Champagne flutes
12 long spoons
12 indoor-safe sparkler candles


Step 1: Baking the Mini Strawberry Champagne Cupcakes
Preheat the oven to 350°. Line 2 mini cupcake pans with 36 mini baking cups or grease pans with butter if not using baking cups.
Dice up 1/2 cup of fresh strawberries and soak in 1/2 cup of Champagne. Set aside.
Sift together the flour, baking powder and salt in a bowl.
Place the unsalted butter in the bowl of a stand mixer or hand-held electric mixer. Add the sugar; beat on medium speed until well incorporated.

Add the eggs one at a time, mixing slowly after each addition.
Combine the vanilla extract, vanilla bean seeds and milk in a large liquid measuring cup.
Reduce the speed to low. Add one-third of the flour mixture to the butter mixture, then gradually add one-third of the milk mixture, beating until well incorporated. Add another one-third of the flour mixture, followed by one-third of the milk mixture. Stop to scrape down the bowl as needed. Add the remaining flour mixture, followed by the remaining milk mixture, and beat just until combined.
Gently fold in the diced Champagne-soaked strawberries, just until incorporated.
Scoop batter into baking cups and bake for 10 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of a cupcake comes out clean. Transfer the pan to a wire rack to cool completely. If using paper baking cups, peel off all of the paper baking cups from the cupcakes at this time.

Step 2: Making the Champagne Buttercream Frosting
Place the unsalted butter in the bowl of a stand mixer or hand-held electric mixer. Add the confectioner's sugar; beat on medium speed until well incorporated.
Add the vanilla extract, milk, salt and Champagne, and beat on high speed until light and fluffy. Place frosting in a disposable piping bag with a large round tip.

Step 3: Preparing the Strawberries
Slice 24 strawberries lengthwise and soak in 1 cup of Champagne for approximately 10 to 15 minutes.

Step 4: Making the Chocolate Ganache
Fill a medium saucepan with an inch or 2 of water and place over medium-low heat. Place the chocolate chips and heavy cream in a medium glass bowl over the saucepan and melt the chocolate chips. Stir occasionally until the chips are completely melted. Remove the bowl of melted chocolate from the saucepan. Pour the ganache into a plastic squeeze bottle. (If a squeeze bottle is not available, you can drizzle with a spoon.)

Step 5: Assembling Layers in Champagne Flutes
Line up 12 glass Champagne flutes. Insert 1 mini strawberry Champagne cupcake in the bottom of each glass. Next, pipe a swirl of Champagne buttercream frosting on top of each cupcake. Add several slices of Champagne-soaked strawberries, and a drizzle of chocolate ganache. Repeat layers. Finally, place a third mini strawberry Champagne cupcake at the top of each glass, pipe with a final "Georgetown Cupcake signature swirl" of Champagne buttercream frosting, and top with a final drizzle of chocolate ganache.

Step 6: Serving
Insert 1 indoor-safe sparkler candle in the top of each glass. Light the candles at midnight, serve with spoons, and enjoy!

Christmas in Sun River

We spent 4 days with our good friends the Toozes in Sun River. It was a blast. Now usually im the  one wvids snow at ALL cost! I am from San Diego and prefer the warm sun and beach lifestyle, but driving up to Bend I had this vision of me jumping around trying to avoid the snow like a cat dodging raindrops! When we pulled p though it was quite diffrent. Although my nose was stinging like crazy, I didnt mind chasing the kids around, throwing a few snowballs and even pulling the monsters around on their saucer.

 

 My favorite part though was the shopping! Old Mill had the best and cutest stores around. One called Vanilla urban threads, was my favorite. They had real earthy yet chic things that I felt so cute and comfy in. As a mom its important to be able to find those rare pieces that can make the outfit with out looking like you're trying too hard! Here's some pictures from my trip and a few cool links to the places I saw!http://www.vanillaurbanthreads.com/

All things Pretty! ♥

OK real quick wanted to throw this out to anyone who may read this, But I do love anything that teaches you how to apply make-up or wear something fashionable, I never had an older sister to teach me these things, and though I'm 26 yrs old there's is so much I don't know about fashion make up and hair, but I'm so open to learning. Anyways, I came crossed this website www.livedress.com and this correspondent
Teresa Ulrich has her own YouTube channel, she's super fun to watch and gives great tips for everything you can think of! Here's her channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/juicytuesday?blend=1&ob=4#p/u/19/-Xvqk3WPFRw  Check it out, get inspired and feel beautiful!

          Also Clip-in extensions! I don't know how may girls, around here anyways, actually use them. But I love them! If I had the money I would have all kinds to play with, If you've ever thought about it but not really sure I know alot of videos you can find on the web that fill you in on how to's and stuff!

this is just from a video clip I found at http://sport-with-you.ru/index.php?key=clip. its just crazy the possibilities of adding lenght and volume to your own natural hair! lol

Makin Doughnuts @ Home!

Its actually way easier than you'd think. I remember doing this with my mom when I was little. We lived on a farm in Iowa away from town and really didn't have the money to go out and splurge on such treats. So my mom would buy a can of Pillsbury Grands and cut out the centers and fry em' up! For kicks I thought my kids and I would do it. So I put my helpers to work! Here's the easy steps how to do it yourself!

1. If its your first time I recommend buying 2 cans of Pillsbury Grands! rolls Flaky layers. pop the can. Just cause you might end up burning the first few! lol  As I did.
2. I have actual center cutters but use a medicine measuring cup or something along that size to cut out the centers, Don't throw them away! They'll become doughnut holes!
3. In a med. sauce pan heat up about 3 cups of oil. This is the tricky part the first few I usually burn till i get the heat just right that it cooks evenly.
Drop a few holes in to test. it should bubble and turn golden turn in over with a fork or skewer.

4. One by one drop the formed dough in and watch for it to get golden turn it to the other side, wait. And then room and toss in a bowl of sugar, or a bowl of cinnamon sugar like we do. let it cool a few mins and enjoy!

I had my 5 yr old cutting out the middles, and my 3 yr old covering them in cinnamon sugar! And I (the Adult ;-) Fried the dough. Its a great way to include them in the kitchen and the get a huge sense of achievement for making breakfast!

A new Playdough? Oh yes!!

As a cake decorator rice crispy treats are offtend used on cakes, ice and covered in fondant, molding them is fun because they stay in the shape you mold them. My kids are always begging me to get their playdough down so they can make a crumbly messy mess! I decided to give this a try. and they had a blast! Afterwards, they gobbled up their creations and threw the wax paper away! Gotta admit I had a good time too!

Here's a great recipe

Ingredients:
6 cups Rice Krispies

3 tablespoons butter or 3 tablespoons margarine

1 (10 ounce) packageregular marshmallows or 4 cups miniature marshmallows


1 Melt butter in a large saucepan over low heat.
2 Add marshmallows and stir until completely melted.

3 Remove from heat.

4 (It would be perfect to be measuring out all of the cereal at this time, having it ready in a large bowl.).

5 Working quickly, add rice krispies cereal, and stir until the cereal is well coated.

6 Using a buttered spatula or waxed paper, press the mixture evenly into a greased 13 by 9 by 2 inch pan (or whatever pan you have on hand).

French Toast Cupcake A'La Am!♥

The best cupcakes Ive ever had? Easy, french toast cuppies! Heres a great link to life with cake, it works great but I know a short cut!
  http://lifewithcake.com/2009/05/french-toast-and-bacon-cupcakes/

 Start with a box mix of french vanilla cake. make it as it says on the box. Only add cinnamon as you would to french toast, enough that you smell it and see it well in the mix. pour into liners, Now for the frosting, follow my instructions on my last post. add real syrup or immitation maple extract to the frosting, you may need to add more powder sugar after that to thicken it up a bit. Now the crown jewel! Candied bacon! Fry up some maple bacon, pat the extra grease off and drain the pan. Dont wipe it down, its good to keep some grease for flavor. Now return the bacon to the pan. Cover it in sugar cook on low heat until sugar has melted to a carmel. once completely cover in carmel remove and place on a plastic plate. Carmel will harden thus creating the candy bacon. Once harden you can leave in large chunks or cut it in bits as a sprinkle, either way this treat is amazing anytime of day! Especially breakfast!! Mmmm Enjoy!

How adorable?

These are the sweetest (no pun intended) Cupcakes I've seen for the holidays! Even in pastels green and red they'd be cute, Do you know how easy it would be to make these? Super easy, even if you're not the craftest of moms. Use your favorite box mix, Cute liners from off line, and a little white melting chocolate to pipe out the snow flakes. I have a great Buttercream recipe that I love it would be perfect for this all you need is:
       4 cups powder sugar

       1/2 cup Butter (unsalted)

       1/2 cup Veggie Shortning
       4 Tb Milk
       1tb Vanilla

 Combined all the ingredients into a standing mixer if you have one or a hand mixer will do too. you want to mix on high for about 3-4 minutes till its light and fluffy, to thick? Add a lil milk. not thick enough? Add powder sugar. onced mix add the food coloring of choice and your good to go. I have tips on what kind of tips to use to achive a true cupcakery look, ill post more on that another time!

♥Lollipop Birthday Bash!♥

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Decorating a lil Girl's dream♥

McKenzie's Bedroom has been painted probably....4 times. It started 4 Years ago when we first bought our house. Everything was white. And for a lil girl's room I felt it needed color. So I went to the local Home Depot store and checked out their paints. Turns out they had an "Oops" center in that department. Its when peopple pick out a color and after its made up they suddenly dont like it. It was brighter than they thought or all together the wrong color. Anyways, the store has to mark the gallon of paint down to like 5 dollars so that it gets sold. Sometime the colors are pretty...Eek, other times it just what you need!

       We've had to paint a few times because if damage to her walls, one time she found a red sharpie and just went nuts! So we said so long to the pink and yellow stripes and went completely purple. Then something else happened and her room was a soild tropical blue. I got tired of the room not really meshing, so I started to look for inspiration. On her Birthday this last april, I bought her this ballon with Disney princesses on it. I loved the pastel colors and the shapes so I held on to it long after it deflated and one day I just emptied her room out, cleaned down the base boards and got to work. Heres what I came up with!

Kid Teeth

           So back in september I took McKenzie (my 5yr old) to the dentist for her check up. After they took her X-rays they showed me that her front baby teeth's roots had almost completely dissolved! I was blown away because it wasn't wiggly at all. So now 3 months later Im helping her brush her teeth and to my surprise theres and adult tooth poking through her gums! Behind the baby tooth! I had never seen anything like this before! And immediatly thoughts of braces and what kinda damage this is going to cause start racing through my head!

I felt the baby tooth and it was kinda loose. Luckily I had a dentist appointment the next day and was able to ask him if this was normal and what to expect next. He told me to just get her to work on the wiggling it, That by now there should be no more roots and if she continues to wiggle it will eventually come out. Whew! I was just so used to seeing kids that had this huge gap after there teeth fell out, and my daughter will already have her adult tooth up by the time this baby falls out! LOL

Divine Cupcakes

Sarah and I went on this Girls day, We stopped at Papa's Pizza in Eugene, It was so dead in there I joked we must have walked into the wrong building, there were," Do not Touch!" signs on all the railings because they had just been painted. We'll anyone who knows me knows I dont listen. Unless its going to hurt me, lol. Anywho's, the rails didnt look wet so while waiting for our pizza we played a game of "Who can touch the rail longest before getting spotted!" Ya pretty intense! But the pizza came, we stuffed ourselves and wow! Anyone who has never had their BBQ Chicken pizza, You gotta try it! Nice thin crispy crust, sweet bbq sauce with the sharp chesse. Mmmm. My stomach just rumbled.
                          Our next stop was Divine Cupcakes. Its a Vegan Cupcakery in Eugene on 11th St. When you walk in, it does have that small hole in the wall place feeling. But when you start looking around and taking things in, it was really fun. They had lots of small trinkets and shirts you can buy, at fair prices too! then in front of you is this display case packed of all sorts of CUPCAKES! I choose the Chocolate Coma one, while Sarah got a Chai cupcake. I also picked one up to take home to my Husband Bobby, It was chocolate peanutbutter, We were served them on lil white saucers and sat at a bar they had and indulged in our super moist chocolately cupcake! Hands down it was the best cupcake I've had around! and it was Vegan. I learned you dont have to be vegan to eat vegan but it was an extra bonus to know everything I was eating was healthy and humane. Lol The chocolate peanut butter one tasted just like a reeses peanut butter cup! So if you ever find yourself heading down to Valley River or that area, take the extra mins to go out of your way and induldge in a little diviness!

http://divinecupcake.com/

Idiot Boy?

Spongebob, are you really going to take that abuse? I was washing dishes in my kitchen the other night when McKenzie, my 5yr old comes racing through yelling,"Idiot Boy!" and singing some song called Idiot Friends. I stopped her in her tracks immediately and asked,"Where did you hear those words?"
Her ever so innocent eyes looked up at me and said," Thats what was on Spongebob." I was floored, ok not literally or anything, but still. To me Idiot is not a "Nice" word. I started to think back on all the little things that never really caught my attention. Spongebob cross dressing. "panty raids" And then it hit me! I've stuck my kids in front of the T.V to kill time or to entertain them so I could get things done, and Nickolodeon taught them it's ok to call people Idiots. I know you cant swear off Television for any kid under 18. Its part of life now a days, So I started looking into other shows that at first I thought were boring or assumed my kids wouldn't watch, and to my surprise the loved PBS. Dinosaur Train and Word World, My daughter was picking up the right stuff on these shows, She was learning how to spell small words and meanings of bigger ones! As sad as it sounds I felt like a great parent for changing the channel and saying, "ok, if you're going to watch T.V then its going to be channel 10!"
        Moral of the story, really take a look into what your kids are watching, because it cant be beneficial or detrimental.♥