Dr Pepper Cupcakes for Dad's Birthday

My dad's birthday was May 26th, and I couldn't let a birthday pass without making some kind of cupcake, or cake. I had been dwelling on ideas for over a month, but had yet to settle on anything. For one, I knew the guestlist would likely only consist of myself, Dad, Dad's girlfriend, and my boyfriend. That pretty much put a halt on anything too elaborate. The themes I had considered were bowling, NASCAR, and Dr. Pepper. Finally I came up with a cool cake design involving the Dr. Pepper logo. Of course, this was before Memorial Day weekend came about with it's late night drinking and dancing to Van Halen. Needless to say, I spent all of Monday, May 25th, recovering. Tuesday I worked from 9 to 5, and then rushed to and through Walmart, gathing supplies for the enchilada/taco dinner I would be making for my Dad and us. I couldn't bare not having something cake related. I had read much praise regarding the moistness of cupcakes made with soda, so I grabbed a fudge chocolate cake mix, a 12 oz Dr Pepper, and a pint of Turtle Fudge (or something of the sort) Blue Bell ice cream. I still had to clean the apartment, and knew that cupcakes would be quick and easy. I substituted 1 1/3 cups of water with 2 cups of Dr Pepper. The amount of soda varies across the internet from 1 cup to 12 oz or more. I let 12 cupcakes bake for about 20 minutes (longer than usual). I discarded the remaining batter, because I didn't need 12 cupcakes, much less 24 or so. They turned out so perfectly moist. I would still like to try something more elaborate, but even with just a cake mix, these were very good. I couldn't actually taste any Dr. Pepper, but didn't expect to either. After our delicious dinner, I paired the cupcakes with a scoop of the ice cream, and drzzled some melted peanut butter on top. MMMmmm!! It wasn't exactly my best work, but it tasted great and was an overall success.

Blueberry Pie Refashioned Frock GIVEAWAY!!!!

Blueberry Pie Refashioned Frock GIVEAWAY!!!!

This dress is oh so cute! Check it out, and enter for your chance to win it!

Cupcake Bites

Next time I make cupcake bites, I'll probably prepare the cake balls the evening before, and then decorate them the next day. I did these at my mom's house on Mother's Day weekend, and we wound up only doing half the first night. By the time we baked the cake, let it cool, added the cream cheese, let it harden a bit in the freezer, rolled 50 or so cake balls, let those harden in the freezer, holy cow it was already 1:30am by the time they were ready to decorate. Not to mention we each had had a few pina coladas and a beer by that point. I had also put alot of work into kicking the butts of my mom, aunt, and uncle at both air hockey and pool. Needless to say, I was simply ready to get it all over with and hit th

e hay. At the very least, many a joke was made at the expensive of the "balls." Oh what it is to be a "grown up" with people whom, not long ago, would have never said such things in my presence. 

Mom and I rolling the cake balls.

The only real problem I had was with the chocolate not wanting to let up on the cake ball. I tried to keep it well melted, but it still had quite a hold. The second half, which I did the next day, had better results. It was also much more enjoyable. I'll assume that it's due to those cake balls having been in the freezer overnight. By then I had some practice, and being able to just yank them from the freezer, and decorate, was much better than spending hours preparing them beforehand. The second batch turned out much nicer, but I only have a photo of some from the first batch. 

The final result: Batch #1

The recipe I used was, of course, Bakerella's red velvet cake ball recipe. Click her name for a link to the recipe on her blog. I couldn't find regular chocolate bark at Walmart or Michael's, so I just used the the dark cocoa candy melts, and purple and white candy melts as well. I also based mine off of these cupcake bites by Bakerella. I didn't want to do purple, since hers are so well known, but my Mom's favorite color is purple. *sigh*

Overall, I have to say these turned out pretty neat and I'll definitely make them again. Everyone thought they were delicious, as well as pretty. A number of people didn't realize they were homemade until I mentioned making them. 

(something happened to my text at the bottom here.... so i just shrunk it since it wouldn't stay "normal" like the rest of the font.)

The new road...

So like everything else I start, this blog has gone dry already. I think I'll mostly post here when I bake, and occasionally post other things that interest me. With that in mind, my next post will probably follow this weekend, after I make some sorta cupcake bites.

1966 mustangs and Art on Etsy

Driving down the highway, today, I passed a row of THREE '66 mustangs. I thought it quite rude of them to taunt me like that. They were in pristine condition, and I most certainly would have traded an organ for one.

So, as if the internet weren't easy enough, I see that google now keeps thumbnails of sites you've been to often, which appear when oppening a new tab. My internet just tried to trick me into downloading something because I have "multiple viruses" and my "information is under attack." It wouldn't go away without me closing Explorer through Task Manager. That google thing came in handy when getting back on the net. The picture of the mustang? One click and I had it again. The art I was looking at on Esty? Boom. Right there. Which brings me to...

Things found on Etsy.

There is so much to choose from, I may make this a weekly, or bi-weekly subject.

First, we have the image at right. Although I like it, it's simply a charcoal figure on paper. o_0. Sometimes I just have to slap myself for not thinking of something so obvious. This piece is priced at $450.00. I have no idea if she has ever sold one of these at that price. Regardless, I could pump out a ton of these and sell them for $50 a pop. Hell, maybe I will.

Please click the thumbnails to enlarge, as they do no justice to the artwork. Using permanent marker, this artist draws images on t-shirts. At $150 a piece, you won't see me in one anytime soon. However, if I had that kind of cash to blow, I'd be rocking that Beetlejuice shirt in a heartbeat. At the very least, it'd be hanging on my wall. The quality of her work is outstanding, and I can't imagine putting so much effort and hardwork onto a t-shirt.

This and other cool prints can be purchased from artist Kellie Schneider.

There are a plethora of abstract painters out there, but this one
captured my attention. Her work is reasonably priced as well
as really cool.

Now that I'm braindead from browsing through the depths of Etsy, I'll bring this to an end. Sometime next week I'll explore other art forms. Perhaps I'll start choosing one item from each, or a few catagories, to post here each week.