Sweetness

Several weeks ago my sister made some fantastic cupcakes. Over the weekend, we needed to whip up a batch of cupcakes for my SIL’s birthday. There would be several people there and one dessert was not enough. So I decided to make my sister’s recipe. Y’all. Words cannot describe the greatness of this cupcake.

Do it.

Black Bottom Cupcakes with Chocolate Buttercream

Cake
Box of cake mix – We use dark chocolate
Required ingredients for mix (eggs, oil, water)
8 oz. cream cheese, softened
1 egg
1/3 c. sugar
pinch of salt
1 c. mini chocolate chips

Make cake mix according to package directions. Fill cupcake liners 3/4 ful.l (Don’t go overboard here. I did and WOW they got big. Although if you do go overboard, they hold up nicely. So really, just do what you want.) In a small bowl beat cream cheese, egg, sugar, and salt until smooth. Stir chocolate chips in mixture. Put a dallop of cream cheese mixture in each cupcake liner on top of the chocolate batter. Bake according to cupcake box.

Icing
(will ice 24 cupcakes)
18 T. butter, softened (2 sticks plus 2 T)
Slightly less than 1 c. cocoa, sifted
3 c. powdered sugar, sifted
1/2 c. plus 1 T.  milk
Splash of vanilla

(The measurements are weird, I know. I assume it’s because the original recipe only iced 8 cupcakes so we tripled it. I’m sure you could round the numbers and it’d be fine.)

Put all ingredients in a big bowl and beat until smooth. Refrigerate while cupcakes are cooking and cooling. Pipe icing on cupcakes. Go big or go home, y’all! Don’t skimp on the icing! I also added chocolate sprinkles to the top and it went over very well.

And because that’s not enough sweetness for one post…

Sleeping in my arms. When his binkie falls out, you know it’s a GOOD sleep.

Playing with his changing mat. I need to show you a full picture of this hat, it’s amazing.

This is Jansen’s newest thing. He sucks and chews on his lower lip.

BABY BOOBS!

Seven Quick Takes (vol.4)

1.
No intro today. I’m too tired for an intro. (You can click the picture above if you want to see more Seven Quick Takes or add your own to the list.) Two nights in a row of very, very little sleep. I have this issue where I can’t sleep if I’m busy, stressed, or have something on my mind. It’s a terrible problem to have. We have an event tonight at church and I’m in charge of games and prizes. Turns out, that’s a lot of work. I love it and enjoy it but it’s hard to work full-time and then pull together the pieces at the end. Thankfully my mom doesn’t work and she’s able to work on my to-do list during the day.

Last night we went up to the church to help set up a bit. Then we went back to her house to decorate cupcakes and brownies for the Cake Walk. They turned out amazing!! Look how cute these little cupcake boxes are!

Yeah, I know. Precious. I was on Box Constructing Duty while my mom was on Cupcake Decorating Duty.

My mom said that under no circumstance did she want to be in any picture that may end up on my blog because she hadn’t done her hair or makeup and she’d been in the kitchen all day. But I’m sneaky. I caught her in the back ground of the brownie lollipops.

Let’s just take a second to talk about how cute my mom is in her trendy pink glasses. And how cute those brownies are!

2.
I saw a woman in traffic yesterday who had those really fluffy, thick seat covers. We are in Houston, lady. Unless you are using that as a sponge to soak up the sweat on your thighs, I don’t see the point.

3.
A few months ago I had full intentions of throwing a Pampered Chef party. A friend of my sister-in-law sells. I know we’re all pretty poor but you can’t be a successful wife without their pizza stone! And maybe their garlic press. And mandoline. So I was going to host a party so that we could get the goods and be well on our way to impressing our husbands. But I scheduled the date in the summer and one by one, my guests emailed me saying they couldn’t come. Then something came up and I couldn’t come. I’m going to give it another shot.

So to any of my Houston girls that read this, let me know if you’re interested. Many of you will be getting Evites regardless. I’d post this on facebook but my status is too occupied with the link to my blog. Anyways, if you’ve never been to one, it’s one of those Bucket List things. Right after “Vacation in Hawaii” and “Go to Europe.” It’s that important.

4.
I need your help. I have been asked by a friend to devote a blog post to “ways to cook fish.” But the problem is that I don’t eat fish. I think it tastes like licking the bottom of the ocean. So can you help?

5.
If you read through yesterday’s comments you’ll see one that says this: “Gosh, I love how you tie things together so intricately. It makes me want to give you two words and see if you can write a post that ties the two of them together. You up for the challenge? Haha!”

I think this challenge is intriguing. I usually have no problem making connections between events that happened to me. I’m not sure if I can write about something that I don’t have experience with. However, Samantha, I’m up for it! If any of you want to participate, leave two words in the comments. I’ll randomly select a set of words next week and attempt to write something. I’m sure that what I’ll come up with will be complete crap, but maybe it’ll have a bit of entertainment value in it.

6.
I’m not setting an alarm tomorrow morning. This thrills me.

7.
I just thought you all might want to see another picture from our cooking day last Saturday. It was a long day. For some reason we thought it would be cute to take a picture of me holding pasta. And then Lauren misspelled “tuna”…