Cupcakes For The Cure

Who is glad that it is finally Saturday? I know I sure am! Sleeping in, drinking lots coffee, making and eating breakfast with Davey! <3 :D I just love Saturday mornings! This morning was the perfect start to the weekend. I made the hubs breakfast burritos and made myself some oatmeal. While making breakfast, I sent him off to the store to get me some bananas since I really wanted them in my oatmeal this morning. He came back with the biggest bananas I have ever seen! LOL! One of them was almost a long as a sheet of paper!!!!!

Holy smokes that's a BIG banana!!!! 

Breakfast was tasty, as always! I just love my oatmeal....seriously! I eat it just about every single day! Yum! I play around with adding peanut butter, pumpkin, bananas, strawberries, blackberries, blueberries......just about anything that would be good in oatmeal. Mmmmmmmm!!!!!!

Yesterday I started baking some cupcakes to sell to raise money for the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Research Foundation. I found this really cute idea on Love From The Oven for some yummy pink cupcakes. I whipped up a batch and they started selling right away! :D

Pink Velvet "Breast Cancer Awareness" Cupcakes

(as adapted from Love From The Oven)

INGREDIENTS:

1 cup unsalted butter, softened 

1 1/3 cups baker's sugar (regular granulated sugar would work just fine as well)

3 eggs

2 tsp vanilla extract

2 1/2 + 4 TBSP cups cake flour (or 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour)

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1 cup buttermilk

Neon Pink food coloring

DIRECTIONS:

-Preheat oven to 350 degrees

-In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar

-Once light and fluffy, add in your pink food coloring (I used half of a tube of coloring)

-Blend well with the butter and sugar mixture

-Add in eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition

-Add in vanilla and blend well

-In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt

(I use powdered buttermilk, hence the yellow powder.....)

-Slowly add in 1/3 of the dry ingredients, then 1/2 of the buttermilk, then 1/3 dry, buttermilk, dry........you get the idea. 

-Mix until all ingredients are well incorporated

-Fill paper-lined cupcake cups 3/4 of the way full

-Bake cupcakes for 20-25 minutes (mine only needed 20 minutes), watching so that the cakes do not brown too much.

-Cupcakes are done when toothpick comes out clean after being inserted into center of cake

-Allow to cool for 10 minutes, then transfer to cooling rack to completely cool

For the frosting, you can use ANY frosting you like. I like to try new things, so I decided to also use this recipe that came with the cupcake recipe!!!! She calls it "My Favorite Buttercream Recipe" and I agree with her.....it's the best buttercream I have tried yet thus far!!!! :D

Best Buttercream Frosting!!!!

(as adapted from Love From The Oven)

INGREDIENTS:

1 stick unsalted butter, softened

2 TBSP Crisco 

1 (2 lbs) bag of powdered sugar

2 tsp vanilla 

1 tsp salt

Whipping cream

DIRECTIONS:

-Blend butter, Crisco, and vanilla together

-Slowly add in powdered sugar

-Mixture will become VERY dry.....just keep mixing in the powdered sugar.....it will all work out in the end, I promise!

-Slowly add in whipping cream, 1 TBSP at a time until desired consistency is reached (mine took 10 TBSP)

-You can then frost your cupcakes, or do like I did and add in some little "extras"!!! :D

Like glitter!!!!

Or maybe some Pink Sugar!!!!

-Then blend all together!!!!

SpRiNkLeY gLiTtErY gOoDnEsS!!!!!

Now I just hope I can beat my 5K time of 27m23s (that I achieved at the triathlon last weekend) at tomorrow's race!!! Wish me luck! :D

I have totally been neglecting the photo challenge this past week, so I will do all the catching up I need to!!! 

Day 21: Pretty Pattern

I found this cake at www.pinkcakebox.com and just loved it! I am not one for "pretty patterns". I don't do "pretty" too much. So this is "pretty" in my eyes! :)

Day 22: Trees

This picture was taken in August of 2010 after a tornado hit my grandparents' house. Living in Southern California, the last thing you would imagine happening to your house is being hit by a tornado. But that is what happened. It ripped the roof off of their house and did lots of damage. Here is a tree that was affected by the freak storm. It was very scary, but about 4 months later, my grandparents' house was back to normal! :)

Day 23: Sunset

Here is a sunset out in Blythe, CA. Our friends and I went out on the boat one last time before the sun set to do a little fishing. Me, not being a fisherman at all, did all the photography! ;) I love sunsets and I just wish that this picture did this sunset more justice!

Day 24: A Smile

Awwww! Davey's smile! He hates smiling, especially for the camera, so I am glad when he actually does a smile, even if it's goofy. And it just makes you smile looking at the look on Scrappy's face, like he is so mad......and then his daddy just loving the fact that he is so mad! Hahahahah!!!!! :D Big smile there!

Well, I better get on with the rest of my day. I have my workout already done and am ready to face the town!!!! ;)

Have an awesome weekend all!!!!

<3 Amy