Peanut Butter Frosting

I've decided that my attention to domestic activities appears to be in direct relation to the amount of time I spend alone in my home.  When my husband is home, it rarely occurs to me to try a new recipe or scrub down all the walls.  But when he isn't here... I begin to fill my time in Suzy Homemaker ways.

Today while he was at work, for example, I decided to try making some cupcakes and decorating them with a swirl of peanut butter frosting.  That was a first - I've never made peanut butter frosting before today.  I will be taking these cupcakes to bunco tonight and will see what my tasting panel thinks.  But I am getting way ahead of myself.

First, I mixed up some batter and dolloped it into the tin:

All ready to go in the oven:

When the cupcakes were baked and cooling on the counter, I began making the frosting, roughly by this recipe here.  But I subbed margarine in for butter - then cut it back because no one wants a mouthful of margarine.  I upped the peanut butter to compensate.  I used soy instead of cream.  I also added some vanilla for good measure.  It wasn't looking too promising there for awhile:

But I got it whipped into shape before too long.  Then, using a Pampered Chef kitchen gadget that always reminds me of puffed paint, I started frosting my cupcakes.

Like so:

They turned out like this:

Viola!

I wished I had chocolate sprinkles to top them with, but I don't.  Maybe I will run to the store and get some... along with a container to transport them to bunco tonight.

Happy baking!

The Baby Shower

On Saturday, I hosted my first-ever baby shower. People came and brought cut little things like this:
Here is the mom-to-be, Juliana, with her pile-o-presents:

She seemed to have a good time opening everything up. And we, in true baby-shower fashion, oooooohed and aaaaaaaaaaaahed at them all. How can you not, really?

But what is all this doing on my food blog, you ask? I give you, the snack table:

(Please pretend that I had remembered to take the plastic wrap off of the goodies before taking this shot. Or better yet, just focus in on the cake.)

Here, I'll make it easy on you:

This is the cake I made for the shower. It was my first time doing a cake with any kind of "filling" other than frosting. I used Pillsbury yellow cake mix, then I leveled the bottom layer by cutting a bit off of it's top. I put strawberry jam in between the two layers, and then I froze it overnight so it would frost easily in the morning. I made up some pink homemade frosting to finish it off.

Everyone said it tasted really good. And I have to agree. It was delicious!

Enjoy!

White Frosting

So, after I blogged about my cupcakes last night (and they had had some time to cool) I made up some white frosting

To keep it completely white, I did not use any margarine or soy milk.

Instead (don't tell my husband) I used Crisco and water. (With lots of powdered sugar, of course!)

I wanted them this white because of my plans for how I'm going to decorate them.

Stay tuned for decorated cupcakes...

I'm glad I made some of them little:

They are the perfect size for bento!

Enjoy!

Related posts:
Homemade Frosting Recipe
Cupcakes

Homemade Frosting

Remember this?


If you are thinking your cake looks a bit forlorn, like the one above, you probably haven't frosted it yet. Let's get to it.

Gather up:

• powdered sugar
• butter or margarine
• some milk-like liquid
• vanilla extract
• food coloring (optional)

Start with the wet ingredients. Don't use very much to start. You can always use more, but never less (and it doesn't take much)!


Add some powdered sugar. Use your hand mixer to mix it up until it looks spreadable but not too runny. This isn't rocket science. Don't stress exact amounts.

If you want your cake to look extra fun, add lots of crazy food coloring like I did:


Spread on your cake. Display...

...and then consume.

Enjoy!