Happy Easter Y'all

Hope the Easter Bunny filled your basket with lots of goodies!

chocolate cupcakes with white chocolate buttercream

carrot cupcake toppers made with orange
 and green Wilton candy melts
 

Easter Eggs, White Shoes & Cupcakes

When I was growing up, Easter was very special. Eggs were carefully placed in vinegar water filled with fizzing Paas tablets.  After making a few normal colors, my brothers and I would start mixing colors - and not always with attractive results.  Buying your Easter dress and shoes...Easter was the first day of the year you could wear white shoes.  Where I am from you still don't wear white shoes before Easter or after Labor Day.  It just isn't done.  The Easter basket was second only to waking up on Christmas morning. I can still taste the Hershey's chocolate!  After church we would come home to a dinner (the southern noon meal) of ham and sweet potatoes and my mom's coconut cake - white cake with seven-minute icing covered in coconut. And you could only have this cake if the air conditioning was on because the humidity would cause the seven-minute icing to change from the consistency of fluffy white clouds to a puddle of egg whites. For the rest of the afternoon the older folks would nap while we hid eggs until the eggshells fell off.  After dark we would tune in to Channel 16 (the local ABC station) and watch Pharoah get what he deserved when Charleton Heston parted the Red Sea in The Ten Commandments.

Geting older hasn't changed the Easter rituals much.  Although I no longer buy a new dress and shoes for Easter Sunday and it has been a long time since I had ham and sweet potatoes, I still dye eggs and fill my own Easter basket.  I downloaded The Ten Commandments from iTunes so I can watch Moses part the Red Sea whenever and as many times as I want.  Age has its rewards. 

This year I think I may even hide an egg...with a cupcake baked inside of course!



Yue's Handicrafts

 

Sip on a Cupcake

Take a sip of a cool beverage in this fabulous cupcake drink cup.  It isn't very big, but the cuteness makes up for the lack in size.  An unexpected find in the party aisle at Wal-Mart!

Cupcake treat bags

Easter is coming so get some of these treat bags and fill them with chocolate.  The Bunny will appreciate the assistance!

Completion Successful

The past few times I have filled my Jeep with gas, I noticed that the pump says "Completion Successful" on the screen.  Is that really necessary?  What is the purpose?  The pump took my debit card...my tank filled...a receipt printed out.  Nuff said.

Here is my version. 



 

Completion Successful

Cupcake Ice Cream

There are moments when no words are needed......

                                                  

Go get yourself some cheap sunglasses....

Vanilla cupcakes...$1.75 Gum paste...$1.25  

Afternoon of creativity....priceless!

Happy Birthday Steve!

Cupcake Pinata

Target has to be the most cupcake-friendly store ever.  This cupcake pinata would be fabulous at any birthday party!  179 shopping days left til mine...just sayin'. 

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Happy St. Patrick's Day....hope you are wearing green and making cute cupcakes!   




Cupcake Kit
available from
Chasing Fireflies
 

Cupcakes & Emily Post

Have you ever received a thank-you by email or text?  I have....but where I am from, sending anything but a handwritten thank-you note would raise eyebrows!  My southern world still follows the rules of Emily Post etiquette....which have actually been updated to include email thank-yous in some situations.  Visit the Emily Post Institute to stay current on manners in our social networking world.  Good manners never go out of style!

I found these cupcake thank-you notes at Target. 



JessiCakes

Last fall I joined Craftsy to study cake decorating and learn to make sugar flowers.  It has been a fabulous experience...you can learn at your own pace, download recipes and browse through photo galleries of projects made by other students as well as share your photos. The instructors are well-known experts and I had seen many of them on the Food Network shows.  I have completed four courses so far and all of them have exceeded my expectations. 

One of the instructors is Jessica Harris and her blog is JessiCakes.  I have become a huge fan...please check out her designs and take her course called Clean & Simple Cake Design on Craftsy.

JessiCakes   (blog)
 

Craftsy
Cake Decorating Course


 

 

3-2-1 Cupcakes

I mentioned 3-2-1 cupcakes yesterday...here is the recipe.  When you get a craving for something sweet, put down the Sour Patch Kids and make a delicious cupcake instead.

3-2-1 Cake

1 box Duncan Hines Angel Food Cake mix
1 box Duncan Hines Cake mix (any flavor)

Mix the contents of these two boxes together in a gallon ziplock bag. I only use Duncan Hines cake mixes but that is just my personal preference.  When you get ready for a cupcake...here's what to do:

3 Tbsp mix
2 Tbsp water
1 minute in the microwave (start with 45 seconds and adjust time to your microwave)

Mix these together in a coffee mug. You can bake the cake in the mug or bake it in a cupcake liner or TeaCupCake!

TeaCupCakes

My brother gave me a set of 12 TeaCupCakes last Christmas.  I have written about these is a previous post, but now I use them in a different way.  I take them to work and use them to make 3-2-1 cupcakes.  When busy ER nurses need chocolate....they need it fast.  With these cupcake teacups I can have a chocolate cupcake in less than 2 minutes.  Add some Fluffy White icing (Betty Crocker is my favorite) and you have a party in a cup!

 

TeaCupCakes
Fred & Friends

 

 

 

Cupcake with a Cupcake Topper

A cupcake with a cupcake topper. It doesn't get any better...or easier!  These are made by Wilton and you can get them at Michael's. 

Carpe Cupcakes!

Carpe Cupcakes! has been on an extended leave of absence but it is time to rejoin the cupcake universe.  Several things have happened this week to jolt me back into writing about cupcakes.  I booked my first wedding of the year.  I reconnected with friends from Iron Cupcake San Francisco.  I did some spring cleaning and found some long-lost cupcake baking supplies. I received email from three blog visitors. I am making a new Cup-Cache (a cupcake geocache) to be hidden in the Sacramento area.  It's time!

So to get this cupcake party re-started....please check out the Iron Cupcake San Francisco link and sign up now for the next challenge.



Iron Cupcake San Francisco