St. Michael's cupcakes

A weekend cruising on the Chesapeake Bay...the Wye River and St. Michael's.  Dinner at 208 Talbot with the amazing captain of Flying Colors and cupcakes from JoJo's Cupcakes & Cream. 

JoJo's had a very friendly and helpful staff and the cupcake specials were very nicely displayed.  The chocolate cupcake had a delicate crumb and the vanilla icing was very buttery - maybe a little too buttery with the very warm, humid temperatures.  The buttercream was delicious but even spending some time in the refrigerator did not firm it up.  However, if loving chocolate is wrong...I don't wanna be right.

Coconut cupcake with cream cheese buttercream...Winning!  This cupcake was perfect.  A moist, dense crumb with coconut baked in the cake. The icing was smooth and contained just the right amount of coconut. Could have eaten many of these!

Chocolate and Coconut cupcakes from JoJo's

 

Flying Colors

Happy 7th Anniversary Carpe Cupcakes!

Seven years of writing about cupcakes and it seems like just yesterday I wrote the first post...the cupcake universe has no end and there are still so many cupcake stories to be told!

The blog started as "the cupcake universe" and then changed into "life in the cupcake universe."  In the past six months I have the awesome opportunity to travel and experience many new things....so today I am changing the subtitle to "adventures in the cupcake universe." 

Carpe Cupcakes Y'all!

Going to the Bahamas!

So...I got a text from Skip (the guy I met in Key West) and he asked if I wanted to cruise on Flying Colors from Miami to the Bahamas.  Yes and YES!  Leaving from Miami on May 4th and flying out of Nassau on May 14th.  My friends think I am crazy for flying across the country and getting on a boat for 10 days with a guy I don't know.  Maybe I am.  But an adventure I shall have!

Back to Cupcakes

So I am back from the Key West adventure and this blog must return to the subject of cupcakes....not key lime pie.  I found so many cute cupcake things at Pier 1 and Target today.

Leaving Key West

Very sad to be leaving Key West today...but all spring breaks must end.  We went down to Skip's boat (remember the guy with the legs I told you about) and gave him our left-over food that we can't take home.  He said he was going to cruise through the Bahamas on his way home in May and asked if any of us would like to come along.  Me!  He gave me his card and if he asks me to go I will not say no!  Stay tuned....

Key West

Key West is awesome!  Our first day on the yacht was fantastic...and we met the captain of Flying Colors (two boats down and he has amazing tanned legs). He walked past us on the dock and my crazy sister-in-law asked him to have a glass of wine with us.  I think (hope) he might.  Will update on that later.  To be continued....

Spring Break....4 Friends on a Yacht

Spring Break week has been a special time for my sister-in-law and me.  We have done many things over the years from college trips, couples trips, family trips...and this year we are beginning a new chapter:  Bucket List trips!

I have always wanted to go to Key West and stay on a boat so we started researching VRBO boats/yachts.  We found a sailboat and we just about to book it when I came across a listing for a yacht named BRAT...80 feet of heaven.  We created a blog to document how we planned our spontaneous adventures so please check it out if you have time.  There are no cupcakes in our story...but lots of key lime pie. 

4friendsonayacht.blogspot.com

 

Happy Thanksgiving!

Enter His gates with thanksgiving, and His courts with praise!  Give thanks to Him and bless His name!   Psalm 100:4

Cupcake Liner Christmas Trees

So....Christmas is approaching and I came across this blog post today.  I am so gonna make these!

The 36th Avenue
Cupcake Liner Christmas Trees

Geocaching....leaving Cupcake Pins

I have posted on my Geocaching adventures many times.  If you are not familiar you must try it....Geocaching.com will show you how.  I like to leave interesting things inside the caches that I find and I ordered these cupcake pins from Cutebutton on Etsy.  Some lucky geocachers will start finding cupcake pins and will be wearing them all over Sacramento! 

Cutebutton
 

Michigan State Cupcake Challenge

Can you eat a cupcake in one bite without using your hands?  Just watch these students!

The State News

Michigan State University

http://statenews.com/article/2015/10/cupcake-challenge-video

AMTC 2015

The Carpe Cupcakes! gift basket was successfully delivered to the silent auction at AMTC in Long Beach today.  Check out What Happens at AMTC Stays at AMTC (allegedly) for a daily conference summary and photos. 

San Francisco Fleet Week!

It is Fleet Week in San Francisco!  I worked at one of our bases just north of the city Wednesday and drove down to watch the Blue Angels practice yesterday. Can't wait for the air show today.  While hiking through the city I found a fabulous cupcake canvas.  Makes me want a red velvet cupcake covered in cream cheese icing (and I promise not to start a rant on cream cheese icing).

AMTC 2015 Gift Basket

So...I made the gift basket and it is full of baking supplies and cupcake items!  Hopefully the bidding will be fierce and the basket will go to someone who loves cupcakes!  Will update you after I arrive at the conference.  Cheers & Cupcakes!

Cupcake Oreo (unconfirmed report)

There is an unconfirmed report by Consumerist that Nabisco will be producing an Oreo-flavored cupcake in 2016....hoax or happiness?  If it is true, I will pull the top off the cupcake and eat the filling first.  Just sayin'....

 

Cupcake Gift Basket at AMTC 2015

I will be blogging from the Air Medical Transport Conference 2015 in Long Beach, CA starting on October 17th.  Vendors...flight crew...the MASH Bash...so many cupcake adventures, so little time!

 

There will be a silent auction at the conference sponsored by Medevac Foundation and Carpe Cupcakes! is donating a cupcake gift basket.  If you are there, please stop by and bid.  And don't forget to read about the conference.  I will once again be blogging under the What Stays (allegedly) format.  If you are new to this blog, I have written about my trips to Italy and NYC and those blogs had similar titles. 

What Happens at AMTC stays at AMTC (allegedly)....

Happy Birthday to Me!

I am not going to say how old I am but I haven't been 29 in a while.  I have had an awesome life despite not being exactly where I thought I would be at this point....but I am excited for whatever God has in store.  My daddy says "every day above ground is a good one."  That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

So raise your cupcakes and let's toast to one more year in the cupcake universe!

Bucket List Amtrak Adventure

So when I lived in Mississippi my family frequently took the train to New Orleans. The City of New Orleans runs from Chicago to New Orleans and we used to play spoons and eat a picnic lunch on the four hour trip. The very first time I rode "the City" I was in the first grade.  My class went on a field trip from our school in Magnolia, MS to Osyka, MS.  It was only a ten mile trip but I was hooked on trains from that day. That was way before Arlo Guthrie made our train famous.

I boarded a train with my family today...22 hours from Seattle to Sacramento. This trip had been on my bucket list for years and I finally did it.  We flew to Seattle three days ago and visited with my oldest niece. The weather was amazing - not a cloud in the sky for all three days. Took photos at the very first Starbucks. Bought t-shirts at the U of Washington.  Ate lots of seafood and walked many miles which was a good thing because on day two I bought a dozen cupcake minis at Cupcake Royale and the five of us ate every one after lunch.

The Amtrak Coast Starlight was very nice and the service was excellent...sleeper car 1132. A big thanks to our car attendant Paul - he took great care of us.  We had a wine tasting in the afternoon and dinner with white linen tablecloths and napkins. We spent most of our time in the Parlour Car taking photos as we passed through large and small-town America. Which reminded me of my first grade trip and Magnolia...our small town with a famous train running through it.

Lunchtime assault 

Flights & Flip Flops

So I am at the gate waiting to board a flight to Seattle....and am totally shocked at the number of people wearing flip flops and heels. Don't get me wrong....I love a beautiful pair of shoes as much as the next goddess but what part of running from a burning aircraft don't you understand? I will absolutely sprint past you in my New Balances while the flames are melting the Havaianas to your feet. Mother of Pearl people! Wear tennis shoes and put on your fashionable footwear after you land. I have been a flight nurse for 16 years and the medical crew receives intensive aviation safety training. This includes emergency egress (also known as "get out the plane is on fire").  Maybe the next new reality show could focus on shoe selection in emergency evacuation situations. I would pay to see that.

   

kidsfunreviewed.com

Banana Pudding & Fireworks

So nobody out West quite appreciates banana pudding....can I really call this place my home?  A Mississippi July 4th celebration cannot be complete without banana pudding. And not the cooked custard kind with mile-high meringue. A silky smooth Jello pudding cloud loaded with vanilla wafers and bananas that had black spots on the peels - because everybody knows they have the best flavor.  My grandmother was a banana whisperer....she instinctively knew the exact moment a banana would turn from perfect ripeness to a mushy mess.

The recipe my mom is famous for is easy and takes less than five minutes to make because you just dump all the ingredients in one big bowl. Nobody really remembers where her recipe came from but it was served after nearly every Sunday dinner (a meal the rest of the world calls lunch). Her recipe was probably cut out of the newspaper or came from one of those mini cookbooks that kids make at church for Mother's Day gifts - the ones with construction paper covers decorated with crayon drawings and pipe cleaners.  I miss making those almost as much as Sunday dinner after church.

1 large Jello Instant Vanilla Pudding

3 cups whole milk

1 can Sweetened Condensed Milk

1 box vanilla wafers

5 ripe bananas (or however many you like)

8 oz. Cool Whip

Make the pudding according to box directions. Add the sweetened condensed milk. Add the Cool Whip and whisk until smooth. Add the vanilla wafers and fold in bananas. Chill for at least 6 hours.