Pumpkin Spice Cupcakes with Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting

MMmmmmMmmmm!  I had an extra special helper in the kitchen!  Reagan is really enjoying being a helper in the kitchen these days and I am cherishing these moments.  

Here she is putting the pumpkin puree in the mixer.

And here is what she does best.

 Batter in the cupcake liners.

All baked.

And ready to eat....nom, nom, nom.

These were YUMMY and even better with a nice fresh pot of Gumbo, you Louisianians know what I'm talking about.

Here is a link to the recipe if you want to give it a try.  http://allrecipes.com/recipe/pumpkin-spice-cupcakes/  I took the recommendations to tweak the batter, which included mounding the spices, using 1 1/4c of puree and use oil not butter.  It really helped.

I hope you all are enjoying your holidays as much as I am enjoying mine.  My desire would be that we all focus on the TRUE reason for the season, Jesus, our families and friends.

On my heart....(The battles of the adoption process)

About 10 years ago I meant a very special and precious person.  Her name is Jenny and we met at Gulf States Bible College (Which, unfortunately has shut down.).  She truly is one of the sweetest, kindest, most generous person you would ever meet.  I've just learned recently that she and her husband, Matt, have been going through the process of adopting a baby.  If you would like to read about their journey, you can do so here, http://theelianaproject.blogspot.com/.  They have already been through two failed adoptions and are pushing forward to the goal of being parents.  Jenny wrote a blog titled "Love is a Risk" on October 4, 2011 and through the quote that blog is based off God laid it on my heart to make something for her.  It's not perfect, it's not even professional looking, but I wanted to bring a bit more attention to Jenny and her journey by sharing it with you.

Here it is...a decorative plate for her to display, hide or trash.  lol

I truly am inspired by Jenny and Matt and I really believe that God has called them to love big and in some ways bigger than any of us have ever loved.  The risk that comes with this big love for them has been heartbreaking at times, but join me in believing that God would deliver that precious child right into their arms.

Feeling a little "blue"berry lately.

I'm telling ya, if blueberries weren't so expensive right now I would go wild with creating with blueberries.  I don't know why, but I have the sudden urge to bake/cook with blueberries and lemons.  Next on my list is lemon curd.  One of my favorite things to make and EAT!  It's dangerous stuff.  

I pulled this recipe from this blog, http://www.alexandracooks.com/2011/06/29/buttermilk-blueberry-breakfast-cake/, I only changed one thing.  I added brown sugar to the top as well as regular sugar.  It just seemed like the right thing to do.  

It was easy to make and very delicious, not very sweet, but great with a cup o' joe.   Here are a couple of pictures of the blueberry breakfast cake.  YUM!  I say YUM!

I have so many different recipes that I want to try right now.  What is your favorite holiday desert to make?  At the moment, because it will surely change tomorrow, I'm loving pumpkin spice cupcakes with a cinnamon cream cheese frosting.  SO GOOD!


Until next time,
CJ

MIA

It's been to long, I know.  I don't want to bore you with details, but here is an overview of why I've been MIA.

• Husband returned from a month long training event in California
• Working
• Halloween
• A newly strained knee
• Finishing projects that should have been done 2 years ago, but not interesting enough to post about.  lol

I did have a little project I worked on yesterday.  A baking project to be exact.  I didn't take pictures, but I'll share the link of the blog that I used for this "project".  They are apple pie cookies and here's the link, http://smittenkitchen.com/2011/10/apple-pie-cookies/.  Although fun, I let my 3 year old daughter help out, so, needless to say they didn't come out looking like the pictures on said blog.  haha  However, they were DELICIOUS.  Warning, they are detailed and a bit time consuming, but, oh, so, worth it.  YUM!

Funny story....

I was resting my previously mentioned "bum knee" and my sweet sweet daughter, Reagan, asked if I wanted ice.  I said sure mainly because I was wondering what she would do.  Well, she went to the fridge, pulled out a bottle of BBQ sauce, wrapped it in a towel and voila, ICE for the knee.  I used it and loved on my thoughtful daughter and future Dr. Reagan.  (Really, she can be whatever she chooses.)  Ah, I love that kid.

From Duvet to Bed Skirt

I've been working on my daughters, Reagan, room for sometime.  I gutted and painted it about 7 months ago and have been slowly putting it back together.  I painted the walls a pretty light aqua and wasn't sure what fabric I wanted to pair with it.  I know, I know, you're supposed to use the fabric as the inspiration for the wall color.  I like to work backwards, it makes me feel better.  haha 

Any who, I was shopping around at Target and came across what I thought was a sheet set on clearance.  As I looked at it, I thought, hmmm, I can make this into a bed skirt and a new fitted sheet for Reagan's bed.  Well, I bought it and low and behold, it's a duvet cover and one pillow sham.  Argh!  But wait!  To my delight it was even easier to make.  Here are the before and afters....

My brilliant find at Target.

The before...the sad sad bed. 

 (P.S. I found the matching rug at Target on clearance too about a week before I bought the duvet.)

Ta da! 

And another.  Because I used the duvet the backside has another complimenting print, so, I can actually turn it around if I want to switch things up. 



In the end I didn't need a new sheet, because as you can see the one I already have matches perfectly.  I'm so very pleased with the outcome of this project.  Her room now seems complete. Also, I have plenty of fabric left over to do whatever I like.  I may save it for when I put her in a twin and add on to the bed skirt to make it fit or maybe I'll sew her a dress.  Who knows.  I'll share when I do.  :)

IPhone Cake Pictures. The forgotten cakes.

Admittedly, these are not the greatest pictures.  I either forgot or didn't have the time to catch these on my "real" camera.  Why let these cake pictures go to waste? Well, I'm glad you agree.  I shouldn't! 

Two of the cake pictures that I posted I didn't even know I was making until the day of.  You see, I work off and on at a catering company called La Maison Creole and every once in a while I'm asked to put a cake together.  Here is one of the two. 

This is a ladybug cake, in case you can't tell.  ;)  Yes, it's an extra large ladybug on the top, but I liked it, so it stayed.  It was for a sweet 16 birthday on Easter.  

This was an uber special cake.  A horse cake for my niece Madi, who hit the double digits this year!  Woohoo!  Besides that my brother, Craig, was co-creator on this cake.  Having very little experience, he did a FANTASTIC job.  I look forward to making another cake for my niece and with my brother.  Such a special day it was!

This is the second cake that I didn't know I was making until I walked through the door.  Did I mention that my primary job has nothing to do with cakes.  I didn't think I did.  lol  Any who, this was a birthday cake for a fellow employee.  I obviously needed to do a better job of centering and on my drop lines, but I can honestly say that I tried my best. 

Finally, my daughters cake that's missing it's topper.  I made a gum paste tiara topper for it and it was surprisingly easy to make.  I actually did take pictures of the cake with my "real" camera, but I had so much fun making this cake I wanted to post a picture of it anyway.  It turned out better than I thought it would and my daughter still talks about it.  SUCCESS!!!

I hope you enjoyed these pictures as much as I enjoy sharing them.  I really do have much learning to do on the cake making front.  It's something I really enjoy doing from time to time.  Any questions?  Just ask.  Have a wonderful day!!!!

For you, anything! Well, almost. (Burp cloths and bibs)

With pleasure!!!  Craig and Van, my brother and SIL, are pregnant, which is wonderful, but not the entire story.  This is their fifth pregnancy and, drum roll please...........and also their fifth girl!  I'm so excited for them!!!!  So, I, of course, thought I needed to make them some baby items.  Mostly because I wanted to and partly because they got rid of ALL of their other baby girl things.  Uh oh!  Here is what I hope to be a start of a few baby things for them.  :)

Two burpies made in an aqua, glittery, damask pattern.

A bib to match.  Could have done a little better on the bottom.

....and two more burpies.  With all sorts of fun cool colors and a nice girly print. 

I can't wait to see my new niece, whatever her name may be.  ;)  She couldn't have picked a better Mommy and Daddy to have. 

What to do with cake leftovers? Well, I'll tell ya!

Every once in a while I'll have several baking projects at one time, which leaves my fridge full of fillings and cake making stuff.  So, here is what I did with what I had with my fridge and cake scraps.

 I started off with my little white ramekins and put a layer of cake on the bottom.

Next, a layer of home made lemon curd.  I'm a complete sucker for this stuff.  No pun intended.  Get it though?  Sucker? Lemons?  Ah, never mind. lol

Another layer of cake scraps.

Uhhh, I guess I missed a picture here.  Yikes!  I added another layer of lemon curd, then, added a layer of home made whipped cream.  YUMMY STUFF!!!  Just as a side note, if you haven't learned to make this, you are missing out!  Never will I buy cool whip again!  NEVER!  If you want to learn, leave me a comment and I'll share.  Any who!  For the record this isn't fresh whipped cream, hence the weird consistency, but I forgot to take a picture of the fresh stuff.  Sorry!

The finished product with a bite!  Yummy stuff.  I made 6 ramekins and I won't tell you how many I ate.  haha!

Thanks for reading and I hope you have a great day!!!!!

"Congrats! You're one year closer" cake.

Every once in a while I'll get a call, email, or text asking me to make a cake. Caking is something that I've enjoyed doing for sometime now. In 2002 I worked at Baskin Robbins and I'm pretty sure that kicked off my cake making interests. I learned a good bit over there, even how to "ice" a cake in the freezer! Not my favorite thing. Anyway, I digress, here are a few pictures to show my journey for this cake. I hope you enjoy!

In it's natural habitat. ;)

Simple filling request. Just chocolate icing.

Covered and not yet smoothed.


All done! I know, I should have taken a few more pictures in between. Lesson learned! I had a lot of fun practicing my drop lines. I enjoy working with fondant, but I'm growing fond of perfecting my piping skills.

That's it for now! I'll show you what I did with the scraps another day. Have a great weekend!

I tried....(Lingerie Sugar Cookies)

So, first and foremost, congrats to Angela and Mike who were married this weekend in a small, private, but wonderful ceremony.



Secondly, I hosted the lingerie shower and decided that I needed to make lingerie sugar cookies. In the middle of all of the fun busy-ness of getting ready for the wedding and shower, it seemed each project I planned to do was littered with problems. The cookies were no exceptions. I was told they looked good and tasted good. The truth is, I accidentally used the wrong cookie recipe, didn't have black food coloring for the original design (What "decorator" runs out of black food coloring at a time like this?!), wasn't mixing the icing properly, oh, and let's not forget the fact that I didn't have the right cookie cutter. UGH! What was wrong with me! lol It truly was a fun project, but definitely one that I had to push through when I really wanted to give up, it was tough to deli ever, in my opinion, a less than perfect cookie. So, here are a few pictures of what they looked like. Sorry for the poor quality pictures.










All in all I had fun doing each and every project. Angela and Mike were worth all the effort. Love you guys!!!!


I want to give credit to http://www.sweetsugarbelle.com/ for all of her hints and tips for this project. If you are a sugar cookie making fanatic or are just curious, this is the site for you!

Party time!!!!

I'm planning a lingerie/bachelorette party for a dear friend this month and I wanted to share the invitation with you sans the words. I bought the clip art from, http://www.jwillustrations.etsy.com/, she has some super cute clip art for sale. After I rec'd them I put it all together in Microsoft publisher to create this, in my opinion, fabulous invitation. Normally I would NEVER purchase clip art, but I wanted the invitations to be perfect. I didn't put the words in because I used the wording off of another invitation I found online and I'm not sure about the legal ramifications of my using them, if any. SOOOOO, here it is!


Whatcha think????

Delicious, mint, chocolate, cupcake...yep, that sums it up!

Haven't had any earth shattering news lately and I haven't worked on a project in a few weeks. Actually, I did, but I didn't take the pictures the way I wanted too. Maybe I'll share that at a later time. However, I do have some other things coming up, and fingers crossed, I'll take good enough pictures to share. Which leads me to this cupcake.

This is what I did today, not all day! Geez, what do you think I am a glutton for cupcakes! Well, I am, but I have a 3 year old too and she wouldn't allow that type of behavior. Wow, getting off track here. This cupcake is decadent, not too heavy, really yummy. It's a chocolate cake with chunks of Andes candy mixed in, not too much, a chocolate ganache filling with a bit more Andes, a mint buttercream icing and couple bits of Andes to top it off. It does sound waaaaay too minty, but it's a perfect mix of chocolate and mint, in my opinion.

If you have questions about this cupcake, feel free to ask. Any other cupcake ideas and you don't know how to implement it? Just ask!

Hope you have a great Labor Day weekend!

A very special hair piece.

My dearest friend in the world is getting married. Angela and Mike's story is pretty amazing. Maybe one day I'll ask her to guest blog, it's not like she's going to be busy. ;) (Note to self, ask Angela to guest blog.) Any who, she asked if I would make her hair piece. Although I've never made one I was very excited and feeling quite confident. So, here is my first attempt and hopefully final. It's only waiting approval from the bride.

The Flower Girls Piece

The Bride's

For it being my first time, I'm pretty pleased with it. It did come with a lot of thought and several attempts. What do you think?

Pillowcase to Dress

I have been having this pillowcase for a couple of years now with the intention to turn it into a dress, well, I finally did it!!!! It was so easy, I don't know why it took me so long. So, here it is!

Pillowcase

Dress!

Although I think it's utterly adorable, my daughter didn't agree. She wore it long enough for the picture, then tore it off to put another more princess like dress on. Oh, well, I tried. haha Someone will wear it, eventually. For now, it'll remain in her closet until she grows out of it.

Today

My life is this little girl. My day revolves around God, Kent (my husband) and Reagan (my daughter). This summer has been really special to me for a number of reasons, one of them being Reagan's imagination. She is turning three next month and although it's always hard having your baby get older I'm so excited about the new things she has been doing. She is now seeing that the world does have other people in it. She is sharing better, giving when not expected, a true care giver at times. She is also using her imagination in new ways. A balloon on a string is now a puppy. A blanket is now a baby. I am a gushing Mommy. Excited to call her mine, for now. My prayer is that I am able to raise her with wisdom and that she grows up to be a true worshipper of God.

On another note, I have a few new craft projects coming up and I look forward to sharing them with you. Keep posted.

Mommy Cara

This new journey....

I like to write, not very good at it, but I still do it. I really enjoy creating things with my hands. Taking nothing and turning into something. Well, now, I plan on sharing those journeys with you. Failures and successes. I can't promise I'll post a lot right now, but as I get more comfortable with this whole process I'll post more. I hope you enjoy my explorations.