Pink Velvet Cupcakes and Mini Ombre Cake

We are back from our annual family beach trip! Such a fantastic week, I can't wait to share the details. The theme nights were so much fun and we've already selected the themes for next year. Now we're trying to get back in the swing of routine a little bit more tan and a lot more relaxed. I'll do some posts about the vacation, but before we left we had to celebrate my sister-in-law to be, Rose's birthday! 

Love this girl!

We have some pretty set-in-stone birthday traditions. We always celebrate at my parents house with dinner and the birthday boy or girl gets to pick the dinner and cake. My mom even has certain pictures she gets every single year (seriously, we checked and they go all the way back). For this year, Rosie requested the cupcakes I made for her Superbowl party! I was so excited to revisit that recipe, but I couldn't do bright blue, orange and green cupcakes, so we went with pink instead. 

Rosie loves animal print so these liners were a must

I also didn't want to just make cupcakes. I wanted to get our traditional cake picture and have something for her to cut into. Looking through my local kitchen store, I was able to find a small cake pan and decided to make a tiny little ombre (kinda) cake to go with the dozen cupcakes. It wasn't a total success - it looked more like a giant cupcake - but boy was it delicious! Pretty sure Rosie had a wonderful birthday, but we certainly enjoyed celebrating her! 

For all of the 'kids' birthdays this year, my parents gave us a long weekend away in the mountains on a beautiful lake. It's the perfect gift for this group, another vacation together! We can't wait.

For the full recipe head over to the Superbowl cupcakes post. 

Sort of cute

Loving my new piping tip

Yummy cake!

My favorite girls

Hubby

Oh this loverly lady

Cheers!

Pops

Can't wait to share pictures of the vacation theme nights. Everyone truly outdid themselves this year. Until then!

xo
Alison

Lavender Cupcakes with Butter Cream Icing

I have been wanting to bake with lavender for quite sometime, but hadn't really had the opportunity. So when my friend Megan offered me some of her stash of dried lavender, I knew exactly what I was going to whip up! It was right around my husband and my birthdays so I decided I would have these instead of a cake (my husband is not really a baker and I didn't want a store-bought cake). 

BIRTHDAY CUPCAKES!

Lavender is perfect for baking. It's not a flavor that a lot of people have had before and the fragrant, floral taste isn't for everyone. Most of the recipes I had seen for lavender cupcakes had paired a cream cheese icing, but I thought a butter cream would let the lavender stand out a bit more. I was not disappointed. Enjoy! 

(I apologize in advance, there is a spot on my camera that I am unable to get off. It's on ALL the pictures, grr..)

Those are carrot cake cupcakes in the back. I'll do a post on those soon.

Lavender Cupcakes
½ cup butter (room temperature)
2 eggs
1 3/4 cups flour
1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons dried lavender (I used a pinch more)
½ teaspoon salt
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup honey (I used champagne honey)
1 teaspoon vanilla
2/3 cups milk
2 teaspoons Wilton Violet food coloring (add more if you so desire)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In medium bowl, combine flour, baking powder, lavender and salt. Set aside. In stand mixer using paddle attachment (or bowl using hand mixer) beat butter until cream (this is why it needs to be room temperature!). Add sugar, honey, and vanilla mixing until combined. Add eggs one at a time, mixing well between each addition. Alternately add dry ingredients and milk to the stand mixer, and mix until batter is completely combined. Add food coloring slowly until you get to your desired color. Fill cupcake liners 3/4 way full. 

Bake for 16-18 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean. Let cupcakes cool completely before frosting.

I did not intentionally match my nails to the cupcakes...

Butter cream Icing
2 cups unsalted butter (room temperature)
½ cup milk 
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons vanilla
4-6 cups confectioners' sugar 

Combine butter, milk, salt and vanilla in stand mixer and beat until combined. Add the confectioners' sugar a half a cup at a time, mixing well between each addition. Pipe the butter cream onto cooled cupcakes and add any embellishments. I used fondant flowers from my local kitchen store in the Italian Market.

And finally, a little snapshot from my birthday dinner with Kyle. My present was a fully planned long weekend down the shore, and this was his way of telling me. :-) 

I will definitely be sporting these shades on our trip

xo
Alison

Zoe's 6th Birthday Weekend

Fair warning, this is going to be a very picture heavy post. 

I can't believe my niece turned six this year. I feel like it was just yesterday I was holding her as a tiny, red, screaming, colicky rug rat. Now she's a sassy, hilarious, energetic kiddo. Sassy being the understatement, you should hear some of the stuff the comes out of this kids mouth. (Coming home from my honeymoon she put her hands on my stomach and goes "Where is the baby?!" Oh my...) 

One of my favorite pictures of Zoe

For her birthday this year Kyle and I really wanted to have her come visit us in the city. She had been up to visit before and she really enjoyed it (and we enjoyed having her). 

Although, at age six, she really needed something to open on her actual birthday. A promise of a trip wasn't going to cut it. I rounded up all of poetry skills and design skills - turns out they are both lacking - and made her a book about the trip. 

She loved the book and her weekend in the city was so much fun. Lesson learned, however? It is very challenging having a child in the city! We're so used to it just being the two of us, it was difficult trying to get her from place to place. Funniest moment:
We passed a very intoxicated woman sitting on the street being consoled by a friend and Zoe (who was tired from walking around) said to us "Can I sit down too?" Ah!

Here is some of the 'book' we put together for her and pictures of each event (full book at the very bottom). PLEASE pardon my incredibly forced rhyme. This is not my forte. =)

The front and back cover of the book:

Train into the city

Taking in the view on the roof

Duck Tours around the city

Cab ride on the way over - she wanted to wear Uncle Kyle's mickey ears

We didn't get many pictures of the Duck Boats as she was a little nervous - as you can see

Much happier off the boat and quacking at every single passerby

Dinner at Max Brenner the Chocolate Man

On the way to dinner after a Starbucks run

The worlds largest Sundae 

3D movie night at the apartment

We told her she was only allowed to quack outside. It's the most annoying sound.

Pancake Breakfast

We had a wonderful (albeit stressful) time having Zoe stay with us. She said that she wants to do this every year for her birthday, which suits us just fine. A great weekend!

xo
Alison

Full book:

Snow and An Almost Birthday

Finally home after a very busy weekend, and thought I'd do a quick post since we've got quite a busy week ahead and I may not get the opportunity. Two holiday parties, a movie premiere, housewarming party, a birthday redo and a sick husband! 

This weekend we had Kyle's sisters birthday on Saturday where we played laser tag (so fun) and had a nice dinner out and then my father's birthday on Sunday. Shortly after leaving the city on Sunday to head to my parents house we were caught in a crazy blizzard! In a matter of minutes the roads were treacherous and unfortunately we ended up getting in a bit of an accident. Everyone was OK, but unfortunately our car was not. We've spent most of Monday trying to get the car situation sorted out and figuring out how to get through the busy week without it. We've talked about getting rid of our car since living in the city we don't use it very often in favor of walking and public transit. Well, this experience has proved how difficult it is to get to and from the burbs without it - not fun.

Unfortunately, the weather and accident meant we had to put my dad's birthday celebration off until next Sunday. Hey, an extension of birthday season and more birthday cake isn't necessarily a bad thing!

I've already a shared a look into my Christmas obsession, but this weekend we discovered the source of my love for the holiday. My mom's decorating this year put ours to shame! She had a mini tree in every single bedroom and the whole house just felt so cozy and festive. With her permission, I wanted to share some pictures of her amazing decorations.

Starting to get pretty slick

Concentrating... right before the accident...

Seems like quite the obstacle

At least it's pretty

Using this opportunity to watch football and catch up on Christmas cards

This is the same design as the snowman we have at our apartment

I love that tree skirt!!

All of her glass ornaments are so unique and they all go together

All of her glass ornaments are so unique and they all go together

Even the moon gets festive =)

My mom makes all of our stockings and each one is different

Beautiful, right? Hopefully my dad's birthday celebration goes a bit more smoothly this week - accident free would be great!

xo

Alison