T.G.I.F!!!!!

For some reason this week dragged like you wouldn't believe. Maybe it has to do with the fact that I'm still not used to working five days a week again. Ever since the end of December with the Holidays the office has either been closed, or one of my kids are sick, or I am sick and I have been working three or four day weeks. And yes a four day work week is way shorter then a five day one. I guess another contributing factor is that this is my "slow" week at work. And when I say slow I mean I'm only doing the equivalent of three peoples jobs whereas on my "busy" weeks I am doing as much as five people. But that's the argument that I am betting almost all employed people have, over worked and underpaid. I look forward to the day when I enjoy the work that I do and not start the countdown to Friday on Sunday afternoons. Granted being a single mom is putting the dream job on hold for awhile, photography is not exactly the most stable job, but I would love to even be able to go back to school for something stable. All this talk of the grants out there yet trying to find them and get them is not easy. Well there was a tangent that I completely didn't intend to write. Back to being happy that its Friday :) Going out with Mr. Big tonight, which is always a good time. Pretty sure this is just going to be low key though. Grabbing dinner and then a movie. Finally going to go and see The Women in Black. I had actually won free screening passes to this movie but ended up being sick on the night and then ran late when we tried to make it so didn't see it. I'm hoping that it turns out to be a good horror flick. I love to be scared as long as I'm not alone. The adrenaline rush that you get is worth it. I already have warned Mr. Big that I do tend to scream at horror movies so we will see how he reacts to that! Then a weekend home with my munchkins fixing valentines and baking. I think I'm actually going to go the cookie route this weekend and attempt to decorate the cookies to actually look like something. Possibly Elmo or Star Wars or Transformers. Almost forgot that my son is having a friend over this weekend so lets see how much hair I have left on Monday. Wish me luck and if it stays calm I swear I will get the cupcakes posted that I talked about weeks ago. Geez what a slacker I am!!!!

Where did the weekend go????

I know I promised to get recipes up and another post on cupcakes, and trust me they will be coming tonight or tomorrow, but this weekend was jam packed. Yes I did bake a ton on Sunday, 3 different cupcake recipes and a muffin recipe all from scratch, but the frostings' wont be complete until tonight. I may have a problem with procrastinating and trying to fit too much in at once. Friday started out crappy at about 3a.m. Yep woke up and let me tell you sometimes it royally sucks to be a girl. With erring on the side of TMI, I started my period and I am a sufferer of horrible cramps and hands down feeling like ass. They used to be so bad that when I was younger they would warrant trips to the hospital. Well originally this last weekend was supposed to involve a lot of "adult" time with the guy I am dating, I'll call him Mr. Big, but that put a halt to that. Being a single Mom I don't get alot of time away from my munchkins but my Mother has started to take them every other weekend for one night so I can try to be a normal 25year old. Once I let Mr. Big know that the fun times planned were a no go and that if he didn't want to come over then that's fine he let me know that he didn't care what we did that he just wanted to spend time together :). So Friday night was spent with me in sweats watching movies and gorging on Chunky Monkey ice cream while Mr. Big rubbed my back. I definitely think he is a keeper so far. Then Saturday early afternoon was spent running errands with Mr. Big. Again I tried to tell him I would do everything on Sunday but regardless we got everything done before heading back to my place since again I felt like crap so once again he rubbed my back and watched a movie while my crappy feeling self ended up taking a nap. Saturday night was spent at Monster Jam, haven't been to one in years but had fun and realized that I will be bringing the kids to them next year again. Then Sunday afternoon after Mr. Big left and my munchkins came home all day was spent baking. Once again my procrastinating got to me and I neglected to realize that not only did I have to mix 4 different batters but then I also had to bake them and since I live in an apartment with a crappy oven only one cupcake pan can go in at a time or they wont cook evenly! Well that was just a quick update, I have at least three other blog posts that I am sitting on so those should get out eventually :)

Back to Baking

Well as everyone who personally knows me knows I love to cook. Finding new recipes or coming up with my own is always fun. Not everything I come up with turns out but I have three (not so) willing taste testers at home and because I am Mom they have to eat! One day I’m sure that they will catch on that if they don’t eat I’m actually not going to let them starve, but while they still have that fear I am going to use it.

What a lot of people don’t know is I also have a passion for baking cupcakes. Not so much anything else but I love cupcakes. Before it was all about just decorating them so I used to always stick with simple boxed cakes. Now I much rather make them from scratch. Don’t get me wrong boxed mixes are ok but once you have that cake made from scratch you will definitely taste the difference. Finding the time to bake is often difficult so it generally just got forgotten but I have lately realized that I miss it terribly so I am actively dedicating time to it. It also might help that I may like someone who happens to enjoy baked goods and you know what they say “A way to a man’s heart is through his stomach”! Plus my kids love that they get to help decorate again.

With that being said I made my first batch of cupcakes this past weekend. I saw this idea last summer but never had the time until now so I give you

I may have cheated with these and used a boxed cake mix but I also added a couple extra ingredients (sshhh they have sour cream in them!) I know sounds horrid but it helps keep the cake moist.

 After making the cake mix I separated it into 6, what I thought were equal, bowls and then used food coloring to make my colors. Make sure to use gel food coloring to get the vibrant colors.

Then it was time for the homemade frosting. My thoughts were since I used a French vanilla cake mix that strawberry frosting sounded the best well I have a younger sister who is allergic to strawberries so I decided to be creative. I made a simple butter cream frosting recipe and then added Strawberry Nesquik Powder! The frosting came out tasting just like strawberry milk and she was able to eat them with no risk of a reaction.

The true gem of these cupcakes is when you bite or cut into them! These definitely took longer to prepare but if you have the help of another adult it should go faster. I don’t have the recipes with me now but I will get them up in another blog post hopefully tonight.