It's a Boy!!!

Looks like I am going to be an aunt again! My sister is having her second son in early March and we had thrown her a baby shower at our house. With over 33 people crammed into our house I didn't have the time to make the cupcakes from scratch but I thought they still came out nice for the special occasion. For these cupcakes I used a classic white cake mix and plain white frosting. I added a few drops of blue food coloring until I got the desired baby blue color. Then I put a small cluster of edible pearls on top of each cupcake and bought the blue cupcake papers at Micheal's craft store. So these were very simple to make but I thought they came out very nice.

Chocolate-Cherry Cupcakes

This is the first cupcake recipe that I tried to make from scratch and I have to say that I think they came out pretty great. So I have decided to share this recipe so someone else may decide to create these tastey treats. This will make 12 cupcakes and it will take around 40 minutes to put they together. Enjoy!

3/4 cup whole-wheat pastry flour
3/4 cup cake flour
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup canola oil
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup nonfat buttermilk
1 1/2 cups fresh chopped pitted cherries
blueberries for garnish

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line 12 (1/2 cup) muffin cups with paper liners.
2. Whisk whole wheat flour, cake flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a medium bowl.
3. Beat granulated sugar and oil in a large mixing bowl with spoon (or electric mixer on medium) speed until combined. Beat in egg and vanilla until well combined. With the mixer on low, alternately mix in the dry ingredients and buttermilk, starting an ending with dry ingredients and scraping the sides of the bowl as needed, until just combined. Fold in chopped cherries until just combined. Divide the batter among the prepared cups ( they will be full).
4. Bake the cupcakes until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, 22-26 min. Transfer to a wire rack and let cool completely.  
5. When completly cooled, frost cupcakes with frosting of choice and garnish with blueberries.

1st Post

First post on a new blog is like fresh clean sheets on your bed......well maybe not, but it is nice, lol. There really isn't too much to say right now, I am just sitting back watching some Frasier. My dog Angel wants my attention so she keeps trying to crawl up on my lap. She still doesn't seem to realize that she is a 70 pound yellow lab and not a lap dog. We just had over two feet of snow dumped on our tiny state the other day so there really isn't anything to do outside. God I want winter to be over already. I miss not being cold and doing fun stuff outside. All I can really do until then is study, eat, and clean....not much fun at all. Except eating, that is alot of fun but I need to not do it so much. Losing around 10 pounds before summer would be nice but I don't know how realistic that can be with my mom's amazing cooking. Every single night is something good, I don't know how she does it. Working all day and coming home to start cooking a big dinner takes alot of willpower. Willpower is also what I need to use to resist all the good stuff she makes every night. Like right now I am very hungry and there is a huge tub of soup sitting in the fridge that she made in less than an hour but is so amazing. Well hopefully once it warms up I can do more stuff outside so I won't have to diet too much. Not everyone can be a Barbie Doll but we can all wish.