Weekend Recap (Apr 16 & Apr 17)

You know how when some one asks you if you want the good news or the bad news first? And you always respond with bad news first in hopes the good news will help buffer the pain cause by the blah news (no? Brave soul you!)? That's kind of how my weekend was, but I wasn't asked which I wanted first. Fortunately, I'm glad I got the bad news first because I would have hated to end my weekend/start my work week on bad news. *shudders*

Bad (might qualify as horrible) news: Friday was a rough, rough day y'all. Firstly, I had to wake up at 2am because the hubs forgot to bring some things to the shop and forgot to leave some things I desparately needed at the house so naturally I had a major small stress meltdown. After taking lots of deep breaths, I packed all my things necessary for work that day (e.g. work clothes, hair straightner, etc) along with the things the hubs forgot (e.g. suit, dress shoes and socks, etc.) and drove 45 minutes to the shop. Work day commenced as usual. Then, on the DART ride home, I was stuck IN a TUNNEL. for 2 flipping hours!! 2 frucking hours in the flipping dark!!!! Really? Sigh. When we finally were moving again, we experienced 2 more delays prior to reaching my stop - the last one on the line. Total commute time for a normal 40 minute commute - 3 hours. What a Friday.

= Not my friend that day{source}                          

With bad news, comes the good news right? Right!

Good news: We went over to a friend's house later that evening to celebrate Cambodian/Thai New Years and our dear friends Sopie and Ly were going to reveal the sex of their second child - with cupcakes!! Yum! How? They bought 2 dozen cupcakes (1 dozen red velvet, 6 strawberry shortcakes, and 6 chocolate passion) from

{source}

and one of the cupcakes was injected with a colored cream filling indictating the sex of the baby!! We were so excited about digging into the cupakes to look for the pink or blue icing, I totally didn't take pix! Boo! With all 24 cupcakes distributed and tore in half, the filling could not be found! WHAT?! Someone's holding out and we were all yelling with frustration and excitement as to who holds the special cupcake. Not cool. Not cool at all! Turns out, the filling wasn't in the middle. It was an itsy, bitsy, weensy squirt of icing underneath the mammoth cream cheese icing. It looked like this, but with the dap of icing inside the cupcake.

Pic from here, dot added by mwah

Yup. The dot literally was that big under all that icing! Who would have known it was there?! Natural assumption is in the middle right??? Tell me this is what you thought too? Common sense right? Any way, luckily someone noticed before devouring their cupcake. And as my awesome dot indicated above, they're having a girl! Perfect because their first born was a boy. Aw... perfection at its finest don't you think? I think so even if you don't!

More good news: Saturday was girl's day while the boys went fishing and shooting! For us girls, girl's day means eating. all. day. long. non. stop. while shopping. I literally put on 2 more pounds this weekend (d'oh!!), but all the delicious food was soooo worth it. That day. Now I have to workout 4x as hard so back to the grind. Tomorrow. Ha! Having quality time over yummy food all day with the girls is always worth it though. Always!

Even more good news: The hubby took me to the mall on Sunday and I got a mini shopping spree! Yay! Thanks hubby! In 1.5 hours, we found me a dress to wear to a wedding next weekend, panties at Victoria's Secret because I'm a coupon queen, and baking/counter mats from Crate and Barrel with their new Wedding Completion discount. Which means.... dum dum dummmm! I forsee baking cookies (as in different types of cookies) in my very, very near future. YES!

How was your weekend? Happy Monday everyone!!!

Happy Friday!!

Guess what I did last niiiiight?? *hopping foot to foot with excitement* Oh come on!! Take a guess! (waits for response). Eh! Nope! Okay, okay, okay, I'll tell you, or rather show you! Look what IIIII made...

Chocolate Thin Mint Cupcakes with Mint Chocolate Frosting

I finally had the opportunity to make these guys and was super stoked!! Seriously. I was doing a happy dance when I pulled the first batch out of the oven. The hubs shook his head in disbelief he married this crazy lady, but it's okay, our marriage is set in stone and I was elated with satisfying my baking itch. The frosting turned out runnier than I expected. Maybe I should have added more powdered sugar? It was awfully sweet already though... Hm...  

Chocolate Thin Mint Cupcakes with Mint Chocolate Frosting (try saying that five times fast!)

Recipe replicated from The Farm Girl

Ingredients:

Cupcakes:

½ c. Dutch-process cocoa powder

½ c. hot water

2 c. all-purpose flour

¾ t. baking soda

¾ t. baking powder

¾ t. coarse salt

1 c. butter, softened

1½ c. sugar

2 large eggs plus 1 egg yolk

1¾ t. vanilla extract

2/3 c. sour cream, at room temperature

1 box Thin Mints

 

Frosting:

Mint Chocolate Buttercream Frosting

6 T. butter, softened

1/2 c. cocoa, for medium flavor

1/3 c. milk

3 1/2 c. powdered sugar

1 t. mint extract

Got everything together? Great! Let's satisfy that mint chocolate craving (and getting rid of that LAST box of Thin Mint cookies)

Alright, first things first, pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees. Line your cupcake pans with paper liners and place one Thin Mint cookie in each liner.

In a small bowl, whisk together the cocoa powder and hot water until smooth.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt; set aside.

Did I do fabulous job of mixing or what?!

In a medium saucepan, combine the butter and the sugar over medium heat.  

Heat, stirring occasionally to combine, until the butter is melted.

Like this!

Transfer the sugar and butter mixture to an electric mixer bowl.  Beat on medium-low speed for 5 minutes, until the mixture is cooled.  

Not in a KitchenAid Mixer, but I told the hubs if this

mixer makes these recipes okay, I'll stop obsessing

daydreaming about the coveted KitchenAid Mixer

Mix in the eggs and egg yolk, one at a time, and beat well after each addition.

Mix in the vanilla and then the cocoa mixture and beat until incorporated.  

And just to show you what my mixer does - it mixes with centrifugal force so it looks like this, therefore, I have to hand scrape down the sides simultaneously as the mixer is mixing to get the above picture results, but I digress.

With the mixer on low speed, add in the dry ingredients in two batches, alternating with the sour cream, beating just until combined.

I forgot to take a picture of the completed batter. Sorry!

Fill the cupcake liners about ¾ full

I wiped up the splatters prior to putting the pan in the oven

and bake for 17 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, rotating the pans halfway through baking.  Meanwhile, let's make the frosting!! Combine the butter, cocoa powder, milk, powdered sugar, and mint extract and mix until smooth.  

When the timer says baking time is up! Remove the cupcakes from the oven and allow it to cool in the pan for about 10 minutes

then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Apparently, I need to quit taking overhead shots. Oops!

And last, but definitely not least - frost with lots of frosting (since mine turned out runny, it wasn't very pretty and made a big ole mess on my counter. Maybe the "missing" ingredient is heavy cream instead of milk??) and consume! The decision to share is purely up to you!

Ta da!! Not pretty, but they tasted yummy!!

And since I ran out of Thin Mints on my second batch (I may or may not have eaten one. or two Thin Mints at the beginning of this baking extravaganza. Don't judge!), I just poured the cupcake batter in the liner and they came out HUGE like muffins instead of cupcakes. So weird!!! I wonder why....

Happy Friday everyone, and have a fabulous weekend!!!