happy birthday ash!

so this weekend, i had the joy of celebrating ashley turning a quarter of a century- and attend a shower for little rhett! it was a great time celebrating and recognizing the sweet friendship we share. because of her current situation (strict bed rest) we took both parties to her and had a great time watching the uga/auburn game at her folks house along with our husbands, her parents and inlaws, and her cousin and her best friend and their kids. no football party would be complete with out chili and dips, so i brought along my white chicken chili, my avocado relish, and some homemade salsa- one of charlie's favs. add to that her chili, some yummy buffalo chicken dip, a veggie tray, and more and you've got a party! but to really make the celebration complete, i surprised ash with a birthday cake that i worked extra hard on. check it out- it was a giant homemade cookie cake with icing, and vanilla cake pops decorated in uga and auburn colors along with some cake ball footballs. it was quite a hit :)

i must brag on the vendor i ordered the sprinkles from- i wanted blue sprinkles for the auburn pops, and i stumbled upon this awesome bakery supply store. i highly recommend them! check out sweetbakingsupply.com

here's a few pics of the work in progress- i didnt get any of the pops process because i was the only one home and lets just say i made the most epic mess ever. oops.

happy birthday ash! so glad you are my friend and you were born 25 years ago!

strawberry cupcakes

so this weekend, in the midst of packing for my trip and watching my awesome husband play baseball, we helped host a baby shower! and what a cute one it was! while i plan on blogging on all the little details tomorrow, i thought i should start with the cupcakes ash and i made. they were pretty much awesome, i’m not going to lie!! while we are all about cake pops, based on the logisitics of the weekend we recognized that we wouldn’t have time to assemble something to our level of perfection. plus, with all the showers we do for our lifegroup, we like to mix it up- the first shower we did a three-tiered cake, then the cake pops, so we opted for cupcakes. inspired by none other than pinterest, we went for some fun cupcakes with a sugar cookie on top. we divided to conquer and ash made the cookies and i made the cupcakes, then we helped each other assemble.

so saturday night, after a long day at the baseball field, i got to work. and i lost the site i got the recipe from, but if you want it, i have it saved.  i liked this recipe because it had 1 1/3 cup of fresh strawberries- yum! and an interesting addition- strawberry milk! of course, most nesquick and what not versions of strawberry milk have HCFS in it, so i found the cute little horizon milks that are all organic!

the strawberry milk

yum fresh strawberries going in the food processor to make puree!

so sometimes my baking is all about improvising. while i went to the store the day before to get everything i needed, somehow i forgot that i needed more sugar?! so, i combined what i had- i'm sure this is a baking nono, but i mixed some organic cane sugar, some demerera sugar, and some brown sugar. it works, right?

the color was almost perfect, but i added a few drops of red food coloring because i wanted to ensure that the cupcakes turned out bright pink.

i tried out a new buttercream recipe, and we loved it!

this turned out awesome- and super fluffy!

my perfectly pink strawberry cupcakes.

i colored my frosting gray by using black coloring, but just a bit. then, using a star tip, i piped on the swirl.

then, sunday morning, once i got to ash's, i melted down some white candy melts and put them in a zip loc bag with a small tip and piped "ella" the sweet baby girl's name. now even though i only made 30 cupcakes, i made about 60 ellas, because, since they were made of chocolate, they were super fragile. i wanted to make sure i had enough in case some broke, and i thought we could definitely use some elsewhere.

the finished product!

look forward to tomorrow's post on the shower!

my new apron! (and a buttermilk chocolate pound cake with a coffee glaze)

so after a few days, and a whole day of sewing, i finished my apron! i went over to jamie's after church and she helped me with a whole lot (we only had to rip out the seams twice!). after getting most of it done, we pinned it and i brought it home to finish up. while nathan was doing the dishes for us, i finished it up. and here's the result!

pretty cute, huh? i felt so successful- i'm going to add pockets later, but for now, i think it was pretty good!

here's a pic of it laid out.

of course, making an apron made me want to wear an apron. which meant, i needed something to bake! i had been invited to dinner tomorrow night, so i thought a dessert would be a nice addition. i didnt want to have to go to the grocery store, so i only could work with what i had in the fridge. one thing i was trying to get rid of was some leftover buttermilk from some scones i made this morning for breakfast. so i started researching on google for some ideas.  i came across this recipe and thought it would be great. now, the one thing i did different was in terms of the butter. i only had one stick (1/2 cup) and i needed 1 cup, so i used 1/2 cup oil as well. also, i added chocolate chips in (as well as the melted chocolate).   

my workstation :)

this was also a great opportunity to try out my new spatula, a gift from mom for my birthday. isnt it just the cutest thing ever? its sparkly & pink!

mixing it up

a new apron (especially one that i made!) makes everything better

yummy yummy yummy!

here's the recipe i used with my modifications:

Ingredients:

6 ounces (⅞ cup) semi sweet chocolate chips (plus the rest of the bag of chips)

½ cup boiling water

1 cup butter (I used 1stick butter, ½ cup oil)

2 cups sugar

4 eggs

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

2½ cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 cup buttermilk

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a large Bundt pan.

Melt chocolate chips in microwave in 30 second increments

In a large bowl of an electric mixer, cream butter, oil, and sugar. Beat in eggs one at a time. Then beat in vanilla and melted chocolate.

In a separate bowl, sift together flour, baking soda and salt. Add flour mixture to chocolate mixture alternately with buttermilk, scraping down the sides of the bowl after each addition. Add the rest of the chips when done.

Pour batter into tube pan and bake for up to 90 minutes, checking after 60 minutes with a knife or toothpick inserted in the center. Remove from the oven when tester comes out clean.

then, i added a coffee glaze:

i kind of made this up. i dissolved instant coffee into milk, and then mixed that into powdered sugar. i didnt measure.

i'll put up a picture of that tomorrow. 

thank jamie for all your help!

my birthday extravaganza!

so as many of you know, yesterday was my birthday...the big 2-3! i know, i know- i'm getting old :)

let me just start by saying that i have been blessed with some incredible people in my life. my friends, my family, and now my husband- they are all just great. as much as i enjoy a good celebration and a day all about me, i can't help but reflect on all the special people who have played a big part in my 23 years on this earth....from the dr that delivered me to the people i currently have on speed dial- and all the folks in between. i am truly blessed.

tuesday, i took a half day off work and mom and ash met me to go do a little shopping day at perimeter. early that morning though, ash called me and had a surprise for me- she had made me a pumpkin apple streusel cake for breakfast and brought it by the office for us to enjoy over coffee (well, i had coffee). it was so delish! i didn't get a pic, but it was super yum- i enjoyed much of it!!!!!

we left and noon, not in search of much but wanting to just enjoy some girl time, we enjoyed looking at all our favorite stores and i even picked up a few fun things- my favorite of which might be the pink glittery le creuset spatula :) mom also treated me to a beautiful mirror to put over our dresser- i had been on the hunt for one. i've posted pictures at the bottom so scroll there to see!

after several hours of browsing, mom, ash, & i stopped by our place so i could show them our improvements and awaited the arrival of nathan, charlie & dad.

 the six of us then headed  to dinner at what i now believe i can say with some certainty is my favorite restaurant in atlanta- floataway cafe (check out my review on yelp here) and then stopped by cafe intermezzo for a little dessert before heading home (their bosco is thebomb.com, i mean, really!) nathan had stopped by floataway on his way to meet us and dropped off some beautiful stargazer lilies for our table - what a sweetie he is! :) amazingly enough, i got no pictures. sad day. however, here is one of the pretty flowers!

yesterday, i enjoyed a day off by the pool with mom & ash (& hannie for a little bit). it was so nice just to relax and not have to be anywhere! mom had picked up an incredible cake from one of her friends who bakes and sells pound cakes. can i just say yum?! chocolate pound cake + a cappuccino mousse whipped cream frosting= ahhh!!!!!

yeah, it was pretty good! so poolside, i enjoyed some great chats with mom & ash (including many about her exciting news) as well as some yummy serafinos salads.  ash gave me this incredible homemade wreath as a present, which will be going on our door as soon as i repair the 9 that i knocked off

beautiful!  after getting a whole lot of sun (and even a nap) it was time to go home to see my love who had gotten off work and picked up chinese take out & cupcakes for dinner!

nothing says love like general tsos chicken & fried rice :)

nathan got cupcakes from this new little bakery that just opened on monday- they were pretty good too!

he selected 2 chocolate, a salted caramel on chocolate cake, a caramel on yellow cake, a strawberry, and a white chocolate raspberry. yes please!

i chose to enjoy the salted caramel one first (nathan had a chocolate one)- it was great!

for my birthday, nathan is going to get me an iphone 5 when it comes out (we're thinking august?). i've never had a smart phone (in fact, i have a 2 year old samsung flip phone, but i'm not going to lie, most days i really love and appreciate its simplicity!)

all in all, great birthday. great folks. great times. 

i love my life.

here's some mirror pics, because, i know you were interested :)

pretty, huh?

thanks for all the birthday wishes!!