A Balanced Diet is Having a Cupcake in Each Hand

September 15, 2017

I love cupcakes. Their "snack" size makes me feel like I'm actually good at portion control....until I eat more than 1 (or 2). I'm a firm believer in the saying "you CAN have your cake and eat it too!" It holds true for cupcakes, as well.

What I love even more about cupcakes is their versatility. By that I mean they can be as formal or as casual as you'd like them to be. Cupcakes are perfect for any occasion, whether you are wanting to dress them down for simple breakfasts, lunches, or dinners, or dressing them up a bit for birthday parties, housewarmings, random girls' nights, weddings, or baby showers.

I recently made these delectable Dark Chocolate Blackberry Cupcakes, and they were thankfully a big hit!

I picked these fresh blackberries up from the Piedmont Triad Farmers Market here in Greensboro!

I'm not a big fruit person. It's not that I don't enjoy fruit, I just don't usually crave it, so I figured the best way to ensure a balanced diet was to toss it in some chocolate and call it a day!

I used one of my paper towels as a straining tool because I purchase fairly thick ones...and also because I didn't want to go out and purchase cheese cloth! Feel free to just double up on paper towels.

As you can see in some of these photos, this is not the most glamorous recipe to make...but luckily I was always taught not to judge a book by its cover!

This is where the dressing up part comes into the mix! I am a sucker for annoyingly cute cupcake tins. They're like accessories for your cupcakes--and they also give me an excuse to accessorize something other than myself. I was making these for a couple different occasions, so I wanted to choose an "outfit" that would be appropriate for both!

Rule of thumb for filling your cupcake tins is 2/3 full.

Stripes it was!

I used the same icing as I did for "Carl's Gluten-Free Dark Chocolate Cake." There's not too much to say about this icing except it's absolutely amazing, and very addicting. It's definitely impossible to have just one spoonful...

so I've heard...

Hey pretties! This is one of my favorite platters, so I try to use it any and every chance I get. You can find the exact one and ones with other patterns at my go-to home decor/entertaining shop, Emily McCarthy Shoppe!

Just my bestie for the resties!

One of the occasions I made these treats for was my good friend Natasha's birthday. She is so very special to me and is also a big reason, if not the sole reason, I got back into 203YP blogging. When contemplating it, she constantly asked me, "Lindsey, why not?" I never had an answer to that question which ended up being an answer in itself.

Tash is that friend that always reminds you that you're capable of anything, you never have to settle in your personal or professional life, Starbucks running out of PSLs (pumpkin spice lattes) is really not an emergency, and laughter truly is the best medicine. I'm not sure how we ever have conversations because we are always laughing when we're together.

Tash, you rock--thanks for being my friend and role model for the past 3 years! Cheers to many more birthdays together!

Pictured: my dream kitchen as of late!

Occasion #2 was a kitchen christening! Friends of mine had just renovated theirs, so naturally we had to break it in in style. Morgan and Neill's HGTV-ready kitchen is just perfect, and they are more than welcome to cook meals for me in it any time.

Dinner was quite delicious to say the least, and dessert was simply just the icing on the (cup)cake--pun very much so intended!

So don't forget, you CAN have your (cup)cake and eat it too!

Lgoodstat

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203 Yumlington Place Baking Kitchenaid

"Hot As A Firecracker" Cheese Cracker Snack

July 06, 2017

My resume is fairly full of positions I’ve filled and skills I’ve acquired. What it doesn’t describe is my career as a professional snacker.

I snack. Snacks are my thing, meals are not. It’s not that I have anything against meals, I thoroughly enjoy them when they come around! It’s the grocery shopping that has to happen beforehand that leaves my refrigerator and pantry empty, but my wallet reasonably (and relatively) full. I just have a hard time justifying buying loads of groceries for one person! Seems awfully silly to me.

It also doesn’t help that I become the most indecisive person in the world the second I step foot in any supermarket. There’s so many options and items for me to choose from—do I want pasta, or Asian food, or pizza, or the salad bar, or soup, or cookie cake, or ice cream…you see what my problem is? Sometimes, I become so overwhelmed that I walk out empty handed looking anxious as all get out to the point where I probably appear as if I’m shoplifting!

I’m constantly brainstorming how I could possibly change my ways and become a meal maker, and I’ve only managed to come up with one solution—hire a live-in chef. Good news for them would be they wouldn’t have to purchase any condiments—they make up about 90% of my fridge right now. Bad news for me, is my “reasonably (and relatively) full” wallet isn’t quite full enough for that kind of service!

I’ll hold on to that solution for more prosperous days. In the meantime, I’ll keep calm and snack on.

This week, I made a snack to match my 4^th of July themed, Firecracker Pound Cake! These “Hot as a Firecracker” cheese crackers are the most addicting recipe I’ve made in a very long time—bake at your own risk!

What I love most about this snack recipe is your ability to customize it to what your taste buds want and can handle. For me, the spicier and hotter, the better. But that’s not necessarily the case for everyone. This recipe comes with a good amount of heat, but if you can’t stand the heat…I promise you won’t have to get out of your kitchen! All you have to do is minimize your spices.

Recipe is below--can’t wait to see the variations y’all come up with! Happy baking!

Lgoodstat

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203 Yumlington Place Baking Cake Family Family Recipes Pound Cake

Firecracker Pound Cake

July 03, 2017

For this year’s fine 4^th, I decided to bake my family’s pound cake recipe but with a twist!

I’m not usually one to stray away from a recipe, especially this one because pound cakes are awfully finicky, but I wanted to try to make this cake as 4^th of July themed as possible by adding some reds and blues to it…key word being try! I split my batter into 3 parts and made 1 part red and 1 part blue and kept the 3^rd part plain. Now, I will be the first to admit that it was not very pretty when I took it out of the oven. The good news for me is my family consists of what I like to call Equal Opportunity Cake Eaters—we’re not ones to discriminate against cakes! Sadly, even if we don’t love it, we’ll usually still eat it. We just love cake.

No matter how many times I make Nana’s famous pound cake, I feel like I’m making it for the first time--no one can make it like she can! The best part of all of us getting together is arguably getting to eat her pound cake! We've baked and served it at weddings, every year for Christmas, and during our summer visits, yet I still text and call her and Mom numerous times asking questions I already know the answer to. You would think I’ve never laid eyes on the recipe before!

With this cake in particular, there’s a fine line between perfect and overcooked. And if you serve this cake any one in my family, they expect perfection—well actually, we prefer it a tad on the undercooked side, that’s our definition of perfection! You also can’t know for sure how it’s turned out until you cut a slice—so if you serve it to a group and its underwhelming, then just blame it on the humidity! That excuse seems to work for cake as much as it does for hair!

Side note: Remember how I told y'all I usually put down newspaper on my kitchen counters when baking to ensure a mess-free kitchen? Well, sadly that couldn't happen this time because I accidentally ran over my newspaper when mowing my lawn (see picture below for a good laugh!)...I really shouldn't be allowed to do yard work, but at least my neighbors stay entertained!

I am a firm believer in having cake for breakfast, so this morning, in efforts to prepare myself for what’s to come when I serve it at my family’s 4^th of July BBQ, I cut a “thin” slice with a healthy serving of icing on top. I was pleasantly surprised by the look and the taste! It turns out all my cake anxiety was unnecessary this time around!