How To: Make Sunset Cupcakes

  Hello!

  Remember my sunset nails? Well, this cupcake tutorial is inspired by them! The recipe below is so delicious. It's not vanilla so much as just white cake flavored; it's reeeally sweet! It's originally from here, but I added the food color/frosting details.

  You'll Need...

  1/2 cup milk

1 cup white sugar

1/2 cup butter

2 eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 3/4 teaspoons baking powder
Red food coloring
Yellow food coloring
Frosting
(I used cream cheese)

No AA batteries means I had to use my iPhone..

1) Preheat oven to 350 degrees (Fahrenheit). Line a muffin pan with paper liners (or grease a 9x9 pan if you want to make a cake instead).        

       

2) In a medium bowl, cream together the sugar and butter. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, then stir in the vanilla. Combine flour and baking powder, add to the creamed mixture and mix well. Finally stir in the milk until batter is smooth.

3) Divide batter into three separate bowls. Add yellow to one, red to another, and an even red/yellow combination to the last one (remember, a little goes a long way!). Stir until desired color is achieved. When spooning the batter into your cups, remember you still have two colors left... don't overdo one color!               

 4) Bake 20 to 25 minutes in the preheated oven, or 30-40 if you're making cake. Cupcakes are done when they spring back to the touch.                      

In the nail tutorial, I added palm trees. With the cupcakes... At least I can say I tried.

 5)  After they've cooled, frost them. I used standard Duncan Hines Cream Cheese frosting, but I'm sure there's a trillion sugary recipes fit for these little calorie bombs.


    Just so you know: The food coloring method can also be used for rainbow cupcakes! I tried this a while ago, but didn't blog the recipe (there was a cornstarch incident). The mini sunsets tasted much better, anyway. :)

 

    Enjoy!

 xoxo,

    Zoe

My Top 3 Summer Drinks

   Hello!

   Due to my lack of baking ingenuity, I decided to try creating something else: drinks! Among my trials and errors, I've found some recipes perfect for summer sippin' (yeah, I really just said that). Since today's the official start of summer, I decided to post my favorites.

 Sunshine Fusion

 Serves One

 You'll Need: lemonade, (pulp-free) orange juice, Sprite

  Instructions: Combine equal parts lemonade and Sprite on ice. Add a splash of orange juice.

 Notes: This is my favorite recipe yet! It's not as breakfast-y as I imagined, so it's perfect whenever.

Watermelontini

 Serves One

 You'll Need: watermelon soda, Sprite, cranberry juice, lime juice

  Instructions: Add a half-cup of watermelon soda, followed by a splash of cranberry juice. Top off with Sprite and a squeeze of lime juice.

  Notes: I thought this sounded disgusting, but it's now one of my favorites! All the ingredients combine perfectly. The Sprite gives it a special punch.

 Caramel Banana Milkshake

  Serves Four

You'll Need: two bananas, vanilla (or banana) ice cream, caramel syrup, milk, dried banana chips

  Instructions: Slice bananas. Blend it, four scoops ice cream, two cups of milk, and four tbsp of the caramel syrup. Decorate with more syrup and/or two banana chips.

 Notes: For extra caramel action, spread a tbsp of the syrup over the bottom of your glass. You can also top the finished milkshake with another scoop of ice cream. Also, yellow food coloring makes it look more like it tastes.

 Bonus!

 Root Beer Float

  You'll Need: root beer, vanilla ice cream

  Instructions: Put two scoops of ice cream in a glass. Fill glass with root beer.

 Notes: I decided not to make it a main feature because it's so simple (and classic!).

Bonus!

 Pineapple Mashup

You'll Need: pineapple soda, cranberry juice, Sprite

Instructions: Combine an equal amount (try 1/3 cup) of each in a glass.

Notes: I just randomly had some pineapple soda, so that's what I used. Try mixing different fruity juices together! 

   
  
      What's your favorite summer drink recipe?

 xoxo,
    Zoe

How To: Make Rice Crispy Treats

---Originally posted on 7/2/11 to Teenage Times--- 
  Hey hey.
    
   So I haven’t done a how-to in a while, right? I figured this time it should be a recipe. It’s simple, fast, and classic.
    Rice Crispy treats are made with a bunch of extra gunk, right? So why not make your own? This is a really simple post on how to do so.
                       
                            How to Make Rice Crispy Treats —in 3 Steps

                                  

      You’ll need…
                        –  4 cups of miniature marshmallows  … or 40 regularly sized
                        — 6 cups of crispy rice cereal    …     I used generic, it tastes the same
                        — 3 tbsp of butter or margarine           
                        — Chocolate syrup                      …               optional


                                 
                                                     Directions
                                                    (for a stove)  
   
     1) In a large saucepan,  melt butter over low heat. Add marshmallows and stir until completely melted. Remove from heat.
                                             
  
   2) Add your crispy rice cereal to the saucepan. Stir until the cereal is evenly mixed.
                                        

     3) A 9×9 pan is suggested, but if something goes awry and you don’t have enough, use a smaller pan. Spread the mixture into the pan, and let it cool.
                                

   Optional 4) Squirt chocolate syrup.
                      
                    I tried to do the syrup argyle-style. It didn’t work.

       Enjoy!

     xoxo,
         Zoe

Recipe: Shamrock Shake

---Originally posted on 3/15/11 to Teenage Times---
 Hey there.
    So you know how St. Patty’s is in a few days? Well, I don’t celebrate it(too young for alchohol..you know, complications) other than wearing green. Well, upon some web surfing, I found this interesting little article on Shamrocks, which urged me into green, which pushed me into food, which shoved me into a milkshake. Alrighty, here we go.

         
            Three cheers for ungranite countertops?
           Ingredients:

•    1/2 cup milk
•    1 cup vanilla ice cream
•   1/4 tsp peppermint extract
•   Several drops of green food coloring

     Let’s get started. You can do this in four easy steps(bolded), but my tips are here, too(unbolded).
     
    Scoop the ice cream into a blender or mixing bowl. Leave it there for five minutes. (If you need to, microwave the ice cream thing for 40ish seconds on auto defrost. It scoops out easier this way.)
     Add milk and extract. (Be ridiculously careful with this fast-moving extract, okay? It’ll completely mess up your shake — with medicine flavor)
 Blend it or mix it. (If mixing, use fork and stir quickly)
    Add some drops of green food coloring. (I used four little drops)

                               
                                   (It says Happy Saint Patrick’s Day:)

     Easy, aye? Happy Saint Patrick’s Day!

        xoxo,
            Zoe