Holiday cupcakes... to die for!

As I mentioned in my Christmas recap post here...
 I made some delicious cupcakes for Christmas Eve...
 I. mean. DELICIOUS.  { if I do say so myself }

The recipe for these masterpieces is from the amazing Bakers Royale, get it here... you must make a yummy batch for yourself!  

I did have to change up the recipe a tad because I was unable to find any Peppermint Andes Mints, so I substituted Ghirardelli Peppermint Bark instead...  

honestly I don't even think the candy is necessary and would likely make them without next time or at least chop it a little more than I did this time.

I also used Hershey's Special Dark Unsweetened Cocoa Powder instead of the Scharffen Berger Unsweetened Natural Cocoa Powder that is mentioned in the recipe and it worked wonderfully!

I was so very happy with how these cupcakes turned out... PERFECT

{ Do you see the dome/top on those babies? Like I said perfect. }

The frosting on these lovelies is Swiss Meringue Buttercream { my new FAVE } with a touch of
peppermint extract.

I found that the Swiss Meringue is very similar to the Italian Meringue Buttercream that I've used before, except it's seems a tad easier to make { win. win. }

You may have noticed that another thing I chose to change or should I say leave out (if you looked at the recipe that is)...  was the chocolate drizzle, instead I topped the cupcakes with
a chunk of the peppermint bark-- making them simply perfect!

These cupcakes are absolutely delicious...
 the prefect blend of chocolate and peppermint with a hint of coffee
{ dare I say... better than an actual peppermint mocha... gasp! }

You need to try them yourself...  you will not be disappointed, well... as long as you don't
dislike peppermint.


Do you have a recipe you made for the holidays that you absolutely LOVED?
I would love to hear about it...  { smile }

Christmas weekend was a blast!

So for my Christmas weekend recap I'm linking up with From Mrs. to Mama for the Show me Christmas link-up...

Our Christmas weekend started Friday night with the arrival of Grandma and Papa!  We were so excited for their visit, they were here for almost 3 full days.  The prince LOVES spending time with all of his grandparents, it's such a joy to see him with them and how happy they all  are when together.

For Christmas Eve, I spent the morning cooking a nice brunch for the hubby, prince and my parents.  I decided on doing brunch because the hubby had to work until 11am and I wanted to make a nice breakfast for everyone to enjoy, so by putting breakfast off for a few hours the hubby then got to enjoy it with us.

So for brunch we had whole wheat brown sugar banana bread pancakes...  

Recipe courtesy of "how Sweet it is", get it here.

Delicious and very filling...  perfect for Christmas Eve morning  { smile }

Along with cooking brunch I also spent some time baking  { LOVE }

I found a recipe for some cupcakes that I thought would be perfect for Christmas...  

Peppermint Mocha cupcakes = delicious!!

Recipe courtesy of Bakers Royale, get it here.

More to come in a future post about these { PERFECT } cupcakes, I promise!!

We took these { PERFECT } cupcakes to Mom Woods' house for a yummy dinner of pizza followed by the Christmas Eve service at the First Baptist Church of Darrington.  

It was then time to get home so I could get to work on my last sewing project...  

Tutorial courtesy of Make it Perfect, get it here.

"Peek-a-Boo" toy sack { FILLED } with cars!  I was so happy with how easy this project was, I will definitely be making at least one more of these.

Christmas morning came at about 6:30am...  and there were lots of presents for opening followed with lots of smiles and even a few tears...

These would be the tears I mentioned...  Grandma was so very happy with the Shutterfly book I created for her and Papa all about the prince.  I will definitely be doing more of these for gifts in the future!

Here's a looksee at all of the great gifts I got this year...

A glass bowl for my KitchenAid mixer { LOVE }

A Silpat and new cookie/bar sheet { another LOVE }

The slicer and shredder attachment for my beloved KitchenAid mixer.

And a microwave, a gift for both me and the hubby.  We've been without one for almost four months now..  a BIG thank you goes to my brother and Claire for this AMAZING gift!

Christmas day was made perfect by all of the wonderful family and friends that we got to spend the entire day with...  

I hope you had a wonderful holiday weekend, too!

Now bring on the new year!!

Christmas Eve has finally arrived.

Can you believe that it is FINALLY Christmas Eve?  I swear each year goes by faster than the last, but I'm not complaining because I love celebrating this holiday with my family and friends, especially the prince!!

And seeing as how it is Christmas Eve this Keep Calm seemed most fitting { smile }

So here are a couple of pictures of what I've been up to the last few days, most specifically a photo of the yummy-delicious baked "fried" chicken I was raving about here.

Like I said it's delicious!  Both hubby and prince approved.

Also hubby approved is this wonderful recipe that we had last night for dinner with my parents...

These are Chicken enchiladas in a green chili sour cream sauce...  another yummy-delicious recipe.

Seeing as I gave the print out of the recipe to my mom, if you wanna try these you'll need to get the recipe from Joyful Momma's Kitchen...  here.

And lastly...  my first attempt at sewing a binding to something...

{ OUCH! } my fingers sure got poked a lot... like A LOT!!

But it was well worth the pain and I can't wait to see my mom's reaction when she opens her gift tomorrow.

One more thing...

Photo courtesy of Bakers Royale, get the recipe here.

I'm gonna be making some of these for tonight, Peppermint Mocha cupcakes...  

do you know how difficult it is to find peppermint Andes mints?!?!  Well, let me assure you it was DIFFICULT, cause I never actually found any.  So I'm putting in some Ghirardelli Peppermint Bark instead, surely it will be similar...  if not better { smile }

Okay!  Now get back to your holiday weekend and enjoy loving your family and friends!

Merry Christmas

and 

Happy Holidays

from my family to yours!

Thanksgiving Edition { Inspiration. Inspired } Part 1

In all honesty I have been plotting and planning for when I get to host my very first Thanksgving, it won't be this year but maybe, just maybe next year if all plans go as we hope.

Since we currently don't have a place large enough to comfortably accommodate all of our family and the goodies that come with Thanksgiving, I instead get to find inspiration for all of you to use for your celebrations this Thanksgiving.

There are so many parts to plan when hosting a family dinner for the holidays, so in this part of the Thanksgiving Edition { Inspiration. Inspired. } we'll discuss the table/place settings...  I love this stuff!! My first successful attempt was for Christmas Eve last year...  I'll share some pictures with you at the end.  But here's some fabulous inspiration that I found for you with the help of Pinterest and HGTV.

There's simple and casual with the added fun of a small pumpkin/gourd used as the name cards, { LOVE }.

There's Floral-elegance, add a few vases overflowing with beautiful seasonal flowers (or any flower for that matter) on a table with cream plates and hints of gold.

Last, but certainly not least...  my FAVE!!  I'm in { LOVE } with the monochromatic tones , the glitter, and touches of rose gold and other metallics = BEAUTIFUL!

And as promised here's my table-setting for Christmas Eve last year.  The colors I choose where gold, white and PINK!

The menu...  I used three different pieces of scrapbooking paper (pink glitter, pink houndstooth and an opaque white).  I then cut them down to different sizes so that I could layer them. 

 { TIP:  By printing on the opaque paper it made my font appear to be metallic.  I chose a dark yellow color for the font of the menu and when I printed on the opaque white paper it made it look GOLD.  FYI...  I also used the opaque paper for the placecards. }

Back view of the centerpiece since the menu was blocking it above.


While I went all out and did a whole table-setting... remember, you can always just add touches of Thanksgiving to the table or even just around the house...  hmmm...  maybe my next post will be about "Touches of Thanksgiving".

Enjoy!