Caramel Frosting to make Salted Caramel Cupcakes!

•  1/4 cup butter
• 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/4 cup  shortening
• 2 cups powdered sugar

Melt butter in a saucepan, stir in the brown sugar and the salt. Bring to a boil and boil for 2 minutes, stirring constantly. Remove from heat.  Mix shortening and caramel mixture together until creamy.  Add powdered sugar and beat for 3 minutes.

 I drizzled melted Kisses over the frosting to add decorative detail & sprinkled with salt for salted caramel flavor!  You can kind of see the salt in this picture:

  Enjoy!  I know I did!!

See where I linked up:  Link Parties

Filled cupcake recipe

• 1/4 cup butter
• 1/4 cup shortening
• 2 cups confectioners' sugar
• 2 tablespoons milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Mix the butter and shortening together.  After it is whipped together, add the sugar until it is completely mixed.  Add in the milk and vanilla and whip until it fluffy (about 3 minutes).

This is for 36 cupcakes to be filled.  I only wanted to fill 7 cupcakes... so I made frosting with the rest.  I used about 1/4 of the mixture to fill the cupcakes.  I added approximately 1/4 cup of cocoa to the remaining filling to make an awesome frosting.  I put the lot of it into my kitchen aid mixer bowl and let the wire whisk whip it for about 3 minutes.

I had a cupcake recipe that I had made and used it for these.

 

I seem to like taking pictures of my food almost as much as I enjoy eating it :)  I shared my photo's today on:  Sweet Shot Tuesday

Funny Things said by my Two Year Old:

I was teasing Jillian and tickling her and I said, "I'm going to nibble on your nose."
Jillian said, "Don't eat me, I am not your lunch."

About a week ago, she was whining (shocking that a 2 yo would whine!)  Josh started talking in a whiny voice back to her and she pointed her finger at him and said, "you no whine like me!"

I was getting her up from her nap with her little pony tail all cute and I said, "You're my little ice cream Sundae."  She said, "No, I'm not your ice cream Sundae.  I'm...  I'm...  I'm your little cupcake with sprinkles on top."  Oh my word - Love Her!!

Josh opened up a bottle of his favorite wing sauce and said, "yum."  Jillian yelled out:  "Drink it Daddy!"  Wouldn't that be interesting!

As, I am typing this she is repeating in a very calm voice, "that's enough, Mommy."   Sighing in between sentences.

I love my little Jilly.  She's got the most kissable little checks and a great personality.

Delicious Biscuits

We had Stew, so I wanted to make some biscuits to go with the stew.  I found this recipe.

 

Ingredients

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon white sugar
• 1/3 cup shortening
• 1 cup milk

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F (220 degrees C).
2. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt, and sugar. Cut in the shortening until the mixture resembles coarse meal. Gradually stir in milk until dough pulls away from the side of the bowl.
3. Turn out onto a floured surface, and knead 15 to 20 times. Pat or roll dough out to 1 inch thick. Cut biscuits with a large cutter or juice glass dipped in flour. Repeat until all dough is used. Brush off the excess flour, and place biscuits onto an ungreased baking sheet.
4. Bake for 13 to 15 minutes in the preheated oven, or until edges begin to brown.  12 minutes into, pull the biscuits out and brush with melted butter, put back into oven for the remaining time.  
5. 
   

Cupcakes

I have been busy decorating and baking cupcakes!  Not the best gig for losing this baby weight ;)  I sold some of the cupcakes to the coffee shop that I sell my scones to.  After I dropped off the cupcakes, I tried a few more varieties.  I had a good time experimenting with the decorations.  Here are a few that I came up with:

 

 Recipes are coming!

I love my Drew-bug...

I love my little Drew-bug!  He is so cute!!!  But, I do not love the poochy looking stomach that was left behind after he was born.  I am within four pounds of my pre-preggo weight and I still look like I am about 3 months pregnant.  No good and serious bummer.  So, I bought a Bellefit girdle today.  Drew is 4 months old.  But, I figured better late than never to try it. 

Since we don't plan on having more kids - fingers are crossed that this does the trick and pulls my muscles back together!

Sick children...

Two weeks ago, my second daughter got sick.  What I thought would be this quick little cold from her turned into a miserable mess!  We had sick children for 9 days straight and one week later, my oldest sill has a runny nose. 

This is our summary:
Kaleigha: fever for 6 days, higest temp 103, possible pre-pnemonia & ear infection.
Jillian: double ear infection, one ruptured ear drum, fever & cough.
Drew: Bronchilitis, fever of 102.7, ear infection, cough & pitiful feeling.
6 doctors appointments, 1 urgent care visit and one visit to draw Drew's blood at Children's hosp.
We missed four days of work, three days of preschool missed and paid $200 in co-pays & $150 for childcare we didn't use.

It stunk.  But, my children are alright and healing up nice and healthy.  In the midst of this I learned of a friend from high school whose 8 year old daughter is battling cancer for the second time, with a grim prognosis.  Perspective, hmm.

Strawberry Chocolate Footballs

For the chocolate strawberries
*20 Hershey Kisses
*1 Tablespoon Crisco
*20 medium strawberries

For the lines:
*2 Tablespoon white chocolate chips
*1 teaspoon Crisco

These were super easy and fun to do.  I melted about 20 hershey kisses for a minute and mixed it together with a tablespoon of Crisco.  Stir until melted.  Dip the strawberries into the chocolate and then I place into the fridge to cool and then I pipe the lines on.

I put the white chocolate into a baggie and snip off the end of the bag to create a small hole.  This is easier than using a pastry bag :)