Cupcake Overload

I'm going on a baking spree.  I don't know why, I think it's because it's Lent and I'm not allowed to eat sweets so I'm overcompensating by making lots of sweets for other people.  Or maybe it's because I won this little guy the other day for the office bake-off.

Or maybe I'm just in a rough spot right now and need to bake.  Baking is my stress reliever, I feel so happy and calm and centered when I'm in the kitchen baking.  Now I'd feel even calmer and more centered if I was the ONLY one in the kitchen and could just zone out, but that doesn't happen normally.

Or maybe it's because I saw this book at Christmas for Small One since she brings in cupcakes for her friends birthdays (and when you see that, don't think that she's amazing.  I normally make everything she sends in and all her friends bring in cupcakes for the birthday person.  I feel really bad when she comes home with all these droopy, sloppy boxed cake and frosting cupcakes on her birthday because I know people spent time and money on them, but seriously I'm NOT wasting calories on some unworthy baked good just because I feel bad!) but I didn't end up getting it and saw it in the library the other day and got really inspired to make cupcakes.
 

Or maybe it's because the cupcakes that I made from the book turned out deliciously but the frosting was rock hard and weird.

I took that as a challenge.  I WILL find a new recipe for cupcakes and frosting and it WILL be delicious and it WILL look professional!  Or maybe not.  I'm gonna give cupcakes one more chance then just stick to cookies. For some reason I can do cookies.  I don't know why but I've figured out how to bake cookies and somehow my frosting just clicks.  One would think that making a frosting swirl on top of a cupcake would be a lot easier than piping a santa face on a cookie but for me it isn't.

Those were some of my favorite cookies to date :)

But after some extensive cupcake research on the internet I ran across an interesting recipe.  I'll admit, I like a denser cupcake.  Something more like a cake.  Not those light, airy, insubstantial (yet calorie and chemical packed) out of the box cupcakes.  And before you get all mad at me for saying that boxed cake mix has chemicals in it (I bet you can't pronounce all the ingredients either!) I have to confess that in college I ate boxed cake mix.  Plain.  Normally in the middle of the night.  With multiple hours left to go on projects.  And it was DELICIOUS.  But it's bad for me sooooo yeah.

Anyway, this cupcake recipe that I looked up promised to be a bit denser.  It was showcased on the Martha Stewart show called Billy's Vanilla Vanilla cupcakes.  The interesting thing about these cupcakes was that instead of creaming the butter and sugar together and then adding the dry ingredients and the wet ingredients, you instead mix all the dry ingredients plus the sugar together and THEN you cut in the butter like you were making biscuits.  But you're not making biscuits so then you add the wet ingredients and it turns into cake batter and voila!  A cupcake!

They were pretty tasty right out of the oven.  They were a little dry today when I could finally have sweets and try them out so I don't know if the recipe's a keeper or not, but I'll have to make them again to see.  The recipe made a lot of cupcakes though.  As in 41 cupcakes!  So I frosted half of them and saved the rest to experiment with making cake balls.  We'll see how those turn out when I can find lollipop sticks.

So yes, those were my baking travails of this past week.  Now it's on to more cookie baking and planning for Fake Patty's Day!

Howdy Texas

So I took a work trip to Dallas a few weekends ago.  I had a great time and had to remind myself that I was there for work ;)  Here are a few pictures from my trip there.

This was the car that was waiting for us at the airport!  Ummmmm  let's just say I was a wee bit embarrassed!  Who rides in a stretch SUV limo really?!  Town cars are where it's at people ;)

The inside was just as cheesy!  Look at that super retro tv and the blue light on the drink dispensers!  It was amusing but I must say it was so nice to have the travel all taken care of and limos were a great way to transport lots of people and not have to crawl into the very back of large vans like everyone else we saw at the conference.

Here I am looking out of the window in my room the night I got in.  It was a cool shot :)  And I was on the 20th floor!  Hi Dallas!

This picture set the tone for my entire trip.  I like to drink A LOT of water while I'm traveling.  It's because I get dehydrated fast and when I get dehydrated my ankles swell.  This all started when I flew to Italy a few years ago.  I got to my hotel room and my ankles were massive!  I spent the next hour lying on the ground with my feet against the wall.  If only I had known that I was just dehydrated!  I don't know what it is, but I think it's a combination of the forced air and pressurized cabin along with the fact that the airplane seats are a little too high so that cuts off some circulation.  Either way, I drink water, lots of water, when I travel.  It actually became the running joke of the trip!  I would horde all the free water bottles they gave out at the events we went to.  I always had a water bottle in my purse.  Those limos I was teasing about at the beginning?  Yeah they all have water in them!  I took two mini water bottles each ride we took :)  And no, in case you were wondering, I didn't have to run to the bathroom every two minutes either (which tells you how much I needed the water in the first place!).

Here is one side of my room, and the window seat where I took the window picture.

Here is me on my bed looking at the other side of the room.  So, funny thing about this picture, I sent it to Sarah and she said "wow that's a big mirror in your room!" And if you look at it, it does look like a giant mirror!  But that's just a line in the ceiling creating an optical illusion.  See the chair and the lamp?  They're not reflections, they are actually on the other side of the line and the desk with the mirror and the chair are on the other side.  Really weird :)

My favorite part of the entire vacation?  The hotel bathroom!

More specifically, THE SHOWER!  I probably spent HOURS in the shower.  I think I took twice as many showers as I needed to just so I could use the shower multiple times.  It was glorious and gorgeous and I loved the shower.  Once I spent half an hour rinsing my hair just looking at the construction and envisioning how I could install one in my parents' bathroom (I don't own my own place so I can't build one for myself).  It actually looks pretty easy . . .

The first night we went to a fancy french restaurant and then one of the guys and I were going to a college reunion party so this is what I chose to wear!  The dress is from White House Black Market and it lacy, and the t-strap peep-toe heels are BCBG.  I thought I looked like I belonged at the expensive restaurant.  Fake it till you make it right!?

Sunday morning I went to church with one of my friends who lives in Dallas, then we met up with some of our other friends (also in town) and went out to eat a delicious lunch.  I then had to get back to the hotel to get ready for the rodeo that night.  The rodeo was held for all the mechanical engineers coming to a product display.  This was one of the bull riders.

This was one of the bucking broncos.  Those were cool events.  Actually all the skills events were fun to watch, the rest of the rodeo was AWFUL!  No really it was awful.  Have you ever been to a rodeo?  Maybe it was different than this one which could have been just a spectacle for show, but between the clown who was supposed to provide comic relief who instead just made very inappropriate jokes and the trick riders wearing camo and the announcer yelling AMERICA every two minutes and the obstacle course they had people from the audience participate in, it was just a ridiculous waste of time.  Oh well, it was free and now I can say I've been to a rodeo.

The next morning I got up and went for a run with the other woman I work with who came on the trip.  Then we grabbed breakfast before we headed to the AHR Expo which was why we were actually on the trip!  But the best thing about breakfast was that I got tea!!!  I drink hot tea every morning and iced tea throughout the rest of the day, so to have gone two whole days without any type of tea was all sorts of torture!

That night we went to two company sponsored parties and this is what I wore.  The skirt actually has golden threads running through it making it sparkle.  Btw, both the top and the skirt I bought that day on sale from Banana Republic!  Did I mention that the hotel we stayed at was attached to the Galleria? (that's a big mall in dallas)  I remember going to the Galleria when we visited my aunt in Dallas years and years ago and now I'm staying at hotels there!  How times change ;)

These parties are pretty elaborate ones for the companies to show off, but they're nice to attend :)  This was the first party of the night on the 69th floor, the top floor!  This is a picture out the window from where the party was.  It was super high!  It was also super windy that night.  It was a bit disconcerting to see the windows shaking every time a gust hit the building . . . I stayed far away from the windows after taking this picture!


 

This is the building in the daytime.  So I was on the top floor of that, a little bit crazy to think about.

Here was the second party we went to.  It was held at the opera house in Dallas and it was a gorgeous space!

Did I mention they had the best chocolate desserts!?  I had five mini desserts :)  And wine, with a light-up ice cube!  It was fun.

These were the stairs up to the second floor.  I felt like such a celebrity walking up and down those stairs.  I think I mentioned to multiple people that I could get used to a life where I got dressed up and went to the opera ;)

The next day we went back to the expo before getting on the plane.  We had to check out of the hotel that morning before we went to the expo, but I managed to take a picture of my recycling bin before I left.  It was completely full of water bottles!  What can I say, my ankles didn't swell once ;)