Recipes

For his birthday Cole's friends Jake & Jordan gave him a book all about how to make giant bubbles. It came with a recipe for the perfect bubble soap. As you can see it worked! He has had so much fun playing with this. It also works great with the plastic rings from a 6 pack just dip them in and blow or swing it around. Here is the recipe:

12 Cups Water
1 Cup Joy
1 Cup Corn Starch
2 TBS Baking Powder

Mix well and skim off any foam. . . and have fun!


This recipe is for the cupcakes I made for Cole's party. They were really good and the kids gobbled them up. But I have to say that I didn't use as much butter as they called for in the marshmallow filling. And no this isn't a picture of the ones I made.

For the Cupcakes: 16 tablespoons (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature plus more for muffin tins ¾ cup unsweetened cocoa powder, plus more for muffin tins 2 cups all-purpose flour (spooned and leveled) ½ teaspoon baking soda 2 teaspoons baking powder ½ teaspoon salt 2 cups sugar 3 large eggs, room temperature 1 cup sour cream, room temperature For the Filling 1 ½ cups marshmallow crème (7.5-ounce jar) 8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature

Cream-Filled Chocolate Cupcakes Makes 12 | Prep time: 30 minutes | Total time: 1 hour 45 minutes Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter two 6-cup (each with a 1-cup capacity) jumbo muffin tins: dust with cocoa powder to coat, tapping out excess. In a medium bowl, whisk together cocoa, flour, baking powder, soda, and salt. Using an electric mixer, beat butter and sugar until light. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. On low speed, add half the flour mixture, followed by sour cream, ending with remaining flour mixture; mix just until incorporated (do not overmix). Divide batter among prepared muffin cups. Bake until a toothpick inserted in center of a cupcake comes out clean, 25 to 30 minutes, rotating tins halfway through baking. Cool in tins, 5 minutes; remove cupcakes and cool, right side up, on a wire rack. Meanwhile, prepare filling: In a medium bowl, whisk marshmallow crème and butter until smooth. Chill until slightly firm, 15 to 30 minutes. Transfer mixture to a heavy-duty resealable plastic bag, and seal; cut off one corner of the bag to make a 1/8-inch opening. Using a small melon baller, scoop out center of each cupcake from the bottom, and reserve (you will use this to plug cupcake after filling). Hallow out each cupcake a bit more, discarding crumbs. Insert tip of plastic bag into each cavity, and squeeze to fill; replace plugs. Using remaining filling in plastic bag, decorate top of cupcakes.

This is a glazed lemon cake that Symonie & I love. We got the recipe from The Silver Palate Cookbook. I have made some changes to the original the lemon syrup idea came from a recipe from The Barefoot Contessa.

1/2 pound butter, softened
2 cups sugar
3 eggs
3 cups all purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup buttermilk
2 tightly packed Tbs lemon zest
2 Tbs lemon juice

Preheat 325 degree oven. Grease & flour 10 inch tube pan. Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy (5 min). Beat in eggs one at a time blending well after each addition. Sift together dry ingredients. Stir dry ingredients into egg mixture alternating with the buttermilk -- begining and ending with dry ingredients. Add lemon juice and zest. Por into pan and bake for 1 hour or until cake has pulled away from sides. Cool 10 min. in pan.

While cooling (or baking) in a small sauce pan bring to boil 1/2 cup lemon juice and 1/2 cup sugar. Spoon this on top of cake before inverting it onto your serving dish. Ice while the cake is still warm.

Icing:
1 pound powdered sugar (4cups)
8 tbs butter
3 Tbs lemon zest
1/2 cup fresh lemon juice

Cream butter and sugar thoroughly. Mix in zest and juice and spread on warm cake.