Strawberry Shortcake Cupcakes

I wanted to come up with a healthy dessert option for Mother's Day. We all know where the majority of the calories come from when you eat a cupcake...the frosting. This recipe is already low-calorie and low-fat because some of the butter has been replaced with sour cream (so it is still super moist) and the frosting has been replaced with fruit-based icing and a dollop of fat-free Cool Whip. Making these changes allows this bad-boy to ring in with a calorie count of only 230. So that being said, let's dive in!

The Grocery List:

• 1 stick of salted butter (1/2 cup)
• 1 (8 oz) container of fat-free sour cream
• 1 1/2 cups of granulated sugar
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup of egg substitute
• 2 cups all purpose flout
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 cup low-fat buttermilk
• 1 lb strawberries
• 1 lemon
• 1 cup powdered sugar
• Cool Whip Free
• Cupcake liners

The Prep: 

Start by melting the stick of butter and set aside to let cool. 

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Combine all of the dry ingredients (flour, baking soda and salt) in a medium-sized bowl with a whisk. Also, while the butter is cooling, now would be a good time to slice up some strawberries for garnish. I only used one slice per cupcake, which came to only about 8-9 small strawberries. Make sure you reserve at least 4 medium-large strawberries for the glaze. 

The Batter:

Now that your butter is cooled (or at least, not HOT), it's time to make some batter! Using an electric mixer, whisk the sour cream and melted butter until well combined. Add the sugar and vanilla. Whisk for an additional 2-3 minutes at medium speed. Add the egg substitute and blend for another 2 minutes on medium. 

DIY: Framed Memo Board

In an effort to get more organized and to clear out some closet space, I wanted to use this frame to make a memo board for my office (a ridiculous work in progress). I used to work at a frame shop so there were tons of deals that I couldn't pass up, so I have a closet full of unused frames. Having these frames around has worked out so far because I change out our wall decor seasonally, but I am in desperate need of more storage space, so it's use-it or lose-it time!

I have always loved this particular frame so I had to snag it when it went unused for a custom frame order and went on clearance. The old world style just doesn't jive with the decor in our house, though, so I had to bust out the spray paint and switch up the look a bit (don't hate me, Mom!).

I sprayed a quick layer of primer, followed by a couple of coats of the white gloss paint. 

I bought an unframed cork-board at a local craft store for about $15. I wanted it to have more of a fabric, memo board look, than the look of actual cork. I had some coarse linen fabric leftover from a previous project that I wanted to glue on the surface of the cork to get that fabric texture. 

Ombré Fabric Napkins

I am in the midst of a ton of spring projects, one of which is a spring table-scape. I was having a terrible time finding napkins that suited my style and the colors that I was looking for, so what better to do then add another project to the pile!

What you need:

1. 4-6 White Cotton Napkins, washed 
2. Fabric Dye(s) of your choice (I used Lemon Yellow and Tan)
3. Salt
4. Rubber Gloves
5. Plastic Tablecloth or Covering
6. Medium Plastic Container
7. Skirt Hanger
8. Dish-Washing Liquid
9. Measuring Spoon

Prep the Dye

• Bring 2 gallons of water to a boil on the stove or in the microwave  (I tried both ways and found it was easier just to use the stove-top so it could be done all at once instead of in several batches).
• To achieve the shade of yellow for these napkins, I used 3 tablespoons of the Lemon Yellow and 3/4 of a teaspoon of Tan, and combined that with 2 cups of water and 1 cup of salt in the medium-sized plastic bin.
• After the water has come to a boil, slowly pour into the container with the dye mixture, followed by a quick squirt of dish-washing liquid. Stir with a plastic mixing spoon until the salt is fully dissolved.

Dye the Napkins

• After you have washed the napkins, if you have dried them, re-wet them. Stack all wet napkins together and clip them together using a skirt hanger. I kept the tags on  mine during the dying process so that I had a reference point to keep them all facing the right direction. The packaging says they are 16x16, however I found that they are not completely square, so i wanted to make sure the ombre ran vertically on the longest side.
• Dip the bottom quarter of the napkins into the dye for about 1 minute, followed by dipping the bottom half into the dye for not more than 30 continuous seconds. If you don't like the effect continue to quickly lift it in and out of the dye until you are happy with the gradient.

• For one second dip the bottom three quarters of the napkins into the dye and immediately rinse them in cold water, making sure to rinse them from the top, down, so that the dye rinses toward the darkest part of the napkin.
• After they are thoroughly rinsed so that the water runs clear, hang them dry with the darkest part of the napkin at the bottom. If you have 4-6 skirt hangers, they will dry much faster if they are hung separate.
•  Once they have completely dried, run them through the wash with cold water and dry them. You will most likely need to iron them as well.

Adding the Blanket Stitch

I wanted to add a little something extra to make these a little more fun. They looked good without the stitching, but I thought the stitching added what I was looking for to make a more unique look.

I used two bundles of thread (brand: DMC, color: 959) to run the blanket stitch on just the top and bottom. I also used the full thickness of the embroidery thread to get a bolder line with the stitch. It had been quite a while since I have done a blanket stitch, so I used the following diagram as a refresher:

aaand....you're done!

Valentine’s Day Dessert: Chocolate Lava Cake

With all of this love in the air, I figured what better time is there to make a seriously decadent, delicious desert to share with my sweetie. I have actually wanted to tackle a molten chocolate lava cake for some time and haven’t had the excuse to do it. Enter Valentine’s Day!! This is a variation of a Ghirardelli recipe. I made a couple of changes for both taste and convenience that worked well for me.

Ingredients

• 6 oz 60% cocao bittersweet baking chocolate bars
• 1/4 cup heavy cream
• 8 Tablespoons butter (1 stick)
• 2 eggs
• 2 egg yokes
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/4 cup cake flour
• 12 ounces of unsweetened frozen raspberries, thawed
• 1/2 cup simple syrup (equal parts sugar and water melted)
• Fresh raspberries and mint leaves for garnish

Let’s get baking:

1. Melt 2 ounces of chocolate and cream in a double boiler. Whisk until smooth. Put the melted mixture in the refrigerator for about 2 hours or until firm. After the chocolate mixture has set form into 6 balls.

To make these little beauties with ease, I used a wet teaspoon (wetting in between each scoop) to drag across the bottom of my double boiler until the ball was formed. The water helped release the chocolate from the spoon without any messy sticking. After portioning out the chocolate, refrigerate until needed.
2. Prep for the cakes: preheat the oven to 400 degrees and spray six 6 ounce ramekins with baking spray. For cakes that I need to release cleanly from their baking vessel, I always use cooking spray with flour such as Baker’s Joy.

Inspiration from the Antique Store

On a few of our recent (failed) thrift store adventures, we have had a certain antique mall recommended to us. This past weekend, we finally made our way there and were really happy that we did. Some of these things I just thought were really cool or unique, but a lot will serve as inspiration for the new home office!

Lovely Glass:

On this field trip I discovered a couple...no a few new obsessions. Two of my newly found obsessions are hobnail glass and salt and pepper shakers. To spare you all some redundancies, I did not post the 4 other pictures of various salt and pepper shakers that I took and instead went with a combo of two of my new favorite things. 

Incorporating Pink In Your Decor

With all of the Valentine’s decoration on the shelves in the stores it kind of got me thinking of pink as actually being a relevant color. My husband and I have lived together for 8 years, so I stopped thinking about pink as a color option many moons ago. Every now and again I will find the inspiration to say the words: “What about pink?” to him and it’s always followed by: “What about what?!” So until I have a space that is for me and ONLY me, I will have to live vicariously through those that have been bold enough to not only rock some pink, but seriously pull it off. 

To me, choosing how you incorporate pink is all about your level of commitment to the color. So we'll start this relationship off slow and work up to a serious commitment.

1. Pillows and Linens

You've flirted with the idea of pink for a while now and you've finally worked up the courage to go on your first date. So you buy throw pillows and maybe a blanket or some other relatively inexpensive accent to see how you feel about pink.

San Francisco Media And Blogs SFGIRLBYBAY

Mackle Construction

Inspiration from Crate & Barrel

One of my new favorite things is CrateandBarrel.com! I'm not just talking about the ease of online shopping, that's REALLY old news. Crate and Barrel has a ton of online freebies on the website.....and who isn't a sucker for free stuff?? In their Inspiration menu on their website, you will find some really cool tools that you can use for decorating and entertaining in your home.  In particular I love their Get the Download section. If you have an Apple product of any sort then you will love this! Check out what they have to download for FREE:

An ENTIRE playlist of 10 songs:

The songs are primarily Indie Rock or Pop-Rock, which for the most part is my kind of thing, so I really liked most of these songs, but even if you like one....it's freaking FREE!

An ENTIRE book (not just the sample):

I'm really excited to read this book. The author is the lead singer of the Decemberists, a really great folksy Rock band. I'm curious to see how the lyrics he writes translate to story. Crate and Barrel also has a list of additional recommended reads that are available for purchase that look great. 

Several Free Apps:

Between mixing drinks (with a little bit of a history lesson thrown in) and playing a game of Scrabble they have you hooked up!

Yummy Recipes:

Pomegranate Yogurt Dip

Grapefruit-Rosemary Martini 

If you like free downloads and entertaining inspiration, you should definitely check it out! Do you know of any awesome freebies that I am missing out on??