Birthday weekend!

Picking up where I left off last week:

I forgot to tell ya'll I made cupcakes!!

It's the recipe from Magnolia bakery and I thought was reminiscent of snow and ice with seemed apropos. I've included the recipe below, however I would like to note that you should use the high end of the measurement for powder sugar as the actual recipe can be kind of liquidity depending on the consistency of the butter:

Cupcakes:

• 1 1/2 cups self-rising flour
• 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
• 2 cups sugar
• 4 large eggs, at room temperature
• 1 cup milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Icing:

• Vanilla Buttercream, recipe follows

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Line 2 (1/2 cup-12 capacity) muffin tins with cupcake papers.

In a small bowl, combine the flours. Set aside.

In a large bowl, on the medium speed of an electric mixer, cream the butter until smooth. Add the sugar gradually and beat until fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add the eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Add the dry ingredients in 3 parts, alternating with the milk and vanilla. With each addition, beat until the ingredients are incorporated but do not over beat. Using a rubber spatula, scrape down the batter in the bowl to make sure the ingredients are well blended. Carefully spoon the batter into the cupcake liners, filling them about 3/4 full. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, or until a cake tester inserted into the center of the cupcake comes out clean.

Cool the cupcakes in tins for 15 minutes. Remove from the tins and cool completely on a wire rack before icing.

• Vanilla Buttercream

The vanilla buttercream we use at the bakery is technically not a buttercream but actually an old-fashioned confectioners' sugar and butter frosting. Be sure to beat the icing for the amount of time called for in the recipe to achieve the desired creamy texture.

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
6 to 8 cups confectioners' sugar
1/2 cup milk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Place the butter in a large mixing bowl. Add 4 cups of the sugar and then the milk and vanilla. On the medium speed of an electric mixer, beat until smooth and creamy, about 3 to 5 minutes. Gradually add the remaining sugar, 1 cup at a time, beating well after each addition (about 2 minutes), until the icing is thick enough to be of good spreading consistency. You may not need to add all of the sugar. If desired, add a few drops of food coloring and mix thoroughly. (Use and store the icing at room temperature because icing will set if chilled.) Icing can be stored in an airtight container for up to 3 days.

Yield: enough for 2 dozen cupcakes or 1 (9-inch) layer cake

I brought these into work on Thursday after braving the seriously treacherous roads. I think they were pretty tasty if I do say so myself!

On Friday, my actual birthday, I went and got a great massage with a couple of work buddies after work. Seriously amazing idea! We went out for totties afterward at Cooker's Hawk and seriously like everyone from work came! It was a-mazing! BF even brought cupcakes for everyone to split from Molly's!

Only downside was that my car started making some weird noises on the way home... which called for a trip to the Sears Auto Center first thing in the morning. While BF and I were waiting, I introduced him to my new Sub-urb Brunch place, Benedict's Eggs! We enjoyed some pretty amazing food before picking up my beautiful car. BF headed back into the city, and I checked out this new (to me) place Charming Charlie! I picked up a few things before heading into the city in the evening for dinner with BF for dinner. We hit up Jane's Restaurant on Cortland. This was a beautiful little place with very romantic undertones and large, tasty entrees! Highly recommend, and happen to personally know they're not booked for Valentine's day.

Super Bowl was pretty low key with BF, then headed back to the burbs to prepare for the week. Now it's Monday and I'm writing my re-cap while watch GLEE... ONLY TO DISCOVER THAT STUPID POST-GAME CUT OFF HALF THE FREAKING EPISODE!!! GOSH I HATE SPORTS SO MUCH SOMETIMES! Well kiddies, I hope you had a wonderful weekend as well and look forward to another amazing week!

XoXo

Chinese New Year

This year the start of the Chinese New Year takes place on Feb. 3. Which also happens to be the day before my birthday. This past weekend my mom was visiting to celebrate my Aunt's 50th birthday, my other Aunt birthday, and my own. We made a stop by Jungle Jim's is just an insane amount of any thing you'd ever need, which happens to include super cheap, super big bags of Fortune Cookies:

Needless to say, I am well prepared to help those at work celebrate. This is all in good fun, and I should preface this with I am not of Asian decent. However it does have a pretty interesting history, and I am fully FOR learning new things about everyone. So below is some neat mythology I picked up on Wikipedia (forewarning: my dad fully believes that Wikipedia does not necessarily make things true or accurate, however it's a quick reference and typically well moderated, in my opinion).


According to tales and legends, the beginning of Chinese New Year started with the fight against a mythical beast called the Nien (Chinese: 年; pinyin: nián). Nien would come on the first day of New Year to devour livestock, crops, and even villagers, especially children. To protect themselves, the villagers would put food in front of their doors at the beginning of every year. It was believed that after the Nien ate the food they prepared, it wouldn’t attack any more people. One time, people saw that the Nien was scared away by a little child wearing red. The villagers then understood that the Nien was afraid of the colour red. Hence, every time when the New Year was about to come, the villagers would hang red lanterns and red spring scrolls on windows and doors. People also used firecrackers to frighten away the Nien. From then on, Nien never came to the village again. The Nien was eventually captured by Hongjun Laozu, an ancient Taoist monk. The Nien became Hongjun Laozu's mount.^[5]

^{I highly recommend reading further to understand all the festivities and background. HERE Enjoy!}