Sweet Treat Saturday!

So as I said before, I am obsessed with cupcakes.  I don't know why, but I just love everything about making them!  Maybe it's because it's a smaller canvas to work on?  Anyways, here's another recipe I recently tried...and I'm in LOVE with them!

Cosmo Cupcakes

Prep Time: 30 minutes Cook Time: 18 minutes Difficulty: MEDIUM Serves: 24


You will need...

For The Cake

1 box Vanilla Cake Mix
3 eggs
1/2 cup oil
1 cup Cosmopolitan Drink Mix (without alcohol)

Preheat oven to 350°.
Combine Cake Mix, 1/2 cup oil and 1 cup Cosmopolitan Drink Mix in stand mixer or large mixing bowl.
Add eggs. Use a hand mixer or stand mixer and beat on low speed for 30 seconds. Then turn mixer to medium speed for 1 minute.

Fill each cupcake liner in cupcake pan 2/3 full. Bake cupcakes at 350° for 18-20 minutes {actual times may vary depending on your oven.  Mine does cupcakes in 18 minutes}. Check to see if cupcakes done by inserting a toothpick into the center of one. Toothpick should be clean when pulled out if cupcakes are done.

 Let cupcakes cool completely before frosting.


For The Frosting

1/2 cup shortening
1 stick, or 1/2 cup butter
1 lb. (about 4 cups) powdered sugar
2- 3 tablespoons Cosmopolitan Drink Mix (without alcohol)
a few drops of red food coloring


Combine butter and shortening in in stand mixer or large mixing bowl. Use a hand mixer or stand mixer to cream butter and shortening on high speed for 3 minutes or until light in color.

Add powdered sugar to mixing bowl. Mix on low speed for 30 seconds. Then turn to medium speed for 1 minute, or until sugar is incorporated.
Add 2 - 3 tablespoons Cosmopolitan Drink Mix to frosting. Mix on high until light and fluffy. Add a few drops of food coloring and mix on high again until the desired color is achieved.

If frosting is too thick, add a little more Cosmopolitan Drink Mix to thin it out.

Frosted using Wilton 21 tip.  Topped with Lime Wedges

You could also put the tops of a bendy straw for decoration.  You MIGHT get asked what the straw is for though...Lots of people asked me, lol

Sweet Tooth Saturday!

I have been obsessed with cupcakes lately!!  I have a ton of awesome recipes that I've been dying to try...so I decided to start on some yesterday!  I made a lot of cupcakes {4 dozen  cupcakes to be exact!}  Here's a recipe for one of my new favorite cupcakes...

Pink Lemonade Cupcakes
 Prep Time: Cook Time: 18 minutes Difficulty: MEDIUM Serves: 24

You will need...

For the cake

1 box white cake mix

3/4 frozen pink lemonade concentrate, thawed out

1/2 cup water

1/3 cup vegetable oil

4 egg whites

First, Preheat oven to 350, put cupcake liners in the muffin tins.

Combine all of the cake ingredients {first 5 ingredients} in a mixing bowl.  Using your electric mixer, mix on low speed for 30 seconds, then increase to medium speed for an additional minute. 

Fill cupcake liners about 2/3 of the way full.

Bake @ 350 for about 18 minutes {baking times vary based on your oven!}.  Allow cupcakes to cool before frosting.

Pink Lemonade Frosting

For the frosting...

1 stick {1/2 cup} butter, room temperature

1/2 cup shortening

4 cups powdered sugar

2-4 tbsp pink lemonade concentrate

red and/or yellow food coloring 

Combine butter and shortening in large mixing bowl, use hand or stand mixer to cream butter and shortening on high speed for about 3 minutes, or until light in color.

Add powdered sugar {I did this one cup at a time, mixing it together a little before I put the next cup in}  

Mix on low for 30 seconds, then increasing the speed speed to medium for an additional minute or until sugar is incorporated.

Add 2-4 tbsp of pink lemonade concentrate and mix on high until light and fluffy looking.

I used a wilton 21 tip for the decorating.

Snowman Straws

The kids and I got into the Holiday spirit today by cranking up the Christmas music and doing fun holiday crafts/baking.  We started off our Christmas Eve morning with a "special" cup of Hot Cocoa!!  Here is what we did...

Snow Man Straws:

For each snowman straw you will need: 

• 1 straw
• 3 marshmellows
• 1 Hershey kiss (optional)
• small handful of mini kisses
• frosting to help the kisses stay on (also optional but very helpful!)

First:  you are going to stick the straw through the marshmellow, bottom end first!  (Helpful tip! GET THICK STRAWS! The ones I had on hand bent very easily, and it worked find, just made it more difficult)

REPEAT with all three marshmellows

Next you will need to put a small dab of frosting on one mini kiss and then stick it to the marshmellow.  You could also just push the mini kisses into the marshmellow.  

After the face is on, you can choose to add buttons, or in our case we decided our snowmen needed hats!  For the hats we used one Hershey kiss (candy cane flavored!)  and a small line of frosting to help it stick.

And now you're ready to drink! We waited to make our hot chocolate until after the snowmen were almost done so that way it'd still be nice and hot when we were ready to drink.

My boys gave this recipe a  "two thumbs up!"      =)