Rum and Coke cupcakes

Oh boy...



Yes, I realize that's a pepsi in the photo, but that's all I had!! I got this idea from a friend of mine who said...Hey, can you make me a cupcake with Captian Morgan's in it??? So I searched around for recipes. I found a good coke cupcake recipe that I used, but couldn't really find a rum frosting one that I liked. So I used my old standby vanilla buttercream recipe and added about 4 tablespoons of Malibu rum. The frosting was good, you could taste the rum without being overwhelming.





Here's the recipe for the cake portion:

2 cups AP flour
2 cups sugar
1 cup (2 sticks) margarine
1 cup Coca-Cola©
3 tablespoons cocoa
1/2 cup buttermilk
2 eggs, room temperature
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon vanilla
1-1/2 cup mini marshmallows

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line pan with cupcake liners.

1. In stand mixer fitted with a flat beater, combine flour and sugar; set aside. In saucepan, combine margarine, cola and cocoa and bring to a boil.

2. Remove pan from heat and pour over flour and sugar. Mix thoroughly to combine. Add buttermilk, eggs, baking soda, vanilla. Mix well.

3. Fill cupcake liners about 1/2-2/3 full and bake for about 17-20 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Let cool before frost.

I did NOT use marshmallows. There is something to be said for reading the ENTIRE ingredient list before actually starting to bake. I got the marshmallow part and said...oh crap! I don't have any of those!! They turned out just fine.



It was a fun and different cupcake for sure! The cake was so moist, I think that's because of the soda in the mix. And the frosting...really really good. Even good eaten just on the spoon because there was some left over. Don't judge me, I couldn't let it go to waste!!!

Thanks for stopping by!

SP color combo #5

Here is my card for the #5 color combo at Scrapmaster's Paradise.



I broke out my Star Prints set from Papertrey Ink and used my punch to punch out the stars after stamping. Easy Peasy!! I didn't have the exact colors that were asked for, but I hope I came close!



I popped up the middle star with some foam squares to add a little bit more dimension.



I also added some buttons and bling. Love that bling in a line from Hero Arts. I'm almost out of it, boo! I need to find some more!!



I had fun with this color combo. I love using stamps that I haven't used in a while. You should definitely check out the color combos. Gives me a little push to design something different. Come over and check out what everybody else is creating, too. Thanks for stopping by!

Circles and Crayons

I wanted to share another layout I did with the July Kit from Color Me Daisy, Summertime Fun. The kit includes this fun shaped paper by Fancy Pants and some sheer butterflies from Maya Road. For the butterfly, I took three different colors of crayons and using my trusty Aim-n-Flame, melted the crayon wax and dripped it on the butterfly. After a few layers, it turned into this cool mosaic pattern. I also cut little circles to make my tree top and layered them with some buttons. I like the end result!!





Better go grab a kit for yourself before they are all sold out!! I am working the next Scrapmaster's Paradise Color Challenge and hopefully will be posting it tomorrow. Hope you're all having a good week!

Whew...busy weekend!!

Hi everyone! We had a great 3rd of July celebration and a great visit with my sister and her husband. We went to a great neighborhood party for the 3rd of July (our little town does fireworks on the 3rd, have no idea why...maybe it's cheaper??). Lots of good food, friends, and fireworks!

I made THIS salad and it really was the best salad EVER. And yes, i'm a big ol' dork and took a photo of it.



We spent the morning before the party making this AWESOME Uncle Sam hat for my brother-in-law. He said he would wear a hat if we made one. My sister and I kicked into crafty overdrive and came up with the hat (along with some help from Kevin and Kayla). Craig decided to wear the pinata on his head at some point. Look at the 2 Uncle Sam's!!



Here's Kevin taking down the other pinata. Yes, there were 2 pinatas!!



Me and my little sis!



Sparklers!!





And some fireworks. This was my first year attempting to take any photos. I turned out with alot of really bad photos and one or two good ones.





Hope you all had a great holiday celebrating with your friends and family!!

Happy Friday Favorites!!!

Happy 3rd of July everyone! Our little town celebrates today with fireworks. So i'm heading over to my neighbors soon for food and friends and homebrew. So this post will be short and sweet!!

Here are my 5 favorite things growing in my garden right now:

1. Zucchini!! These plants are enormous and taking over everything and are pumping out tons of zucchini. I have a new recipe for chocolate zucchini bread i'm dying to try!!



2. Watermelon. I have a feeling this will be taking over the garden soon, too. We haven't had much luck with watermelon, but these plants are growing great so we'll have to see!



3. Tomatoes. We are finally getting green ones and I can't wait for them to turn red. My hubbie makes the best salsa.



4. Cucumbers. They are not growing too fast, being dwarfed by the zucchini. But I have a feeling their time will come!



5. Not my daughter...but her sunflower! She planted this from a seed in kindergarden and we transplanted it into our garden. And I swear it grows an inch each day. It's already taller than she is!



We are off to celebrate. Hope you have a great 4th of July celebration with your friends and family. Thanks for stopping by!!

SPCC Color Combo #4

I'm back with another color combo from Scrapmaster's Paradise. Here is combo #4:



The yellow was tough for me, so I dug through my patterned paper for a while. I just got some Urban Prarie by Basic Grey and the colors really caught my eye. I paired some patterned paper with yellow cardstock and came up with this card.



My butterfly punch just calls to me whenever I sit down and it's hard to resist!! The stamps are Papertrey Ink and the bling is Glitz. I hope you are all having a great week. My sister and hubbie are here until Sunday and we are having lots of fun!! Cinammon rolls for breakfast and going to see a movie later. Thanks for stopping by!!

Summertime Fun

Look at these fantastic bright colors of the July Color Me Daisy Kit, Summertime Fun!!!



It's full of Fancy Pants, Basic Grey, Sassafrass Lass and more!! I just loved working with the bright colors of this kit. Totally right up my alley!

My DH loves the Dos Equis commercials with the Most Interesting Man in the World. 'Stay Thirsty, my friends' is his tagline so I knew I had to make a layout of it.



And I love these intense photos of my daughter dipping pretzels. She really got into this project!




I have more to come, so stop by again this week. Hope you're having a great Wednesday!!