Cupcakes

I cannot believe it is July 1st! The summer is flying by - WHOOSH! My house doesn't look any cleaner either, so I better step up my game! No kids are home, since both Jason and Amanda are overnight camp staff at New Life Camp again this summer, so my only distractions are self-made. Unfortunately, I'm easily distracted.

I have been doing a lot of cupcake baking these past couple of weeks, providing cupcakes for 2 weddings and a rehearsal dinner. When you have grown children, there are lots of weddings among their friends. It takes mes 2-4 days of prepping, baking and frosting for each event, so that has kept me busy.  

 

Salty Sweet, Chocolate Chip Cannoli, Southern Peach, Red Velvet Cheesecake

Strawberry Cream, Red Velvet Cheesecake , Southern Peach, Chocolate Chip Cannoli, S'mores

 Tuxedo, S'mores, Chocolate Cheesecake

 

 

Carrot Cake, Chocolate Cheesecake, Strawberry Lemonade, S'mores, White Chocolate Raspberry, Tuxedo

White Chocolate Raspberry, Strawberry Lemonade, Carrot Cake

Support Group Leadership - Mentors and Cupcakes

Mentor:  a guide, a coach, an experienced and trusted advisor.

Tuesday night was our "kick-off the new school year" monthly parent meeting, with over 100 people in attendance.  We have a large number of "seasoned" homeschool moms in our group, which is great news for new homeschoolers eager for mentors!   Mentoring homeschool moms happens to be one of my passions, and I am mentor coordinator for our group this year.  Having been in support group leadership for close to 20 years, I can say that we have tried many different approaches to homeschool mentoring, with varying degrees of success.  But recently we have found a few things that seem to be working especially well.

First, we just started using ASK ME badges for mentors/leaders at our monthly parent meetings.  We usually have 40-50 people at a monthly meeting, and some months, like last night, there can be over 100.  Everyone prints themselves a name tag at the check-in desk when they arrive, but it is hard for people to tell who are the experienced homeschoolers/leaders. So now, mentors and leaders at the meeting will wear a bright red ASK ME badge in addition to their name tag.


We are also changing the way that we do seating at a meeting. Rather than rows of chairs facing the front of the room, next month we are going to start setting up the room with rectangular tables and chairs.  Each table will have 6-8 chairs and a mentor/hostess, who will be wearing her ASK ME badge, and will facilitate introductions among the people sitting at her table.The hostess might choose to bring a favor for all the people at her table -  a new pencil, some candy kisses, a bookmark.  Some mentors will be specific to the meeting topic that month. For example, when the topic is Teaching Your Challenging Child, we'll have several mentors who have children with special needs or learning disabilities. Our group has over 300 member families,  so there is a large pool of people to draw from. While we haven't done this yet, we are very excited about this change, and the potential for our members to make connections at these monthly meetings.

For a couple of years now, we have devoted one monthly meeting each year to "Speed Mentoring".
This has become a very popular meeting! “Speed Mentoring allows veteran homeschoolers to connect with new homeschoolers who are overwhelmed with questions about anything (or everything!) related to home education. The “mentor” doesn’t need to be an expert in homeschooling—she simply shares from her experience. New parents ask their question(s) in a one-on-one setting, then, after an allotted time, a whistle blows, and they move to the next mentor to either ask the same question(s) or shift to another topic. This makes a fun, lively, interactive support group meeting " [Speed Mentoring,  HSLDA.org]    Sending out mentor bios along with a list of possible questions ahead of time helps things to run smoothly at the meeting. We have found that our members are most happy when meetings involve time for social interaction. As much as we love that we get to spend each day with our children, we moms also really enjoy the chance to hang out with adults from time to time!  And we homeschool moms are really interesting people to hang out with!

A couple of years ago we invited amazing homeschool mom Vickie Bentley to come speak  at our support group meeting, and as a result discovered her Home Education 101 Mentor Manual and Parent Workbook.

This is a fantastic tool for mentors to use either one on one or in a group setting, to cover basic information that is important for giving new homeschoolers a solid foundation as they begin their homeschool journey.  There are 9 chapters, covering Beginning the Journey, Choosing Curriculum, Organizing Your Time, Learning & Teaching Styles, Getting Dinner on the Table, Testing & Evaluations, Teaching Tips, Organizing Your Home, and Lessons Learned.  The manual includes information for the mentor to share, but also give spaces for adding in your own experiences as well as information specific to your state laws, etc.  There is an accompanying Parent Workbook that contains reprints of some information from the manual, but also blanks spaces in which to take notes from what your mentor is sharing.  Right now we have 4 small groups forming, for moms who have homeschooled for 0-3 years  - 3 groups will meet weekly for 8 weeks in a row, the 4th will be an all-day Saturday crash course!  I asked for testimonials from past Home Education 101 participants. Here are some things they had to say:

 "At the beginning of my second year of homeschooling, with much encouragement from a friend, I reluctantly signed up to be in a mentor group.  It wasn't that I didn't think I needed it, I just didn't want to add another thing to my calendar.  I went that first night not sure of what it would be like and if it would even benefit me.  I quickly learned that it would be a turning point for me in my homeschool years.  ...  God used several things over the course of that year to confirm that He wanted me to homeschool, but I credit the mentor group for bringing joy and grace back into our school.  I would HIGHLY recommend joining a mentor group, even if you don't think you can add another thing to your calendar :)  "

"Our group met twice a month.  We sat with our mentor around the table and went over all the basics – from curriculum choices to finding your child’s learning style to making the most of your daily schedule.  In addition to practical advice, I received support and encouragement from all the fabulous ladies who came – and there were even cupcakes!  My mentoring group helped me hang on when I felt like giving up, and I’m so glad I did!  I received valuable tips on working with my son.  I learned how to schedule our day more efficiently.  And I met other moms who also had messy houses! "

"I decided to homeschool only a few weeks before the school year started in 2013 and I was so unsure about ... everything.  Having a seasoned homeschool mom ... to encourage us, and teach us, and cheer us on was invaluable.  I loved that we could talk about marriage, meal planning, cleaning (or not), and how homeschooling affects every part of our lives as moms and wives.  I left every meeting renewed and encouraged.... Should I mention the cupcakes? " 

 Which brings us to the topic of cupcakes.   Several years ago I developed my cupcake baking skills in order to help my daughter raise money for a missions trip, and it has become my hobby, to the point that in certain circles I am known as "the cupcake lady".   These are made-from-scratch gourmet cupcakes, and I have a list of over 50 flavors that I have tried.  I started bringing cupcakes for the refreshment table at our monthly meetings, to our monthly leaders meetings, and to my mentor group meetings.  You know what? There is just something about home-baked goodies that makes people feel loved!  Store-bought cookies and bags of chips do not invoke the same reaction as a yummy treat lovingly prepared in someone's own kitchen!  Neither do veggie trays.  And if some of those treats are prepared with gluten-free ingredients, you will have the undying affection of those in your group who rarely get to indulge in the goodies at the end of the meeting.  Note the reaction of one of our new members when I posted in our Facebook group that I was bringing gluten-free cupcakes to the meeting because she mentioned it in passing." OMG NO YOU DIDN'T!!! You are AWESOME...I always go to the parties and never can indulge because of it... I will kiss you when I get there!!!!" Part of successful mentoring is developing a relationship of trust and acceptance, and cupcakes are amazingly good at breaking the ice and fostering good feelings.  Try it!

 

Two Hundred Cupcakes

I just did my biggest cupcake order yet, when I baked cupcakes for the wedding of the daughter of a friend of a friend. :-)    It was fun, but a little stressful, as I felt a lot of responsibility for providing this part of someone's Big Day! The cake is a big part of the wedding celebration, and I wanted them to be pretty as well as delicious.  I haven't done a whole lot of decorating yet, but I've been experimenting a little bit with fondant and candy melt. For these, I made homemade marshmallow fondant, colored half a pretty teal color, and used a small cookie cutter to cut out teal and white flowers.  These set out for 3 days to dry before I made the actual cupcakes.

I borrowed an extra KitchenAid mixer from a friend, and gave myself two days to bake and frost 100 regular cupcakes and 100 Jumbo-sized cupcakes. J was at camp last week, so I was alone during the day for my baking marathon, and I let Eric and Mark know that they were on their own for dinner when they got home from work.  I had had the bride, groom, bride's mother, and bride's sister over one evening back in April for a "tasting", where they sampled several flavors of cake and frosting, and they chose Chocolate Oreo (chocolate cake with vanilla Oreo buttercream),  Milk Chocolate (chocolate cake with milk chocolate buttercream), and Coconut Almond (white almond cake with coconut cream cheese frosting).  The decorations were simple - coarse sugar and candy pearls, Oreo halves, in addition to the fondant flowers.

I had seen an idea on some website for transporting the Jumbo cupcakes, since I can only get the plastic cupcake containers in the regular size. I  bought 3 Rubbermaid shallow underbed storage boxes, and a roll of rubber mesh shelf liner.  Each box held about 40 of the Jumbo cupcakes, which was perfect.

 

 

Cupcakes - Kindergarten Graduation

I had fun playing around with decorations for the cupcakes for our homeschool group's Kindergarten Graduation last weekend. I made 7 1/2 dozen cupcakes - Cookies N Cream, Banana Puddin', Strawberry Cream, and Vanilla White Chocolate.

 These are the Cookies 'n' Cream cupcakes ( white cake studded with chunks of Oreo cookies, topped with vanilla bean buttercream )

To make the topper, I used red, blue, and yellow candy melts.  Each color was placed in a plastic icing bag and microwaved for about 20 seconds, kneaded, then about 20 seconds more and kneaded until smooth..  Snip off tip of bag and squeeze out letters onto a sheet of waxed paper. Do one color, let harden for about 10 minutes, then do next color. 

Vanilla cupcake filled with marshmallow filling, topped with white chocolate buttercream.. The graduation cap topper is made from a mini Reese's peanut butter cup, and chocolate covered saltine cracker, and fruit roll-up for the tassle. I used some melted chocolate chips to "glue" it all together.

Banana cupcake filled with banana pastry cream, topped with banana cream cheese frosting.  For the topper, I used a small star cookie cutter to cut the star out of yellow-tinted fondant.

 

Strawberry cupcake with strawberry cream cheese frosting.  Diploma scroll topper is white fondant, cut into a small rectangle and rolled. then I cut a thin ribbon of fruit roll-up to tie around it.

I was happy with the way these turned out.

Gluten-Free Chocolate Espresso Cupcakes

I recently started experimenting with gluten-free baking because I have several friends who can't eat my regular cupcakes.   One of the things I have really enjoyed about my baking adventure this past year is how much I have learned along the way by reading baking blogs and websites, so I started my search for gluten-free recipes the same way. I found websites such as this one, offering tips for gluten-free baking success, as well as numerous recipes to try.  I started with a flourless chocolate cupcake  that I topped with lightly sweetened whipped cream and a strawberry, and that was pretty scrumptious, but not very cake-like.  It was more like eating a rich, decadent truffle!  Nothing wrong with that! But I was still looking for something more like my regular cupcakes. 


I found a couple of recipes that sounded good, and actually combined and tweaked parts of them until I came up with this recipe.  It is moist, fluffy, and chocolate-y, perfectly complemented by the smooth espresso buttercream! 

Gluten-Free Chocolate Cupcakes with Espresso Buttercream

1 c. Gluten-free flour blend ( King Arthur )

½ c.  brown sugar

½ c. sugar

½ c. Dutch-process cocoa powder ( Callebaut )

½ tsp baking powder

½ tsp. baking soda

½ tsp. salt

 ½ tsp.xanthum gum 

2 eggs

½ c. milk 

½ c. canola oil

2 tsp. vanilla extract

½ c. hot coffee

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.   Line muffin tin with 16 paper cupcake liners.

In large mixing bowl, stir together flour, brown sugar, white sugar, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda and salt and xanthum gum.  

 In another bowl, beat together the eggs, milk, oil, vanilla.   With mixer on low, add to the dry ingredients and blend for 1 minute, until thoroughly combined.   Pour in hot coffee and continue to mix for another minute. Scrape sides of bowl with spatula and give a few good stirs to mix together.

Scoop into cupcake liners, filling no more than ¾  full.  Bake for 16-18 minutes, until toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.  Cool slightly, and remove to wire rack to cool completely.

Espresso Buttercream

2 sticks ( 1 c ) unsalted butter, room temp.

4 c. sifted powdered sugar

1/4 tsp. salt

1 tsp. vanilla extract

1 tsp. instant espresso powder ( or instant coffee)

1/4 c. milk or water

Dissolve espresso powder in milk or water. Set aside. In lg mixing bowl, beat the butter until fluffy.  Add powdered sugar and salt, and mix on low speed until combined.  With mixer still on low, add the vanilla and the coffee liquid and mix thoroughly.  Increase speed to high and beat frosting for 2-3 minutes, until smooth and fluffy.   Pipe or spread onto cooled cupcakes.

*Top with a chocolate covered espresso bean.  :-)

 ENJOY!

100 Days to 1000 Blessings - Day 8

Out of sight, out of mind. Unfortunately, that is often the way my brain works, and sometimes things don't get finished the way they should. I started to list 1000 blessings, 10 at a time, back in the early summer, but have gotten sidetracked. Well, I never said they were going to be consecutive days, right? And God is continuously pouring his blessings over us, even when we don't stop to recognize them. So here is another 10.


71. Sarah was just home for the weekend, and we had a really nice visit! She has been in TN since the 2nd week of July and this was her first visit back home.  This week she's heading down to Atlanta, where Safe World Nexus will have a booth at Catalyst, a huge Christian leadership conference, featuring speakers such as Jon Acuff, Francis Chan, Bob Goff, Blake Mykoskie, Katie Davis, Dave Ramsey, Lysa Terkheurst, David Platt, and more.

72.   Sarah bought Jason a new board game, Ticket to Ride, for his birthday, and taught us to play it this weekend.  It is a lot of fun!
*from the website:

Ticket to Ride is a cross-country train adventure in which players collect and play matching train cards to claim railway routes connecting cities throughout North America. The longer the routes, the more points they earn. Additional points come to those who can fulfill their Destination Tickets by connecting two distant cities, and to the player who builds the longest continuous railway.

73.   Alex posted confirmation that his brigade will be coming home from Iraq early!!! They will be coming home in Dec / Jan instead of July!   Hallelujah!

74.  Fall weather has arrived! ahhh!  after a blistering summer, temperatures in the 60's and 70's are just divine!  This is my favorite season!

75. My knee is feeling pretty good after surgery to repair a torn miniscus a couple of weeks ago.  It still gets stiff and stairs are still tough and I'm not walking completely normally yet, but it is coming along.

76.  After surgery, my dear friends rallied around and brought meals for 2 weeks - I am so blessed to have people like that in my life.

77.. My friends are still enjoying my cupcakes, so I am able to send Sarah support to help her stay in her internship with Safe World a while longer.

Caramel Apple Crisp Cupcake

78.. We spent a day in Boone with Eric to celebrate his 22nd birthday.  It was a pretty day so we went to a park on the Blue Ridge Parkway to throw a frisbee around for a bit ( I watched -  bum knee ), then went out to Woodlands BBQ in Blowing Rock for dinner with him and his girlfriend, Ryan. 

79.  The freedom to homeschool and to raise my children according to my beliefs and convictions is precious, and tonight my support group will be showing the documentary, "The Child", which addresses some of the challenges to that freedom that our country is facing right now.

80.  Did I mention that Alex will be coming back from Iraq much sooner than expected?  And his contract is up in Dec. and he is planning to leave the Army?? 

Wrapping up August

Well, August has been interesting.

Amanda traveled to Africa and back this month, where she helped conduct a basketball camp for kids in Kampala.

view of Lake Victoria from Father's House

My baby turned 13 years old.

We started back to homeschool this year with only ONE student.

Eric went back to Appalachian State University for his SENIOR year!  woo hoo!

We had both an earthquake and hurricane here last week.

My hubs and I celebrated 29 years of marriage on my 51st birthday. Mark celebrated his 51st birthday today!   We also  helped surprise my friend, Shelley, for her 50th birthday, and I baked CUPCAKES.

I had an MRI done on my left knee, which has been getting more and more painful over the past several months, and found out that the meniscus is torn. So I have surgery scheduled in 2 weeks.   In the meantime, my right knee is starting to "catch" and give me some trouble. 

Today we went on a field trip to Fort Bragg, NC, visiting the Golden Knights Army parachute team headquarters and also the Airborne and Special Operations Museum.

 

On to September. 

Searching for the Perfect Vanilla Cupcake Recipe

Vanilla cupcakes -  classic, basic, simple.....
Simple?
If you spend any time looking through cupcake blogs ( as I do ), you will find that there are numerous quests going on for the perfect vanilla cupcake recipe!  It seems like it would be simple, but there are many variables that go into a basic vanilla recipe, and everyone seems to have different expectations for what makes a "perfect" vanilla cake!

Since I was baking Neapolitan cupcakes this week, which start with a vanilla cupcake filled with strawberry filling and then topped with chocolate buttercream, I looked through numerous recipes and chose one that sounded good.
Double Vanilla Cupcakes - found at Simply Recipes.

I have been baking cupcakes for about 9 months now, and have made vanilla cupcakes a couple of other times. But I hadn't been completely happy with them.  Some recipes are dry.  Some are flavorless.  Some are heavy and "cornbread-y".   Some are so tender that they crumble and fall apart when you take off the cupcake paper.

These Double Vanilla Cupcakes were delicious!  Just the right sweetness with a strong vanilla taste, moist, fluffy -  beautiful!  I don't have any vanilla beans, but I do have Nielson-Massey vanilla bean paste, so I used that along with the vanilla extract. The recipe only made 12 cupcakes, and I needed to make 7 dozen.  At a glance, it seemed like the recipe should double easily.

Not so.

The batter seemed fine, but the cupcakes exploded in the oven.  At some point as they baked, the batter flowed up and over the top of the cupcake pan, and the cupcakes didn't cook all the way through, making a soggy, gloppy mess. I have no idea why, except that perhaps the ingredients didn't mix thoroughly in the larger amounts. Thinking that perhaps I had measured some ingredient incorrectly, I tried the double recipe again, and the same thing happened.  Into the trash.
So I decided to try another recipe that seemed similar, but made a larger amount of cupcakes. That recipe produced cupcakes with a "muffin top",  and the edges broke as I tried to take them out of the pan, making them not very pretty, and the texture was too soft.  That batch went into the trash can along with the failed exploded cupcakes. 
A third recipes yielded unsatisfactory results as well, with big airholes in the cake and a dry texture.  ugh.

So I went back to the original Double Vanilla Recipe, and made it as written for 12 cupcakes, and they came out perfectly.  If anyone has success doubling this recipe, I'd love to hear about it.  It doesn't make sense to me, but after two failed attempts  I'm sticking with the small batch version.

Double Vanilla Cupcakes

1 1/2 c. + 2 tablespoons all purpose flour
1/4 tsp. salt
1 1/4 tsp. baking powder
1/2 c. unsalted butter, room temp
1 c. sugar
1 egg + 2 egg whites, room temp
1/2 c. milk, room temp
1/4 c. sour cream, room temp
1 1/2  tsp. vanilla extract
1/2 tsp. vanilla bean paste

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
In a large mixing bowl, cream butter for 3 min. at medium speed.  Slowly add the sugar and continue to beat for another 3 minutes, scraping the bowl once or twice.  Add egg and beat for 30 seconds. Scrape bowl and add the egg whites, one at a time, beating for 30 seconds each.

In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt. In another bowl, whisk together the milk, sour cream, vanilla extract, and vanilla bean paste.

With mixer on low speed, add 1/3 of the flour mixture to the butter/sugar mixture and combine, then add 1/2 the milk mixture, stirring just to combine. Add 1/3 flour mixture, mix, then the rest of the milk mixture, mix, and finally the remaining flour mixture. It is important not to overmix the batter once the flour is added, so stir just until smooth and combined.

Divide the batter into 12 cupcake papers in a muffin tin, and bake for 18-20 minutes at 350 degrees, until slightly golden brown and a toothpick inserted in center of cupcake comes out clean.  Cool for about 5 minutes, then remove cupcakes from pan and finish cooling on a wire rack.
Fill and frost.
Makes 12.

Summer S's

It is officially SUMMER!
We've been on school break for several weeks now, and enjoying the change of routine!

SPORTS
Jason is playing Little League baseball and his team, the Mets, is undefeated so far this season. They won their 1st tournament game last night and play in the semi-finals tonight.  He is also in basketball camp this week, where they work him and the other 40 kids hard on skills, drills, and scrimmages, so he is one tired 12-year-old when we get home at night!

SABRINA
My niece came down from CT for a visit last week, to go to Teen Week at New Life Camp. She came a few days early so we had some time to hang out, and she and J went ice skating and played several games of Monopoly. 

SUN
The day before Teen Week began,  we drove down to the NC coast for a day at the beach!  I love spending the day with my family, but the beach isn't my favorite place, mostly because I don't enjoy sitting out in the sun!  But this time, we stopped at a "beach store" on the way and bought a BEACH UMBRELLA for me!  Perfect! 

the umbrella could be bigger... but it works for me

SMOKE
Wildfires 2+ hours east and southeast of here produced very smoky, hazy conditions here in the Triangle early this week, enough that a Code Orange Air Quality alert caused youth baseball games to be cancelled on Tuesday night, and camp to move all their activities inside for the afternoon AND all campers to sleep inside the gymnasiums on Tuesday night!  That was a first.  The winds have shifted and the smoke has cleared away now.  But that was weird. 


SOLDIER
Alex is home for 10 days of leave!  YAY!  He is heading to Iraq again in a few weeks, so we won't see or hear much from him for the next year.  So I'm trying to get my fill now. :-)   His 4 year commitment to the Army comes to an end in the middle of this deployment, but  he'll finish the tour and then get out when he comes back to the states.   I am proud of him for serving his country, but I have to say I'll breathe easier when he is out.  Hopefully the experience he has gotten as an officer will help him land a civilian job later on. 

SWEETS
I'm still baking cupcakes, and this week the flavor is "Elvis" - banana chocolate chip cake topped with peanut butter frosting, chopped peanuts and a banana chip.   Last week it was "S'mores" , which was chocolate cake sitting on a graham cracker crust, topped with toasted marshmallow frosting! Money is going to Amanda's mission trip to Uganda with Ten Eighteen and to help support Sarah during her internship with Safe World Nexus!