A Bookworm Creates

Once upon a time I had two wonderful ideas.  They became the not posted and won't be posted Orange Lemon cupcake and the Strawberry Lemonade cupcake. In one I substituted orange juice for water and in the other I added a package of strawberry lemonade drink mix to the batter.  Thus led to this recipe and another idea (partly thanks to a former friend and fellow amateur baker).  Blue Raspberry Lemonade Cupcakes with Lemon Cream Cheese Icing. Don't get me wrong, this is an awesome recipe, however it did not turn out quite right, but I know exactly why and will not be posting the exact recipe I followed.  To make it easy: Ingredients for Cake: 1 white cake mix.  You are about to see what happens when yellow cake mix is used. 3 eggs oil 1 package blue raspberry drink mix 1 concentrate lemonade mix Sugar blue food coloring Directions: The Blue Raspberry Lemonade - See, a pretty blue-green color! 1. Make the blue raspberry lemonade/concentrate...

I started off looking for a pattern for a convertible dress.  I had seen the idea on Target and had instantly started to Google search for a pattern.  It looked easy and I did not see any reason to spend nearly 40 dollars on a dress that I could, possibly, make for cheaper. Anybody that knows me should know that my second favorite store (behind any and all bookstores) is Hobby Lobby.  Off to Hobby Lobby I went, looking for a pattern for a circle skirt, and they were having a sale: McCalls patterns for $0.99 with a max of ten patterns.  I bought 2. Then it was material time.  I wanted red, blue, or purple for my convertible dress.  However, this is where the problem comes in...there was not enough knit material (what the pattern called for) in the blue.  Everything else was gray, black, and brown, and I had plenty of dresses in black and gray. But there was also this cute black with white polka dots knit material.  It would not work for the ...

Every now and then there are a couple of friends (the Twins) that I get to have a girls' night in with.  This usually involves Phase Ten (30 phases, they exist, Google them), other random card games, movies in the background, and dinner, most often with dessert.  When Sarah sent me the text, I was all for it.  The only problem we were having was with what to have for supper.  For a few days we sat on it and thought about it.  It is really difficult sometimes to create a meal when so many people have different tastes.  Finally it was settled, homemade pizza.  So, Sarah and Meredith (the twins) bought the pizza dough and cheese while I bought pepperoni and Canadian bacon (essentially ham).  Now, this can be done one of two ways, completely and utterly from scratch which will take a while due to yeast rising, etc, etc. Or you can buy a box mix.  (Yes, the sentence fragment slightly bugs me; I have a love/hate relationship with them....

After delivering the Oreo cupcakes to Jackie, she was nice and shared with her family.  This lead to my first order.  I should clarify, my first paid order.  This cake: was a favor for one of my wonderful Betas, Megan, for her daughter's birthday.  It was my first sheet cake and I was nervous until I was able to taste it.  I think next time I'll actually do some piping instead of trying to save time by making the little stars and balloons in advance.  However, the Oreo cupcakes actually led to a paying order.  14 cupcakes, half golden Oreo and half chocolate Oreo.  The catch, regular chocolate icing...I was tempted to ask, 'Then why do I need the Oreo?' but didn't.  I think I asked if K was certain that she did not want the Oreo icing.  She was certain.  So I made them: Naked cupcakes Dressed cupcakes However, that still left me with a lot of batter left to do something with.  Hell...

Sometimes my Beta eaters hate to hear that I'm experimenting again.  Why?  Why would you hate to know that your lovely, wonderful, amazing, and talented friend is experimenting in baking again?  After all, it means free cupcakes!  Alas, that is the problem, free cupcakes during swimsuit season.  At least I suspect that is how Jackie and Megan feel.  So I tend to limit myself to an experiment every two weeks and I have enough Beta eaters to spread things around so that everybody, except Bobby, gets one or two of the current experiment.  Experiment #5 (I think, I'm not certain) was Oreo cupcakes. Aren't they beautiful? (Sorry for the fuzzy spot on the upper left corner of the picture, the protective glass covering the camera on my phone is cracked, clumsy me.) Now, the problem is that I cannot give my sources.  As an English teacher and former English major this is a major no-no.  However, a simple Google search (term: Oreo cupcakes; Oreo...

I can honestly say that I never thought about making this fairly cheap version of mini pizzas that some college students make when they are feeling creative and want to do something in the kitchen.  At least some of my friends did.  So the other night, at 27, I wanted to do something different.  Sadly, sometimes different is not always completely creative, not like some of my cupcakes that I can concoct.  I also wanted pizza.  Instead of taking the time and making a pizza from scratch (I wanted to make something, not drive 10 minutes to the nearest Little Ceasers and pick up a pepperoni or cheese ready-made pizza!) I decided to try that little recipe that I had rolled my eyes at many years ago.  After all, how hard could it be.  So first, it was time to get the ingredients: English Muffin Pizzas 1 (or 2 depending on how many are being made) packages of English Muffins, halved.  1 jar of pizza sauce (I was being creative, not making thi...