margarita cupcakes

I've wanted to make these for a really long time. I bought lime juice back in September specifically to make these. Thankfully that stuff stays fine for a while and the rest of the ingredients I have on hand normally. The original recipe is from a book called "Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World". I'm not vegan, but some of their cupcakes are AMAZING. I tweak their recipes to suit my non-vegan pantry, but basically the credit goes there.


Ingredients:

1/3 cup lime juice

1 cup milk

1/4 cup vegetable oil

2 teaspoons tequila

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 cup sugar

1 1/3 cup flour

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

Process:

mix together the wet ingredients with the sugar (first six items on the ingredients list)

separately mix the remaining ingredients (flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt)

then mix the two mixtures together

pour into muffin tins - will make 12

bake in oven at 350F for 20-25 minutes

Frosting:

1/4 cup butter (softened so it's easier to mix)

3 tablespoons lime juice

1 tablespoon tequila

2 cups confectioner's sugar

The cupcakes are light, moist, and delicious. And even though these are "margarita" cupcakes, you don't taste any alcohol in the cake itself - it's all in the frosting. So once the cupcakes were cool, I whipped some up. There's no real need to follow a recipe - just simple frosting with lime juice and tequila instead of water. My hand kind of tipped a bit in the process ... so my frosting turned out to be quite, um, strong. But yummy!

My roommate hasn't been home since I made these, so I'll have to make sure to tell her about the alcohol-content of the cupcakes. Then again, that would be quite the surprise, expecting a simple vanilla cupcake and getting a taste of a margarita instead. That girl better love me. Seriously, I must be in the running for best roommate ever.

Oh, and a belated linkage here to Bake at 350, which is having a little party. Next on my list, after I buy coconut and pineapple juice, are these pina colada cupcakes. Yum!

day of recovery

I have been sick for the past few days, but today, Sunday, I can finally take some time to rest. I woke up about an hour ago and I feel all-over achy (not to mention the sneezing and coughing). Oh, and I have a giant two-inch bruise on my arm from carrying groceries. Yucks. Times like these I really wish I had something stronger than Tylenol at home.


My lunch today reflects my current state. Orange juice for the Vitamin C ... does that even help? Then leftover pizza and a cupcake for a pick-me-up. As a whole, it looks pretty discordant, but I'm sick, so blah.

Things to do: homework, laundry, cleaning, check mail, organize finances, and sleep. I have a sneaking suspicion that I'm only going to be doing the last item. And I'll probably have to skip work tomorrow, which would be the FIRST time I haven't come in to work. Darn.

hello again

I realize that it has been a long, long time since I last posted. Please forgive me. Tomorrow (er ... later today) is the first day of class and will thus be the beginning of my resolve to post regularly once again. I also haven't been reading the blogs in a while, so I have a lot of catching up to do.

I briefly perused On the Refrigerator Door, one of my favorite blogs, and the most recent article was about displaying jewelry. So for a quick post, I thought I'd show my system.


Even though I'm in a rather small apartment, I have a rather large bathroom (and closet! - but that's another story). My bathroom has two sinks and a large mirror, which is kind of ridiculous since I'm the only one who uses it. I bought a pack of little suction cup hooks at the dollar store, and I use them to hang jewelry on my mirror. I think it's rather pretty and it makes it easy for me to grab that necklace, ring, or bracelet for the day without having to rummage through my stash. When I'm bored, I'll move the suction cups into various patterns ... it's great fun.

I leave a few pieces out and the rest is in a container on my counter, which is actually a repurposed embroidery floss organizer. On a normal day, I don't wear much jewelry, but I do love buying it. Generally I'll only wear a simple ring that I bought with my sister a few years ago and that's enough. Having things displayed on my mirror, where it's functional as well as aesthetic, well that just makes me happy though.

Welcome to 2010, everyone. Enjoy the ride.

xmas cards

Christmas is coming up in a week and a half and I have yet to send out Christmas cards ... oops! Well I finally got around to making the cards, so that's progress, right? Now I just need to write out all the cards, make sure the addresses I have are still current, buy stamps, et cetera.


It took me a few trips to Michael's to figure out what I wanted to do, but I found these letter stamps and they seemed pretty nifty, so I grabbed those (along with a black inkpad) and that was pretty much it. The rest of what I used I had on hand.


I ended up with three versions of Christmas cards for this year. I've never been fond of giving everyone the same exact card, so I try to make different variations. After stamping each card with "Happy Holidays", I drew a tree, ornament, or present with a black marker. Then I hot glued a little something for color and dimension. The tree got a blue gem as a star, the ornament a red ribbon, and the present a green bow. Cute, eh?


My roommate left today, so I wrapped up the first part of her present and gave it to her. I used the rough draft of my essay (with red marks and all) and tied it with a bow. I go through so much paper in school so I try to recycle the best I can. Anyway, she thought it was hilarious because she recognized it as the essay I had been complaining about. As for other Christmas presents, well they're proving a bit trickier. I went to the mall the other day and after almost two hours, didn't buy a single thing. To be honest, I was shopping more for myself, but I kept having trouble finding the right size for things ... very disappointing.

Most of my friends have already left for home, but I'm going to be hanging around here for a bit longer to work and do some shopping. Christmas is coming up way too fast.

apt xmas

An apartment next to a college campus is not an ideal place for Christmas. Thankfully I will be spending Christmas at home with my family, but I'll only be able to spend a few days at home. The rest of the time will be at my fabulously over-priced, run-down apartment. Therefore, while procrastinating one fine evening, I decided to decorate. Here, ladies and gentlemen, is how a college student decorates her apartment for Christmas (on a very limited budget).

1. White Lights


I dug up some white Christmas lights that I bought two years ago for studio. I actually bought them because when you can't find an extension cord, Christmas lights will work just as well. I had originally strung them around my desk to keep people from walking by my work area where I had models on the floor. Last year I was in the middle of a large studio space, so the Christmas lights were strung from the wall to my desk in the middle of the room, and the guy sitting next to me had Christmas lights strung from the other wall to his desk. All in all it was fabulous. Here in our lowly apartment, however, I just grabbed some drafting tape and taped these much loved white lights around our front doorway. The texture of the wall is kind of weird though.

2. Silver and Red Bow


I've always been a big fan of bows. Snowflakes are pretty. Christmas trees and stockings are too obvious. Bows are universal. And I happen to really like ribbon. So I grabbed some thick silver wired ribbon and created a big bow on our cheap Wal-Mart shelving unit. I thought it looked a bit drab so I grabbed some red satin ribbon and incorporated another bow into the mix. I think it's rather nice ... really classes up that cheap white plastic, eh?

3. Santa Hat


I've had this Santa hat for years ... can't even remember where/when I got it. Anyway, though I like the color green, I've never been a big fan of the red-green color combination because I just find it too cliché. It screams "Christmas!" in that overly commercial way. Therefore, our apartment's just going to stick with red and white/silver, which the Santa hat fits into perfectly. How is the hat standing so erect on our counter? Because it's hiding our very college-student bottle of tequila next to an empty bottle of wine. Yeah ... don't judge me. Oh, and the wallpaper was there when we moved in.

Christmas is my favorite holiday. I love giving gifts, wrapping gifts, decorating gifts, hanging out with friends, having that hot mocha latté at Spider House while exchanging gifts ... you get the idea. Though decorating was rather light this year, I think in conjunction with the nippy weather and the scarves around my neck, it's winter enough. Happy holidays.