Your own personal beach...

So... on to the next part of my contribution to the work party...

Beach cupcakes...!

So here they are all together after baking...

These are just German Chocolate cake mix cupcakes. I filled them very full because I wanted a nice rounded top on the cupcake so that I'd have some room to work with them.

Then I frosted them with cream cheese frosting and rolled the tops in graham cracker crumbs.

Unfortunately... I did not have the foresight to take the left over frosting with me... it would have come in handy for attaching the 'accessories' to the cupcake.

Accessories, you ask?

That's right...

Accessories!

Melted Wilton candy melts were used to make little beach towels and the straps on 'mini' flipflops.

Which were made out of 100 calorie packs of peanut butter cookies and a mini M&M.

Each cupcake was garnished with a towel and a pair of flipflops ... and a paper beach umbrella.

Flip Flops.

Yes... that's right. Today... I have flipflops on the brain. LOL

I realize it's been almost forever since I blogged and I will show you why...

Our theme for our work party was beach picnic and I expect to be able to get about 3 blogs out of my baking project for the week. So the idea was flip flops. Today's topic.

These flipflops are made out of Nutter Butter cookies.

And the original idea... while extremely yummy... is extremely messy so I was very happy to have purchased 2 packages of Nutter Butters. Otherwise... I might not have been as successful. Oh yes... I had fun last night dipping 'flipflops' in melted white chocolate chips and dark chocolate chips. But it dawned on me that as I was dipping... they were melting all over me. And that would mean they would be messy.

But aren't they pretty? **rolls eyes** Other than they do actually look like I put the chocolate on them with my fingers... And you can tell that the dark ones were in the fridge - they're 'blooming'... as in they have white spots starting to form on them.

So that is NOT how to make flip flops out of Nutter Butters.

This however.... is....

Take one package of Nutter Butters... melt up some Wilton Candy melts ...

Draw the little straps and put an M&M where the 'strap' would connect with the sole of the flip flop.

Chill for 15 minutes and you're good to go... nice, pretty... NON MESSY... flip flops.

They look lovely on a plate...

Everyone really loved them and I got several compliments on them.

More tomorrow on the baking project this week... if I have all that melted chocolate cleaned up from my kitchen, that is. LOL

And if I can manage to not attempt eating my own flipflops.

Sunshine...

Is by far the only thing that matters.

Because it is FINALLY sunny in Seattle.

:o)

Can You Duet...?

Oh boy...

So I knew that show was going to be tearing me down the middle. I've been a fan of Joey and Rory ... as well as Caitlyn and Will... So the fact that Joey and Rory ended up third .. .was a bit of a disappointment, but I am so thrilled that Cait & Will won. I got goosebumps watching them sing today so that was really cool.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

As far as only things that matter... really...

Well.

It can be hard to find what really matters. Friendships really matter.

Knowing that someone is always going to be there for you even when your schedules suck and don't match up well... well... that matters. So ... to my friends who I don't get to spend much time online with... lately...

I luv ya...

I do miss our time together, but I understand that things get crazy and sometimes there are other things that NEED to matter to you and take precidence.

That won't change the fact that I luv ya and I'm there for ya...

Pineapple Upside-down Cupcakes

As promised...

Pineapple Upside-down Cupcakes!

Aren't they cute?

I've come to the conclusion that there is more testing that has to happen before I'm willing to call them a success.

But they are delicious so for myself alone, I don't mind that most of the pineapple pieces stuck to the bottom of the cupcake cups. I think that if I would have been a little more generous with the margarine at the bottom of the pan... those might have come out easier.

Either that or if I would have been more patient and let the cakes slip out of the muffin tins in their own time... instead of shaking the tin. **rolls eyes**

Next time, I'm going to try making a batch in the muffin tin and letting them do that. As well as making one or two in individual ramikins or custard cups... those will be even easier to turn over and let them slide out.

I just made a recipe of pineapple upside down cake and switched a few things for Splenda... and then cut down on how much margarine that I used in making the caramel for the bottom.... erm.... tops.

TOP CHEF!!!

Okay... so I said that there would be TV discussions...

So for right now today... the only thing that matters... LOL

Is that the chef-testant... that I wanted to win from the first episode... Stephanie... WON Top Chef!!!

Which is excellent because she is the first female winner of Top Chef... and it's also excellent because she showed all throughout the show that if she was in the bottom on something... she paid more attention to that faulty part of her dish the next time and corrected it. I don't think she was ever nailed for the same fault twice.

I'm just very excited about that. I love watching shows like that where I get to be right... LOL

Okay so that's all for now because I'm at work.

But I will be blogging later and showing off my newest baking success - I hope to have something food related at least once a week...

Anyway...

Pineapple Upsidedown cupcakes... coming later tonight...!

The only thing that matters...

So far today... is that I have a day off of work!

I work in a high call volume call center and there's nothing like the dreary ... January-esque weather to make people call in and complain about how high their bills still are.

So that means... I get to email back and forth with a friend of mine longer this morning before she has to go off and leave me... usually it's the other way around. .. And then I get to run errands that I don't find time to do on weekends...laundry... and other fun stuff...!

Okay so I know it's been a while since I made this, but I do actually have pictures of it so I'm going to post them now to kick off the 'baking' side of myself...

I present to you... Pirate Ship Cake... !

I made this for our Halloween party at work, our team did a Pirates theme so we based on the movies and turned our manager's office ... there's 3 cubicles... into the Black Pearl... and then for the most part, all of us dressed as pirates or wenches for Halloween.

So there was nothing else to do but make a pirate ship cake.

I learned several things about pirate ships... well, cake versions. And the first is that you shouldn't expect to make it in one night. LOL

Here it is on my counter. Isn't it lovely...?

So my hugest mistake... and the thing I would do differently if I make it again... is that I cut the 2 round cakes in half and THEN tried to frost them and stick them together.

I would fill them and then freeze them BEFORE cutting them in half. That way they'd probably stick together better. And then the whole cake has to be able to stay in the freezer as much as possible.

This is before work so it's beautiful and lovely... The 'deck' is made out of 2 twinkies toothpicked into the top of the cake. and the rails are rolled wafer cookies.

I took pieces of a black plastic tablecloth to stretch and tear into little flags for the ship and had a few playmobil pirates for the top of it as well. Also... Nestle crunch sticks for cannons, brown sixlets for cannonballs and some root beer barrels... after all, a pirate's gotta have some rum!

I was worried about not having enough cake, so I baked a chocolate cake in a really cool pan I have... It has a hollow in the top so that you can fill it and make a really nice looking strawberry shortcake cake... or put a pirate ship in an ocean. The 'ocean' is chocolate cake frosted with storebought from the bakery frosting that was pale blue... I added green to make it that lovely shade and then dusted the whole thing with blue sugar so that it would sparkle.

Unfortunately... as soon as I frosted the ship and put it in the fridge, it started to fall apart so when I got to work, in spite of trying to insert additional skewers to hold it together, it was looking very decidedly as though it had come under attack from another ship. ;o) But it was cute and people were impressed anyway that I'd made it.

This is my blog...

So... I decided to title it...

The Only Things That Matter.

Because... I will probably only blog about whatever seems to matter the most that day.

Like ...

I've been obsessed lately with looking at other blogs and I started thinking I could do this...

I like to bake. I like to write fanfiction stories... watch the Food Network... Watch my favorite TV shows almost religiously...

and I like shopping... sometimes just for the window shopping.

I have weight issues... I've been trying ... with limited success ... to adhere to Weight Watchers and follow through with the ideas and habits that I've picked up from going to meetings for the last two and a half years. So there are lots of little successes that I have with recipes... adapting recipes to fit the guidlines.

And since I can't financially afford to walk away from my job to go be on Top Chef or Next Food Network Star... or even Nashville Star... because I was a music major in college and I think every music major at some point or another does harbor a secret ambition to have a recording deal fall into their lap... (But there didn't seem to be anyone around the Nashville airport when I was there about three weeks ago... so I guess that's a wait list dream.... LOL)

Then just maybe this blog will allow me to share a few things that have worked for me.

So ...

I guess today... the only thing that matters ... is that I'm excited about starting a blog...!

Yay Me!