WARNING: There is a lot of yadda, yadda, yadda, yadding going on in this post! 🙂
Hello! We are sure busy this week, but I did make time to whip up a batch of mini cupcakes for the hub’s “3rd of July Nerd Herd” potluck at his work. Why is it called that? I call his gaggle of colleges “The Nerd Herd”since he is a Mechanical Engineer that works in a manufacturing setting alongside other ME’s Chemists, PhD’s and other nerdy influenced professions. 🙂
Actually, I love being married to a member of the ” nerd herd”, the man can fix and do anything! While the solar sales lady was giving us her pitch a month ago, she said,” Even though you have done your full remodel on this house, there is no way you could install solar panels.” Well those words birthed a new challenge in him and cost her a sale. He just installed our solar panels himself instead of handing over thousands of dollars to a 3rd party install company (we ended up paying more than 3/4 LESS than what it would have cost us to go through a solar company; making the pay off drastically shorter!). All he had to do is go pick up the panels, the plans, and get the permit from the city (which can be more of a nightmare than installing the 16 panels). It took about two weekends of him playing with high voltage and balancing on top of the roof with a couple of friends, but they all faired well. My job was to keep everyone well fed! The hubs ceases to amaze me in his ability to take things on and figure it out. He is an amazing provider and partner. I feel bad for the suitors that want to date our daughters a DECADE or so from now… their daddy has raised the bar pretty high. 🙂
So back to the cupcakes as I watch my electric meter run backwards . . . These were super easy to make. I just found a white cake recipe. I did add lemon juice and zest from one full lemon to cut through the food coloring bite (it worked!) I then separated the cake batter into two bowls and then added the colors to it. I also threw in white chocolate chips for a little crunch to the cake. I layered the cupcakes with both colors and baked.
For the frosting I found a basic cream cheese based frosting and added two more teaspoons of vanilla to cut the food coloring I was using in the frosting.
Room Temp 8 oz Cream Cheese Block
1 lb of room temp butter
3 teaspoons (this is with the added vanilla)
3 cups of powdered sugar
Cream together until fluffy and smooth
I took a gallon sized Ziplock bag and prepped it with the frosting tip and then squeezed out a line of the food coloring down two sides of the bag and filled it with frosting. I placed it in the freezer for about 15 minutes (since it was hot out) to firm up and then frosted
Thanks for coming and sharing a piece ” of getting a little bit patriotic” pie with me and HAPPY 4th!
A Piece of Life's Pie 