2012: A little Champagne with my Cupcakes

Happy 2012!!

I’m enjoying the last few hours of my glorious 4-day weekend, and feel fully relaxed and ready (sort of) for work tomorrow.  At least as ready as I’ll ever be. 

Some highlights from my weekend?

A fun Friday night dinner date with Elizabeth and the husbands.  We decided to cash in on gift cards we received at that Blogger Bash earlier this fall at MJ O’Conners. 

Luckily it wasn’t a late night because I was RIGHT about the “300” workout at Crossfit, only it was slightly different than the version I found online.  Our workout went like this:

• 25 pull-ups (green band)
• 50 deadlifts (65lb)
• 50 push-ups
• 50 Ab-mat sit-ups
• 50 box jumps
• 50 ground to overheads (25 each arm, I used 15lb)
• 25 pull-ups (green band)

I can never remember my time…but I think it was 16:50, definitely in the 16’s. 

Sometimes the green band for pull-ups feels easy, but the blue band (next one down), is usually too hard.  What’s a girl to do.  I think I’ll still with green until they feel easier.  Those 2 sets of 25 were by no means easy.

Looking back I also could have done a higher weight for the ground to over-heads but I’m fine with it. 

I like box jumps!  They never seem hard, but all of a sudden I’m so out of breath!! 

Great workout in our new location!!  It was really fun with so many people too!  I think there were around 35 which is the most I’ve experienced.  Before the WOD, we did a team drill with flipping those HUGE tires down and back.  4 teams, my team beat our first opponent but ended up in 2nd :)  Those tires are massive and I found myself using my leg a little to flip it!

(taken from my Crossfit’s website…you can kind of see me in the line on the left in the pink)

I also really wanted to get in a run this weekend, but well that just didn’t happen. 

What I did do was make the most beautiful cupcakes to come out of my kitchen to date!

Pretty right??  I think so :)

For New Years Eve, we got together with a group of friends and the plan was to go out to dinner then eventually head back to one of their condo’s in South Boston and maybe hit a bar or two on the way back.

I decided to make some Champagne cupcakes to have as dessert for when we got back to the condo.

I even bought new fun liners and was excited to finally use the decorating pearls I had!

 

After scouring the internets for the best recipe, I found a bunch of different blogs that all referenced the same recipe…must be good right??

I used the version here, but I think it originated from this recipe at All Recipes.    The All Recipes version was for a 10” round cake, and others I saw converted it to 36 mini cupcakes, but I wanted regular cupcakes!  The version I used made 20 regular sized cupcakes and the frosting recipe was a perfect amount. 

The recipes I saw all suggested using a sweet Rose champagne instead of the usually dry version most people drink.  I went with a cheap $8.99 bottle…

I know everyone says to use what you like to drink when cooking with wine…but I knew I’d hate any sweet champagne plus the amount used in relation to the cupcake recipe was not enough that I was worried. 

It was great for sweet cupcakes…not so much to drink.

My alterations to this recipe:

• I added flavorings:
• 1 tsp orange zest
• 1/2 tsp vanilla
• 1/8 tsp almond (basically just a few drops) 

The egg whites make the cake nice and fluffy.

They smelt so good that I had to try some plain warm cake!!

YUM!!!  These are good as is!! 

But not so pretty….so I went on with the champagne butter cream!

I was also excited because I finally picked up a coupler for my large icing tips!! 

I had plans to decorate with the sugar pearls and sliced strawberries…but in the end I thought they were pretty enough without the berries.  

 

I tried a strawberry in one…

Not needed :)

I also baked them in the silver linings, and added the black/white ones after.

I was very pleased with the taste and appearance :)

It was a really fun night out with our friends!! 

However, after dinner one of our stops was at a Mexican restaurant where everyone got margaritas…bad idea!!  Sugary mixed drinks and me do NOT mix especially since I’d had my fair share of champagne at this point.  I’ve learned this lesson in the past too…apparently not memorable enough ;)  Needless to say, we headed home around 12:30…not the end of the world though…still had fun and wasn’t out ridiculously late.

Sunday was an awesomely lazy recovery day, if you will.

Woke up, immediately craved pancakes, made said pancakes…

With iced coffee, banana, strawberries, syrup….yum!

Then took a lovely nap on the couch, woke up, at lunch, took Bromley to the dog park, picked up some BBQ at Blue Ribbon, ate, fell asleep on the couch again, cleaned, lounged, and bed time.  Haven’t had a day like that in a LONG time!!!  LOVED IT!!

I haven’t really thought much about resolutions yet for this year, but I’ll be sure to update when I do!

Completely unrelated, but I’m in the market for a new blender and looking for recommendations!?!  Ideally under $100…I know I’d love a Vita-Mix but that just isn’t happening.