Cupcake Redemption - Candy Corn Cupcake

Is it seriously October 1st??? Its finally starting to feel like fall here in Ohio - and I'm loving it!

Well remember yesterday when I had my baking fail because I broiled instead of baked?

Well today I redeemed myself and BAKED the cupcakes, and I think they turned out quite cute!
[see the yellow on the bottom and orange in the middle - with the white on top??]
No they don't really taste like candy corn - they are just yellow, orange and white - like a candy corn

Ingredients in the cupcake
1 box of cake mix [the recipe called for white, i used yellow]
1 cup of sour cream
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup milk
2 eggs
food coloring [yellow and orange]

Combine cake mix, sour cream, vegetable oil, milk and eggs in large bowl. Mix according to the package directions
Divide batter evenly into 2 separate bowls
Color half of the batter with food coloring - one with orange and one with yellow [even though i used yellow cake - i still added yellow food coloring to make it more vibrant]
and in true kush fashion while I asked her to take pictures of the cupcake process - she had to get one in of herself as well

Place cupcake liners into cupcake tins. Fill each cupcake liner with 1/4 cup of yellow batter

and top with orange batter so cupcake liner is 1/2 full
And bake according to package directions
Cool cupcakes completely

Butter cream Icing
2 lbs powdered sugar
2 cups shortening
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp butter extract
1/2 tsp almond extract
1/2 cup of milk

I didn't think I had enough shortening [after i found out i needed 2 cups] so I headed over to my local drug mart - and the only size they had was this
i don't think that i will EVER need to buy shortening again in the rest of my life... i might as well work it into my will now... orrrr i could just have a give-a-way for a Costco sized can of crisco.. just kidding!

mix all the wet ingredients together in a stand mixer, continue to add powdered sugar until its the consistency that you would like [you can always add more milk or more powered sugar if it is too thick or too runny]

because mine is so thick - i couldn't use a piping bag, so I used the edge of a ziploc that I had cut off to pipe the cupcake frosting

right before you serve your cupcakes add a candy corn to the top
and enjoy

Just one of those days.....

I am definitely not complaining - but it was just one of those days... where it wasn't a bad day by any means.. just one of those days where it seemed like little things went wrong [and little things where I had to laugh at myself]....

which leads me to these two things


[1]
I grabbed the last diet coke out of my 12 pack in the fridge this morning at work only to find the bottom looked like this [see the bottom sticking out funny??]
so i thought to myself for a second and wondered what i could use to hold my diet coke upright while i was drinking it [because although i love diet coke and i use it for my caffeine fix daily - i'm not big into chugging it!] i then realized that i could place the can in the container that holds all of my pens
so my solution worked out really well [in my opinion anyway... and i'm sure that you saw the cup in the background, but i HATE diet coke in a cup unless its fountain - yes i can be picky about something that i am huge connoisseur of!]

[2]
apparently you are supposed to BAKE cupcakes and not broil them... wahhhh
thank g that this was the test run for my candy corn cupcakes that i'm making for friday....
both of these things are too funny not to share with all of you!
i hope you had a good day... and that you are able to laugh with me at my little incidents that happened today!

Top 2 Tuesday - Songs

I feel like its been a while since I participated in Taylor's Top 2 Tuesdays.. and since I LOVE me some music, i thought that this would be a great week to get back on the t2t trend:

Top 2 Favorite Songs

1. The Boys of Fall
by Kenny Chesney

via


2. Stay
by Sugarland

via

Close Runner-Ups

• Red Neck Yacht Club - Craig Morgan
  
• She's Everything - Brad Paisley
• Don't Stop Believing - Journey
• All I Want for Christmas is You - Mariah Carey [this is kind of a joke between Aly and myself but I really do LOVE this song!]

Can you tell I like country music???

What are your favorite songs? Head on over to Taylor's blog and link up!

Weekend Roadtrip to Charleston for a Beautiful wedding

**warning this is a loooong posts - with a LOT of pictures!**


This past Friday Molly, Louie, Justin and I packed up our bags and headed for Charleston, SC at 5:30am [yes you read that correctly... beyond EARLY on a Friday!] It was a 9.5 hour drive so we wanted to start early to miss any rush hour traffic
i will go on the record to tell ya'll that i am the worlds worst passenger n the car.. i get so bored and anxious because i feel like i'm not doing anything productive... i honestly think one of my saving graces during the drive down to SC was this hummus - its from giant eagle - and totally amazing! cilantro jalapeno - i'm pretty sure i almost finished this entire tub by myself!
We finally got to charleston, checked into our hotel that was supposed to be marina view only to see this when we opened up our window... is this a joke!?!

Once we got settled into the room, we decided to head out for dinner and to explore the city a little more
Molly and I heading into the city
For dinner we decided to try Hyman's Seafood, which was a recommendation from Brittan at Babbling Brunette [thanks girl for the awesome recommendation! you were totally right - it was amazing!]
Justin and I at dinner
Molly waiting on Louie to come back from the airport [clearly brittany was much smarter than us because she FLEW in for the wedding!]
So the main reason that we went to Hyman's was for the Key Lime Pie that Brittan raved about [and if you know anything about me - you know that I love all things lime - esp key lime pie]
here it goes - the first bite
and i am here to tell you - that it is/was the best key lime pie that i have EVER had [and yes - i was brave enough to tell my mother this as well - she knows that hers had been my favorite for the past 27 years!] it was more tart than a normal, the crust was a little crumbly - simply delicious!
at the completion of our meal rusty came around and asked us where we were from and how our meal was - he was so cute we just had to have a picture with him! the whole group :)
After dinner we went to the welcoming party for the everyone in town for the wedding - and i honestly think i was too full from dinner and too hot [it was easily over 90 degrees and pure humidity at 9pm] to even think about taking a picture with anyone...

The next morning we all woke up and did some sight seeing around downtown, came back to our hotel and got ready for the wedding.
Room 328 before the ceremony
Joe and Ashley saying their vows
Being taken away in a horse drawn carriage
after the ceremony, we had 3 hours before we needed to get to the cocktail hour - so we shopped around, and then found a sports bar to watch the OSU vs Eastern Michigan game and watch the Alabama vs Arkansas game. I will admit - Molly and I were calling the hogs... we were pulling for a upset! and the hogs looked good!
we may have been a little over dressed for the bar - but oh well!
the reception was at a plantation - and I have never been to a more beautiful location for a wedding
the cocktail hour was in an open [i felt like i was in a scene from the notebook!]
some of the girls on the bridge
cocktail hour went until dusk and the plantation house was all lit up - it was beyond beautiful!
the bride and groom being introduced for the first time as husband and wife

the cake
it was on the magnolia plantation - so it was only fitting to have magnolias on the invites and the cake

after dinner we moved out to another location where the dance floor was set up and I'm pretty confident in saying that we were on the dance floor the ENTIRE time! we had so much fun!
all of my sorority sisters!
miss my tri deltas
the bouquet toss
the most dramatic ending to a bouquet toss that i have ever witnessed
the band was amazing!
molly helping the saxophone player
at the end of the night with the bride and groom
the wedding was simply wonderful! i am so glad that we were able to go
it was a long trip home on sunday - but totally worth it!
we were welcomed back to Ohio with one of the prettiest sunsets that I have seen in a long time

Thank you if you stayed with me the entire time during this entire post... you can't tell me that I didn't warn you about the picture overload and the long post!

I hope ya'll have a great day!

SUYL - Bedroom

Happy Friday!

Today we are showing off our bedroom's through Kelly's Korner's blog hop. Let me remind you that I live in a condo - so its not the most spacious living, but it works for now...

all of my furniture is from sofa express. i got it about 3 1/2 years ago - but since then they have gone out of business here in Ohio... do ya'll have them where you live? i loved their furniture - it was reasonably priced and good quality

My bedding is from a hodge podge of places
coverlet - HomeGoods
brown throw - TJ Maxx
brown and blue pillow - Bed Bath and Beyond
Teal pillows - Target
White Euro Pillows - The Great Indoors
Pictures - Z Gallerie

This lamp is the one splurge in the entire room, its from Crate and Barrel and I L-O-V-E it. It matches perfectly. This is JM's nightstand, well the one closest to his side of the bed at least. Before I broke down and let him move in with me (it just seemed silly to have him paying rent elsewhere when he was practically living with me - but thats a whole different post!) the top drawer was the only drawer he had in the entire house. His clothes were to remain in a laundry basket at the bottom of my closet floors - ha! He now has the entire spare bedroom closet - don't worry, and I let him keep the top drawer of the night stand - so i gave in a little and he got a closet! its not that bad - right!?

another dresser
some of my favorite people
all of my frames are from homegoods
and the other side of the dresser
the vase and candle stick holder are from Z Gallerie and my candle lab give me s'more candle that i made [yum!]
and just one more dresser
and this is the view from my bed of the closets
[notice how in one picture their is a oscillating fan and the other there is not - i may or may not have recycled some of my pictures from a previous post]
right when you walk into the room you come across the master bath, just to give you relation to where it is within the room itself - but i'll leave that for another stop through SUYL

Now head on over to Kelly's Korner and check out other bloggers master bedrooms!
I love seeing everyone's room's and how ya'll decorate. Its honestly one of my favorite parts of the day!

I hope you have a great Friday!!