4th of July

You are probably expecting to see a post along the lines of red, white and blue, or stars and fireworks, or maybe even something with strawberries and blueberries - that's not what you'll find in this post though, sorry to disappoint.

Life around here has been a little bit crazy around here, so this past weekend I decided it was time to try out a few ideas I've had floating around in my brain for awhile now.  A few weeks ago I took a trip to Lansing and on the way home ran across a small cake supply store, it was located in a small town right on their quant little main street.  Needless to say I completely lost track of time!  I stocked up on some adorable cupcake liners, some powdered fondant (I've been wanting to try some new kinds, so I was happy with that find), and I also found some flavoring oils that I thought would be great to try out!

So, Saturday afternoon I whipped out the mixer and powdered sugar and decided it was time to test out some new flavors of frosting

As you can tell, these were the flavors I tested out.  I combined the rum and coconut to created a delicious coconut rum buttercream that gave me a great idea for another cupcake I can't wait to try out!  The lemon was pretty decent (my dad was a big fan of that one), the cotton candy was surprisingly amazing and the bubble gum...well...kids might really enjoy it, but not me.

I didn't want to spend my time in the kitchen working on mixing up a cake, so I cheated and just used a box that made 12 cupcakes

So, I made 12 mini cupcakes and added some of my new frostings to them to have a taste testing party, some were good and worked...while others didn't.  But you live & learn.

Bubble Gum (least favorite):

 Lemon (this one came in 2nd for me):

Cotton Candy (tied for 1st):

Coconut Rum (also tied for 1st):

I think that the cotton candy and coconut rum are both very delicious, but they would be even better on a different kind of cake, as these were just plain white.

My dog also had a birthday this weekend and he turned 2! Yay!  He absolutely loves cupcakes, if he weighed more than 10 pounds he might try to attack and take you down in order to get a cupcake from you. Seriously.  So, for his birthday we decided to give him his own little mini cupcake!  He wasn't quite sure what to do when we gave him permission to actually eat it! Too funny!

Hope everyone had a safe & enjoyable 4th of July weekend!