Pumpkin Cupcakes

Hi everyone,

As promised, here is my pumpkin cupcake recipe that I found on Pinterest:

Pumpkin cupcakes with cream cheese frosting
Salted caramel drizzle

Even the mix looks like fall. :)

All 48 cupcakes!

On my new cake stands - one DIY, one a thrift store find!

I think this might have been my best batch yet, and at 48 it was definitely my largest... I made them because we had 16 people over to our house last week and I was in charge of dessert, plus I had to make extra to bring to work, of course. I had been wanting to make pumpkin cupcakes for quite a while anyway. Molly and I finished off the last two tonight. :) Still delicious!

Are you ready for Thanksgiving? Mr. G and I bought our turkey this week. We're actually having Thanksgiving with his family and his brother's fiance's family since their wedding is on Saturday and her whole family is in town. There will be a ton of people there, but I'm only responsible for green bean casserole. Still, we bought a turkey because Mr. G loves turkey leftovers, so after a big Thanksgiving lunch we'll have a 14 lb. turkey for dinner. Just the two of us... At least his sister and brother-in-law will be staying at our house to help us finish it off. Between Thanksgiving, bachelor/bachelorette parties, the rehearsal and the wedding, this will be a busy week for us... Wish me luck! It will be fun, though.

Happy Thanksgiving! Feel free to share any yummy recipes. :)

<3 Mrs. G

You know you're a hipster when...

Hey guys!

I'm interrupting my usual programming to give you another random list of things I find humorous. As you may remember from a previous post, I was a hipster for one of my Halloween costumes this year (see photo below). So after taking on the persona of one and then enlightening my boss as to the fascinating subculture he has been missing out on, I've come to realize that I have a slight obsession with hipsters. Maybe it's because they are so defiantly maverick and at the same time hilariously conformist (I swear they all own the same plaid button-down... It's a conspiracy). Or maybe it's because, in spite of their questionable wardrobe and occasional body odor, they have a certain charm to them. Or maybe it's because I keep waiting to see one of them pass out on account of his/her skinny jeans being suffocatingly tight. Regardless, I find them interesting, and I enjoy observing them in their natural habitats. Here's what I've gathered from my observations (these are generalizations, mind you):

You know you're a hipster when...

1. You live in Portland, Brooklyn (Williamsburg to be exact), San Francisco, East Nashville or Minneapolis.
2. You know the differences between East Coast and West Coast hipsters.
3. Your favorite band is Foster the People.
4. Your favorite movie is either Little Miss Sunshine or (500) Days of Summer.
5. You wear skinny jeans every single day. Hot... Cold... You even wear them swimming.
6. You own at least 2 pairs of Toms.
7. Your go-to shirts are deep v-necks and flannel button-downs. That's it. Nothing else.
8. You always wear a hat - either a beanie or one of those shapeless, unflattering sock hats. When you're not wearing a hat, you hair is parted Mad Men style if you're a guy, and if you're a girl, you just pretend like you've never heard of a comb.
9. You wear big retro glasses. Even if you have perfect vision.
10. You're either ridiculously skinny or have the start of a nice beer gut.
11. You work at some obscure, off-the-beaten-path coffee shop, dive bar or cafe.
12. You probably own a bike but may not have cable.
13. You have a lot of Twitter followers who can appreciate your witticism.
14. You are currently "occupying" whatever city you live in (see #1 for list) even though you probably still get an allowance from your parents.
15. You expect to achieve your eventual fame either through your blog, your blossoming music career, your brilliant iPhone app idea, or YouTube.

Feel free to add onto my list. ;)

Next post: back to my usual programming with a pumpkin cupcake recipe!

<3 Mrs. G

P.S. As a disclaimer, I have hipster friends and have even been guilty of a few hipster-like habits myself (for example, that sock hat is mine...), so no hate! I love hipsters; I just think they're hilarious.
P.P.S. I wrote all this on my iPad. Winning!

For those who love cake...

Hello all,

Hope you've had a nice weekend. I went to another bridal shower today, which was a nice end to my relaxing but productive weekend. An example of my productivity: I finally made my cake stand! I actually bought the materials a few months ago but kept forgetting to make it. One of the things holding me back was that I knew I wanted to paint something on the plate I bought (which is plain white), so that requires more thought and work... But a couple weeks ago I went craft shopping and bought a black paint pen (best invention ever), so that got things going.

Cake Stand Tutorial

As it turns out, cake stands are really easy to make - all you need is a plate, a candlestick and some hot glue! Even better - it's cheap. I bought my plate and candlestick from a thrift store for a total of about $5, and I got my glue gun from the Dollar Store. I decided to paint a monogram on my plate (surprised much?), mostly because it's easier than trying to replicate some intricate design. I recommend it for those who aren't painters or those who want to add something but don't have a ton of time. :) And I highly recommend paint pens!

Here are some photos:

To attach the candlestick to the plate, just run a line of hot glue around the top rim of the candlestick and then flip it over and press it into the middle of your overturned plate. Hold firmly in place until attached and then, after a minute or so, flip the stand over (carefully!) so that the plate can weigh it down. I tried using super glue, but all it did was make the candlestick slide around; it never stuck. I'm no glue expert, but if it doesn't stick, it doesn't work, so I moved on. Hot glue wins yet again.

If you paint your plate, I highly recommend buying a glaze to protect the paint since cake stands are meant to be used. :) I bought Delta air-dry PermEnamel satin glaze (from Michael's). Time will tell if it's a good one or not, but if you buy it I do recommend buying a large brush to use with it because it tends to show brush strokes. It supposedly takes 10 days to dry as well, so definitely paint the glaze after attaching the candlestick to avoid messing it up. Side Note: it also smells really bad.

And now for the next cake topic - Mr. G's birthday banana cake recipe!

Banana Cake Recipe

old man ;)

For those of you who followed my previous blog, you'll remember this recipe from when I made it for Mr. G's birthday last year. However, I have added a couple ingredients, so maybe it's worth posting again. Regardless, it's a delicious cake, so that alone makes it worth the repost. So here goes:

Ingredients:

• 3 ripe, mashed bananas
• 3 eggs
• 2/3 cup shortening or softened, melted butter
• 2/3 cup buttermilk (3 tbsp lemon juice + milk)
• 2 1/3 cups flour
• 1 2/3 cups sugar
• 1 1/4 tsp baking powder
• 1 1/4 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tbsp (ish) vanilla extract - I added this and didn't measure... 

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 350.
• Grease 9x13 pan.
• Mash bananas while oven preheats. 
• Mix liquid ingredients. 
• Mix dry ingredients then add to liquid mixture and pour in pan.
• Bake for 45-50 minutes.

Frosting:

• 3 cups powdered sugar
• 1/3 cup butter, softened
• 1 1/2 tsp vanilla
• 4 tbsp milk
• Pinches of cinnamon - my other addition, and it was a good one!
• Mix together and frost onto cake when cooled.
• Enjoy! This is a really good cake. :)

That's all for now. Inspired to eat some cake yet? ;) I just had some cake batter ice cream, so apparently I was... I never said this blog was for dieters.

Have a good week!

<3 Mrs. G

'Til Divorce Do Us Part... Right?

Hi everyone!

I'm writing this post on my new iPad! It's a little challenging and may take a while to write, but I don't really have a choice seeing I'm at Mr. G's hockey game at the moment. And let's be honest, I don't normally have time to blog during the week, so I take advantage of it whenever I can! Mr. G has been wanting one of these for quite a while but finally decided to splurge on one after an unexpected (but well-deserved) bonus. :) God has been blessing us quite a bit lately, particularly in the financial department, which has been a very nice reprieve. We're finally starting to pay off some debt, too. This purchase is probably a little extravagant, but my computer is borderline impossible to use, so this thing has already made my life easier.

In other news, as I'm sure you already know unless you're living under a rock, her majesty Kim Kardashian is divorcing her husband of 72 days, Kris Humphries (a Minnesotan) while their $10 million wedding special is still playing on tv. If you follow me on Facebook and Twitter, then you already know how I feel about all this, which can be summed up in a word: disgusted. I'm not going to vent much on here, but let me just say this: marriage is a commitment, not just a ceremony and a party. At some point the wedding and honeymoon will end, and you're stuck with that person for the rest of your life. And you should be absolutely thrilled beyond belief about it - if not, you have no business getting married. Regardless of Kim's motives for marrying and divorcing Kris (which I still think have to do with $), 72 days is all you can manage?? Seriously? What a waste.

Now for a more positive perspective on marriage, let's switch topics to my brother-in-law's fiance's bridal shower this past weekend. I was responsible for the games, so I came up with a bridal bingo game and a groom trivia game (based on the Newlyweds game). Both involved me getting facts from the betrothed. Did you know there are websites that generate random bingo cards for you using your words? I didn't either, but I used one called print-bingo.com. It was free, and I totally recommend it for showers and/or classrooms. Check out the cards I made with facts about the bride and the couple:

Bridal Bingo!

Gorgeous (that's my G in the back!)

Pretty legit, right? The groom trivia game was fun because I quizzed the bride with mildly obscure questions about her almost hubby. I've always wanted to play this game because I think I would nail it with Mr. G. After a year and a half of long-distance dating, I think we pretty much covered all the questions there were to ask. The bride did pretty well, but most of the ones she missed were arguable. He didn't make it super easy on her. :) But it was a fun shower, and it concluded with some delicious leaf-shaped pound cake. Very cute.

I'll report on my crafts and recipes soon! Promise! In the meantime, here are some pics from our Halloween:

squirrel + mouse

waiting for trick or treaters!

sleepy squirrel

Hope you all had a fun Halloween! FYI - I got second place in the office costume contest with my hipster costume (not pictured) AND I hijacked Molly's squirrel costume at one point as well... It was amazing.

Happy Friday!

<3 Mrs. G

P.S. can you believe I typed all this on my iPad??
P.P.S. Mr. G's team lost. :( But he scored his first goal! :)