Star-Spangled Blue Velvet Cupcakes-in-A-Jar

 

I thought that I would re-post this fun, delicious and need-I-say portable treat for you to try:)

 

Happy 4th of July Everyone!

 

xo-Bakie

 

* * * *

There's nothing like a portable treat when you're ready to enjoy yourself at a barbecue or picnic.  For this 4th of July I have decided to make my version of cupcakes-in-a-jar with blue velvet cupcakes-in-a-jar.  The recipe is super easy & promising to be a colorful treat!  Just start with:

Ingredients

1/2 cup vegetable oil

1 cup buttermilk

2 eggs

1 teaspoon white vinegar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 1/2 cups sugar

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 tablespoons Dutch-processed cocoa powder

2 tablespoons royal blue gel paste food coloring

1 tablespoon purple gel paste food coloring

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Line a cupcake or muffin pan with 24 regular-size cupcake liners.

Place the oil, buttermilk, eggs, vinegar, vanilla, and sugar in the bowl of an electric stand mixer and beat with the paddle attachment until thoroughly mixed. Sift the flour, baking soda, salt, and cocoa powder together and slowly add to the mixer on low speed. Scrape down the bowl thoroughly, as needed. Add the food colorings in a steady stream until desired shade is achieved; it should appear bluish-purple. Beat for another 3 minutes. Scrape the bowl one last time and mix for 30 seconds by hand.

Fill the cupcake liners two-thirds full with batter and bake until they form a semi-hard crust on top, about 25 minutes

Once they are cool, I slice them in half. You will have a stack of tops and a stack of bottoms.

Place 1 bottom in each jar. Put a layer of the frosting.

 Take the top of the cupcake and place on top of the layer of frosting.

Beautifully frost the top of the cupcake.

 Add sprinkles between the layers for that extra festive touch :)

For a double decker, cupcake and frosting add another cupcake, repeating the first three steps.  Lastly, attach a small wooden or plastic spoon with baker's twine & you're good to go!  This treat is easy, sweet, and has very little clean-up.  Bon Appetit everyone!

And a Happy 4th of July!

 -Chemeeka

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DIY {Fabric} Yarn Wreath (4th of July)

The 4th of July is coming and it's time to make a wreath, y'all!  It seems like the perfect occasion to make us a little wreath....well, ANY occassion is fit enough for me to make a wreath.  (Sometimes, I am just looking for an excuse to have to make a wreath, lol.)  So, let's get started:)  This wreath is super easy and honestly, I first saw it here on Pinterest.  And just knew that I had to make one!:)

For my door, I used the following

Supplies:

* spool of deep red yarn

* spool of rich navy blue yarn

*spool of ivory colored yarn

* 18 inch foam wreath base

* 12 inches of burlap or ribbon for hanging

*packet of white foam stars (mine came in a three pack of silver, gold and white & for this project I just use the white. 

I chose a premium brand of yarns.  There were were some that were of a thicker band but I wanted my yarn to almost look "silky".  So I made sure that the yarn that I chose was thin, deep and rich in color and even had a little shine to it.  (You'll see when we get to the end...) 

Okay so first I watched a YouTube video on this and I was so glad I did because I noticed a couple of things:

(1) If you're doing a yarn wreath, you must, absolutely MUST use a foam wreath base.  No a wire wreath base, or a twig wreath base. Absolutely not.  With wrapping a yarn, no other base, (except one that is COMPLETELY smooth, like a foam base will do!)

Second, when you're wrapping a yarn wreath DO NOT unravel your spool of yarn.  Keep it rolled and wrapped up & only pull out enough of the yarn for that cycle it around the wreath. 

Watch this video to see what I mean.

Next after I got this rotation going I went around and around.  Now, you see that we are trying to make this wreath in the similitude of the American flag.  So you want to have the blue cover the top left quadrant, just like it does on the actual flag.  And then on the bottom left quardrant and all of the right side of the (top and bottom quadrants) we're going to make our "stripes".  If you watched the video, you saw that you tie your yarn at the beginning point before you begin wrapping.

As you go, these little knots will be at the beginning and the end of all of your white and red sections.  Turn your wreath over before you at the hanging ribbon and stars and cut off any loose ends, above the knot.  If you cut "below" the knot, your yarn is likely to unravel, so don't do it;)

After you're done cutting off any of the loose ends, you're good to go with applying your stars. 

These stars have a sticky back and so you just peel off that sticky back and take your time pressing them all around the navy blue part of the base.  You're making up your stars section because you already have your stripes done.  (*Back note: Use your discretion as to how thick you want each section of white (or ivory) and deep red to be.  It doesn't have to be perfect, just rhythmic:)

And there you have your wreath!  Happy Independence Day!

'

So what are you doing for this 4th of July?  Does your family have any special

"crafty" family traditions?  Making this wreath could be your first:)

Happy Crafting Y'all!

xo -Bakie

Bourbon Chicken & Sweet Potato w/Quinoa

How many different ways can you say, "yum"?  "Yum", "yummy" & "yumm-o".  There are several ways, and I am saying them all when I bite into this!  Perfect meal for the weekend, fast dinner, or just a romantic dinner for two but....I hear you..enough already!  Let's get down and get this recipe.

Bourbon Chicken
It's simple and as easy as pie!  P-I-E.  All you need is a rotesserie chicken from your local grocery store.  Yes ma'am.  Short cuts.  Glorious short-cuts.  De-li-cious shorts cuts.  Somebody say it with me, "Shortcuts!"  Next grab your:

Soy sauce (1/2 cup)
Honey (1/4 cup)
Powdered Ginger (1/2 tbsp)
Olive oil (2 tbsps)

And you are working it right now, like seriously.  (You know when you go to the mall and they hand you that little piece of bourbon chicken on the end of the toothpick.  Well, here it is!  Just chopped up your chicken from the store and cover it in this sauce.  But wait!  I am getting ahead of myself.

Step 1:  Chop up the roteserrie chicken from the store, keeping on the skin, and removing the bones.

Step 2: Make up your sauce (recipe above) and set it aside.

Step 3: Steam 1 1/2 cups of fresh chopped kale greens.  Set aside.

Step 4: Peel, chop and boil 2 small or one medium sized sweet potato.  Set aside.

Step 5: Sautee one cup of frozen bell pepper slices.  Preferably, yellows, oranges, and reds or oranges, greens, and reds.  (You get my point.  Just keep it colorful & if it's already sliced and from the freezer section- like at Trader Joes- you're going to get a much better price then buying it fresh.)
Set aside.

Step 6: Make up your red quinoa.  This is easy enough to find.  Trader Joes will have it but also check your local grocery store.  (Prepare, half a cup of quinoa, with one cup of water (or chicken stock).  Set aside.

In a large bowl, toss your quinoa, sweet potatoes, red pepper blend (again, the red preferrably for color), your kale greens and your chicken.  Make sure that your sauce is warm and then drizzle it over and toss again.  Delish!  Just like what you see in this photo:)

So what are you making this weekend?  Anything special?  Try this recipe and I am sure that you will make the tastebuds in your home, very, very, happy;)

Happy Cooking Everyone!
xo Bakie

Hello Strawberry Salad!

Boy do I love my strawberry salad.  And even better, I love strawberry season!  Well strawberry season is here & it's a official with our local Strawberry Festival that was underway this past weekend:) 

What's so great about strawberry season?  I'll tell ya.  You've got super fresh. sweet. delicious. yummy. you could never have enough of these DELICIOUS strawberries.  And one of my favorite things to make (besides desserts of course:) with this yummy strawberries is my strawberry salad.  And I'm calling it my "Love My Salad: Strawberry Salad".  Why?  Because you'll love it.  Whispering to you: trrrrusst mmmeee:)  And what's even better are that the ingredients to make this salad are easy and accessible.  I'll be giving you the tools, to make this salad, again & again.

I'm taking:

A bowl of fresh strawberries (2 cups sliced)

a 4-ounce of container of crumbled bleu cheese (gorgonzola will do too!)

1 1/2 cups of candied pecans

3 cups of fresh mixed lettuce greens

one small sweet onion or red onion, thinly sliced

**My (secret) vinegrette**

(don't worry, I will give you the recipe;)

 

To make the candied pecans you simply just melt, 1/4 cup of unsalted butter in a sautee pan, and then add to it a 1/3 cup of dark brown sugar, half a tablespoon of kosher salt and your pecans.  ( I know what you're thinking..."do I really need that much salt?"  The answer is, you do!  The reason being that between the crunchiness of the pecans, and the sweet butteriness of the brown sugar and butter, the amount of salt here, just works.  It really does.  You'll see what I mean. 

 

Set the pecans aside and let's get our vingrette done.  Go ahead and mix up 1/3 cup of olive oil, 1/3 cup of rice wine vinegar (the plain one), 2 tablespoons of sugar, 1 tablespoon of french dijon mustard, and 1/2 teaspoon of pepper, 1/2 teaspoon of salt.  And stir.  Now, about here (at this point) is where I would usually warn, "Do not dress your salad until..." but Barefoot Contessa has taught me a thing or to.  So, hold onto your vinagrette.  No need to panic.  Your salad is not going to go wilting all over the place.  But you don't want to dress it now.  At least not until I tell you the right way to dress a salad ahead of time.  It can be done.  You'll see.  (Keep reading:).

 

Okay, now in a large bowl, you will want to toss (and add these in, in the order that I tell you):

 

Your greens (mixed lettuces)

your onions

the strawberries

the pecans

the bleu cheese crumbles (or gorgonzola).

 

Now toss, without the vinagrette.

 

Now once everyone in the salad bowl looks happy, just take a third of your vingrette and move all of the salad to one side and pour it, only into the bottom of the bowl.  And do NOT toss it again UNTIL you are getting ready to serve it.  Otherwise your salad will wilt.  What to do with the remaining vinegrette?  I like to drizzle most of it (at least half of what's remaining) over the salad and toss right before people eat.

 

It's one of those salads that's really delicious when you eat it fresh, but you've got to really be in love with it to try and take a bite out of it the next day.  You know what I mean;)

 



So do you love my salad?  Think that you'll give it a try this strawberry season or next?  Whisper: You can even make this one in the off season....I won't tell anybody.

 

Bon Appetit & Happy Strawberry Picking!

 

xo- Chemeeka

Every Cooks Must Have {Recipe} for Pound Cake

Any fashion editor will tell you, there are several "must-haves" for every woman's wardrobe..those key things that she need keep handy and be able to call on to really work it on any day!  Well the same goes for us cooks, home-cooks that is.  There are six or seven key components that any wife, mother, cook, should have in her go-to wheelhouse.  Like a recipe for:

 

1) a good dip

2) the perfect one-pot wonder

3) her slow cooker speciality

4) "I'm in a bind but the kids are hungry" (ie, breakfast for dinner or grilled cheese sandwiches & soup)

5) great mashed potatoes

6) a good spaghetti sauce

and last but not least

7) a killer pound cake recipe

 

Now I know what you're thinking..."who even makes pound cake these days?"  But you and I both know, long gone are the days were granny's pound cake is readily available where you can just walk over and get a slice.  Now, we're the mommies and sometimes granny lives, really, really, far away and by the time you convinced her to make and mail it...well, you know where I am going.

 

You need to have (in your cooking arsenal of "I got this!") a really good pound cake recipe.  Until recently, I've found one.   And a really good one at that.  This is simple, yet delicious.  Buttery and tender, yet sweet.  And not too sweet.  And oh, did I say that you'll be really, really proud of yourself, when you make this little nellie and knock it right out of the park?  Yeah.

 

So here it goes,

 

Southern Pound Cake recipe  as adapted by Chemeeka Sparks

You'll need:

1 1/2 cups (3 sticks) of unsalted butter (at room temperature)

3 cups of sugar

6 large eggs

3 cups of flour

1/2 teaspoon of salt

1/4 baking soda

8 ounces of sour cream

1/2 teaspoon of lemon extract

1/2 teaspoon of almond extract

1/2 tablespoon of grated orange zest

 

With an electric mixer on medium speed cream unsalted butter until light and fluffy.  Slowly add in granulated sugar until combined.  Next, add your eggs one at a time, continuing to combine until the yolk disappears, before adding the next egg.  Once all of your eggs have been added, set the mixture aside and in a separate bowl, mix together your dry ingredients.

 

Alternating with your sour cream, begin adding your dry mixture to your butter, sugar, egg mixture.

Starting with your flour mixture you should be adding, dry/sour cream/dry/sour cream/dry/sour cream/dry all of your flour and sour cream have been added.  Next stir in your grated orange zest and both of your flavorings.

 

Grease and flour a 12-cup tube baking pan, and pour in your cake mixture.  Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour and 15 mins or until a tooth inserted comes out clean. 

 

Top with your favorite pie topping or fresh berries that have been mascerated with one tablespoon of granulated sugar per 2 cups of fresh fruit and Bon Appetit!

 

I love, love, love this recipe and hope that you will too.  Happy Spring!

 

xo-Chemeeka



Printables for Spring!

I have more goodies!  I cannot help myself.  With Easter just around the corner, you could always use a little extra paper or wrapper to make things fun.  Find these and more in my shop!

St. Patrick's Day Printables!

I am so excited to share my latest venture with you.  And even better, just in time for St. Patrick's Day!  Since I have a love of all things sweet, and that includes the "paperie" kind of sweet, I felt it only natural to marry my creative and crafty, side to my "design" side, and the sweet tooth in me jumped in and it became one BIG PARTY!

 

I am launching my new shop online (Etsy.com) and it is called, "Papered Sweet", your new go-to shop for inspiration, party-fun, and of course, seasonal & party themed DIY printables.   Check over at our sidebar on the right for our "Papered Sweet" button and link:)

Cheers,
xo Chemeeka

Spring Corn & Ginger Chowder

Spring is in the air.  And along with the spring comes the sunshine, warm sunny days, flowers are blooming, and all that is bright.  I like to take that same brightness and incorporate that into some of my dishes.  One quick and easy way to bring the outside in, and get that "burst" of brightness is to add ingredients like the ones I am using in my Spring/Summer Corn & Ginger Chowder.

 

We're starting with:

 

* one cup or half of a can of yellow corn

* one can of coconut milk

* a can of cream of mushroom soup

*1/4 cup of fresh chopped lemongrass

* one cup of chopped ginger root

* one cup of sauteed portabella mushrooms

* a tablespoon of ground ginger

* salt and pepper to taste

 

Directions:

In a medium saucepan, combine can of coconut milk, can of cream of mushroom soup, half can of yellow corn, tablespoon of ground ginger, a pinch of salt and a pinch of pepper. Stir and bring to a low simmer 4-5 minutes over medium to low heat.

 

 Now this chowder is going to bring you layers and layers of flavor.  Your basis is going to be the coconut milk, cream of mushroom soup, corn and ground ginger.  That is going to give us our jumping off point:)

 







 

While you're letting your basis for this chowder simmer, sauteed in a medium fry pan your sliced portabella mushrooms. 

I always have a trick that I use for the perfect sautee: three minutes sear, two minutes steam.  Just remember that:

 

Three minutes sear,

Two minutes steam.

 

And what that simply means is this, I sautee or sear let's say my asparagus or mushrooms, or squash, whatever it is in olive oil on high heat.  And then I turn the heat off, add 1/4 cup of water to the pan, and cover it with the lid, and just let that baby steam.  Give it two minutes and essentially, you are done to perfection!  Works for me on asparagus, brocolli, you name it.  And of course if it's a green veggie you can blanche it, but that's another post;)

 

So go ahead and add your mushrooms and let's get to working on our lemongrass and fresh ginger, our spring flavors.

In a perfect world, you'd walk right into your average supermarket and pick up some fresh lemongrass but in a the instance that they're out of it or it's not in stock, the bottled stuff will do.  Two tablespoons to be exact.

Now we can't skimp on the ginger.  The crunch and layers of flavor that this fresh bit is going to add is going to be Un-believe-able!  Trust me.  Take the time to peel it.  *Tip: Cut off each one of the little nubbies on the ginger root before attempted to peel.  Keeps you from having to dig into every little crevice with your peeler;)  Once your done peeling, go ahead and give your ginger a rough chop and add it to the pot now with your other ingredients. 

Once your chowder is complete and has simmered now for about 15 minutes with continual stirring you can tranfer it to a medium-size crock pot and let it simmer on low for the next 4-5 hours. 

 The brightness and layers of flavor in this chowder are sure not to disappoint.  What are you making these days that shines, "spring"?  Try this chowder & let me know how much you loved it.  Oh, and did I mention that....you won't miss the meat:)

 

Happy Cookin' & Happy Spring!

 

xo-Chemeeka 

Inspired by a Fellow DIY blogger

I have been fascinated these days with so many things....Pin-spiration, Inspiration, and overall just being a mom and learning how to be more, frugal, crafty, original and just down-right wife, mom, & family-FABULOUS has just got me going!:-)  Lately, I have been hanging out here.  And I just looove what I have stumbled upon in the way of fonts on Mrs. Smith's site.

There are so many WONDERFUL things that you can do with fonts but before we get to that.  Let's have a little freebie.  I bring you 15 fabulous fonts as seen on The House of Smiths website:

The House of Smiths, top 15 Fabulous Fonts!!!

Mrs. Smith shares:

I'm a font JUNKIE! It all came about when we decided to start up our vinyl shop business about 5 years ago. I just couldn't get enough of all the beautiful fonts that so many talented people had to offer me! I have thousands of fonts stored on my computer, but these 15 are definitely in my "favorites" category :)

ENJOY!

Please note: Some fonts listed are free for personal use! You can find them at dafont.com, fontsquirrel.com and 1001freefonts.com. While others may need to be purchased through various online font sites such as losttype.com, scrapnfonts.com, myfonts.com, veer.com and more.

Quicksand Dash, JFFerulle, Sketch Block, Peach Sundress, Pharmacy, Before the Rain, ROD, CK Cursive, Disco, JB Cursive, SNF Darcy Vaudevill, Learning Curve, LD Announcement, SNF Daphne Light, Lavanderia Delicate.

PS: You can also find the #15 font here: Circus Font

- See more at: http://www.thehouseofsmiths.com/2012/03/house-of-smiths-15-fabulous-fonts.html#sthash.bj8U344q.dpuf

xo Chemeeka

Valentine's Day Dinner for Two!

Oh, how I love Valentine's Day!  Besides Christmas, it is my favorite time of year.  And other than chocolate, cards, and flowers, nothing says Valentine's Day more for me than a delicious meal:)  So this one is easy.  If you're eating in this year, simple and accessible ingredients are sure to produce a fantastic result.  On the menu:

 

Spinach & Feta Stuffed Chicken breasts, with asparagus and brown rice with a

Chocolate Creme Brulee custard (for dessert). 

 

Ding, ding, ding...we've even got dessert on the list and you can make this at home in a jiffy!

 



 

For your stuffed breasts you will need:

Two boneless skinless chicken breasts

Two scallions, chopped

One cup of fresh or frozen spinach (if frozen, chopped & drained)

1/2 cup feta cheese

 

 

In a saute pan on medium high heat, saute you spinach and scallions until soft.  Add salt and pepper to taste.  Once cooled, mix in your feta cheese. 



 

 Slice your chicken breasts horizontally, center of the side to form a little pocket to place your filling.  Stuff each breast with about 1/2 cup of your mixture.  Place both breasts in a pan or on a lined cookie sheet in an oven at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.  While you're waiting on your chicken breasts you can go ahead and get your brown rice ready. 

 

If you are not a fan of brown rice, I think that after you try this recipe you will be! I have been using this for our family for at least the last 12 months. I originally came up with it to please my no-brown-rice-for-me-please protesting family. This recipe did the trick!

No-fail brown rice:

2 cups of water

1 cup of uncooked brown rice

1 tablespoon of olive oil

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon fresh cracked pepper

2 chicken stock boullion cubes

In a medium saucepan, add rice, water, salt, pepper, olive oil and bouillion cubes and bring to a boil. Cover pot on place on low heat for the next 30-35 minutes. And perfecto!

 

Next go ahead and grab two handfuls of your fresh asparagus.  Chop off the bottom four inches of the ends and you're ready to go! (I know that four inches seems like a lot but trust me, you don't want eat those ends.  They can taste very "woody").   Add them to a saute pan that is already on high heat, and saute for two minutes in olive oil and them turn the pan off, but leave it over the heat, add 1/4 cup water to the pan and a lid and let it steam for another two minutes.  Remove from pan, and immediately serve on the plate.

 

For our Chocolate Creme Brulee custards, add a heaping 1/4 cup of semi-sweet chocolate chips to 2 cups of heavy cream in a medium saucepan.  Stir and heat over medium heat until your chips are completely melted.

 

 

Add your chocolate cream mixture:

 

5 egg yolks, 1/3 cup of granulated sugar, and 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract that has been whisked together.

 

 

You will want to add the warm cream 1/8 of a cup at a time, whisking while you add, to temper the eggs (and to keep them from scrambling by the heat of the milk on you;)

 

Next, fill about 6 small ramekins with the chocolate cream custard mixture.  And place them into a large 11x15 baking pan.  Fill your 11x15 pan halfway with warm water to give your custards a smooth and creamy texture.  Bake at 350 degrees for 35 minutes and allow to cool to room temperature before placing in the refrigerator to chill.  Allow 3-4 hours to chill before serving.  Garnish with fresh berries.  Bon Appetit!

Whether you're staying in or waiting till the weekend to celebrate, this meal is sure to sweeten up anyone's day.  So get in the kitchen, get out your apron, pull this recipe up and take a hack at it.  You never know....you just might impress yourself! 

 

Happy Valentine's Day to One & All!

 

xo Chemeeka