Stirrin’ Up Some Trouble

Last Sunday was a day spent in the kitchen making memories. Taylor and I made multiple batches of cupcakes and frosting from scratch. We love cooking, baking and tasting everything we make! New recipes are our favorite way to connect. Plus when we bake we love to freeze some of our goodies for a lazy day in the future. So, after a crazy busy week the kid wanted to spend some mother daughter time together. We busted out our matching aprons and away we whisked…

Now that Taylor is older it is quite fun to have her in the kitchen with me. She is able to read the recipe, measure ingredients and practice with flavor combinations. I am pretty much there as a backup bodyguard to our dessert and the transporter of goodies to the hot realm of the deep dark oven. While baking with this rambunctious almost nine-year old I really enjoy being able to watch her while she works through each step. Every thought and emotion is visible while she thinks hard about the task at hand. The various expressions that cross her face are guaranteed to be entertaining.

The pictures in this post were from my cell phone and I really did a poor job of catching the wide array of expressions, but I am okay with that. I was so focused on spending the quality time that I made memories instead of pictures. Maybe someday I will be talented enough to do both.

Tay took over almost all of the steps, even if it meant some fancy juggling or handy work. Pouring in the powdered sugar while using the hand mixer was quite a feat! This little lady sure pulled it off. After showing her how to twist the top of the piping bag Taylor showed me up with some phenomenal piping skills. So much so that I set mine down and let her finish frosting the cupcakes while I ‘cleaned’ the beaters…still one of my favorite things to do while baking.

We ended up making three different things. The first item was blueberry strudel muffins (not pictured). They were simply delicious and have made a fantastic breakfast item. The second was vanilla and chocolate marble cupcakes filled and topped with a vanilla and chocolate swirl buttercream frosting. These were also moist and the perfect amount of sweetness. Lastly we made my favorite of the day – a coffee cupcake topped with a salted caramel buttercream complete with a salted caramel drizzle. Yup that last one did me in…sweet and salty gets me every time. This happened to be Taylor’s favorite too!

One really cool thing that we discovered while baking together is that we can whip up multiple batches in one day and have the cleanup done as they come out of the oven. Yup, we pretty much rock! Plus we have cupcakes as a reward for doing a good job. Even Nick was amazed at how clean and efficient we were.

Since some of the cupcakes were filled with buttercream frosting Tay decided to decorate the middles as tiny sample cakes! I loved the idea. I usually just eat them plain while I frost, but this is much better.

Sweets and treats aside; the absolute best part of my day was the huge hug and thank you from my almost nine-year old. She was gushing with enthusiasm about having the best day ever with her mom. ❤ My heart literally melted.

Who else loves to make baked goodies from scratch?