Birthday Cupcakes

Today is my mom's birthday! I went home this past weekend so I could celebrate her birthday with the rest of the family.
One of the few things I wanted to do to celebrate her birthday was to make a few special cupcakes for her. It ended up taking way longer than I thought (I spent about 5 hours in the kitchen haha! But this includes prep time as well as baking time and cleaning all the equipment). They turned out pretty well!

I made dark chocolate cupcakes with triple salted buttercream (I used Sprinkle Bake's recipe), cookies and creme whipped cream (didn't use a recipe for this haha just threw a bunch of ingredients together!), and chocolate whipped cream (I used Eki's recipe). I topped the triple salted buttercream with a homemade caramel sauce and topped the chocolate whipped cream cupcakes with a piece of dark chocolate.

The buttercream didn't come out that well. It was a little too thick and still very sweet. Everyone's favorite was the cupcake with the chocolate whipped cream. It wasn't too sweet and tasted so good :)

I want to invest in a proper piping bag. I used a ziploc plastic baggie, but there was a minor issue with the thickness.

In any case, I would love to know what your favorite topping for cupcakes is, so please leave a comment below! I would love to try making new toppings :)

The (Not So) Massive Post: Part IV

Wow, it's been a while since I last updated my blog! ><" Almost a month, actually...unfortunately, it's the same excuse- I've been super busy with school, my jobs, church, etc. I hope to start blogging more often, though. I really miss it!

Oh, and here's a big HELLO to my new followers! :)

Anyway, here's the super duper late The Massive Post: Part IV! Better late than never, right? I added the (not so) because as I mentioned a while back, I can't find any of the pictures from my birthday >:( So here are the pictures of what I got for Christmas. I only asked for chocolate and money so I was surprised to find out that I still got a few other small things :)

Gahhh I love this cup so much :)  I love the size of it, I love the floral print, I love the color, and I love the "J" printed on it :) And yes, it's supposed to be slightly crooked haha. That just makes me love it even more! I actually told my mom not to buy me any clothes/shoes from Anthropologie for Christmas because it's way too expensive; although the designs are breathtakingly gorgeous, I just can't justify spending $200 on a dress, especially since I'm going to college next year and those fees will add up to some ridiculous amount of money. So my mom didn't get me clothes/shoes from Anthropologie...but she got me a cup! :)

Combat boots <3 I love these so much. My mom told me to pick out a pair of shoes and since I have wanted a pair of black combat boots since forever, I chose this pair of Wanted boots from DSW.com. They're super comfortable! When my friends (and even my parents!) saw me wearing these, they all told me that they didn't think I would like combat boots but that I pulled it off really well...so I guess that's a good thing? Haha :)

Okay, you don't even understand how excited I was to receive these! This series is amazing! lsafjlskfj;slafj; lfkj I am so happy I own all of them now; I think my local library was getting fed up with all of my renewal requests for these book! My brothers pulled money together to buy me these books and I'm forever in their debt. Just kidding.

 I'm not a fan of the cover in the middle, and honestly the third cover looks a bit cheesy....but the first cover? LOVE.


























Finally, chocolate! Anddd a few sour apple-flavored candy canes. They sound  a little disgusting but they were really good.

Anddd that's what I got :) Excluding the money, of course. I had so much fun buying presents for everyone this year; I didn't have a chance to take pictures of what I bought but it was a fairly random mix of items! Skincare products, toys, drumsticks, makeup, socks, etc....Overall, Christmas was amazing!

....it feels kind of weird typing that sentence, since Christmas was over a month ago....smh.