Italian Cream Cupcakes

Italian Cream Cupcakes

with Coconut Butter cream frosting
We used the "Pioneer Woman's) recipe http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2009/07/billies-italian-cream-cake-recipe/

Ingredients
FOR THE CAKE:
1 stick Butter
1 cup Vegetable Oil
1 cup Sugar
5 whole Eggs (separated)
3 teaspoons Vanilla
1 cup Coconut (from PW: If You Think You Hate Coconut, Trust Me: I Do Too, And I Love It In This Recipe)
2 cups All-purpose Flour
1 teaspoon Baking Soda
1 teaspoon Baking Powder
1 cup Buttermilk

Most Italian cream Cakes call for Cream Cheese Frosting, but I didn't have any cream cheese in the house so we made coconut butter cream, which was equally as yummy.
The problem is I didn't really measure any of the ingredients for the frosting, but it's basically...
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup shortening
3to 4 tbs milk
Powder sugar until the right consistency
1tsp of coconut flavoring


Tree-May my Cooking partner in crime....

December came and went

Wow, Dec got busy.... shocking I know. Blogging obviously not top priority! :) So here is a quick run down on the rest of our 2011...

No snow for Christmas but a ton after and since.

Homemade gifts that the boys made for each other and neighbor kids. These where a hit. you can imagine rubber band gun and little boys, even the big boys.
Here's Dreaming of You Pillowcases...

The boys helped make these pillow cases for grandma and grandpa J.
flubber...

One of the neighbor boys made this goop for my boys, they loved it...hours and hours of entertainment.
Here is the recipe (from Kidactivities.net)
FLUBBER
Two cups Glue
Food Coloring
Four tablespoons Borax
Warm water
In one bowl mix in 1 1/2 cups of warm water, Glue, and food coloring. In a separate bowl mix in Borax with 1 1/3 cup of warm water.
Pour the glue mixture into the borax mixture.
Do not mix or stir it will form on its own. (Note: I found I needed to stir it a bit for it to come together. The second day, it was even better than the first day! See K-A images... You'll find it shapes itself out smoothly into what ever you store it in. Barb)
Store in plastic baggies.
Porter was sick Christmas eve and Christmas day. We had all the cousins over to our house for the big Christmas eve party, I couldn't find Porter, then I realized he had put himself to bed, you know he had to be sick to do that.

Here is the hand carved sling shot from Grandma G.

Ethan got ...

diapers for Christmas, he was sooo excited.
He actually got a lot of camping and outdoor equipment. The boys here do a lot of snow camping, we aren't really well equipped for that. But now he is.
Santa brought Ava a shopping cart, she is now officially a bag lady. She pushes her little cart around the house gathering whatever she can find. If you have lost something, check Ava's cart, you'll probably find it.

Santa brought Kaden a B.B. Gun I don't have a picture of it. (B.B. guns, rubber band guns, sling shots.... do you see a theme here? we must have three boys).
Here is Karl's gift to me.... almost done

I don't have any closets to put all of our winter coats and gloves and boots in so he is making me one. It is now actually all stained and ready to have the doors put on it. It is beautiful, I will show you the finished product soon. I am so excited about it.
We had a wonderful holiday season, but I'm glad it's over for another year.