Key Lime Rainbow Cupcakes

Welcome Springtime!

I am always up for a cupcake party, and the First Day of Spring is a perfect excuse for one!

We had intended to make these cupcakes as a St Patrick's Day treat -- sort of an end-of -the-rainbow pot-of-gold Leprechaun thing -- but the time got away from us and we didn't make that deadline.

Instead these cupcakes are in celebration of the first day of Spring (even if it does look like Springtime on the North Pole right now outside).

They are Key Lime cake with a cloud of Vanilla frosting swirled high and a candy rainbow on top.

The taste is light and fresh and everything one could hope for in a springtime treat!

Here are all the details!

We used a Pillsbury box cake mix! *gasp* We didn't even change anything -- we just followed the directions on the box.

I can't remember where we got this cake mix, but I think it was Walmart or Target -- it seems to be a seasonal item that comes and goes throughout the year.

It is delicious. I wish I could claim it as my own recipe!

It's light and fresh and the key lime flavor is divine.




The rainbows are made from Air Heads Extremes: Sweetly Sour Candy Rainbow Berry. 

We picked them up at Walmart -- $1.38 for a pack of 20 (just 4 short of the 24 needed for all my cupcakes!).

They taste sour and then sweet. 

When combined with the fresh Key lime flavor of the cake and creamy vanilla in the frosting, they add an extra dimension to the flavor -- unexpected and simply scrumptious!



The dry cake mix is oddly white, and we thought we were going to have to add food coloring, but as soon as we mixed in the eggs, oil and water, the green color came out -- I guess it's powdered color suspended in the mix.

Warning, this batter is thick and nearly killed our electric hand mixer. The box says to beat the batter for 2 minutes. We were not able to do that so we just used the whisk and a lot of arm power.

It was so thick that it felt like scooping heavy pudding into the cupcake cups!

At that point we thought it was not going to turn out well at all, but thank goodness we were wrong!

When they were cooled we loaded up our pastry bag (more of a pastry tube -- like a calking gun for cooking) with Vanilla frosting and swirled on the vanilla 'cloud' with a decorative tip.

The Airhead Extremes are a little bit too long straight from the package, so we cut about an inch off of each strip with kitchen sheers. 

When the strips are too long, the rainbows tend to warp and topple, so this simple snip solves that problem (and also leaves you with 'extra' candy bits for snacking).

We just tucked each end into the creamy cloud to create the rainbow and they held in place beautifully.

The tangy sour taste of the candy complimented the cupcake and frosting very nicely!

And that was that! A perfect light and yummy Key Lime Cuppycake to celebrate the very first day of Spring!

After such a long hard winter, we all deserve a nice springtime treat!

Happy First Day of Spring!

Hit the Road Jack Frost!!

Hip hip Hooray!!  It's finally here!!

If you've been following the Countdown to Spring the moment you've been anticipating has finally arrived!!

Now if you would so kindly join me in telling Jack Frost to hit the road!! 










♫Hit the road Jack, and don't ya come back no more!♫

It's not April Fools Day yet, but this certainly seems like a not-very-funny April Fools prank!


Come on...this cannot be real...

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Top 'O the mornin' to ya!

Here's hoping that you don't get pinched, and that you find your pot of gold!

This year we pulled it all together for a St. Patrick's Day feast!

We kicked around lots of ideas for St. Patrick's dinner that would be outside the box of the traditional corned beef and cabbage, but the old standard came back by popular demand.

I had a hard time convincing Peggo that we should try corned beef one more time before giving up on this St. Patrick's day staple. 

A sale on corned beef and the fact that I scored a free slow cooker from Sears (Shop Your Way Rewards..yippeee) was all we needed as a nudge to give it one more try.



We cooked the corned beef in the slow cooker for 8 hours and it came out perfectly! It was tender and juicy and flavorful -- a true delight even for a non-meat-lover like me.

This year even Peggo agreed this was the best corned beef we ever made. It also cut like a dream instead of being too tough or too crumbly. 

We will definitely be using the slow cooker again!

We steamed all the veggies separately and they were awesome and flavorful as they always are when steamed.

We also made two loaves of Irish Soda Bread this year.

The first loaf was the traditional bread with raisins and caraway seeds, because our Evie loves the traditional kind and she specifically requested that kind.

Peggo does not like raisins and Feather cannot eat seeds, so for our second loaf we decided to get a little bit wild and break tradition by adding only dried cranberries to the dough. 

Both of loaves have received rave reviews by family members who gobbled them up like happy little Leprechauns, so it looks like everyone is happy with their St. Patrick's treats this year!

I so wish that I had taken pictures of all the baking and cooking, but it just didn't happen -- but there's always next year!

We're just three days away from Spring now. We'll soon be seeing lots of green outdoors -- which makes it much easier to pack up all the festive green decorations.

Hippity Hoppity, Easter's on it's way!

Keep chasing rainbows! Your pot of gold is out there!

Looking for more St. Patrick's stuff?

Leprechaun Free Printable Activity- Click here!

St Patrick's Day Decorating Inspiration- Click here!

St. Patrick's Day Potato Soup- Click here!

Magically Delicious: Lucky Charms -- Living in the Moment

If I shocked you when I said that I had never tasted classic Halloween cereals like Boo Berries,  Frankenberries and Count Chocula, then you'd better sit down.

This year is also the first time I have ever tasted Lucky Charms.

My only explanation for this lack of holiday themed cereal in my childhood would be that I was a Cookie Crisp girl, and my love of cookies surpassed even my love of holidays! *gasp*

For anyone with an acute fear of leprechauns, marshmallows, or all things magically delicious, look away now.

My inner child and I finally tried Lucky Charms this year and of course I took some pictures -- because that's how I roll these days.

It may seem odd, but sometimes looking at life through the camera lens forces me to see things from a fresh perspective. I am forcing myself to focus  -- quite literally with the camera and my mind on the beauty, and appreciate it. 

The fact that I can never go back and take the exact same photo is a reminder to live in the moment and appreciate it, because I'll never get THAT moment back again to do over.

In honor of St. Patrick's Day celebration, I'll leave you with these pictures of Lucky Charms cereal. 

I never knew I could find such joy and peace from something as simple as a photograph of cereal.

Leprechaun Clips

Top O' the Mornin' to ya on this fine March Day! 

It's almost St Patrick's Day so I thought I would share a fun and free St. Patty's Day activity.

When I was a little girl, I made a paper leprechaun (to the left)in school for St. Patrick's Day. 

The arms and legs are attached with paper fasteners so that they are movable, and you can make him leap and dance an Irish Jig. 

The only time I have ever used this type of paper fastener was in the construction this leprechaun.

For my entire life I have always called those fasteners "Leprechaun Clips," and in my mind (and my mind only) these clips are decidedly Irish.

I know this is not reality, but it has always been my reality, so it seems quite fitting that I would create my own St. Patrick's Day project using those very Irish (in my mind only) 'Leprechaun clips'!

The original Leprechaun (pictured above) that somehow survived all these years was obviously the inspiration for my leprechaun.

If you'd like to make your very own Leapin' Leprechaun, all you need for this project are 'Leprechaun Clips' (paper fasteners picture to the right) and my free printable below.

Lets all make some new memories of Leprechaun clips!

This Printable is free to use for personal and/or educational use. Commercial and other use is strictly prohibited.

I'd love to see your finished leprechauns! Please feel free to share them in the comments below!

Enjoy!

HapPi Pi Day!

How do you celebrate Pi Day?  I don't know but we did it with Pie -- pizza pie to be exact.

Happy 3.14 to you!  π

♫Pi Day, Pi Day, Havin' fun on Pi Day.♫

Birthday Party for Feather

A Very Merry Birthday Party for Feather!

We had a small birthday party for Feather on his birthday this Sunday. 

There are no pictures of the Birthday Boy, or the guests because we were able to keep the Paparazzi at bay for the entire event.

Sometimes it's nice to just live in the moment and see things through your own two eyes rather than on a tiny screen while you snap pictures!

In the afternoon we had a small family get together and had some delicious home-made 'mud pie' (his absolute favorite) -- my aunt makes this for him every year on his birthday.

This yummy pie is served with whipped cream piled high on top of it.

I didn't get any pictures of it topped with whipped cream because I know better than to stand between a hungry birthday boy and his chocolate puddin' pie!

After the party, once the guests had all gone home, we had a small dinner party with just the four of us.

Peggo made Veal Parmigiana for dinner (another one of Feather's top requests).

I personally have to suspend all thoughts of what Veal is, and even then I have a hard time getting through dinner -- but I kept that to myself!

After dinner we surprised him with his favorite Carvel Ice Cream Cake.

I don't know if it is a Long Island thing or just a Hickey family thing, but Carvel Ice Cream cake is like the official taste of birthdays. 

A million childhood memories of birthdays past flood into my mind when I see or taste a Carvel Birthday cake.

It seems like this frosty confection made an appearance at the birthday celebrations of just about every one of my family members -- nearly every year.

I can remember family members soaking knives in hot water just to be able to cut through the cake with a house packed full of family members just waiting to get their piece!

If you've never had a Carvel Ice cream cake, it's vanilla and chocolate ice cream with that signature Carvel crunchy chocolate cookie crumble between the layers (that I thought was coffee grounds when I was a small child).

You can buy these cakes in grocery stores nationwide now, but when I was a child we would get them straight from the Carvel Ice Cream Parlor, and they would write a personalized Happy Birthday message on the cake.

I loved that blue gel they used for writing, and always hoped I got a piece with some blue gel letters on it!

The party decorating was quite a mish-mosh of holidays. 

We are still all decked out for St Patrick's Day so there is lots of Irish green around. 

We swapped out a few pots of gold for birthday party decorations and we were set for a party.

Paper plates can actually go quite a long way in decorating for a birthday party!

Here we have a paper plate sandwiched between a gold charger plate and a clear glass plate so that it has the look and feel of a 'real' plate as opposed to a flimsy piece of cardboard (and oh boy do I have a lot of decorating plans for these clear plates!)

It was a day of family and fun with pie and cake and smiles all around.

That about sums up our celebration of Feather's 88th Birthday Celebration! 

We're looking forward to giving him many more birthday parties to come!