Daily Painting 9

I am challenging myself. A painting a day, every day.

Here is Day 9:

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!

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.

St Patricks Day - Potato Soup

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

With an Irish name like Hickey, people kind of expect us to celebrate good ole St. Patty's Day.

After discovering that the 'traditional' St. Patrick's Day dinner of Corned Beef and Cabbage may NOT even be a traditional Irish dish, we decided to explore the alternatives.

Adding a few drops of green food coloring to almost any food is always a fun option, but we wanted something a bit more Irish, and a bit less likely to give us green smiles.

The idea of a hearty potato soup came to mind on a very cold day in February so we did a trial run and it seemed to be the perfect St. Patrick's Day meal.

In case you are wondering, no, we did not spend hours in a clover patch counting leaves and hoping to find not one, but several four-leaf clovers! 

Those ADORABLE little shamrocks that so festively garnish our potato soup are actually baby spinach leaves that were made that shape with a decorative paper punch! I LOVE it!! I found this idea on Pinterest, here.(I'm already trying to think of other leaves I can punch and other foods I can garnish with these!) There is a link to the exact paper punch I used below.

The soup is Bear Creek Creamy Potato Soup, and if you have not ever tried it, please do! It is so yummy! 

It's creamy and hearty and is just perfectly seasoned right out of the package. So easy to make too!

We served it with fresh baked warm biscuits. Yum!

This table was set just for the photo, but the real St. Patty's Day decorations are now up and awaiting picture day. I'll be posting the pictures as soon as I take them. 












Scattering chocolate gold coins around the table and place settings makes it look like a leprechaun could pop out and grant a few wishes or dance an Irish jig at any moment! 

pssst... do the gold coins look familiar? They are back from Christmas, Mardi Gras, and Chinese New Year! I love when decorations can cover more than one holiday!

Thanks for stopping by, and I hope you'll visit again soon! 

Keep an eye out for new articles. I'll be giving a little tour of our St. Patrick's decorations this year as well as trying a few recipes and baking ideas.

Wishing you happiness and good luck this St. Patrick's Day!