Another cooking post!

Well, mostly. 

As always. I have a bunch to post! I wish I had more time to post over the week, but its way too busy during these last few weeks of school. I will probably be posting LOTS over summer!

But anyway, to my cooking!

Last weekend was the boyfriend's birthday so I decided to make him something yummy. He's not very high maintenance so he just asked for plain cupcakes, but I can't possibly make a plain cupcake! However, I wanted to honor his wish a bit (it was his birthday) so I went out and bought some Funfetti cupcake mix, which is his favorite. My dad so graciously filled the cupcake tin while I worked on the toppings!

So happy to be put to work!

While he did that, I made the toppings for my cupcakes!

I put strawberries upside down and cup them into thin slices. However, I picked the BIGGEST possible strawberries which was not a very good idea because they were too big to fit onto the cupcakes. Well I decided to experiment a big and instead of putting plain chocolate on the cupcakes, I put:

Nutella!

I was a bit nervous as to how this would turn out because I've never used it as a spread for anything but crepes. However, they turned out very pretty and everyone at the party said they were delicious! 

I tried one after everyone had one (I only had enough time to make 12 so I didn't want anyone not to have one) and they were pretty tasty! I think Nutella is versatile enough to go with any flavor of cupcakes. I am thinking of making breakfast muffins with Nutella and various fruits for my dad to take to work in the morning.

I had some extra batter though so I made a cake for Easter with my family the next day! The Nutella's thickness was ripping the cake apart though so I stuck it in the microwave for about 10 seconds and it basically poured on. 

It was super nom the next day!

And speaking of Easter, the Easter bunny brought me some treats. I told my dad I didn't want an Easter basket this year because the basket always seems like a burden and I'm very very very picky about candy so I don't eat most of it. He felt bad doing absolutely nothing though so he gave me a little bit of money for my school Bookstore and left my "basket" up to his girlfriend who got me this:

Movie, nice chocolate (I only eat dark chocolate) and the equivalent of a shirt at the bookstore=by far, the most extravagant Easter I've ever had. But boy, oh boy, HARRY POTTER! I would be watching it this weekend, but Gone With the Wind is first on Matt and I's movie list right now. I read it over Spring Break and cannot wait to see it!

We also had a little guest on Easter!:

We were watching Delilah for a neighbor and she is the silliest looking dog I ever did see. Thor was not happy to be sharing his people. He got quite jealous. 

Going back to desserts for a moment, these are some cupcakes my roommate and I made for a New Year's party this year. They were cheesecake cupcakes with a vanilla wafer crust on bottom. We used a variety of toppings on top like mint, (dark) chocolate chunks, curled orange peels, pomegranate, chocolate sauce and shavings. They were very gourmet. 

In other news, I finished Taylor's Graduation presents! We picked up her bulletin board and make-up bag last weekend and everything is wrapped. The only thing missing is the GDG earrings and they should be here soon!

Here are her wall letters. Take back the finished part, I have to put some ribbon on the top so she can hang them on her wall. I'm hunting for some cute zebra ribbon. I wanted to show the T alone because I did zebra on the side and was very proud. It took FOREVER!

I also made her a frame:

The frame came out pretty cute! I wanted to make it width wise instead of length, but the ribbon just did not look good that way. I bought that adorable Lilly button with the pink T on it for $7. $7 people! For a dinky button. It was the only one I could find. But as luck has it, as soon as I glue the dang thing on there I find some at Michael's for $1 each! Oh, well! That just means I can make more frames in the future!

Well I'm sure everyone is tired of my super long blog posts so I will leave it at that! I hope everything enjoyed it :)