Kevin & Amanda

Mini Funfetti Cupcakes with Sprinkles

Amanda — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 07:00:33 +0000

Ahh, who can resist a cute mini cupcake with colorful confetti sprinkles?? A simple vanilla cupcake with vanilla buttercream frosting is my absolute favorite kind of cupcake. I knew I had to make this fabulous little cupcake for our Cupcake Taste Testing Party, and it’s the perfect recipe to kick off Cupcake Week!

I used Sweetapolita’s Fluffy Vanilla Cake recipe for these cupcakes, and I’m going to just send you over there to get it. The cupcakes were gorgeous, light, airy, fluffy, and impossibly moist. Everything I want in a vanilla cupcake. Even when made mini — and that’s hard to do! A perfect vanilla cupcake.

I topped them with my favorite vanilla buttercream frosting recipe (posted below). You can use any vanilla extract for this buttercream, but if you’d like to give your frosting a little WOW factor, I absolutely love Tahitian vanilla extract! This special vanilla extract is specifically for use in recipes that are not cooked or heated, and results in a pure, simple, delicious vanilla flavor.

Here are the two recipes below. Enjoy these, guys! Five new cupcake recipes are coming at you next week. Have a great weekend!

Click HERE to get the recipe for Fluffy Vanilla Cake!

NOTES

I weighed all my ingredients.
I used Egg Beaters Egg Whites in place of the egg whites, so I wouldn’t have leftover yolks. So easy and worked PERFECT!
I used 1 tablespoon vanilla extract.
Just before pouring the batter into the cupcake liners, I stirred in 1/4-1/2 cup confetti sprinkles. I didn’t measure exactly, I just kept adding until the batter looked colorful and sprinkly :)
For MINI cupcakes, bake at 350 for 8-10 minutes. For STANDARD cupcakes, bake at 350 for 18-22 minutes.

Vanilla Buttercream Frosting

1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
3 cups powdered sugar
1/2 cup heavy cream
2 teaspoons Tahitian vanilla extract

Place the butter, sugar, cream and vanilla in a large mixing bowl. Beat on medium speed until smooth and creamy, about 3-5 minutes. If necessary, add more cream, one tablespoon at a time, beating for 1-2 minutes after each addition until desired consistency is reached. Pipe onto cupcakes and top with confetti sprinkles!

Cupcake Party

Amanda — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 07:00:24 +0000

One evening last month, I invited a few girls over to help me eat the enormous amounts of chocolate I amassed in New York over my birthday weekend. We drank hot chocolate, made s’mores, and stuffed ourselves silly with french truffles and 14 different kinds flavored chocolate bars. In between all the chocolate tasting and sugar-induced giggling, my dear friend and neighbor Stephanie taught us how to paint a cute little chocolate macaron in a giant cafe-style coffee mug. You can see a recap of our evening here. It was a seriously perfect night, and we knew right then we couldn’t stop there. We’d simply have to do it again. Soon.

So this Tuesday we got the gang together again, along with some new gals, and this time our theme was cupcakes! Stephanie created a fabulous pink cupcake for us to paint, and I came up with six fun flavors of mini cupcakes for us to sample.

I had way too much fun coming up with all the different flavors of cupcakes! I drew inspiration from my most favorite and unforgettable cupcakes I’ve tasted and photographed over the years. I made the frostings the night before the party, but on the day of the party I baked, frosted and decorated all six batches of cupcakes. I felt like I had been training for this my whole life! I was humming the Rocky theme song all day. And I am not lying when I tell you that when Stephanie arrived, thirty minutes before the other guests were to arrive, she found me still in my pajamas, flour on my face, my hair in a sock bun, and without a stitch of makeup. I yanked her in the house and handed her a bag of frosting while I ran to the back to throw on clothes and mascara. Thank goodness for BFFs arriving early. We literally put the last sprinkle on the last cupcake just as the first guest arrived. Whew!

By the way, thank you so much to Stephanie for taking the first four photos here! It wasn’t until this point in the evening that I’d collected myself enough to pick up a camera. I didn’t even have my iPhone with me. I can’t believe I didn’t start to twitch!

Anyway! Here’s our fabulous group of ladies! From left to right we have Dolly (Stephanie’s Mom), Myra @ My Blessed Life, Brekke @ My Sweet Home, Erin @ The Pigbear, yours truly, and Stephanie @ All Artful. An amazingly talented group of Alabama bloggers all under one roof — I felt so incredibly lucky to be this close to this much talent!

You can see it in their paintings too. Clockwise from top left are Brekke, Dolly, Myra, and Erin’s paintings. How talented are these gals?? I love how each and every one of their sweet personalities shines through their artwork.

Oh yah, and here’s my little pink cupcake :)

The day before the party I shared this photo on Facebook with you guys. These are the four frostings I used for our cupcakes. They’re my absolute favorites and they are out of this world ridiculous.. Can I tell you how hard it was not to eat these with a spoon?? :)

I would love to share these cupcake and frosting recipes with you guys next week. They’re decadent, rich, dreamy, and naughty. You have to try ‘em. Since there are six recipes, I’ll post the first recipe tomorrow to kick us off, and then I’ll post a new cupcake recipe every day next week. We’ll decree it hence be known as Cupcake Week, officially!

See you tomorrow with the first cupcake! xoxo

Chocolate Chip Lava Cookies

Amanda — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 07:00:03 +0000

I am so in love with these darn chocolate lava cookies! What is it about a warm, gooey chocolate chip cookie stuffed with decadent, rich, melted chocolate that makes it so irresistible?? Especially when topped with vanilla ice cream. These are one of Kev’s favorite homemade treats, and he usually asks me to make them at least once a week. They are so simple to whip up, and such a treat! Let’s make some right now :)

All you really need for these fabulous cookies is your favorite cookie dough and a bag of chocolate chips. My favorite cookie dough just happens to be Picky Palate’s, and it works perfectly for this recipe, but you could just as easily use a store-bought mix or even refrigerated cookie dough. Slice and bake cookie dough would be so simple here! But my heart will always belong to Picky Palate’s cookie dough. It absolutely can’t be beat in flavor and chewiness!

Since these cookies are absolutely gushing with delicious rich chocolate, my favorite chocolate chips for this recipe are the Hersey’s Milk Chocolate chips. I did a side by side taste test with these and a few of the other milk chocolate chips available in my grocery store, and these by far had the most prominent rich chocolate flavor. Next time you’re at the store, grab a couple of bags and have a chocolate chip taste testing of your own! They’re all good, so you definitely won’t have a problem using them up — you really can’t go wrong with milk chocolate :)

Now let’s make some chocolate lava cookies! Using half the cookie dough, grab a 1.5-2 tbsp scoop of dough (I used a Pampered Chef Medium Scoop for this) and flatten it out a bit.

Place the flattened cookie dough in the bottom of a well-greased standard sized muffin tin. Now depending on how much cookie dough you eat (in my case, I think it’s an abnormally high amount), you’ll have enough for 10 or 11 cookies. I start with 10, and add the 11th later if I have enough dough leftover.

Now for our gooey, rich milk chocolate filling. Place 1/2 cup milk chocolate chips in a Ziploc bag, and seal shut.

Lay the Ziploc bag flat in the microwave, spreading out the chocolate chips in a single layer. Microwave for 30 seconds. Remove bag and flip, microwaving for an additional 10-15 seconds until all the chips are softened.

Cut a small tip off the Ziploc bag and layer over the cookies. If you have any leftover chocolate, save it — I’ll show you what to do with it in a minute.

Heaven help me.

Scoop and flatten the remaining dough, and place on top of your lava cookies.

If you’ve got enough dough leftover, you can make one more cookie… or eat it as is! Your choice! :)

Bake these in a 350 degree F oven for 15-20 minutes, until the edges are just browned. As soon as they come out of the oven, you may want to run a knife around the edges to make for easy removing later. Cool completely before removing from the tin, running a knife around the edge to help loosen.

Now here’s how I like my cookies. Cooled, soft, and so perfectly chewy. I could eat about a million and a half of these.

But here’s how Kevin likes his cookies.

Warmed in the microwave for 10 seconds, topped with vanilla ice cream, and drizzled with chocolate sauce. You can use any leftover melted chocolate here!

Mama mia.

Chocolate Chip Lava Cookies

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, softened
1/2 cup light brown sugar, packed
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg
1/2 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 3/4 cups (210 grams) all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 (11.5 oz) bag milk chocolate chips (I prefer Hersheys)

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Spray a standard size muffin tin with cooking spray. Place 1/2 cup chocolate chips in a Ziploc bag, and seal shut. Lay the Ziploc bag flat in the microwave, spreading out the chocolate chips in a single layer. Microwave for 30 seconds. Remove bag and flip, microwaving for an additional 10-15 seconds until all the chips are softened. Set aside to cool.

2. With an electric mixer, cream the butter and sugars until light and fluffy, about 3-5 minutes. Add egg and vanilla and beat until well combined. Meanwhile, in a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, salt, and baking soda. Add to the wet ingredients and beat on low speed until just combined. Add the remaining chocolate chips (1 cup) and stir to combine.

3. Using half the cookie dough, scoop 1.5-2 tbsp of dough, flatten it out a bit, and place in the bottom of the muffin tin. Repeat for a total of 10 cookies. Cut a small tip in the corner of the Ziploc bag, and gently squeeze a layer of chocolate over the cookie. Scoop and flatten the remaining dough and place on top of the chocolate layer. Bake at 350 for 15-20 minutes, until the edges are just browned. As soon as they come out of the oven, run a knife around the edges to make for easy removing later. Cool completely before removing from the muffin tin, running a knife around the edge to help loosen.

These are good as mini muffins, too! Try baking at 350 for 9 mins. Enjoy!

How To See Who Visits Your Blog

Amanda — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 07:00:59 +0000

If you’ve ever wondered who visits your blog, there’s a fun site you can use to see what your readers are interested in — and what they like most about your site. By placing the invisible code on your site, you’ll get answers to questions like:

How many people visited my blog today?
Who links to my blog?
Does my blog show up in search engines?
What are my most popular posts?
Do my readers click on the links I recommend?

And many more. Here’s a quick peek into Statcounter, and what I like most about it!

Summary

How many people visited my blog today? How many were brand new visitors? How many had been here before?

When I first login to Statcounter, I start off by checking the Summary. This lets me know how many people have visited my blog so far today, along with a comparison chart for the past seven (7) days. I can see the number of unique visitors, the number of pages they viewed, and whether or not they were a returning reader.

Popular Pages

What are people looking at on my blog? What are my most popular posts?

Another fun stat to check is Popular Pages. It’s important to note that Statcounter monitors your readers’ behavior in real-time, for the last 500 readers to your blog. This page will tell you what is the most popular post on your blog right now. It may be different if you check back tomorrow, or even later in the day!

Something neat you can do from Popular Pages is click on the little magnifying glass beside one of your posts, then click on Came From in the blue box that appears next. Like the image above, this will show you how your readers are arriving at this particular post. As you can see from the example above, my most popular post gets a lot of traffic from Pinterest, with some hits from Facebook, Stumble Upon, and Google as well.

Came From

How are people finding my blog? Who’s linking to my blog?

Speaking of Came From — this is probably my most favorite feature of Statcounter. Click on Came From in the menu list on the left side, and you’ll see a list of your top referring links. This is how people are finding your blog — you can see who’s linking to and talking about your blog!

Keyword Analysis

Does my blog show up in search engines? What do people search for that leads them to my blog?

Another way readers can find your blog is through search engines like Google, Yahoo, and Bing. By the way, if I was writing this post 15 years ago, I would’ve said “search engines like HotBot, Lycos, and DogPile“. Wonder what the search engines will be 15 years from now! Anyway, Keyword Analysis will show you what search terms readers are using the find your site. Some of them can be quite entertaining! Keyword Analysis sorts the search terms by the most popular terms.

You can also click on Recent Keyword Activity to see a list of search latest search terms used to find your site — with real-time accuracy. What’s neat about this page is you can see if people found your site from a certain search engine, if it was an image search, and how high your blog showed up in the results list. For example, check out the first two results in the screenshot above. This person searched for “30 day shred before and after” on Google and my blog was the 14th result that appeared for them. The next reader searched for “cookie dough oreo brownie” on Google, and my blog was the first result that appeared for them.

Exit Links

Do my readers click on the sites I link to? Are they clicking on links to blogs or products I recommend?

If you’ve shared a link on your blog or in a post, you can view your Exit Link stats to tell if people actually clicked on it. Again, since Statcounter monitors your readers in real-time, this will show what people are clicking on right now. For example, this might be extremely helpful to check if you shared a round-up of links. This will show you the most popular links that people are clicking on, giving you a better idea of what your readers are interested in.

Visitor Paths

What do people do on my blog? What pages do they look at? What links do they click on?

Visitor Paths — now this is a fun one if you’ve ever wondered what people do on your blog! Do they read one page and leave? Do they click around and keep reading? What do they click on? Click on Visitor Paths and it will show you, in order of your most recent visitor, exactly what they did and what they looked at on your blog. For example, the reader above came from a link on Facebook. They landed at the Ultimate Layered Cookie Dough Oreo Brownies page, and from there they kept on clicking! They looked at cookie dough cupcakes, photos of Louie, Savannah, and Mexico. Fun!

Click on the magnifying glass beside a reader on the Visitor Paths page, and you’ll see even more information about this particular reader, like how many times they’ve visited your blog before and how long they stayed on your blog for this visit.

Install

The best part about Statcounter is that it’s super easy to install, and you’ll start seeing your stats right away. When you sign up for an account, all you have to do is click on the blogging platform you have (Blogger, Tumblr, WordPress, etc) and it will walk you through how to install the code with a step-by-step photo tutorial.

Happy Statcounting! :)

Tricks, Part Two

Amanda — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 07:00:09 +0000

Miley decided that after Howie shared his tricks with you last week, today she’d like to share a few of her tricks with you too. Yahoo!

But not before giving me a disdainful look for not treating her just for being beautiful.

Okay, here ya go Miley. Think fast!

Now show us some tricks, girl!

Roll over!

Good girl. She is already on the lookout for another treat.

How about a Shake and a High Five??

Miley politely reminds me that she is a Master Agility Champion, she can handle these simple tricks with ease.

I could hold this pose indefinitely, Mama. Not like that chubby Howie…

Uh oh! Don’t lose your balance, Miley!

How about a Twirl?

Did I see a treat??!

CHOMP.

Okay, one more trick girl… Speak!

WOOF!

Thanks for watching! :)

Add a “Pin It” Button to Your Posts

Amanda — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 07:00:54 +0000

If you scroll down to the bottom of any post here on Kevin & Amanda, you’ll see a “Pin It” button that you can click on to pin the image of your choice onto Pinterest. Adding a “Pin It” button of your own is so ridiculously simple to do! Here’s a quick tutorial that will show you how to automatically add a “Pin It” button of your own down at the bottom of every post on your blog, for Blogger, Blogspot, and self-hosted WordPress blogs.

Choose an Image

First you’ll need to choose the image you want for your “Pin It” button. Here’s the one I use. Feel free to right-click and save it to use for your button, too.

You can also do a Google Image search for Pinterest Icon for more button options.

After selecting your image, upload it somewhere so it will have its own URL, like Flickr or Photobucket. Here is an example URL:

http://i238.photobucket.com/albums/ff17/kevinandamanda/pinit.gif

Note: Don’t use the URL above — there won’t be enough bandwidth for everyone and you’ll get a red X instead of the button. Bummer.

The Code

Here’s the code you’ll use to place the “Pin It” button on your blog.

INSERT IMAGE URL HERE"/>

Paste this code onto your blog (I’ll show you where below), then replace the INSERT IMAGE URL HERE with the URL for your button.

Note: Be sure to place this exact code on your blog, or else it won’t work. You’ll also want to delete the “Read More” link that will appear underneath the code when you paste it.

Where to Paste (Blogger/Blogspot)

From your Blogspot Dashboard, click on the Design tab, then Edit HTML. Click the Expand Widget Templates checkbox.

Use CTRL-F to search for:

. Paste the code right above that.

That’s it! Save and view your blog!

Note: If you need extra spacing between your post and the “Pin It” button, just add

above the “Pin It” button code. You can add as many as you want, above or below the code, for as much space as you need.

Where to Paste (WordPress)

For a self-hosted WordPress blog, navigate to your WordPress Dashboard, look for the Appearance heading, then click on Editor. From there, select Single Post (single.php).

Use CTRL-F to search for php the_content. It might look something like this:
. Paste the code below that. Save and view your blog!

Troubleshooting

What if the image doesn’t appear? What if I only see a red X? What if it only shows text and not the image?

Double check and make sure the Image URL is correct. It will just show text if there is something wrong with the image or the image URL. For Photobucket, use the Direct Link as your URL.

To test: Copy and paste the Image URL into a new browser window and confirm that the image appears, and just the image — not a webpage with the image on it. If just the image appears, that is the correct Image URL.

Good luck and Happy Pinning!

Find me on Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/kevinandamanda/

Tricks

Amanda — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 07:00:42 +0000

See this little stinker?

This is Howie.

Howie has a few tricks he’d like to show you.

Play dead, Howie!

Very convincing. Now can you beg?

Uh-huh. Now howsa ’bout you toss some treats into my big ‘mouf?

Let’s do a few more tricks, then I’ll give you that treat, Howser. Show me how you can shake!

Done. How about those treats?

I know you’re gonna give me some treats, right?

I don’t think she’s gonna give me any treats.

Just a few more tricks! Gimme Five!

Good job, buddy!

Oh yeah, I see treats in my future now, I can smell ‘em!

Mama. Come on. Give up the good stuff.

You’re almost there! Roll over!

Okay how ’bout now?

Okay bud! Here’s those treats!

Now Mama this just ain’t right. What do you mean, “Leave It“? You mean I gotta sit here and look at ‘em and smell ‘em and I can’t eat ‘em??!

Okay Howie, you’re right. That was mean, wasn’t it?

Take it!

Yes!

Snarf.

Take a bow, Howie!

Thanks for watching! :)

Anthropologie Milk Bottle Measuring Cups

Amanda — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 09:21:39 +0000

Last week I was shopping with a couple of girlfriends, and we came across this seriously fun kitchen find at Anthropologie. I am in love with these adorable stackable milk-bottle-shaped measuring cups!

How cute are these colorful cups??

The top is a sunny yellow 1/4 cup, followed by a bright coral 1/3 cup, and baby blue 1/2 cup.

The base is a gorgeous spring green 1 cup measuring cup. Love the lines on here to let you know exactly where to measure your ingredients!

I am seriously tickled at how cute these are.

Anthropologie Milk Bottle Measuring Cups

Have a fabulous Thursday, friends! xoxo

My Closet

Amanda — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 07:00:42 +0000

This weekend I decided it was time to do something about the overflowing mound of shoes at the bottom of my closet! I couldn’t even get to my clothes without stepping on a stray tennis shoe littering the floor, trying to make it’s escape from the closet.

I ended up getting a little small cubby organizer from my local Target to individually house my shoes and maximize the space under my hanging clothes that didn’t reach all the way to the floor.

I originally wanted this shoe cubby from Amazon, but they were temporarily out of stock when I was looking to buy. I like that it’s made for shoes, so it’s tall enough for heels and wide enough to store the shoes side by side, instead of stacked, like mine. Plus the panels snap together, so you could conceivably create any configuration of cubes you wanted to fit the space.

The Target cubby did the trick for an instant fix though, and I certainly like the wood look better than the frosted panes of the other cubby. But I definitely don’t think this one was intended for shoes! It’s a little on the smaller side. My flats and flip flops fit fine, and I could even fit two pairs of flip flops in one cubby. My tennis shoes just barely made it. Size 8. Just in case you were wondering. But my high heels and wedges were just too tall to fit in.

But either way, it did the trick. And it certainly opened up a lot of space on the closet floor! I’m loving that.

I should probably work on the whole matching hangers thing now.

Must-Have Dessert Cookbooks for Spring!

Amanda — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 09:37:52 +0000

There are some SUPER adorable cookbooks coming out soon, and I am just so excited about them I can barely contain myself. They’re all themed, all desserts, and all completely squee-worthy cute! My pre-order wishlist is piling up by the minute! I mean, just check out the one above from the sweet Lindsay Landis over at Love and Olive Oil and Purr Design. Oh my gosh. It’s an entire cookbook devoted to cookie dough recipes! Cookie dough! If this isn’t pure and complete awesomeness, I don’t know what is!

Here’s a sneak peek of a few of the recipes. I seriously cannot wait for this one. Lindsay is a super, multi-talented gal, so I know it will be amazing! Not only is she a fabulous food blogger, but she’s also an incredibly talented blog designer. If I’m browsing around blogs and come across a blog with a design I love, chances are, Lindsay designed it. Not only that, but did you know Lindsay makes the cutest pet collars? I actually met Lindsay years ago right after we first got Miley and Howie — and before I even knew what a food blog was — when I bought some of her collars for them. They’re still Miley and Howie’s favorites. Here’s a photo of them wearing them! Back then, I was in awe of Lindsay because she had the cutest pet collars around. Now I am in awe of her because she wrote a cookbook devoted entirely to cookie dough! Check out Lindsay’s collars at Pattern and Paw.

The Cookie Dough Lover’s Cookbook by Lindsay Landis
Blog: Love and Olive Oil – click here for more behind the scenes photos of this book!
Release Date: June 5, 2012

Next is Desserts in Jars by Shaina Olmanson. I love this girl to death! This book has such a near and dear place in my heart. It’s all desserts, they’re all adorable, and they’re all in jars.

Did you guys know that Shaina did part of her recipe testing and photo shoot for this book right HERE at my house?? You can bet I was in hog heaven taste-testing all these fabulous desserts! I’ve got a bunch of behind-the-scenes pictures that I can’t wait to share with you once the book comes out, but for now, here’s a sneak peek at two. How adorable is that mini apple pie?? I will tell you that one of the recipes that Shaina created was a Peanut Butter and Jelly Parfait that was completely and totally life changing. I would eat it every day for the rest of my life. Make that one first!

Desserts in Jars by Shaina Olmanson
Blog: Food for My Family
Release Date: June 12, 2012

Okay, how fun does this one look?? It’s all desserts push-pop style! Layers of delicious flavors are all stacked in a cute little push-pop for a decadent parfait-style treat. Courtney’s an extremely talented stylist, designer, and total trend-setter. Her blog, Pizzazzerie, is always my first stop for party design and decor inspiration.

Sweet heavenly Moses. This photo makes me weak in the knees. Check out the Push-Up Pops website for more photos from this fabulous cookbook!

Push-Up Pops by Courtney Dial Whitmore
Blog: Pizzazzerie
Release Date: March 1, 2012

Have you been to SprinkleBakes? This blog is absolute adorableness! Heather’s gorgeously decorated desserts are just incredible. I feel like a kid in a candy store every time I read a new post from this fabulous blog!

I haven’t seen any sneak peeks yet, but if the book is anything like the blog (can you say Sixlets Birthday Cake??!) I know it will be utterly fabulous. Put this one on my must-have list.

SprinkleBakes by Heather Baird
Blog: SprinkleBakes
Release Date: May 1, 2012

Thanks for looking! Have a fantastic weekend! XOXO