To brief you all on what I've been up to, I have a quick pictoral collection of a few goodies I made over the past month or two. Or three. Listen! I came back from Europe bummed out in general to be back, so please! I'm finally coming out of the mourning period.
Vanilla applesauce cupcakes with strawberry frosting:
1 vanilla cake mix (from a box!)
I followed the recipe for the lowfat version of these cupcakes, which involved "no sugar added" applesauce in place of butter. The result: I couldn't tell the difference than if I had used butter. As long as you're using a chemical mix, might as well through in some fruit and kick up the vitamin quotient, right? The frosting was a concoction purely my own. Take a stick (or two) of (very) softened butter, add a tablespoon or two of vanilla extract, and 2-3 cups of powdered sugar. Stir together til ingredients form a smooth frosting-like substance. For the true strawberry flavor I poured half a cup of frozen strawberries into a blender, pulsing until they formed a puree. Then I add about a third of this mix to the frosting, stirring completely until well-mixed. This made for true strawberryliciousness. Believe me, you'll impress everybody with the intense flavor in this homemade frosting. And then for the big reveal before your crowd: there are two fruit involved in the making of this cupcake!
Oh, and well, I lied about the pictoral collection I was going to show you. I'll have to save the next few for upcoming blog posts. It'll give me a reason to keep on.