I. Want. One.

So, now that I have begun to discover the joys of baking, I think I've decided what I want to spend some of my tax return money on (depending on how much I get, of course).

Obviously I'm thinking orange, since that's my favorite color, but I'm wondering how I could actually incorporate that into my future kitchen in my future home. Because you know that if I buy one of these beauties, I'll be using it for years to come. That's a rough decision, right there.

My First Foray Into Baking

I went to a friend's house for dinner tonight (which was so much fun), and I wanted to take something to contribute, so I decided to try out all of the cupcake stuff I got for Christmas. I decided to try the Sour Cream Blueberry cupcakes, a recipe that came from this cookbook:

 

I started by making the whipped cream, so it could stay in the fridge while I baked the cupcakes. I had never made whipped cream before, but it turned out to be super easy. Plus, it gave me a reason to use my new hand mixer!

 

 

Homemade whipped cream is the best. Seriously. I had to force myself not to eat it by the spoonful.

After I finished that, I moved on to the cupcake batter. All of the cupcakes in the cookbook use cake mixes, so they are super easy to make. Which is great for a beginner like me.

The batter was really, really sticky, so it was kind of hard to get it into the liners, but I think I managed all right.

 

 

 

I even got to use my awesome cupcake carrier, which I was pretty excited about. I might have to get myself another one of these.

In the end, I only ended up eating two cupcakes. Thank heavens. I managed to give all of the other ones away to various people, which I was happy about because it made sure I didn't eat them all myself. I think I understand the appeal of baking now . . . I'm already thinking about which cupcakes I want to try next.

You Know You're an Adult When...

...you get a hand mixer, a cupcake cookbook, a cupcake pan (complete with cover), an electric blanket, and a tool set (including a 15-in-1, which my old boss [who also happens to be my mom's cousin] brought me) for Christmas and you're incredibly excited about them all. Ten years ago I would have thought those were the most boring gifts imaginable, but when I opened them yesterday, I was pretty ecstatic. Especially about that 15-in-1; it's the coolest tool ever. I'm also pretty excited to try out some of the cupcake recipes. I've never been much of a baker, but my co-workers have gotten me interested in baking. Now I just have to start avoiding Williams Sonoma.

But to temper all of the rather adult gifts I got, I did get a Mikey (from Sherwood) bobblehead that will soon be adorning my work desk and Super Mario Brothers for the Wii. It's too bad I didn't bring my Wii home for the weekend, or I'd be playing right now. Oh well...I'll just have to try it out when I get home tomorrow.

All in all, it was a good haul, thanks to my awesome parents. Oh, and Santa. ;) Merry Christmas, everyone!