Tuesday Trigger and yum

Hello my friends! I was surfing blogs and dropped in over at the Moxie Fab blog yesterday. On Tuesdays they have a Tuesdays Trigger - this week it was this gorgeous photo from West Elm sent in by Veronica. It spoke to me I tell ya.

I had just been playing with my scraps pile, and the first thing I thought of was this beautiful flocked green paper from gcd studios. So I figured I had to play along! The green on green with white reminded me a lot of those beautiful pillows. I added kraft in, to match the tree and the sisal looking rug.  I made my own flowers with white twill, just stitching along the edge to pull it tight into a circle. I added a green bobunny button and a couple light green doodlebug gems.  I wanted to bring in more white, so I added the Amer. Crafts letters for my greeting. And after I punched two layers of eksuccess scallops,  I added teeny teeny tiny pearls to the centers for just a pinch more white.

I hope you like my card.

And I have one more delicious thing to share with you. I haven't done a whole lot of baking since Christmas, and mostly I stick to a few all time favorites. But I bought a sweet fresh pineapple which was just too much for us to eat during the week. So in an effort to not to waste it- hahahaha! I made Pineapple Upside Down Cupcakes. I chopped my pineapple, because although the large slices of pineapple look beautiful, I usually find they don't cut all that well with a fork, and sometimes even pull off entirely from the cake. I also wasn't sure a whole slice would fit in my muffin cups.

To make them, I added about a cup of brown sugar to two sticks of melted butter. I didn't measure this- just kind of added what seemed like a cup of brown sugar. ( I wanted mine super gooey!) I mixed them together til they were combined, and added about 3/4 tblsp to my nonstick muffin tins. You could also spray them with nonsticke cooking spray just to make double sure the cakes come out. I added halved cherries to the center, adding them cut side up to make them prettier. Then I added about 1 1/2 tblsp of chopped pineapple. Then I made my boxed yellow cake mix. I added in less water and put in about 1/3 cup of sour cream. Plus I always add about 2 tsp of vanilla to the batter as well. When I filled the cups, I still made sure I had about 1/2 inch to the top of the cup. I think I used about 1/4 cup batter.

I baked them at 335 degrees for about 15 minutes. I always undercook my cakes slightly- not so that they fall, but just a bit less then the dry on a toothpick method. They stay moister and they do continue cooking for a few moments after they come out of the oven as well.

Oh and one other tip- this made 24 reg; sized cupcakes and 6 jumbo muffin sized cakes. Because you are adding so much to the cup, it will be more then just a cake mix tends to make. And these can spill over, so protect your oven bottom as well.

Just leave it to me to make a nice healthy treat into something irresistibly, decadently fattening! LOL!! And in single serve sizes too! 

OH and if you want to transport them, they fit nicely on reg. cupcake liners. I just layered a piece of parchment over them to add another layer to our tin. My hubby's work gets all the rest of these treats. :0)

Have a wonderful day!! and please do try the sweet cakes, they are a terrific summery treat.

kris