Nap time is my favorite. That's all. Oh, she's pretty cute when she sleeps. And also not destroying things. Or yelling.
Quiet, safe, and cute. I'll take it.
Friends and Easter Eggs
A day, last week, had an Easter Egg. A totally unexpected, delightful, inexplicable, and joyful object showed up in my office mailbox. Lately, my routine has been mundane, and designed around committing myself to the least amount of anything possible. The result of this was that I had done a pretty effective job of forgetting everybody with whom I don't share a space. I had been forgetting my friends. My friends, on the other hand, have been doing a very good job of not forgetting me. I'm glad to have my friends. I'm thankful that they are willing to reach out even when I am silent. All of this may be very isolating, but I am glad to be reminded that no matter how different our lives are, my friends don't think isolation should be defeating.
One friend thought that this sweet set of pens were "me". She decided to get them, and wrap them in the most adorable bunny paper. She dropped them off in my office mailbox so that I could privately smile and take whatever time I needed to remember her again.
And, Speaking of Butter
I LOVE making cupcakes. They are yummy, adorable, and I feel like they are smaller than a slice of cake so they must be healthier. I am allergic to wheat, though, so baked goods have been kind of a challenge to get right. Let's be honest, gluten free stuff is kind of gross.
I have been working on a gluten free vanilla cupcake recipe for a while, and I think this one is pretty tasty. The cupcakes are soft, moist, and a little springy.
I can't take full credit for the frosting recipe, though, it was sent to me by a co-worker. You can find the original here, although I will include the instructions below. I did make a few adjustments. I don't make traditional buttercream because, for one, I don't like it. I also think it is kind of a pain.
Sparkling Vanilla Cupcake Recipe
Cupcake Ingredients
1 1/2 cups GF flour mix. (I like Bob's Red Mill in the blue bag)
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 cup granulated sugar
Pinch of salt
1/2 cup butter (room temperature, sliced into half inch sections)
2 eggs
1/2 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup seltzer (I actually used sparkling apple juice, the carbonation is what matters)
1 tsp vanilla
Cupcake Process
Set oven to 325 F. Line your cupcake pan with cupcake liners. This recipe makes about 12 cupcakes.
Mix your dry ingredients (flour, baking soda and powder, sugar, and salt) in the bowl of your stand mixer. You can sift them, but I find a whisk works just fine. Add the butter and set your mixer to low. Mix until the ingredients are well combined; it should look like coarse sand.
Add the eggs, buttermilk, seltzer, and vanilla. Mix on medium until well combined. Pour into the cupcake liners; fill to about 2/3 full.
Bake for 25 minutes or until you can pull a toothpick out clean. Let cool.
Simple Fluffy Buttercream
Frosting Ingredients
1/2 cup butter, softened
7 oz Marshmallow Fluff
1/4 - 1/2 cup powdered sugar
Frosting Process
Mix butter and marshmallow fluff with stand mixer until fluffy and well combined. Add powdered sugar until it reaches desired consistency. I'm not kidding, it really is that easy. I used less butter than the original recipe, and I also omit the vanilla. To me, with these changes, the frosting is perfect.
Apply to cupcakes however you prefer. I like a piping bag, but a spatula or knife works just as well.
Cupcakes should keep for about 5 days, refrigerated. I typically bring them back to room temp before serving because the butter in the buttercream hardens. Any questions or comments are welcome!
Enjoy!
Butter Up!
I have really dry skin, guys. Like, some days I have an internal struggle about whether I should bathe because it will dry out my skin (gross). Body butters have been essential to combat this issue for a long time, but I always got them at the store. When I started making bath bombs, I didn't really intend to start making other things too, but every source I found to help fine-tune my bath bomb recipe also featured myriad other products.
And the body butters? Oh my, they all look SO dreamy. They look deceptively edible, though I would recommend controlling the impulse to eat them. I decided to try making my own.
I admit that I have a tendency to "go off script" when it comes to making things; my body butter recipe is no different. Instead of reading a recipe and following it, I try to first have an understanding of the components. What is the purpose of each ingredient? If I substitute something else, how will it affect the end result? How can I simplify this? And, if I am going to make something myself, how can I make it better for me than what I can get at the store?
So I tried a bunch of stuff. Like my initial batches of bath bombs, there were some fairly embarrassing failures. But, I think I have found a recipe that I LOVE, works really well, has few ingredients, and is exactly what I need.
Almost Edible Body Butter
Ingredients
Mango Butter (I used 16 oz. unrefined, get it here)
Coconut Oil (solid at room temp) (4 oz)
Almond Oil (1 oz)
Beeswax (2 Tbs)
Corn starch (2 Tbs)
Fragrance, if desired (to scent)
Mica, if desired
Ice
Equipment
Double Boiler (or saucepan and glass bowl)
Whisk
Stand Mixer (with a whisk attachment)
Large bowl (big enough so that the glass bowl fits inside with enough room to surround it with ice)
silicone spatula (I don't like waste)
Pastry bags and piping tips (if you really want people to think it's frosting)
Jars with wide necks and tight lids (so you can get all the way to the bottom)
Process
Fill your sauce pan or double boiler halfway with water, and add the mango butter to the bowl. Set your heat on high, and melt the mango butter.
Add the coconut oil and almond oil. Allow to melt.
Add the beeswax. Allow to melt
Remove from heat. Add ice to the large bowl, and put the bowl with the melted oils on/in the ice. This technique is common in making butter cream frosting; I appropriated it to use in making body butter. Whisk the oils as they cool.
Once the mixture starts looking golden yellow, you can add the corn starch. The corn starch isn't necessary, but I find it can help thicken and retain the structural integrity of the butter once complete. I find it also helps mitigate the greasiness.
To add the corn starch, remove a bit of the oil mixture and add it to the corn starch in a separate, small bowl, to create a "slurry". Once they are well combined, you can add the slurry to the bowl with the oils.
As your mixture cools, you can also add fragrance. Mango butter either has a mild fragrance or none at all, so masking odors isn't really an issue like it can be for cocoa or shea butter. I like smelling like a cupcake, though, so I added lemon and rum cake fragrance oils.
Once your butter mix starts looking lighter and more opaque, transfer it to the freezer. Check on it every two minutes and stir until the mixture is the consistency of cold canned soup and the color of whipped cream. Scoop it into the bowl for your stand mixer and whip on high. Your mixture should double to triple in volume and you should get soft peaks like you would if you were beating egg whites. The volumes above yielded me more than 36 oz of body butter.
Scoop into jars. If you want, and for the record, I always do, you can pipe some of the body butter on the top after you've filled the jar. It's a nice touch and it makes the butter feel fancy. Put the lids on the jars and store in a cool place. Your body butter will harden a bit overnight; so if it feels a little soft at this time, don't worry.
Not too complicated right? If you have questions, please feel free to leave a comment! Troubleshooting is one of my favorite things to do. Also, if you just want to get your hands on some scrumptious body butter without the work, you can buy it from my Etsy.
My Pedicure Looks Like My Toddler Did It
Spoiler alert, she did.
Toddlers and independence are like alkali metals and water, fairly explosive with varying degrees of intensity and destruction. There really isn't a lot they can do for themselves and it can be hard to distinguish what they are able to do from what they want to do. There are also countless contributing factors to a toddler's demeanor; sleep, hunger, annoyed by fuzz, are only a small sample of reasons why a toddler may think they can or can't do something themselves.
Charlotte, for example, thinks that the worst thing in the world is that she can't cut potatoes with her wooden play knife. It drives her up a wall. But she so desperately wants to help cut potatoes and does not understand that it would be irresponsible for me to hand her a kitchen knife. We've even gone as far as trying hand over hand with her, so that she can cut the potatoes, and I can avoid an ER visit. This, however, does not fly with her. She must do it all by herself. Well, kid, no.
Sometimes, though, the opposite is true. Somehow, the box of Lego is always heavier (too heavy to lift!) when you have to put it away, than it is when you insist on dumping it out.
The knife example is paradigmatic of many activities we do in a day. Like driving. Or mowing the lawn. Or sitting alone in the car; the concept of "mommy would go to jail" just doesn't seem to persuade her.
I want her to be as independent as possible. I want her to feel like she has as much independence as possible. It's an essential struggle of parenting; I don't feel alone in those desires. I often wonder how much she concedes in a day because of how much I am acknowledging her limitations.
So, when I sit down to paint my toes and she wants to paint them for me? Go for it, kid, try not to get any on the carpet. Or the cat. Common ground is hard to find with a toddler. When I find something that she can, and wants, to do with enthusiasm, which also doesn't involve the probability of an injury, I say "milk it". Plus, she's actually does a pretty good job.
