The Daily Mixer

Pink Lemonade Cupcakes

Greta — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 19:22:54 +0000

I’ve seen a handful of pink lemonade desserts floating around Pinterest lately and just couldn’t get them out of my head. Pink lemonade + cake + frosting just sounds so incredibly good! Olive and I gave pink lemonade cupcakes a whirl and they did not disappoint!

We added 3TB of Country Time powdered pink lemonade mix to our favorite vanilla cupcake recipe (which yields 12 cupcakes) and that seemed just right. We also added 3TB of the same lemonade mix to our favorite decorator frosting, but it was a little intense. I would recommend starting with 1 TB adding more to taste.

We Tinted our frosting and white jimmies with just a touch of soft pink gel paste food coloring. Check out our Custom Color Sprinkles post for more detailed instructions.

Topped with a light pink stripe paper straw(cut in half), we think they look sweet and refreshing just like the real thing.

She always has to taste the frosting first.

Enjoy!

♥ Supplies
• Vanilla Cupcake and Frosting Recipe
• Classic White Baking Cups
• Country Time Pink Lemonade Mix (powdered)
• Soft Pink Gel Paste Food Coloring
• White Jimmies
• Light Pink Stripe Paper Straw

♥ greta

Chocolate Covered Strawberry Smoothie

Greta — Sat, 21 Apr 2012 06:00:26 +0000

Smoothie Saturday! I make smoothies for breakfast a whole lot in my house. Olive loves them and with little baby Penny it is really hard to actually sit and eat any sort of breakfast that you don’t want to get cold or soggy. Smoothies save the day, or at least the morning!

I’m excited about this new feature here at Daily Mixer. You can expect to see some delicious smoothie recipes pop up here on Saturday mornings to help you start your morning off right! My current favorite smoothie combination tastes just like chocolate covered strawberries, yum!

2 Frozen Bananas
1 Cup Frozen Strawberries
1 TB Unsweetened Cocoa Powder
1/4 Cup Milk, or Chocolate Almond Milk if you’re really feeling decadent
Paper Straws

Blend all ingredients in a blender, adding more milk if your smoothie is too thick. To add a little extra happy to your morning, pour into a cute glass and top with a fun paper straw.

♥ greta

Peach Doughnuts

Greta — Wed, 18 Apr 2012 06:00:54 +0000

As promised here is my delicious peach doughnut recipe. I’ve tried a few different baked doughnut recipes in the past and so far this our family favorite. Unlike previous attempts these doughnuts turned out really moist and seemed to closer resemble a fried doughnut. I’ve been trying out more vegan baking recipes lately because Josh is allergic to dairy and eggs, so these doughnuts happen to be vegan. Bake some for your vegan and non-vegan friends alike, nobody will be disappointed!

If you are a fierce doughnut fan you may have a problem with baked doughnuts. Is a doughnut really a doughnut if its baked and not fried? Well I’m not entirely sure, but considering that I don’t personally find home doughnut frying very appealing and these are so very yummy, I’m calling them doughnuts. Delicious doughnuts!

With custom colored glittery peach sprinkles..

and birthday candles.

Very yum!

Peach Doughnuts
Make 6 Standard Size Donuts

Dry Ingredients:
1 Cup All Purpose Flour
1/2 Cup Sugar
1 1/2 tsp Baking Powder
1/4 tsp Salt
1/4 tsp Pumpkin Pie Spice
1 Pinch Cinnamon

Wet Ingredients:
1/2 Cup Soymilk
1/2 tsp Apple Cider Vinegar
1/2 tsp Pure Vanilla Extract
2 TB Applesauce
4 TB Smart Balance
3-4 Drops Peach Flavoring Oil

Combine dry ingredients and whisk to mix thoroughly. Combine wet ingredients in a small sauce pan and stir over low heat until smart balance is melted. This mixture should NOT get too hot, just warm enough for the smart balance to melt. If the mixture gets too hot, let it cool before moving on.

Add the wet mixture to the dry mixture and mix until just combined. Because this mixture does not contain eggs you can taste a little bit of the batter to see if it has enough peach flavor. Keep in mind that the doughnuts should have a subtle peach flavor and the glaze a more intense peach flavor. Go ahead and add more peach flavoring oil if you think it needs it, just a couple drops at a time. A little really does go a long way when it comes to flavoring oil!

Grease your doughnut pan really well with cooking spray. These doughnuts are so moist that if your doughnuts stick to the pan at all they may rip while trying to remove them. Fill each doughnut pan cavity with batter up to about 1/4″ under the rim. Its better to under-fill, rather than over-fill when it comes to baked doughnuts. If you over-fill your doughnuts with have an unsightly ridge around the middle of them. I like to call it doughnut muffin-top, and its not so pretty.

Bake for 12 minutes at 350º F. You don’t want them to brown, but you can use the toothpick test to judge doneness. An inserted toothpick should come out clean. Once done, invert over a cookie sheet covered with parchment paper and carefully nudge them out if they need help. I don’t recommend cooling them on racks because they are just so moist that they tend to sink into the cooling rack.

Now your ready to set up your glazing station! Set up a bowl for the glaze, then a bowl of sprinkles, and lastly a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper.

Peach Glaze
1/2 Cup Powdered Sugar
1 Tbs Soymilk
4-6 Drops Peach Flavoring Oil
2-4 Drops Peach Gel Paste Coloring
1/2 Cup Sprinkles (click here for a Custom Color Sprinkles tutorial)

Whisk soymilk and powdered sugar together. Add the peach coloring a drop at a time until you love the color. Add the peach flavoring oil 2 drops at a time until you think it has just the right amount of peach flavor.

Dip the the nicer looking side of your doughnut into the glaze, let some drip off, then dip glaze-side down into sprinkles. Transfer to your parchment paper lined cookie sheet. Admire your pretty doughnut for a moment, then repeat with the remaining doughnuts.

♥ greta

Recipe adapted from Vegan Yum Yum’s Mini Doughnut recipe.

Custom Color Sprinkles

Greta — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 03:36:54 +0000

I would probably file this technique under “Color Obsessed Bakers”. If you’re not a color obsessed baker feel free to roll your eyes at the thought of custom coloring your sprinkles. I’m okay with that. I am however, quite color obsessed and my baked goods are no exception. I really wanted shimmery peach sprinkles to sprinkle atop Olive’s birthday doughnuts recently, and because I have never been able to find pastel sprinkles to sell in the shop, I set out to make my own. I turned out to be extremely easy!

I started with white jimmies in a zip-top plastic baggie with plenty of room to move the jimmies around. I was hoping for pastel sprinkles so I used the teeniest amount of gel paste food coloring applied to the inside of the bag. I massaged the sprinkles around in the baggie and after a while the coloring evenly distributed itself really well and I was ecstatic with the pretty pastel colors!

I also experimented with creating pearly sprinkles and glittery sprinkles. For sprinkles with a really pretty pearly luster, pour your sprinkles in a small bowl and stir in a tiny bit of luster dust. Keep stirring until evenly distributed. For glittery sprinkles, add a tiny bit of disco dust into the plastic baggie along with your food coloring.

White Jimmies colored with Turquoise Gel Paste Food Coloring.

White Jimmies coated with Cantaloupe Orange Luster Dust.

White Jimmies colored with Mint Green Gel Paste Coloring.

White Jimmies colored with Peach Gel Paste Coloring and Miami Orange Disco Dust.

The peach jimmies above are a mix of 3 different batches I colored. When you use this technique the coloring distributes very well and all the jimmies turn out the same color, but in this case I wanted a varied look.

I’m in love with coloring my own sprinkles and if you are an avid baker with a large selection of gel paste food coloring, this technique is for you! Get yourself a bulk bag of white jimmies and whip up the prettiest sprinkles you ever did see!

♥ greta

Happy Birthday Olive!

Greta — Thu, 05 Apr 2012 15:06:41 +0000

My sweet baby Olive is 4 today! It’s such a big deal for me. When she turned 1 she was still a baby, 2 a baby-ish toddler, and 3 still a toddler. But 4.. oh 4 is a whole other animal. 4 isn’t a baby anymore. She will always be my baby of course, and she is very tiny for her age so I can still carry her around without my hip screaming, but 4 really isn’t a baby anymore at all. 4 is sassy, spicy, brilliant and complex. Now she can chew gum, says things like “that’s wierd, gross, no way, totally, for real?” and is learning to read. Certainly not a baby.

We celebrate birthday mornings with doughnuts in this house, best tradition ever! Inspired by the birthday girl I whipped up some vanilla cake doughnuts with peach glaze and sparkly peach jimmies. They were really delicious and I will post the recipe soon.

So a big birthday cheers to my little-big-girl Olive! May all your blue light up hoola-hoop, gum chewing, pizza, grape juice, cake, pinata and sparkly jello birthday dreams come true! You are loved to the cheese moon and back.

♥ mommy

Mini Spring Daisy Cupcakes

Greta — Wed, 04 Apr 2012 15:15:34 +0000

Spring has spring around here! The tulips are popping, Olive and I are rockin our windbreakers, and I’m reviewing my sandals wish list. I love living in the midwest for a bunch of reasons, but my favorite thing about the midwest is the drastic season changes. I tend to get restless and I find myself thriving on the fresh inspiration I get from those season changes. For example right now I’m totally inspired by pastels, lemons, pretty dresses, florals, light jackets, bows, glitter and shimmer.. but not too long ago it was 80′s stocking hats and plaid. You get the idea.

And.. spring just happens to be my favorite season! I love pretty springy colors, the promise of nice warm weather, and its the month of Olive’s birthday.. and mine! So if spring isn’t your favorite season, I think you should reconsider. I mean really, who doesn’t love stomping in puddles with rain boots?

To get you in the springy mood how about making yourself some easy peasy spring daisy cupcakes? They are so tiny and cute you could surely eat quite a few without feeling guilty.

♥ Supplies
• Mini Classic White Baking Cups
• Round Cupcake Decorating Tip
• 14″ Decorating Bag
• Mint Green Gel Past Food Coloring
• Gum Paste Daisy

My little spring time sweetie..

♥ greta

Pom Pom Fringe Drink Toppers

Greta — Tue, 20 Mar 2012 17:04:09 +0000

Yet another fun way to use cute baking cups.. festive fringy drink toppers!

I love the look of polka dot baking cups for this project, they have a confetti feel to them. To make your own pom pom fringe drink toppers, flatten standard size baking cups and fold into quarters. Cut off the very tip to make your center hole, and cut fringe around the outside edge. Scrunch up the fringe a little, unfold, and slid onto a cute paper straw. I used 4 baking cups per straw.

♥ Supplies
• Baking Cups
• Paper Straws

♥ greta

Drunkin St Patty’s Day Cupcakes

Greta — Mon, 12 Mar 2012 19:30:04 +0000

♥ Supply List
• Classic White Baking Cups
• Green Foil Baking Cups
• Mint Green Gel Paste Food Coloring
• Liquor Bottle Toppers
• Green Top Hat Picks
• Green Shamrock Sprinkles
• Gold Dragees

♥ greta

Chocolate Mint Shamrock Cupcakes

Greta — Fri, 09 Mar 2012 06:00:14 +0000

Simple, but really cute and yummy! Chocolate cupcakes with green peppermint flavored frosting, sprinkled with some mini shamrock sprinkles, and placed in festive green polka dot baking cups. Enjoy!

♥ Supply List
• Chocolate Cake Recipe
• Brown Baking Cups
• Green Polka Dot Baking Cups
• Peppermint Flavoring Oil
• Mint Green Gel Paste Food Coloring
• Mini Green Shamrock Sprinkles

♥ greta

Pretty Sparkly Cupcakes

Greta — Thu, 08 Mar 2012 06:00:27 +0000

Gold Star Edible Glitter, Pearly Gold Chunky Sugar

Silver Star Edible Glitter, Pearly Silver Chunky Sugar

Red Heart Edible Glitter, Rainbow Sanding Sugar

Rainbow Edible Glitter, Rainbow Sanding Sugar, Rainbow Chunky Sugar

Gold Star Edible Glitter, Chocolate Crunch Topping

We just got in some lovely new sprinkles so I whipped up some pink cupcakes to test out glitter/sugar combinations. Aren’t these just SO pretty! I think I may sprinkle gold stars on my cereal tomorrow morning!

Cupcakes frosted using our Star Cupcake Tip.

♥ greta