Lake Time

Yesterday, Mom, Dad, my brother, and I spent a fantastic afternoon visiting with family friends at their camp on Northwood Lake. It was the perfect day for such an outing, by which I mean, there was MORE hot, sunny weather. I could definitely get used to this!

My view from the picnic table
I spent the better part of the afternoon lying on one of the cushions in the pontoon boat, reading The Omnivore's Dilemma and soaking up the sun. *Bliss* 


Naturally, given the weather and the location, dinner involved a barbecue and lots of lovely salads, followed by these homemade treats...


Red velvet cupcakes! I can't help but wonder who first thought of dumping a load of red food colouring into their cake batter to inaugurate a baking tradition, but it definitely works! I used this recipe from the mighty Bakerella, and they were really amazing - super moist, a tad bit chocolate-y, and completely more-ish, especially with the decadent cream cheese frosting! So good were they that another batch is on the cards for a get together this Friday afternoon. 


If you want to try these out for yourself, make Bakerella's recipe as she has it on her website but spoon the batter into cupcake tins lined with paper baking cups, filling each cup about two-thirds full. (I got two full pans of 12 cupcakes each.) Bake for 18-20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the middle of one of the cupcakes comes out clean.


Whatever you do, don't be put off by the vampir-ish colour of the cake batter...


Once baked, it becomes much less garish and infinitely more appealing!


And seriously, these are worth a try. I might even go out on a limb and say that they're the best cupcakes I've ever had...


I'll have to do a bit more experimenting before I confirm that, though!


xx Tina

Comments

  1. Canadian Abroad23 July 2012 at 07:41

    You had better watch it, all that sunshine will have you going into shock when you return to Ireland!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Tina29 July 2012 at 15:55

    Seriously! Doesn't look likely now, as it's been raining here for the past couple of days. :(

    ReplyDelete

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