Strawberry Rosé Sangria

I've been feeling all the summer vibes here in Charleston lately. There are always sidewalk sales, trips to the beach, and visitors to entertain.

And if those don't remind you its summer, you've always got the humidity that makes you regret any and all attempts to look nice.

If you follow on Snapchat (HomeSweetRuby) and Instagram you know we've been playing tourist this week, with quite an unforgettable trip to an oyster house last night. I'm just going to leave it at that and let this Instagram photo do the talking... finest parenting moment yet!

There isn't a whole lot you can do to stay cool here besides hibernate in the a/c, so this Rosé Sangria has been on repeat with all of our guests around to help drink it! It might be my favorite sangria yet, with my favorite rosé, sauvignon blanc, a hint of brandy, Sprite, and tons of fruit.

It's super easy to put together and perfect for the Fourth of July. Also I'm slightly obsessed with these acrylic glasses, safe in the wake of a wild toddler!

Expert Sangria Drinker tip: f you're hoping to keep it cold for a party, add frozen strawberries and rosé ice cubes so it doesn't get watered down!

Rosé Sangria

1 bottle of your favorite Rosé
1 bottle of your favorite Sauvignon Blanc
1/3 cup Brandy
1 container of Strawberries
1 Orange
1 Lemon

Combine the fruit, brandy, and both wines in a pitcher. Let this sit for at least an hour. (It will seem really strong as this point, don't freak out!)

When ready to serve, add as much Sprite as you like. This will make it a little bubbly and take away some of that kick from the brandy.

That's it! So easy and perfect for your Fourth of July picnic or hot summer days!

Linking up with Natalie + Annie!

10

Quick + Easy Dinners

I used to like making dinner. But being a wife, mama, full-time employee, and sometimes blogger leave me little time to devote to trying new recipes. Plus after Rowan is in bed its hard to resist the urge to sink into the couch with a big glass of wine.

I also blame the holiday season for making it really easy to call cookies an acceptable form of dinner. Or is that just me?

Anyway I've rounded up our favorite go-to recipes that are on repeat in our weekly menus! These are all picky-eater + husband-approved, can be made with very little effort and under 30 minutes (aside from the cooking part with the crockpot), and they make great leftovers.

Random tips for the busy girl boss or mama:

- Definitely don't forget to use crockpot liners for these, they might be the greatest invention ever.
- Prep your veggies for the week by chopping and then roasting or sauteing all at once. I find this makes it much more likely I will eat them and they won't go bad!

Skinny Crockpot Meatballs

Adapted Recipe via Skinnytaste

Grocery List: Ground beef, garlic, breadcrumbs, Parmesan cheese, fresh parsley, 1 egg, 2 cans of diced tomatoes with garlic and onion, Prego (or your favorite pasta sauce)

Recipe: In a large bowl, combine ground beef, breadcrumbs, egg, parsley, garlic and cheese. Mix all of the ingredients and form small meatballs. Pour pasta sauce, canned tomatoes, parsley, and minced garlic into crockpot. Add meatballs, cover and cook on low for 4 to 5 hours. Meatballs can be made ahead and frozen.

Don't judge, but I make cheater pasta sauce by adding 2 small cans of diced tomatoes with garlic and onion and fresh parsley to some Prego. And clearly I use whatever pasta we have on hand! #fancy

Crockpot Philly Cheesesteaks

Grocery List: Steak (I usually use shoulder steak), McCormicks Montreal Steak Seasoning, Garlic Salt, Beef Broth, Peppers, Onions, Provolone Cheese, and Hoagie rolls

Recipe:  Put the steak in your crockpot, fill with enough beef broth that it covers the steak (you can also use water if you don't have broth), and sprinkle some garlic salt and steak seasoning. I usually go pretty heavy with the steak seasoning because we love the flavor. Cook on high for 4-5 hours or until the steak shreds apart really easily.

Right before eating, saute peppers and onions. Place shredded steak and veggies in your hoagie roll, top with provolone cheese, and broil on low for 8-10 minutes.

Skinny Alfredo Sauce with Pasta and Roasted Veggies

Alfredo Recipe via Damn Delicious

Grocery List: Fettuccine or zoodles, milk, flour, butter, heavy cream, Neufchatel cheese (basically light cream cheese), garlic powder, parmesan cheese, roasted veggies

Recipe: I use this skinny alfredo recipe and its super easy, makes enough for a few meals, and its healthy-ish!  Melt butter in a saucepan, whisk in flour, and then gradually whisk in milk. Allow to cook for about 2 minutes while stirring. Add heavy cream and garlic powder until it thickens slightly, then add the cheeses until melted. Toss with pasta and veggies and top with pepper and some fresh parley if you're feeling fancy.

Skinny BBQ Chicken Chili

Adapted Recipe via Skinnytaste

Grocery List: Chicken (cook in crockpot on high for 4-5 hours or buy a rotisserie chicken and shred it), olive oil, sweet onion, garlic cloves, chili powder, cumin, black pepper, red pepper flakes, roasted red peppers in water (chopped), kidney beans (rinsed and drained), chicken broth, 2 cans diced tomatoes with green chiles, your favorite barbecue sauce, shredded cheddar cheese and sour cream for topping

Recipe: I'm lazy about following this recipe so I basically just throw all of the ingredients in a pot on the stove or in my crockpot all at once. Cook for 20-30 minutes on the stovetop or on low in the crockpot for an hour or however long you feel like it? See I told you I'm lazy about this one. You can't really mess it up!

There you have it, our favorite meals for those crazy busy weeks when you don't feel like cooking! Any of your favorites that I should add to our menu?

7

What Rowan Eats

I hope you all had a wonderful weekend! The weather here was glorious, so I decided to give social media a little break and just soak up all of the Fall-ish weather, snuggles with my boys (and Ruby!), and drink all pumpkin spice lattes.

I've had a lot of requests for this post so I'm just going to dive right in! As I was writing this post I just kept thinking, damn if only I ate as healthy as Rowan! Ha. And if you're not looking for baby stuff, don't worry I'm haven't gone 100% mommy blog on you.

We opted to feed Rowan purees over the Baby Led Weaning approach for a few reasons. Our Ped did not recommend finger foods at all (even if they are soft starter foods - you should have seen the face he made when I mentioned this) until 8-9 months because the risk of choking is too high. I'm a worrier to that was basically all I needed to hear. But the mess and time involved with BLW confirmed it for me. I'm sure it works well for other families, but it's just not for us. Always check with your Pediatrician first!

Rowan has been doing so well with purees, chewing and demanding more after eat bite, so I'm really glad we went this route!

It takes me about and hour on a Sunday afternoon to do a couple batches of homemade purees for Rowan. I stick to making about 2-3 purees at a time and I do it while I'm prepping our own dinner. Generally he has about 5-6 different purees in the freezer and I make them once a week, or every two weeks if I was ambitious with my last batch.

We do still buy a few all natural purees or pouches because they are easy to grab and go if we're planning to feed Rowan while we are out of the house or traveling.

Ninja Blender. Ice Cube Tray with lid. Steamer insert.

No need for fancy baby blenders or steamers, just get yourself a cheap steamer insert and use that blender you got from your wedding registry and haven't used in months. (Or is that just me?)

For basics and how to make each puree, I always consult Wholesome Baby Foods. Also I buy organic whenever I can.

It's pretty straightforward though:
1 . Peel, chop + steam (at Harris Teeter you can get sweet potatoes already chopped up for you!)
2 . Puree in a blender or food processor, add water to thin it out (more on that below!)
3 . Freeze in ice cube trays
4 . Transfer to freezer bags and label

At night I put cubes for the next day in small containers in the fridge. I serve the fruits cold, and warm the veggies in the microwave for about 10-15 seconds. Make sure you test it to make sure its not too hot!

Thinning: At first I thinned his food with breastmilk before serving, rather than prior to freezing. I still do thin some of the thicker purees with breastmilk but more often I just add water while blending the puree.

Easiest purees vs. hardest: Bananas and avocados don't need to be steamed, just mash them up with a fork! The hardest purees for me to make so far have been green beans and peas. They don't come out really smooth because of the skins, but Rowan doesn't seem to mind.

Rowan's Feeding Schedule

Just before he turned 5 months old, at the direction of his Ped, we started by feeding Rowan oatmeal cereal once a day. We upped that to twice a day for a month before moving on to other foods. (Again- this is what our Ped suggested so we went with that)
 
Now we feed him purees three times a day, about an hour after he nurses.

Breakfast: Oatmeal cereal + Fruit
Lunch: Oatmeal cereal + Fruit + Veggie
Dinner:  Veggies + Fruit
(Dinner this is around 4 PM, he still gets about 9 ounces of pumped breastmilk for his last feeding at 7 PM)

He has tried almost all of the fruits and veggies I can think of at this point. We introduce a new one every 3-4 days so we can pinpoint an allergy if there is one. (So far so good!)

Favorites: Basically any fruit, especially pears, bananas and blueberries. Sweet potatoes. Green Beans. His new favorite combo is sweet potatoes, apples, pumpkin and some cinnamon.

Tolerates: Avocados and Carrots as long as they are mixed with his favorite fruits. 

Hates: Butternut squash! The kid will gag and give me the most hilarious, angry face. I don't blame him though, that one isn't a hit with his parents either.

So I know this may seem like a lot of effort, but even as a working mama I still enjoy making his food and I think it's worth it!  It saves so much money and I know exactly what is going into his food.

Feel free to ask if you have questions!

9

Favorite Sugar Cookies + Fancy Icing

I hope you all had a great weekend! Ours was festive and delicious, just how I like it this time of year. Not only did I ingest far too many of these sugar cookies, but I topped it off with the most delicious gnocci from Wild Olive on Johns Island before cruising through the holiday festival of lights.

I also attempted royal icing for the first time this weekend, and though I got a little lazy with it at the end, I love how the cookies turned out! Royal icing is that frosting a lot of bakeries use... it hardens after an hour or two so you can stack the cookies easily. More on that later...

One of my favorite cookies this time of year are sugar cookies. The good news is, this recipe makes a lot of sugar cookies and you'll want them all because they are delicious. The bad news is, you end up decorating approximately 4000 of them. And if I'm being real, they just started looking sloppy by the end. But this preggo was not about to miss out on them this year!

Favorite Sugar Cookie Recipe
Ingredients
1 cup butter, softened
3/4 cup light brown sugar, packed
3/4 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs
2 tbsp. milk
2 tsp. vanilla
4 cups all-purpose flour
2 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt

Beat butter and sugar together in a large bowl. Then add eggs, milk, and vanilla to mixture. Beat on medium speed until well mixed.

In a separate bowl, stir the flour, baking powder, and salt. Gradually add this to the egg mixture.

Once dough has formed, it will be sticky. Place on a large piece of clear wrap, cover and form a ball, then refrigerate for about 2 hours. You can also refrigerate overnight if you're not making the cookies immediately.

Once you're ready to cut out your cookies, roll half of the dough out to your desired thickness. (I like them to be thick like you would get them from a bakery.) Make sure to use lots of flour to make sure dough does not stick.

Bake on wax paper at 375 degrees for 8-10 minutes (until edges are barely starting to brown). Leave on the tray for a minute or two before transferring to a cooling rack (I have this and I love it, total space saver!)

FYI these cookies freeze well. I made them last week and froze them in an airtight container until I had the patience time to start frosting them!

I always like funfetti frosting but if you're willing to give royal icing a try, it makes a less messy cookie in the end and you have a little more control over how you decorate them. And since I am by no means a pro at this, make sure you check out Annies Eats for really great instructions and a picture tutorial!

Royal Icing Recipe
4 cups powdered sugar, sifted
2 tbsp. meringue powder (find it in the baking section at Michael's)
1/3 cup water
2 tbsp. vanilla

This part is easy, the tricky part is getting the right consistency for piping and then flooding your cookies. Basically just mix all of the above ingredients on slow speed for 8-10 minutes. When its ready for piping, the frosting will form "peaks" when you pull the mixer or a spoon away from it. If its way too sticky to form peaks, just add a tiny bit of water at a time.

Separate the white icing into several different airtight containers and color with gel food coloring.

When ready to pipe, one easy trick is to put a small amount of frosting in clear wrap, twist the ends, and then cut one end to place into a pastry bag. I used a #2 Wilton tip for piping.

Pipe the edge of your cookies with whichever color you plan on using to fill your cookies. Allow to air dry for about an hour.

My white needed thinned with a tiny bit of water because it was a little tough to pipe. Once you're done piping, add small amounts of water gradually until the frosting becomes more like a maple syrup consistency. Then fill with a toothpick.

Make sure to let the icing harden for a couple hours before touching it, then you can stack the cookies in a container until ready to eat or serve.

You can do a marble effect with multiple colors like I did for the snowflakes, or stick to one color, throw some sprinkles on before it hardens, or come back with more detail after the first color has hardened. I was too lazy for that last option!

Royal icing is a little time consuming, but not difficult once you get the hang of it. Lets just say, I'm definitely still a beginner and my cookies were pretty and edible. Win!

And thank you for reading through this giant tutorial. :) Any other sugar cookie lovers out there?!

23

Cream Cheese Pumpkin Bread

Happy November! I hope you all had a fun and festive weekend!

We spent our Halloween passing out candy to tons of tiny, adorable trick-or-treaters, including one little girl dressed as Elsa who said to me, "You know I don't like Skittles, right?" It was quite entertaining, even sans my usual pumpkin beer.

We ran out of candy so we were forced to dip into our own stash... you know, the pile of your favorites that you keep for yourself? Not going to lie, I ran out the next day and got more on sale... #notsorry

Speaking of food, I made this bread a few weeks ago when we had family visiting and it was such a hit that I wanted to share it with y'all today! I haven't done a whole lot of baking or cooking since the beginning of my pregnancy, since I was pretty turned off by most foods, so I'm glad to finally get back into it.

This recipe easily made a huge loaf of bread and about 20 muffins. I probably could have made 3 huge loaves, which means it's perfect if you're making something for a holiday bake sale or mini loaves to pass out to neighbors!

Cream Cheese Pumpkin Bread
Recipe adapted from Your Cup of Cake

Pumpkin Bread Ingredients
1 can of pumpkin puree
4 eggs
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup applesauce
2/3 cup milk
2 tsp. vanilla extract
2 cup sugar
3 1/2 cup flour
2 tsp. baking soda
1 1/2 tsp. salt
3 tsp. cinnamon
2 tsp.pumpkin pie spice
1 1/2 cup mini chocolate chips

Cream Cheese Filling Ingredients
16 oz. cream cheese, room temperature
1/4 cup sugar
1 egg, room temperature
1 tbsp. milk

Directions

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit and grease a loaf pan or set up liners in your cupcake tin.

In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the pumpkin, eggs, vegetable oil, applesauce, milk, vanilla extract and sugar. (I used my stand mixer for this step because it was easy, but not necessary if you don't have one!)

In another bowl, sift the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and pumpkin pie spice together.

Add the wet ingredients to the dry and mix just until combined. Then stir in your chocolate chips.

To make the cream cheese filling, beat the cream cheese, sugar, egg and milk together until smooth. Top with some leftover mini chocolate chips.

For Bread: Pour a little bit of batter into the loaf pan (not as much as I did) and spoon the cream cheese mixture on top. I found it easier to do this just once, top with more of the batter, and use a butter knife to swirl the cream cheese around.  Bake for 60-80 minutes or until an inserted knife comes out clean.

For muffins: Fill each muffin tin 1/3 full, add some cream cheese filling, and then top with another spoonful of pumpkin batter. Swirl with toothpick or knife then top with mini chocolate chips. Bake for 14-18 minutes or until an inserted knife comes out clean.

__

It's so easy and comes out really moist and delicious! You don't even need butter or anything on this bread when you eat it. Definitely adding this to my list of favorite pumpkin recipes!

What are some of your go-to pumpkin recipes this Fall?! I'm always up for trying new ones!

21

College Football Kick-Off Week: Link-Up!

We made it to football season! It seems to take forever to get back to kick off week, especially when your team doesn't do so hot the year before. Gators, I guess we can't win it every year, right?!

Southerners in particular are super serious about their football. I had no idea what the Gator chomp was when I stepped into the Swamp for my first game as a freshman. Tailgating in Gainesville was such an experience, we aren't like other SEC schools that require dresses and heels for a game. Jean shorts are completely acceptable. (I can hear my southern friends cringing!) If you're interested in my favorite tailgate essentials, see them here!

Even if you're not into the whole football thing, everyone loves food. Typically I'm the person that brings the dessert. My peanut butter cup dessert has never failed to be devoured within the first hour. But you don't see pizza at tailgates very often, so I thought I'd share this white pizza dip that is great for game day! You can also make it in a crock pot if you need to take it on the road.

This is super cheesy, so if you are on a diet I suggest you break some rules for a day

White Pizza Dip
Adapted from How Sweet It Is

Ingredients
1 can petite diced tomatoes, drained
1 1/2 blocks of cream cheese, softened
1 bag (8 ounces) of shredded mozzarella cheese
1 bag (8 ounces) of shredded six-cheese Italian or Parmesan cheese
1/4 cup of grated Parmesan cheese
3 cloves of Garlic, minced
1/3 cup fresh basil, chopped
1/2 cup fresh parsley, chopped
Dash of Oregano (I used dried Oregano, but fresh is always better)
Dash of Olive Oil
Salt and Pepper to taste
 

The thing I love about this recipe is once your ingredients are prepped, it's so easy. Set aside about a half cup of the shredded cheese. Then mix the rest of the ingredients together and transfer to an oven-safe baking dish. Top with remaining cheese and dried oregano.

Bake on 400 degrees for roughly 25-30 minutes, or until top is golden and bubbly. Top with a grated Parmesan cheese, basil leaves for garnish, and serve with crackers.

So good! And I promise no one else has thought about bringing pizza dip to your tailgate!

13

Lemon Almond Chicken Salad

So I know most of us have probably already checked out of summer now that Fall is just around the corner, but this recipe is so perfect for a summer lunch or picnic, and I couldn't pass it up! Once I got over my chicken aversion (which is actually still lingering but I can manage to eat this), I couldn't wait to try it.

I personally love anything with lemon-flavor in the summer. I usually go the dessert route (surprise surprise!) but this time I switched it up after trying a variation of this recipe while visiting my  family up North. I'm not saying it beats a lemon cupcake, but its still pretty delicious!

Linking up with East Coast Chic and Home of Malones!

Lemon Almond Chicken Salad
Recipe Adapted from Giant Eagle

Ingredients

1 Rotisserie Chicken or 2 cooked chicken breasts, diced and chilled
1 cup Plain Greek Yogurt (or Mayo, if you're not worried about calories!)
2 tablespoons fresh Lemon Juice
1/3 cup Sliced Almonds
1/2 cup Sweet Onion, diced
1/4 cup fresh Parsley
1 teaspoon Lemon Pepper Seasoning

In a medium bowl, combine all ingredients except for the chicken to make a dressing. (Or be like me and just mix them all at once!) Then add your chicken until it's completely coated. Refrigerate for at least one hour before serving.

I added some cheese and spinach to this sandwich and it was so delicious! Using the greek yogurt instead of mayo does change the taste a little but its so much lighter and healthy for you.

It's perfect if you are sick of your normal lunch routine at the office. So easy! Has anyone else had this before or have another favorite recipe for lunch? I feel like I'm always running out of ideas of things to make!

14

Frozen Pup Treats + Our Weekend

I hope you all had a great weekend! Ours was disgustingly hot. Like, the only way you could rationalize going outside of the air conditioning was if your feet were in a body of water and there was a cold drink your hand.

We briefly stopped by Isle of Palms beach on Sunday before heading over to the Daniel Island Waterfront Park. We had never been on Daniel Island and now I understand the high cost of real estate there because its so charming! We just walked around and took some photos in the small park while sweating buckets and finally heading home to Ruby.

I thought Ruby could use a new treat since she has been through a lot lately, and with the weather as hot as it is, I opted to try a frozen treat. Considering she is one of those dogs that takes about 10 minutes to eat a treat, I assumed these were pup-approved when she downed this one in about a minute!

Frozen Peanut Butter and Yogurt Dog Treats
Recipe from 17 Apart

Ingredients:
1/4 cup All Natural Creamy Peanut Butter, melted slightly
4 oz. Plain Greek Yogurt
Carrot shavings (optional)

Silicone molds or ice trays work the best for these since you can just pop the treats out very easily.

Silicone Paw Mold {similar here and here}

If you want to add some shaved carrots or sweet potato, just mix the shavings into the greek yogurt before adding to the mold. I did it with the first batch I tried because Ruby likes carrots.

Fill the openings on the tray about halfway with the greek yogurt. Pick up and drop the mold several times to get the yogurt in all the crevices and to make room for the peanut butter.

Repeat the process with peanut butter and freeze for about 3-4 hours. So easy! Perfect for spoiling your pup on a hot summer day!

So how was your weekend? Hot like ours? If anyone has any other frozen dog treat recipes let me know, these were a hit for Ruby!

22

Memorial Day + a Favorite Summer Drink

I hope you all had a wonderful long weekend! The weather here was a bit iffy but the hubs and I managed to cross a ton of things off our to-do list, nothing too exciting but it was a much needed 3-day weekend.

I was looking through my pictures from this weekend and no lie, they were all of food. I don't know whether to be embarrassed that food is obviously a high priority or mad at myself for not asking someone to take our photo at a friend's Memorial Day picnic.

I finally retired Casper this weekend and got some color. My makeup officially matches my skin again (yay!) and I feel skinnier. Does that even make sense? Sometimes a tan can really boost the self confidence. Also I don't normally like strapless swim suit tops but this one feels really secure and gives more shape than the regular bandeau tops. I definitely recommend!

This weekend I also took a page out of my college drinking playbook and put together a favorite summer drink! In college, we had this mixture of pineapple juice, OJ, sherbert, and lots of vodka. We would make it in a gallon jug because everyone loved it so much, we needed large quantities. Anyway, I didn't add vodka this time around (my body doesn't respond well to it after my bachelorette party experience) but it would be a really good addition.

The basic contents are Light Lemonade, two scoops of strawberry sherbert, some berries, and a paper straw of course. Let it sit for a couple minutes so the sherbert starts melting into the lemonade. So refreshing!

We made a festive breakfast before heading to a picnic yesterday, funfetti pancakes and all.

Ruby even dressed for the occasion. This sweet girl had a good report from the vet last week after her ACL surgery. We're halfway through the recovery process (I say "we" because I think its been harder on us than on Ruby) and only 6 more weeks of no jumping, steps, or running. All of which she did this weekend despite our best efforts. 

Obviously she's really thrilled about this picture.

And don't mind her crazy fur. I've had to trim her hair since she got hurt and its given me a much deeper respect for groomers!

Enjoy the short work week y'all!

21

Easy Greek Salad

Good news, we're almost through the week! It's been a busy one for me with work, which usually translates into me snacking throughout the day and eating at my desk rather than taking time to make myself a healthy lunch. Anyone else do that?! When I worked in the Capital I always ate lunch at my desk while doing a million other things at the same time, so it's a bad habit I can't seem to kick.

I find that if I don't step away from the computer and eat something other than chips or pretzels for lunch, my energy level plummets and I start getting cross-eyed. It's no good. Anyway, on to the real point of this post which is a super easy greek salad you can have for lunch without feeling bad!

I love this salad. It's delicious and gives you a bunch of veggies topped with feta. I mean, what could be better? You can even bring some pita bread and use it as a dip. Storing it in a mason jar also makes it so easy to grab and go for lunch!

Ingredients
Adapted from La Petite Fashionista

Dressing
1/3 cup EVOO
2 Tbsp. Red Wine Vinegar
2 Tbsp. fresh squeezed Lemon Juice
1 clove Garlic, minced
1 tsp. Italian Seasoning
Fresh Parsley, chopped
Pepper and a dash of Salt

Salad
1 Cucumber, cut into small cubes
1 Red Pepper, cut into small slices
1/2 can Black Olives, sliced
1/3 Sweet (or Red) Onion, chopped
Cherry tomatoes, sliced in half
1 pkg. Feta Cheese

Whisk your dressing ingredients in a small mixing bowl. Add your chopped vegetables and toss. Refrigerate for 20 minutes before serving. So easy!

What's your go-to meal for a quick and healthy lunch? I'm always looking for more ideas!

10

Cupcakes 101

A couple weeks ago I shared my rose cupcakes and I got a lot of awesome feedback from y'all asking for a tutorial, so I thought I'd lump it into a Cupcakes 101 kind of thing. You know I like to share tutorials for first timers, like our DIY headboard, curtains, and other random craft projects. So this is for those of you who want to get more into baking or want to make prettier cupcakes!

I know it is much easier to buy frosting at the store but making your own frosting will step it up a notch if you're up for it. I fully support boxed cake mix though, especially when you're pressed for time. 

What you will need

• Wilton Frosting Tips. I used the 2D and 1M tips the most so I recommend starting out with those two.
• Disposable Pastry Bags. Filling the bag can get a little rogue, so don't bother with the reusable bags.
• Large Scoop (Not pictured). Use a scoop for even batter distribution for your cupcakes.
• Greaseproof Cupcake Liners (Not pictured). These aren't totally necessary, but they do look better after baking your cupcakes than standard liners.  

Start out with a good, pipable frosting. I like this basic vanilla buttercream frosting, but I've also made blueberry buttercream and vanilla-almond frosting.

The key is blending your butter long enough that the color lightens and it becomes fluffy (about 5 minutes). For most recipes you also need about 4 cups of confectioners sugar to get the right consistency for piping, so buy the big ass bag! I swear by my Kitchenaid Stand Mixer which helps making frosting much easier, but you could use a hand mixer too.

Preparing your pastry bag

You don't need to bother with a coupler, just cut the end of your pastry bag and and throw in the tip.

There are basically two easy ways to fill your pastry bag. The first is to put the bag, tip side down, into a cup and fold the bag over the edges of the cup before filling. I personally like to hold the tip in one hand and fold the piping bag over itself, towards my arm. 

Please excuse my manhand... I was in between manicures!

Once your bag is filled, try to eliminate any air pockets and twist the bag above the frosting.

Rose Cupcake Tutorial 

1. Prepare your frosting in your pastry bag with the Wilton 2D, 1M, or 2C tip (I used the 1M above).
2. Starting in the center, pipe just a little bit and stop. 
3. Then in a circular, continuous motion, pipe the frosting around the center working toward the outside of the cupcake. Try to end on a downward angle so you don't notice where the icing ended. 

So easy! It does take a couple tries to get it right so that gives you an excuse to eat the ugly cupcakes!

And in case you're wondering why the heck I made blue roses.. it's because I also wanted to try this hydrangea cupcake tutorial. Here's how they came out!

I used the Wilton 2D nozzle for the hydrangeas.

The trickiest part of the hydrangea icing is getting the white frosting in the center of the blue frosting. Make sure to push some of the frosting out before working on your cupcake because the tip of mine was mostly just blue frosting at first. 

Whenever you screw up, just blend the frosting with your spatula and top with sprinkles!

If anyone has questions let me know! Now... who is in the mood for cupcakes?!

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